The man in nursing :

The study was designed to investigate factors that influence the man nurse's ability to negotiate role strain and possible status contradiction exerted by a feminine sex-typed profession. The following research questions were examined: Are men who choose nursing as a career less traditionally sex-typed and more androgynous than non-nurse men or women nurses? Is androgyny in men nurses associated with a more internal locus of control? Do traditionally sex-typed men nurses avoid role conflict by aligning their occupational role perceptions with their own sex-typed self-perceptions?In a comparison with a large normative sample of non-nurse men, the expectation that men nurses would be more androgynous was not supported. Men nurses were not found more androgynous than women nurses, although women nurses tended to be more sex-typed. No differences were found between locus of control perceptions of androgynous subjects and those of other sex-role identities. Subjects of both genders and of various sex-role categories tended to view the nursing role as congruent with their own sex-typed self-perceptions.Based upon Bandura's social learning theory, the theoretical framework of the study emphasized the mutual interaction of social shaping and reinforcements with cognitive and emotional factors in determining a man's view of the sex-appropriateness of an occupation. Drawing from Bandura's model of reciprocal determinism, it was expected that a man's selection of nursing as a career was in part related to this sex-role socialization; as well as his ability to cognitively and emotionally adapt his view of the profession.Because the profession of nursing has been sex-typed by society as feminine, there has been considerable under-utilization of men in its ranks. Associated with this is a general avoidance of the field by men, with males constituting only slightly more than two percent of the nursing population.The study sample consisted of twenty-six men and twenty-six women nurses, randomly selected from graduates of a large baccalaureate nursing program. Four study instruments were used: a biographical questionnaire, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Ideal Nurse Survey (an adaptation of the Bem Inventory), and the Rotter I-E Locus of Control Scale.While androgynous and undifferentiated self-perceptions appear to facilitate approach of men to a feminine sex-typed profession, the concept of androgyny needs more investigation before its influence on nurse-effectiveness can be established

Complex and sustained quantum beating patterns in a classic IVR system: the 3¹5¹ Level in S₁ p-difluorobenzene

Using picosecond time-resolved photoelectron imaging we have studied the intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) dynamics that occur following the excitation of the 3151 level which lies 2068 cm-1 above the S1 origin in p difluorobenzene. Our technique, which has superior time resolution to that of earlier studies but retains sufficient energy resolution to identify the behavior of individual vibrational states, enables us to determine six distinct beating periods in photoelectron intensity, only one of which has been observed previously. Analysis shows that the IVR dynamics are restricted among only a handful of vibrational levels, despite the relatively high excitation energy. This is deduced to be a consequence of the high symmetry and rigid structure of p-difluorobenzene

Children with autism demonstrate circumscribed attention during passive viewing of complex social and nonsocial picture arrays

Although circumscribed interests are a hallmark characteristic of autism spectrum disorders, providing a means for quantifying their functional impairment has proven difficult. We developed a passive viewing task to measure aspects of visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorders and typically developing controls. Task stimuli included picture arrays that were matched for social and nonsocial content. Nonsocial content was balanced to include items related to circumscribed interests (e.g., trains) as well as more commonplace items (e.g., furniture). Discrete aspects of gaze behavior were quantified using eye-tracking technology. Results indicate that visual attention in the autism group was more circumscribed (as indicated by the exploration of fewer images), more perseverative (as indicated by longer fixation times per image explored), and more detail oriented (as indicated by a greater number of discrete fixations on explored images). This pattern of results was similar for both social and object arrays. Within the autism group, overall severity of repetitive behavior symptoms correlated positively with exploration of object pictures and negatively with perseveration on social pictures. Results suggest that children with autism have a domain-general pattern of atypical visual attention that may represent an exaggeration of a typical attentional process and is related to a tendency to perseverate on images of interest and explore them in a more detail-oriented manner. Discrete measures of visual attention may therefore provide a reasonable means of quantifying aspects of the repetitive behavior phenotype in autism

Performance of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders on the Dimension-Change Card Sort Task

Restricted and repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders have been conceptualized to reflect impaired executive functions. In the present study, we investigated the performance of 6–17-year-old children with and without an autism spectrum disorder on a dimension-change card sort task that explicitly indicated sorting rules on every trial. Diagnostic groups did not differ in speed of responses after the first rule switch or in speed or accuracy on blocks with mixed versus single sort rules. However, performance of the ASD group was significantly slower and less accurate overall than the typically-developing group. Furthermore, within the ASD group, poorer DCCS task performance did not predict more severe autism symptoms. Implications for the executive dysfunction theory of autism are discussed

Thermography and thermoregulation of the face

BACKGROUND: Although clinical diagnosis of thermoregulation is gaining in importance there is no consistent evidence on the value of thermography of the facial region. In particular there are no reference values established with standardised methods. METHODS: Skin temperatures were measured in the facial area at 32 fixed measuring sites in 26 health subjects (7–72 years) with the aid of a contact thermograph (Eidatherm). A total of 6 measurements were performed separately for the two sides of the face at intervals of equal lengths (4 hours) over a period of 24 hours. Thermoregulation was triggered by application of a cold stimulus in the region of the ipsilateral ear lobe. RESULTS: Comparison of the sides revealed significant asymmetry of face temperature. The left side of the face showed a temperature that was on the average 0.1°C lower than on the right. No increase in temperature was found following application of the cold stimulus. However, a significant circadian rhythm with mean temperature differences of 0.7°C was observed. CONCLUSION: The results obtained should be seen as an initial basis for compiling an exact thermoprofile of the surface temperature of the facial region that takes into account the circadian rhythm, thus closing gaps in studies on physiological changes in the temperature of the skin of the face

Deletion at ITPR1 Underlies Ataxia in Mice and Spinocerebellar Ataxia 15 in Humans

We observed a severe autosomal recessive movement disorder in mice used within our laboratory. We pursued a series of experiments to define the genetic lesion underlying this disorder and to identify a cognate disease in humans with mutation at the same locus. Through linkage and sequence analysis we show here that this disorder is caused by a homozygous in-frame 18-bp deletion in Itpr1 (Itpr1Δ18/Δ18), encoding inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor 1. A previously reported spontaneous Itpr1 mutation in mice causes a phenotype identical to that observed here. In both models in-frame deletion within Itpr1 leads to a decrease in the normally high level of Itpr1 expression in cerebellar Purkinje cells. Spinocerebellar ataxia 15 (SCA15), a human autosomal dominant disorder, maps to the genomic region containing ITPR1; however, to date no causal mutations had been identified. Because ataxia is a prominent feature in Itpr1 mutant mice, we performed a series of experiments to test the hypothesis that mutation at ITPR1 may be the cause of SCA15. We show here that heterozygous deletion of the 5′ part of the ITPR1 gene, encompassing exons 1–10, 1–40, and 1–44 in three studied families, underlies SCA15 in humans

Engineering Corynebacterium glutamicum for isobutanol production

The production of isobutanol in microorganisms has recently been achieved by harnessing the highly active 2-keto acid pathways. Since these 2-keto acids are precursors of amino acids, we aimed to construct an isobutanol production platform in Corynebacterium glutamicum, a well-known amino-acid-producing microorganism. Analysis of this host’s sensitivity to isobutanol toxicity revealed that C. glutamicum shows an increased tolerance to isobutanol relative to Escherichia coli. Overexpression of alsS of Bacillus subtilis, ilvC and ilvD of C. glutamicum, kivd of Lactococcus lactis, and a native alcohol dehydrogenase, adhA, led to the production of 2.6 g/L isobutanol and 0.4 g/L 3-methyl-1-butanol in 48 h. In addition, other higher chain alcohols such as 1-propanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 1-butanol, and 2-phenylethanol were also detected as byproducts. Using longer-term batch cultures, isobutanol titers reached 4.0 g/L after 96 h with wild-type C. glutamicum as a host. Upon the inactivation of several genes to direct more carbon through the isobutanol pathway, we increased production by ∼25% to 4.9 g/L isobutanol in a ∆pyc∆ldh background. These results show promise in engineering C. glutamicum for higher chain alcohol production using the 2-keto acid pathways

International home economics

The conference was planned to serve the interests of those who wish to work in home economics programs abroad and those who are concerned with the education of international students in the universities and colleges of the United States. Approximately 165 home economists from other states and from foreign countries I including the African and Latin American countries I participated in the conference.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/card_reports/1026/thumbnail.jp