For rats, maternal mediation of brief and longer term dam-pup separations were thought to account for pup differences in adult "emotionality." In this study, early handling (EH), maternal separation (MS), and maternal peer separation (MPS) groups were compared to an animal facility reared (AFR) group for maternal behavior and offspring adult open-field behavior in C57BL/6 mice. Although MS and MPS dams displayed higher levels of maternal behavior upon reunion, these group differences did not predict offspring open-field behavior. However, when offspring behavior was analyzed as a function of specific aspects of maternal behavior, irrespective of treatment group, pups that received high levels of quiescent nursing and activity, but not licking, were less "emotional." Individual differences in maternal licking of pups predicted variability of "emotional" behavior for AFR and EH pups. Thus, for this strain of mouse, individual and not treatment differences in maternal care predict offspring "emotional" development.

Exposure to chronic stress is associated with an increased incidence of neuropsychiatric dysfunction. The current study evaluated two competing hypotheses, the cumulative stress and the match/mismatch hypothesis of neuropsychiatric dysfunction, using two paradigms relating to exposure to “stress”: pre‐weaning maternal separation and post‐weaning isolation‐housing. C57BL/6 offspring were reared under four conditions: typical animal facility rearing (AFR, control), early handling (EH, daily 15 min separation from dam), maternal separation (MS, daily 4 hr separation from dam), and maternal and peer separation (MPS, daily 4 hr separation from dam and from littermates). After weaning, mice were either housed socially (2–3/cage) or in isolation (1/cage) and then tested for prepulse inhibition in adulthood. Isolation‐housed MPS subjects displayed greater deficits in prepulse inhibition relative to socially‐housed MPS subjects while socially‐housed AFR subjects displayed greater deficits in prepulse inhibition relative to isolation‐housed AFR subjects. The results indicate that these treatment conditions represent a potentially valuable model for evaluating the match/mismatch hypothesis in regards to neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

During the Cold War and in the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Calvinist and political fundamentalists of North America opposed the integration of American society and the extension of civil rights to African-Americans. Both were viewed as contrary to God's plan for humankind and omens for the end times. At the same time, these militant clerics spread reformed theology and eschatology to non-white societies across the globe. An important missionary field was Africa, where American and British racial mores influenced the cultural and political struggle. western, capitalistic and democratic principles, white minority-rule, and British imperialism faced African nationalism and communist aid to independence movements. Accordingly, the contrast between militant theology and liberal, modernist Protestantism was interjected into the conflict. Two American crusaders, Carl McIntire and Billy James Hargis, made Africa an important battleground to defend segregation and western influence. Both pursued individual ministries and had differing theological agendas towards race. The International Council of Christian Churches, an organization that McIntire led, spread God's word to black Africans, while Hargis' Christian Crusade Against Communism worked with Rhodesia's white minority government. Their efforts provide insight into the militant theological and political crusade in North America and how they projected their Calvinist ideals into the international arena and into Africa.

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