Building Babies - Chapter 16

In contrast to birds, male mammals rarely help to raise the offspring. Of all mammals, only among rodents, carnivores, and primates, males are sometimes intensively engaged in providing infant care (Kleiman and Malcolm 1981). Male caretaking of infants has long been recognized in nonhuman primates (Itani 1959). Given that infant care behavior can have a positive effect on the infant’s development, growth, well-being, or survival, why are male mammals not more frequently involved in “building babies”? We begin the chapter defining a few relevant terms and introducing the theory and hypotheses that have historically addressed the evolution of paternal care. We then review empirical findings on male care among primate taxa, before focusing, in the final section, on our own work on paternal care in South American owl monkeys (Aotus spp.). We conclude the chapter with some suggestions for future studies.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HU 1746/2-1) Wenner-Gren Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation (BCS-0621020), the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, the Zoological Society of San Dieg

Microsatellites for the genus Cucurbita and an SSR-based genetic linkage map of Cucurbita pepo L.

Until recently, only a few microsatellites have been available for Cucurbita, thus their development is highly desirable. The Austrian oil-pumpkin variety Gleisdorfer Ölkürbis (C. pepo subsp. pepo) and the C. moschata cultivar Soler (Puerto Rico) were used for SSR development. SSR-enriched partial genomic libraries were established and 2,400 clones were sequenced. Of these 1,058 (44%) contained an SSR at least four repeats long. Primers were designed for 532 SSRs; 500 primer pairs produced fragments of expected size. Of these, 405 (81%) amplified polymorphic fragments in a set of 12 genotypes: three C. moschata, one C. ecuadorensis, and eight C. pepo representing all eight cultivar groups. On an average, C. pepo and C. moschata produced 3.3 alleles per primer pair, showing high inter-species transferability. There were 187 SSR markers detecting polymorphism between the USA oil-pumpkin variety “Lady Godiva” (O5) and the Italian crookneck variety “Bianco Friulano” (CN), which are the parents of our previous F2 mapping population. It has been used to construct the first published C. pepo map, containing mainly RAPD and AFLP markers. Now the updated map comprises 178 SSRs, 244 AFLPs, 230 RAPDs, five SCARs, and two morphological traits (h and B). It contains 20 linkage groups with a map density of 2.9 cM. The observed genome coverage (Co) is 86.8%

Structural and functional insights into asymmetric enzymatic dehydration of alkenols

The asymmetric dehydration of alcohols is an important process for the direct synthesis of alkenes. We report the structure and substrate specificity of the bifunctional linalool dehydratase isomerase (LinD) from the bacterium Castellaniella defragrans that catalyzes in nature the hydration of β-myrcene to linalool and the subsequent isomerization to geraniol. Enzymatic kinetic resolutions of truncated and elongated aromatic and aliphatic tertiary alcohols (C5-C15) that contain a specific signature motif demonstrate the broad substrate specificity of LinD. The three-dimensional structure of LinD from Castellaniella defragrans revealed a pentamer with active sites at the protomer interfaces. Furthermore, the structure of LinD in complex with the product geraniol provides initial mechanistic insights into this bifunctional enzyme. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed active site amino acid residues essential for its dehydration and isomerization activity. These structural and mechanistic insights facilitate the development of hydrating catalysts, enriching the toolbox for novel bond-forming biocatalysis

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) - 2018 Summary Report

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a TeV-scale high-luminosity linear $e^+e^-$ collider under development at CERN. Following the CLIC conceptual design published in 2012, this report provides an overview of the CLIC project, its current status, and future developments. It presents the CLIC physics potential and reports on design, technology, and implementation aspects of the accelerator and the detector. CLIC is foreseen to be built and operated in stages, at centre-of-mass energies of 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV, respectively. CLIC uses a two-beam acceleration scheme, in which 12 GHz accelerating structures are powered via a high-current drive beam. For the first stage, an alternative with X-band klystron powering is also considered. CLIC accelerator optimisation, technical developments and system tests have resulted in an increased energy efficiency (power around 170 MW) for the 380 GeV stage, together with a reduced cost estimate at the level of 6 billion CHF. The detector concept has been refined using improved software tools. Significant progress has been made on detector technology developments for the tracking and calorimetry systems. A wide range of CLIC physics studies has been conducted, both through full detector simulations and parametric studies, together providing a broad overview of the CLIC physics potential. Each of the three energy stages adds cornerstones of the full CLIC physics programme, such as Higgs width and couplings, top-quark properties, Higgs self-coupling, direct searches, and many precision electroweak measurements. The interpretation of the combined results gives crucial and accurate insight into new physics, largely complementary to LHC and HL-LHC. The construction of the first CLIC energy stage could start by 2026. First beams would be available by 2035, marking the beginning of a broad CLIC physics programme spanning 25-30 years

Spatially-resolved photocapacitance measurements to study defects in a-Si:H based p-i-n particle detectors

Thick large-area particle or X-ray detectors suffer degradation during operation due to creation of defects that act as deep traps. Measuring the photocurrent under homogeneously absorbed weak light can monitor variation in detector performance. We describe how photocapacitance can be used as an alternative method to measure the creation of defects and their energy level after intense irradiation with protons or He ions at 1.5 MeV and after exposure to intense laser pulses. The possibility to detect small areas of high defect density in a large-area detector structure is discussed

A Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Limits on the Abundance and Coupling of Cosmic Axions' LIMITS ON THE ABUNDANCE AND COUPLING OF COSMIC AXIONS

ABSTRACT We report preliminary results from a search for galactic axions in the mass range 4.5 < ma < 5.0 PeV. For an axion line width Ta ( SXlO-l3 eV, we obtain the experimental limit (ga 7/ma)2pa < 1.4x10-41. The theoretical prediction is (ga &ddfErn~ 3. 9X1O-44 with the local galactic axion density pa

Limits on the abundance and coupling of cosmic axions

We report preliminary results from a search for galactic axions in the mass range 4.5 < m/sub a/ < 5.0 ..mu..eV. For an axion line width GAMMA/sub a/ less than or equal to 8 x 10/sup -13/ eV, we obtain the experimental limit (g/sub a..gamma gamma../m/sub a/)/sup 2/rho/sub a/ < 1.4 x 10/sup -41/. The theoretical prediction is (g/sub a..gamma gamma../m/sub a/)/sup 2/rho/sub a/ = 3.9 x 10/sup -44/ with the local galactic axion density rho/sub a/ = 300 MeV/cm/sup 3/. We have also searched for the presence of a continuous spectrum of light pseudoscalar particles; assuming that the local galactic axion density is composed of axions with masses uniformly distributed between 4.5 and 5.0 ..mu..eV, we find that g/sub a..gamma gamma../ < 2 x 10/sup -30/ MeV/sup 1/2/ cm/sup 3/2/ approx. = 10/sup 11/ GeV/sup -1/. Limits have also been set on the production of light pseudoscalar x particles; we find g/sub x..gamma gamma../ < 10/sup -24/ MeV/sup 1/2/ cm/sup 3/2/ approx. = 10/sup -5/ GeV/sup -1/ for 0< m/sub x/ less than or equal to 4..mu..eV. 20 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab