Natural product extracts of the Canadian prairie plant, Thermopsis rhombifolia, have anti-cancer activity in phenotypic cell-based assays.

Many plant species within the terrestrial ecological zones of Canada have not yet been investigated for anti-cancer activity. We examined the scientific literature describing the endemic flora from the prairie ecological zone and selected the species, Thermopsis rhombifolia, locally known as the buffalo bean, for investigation of its anti-cancer potential. We tested it in cell-based assays using phenotypic screens that feature some of the hallmarks of cancer.

How many variables can humans process?

The conceptual complexity of problems was manipulated to probe the limits of human information processing capacity. Participants were asked to interpret graphically displayed statistical interactions. In such problems, all independent variables need to be considered together, so that decomposition into smaller subtasks is constrained, and thus the order of the interaction directly determines conceptual complexity.

Phylogeographic relationships within Packera sanguisorboides (Asteraceae), a narrow endemic species that straddles a major biogeographic boundary.

Packera sanguisorboides is endemic to the Sangre de Cristo and Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico, USA. As such, its distribution spans the boundary between two major floristic regions: the southern Rocky Mountain region and the Madrean region. Chloroplast DNA haplotype polymorphism patterns in populations from both regions show that most of the molecular variance exists among populations rather than between mountain ranges and that hybridization with at least one other Packera species containing distinct cpDNA haplotypes has contributed to the cpDNA diversity within P.

Enhanced attention in rhesus monkeys as a common factor for the cognitive effects of drugs with abuse potential.

Rationale: One of the common neurochemical features of many drugs of abuse is their ability to directly or indirectly enhance dopaminergic activity in the brain, particularly within the ventral tegmental-nucleus accumbens pathway. Dopaminergic pathways in the frontal and limbic cortex also may be targets for these agents, where pharmacological effects could result in heightened attention and/or support self-administration behavior.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine whether drugs from differing pharmacological classes that exhibit abuse potential would share the ability to counter distractability in the delayed matching task.

Optimizing the care of patients with depression in primary care: the views of general practitioners.

Depression is a very common mental illness within the general population and in-patients consulting in general practice. General practitioners are well placed to provide care for patients with mental health problems, as these disorders are often connected with family and social problems, and GPs can provide their patients with long-term follow-up and support. While there are theoretical reasons for the important role of the family doctor, there is limited evidence about how general practitioners view their roles and their capacity to cope with the mental health needs of their patients.

Stable oxygen and hydrogen isotope composition of leaf water in C and C plant species under field conditions.

In this paper we make comparisons between the observed oxygen and hydrogen stable isotope composition of leaf water and the predictions of the Craig-Gordon model of evaporative isotopic enrichment. Comparisons were made among two C species (Chenopodium album and Helianthus annuus) and two C species (Amaranthus retroflexus and Kochia scoparia), when plants were exposed to natural environmental conditions in the field. There were significant differences among the species for the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of leaf water at mid-day.