bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cloning and Characterization of Long‐Chain Fatty Alcohol Oxidase LjFAO1 in Lotus japonicus
Authors: Zhao Shilan , Lin Zhixin , Ma Wei , Luo Da , Cheng Qi 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe Lotus japonicus EST database was searched against Arabidopsis thaliana AtFAO3, a full‐length cDNA that encodes a membrane‐bound, flavin‐containing, hydrogen peroxide generating, long‐chain fatty alcohol oxidase. One EST fragment was detected, and the corresponding full‐length cDNA was obtained by screening a cDNA library of L. japonicus. The LjFAO1 genomic DNA was amplified by PCR, to give a product 3.6 kb in length. Comparison between the LjFAO1 cDNA and genomic DNA revealed that the LjFAO1 contains 3 exons and 2 introns. RT‐PCR analysis showed that the LjFAO1 was expressed in the whole plant, with the highest expression level in the apex and the lowest expression level in the siliques. The LjFAO1 gene was down‐regulated by cold stress in both the apex and the cotelydon of the 8‐day old seedlings, the first time that a long‐chain alcohol oxidase has been shown to respond directly to stress. The full length cDNA and a C‐terminal truncated version were overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The full length version of LjFAO1 exhibited long‐chain fatty alcohol oxidase activity and was subsequently purified by Ni‐NTA chromatography. The active LjFAO1 protein showed substrate specificities toward 1‐dodecanol, 1‐hexadecanol, and 1,16‐hexadecanediol with Km values 59.6 ± 14.8 (μM), 40.9 ± 8.2 (μM) and 19.4 ± 1.5 (μM), respectively, suggesting apparent differences in substrate preferences with AtFAO3.
Work, Weight, and Wellness: The 3W Program: A Worksite Obesity Prevention and Intervention Trial
Authors: Williams Andrew E. , Vogt Thomas M. , Stevens Victor J. , Albright Cheryl A. , Nigg Claudio R. , Meenan Richard T. , Finucane Melissa L. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractObjective: In this paper, we describe the aims, intervention, and design of the Work, Weight, and Wellness program, a group‐randomized worksite obesity prevention and intervention trial being conducted at 31 hotels with 11,559 employees on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. We report baseline prevalence of overweight and obesity, and the distribution of BMI (kilograms per meter squared) across sex, race, and job categories. We also describe factors that have influenced intervention adoption and employee participation.Research Methods and Procedures: The study's primary outcome is change in BMI among hotel employees over a 2‐year intervention period. The intervention includes environmental and group components that target diet, physical activity, and weight management.Results: Men, Pacific Islanders, and individuals employed in managerial or facility maintenance roles had higher prevalence of obesity and higher mean BMI than women and individuals from other races or in other occupational categories.Discussion: These results may be helpful in guiding choices about the adoption or design of future worksite and community interventions addressing at‐risk ethnically diverse populations and are especially relevant to the hotel industry and similar industries.
Using Formative Research to Develop Environmental and Ecological Interventions to Address Overweight and Obesity
Authors: Wilson Mark G. , Goetzel Ron Z. , Ozminkowski Ronald J. , DeJoy Dave M. , Della Lindsay , Roemer Enid Chung , Schneider Jennifer , Tully Karen J. , White John M. , Baase Catherine M. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractObjective: This paper presents the formative research phase of a large multi‐site intervention study conducted to inform the feasibility of introducing environmental and ecological interventions.Research Methods and Procedures: Using mixed methods that included an environmental assessment, climate survey, leadership focus groups and interviews, and archival data, information was collected on employee health and job factors, the physical environment, social‐organizational environment, and current health programs.Results: Results show that 83% of employees at the study sites were overweight or obese. Leadership was very supportive of health initiatives and felt integrating the strategies into organizational operations would increase their likelihood of success. Environmental assessment scores ranged from 47 to 19 on a 100‐point scale. Health services personnel tended to view the organizational climate for health more positively than site leadership (mean of 3.6 vs. 3.0, respectively).Discussion: Intervention strategies chosen included increasing healthy food choices in vending, cafeterias, and company meetings, providing a walking path, targeting messages, developing site goals, training leaders, and establishing leaders at the work group level.
Critical interface issues associated with the ITER EC system
Authors: Henderson M.A. , Saibene G. 
Published: April 2008

The ITER ECH system is an in-kind procurement consisting of four different types of gyrotrons (from EU, IN, JA and RF), transmission lines (from US) and two types of launchers (from EU and JA). Each subsystem must interface not only with the other but also with the auxiliary systems control and data acquisition computer and with the plasma (in the case of the launchers). The definition and management of interfaces is therefore essential for the system to guarantee performance, availability and reliability. The proper description of each interface boundary is essential for assembly and operation of the entire system as a single unit. In addition, progress has been made in the development of high power, long pulse systems and associated components that have not been integrated into the ITER EC design since the present ITER EC system was essentially specified prior to 2000. The ultimate physics performance and operational reliability in some situations is limited by this old design, which has not taken advantage of the knowledge and experience gained in operating the multi-megawatt ECH systems on present tokamaks and stellarators.
The objective of this paper is to review the present ITER ECH system, which includes the power supplies, gyrotrons, transmission lines and launchers. Modifications are proposed which are performance driven and are engineered for reliability and maintainability, whilst reducing complexity and cost. Potential operating scenarios are discussed which require an intelligent and automatic decision making process, for example, directing the EC power to either of the two EC launchers, based on the immediate physics requirements. The interfaces between the subsystems are described and when possible improvements to each interface are proposed.
siRNA specificity searching incorporating mismatch tolerance data
Authors: Chalk Alistair M. , Sonnhammer Erik L. L. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
Artificially synthesized short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are widely used in functional genomics to knock down specific target genes. One ongoing challenge is to guarantee that the siRNA does not elicit off-target effects. Initial reports suggested that siRNAs were highly sequence-specific; however, subsequent data indicates that this is not necessarily the case. It is still uncertain what level of similarity and other rules are required for an off-target effect to be observed, and scoring schemes have not been developed to look beyond simple measures such as the number of mismatches or the number of consecutive matching bases present.
We created design rules for predicting the likelihood of a non-specific effect and present a web server that allows the user to check the specificity of a given siRNA in a flexible manner using a combination of methods. The server finds potential off-target matches in the corresponding RefSeq database and ranks them according to a scoring system based on experimental studies of specificity.
Availability: The server is available at
http://informatics-eskitis.griffith.edu.au/SpecificityServer.
Contact: Erik.Sonnhammer@sbc.su.se
Supplementary information: Supplementary analysis and figures are available at Bioinformatics online.
Peak bagging for peptide mass fingerprinting
Authors: He Zengyou , Yang Can , Yu Weichuan 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
Motivation: Mass Spectrometry (MS)-based protein identification via peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) is a key component in high-throughput proteome research. While PMF was the first commonly used protein identification method, provided higher throughput than the tandem MS-based method, its accuracy is lower than that of the tandem MS method. Thus, it is desirable to develop PMF-based algorithm with higher protein identification accuracy to facilitate proteome research.
Results: We propose a peak bagging method for single MS-based protein identification. It combines results from multiple PMF algorithms, where each PMF algorithm takes a random peak subset as input. Evaluation with a set of real MALDI-TOF MS spectra shows that the new peak bagging method provides consistent improvements over the single PMF algorithm.
Contact: eezyhe@ust.hk
adegenet: a R package for the multivariate analysis of genetic markers
Authors: Jombart Thibaut 
Published: April 2008

AbstractSummary: The package adegenet for the R software is dedicated to the multivariate analysis of genetic markers. It extends the ade4 package of multivariate methods by implementing formal classes and functions to manipulate and analyse genetic markers. Data can be imported from common population genetics software and exported to other software and R packages. adegenet also implements standard population genetics tools along with more original approaches for spatial genetics and hybridization.Availability: Stable version is available from CRAN: http://cran.r-project.org/mirrors.html. Development version is available from adegenet website: http://adegenet.r-forge.r-project.org/. Both versions can be installed directly from R. adegenet is distributed under the GNU General Public Licence (v.2).Contact: jombart@biomserv.univ-lyon1.frSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Tobacco Mosaic Virus Movement Protein Interacts with Green Fluorescent Protein-Tagged Microtubule End-Binding Protein 1
Authors: Brandner Katrin , Sambade Adrian , Boutant Emmanuel , Didier Pascal , Mély Yves , Ritzenthaler Christophe , Heinlein Manfred 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe targeting of the movement protein (MP) of Tobacco mosaic virus to plasmodesmata involves the actin/endoplasmic reticulum network and does not require an intact microtubule cytoskeleton. Nevertheless, the ability of MP to facilitate the cell-to-cell spread of infection is tightly correlated with interactions of the protein with microtubules, indicating that the microtubule system is involved in the transport of viral RNA. While the MP acts like a microtubule-associated protein able to stabilize microtubules during late infection stages, the protein was also shown to cause the inactivation of the centrosome upon expression in mammalian cells, thus suggesting that MP may interact with factors involved in microtubule attachment, nucleation, or polymerization. To further investigate the interactions of MP with the microtubule system in planta, we expressed the MP in the presence of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fused microtubule end-binding protein 1a (EB1a) of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; AtEB1a:GFP). The two proteins colocalize and interact in vivo as well as in vitro and exhibit mutual functional interference. These findings suggest that MP interacts with EB1 and that this interaction may play a role in the associations of MP with the microtubule system during infection.
Histone Acetylation and Chromatin Remodeling Are Required for UV-B–Dependent Transcriptional Activation of Regulated Genes in Maize
Authors: Casati Paula , Campi Mabel , Chu Feixia , Suzuki Nagi , Maltby David , Guan Shenheng , Burlingame Alma L. , Walbot Virginia 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
The nuclear proteomes of maize (Zea mays) lines that differ in UV-B tolerance were compared by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis after UV light treatment. Differential accumulation of chromatin proteins, particularly histones, constituted the largest class identified by mass spectrometry. UV-B–tolerant landraces and the B73 inbred line show twice as many protein changes as the UV-B–sensitive b, pl W23 inbred line and transgenic maize expressing RNA interference constructs directed against chromatin factors. Mass spectrometic analysis of posttranslational modifications on histone proteins demonstrates that UV-B–tolerant lines exhibit greater acetylation on N-terminal tails of histones H3 and H4 after irradiation. These acetylated histones are enriched in the promoter and transcribed regions of the two UV-B–upregulated genes examined; radiation-sensitive lines lack this enrichment. DNase I and micrococcal nuclease hypersensitivity assays indicate that chromatin adopts looser structures around the selected genes in the UV-B–tolerant samples. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments identified additional chromatin factor changes associated with the nfc102 test gene after UV-B treatment in radiation-tolerant lines. Chromatin remodeling is thus shown to be a key process in acclimation to UV-B, and lines deficient in this process are more sensitive to UV-B.
KNOXLost theOX: TheArabidopsis KNATMGene Defines a Novel Class of KNOX Transcriptional Regulators Missing the Homeodomain
Authors: Magnani Enrico , Hake Sarah 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThree amino acid loop extension (TALE) homeodomain transcriptional regulators play a central role in plant and animal developmental programs. Plant KNOTTED1-like homeobox (KNOX) and animal Myeloid ecotropic viral integration site (MEIS) proteins share a TALE homeodomain and a MEINOX (MEIS-KNOX) domain, suggesting that an ancestral MEINOX-TALE protein predates the divergence of plants from fungi and animals. In this study, we identify and characterize the Arabidopsis thaliana KNATM gene, which encodes a MEINOX domain but not a homeodomain. Phylogenetic analysis of the KNOX family places KNATM in a new class and shows conservation in dicotyledons. We demonstrate that KNATM selectively interacts with Arabidopsis BELL TALE proteins through the MEINOX domain. The homeodomain is known to be necessary for KNOX–KNOX interaction. On the contrary, KNATM specifically dimerizes with the KNOX protein BREVIPEDICELLUS through an acidic coiled-coil domain. KNATM is expressed in proximal-lateral domains of organ primordia and at the boundary of mature organs; in accordance, genetic analyses identify a function for KNATM in leaf proximal-distal patterning. In vivo domain analyses highlighted KNATM functional regions and revealed a role as transcriptional regulator. Taken together, our data reveal a homeodomain-independent mechanism of KNOX dimerization and transcriptional regulation.
Individualism, collectivism, selected personality traits, and psychological contract in employment
Authors: Zhao Jun , Chen Lijun 
Published: April 2008

PurposeThis study seeks to examine the relationship between individual's cultural values of individualism, collectivism, selected personality traits and the psychological contracts they tend to form.Design/methodology/approachSurveys were used to collect data from China and US sample sets. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore the impact of selected cultural values and personality traits on individuals' tendency to form transactional contract or relational contract.FindingsPersonality characteristics of equity sensitivity and external locus of control were found to be positively related to transactional contract type for both samples, and conscientiousness was found to be positively related to relational contract, but the relationship was only found for the Chinese sample. The impact of the individualistic cultural value on the type of psychological contract one forms with the employer is uncertain, but the individualism value was found to have a mediator effect between age and transactional contract type for the Chinese sample.Practical implicationsThe study contributes evidence that can help explain why employees who face the same job conditions and employment relationships may develop different psychological contracts with their employers. The finding on the mediating effect of individualism between age and transactional contract highlight challenges faced by managers in China's changing economy in terms of motivating and retaining young employees.Originality/valueThe study contributes to research on personality and psychological contracts. In the domain of personality, the study attempts to explore how personality affects organizational behavior. From the perspective of psychological contract, the paper contributes evidence that can help explain why employees who face the same job conditions and employment relationships may develop different psychological contracts with their employers.
The ETS iSkillsTM Assessment: a digital age tool
Authors: Somerville Mary M. , Smith Gordon W. , Smith Macklin Alexius 
Published: April 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how information and communications technology (ICT) literacy skills reflect twenty‐first century requirements for researching and communicating information in digital environments. An interactive problem‐based, scenario‐based, web‐based assessment tool, iSkillsTM, has been developed through a broad‐based effort to establish standards for performance and certification of ICT literacy proficiencies. This paper aims to discuss the assessment's potential in determining the effectiveness of instruction programs.Design/methodology/approachSince January 2001, a consortium of experts in ICT literacy served as advisors to the Educational Testing Service (ETS) test developers as they designed an internet‐delivered assessment that measures students' abilities to research, organize, and communicate information using technology. This paper reviews that R&D process, concluding with an example of its application to information literacy program planning and evaluation. A mixed methods approach collected and analyzed qualitative sources and iSkillsTM pre‐test/post‐test data for first‐year Purdue University students.FindingsFindings informed curricular decisions for instituting an integrated problem‐based learning (PBL) information literacy program. Secondary goals included developing an understanding of how information‐processing skills are acquired, identifying best practices for integrating information literacy into the curriculum, and assessing the impact of skill acquisition on overall academic achievement. ICT literate students are generally better problem‐solvers, more self‐directed, and communicate ideas more efficiently.Practical implicationsUniversities are beginning to require ICT literacy as competencies for graduation. This paper presents a new strategy for assessing the effectiveness of instructional programs which aim to matriculate proficient students.Originality/valueThis paper reports on the efficacy of a problem‐based learning (PBL) approach involving three convergent principles of design: the organization and dissemination of information, the creation and communication of information, and problem solving within the context of research projects and assignments. As such, it provides important insights into pairing an innovative instructional approach and the iSkillsTM ICT literacy assessment.
The use of cybercafes in Ilorin, Nigeria
Authors: Atunde Alao Isiaka , Lanre Folorunsho Abubakar 
Published: April 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of cybercafés in Ilorin, Nigeria. The main objectives of the survey were to determine the characteristics of the users, how they had learnt to use the internet, their self‐reported levels of internet use skills, the internet services they used and for what purposes, the aspects of the internet they desired to learn more about and their assessment of the cybercafés they patronized.Design/methodology/approachA survey method was employed for the study. Data were collected from 18 cybercafés in Ilorin, Nigeria, by means of questionnaires and analysed using frequency counts and percentages.FindingsThe findings revealed that the majority of the cybercafé users were students, aged 21‐25 years old, males and unmarried. Most of the respondents considered themselves only moderately skilled in the use of the internet and largely used e‐mail, online chat, e‐publications, file transfer protocol and the world wide web, all of which they desired to learn more about. The six aspects of the cybercafés evaluated, except browsing speed, were judged satisfactory. It was concluded there is a need to promote greater use of the internet in Nigeria generally.Originality/valueThe research findings will help to fill a gap in the knowledge of cybercafé usage in Ilorin, one of the largest towns in the North Central Zone of Nigeria. The findings will also assist cybercafé operators in Ilorin in particular to improve their services.
The adoption of commercial innovations in the former Central and Eastern European markets
Authors: Eriksson Kent , Kerem Katri , Nilsson Daniel 
Published: April 2008

PurposeThis study aims to examine innovation adoption in the context of internet banking in Estonia.Design/methodology/approachThe data presented in this study are based on 1,831 questionnaires collected from individual internet banking users in Estonia.FindingsThis study extends the applicability of the innovation adoption model developed by Everett Rogers to Estonian internet banking. The model starts with the independent variables: relative advantage; complexity; perceived risk; and compatibility, and the analysis shows that relative advantage and complexity have the strongest influence on adoption of internet banking.Practical implicationsThe managerial implications of this paper include its contributions toward better understanding of the commercial viability in CEE economies of businesses based on Western‐style technology.Originality/valueThis study suggests modifications to Rogers' original model in order to apply it to the fast‐growing new CEE economies, thus reaffirming the importance of his model.
Are we paying attention?
Authors: Greenyer Andrew 
Published: April 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to look at the attention span given to bills, statements, official correspondence and direct marketing by consumers in major European economies and the USA.Design/methodology/approachOver 1,000 consumers were interviewed via web survey in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the USA, during May/June 2007. Respondents were asked to estimate the typical amount of time that they spent looking at a range of documents, from their monthly bank statement to the direct mail they received.FindingsThe research found that consumers spend more time looking at printed communications than those online. Different communications (i.e. mobile telephone bills, bank statements, tax correspondence, etc) hold the customers' attention for longer than others, and this differed on a country‐by‐country basis.Originality/valueThe value of the research to bank marketers is it highlights where banking communications sit in the battle for the customer's attention and how they can gain more value from existing forms of customer communications such as bills and statements.