Selection for different growth parameters in laboratory mice and its correlated effects on body composition and organ weights

Body composition and organ weights were determined in male mice sampled from 4 different lines of a selection experiment: DU-6P (selected for high protein amount), DU-6 (selected for high body weight), DU-6 + LB (selected for an index combining body weight and endurance fitness) and DU-K (unselected control line). Selection was carried out under the conditions of ad libitum feeding and standardization of litter size at birth. In all 3 selection lines a significant direct selection response was shown. While fat in lines DU-6P and DU-6 + LB remained normal, it increased after selection for body weight (DU-6) significantly. Up to generation 13 the average increase of fat was 0.32% per generation. Investigations on 28 to 80 days old mice showed, that males of this line were fatter before, at and after the age of selection (42 days). After 9 generations the body weight of selected mice was significantly increased by 23 to 29%. The absolute organ weights of hearts, livers and kidneys were also significantly higher, while the relative weights of hearts and kidneys decreased. The relative liver weights were in the selected lines higher, but only the difference DU-6 vs. DU-K was significant.     

Intelligence and Leadership: A Quantitative Review and Test of Theoretical Propositions.

Meta-analysis was used to aggregate results from studies examining the relationship between intelligence and leadership. One hundred fifty-one independent samples in 96 sources met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Results indicated that the corrected correlation between intelligence and leadership is .21 (uncorrected for range restriction) and .27 (corrected for range restriction). Perceptual measures of intelligence showed stronger correlations with leadership than did paper-and-pencil measures of intelligence. Intelligence correlated equally well with objective and perceptual measures of leadership. Additionally, the leader's stress level and the leader's directiveness moderated the intelligence-leadership relationship. Overall, results suggest that the relationship between intelligence and leadership is considerably lower than previously thought. The results also provide meta-analytic support for both implicit leadership theory and cognitive resource theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowledge-Guided Data-Driven Model With Transfer Concept for Battery Calendar Ageing Trajectory Prediction

<正>Dear Editor, Lithium-ion(Li-ion) battery has become a promising source to supply and absorb energy/power for many energy-transportation applications. However, Li-ion battery capacity would inevitably degrade over time, making its related ageing prediction necessary.     

Correction to correction to Ilies et al. (2009).

Reports an error in "'Personality and citizenship behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction': Correction" by Remus Ilies, Ingrid Smithey Fulmer, Matthias Spitzmuller and Michael D. Johnson (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2010[Mar], Vol 95[2], 404). The volume number of the original article was incorrectly identified. It should have been identified as Vol. 94. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-04488-016.) Reports an error in "Personality and citizenship behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction" by Remus Ilies, Ingrid Smithey Fulmer, Matthias Spitzmuller and Michael D. Johnson (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2009[Jul], Vol 94[4], 945-959). The path coefficients presented in the figures are slight overestimates. For example, in Figure 1 (p. 952), the paths from Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to Job Satisfaction should be .11 and .23 instead of .12 and .28, the direct effects from Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to Citizenship Behavior should be .10 and .16 instead of .11 and .18, and the paths from Job Satisfaction to Citizenship Behavior should be .28 (.22) instead of .34 (.26). The statistical significance of the path coefficients is correct, and so are the substantive conclusions based on the better fit of the partially mediated models relative to the fully mediated models. Also, the meta-analytic estimates presented in Table 1 (p. 949), Table 2 (p. 950), and Table 3 (p. 951) are correct. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-10167-018.) Using meta-analytic path analysis, the authors tested several structural models linking agreeableness and conscientiousness to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results showed that the 2 personality traits had both direct effects and indirect effects—through job satisfaction—on overall OCB. Meta-analytic moderator analyses that distinguished between individual- and organization-targeted citizenship behaviors (OCB-I and OCB-O) showed that agreeableness was more closely related with OCB-I and conscientiousness with OCB-O. Finally, the path analyses predicting OCB-I and OCB-O offered further support for the general hypothesis that these 2 constructs are distinct. That is, the results of these analyses revealed that agreeableness had both direct and indirect effects on OCB-I but only indirect effects on OCB-O, and that for conscientiousness the pattern of direct and indirect effects was exactly opposite (direct and indirect effects on OCB-O but only indirect effects on OCB-I). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bücherschau

Ohne Zusammenfassung VDI     

Single‐Molecule Unzipping Force Analysis of HU–DNA Complexes

The genome of bacteria is organized and compacted by the action of nucleoid‐associated proteins. These proteins are often present in tens of thousands of copies and bind with low specificity along the genome. DNA‐bound proteins thus potentially act as roadblocks to the progression of machinery that moves along the DNA. In this study, we have investigated the effect of histone‐like protein from strain U93 (HU), one of the key proteins involved in shaping the bacterial nucleoid, on DNA helix stability by mechanically unzipping single dsDNA molecules. Our study demonstrates that individually bound HU proteins have no observable effect on DNA helix stability, whereas HU proteins bound side‐by‐side within filaments increase DNA helix stability. As the stabilizing effect is small compared to the power of DNA‐based motor enzymes, our results suggest that HU alone does not provide substantial hindrance to the motor's progression in vivo.     

Integration of foreign DNA and its consequences in mammalian systems

The insertion of foreign DNA into the genomes of established cells and organisms and the consequences of this integration event are of significance for viral oncology, reverse genetics, transgenic organisms, human somatic gene therapy and evolution. This review summarizes recent experimental findings and focuses on the alteration of cellular DNA methylation at regions remote from the site of insertion. We also discuss experimental data demonstrating that foreign DNA ingested by mice is not completely degraded in their gastrointestinal tracts; fragments of this DNA have been found to be covalently linked to DNA with 70% homology to the mouse IgE receptor gene.     

Studying the influence of search rule and context shape in filtering impulse noise images with Markov chains

The paper presents an improved context-based denoising method for gray scale images affected by impulse noise. The proposed algorithm is using Markov chains to replace the detected noise with the intensity having the highest number of occurrences in similar contexts. The context of a noisy pixel consists in its neighbor pixels and is searched in a larger but limited surrounding area. We have analyzed different search methods and different context shapes. The experimental results obtained on the test images have shown that the most efficient model applies the search in form of   “*”  of contexts in form of   “+”. Besides the better denoising performance obtained on all the noise levels, the computational time has been also significantly improved with respect to our previous context-based filter which applied full search of full context. We have also compared this improved Markov filter with other denoising techniques existing in the literature, most of them being significantly outperformed.     

Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear relationships between personality traits and job performance.

The relationships between personality traits and performance are often assumed to be linear. This assumption has been challenged conceptually and empirically, but results to date have been inconclusive. In the current study, we took a theory-driven approach in systematically addressing this issue. Results based on two different samples generally supported our expectations of the curvilinear relationships between personality traits, including Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability, and job performance dimensions, including task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behaviors. We also hypothesized and found that job complexity moderated the curvilinear personality–performance relationships such that the inflection points after which the relationships disappear were lower for low-complexity jobs than they were for high-complexity jobs. This finding suggests that high levels of the two personality traits examined are more beneficial for performance in high- than low-complexity jobs. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the use of personality in personnel selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)