Females' participation in psychopharmacology research as authors, editors, and subjects.

This study determined the involvement of women as first authors and other authors for every article published in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, and Psychopharmacology in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006. Their involvement as editors also was determined. Women's participation as authors, but not as editors, slightly increased over time. In 2006, 43% of first authors, 38% of other authors, and 24% of editors were women. The gender of subjects was examined for the same years and journals, but could not be determined for 6% and 9% of articles employing nonhuman and human subjects, respectively. In 2006, when subjects' gender could be determined, 77% of articles involving nonhuman subjects used only males, 9% only females, and 14% both males and females. In articles using human subjects in that same year, 17% involved only males, 6% only females, and 77% both males and females. Women researchers clearly make substantial contributions to the psychopharmacology literature, but are nonetheless underrepresented as editors. Findings regarding subjects indicate that there is growing recognition of the importance of gender as a determinant of drug effects, although the vast majority of nonhuman studies continue to involve only male subjects.

Using giant African pouched rats to detect human tuberculosis: a review.

Despite its characteristically low sensitivity, sputum smear microscopy remains the standard for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB) in resource-poor countries. In an attempt to develop an alternative or adjunct to microscopy, researchers have recently examined the ability of pouched rats to detect TB-positive human sputum samples and the microbiological variables that affect their detection. Ten published studies, reviewed herein, suggest that the rats are able to detect the specific odor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB, and can substantially increase new-case detections when used for second-line TB screening following microscopy. Further research is needed to ascertain the rats' ability to detect TB in children and in HIV-positive patients, to detect TB when used for first-line screening, and to be useful in broad-scale applications where cost-effectiveness is a major consideration.

Training pouched rats to find people.

Giant African pouched rats equipped with video cameras may be a tenable option for locating living humans trapped under debris from collapsed structures. In the present study, 5 pouched rats were trained to contact human targets in a simulated collapsed building and to return to the release point after hearing a signal to do so. During test sessions, each rat located human targets more often than it located similar-sized inanimate targets on which it had not previously been trained and spent more time within 1 m of the human target than within 1 m of the other targets. Overall, the rats found humans, plastic bags containing clothes, and plastic bags without clothes on 83%, 37%, and 11% of trials, respectively. These findings suggest that using pouched rats to search for survivors in collapsed structures merits further attention.

Fostering hand washing before lunch by students attending a special needs young adult program.

A multiple baseline across groups design was used to investigate the effects of a treatment package on hand washing before lunch by five students with disabilities who attended a young adult educational program. To evaluate hand washing, a lotion called Glo Germ was applied to participants' hands. Glo Germ is visible under a black light, which allowed the quality of hand washing to be assessed by comparing the amount visible before and after hand washing using a 3-point scale. Following a baseline period in which hand washing was assessed, participants were exposed to a hand washing training procedure, which improved one participant's hand washing. Next, a lottery system was imposed in which the number of lottery tickets earned each day depended on the quality of hand washing, specifically, on the rating assigned (0, 1, or 2). This condition was associated with improved hand washing by the other four participants. Finally, a condition adding feedback to the lottery system resulted in further improvements in the quality of hand washing for all participants. Follow up data indicated modest maintenance of hand washing after lunch. These results suggest that treatment packages similar to that used in the present study merit further investigation and that Glo Germ is of value in ascertaining the quality of hand washing.

Pouched rats' detection of tuberculosis in human sputum: comparison to culturing and polymerase chain reaction.

Setting. Tanzania. Objective. To compare microscopy as conducted in direct observation of treatment, short course centers to pouched rats as detectors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Design. Ten pouched rats were trained to detect tuberculosis in sputum using operant conditioning techniques. The rats evaluated 910 samples previously evaluated by smear microscopy. All samples were also evaluated through culturing and multiplex polymerase chain reaction was performed on culture growths to classify the bacteria. Results. The patientwise sensitivity of microscopy was 58.0%, and the patient-wise specificity was 97.3%. Used as a group of 10 with a cutoff (defined as the number of rat indications to classify a sample as positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis) of 1, the rats increased new case detection by 46.8% relative to microscopy alone. The average samplewise sensitivity of the individual rats was 68.4% (range 61.1-73.8%), and the mean specificity was 87.3% (range 84.7-90.3%). Conclusion. These results suggest that pouched rats are a valuable adjunct to, and may be a viable substitute for, sputum smear microscopy as a tuberculosis diagnostic in resource-poor countries.

APOPO's tuberculosis research agenda: achievements, challenges and prospects.

This article describes Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling (APOPO) recent use of specially trained African giant pouched rats as detectors of pulmonary tuberculosis in people living in Tanzania. It summarizes the achievements and challenges encountered over the years and outlines future prospects. Since 2008, second-line screening by the rats has identified more than 2000 tuberculosis-positive patients who were missed by microscopy at Direct Observation of Treatment--Short Course centres in Tanzania. Moreover, data that are reviewed herein have been collected with respect to the rats' sensitivity and specificity in detecting tuberculosis. Findings strongly suggest that scent-detecting rats offer a quick and practical tool for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis and within the year APOPO's tuberculosis-detection project will be extended to Mozambique. As part of its local capacity building effort, APOPO hires and trains Tanzanians to play many important roles in its TB detection project and provides research and training opportunities for Tanzanian students.

Tuberculosis detection by giant african pouched rats.

In recent years, operant discrimination training procedures have been used to teach giant African pouched rats to detect tuberculosis (TB) in human sputum samples. This article summarizes how the rats are trained and used operationally, as well as their performance in studies published to date. Available data suggest that pouched rats, which can evaluate many samples quickly, are sufficiently accurate in detecting TB to merit further investigation as a diagnostic tool.

Using giant African pouched rats to detect tuberculosis in human sputum samples: 2010 findings.

Giant African pouched rats previously have detected tuberculosis (TB) in human sputum samples in which the presence of TB was not initially detected by smear microscopy. Operant conditioning principles were used to train these rats to indicate TB-positive samples. In 2010, rats trained in this way evaluated 26,665 sputum samples from 12,329 patients. Microscopy performed at DOTS centers found 1,671 (13.6%) of these patients to be TB-positive. Detection rats identified 716 additional TB-positive patients, a 42.8% increase in new-case detection. These previously unreported data, which extend to over 20,000 the number of patients evaluated by pouched rats in simulated second-line screening, suggest that the rats can be highly valuable in that capacity.

Cocaine and automaintained responding in pigeons: rate-reducing effects and tolerance thereto with different durations of food delivery.

Pigeons were exposed to an automaintenance procedure in which 6-s key illuminations in one color (red or white) were immediately followed by 3-s food deliveries and key illuminations in the other color were followed by 9-s food deliveries. Both conditions engendered consistent responding. With both durations of food delivery, acute and chronic cocaine administrations (1.0-17.8 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent decreases in mean percent trials (key illuminations) with a response and mean total response per session. Tolerance developed to the disruptive effects of cocaine on both response measures. Food duration did not significantly affect either response measure or significantly interact with cocaine dose or drug regimen. The orderliness of the present findings, like those of a related study examining whether probability of food delivery modulated the effects of cocaine on automaintained responding [Porritt, M., Arnold, M., Poling, A., Cocaine and automaintained responding in pigeons: rate-reducing effects and tolerance thereto with different CS-US pairing probabilities. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2007; 87:405-411.], suggests that the automaintenance procedure is a useful assay for examining tolerance to drug effects on classically-conditioned responding. Unlike the results of that study, however, the present findings are inconsistent with a behavioral momentum analysis of drug effects on such responding.