Exposure of embryos to an aromatization inhibitor increases copulatory behaviour of male quail

This experiment examined the possibility that endogenous embryonic androgen contributes to sexual differentiation of behaviour in male or female quail ($\text{Coturnix}$$\text{coturnix}$$\text{japonica}$), and that it does so via aromatization (conversion to oestrogen). Eggs were injected on day 9 of incubation with oil or ATD (an aromatization inhibitor). As adults, males and females were exposed to short days, injected with testosterone propionate, tested for male-typical behaviour, then injected with oestradiol benzoate and tested for female-typical receptivity. ATD increased the level of male-typical copulatory behaviour in males. Male-typical behaviour in females was not affected, nor was female-typical behaviour in either sex. Thus normal male quail are actually slightly demasculinized by their own androgen during embryonic development, and this process is mediated by aromatization.     

Rapid Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation for Women in an HIV-1 Prevention Clinical Trial Experiencing Primary HIV-1 Infection during Pregnancy or Breastfeeding

During an HIV-1 prevention clinical trial in East Africa, we observed 16 cases of primary HIV-1 infection in women coincident with pregnancy or breastfeeding. Nine of eleven pregnant women initiated rapid combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), despite having CD4 counts exceeding national criteria for ART initiation; breastfeeding women initiated ART or replacement feeding. Rapid ART initiation during primary HIV-1 infection during pregnancy and breastfeeding is feasible in this setting.     

Dominance,Coloration, and Social and Sexual Behavior in Male Drills <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mandrillus leucophaeus</Emphasis>

Sexual selection has driven the evolution and elaboration of a wide variety of displays and ornaments in male nonhuman primates, including capes, cheek flanges, and sexual coloration. Among the most sexually dimorphic of all primates is the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus), the males of which can be 3 times the mass of females, possess large canines, and exhibit extremely bright sexual skin coloration. However, the function of male coloration in this species has never been examined. Here, we present data on male color (measured objectively using digital photography), dominance rank, measures of male-female association, and key sexual behaviors, of adult male drills (n = 17) living in four semi free-ranging enclosures at the Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center in Nigeria. We test the hypothesis that male coloration is a badge of status, indicating dominance rank, and the hypothesis that male coloration attracts females. We found that male coloration did indicate rank, and that high ranking, strongly colored males were more likely to associate with adult females, and more specifically with fully tumescent females. These males also engaged in more sexual activity. However, measures of male-female association and sexual behaviors were not related to male color once rank had been taken into consideration; i.e., for males of a given rank, females did not prefer those that were more colorful. We discuss the results in light of what is known about the wild drill social system, in which unfamiliar individuals may come together in “supergroups,” and in which quality indicators of competitive ability may be particularly important.     

Cartography and Clandestinité in Leïla Sebbar’s Shérazade: 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts

In this paper, I read Leïla Sebbar’s staging in her novel Shérazade: 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts of the resistance by children of North African and other immigrants in the early 1980s to the French state’s cartographic modes and documents of control. The paper will consider the many uses to which the map was put by the French state in its colonization of North Africa and particularly Algeria, and later in its attempts to control the banlieues its policies of citizenship and cartographic control yielded on the margins of Paris. In this context, I will explore the ways in which the novel’s characters, living clandestinely in a squatt, simultaneously resist, put to use, and even supercede state documents of control as they disrupt everyday life and conduct heists across the city of Paris. The paper will explore unofficial cartographies of Paris, from those afforded by the radios libres and alternative publications such as Libération and Sans Frontièrez, to oral and almost proverbial networks of knowledge criss-crossing the city of Paris, while also tracing the uses to which supplemental cartographic sketches and counterfeit identity cards are put in the pages of the novel. The paper will be in dialogue with theoretical and critical formulations of space, cartography, and state control put forward by Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, and Tom Conley. The paper will conclude with a consideration of the means and limits of resistance by the novel’s characters in the context of this body of theory and criticism.     

The karyotype of Alligator mississippiensis,and chromosomal mapping of the ZFY/X homologue,Zfc

Comparative mapping studies of X-linked genes in mammals have provided insights into the evolution of the X chromosome. Many reptiles including the American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, do not appear to possess heteromorphic sex chromosomes, and sex is determined by the incubation temperature of the egg during embryonic development. Mapping of homologues of mammalian X-linked genes in reptiles could lead to a greater understanding of the evolution of vertebrate sex chromosomes. One of the genes used in the mammalian mapping studies was ZFX, an X-linked copy of the human ZFY gene which was originally isolated as a candidate for the mammalian testis-determining factor (TDF). ZFX is X-linked in eutherians, but maps to two autosomal locations in marsupials and monotremes, close to other genes associated with the eutherian X. The alligator homologue of the ZFY/ZFX genes, Zfc, has been isolated and described previously. A detailed karyotype of A. mississippiensis is presented, together with chromosomal in situ hybridisation data localising the Zfc gene to chromosome 3. Further chromosomal mapping studies using eutherian X-linked genes may reveal conserved chromosomal regions in the alligator that have become part of the eutherian X chromosome during evolution.     

Determination of glucose exchange rates and permeability of erythrocyte membrane in preeclampsia and subsequent oxidative stress-related protein damage using dynamic-<Superscript>19</Superscript>F-NMR

The cause of the pregnancy condition preeclampsia (PE) is thought to be endothelial dysfunction caused by oxidative stress. As abnormal glucose tolerance has also been associated with PE, we use a fluorinated-mimic of this metabolite to establish whether any oxidative damage to lipids and proteins in the erythrocyte membrane has increased cell membrane permeability. Data were acquired using ¹⁹F Dynamic-NMR (DNMR) to measure exchange of 3-fluoro-3-deoxyglucose (3-FDG) across the membrane of erythrocytes from 10 pregnant women (5 healthy control women, and 5 from women suffering from PE). Magnetisation transfer was measured using the 1D selective inversion and 2D EXSY pulse sequences, over a range of time delays. Integrated intensities from these experiments were used in matrix diagonalisation to estimate the values of the rate constants of exchange and membrane permeability. No significant differences were observed for the rate of exchange of 3-FDG and membrane permeability between healthy pregnant women and those suffering from PE, leading us to conclude that no oxidative damage had occurred at this carrier-protein site in the membrane.