Aircraft noise-induced awakenings are more reasonably predicted from relative than from absolute sound exposure levels.

Assessment of aircraft noise-induced sleep disturbance is problematic for several reasons. Current assessment methods are based on sparse evidence and limited understandings; predictions of awakening prevalence rates based on indoor absolute sound exposure levels (SELs) fail to account for appreciable amounts of variance in dosage-response relationships and are not freely generalizable from airport to airport; and predicted awakening rates do not differ significantly from zero over a wide range of SELs. Even in conjunction with additional predictors, such as time of night and assumed individual differences in "sensitivity to awakening," nominally SEL-based predictions of awakening rates remain of limited utility and are easily misapplied and misinterpreted.

Drug use and abuse among women: an overview.

A review of the current literature and research on women's usage of three popular drug categories--heroin, marijuana, and the psychotropics--reveals that use and abuse of these drugs by women have been largely neglected in both research and treatment. Women's usage of these three drug categories bears investigation because use and possibly abuse, by women, of all three of these categories is increasing. Heroin addiction among women has increased at a much faster rate than among men, marijuana usage is estimated to equal that of men in some regions of the United States, and use of the psychotropics is consistently higher among women than among men.