Effects of age, system experience, and navigation technique on driving with an advanced traveler information system.

This paper explores the effects of age, system experience, and navigation technique on driving, navigation performance, and safety for drivers who used TravTek, an Advanced Traveler Information System. The first two studies investigated various route guidance configurations on the road in a specially equipped instrumented vehicle with an experimenter present. The third was a naturalistic quasi-experimental field study that collected data unobtrusively from more than 1200 TravTek rental car drivers with no in-vehicle experimenter. The results suggest that with increased experience, drivers become familiar with the system and develop strategies for substantially more efficient and safer use. The results also showed that drivers over age 65 had difficulty driving and navigating concurrently. They compensated by driving slowly and more cautiously. Despite this increased caution, older drivers made more safety-related errors than did younger drivers. The results also showed that older drivers benefited substantially from a well-designed ATIS driver interface.

Metabolism and storage of catecholamines in rats with pheochromocytoma implants.

New England Deaconess Hospital rats implanted with a pheochromocytoma P259 became hypertensive and showed high concentrations of plasma dopamine (42.0 +/- 14.6 ng/ml) and norepinephrine (45.7 +/- 8.4 ng/ml). However, the norepinephrine content of several peripheral tissues of these rats did not differ from those of the New England Deaconess Hospital control rats, and their dopamine content, although slightly higher, was much lower than would have been expected from the plasma dopamine levels. Methylation by catechol-O-methyltransferase did not appear to play a major role in the inactivation of tissue catecholamines since there were no noticeable increases of normetanephrine or 3-methoxytyramine in the tissues of the rats with pheochromocytoma. There was also no increase in conjugated dopamine, in either the sulfate or glucuronide form, in the plasma or tissue of the hypertensive rats, although injection of L-dopa induced a large increase in dopamine sulfate in the plasma and urine of these rats. This finding indicated that, although their sulfoconjugation mechanism was intact and not affected by the pheochromocytoma, it did not participate in the metabolism of dopamine released by the tumor into the blood. On the other hand, plasma and urine of tumor-bearing rats exhibited abnormally high concentrations of homovanillic acid, the main metabolite of dopamine resulting from monoamine oxidase action. In contrast to the control rats, intravenous infusion of free dopamine in rats with pheochromocytoma had no effect on plasma free dopamine levels but increased homovanillic acid levels considerably. The present data underline the important role of monoamine oxidase in the removal of excessive quantities of catecholamines released by the tumor in New England Deaconess Hospital rats with the pheochromocytoma implant.

Effect of pheochromocytoma and hypophysectomy on blood pressure and catecholamines in NEDH rats.

The New England Deaconess Hospital (NEDH) rat provides a valuable model with which to study pheochromocytoma (P); 59% of male rats 700 to 900 days old and 81% of those 900 days or older developed spontaneous P. One transplantable P (P259), when implanted into other NEDH rats, markedly increased plasma norepinephrine and dopamine as well as blood pressure, and usually caused death within 4 weeks. Even without P, about 83% of NEDH rats became hypertensive by 131/2 weeks of age and remained moderately hypertensive until 2 years of age when some animals developed spontaneous P and hypertension became severe. Whether a common mechanism is responsible for early appearance of hypertension and later development of P remains to be determined. Hypophysectomized NEDH rats remained normotensive or slightly hypotensive despite marked elevations of plasma norepinephrine and dopamine caused by P259 implantation; furthermore, survival was prolonged to 3 months. Catecholamine concentrations in plasma and RBC were usually quite similar, indicating that red blood cells play a significant role in inactivating circulating catecholamines. Unlike the normal adrenal, P259 in NEDH rats contains mainly norepinephrine and dopamine with little epinephrine; it appears that P259 is deficient in the enzyme phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT), which converts norepinephrine to epinephrine. Why hypophysectomy prevents hypertension and prolongs life in rats with P259 implants is unclear; adrenal cortical and thyroid deficiency may play a role. Preliminary observations indicate that hypophysectomy can prevent spontaneous development of P in NEDH rats.