Simple amides and amines for the synergistic recovery of rhodium from hydrochloric acid by solvent extraction

The separation and isolation of many of the platinum group metals (PGMs) is currently achieved commercially using solvent extraction processes. The extraction of rhodium is problematic however, as a variety of complexes of the form [RhCln(H2O)6-n](n−3)− are found in hydrochloric acid, making it difficult to design a reagent that can extract all the rhodium. In this work, the synergistic combination of a primary amine (2-ethylhexylamine, LA) with a primary amide (3,5,5-trimethylhexanamide, L1) is shown to extract over 85 % of rhodium from 4 M hydrochloric acid. Two rhodium complexes are shown to reside in the organic phase, the ion-pair [HLA]3[RhCl6] and the amide complex [HLA]2[RhCl5(L1)]; in the latter complex, the amide is tautomerized to its enol form and coordinated to the rhodium centre through the nitrogen atom. This insight highlights the need for ligands that target specific metal complexes in the aqueous phase and provides an efficient synergistic solution for the solvent extraction of rhodium

Offspring Hormones Reflect the Maternal Prenatal Social Environment: Potential for Foetal Programming?

Females of many species adaptively program their offspring to predictable environmental conditions, a process that is often mediated by hormones. Laboratory studies have shown, for instance, that social density affects levels of maternal cortisol and testosterone, leading to fitness-relevant changes in offspring physiology and behaviour. However, the effects of social density remain poorly understood in natural populations due to the difficulty of disentangling confounding influences such as climatic variation and food availability. Colonially breeding marine mammals offer a unique opportunity to study maternal effects in response to variable colony densities under similar ecological conditions. We therefore quantified maternal and offspring hormone levels in 84 Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) from two closely neighbouring colonies of contrasting density. Hair samples were used as they integrate hormone levels over several weeks or months and therefore represent in utero conditions during foetal development. We found significantly higher levels of cortisol and testosterone (both P < 0.001) in mothers from the high density colony, reflecting a more stressful and competitive environment. In addition, offspring testosterone showed a significant positive correlation with maternal cortisol (P < 0.05). Although further work is needed to elucidate the potential consequences for offspring fitness, these findings raise the intriguing possibility that adaptive foetal programming might occur in fur seals in response to the maternal social environment. They also lend support to the idea that hormonally mediated maternal effects may depend more strongly on the maternal regulation of androgen rather than cortisol levels

Culture, Neurobiology, and Human Behavior: New Perspectives in Anthropology

Our primary goal in this article is to discuss the cross-talk between biological and cultural factors that become manifested in the individual brain development, neural wiring, neurochemical homeostasis, and behavior. We will show that behavioral propensities are the product of both cultural and biological factors and an understanding of these interactive processes can provide deep insights into why people behave the way they do. This interdisciplinary perspective is offered in an effort to generate dialog and empirical work among scholars interested in merging aspects of anthropology and neuroscience, and anticipates that biological and cultural anthropology converge. We discuss new theoretical developments, hypothesis-testing strategies, and cross-disciplinary methods of observation and data collection. We believe that the exigency of integrating anthropology and the neurosciences is indisputable and anthropology's role in an emerging interdisciplinary science of human behavior will be critical because its focus is, and has always been, on human biological and cultural systems

Scientific Opinion on the pest categorisation of <em>Xanthomonas campestris</em> pv. <em>vesicatoria</em> (Doidge) Dye

The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to perform the pest categorisation for Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, which is the causal agent of bacterial spot of tomato and pepper. X. campestris pv. vesicatoria is not a single taxonomic entity, and four separate species have been described:    X. vesicatoria, X. euvesicatoria, X. perforans and X. gardneri. These organisms can be accurately identified based on a range of discriminative methods. Detection methods are available for seeds. Among the four species described within X. campestris pv. vesicatoria, all except X. gardneri were reported to be present in the EU territory. The host plants (tomato and pepper) are cultivated throughout Europe and conditions are conducive to disease development in open fields in southern Europe and in greenhouses. The disease causes a range of symptoms on aerial parts of plants including fruits. Contaminated seeds and transplants are responsible for long-distance dissemination of the pathogen. Control is mainly based on prevention and exclusion. Extraction of seeds from fruit debris using fermentation and acid treatments and thermotherapy treatments were shown to be effective in reducing the bacterial load in seed lots. No methods and chemical control agents are available that effectively control xanthomonads in infected crops. Although no recent data are available on economic losses caused by these pathogens in the EU, the organisms are considered important bacterial pathogens of tomato and pepper. Infections resulting in up to 30 % losses have been reported. Xanthomonads causing bacterial spot of tomato and pepper meet all criteria defined in International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) 21 and they also meet all ISPM 11 criteria, although X. vesicatoria, X. euvesicatoria and X. perforans are present in the EU territory