Variations in mouse (Mus musculus) urinary volatiles during different periods of pregnancy and lactation

Mouse urine samples from different pregnancy and lactation periods were examined by capillary gas chromatography to assess variations in the volatile signals that may affect the endocrine function of other females. Statistically significant changes in the excretion of certain urinary volatiles were observed; from 26 readily quantifiable constituents, 14 appear to be under the endocrine control. These selected components, positively identified through mass spectrometry and retention data, and the synthetic standards are ketones, unsaturated alcohols, esters, and cyclic vinyl ethers.     

Urinary volatile profiles of pine vole,Microtus pinetorum,and their endocrine dependency

The volatile compounds identified by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry inMicrotus pinetorum urine include alcohols, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, ketones, nitriles, and pyrazines. Several lactone derivatives were found to be characteristic urinary substances of this species. Ovariectomy depressed concentrations of only five out of a great number of profile constituents. Elevating estrogen levels (by exposing females to male-soiled bedding or treating them with estradiol) tends to depress the urinary concentration of a number of selected volatiles. Estrogen implantation provoked a periodic increase in the level of three compounds (nonanal, benzal-dehyde, and an unidentified substance). The volatile profile of castrate male urine was similar to that of intact male urine. Female urine contained -octanoic lactone and two pyrazine derivatives in higher concentrations andp-methyI-propenylbenzene in a lower concentration, when compared to male urine. No qualitative differences between the urinary profiles of males and females were observed.     

A Framework for the Evaluation of Trainee Performance in Cyber Range Exercises

This paper proposes a novel approach for the evaluation of the performance achieved by trainees involved in cyber security exercises implemented in modern cyber ranges. Our main contributions include: the definition of a distributed monitoring architecture for gathering relevant information about trainees activities; an algorithm for modeling the trainee activities using directed graphs; novel scoring algorithms, based on graph operations, that evaluate different aspects (speed, precision) of a trainee during an exercise. With respect to previous work, our proposal allows to measure exactly how fast a user is progressing towards an objective and where he does wrong. We highlight that this is currently not possible in the most popular cyber ranges.

     

Thet complex of the mouse: Chemical characterization by urinary volatile profiles

Urine samples from C3H congenic house mice (Mus domesticus) differing only at thet complex were examined by capillary gas chromatography to assess variations in the volatile components that may cause olfactory discrimination between animals bearingt lethal and+(wild-type) haplotypes. Urine was collected from 192 males and females varying in age from 1 to 9 months. C3H congenic mice that have the same genetic background at all loci but differed in theirt complex genotypes: +/ +, +/t_w1,T/t _w1, T/+ were used. No urinary volatiles were unique to thet complex. However, significant differences amongt complex genotypes and among ages occurred for concentrations of 12 male volatiles and four female volatiles. Usually young males (1–2 months of age) had significantly higher concentrations of cyclic enol ethers and ketones than older males (4–9 months of age). Moreover, some urinary volatiles (cyclic enol ethers, one ketone, dehydrobrevicomin, and thiazoline) were excreted in the urine of T/+and/orT/t males in significantly higher concentration than in the urine of +/+ males. Age andt complex genotype influences on the urinary volatiles in females were observed for four ketones. Gas chromatography of urinary components has the potential to be used in field studies of thet complex because the two t complex genotypes found in wild populations, +/+ and +/t, had significant differences in concentration for two males volatiles and three female volatiles.We dedicate this paper to the memory of Dorothea Bennett.On leave from the Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Light Industry, Beijing, China.A.E.M.B. supported in part by NSF BSR 8909172.