The effects of dopaminergic/serotonergic reuptake inhibition on maternal behavior, maternal aggression, and oxytocin in the rat

Studies using dopaminergic and serotonergic agonists or antagonists implicate involvement of these systems in various aspects of early maternal behavior and postpartum aggression towards an intruder in rats, both of which are associated with the presence of oxytocin in specific brain regions. It is unclear however, if or how long-term uptake inhibition of either neurotransmitter system alone or in combination, affects oxytocin system dynamics or maternal behavior/aggression. Pregnant women frequently take drugs (antidepressants, cocaine) that induce long-term reuptake inhibition of dopamine and/or serotonin, thus it is important to understand these effects on behavior and biochemistry. Rat dams were treated throughout gestation with amfonelic acid, fluoxetine, or a combination of both, to investigate effects of reuptake inhibition of dopamine and serotonin systems respectively, on maternal behavior, aggression and oxytocin. The more appetitive aspects of maternal behavior (nesting, licking, touching) and activity were increased by the low dose of amfonelic acid, high dose of fluoxetine, or the high dose combination more than other treatments. Aggression was decreased by amfonelic acid and somewhat increased by fluoxetine. Dopamine uptake inhibition appears to have a strong effect on hippocampal oxytocin levels, while receptor dynamics may be more strongly affected by serotonin uptake inhibition

The probability distribution of spectral moments for the Gaussian β-ensembles

We derive the joint probability distribution of the first two spectral moments for the G$\beta$E random matrix ensembles in N dimensions for any N. This is achieved by making use of two complementary invariants of the domain in $\mathbb{R}^N$ where the spectral moments are defined. Our approach is significantly different from those employed previously to answer related questions and potentially offers new insights. We also discuss the problems faced when attempting to include higher spectral moments.Comment: 13 page

Observation of WDM crosstalk in passive semiconductor waveguides

We show that passive InP-InGaAsP waveguides exhibit high nonlinear loss due to the highly energetic carriers generated by two-photon absorption. We have further demonstrated, for the first time, that due to this effect, severe crosstalk occurs between wavelength channels when they are transmitted through a semiconductor waveguide operated in the transparency region, at power levels used in typical wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) systems. Some solutions are proposed