Serotonin, Motivation, and Playfulness in the Juvenile Rat

The effects of the selective 5HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT were assessed on the play behavior of juvenile rats. When both rats of the test pair were comparably motivated to play, the only significant effect of 8-OH-DPAT was for play to be reduced at higher doses. When there was a baseline asymmetry in playful solicitation due to a differential motivation to play and only one rat of the pair was treated, low doses of 8-OH-DPAT resulted in a collapse of asymmetry in playful solicitations. It did not matter whether the rat that was treated initially accounted for more nape contacts or fewer nape contacts, the net effect of 8-OH-DPAT in this model was for low doses of 8-OH-DPAT to decrease a pre-established asymmetry in play solicitation. It is concluded that selective stimulation of 5HT1A receptors changes the dynamic of a playful interaction between two participants that are differentially motivated to play. These results are discussed within a broader framework of serotonergic involvement in mammalian playfulness

The Effects of Workplace Smoking Bans on Smoking Prevalence: A State Level Analysis

This study investigates the effects of workplace smoking bans on smoking prevalence. Using a unique panel data set on state-wide smoking prevalence in all U.S. jurisdictions, while controlling for fixed and lagged effects, I find that smoking bans decrease overall smoking prevalence. The magnitude of this impact, however, makes the federal government’s goal of reducing the national smoking rate from its current level to 12 percent by 2020 a hopeful aspiration. Nevertheless, this study demonstrates that workplace smoking bans, especially in conjunction with other statewide governmental initiatives, are a worthwhile endeavor in decreasing smoking prevalence

Surface Imaging Through Silylation

Silylation is a surface imaging technique which allows silicon to absorb into photoresist in specified areas. Photoresist containing silicon creates a hard-mask which is resistant to oxygen plasma. This allows for the development process to occur strictly in dry etch systems. Surface imaging is a desirable technique because it removes the need to expose through the photoresist stack. Traditional lithography techniques require a high dose of ultra-violet (UV) light in order to penetrate to the bottom of a photoresist stack. It is critical, for quality imaging, that the photoresist not be over or under exposed. This creates a process window dependent on two main variables; the photoresist thickness and the dose needed to penetrate through the photoresist stack. Surface imaging allows for a larger process window because the dose is not depended on the thickness of the resist. In surface imaging, the UV light only exposes the top-most layer of the photoresist material. Surface imaging removes the resist thickness variable, this will allow for a wider process window. Variation in photoresist thickness is also important; traditional lithography requires a uniform photoresist thickness across the surface of the wafer in order to optimize depth of focus (DOF). Surface imaging tends to be less effected by photoresist variation due to short depth requirements of the exposure. This allows for a relaxed depth of focus (DOF) requirement, as well as a larger process window

Metals and persistent organic pollutants as ecological determinants of human health in Naivasha, Kenya

The main industries in Naivasha are floriculture and geothermal energy, with both industries beginning in the 1980s. Increased employment caused a 20-fold increase in population over 3 decades. These changes have the potential to increase the release of environmental contaminants, such as metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This study uses an ecosystem health approach to study the distribution and health risks associated with metals in airborne dust and POPs and metals in Cyprinus carpio dorsal muscle, in Naivasha, Kenya. Findings suggest that Ni in airborne dust may be derived from natural catchment substrate, but still exists at concentrations above World Health Organization guidelines. Of the POPs and metals quantified in Cyprinus carpio, only dieldrin and Hg exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for unlimited fish consumption. Concentrations of Hg and dieldrin are still low enough for safe fish consumption 16 times/month and more than 3 times/month, respectively

Anarchist Strategy and Visual Rhetoric in Brazil, 1970: The Living Theatre as “The People in the Street”

The dominant narrative of the Living Theatre, an anarchist-pacifist, activist performance group, situates the company within a historical framework of the New Left . Implications of this strategy are identified and critiqued. Both due to the simplification of historical time periods between the fields of theatre and politics, or periodization (Postlewait), and because of the ways in which the New Left is identified as overtly American in much theatre scholarship, historicizing the Living Theatre as in-line with the New Left has resulted in the erasure of the Living Theatre\u27s founding philosophies of anarchism and pacifism. The visual implications of these findings are discussed in the theatre\u27s advertising campaign for a 1971 lecture tour titled, Theatre and the Revolution . Although a project engaged in marketing revolutionary ideas, these posters drew their image vocabulary from imaging strategies on the more far-radical left, such as Mao, Guevara, and Stalin. Visual-rhetorical strategy during this time period is compared across two advertising images

Information Seeking in Rats on the Radial Maze

Metacognition is awareness of what one does and does not know. Students given a choice between studying material they have learned well and material they have learned poorly prefer to study the less mastered material (Metcalfe, 2009). Recent studies suggest that primates also know about the state of their own knowledge and will seek unknown information to complete a task (Call & Carpenter, 2001; Hampton et al., 2004). Two experimental paradigms can be used to test for the presence of metacognition within a species: uncertainty tasks and information seeking tasks. Uncertainty tasks ask animals to judge their confidence in the information that they possess. Information-seeking studies ask animals to recognize that they have insufficient information to complete a task and then study their response to such a situation. To form a strong argument for the presence of metacognition within a species, both metacognition tasks should be investigated. I used a radial arm maze to look for information-seeking behaviour in rats. Each maze arm had a bulb mounted on it to serve as a signal light. Rats were trained to go to whichever arm was lit on a trial for reward. They then were trained to press a bar in the maze hub that led to immediate food reward and turned on a light in one randomly chosen arm of the maze. Once the rats learned to press the bar, the reward for bar pressing was discontinued. I report on the rats’ readiness to press the bar for information about the location of reward under conditions that varied the presence or absence information and amount of information to be gained