U sing a simulated child sexual abuse case, our study investigated the impact of expert testimony about cognitive development in children on jury decisions. Twenty-four gender-balanced panels, each of 6 mock jurors, viewed a videotaped simulation of a criminal court trial in which age of the child victim/witness (6, 9, or 12 years), sex of the child, and the presence or absence of expert testimony were manipulated. There were significant main effects for exposure to expert testimony on jurors' ratings of the child on the factors addressed by the expert: memory expertise, susceptibility to suggestion, and reality monitoring ability. Jurors rated the expert testimony highly in terms of its helpfulness and impartiality. There were no significant main effects for child credibility ratings according to age or sex of the child victims, but juror gender polarization effects were noted, with females significantly more likely to rate the child's credibility higher and to find the defendant guilty.Literature on the juridical impact of psychological expert witnesses has largely focused on expert testimony concerning the unreliability of eyewitness identification (Fox & Waiters, 1986;Loftus, 1986;Wells, 1986). Although the impact of psychological expert testimony in rape cases (Brekke & Borgida, 1988), and in * We thank Kate Warner and Therese Henning from the Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania, for their advice and assistance in preparing the trial transcripts, and Rick Snell, Emma Gunn, and Trudy Witbreuk from the Faculty of Law for their assistance in portraying the roles of judge, prosecuting counsel, and defense counsel, respectively. We are grateful also to Brian Rieusset, Senior Technical Officer at the University of Tasmania, for his invaluable assistance in videotaping the children's statements and the mock trial and for his help in editing the videotapes. This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council. Requests for reprints should be sent to Michael

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The experiments, using a total of 1833 Cashmere does, were conducted to examine the effects on fertility and fecundity of intravaginal treatment for control of ovulation, time of insemination by cervical and laparoscopic methods, semen processing in pellets and straws, and number of frozen-thawed motile spermatozoa. Adult does (greater than or equal to 2.5 years) that had previously kidded were inseminated into the cervix, and maiden (kid: 6-8 months; hogget: 18 months) and adult does were inseminated laparoscopically. The rates of pregnancy determined by ultrasonic scanning (75-80 days after insemination) for cervical (Experiment 1) and laparoscopic (Experiments 2 and 3) insemination were 39.1%, 63.6% and 52.1%. The number of motile spermatozoa did not affect fertility after cervical (80, 120 and 160 x 10(6) or laparoscopic (Experiment 2: 15, 30 and 60 x 10(6); Experiment 3:5, 10 and 20 x 10(6) insemination. The method of insemination or number of motile spermatozoa did not affect fecundity. With cervical insemination, fertility and fecundity improved with increasing depth of insemination into the reproductive tract. Intravaginal sponges containing fluorogestone acetate and controlled internal drug release (CIDR) devices containing progesterone were equally effective for control of ovulation when combined with an injection of pregnant mare's serum gonadotrophin (PMSG; 200 i.u.) before insemination. Fertility was higher when does were inseminated before than after ovulation. After laparoscopic insemination, results were similar for semen frozen as pellets and in straws, and for 3-, 6- and 24-fold pre-freezing dilution of semen. For kid, hogget and adult does in Experiment 3, pregnancy rates were 34.0%, 55.4% and 63.9% and rates of fecundity were 1.17, 1.22 and 1.27 fetuses/pregnant doe.

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Objective To estimate 24‐hour sodium and potassium excretion in an urban Australian population. Design and setting Cross‐sectional survey of an urban population in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1995. Participants Systematic sample (87 men, 107 women) from the Commonwealth Electoral Roll of people aged 18‐70 years on 30 June 1995 whose residential address was within 10 km of the Hobart General Post Office. Main outcome measure Conformity with the national target for sodium intake for the year 2000 of ≤ 100 mmol/day. Results The target was met by 6% of men and 36% of women. This difference between the sexes was significant (P<0.001), while differences between age groups and socioeconomic levels were not significant. Conclusion Our findings confirm the low level of conformity with the national sodium target reported by the handful of Australian studies over the past decade. Given the major community costs associated with hypertension, our results highlight the need for effective and properly monitored action to reduce sodium intakes.