Animal facilities survey.

Surveyed 207 heads of graduate psychology departments (PDs) to examine changes, problems, and trends in maintaining facilities for animal research. 197 Ss indicated that, at some point, their PD had maintained animals for research, but only 168 currently had animals. The most often cited reason for closing animal facilities (or serious discussion of closure) involved changes in faculty research interests. The second most common reason was the prohibitive costs of complying with existing codes and regulations. Most PDs have undertaken or plan to undertake renovations of their animal facilities, thus reaffirming their long-term commitment to animal research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cocaine impairs follicular phase pulsatile gonadotropin secretion in rhesus monkeys

BACKGROUND: Ménière's disease is a medical condition that involves hearing loss, tinnitus and attacks of vertigo. The attacks can be severely disabling with nausea, dizziness, and aural sensations. METHOD: Three scales assessing the correlates of vertigo attacks in Ménière's disease were developed and completed by 514 subjects diagnosed with the disease. The three scales measured were somatic sensations (SOM), psychological state (PSYCHOL), and situational characteristics (SIT) associated with an attack. RESULTS: Psychometric properties of the three scales were investigated showing Cronbach's alphas of 0.76, 0.80, and 0.62 for the three scales respectively. The results on the scales were related to disease progression. Principal components factor analyses showed that the SOM scale could be divided into two subscales: dizziness/vertigo/anxiety and sensations in the ear. The PSYCHOL scale showed an energy/awareness factor and a negative emotional state factor. The SIT scale, finally, showed two factors: environmental disturbances and stressful conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of somatic, psychological and situational premonitory characteristics of attacks in Ménière's disease could lead to improved therapy and counselling.     

Saccharomyces boulardii for the treatment of Clostridium difficile-associated colitis

S. boulardii has been investigated in Europe and the US, and preliminary reports indicate that it is safe and effective in conjunction with vancomycin or metronidazole for the treatment of CDC, predominantly in patients who develop recurrence. S. boulardii in combination with vancomycin or metronidazole has not been shown to be more effective than either of these agents alone for treatment of a first episode of CDC. In addition, S. boulardii has not been studied in immunocompromised patients who may be at risk for developing fungemia. Ultimately, large-scale clinical studies are necessary to determine whether S. boulardii should be routinely used to treat patients with recurrent CDC. S. boulardii is currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials for CDC treatment in the US. Clinicians interested in information regarding participation in current studies may contact Biocodex Inc., in Seattle, Washington.     

Using clouds to scale grid resources: An economic model

Infrastructure as a Service clouds are a flexible and fast way to obtain (virtual) resources as demand varies. Grids, on the other hand, are middleware platforms able to combine resources from different administrative domains for task execution. Clouds can be used by grids as providers of devices such as virtual machines, so they only use the resources they need. But this requires grids to be able to decide when to allocate and release those resources. Here we introduce and analyze by simulations an economic mechanism (a) to set resource prices and (b) resolve when to scale resources depending on the users’ demand. This system has a strong emphasis on fairness, so no user hinders the execution of other users’ tasks by getting too many resources.Our simulator is based on the well-known GridSim software for grid simulation, which we expand to simulate infrastructure clouds. The results show how the proposed system can successfully adapt the amount of allocated resources to the demand, while at the same time ensuring that resources are fairly shared among users.     

Using blogging to enhance the initiation of students into academic research

For the net-generation students learning in a Web 2.0 world, research is often equated with Googling and approached with a mindset accustomed to cut-and-paste practices. Recognizing educators’ concern over such students’ learning dispositions on the one hand, and the educational affordances of blogging on the other, this study examines the use of blogging to initiate students into academic research at the tertiary level. It focuses on the experiences of three students from a third-year music class working on their research paper with blog-based supervision provided by the teacher. The course, in a hybrid fashion, combined face-to-face lectures and tutorials with blog sharing and discussion. The students’ individually-owned blogs were specifically used as their research diaries in which they logged in their work in progress, they then received input from both the teacher and fellow students. Based on the researcher’s self-evaluation of the teaching-supervising process, an analysis of the students’ blog discourse, and students’ survey feedback, this article offers useful insights and suggestions for educators interested in either using or researching on blogging as a means to develop students’ research skills and understanding.     

Omega-3 fatty acids decreased irritability of patients with bipolar disorder in an add-on,open label study

This is a report on a 37-patient continuation study of the open ended, Omega-3 Fatty Acid (O-3FA) add-on study. Subjects consisted of the original 19 patients, along with 18 new patients recruited and followed in the same fashion as the first nineteen. Subjects carried a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder and were visiting a Mood Disorder Clinic regularly through the length of the study. At each visit, patients' clinical status was monitored using the Clinical Monitoring Form. Subjects reported on the frequency and severity of irritability experienced during the preceding ten days; frequency was measured by way of percentage of days in which subjects experienced irritability, while severity of that irritability was rated on a Likert scale of 1 – 4 (if present). The irritability component of Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) was also recorded quarterly on 13 of the 39 patients consistently. Patients had persistent irritability despite their ongoing pharmacologic and psychotherapy.     

The expression of calpain 1 and calpain 2 in spermatogenic cells and spermatozoa of the mouse

There is some evidence suggesting that Ca2+ is involved in processes that occur during the development and function of spermatozoa. Calcium-dependent proteins, such as calmodulin, are expressed during mammalian spermatogenesis further suggesting that Ca2+ takes part in its regulation. However, the precise roles of Ca2+ in spermatogenesis remain to be elucidated. Calpains are a family of Ca(2+)-dependent cysteine proteases whose members are expressed ubiquitously or in a tissue-specific manner. Calpain has been demonstrated to mediate specific Ca(2+)-dependent processes including cell fusion, mitosis and meiosis. We herein followed the expression pattern of calpain's ubiquitous isoforms, 1 and 2, throughout spermatogenesis at the RNA and protein levels by RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis. Both RNA and protein studies revealed that these isoforms are expressed in all spermatogenic cells. The expression of calpain 1 levels is slightly higher in spermatocytes entering the meiotic phase. Both calpain isoforms are also expressed in mouse spermatozoa and are localized to the acrosomal cap. Inducing capacitated spermatozoa to undergo the acrosome reaction in the presence of a selective calpain inhibitor significantly reduced the acrosome reaction rate in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, calpain, a pluripotential protease with numerous substrates, may serve as an effector in more than one pathway in the complex process of spermatogenesis and in the events preceding fertilization, such as the acrosome reaction.