Benefits of all work and no play: The relationship between neuroticism and performance as a function of resource allocation.

The authors evaluate a model suggesting that the performance of highly neurotic individuals, relative to their stable counterparts, is more strongly influenced by factors relating to the allocation of attentional resources. First, an air traffic control simulation was used to examine the interaction between effort intensity and scores on the Anxiety subscale of Eysenck Personality Profiler Neuroticism in the prediction of task performance. Overall effort intensity enhanced performance for highly anxious individuals more so than for individuals with low anxiety. Second, a longitudinal field study was used to examine the interaction between office busyness and Eysenck Personality Inventory Neuroticism in the prediction of telesales performance. Changes in office busyness were associated with greater performance improvements for highly neurotic individuals compared with less neurotic individuals. These studies suggest that highly neurotic individuals outperform their stable counterparts in a busy work environment or if they are expending a high level of effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

People, languages, and computers: a short memoir

A memoir spanning school and career, colleagues and friends, and a variety of intellectual passions tells of a life well lived. The author's story touches on all these aspects, but its central focus is his research and work in Ottawa and at the University of Alberta.     

A simple method for extracting DNA from old skeletal material

Extraction of DNA from old skeletal material is of great importance in the identification of human remains, but is particularly difficult because the methods currently employed, especially those using phenol/chloroform, are not always satisfactory. A simple technique based on the removal of non-nucleic acid material by salting out (precipitation) with saturated sodium acetate is described; the presence of DNA in the extract being confirmed by amplification of selected sequences of the HLA-DRB1 gene using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The method was applied to fresh bone (five femoral heads and six vertebral bodies) and to bone from two forensic cases, 3 and 9 months post-mortem, respectively. Parallel extractions using the phenol/chloroform technique were performed on all samples in order to compare the efficiency of the two methods. Using sodium acetate precipitation, amplifiable DNA was consistently extracted from fresh bone, as well as from the two forensic cases. With the phenol/chloroform method, amplification was successful in only 7 out of 11 instances with the fresh bone samples and failed in both forensic cases. The studies also showed that an effective way of removing PCR inhibitors is to subject the extract to agarose gel electrophoresis, isolate the high molecular weight area and re-extract the DNA from the gel by boiling. It was concluded that the sodium acetate method is a valid alternative to established techniques for extracting DNA from bone and that it offers the advantages of being simple, quick, inexpensive and avoids using hazardous reagents.     

Reduction of chromium(VI) by bacterially produced hydrogen sulphide in a marine environment

Chromium in both the Cr(III) and Cr(VI) state enters Otago Harbour in effluent from a tannery. The Cr(III) is precipitated together with organic matter from the effluent into the sediment. Chromium(VI) which might be expected from thermodynamic considerations to remain in the overlying water does not. Instead it is converted to the Cr(III) state by the hydrogen sulphide diffusing into the overlying water produced by sulphate-reducing bacteria.     

Not far enough.

Comments on R. J. Herrnstein's (see record 1978-11330-001) article on behaviorism and agrees on the need for developing a taxonomy of animal behavior in place of environmentalism. However, retaining methodological behaviorism and its central place for a theory of reinforcement represents a commitment to a language of overt acts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural details of a calcium-induced molecular switch: X-ray crystallographic analysis of the calcium-saturated N-terminal domain of troponin C at 1.75 A resolution

We have solved and refined the crystal and molecular structures of the calcium-saturated N-terminal domain of troponin C (TnC) to 1.75 A resolution. This has allowed for the first detailed analysis of the calcium binding sites of this molecular switch in the calcium-loaded state. The results provide support for the proposed binding order and qualitatively, for the affinity of calcium in the two regulatory calcium binding sites. Based on a comparison with the high-resolution apo-form of TnC we propose a possible mechanism for the calcium-mediated exposure of a large hydrophobic surface that is central to the initiation of muscle contraction within the cell.