Differential Susceptibility Effects of Maternal Sensitivity in Childhood on Small for Gestational Age (SGA) Adults\u27 Wealth

Small for gestational age (SGA) birth has been shown to have adverse consequences on health and is considered as a developmental vulnerability. However, in-utero protection of the brain may not increase vulnerability but rather result in higher individual susceptibility to environmental experiences. The aim was to test if individuals born SGA are more susceptible to both negative and positive environmental experiences assessed by sensitive parenting in childhood compared to those born appropriate for gestational age (AGA). The target outcome was economic success in young adulthood. 438 participants (SGA n = 109, AGA n = 329) were studied as part of the Bavarian Longitudinal Study, a prospective, geographically defined investigation of neonatal at-risk children in South Germany. Maternal sensitivity was observed during a standardized mother-child interaction task, and IQ was defined as a K-ABC MPC Score at age 6 years. At age 26, participants’ wealth was assessed as a comprehensive composite score. Comparative analysis confirmed that individuals born SGA were more susceptible to the positive effects of sensitive parenting after controlling for gestational age and IQ at age 6 years. This means, if maternal sensitivity was lower than average, SGA adults did worse than AGA adults, but with high sensitivity in childhood they were significantly more successful than their AGA peers at 26 years of age. It appears that adverse uterine conditions resulting in SGA birth may alter susceptibility to environmental experiences in a for-better-or-for-worse way. Increasing parental sensitivity is a likely avenue to improve life outcomes for SGA individuals

Untangling the oxidative cost of reproduction: An analysis in wild banded mongooses

The cost of reproduction plays a central role in evolutionary theory, but the identity of the underlying mechanisms remains a puzzle. Oxidative stress has been hypothesized to be a proximate mechanism that may explain the cost of reproduction. We examine three pathways by which oxidative stress could shape reproduction. The “oxidative cost” hypothesis proposes that reproductive effort generates oxidative stress, while the “oxidative constraint” and “oxidative shielding” hypotheses suggest that mothers mitigate such costs through reducing reproductive effort or by pre‐emptively decreasing damage levels, respectively. We tested these three mechanisms using data from a long‐term food provisioning experiment on wild female banded mongooses (Mungos mungo). Our results show that maternal supplementation did not influence oxidative stress levels, or the production and survival of offspring. However, we found that two of the oxidative mechanisms co‐occur during reproduction. There was evidence of an oxidative challenge associated with reproduction that mothers attempted to mitigate by reducing damage levels during breeding. This mitigation is likely to be of crucial importance, as long‐term offspring survival was negatively impacted by maternal oxidative stress. This study demonstrates the value of longitudinal studies of wild animals in order to highlight the interconnected oxidative mechanisms that shape the cost of reproduction

Modeling sediment movement in the turbidity maximum of an estuary

This research developed a two-dimensional, time-dependent numerical model to simulate the movement of water and suspended sediment in the turbidity maximum of an estuary. This model is a systematic sequence of mathematical procedures derived from the mass-balance equation and the equation of motion. Lateral integration is used to obtain two-dimensional equations; these equations are integrated with depth over the height of successive layers. Finite difference equations then are written for each layer and solved numerically using prescribed boundary conditions.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/book/1003/thumbnail.jp

Parallelization of adaptive MC Integrators

Monte Carlo (MC) methods for numerical integration seem to be embarassingly parallel on first sight. When adaptive schemes are applied in order to enhance convergence however, the seemingly most natural way of replicating the whole job on each processor can potentially ruin the adaptive behaviour. Using the popular VEGAS-Algorithm as an example an economic method of semi-micro parallelization with variable grain-size is presented and contrasted with another straightforward approach of macro-parallelization. A portable implementation of this semi-micro parallelization is used in the xloops-project and is made publicly available.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2e, 1 pstricks-figure included and 2 eps-figures inserted via epsfig. To appear in Comput. Phys. Commu

Logarithmic Currents in the SU(2)_0 WZNW model

We study four point correlation functions of the spin 1 operators in the SU(2)_0 WZNW model. The general solution which is everywhere single-valued has logarithmic terms and thus has a natural interpretation in terms of logarithmic conformal field theory. These are not invariant under all the crossing symmetries but can remain if fields possess additional quantum numbers.Comment: 11 pages. Minor correction

On the AdS/CFT Correspondence and Logarithmic Operator

Logarithmic conformal field theory is investigated using the AdS/CFT correspondence and a novel method based on nilpotent weights. Using this device we add ghost fermions and point to a BRST invariance of the theory.Comment: 8 Pages, Typos corrected, references added changes in the content of the last sectio

Boundary states in boundary logarithmic CFT

There exist logarithmic CFTs(LCFTs) such as the $c_{p,1}$ models. It is also well known that it generally contains Jordan cell structure. In this paper, we obtain the boundary Ishibashi state for a rank-2 Jordan cell structure and, with these states in $c=-2$ rational LCFT, we derive boundary states in the closed string picture, which correspond to boundary conditions in the open string picture. We also discuss the Verlinde formula for LCFT and possible applications to string theory.Comment: LaTeX, 21 pages; a reference adde

Where are the beachmasters? Unexpectedly weak polygyny among southern elephant seals on a South Shetland Island

Intraspecific variation in animal mating systems can have important implications for ecological, evolutionary and demographic processes in wild populations. For example, patterns of mating can impact social structure, dispersal, effective population size and inbreeding. However, few species have been studied in sufficient detail to elucidate mating system plasticity and its dependence on ecological and demographic factors. Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) have long been regarded as a textbook example of a polygynous mating system, with dominant ‘beachmaster’ males controlling harems of up to several hundred females. However, behavioural and genetic studies have uncovered appreciable geographic variation in the strength of polygyny among elephant seal populations. We, therefore, used molecular parentage analysis to investigate patterns of parentage in a small satellite colony of elephant seals at the South Shetland Islands. We hypothesised that dominant males would be able to successfully monopolise the relatively small numbers of females present in the colony, leading to relatively high levels of polygyny. A total of 424 individuals (comprising 33 adult males, 101 adult females and 290 pups) sampled over 8 years were genotyped at 20 microsatellites and reproductive success was analysed by genetically assigning parents. Paternity could only be assigned to 31 pups (10.7%), despite our panel of genetic markers being highly informative and the genotyping error rate being very low. The strength of inferred polygyny was weak in comparison to previous genetic studies of the same species, with the most successful male fathering only seven pups over the entire course of our study. Our results show that, even in a species long regarded as a model for extreme polygyny, male reproductive skew can vary substantially among populations