Territory size and ownership in red squirrels: response to removals

We monitored size and ownership of red squirrel territories in the southwestern Yukon during the summer following a year of abundant cone crop. Territory boundaries were determined by observing marked individuals. Six individuals and two groups (four individuals per group) were removed to test the hypothesis that the position of territory boundaries are determined by intruder pressure. Removed squirrels were replaced by juveniles or by breeding females which had given up their former territories to their offspring. Replacement occurred within hours of the removal and territory boundaries of the new squirrels were not significantly different from those of the original territory owners. Neighbouring territorial residents did not expand their territories to occupy all or part of the vacated area. The location of territory boundaries were not affected by intruder pressure.

Factors related to the use of ambulatory mental health services in three provider plans

The use of ambulatory mental health (MH) services by adults was studied in three provider plans: Blue Cross (BC), Group Health Cooperative (GHC) and United Healthcare (UHC), an experimental new plan in which a patient's primary care physician managed all of his care. Approximately 8.3% of the enrollees in each plan had some MH use in the 18 months of the study. We studied correlates of MH use (yes/no). Sex was not a significant predictor of MH use. In general, worse health and lower socioeconomic status (SES) were correlated with having at least one MH visit, but better health and higher SES were correlated with a higher quantity of use for those who had some MH use. The three insurance plans did not differ significantly in the proportion of people who had any MH services, but BC users of MH services had 2-3 times more MH visits and higher costs than GHC and UHC users. This suggests that the reliance on primary care providers in UHC and GHC may have changed the nature of MH care as compared to Blue Cross. The effects of income, MH need and symptom sensitivity on MH use were different among the three plans.

Use of outpatient somatic health services by patients who use or need mental health services in three provider plans

A major topic in mental health (MH) research addresses the problem that patients who use mental health services have inappropriately high levels of somatic use, and examines whether provision of mental health services can decrease the inappropriate use (the so-called offset effect). However, the research showing higher somatic use by mental health patients has usually been unable to control for the patients' health status, or for their mental health status. In this paper we examine use of somatic health services by enrollees in three provider plans as a function of both mental health use and mental health need. In two of the provider plans (an HMO and a prepaid independent practice association), MH users used significantly more outpatient somatic services than non-MH patients, after control for age and sex, and after control for the number of chronic conditions they had. People with MH need, however, did not use significantly more MH services than those without MH need. In the third plan, a Blue Cross/Blue Shield type of plan, results were different; MH users did not have significantly higher somatic utilization after control for chronic conditions, and those with MH need did have significantly higher somatic utilization after control for age and sex, but not after control for the number of chronic conditions. These results suggest that the form of inappropriate use of outpatient somatic services, and the nature of an offset effect, may be specific to the type of insurance provided.

Prognostic significance of complete surgical resection of pulmonary metastases in patients with osteogenic sarcoma: analysis of 32 patients

Between 1972 and 1981, 93 patients with extremity osteogenic sarcoma without detectable metastatic disease were treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. Fifty-two patients remain continuously free of disease. Thirty-two of the 41 patients who relapsed had pulmonary metastases only and 26 underwent thoracotomy to remove all metastatic disease. Complete resection was possible in 11 of 26 patients as defined by the removal of all macroscopic disease, no microscopic disease at resection margins, and no histologic evidence of pleural disruption by tumor. Nine of 11 patients are currently free of disease with a median duration of most recent remission of 42 months (range, 3-72 months). Four of these nine patients have had only one relapse. Only two of 15 patients with incomplete resection of metastatic disease defined by the above criteria are currently free of disease for 57 and 101 months. A significant difference in survival from initial relapse for patients made surgically free of disease using this stringent criteria was observed even when the result is stratified for time to first relapse and number of pulmonary nodules (p = 0.005). A subgroup of patients within the group undergoing thoracotomies who can be expected to have an improved survival has been defined.

Ambulatory mental health services utilization in three provider plans

This article examines the use of mental health services in three insurance plans: Blue Cross (BC), a health maintenance organization (HMO), and an independent practice association (IPA) in which the primary care physician was to manage all care for an individual. Approximately 7.3% of the enrollees in all three plans used some mental health care in the 18-month study period. The percent of enrollees with mental health utilization was lower in BC than in the other two plans, but the total quantity of mental health care use per enrollee and per user was much higher in BC than in the HMO and the IPA. Use was highest in the 19-44-year-old age group, and there were no significant differences between men and women in use of mental health services. There were substantial differences by race in all three plans: white persons were more likely to use any mental health care and had more visits than nonwhite persons after seeking mental health use. A similar study was conducted in the early 1970s on a poverty-level population enrolled in BC and the HMO. The findings of this study are similar, except that in the low-income study mental health care use was lower, and males used less mental health care than females. These differences might be attributable to the difference in enrollees' socioeconomic status in the two studies or to the increasing acceptability of mental health care utilization, particularly for males.

Variability in metabolic plus endogenous energy losses of adult cockerels and in the true metabolizable energy values and rates of passage of dehydrated alfalfa

An experiment with four groups of 12 adult cockerels allowed true metabolizable energy (TME) to be estimated in several ways. The birds were alternately fed one of two samples of dehydrated alfalfa meal or starved to serve as a negative control for the measurement of metabolic and endogenous energy loss (FEm + UEe). Each bird was fed twice and served as a control twice. The correction for FEm + UEe, therefore, could be estimated from the same bird, at a different period, or from a different bird at the same period. The FEm + UEe was largely characteristic of the bird. The correlation of the first observation with the second observation for each bird was .744 (44 DF). Variation in body weight did little to explain variation in FEm + UEe (r = .069, 90 DF). The most precise TME estimates were obtained by using each bird as its own negative control. A group mean value for FEm + UEe was somewhat inferior but the decrease in precision may be offset by reduced time and cost. The TME values provided additional evidence that the FEm + UEe output is characteristic of the bird. Although some birds consistently voided alfalfa residues more slowly than other birds, the pattern was not sufficiently consistent between birds to be significant.

True metabolizable energy values for poultry of commercial diets measured by bioassay and predicted from chemical data

Data describing 419 commercial poultry feeds and 41 mixtures of feedingstuffs were used to develop multiple linear regression equations for predicting the true metabolizable energy (TME) values of mixed feeds. Equations using the three-variable combinations "ether extract, crude fiber, ash" and "ether extract, crude protein, NFE" were equally useful as predictors of TME, explaining about 80% of the variation. The combination "ether extract, crude protein, carbohydrate", used in published equations for predicting apparent metabolizable energy, explained only about 60% of the variation. Equations with four or more variables were not significantly better than the three-variable equations. The commercial data were split into three groups. Equations developed on the separate groups were consistent. The equations are recommended for use with mixed feeds whose parameters fall within the ranges of the values observed in the experiment.

Matching segments of images

This correspondence describes research in the development of symbolic registration techniques directed toward the comparison of pairs of images of the same scene to ultimately generate descriptions of the changes in the scene. Unlike most earlier work in image registration, all the matching and analysis will be performed at a symbolic level rather than a signal level. We have applied this registration procedure on several different types of scenes and the system appears to work well both on pairs of images which may be analyzed in part by signal based systems and those which cannot be so analyzed.

The metabolic and endogenous energy losses of adult roosters

The metabolic plus endogenous energy losses of 300 adult, White Leghorn roosters during a 24 hr period, following 24 hr of starvation, were measured. The losses ranged from 2.37 to 6.93, with a mean of 4.46, kcal/kg body weight/24 hr. Multiple regression analysis showed that only 23% of the variation in the loss/bird/24 hr was explained by differences in body weight and weight change. The measurements were made during 38 experiments spread over 3 years but there was no evidence of any relationship between the year or time of year and magnitude of the energy loss.

Catecholamine and octopamine concentrations in brains of patients with Reye syndrome

Dopamine, norepinephrine, and octopamine levels were estimated in regions of brains obtained postmortem from children who died with Reye syndrome and from age-matched controls. Hypothalamic norepinephrine levels were greatly decreased (to 30 percent of control, p less than 0.02) and octopamine levels were increased (to 700 percent of control, p less than 0.01). Levodopa had little effect on the physiologic condition of the patients. However, CNS dopamine and homovanillic concentrations were not elevated by levodopa, indicating that in the present cases levodopa was not metabolized to its catecholamine products. The findings indicate that the encephalopathy of Reye syndrome (as in other types of hepatic coma) may be linked to the presence of false transmitters in the brain and that levodopa is a rational therapy if administered before irreversible CNS changes occur.

Variation in the metabolizable energy values of diets and dietary components fed to adult roosters

Two experiments were conducted to measure the variability of the M.E. values of diets and dietary ingredients fed to adult S.C.W.L. roosters. The first experiment was concerned with the variability between birds and days, the acclimatization to dietary change and the effect of the nitrogen correction. The standard error of the mean dietary M.E. value appropriate to an individual bird on one day was found to be 0.073 kcal./g. Increasing the number of days of excreta collection reduced this value slightly faster than did increasing the number of birds. The results suggest that the dietary acclimatization period should be at least 48 hr. The nitrogen correction was very small and of doubtful value. The second experiment comprised 5 bioassays in each of which 6 different samples of grain were fed at 3 levels of dietary inclusion (25, 50 and 75%) to birds drawn from the population used in the first experiment. The standard error of the mean dietary M.E. value was in agreement with the earlier value. The variance of ingredient M.E. values increased as the level of dietary inclusion decreased. Standard deviations of the mean M.E. value of an ingredient predicted from the data of the first experiment were in agreement with actual values observed in the second experiment. It is concluded that the adult rooster is suitable for use in bioassays designed to measure the M.E. values of diets and ingredients.

Constituents of the Tumour-Inhibitory Extract of Olearia muelleri

The new rearranged diterpenoid (1)* and the flavonoids, centaureidin (9) and quercetagetin 3,6-dimethyl ether (10), have been isolated from an extract of Olearia muelleri (Sond.) Benth. Centaureidin has a weak cytotoxic action in an anti-tumor assay system, accounting, in part, for bioactivity of the plant extract.

Brain amine concentrations after monoamine oxidase inhibitor administration

The concentrations of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT), noradrenaline, and dopamine were estimated post mortem in brain stem, hypothalamus, and caudate nucleus in 33 patients who had been treated with isocarboxazid, clorgyline, or tranylcypromine and 11 controls. Similar and highly significant increases in 5HT and noradrenaline concentration occurred with all three drugs. The distribution was unimodal, but about a quarter of the patients showed only a small increase in brain amines. Tranylcypromine seemed to have a significantly greater effect on dopamine in caudate nucleus and hypothalamus compared with isocarboxazid and clorgyline. In the doses used chlorpromazine did not reduce the amine concentrations. Four patients with Parkinson's syndrome had low concentrations of dopamine in caudate nucleus in spite of monoamine oxidase inhibitor administration.