Estimates of live-tree carbon stores in the Pacific Northwest are sensitive to model selection.

Background: Estimates of live-tree carbon stores are influenced by numerous uncertainties. One of them is model-selection uncertainty: one has to choose among multiple empirical equations and conversion factors that can be plausibly justified as locally applicable to calculate the carbon store from inventory measurements such as tree height and diameter at breast height (DBH). Here we quantify the model-selection uncertainty for the five most numerous tree species in six counties of northwest Oregon, USA.

What veterinary practitioners should know about scrapie.

Scrapie is the longest known and most widely spread of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and remains the model for much of the research regarding these diseases. Because scrapie is a reportable disease and the subject of an active eradication program in the United States, veterinary practitioners should have a basic understanding of the disease.

Regulation of electrolyte transport by nitric oxide in the mouse cecum.

The effect and role of nitric oxide (NO) in the regulation of ion transport in the mouse cecum were investigated. L-arginine, used to increase NO production, increased short-circuit current (Isc), a measure of ion transport, in a concentration-dependent manner with a maximal increase of 193.8+/-65.

Short-term group psychotherapy. A successful approach to functional complaints.

The term "functional illness" describes a large group of patients who have psychologically determined physical symptoms for which they repeatedly seek medical treatment to little or no avail. At the Mason Clinic, Seattle, we in the section of behavioral medicine have devised a psychotherapeutic format for treating these chronically disabled patients. With short-term intensive group psychotherapy, patients with functional complaints are removed from the discouraging isolation of their home environment for three or four weeks, yet are spared the expense and stigma of psychiatric hospitalization.