| |
| | | | | | | | |
|
Back to: Abstracts |
Division
of Science Abstracts - 2003 Personality Predictors of Heterosexuals’ Attitudes toward
Homosexuality, Blacks, and Arabs In the current study, the goal was to further explore the relationship between personality variables and attitudes toward homosexuality and minority groups. Participants completed surveys that included a social dominance orientation scale, a revised right-wing authoritarian scale, a nationalism scale, an equal opportunity scale, an anti-Black racism scale, an anti-Arab racism scale, and a components of attitudes toward homosexuality scale, which was comprised of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and stereotypical subscales. T-tests showed that males significantly held more negative attitudes toward homosexuals than females, and males scored significantly higher on right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) than females. No significant difference was found between males’ and females’ scores on social dominance orientation (SDO). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that gender and RWA significantly predicted attitudes toward homosexuality, while SDO was the main predictor of attitudes toward Blacks. Additionally, both RWA and SDO, but not gender, significantly predicted attitudes toward Arabs.
Speculative observation of North American college students spurred the question of whether or not they were enjoying their schoolwork. The following constructs: hours per week studying, happiness, and motivational orientation were empirically measured to predict if students were experiencing “flow” while studying. This relationship was then investigated as a function of cultural orientation. College students from American, Chinese, and Japanese institutions were administered the Work Preference Inventory, the Chinese Happiness Inventory, and a Flow Questionnaire. It was hypothesized that intrinsic motivation and happiness should predict flow while studying for all students, and be strongest for American students. For American students, intrinsic motivation and happiness both predicted flow experiences while studying. This same relationship appeared for the Japanese students, however, regression analysis showed the relationship to be stronger than it was for the American students. The Chinese students, however, experienced significantly more flow while studying than both American and Japanese students.
Several species of mycobacteria have been recovered from industrial plants in which workers exposed to metalworking fluids have developed hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Working with D.A. Stuart, a producer of metalworking fluids, we have been developing fluorescent techniques that will allow rapid and accurate detection of mycobacteria in metalworking fluids. We have been working with two methods of fluorescent detection: a labeled antibody that is specific for molecules in the cell membrane of mycobacteria, and a labeled Peptide Nucleic Acid probe that will hybridize within the cell to a specific sequence of DNA. Both techniques show potential in their abilities to effectively and accurately detect mycobacteria; however, development of their protocols needs to be continued.
In the Lake Erie area, populations of garter snakes display varying frequencies of melanism. Melanism expression can be due to genetic drift or natural selection. Melanism may be favored by natural selection if it allows faster heating of the animal. It may be disfavored if the darker pigmentation allows the animal to be more visible to predators. Blood samples from three populations of snakes were obtained. DNA was extracted and sequenced using microsatellite DNA. From the sequencing, genetic information about the population is obtained. This information is then compared to samples taken from the early 1990's. By comparing the samples it can be determined if genetic drift is occurring. Genetic drift is a random process that is an alternative to natural selection to explain the frequency of melanism. At this date results are not yet available; testing is ongoing.
The freshwater bryozoan, Lophopodella carteri, is a small, aquatic, colonial animal that has been shown to produce a neurotoxin. My research focused on isolating the toxin in order to determine its identity. The purification began with a heat treatment followed by centrifugation and separation using a G-10 sephadex column. Each fraction was tested for toxicity and the toxic fractions were collected for further analysis. Neither UV detection nor GC/MS showed any unique peaks in the toxic fractions. The toxin is not an amino acid as shown with TLC by ninhydrin, and a DEAE column showed that the toxin is not anionic at pH 7. I found that after acidification the extract is no longer toxic. Infrared spectroscopy showed that toxic extract has a peak at 2100 wavenumbers, which is not present in non-toxic extract spectrums. This peak suggests a carbon-nitrogen triple bond, which can be a result of a cyanide compound.
Previous research in the area of organizational justice has considered physical attractiveness and gender as variables in selection and disciplinary decisions. The current research extends previous work by examining decisions about employee transgressions as a function of the reasons given for the transgressions, in addition to the physical attractiveness and gender of the transgressor. Participants (82 undergraduates and 36 MBA students) evaluated a violation of a company policy (taking sick days to address a relationship problem or moonlight). In the moonlighting condition, attractive males received fewer sanctions than others did (F(2,106)=3.07, p<.05), whereas in the relationship condition, females received fewer sanctions than males (F(2,106)=3.64, p<.05). This study suggests there should be more research in this facet of organizational justice to determine the reasons and ramifications for these inconsistencies.
It has been established that young children are able to distinguish aggressive behaviors from prosocial behaviors such as helping. This study examines the degree to which 4- through 6-year-olds are able to distinguish assertive behaviors from aggressive behaviors, and how such behaviors are perceived as a function of gender. The children viewed videotaped puppet show vignettes depicting prosocial, neutral, assertive, and aggressive acts. Half of the children were randomly assigned to view vignettes involving female puppets; the other half viewed vignettes involving male puppets. Participants were then asked to determine if the actions were okay or not okay. Results were analyzed both in terms of the participant’s gender and the gender of the puppets to determine the influence of these variables on children’s beliefs about assertiveness.
Homeless students face several barriers to education, due partly to their mobility and lack of basic resources. To respond to their needs, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act mandates that each school district appoint a homeless liaison. The liaison is responsible for identifying homeless children and connecting them with educational services to which they are entitled, and ensuring that the school district is in compliance with provisions of the Act. This study used qualitative interviewing to examine how liaisons in DuPage County defined their roles and understood the issues related to educating homeless children. The main barrier to helping homeless students appears to be identifying them as homeless so they can receive services, not admitting them to school in accordance with the law as has been named the main problem in past literature. Implications of themes for increasing the educational opportunities of homeless children will be discussed.
Sir2p is a yeast enzyme that is a link between genetic silencing and cellular physiology. Sir2p has been proven to be involved in gene silencing through deacetylating core histone proteins. Furthermore, Sir2p deacetylase activity requires the coenzyme NAD+, which is cleaved by Sir2p to produce nicotinamide and ADP-ribose products. Thus, the NAD+/NADH ratio affects Sir2p activity and growing yeast cells on alternative carbon sources should alter this ratio. We have previously found that the Msi1p can activate transcription of a reporter gene by an unknown mechanism when the yeast cells are grown on specific carbon sources. We hypothesized this transcriptional activation may require SIR2. In this experiment, we deleted the SIR2 gene from yeast and measured the ability of Msi1p to activate transcription. Our results show Msi1p can still activate transcription in the absence of SIR2. Thus, the carbohydrate-regulated transcriptional activity of Msi1p is independent of the Sir2p deacetylase.
When Msi1p is artificially targeted to the promoter of the reporter gene HIS3, transcription is activated under specific physiological conditions. Some carbohydrates cause Msi1p to induce transcription by an unknown mechanism; other carbohydrates do not induce transcription of this reporter gene. By creating cultures using various carbohydrates and a constant yeast strain, we monitored the growth rates of yeast with seven carbohydrates by spectrophotometry. We found that the carbohydrates known not to cause Msi1p to induce transcription have the fastest growth rate while the inducing carbohydrates have a distinctly slower growth rate. Thus, there is a correlation between slow growth and induction of transcription. We are now investigating possible physiological mechanisms that enable such a correlation to exist.
Research has been conducted which indicates that music has an effect on memory. The current study was conducted to find the effects of volume and lyrical manipulation on recall of words. Participants were given two minutes to memorize a list of unrelated word pairs while music played in the background. There were four different musical conditions: loud with lyrics, loud without lyrics, soft with lyrics, and soft without lyrics. Participants were asked to recall one of the words from each pair. It was hypothesized that participants in the soft without lyrics condition would recall significantly more words than those in the loud with lyrics condition. No interaction was indicated, but a main effect of volume and presence of lyrics was indicated.
Experimenters explored the relationship between height and face type on the female’s perception of male attractiveness. Photographs were manipulated to create a difference in a male model’s height with respect to his female companion and also to create either a baby-faced appearance or a mature-faced appearance. The initial hypothesis was that both height and face type would have a significant main effect on attractiveness ratings from female participants; researchers expected tall males to be preferred over short males and mature-faced males to be preferred over baby-faced males. However, results indicated a significant main effect of face type on attractiveness, but no significant main effect of height on attractiveness; the mature-faced males were preferred over the baby-faced males, but participants showed no general height preference. A significant interaction effect between height and face type was present; for the short males, appearing mature-faced was significantly more appealing than appearing baby-faced.
It has been shown that some salamanders have toxic, noxious, and adhesive components in their skin granular gland secretions, which is used to fend off potential predators. We hypothesize that salamanders that are similar evolutionarily will secrete similar proteins. Salamander secretions were collected from the granular gland by anesthetizing the animals. A current was applied to the tail, and the secretions were collected in water. The proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE, and were compared intra and inter-species. It was found that proteins from granular gland secretions of three separate Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum appeared to have the same bands in a PAGE gel. When comparing granular gland secretions of A. laterale and A. maculatum we found that some bands appeared have similarities, but more importantly several obvious differences. This suggests that granular secretions can be used to represent evolutionary relationships. However, different phosphorylations or glycosylations could make the same proteins (i.e. same gene products) run differently in a PAGE gel.
A cell’s response to protein damage is vital to its survival. Spontaneous isomerization of aspartates and asparagines in proteins results in abnormal isoaspartyls, which kink the protein backbone and affect function. PCM, or L-isoaspartyl protein carboxyl methyltransferase, is an enzyme that repairs isoaspartyl damage. In Escherichia coli, mutants lacking PCM survive poorly when challenged with protein-denaturing stresses. Growth in rich medium raises pH, which accelerates isoAsp formation; we wanted to determine whether PCM is important to stress survival only at high pH. Wild-type E. coli and a pcm mutant were maintained for 10 days in rich medium buffered to pH 7 or 9 in the presence of 0.1 mg/ml paraquat. Survival was measured by viable counts. At pH 7, the two strains survived equally well, but in the other two environments, wild-type survived better than the pcm mutant. The role of PCM in surviving oxidative stress during stationary phase is pH-dependent.
Two main problems exist for transition metal-carbonyl reactions. First of all is time. With typical lab techniques, these reactions can reflux anywhere from a day to a week due to the inertness of the metal-carbonyl bond. Second of all is the problem of side reactions that occur during the reaction period. Some reactants, such as norbornadiene, readily undergo polymerization before reacting with the metal-carbonyl complex. This experiment tested the efficiency of using a typical household microwave as a flash heating source for the formation of (norbornadiene)Mo(CO)4. Several trials were run both with and without the use of a solvent (monoglyme). The reactants were added to an Advanced Composite Vessel specially designed for microwave flash heating and were allowed to react for 20-30 minutes. Then, by way of IR and 1H-NMR, the reactions were analyzed in order to detect the presence of (norbornadiene)Mo(CO)4. From the analyses, it appears as though the reaction is more efficient if a solvent is used. |
 |
|
 |
|