Variation in oxytocin is related to variation in affiliative behavior in monogamous, pairbonded tamarins

Oxytocin plays an important role in monogamous pairbonded female voles, but not in polygamous voles. Here we examined a socially monogamous cooperatively breeding primate where both sexes share in parental care and territory defense for within species variation in behavior and female and male oxytocin levels in 14 pairs of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). In order to obtain a stable chronic assessment of hormones and behavior, we observed behavior and collected urinary hormonal samples across the tamarins’ 3-week ovulatory cycle. We found similar levels of urinary oxytocin in both sexes. However, basal urinary oxytocin levels varied 10-fold across pairs and pair-mates displayed similar oxytocin levels. Affiliative behavior (contact, grooming, sex) also varied greatly across the sample and explained more than half the variance in pair oxytocin levels. The variables accounting for variation in oxytocin levels differed by sex. Mutual contact and grooming explained most of the variance in female oxytocin levels, whereas sexual behavior explained most of the variance in male oxytocin levels. The initiation of contact by males and solicitation of sex by females were related to increased levels of oxytocin in both. This study demonstrates within-species variation in oxytocin that is directly related to levels of affiliative and sexual behavior. However, different behavioral mechanisms influence oxytocin levels in males and females and a strong pair relationship (as indexed by high levels of oxytocin) may require the activation of appropriate mechanisms for both sexes

Deep Spatio-Temporal Forecasting of Electrical Vehicle Charging Demand

Electric vehicles can offer a low carbon emission solution to reverse rising emission trends. However, this requires that the energy used to meet the demand is green. To meet this requirement, accurate forecasting of the charging demand is vital. Short and long-term charging demand forecasting will allow for better optimisation of the power grid and future infrastructure expansions. In this paper, we propose to use publicly available data to forecast the electric vehicle charging demand. To model the complex spatial-temporal correlations between charging stations, we argue that Temporal Graph Convolution Models are the most suitable to capture the correlations. The proposed Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks provide the most accurate forecasts for short and long-term forecasting compared with other forecasting methods

Higgs Production: CP Studies in e-e- Collisions

We review the production of scalar Higgs-like particles in high-energy electron-electron collisions, via the fusion of electroweak gauge bosons. The emphasis is on how to distinguish a CP-even from a CP-odd Higgs particle. Among the more significant differences, we find that in the CP-odd case, the Higgs spectrum is much harder, and the dependence of the total cross section on the product of the polarizations of the two beams is much stronger, than in the CP-even case. We also briefly discuss parity violation, and the production of charged Higgs bosons.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, including 13 figures, uses eps

Gilt Edge Mine NPL Site Lawrence County, South Dakota: Final Report for the Climatic Evaluation (Deadwood and Lead, South Dakota)

This document serves as the final report for the climatic evaluation for the Ruby Gulch waste rock dump cap at the Gilt Edge Mine Site, Lawrence County, South Dakota (SD). This project was a collaborative effort between CDM Federal Programs Corporation and South Dakota State University (SDSU) under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region VIII response action contract. This report includes climatic analyses, raw weather data, and conclusions. In 1998 the Gilt Edge Mine near Deadwood, SD was abandoned and the reclamation of the mining site was halted. In 2000 SD requested that the EPA place the Gilt Edge Mine Site on the Superfund National Priorities List. SDSU through the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station (SDAES) was asked to assist the State of South Dakota and the EPA in the development of a remediation and revegetation plan for the abandoned Gilt Edge Mine Site.The objectives of this report are: 1. Detail and summarize the climatic information for the Gilt Edge Mine site area. 2. Analyze the data for application for soil and vegetation purposes 3. Archive the raw weather data from Deadwood and Lead, SD.This report highlights the available climatic data for two weather stations near the Gilt Edge Mine Superfund Site (GEMSS). The weather stations studied were Deadwood and Lead, SD. The weather station data for Deadwood covered the years 1943 through 1999 and the weather station data for Lead covered the years 1909 through 1999. The weather data summarized in this report include daily temperature (maximum, minimum, and average), monthly temperature (maximum, minimum, and average), numbers of days at critical warm and cold temperatures, precipitation (daily, daily maximums, 7-day maximums, monthly, monthly maximums, snowfall, and number of days per year at critical precipitation levels), growing degree days (40 OF basis), growing season length (28 OF basis). Deadwood, SD climatic data is summarized in Table A. Lead, SD climatic data is summarized in Table B

Highest weight categories arising from Khovanov's diagram algebra II: Koszulity

This is the second of a series of four articles studying various generalisations of Khovanov's diagram algebra. In this article we develop the general theory of Khovanov's diagrammatically defined "projective functors" in our setting. As an application, we give a direct proof of the fact that the quasi-hereditary covers of generalised Khovanov algebras are Koszul.Comment: Minor changes, extra sections on Kostant modules and rigidity of cell modules adde

HOXB1 restored expression promotes apoptosis and differentiation in the HL60 leukemic cell line

BACKGROUND: Homeobox (HOX) genes deregulation has been largely implicated in the development of human leukemia. Among the HOXB cluster, HOXB1 was silent in a number of analyzed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) primary cells and cell lines, whereas it was expressed in normal terminally differentiated peripheral blood cells. METHODS: We evaluated the biological effects and the transcriptome changes determined by the retroviral transduction of HOXB1 in the human promyelocytic cell line HL60. RESULTS: Our results suggest that the enforced expression of HOXB1 reduces cell growth proliferation, inducing apoptosis and cell differentiation along the monocytic and granulocytic lineages. Accordingly, gene expression analysis showed the HOXB1-dependent down-regulation of some tumor promoting genes, paralleled by the up-regulation of apoptosis- and differentiation-related genes, thus supporting a tumor suppressor role for HOXB1 in AML. Finally, we indicated HOXB1 promoter hypermethylation as a mechanism responsible for HOXB1 silencing. CONCLUSIONS: We propose HOXB1 as an additional member of the HOX family with tumour suppressor properties suggesting a HOXB1/ATRA combination as a possible future therapeutic strategy in AML

The geographies of access to enterprise finance: the case of the West Midlands, UK

The geographies of access to enterprise finance: the case of the West Midlands, UK, Regional Studies. Whilst there is a long history of credit rationing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, the financial crisis has seen banks retreat further from lending to viable SMEs due to a reassessment of risk and lack of available capital. In so doing, the credit crunch is thought to be creating new geographies of financial exclusion. This paper explores the financial inclusion of enterprise through community development finance institutions (CDFIs) which provide loan finance to firms at the commercial margins in the West Midlands, UK. The paper concludes that CDFIs could partially address the financial exclusion of enterprise as an additional, alternative source of finance to that of mainstream banks