A retrospective questionnaire study of alcoholic women attending a clinic for abstaining alcoholics, a voluntary agency and a drop-in centre for people with alcohol problems was conducted over a 2-year period. The women were asked whether they experienced premenstrual symptoms based on Halbreich et al.'s Premenstrual Assessment Form (PAF) [Halbreich et al. (1982) Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica ...

BACKGROUND In many cooperatively breeding vertebrates, subordinates assist a dominant pair to raise the dominants' offspring. Previously, it has been suggested that subordinates may help in payment for continued residency on the territory (the 'pay-to-stay hypothesis'), but payment might also be reciprocated or might allow subordinates access to reproductive opportunities. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIP...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), usually caused by tobacco smoking, is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Smoking cessation at an early stage of the disease usually stops further progression. A study was undertaken to determine if diagnosis of airway obstruction was associated with subsequent success in smoking cessation, as advised by a physician. M...

Many plant species have established self-sustaining populations outside their natural range because of human activities. Plants with selfing ability should be more likely to establish outside their historical range because they can reproduce from a single individual when mates or pollinators are not available. Here, we compile a global breeding-system database of 1,752 angiosperm species and us...

When faced with a choice, people can normally select no option, i.e., defer choice. Previous research has investigated when and why individuals defer choice, but has almost never looked at these questions when groups of people make choices. Separate reasons predict that groups may be equally likely, more likely, or less likely than individuals to defer choice. We re-analyzed some previously pub...

This study evaluates the relationship between having an alcoholic (i.e., alcohol-dependent) parent and the presence of a spouse with a similar diagnosis. Data relating to 708 men and 708 women, the parents of the questionnaire respondents, revealed that even after controlling for the increased rate of alcohol-dependent spouses among alcoholics, assortative mating appears to be associated with p...

An attractive and long-standing hypothesis regarding the evolution of genes after duplication posits that the duplication event creates new evolutionary possibilities by releasing a copy of the gene from constraint. Apparent support was found in numerous analyses, particularly, the observation of higher rates of evolution in duplicated as compared with singleton genes. Could it, instead, be tha...