Although female aggression is found in many species and in a variety of contexts, little is known about its physiological bases. To compare neuroendocrine responses to aggression in females and males, we staged aggressive interactions between free-living territorial mountain spiny lizards and same-sex intruders and measured brain monoamines, plasma steroid hormone levels, and plasma glucose levels. Both females and males that had participated in a staged aggressive interaction had similar changes in serotonin (5-HT) activity in telencephalic tissue punches as indicated by a lowered ratio of forebrain:brainstem 5-HT concentrations. In addition, both females and males had elevated plasma corticosterone (B) after an aggressive interaction when compared to controls. The only difference detected between males and females was that females had a higher ratio of forebrain:brainstem norepinephrine (NE) concentrations throughout the brain compared to males. Together, these data indicate that acute neural and hormonal responses that accompany aggressive interactions in females are similar to those in males.

Aggression↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Mental health home visits for the elderly.

TOPIC: The nurse's role in providing mental health services to the elderly. SOURCE: The Mental Health Interventions Program. GOAL: To provide a viable model for providing these services. CONCLUSION: Nurses have the skills necessary to ensure that the elderly are recipients of quality mental health care.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Disposition of a mixed meal by conscious dogs after seven days of treatment with cyclosporine A and prednisone.

BACKGROUND: Combination immunosuppressive therapy, that often includes prednisone and cyclosporine A (CyA), is commonly used in the treatment of organ transplant patients. We hypothesized that CyA and prednisone treatment would alter the roles of the liver and peripheral tissues in the disposal of carbohydrates from a meal. METHODS: Using the arteriovenous difference technique, we examined the disposition of an intragastrically delivered mixed meal in eight 24-hour fasted conscious dogs that had received CyA 15 mg x kg(-1) daily and prednisone 5 mg twice daily for 7 consecutive days before study (CyA-prednisone group). The results were compared with those from a group of 13 dogs (control group) receiving the same meal but no drugs. RESULTS: Neither arterial blood glucose concentrations nor arterial plasma insulin or glucagon concentrations differed significantly between the groups at any time. Cumulative net gut glucose output was equivalent to 43 +/- 9 vs 57% +/- 7% of the glucose in the meal in CyA-prednisone vs control (p = .12). The CyA-prednisone group exhibited greater (p < .05) mean net hepatic glucose uptakes (15.4 +/- 4.6 vs 4.3 +/- 2.2 micromol x kg(-1) x min(-1) and net hepatic fractional extractions of glucose (7.8 +/- 1.6 and 1.5% +/- 1.0%) than the control group. Arterial blood lactate concentrations and net hepatic lactate output were greater in the CyA-prednisone group than the control group (p < .05). Hepatic glycogen content at the end of the study was 2.5-fold greater in the CyA-prednisone group than in the control group (p < .05). The nonhepatic tissues disposed of approximately 91% of the absorbed glucose in the control group but only approximately 26% in the CyA-prednisone group (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: CyA-prednisone treatment caused a marked shift in the carbohydrate disposal from a meal, enhancing the hepatic glucose uptake and decreasing peripheral glucose disposal.

Alanine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of the hepatic nerves on the disposition of a mixed meal by conscious dogs.

We examined the disposition of a mixed meal by nine conscious dogs fasted for 24 hours with surgical hepatic denervation. The results were compared with those from identical studies carried out previously in 13 hepatic-innervated dogs. Net gut release of glucose and gluconeogenic precursors (assessed with the arteriovenous difference technique), the resulting blood glucose and plasma insulin concentrations, and the hepatic glucose load were remarkably similar in the two groups. Net hepatic glucose uptake was 4.8 +/- 3.6 g in hepatic-denervated and 7.7 +/- 3.3 g in hepatic-innervated dogs. Cumulative net hepatic lactate release in hepatic-denervated dogs was 4.3 +/- 1.4 g of glucose equivalents, half the value for hepatic-innervated dogs. Net hepatic carbon intake was similar in the two groups. Hepatic lipogenesis, oxidation, and net glycogen synthesis were qualitatively similar between groups. In conclusion, the disposition of a mixed meal by hepatic-innervated and hepatic-denervated dogs was very similar. Subtle alterations in net hepatic balance of substrates (tendencies toward decreases in net hepatic glucose uptake and lactate release) made net carbon retention in denervated livers virtually identical with that in innervated livers. When other compensatory mechanisms are intact, hepatic denervation does not significantly alter hepatic disposition of a mixed meal.

Amino Acids↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Taurine supplementation: theoretical and practical considerations.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Breast Feeding↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A new attack on smoking using an old-time remedy.

This article first will explain the reasons behind and goals of state recoupment actions against the major cigarette manufacturers, their lobbying arm and trade association, and their public relations firms (collectively referred to as the "tobacco industry") for the recovery of Medicaid and other indigent care expenditures on smoking-related illnesses. These are, primarily, to relieve the heavy financial burden on state treasuries and to stop the tobacco industry from targeting children in advertising and promotions. To put this new legal approach in perspective, the article presents a brief historical background to the tobacco industry's litigation strategy: to wear down opponents through delay and intimidation, to cast doubt on science, and to wrongfully invoke the attorney-client privilege against disclosure of incriminating evidence. Next authors discuss the states' strategy: each filing one suit seeking equitable remedies under theories of restitution/unjust enrichment, indemnity, public nuisance, and injunctive relief to protect the interests of minors, instead of maintaining thousands of product liability claims on behalf of individual smokers. This will be followed by a critique of the industry's response to state actions: political attacks against attorneys general and trial lawyers and charges that the lawsuits would hurt business as well as a variety of legal challenges, including an imaginative but risky defense that if smoking indeed causes disease and attendant health care expenditures, then the tobacco industry ought to be given a credit against those expenditures for the taxes generated by its business and the "savings" which inure to the states from the premature deaths of smokers (the cost of geriatric care, for example). The article will wrap up by impressing on health officials and other readers what is at stake in these actions and what their success or failure will mean for the Medicaid program.

Adult↗