Discrete responses of experimentally naive, food-deprived White Carneaux pigeons (key pecks) or Sprague-Dawley rats (bar or omnidirectional lever presses) initiated unsignaled delay periods that terminated with food delivery. Each subject first was trained to eat from the food source, but no attempt was made to shape or to otherwise train the response. In both species, the response developed and was maintained. Control procedures excluded the simple passage of time, response elicitation or induction by food presentation, type of operandum, food delivery device location, and adventitious immediate reinforcement of responding as the basis for the effects. Results revealed that neither training nor immediate reinforcement is necessary to establish new behavior. The conditions that give rise to both the first and second response are discussed, and the results are related to other studies of the delay of reinforcement and to explanations of behavior based on contingency or correlation and contiguity.

The effects of ibogaine (40 and 80 mg/kg, i.p.), an indole alkaloid proposed for the treatment of drug abuse, were determined in three different groups of rats responding under an FR10 schedule of food, cocaine or heroin reinforcement. Ibogaine (80 mg/kg, i.p.) given 60 min before the start of the session resulted in a 97% decrease in the number of ratios completed under the food reinforcement schedule and resulted in a decrease in responding the following day. Neither 40 mg/kg ibogaine given 60 min prior to the session nor 80 mg/kg given 24 h before the session suppressed responding maintained by cocaine infusions (0.33 mg/infusion). Pretreatment with 80 mg/kg ibogaine either 60 or 90 min prior to the session suppressed cocaine self-administration on the day it was administered and the longer pretreatment continued to suppress responding for 48 h. Responding maintained by heroin (18 micrograms/infusion) was the most sensitive to the effects of ibogaine. Both 40 and 80 mg/kg ibogaine resulted in an almost complete suppression of responding following a 60-min pretreatment period. Responding maintained by heroin returned to control levels the day following the administration of ibogaine.

The effects on pigeons' key pecking of unsignaled delays of reinforcement and response-independent reinforcement were compared after either variable-interval or differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate baseline schedules. One 30-min session arranging delayed reinforcement and one 30-min session arranging response-independent reinforcement were conducted daily, 6 hr apart. A within-subject yoked-control procedure equated reinforcer frequency and distribution across the two sessions. Response rates usually were reduced more by response-independent than by delayed but responsecontingent delivery of reinforcers. Under both schedules, response rates were lower when obtained delays were greater. These results bear upon methodological and conceptual issues regarding comparisons of contingencies that change the temporal response-reinforcer relations.

This survey aimed to assess the prevalence and knowledge of coronary risk factors and selfperceived coronary heart disease risk among Greek-Australians in the Marrickville area of inner Sydney. A. random sample of 834 household addresses was selected from the 2 403 households having GreekAustralian surnames on the electoral roll. In each household, one individual aged 18 years or over was selected using a Kish grid, and a questionnaire was administered by a bilingual interviewer. Questions concerned knowledge of and self-reported risk factors for coronary heart disease, and ratings of perceived stress, social support and networks. There was a response rate of 81 per cent of actual Greek-Australian households, a total of 541 interviews (61 per cent women). Most of the sample (86 per cent) were born in Greece and 77 per cent of interviews were administered in Greek. The age-adjusted male prevalences of self-reported smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and body mass index over 26 kg/m* were 44 per cent, 5 per cent, 14 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively. The age-adjusted female prevalences of self-reported smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and body mass index over 26 kg/m* were 19 per cent, 8 per cent, 15 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. Compared to the National Heart Foundation risk-factor prevalence survey, the prevalence of self-reported high blood pressure was lower, but obesity and, among males, smoking, were higher. Low levels of education and poor English-language skills among older Greek-Australians may be contributing to the problem. There is a need for linguistically and culturally appropriate health promotion programs for communities of nonEnglish-speaking background. It has been consistently demonstrated that Australian-born men have higher coronary heart disease mortality rates than immigrants, especially those born in Greece and I t a l~.~.~ There has been a dramatic and continuous decline in coronary heart disease mortality rates since a peak in 1965--1967, and rates are currently about 40 per cent below these levels.4 Age-standardised rates for coronary heart disease in Australian-born men and women decreased by 18 per cent between 1966 and 1976. However, this decline has varied according to place of birth, and, with the exception of Southern European women, continental European immigrants have not shared this downward trend.s Indeed, coronary heart disease rates for men born in Greece, Italy and Yugoslavia actually increased by 4 per cent during this period. Heart disease mortality among immigrant groups tends to approach that of the general population with increased period of residence in Australia.The incidence and determinants of coronary heart disease in Australians of non-English-speaking background has not been closely investigated. Although successful health promotion assumes accurate information about the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and the cultural context of the target community, few heart disease health promotion programs have b...

In April 2008 the Australian Government announced the establishment of a National Preventative Health Taskforce (NPHT) with the primary function of developing a national preventative health strategy. In October 2008 a discussion paper and three technical reports1 were released with a call for input from individuals and organisations, professional and consumer groups. This editorial outlines four key issues from the Australian Health Promotion Association's (AHPA) submission: the importance of a broad social determinants of health approach; clear explanations of ‘prevention’ and ‘health promotion’; establishing health promotion high on the political agenda; and building the capacity of Australia's highly skilled health promotion workforce to strengthen health promotion action across Australia.

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Issue addressed: This paper explored the first-time use of Twitter by the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) at its 2013 National Health Promotion Conference. Methods: The @AHPA_AU Twitter account and #AHPA2013 hashtag were established and included in the conference program. Attendees were encouraged throughout the conference to use it. A total of 748 tweets were captured under the hashtag #AHPA2013 in chronological order from 16-19 June 2013. Tweets with photos and more than one hashtag were recorded. A thematic analysis of tweets was conducted. Results: Thirteen broad themes were identified, with each of the 748 tweets allocated to one of the themes. Tweets about keynote sessions made up 38% of all tweets, followed by 14% for concurrent sessions. A photo was included in 11% of tweets, and 25% were sent to more than one hashtag. There were 96 tweeters; 75% of them posted five or less tweets and~9%, including a professional blogger, posted greater than 20 tweets. At the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-conference workshop there was a relatively high level of Twitter engagement. Conclusion: Twitter could potentially be useful for promoting conference content and activities, but what it adds in value to a health promotion conference cannot be determined by this study.So what? This paper highlights the engagement of tweeters with conference content and activities and suggests that tweeting benefited from the engagement of a professional health blogger.