bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Emotion and economic development — Data and speculations concerning the relationship between economic factors and emotional experience
Authors: Wallbott Harald G. , Scherer Klaus R.
Published: May 2007

While proponents of biological theories of emotion claim the existence of universal emotion and expression patterns, recent theories stress cognitive appraisal mechanisms as elicitors of emotion, thus suggesting the influence of cultural and social factors on emotional experience and emotional expression. Data from a large‐scale questionnaire study with about 2400 respondents in 30 countries allowed us to test that notion in part. In this study, respondents had to describe in detail situations in which they had experienced the emotions of joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, shame, and guilt. The results indicate that emotional expression patterns do seem to be universal, while characteristics of the subjectively experienced emotion, in particular its duration and intensity, show a high variance across country samples. An attempt is made to link these differences to economic data for the different countries, specifically to the gross national product. The rather striking differences found between ‘rich’ and boor' countries are discussed in terms of the frequency of confrontation with emotion eliciting situations and the importance of such situations.
The experimental study of internal and external conformity on time perception
Authors: Tasaki Toshiaki , Kano Soro , Yoshitake Kumiko
Published: May 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine how external conformity affect internal conformity in the conditions in which the degree of discrepancy between majority opinion and physical reality are different. The 106 subjects were divided into eight groups of 2 (male and female) × 2 (high external conformer and low one) × 2 (large discrepancy and small one). We found the effect of interaction between discrepancy condition and external conformity to internal conformity.
The role of reasons in the ingroup bias phenomenon
Authors: Hong Okhee Park , Harrod Wendy Jean
Published: May 2007

Using a ‘near minimal ’ group paradigm (see Taifel et al., 1971), this research tested whether the reasons people think about following group categorization can account for the magnitude of ingroup bias. College students were randomly assigned to four conditions. These conditions instructed subjects either to think about reasons for ingroup choice (‘ingroup’ condition), outgroup choice (‘outgroup’), to think about anything they wanted (‘basic’), or to think about distracting activities (‘distraction’). The hypothesized ordering of ingroup bias and polarized attitudes was: ingroup > basic > distraction > outgroup. The results support both hypotheses. The meaning of these results are discussed in relation to social identity theory and Billig's (1985) rhetorical approach to prejudice.
The recoding of social orientations with ranking and pair comparison procedures
Authors: Schulz U. , May T.
Published: May 2007

Ranking and pair comparison methods are proposed for the recording of individual social orientations. The experimental data were analysed with random utility models that were specially developed by the authors. The utility functions used contain almost all the social motives discussed in the literature as special cases. In order to classify the subjects into classes of similar social orientation, a procedure was proposed that was based on the particular utility function. The experiments were carried out with 144 subjects. The proposed recording methods and analysis procedures proved to be suitable. Results showed that not only simple social Orientation, such as individualism, competition, etc., could be observed in the subjects, but that orientations with more complex utility functions could also be found that have not previously been reported in the literature. The classification of the orientations using both methods showed a high level of agreement.
When collaboration leads to regression: Some negative consequences of socio‐cognitive conflict
Authors: Tudge Jonathan
Published: May 2007

Piagetian scholars have argued that cognitive development is fostered by peer social interaction, brought about by ‘socio‐cognitive conflict’ between conserver‐non‐conserver pairs. The nonconservers often attain conservation after having discussed their different opinions with conserving peers, whereas the conservers do not regress to non conservation. These results are generally taken to indicate the beneficial impact of such peer interaction.

In this research, carried out with one sample in the United States and one in the Soviet Union, socio‐cognitive conflict was engendered between pairs of 5–7 year‐olds who were differentiated by their level of thinking about a mathematical balance beam. Contrary to the results reported by the Piagetians, regression was found to be at least as likely as development. The results are discussed in terms of differences between research in the domain of conservation and research in a related domain in which children's levels of thinking and degree of confidence are not confounded.
Influencing food preferences of children by ‘if‐then’ type instructions
Authors: Mikula Gerold
Published: May 2007

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects which ‘if‐then’ instructions of the type ‘if you eat X’, then you will get Y, have on the evaluation of the foods addressed in the ‘if’ and the ‘then’ parts of the instructions, respectively. Based on research on intrinsic motivation it was hypothesized that liking for food X that one is induced to eat by means of ‘if‐then’ instructions will be impaired, whereas liking for food Y offered as a reward for the consumption of X will be enhanced.

Experiment 1 revealed an enhancement of liking effect for the ‘then’food lasting for at least six weeks, but no impairment of liking for the ‘if’ food. Experiment 2 explored the possibility of reducing children's dislike for foods by means of paradoxical ‘if‐then’ instructions presenting the disliked food in the ‘then’ position as a reward for the consumption of another food. No significant effects were obtained in this study. Experiment 3 examined the effects of introducing yet unknown foods to children by means of ‘if‐then’ instructions. Results revealed that liking for the new food is impaired when it is the ‘if’food, but is enhanced when it is offered in the ‘then’ position. Discussion is centered on the possibility that the effects of ‘if‐then’ instructions are more pronounced in single trial compared to multi‐trial treatment conditions.
Attribution of leadership in a resource management situation
Authors: Wit A. P. , Wilke H. A. M. , Van Dijk E.
Published: May 2007

In a resource management game we investigated how regular group members respond to a leader who promotes group success or fails to do so, while operating in a predictable or totally unpredictable environment. The subjects (N = 110) were confronted with a bogus leader who purportedly took decisions on behalf of the whole group. Performance of the leader and Predictability of the environment were manipulated by means of a 2 × 2 factorial design.

As predicted, a failing leader received weaker endorsement than a successful leader (Performance main effect). The Performance × Predictability interaction effect was ascribed to two circumstances: (a) As predicted by the attributional approach of leadership (Calder, 1977; Pfeffer, 1977), endorsement of a successful leader was weaker in the Unpredictable than in the Predictable environment. However, (b) endorsement of a failing leader was not significantly weaker in the Predictable than in the Unpredictable environment. Additional data showed that regular group members' attributions played a mediating role.
Social psychology and the wrong revolution
Authors: Gergen Kenneth J.
Published: May 2007

Many social psychologists take increasing comfort in cognitive explanations of human action. This paper first attempts to demonstrate that cognitively based formulations not only delimit the possibilities for social understanding, but create a range of intractable conceptual problems. If real world events are reduced to cognitive representations of the world, then social events cease to exist for the discipline as legitimate foci of concern. Further, once the reality of cognition is granted, there is no conceptual means of viably explaining either the origins or acquisition of cognitive categories (schemas, representations, etc.), or the relationship between cognition and action. The paper then goes on to argue that the cognitive revolution in psychology blinds the discipline to the far more pervasive revolution occurring elsewhere in the intellectual world, that of social epistemology. When cognition is replaced by language as the major means for representing the world, then the individual is replaced by the social relationship as the central focus of concern. Theory and research within the framework of social epistemology are reviewed and their implications discussed.
Understanding friends and strangers: The effects of audience design on message comprehension
Authors: Fussell Susan R. , Krauss Robert M.
Published: May 2007

Pairs of friends wrote descriptions of abstract stimuli for one another. Later, each subject attempted to identify the referents of three sets of messages: those created by the subject, those created by the friend, and those created by a stranger for his J her own friend. Subjects were most accurate with their own messages, but, more interestingly, they were more accurate with their friends' than with strangers' messages. The lexical characteristics and content of messages for friends were compared with those intended for a generic ‘other student’ or for oneself in Fussell and Krauss (1989). Contrary to our expectations, friends' messages were similar to those for another student in length, vocabulary distribution, and figurative language use, while both differed significantly from messages for oneself: The findings are discussed within a ‘common ground’ framework for communication.
Measurements effects in reattribution research
Authors: Boer Dirk‐Jan Den , Meertens Ree , Kok Gerjo , Van Knippenberg Ad
Published: May 2007

In studies investigating the effects of reattribution training, reattributing to effort is confounded with forcing subjects to think about causes of their performance. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects on performance of having people think about causes of outcomes by means of measuring attributions for success or failure. The results indicate that measurement has a beneficial effect on performance after failure. Measurement of attributions after success does not affect performance or may even slightly deteriorate it. Explanations for these results are discussed.
Interrogating emotions: A dyadic task for exploring the common sense of feeling states
Authors: Parkinson Brian
Published: May 2007

This paper describes an innovative investigation of commonsense conceptions of emotion using a two‐person game where one player asked questions intended to determine the nature of an emotional state imagined by the other player. All questions used by players were then sorted into categories by expert judges. Based on cluster analysis, questions were categorized as relating to ‘causes’, ‘characteristics’, and ‘consequences’ of emotional states. Potential advantages and applications of this technique are discussed.
Difficulty and instrumentality of imminent behavior as determinants of goal attractiveness
Authors: Wright Rex A. , Gregorich Steven E.
Published: May 2007

Subjects were presented with an easy or moderately difficult memorization task and told they could earn either a very low or very high chance of obtaining a modest prize if they did well. A measure of goal attractiveness was taken during an interval immediately preceding the task performance period. As expected, anticipatory goal attractiveness ratings were higher in the moderately difficult condition than in the easy condition when the probability of goal attainment (given success) was high, but were low in both task conditions when the probability of goal attainment (given success) was low. Results are discussed in terms of Brehm's recent theory of motivation.
Social regulation and individual cognitive function: Effects of individuation on cognitive performance
Authors: Monteil Jean‐Marc
Published: May 2007

Numerous experiments have illustrated the intervention of social regulations in individual cognitive functioning, applying such concepts as social co‐ordination, socio‐cognitive conflict and social marking. Two experiments, involving secondary school pupils are presented within this general framework. The first tests the hypothesis that individual cognitive functioning, highlighted in a task requiring mobilization of knowledge learned to that end, can under certain conditions be regulated by experimentally induced social resources. The second experiment uses the same paradigm to compare the information processing, under anonymous versus individuated conditions, of pupils respectively with successful and unsuccessful academic histories. The results of both experiments indicate that cognitive functioning is strongly influenced by the social situations created within the experimental settings. These results are discussed in terms of the social meta systems which may intervene in cognitive processes.
The low robustness of the gain effect of interpersonal attraction: Some empirical and theoretical considerations
Authors: Koller Michael
Published: May 2007

Subjects were exposed either to positive–positive evaluations or to negative‐positive evaluations. In addition, evaluator's credibility was manipulated (high, low, neutral). Liking for the evaluator, perceived correctness, and perceived contingency of the evaluations were assessed as dependent variables. The gain effect suggested by Aronson and Linder (1965) was not found in any of the three dependent measures. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Measures of national stereotypes as predictors of the latencies of inductive versus deductive stereotypic judgements
Authors: Diehl Michael , Jonas Klaus
Published: May 2007

According to Taifel's accentuation theory, national stereotypes can be thought of as the correlation between trait dimensions and national affiliations, This correlation is high when the trait shows high homogeneity within and high distinctiveness between the national groups. The present study tested the hypothesis that a trait's distinctiveness would facilitate inductive stereotypic judgements (inferences from trait to nationality) whereas homogeneity would facilitate deductive stereotypic judgements (inferences from nationality to trait). The latencies of inductive and deductive stereotypic judgements of 48 German subjects were assessed for 39 traits and three foreign nationalities (English, French, Italian). Multiple regression analyses using latencies for both types of judgements us criterion variables and both distinctiveness and homogeneity as predictor variables were conducted. The stereotype measures of Katz and Braly and McCauley and Stitt served as additional predictor variables. As expected from accentuation theory, distinctiveness predicted inductive but not deductive latencies, whereas homogeneity predicted deductive but not inductive latencies. For the latencies of deductive stereotypic judgements, the stereotype measure of Katz and Braly as well as that of McCauley and Stitt also proved to be significant predictors. The results are discussed and recommendations are given with respect to the assessment of national stereotypes.
Categorization and interclass assimilation in social judgement
Authors: Eiser J. Richard , Martijn Carolien , Van Schie Els
Published: May 2007

Maniset al.(1986, 1988) have suggested that, when a classification is superimposed on a series of items, this can lead to a reduction in the judged differences between the classes (interclass assimilation), whereas most previous research points to an accentuation of interclass differences. In a modified replication of conditions used by Maniset al., 82 subjects were presented with a series of vocabulary definitions, indicative of varying degrees of thought disturbance, supposedly provided by patients at different hospitals. For experimental but not control subjects, each definition was attributed to a patient from one of two hospitals, and the earlier items in the series were chosen so as to induce the expectation that patients from one hospital were more disturbed than those from the other. Subjects then compared pairs of midscale definitions (one from each hospital) and indicated which definition in the pair they considered more disturbed. Ratings of these test pairs by experimental subjects differed from those of controls in a direction of reduced discrimination between the classes, confirming the basic finding of Maniset al.This effect was not consistently influenced by the extremity of the induction series. Since the interclass assimilation effect found for test items also occurred for the induction items, our findings do not favour an interpretation in terms of midscale items being contrasted from other members of their class (within‐class contrast). However, those subjects who were more confident in their ratings of the induction items showed less interclass assimilation. Implications for theories of category use and social stereotyping are discussed.
Social comparison and the drive upward revisited: Affiliation as a response to marital stress
Authors: Buunk Bra M. P. , Vanyperen Nico W. , Taylor Shelley E. , Collins Rebecca L
Published: May 2007

To test theoretical ideas derived from classic and recent social comparison theory, two studies examined affiliative tendencies as a response to marital problems among individuals varying in marital dissatisfaction. Study 1 (n. = 632) showed that the higher the degree of marital dissatisfaction and the higher the uncertainty about how things are going in one's marriage, the stronger was the desire for affiliation (operationalized as the desire to talk with others about one's marriage). Moreover, among individuals high in marital dissatisfaction, a preference for upward affiliation was found, i.e. for contact with others having better marriages. Individuals with lower levels of dissatisfaction preferred affiliation with similar others. Women experienced more uncertainty and a stronger affiliative tendency than men. In Study 2 (n = 233), these findings were largely replicated. Moreover, it was shown that the desire to affiliate when facing marital stress was particularly strong among individuals high in interpersonal orientation.
Social representations of drugs, causal judgment and social perception
Authors: Echabe Agustin Echebarria , Guede Emilia Fdz. , Guillen Cesar Sanjuan , Garate Jose F. Valencia
Published: May 2007

The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of social representation on both social perceptions and social judgments. In the first stage of this study, 47 drug users and 80 ‘normal’ subjects were asked to respond to a questionnaire about representations of drugs. Three weeks later we contacted the same subjects. They were asked to answer some questions about a fictitious story in which an actor labelled as ‘a drug user’ or ‘a person’ disputed with a trader. Three different social representations of drugs were found. It was shown that these social representations were anchored in different social groups which were defined by their proximity to the world of drugs. Subjects who were themselves drug users shared an accepting or an ambivalent social representation of drugs but they also made the most negative judgements about the causes of a fictitious dispute between a trader and a drug addict. Moreover, these subjects had the most negative perception of the drug addict. Furthermore, some factors which increase the salience of social representations were studied. The effect on social perception and causal attributions of the interaction between social representations, the context and personal involvement in drugs was also shown. Some relations between the theory of social representations and the theories about asymmetrical intergroup relationships are exposed.
Social psychological research in The Netherlands, 1980‐1988
Authors: Meertens R. W. , Nederhof A. J. , Wilke H. A. M.
Published: May 2007

This paper contains an investigation about research of Dutch social psychologists. Based on reported publications two types of analyses were performed. The reported publications were categorized by means of a topic‐inventory proposed by Fisch and Daniel (1982), which enabled us to compare Dutch trends with developments in Europe and the U. S.A. Moreover, by means of bibliometric analyses publications of Dutch social psychologists were related to data obtained by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Several trends were observed and discussed.
Cultural differences in the use of psychological and social characteristics in children's self‐understanding
Authors: Van Den Heuvel Henriëtte , Tellegen Geeske , Koomen Willem
Published: May 2007

Western societies can be characterized as individualistic: the person is seen as a situation‐free distinct agent, relatively autonomous from contextual influences. By contrast, many Eastern societies are collectivistic with a more ‘holistic’ view of the person: people are conceptualized in terms of their relation to the environment and their actions are primarily understood in terms of this relation. This difference implies that in Western cultures the ‘psychological self’ will be prominent, in Eastern cultures the ‘social self’ will be more salient. We report the results of a study carried out in the Netherlands, comprising Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan children in which these differences in self‐concept and the comparison of self with similar and dissimilar others, were investigated. A strong culture effect was found in the hypothesized direction: Dutch children referred more to psychological aspects, whereas Turkish and Moroccan children referred more to social aspects. These differences were found in both the self‐descriptions and the comparison measures.
Prejudice in a simulated legal context: A further application of social identity theory
Authors: Bagby R. Michael , Rector Neil A.
Published: May 2007

A substantial amount of research exploring the theoretical parameters of social identity theory has utilized artificially created ingroups and outgroups. This study aimed to examine the propositions of social identity theory between naturally existing groups (French and English Canadians) where the dependent measure was more consequential than typical ratings within this experimental paradigm. Subjects read a transcript of a rape trial which varied the ethnicity of the defendant and victim and were asked to rate the victim and defendant on 18 adjectives and then determine the defendant's guilt on a 7‐point scale, while the results are not entirely consistent with the predictions emanating from social identity theory, we did find that French Canadian subjects rated the outgroup (English) defendant more guilty when the victim was from the ingroup (French) than when she was from the outgroup (English) as was anticipated.
Caught in the act: When impressions based on highly diagnostic behaviours are resistant to contradiction
Authors: Skowronski John J. , Carlston Donal E.
Published: May 2007

Research and theory emphasizing the role of cue diagnosticity in judgment (e.g. Skowronski and Carlston, 1987, 1989) suggests that under the proper conditions: (a) negativity effects should be observed in judgments of honesty/dishonesty; (b) positivity effects should be observed in judgments of intelligence/unintelligence, and (c) intelligence‐implicative and dishonesty‐implicative cues should be increasingly difficult to contradict as those cues become more extreme. Two experiments yielded data consistent with these predictions. In addition, two other important findings emerged from these studies. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that subjects do not respond as if highly diagnostic cues are sufficient for category membership, suggesting that the representational format of trait categories does not correspond to the format suggested by the ‘classical model’ of categorization. The results of Experiment 2 also indicated that negativity and positivity effects are not substantially altered by a role‐playing manipulation designed to increase subjects' involvement in the judgment task.
Self‐serving biases: The role of perspective‐taking
Authors: Cadinu Maria Rosaria , Arcuri Luciano , Kodilja Renata
Published: May 2007

This research explores the role of perspective taking in self‐serving biases. Assisted by a confederate, 80 subjects performed an impression‐formation task and were given either success or failure bogus feedback. One week later, half of the subjects watched their performance on videotape and provided causal attributions (‘observers’). The other half simply gave causal attributions (‘actors’). Thus, the experiment employed a modified version of the actor/observer paradigm with one group of subjects taking the perspective of observers (‘observers’) and one group of subjects keeping their original perspective (‘actors’). The aim of this study was to test whether the change of perspective would increase dispositional causal attributions both in success and failure conditions. Results showed that subjects gave greater causal weight to internal factors (ability, effort) and less causal weight to external factors (task characteristics, collaboration with the partner) in the success than in the failure condition. Moreover, in a direct comparison task, subjects attributed a greater percentage of responsibility to themselves than to their partner in the success than in the failure condition. However, the type of perspective produced no significant effects, but showed an attenuation of self‐serving biases for observers as compared to actors. A motivational explanation of the results is proposed.
Some instantiations of the informational negativity effect: Positive‐negative asymmetry in category breadth and in estimated meaning similarity of trait adjectives
Authors: Claeys Willem , Timmers Luc
Published: May 2007

Starting from the assumption that people direct more attention to the objective, non‐evaluative, aspects of undesirable behaviours than of equally evaluatively‐intense desirable ones and attach more weight to the defining descriptive features of undesirable traits than of desirable ones, we predicted and demonstrated, with samples of Dutch adjectives, that, on the average, undesirable trait adjectives, as compared to desirable ones, had a lower category breadth and a higher discriminative value (Study 1). Undesirable trait adjectives were also estimated as less similar in meaning and as less likely to co‐occur in the same person, and were less strongly intercorrelated when used for memory‐based self‐ratings (Study 2). These positive‐negative asymmetries tended to hold for all traits whether they belonged to the self‐profitability dimension or to the other‐profitability dimension, and did not depend on the evaluative intensity of the traits. Alternative interpretations of these asymmetries and the implications of these asymmetries for personality assessment and for research on implicit personality theory and on the factorial structure of rating correlations are discussed.
Expectancy‐value models of health behaviour: An analysis by conjoint measurement
Authors: Jonas Klaus
Published: May 2007

Various studies in the health area consistently rejected the multiplicative combination between severity and probability of threat which is predicted by expectancy‐value (EV) theories. It is hypothesized here, that this negative evidence may be due to an overly demanding assumption underlying the multiplicative combination, namely, the assumption that people are able to performs trade‐offs between expectancies and valences. This hypothesis is tested in two studies in which subjects judged hypothetical health threats. Results from a nonparametric analysis (conjoint measurement) of individual data (Study 1) and an experimental study of trade‐off judgments (Study 2) are mostly consistent with the prediction. Unexpectedly, however, an ANOVA of the aggregate data of Study 1 yielded a small, but significant effect consistent with the multiplicative assumption. Whereas this latter result can be interpreted as evidencing an attempt to perform trade‐offs, the overall results show as predicted that trade‐off judgments are associated with a systematic error component due to the inherent difficulty of this type of judgment.
Senile EBV‐associated B‐cell lymphoproliferative disorder of prepatellar bursa in an elderly patient with multifocal urate arthropathy
Authors: Mueller Susanna , Aigner Thomas , Haag Jochen , Schwarz Rene , Niedobitek Gerald
Published: May 2007

We report a case of an EBV‐associated high grade B‐cell lymphoproliferative disorder occurring in the synovial membrane of an elderly patient with gout arthropathy. The EBV‐infected B‐cells displayed a pattern of viral gene expression (EBNA2+/LMP1+) typically seen during primary EBV‐infection and in lymphoproliferations occurring in immunosuppressed individuals. This case conforms to senile EBV‐associated lymphoproliferative disorders previously reported only in Japanese patients. We suggest that an impaired EBV‐specific T‐cell immunity, local or systemic, may play a role in the development of this disorder and that chronic diseases such as gout may be contributing factors. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Optimization of microencapsulated recombinant CHO cell growth, endostatin production, and stability of microcapsule in vivo
Authors: Zhang Ying , Wang Wei , Xie Yubing , Yu Weiting , Lv Guojun , Guo Xin , Xiong Ying , Ma Xiaojun
Published: May 2007

Microencapsulation of recombinant cells secreting endostatin offers a promising approach to tumor gene therapy in which therapeutic protein is delivered in a sustainable and long‐term fashion by encapsulated recombinant cells. However, the studies of cell growth and protein production in vivo are very limited. In this study, the effects of microencapsulation parameters on in vivo cell growth, endostatin production, and microcapsule stability after implantation in the peritoneal cavity of mice were for the first time investigated. Microcapsules with liquid core reached higher cell density and endostatin production at day 18 than microcapsules with solid core. There was no significant difference in stability whether the core of the microcapsule was solid or liquid. Decrease in microcapsule size increased the stability of microcapsule. The microcapsules kept intact in the peritoneal cavity of mice after 36 days of implantation when the microcapsules size was 240 μm in diameter, which gave rise to high endostatin production as well. The optimized microencapsulation conditions for in vivo implantation are liquid core and 240 μm in diameter. This study provides useful information for antiangiogenic gene therapy to tumors using microencapsulated recombinant cells. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 2008
Profiling of mitochondrial associated proteins from rat colon
Authors: Padidar Sara , Bestwick Charles S. , King Tim P. , Rucklidge Garry J. , Duncan Gary J. , Reid Martin D. , Drew Janice E.
Published: May 2007

Mitochondrial dysfunction, damage and mutations of mitochondrial proteins give rise to a range of ill understood patterns of disease. Although there is significant general knowledge of the proteins and the functional processes of the mitochondria, there is little knowledge of difference about how mitochondria respond and how they are regulated in different organs and tissues. Proteomic profiling of mitochondria and associated proteins involved in mitochondrial regulation and trafficking within cells and tissues has the potential to provide insights into mitochondrial dysfunction associated with many human diseases. The rat colon mitoproteome analysis presented here provides a useful tool to assist in identification and interpretation of mitochondrial dysfunction implicated in colon pathogenesis. 2DPAGE followed by LC/MS/MS was used to identify 430 proteins from mitochondrial enriched fractions prepared from rat colon, resulting in 195 different proteins or approximately 50% of the resolved proteins being identified as multiple protein expression forms. Proteins associated with the colon mitoproteome were involved in calcium binding, cell cycle, energy metabolism and electron transport chain, protein folding, protein synthesis and degradation, redox regulation, structural proteins, signalling and transporter and channel proteins. The mitochondrial associated proteins identified in this study of colon tissue complement and are compared with other recently published mitoproteome analyses from other organ tissues, and will assist in revealing potentially organ specific roles of the mitochondria and organ specific disease associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. J. Cell. Biochem. 103: 78–97, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Relativistic correlating basis sets for actinide atoms from 90Th to 103Lr
Authors: Noro Takeshi , Sekiya Masahiro , Osanai You , Koga Toshikatsu , Matsuyama Hisashi
Published: May 2007

For 14 actinide atoms from 90Th to 103Lr, contracted Gaussian‐type function sets are developed for the description of correlations of the 5f, 6d, and 7s electrons. Basis sets for the 6d orbitals are also prepared, since the orbitals are important in molecular environments despite their vacancy in the ground state of some actinides. A segmented contraction scheme is employed for the compactness and efficiency. Contraction coefficients and exponents are so determined as to minimize the deviation from accurate natural orbitals of the lowest term arising from the 5fn−16d17s2 configuration. The spin‐free relativistic effects are considered through the third‐order Douglas‐Kroll approximation. To test the present correlating sets, all‐electron calculations are performed on the ground state of 90ThO molecule. The calculated spectroscopic constants are in excellent agreement with experimental values. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2007
Association between vitamin‐D receptor gene FokI polymorphism and Graves' disease among Taiwanese Chinese
Authors: Chen Rong‐Hsing , Chang Chwen‐Tzuei , Chen Huey‐Yi , Chen Wen‐Chi , Tsai Chang‐Hai , Tsai Fuu‐Jen
Published: May 2007

1,25(OH)2D3, exerting its biological effects through the vitamin‐D receptor (VDR), plays a role in the modulation of the human immune system. The aim of this study was to test for the presence of an association between VDR gene polymorphism and the susceptibility to Graves' disease (GD) for Taiwanese Chinese. Using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐based restriction analysis, we screened the VDR exon 2 start codon T/C (VDR‐FokI) polymorphism to determine the genotypes for 88 GD patients and 90 normal controls. From the genotype analysis, GD patients featured a greater proportion of the CC genotype (44.3%) and a smaller proportion of the TT genotype (12.5%) than was the case for normal controls (CC: 23.3% and TT: 28.9%; chi‐squared test, P=0.003). The odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of the CC genotype's appearance compared with the corresponding values for the TT and TC genotypes, for the GD patient group, were, 4.39 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.82–10.61) and 2.10 (95% CI: 1.06–4.18), respectively. With respect to the allelic analysis, we observed significantly increased C‐allele (65.9%) and decreased T‐allele (34.1%) frequencies among GD patients compared to normal controls (C: 47.2% and T: 52.8%; chi‐squared test, P=0.002). The OR for the risk of appearance of the C allele in the GD‐patient group was 1.93 (95% CI: 1.27–2.95). In conclusion, the VDR‐FokI T/C polymorphism might be able to be used as a genetic marker to predict the likelihood of GD development. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 21:173–177, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Elevation of CA 19‐9 and chromogranin A, in addition to CA 125, are detectable in benign tumors in leiomyomas and endometriosis
Authors: Tsao Kuo‐Chien , Hong Ji‐Hong , Wu Tsu‐Lan , Chang Pi‐Yueh , Sun Chien‐Feng , Wu James T.
Published: May 2007

As the best‐known tumor marker for ovarian carcinoma, CA 125 has also been commonly used to monitor patients with common benign gynecologic diseases such as endometriosis and leiomyoma. Both of these benign tumors are known to be at risk of developing into cancer. During the screening of an asymptomatic population with multiple tumor markers, including alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), prostate‐specific antigen (PSA), CA 125, CA 19‐9, CA 15‐3, chromogranin A (CgA), and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC), we have detected elevated tumor markers in 142 individuals; 19 of them were diagnosed with endometriosis or leiomyoma or both. In addition to the detection of elevation of CA 125 in these benign tumors, elevated CA 19‐9 or CgA was also found in these patients with endometriosis or leiomyoma. Many patients only had elevated CA 19‐9 or CgA; the elevation of CA 125 was not detected. It appears that instead of monitoring only CA 125, as is traditionally done, multiple tumor markers, including CA 19‐9, CgA, and CA 125, should be measured simultaneously in women with clinical disorders associated with the ovary or uterus in order to detect gynecologic benign tumors and in order to prevent further development of cancer. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 21:193–196, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Relationship of serum adiponectin with blood lipids, HbA1c, and hs‐CRP in type II diabetic postmenopausal women
Authors: Goodarzi Mohammad Taghi , Babaahmadi‐Rezaei Hossein , Kadkhodaei‐Eliaderani Manizheh , Haddadinezhad Shahram
Published: May 2007

Adipose tissue has been considered an important endocrine organ. Adiponectin secretes from adipose tissue and plays an important role in the regulation of glycemia, β‐oxidation in muscle, and decreased insulin resistance in the liver. The objectives of this study were to compare the levels of adiponectin, hs‐C‐reactive protein (CRP), HbA1c, and blood lipids among diabetic and healthy postmenopausal women, and to determine the relationship between circulating adiponectin and development of type II diabetes. This case‐control study was performed on 28 diabetic and 42 age‐matched healthy women. All participants were postmenopausal. Serum adiponectin concentrations, serum triglycerides (TG), cholesterol, low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C), and high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) concentrations were determined. Blood HbA1c and serum hs‐CRP were also measured. Adiponectin levels were significantly decreased (P<0.01) in the diabetic patients as compared to normal control subjects. Adiponectin levels were negatively associated with hs‐CRP, LDL‐C, HbA1c, TG, and total cholesterol (TC). A positive correlation was observed between adiponectin and HDL‐C. The obtained data indicate that diabetic women have lower adiponectin levels compared to healthy women. HbA1c as an indicator of glycemic control has a negative correlation with serum adiponectin. Adiponectin may play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes, and may be an independent predictor of the development of diabetes in women. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 21:197–200, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Rapid detection of the UGT1A1 single nucleotide polymorphism G211A using real‐time PCR with Taqman minor groove binder probes
Authors: Wong Fei‐Liang , Wang May‐Kay , Boo Nem‐Yun , Hamidah N.H. , Othaman Ainoon B.
Published: May 2007

The UGT1A1 Taqman MGB probe single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assay was developed to detect nucleotide 211 of the UDP‐glucoronocyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) gene. Defects in this enzyme interfere with process of conjugation of bilirubin and cause unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. Variation at nucleotide 211 in the coding region of the UGT1A1 gene has been shown to be prevalent in Japanese and Chinese. Using an ABI sequence detection system (SDS) 7000, an allele‐specific real‐time PCR‐based genotyping method was established to detect nucleotide G211A. Cord blood from 125 infants without hyperbilirubinemia (controls) were compared with cord blood from 74 infants (cases) with severe hyperbilirubinemia (total serum bilirubin >300µmol/L). Homozygous variation of the UGT1A1 gene at nucleotide 211(A/A) is significantly more common in cases (14.9%) than in controls (0.8%) (P<0.001). Direct sequencing from 20 randomly selected samples showed eight samples with homozygous wild type, seven with homozygous variant, and five samples were heterozygous. The result from this assay was in complete concordance with the DNA sequencing result and clearly discriminate wild‐type (G/G), homozygous variant (A/A), and heterozygous (G/A). This assay is rapid and robust for screening of SNP G211A to determine if this polymorphism plays a role in causing severe neonatal jaundice in the local context. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 21: 167–172, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
High‐molecular intestinal alkaline phosphatase by agarose gel electrophoresis
Authors: Ooi Kinue , Shiraki Katsuya , Morishita Yoshitaka , Nobori Tsutomu
Published: May 2007

The presence of high‐molecular intestinal ALP (HIALP) overlapping with bone ALP in the α2β region has been demonstrated. In this study we evaluated a method of separating HIALP after its conversion into ALP5 by the action of protease. Serum samples from patients were mixed with protease at a ratio of 5:1 and left at room temperature for more than 30 min. The protease‐treated and nontreated samples were both subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis. Patients who showed a decrease in ALP3 in the α2β region and an increase in ALP5 in the β region were regarded as HIALP‐positive. HIALP was observed in 26.7–33.1% of patients with liver diseases, collagen diseases, and diabetes mellitus. Renal disease was ABO blood group‐dependent and showed high positive rates for blood groups B and O. The HIALP‐positive rate was low (7.1–15.5%) in patients with cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumors, and other disorders. ALP5 was also observed in 98.4% of HIALP‐positive patients with liver diseases. In patients with collagen diseases or diabetes mellitus, the positive rate of ALP5 was 40.4–66.7%. In conclusion, this method, in which HIALP is converted into ALP5 by protease pretreatment and is separated from bone ALP, allows HIALP to be identified while other fractions remain unaffected. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 21:140–146, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On the computational complexity of the minimum‐dummy‐activities problem in a pert network
Authors: Syslo Maciej M.
Published: May 2007

The scheduling and planning of a project can be represented by two types of networks, namely, by the activity networks and the event networks. For each project, there exists a unique activity network without redundant (transitive) arcs but since there is an infinite number of different‐sized event networks, the problem is to find an event network with the minimum number of dummy activities. Krishnamoorthy and Deo proved that this problem is NP‐complete. In Sections III and IV we characterize those activity networks which have event networks without dummy activities and present a polynomial‐time algorithm which tests if a given activity network requires dummy activities in the event network. The same result is also proved for a generalization of the real‐world problem to arbitrary digraphs. Finally, we present an example which shows that the number of nodes and the number of arcs in event networks cannot be minimized simultaneously.
Algorithms for finding paths with multiple constraints
Authors: Jaffe Jeffrey M.
Published: May 2007

Let G = (V, E) be a graph with weight function w:E rightarrow Z+ and length function l:E /rightarrow Z+. The problem of determining for v1, V2 /in V whether there is a path from v1 to v2 with weight at most W and length at most L is NP‐complete. This paper gives two approaches to meeting or approximating the length and weight constraints. The first approach is to use a pseudopolynomial‐time algorithm which determines whether a path meets the constraints. Its running time is O (n5 b log nb) where n = |V| and b is the largest length or weight. If tables with O (n3b) entries are kept then all instances of multiple constraints may be decided. Table size may be substantially decreased if one is willing to tolerate incorrect answers to rare instances. The algorithm is suitable for distributed execution. In the second approach, an objective function is defined which evaluates a path's distance from meeting the constraints. Polynomial‐time algorithms attempt to find good paths in terms of the objective function. One algorithm is at most 1.62 times worst than optimal. A notion of “average worst‐case behavior” is defined. The algorithm's “average” behavior is 1.51 times worse than optimal.
Sorting algorithms for the implementation of a generalized vector product
Authors: Garcia‐Diaz Alberto , Friesen Donald K. , Bagert Donald J.
Published: May 2007

This article presents two sorting procedures with computational complexity O(nk2 log(k)) and O(nk2) to perform the generalized vector product A 1⊗ A2⊗ ⃛ ⊗ An, where each vector Ai has k distinct elements arranged in strictly increasing order. The vector product identifies the k minimal sums, each sum being defined as having one addend from each vector.
Optimal dynamic routing in communication networks with continuous traffic
Authors: Hajek Bruce , Ogier Richard G.
Published: May 2007

New characterizations of optimal state‐dependent routing strategies are obtained for the continuous traffic network model proposed by Segall for linear cost with unity weighting at each node and for constant inputs. The concept of flow relaxation is introduced and is used t o transform the optimal routing problem into an initial flow optimization problem with convex cost and linear constraints. Three algorithms are given for open‐loop computation of the optimal initial flow. The first is a simple iterative algorithm based on gradient descent with bending and it is well suited for decentralized computation. The second algorithm reduces the problem t o a series of max‐flow problems and it computes the exact optimal initial flow in O(lN14) compu‐ tations, where IN1 is the number of nodes in the network. The third algorithm is based on a search for successive bottlenecks in the network.
Triterpenes in the hexane extract of leaves of Olea europaea L.: analysis using 13C‐NMR spectroscopy
Authors: Duquesnoy Emilie , Castola Vincent , Casanova Joseph
Published: May 2007

Two neutral triterpenes and a triterpene acid were identified and quantified directly, in the absence of any purification steps, in a precipitate obtained during the industrial extraction of the leaves of Olea europaea L. using 13C‐NMR spectroscopy (spectrometer operating at 4.7 T equipped with a 10 mm probe). The method was optimised in order to reduce the duration of analysis with a routine NMR spectrometer. Together with long‐chain linear compounds, erythrodiol, uvaol and oleanolic acid accounted for 27.3, 18.3 and 12.5% of the precipitate, respectively. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.