Characterization of a serodiagnostic complement fixation antigen of Coccidioides posadasii expressed in the nonpathogenic Fungus Uncinocarpus reesii.

Coccidioides spp. (immitis and posadasii) are the causative agents of human coccidioidomycosis. In this study, we developed a novel system to overexpress coccidioidal proteins in a nonpathogenic fungus, Uncinocarpus reesii, which is closely related to Coccidioides. A promoter derived from the heat shock protein gene (HSP60) of Coccidioides posadasii was used to control the transcription of the inserted gene in the constructed coccidioidal protein expression vector (pCE). The chitinase gene (CTS1) of C. posadasii, which encodes the complement fixation antigen, was expressed using this system. The recombinant Cts1 protein (rCts1(Ur)) was induced in pCE-CTS1-transformed U. reesii by elevating the cultivation temperature. The isolated rCts1(Ur) showed chitinolytic activity that was identical to that of the native protein and had serodiagnostic efficacy comparable to those of the commercially available antigens in immunodiffusion-complement fixation tests. Using the purified rCts1(Ur), 74 out of the 77 coccidioidomycosis patients examined (96.1%) were positively identified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The rCts1(Ur) protein showed higher chitinolytic activity and slightly greater seroreactivity than the bacterially expressed recombinant Cts1. These data suggest that this novel expression system is a useful tool to produce coccidioidal antigens for use as diagnostic antigens.

Distinguishing short-term memory from working memory.

The aim of the present research was to determine whether short-term memory and working memory could be distinguished. In two studies, 7- to 13-year-olds (N = 155, N = 132) were administered tasks thought to assess short-term memory as well as tasks thought to assess working memory. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses distinguished short-term memory tasks from working memory tasks. In addition, performance on working memory tasks was related to word decoding skill but performance on short-term memory tasks was not. Finally, performance on both short-term memory and working memory tasks were associated with age-related increases in processing speed. Results are discussed in relation to models of short-term and working memory.

Internships in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Think win-win.

From a student's perspective, completing an internship program is the final, and maybe the most important step in his or her academic career. He or she finally gets a chance to put theory into practice and to see if he or she truly enjoys his or her chosen field. Through hard work and dedication, the efforts should provide her/himself with the practical skills and experiences necessary to propel her/himself into the work force. For the program, having interns can be viewed as just having an "extra hand," but with the proper commitment it can be much more rewarding. It is a unique opportunity to get a fresh new perspective on your own program, and a chance to mold students into eager young professionals. The internship experience truly is a "Win-Win" situation. Through the efforts of combined education--the internship site and the cardiopulmonary rehabilitation program working together--they can ensure that tomorrow's practitioners will be of the highest quality.

Fifty years of language maintenance and language dominance in bilingual Hispanic immigrants.

Spanish language tests of 801 Cuban and Mexican immigrants showed no evidence of language loss during 50 years of U.S. residence; a few years after immigration, their English vocabulary approximated that of English monolinguals. The critical-age hypothesis was not supported for the acquisition of English vocabulary when English schooling and language usage were controlled by multiple regression. Most Ss continued to speak about as much Spanish as English; but read, wrote, and heard (on television and radio) far more English than Spanish. Under these conditions, Ss maintained Spanish dominance on tests of vocabulary recognition, lexical decision, and oral comprehension. Dominance was task specific and shifted to English on a category generation task about 12 years after immigration. No evidence of bilingual language interference was found; this is attributed to the strong Spanish foundation of the participants.

Intelligence-related differences in learning and transfer and enhancement of transfer among mentally retarded persons.

Prompted learning and transfer were compared for mildly retarded, average-achieving, and above-average children ranging in age from 11.3 to 16.0 years. They learned a strategy for computing moments on balance scale conflict problems with the aid of a graduated sequence of prompts. Maintenance and transfer were assessed one week later using similar prompting procedures. Retarded children required more assistance than did nonretarded children to learn and to transfer the trained strategy. The provision of an additional training session, however, improved retarded children's maintenance and somewhat improved their transfer. The ability-related differences in learning and transfer and the means to improve retarded children's transfer were discussed in light of current conceptions of intelligence and metacognition.