Component Processes of Decision Making in a Community Sample of Precariously Housed Persons: Associations With Learning and Memory, and Health-Risk Behaviors

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a widely used measure of decision making, but its value in signifying behaviors associated with adverse, “real-world” consequences has not been consistently demonstrated in persons who are precariously housed or homeless. Studies evaluating the ecological validity of the IGT have primarily relied on traditional IGT scores. However, computational modeling derives underlying component processes of the IGT, which capture specific facets of decision making that may be more closely related to engagement in behaviors associated with negative consequences. This study employed the Prospect Valence Learning (PVL) model to decompose IGT performance into component processes in 294 precariously housed community residents with substance use disorders. Results revealed a predominant focus on gains and a lack of sensitivity to losses in these vulnerable community residents. Hypothesized associations were not detected between component processes and self-reported health-risk behaviors. These findings provide insight into the processes underlying decision making in a vulnerable substance-using population and highlight the challenge of linking specific decision making processes to “real-world” behaviors

Coupling GIS and LCA for biodiversity assessments of land use

Geospatial details about land use are necessary to assess its potential impacts on biodiversity. Geographic information systems (GIS) are adept at modeling land use in a spatially explicit manner, while life cycle assessment (LCA) does not conventionally utilize geospatial information. This study presents a proof-of-concept approach for coupling GIS and LCA for biodiversity assessments of land use and applies it to a case study of ethanol production from agricultural crops in California. GIS modeling was used to generate crop production scenarios for corn and sugar beets that met a range of ethanol production targets. The selected study area was a four-county region in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California, USA. The resulting land use maps were translated into maps of habitat types. From these maps, vectors were created that contained the total areas for each habitat type in the study region. These habitat compositions are treated as elementary input flows and used to calculate different biodiversity impact indicators in a second paper (Geyer et al., submitted). Ten ethanol production scenarios were developed with GIS modeling. Current land use is added as baseline scenario. The parcels selected for corn and sugar beet production were generally in different locations. Moreover, corn and sugar beets are classified as different habitat types. Consequently, the scenarios differed in both the habitat types converted and in the habitat types expanded. Importantly, land use increased nonlinearly with increasing ethanol production targets. The GIS modeling for this study used spatial data that are commonly available in most developed countries and only required functions that are provided in virtually any commercial or open-source GIS software package. This study has demonstrated that GIS-based inventory modeling of land use allows important refinements in LCA theory and practice. Using GIS, land use can be modeled as a geospatial and nonlinear function of output. For each spatially explicit process, land use can be expressed within the conventional structure of LCA methodology as a set of elementary input flows of habitat types

Three isoflavanones with cannabinoid-like moieties from Desmodium canum

Three further derivatives of 5,7,2',4'-tetrahydroxy-6-methyl isoflavanone have been isolated from the root extract of Desmodium canum and assigned the structures 2,3-dihydro-5,7-dihydroxy-6-methyl-3-(1a,2,3,3a,8b,8c-hexahydro-6-hydroxy-1,1,3a-trimethyl-,6,9-trimethyl 1H-4-oxabenzo[f]cyclobut[c,d]inden-7-yl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (1) 2,3-dihydro-5,7-dihydroxy-6-methyl-3-(6a,7,8,10a-tetrahydro-3-hydroxy-6,6,9-trimethyl-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-2-yl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (2) 2,3-dihydro-5,7-dihydroxy-6-methyl-3-(3-hydroxy-6,6,9-trimethyl-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-2-yl) 4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (3). The three compounds and the previously isolated chromene 4 all derive from the geranylated precursor 5 by a series of cannabinoid-like oxidative rearrangements. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

New naphthopyrone derivatives from Cassia pudibunda

Further examination of the methanolic extract of the roots of Cassia pudibunda led to isolation of four new angular γ-naphthopyrones identified as 10-demethylflavaspe-rone (1), 10-demethylflavasperone-10-sulphate (2), 10-demethylflavasperone-10-O-β-D-apiof uranosyl-(1→-6)-O-β-D-glucopy-ranoside (3), and cassiapyrone-10-sulphate (7-methyl-10-deme-thylflavasperone-10-sulphate) (4). The antimicrobial activity of the compounds is also reported

(-)-Salzol, an isopimarane diterpene, and a chalcone from Hyptis salzmanii

From the leaves of Hyptis salzmanii a new isopimarane diterpene, named (-)-salzol, and the new 4,2′,6′-trihydroxy-4′-methox,ychalcone were isolated, together with three known lignans, i.e. (+)-sesamin, (-)-cubebins, (-)-hinokinin, three known flavanones, i.e. (-)-isosakuranetin, (±)-sakuranetin, (+)-naringenin-7,4′-dimethylether, and p-methoxycinnamic acid. The structure of 20-benzoyloxy-6β,7β,8β,9α-tetrahydroxyisopimar-15-ene, assigned to (-)-salzol, and the structure of the chalcone were determined on the basis of chemical and spectral dat

A biphenyl, a dihydrophenanthrene and a xanthone from Clusia paralycola

A prenylated biphenyl was isolated in a re-examination of the roots of Clusia paralycola and attributed the structure (5a) and the name clusiaparalycoline D for the similarity with other biphenyls isolated from the same source. A second product, isomeric with the previously isolated paralycolin A, was assigned a 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene structure (6a) and named paralycolin B