Maternal investment in Antarctic fur seals: evidence for equality in the sexes?

Studies of the otariids (fur seals and sea lions), a highly sexually dimorphic group, have provided conflicting evidence of differential maternal expenditure in male and female offspring and, thus, suggestions that they conform to predictions of investment theory are equivocal. Since the mid-1970s, a diversity of research on Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) including studies of their reproductive ecology, lactation energetics, and foraging behaviour have been conducted at Bird Island, South Georgia that have resulted in one of the more complete and diverse data sets for any species of otariid. These long-term data were reviewed to determine whether there was any evidence to support that differential maternal expenditure occurred in Antarctic fur seals. Most of the data examined were collected during five consecutive austral summers from 1988 through 1992 and included years in which local food resources were abundant and scarce. We were unable to detect differences in the sex ratios of pups at birth or sex-biased differences in growth rates estimated from serial data, the number of foraging trips made, the duration of attendance ashore, diving behaviour, suckling behaviour, or milk consumption in any year and in the duration of foraging trips or age at weaning in 2 of 3 years. In addition, we found no evidence of greater reproductive costs between mothers with sons or daughters relative to their reproductive performance the following year. In contrast, sex-biased differences were only found in the duration of foraging trips in 1990, the age at weaning in 1988, and consistently in growth rates estimated from cross-sectional data. We suggest that differential maternal expenditure does not occur in Antarctic fur seals because male pups probably do not gain greater benefit from additional maternal expenditure than female pups. After weaning, males experience a period of rapid juvenile growth over 3–4 years during which time body mass nearly trebles. This growth will almost certainly be dependent upon available food resources then rather than on any maternal expenditure received over the first 4 months of life and, thus, the assumptions of the Trivers and Willard hypothesis are probably invalid for Antarctic fur seals. Received: 10 July 1996 / Accepted after revision: 3 March 1997     

Thermal hazard accident investigation of hydrogen peroxide mixing with propanone employing calorimetric approaches

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), historically, due to its broad applications in the chemical industries, has caused many serious fires and explosions around the world. Its thermal hazards may also be incurred by an incompatible reaction with other chemicals, and a runaway reaction may be induced in the last stage. This study applied thermal analytical methods to explore the H₂O₂ leading to these accidents by incompatibility and to discuss what might be formed by the upset situations. Thermal hazard analysis contained a solvent, propanone (CH₃COCH₃, so-called acetone), which was deliberately selected to mix with H₂O₂ for investigating the degree of thermal hazard. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vent sizing package 2 (VSP2) were employed to evaluate the thermal hazard of H₂O₂. The results indicated that H₂O₂ is highly hazardous while mixed with propanone, as a potential contaminant. The time to maximum rate (TMR) was used as emergency response time in the chemical industries. Therefore, TMR of H₂O₂ was calculated to be 70 min for runaway reaction (after T₀) and TMR of H₂O₂/propanone was discovered to be 27 min only. Fire and explosion hazards could be successfully lessened if the safety-related data are properly imbedded into manufacturing processes.     

A voltammetric screening method to determine ronidazole in bovine meat

Abstract

An original voltammetric screening method, employing glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with the differential-pulse voltammetry technique (DPV), has been developed to determine residues of the anti-parasitic agent Ronidazole (RNZ) in bovine meat. By using cyclic voltammetry (CV), it has been demonstrated that an irreversible cathodic process occurs at approximately ?0.740?V (vs. Ag|AgCl, KCl 3?mol L^?1) in a 0.100?mol L^?1 phosphate buffer at pH 6.5 as supporting electrolyte. Furthermore, the behavior of RNZ in CV indicates the occurrence of a diffusion mass transfer process to the working electrode surface. The RNZ reduction mechanism was proposed as a 6-electron transfer, similar to Metronidazole under the same pH range. Quantification of RNZ and method validation were then carried out by DPV. The relative standard deviation (RSD) were 3.21% for intraday precision of 10 consecutive repetitions and 6.78% for interday precision after five analysis. Limits of detection and quantification were also obtained, and the values were 0.107 and 0.358?mg kg^?1, respectively. The recovery percentage for three different concentrations of RNZ in the bovine meat matrix ranged between 98.1% and 100.3%. The method proved to be efficient for screening RNZ in bovine meat.     

Evaluation of multiple reactions in dilute benzoyl peroxide concentrations with additives using calorimetric technology

Benzoyl peroxide (BPO) is a typical organic peroxide widely used in food processing, particularly flour bleaching. Due to the unstable nature of the oxygen-oxygen bond in BPO, it readily reacts under even mid-low-temperature conditions. Lower concentrations of BPO are also potentially explosive, even when combined with acid or alkaline additives. Given the history of both potential and documented industrial accidents, this study investigates the thermal stability of various BPO concentrations when mixed with acid or alkaline solutions. In addition, differential and integral kinetic models were applied to verify that the apparent activation energy data from the differential scanning calorimetry experiments were valid. The results of autocatalysis reactions and nth-order reaction simulations presented characteristics consistent with the experimental findings. The findings in this paper can be used as a reference for BPO products that are mediated with either an acid or an alkaline solution during production, storage, transportation, or use.     

Evidence for sexy sons in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

The sexy son hypothesis suggests that females obtain future fitness benefits from mating with polygynous males through the inheritance by their sons of traits contributing to mating success. We tested this hypothesis in the facultatively polygynous European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in two ways. We first compared sons of monogynous and polygynous free-living males for their abilities in nest site acquisition and female-directed behaviors in controlled aviary tests. We then investigated eggs laid in monogynous and polygynous matings for concentrations of maternal steroid hormones that could affect behavioral differentiation of sons. Sons of polygynous fathers defended more nest boxes and produced more courtship song than sons of monogynous fathers. Mean concentrations of maternal androstenedione (A4), 5-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), testosterone (T), and 17-estradiol (E) in yolks were not affected by mating status. However, the within-clutch pattern of A₄ depended on mating status, with higher concentrations in last than in first eggs of clutches of monogynous but not polygynous matings. These results suggest that (1) sons may inherit from their fathers behavioral qualities for the successful acquisition of nest sites and attraction of mates; (2) differential exposure to maternal steroid hormones during development in the egg is unlikely the cause of the behavioral differences between adult sons of monogynous and polygynous fathers; and (3) females adjust the within-clutch pattern of androgen to mating status, possibly in response to the expected contribution of their mate to nestling care.     

Influence of phytoplankton on complexing capacity of seawater†

Differential Pulse Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (DPASV) was employed to measure Apparent Copper Complexing Capacity (L_t) and Stability Constants (K_s) of related cupric complexes of cell exudates of the phytoplanktonic alga Dunaliella salina. Three natural seawater samples collected 0.1, 2, 5 miles off the Tyrrhenian coast were used as culture medium. The measurements were carried out 1h and 7 days after the inoculum. Furthermore, on one culture the medium was passed through C₁₈‐SEP‐PAK cartridges in order to separate the cell exudates. The results show that Dunaliella salina influences the value of L_t but does not affect the value of K_s . The C₁₈SEP‐PAK retain only 50% of the ligands produced by the cells and capable of complexing copper.     

城市生活垃圾的DSC和TGA分析与热值估算

利用微分扫描量热仪（ＤＳＣ）准确地测定了城市生活垃圾的含水率；热重分析仪（ＴＧＡ）测定了垃圾的水和低温下有机物总含量、难挥发性有机物和灼烧残渣的含量。根据量热和热量分析结果，可方便地计算垃圾的水和低温条件下易挥发性有机物含量，结合６０９种有机物的燃烧热，估算了垃圾的热值。     

Simultaneous determination of three herbicides by differential pulse voltammetry and chemometrics

A novel differential pulse voltammetry method (DPV) was researched and developed for the simultaneous determination of Pendimethalin, Dinoseb and sodium 5-nitroguaiacolate (5NG) with the aid of chemometrics. The voltammograms of these three compounds overlapped significantly, and to facilitate the simultaneous determination of the three analytes, chemometrics methods were applied. These included classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS) and radial basis function-artificial neural networks (RBF-ANN). A separately prepared verification data set was used to confirm the calibrations, which were built from the original and first derivative data matrices of the voltammograms. On the basis relative prediction errors and recoveries of the analytes, the RBF-ANN and the DPLS (D – first derivative spectra) models performed best and are particularly recommended for application. The DPLS calibration model was applied satisfactorily for the prediction of the three analytes from market vegetables and lake water samples.     

Combustion characteristics of asphalt and sodium compounds

Risk evaluation of mixtures of asphalt and inorganic salts such as sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, sodium carbonate and sodium dihydrogenphosphate was conducted. The ignition and the combustion characteristics of mixtures of asphalt and oxidizing salts were obtained. Quasi-heat-accumulation experiments of asphalt–salt mixtures were conducted using about 1 kg samples. Six types of asphalt–salt mixtures were made and their ignition characteristics were examined in the quasi-heat-accumulation experiments. Then to clarify burning behavior of the asphalt–salt mixtures, experiments for understanding their combustion characteristics were conducted using a cone calorimeter.

The main results are as follows.

(1) In the quasi-heat-accumulation experiment, a region with high concentration of the salt mixture particles was made at the bottom of the sample vessel through the process of their sedimentation. An exothermic reaction started in this region. Just before the asphalt–salt mixture was ignited, a huge amount of white smoke was released. A kind of jet flame of a few meters in height was created.

(2) Based on the data of ignition temperature from the cone calorimeter experiments, ignition of asphalt was caused by a chemical reaction of asphalt with an oxidizing salt. The combustion of the asphalt–salt mixture contained the self-heating reaction.     

Population as an oscillating system

In this paper we present a new approach describing population dynamics based on the view of a population as an oscillating system. To develop a mathematical model of an oscillating population, we applied a third-order differential equation. Our model describes population dynamics within a parametric-temporal continuum, formed by the relative values of population growth and decrease over time. In this paper we also illustrate how our oscillative model effectively compliments the existing suite of models in population dynamics.