Development Of An Electronic Future-Thinking Task: A Pilot Study

In this study, an electronic version of the future-thinking task was created in order to make the task less time consuming to administer and score. The electronic version of the future-thinking task was constructed by aggregating domains for future events based on the future-thinking and worry literature. We hypothesized that we would replicate the original future-thinking task’s previous relational findings with anxiety and depression; specifically undergraduate students (n =19) were recruited to test the effectiveness of this new future-thinking task in relation to the original task and measures of anxiety and depression. The measures used were the CES-D for depression, ASI-3 for anxiety sensitivity, and positive and negative mood scales. The results partially replicated previous findings with the original task. The electronic positive future-thinking task significantly predicted CES-D scores and the electronic negative future-thinking task significantly predicted ASI-3 scores. However, the researchers did not replicate the findings for the original task. The original positive future-thinking task did not predict CES-D scores and the original negative future-thinking task did not predict ASI-3 scores. Findings for future development and research for this task are discussed

Investigation of the electrostatic interactions of the T7 replisome

DNA replication is a process in which genetic information is copied and passed on from generationto generation. Multiple proteins of specialized function must transiently assembleand communicate to rapidly and accurately copy DNA. We study replication in bacteriophageT7, a virus that infects Escherichia coli (E. coli ), because it is a relatively simplemodel system that recapitulates all essential activities seen in more complex systems in justfour proteins. Recently our laboratory determined a crystal structure of an electrostaticinteraction between T7 primase-helicase and DNA polymerase, and the structure revealedthe acidic C-terminal tail of the T7 primase-helicase binds to a basic patch on the surface ofthe polymerase. The C-terminal tail of the primase-helicase contains a phenylalanine residuethat is essential for binding polymerase, and our structure reveals that this phenylalaninebinds to a hydrophobic cleft near the basic patch. Our crystal structure also unexpectedlyrevealed an interaction between a nucleotide triphosphate and tryptophan 160 located in theexonuclease active site, and this interaction has shed light on how the exonuclease domainof T7 polymerase recognizes a DNA substrate. To validate our crystal structure, point mutationswere generated along the basic patch of the polymerase as well as the hydrophobicpocket to disrupt the observed interactions.Using in vivo methods such as phage complementation and multi-step growth curvewe are able to directly test the effects on the virus replication during infection of E. coli. Phage complementation results demonstrate that these mutations F487A, I569A, R687A andR590 A show a 3-log and 4-log difference in growth compared to WT. Plaque assay resultsshow that R590 A is critical for replication, as the virus shows no growth under identical conditionsfor WT. The other mutations I569A, I569A, and F487A were also impaired duringthe plaque assay and similar to R590 A showed no plaque formation. R687A showed substantiallysmaller plaques compared to WT and we were unable to calculate a titer. No plaqueformation and smaller plaques indicate that the virus is heavily impaired in DNA replication.Under identical conditions to WT, R590 A show no growth over a 15 hour period where asWT reaches a maximum amount of virus and plateaus at 4 hours. Preliminary data forI569A and F487A show these mutations also result in impaired and reach a lower maximumviral concentration compared to WT. In the crystal structure R590 of the polymerase makesa critical contact with the C-terminal tail, and in agreement with the structure, mutation of R590 to alanine suggests that this residue serves an essential function in DNA replication. Phage complementation results for the two mutations in the exonuclease active site,W160 a and 5A7A, gave similar results compared to WT at a log of 1x1012 PFU/mL. Thedouble mutation D5A and E7A (5A7A) is unable to coordinate Mg+2 causing exonucleaseactivity to be diminished. Results for rolling circle reveal that polymerase with a 5A7Amutation can perform strand displacement synthesis without helicase. Future work willfocus on continuing Rolling circle, growth curve, and primer extension assays

Seeing the Invisible Among Us

The book is a study of the working poor in the United States, including accounts of waitresses, farm workers, shelf stockers, and others, some illegal immigrants. Employer, union organizers, job trainers, and social workers are interviewed, as well as various employees

A Study of the Nation's First CEO

The times which shaped America's first hero and head of government and their product, George Washington, are explored

Dada was there before Derrida was there : the sound poetry of Hugo Ball

In 1916, a group of artists met in Zurich, Switzerland to escape the horrors of war and to create art. The leader of this group was Hugo Ball who renamed a small café the Cabaret Voltaire. The members of the cabaret presented art in many forms. The group that met, and regularly performed at the cabaret, were known under the name dada. Ball became the unofficial poet of the group. At the cabaret, Ball presented what he called “sound poems” or “verse ohn vorte” poems. These poems lacked traditional language where words were replaced with a new language of Ball’s creation. Ball did not rely on his native German to create his sound poems. Instead, he took small snippets of many languages and his own “sounds” to create a performance based language. To aid in the creation of meaning, Ball would perform in fantastical costumes while he was reading his poems. His body would move in violent convulsions and his voice would rise to ear splitting volumes. The power of Ball’s performance reinforced the scope of his project. Meaning would come from both his “new” sounds and small parts of other languages. In doing this he would touch on many tenants of deconstruction created by Jacques Derrida. Through Derrida’s work concerning, “aural metaphors,” “difference,” and “signsponge” it is possible to see Hugo Ball, and some of the other members of dada, as early deconstructionists

Staff + Committees = Added Value

When library committees bring together staff with interests and talents outside their immediate job descriptions, the results can bring added value to the staff and library. Such interests and talents may result in exhibits, displays, and several interest programs for staff and users of the library

Southern Exposure at Sixth Benefit

This year the Friends of the Library annual benefit event, continuing a series which began in 2002, will have a Southern accent. Featured speaker/entertainer/author/etiquette expert Cecilia Budd Grimes will enlighten the audience on “What It Means To Be Southern,” speaking from a series of books on that topic she has written

Strong Women Who Ruled England

The book reviews several instances of female rule in England which came about when there was no available heir to the throne. Considerable attention is given to the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and Victoria; also discussed are Matilda, daughter of Henry I; Mary, daughter of Henry VIII; and Anne, daughter of James II

Beliefs about item memorability affect metacognitive control in item-method directed forgetting

Across six experiments, I examined the role of metacognitive control in item-method directed forgetting. In Experiment 1, participants studied loud and quiet items, which were subsequently cued as to-be-remembered (TBR) or to-be-forgotten (TBF). Typically, the volume of stimuli does not influence recall, although loud items are judged as more memorable than quiet items (Rhodes & Castel, 2009). In contrast, there was a unique recall advantage for loud TBR items when participants engaged in directed forgetting. Giving participants extra opportunities to engage rehearsal does not produce the selective advantage for loud items (Experiment 2), nor does emphasizing the importance of some items over others (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 5 manipulated the encoding fluency of the stimuli using a font type manipulation, which did not produce recall differences between the fluently and less fluently processed items despite the effect of font type on judgments of learning. Finally, Experiment 6 investigated participants' beliefs about what helps them disengage from TBF items and what helps them retain TBR items. Specifically, after TBF or TBR items, participants were told to select earlier studied line drawings that varied both in perceptual size (small vs. large size image) and conceptual size (drawing of a small vs. large object in real life). I propose two mechanisms to explain the results. According to the rehearsal strategy mechanism, people use beliefs about item memorability to selectively rehearse certain items as a way to forget other items. According to the salience mechanism, people are drawn to perceptually salient stimuli when performing directed forgetting

Variations in levels of aspirations of children grouped by class, race, sex and grade level

The objective of the present study was to investigate the levels of aspiration of children and discrepancy between their levels of aspiration and performance on two somewhat different tasks when the children were grouped by: (a) middle-and lower-classes; (b) white and Negro races; (c) males and females; and (d) three grade levels. The operational measurement of level of aspiration was accomplished by using a physical task, a ring-toss game, and an intellectual task, spelling. In the investigation, children were asked to state how many of ten rings they would like to throw onto a peg and how many of ten words they would like to spell correctly. The response given by each child for each task was recorded as his level of aspiration. Following responses for both task questions, the child was asked to perform on the two tasks. The difference between the level of aspiration set by the child and his performance score provided a discrepancy score for each child. Subjects were children enrolled in the second, fourth and sixth grades in ten elementary schools in Greensboro, North Carolina. Schools were randomly selected after they had been stratified as predominantly white and Negro in enrollment. Each child was classified according to his sex, race and grade level from cumulative folders and teachers' records and class position was determined by the head of the household's occupation. A total of 2,741 children were classified into combination categories and ten children were randomly selected from each category. Two hundred and forty children comprised the sample. The analysis of variance, fixed treatments model with multiple classification of subjects, was the statistical test employed for analyzing the data. The F value for all main factors and interactions was computed. The .05 level of significance was the criterion for making the decision about rejection or retention of the null hypothesis. The hypothesis that middle-and lower-class children would differ in levels of aspiration was not supported by the findings on either the physical or intellectual tasks except when the variable of sex was combined with the class variable on the physical task. Significant differences were found, however, in performance and discrepancy scores on the intellectual task. Middle-class children performed higher than lower-class children and lower-class children had higher discrepancy mean scores than middle-class children. The hypothesis that white and Negro children would differ in levels of aspiration was not supported by the findings on either task. Significant differences were found between the races, however, in performance and discrepancy scores. White children performed significantly higher than Negro children on the intellectual task. White children had higher discrepancy scores than Negro children on the physical task, whereas on the intellectual task, the Negro children had higher mean discrepancy scores. It was inferred that boys and girls would differ in their levels of aspiration according to the type of task. On the physical task, the boys were found to aspire and to perform significantly higher than girls, whereas for the intellectual task the same finding was not true. On the intellectual task the girls performed higher than the boys. The mean discrepancy score for boys on the intellectual task was more than twice as high as the mean discrepancy score for the girls. It was hypothesized that differences in levels of aspiration would be found between children in different grade levels. This hypothesis was supported on the physical task but not on the intellectual one. As grade level increased, level of aspiration progressively increased for the physical task. Significant differences were found in performance and discrepancy scores on the intellectual task. Second graders performed lowest and sixth graders performed the highest. The hypothesis that discrepancy scores would decrease with increased age (or grade level) of children was supported for the intellectual task but not for the physical task