An Alternative Method for Meta-Analysis

In many fields of applications, test statistics are obtained by combining estimates from several experiments, studies or centres of a multi-centre trial. The commonly used test procedure to judge the evidence of a common overall effect can result in a considerable overestimation of the significance level, leading to a high rate of too liberal decisions. Alternative test statistics are presented and better approximating test distributions are derived. Explicitly discussed are the methods in the unbalanced heteroscedastic 1-way random ANOVA model and for the probability difference method, including interaction treatment by centres or studies. Numerical results are presented by simulation studies.     

A Note on Combining Dependent Tests of Significance

In combining several tests of significance the individual test statistics are allowed to be stochastically dependent. By choosing the weighted inverse normal method for the combination, the dependency of the original test statistics is then characterized by a correlation of the transformed statistics. For this correlation a confidence region, an unbiased estimator and an unbiased estimate of its variance are derived. The combined test statistic is extended to include the case of possibly dependent original test statistics. Simulation studies show the performance of the actual significance level.     

Sequence analysis of a 1296-nucleotide plasmid from Xylella fastidiosa

A cryptic plasmid from Xylella fastidiosa strain ATCC 35868 was cloned, sequenced, and the sequence entered into GenBank (U71220). The plasmid is 1296 nucleotides in length with 55% GC content and three open reading frames. A plasmid with sequence homology was found in only one other strain of X. fastidiosa , ATCC 35878. Searches of the GenBank reveal nucleotide sequence homology with plasmid pNKH43 from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia , and amino acid sequence homology with phage Pf3 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa , plasmid pAP12875 from Acetobacter pasteurianus , and plasmid pVT736-1 from Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans .     

Taking Perspective: Personal Pronouns Affect Experiential Aspects of Literary Reading

Personal pronouns have been shown to influence cognitive perspective taking during comprehension. Studies using single sentences found that 3^rd person pronouns facilitate the construction of a mental model from an observer’s perspective, whereas 2^nd person pronouns support an actor’s perspective. The direction of the effect for 1^st person pronouns seems to depend on the situational context. In the present study, we investigated how personal pronouns influence discourse comprehension when people read fiction stories and if this has consequences for affective components like emotion during reading or appreciation of the story. We wanted to find out if personal pronouns affect immersion and arousal, as well as appreciation of fiction. In a natural reading paradigm, we measured electrodermal activity and story immersion, while participants read literary stories with 1^st and 3^rd person pronouns referring to the protagonist. In addition, participants rated and ranked the stories for appreciation. Our results show that stories with 1^st person pronouns lead to higher immersion. Two factors—transportation into the story world and mental imagery during reading—in particular showed higher scores for 1^st person as compared to 3^rd person pronoun stories. In contrast, arousal as measured by electrodermal activity seemed tentatively higher for 3^rd person pronoun stories. The two measures of appreciation were not affected by the pronoun manipulation. Our findings underscore the importance of perspective for language processing, and additionally show which aspects of the narrative experience are influenced by a change in perspective.     

Substance P and astrocytes: stimulation of the cyclooxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism

Substance P (SP) may play an important role in the interactions between the nervous system and the immune system. Astrocytes carry receptors for SP on their surfaces. We examined whether ligand-induced receptor activation would lead to the release of arachidonic acid metabolites. SP (10(-10)-10(-8) M) evokes the formation of prostaglandin E and thromboxane B2 in a dose-dependent manner. Structure-activity studies disclosed that the COOH-terminal peptide sequence of SP is primarily responsible for this biological activity. The generation by astrocytes of arachidonate-derived proinflammatory and immunoregulatory compounds in response to SP receptor activation may be relevant to immunoinflammatory responses within the central nervous system and emphasizes the concept of neuroimmunomodulation.     

Effects of varied durations of training on improvement in cardiorespiratory endurance

Twenty-nine subjects trained for 6 weeks for the purpose of comparing the effects of various durations of exercise. All subjects trained three days per week at 75% of maximum heart rate. Training durations were 5 min (N = 10), 15 min (N = 10) and 25 min (N = 9) with over 80% of the training sessions consisting of monitored treadmill walking on a grade. Pre and post-testing consisted of a maximal treadmill walk and a submaximal bicycle ride for the three training groups and a control group (N = 10). The improvements in treadmill time were 7.7%, 14.7% and 20.2% for the three training groups, all significant. The improvement for the 5 min group was not different than that of the control or 15 min groups. Improvement in the 25 min group was significantly greater than the control and 5 min groups, but not the 15 min group. The same differences were noted when estimated maximal oxygen uptake changes were analyzed. The results indicate that at least 15 and preferably 25 min of exercise is necessary to produce optimal endurance improvement with the training intensity and frequency used in this study.