Book reviews

Home Truths: Property Ownership and Housing Wealth in Australia. Blair Badcock and Andrew Beer. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2000. ISBN 0522848931 (paperback). 212 pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $38.45.

Cities for Children: Children's Rights, Poverty and Urban Management. Sheridan Bartlett, Roger Hart, David Sattherwaite, Ximena de la Barra and Alfredo Missair. Earthscan, London, 1999. ISBN 185383470X. 305 pp. RRP $39.95

The Deliberative Practitioner: Encouraging Participatory Planning Processes. John Forester. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1999. ISBN 0262062070. 305 pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $54.95

Spaces of Hope: David Harvey. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2000. ISBN 0748612688. 293 pp.. RRP $44.00

The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. Charles Landry. Comedia and Earthscan, Stroud and London, 2000. ISBN 1853836133 (paperback). 300 pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $48.50

Urban Regeneration: A Handbook. Peter Roberts and Hugh Sykes (eds). Sage, London, 2000. ISBN 0761967176 (paperback). 320 pp.; bibliography and index. $65.00

Sydney: The Emergence of a World City. John Connell (ed.). Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2000. ISBN 0195507487 (paperback). 381pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $35.00

Cultural Geography: Themes, Concepts, Analyses. William Norton. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. ISBN 0195413075 (paperback). 379 pp.; bibliography, glossary and index. RRP $50.95     

Self-regulation of prejudiced responses: Implications for progress in prejudice-reduction efforts.

A model suggesting that prejudiced-related discrepancy experiences facilitate prejudice reduction efforts is proposed and tested. Prejudice-related discrepancies concerning gays were activated among low and high prejudiced Ss in 2 experiments. Results indicated that low-prejudiced (LP) Ss' violations of their LP and well-internalized attitudes produced compunction, self- and discrepancy-focused thoughts, attention to discrepancy-relevant information (Exp 1), and a slowing of responses (Exp 2). These findings indicated that LP Ss' discrepancies instigated a self-regulatory cycle that, theoretically, should help in achieving control over subsequent prejudiced responses. Evidence of effective self-regulation was found in a task following discrepancy activation. Specifically, LP Ss effectively inhibited prejudiced responses to jokes about gays as a consequence of discrepancy activation (Exp 2). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Avoiding the tarpits-software's challenge

A course that allows teams of undergraduate students to design and develop large computer software systems for Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is described. The students are divided into project teams, the projects typically contain from 4000 to 6000 lines of code and require a year to develop. Working prototypes of each project are designed, implemented, and tested during the fall semester. In the spring semester, students fine-tune and prepare the software systems for incorporation into the laboratory environment at SNL. Some projects are developed further and become subjects for master's theses     

Major depression and irritable bowel syndrome: is there a relationship?

BACKGROUND: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been reported in 10% to 22% of adults. Seventy percent to 90% of patients with IBS who seek medical attention have psychiatric comorbidity, most commonly major depression. In contrast, few studies have looked at the prevalence of IBS among psychiatric patients. METHOD: Using a semistructured clinical interview to study the prevalence of IBS, we compared 56 patients seeking treatment for major depression in an outpatient setting to an age- and sex-matched control group of patients (N = 40) who were seeking treatment in a general physician's office for other medical illnesses. The control group had no Axis I disorders. IBS was diagnosed according to the criteria of Drossman et al. RESULTS: Twenty-seven percent (N = 15) of patients with major depression met criteria for IBS in contrast to 2.5% (N = 1) of the control group (p = .0005). Patients with major depression and IBS were more likely to report symptoms of back pain, weakness, heartburn, and nocturnal bowel movements as well as a personal or family history of bowel disease compared with patients with major depression but without IBS. CONCLUSION: IBS is fairly common in patients seeking treatment for major depression. Prospective studies should address the question whether treatment of major depression leads to an improvement or resolution of the symptoms of IBS.     

Role of Leptothrix discophora in mediating metal uptake in the filter-feeding bivalve Mytilus trossulus (edulis)

The potential for filter-feeding bivalves to accumulate metals from a wide range of food sources is an important consideration when examining trophic transfer of metals up the food chain. The objective of this study was to determine the role of Leptothrix discophora in mediating metal uptake in the filter-feeding bivalve Mytilus trossulus. The bacterium L. discophora SP-6 was cultured in the absence or presence of Mn, allowing for a naturally formed Mn oxide sheath to develop. Secondary metals (Cd and Pb) were then added to the cultures, allowing for potential Cd and Pb adsorption to the Mn oxide sheath. Resulting bacterial aggregates of known diameter were then fed to the bivalve M. trossulus using a flow-through system. Initial concentrations of both Pb and Cd on the bacterium did not differ significantly in the presence or absence of the Mn oxide; conversely both Pb (F = 7.39, p < 0.0001) and Cd (F= 33.65, p < 0.0001) were found at lower concentrations in the mussel tissue when the Mn oxide was present. To determine whether these differences in metal uptake could be attributed to sorting by the mussel based on food quality, nutritional analysis was performed. Bacterial food matrixes containing Mn oxides were found to have significantly lower levels of carbon (F = 256, p < 0.0001). Particle clearance rates for the various food matrixes were positively correlated with organic content (R2 = 0.852, p > 0.008). The results of our study suggest that metal uptake in M. trossulus was significantly decreased for Cd with a similar trend for Pb when the SP-6 sheath contained Mn oxides. The mechanism mediating this differential uptake is best explained by food quality, in that a higher quality food source enhanced metal uptake due to an increased clearance rate of organic-rich particles by M. trossulus.