Cardiovascular and metabolic costs of forward, backward, and lateral motion

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the metabolic and cardiovascular responses of movement in forward (FM), backward (BM), and lateral (LM) directions. METHODS: Thirteen athletes with the following characteristics (mean +/- SD) were evaluated: age 21+/-3 yr, height 172.0+/-9.0 cm, weight 62.92+/-9.05 kg, and VO2max 54.13+/-7.42 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1). Subjects were evaluated at 80.45 and 134.08 m x min(-1). A repeated measures ANOVA was used for statistical analysis (P < 0.05). RESULTS: At 80.45 m x min(-1), the following respective VO2 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1) and heart rate (HR) beats x min(-1) responses were: FM = 12.42+/-2.29, 113+/-10; BM = 15.95+/-2.45, 132+/-16; and LM = 22.10+/-4.76, 140+/-15. Both VO2 and HR were significantly different between conditions: LM > BM > FM. At 134.08 m x min(-1), the following respective VO2 and HR responses were: FM = 27.15+/-2.51, 146+/-7; BM = 31.33+/-5.77, 168+/-11; and LM = 32.58+/-5.74, 169+/-10. At 134.08 m x min(-1) neither HR or VO2 were significantly different between LM or BM (LM, BM, > FM). Stride length and stride frequency were also significantly different between conditions. These results indicate the variation in the energy cost of FM, BM, and LM.     

Ordinal Judgments and Summation of Nonvisible Sets of Food Items by Two Chimpanzees and a Rhesus Macaque.

Two chimpanzees and a rhesus macaque rapidly learned the ordinal relations between 5 colors of containers (plastic eggs) when all containers of a given color contained a specific number of identical food items. All 3 animals also performed at high levels when comparing sets of containers with sets of visible food items. This indicates that the animals learned the approximate quantity of food items in containers of a given color. However, all animals failed in a summation task, in which a single container was compared with a set of 2 containers of a lesser individual quantity but a greater combined quantity. This difficulty was not overcome by sequential presentation of containers into opaque receptacles, but performance improved if the quantitative difference between sizes was very large. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissemination of an effective inpatient tobacco use cessation program.

The present study aimed to determine whether tobacco use cessation rates observed in controlled trials of a hospital-based tobacco use cessation program could be replicated when the program was disseminated to a wide range of hospitals in a two-stage process including implementation and institutionalization phases. Using a nonrandomized, observational design, we recruited six hospitals to participate in the study. The research team helped implement the program during the first year of participation (implementation) and then withdrew from active involvement during the second year (institutionalization). The mean 6-month self-reported cessation rates were 26.3% (range = 17.6%-52.8%) for the implementation phase and 22.7% (range = 12.9%-48.2%) for the institutionalization phase. Hospitals with paid professionals providing the program had the best outcomes. Inpatient tobacco use cessation programs are feasible to implement and should target a 6-month self-reported cessation rate of at least 25%.     

Effects of speaking rate and lexical status on phonetic perception.

Among the contextual factors known to play a role in segmental perception are the rate at which the speech was produced and the lexical status of the item, that is, whether it is a meaningful word of the language. In a series of experiments on the word-initial /b/p/ voicing distinction, we investigated the conditions under which these factors operate during speech processing. The results indicated that under instructions of speeded responding, listeners could, on some trials, ignore some later occurring contextual information within the word that specified rate and lexical status. Importantly, however, they could not ignore speaking rate entirely. Although they could base their decision on only the early portion of the word, when doing so they treated the word as if it were physically short—that is to say, as if there were no later occurring information specifying a slower rate. This suggests that listeners always take account of rate when identifying the voicing value of a consonant, but precisely which information within the word is used to specify rate can vary with task demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phospholipids ofRhizobium meliloti andAgrobacterium tumefaciens: Lack of effect of Ti plasmid

We have studied the phospholipid composition ofRhizobium meliloti strains which do or do not contain the large, tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid ofAgrobacterium tumefaciens. The major phospholipids of stationary phase cells were phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) (22%), phosphatidyl-N-methylethanolamine (22%), phosphatidylcholine (PC) (27%), phosphatidylglycerol (11.4%), and cardiolipin (11%); as average percent of lipid phosphorus. Phosphatidyl-N,N-dimethylethanolamine (3.7%) was also present. The proportions of PE were higher, and PC lower, in logarithmic phase cells. No significant differences were seen in the proportions of phospholipids in strains with or without the Ti plasmid. Qualitative examination of the phospholipids ofA. tumefaciens with or without the Ti plasmid similarly revealed no differences.     

Validity of Dietary Restraint Scales: Reply to van Strien et al. (2006).

In T. van Strien, R. C. M. E. Engels, W. van Staveren, and C. P. Herman's (see record 2006-03905-010) comment, they contested the conclusion that dietary restraint scales are invalid measures of acute dietary restriction (E. Stice, M. Fisher, & M. R. Lowe, 2004). The authors respond to their concerns and conclude that researchers should (a) not have to work this hard to find evidence that these scales correlate with dieting restriction, (b) not settle for scales with only weak validity, and (c) use scales that are consistently valid across settings. The authors also discuss new evidence that most weight loss dieters are not achieving the negative energy balance necessary for weight loss, which seems to explain why these scales do not correlate inversely with caloric intake and why those with the highest dietary restraint scores gain more weight over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

John Dewey and human development.

John Dewey (1859–1952) was an American philosopher-psychologist of international acclaim. Although he did not greatly influence early American psychology, Dewey's relevance to contemporary psychology is manifold. He identified the problem of social psychology as the relationship between human nature and changing social circumstances, proposed means and a rationale to broaden the empiricism of psychology to encompass domains outside of the traditional laboratory setting, suggested that functional rather than structural characteristics differentiate childish from adult reasoning, and proposed a theory of noninevitable child development in which social values and practices play essential roles. Dewey proposed that by elucidating mechanisms for realizing desired values, psychology can be an empirically based instrument for promoting human development and social progress in a democratic society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for Detection of One Duration Sample and Default Responding to Other Duration Samples by Pigeons May Result From an Artifact of Retention-Test Ambiguity.

S. C. Gaitan and J. T. Wixted (2000) proposed that when pigeons are trained on a conditional discrimination to associate 1 duration sample with 1 comparison and 2 other duration samples with a 2nd comparison, they detect only the single duration, and on trials involving either of the 2 other duration samples, they respond to the other comparison by default. In 2 experiments, the authors show instead that pigeons lend to treat the retention intervals (such as those used by Gaitan and Wixted) as intertrial intervals, and thus, they tend to treat all trials with a delay as 0-s sample trials. The authors tested this hypothesis by showing that divergent retention functions do not appear when the retention interval is discriminably different from the intertrial interval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modulation of cell growth and apoptosis response in human prostate cancer cells supplemented with tocotrienols

Previous studies have shown that tocotrienols are powerful growth inhibitors and potent inducers of apoptosis in human breast cancer cells. The objective of the current study was to examine effects of tocotrienols on apoptotic signals in androgen‐independent PC‐3 human prostate cancer cells. We investigated the effects of the tocotrienol‐rich fraction (TRF) from palm oil, α‐tocopherol (αT), α‐tocotrienol (αT₃), γ‐tocotrienol (γT₃) and δ‐tocotrienol (δT₃) on PC‐3 cell growth. TRF inhibited PC‐3 growth with a nonlinear response, with complete growth suppression at 10 µg/mL. δT₃ and γT₃ showed complete cell inhibition at 8 µg/mL whilst αT had no effect. δT₃ and γT₃ showed the most promise in the cell growth assays, and all subsequent experiments were performed with δT₃, TRF and αT. TRF and δT₃ at 8 µg/mL induced apoptosis in PC‐3 cells after 48 h of treatment. In addition, TRF and δT₃ treatments were able to affect the cell cycle, with accumulation in the S phase, G2 phase block and increases in SubG1 by 72 h. We then proceeded to investigate the expression levels of Fas receptor and Fas ligand, caspase 8, caspase 3 and bax in PC‐3 cells following treatment with tocotrienols using real‐time PCR and Western blot methods. TRF and δT₃ at 8 µg/mL increased Fas ligand expression levels by 368 and 456%, respectively, after 24 h and Fas receptor expression levels by 210% and 356%, respectively, after 48 h. TRF‐ and δT₃‐treated PC‐3 cells overexpressed caspase 8 and bax protein after 24 h, and caspase 3 after 48 h. In conclusion, tocotrienols are able to induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in PC‐3 cells, with increased expression of Fas receptor, Fas ligand, caspase 8, caspase 3 and bax, suggesting a potential role in chemoprevention of prostate cancer.