Failure of stationary but not of flying honeybees (Apis mellifera) to respond to magnetic field stimuli.

Trained individual honeybees (Apis mellifera) to feed to repletion from a well of sucrose solution so constructed that shock could be delivered when the proboscis was in contact with the solution. If shock was signaled by vibration of the substrate or by an airstream, the animals learned readily to avoid it by breaking contact briefly, but there was no response to change (either constant or time-varying) in the ambient magnetic field. When, however, a magnetic field anomaly in the region of the food well signaled to flying animals that contact would be punished with shock, hesitation to settle was greater in presence than absence of the anomaly. Parallel results were obtained with light, to which flying Ss clearly responded but to which stationary Ss hardly responded at all. We conclude that stationary bees detect magnetic field stimuli but do not process them successfully in the training situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activities and well-being in older age: Effects of self-concept and educational attainment.

The positive effect of activities on well-being is proposed to be mediated by self-conceptualizations and facilitated by socioeconomic status. The hypothesized processes were estimated with LISREL VIII using data from a large cross-sectional survey with a sample of 679 adults aged 65 and older who were representative of older adults living in the Detroit area. Findings indicate that the frequency of performing both leisure and productive activities yields an effect on physical health and depression and that these effects are mediated in part by a sense of self as agentic, but less clearly by a sense of self as social. Furthermore, socioeconomic status, operationalized as formal educational attainment, facilitates the effect of leisure to a greater extent than that of productive activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parents' ethnic-racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study.

Recently, there has been an emergence of literature on the mechanisms through which parents transmit information, values, and perspectives about ethnicity and race to their children, commonly referred to as racial or ethnic socialization. This literature has sought to document the nature of such socialization, its antecedents in parents' and children's characteristics and experiences, and its consequences for children's well-being and development. In this article, the authors integrate and synthesize what is known about racial and ethnic socialization on the basis of current empirical research, examining studies concerning its nature and frequency; its child, parent, and ecological predictors; and its consequences for children's development, including ethnic identity, self-esteem, coping with discrimination, academic achievement, and psychosocial well-being. The authors also discuss conceptual and methodological limitations of the literature and suggest directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methods to Characterize Ricin for the Development of Reference Materials

Ricin is an abundant protein from the castor bean plant Ricinus communis. Because of its high toxicity and the simplicity of producing mass quantities, ricin is considered a biological terrorism agent. We have characterized ricin extensively with a view to develop Reference Materials that could be used to test and calibrate detection devices. The characterization of ricin includes: 1) purity test of a commercial batch of ricin using electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels, 2) biological activity assay by measuring its ability to inhibit protein synthesis, 3) quantitation of protein concentration by amino acid analysis, 4) detection of ricin by an immunoassay using a flow cytometer, and 5) detection of ricin genomic DNA by polymerase chain reaction using nine different primer sets. By implementing these five methods of characterization, we are in a position to develop a reference material for ricin.     

Mucosal Delivery of Progestational Steroids from a Controlled Release Device: In-Vitro/In-Vivo Relationships

The mucosal delivery of progestational steroids from a model controlled release device was studied using female New Zealand White rabbits as the animal model. A controlled release device was developed which was suitable for nasal, rectal and vaginal application. The in-vitro permeation and in-vivo absorption of progesterone from the model controlled release device was investigated through the nasal, rectal and vaginal mucosa. The influence of penetrant hydrophilicity on the in-vitro permeation and in-vivo absorption from the controlled release device was also investigated using the mono-hydroxy, di-hydroxy and tri-hydroxy derivatives of progesterone. The results indicate that the nasal route demonstrates a significantly higher rate of in-vitro permeation and extent of in-vivo absorption than the rectal and vaginal mucosa. The in-vitro permeation rates and steady-state plasma concentrations achieved from the device tend to decrease with increasing penetrant hydrophilicity. A linear in-vitro/in-vivo correlation was obtained for all the mucosa studied. The slope of the relationship between the in-vitro and in-vivo data was similar for the rectal and vaginal mucosa. The results of this investigation agree with the results of a previous investigation with a solution formulation, and suggest that the hydrodynamic and/or membrane barrier properties of the nasal mucosa may from that of the rectal and vaginal mucosa.     

Effects of maintenance sessions on smoking relapse: Delaying the inevitable?

Fifty-seven smokers received a smoking cessation treatment consisting of rapid smoking and behavioral counseling. Additionally, subjects were assigned either to one of two maintenance treatments or to a nonmaintenance control condition. Both maintenance treatments comprised coping-response and Pavlovian-exposure training; one also included massed exposure to cigarettes (rapid-puffing trials). Maintenance meetings occurred 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after the cessation treatment. Compared with the control condition, both forms of maintenance sessions reduced relapse during the 12-week maintenance period but did not reduce relapse beyond that period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural Differences in Young Children's Vulnerability to Injuries: A Risk and Protection Perspective.

Interview data from 100 lower income Hispanic and 50 White mothers from a nutritional service clinic extended prior research on cultural differences in the risk for unintentional pediatric injuries. Group differences were expected in reported injury incidence and in the prevalence and impact of contributing factors. As predicted, White mothers reported more injuries for a young child, and among Hispanic mothers, English language preference and use were associated with more reported injuries. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that risky behaviors, mother's judgment about child compliance, and stressful life events were better predictors of injuries than housing quality, but among Hispanics, the impact of certain factors (e.g.. child temperament) was qualified by mother's acculturation level. Stress and child temperament explained injury differences between more- and less-acculturated Hispanic families but only partially accounted for differences between White mothers and less-acculturated Hispanics. Pediatric injury risk and protective factors seemed to operate in concert with cultural processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in error-related ERPs in middle- to late-adolescent males.

Although there are some studies documenting structural brain changes during late adolescence, there are few showing functional brain changes over this period in humans. Of special interest would be functional changes in the medial frontal cortex that reflect response monitoring. In order to examine such age-related differences, the authors analyzed event-related potentials following errors in a visual flanker task and a go/no-go task in adolescent males, 15-16 and 18-20 years old. Response times and accuracy were comparable between groups on each task, but the younger group made more go/no-go errors, suggesting this task was more difficult. Error-related negativity, thought to be generated in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), had greater amplitude for the older adolescents on both tasks; thus the increased errors are not simply due to performance level differences. Results from this study suggest that the ACC, which supports response monitoring, is late to mature due to age-related structural or neurochemical changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison between young children in achievement situations.

Examined the development of children's motivations to socially compare in a situation in which they were free to seek or not seek information about how another child was doing. 16 males and 16 females each at the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade levels were recruited through the newspaper and paid to participate. Pairs of Ss in the same grade worked on a speed task under high- and low-competition conditions. The frequency and duration with which Ss pushed a button to observe their partner's progress on a monitor was the index of the strength of motivation. Results show the expected developmental increase in comparison behavior. Only in 2nd graders did the expected positive relationship between level of competition and performance appear. At the kindergarten level, the means were in the opposite direction, while for the 1st-grade level the relation between competition and performance depended on sex. Results are discussed in terms of alternative predictions derived from theories by L. Festinger (1954) and J. Veroff (1969). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for chemical defense in tropical green algaCaulerpa ashmeadii (Caulerpaceae: Chlorophyta): Isolation of new bioactive sesquiterpenoids

Results of field feeding preference studies with 12 species of tropical green algae of the genusCaulerpa showed thatC. ashmeadii was preferred least by herbivorous fishes. Chemical investigations ofC. ashmeadii demonstrated the presence of high concentrations of sesquiterpenoid metabolites. The chemical isolation and structural elucidation of five majorC. ashmeadii metabolites, as well as the results of field feeding preference, antimicrobial, and ichthyotoxicity assays demonstrating the biological activities of these metabolites are reported here.