Draft crystal structure of the vault shell at 9-A resolution.

Vaults are the largest known cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein structures and may function in innate immunity. The vault shell self-assembles from 96 copies of major vault protein and encapsulates two other proteins and a small RNA. We crystallized rat liver vaults and several recombinant vaults, all among the largest non-icosahedral particles to have been crystallized. The best crystals thus far were formed from empty vaults built from a cysteine-tag construct of major vault protein (termed cpMVP vaults), diffracting to about 9-A resolution. The asymmetric unit contains a half vault of molecular mass 4.65 MDa. X-ray phasing was initiated by molecular replacement, using density from cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Phases were improved by density modification, including concentric 24- and 48-fold rotational symmetry averaging. From this, the continuous cryo-EM electron density separated into domain-like blocks. A draft atomic model of cpMVP was fit to this improved density from 15 domain models. Three domains were adapted from a nuclear magnetic resonance substructure. Nine domain models originated in ab initio tertiary structure prediction. Three C-terminal domains were built by fitting poly-alanine to the electron density. Locations of loops in this model provide sites to test vault functions and to exploit vaults as nanocapsules

The Effects of Assertiveness Training on Marital Adjustment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of v assertive training on the marital adjustment of tho se participating. It was of particular interest to identify the effects of training wives only as compared to training couples jointly in assertiveness. There were a total of 56 subjects sampled for this study, constituting 28 marriages, all investigated for marital adjustment. All of the subjects were volunteers and were obtained through the Women\u27s Center at Utah State University. The subjects were placed in one of two treatment conditions depending upon the condition for which they volunteered. The wives only treatment condition provided assertiveness training exclusively for the wives of the couples participating. Both husbands and wives received training in the couples treatment condition. All of the 56 subjects, both husbands and wives, completed the Marital-Adjustment Test during the first and last session of assertive training. The assertive training groups met for six weeks for two hours each week. An analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data for the first two hypotheses. The pretest scores for both treatment conditions for husbands and wives were held constant and the posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test were compared for both husbands and wives of the other treatment condition. The f test for significant differences in correlations was used to test the following questions: (a) Is there a difference in the amount of correlation of the pretest scores and the posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test for husbands and wives in the wives only treatment condition? and (b) Is there a difference in the amount of correlation of the pretest scores and the posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test for husbands and wives in the couples treatment condition? It may be concluded that there is no advantage for marital adjustment when husbands and wives are both given assertiveness training as opposed to the wife only receiving training. There was a statistical difference (beyond the .01 level of significance) between the correlations of the pretest and posttest scores for husbands and wives in the wives only treatment condition. No difference in amount of correlation was found between pretest and posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test for husbands and wives in the couples treatment condition. It was concluded that when spouses were trained together, no change in perceptions of marital adjustment occurred. When wives were trained alone, perceptions of marital adjustment between spouses was in greater agreement. No evidence was found that marital adjustment was affected by teaching assertion skills to the wife only as opposed to teaching the couple

Community Development Corporations and Public Participation: Lessons from a Case Study in the Arkansas Delta

In this paper, I focus on the role of community development corporations (CDCs) in fostering public participation in the local political process. Using survey and interview data gathered from CDCs operating in the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas, I show that the CDC is an important intermediary between the citizens and the local political arena. While, according to this study\u27s findings, the CDCs\u27 long-term goal is to develop a lasting sense of efficacy among CDC participants, leading to direct political participation by citizens, the nature of CDC funding does not fully support these efforts. As a result, these critical activities remain at the fringes of their official mission. By focusing on short-term outcomes rather than long-term development process, the money spent to improve the CDC constituency\u27s capacity appears to miss its target. The results of the current study 1) shed light on the disconnect between the needs of CDCs and the objectives of funding agencies; and 2) help community practitioners interested in community development to better understand challenges related to engaging citizens in local issues and facilitating citizen participation in ways that enhance collective efficacy in poor communities