Quantifying mental foramen position in extant hominoids and Australopithecus: implications for its use in studies of human evolution.

The location of the mental foramen on the mandibular corpus has figured prominently in debates concerning the taxonomy of fossil hominins and Gorilla gorilla. In this study we quantify the antero/posterior (A/P) position of the mental foramen across great apes, modern humans and Australopithecus. Contrary to most qualitative assessments, we find significant differences between some extant hominoid species in mental foramen A/P position supporting its potential usefulness as a character for taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses of fossil hominoids.

A comparative study of MAP2 immunostaining in areas 9 and 17 in schizophrenia and Huntington chorea.

Increasing evidence suggests that there may be significant morphological changes in the neuropil of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. A controversial issue surrounding these deficits in the cortical neuropil is the confounding effects of antipsychotic (neuroleptic) medication as well as the question of generality to psychiatric disorders. To begin to address these issues we examined brains from Huntington's patients matched to a cohort of schizophrenics and controls.

From eugenics to lysenkoism: the evolution of Stanisław Skowron.

This article describes the relationship between Polish geneticist Stanisław Skowron's views on eugenics during the interwar period, his experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and his response to Trofim D. Lysenko's ban on genetic research in Soviet-allied states after 1948. Skowron was educated at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to study in the United States, Italy, Denmark, and Great Britain from 1924 to 1926.

Developing clinically savvy nursing students: an evaluation of problem-based learning in an associate degree program.

Faculty in an associate degree nursing program at a community college in NewYork City noted that nursing students lacked critical analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making skills and the reflective ability essential to applying nursing knowledge in clinical situations. This study reports on the use of problem-based learning as a teaching strategy and its impact on the development of critical thinking and communication skills in nursing students.

Estrus phase differences in female rats in morphine antinociception elicited from the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray.

Male rodents display greater systemic morphine antinociception than females which show their most marked effects during late diestrus or proestrus. Morphine (1-2.5 mug) antinociception on the tail-flick test elicited from the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray was examined across estrus phases in female relative to male rats.

Metformin attenuates salt-induced hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Metformin, an antihyperglycemic agent used for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, lowers blood pressure in humans and experimental animals. We recently demonstrated that short-term administration of metformin may lower blood pressure by reducing sympathetic neural outflow. The present studies were initiated to determine whether long-term administration of metformin blunts salt-induced hypertension, a condition characterized by elevated sympathetic activity.

Further comments regarding Malik, et al.'s 1996 experiment on the method of subliminal psychodynamic activation.

Further comments focus on the use of partial and anagram messages and the need for neutral stimuli in establishing subjective thresholds for subliminal psychodynamic activation.

Comment regarding Malik, et al.'s (1996) "The method of subliminal psychodynamic activation: do individual thresholds make a difference?".

Researchers using the method of subliminal psychodynamic activation need to consider the neutrality of their control messages. Anagrams or numbers are recommended as even benign-sounding phrases can produce nonneutral effects.

Radiation and transposon-induced genetic damage in Drosophila melanogaster: X-ray dose-response and synergism with DNA-repair deficiency.

The interaction of X-ray-induced and transposon-induced damage was investigated in P-M hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. The X-ray dose-response of 330-1320 rad was monitored for sterility, fecundity and partial X/Y chromosome loss among F2 progeny derived from the dysgenic cross of M strain females xP strain males (cross A) and its reciprocal (cross B), using a weaker and the standard Harwich P strain subline. The synergistic effect of P element activity and X-rays on sterility was observed only in cross A hybrids and the dose-response was nonlinear in hybrids derived from the strong standard reference Harwich subline, Hw.

Inorganic pyrophosphatase activity in cell-free extracts of Ureaplasma urealyticum.

Cell-free extracts of Ureaplasma urealyticum strains Pi and T960 (CX8) (serovars 6 and 8, respectively) metabolized inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi). The inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase) activity was greatest with Mg2+ as cofactor, but Mn2+ acted as a poor substitute. The PPases of the two serovars differed electrophoretically.