Retrieval performance in online search in thermal physiology

Documents on four topics in thermal physiology were searched for in both BIOSIS and MEDLINE using both natural language and standard index words. The search by natural language retrieved more relevant documents than the search by standard index words in both databases. Overall, more relevant documents were retrieved in MEDLINE than in BIOSIS. Even in MEDLINE, however, only about 40% of the total existing documents (as estimated by an expert in thermal physiology) were retrieved.     

Rhythms of temperature selection and body temperature are out of phase in the golden hamster.

Body temperature, locomotor activity, and thermoregulatory behavior of freely moving golden hamsters maintained in a spatial thermocline were measured over several weeks. The thermoregulatory behavior of temperature selection exhibited a robust daily rhythm 180° out of phase with the rhythms of body temperature and locomotor activity. However, the parameters of the body temperature rhythm (rhythmicity, mean level, and amplitude) were not significantly affected by the thermoregulatory behavior. Although the observed phase difference between the rhythms of temperature selection and body temperature might suggest that thermoregulatory behavior is modulated to oppose (rather than to defend) the rhythm of body temperature, the absence of effect of temperature selection on the parameters of the body temperature rhythm fails to reveal the physiological significance of such opposition. Further studies are necessary to establish the physiological significance of the rhythm of temperature selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)