Laughter in young children.

Reviews research studies of laughter in children, and presents a model describing eliciting conditions for laughter and related behavior. It is proposed that laughter occurs after conditions of heightened tension or arousal when at the same time there is a judgment that the situation is safe or inconsequential. The special case of laughter to discrepant or incongruous stimulation is described in detail. It is suggested that laughter serves the function of signaling to a caretaker that a given stimulus is within the child's tolerable limits of arousal. (51 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term follow-up of early detected vulnerable children.

Made an 11-13 yr follow-up of the subsequent psychiatric histories of over 1,000 children who did or did not participate in a county-wide preventively oriented school mental health program for 1st and 3rd graders between 1958-1961. Clinical "risk" or "vulnerability" judgments were available for program Ss, and reasonably comprehensive 3rd-grade test data were available for all Ss. Early-detected vulnerable Ss were found to have disproportionately high later appearances in a community-wide psychiatric register. Retrospective analyses of the 3rd-grade test data indicate that peer judgment was by far the most sensitive predictor of later psychiatric difficulty. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of learning and memory of -maze training in neonatal mice.

Presented 25 trials in a shock-escape maze to 90 Swiss-Webster mice at 9, 11, or 13 days of age. One-half of the Ss at each age were trained to the goal opposite their 1st-trial choice, while the other 1/2 served as yoked controls. 24 hr. later, the trained groups received 25 additional trials to the previous goal. The yoked groups and groups without prior exposure were trained to the goal opposite their 1st-trial choice. 9-day-old Ss trained to a specific goal showed some improvement in performance during original training, while the 11- and 13-day-old groups demonstrated substantial improvement. On retention tests, 9-day-old Ss trained to the same goal on both days did not differ from either control group, but 11- and 13-day-old trained Ss were reliably better than either control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarity between shock and safe areas during acquisition, transfer, and extinction of escape behavior in rats.

Demonstrated, in 3 experiments with a total of 128 female hooded rats, that performance in escape training was impaired when shock- and safe-box stimuli were similar rather than dissimilar to each other. Prior training with similar shock and safe boxes impaired responding during subsequent training or extinction under the dissimilar shock and safe condition. Prior training under the dissimilar condition did not reliably influence subsequent training or extinction under the similar shock-safe condition. Resistance to extinction under the dissimilar condition was reliably better following training with random presentations to both similar and dissimilar conditions than following training with the dissimilar condition alone. Exp III showed that impairment of escape behavior during training was attributable to response-contingent similarity between shock and safe boxes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simultaneous utilization of ammonia,free amino acids and peptides during fermentative growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The efficiency of nitrogen use by yeast is one of the key determinants of the successful completion of alcoholic fermentations. In this work the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c in a synthetic medium containing ammonia and free amino acids, supplemented with yeast hydrolysate, was studied. Experiments with ¹⁵NH₄Cl and ¹⁵N‐labelled yeast hydrolysate were carried out to gain insight into which of these three classes of assimilable nitrogen sources yeast cells prefer. Co‐consumption of all three sources was observed; approximately 40% of the total nitrogen in the yeast protein fraction originated from yeast hydrolysate, while free amino acids and ammonia contributed 40 and 20%, respectively. The results indicate that several amino acids are more readily obtained from peptides, most likely when the uptake of their free forms is competitively inhibited and/or repressed. During the second half of each fermentation, a decrease in the incorporation of yeast hydrolysate‐derived nitrogen was observed. These results highlight the nutritional role of peptides in various yeast fermentations. Copyright © 2016 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling     

The Effects of Isolation and Acid Mine Drainage on Fish and Macroinvertebrate Communities of Monday Creek, Ohio, USA

Isolated headwater streams in mined watersheds may have good water quality and fish habitat, yet be disconnected from immigration sources by stream segments impaired by acid mine drainage (AMD). Studies of fish and macroinvertebrate communities, habitat, and a number of hydrochemical parameters in Monday Creek, Ohio, show that AMD eliminates fish communities and severely limits macroinvertebrate communities in directly affected tributaries. Isolated headwaters in the heavily mined Monday Creek watershed have relatively good water quality and habitat, but poor fish communities. Comparison of isolated Monday Creek headwaters with non-isolated reaches in unmined watersheds indicates that differences in fish communities are attributable to isolation. Fish communities in isolated headwaters have lower Indices of Biotic Integrity (IBI) than comparable non-isolated communities, reduced species numbers, and lower numbers of individuals, despite suitable habitat as measured by the Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI). Comparison of macroinvertebrate communities shows higher Invertebrate Community Indices (ICI), and no apparent species loss, which can be attributed to the obligate flight stage in the life cycle of many macroinvertebrates, which enables them to overcome aquatic barriers. The implication of this research is that there is an opportunity for recovery of depleted fish communities in large AMD-isolated areas with good water quality, suitable habitat, and intact macroinvertebrate communities, by downstream treatment or source control of AMD to create aquatic corridors for fish immigration.     

Maternal Fructose Intake Causes Developmental Reprogramming of Hepatic Mitochondrial Catalytic Activity and Lipid Metabolism in Weanling and Young Adult Offspring

Excess dietary fructose is a major public health concern, yet little is known about its influence on offspring development and later-life disease when consumed in excess during pregnancy. To determine whether increased maternal fructose intake could have long-term consequences on offspring health, we investigated the effects of 10% w/v fructose water intake during preconception and pregnancy in guinea pigs. Female Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs were fed a control diet (CD) or fructose diet (FD; providing 16% of total daily caloric intake) ad libitum 60 days prior to mating and throughout gestation. Dietary interventions ceased at day of delivery. Offspring were culled at day 21 (D21) (weaning) and at 4 months (4 M) (young adult). Fetal exposure to excess maternal fructose intake significantly increased male and female triglycerides at D21 and 4 M and circulating palmitoleic acid and total omega-7 through day 0 (D0) to 4 M. Proteomic and functional analysis of significantly differentially expressed proteins revealed that FD offspring (D21 and 4 M) had significantly increased mitochondrial metabolic activities of β-oxidation, electron transport chain (ETC) and oxidative phosphorylation and reactive oxygen species production compared to the CD offspring. Western blotting analysis of both FD offspring validated the increased protein abundances of mitochondrial ETC complex II and IV, SREBP-1c and FAS, whereas VDAC1 expression was higher at D21 but lower at 4 M. We provide evidence demonstrating offspring programmed hepatic mitochondrial metabolism and de novo lipogenesis following excess maternal fructose exposure. These underlying asymptomatic programmed pathways may lead to a predisposition to metabolic dysfunction later in life.