The SUNY biomedical communication network: six years of progress in on-line bibiographic retrieval.

The SUNY Biomedical Communication Network became operational in 1968 as the first on-line bibliograhpic retrieval service for biomedical literature. Since 1968, the SUNY/BCN has grown in size from nine to thirty-two medical and university libraries and has expanded its data base coverage to include the ERIC and Psychological Abstracts data bases in addition to the full ten-year retrospective MEDLARS data base. Aside from the continuous provision of an on-line searching system, the SUNY experience over the last six years has yielded valuable information in the following areas of: (1) monograph indexing and retrieval, (2) shared cataloging, (3) user interaction and education in on-line systems, and (4) member participation in Network policy-making processes. The continued success of the SUNY/BCN is evidence that it is possible to provide a high quality on-line bibliographic retrieval system at cost to academic institutions. SUNY's success in this effort is the result of centralized resource sharing and effective regional networking, combined with thoughtful planning by user advisory committees.     

Why governments run schools

This paper discusses problems of uncertainty and imperfect information that bear on organizational choices for schools. A model of choice under uncertainty illustrates the optimality of the equal opportunity provision of schooling in terms of inputs. The model shows why schools offer similar, diverse curricula as a means of allowing students to shed risk about ability and future employment.Elements of transactions cost economics are used to evaluate organizational choice for providing schooling. Problems of opportunism and regulatory costs are discussed in the cases of for-profit, non-profit, and publicly provided schools.     

Establishing the Reliability and Developmental Validity of a Neurobehavioral Assessment for Preterm Infants: A Methodological Process

The Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant was developed in 3 phases: a pilot study, an exploratory study, and a validation study. In the exploratory study, clusters characterized by conceptual cohesion and face validity were systematically subjected to statistical analyses to determine whether they also had high test-retest reliability and developmental validity. In the validation study, a shortened version of the test was used with an independent cohort of 290 preterm infants. A step-by-step methodological process was used to test whether the results from the exploratory study would generalize over cohorts, different versions of the test, different hospitals, and changes in examiners. This process yielded 7 highly stable, developmentally valid, and representative preterm neurobehavioral functions that generalized over the exploratory and the validation studies. These were: motor development and vigor, scarf sign, popliteal angle, alertness and orientation, percent asleep ratings, irritability, and vigor of crying.     

The Long-Term Consequences of Infant Day-Care and Mother-Infant Attachment

The aim of this study was to explore the within-group effects of mother-infant attachment and day-care on children's social and emotional adaptation at 42 months and in the early school years. For this high-risk sample, the effects of day-care depended on the quality of mother-infant attachment. Day-care appeared to have a negative effect for secure children but had a positive influence for insecure children. For the secure group, children in day-care were more negative and avoidant at 42 months, and they were more externalizing and aggressive in kindergarten compared to the home-reared group. In contrast, day-care children who were insecurely attached were less withdrawn and more agentic. Overall, day-care children were rated higher on externalizing behavior in kindergarten than home-reared children, but no differences were found in the later school years. The sequelae of attachment indicated that security of attachment during infancy differentially predicted later adaptation for day-care and home-reared children. Attachment was related to later adaptation for home-reared children but did not predict later adaptation for day-care children.     

Ontogeny of long-term,nonassociative memory in the rat

The primary purpose of the present study was to assess the ontogeny of nonassociative learning and memory in 16-, 30-, and 75-day-old rats. In each of three experiments, habituation of the orienting response to a novel auditory stimulus was measured. The orienting response is an unconditioned reaction elicited by innocuous environmental stimulation that habituates with repeated stimulus presentations. Both an autonomic component (heart-rate deceleration) and a behavioral index (head jerk) of the orienting response were recorded in this study. Although no age differences in rate of habituation (i.e., rate of nonassociative learning) were found (see Experiment 1), a marked effect of age on retention of habituation was observed. Preweanling rats retained habituation of the orienting response to an auditory stimulus for less than 4 h (Experiment 2), whereas adult animals exhibited no forgetting even after a 1-week interval (Experiment 3). These results are discussed in terms of (1) demonstrations of age-related differences in associative memory, (2) the persistence of nonassociative memories in adults, and (3) the significance of the orienting response as a measure of retention of nonassociative learning.     

Breaking the cycle of abuse

The aim of this study was to identify variables that distinguish mothers who broke the cycle of abuse from mothers who were abused as children and who also abused their own children. Based on maternal interviews and questionnaires completed over a 64-month period, measures of mothers' past and current relationship experiences, stressful life events, and personality characteristics were obtained. Abused mothers who were able to break the abusive cycle were significantly more likely to have received emotional support from a nonabusive adult during childhood, participated in therapy during any period of their lives, and to have had a nonabusive and more stable, emotionally supportive, and satisfying relationship with a mate. Abused mothers who reenacted their maltreatment with their own children experienced significantly more life stress and were more anxious, dependent, immature, and depressed.