Infant colonization by Staphylococcus aureus has not been adequately investigated. In this study, we aimed to define determinants associated with the carriage of S. aureus in early infancy. Serial nasal swabs were collected from 128 infants and their mothers at months 0, 6, and 12 postpartum. S. aureus isolates were ...

Post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (PM MRI) of brain is increasingly used in clinical practice; understanding of normal PM contrast to noise ratio (CNR), T(1) and T(2) values relaxation times is important for optimisation and accurate interpretation of PM MRI. METHODS: We obtained T(1)- and T(2)-weighted images at 1.5T. In the ...

This study is intended to analyze (1) differences in infant temperament at 3 and 12 months according to infants' psychophysiological profiles: "withdrawn" "extroverted", and "underaroused" and (2) changes in infant temperament from 3 to 12 months, namely according to the infant psychophysiological profile and the quality of mother-infant interaction. Ninety-four ...

Low long-chain PUFA (LC-PUFA, or LCP) consumption relates to suboptimal neurodevelopment, coronary artery disease, and [postpartum (PP)] depression. Maternal-to-infant LCP transport during pregnancy and lactation is at the expense of maternal status, a process known as biomagnification. Despite biomagnification, maternal and infant LCP status generally declines during lactation. To assess ...

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mothers' depressive symptoms and the acoustic parameters of infant-directed (ID) singing. Participants included 80 mothers and their 3- to 9-month-old infants. A digital recording was made of each mother's voice while singing to her infant. Extraction and analyses of ...

Mammalian gastrointestinal (GI) development is guided by genetic determinants established during the evolution of mammals and matched to the natural diet and environment. Co-evolution of the host GI tract (GIT) and the resident bacteria has resulted in commensal relationships that are species and even individual specific. The interactions between the ...

Maternal behavior in the new mother is a multidimensional set of responses to infant cues that are influenced by the mother's early life experiences. In this study, we wanted to test if mothers' early life experiences and mothers' genotype have interactive effects on maternal behaviors and attitudes, something which has ...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are endocrine disrupting chemicals that disturb normal development of embryonic brains. In the present study, we evaluated the relationship between maternal plasma PCB concentration and infant behavioral characteristics in mother-infant interactions. We grouped 20 pregnant cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) into higher and lower PCB exposure groups; monkeys ...

This study investigates vocal imitation of prosodic contour in ongoing spontaneous interaction with 10- to 13-week-old infants. Audio recordings from naturalistic interactions between 20 mothers and infants were analyzed using a vocalization coding system that extracted the pitch and duration of individual vocalizations. Using these data, the authors categorized a ...

This longitudinal study examined dyadic and triadic skills in 26 preterm and 31 full term infants at 3, 6 and 9 months of age. In dyadic interaction, infants engaged with a stranger in face-to-face play interrupted by a still-face episode. In triadic interaction, infants interacted with the adult stranger as ...

We compared survival and outcomes in process of care in female versus male infants born ≤32 weeks gestational age (GA). Data were obtained from the Alere database for infants born ≤32 weeks GA. Females were compared with males for demographics, complications, and care processes. Univariate and multivariate analysis was conducted ...

The relative maturity, alertness, and reactivity of an infant at birth are sensitive indices of the neonate's health, the quality of the pregnancy, and the mother's wellbeing. Even when fetal growth and gestation length have been normal, the maturing fetus can still be adversely impacted by both physical events and ...

Recent research conducted with nonhuman primates confirms that adaptive emotional processes, such as maternal attraction arousability and maternal anxiety arousability, enhance and sustain female motivation to interact with infants, invest in them, and protect them during the postpartum period. Changes in these emotional processes, and concomitant changes in maternal motivation, ...

Records from a colony of captive Indian rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were used to estimate heritability for a number of reproductive traits. Records were based on a total of 7,816 births by 1,901 females from 1979 to 2007. Heritability was estimated with a linear animal model using a multiple trait ...

Reproductive events in animal societies often show a high degree of temporal clustering, but the evolutionary causes of this synchronization are poorly understood. Here, we suggest that selection to avoid the negative effects of competition with other females has given rise to a remarkable degree of birth synchrony in the ...

This study describes two cases of directly observed and one case of nearly observed infanticide after an adult male immigrated into a multimale-multifemale group of black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) at Palenque National Park, Mexico. The immigrant male entered the group alone, injured the central adult male, presumably evicted the ...

Placental abruption is an important cause of preterm birth, and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Although more common with male fetuses, outcomes have not been evaluated by sex. Our aim was to find out whether short-term morbidity differs by infant sex in cases with placental abruption and in controls. Register-based case-control ...

Pseudomonas mendocina carrying a novel class 1 integron containing an IMP-8 gene was isolated from an inanimate surface in a female ward sanitary facility of the Hospital Infante D. Pedro, Aveiro, Portugal. Hybridization with the integrase gene (intI1) and 16S rDNA revealed that the integron is chromosomally located. Here we ...

Congenital aplasia of the hallux (big toe) was observed in seven adult and infant members of a free-ranging group of silvery marmosets (Mico argentatus) in the Alter do Chão savannah of central Amazonia. Apparently heritable, the condition was more common in males (80%) than females (50%) but was found in ...

Alpha male chacma baboons experience uncontested access to individual estrus females. Consequently, alpha male paternity certainty is high and underpins significant levels of infanticide by immigrant males that, in turn, has selected for male defense of infants. There is also, however, a high probability that alpha males will be absent ...

The reproductive patterns recorded in a free-ranging group of Callithrix flaviceps were unique in a number of ways, including 4 females breeding simultaneously, a non-breeding dominant female, and a well-defined birth season. In addition, all observed copulations involved extragroup individuals. The more socially dominant breeding female had more births and ...

Recent studies have revealed that human infants process female faces differently from male faces. To test whether a similar preference for female faces exists in other primates, we presented nursery-reared infant rhesus macaques with photographs of macaque faces and human faces. At <1 month old, infant macaques preferentially oriented towards ...

The use of leaf nests has been documented in several mouse lemur species over the last few decades, including the golden-brown mouse lemur. Nest construction, however, has only rarely been observed and detailed descriptions of this process are lacking so far. We aim to determine the relative importance of leaf ...

Neonatal mammals are exposed to an outstandingly powerful selective pressure at birth, and any mean to alleviate their localization effort and accelerate acceptance to orally grasp a nipple and ingest milk should have had advantageous consequences over evolutionary time. Thus, it is essential for females to display a biological interface ...

Two infanticides occurred after a male takeover in a population of Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi) at Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar. The first infant was found dying from wounds received to the chest and groin after three adult males had immigrated into the group. The second infanticide was directly ...

The triadic model of human infant temperament, involving Negative Affectivity, Orienting/Regulation, and Surgency/Extraversion factors, was applied to the rhesus neonate using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Replicating and expanding earlier work in rhesus monkeys, the three-factor solution produced latent constructs comparable to human neonatal temperament.

Hemiparesis, unilateral weakness or partial paralysis, is a common outcome following hemispherectomy in humans. We use the non-human primate as an invaluable translational model for our understanding of developmental plasticity in response to hemispherectomy. Three infant vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabeus) underwent hemispherectomy at a median age of 9 weeks and ...

There is growing interest in the possible health threat posed by the effects of endocrine disruptors on reproduction. Soy and soy-derived products contain isoflavones that mimic the actions of oestrogens and may exert adverse effects on male fertility. The purpose of this review was to examine the evidence regarding the ...

For years, infanticide by males was thought to be unlikely in multi-male primate species. Recent studies have, however, presented evidence of infanticide in such species and a recent model by Broom and colleagues predicts that males' age and rank influence the occurrence of infanticide: youngest and highest-ranking immigrant males are ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of prenatal and postnatal social support on the association between fetal sex and postpartum depression (PPD). METHOD: We conducted a prospective cohort study in Changsha, China, between February and September 2007. We first compared the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics, and the prenatal and postnatal social ...

Infant survival and wellbeing is dependent upon good parenting skills. In some species of primates, fathers are necessary to ensure both positive developmental and social outcomes for their offspring. Common marmosets and the related cotton-top tamarin monkeys provide extensive paternal care of multiple offspring and are essential for infant survival. ...

Humans speak, monkeys grunt, and ducks quack. How do we come to know which vocalizations animals produce? Here we explore this question by asking whether young infants expect humans, but not other animals, to produce speech, and further, whether infants have similarly restricted expectations about the sources of vocalizations produced ...

Old World monkeys provide naturally occurring and experimentally induced phenotypes closely resembling the highly prevalent polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in women. In particular, experimentally induced fetal androgen excess in female rhesus monkeys produces a comprehensive adult PCOS-like phenotype that includes both reproductive and metabolic dysfunction found in PCOS women. Such ...

The physiological significance of hormonal changes in early postnatal life is emerging, but the behavioral significance in humans is unknown. As a first test of the relationship between hormones and behavior in early infancy we measured digit ratios and salivary hormone levels in forty-one male and female infants (3-4 months ...

Cotton-top tamains (Saguinus oedipus) are a critically endangered primate found only in Colombia. Efforts to conserve this species are centered on developing effective management plans that integrate biological information regarding population dynamics and factors that influence their survival. This study documented infants born to wild cotton-top tamarin females from 1994-2008 ...

Belimumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody antagonist for soluble B-lymphocyte stimulator, and is a potential therapeutic for various autoimmune disorders. To support clinical use, belimumab was administered intravenously to pregnant cynomolgus monkeys every 2 weeks throughout gestation at dosages of 5 and 150 mg/kg. Fetuses were delivered by C-section ...

BACKGROUND: Anogenital distance (AGD) is sexually dimorphic in rodents and humans, being 2- to 2.5-fold greater in males. It is a reliable marker of androgen and antiandrogen effects in rodent reproductive toxicologic studies. Data on AGD in humans are sparse, with no longitudinal data collected during infancy. OBJECTIVE: This study ...

BACKGROUND: Neonatal clitoromegaly is usually attributed to androgen stimulation secondary to congenital adrenal hyperplasia or in utero androgen exposure. We present a unique case of transient, isolated neonatal clitoromegaly, associated with increased androgen levels of unidentifiable cause, which spontaneously resolved when the androgen levels normalized. This is the first report ...

Mammalian females have long been known to release olfactory attraction in their offspring. Mammary odor cues control infant state, attention and directional responses, delay distress responses, stimulate breathing and positive oral actions, and finally can boost learning. Here, we survey female-offspring odor communication in two mammalian species - European rabbits ...

Placental 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-2 (11betaHSD2) limits fetal glucocorticoid exposure and is associated with physiological stability in the premature newborn infant. Antenatal betamethasone alters 11betaHSD2 activity and confers sex-specific advantages in neonatal outcome. We investigated the influence of betamethasone and sex on 11betaHSD2 activity, neonatal adrenal function and clinical course in 24- ...

Trade-offs have long been a major theme in life-history theory, but they have been hard to document. We introduce a new method that reveals patterns of divergent trade-offs after adjusting for the pervasive variation in rate of resource allocation to offspring as a function of body size and lifestyle. Results ...

Previous research in our laboratory has shown that damage to the amygdala in neonatal rhesus monkeys profoundly alters behaviors associated with fear processing, while leaving many aspects of social development intact. Little is known, however, about the impact of neonatal lesions of the amygdala on later developing aspects of social ...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the potential hazardous effects of 1800 MHz Global System for Mobile Communications-like (GSM-like) Radiofrequency (RF) exposure on the cochlear functions of female infant and adult rabbits by measuring Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission (DPOAE) response amplitudes. METHODS: Eighteen each one-month-old New Zealand ...

Most primates are characterized by cohesive male-female bonds that are maintained year round. While recent studies have addressed the selective pressures influencing the evolution of male-female relationships in primates, we know relatively little about the proximate mechanisms affecting them. It has been demonstrated that newborn white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) attract ...

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an environmental chemical with physiological potencies that cause adverse effects, even at environmentally relevant exposures, on the basis of a number of studies in experimental rodents. Thus, there is an increasing concern about environmental exposure of humans to BPA. In the present study, we used experimentally ...

In a previous study, Adachi, Kuwahata, Fujita, Tomonaga & Matsuzawa demonstrated that infant Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) form cross-modal representations of conspecifics but not of humans. However, because the subjects in the experiment were raised in a large social group and had considerably less exposure to humans than to conspecifics, ...

BACKGROUND: Natalizumab is a humanized monoclonal IgG4 antibody to human alpha4 integrin that blocks the interaction of alpha4beta1 and alpha4beta7 integrins with their ligands, including fibronectin, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and mucosal addressin cellular adhesion molecule-1. Because alpha4 integrins and their ligands are widely involved in mammalian development, lymphopoeisis, and ...

Much literature argues that natural selection has conserved mechanisms by which stressed females cull frail males in utero. This argument implies that males from low sex ratio birth cohorts should, on average, live longer than those from high sex ratio cohorts. Research reports such associations but these tests use completed ...

We surveyed the literature and obtained information from primate researchers and zookeepers to study the distribution of dorsal carriage among 77 simian species including New and Old World monkeys and apes in relation to arboreality and terrestriality, birth (litter) weight relative to maternal weight, and presence or absence of distinct ...

This study aimed to characterize early neonatal microvascular function after preeclamptic pregnancy with respect to infant sex and in utero growth. Peripheral microvascular blood flow was examined prospectively from 6 to 72 h of age using laser Doppler flowmetry in a cohort of term infants of normotensive women and women ...