Characteristics of transgenic tomatoes antisensed for the ethylene receptor genes LeERT1 and LeERT2

Two stable transformed lines containing antisense LeERT1 or LeERT2 sequences and their hybridized line were investigated to determine the effect of LeERT1 and LeERT2 specificity in the ethylene receptor family in tomato （Lycopersicon esculenturn Mill.） on ethylene signaling. The transgenic line alel containing antisense LeER T1 displayed shorter length of seedling grown in the dark and adult plant in the light, severe epinastic petiole, and accelerated abscission of petiole explant and senescence of flower explant, compared with its wild type B 1. The transgenic line ale2 containing antisense LeERT2 also exhibited shorter hypocotyls and slightly accelerated abscission. The phenotypes of cross line dale of LeERT1 and LeERT2 were close to alel in many aspects. These results suggested that LeERT1 probably plays a relatively important role in ethylene signaling of tomato growth and development.     

Understanding practitioners' characteristics and perspectives prior to the dissemination of an evidence-based intervention

OBJECTIVES: To describe the characteristics and repertoires of community practitioners serving families involved in child physical abuse that may inform training and treatment dissemination efforts. The aims are to: (a) describe the background characteristics of these clinicians; (b) document their most common intervention techniques; (c) examine clinicians' attitudes toward manualized treatment; and (d) understand the organizational climate of community agencies. METHOD: Practitioners from nine different agencies who have worked with cases in which there was child physical abuse (n=77) completed focus group discussions and three self-report questionnaires. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted in tandem. RESULTS: Practitioners reported that they most often focused on family issues and employed family therapy techniques. Although treatment manuals were important, it was difficult to determine how practitioners used or would use these materials with families. An almost equal number of concerns and benefits were raised regarding using manuals in treatment. There was moderate agreement in how practitioners perceived their work environments. Age and attainment of a graduate degree were positively related to greater caring and job satisfaction, respectively, while length of time at a given agency was positively related to greater reports of emotional exhaustion on a measure of organizational climate. CONCLUSIONS: Given the promising benefits of evidence-based treatments for child abuse, it is important that researchers begin to form partnerships with community agencies that will lead to the dissemination and evaluation of effective treatment strategies.     

Prosodic correlates of stress in babbling: an acoustical study

Prelinguistic babbling often seems remarkably speech-like, not because it has recognizable words but because it seems to have adult-like prosody. To quantify this impression, we compared disyllabic sequences from five infants and five adults in terms of the use of frequency, intensity, and duration to mark stress. Significantly larger values for the three acoustic variables were observed on stressed than on unstressed syllables independent of syllable position for both groups. Adults showed the correlates of utterance final syllables--lower f0, lower intensity, and longer duration; infants showed only decrease in intensity. Ratios for stressed to unstressed syllables and participation of the three variables in stress production in individual disyllables were highly similar in both groups. No bias toward the English lexical trochaic stress pattern was observed. We conclude that infants in English environments produce adult-like stress patterns before they produce lexical items, which specify stress. Acoustic and perceptual analyses are used to explore stress marking by prelinguistic infants in an English language environment. Results show that infants employ the three acoustic correlates of stress in individual syllables in a manner largely similar to that of adult speakers, although they do not show second-syllable declination effects or an English language trochaic stress bias.     

A reclamation of childbirth

In the first of a two-part article, the author recounts the childbirth experiences of her mother and grandmother, as well as her own, providing a view of three distinct eras and revealing profound changes in how American culture manages and understands birth.     

The value of endoscopic ultrasonography on diagnosis and treatment of esophageal hamartoma

Objective:To examine the values of endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS) on diagnosis and treatment of esophageal hamartoma.Methods:We compared and analyzed various kinds of imaging examinations such as barium esophagram,contrast-enhanced computed temography(CT)and conventional gastroscopy in retrospectively reviewing the clinical data of an esophageal hamartoma patient seen in our clinic in the First Affiliated Hospital,School of Medicine,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou,China.Having received various imaging examinations,this patient was finally diagnosed with esophageal hamartoma and underwent gastroscopic resection of hamartoma with the diagnostic information obtained from EUS.The patient had been regularly followed up for 13 months after treatment.Results:Barium esophagram,CT and conventional gastroscopy detected the lesion,but were unable to distinguish it from conlmon esophagopolypus and other submucosal lesions,and unable to determine etiopathogenisis.EUS detected the hamartoma and identified its intemal structure,echo,exact size,depth of invasion,origin and the relationship between adjacent tissues and organs,differentiating the lesion from other submucosal tumors and clearly defining the diagnosis.EUS-guided fine needle aspiration(FNA) also helped to identify the etiological diagnosis.Conclusion:EUS was superior to other imaging means in diagnosis and treatment of hamartoma.