IL-9-deficient mice establish fundamental roles for IL-9 in pulmonary mastocytosis and goblet cell hyperplasia but not T cell development.

Interleukin-9 is a cytokine produced by Th2 cells and is a candidate gene for asthma and atopy. We have generated IL-9-deficient mice to delineate the specific roles of IL-9 in Th2 responses. Using a pulmonary granuloma model, we have demonstrated a distinct requirement for IL-9 in the rapid and robust generation of pulmonary goblet cell hyperplasia and mastocytosis in response to lung challenge. In contrast, eosinophilia and granuloma formation were not affected. IL-9 was not required for T cell development or differentiation, the generation of naive or antigen-driven antibody responses, or the expulsion of the intestinal parasitic nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Thus, deletion of IL-9 manifests as a highly defined phenotype in Th2 responses modulating mucus production and mast cell proliferation.

The perception of sexual attractiveness: sex differences in variability.

Results of three independent studies supported predictions derived from evolutionary theory: Men's assessments of sexual attractiveness are determined more by objectively assessable physical attributes; women's assessments are more influenced by perceived ability and willingness to invest (e.g., partners' social status, potential interest in them). Consequently, women's assessments of potential partners' sexual attractiveness and coital acceptability vary more than men's assessments. The proposition that polygamous women's assessments of men's sexual attractiveness vary less than those of monogamous women (because the former allegedly are more influenced by target persons' physical attributes) was also tested. In Study 1 male college students showed more agreement than females in their rankings of the sexual attractiveness of opposite-sex target persons. Target persons' flesh and bodily display enhanced this sex difference. In Study 2 men exhibited less variance than did women in their ratings of target persons' acceptability for dating and sexual relations. Women who viewed models described as having low status showed more variability than did women in the high-status condition. In Study 3 women showed more variability than men did in their ratings of 20 opposite-sex celebrities' sexual attractiveness. Studies 2 and 3 included the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI)-a measure of polygamous attitudes and behavior. Women's SOI scores did not affect the variability of their assessments in either Study 2 or 3. In Study 3 men with low SOI scores showed less variability than did men with high SOI scores. Alternative explanations of the findings are examined. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.

Sex without emotional involvement: an evolutionary interpretation of sex differences.

Two samples of male (n = 243) and female (n = 298) college students completed sexual surveys, and in-depth, oral interviews were conducted with 28 highly sexually active female college students. Findings supported five predictions derived from evolutionary (parental-investment) theory. Even when females voluntarily engaged in low-investment copulation, coitus typically caused them to feel emotionally vulnerable, and to have thoughts expressing anxiety about partners' willingness to invest. For females, increasing numbers of partners correlated positively with the incidence of these feelings and thoughts; for males, these correlations were negative. Females' attempts to continue regular coitus when they desired more investment than partners were willing to give produced feelings of distress, degradation, and exploitation despite acceptance of liberal sexual morality. Increasing numbers of partners did not mitigate these reactions in females and may exacerbate them. Multiple-partner females developed techniques for dealing with their emotional reactions to low-investment copulation: They frequently tested their partners for signs of ability and willingness to invest (e.g., dominance, prowess, jealousy, nurturance), and they limited or terminated sexual relations when they perceived partners' investment as inadequate. Results were consistent with the view that the emotional-motivational mechanisms that mediate sexual arousal and attraction are sexually dimorphic.

Defining the need for faculty in family medicine: results of a national survey.

BACKGROUND: Although numerous anecdotal reports are being offered about the growing number of unfilled faculty positions in US family medicine departments, virtually no literature exists on faculty recruitment. The objective of this study was to define the scope and nature of current faculty recruitment needs in family medicine. METHODS: A national survey was sent to all family medicine department chairs and family practice residency program directors concerning faculty positions unfilled at their sites and positions for which recruitment would occur within the next 5 years. The survey asked for information on currently available positions; academic title of position; percentage of time to be devoted to clinical, educational, administrative, and research activities; primary focus of the position; date when the position became available; and the length of time the position has been unfilled. Similar information was collected on positions anticipated to be available within the next 5 years. RESULTS: A total of 364 surveys were returned, for an overall response rate of 70%. Information from the survey revealed a current, substantial demand for family medicine faculty throughout the country, with an even greater demand anticipated for the near future. Respondents reported 496 currently unfilled positions for family medicine faculty and another 677 positions anticipated to be available within the next 19.5 months on average. A total of 89.7% of those anticipated positions were reported as either "certain" or "somewhat certain," in terms of likelihood of availability. CONCLUSIONS: The demand for family medicine faculty is increasing, and much of the demand is financially motivated. Clinical expectations appear to be higher among departments than for residencies. Finally, it was revealed that most positions had minimal allotments for research time. Family medicine must recommit itself to the development of a scholarly agenda as it recruits new faculty.

Gender difference in mate preference among law students: divergence and convergence of criteria.

We examined six hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory regarding sex differences in mate-selection criteria. The subjects were 160 law students who viewed color photographs of live models that were paired with different status cues such as costume variation and descriptions of income and occupation. A multivariate analysis of variance and regression analyses revealed highly significant sex differences in the following responses: reported willingness to engage in unqualified sexual relations; reported willingness to have sexual relations with stimulus persons as compared with the willingness to engage in higher investment relationships such as dating and marriage; the effects of stimulus persons' status and physical attractiveness in determining thresholds of initial acceptability; and tradeoffs, that is the ability of high physical attractiveness to compensate for low status, and of high status to compensate for low physical attractiveness. Law students also responded to nine statements concerning prospective spouses' relative income, occupational prestige, and physical attractiveness. These responses exhibited sex differences consistent with those found in the experimental manipulation.

Effects of potential partners' physical attractiveness and socioeconomic status on sexuality and partner selection.

Male (n = 170) and female (n = 212) college students viewed photographs, which had been prerated for physical attractiveness, of three opposite-sex individuals. These photographs were paired with three levels of occupational status and income. Subjects indicated their willingness to engage in relationships of varying levels of sexual intimacy and marital potential with the portrayed individuals. Analyses of variance, correlations, and trend analyses supported the hypotheses. Compared to men, women are more likely to prefer or insist that sexual intercourse occur in relationships that involve affection and marital potential, and women place more emphasis than men do on partners' SES in such relationships. Consequently, men's SES and their willingness and ability to invest affection and resources in relationships may often outweigh the effects of their physical attractiveness in women's actual selection of partners. These results and the literature reviewed are more consistent with parental investment theory than with the view that these sex differences are solely the result of differential access to resources and differential socialization.

Graduate primary care training: a collaborative alternative for family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics.

The Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center is a collaborative, integrated training program for primary care pediatricians, internists, and family physicians within one interdisciplinary organization. Since 1970 we have trained more than 200 physicians, prepared them for board certification in their specialty, emphasized the psychosocial aspects and social determinants of health and illness, and shared a faculty, curriculum, and commitment to provide medical care for inner-city, underserved populations. We discuss the program's history and curriculum, administrative and academic structure, shared "cross-track" faculty units (psychosocial; social medicine; and research, education, and evaluation), and graduates' practice outcomes. The interdisciplinary character of the Residency Program in Social Medicine helps physicians successfully serve the underserved and exemplifies that interdisciplinary medical education succeeds when interdisciplinary health care teams are organized for optimal patient care. Only the federal government has the perspective and power to foster more interdisciplinary collaboration and strengthen primary care education in a period of shrinking resources.

Sex differences in sexuality among medical students: effects of increasing socioeconomic status.

Research has consistently shown that, compared to men, women are more cautious and selective and maintain greater marital aspirations in entering and maintaining sexual relationships. One explanation of this sex difference is that women have traditionally had inferior access to earning power and social status and consequently were forced to acquire socioeconomic status (SES) through their choice of marriage partners. A contrasting view is that this difference is a component of the basic sex difference identified in the Kinsey studies: Men are more likely than women to dissociate coitus from emotional attachment and to desire and seek coitus with a variety of partners. These two explanations were explored in open-ended interviews with matched samples of 20 male and 20 female medical students. The results were more consistent with the perspective of basic sex differences than with the differential resources explanation. Increasing female SES does not appear to eliminate or even substantially reduce this sex difference. Increasing SES tends to enlarge the pool of acceptable, available sexual and marital partners for men while it tends to reduce the pool for women. Increasing SES thus tends to have different effects on men and women and may cause sex differences in the tendency to associate coitus with emotional attachments and marital aspirations to be more, rather than less, apparent. Extensive case data with verbatim quotations are presented to reveal the emotions and desires underlying subjects' overt behavior.

Menopausal syndrome: illness or social role--a transcultural analysis.

In recent years the medical diagnosis and treatment of "menopausal syndrome" has come under a barrage of criticism. Critics of the conventional clinical approach claim that menopausal syndrome is largely a social role foisted on middle-aged women in this society. The physician plays a very active part (albeit an inadvertent one) in recruiting women into this role. This paper examines the evidence for this thesis, including cross-cultural and intracultural variation. The evidence examined suggests that the more psychological and psychosomatic symptoms do seem to vary with cultural role expectations. Research paradigms for further testing of this thesis are adapted from the study of mental disorders and described. In contrast, those organic changes directly associated with estrogen insufficiency do lead in some women to definite pathologies, e.g., osteoporosis and an increased rate of bone fractures. Whether these organic concomitants of aging in women should be viewed and treated medically is a moot question, and one which involves values and politics more than medical facts.

Stereotypes of mental illness: a comparison with ethnic stereotypes.

This paper draws on empirical and theoretical studies to argue that popular and professional conceptions of mental illness share specific traits with ethnic stereotypes: (1) they are exaggerated and serve to erect a qualitative boundary where none objectively exists: (2) they are maintained through selective perception, rationalization, and sanctions; (3) they help to erect the "thresholds,' i.e., the criteria, for crossing or recrossing the boundary; (4) they serve to define relations, including those of power, between groups; (5) because they perform these important cognitive and conative functions, they persist despite a flow of personnel across them and despite repeated demonstrations of their inaccuracy. They cannot be expected to change until the actual relations between groups change.

Mutagenicity and antibacterial activity of mycotoxins produced by Penicillium islandicum Sopp and Penicillium rugulosum.

Twelve mycotoxins produced by Penicillium islandicum Sopp and Penicillium rugulosum in solid-state fermentation on grains were purified and tested for mutagenicity and antibacterial activity in Salmonella/mammalian microsome assays. The mutations studied were reversions of histidine auxotrophs to prototrophy in strains TA98 and TA100 and forward mutations to 8-azaguanine resistance (8AGR) in strain TM677. Rubroskyrin, (+)rugulosin, lumiluteoskyrin [a photoproduct of (-)luteoskyrin], and simatoxin [a new water-soluble metabolite of unknown structure] induced 8AGR mutations in strain TM677 but not histidine reversions in strains TA98 and TA100. Mutagenic potency was reduced by rat-liver microsomes. The carcinogens (-)luteoskyrin and cyclochlorotine were antibacterial but not mutagenic. (+)Rugulosin, rubroskyrin, lumiluteoskyrin, and high concentrations of simotoxin were also antibacterial. Antibacterial activity but not mutagenicity was observed with pibasterol and skyrin. Chrysophanol, islandicin, iridoskyrin, and emodin were inactive as mutagens or as antibacterial agents.

A convenient thin layer chromatographic method for the detection of cyclochlorotine and simatoxin, toxins from Penicillium islandicum Sopp.

A rapid, convenient TLC method is described for detection of cyclochlorotine, a carcinogen produced by the commonly found storage mold Penicillium islandicum Sopp. This method has also led to the isolation of a new toxic metabolite, simatoxin.

Production of cyclochlorotine and a new metabolite, simatoxin, by Penicillium islandicum Sopp.

Production of the hepatotoxin cyclochlorotine by Penicillium islandicum was studied under a variety of fermentation conditions. The best system for production was agitated red wheat. A thin-layer chromatographic method was developed for the detection of this cyclic polypeptide. These experiments have resulted in the isolation of a new toxic metabolite, which we call simatoxin.