Research Award Program Research Articles

Population-Attributable Risk of Suicide Conferred by Axis I Psychiatric Diagnoses in a Hong Kong Chinese Population

This study was conducted to determine the population-attributable risk (PAR) of completed suicide among Hong Kong Chinese with axis I psychiatric diagnoses. With a case-control psychological autopsy method, 150 suicide decedents aged 15-59 were compared for axis I psychiatric diagnoses and psychosocial variables with 150 randomly selected age- and gender-matched persons living in the community. In the presence of other, non-disease-related social risk factors (unemployment and unmanageable debt), past suicide attempt independently accounted for 44% of the PAR of suicide, followed by current major depressive disorder (27%), schizophrenia spectrum disorders (22%), and substance use disorder or pathological gambling (16%). Other diagnoses (such as anxiety and phobic disorders, dysthymia, adjustment disorders, and past major depressive episode) accounted for 24% of PAR. Psychiatric morbidity remains the major risk factor for suicide in Hong Kong despite well-developed psychiatric services. Mental health policy should be refined to target clinical groups at high risk of suicide.

Bringing science to market: commercializing from NIH SBIR awards

We offer empirical information on the correlates of commercialization activity for research projects funded through the US National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award program. Based on this analysis we suggest possible recommendations for improving this aspect of the performance of NIH's SBIR program. Specifically, we estimate a model of the probability of commercialization as a function of the project's ability to attract additional developmental funding, along with other control variables. We find that additional developmental funding from non-SBIR federal sources and from own internal sources are important predictors of commercialization success, relatively more so than additional developmental funding from venture capitalists. We also find, among other things, that university involvement in the underlying research increases the probability of commercialization. Thus, these factors should be considered by NIH when making awards, if increased commercialization is an objective.

Education Column

In this issue's column, the focus is on students! First, there is an announcement about the Student Reception at the upcoming symposium in Charleston, South Carolina, and then there is a summary of some changes that have been made to the Antennas and Propagation Society Research Awards program. Finally, a contributor presents a comprehensible approach for understanding the link between magnetism and special relativity.

The effects of antioxidants on insulin signaling in spontaneously hypertensive rat vascular smooth muscle cells

The objective of this study was to investigate the possible role of reactive oxygen species on insulin signaling in a hypertensive rat model. Because Protein kinase B/Akt serves as a link between upstream insulin signals, such as insulin receptor substrate‐1 and their cellular consequences, we sought to determine the phosphorylative characteristics of Akt in the insulin signaling pathway. To elucidate the effects of reactive oxygen species, spontaneously hypertensive vascular smooth muscle cells were treated with 6.25–50 μM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Our results indicated that 6.25 μM H2O2 enhanced Akt phosphorylation, while 25 μM decreased insulin‐induced Akt phosphorylation. We also demonstrated that H2O2 decreased insulin receptor substrate‐1 phosphorylation. Further, H2O2‐induced inhibition of insulin signaling was inhibited by the antioxidant, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate. These studies provide more evidence that reactive oxygen species inhibit insulin signal transduction thereby causing insulin resistance leading to cardiovascular disease.This work was supported by a grant from the Faculty Research Award program of the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs, Tennessee State University.

Research Awards Program of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society/Canadian Anesthesia Research Foundation: survey of past recipients

To review the effectiveness of the Research Grants, Career Scientist Award and Fellowship Program (RGCSFP) of the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society (CAS)/Canadian Anesthesia Research Foundation (CARF) by surveying past recipients. The CAS Research Committee database of past RGCSFP recipients was reviewed to identify all past award recipients from the time of program inception in 1985 until the year 2005. A questionnaire was mailed to all past recipients with retrievable addresses. The questionnaire asked specific questions regarding past and current research, publications, grant procurement and mentoring of trainees. In addition, opinions regarding the program's effectiveness were solicited. Of the 100 mailed survey forms, 66 (66%) were completed and returned. The number of original published articles per respondent was 30.1 +/- 28.5 (mean +/- SD) at the time of the survey, and the life-time number of all publication types was 38.5 +/- 34.6. Cumulative research funding increased in relation to the number of years in research, and amongst past recipients with > 15 years in research, individual research funding from all sources was $585,747 +/- $773,716. Ninety-six percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the program was valuable. The RGCSFP has supported a large number of new and established anesthesia investigators in Canada, and these individuals have demonstrated high research productivity. The program is considered to be very valuable according to past recipients.

Homozygous disruption of Pctp modulates atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

Phosphatidylcholine transfer protein (PC-TP) is a cytosolic phospholipid binding protein and a member of the steroidogenic acute regulatory-related transfer domain superfamily. Its tissue distribution includes liver and macrophages. PC-TP regulates hepatic lipid metabolism, and its absence in cholesterol-loaded macrophages is associated with reduced ATP binding cassette transporter A1-mediated lipid efflux and increased susceptibility to apoptosis induced by unesterified cholesterol. To explore a role for PC-TP in atherosclerosis, we prepared PC-TP-deficient/apolipoprotein E-deficient (Pctp(-/-)/Apoe(-/-)) mice and littermate Apoe(-/-) controls. At 16 weeks, atherosclerosis was increased in chow-fed male, but not female, Pctp(-/-)/Apoe(-/-) mice. This effect was associated with increases in plasma lipid concentrations. By contrast, no differences in atherosclerosis were observed between male or female Pctp(-/-)/Apoe(-/-) mice and Apoe(-/-) controls fed a Western-type diet for 16 weeks. At 24 weeks, atherosclerosis in chow-fed male Pctp(-/-)/Apoe(-/-) mice tended to be reduced in proportion to plasma cholesterol. The attenuation of atherosclerosis in female Pctp(-/-)/Apoe(-/-) mice fed chow or the Western-type diet for 24 weeks was not attributable to changes in plasma cholesterol or triglyceride concentrations. These findings suggest that PC-TP modulates the development of atherosclerosis, in part by regulating plasma lipid concentrations.

1141635485 Genetic stress (IL‐10 deficiency) and toxicant (PCB)‐induced disruption of pregnancy

Several epidemiologic studies have provided evidence that a significant number of pregnant women living within the World Trade Center disaster area experienced a high rate of low birth weight and premature deliveries. Our hypothesis is that these women were predisposed to pregnancy disruption effects of toxicants detected in the dust of the disaster area. We sought to examine the effects of PCB on pregnancy outcome in an IL‐10‐/‐ mouse model. IL‐10‐/‐ or congenic wild type mice of 6–8 weeks age were given i.p injections of Aroclor 1254 (PCB) at doses of 50 or 500 μg/mouse in 100 μL corn oil on gestational day (gd) 1 and 7 or an equivalent (100 μL) amount of corn oil. Mice were sacrificed on gd 13 and uteri and spleen were excised and collected. Uterine mononuclear cells (UMC) and splenic mononuclear cells (SMC) were isolated. These cell populations were subjected to phenotypic and functional characterization. A portion of uterine tissue was either snap frozen for placental PCB contents or for histology. No doses of Aroclor 1254 affected the pregnancy outcome in wild type mice. However, IL‐10‐/‐ mice experienced fetal resorption when injected with high dose (500 μg/mouse) of Aroclor 1254. Local immune dysregulation and placental anomalies including apoptosis and immunocyte infiltration are currently being investigated. Our results strongly suggest that IL‐10 deficiency and PCB‐mediated immunotoxicity lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes.Acknowledgement: Supported by NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program Award P42ES13660.

The Traveler

Siu Kam Wen (b. 1951, Guandong Province, China; lives in Hawaii). One of Peru's most acclaimed young writers, Siu has published the short-story collections El tramo final (1985); La primera espada del imperio (1988); and Cuentos completos (2004). He is also the author of Deconstructing Art (2004), a collection of essays on art. Siu's writing addresses the Chinese presence in the Hispanic world as well as distinctly Chinese subjects such as sword-fighting. His work provides a glimpse into the Chinese community in Peru and introduces an Asian perspective into Latin American literature as a whole. Jenny Lin-Martínez's translation of ‘‘El viajero,’’ presented here, was supported in part by a grant from The City University of New York PSCCUNY Research Award Program.

Dynamics of a higher order nonlinear rational difference equation

In this paper, we study the global attractivity, the invariant intervals, the periodic and oscillatory character of the difference equation where a, b, A, B are positive real numbers, k≥1 is a positive integer, and the initial conditions x −k ,…,x −1,x 0 are nonnegative real numbers such that x −k or x 0 or both are positive real numbers. We show that the positive equilibrium of the difference equation is a global attractor. As a corollary, our main result confirms a conjecture proposed by Kulenović et al. (2003) [The dynamics of facts and conjectures, Computational Mathematics Applications, 45, 1087–1099]. Supported by the NNSF of China (10171040), the NSF of Gansu Province of China (ZS011-A25-007-Z) and the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of Ministry of Education of China.

Controlling Disorder in Traffic Flow by Perturbation**The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 70225005 and the Research Award Program (2001) for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of Ministry of Education of China

We propose a new technique for controlling disorder in traffic system. A kind of control signal which can be considered as a perturbation has been designated at a given site (perturbation point) of the single-lane highway. When a vehicle passes the perturbation point at a time, the velocity of the vehicle will be changed at the next time by the perturbation. This technique is tested for the deterministic NaSch traffic model. The simulation results indicate that the traffic system can be transited from the disorder states to the order states, such as fixed-point, periodic motion, etc.

Noise-Induced Phase Transition in Traffic Flow**The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 70225005 and the Research Award Program (2001) for the Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education of China

One of the dynamic phases of the traffic flow is the traffic jam. It appears in traffic flow when the vehicle density is larger than the critical value. In this paper, a new method is presented to investigate the traffic jam when the vehicle density is smaller than the critical value. In our method, we introduce noise into the traffic system after sufficient transient time. Under the effect of noise, the traffic jam appears, and the phase transition from free to synchronized flow occurs in traffic flow. Our method is tested for the deterministic NaSch traffic model. The simulation results demonstrate that there exist a broad range of lower densities at which the noise effect leading to traffic jam can be observed.

Electromagnetic Scattering from One-Dimensional Time-Varying Sea Surface with Gaussian-Like Beam Incidence**The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 60101001 and the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education of China

A widely used iterative technique named the Method of Ordered Multiple Interactions is given for calculating the Gaussian-like beam scattering from a time-varying sea surface with the Pierson–Moskowitz (P-M) spectrum. This is done by solving the magnetic field integral equation for the current induced on an infinite rough surface. Following the discretization of the integral equation, the unknown currents can be determined more rapidly with the LU decomposition. Numerical results are presented with emphasis on the electromagnetic backscattering at low grazing angle incidence. It is shown that the backscattering cross section is proportional to the nearly fourth power of the grazing angle for the plane and beam incidence. This is consistent with the result given in some references. The angular distributions of the backscattering cross section with a different beam waist, surface length, and velocity of the wind are discussed.

Radio k-colorings of paths

For a connected graph G of diameter d and an integer k with 1 ≤ k ≤ d, a radio k-coloring of G is an assignment c of colors (positive integers) to the vertices of G such that d(u, v) + |c(u)− c(v)| ≥ 1 + k for every two distinct vertices u and v of G, where d(u, v) is the distance between u and v. The value rck(c) of a radio k-coloring c of G is the maximum color assigned to a vertex of G. The radio k-chromatic number rck(G) of G is the minimum value of rck(c) taken over all radio k-colorings c of G. In this paper, radio k-colorings of paths are studied. For the path Pn of order n ≥ 9 and n odd, a new improved bound for rcn−2(Pn) is presented. For n ≥ 4, it is shown that rcn−3(Pn) ≤ ∗Research supported in part by the Western Michigan University Arts and Sciences Teaching and Research Award Program. 6 G. Chartrand, L. Nebeský and P. Zhang ( n−2 2 ) + 2. Upper and lower bounds are also presented for rck(Pn) in terms of k when 1 ≤ k ≤ n−1. The upper bound is shown to be sharp when 1 ≤ k ≤ 4 and n is sufficiently large.

Time Series Prediction Based on Chaotic Attractor**The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (60074020), the National Outstanding Young Investigator Grant (70225005) of National Natural Science Foundation of China and Research Award Program (2001) for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Insitutions of Ministry of Education of China

A new prediction technique is proposed for chaotic time series. The usefulness of the technique is that it can kick off some false neighbor points which are not suitable for the local estimation of the dynamics systems. A time-delayed embedding is used to reconstruct the underlying attractor, and the prediction model is based on the time evolution of the topological neighboring in the phase space. We use a feedforward neural network to approximate the local dominant Lyapunov exponent, and choose the spatial neighbors by the Lyapunov exponent. The model is tested for the Mackey-Glass equation and the convection amplitude of lorenz systems. The results indicate that this prediction technique can improve the prediction of chaotic time series.

Study of the Electromagnetic Scattering from the Very Rough Fractal Sea Surface**The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 60101001 and the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of Ministry of Education of China

In this paper, based on the fundamental formulae of the first-order and second-order Kirchhoff approximation and with consideration of the shadowing effect, the backscattering enhancement of the one-dimensional very rough fractal sea surface with Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum is studied under the second-order Kirchhoff approximation at microwave frequency. The numerical results are compared with those of the first-order Kirchhoff approximation and integral equation method. The dependencies of the bistatic scattering cross section and the backscattering enhancement on the incident angle, fractal dimension, and windspeed over the sea surface are analyzed in detail.

Phase-Locking Dynamics in Coupled Circle-Map Lattices**The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Special Funds for Major State Basic Research Projects (G2000077304), Special Funds for Excellent Doctoral Dissertations, the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education, Institutions of MOE, the HYD Foundation, and the Foundation for University Key Teacher by the Ministry

The phase-locking dynamics in 1D and 2D lattices of non-identical coupled circle maps is explored. A global phase locking can be attained via a cascade of clustering processes with the increase of the coupling strength. Collective spatiotemporal dynamics is observed when a global phase locking is reached. Crisis-induced desynchronization is found, and its consequent spatiotemporal chaos is studied.

HABITUAL EXERCISE IS ASSOCIATED WITH EXERCISE-INDUCED MOOD ENHANCEMENT

The purpose of this study was to examine mood before and after exercise in habitual exercisers and nonexercisers. The exercisers consisted of individuals (4 males, 4 females) who participated in aerobic exercise more than 15 times per month for at least 6 months prior to participation. The nonexercisers were individuals (4 males, 4 females) who exercised less than 5 times per month for the previous 6 months. Mood was assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) before and 5 min after 30 min of rest or treadmill exercise of varying intensities and durations. Subjects completed the conditions in randomized order at the same time of day and with no less than 48 hours separating each test. Results showed that total mood scores on the POMS were significantly improved among the exercisers after exercising for 10 min at 75% maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) (p < 0.01), 30 min at 50% VO2max (p < 0.05), and 30 min at 75% VO2max (p < 0.01), but there was no statistically significant effect of exercise in the nonexercisers. Although the changes in total mood induced by 30 min of rest did not differ between the exercisers and nonexercisers, the changes in total mood after exercise for all intensities and durations were significantly different for the two groups. The correlation between VO2max and change in total mood score was significant (p = 0.02), although the r2 value of 0.109 indicates that little of the change in total mood was attributable to differences in VO2max. In conclusion, alterations in mood following an acute bout of exercise appear to be related to exercise history. Supported by Rehabilitation R & D Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Physical Medicine Research Foundation's Woodbridge Grants and Awards Program.

THE SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ADHERENCE

The preliminary study examined the applicability of the social ecological (SE) approach to assess physical activity (PA) adherence in midlife women. SE theory integrates person-focused efforts to modify personal health behavior with environment-focused interventions to enhance physical and social surroundings. This approach may be an appropriate way to look at PA adherence / participation. Women volunteers were recruited from various worksites to complete a Likert-type questionnaire that elicited one's perception about various social / ecological factors that might influence PA. 39 middle-aged (48 ± 6 yr), Caucasian (85%) women returned completed questionnaires. Level of satisfaction with community recreational opportunities was significantly correlated (r = .36, P = .025) to the amount of recreational activity reported. 36% reported little or no satisfaction with their community recreational opportunities. 44% of the women indicated that they compromised their physical activity for others, but spouse's lifestyle habits, number of children or level of friend's support did not significantly correlate to reported PA. Finally, women who reported having made changes in their lifestyle following an adverse health diagnosis were significantly more likely to report higher levels of aerobic activity (r = 0.67, P < .003). These preliminary data suggest that both environment-focused as well as person-focused factors influence PA habits in midlife women. Thus, the SE approach is recommended as a useful model for beginning to understand the complex situational factors that may facilitate or hinder PA habits. Funding: Arizona State University Women's Studies Summer Research Awards Program

Editorial: Focusing on Research

With this issue, after seven years of production, the format and focus of School Libraries Worldwide has changed. The Editorial Board of School Libraries Worldwide, at its meeting in July 2001 at the IASL conference in Auckland, New Zealand, decided that a shift in the balance of SLW content was timely. This shift in the content emphasis of the journal, toward more research dissemination, will take School Libraries Worldwide one step closer to being the preeminent research journal in our field. This goal has come into the range of the possible because of the support of the Association for the journal and because of the success of another IASL initiative, the International Forum on Research in School Librarianship. These initiatives, along with the Association's research award program, reflect the increasing interest in and support of research within the Association.

Projective limits and balanced topological groups☆☆This research was funded in part by the PSC-CUNY Research Awards Program during the year 1998–99, Queens College, Flushing, NY 11367, USA.

The purpose of these notes is to provide background material for a Workshop in Topological Groups given at the Summer Topology Conference at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University during the period August 4–7, 1999. We will be looking at the two concepts of ‘balanced groups’ and ‘functionally balanced groups’. In 1992 a paper was published by the author in conjunction with S. Rothman, H. Strassberg, and T.S. Wu where it was shown that the two concepts are equivalent for locally compact groups. A “balanced group” is one in which the left and right uniform structures are equivalent and a “functionally balanced group” is one on which the classes of left uniformly continuous bounded real valued functions and those that are right uniformly continuous coincide. In our paper we were able to use projective limits of Lie groups to establish the desired result. This endeavor together with a classical theorem of Graev suggested that this result might be extended to those groups that are projective limits of metric groups. The notes consist of four sections: 1. Projective limits of topological groups. 2. Functionally balanced groups. 3. Projective limits of groups. 4. Postscript, the work of Protasov and Saryev and the state of the problem. Section 1 is a quick introduction with proofs to the concept of a projective limit of topological groups. Section 2 introduces the concept of a functionally balanced group. It describes an important characterization of such groups due to Protasov and Saryev and an important corollary of this characterization. Section 3 has a complete proof of Graev's motivating theorem and obtains a number of theorems, which to my knowledge are new, concerning projective limits of metric groups. Finally, Section 4 contains an account of a miniconference held at C.W. Post after the workshop ended and includes a proof of the Protasov–Saryev characterization which has not been available previously in English and also a result of Protasov that reduces the whole problem of ‘functional balance’ versus ‘balance’ to the solution of a simply stated question.