Individual, social, and environmental factors affecting salivary and fecal cortisol levels in captive pied tamarins (Saguinus bicolor)

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Price, E., Coleman, R., Ahsmann, J., Glendewar, G., Hunt, J., Smith, T. & Wormell, D. (2019). Individual, social, and environmental factors affecting salivary and fecal cortisol levels in captive pied tamarins (Saguinus bicolor). American Journal of Primatology, 81(8), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23033. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-ArchivingPied tamarins (Saguinus bicolor) are endangered New World primates, and in captivity appear to be very susceptible to stress. We measured cortisol in 214 saliva samples from 36 tamarins and in 227 fecal samples from 27 tamarins, and investigated the effects of age, sex, pregnancy, rearing history, social status, weight, group composition, and enclosure type using generalized linear mixed models. There was no effect of age on either fecal or salivary cortisol levels. Female pied tamarins in late pregnancy had higher fecal cortisol levels than those in early pregnancy, or nonpregnant females, but there was no effect of pregnancy on salivary cortisol. Females had higher salivary cortisol levels than males, but there was no effect of rearing history. However, for fecal cortisol, there was an interaction between sex and rearing history. Hand‐reared tamarins overall had higher fecal cortisol levels, but while male parent‐reared tamarins had higher levels than females who were parent‐ reared, the reverse was true for hand‐reared individuals. There was a trend towards lower fecal cortisol levels in subordinate individuals, but no effect of status on salivary cortisol. Fecal but not salivary cortisol levels declined with increasing weight. We found little effect of group composition on cortisol levels in either saliva or feces, suggesting that as long as tamarins are housed socially, the nature of the group is of less importance. However, animals in off‐show enclosures had higher salivary and fecal cortisol levels than individuals housed on‐show. We suggest that large on‐show enclosures with permanent access to off‐exhibit areas may compensate for the effects of visitor disturbance, and a larger number of tamarins of the same species housed close together may explain the higher cortisol levels found in tamarins living in off‐show accommodation, but further research is needed

Introduction to the special issue on the statistical mechanics of climate

We introduce the special issue on the Statistical Mechanics of Climate by presenting an informal discussion of some theoretical aspects of climate dynamics that make it a topic of great interest for mathematicians and theoretical physicists. In particular, we briefly discuss its nonequilibrium and multiscale properties, the relationship between natural climate variability and climate change, the different regimes of climate response to perturbations, and critical transitions

Online determination of the journal impact factor and its international properties

The article describes the method for the online determination of the journal impact factor (JIF). The method is very simple and can be used both for the ISI defined journal impact factor and for the calculation of other generalised journal impact factors. But the direct online method fails for non-ISI journals i.e. journals not indexed by ISI to the three citation databases. For such journals only the "External Cited Impact Factor" associated with citations from ISI journals (ECIFisi) can be determined online by the common method. As an extra benefit the online method makes available the determination of the geographical distribution of citations and citable units in relation to any given JIF, i.e. the international impact for a particular journal in a given year. The method is illustrated by calculating the generalised JIF, self-citations and ECIF(isi) as well as the international impact for Journal of Documentation and Scientometrics.</p

End group selectivity of low-molecular-weight polystyrenes on a carbon-clad zirconia stationary phase in reversed phase HPLC

The separation of isomers of polystyrene oligomers was demonstrated on a carbon-clad zirconia stationary phase in an acetonitrile mobile phase. The carbon-clad zirconia surface gave considerably better resolution of isomers than a C18 surface, and the separation was sensitive to the end group of the oligomer. Oligomers with sec-butyl end groups displayed almost twice as many isomers as the corresponding n-butyl oligomer on the carbon-clad zirconia surface. These additional bands could be explained by the stereochemistry of the sec-butyl end group. In addition, the migration rate of the polystyrene isomers was dependent upon the end group, with n-butyl polystyrenes displaying significantly greater retention on the carbon-clad zirconia stationary phase. In comparison, the selectivity of conventional C18 columns could not discriminate between the n-butyl and sec-butyl end groups