University of Alabama

About: University of Alabama is a education organization based out in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 27323 authors who have published 48609 publications receiving 1565337 citations. The organization is also known as: Alabama & Bama.

Managed care, time pressure, and physician job satisfaction: results from the physician worklife study.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between HMO practice, time pressure, and physician job satisfaction.

Shade is the Drosophila P450 enzyme that mediates the hydroxylation of ecdysone to the steroid insect molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone

Abstract: The steroid 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) is the primary regulatory hormone that mediates developmental transitions in insects and other arthropods. 20E is produced from ecdysone (E) by the action of a P450 monooxygenase that hydroxylates E at carbon 20. The gene coding for this key enzyme of ecdysteroidogenesis has not been identified definitively in any insect. We show here that the Drosophila E-20-monooxygenase (E20MO) is the product of the shade (shd) locus (cytochrome p450, CYP314a1). When shd is transfected into Drosophila S2 cells, extensive conversion of E to 20E is observed, whereas in sorted homozygous shd embryos, no E20MO activity is apparent either in vivo or in vitro. Mutations in shd lead to severe disruptions in late embryonic morphogenesis and exhibit phenotypes identical to those seen in disembodied (dib) and shadow (sad) mutants, two other genes of the Halloween class that code for P450 enzymes that catalyze the final two steps in the synthesis of E from 2,22-dideoxyecdysone. Unlike dib and sad, shd is not expressed in the ring gland but is expressed in peripheral tissues such as the epidermis, midgut, Malpighian tubules, and fat body, i.e., tissues known to be major sites of E20MO activity in a variety of insects. However, the tissue in which shd is expressed does not appear to be important for developmental function because misexpression of shd in the embryonic mesoderm instead of the epidermis, the normal embryonic tissue in which shd is expressed, rescues embryonic lethality.

Emotionality and perceptual defense.

Abstract: During the past decade, a number of experimental investigations have progressively revealed the so-called \"dynamic,\" or motivational, aspects of perceptual behavior. No longer do we view perception as organized solely in terms of the structural characteristics of stimulus objects or the frequency with which the individual has been exposed to these objects. Perceptions are structured not only with respect to the limiting stimulus conditions, but also with regard to the possibilities of reward (11, 12), need fulfillment (1, 7), attitudinal orientation (10), potential anxiety (4), symbolic value (3), and release from tension (2), to mention just a few. In order to describe such facts as the perceptual selection and accentuation of valued objects and the elimination or distortion of inimical stimulus objects, it has been found convenient to invoke mechanisms of sensitization, defense, and value resonance (10), vigilance (2), and primitivation (4). Finally, playing host to these varied and intricate functions is the \"ego,\" in whose service, presumably, the various perceptual adjustments operate. It seems well established, then, that the perceptual \"filtering\" of visual stimuli serves, in many instances, to protect the observer as long as possible from an awareness of objects which have unpleasant emotional significance for him. Does this process, however, entirely insulate him from the emotionprovoking qualities of the stimulus situation? It is to this problem that the present discussion is addressed. If we view emotion essentially as a rnptivating condition of the individual (6), the critical nature of the relationship between emotion and perception becomes apparent. Emotion does appear to represent a highly organized and directed state of the organism. Consequently emotion-inducing stimuli may be expected to initiate those perceptual responses which will be consistent with the general picture of emotional adaptation. Several exploratory investigations have indicated that the individual both perceives and reacts in a manner consistent with his emotional response to stimulation. That tension (defined as reactivity to threat, deprivation, or thwarting) will induce perceptual \"accentuation\" of objects previously associated with the anxietyproducing situation has been demonstrated by Bruner and Postman (2). More recently the same authors have shown that frustration, induced by sarcasm and criticism, will raise the perceptual thresholds of observers to tachistoscopically-presented words. When, on the other hand, individuals are faced with stimulus objects which are not actually threatening, but which represent for them areas of little interest or some antipathy, they also generally display raised thresholds of recognition (10). This process of perceptual \"screening\" apparently is acquired by the individual as a technique for organizing perceptions around value expectancies so as to produce maximum reinforcement of those expectancies. One question intrudes repeatedly into interpretations of these experimental findings, namely: \"How is a raised or lowered threshold of recognition for inimical stimulus objects accomplished before the observer discriminates them

An investigation of abusive supervision as a predictor of performance and the meaning of work as a moderator of the relationship

Abstract: This study examines the abusive supervision–job performance relationship with job performance measured using formal performance appraisal ratings, supervisor ratings, and self-ratings Additionally, we predict that the meaning one gains from work moderates these relationships We used a sample composed of supervisor–subordinate dyads from an automotive organization to investigate our hypotheses Results show that abusive supervision is negatively related to two of the three performance ratings (ie, formal and supervisor ratings) and that the meaning of work moderated all three of these relationships Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions for future research are provided

Geomicrobiology of Subglacial Ice Above Lake Vostok, Antarctica

Abstract: Data from ice 3590 meters below Vostok Station indicate that the ice was accreted from liquid water associated with Lake Vostok. Microbes were observed at concentrations ranging from 2.8 × 10 3 to 3.6 × 10 4 cells per milliliter; no biological incorporation of selected organic substrates or bicarbonate was detected. Bacterial 16 S ribosomal DNA genes revealed low diversity in the gene population. The phylotypes were closely related to extant members of the alpha - and beta - Proteobacteria and the Actinomycetes. Extrapolation of the data from accretion ice to Lake Vostok implies that Lake Vostok may support a microbial population, despite more than 10 6 years of isolation from the atmosphere.