5,568 research outputs found
Three Decades Investigating Humor and Laughter: An Interview With Professor Rod Martin
No full textSince the start of the 21st century, the investigation of various psychological aspects of humor and laughter has become an increasingly prominent topic of research. This growth can be attributed, in no small part, to the pioneering and creative work on humor and laughter conducted by Professor Rod Martin. Dr. Martin’s research interests in humor and laughter began in the early 1980s and continued throughout his 32 year long career as a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Western Ontario. During this time, Dr. Martin published numerous scholarly articles, chapters, and books on psychological aspects of humor and laughter. Professor Martin has just retired in July 2016, and in the present interview he recounts a number of research highlights of his illustrious career. Dr. Martin’s earliest influential work, conducted while he was still in graduate school, stemmed from an individual difference perspective that focused on the beneficial effects of sense of humor on psychological well-being. This research focus remained evident in many of Professor Martin’s subsequent investigations, but became increasingly refined as he developed several measures of different components of sense of humor, including both adaptive and maladaptive humor styles. In this interview, Dr. Martin describes the conceptualization, development and use of the Humor Styles Questionnaire, along with suggestions for future research and development. In doing so, he also discusses the three main components of humor (i.e., cognitive, emotional and interpersonal), as well as the distinctions and similarities between humor and laughter. Further highlights of this interview include Professor Martin’s comments on such diverse issues as the genetic versus environmental loadings for sense of humor, the multifaceted nature of the construct of humor, and the possible limitations of teaching individuals to use humor in a beneficial manner to cope with stress and enhance their social and interpersonal relationships
The optimal synapse for sparse, binary signals in the rod pathway:Neural Computation
No full textThe sparsity of photons at very low light levels necessitates a nonlinear synaptic transfer function between the rod photoreceptors and the rod-bipolar cells. We examine different ways to characterize the performance of the pathway: the error rate, two variants of the mutual information, and the signal-to-noise ratio. Simulation of the pathway shows that these approaches yield substantially different performance at very low light levels and that maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio yields the best performance when judged from simulated images. The results are compared to recent data.</p
Hot Rod Harry
No full textA draft of a poem titled Hot Rod Harry.https://lair.etamu.edu/scua-martin-drafts/1001/thumbnail.jp
Rod Library Annual Report 2018
No full textRod Library had another exciting year, building on successful programs and introducing new resources and services. While we continue to await word on a possible building renovation, we remain committed to fostering student success and to enhancing diversity and inclusion and supporting community engagement in accord with the University strategic plan. In addition to continuing to provide reference assistance, group instruction, and research consultations in near-record numbers, we undertook new initiatives to engage with the University and the larger community.
We look forward to new ventures in the coming year and thank you for your continued support of our efforts.
Katherine Martin, University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library Interim Dean of Library Service
Rod Library Annual Report 2019
No full textRod Library has had a remarkable year, building on an array of successful programs and introducing varied resources and services to best serve UNI students, faculty, staff and alumni. While we continue to search for a new Dean of Library Services, we remain committed to fostering student success, celebrating diversity and inclusion, and supporting community engagement in accord with the University strategic plan. We have a dedicated faculty and staff, complemented by a corps of student assistants who make important contributions to our operations. We are proud of our continued integration in the university and larger community. We appreciate your continued interest and support, and we welcome your input.
Katherine Martin University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library Interim Dean of Library Service
The retinitis pigmentosa mutation c.3444+1G>A in CNGB1 results in skipping of exon 32
No full textRetinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a severe hereditary eye disorder characterized by progressive degeneration of photoreceptors and subsequent loss of vision. Two of the RP associated mutations were found in the CNGB1 gene that encodes the B subunit of the rod cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (CNGB1a). One of them (c.3444+1G>A) is located at the donor site of exon 32 and has been proposed to result in a frameshift and truncation of the last 28 aa of the corresponding protein. However, this ambiguous conclusion was not verified by experimental data. Recently, another study reported that the last 28 aa of CNGB1a harbor a motif required for the proper targeting of this subunit to rod photoreceptor outer segments. This suggests that defective targeting is the major cause for the RP phenotype in affected patients. Here, we investigated the splicing of c.3444+1G>A by exon trapping experiments and could demonstrate that instead of the proposed truncation of the last 28 aa this mutation leads to replacement of the last 170 aa of CNGB1a by 68 unrelated amino acids. The 170 aa deletion covers the complete distal C-terminus including the last 10 aa of an important alpha (alphaC) helix within the ligand-binding domain of CNGB1a. When expressed in a heterologous expression system the corresponding mutant full-length CNGB1a subunit was more susceptible to proteosomal degradation compared to the wild-type counterpart. In conclusion, our experimental data do not support the hypothesis proposed by the original study on the c.3444+1G>A mutation. Based on this, we suggest that apart from the defective targeting other mechanisms may be responsible for the RP phenotype in affected individuals
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Martin Company Nuclear Division Reports
No full textFrom introduction: The objectives of this program were to: study the variables of uranium dioxide, metal fibers and cladding material and determine the effects of swaging, develop thermal conductivity tests for small diameter rod-type elements, determine the thermal conductivity of various combinations of metal fibers and uranium dioxide, and select optimum combinations of the above variables to recommend for irradiation testing
05301 Abstracts Collection – Exact Algorithms and Fixed-Parameter Tractability
No full textFrom 24.07.05 to 29.07.05, the Dagstuhl Seminar 05301 ``Exact Algorithms and Fixed-Parameter Tractability'' was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl.
This is a collection of abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar
05301 Summary – Exact Algorithms and Fixed-Parameter Tractability
No full textSummary of the Dagstuhl Seminar held 24. July - 29. July 2005
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