University of New Mexico

About: University of New Mexico is a education organization based out in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 28870 authors who have published 64767 publications receiving 2578371 citations. The organization is also known as: UNM & Universitatis Novus Mexico.

Examining multi-dimensional trust and multi-faceted risk in initial acceptance of emerging technologies: An empirical study of mobile banking services

Abstract: The factors affecting rejection or acceptance of an emerging IT artifact such as mobile banking have piqued interest among IS researchers and remain unknown due in part to consumers' trust and risk perceptions in the wireless platform. This study extends this line of research by conjointly examining multi-dimensional trust and multi-faceted risk perceptions in the initial adoption stage of the wireless Internet platform. Results of this study indicate that risk perception, derived from eight different facets, is a salient antecedent to innovative technology acceptance. Beyond prior studies, the results also provide empirical support for employing personal trait factors in analyzing acceptance of emerging IT artifacts.

Rapid protein-folding assay using green fluorescent protein.

Abstract: Formation of the chromophore of green fluorescent protein (GFP) depends on the correct folding of the protein. We constructed a "folding reporter" vector, in which a test protein is expressed as an N-terminal fusion with GFP. Using a test panel of 20 proteins, we demonstrated that the fluorescence of Escherichia coli cells expressing such GFP fusions is related to the productive folding of the upstream protein domains expressed alone. We used this fluorescent indicator of protein folding to evolve proteins that are normally prone to aggregation during expression in E. coli into closely related proteins that fold robustly and are fully soluble and functional. This approach to improving protein folding does not require functional assays for the protein of interest and provides a simple route to improving protein folding and expression by directed evolution.

Subcortical brain volume abnormalities in 2028 individuals with schizophrenia and 2540 healthy controls via the ENIGMA consortium

Abstract: The profile of brain structural abnormalities in schizophrenia is still not fully understood, despite decades of research using brain scans. To validate a prospective meta-analysis approach to analyzing multicenter neuroimaging data, we analyzed brain MRI scans from 2028 schizophrenia patients and 2540 healthy controls, assessed with standardized methods at 15 centers worldwide. We identified subcortical brain volumes that differentiated patients from controls, and ranked them according to their effect sizes. Compared with healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia had smaller hippocampus (Cohen's d=-0.46), amygdala (d=-0.31), thalamus (d=-0.31), accumbens (d=-0.25) and intracranial volumes (d=-0.12), as well as larger pallidum (d=0.21) and lateral ventricle volumes (d=0.37). Putamen and pallidum volume augmentations were positively associated with duration of illness and hippocampal deficits scaled with the proportion of unmedicated patients. Worldwide cooperative analyses of brain imaging data support a profile of subcortical abnormalities in schizophrenia, which is consistent with that based on traditional meta-analytic approaches. This first ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group study validates that collaborative data analyses can readily be used across brain phenotypes and disorders and encourages analysis and data sharing efforts to further our understanding of severe mental illness.

Ecoenzymatic stoichiometry of microbial organic nutrient acquisition in soil and sediment

Abstract: Biota can be described in terms of elemental composition, expressed as an atomic ratio of carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (refs 1-3). The elemental stoichiometry of microoorganisms is fundamental for understanding the production dynamics and biogeochemical cycles of ecosystems because microbial biomass is the trophic base of detrital food webs. Here we show that heterotrophic microbial communities of diverse composition from terrestrial soils and freshwater sediments share a common functional stoichiometry in relation to organic nutrient acquisition. The activities of four enzymes that catalyse the hydrolysis of assimilable products from the principal environmental sources of C, N and P show similar scaling relationships over several orders of magnitude, with a mean ratio for C:N:P activities near 1:1:1 in all habitats. We suggest that these ecoenzymatic ratios reflect the equilibria between the elemental composition of microbial biomass and detrital organic matter and the efficiencies of microbial nutrient assimilation and growth. Because ecoenzymatic activities intersect the stoichiometric and metabolic theories of ecology, they provide a functional measure of the threshold at which control of community metabolism shifts from nutrient to energy flow.