Changes in salt taste in dialysis and their relationship to blood constituents

Taste sensitivity for sodium chloride in solution and sensitivity and preference for sodium chloride in bread were measured in 14 male patients undergoing hemodialysis. There was an increase in sensitivity to salt taste following dialysis only when assessed using the bread samples. Patients on a lower sodium diet were more sensitive to salt taste in bread. Although the taste changes were not related to the decreases in serum sodium or to copper, greater increases in sensitivity were related to greater increases in serum zinc during dialysis.     

Cigarette smoking, urinary acidity, and nicotine excretion under natural conditions

For 40 males who smoked 20 cigarettes a day titratable acidity of the urine was significantly correlated with nicotine/cotinine excretion at several sample intervals, as was urinary pH, but not urinary acidity and daily cigarette consumption or serum COHB.     

Perceptions by the aged of crime, criminals, and the criminal justice system

A general fear of crime victimization led to modified activities in the community and feelings of relative safety in their own area for 132 elderly respondents on a 24-item questionnaire. They held sympathetic views of crime perpetrators as disadvantaged victims of society themselves, but came to the unlikely conclusions that more police control and harsher prison sentences are needed.     

A new quantitative approach to the assessment of stages of vigilance as defined by spatiotemporal EEG patterning

Electroencephalographically oriented research on vigilance needs valid measures for assessing the level of vigilance between wakefulness and sleep. When studying different psychologically, psychopathologically, and pharmacologically induced states, special attention has to be paid to minor alterations of the level of vigilance which are reflected, essentially, in topographical changes of alpha-activity (Stage A). Since vigilance is a dynamic process, brief fluctuations in the range of a few seconds must also be recorded. In our opinion existing methods of quantification do not fully meet these demands. We have, therefore, developed a relatively simple procedure which can be characterized as an attempt quantitatively to reconstruct visually, i.e., spatiotemporally defined patterns of vigilance. The usefulness of this method, which also has certain limitations, has been demonstrated in psychopharmacological studies.     

Effect of directed attention on cerebral asymmetries in stuttering adults

9 stutterers and 9 nonstutterers were administered a dichotic digits test under conditions of free recall and directed attention. Analysis indicated right-ear preference for both groups and no differences between the free recall and directed listening conditions. Results are discussed in relation to previous studies in which dichotic digit-stimuli were presented to stutterers.     

Effects of auditory masking by white noise on primary stressing during spontaneous speech

6 adult subjects (3 men, 3 women) produced highly similar spontaneous speech utterances in quiet and with 90-dB SPL white noise. The frequency of occurrence of perceptual judgments of primary stressing in an utterance was not affected by the masking noise. This finding supplements our previous report that variability for stress production of fundamental frequency (fo) during spontaneous speech was preserved under short-term auditory disruption. Also, it adds further support to the contention that fo is under open-loop regulation.     

Children's perception of parental exercise: influence of sex and age

The purpose of the study was to document children's perception of parental exercise, relating these perceptions to (1) the self-reported parents' habits of exercise, and (2) the children's own activity patterns. The subjects were 198 students of both sexes, aged 12 to 14 yr. and enrolled in school Grades 7 to 9. A standard questionnaire assessed their perceptions of parental and personal physical activity. Both parents of each subject also reported their respective levels of habitual physical activity. Congruence between the children's perceptions and the self-reported exercise habits of the opposite-sex parent differed for boys and girls, increasing for boys and decreasing for girls between Grades 7 and 9. No significant associations were observed between the children's perception of parental exercise patterns and their own like habits. This suggests that during adolescence parental influences are minimized by other factors, personal or environmental.