Summary Withdrawal symptoms during the previous 30 days were examined in relation to psychophysiological arousal, desire to drink, and operant behavior associated with alcohol consumption. The subjects were 16 male alcoholic patients and 16 control subjects that had been randomly assigned to either an alcohol or placebo condition. Alcoholics showed a greater desire to drink than their respective controls. There was also a significant correlation between autonomic arousal and desire to drink among alcoholics but not controls. There was some evidence that arousal was related to alcohol dependence among alcoholics. Placebo responding among alcoholics was also related to alcohol dependence. Of particular significance was that desire to drink, withdrawal symptomatology, and heart rate accounted for over 57% of the variance in predicting which alcoholics would choose the drink reward following the operant task. These results support the notion that disposition to drink in alcoholics should be examined in a multivariate context.

Erythrocyte volume, plasma volume, hematocrit, lean body mass (from total body water), skinfold thickness (at three sites), arm circumference, height, and weight were measured in 40 normal males, 38 normal females, and 12 obese females. From these data on the normal subjects, equations for estimating erythrocyte and plasma volumes were derived. Equations utilizing combined height-weight, surface area, height-weight-skinfold thickness, or lean body mass were found to be the most accurate for predicting erythrocyte and plasma volumes in normal and in obese subjects. The body:venous hematocrit ratio (BH:VH) and the variability of this ratio in our subjects were determined and discussed. Errors in indirect estimates of blood volumes based on this ratio are presented. Erythrocyte and plasma volume standards based on height-weight regression equations or surface area ratio equation are suggested for use in clinical laboratories. Tables and a nomogram based on these equations have been prepared and are available on request.

As part of the Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study we measured volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations in a probability sample of households with children. The 6-day average concentrations for 10 common VOCs were obtained in urban and nonurban residences twice during this multiphase study: screening-phase indoor measurements were collected in 284 households, and in the intensive-phase matched outdoor (O), indoor (I), and personal (P) measurements were collected in a subset (N ¼ 72) of the screened households. Screening-phase households with smokers had significantly higher concentrations of benzene and styrene compared to nonsmoking households; households with an attached garage had significantly higher levels of benzene, chloroform, styrene, and m/p-and o-xylene compared to households without an attached garage; and nonurban residences, which had a greater prevalence of smokers and attached garages, had significantly higher 1,1,1-trichloroethane, styrene, and toluene and significantly lower tetrachloroethylene concentrations compared to urban households. The screening-phase weighted distributions estimate the mean and variability in indoor VOC concentrations for more than 45,000 households with children in the census tracts sampled. Overall, median indoor concentrations of most VOCs measured in this study were similar to or lower than indoor levels measured previously in the United States. Intensive-phase outdoor VOC concentrations were generally lower than other major metropolitan areas, but urban concentrations were significantly higher than nonurban concentrations for all compounds except 1,1,1-trichloroethylene. A consistent pattern of P4I4O was observed for nine of 10 VOCs, with 1,1,1-trichloroethylene (I4P4O) being the only exception to this pattern. For most children, the indoor at-home microevironment was strongly associated with personal exposure after controlling for important covariates, but the ratio of median to upper bound exposures was smaller than that observed in studies of adults. There are relatively little data on VOC exposures in children, so these results are useful for estimating the central tendency and distribution of VOC exposures in locations where children spend a majority of their time.