ABSTRACT
The present study investigated whether the presence or absence of peripubertal ovarian hormones affects sexual preference and conditioned place preference for paced mating in adult female rats primed with 10µg estradiol benzoate and 1mg progesterone. Ovariectomy (OVX) occurred either before or after pubertal development, and 4weeks later rats began a series of behavioral tests. Rats with ovaries removed before the pubertal timeframe (Prepubertal OVX) were more active, more likely to withdrawal from the male compartment, and did not discriminate between mounts and intromissions during paced mating relative to rats with ovaries during puberty (Adult OVX). Both Adult OVX and Prepubertal OVX rats showed a higher preference for the male when hormone primed vs. oil treated and a conditioned place preference for paced mating behavior. The results of the present study demonstrate that some, but not all, aspects of female sexual behavior require ovarian hormones during puberty.
Subject(s)
Conditioning, Operant/physiology , Mating Preference, Animal/physiology , Reinforcement, Psychology , Sexual Behavior, Animal/physiology , Sexual Maturation/physiology , Age Factors , Animals , Animals, Newborn , Conditioning, Operant/drug effects , Contraceptive Agents/pharmacology , Estradiol/analogs & derivatives , Estradiol/pharmacology , Female , Male , Mating Preference, Animal/drug effects , Ovariectomy , Rats , Rats, Long-Evans , Sexual Behavior, Animal/drug effectsABSTRACT
The regioselective functionalization of both model and commercial polypropylenes of varying tacticity has been conducted by a rhodium-catalyzed functionalization of the methyl C-H bonds of the polymer with diboron reagents. Rhodium-catalyzed borylation of the polypropylenes, followed by oxidation of the boron-containing material, produced polymers containing 0.2-1.5% hydroxymethyl side chains. Both the number-average molecular weights and molecular weight distributions of the polypropylenes were essentially unchanged after the catalytic and oxidative functionalization process. The efficiency of the borylation process was affected by the molecular weight of the polymer, the steric hindrance around the methyl groups, and the ratio of the diboron reagent to the monomer repeat unit. The hydroxylated derivative of the commercial isotactic polypropylene was used as macroinitiator for the aluminum-mediated ring-opening polymerization of epsilon-caprolactone to prepare polypropylene-graft-polycaprolactone. This graft copolymer was an effective compatibilizer for melt blends of polypropylene and polycaprolactone.
