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This study reports on the integration of the J2K model (an object-oriented, hydrological system for fully distributed simulation of the water balance in large watersheds) under the Object Modeling System (OMS) environmental modeling framework and subsequent evaluation of OMS-J2K performance in the Cedar Creek watershed (CCW) in northeastern Indiana. The CCW is one of 14 benchmark watersheds in the USDA-ARS Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) watershed assessment study. Two input parameter sets were developed for OMS-J2K evaluation: (1) a "base parameter set" with parameter values taken from previous simulation studies where J2K was applied to watersheds with characteristics similar to the CCW, and (2) an "adjusted parameter set" with modifications to input parameters related to evapotranspiration, soil water storage, and soil water lateral flow. Comparisons of daily, average monthly, and annual average simulated and observed flows for the 1997-2005 simulation period using the base parameter set resulted in Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (ENS), root mean square deviation (RMSD), and relative error (PBIAS) coefficients of 0.34 to 0.48 for ENS, 1-50 to 8.79 m³ s-1 for RMSD, and -18.43% for PBIAS. All statistical evaluation coefficients improved for the adjusted parameter set (e.g., 0.44 to 0.59 for ENS, 0.87 to 7.73 m³ s-1; for RMSD, and -8.59% for PBIAS). The ranges of ENS and PBIAS values for uncalibrated or manually adjusted streamflow predictions in this study (using both parameter sets) were similar to others reported in the literature for various watershed models. This study represents the first attempt to develop and apply a complex natural resource system model under the OMS. The results indicate that the OMS-J2K watershed model was able to reproduce the hydrological dynamics of the CCW and should serve as a foundation on which to build a more comprehensive model to better quantify water quantity and quality at the watershed scale. In particular, the topological routing scheme employed 'by OMS-J2K (thus allowing the simulation of lateral processes vital for the modeling of runoff concentration dynamics) is much more robust than the quasi-distributed routing schemes used by other watershed-scale natural resource models and represents a noteworthy advancement in hydrological modeling toward deriving suitable conservation management scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the research was to identify genes specially expressed in the obese state and potentially involved in the pathogenesis of obesity. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: We used the technique of suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH), which combines subtractive hybridization with PCR, to generate a population of PCR fragments enriched for transcripts of high or low abundance from differentially expressed genes. PolyA + mRNA was isolated from subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue of five massively obese (> 35 kg/m²) and five normal-weight (<25 kg/m²) women, cDNA generated from RNA pooled from the obese subjects was contrasted by SSH with an excess of pooled cDNA from the normal-weight women. RESULTS: Seventy-nine clones were obtained among which one showed by RT-PCR a higher expression in obese than in normalweight subjects. This gene was shown to be predominantly expressed in adipose tissue in contrast to brain, liver, kidney, heart and skeletal muscle, and was called 'Adipogene'. No expression was detected in lung, pancreas and placenta. The cDNA was 1.5 kb long with an open reading frame of 1004 nucleotides encoding a protein of 334 amino acids (37 kDa). No significant sequence similarity was found in databanks, except for weak amino acid homologies with prokaryotic AraC/XylS transcriptional regulator family. Adipogene is encoded on chromosome 8, less than 1 centiMorgan (cM) from the β3 adrenergic receptor (ADRB3) locus. Weak linkages were observed with body mass index (BMI) and three microsatellite markers located within 10 cM of Adipogene, whereas no linkage was observed with Trp64Arg ADRB3 polymorphism using the Québec Family Study database. CONCLUSION: Using the SSH technique, we have identified a new gene, called Adipogene, which is overexpressed in the adipose tissue of the obese individuals and could be involved in obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred ninety-two convicted extrafamilial child molesters were followed for an average of 7.8 years after their conviction. The percentage of men who had committed a sexual, a violent, or any criminal offense by the 12th year was 15.1, 20.3, and 41.6, respectively. The sexual recidivists, compared with the nonrecidivists, demonstrated more problems with alcohol and showed greater sexual arousal to assaultive stimuli involving children than to mutually consenting stimuli with children. The violent recidivists, compared with the nonrecidivists, were more likely to have a history of violence in the families in which they were raised and were rated significantly more psychopathic on the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL-R). They also showed more sexual arousal to stimuli depicting mutually consenting sexual interactions with children than to adult stimuli. In terms of any criminal recidivism, recidivists were younger, had completed fewer years of school, and were raised in psychologically more harmful family environments compared with nonrecidivists. They also reported that, before 16 years of age, they were more likely to have been physically abused and were more likely to have been removed from their homes compared to those that did not recidivate. In addition, recidivists demonstrated more general hostility on the Buss–Durkee Hostility Inventory and were rated significantly more psychopathic on the PCL-R. The phallometric assessments revealed, that the criminal recidivists, compared to the nonrecidivists, showed more sexual arousal to stimuli depicting coercive sexual activity with children than consenting sexual activities with children. In addition, they showed more sexual arousal to scenes depicting adult rape then adult mutually consenting sex. Finally, the rcidivists also had more charges or convictions for violence and any criminal acts. The small number of significant differences between recidivists and nonrecidivists in the sexual and violent categories precluded an attempt to determine which combination of factors meaningfully predicted reoffending. However, for criminal recidivism, a stepwise discriminant function analysis to assess the combination of factors that most successfully distinguished between groups in terms of criminal recidivism was significant, with subjects' age, total number of criminal convictions, and pedophile assault index being retained for optimal prediction. The procedure correctly classified 70.6% of the original group, 82.8% of the nonrecidivists, and 52.6% of the recidivists. PCL-R Total Score alone was equally successful in a similar discriminant function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]