With the ongoing development of technology and its ever increasing influence in the social and educational spheres, knowing whether users will embrace technological means is of considerable ...importance. This article looks at Willingness to Use Technology (WUT; MacLean & Elwood, 2009), an instrument developed to assess a potential technology user’s propensity to do so when choosing between a technological medium and a non-technological medium for doing a task. Data were collected from university students in Malaysia (n=169), Cambodia (n=131), and Japan (n=1262). Descriptive statistics showed that Cambodian and Malaysian students were disposed toward selecting technological means for most tasks, while the preferences of the Japanese students varied by task. Rasch analysis showed that the items functioned satisfactorily, and results of two types of confirmatory factor analysis converged, indicating WUT consisted of two factors differentiated by the degree of synchronicity of communication in all three contexts. The investigation of partial-measurement invariance indicated that the factor composition was fundamentally invariant across the three Japan samples yet differed some across the three countries. Although its use in cross-cultural research contexts requires further consideration, the WUT instrument represents a robust measure of users’ behavior regarding technology in the specific contexts examined in this study.
► The WUT instrument can give a good indication of one’s predisposition toward using technology. ► Technological media were preferred for six of the 11 tasks across all five samples. ► In all five samples, WUT consisted of two dimensions based on the synchronicity of communication. ► The three Japan samples were found to be fundamentally partial-measurement invariant. ► Convergence of the three analyses supported the respective configurations of the WUT instrument.
The intentional early colonization of the intestinal tract with beneficial microflora, known as competitive exclusion, has been shown to successfully protect poultry from selected enteric pathogens. ...Although effective cultures have been produced and are available, an inexpensive, air-tolerant, and completely defined culture is needed. Presently, we developed an in vitro competition assay to select for individual facultative anaerobes of poultry enteric origin that could exclude Salmonella. Using this assay, 24 isolates were selected and stored individually. These 24 isolates were amplified in batch culture (tryptic soy broth, 4 h at 40 degrees C) and administered at final dilutions of 10, 100, or 1,000 cfu to day-of-hatch poults. Forty-eight hours later, poults were challenged with 100 to 1,000 cfu antibiotic-resistance-marked Salmonella enteritidis PT 13A by oral gavage. Five days later, all poults were killed, and cecal tonsils were aseptically removed for tetrathionate enrichment (24 h at 37 degrees C) followed by selective plating with marker antibiotics. Selected lactose-negative, antibiotic-resistant colonies typical of Salmonella were further confirmed by serogrouping. Treatment-related protection ranged from 0 to 100% in three experiments. Greatest protection was related to the lowest concentrations of the protective microflora in each experiment. These data suggest that effective combinations of competitive enteric microflora can be identified by appropriate in vitro selection methods.
Vinegar production requires acetic acid bacteria that produce, tolerate, and conserve high levels of acetic acid. When ethanol is depleted, aerobic acetate overoxidation to carbon dioxide ensues. The ...resulting diauxic growth pattern has two logarithmic growth phases, the first associated with ethanol oxidation and the second associated with acetate overoxidation. The vinegar factory isolate Acetobacter aceti strain 1023 has a long intermediate stationary phase that persists at elevated acetic acid levels. Strain 1023 conserves acetic acid despite possessing a complete set of citric acid cycle (CAC) enzymes, including succinyl-CoA:acetate CoA-transferase (SCACT), the product of the acetic acid resistance (aar) gene aarC. In this study, cell growth and acid production were correlated with the functional expression of aar genes using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, and enzyme activity assays. Citrate synthase (AarA) and SCACT (AarC) were abundant in A. aceti strain 1023 during both log phases, suggesting the transition to acetate overoxidation was not a simple consequence of CAC enzyme induction. A mutagenized derivative of strain 1023 lacking functional AarC readily oxidized ethanol but was unable to overoxidize acetate, indicating that the CAC is required for acetate overoxidation but not ethanol oxidation. The primary role of the aar genes in the metabolically streamlined industrial strain A. aceti 1023 appears to be to harvest energy via acetate overoxidation in otherwise depleted medium
Recent advances in human and molecular genetics provide an unparalleled opportunity to understand how genes and genetic changes interact with environmental stimuli to either preserve health or cause ...disease. The fields of environmental genetics and environmental genomics has enormous potential to affect our ability to accurately assess the risk of developing disease, identify and understand basic pathogenic mechanisms that are critical to disease progression, and to more precisely phenotype disease subtypes. However, the application of genetics and genomics to problems in environmental health is only the beginning yet, by itself, represents a potentially effective strategy to substantially impact morbidity and mortality. Collaborative approaches that team together environmental scientists with molecular biologists, geneticists, physiologists and physician scientists are critical to the investigation of environmental aspects of human health. Moreover, exploiting eukaryotic model systems (yeast, Caenorhabditis elegans, zebrafish, Drosophila and rodents) will accelerate our understanding of environmental exposures on human health.
Threats to genomic integrity are mitigated by DNA glycosylases, which initiate the base excision repair pathway by locating and excising aberrant nucleobases. A hallmark of these and other DNA repair ...enzymes is their use of base flipping to sequester modified nucleotides from the DNA helix and into an active site pocket. Consequently, base flipping is generally regarded as an essential aspect of lesion recognition and a necessary precursor to base excision. We recently described the first DNA glycosylase mechanism that does not require base flipping for either binding or catalysis1. The DNA glycosylase AlkD recognizes aberrant base pairs through contacts with the phosphoribose backbone, while the damaged nucleobase remains stacked in the DNA duplex, and and uses catalytic CH–π and charge–dipole interactions to preferentially stabilize the transition state. We now show through a combination of crystallographic, biochemical, biophysical, and cellular techniques how this unique mechanism enables AlkD to repair large adducts formed by yatakemycin (Fig. 1), a member of the duocarmycin and CC‐1065 family of antimicrobial and antitumor natural products. Bulky adducts of this, or any type, are not excised by DNA glycosylases that use a traditional base‐flipping mechanism. Hence, these findings represent a new paradigm for DNA repair and provide insights into damage recognition and base excision.
Support or Funding Information
This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (MCB‐1122098 and MCB‐1517695) and the National Institutes of Health (R01ES019625).
Through recent changes in urban governance practices, citizens and community organizations assume ever-greater responsibility for local-level planning and service delivery. Scholars have debated ...whether this shift disempowers community organizations by subsuming their plans and priorities into state planning imperatives or empowers them through inclusion of community priorities and local knowledge. In carrying out their new responsibilities, many community organizations are adopting tools such as GIS. Strikingly similar questions have been raised about empowerment, disempowennent, incorporation, and autonomy; but relatively little work has systematically documented the ways in which GIS use alters community-level decision-making efforts. In this paper, I show how GIS use fosters changes in the language, practices, and paradigms of community planning, particularly strengthening an instrumental rational approach to community planning and revitalization. Drawing on research with a Minneapolis, Minnesota, neighborhood organization, I argue that these impacts of GIS use on community planning practices complicate and intensify a dynamic tension between incorporation and autonomy that community organizations experience within collaborative governance approaches. Key words: community-based planning, GIS, urban governance.
Purpose This study aims to focus on key approaches to education for sustainability (EfS) leadership development in the context of Malaysian and Japanese universities. The authors identify key ...indicators of effective EfS leadership development approaches using both descriptive and inferential analyses, identify and compare the preferred leadership learning methods of academics and examine the impact of marital status, country of residence and administrative position on the three EfS leadership development approaches. Design/methodology/approach The study is quantitative in approach and survey in design. Data were collected from 664 academics and analysed using the efficient partial least squares (PLSe2) methodology. To provide higher education researchers with more analytical insights, the authors re-estimated the models based on the maximum likelihood methodology and compared the results across the two methods. Findings The inferential results underscored the significance of four EfS leadership learning methods, namely, “Involvement in professional leadership groups or associations, including those concerned with EfS”, “Being involved in a formal mentoring/coaching program”, “Completing formal leadership programs provided by my institution” and “Participating in higher education leadership seminars”. Additionally, the authors noted a significant impact of country of residence on the three approaches to EfS leadership development. Furthermore, although marital status emerged as a predictor for self-managed learning and formal leadership development (with little practical relevance), administrative position did not exhibit any influence on the three approaches. Practical implications In addition to the theoretical and methodological implications drawn from the findings, the authors emphasize a number of practical implications, namely, exploring the applicability of the results to other East Asian countries, the adaptation of current higher education leadership development programmes focused on the key challenges faced by successful leaders in similar roles, and the consideration of a range of independent variables including marital status, administrative position and country of residence in the formulation of policies related to EfS leadership development. Originality/value This study represents an inaugural international comparative analysis that specifically examines EfS leadership learning methods. The investigation uses the research approach and conceptual framework used in the international Turnaround Leadership for Sustainability in Higher Education initiative and uses the PLSe2 methodology to inferentially pinpoint key learning methods and test the formulated hypotheses.
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