Human kin detection

Natural selection has favored the evolution of behaviors that benefit not only one's genes, but also their copies in genetically related individuals. These behaviors include optimal outbreeding (choosing a mate that is neither too closely related, nor too distant), nepotism (helping kin), and spite (hurting non-kin at a personal cost), and all require some form of kin detection or kin recognition. Yet, kinship cannot be assessed directly; human kin detection relies on heuristic cues that take into account individuals' context (whether they were reared by our mother, or grew up in our home, or were given birth by our spouse), appearance (whether they smell or look like us), and ability to arouse certain feelings (whether we feel emotionally close to them). The uncertainties of kin detection, along with its dependence on social information, create ample opportunities for the evolution of deception and self-deception. For example, babies carry no unequivocal stamp of their biological father, but across cultures they are passionately claimed to resemble their mother's spouse; to the same effect, neutral' observers are greatly influenced by belief in relatedness when judging resemblance between strangers. Still, paternity uncertainty profoundly shapes human relationships, reducing not only the investment contributed by paternal versus maternal kin, but also prosocial behavior between individuals who are related through one or more males rather than females alone. Because of its relevance to racial discrimination and political preferences, the evolutionary pressure to prefer kin to non-kin has a manifold influence on society at large

Mercury and selenium binding biomolecules in terrestrial mammals (Cervus elaphus and Sus scrofa) from a mercury exposed area

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (PCC-05-004-2, PAI06-0094, PCI-08-0096, PEII09-0032-5329) and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTQ2013-48411-P) for financial support. M.J. Patiño Ropero acknowledges the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha for her PhD. fellowship.Peer reviewedPostprin

Quick and robust method for trace determination of MeHg in rice and rice products without derivatisation

Peer reviewedPostprin

The role of plasma slowdown in the generation of Rhea's Alfven wings

Alfvén wings are known to form when a conducting or mass-loading object slows down a flowing plasma in its vicinity. Alfvén wings are not expected to be generated when an inert moon such as Rhea interacts with Saturn's magnetosphere, where the plasma impacting the moon is absorbed and the magnetic flux passes unimpeded through the moon. However, in two close polar passes of Rhea, Cassini clearly observed magnetic field signatures consistent with Alfvén wings. In addition, observations from a high-inclination flyby (Distance > 100 RRh) of Rhea on 3 June 2010 showed that the Alfvén wings continue to propagate away from Rhea even at this large distance. We have performed three-dimensional hybrid simulations of Rhea's interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere which show that the wake refilling process generates a plasma density gradient directed in the direction of corotating plasma. The resulting plasma pressure gradient exerts a force directed toward Rhea and slows down the plasma streaming into the wake along field lines. As on the same field lines, outside of the wake, the plasma continues to move close to its full speed, this differential motion of plasma bends the magnetic flux tubes, generating Alfvén wings in the wake. The current system excited by the Alfvén wings transfers momentum to the wake plasma extracting it from plasma outside the wake. Our work demonstrates that Alfvén wings can be excited even when a moon does not possess a conducting exosphere

Microwave radiometric observations near 19.35, 92 and 183 GHz of precipitation in tropical storm Cora

Observations of rain cells in the remains of a decaying tropical storm were made by Airborne Microwave Radiometers at 19.35,92 and three frequencies near 183 GHz. Extremely low brightness temperatures, as low as 140 K were noted in the 92 and 183 GHz observations. These can be accounted for by the ice often associated with raindrop formation. Further, 183 GHz observations can be interpreted in terms of the height of the ice. The brightness temperatures observed suggest the presence of precipitation sized ice as high as 9 km or more

Rain observations in tropical storm Cora

Passive microwave observations were made in tropical storm Cora at 19.35 and 94GHz. These observations suggest that 94GHz is appropriate for mapping the extent of rain over either land or ocean backgrounds and that some rainfall intensity measurement is also possible

Degradation of the cancer genomic DNA deaminase APOBEC3B by SIV Vif

APOBEC3B is a newly identified source of mutation in many cancers, including breast, head/neck, lung, bladder, cervical, and ovarian. APOBEC3B is a member of the APOBEC3 family of enzymes that deaminate DNA cytosine to produce the promutagenic lesion, uracil. Several APOBEC3 family members function to restrict virus replication. For instance, APOBEC3D, APOBEC3F, APOBEC3G, and APOBEC3H combine to restrict HIV-1 in human lymphocytes. HIV-1 counteracts these APOBEC3s with the viral protein Vif, which targets the relevant APOBEC3s for proteasomal degradation. While APOBEC3B does not restrict HIV-1 and is not targeted by HIV-1 Vif in CD4-positive T cells, we asked whether related lentiviral Vif proteins could degrade APOBEC3B. Interestingly, several SIV Vif proteins are capable of promoting APOBEC3B degradation, with SIVmac239 Vif proving the most potent. This likely occurs through the canonical polyubiquitination mechanism as APOBEC3B protein levels are restored by MG132 treatment and by altering a conserved E3 ligase-binding motif. We further show that SIVmac239 Vif can prevent APOBEC3B mediated geno/cytotoxicity and degrade endogenous APOBEC3B in several cancer cell lines. Our data indicate that the APOBEC3B degradation potential of SIV Vif is an effective tool for neutralizing the cancer genomic DNA deaminase APOBEC3B. Further optimization of this natural APOBEC3 antagonist may benefit cancer therapy

Peripheral Nα\alpha Scattering: A Tool For Identifying The Two Pion Exchange Component Of The NN Potential

We study elastic N$\alpha$ scattering and produce a quantitative correlation between the range of the effective potential and the energy of the system. This allows the identification of the waves and energies for which the scattering may be said to be peripheral. We then show that the corresponding phase shifts are sensitive to the tail of the NN potential, which is due to the exchange of two pions. However, the present uncertainties in the experimental phase shifts prevent the use of N$\alpha$ scattering to discriminate the existing models for the NN interaction.Comment: 19 pages, 6 PostScript figures, RevTeX, to be appear in Phys. Rev.

NLTE solar irradiance modeling with the COSI code

Context. The solar irradiance is known to change on time scales of minutes to decades, and it is suspected that its substantial fluctua- tions are partially responsible for climate variations. Aims. We are developing a solar atmosphere code that allows the physical modeling of the entire solar spectrum composed of quiet Sun and active regions. This code is a tool for modeling the variability of the solar irradiance and understanding its influence on Earth. Methods. We exploit further development of the radiative transfer code COSI that now incorporates the calculation of molecular lines. We validated COSI under the conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) against the synthetic spectra calculated with the ATLAS code. The synthetic solar spectra were also calculated in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) and compared to the available measured spectra. In doing so we have defined the main problems of the modeling, e.g., the lack of opacity in the UV part of the spectrum and the inconsistency in the calculations of the visible continuum level, and we describe a solution to these problems. Results. The improved version of COSI allows us to reach good agreement between the calculated and observed solar spectra as measured by SOLSTICE and SIM onboard the SORCE satellite and ATLAS 3 mission operated from the Space Shuttle. We find that NLTE effects are very important for the modeling of the solar spectrum even in the visual part of the spectrum and for its variability over the entire solar spectrum. In addition to the strong effect on the UV part of the spectrum, NLTE effects influence the concentration of the negative ion of hydrogen, which results in a significant change of the visible continuum level and the irradiance variability.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy&Astrophysic