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Biomphalaria snails are instrumental in transmission of the human blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni. With the World Health Organization's goal to eliminate schistosomiasis as a global health problem by 2025, there is now renewed emphasis on snail control. Here, we characterize the genome of Biomphalaria glabrata, a lophotrochozoan protostome, and provide timely and important information on snail biology. We describe aspects of phero-perception, stress responses, immune function and regulation of gene expression that support the persistence of B. glabrata in the field and may define this species as a suitable snail host for S. mansoni. We identify several potential targets for developing novel control measures aimed at reducing snail-mediated transmission of schistosomiasis.

Tested Freud's theory that sexist humor may be associated with hostility toward women. The humor of 10 sexist jokes was rated by 399 college students. Enjoyment of sexist humor was positively correlated with rape-related attitudes and beliefs, the self-reported likelihood of forcing sex, and psychological, physical, and sexual aggression in men. (EMS)

College males completed a survey that asked open-ended questions concerning instances in which they might have been tempted to use force to obtain sexual contact with another person. Participants also completed Malamuth's (1989a, 1989b) Attraction to Sexual Aggression scale, Mosher and Sirkin's (1984) Hypermasculinity Inventory. and Burt's (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance and Adversarial Sexual Beliefs scales. Of the 83 participants, 22 (27%) reported that they had been tempted to use force. Participants that indicated they had been tempted to use force scored significantly higher on attraction to sexual aggression and hypermasculinity than those who were never tempted. Reasons for temptation, circumstances of the tempting situations, and possible ties to sexual coercion were explored. Keywords: sexual abuse; temptation; sexual abuse prevention

Byline: Kathryn M. Ryan, Jill D. Hendren, Lynda A. Helander, Richard M. Cripps Keywords: Heart; Inflow tract; Seven-up; COUP-TF; Tinman; NKX2.5; Transcriptional regulation Abstract: A complex regulatory cascade is required for normal cardiac development, and many aspects of this network are conserved from Drosophila to mammals. In Drosophila, the seven-up (svp) gene, an ortholog of the vertebrate chick ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factors (COUP-TFI and II), is initially activated in the cardiac mesoderm and is subsequently restricted to cells forming the cardiac inflow tracts. Here, we investigate svp regulation in the developing cardiac tube. Using bioinformatics, we identify a 1007-bp enhancer of svp which recapitulates its entire expression in the embryonic heart and other mesodermal derivatives, and we show that this enhancer is initially activated by the NK homeodomain factor Tinman (Tin) via two conserved Tin binding sites. Mutation of the Tin binding sites significantly reduces enhancer activity both during normal development and in response to ectopic Tin. This is the first identification of an enhancer for the complex svp gene, demonstrating the effectiveness of bioinformatics tools in assisting in unraveling transcriptional regulatory networks. Our studies define a critical component of the svp regulatory cascade and place gene regulatory events in direct apposition to the formation of critical cardiac structures. Author Affiliation: Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA Article History: Received 1 August 2006; Revised 20 September 2006; Accepted 14 October 2006

College students (N=18) wrote scripts about "typical" rape and "typical" seduction. Scripts were coded on 20 dimensions. Results showed that rape and seduction scripts were very different. Most subjects described blitz rape in which woman outdoors was attacked by male stranger. Seductions described were usually indoors and often involved alcohol. Sex differences were found. (Author/NB)

The purpose of this study was to investigate how individuals use information about a target student's past academic performance to evaluate that performance and to predict future performance. The importance of observers' reactions to nonlinear and linear performance patterns is discussed. (Author/GK)

The present study explored the possibility that deaf and hearing college students would prefer similar social comparisons on achievement tests. It was also expected that deaf students, due to their communication handicap, would most prefer deaf norms on a language-based achievement test. Thirty deaf and 28 hearing college students participated in an experiment ostensibly generating normative information on a new achievement test and gave their personal preferences for the kinds of norms they would like to see: nondisabled, learning disabled, deaf, blind, disabled, or gifted. Along with the social comparison measures, subjects were asked to estimate the performance of the aforementioned groups. Results showed unexpectedly little support for the similarity hypothesis. On one measure, subjects showed a clear preference for information about higher performers. A small preference for similarity appeared on a second measure. In addition, although the deaf expected to do worse on a verbal test than on a logic test, they did not show a greater desire to compare with the deaf on the verbal test. The implications of these results for social comparison research are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]