Reaction of male Mongolian gerbils to odors in a social situation.

Examined the possibility that odor from substances rubbed on the back of young stimulus animals will influence the social behavior of male gerbils. 30 adult Ss were tested for 4 5-min sessions with young male conspecifics that had water, perfume, urine, or ventral gland sebum rubbed on their back. Ss showed significantly longer investigation duration and higher approach frequencies toward Ss treated with urine or sebum. Results demonstrate that gerbils are attracted to relevant odors in a social situation. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Insulin secretion in relation to fatness in cattle

The insulin secretory response to tolbutamide was examined in cattle to determine: whether this agent is insulinogenic in this species, what effect age has on insulin secreting ability, and whether the insulin response is related to body fatness. Intravenous injection of sodium tolbutamide (27 mg kg^?0.75) caused a three- to sevenfold rise in plasma insulin concentration, but the response was delayed and protracted in comparison with that seen in non-ruminants. The insulin response was higher at 20 than at 12 months of age. The insulin response was not related to the proportion of dissectible fat in the empty body, and it was lower in Hereford than Friesian steers despite the Herefords being slightly fatter. It was concluded that tolbutamide is insulinogenic in cattle and its effectiveness increases with age. Unlike the non-ruminant, there is no association between fatness and insulin response to tolbutamide in cattle compared at the same age.     

Phosphate Characteristics and Bioavailability of Suspended Sediments from Streams Draining into Lake Erie

Suspended sediments from major U.S. tributaries draining into Lake Erie were analyzed for phosphorus. Analyses included: sediment concentration, reactive and total filtered P, and total P on water samples. Recovered sediment total P was determined by perchloric and persulfate extraction. Sediment was fractionated for NaOH-P citrate-dithionite-bicarbonate (CDB)-P, HCl-P, and organic P. New York streams had the highest suspended solids and the lowest content of most sediment fractions except HCl-P. NaOH-P and CDB-P were highest in sediments from Ohio tributaries; these fractions are considered to be bioavailable with NaOH-P more available than CDB-P. Digestion with perchloric acid consistently removed more P than the persulfate method. The difference in the two methods was negatively correlated with HCl-P.     

Clarification of risk–benefit issues in rapid smoking.

Several articles on rapid smoking have stressed the theorized danger of this smoking abatement procedure while providing little evidence to support the claim. Additionally, they have disregarded the benefits of not smoking. It is argued that this consideration of safety without benefit is simplistic and potentially harmful. An analysis comparing the known risks and benefits is made, and the current literature on the efficacy and safety of rapid smoking is reviewed. Risk–benefit analysis reveals that rapid smoking is safe and effective for healthy Ss, but additional research is required to determine its safety and efficacy for persons with cardiac and pulmonary disease. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Zen of Network Security: Becoming One with the System

Network security is more than firewalls, IDS systems and anti-virus scanners. These systems monitor the network for potential threats, but if no one is monitoring the event logs the threat is still there. The problem is that there are too many systems producing too much data for manual security management.     

Neuropsychological assessment of soccer players.

Assessed the attention and concentration of 31 soccer players (aged 18–24 yrs), who deliberately use the head to propel the ball, and 31 tennis players (aged 18–22 yrs). Ss were administered the Raven Progressive Matrices, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Perceptual Speed Test, and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). There were no significant differences between the 2 groups on these tests. However, there was a significant negative correlation between number of games played and performance on the PASAT. Also, a significantly greater number of soccer players reported experiencing headaches, dizziness, and passing out after a game. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Helping students succeed in the regular classroom: A guide for developing intervention assistance programs.

Reviews the book, Helping students succeed in the regular classroom: A guide for developing intervention assistance programs by Joseph E. Zins, Michael J. Curtis, Janet L. Graden, and Charlene R. Ponti (see record 1988-97800-000). The goal of this book is to provide sufficient detail to enable practitioners to make intervention assistance programs integral components of their current educational systems. Authored by four of the field's leading scholars and practitioners in the area of prereferral intervention, the book clearly succeeds in achieving these goals and, hopefully, in helping to stave off the "bandwagon" mentality that could easily engulf the new service delivery models that are appearing nationwide. Helping Students Succeed in the Regular Classroom begins at a conceptual level by examining the rationale, logic and need for intervention assistance programs. Reflecting the best of contemporary thinking in this area, the authors' arguments for alternatives to traditional special education services are sound and convincing. Moving beyond merely critiquing the mistakes of traditional service delivery models, the book rapidly builds a solid theoretical framework from which innovative solutions to old and persistent problems can be developed. Complementing the conceptual and theoretical elements of the book is a broad-ranging overview of pragmatic, "how to" information for the practitioner. If Helping Students Succeed in the Regular Classroom has a shortcoming, it is that some of these practice-oriented chapters suffer from trying to cover too much material in too little space. For example, while the authors acknowledge the critical nature of obtaining sanction and support at the district level for intervention assistance programs, they devote less than one page to this extremely complex topic. Overall, I recommend this book to the readership of School Psychology Quarterly with great enthusiasm. It addresses topics of critical importance to our field, and does so in a well-reasoned, scholarly and practical manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parallel processing of biological sequence comparison algorithms

Comparison of biological (DNA or protein) sequences provides insight into molecular structure, function, and homology, and is increasingly important as the available databases become larger and more numerous. One method of increasing the speed of the calculations is to perform them in parallel. We present the results of initial investigations using the Intel iPSC/1 hypercube and the Connection Machine (CM-I) for these comparisons. Since these machines have very different architectures, the issues and performance trade-offs discussed have a wide applicability for the parallel processing of biological sequence comparisons. This research was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research under contact No. N00014-86-K-0310 and by NIH Grant T15 LM07056 from the National Library of Medicine.