Robert Bruce Ammons (1920-1999): Obituary.

Presents an obituary for Robert Bruce Ammons. Ammons was a researcher, professor, and founder of Perceptual and Motor Skills and Psychological Reports. He dedicated his life to encouraging scientific originality. He was a licensed clinician, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, and several divisions of the American Psychological Association (Experimental Psychology, Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Clinical Psychology, and History of Psychology), and he was a member of more than 30 national and international professional organizations. He held numerous offices in the Montana Psychological Association from 1958 to 1985, including being the president and secretary of the Montana Psychological Association's Internal Certification Board. His teaching centered on the history of psychology as a modern science, the psychology of the scientist, techniques of research strategy and theory construction, child development, and aesthetics. Ammons passed away in 1999. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When groups are more competitive than individuals: The domain of the discontinuity effect.

The related goals of the research were to delineate the domain of discontinuity, 1st by demonstrating its occurrence in a nonmatrix situation and, 2nd, by establishing the antecedent outcome conditions necessary for producing a discontinuity effect. The 1st goal was met by designing a mixed motive situation involving the production of origami products. Under these conditions, the magnitude of the discontinuity effect did not significantly differ from that in a matrix-only condition. The 2nd goal was met by a separate experiment that used H. H. Kelley and J. W. Thibaut's (1978) analysis of degree of noncorrespondence of outcomes. This experiment demonstrated that as noncorrespondence increased, so did the rate of competitive responding by groups but not by individuals. This pattern was qualified by an interaction with gender such that competitiveness was more markedly affected by noncorrespondence for groups of women than for groups of men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of the amphipod crustaceanGammarus palustris to waterborne secretions of conspecifics and congenerics

A choice-test apparatus designed to mimic field conditions was employed to test for the presence of waterborne attractants in the amphipod crustaceanGammarus palustris. It was found that both males and females were attracted to secretions from all conspecifics, but not to the secretions of a sympatric congener. When given the choice of secretions from different types of conspecifics, males behaved differently than females. Males were attracted more often to receptive females' and females were attracted more often to males' secretions. In the field, then, it is likely that all conspecifics travel toward each other, then sort themselves into competent heterosexual couples. The results suggest that this apparatus can be employed in future studies to determine the chemical nature of these pheromones.     

"Rereading text: Words and their context": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by B. A. Levy et al (Canadian Journal of Psychology, 1991[Dec], Vol 45[4], 492–506). Corrections to tables 2 and 3 regarding mean reading times during original reading and rereading in Exps 1 and 2, respectively, are provided. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in PA Vol 79:18597.) Two experiments examined whether the benefits of rereading are mediated by abstract word-level representations and are subject to the reader's focus of attention (T. H. Carr and J. S. Brown; see record 1990-27485-001). The effect of prior reading history was measured when 50 undergraduates reread a normal text and a scrambled word version of the text. The prior reading history was either with the normal or the scrambled version. In Exp 1, readers were oriented to surface level processing by a Greek letter detection task while reading. In Exp 2, Ss were oriented to message level processing by being required to write a summary of the text after each rereading. Transfer to normal text rereading is context specific, and this specificity is resistant to influences by focus of attention. Transfer to rereading scrambled word displays is variable, usually nonspecific, and perhaps open to attentional strategy. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The identification of the fatty acids of the fat from a North American black bear

Summary A study has been made of the identification of the fatty acids of the fat from a North American black bear. The methyl esters of the fatty acids from the fat were prepared and fractionated through a Stedman Column. Myristie, palmitic, stearic, oleic, palmitoleic, and linoleic acids were identified by the melting points of the p-bromophenacyl ester of the saturated acids and the hydroxy and bromine addition compounds of the unsaturated acids. Published with the approval of the Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experimental Station as Journal article No. 970 (new series).     

Raw Milk-Induced Protection against Food Allergic Symptoms in Mice Is Accompanied by Shifts in Microbial Community Structure

The mechanism underlying the allergy-protective effects of raw cow’s milk is still unknown, but the modulation of the gut microbiome may play a role. The effects of consuming raw cow’s milk or processed milk on fecal microbial communities were therefore characterized in an experimental murine model. C3H/HeOuJ mice were treated with raw milk, pasteurized milk, skimmed raw milk, pasteurized milk supplemented with alkaline phosphatase (ALP), or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for eight days prior to sensitization and challenge with ovalbumin (OVA). Fecal samples were collected after milk exposure and after OVA sensitization, and microbiomes were characterized using 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing. Treatment with raw milk prior to OVA sensitization increased the relative abundance of putative butyrate-producing bacteria from the taxa Lachnospiraceae UCG-001, Lachnospiraceae UCG-008, and Ruminiclostridium 5 (Clostridial clusters XIVa and IV), while it decreased the relative abundance of Proteobacterial genera such as Parasutterella, a putative pro-inflammatory bacterial genus. This effect was observed after eight days of raw milk exposure and became more pronounced five weeks later, after allergic sensitization in the absence of milk. Similar trends were observed after treatment with skimmed raw milk. Conversely, the feeding of pasteurized milk led to a loss of allergy protection and a putative dysbiotic microbiome. The addition of ALP to pasteurized milk restored the protective effect observed with raw milk and mitigated some of the microbial community alterations associated with milk pasteurization. Raw milk-induced protection against food allergic symptoms in mice is accompanied by an increased relative abundance of putative butyrate-producing Clostridiales and a decreased relative abundance of putative pro-inflammatory Proteobacteria. Given the safety concerns regarding raw milk consumption, this knowledge is key for the development of new, microbiologically safe, preventive strategies to reduce the incidence of allergic diseases.