Effects of age-based movement on the estimation of growth assuming random-at-age or random-at-length data.

Simulation methods were used to generate paired data from a simulated population that included the age-based process of movement and the length-based process of gear selection. The age-based process caused bias in the estimates of growth parameters assuming random at length, even when relatively few age classes were affected. Methods that assumed random at age were biased by the subsequent inclusion of the length-based process of gear selection. Additional knowledge of the age structure of the sampled area is needed to ensure an unbiased estimate of the growth parameters when using the length-conditional approach in the presence of age-based movement. Estimates of the variability in the length-at-age relationship were better estimated with the length-conditional than the traditional method even when the assumptions of random at length were violated. Inclusion of paired observations of length and associated age inside the population dynamics model may be the most appropriate way of estimating growth.

Cardiac Leiomyosarcoma in a Cat Presenting for Bilateral Renal Neoplasia.

A 10-year-old neutered female domestic longhair cat was presented to a tertiary care veterinary hospital for evaluation of a right renal mass that was identified incidentally on abdominal radiographs and classified further as a sarcoma based on fine needle aspiration cytology. Further diagnostic workup, including ultrasound and cytology, identified a sarcoma in the left kidney. After approximately 1 month of conservative medical management, the clinical condition deteriorated and the cat was humanely destroyed. Post-mortem examination confirmed bilateral renal masses with multifocal infarction and extensive necrosis, and further identified a large mass at the apex of the heart as well as multiple pulmonary nodules. Microscopical examination of the masses identified a population of poorly-differentiated neoplastic spindle cells, consistent with sarcoma. Immunohistochemically, the neoplastic cells expressed smooth muscle actin and muscle-specific actin, but were negative for myoglobin and factor VIII. Phosphotungstic acid-haematoxylin staining was unable to identify cross-striations in the neoplastic cells. Based on these results and the pattern of lesion distribution, the cat was diagnosed with cardiac leiomyosarcoma with pulmonary and bilateral renal metastasis.

Adapting to the stigmatizing label of mental illness: foregone but not forgotten.

In a study ostensibly about memory ability, a condition was created experimentally in which half of the subjects believed that they were participating in the study with mental patients and half believed they were participating with physical injury patients. Behavioral measures of each subject were made as well as having the subjects give self-reports of their perceptions of the other people who were in the study. The results indicated that the label of mental illness was stigmatizing even in the absence of bizarre behaviors. Although subjects interacted with the mental patients normally when in the adaptively unimportant waiting room situation, the subjects scored higher on the adaptively significant memory test when participating in the study with "mental patients." The discussion included consideration for stigma theory, for social adaptation, and for community placement programs.