bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stress Management and Innovation Interventions at Work
Authors: Bunce David , West Michael A.
Published: August 2005

A study among health-care workers is reported where a traditional stress management program (n = 66) was compared with an intervention promoting innovation at work as a form of stress management (n = 52), and a control group (n = 84). Measures relating to both the process of participation in the respective interventions, and outcome in terms of psychological well-being were taken. The traditional program, emphasizing cognitive-behavioral and arousal reduction techniques, was associated with improvements in general psychological strain and job satisfaction. The intervention promoting innovative responses to stressors (e.g., changing work methods, modifying working relations with colleagues) was associated with improvements in work-related stress, and innovation. Statistical analysis suggested session process variables, in addition to the theoretical orientations of the respective interventions, were associated with outcome variance. Follow-up data, 1 year post-intervention, suggested short-term gains on outcome variables relating to psychological well-being were not maintained. However, increases in levels of innovation, although not apparent post-intervention (3 months), were significant after 1 year. It is concluded that stress management research should focus more on process variables, and that interventions promoting innovation at work, show some promise in addressing occupational strain.
Organizational Commitment Across Cultures: The Impact of Antecedents on Korean Employees
Authors: Sommer Steven M. , Bae Seung-Hyun , Luthans Fred
Published: August 2005

This study analyzed whether demographic and situational factors identified in the U.S.-based literature had the same antecedent influence on the commitment of 1192 employees in 27 large Korean firms. Consistent with U.S. studies, the Korean employees' position in the hierarchy, tenure in their current position and age all were significantly related to organizational commitment. Total tenure and education were not related. As for the situational antecedents, except for management style, all the others were significantly related. Specifically, as organization size increased, commitment decreased; as the structure became more employee focused, commitment increased; and the more positive the organizational climate perceptions, the more the commitment. Although the exceptions need to be explained, this study provides beginning evidence that the theoretical constructs predicting the organizational commitment of employees may have cross-cultural validity.
Promotion to Partner in Professional Service Firms
Authors: Morris Timothy , Pinnington Ashly
Published: August 2005

A shift away from "up-or-out," the conventional promotion system in professional service firms, has been explained as part of a wider set of changes in internal labor market arrangements and management methods. This is investigated empirically in a sample of large partnerships in one profession. Up-or-out was used by less than one-third of the sample of firms but is common among the largest firms. Internal reforms to the professional firm do not fully explain its rarity; up-or-out appears to be adaptable to new forms of management and internal labor market policies. This raises a number of questions about the utility of theoretical explanations of how professional service firms work or are changing.
Male Managers as Fathers? Contrasting Management, Fatherhood, and Masculinity
Authors: Aaltio-Marjosola Bris , Lehtinen Jyri
Published: August 2005

In this study, we discuss the relationships between the private and professional life of male managers, with special emphasis on the meaning of fatherhood in this relationship. By presenting and studying the symbolics of an adventure movie, Hook, we aim to show how the personality of a male manager named Peter Banning is changed when he grows closer to his children through recalling his earlier life as Peter Pan, a boy with a rich fantasy life and the ability to fly. The key concepts in our interpretation are drawn from clinical approaches toward management, narcissism in particular. Moreover, we aim to point out that managerial personality issues are closely related to the questions of gender and to the reconstruction of masculinity as a social trend. Until now this aspect has not been considered in management studies applying the clinical approach.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Work-Family Conflict Among Employed Women and Men in Finland
Authors: Kinnunen Ulla , Mauno Saija
Published: August 2005

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of work-family conflict among employed women and men in Finland. The data were obtained by questionnaire from a sample of 501 employees working in four organizations. The results showed that work-family conflict was more prevalent than family-work conflict among both sexes, but that there were no gender differences in experiencing either work-family or family-work conflict. Family-work conflict was best explained by family domain variables (e.g., number of children living at home) for both sexes, and work-family conflict by work domain variables (e.g., full-time job, poor leadership relations) among the women, and by high education and high number of children living at home among the men. Family-work conflict had negative consequences on family well-being, and work-family conflict, in particular, on occupational well-being. The findings suggest that in particular improvements in working life are needed to prevent problems in the work-family interface.
Bringing Business into Sociotechnical Theory and Practice
Authors: Adler Niclas , Docherty Peter
Published: August 2005

Current developments in the sociotechnical framework address a number of vital issues that failed to occupy the high ground in its formative years. These include: (i) the purpose of the systems, to create customer value under social and resource constraints, (ii) the context or external business environment, and (iii) the dynamics of the sociotechnical system. Due attention to the dominant issues of purpose, context, and their dynamics make it more meaningful to speak of sociotechnical business systems (STBS) and organizational learning instead of sociotechnical systems (STS) and individual learning. In STBS each unit in an organization has business responsibilities and goal-based couplings with its environment and focuses on the creation of customer value. The implications of this shift from STS to STBS are discussed and illustrated with current research and two summary case studies.
Individualism/Collectivism Orientations and Reactions Toward Alternative Human Resource Management Practices
Authors: Ramamoorthy Nagarajan , Carroll Stephen J.
Published: August 2005

In this study, we examined the relationship between individualism-collectivism orientations of potential job seekers and their reactions toward alternative human resource management (HRM) practices in the areas of selection, performance appraisal, reward system, career system, and employment security. Using several subdimensions of individualism-collectivism, we found many significant relationships between individualism-collectivism orientations and preferences for alternative human resource management practices that might affect the effectiveness of alternative HRM practices.
Employee Work Attitudes: The Subtle Influence of Gender
Authors: Smith Patricia L. , Smits Stanley J. , Hoy Frank
Published: August 2005

Using the construct of job satisfaction, this study examined work attitudes of 286 females and 416 males employed in 27 female-owned and 29 male-owned small businesses in three industries: construction, manufacturing, and distribution. Job satisfaction scores (dependent variables) were analyzed with regard to the interaction of owner-employee gender. Demographic and job-related variables were also considered. The gender-moderated results are discussed in terms of methodological implications for conducting research regarding work attitudes.
A Study of the Determinants and of the Impact of Flexibility on Employee Benefit Satisfaction
Authors: Tremblay Michel , Sire Bruno , Pelchat Annie
Published: August 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of individual characteristics and organizational justice on employee benefit satisfaction, and to explore the role of flexible benefit plans. Employees from three Canadian organizations were surveyed. A total of 285 usuable questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 42%. The variables in the model accounted for more than 40% of the variance in benefit satisfaction. The findings showed that while distributive and procedural justice were useful in predicting benefit satisfaction, the concept of process justice had the greatest effect on satisfaction. Among the variables, communication had the greatest impact. The effect of flexibility, although significant, was ambiguous. Sociodemographic factors had a very limited effect when perceptual variables were introduced into the equation. The paper also sets out the limitations of the study and its practical implications, and makes some suggestions for future research.
Influence at Work: A 25-Year Program of Research
Authors: Heller Frank
Published: August 2005

Organization of any kind, from prehistoric hunting societies to companies working through the worldwide web, operate with a distribution of influence and power among their members. This distribution of influence has consequences at three levels: for the people working in the organization, for the organization itself, and, from time to time, for members of society outside the organization. A series of action-and policy-oriented projects on the distribution of influence were developed by or in collaboration with the Centre for Decision Making Studies of The Tavistock Institute over a quarter of a century. They started with a seven-country comparative research on top management decision making, followed by two 12-country studies on Industrial Democracy and a 5-year longitudinal program in seven companies in three countries. These and two longitudinal projects in Britian, one on a motor car manufacturer and the other on an airport, used a similar conceptual framework. The article draws on the evidence from this program of work, describes the evolving theoretical model and concludes that organizational influence sharing appears to have made only limited progress during the last 50 years. Four explanations are put forward: overidealistic expectations; a tendency to ignore the need for certain necessary antecedents, like competence; a tendency to act as if influence sharing is not subject to contingencies like the nature of tasks; and probably most importantly, the almost universal tendency to design influence sharing measures through uncoordinated mechanistic social engineering.
Individualism and Collectivism in Israeli Society: Comparing Religious and Secular High-School Students
Authors: Sagy Shifra , Orr Emda , Bar-On Dan
Published: August 2005

Triandis' theoretical framework, concerning cultural patterns labeled individualism and collectivism, is probed with regard to the religious marker in the Israeli Jewish society. Three methods are used to examine collectivism-individualism constructs in 185 religious and 956 secular high school students: value items, interest in different domains of history, and attitudes toward political issues. A common collective basis of mutual value consensus was found in the two groups; however, as predicted, there were differences between secular and religious students on the three kinds of items, since the religious scored higher than the secular students on items emphasizing collectivist orientation. The differences, however, do not fit the common theoretical framework of collectivism-individualism, but rather tend to reflect the distinction between in-group and universal collectivism.
The Escalator: A Conveyor of Hong Kong's Culture
Authors: Michael SIU Kin Wai
Published: August 2005

People believe that escalators provide a more attractive, convenient, and physically less-demanding pedestrian access from one place to another. However, it does not mean all of us have to like them. Escalators do not only affect our perception of speed, but the most important concern is that this urban object also influences our social relationships and human communication. Under the transmission of this urban object, we are treated as components (a what), rather than human beings (a who). Thus, this article discusses how modernist thinking affects how we see this object and ourselves, and examines the relative worth of it, in relation to the social loss incurred in the present or future. This article also discusses how its presence in many of the daily settings of urban life affects the culture, meaning and quality of life.
Midlife Crisis in Men: Affective Organization of Personal Meanings
Authors: Hermans Hubert J. M. , Oles Piotr K.
Published: August 2005

The purpose of this article is to explore the specific affective organization of personal meanings in midlife crisis in men. Midlife crisis is described as a process of intensive transition of the self including the reinterpretation of time perspective, reevaluation of life values and goals, confrontation with death as a personal event in the future, and planning of the second half of life. Personal meanings referring to past, present, and future were investigated using a self-confrontation method that is sensitive to the affective properties of individual experiences. The intensity of midlife crisis was investigated by means of a Midlife Crisis Scale in a sample of 104 men in Poland. Three groups, one high in midlife crisis (N = 27), one medium (N = 37), and one low in midlife crisis (N = 40) were compared. It was found that the high crisis group had a lower level of affect referring to self-enhancement, a lower level of positive affect, and a higher level of negative affect than both other groups. Moreover, time perspective played a differential role in the organization of the self: in an intragroup comparison of the most influential personal meanings, the high crisis group showed a higher level of negative affect than positive affect for personal meanings referring to the future, but not for personal meanings referring to the past and the present. The relevance of affective organization for midlife crisis is discussed.
Stigma Management Through Participation in Sport and Physical Activity: Experiences of Male College Students with Physical Disabilities
Authors: Taub Diane E. , Blinde Elaine M. , Greer Kimberly R.
Published: August 2005

Individuals with physical disabilities are often stigmatized because their bodies are assumed to vary from norms of physical competence and bodily appearance. Possession of a discrediting attribute may impair social interactions and result in the devaluation of an individual. The purpose of this paper is to explore how involvement in sport and physical activity may be one strategy to manage the stigma of a disabled body. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 24 male college students with physical disabilities. Findings indicate that respondents believe this context helps them exceed expectations associated with their disability through demonstration of physical skill, a fit healthy body, a muscular body, and a liberated body. Sport and physical activity may be effective in compensating for a spoiled identity as participation in this setting is unexpected and emphasizes an alternative representation of a disabled body.
The Gestalt of Organizational Downsizing: Downsizing Strategies as Packages of Change
Authors: Freeman Sarah J.
Published: August 2005

This paper develops and examines a framework of downsizing processes at the organizational level. It builds on previous frameworks and literature by introducing new variables found to be important in a field study and by bringing empirical evidence to bear on conceptual underpinnings related to organizational downsizing and change. The framework developed identifies two general approaches that organizations use when undergoing downsizing and redesign, as well as patterns of activities and changes that accompany them. Downsizing driving redesign involves incremental and low-level change, and is associated with less communication and systematic analysis, narrow participation in change efforts, and lower magnitude change in other organizational attributes. Redesign driving downsizing involves more fundamental organizational change, and is associated with high-level changes that involve restructuring, more communication, broad participation in change efforts, advance systematic analysis, and the use of interorganizational relationships to further downsizing efforts.
Values, Analysis and the Study of Revolution: II
Authors: Tristram Robert J.
Published: August 2005

This second and concluding part of the paper deals with a third problem area; the relationship between values and explanation. It is discussed by examining Myrdal's distinctions between valuations and value premises and between theoretical and practical research; Stretton's conception of the role of the `valuing skill' in all kinds of socio-historical research; and MacIntyre's arguments concerning categories and accounts that combine either evaluation and description or evaluation and explanation. Like the first part of the paper, it is illustrated by studies in the history and sociology of revolutions. Again, the main aim is methodological clarification.
Executing `Decisions' in the Children's Hearings
Authors: Smith Gilbert , May David
Published: August 2005

Based upon observational and other data, this paper reports a study of `decisions' and `decision making' designed to describe the constituent activities of these notions in the context of the Scottish Children's Hearings. The starting point of the paper is a line of criticism which has cast doubt on the traditional use of many of the most central concepts of organizational analysis based, as they have been, upon a predominantly rational mode of organizational life. Rather than taking the central features of decision making for granted this paper reports the type of social activity which in practice in hearings is included by those present within the rubric of decision making, and the ways in which purposeful and meaningful activity is maintained in the light of problems that panel members face. Decision making is described as a flexible endeavour which is framed to manage uncertainty, to control the situation and to attain consensus. Original data are presented from fieldnotes on directly observed hearings. It is argued that this kind of study is a useful precursor to research which seeks to discover the causes and correlates of the `decisions' of those hearings.
Teacher Careers and Comprehensive Schooling: An Empirical Study
Authors: Riseborough George F.
Published: August 2005

This paper is based on an investigation of a reorganized comprehensive school. Although in the tradition of the `new' sociology of education, it is critical of aspects of such an approach. It attempts to give a greater insight than hitherto into the work relationships of teachers in schools; concentrates on the consequences for self and role performance of teacher career experience, focusing particularly on teacher/headteacher interaction. Intra-school `horizontal' and `vertical' aspects of teachers' careers (particularly, `the streaming of teachers') and associated moral careers are examined; and the formation of a `cabal' and a `clique' noted. This professional segmentation is linked with the streaming of children and the distribution of `stratified knowledge' within the school, which are seen to guarantee distinctive pupil identities and educational careers. In conclusion, the suggestion is made that comprehensive schooling, as at this school, is a negation of the comprehensive principle.
Substantive Dogs and Methodological Tails: A Question of Fit
Authors: Bechhofer Frank
Published: August 2005

This paper examines, with some reference to a content analysis of three British journals, the methodological orientation of current British sociology in order to argue that most graduate students as a consequence of their undergraduate socialization are unlikely to wish to take advantage of formal methodology courses at the graduate level, at least in so far as these are highly technical in content. Some of the implications of the argument for sociology in Britain generally, for undergraduate methods teaching and for the structure of graduate education are discussed.
Shifting Parameters of Individual and Group Variation
Authors: Carpenter Jeannine , Hilliard Sarah
Published: August 2005

The relationship of the individual to the group is one of the central issues in language variation, particularly in mono-ethnic enclaves. This study examines the role of the individual and the group in Roanoke Island, NC, the largest African American community on the Outer Banks. Phonological and morphosyntactic variables representing four generations of African American speakers indicate increasing group accommodation to regional dialect norms while preserving core ethnolinguistic traits. Despite the macro-level trends, the speech of individuals on Roanoke Island reveals high levels of variation within each generation. Several factors may affect the variable frequencies expressed by individuals: mobility (both realized and desired), inter-ethnic contact, and personal versus public identities. We investigate how multiple factors affect individual variation, demonstrating both common and distinctive generational trends. Although individuals often align with the overall patterns of their generational cohorts, their speech also exhibits flexibility of group affiliation and personal style.
English-American Speech Relationships
Authors: Shackleton Robert G.
Published: August 2005

This study applies quantitative techniques—measures of linguistic distance, cluster analysis, principal components analysis, and regression analysis—to data on English speech variants in England and America. The analysis yields measures of similarity among English and American speakers, distinguishes clusters of speakers with similar speech patterns, and isolates groups of variants that distinguish those groups of speakers. The results are consistent with a model of new-dialect formation in the American colonies, involving competition within and selection from a pool of variants introduced by speakers from different dialect regions. The patterns of similarity appear to be largely consistent with the historical evidence of migrations from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain to North America, lending support to the hypothesis of regional English origins for some important differences in American dialects, and suggesting mainly southeastern English influence on American speech, with somewhat greater southeastern influence on New England speech and southwestern influence in the American South.
The Temple Sermon and the Term maqom in the Jeremianic Corpus
Authors: Leuchter Mark
Published: August 2005

The Hebrew term (see PDFfor character) possessed a special significance in the literature of the Josianic period, pertaining exclusively to Jerusalem and its Temple. Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon (Jer. 7.1-15) alters the function and institutional implications of the term by employing the very methods of the deuteronomistic scribes who appropriated the term for Josianic purposes. As a result, the sacral nature of the term (see PDFfor character) is retained, as is the spirit of deuteronomistic ideology, but the privileged status of Jerusalem and the Temple is eliminated. The prophet’s rhetorical strategy had a dramatic effect on subsequent modes of sacral consciousness, especially during the period of Babylonian hegemony when members of the prophet’s audience were scattered well beyond the precincts of Jerusalem.
Critical Engagements with Culture and Self
Authors: Bhatia Sunil , Stam Henderikus J.
Published: August 2005

This issue takes the binary of ‘culture’ and ‘self’ to be a problem of theorizing an entrenched dualism by simultaneously breaking down the dichotomy and re-theorizing its inherently contested members. In this introduction we describe briefly the problems confronting this theoretical project, the manner in which alternative frames of analysis can be brought to bear on the question, and the ways in which the authors of this issue have addressed their task. While eschewing the dichotomies of culture and self through an analysis of the experiences of body, emotions, colonization, immigration, gender, representation and language itself, these articles bring out considerations of culture and self that provide new opportunities for investigation, theory and understanding. We view this special issue as one that provides a range of tools within which to theorize the problematic of ‘self and culture’.
Can the Clinical Subject Speak?
Authors: Swartz Sally
Published: August 2005

This paper is concerned with the extent to which the clinical subject, in postcolonial clinical encounters, is able to speak, and be heard, through and beyond the structures of clinical theory and practice. The paper aligns itself theoretically with the project of Subaltern Studies, and particularly the work of Spivak, in her quest ‘to learn to speak to (rather than listen to or speak for) the historically muted subject of the subaltern woman’. It is concerned specifically with the complexity of learning to speak to the muted clinical subject of postcolonial Africa. It argues that this task is bedevilled by representations of Otherness (black, woman, illiterate, poor, rural) in clinical theory that speak for, but seldom engage in dialogue with, the clinical subject. Multivocal texts available in narrative therapy projects present an interesting challenge to conventional authorial ownership. More broadly, subaltern psychology, as a theoretical direction, offers an opportunity to understand ways in which muting occurs, and to work actively against professional deafness.
Bildung, Culture and Self
Authors: Simão Lívia Mathias
Published: August 2005

This article proposes a dialogue between Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of Bildung, Ernst Boesch’s concept of culture as action field and Jaan Valsiner’s concept of culture as semiotic mediation for psychological processes, comparing their respective implications for the understanding of self-other relations. The focus on self-other relations touches on the issue of ‘self-culture engagement’, since the other is understood as an active interactor who at every moment transforms the possibilities and limits of a given sociocultural constellation into concrete reality. This debate is felt to be justified by the connecting thread of hermeneutics, methodologically viewed as essential by the three authors being studied (Gadamer, Boesch and Valsiner) for understanding culture-self relations. On the one hand, in each of these theoretical propositions both culture and individual are similarly conceived as constructors of meaning and constructed by one another. On the other hand, some aspects of this process of meaning construction and interpretation of constructed meaning are conceived differently by each of them, leading to some differentiation in the ‘hermeneutic task’ as a route for deepening the understanding of the ‘self-culture engagement’. From this perspective, a discussion on the propositions we can derive from their hermeneutic views with respect to the self-culture-other relations can be interesting.
Constructing the Stroke: Sudden-Onset Narratives of Stroke Survivors
Authors: Faircloth Christopher A. , Boylstein Craig , Rittman Maude , Gubrium Jaber F.
Published: August 2005

In this article, the authors explore the narrative production of stroke from the perspectives of survivors, that is, the stroke itself, not its implications for the individual poststroke. In the vast amount of literature on both sudden onset and chronic illness, the narrative construction of the onset of the illness, for the most part, has been ignored by social scientists, most notably in qualitative research. This is certainly true of stroke. Drawing on existing literature in both chronic illness and the body, the authors extend this to explore the phenomenological construction of stroke onset. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews with 111 stroke survivors postdischarge, they suggest three narrative mechanisms are used in the construct of the sudden-onset event itself: the use of typifications to construct the body during stroke, stroke as an internal communicative act, and stroke as a physical sensation and the mechanisms used to minimize bodily concerns.
Mood and Narrative Entwinement: Some Implications for Educational Practice
Authors: Conroy Sherrill A. , Dobson Stephen
Published: August 2005

Moods are one way of existentially reading the authenticity of people and are entwined within any narrative. Attunement between narrative and its mood is crucial for understanding the implicit message of the narrator. Sometimes, a master narrative is interrupted by counternarratives, so that narrative recognition becomes problematic. People can disguise their existential state when narrating, but the mood discloses it nonetheless. The authors explore the relationship between mood and narrative, and how the two are connected with how a person acts authentically or inauthentically. They provide selected empirical examples of narratives from medical students to support their argument. The educational relevance of their discussion comprises the final section. Educators in any educational program must first reflect on, then make explicit the manner in which narrative and mood are used to communicate knowledge.
A Survey of Goal-Setting Methods Used in Rehabilitation
Authors: Holliday Rosaline C. , Antoun Mary , Playford E. Diane
Published: August 2005

Objectives. This survey provides a description of the goal-setting methods that are currently being used in community and inpatient rehabilitation centers across the United Kingdom. Given current policy, emphasis was placed on finding out how much patient involvement in the goal-setting process exists, concentrating on how such involvement may be facilitated. Design. A postal survey design was used to access a large sample size over a broad geographical area. The questionnaire was piloted at a British Society for Rehabilitation Medicine (BSRM) meeting; subsequently, some response categories were expanded. The questionnaire was approved by the BSRM Research and Clinical Standards committee. Questionnaires were coded to track responses from individuals. The received data were anonymized and analyzed using a statistics package for social science (SPSS) database. Subjects. Members of the BSRM were selected for this survey because this represents one of the most comprehensive listings of rehabilitation services in the United Kingdom. Results. The survey had a 60% response rate. A problem-orientated approach to goal setting was most commonly reported, with rehabilitation teams defining, formulating, and evaluating the goals. Patients were supplied with limited information about goal setting during their rehabilitation admission, although 60% of respondents reported giving patients a copy of their goals. Thirty percent of respondents used goals as a measure of rehabilitation effectiveness. Standardized goal-setting measures were not commonly used. Conclusion. These data demonstrate that individual disciplines tend to discuss potential goals with their patients during treatment sessions and then formulate goals on the basis of the discussion. There is scope to develop and refine the approach to goal setting so the patients have more opportunities to engage in the goal-setting process.
The αC domains of fibrinogen affect the structure of the fibrin clot, its physical properties, and its susceptibility to fibrinolysis
Authors: Collet Jean-Philippe , Moen Jennifer L. , Veklich Yuri I. , Gorkun Oleg V. , Lord Susan T. , Montalescot Gilles , Weisel John W.
Published: August 2005

The functions of the αC domains of fibrinogen in clotting and fibrinolysis, which have long been enigmatic, were determined using recombinant fibrinogen truncated at Aα chain residue 251. Scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy revealed that the fibers of α251 clots were thinner and denser, with more branch points than fibers of control clots. Consistent with these results, the permeability of α251 clots was nearly half that of control clots. Together, these results suggest that in normal clot formation, the αC domains enhance lateral aggregation to produce thicker fibers. The viscoelastic properties of α251 fibrin clots differed markedly from control clots; α251 clots were much less stiff and showed more plastic deformation, indicating that interactions between the αC domains in normal clots play a major role in determining the clot's mechanical properties. Comparing factor XIIIa cross-linked α251 and control clots showed that γ chain cross-linking had a significant effect on clot stiffness. Plasmin-catalyzed lysis of α251 clots, monitored with both macroscopic and microscopic methods, was faster than lysis of control clots. In conclusion, these studies provide the first definitive evidence that the αC domains play an important role in determining the structure and biophysical properties of clots and their susceptibility to fibrinolysis.
Analysis of T-cell repertoire diversity in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
Authors: Wada Taizo , Schurman Shepherd H. , Garabedian Elizabeth K. , Yachie Akihiro , Candotti Fabio
Published: August 2005

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is an X-linked immunodeficiency characterized by thrombocytopenia, eczema, and variable degrees of impaired cellular and humoral immunity. Age-dependent T-cell lymphopenia has been described in WAS, however, the diversity of the T-cell compartment over time in these patients has not been characterized. We have used complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) size distribution analysis to assess T-cell receptor (TCR) Vβ repertoire in 13 patients with WAS. Diverse CDR3 size pattern was demonstrated in patients under 15 years of age regardless of the levels of WAS protein (WASP) expression. In contrast, older patients showed significantly higher skewing of TCRVβ repertoire as compared with healthy adults. We did not find correlation between clinical score and complexity of TCRVβ repertoire. These findings suggest that WASP deficiency does not limit thymic generation of a normal TCR and indicate that T-cell oligoclonality may contribute to the immunodeficiency in older patients with WAS.
PPARα downregulates airway inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide in the mouse
Authors: Delayre-Orthez Carine , Becker Julien , Guenon Isabelle , Lagente Vincent , Auwerx Johan , Frossard Nelly , Pons Françoise
Published: August 2005

Background

Inflammation is a hallmark of acute lung injury and chronic airway diseases. In chronic airway diseases, it is associated with profound tissue remodeling. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) is a ligand-activated transcription factor, that belongs to the nuclear receptor family. Agonists for PPARα have been recently shown to reduce lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- and cytokine-induced secretion of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in human monocytes and rat mesangial cells, suggesting that PPARα may play a beneficial role in inflammation and tissue remodeling.

Methods

We have investigated the role of PPARα in a mouse model of LPS-induced airway inflammation characterized by neutrophil and macrophage infiltration, by production of the chemoattractants, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), keratinocyte derived-chemokine (KC), macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and by increased MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). The role of PPARα in this model was studied using both PPARα-deficient mice and mice treated with the PPARα activator, fenofibrate.

Results

Upon intranasal exposure to LPS, PPARα-/-mice exhibited greater neutrophil and macrophage number in BALF, as well as increased levels of TNF-α, KC, MIP-2 and MCP-1, when compared to PPARα+/+mice. PPARα-/-mice also displayed enhanced MMP-9 activity. Conversely, fenofibrate (0.15 to 15 mg/day) dose-dependently reduced the increase in neutrophil and macrophage number induced by LPS in wild-type mice. In animals treated with 15 mg/day fenofibrate, this effect was associated with a reduction in TNF-α, KC, MIP-2 and MCP-1 levels, as well as in MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity. PPARα-/-mice treated with 15 mg/day fenofibrate failed to exhibit decreased airway inflammatory cell infiltrate, demonstrating that PPARα mediates the anti-inflammatory effect of fenofibrate.

Conclusion

Using both genetic and pharmacological approaches, our data clearly show that PPARα downregulates cell infiltration, chemoattractant production and enhanced MMP activity triggered by LPS in mouse lung. This suggests that PPARα activation may have a beneficial effect in acute or chronic inflammatory airway disorders involving neutrophils and macrophages.
DynGO: a tool for visualizing and mining of Gene Ontology and its associations
Authors: Liu Hongfang , Hu Zhang-Zhi , Wu Cathy H
Published: August 2005

Background

A large volume of data and information about genes and gene products has been stored in various molecular biology databases. A major challenge for knowledge discovery using these databases is to identify related genes and gene products in disparate databases. The development of Gene Ontology (GO) as a common vocabulary for annotation allows integrated queries across multiple databases and identification of semantically related genes and gene products (i.e., genes and gene products that have similar GO annotations). Meanwhile, dozens of tools have been developed for browsing, mining or editing GO terms, their hierarchical relationships, or their "associated" genes and gene products (i.e., genes and gene products annotated with GO terms). Tools that allow users to directly search and inspect relations among all GO terms and their associated genes and gene products from multiple databases are needed.

Results

We present a standalone package called DynGO, which provides several advanced functionalities in addition to the standard browsing capability of the official GO browsing tool (AmiGO). DynGO allows users to conduct batch retrieval of GO annotations for a list of genes and gene products, and semantic retrieval of genes and gene products sharing similar GO annotations. The result are shown in an association tree organized according to GO hierarchies and supported with many dynamic display options such as sorting tree nodes or changing orientation of the tree. For GO curators and frequent GO users, DynGO provides fast and convenient access to GO annotation data. DynGO is generally applicable to any data set where the records are annotated with GO terms, as illustrated by two examples.

Conclusion

We have presented a standalone package DynGO that provides functionalities to search and browse GO and its association databases as well as several additional functions such as batch retrieval and semantic retrieval. The complete documentation and software are freely available for download from the website http://biocreative.ifsm.umbc.edu/dyngo.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the stomatopod crustacean Squilla mantis
Authors: Cook Charles E
Published: August 2005

Background

Animal mitochondrial genomes are physically separate from the much larger nuclear genomes and have proven useful both for phylogenetic studies and for understanding genome evolution. Within the phylum Arthropoda the subphylum Crustacea includes over 50,000 named species with immense variation in body plans and habitats, yet only 23 complete mitochondrial genomes are available from this subphylum.

Results

I describe here the complete mitochondrial genome of the crustacean Squilla mantis (Crustacea: Malacostraca: Stomatopoda). This 15994-nucleotide genome, the first described from a hoplocarid, contains the standard complement of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and a non-coding AT-rich region that is found in most other metazoans. The gene order is identical to that considered ancestral for hexapods and crustaceans. The 70% AT base composition is within the range described for other arthropods. A single unusual feature of the genome is a 230 nucleotide non-coding region between a serine transfer RNA and the nad1 gene, which has no apparent function.

I also compare gene order, nucleotide composition, and codon usage of the S. mantis genome and eight other malacostracan crustaceans. A translocation of the histidine transfer RNA gene is shared by three taxa in the order Decapoda, infraorder Brachyura; Callinectes sapidus, Portunus trituberculatus and Pseudocarcinus gigas. This translocation may be diagnostic for the Brachyura. For all nine taxa nucleotide composition is biased towards AT-richness, as expected for arthropods, and is within the range reported for other arthropods. Codon usage is biased, and much of this bias is probably due to the skew in nucleotide composition towards AT-richness.

Conclusion

The mitochondrial genome of Squilla mantis contains one unusual feature, a 230 base pair non-coding region has so far not been described in any other malacostracan. Comparisons with other Malacostraca show that all nine genomes, like most other mitochondrial genomes, share a bias toward AT-richness and a related bias in codon usage. The nine malacostracans included in this analysis are not representative of the diversity of the class Malacostraca, and additional malacostracan sequences would surely reveal other unusual genomic features that could be useful in understanding mitochondrial evolution in this taxon.
Arabidopsis ETO1 specifically interacts with and negatively regulates type 2 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthases
Authors: Yoshida Hitoshi , Nagata Masayasu , Saito Koji , Wang Kevin LC , Ecker Joseph R
Published: August 2005

Background

In Arabidopsis, ETO1 (ETHYLENE-OVERPRODUCER1) is a negative regulator of ethylene evolution by interacting with AtACS5, an isoform of the rate-limiting enzyme, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthases (ACC synthase or ACS), in ethylene biosynthetic pathway. ETO1 directly inhibits the enzymatic activity of AtACS5. In addition, a specific interaction between ETO1 and AtCUL3, a constituent of a new type of E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, suggests the molecular mechanism in promoting AtACS5 degradation by the proteasome-dependent pathway. Because orthologous sequences to ETO1 are found in many plant species including tomato, we transformed tomato with Arabidopsis ETO1 to evaluate its ability to suppress ethylene production in tomato fruits.

Results

Transgenic tomato lines that overexpress Arabidopsis ETO1 (ETO1-OE) did not show a significant delay of fruit ripening. So, we performed yeast two-hybrid assays to investigate potential heterologous interaction between ETO1 and three isozymes of ACC synthases from tomato. In the yeast two-hybrid system, ETO1 interacts with LE-ACS3 as well as AtACS5 but not with LE-ACS2 or LE-ACS4, two major isozymes whose gene expression is induced markedly in ripening fruits. According to the classification of ACC synthases, which is based on the C-terminal amino acid sequences, both LE-ACS3 and AtACS5 are categorized as type 2 isozymes and possess a consensus C-terminal sequence. In contrast, LE-ACS2 and LE-ACS4 are type 1 and type 3 isozymes, respectively, both of which do not possess this specific C-terminal sequence. Yeast two-hybrid analysis using chimeric constructs between LE-ACS2 and LE-ACS3 revealed that the type-2-ACS-specific C-terminal tail is required for interaction with ETO1. When treated with auxin to induce LE-ACS3, seedlings of ETO1-OE produced less ethylene than the wild type, despite comparable expression of the LE-ACS3 gene in the wild type.

Conclusion

These results suggest that ETO1 family proteins specifically interact with and negatively regulate type 2 ACC synthases. Our data also show that Arabidopsis ETO1 can regulate type 2 ACS in a heterologous plant, tomato.
Ventriculo-atrial gradient due to first degree atrio-ventricular block: a case report
Authors: Ando' Giuseppe , Versaci Francesco
Published: August 2005

Background

Isolated, asymptomatic first degree AV block with narrow QRS has not prognostic significance and is not usually treated with pacemaker implantation. In some cases, yet, loss of AV synchrony because of a marked prolongation of the PR interval may cause important hemodynamic alterations, with subsequent symptoms of heart failure. Indeed, AV synchrony is crucial when atrial systole, the "atrial kick", contributes in a major way to left ventricular filling, as in case of reduced left ventricular compliance because of aging or concomitant structural heart disease.

Case presentation

We performed a trans-septal left atrium catheterization aimed at evaluating the entity of a mitral valve stenosis in a 72-year-old woman with a marked first-degree AV block, a known moderate aortic stenosis and NYHA class III symptoms of functional deterioration. We occurred in a deep alteration in cardiac hemodynamics consisting in an end-diastolic ventriculo-atrial gradient without any evidence of mitral stenosis. The patient had a substantial improvement in echocardiographic parameters and in her symptoms of heart failure after permanent pacemaker implantation with physiological AV delay.

Conclusion

We conclude that if a marked first degree AV block is associated to instrumental signs or symptoms of heart failure, the restoration of an optimal AV synchrony, achieved with dual-chamber pacing, may represent a reasonable therapeutic option leading to a consequent clinical improvement.
Characterization of the linkage disequilibrium structure and identification of tagging-SNPs in five DNA repair genes
Authors: Allen-Brady Kristina , Camp Nicola J
Published: August 2005

Background

Characterization of the linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure of candidate genes is the basis for an effective association study of complex diseases such as cancer. In this study, we report the LD and haplotype architecture and tagging-single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) for five DNA repair genes: ATM, MRE11A, XRCC4, NBS1 and RAD50.

Methods

The genes ATM, MRE11A, and XRCC4 were characterized using a panel of 94 unrelated female subjects (47 breast cancer cases, 47 controls) obtained from high-risk breast cancer families. A similar LD structure and tSNP analysis was performed for NBS1 and RAD50, using publicly available genotyping data. We studied a total of 61 SNPs at an average marker density of 10 kb. Using a matrix decomposition algorithm, based on principal component analysis, we captured >90% of the intragenetic variation for each gene.

Results

Our results revealed that three of the five genes did not conform to a haplotype block structure (MRE11A, RAD50 and XRCC4). Instead, the data fit a more flexible LD group paradigm, where SNPs in high LD are not required to be contiguous. Traditional haplotype blocks assume recombination is the only dynamic at work. For ATM, MRE11A and XRCC4 we repeated the analysis in cases and controls separately to determine whether LD structure was consistent across breast cancer cases and controls. No substantial difference in LD structures was found.

Conclusion

This study suggests that appropriate SNP selection for an association study involving candidate genes should allow for both mutation and recombination, which shape the population-level genomic structure. Furthermore, LD structure characterization in either breast cancer cases or controls appears to be sufficient for future cancer studies utilizing these genes.