In many birds and mammals, the size and sex composition of litters can have important downstream effects for individual offspring. Primates are model organisms for questions of cooperation and conflict, but the factors shaping interactions among same‐age siblings have been less‐studied in primates because most species bear single young. However, callitrichines (marmosets, tamarins, and lion tamarins) frequently bear litters of two or more, thereby providing the opportunity to ask whether variation in the size and sex composition of litters affects development, survival, and reproduction. To investigate these questions, we compiled a large dataset of nine species of callitrichines (n = 27,080 individuals; Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Cebuella pygmaea, Saguinus imperator, Saguinus oedipus, Leontopithe- cus chrysomelas, Leontopithecus chrysopygus, Leontopithecus rosalia, and Callimico goeldii) from zoo and laboratory populations spanning 80 years (1938–2018). Through this comparative approach, we found several lines of evidence that litter size and sex composition may impact fitness. Singletons have higher survivorship than litter‐born peers and they significantly outperform litter‐born individuals on two measures of reproductive performance. Further, for some species, individuals born in a mixed‐sex litter outperform isosexually‐born individuals (i.e., those born in all‐male or all‐female litters), suggesting that same‐sex competition may limit reproductive performance. We also document several interesting demographic trends. All but one species (C. pygmaea) has a male‐biased birth sex ratio with higher survivorship from birth to sexual maturity among females (although this was significant in only two species). Isosexual litters occurred at the expected frequency (with one exception: C. pygmaea), unlike other animals, where isosexual litters are typically overrepresented. Taken together, our results indicate a modest negative effect of same‐age sibling competition on reproductive output in captive callitrichines. This study also serves to illustrate the value of zoo and laboratory records for biological inquiry.

Parent-offspring conflict, or the conflict over resources between parents and their children due to differences in genetic relatedness, is the biological foundation for a variety of psychological phenomena, including sibling rivalry and child abuse. This form of conflict is particularly relevant to the domain of parental investment: the provisioning of resources to offspring by parents and alloparents. The kinship theory of genomic imprinting is the primary evolutionary explanation for the occurrence of specialized genetic expression in chromosomal domains relevant to phenotypic expression of parent-offspring conflict. Specifically, complementary parental contributions in the same region of the genome promote opposing parental demand behaviors. This theory predicts that people with genomic imprinting disorders will show alterations in traits and behaviors related to parental investment. In this paper, we apply this prediction to the psychological resource of parental attention, for which vocalizations in general, and music in particular, may be an honest signal. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome show increased physiological responses to music listening consistent with a reduced demand for parental investment. Here we report the complementary pattern necessary to support the theory: we find that individuals with Angelman syndrome demonstrate a relatively reduced physiological response to music, consistent with an increased demand for parental investment. In addition to presenting evidence of the value of applying the kinship theory of genomic imprinting to psychological phenomena, these data provide a comprehensive test of the theory that at least one aspect of human musical psychology evolved to mediate conflict over attentional demands between parents and offspring.

Why do we sing to babies? Human infants are relatively altricial and need their parents' attention to survive. Infant-directed song may constitute a signal of that attention. In the rare genomic imprinting disorder Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), typically paternally-expressed genes from chromosome 15q11–q13 are unexpressed, resulting in exaggeration of traits that reduce offspring investment demands on the mother. PWS may thus be associated with a distinctive musical phenotype. We report unusual responses to music in PWS. Subjects (N = 39) moved more during music listening, exhibited greater reductions in heart rate in response to music listening, and displayed a specific deficit in pitch discrimination ability relative to typically- developing adults and children (N = 589). Paternally-expressed genes from 15q11–q13, unexpressed in PWS, may thus increase demands for music and enhance perceptual sensitivity to music. These results implicate genomic imprinting in the psychology of music, informing theories of music's evolutionary history.

Synonyms Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM); Pregnancy-induced diabetes; Type III diabetes Definition A condition in which previously nondiabetic women develop insulin resistance and high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. Typically occurs late in pregnancy (third trimester) and usu-ally resolves shortly after delivery.

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is caused by a lack of expression of paternally-expressed imprinted genes at human chromosome 15q11-13 and is characterized by a switch from infant anorexia to childhood hyperphagia. A recent multiphase staging system recognizes gradual changes between the anorexic and hyperphagic phases of PWS. We undertook to use clinical records from an independent population to assess the multiphase system and explore the implications for the evolution of distinctive features of human childhood. Medical records of 258 clinic visits by 55 patients with PWS were reviewed with a focus on appetite and feeding. These clinical records were found to be inadequate for placing patients into particular phases of the multiphase system. Under the multiphase system, the onset of hyperphagia in PWS appears to coincide more with the timing of adrenarche than weaning from the breast and this timing should frame future evolutionary hypotheses. We discuss challenges encountered while attempting to use clinical data to explore evolutionary questions, but also identify useful information contained in the records.

Home care (HC) is important for patients with cancer as performance status declines. Our study of 1224 patients at a Canadian cancer center examined the impact of an oncology palliative care clinic (OPCC) on HC referral. The HC referral frequency was calculated before and after the first OPCC consultation, in total and according to performance status (Palliative Performance Scale, PPS). Characteristics associated with HC referral were investigated. After the first OPCC consultation, there was an increase in HC referral from 39% (477 of 1224; 49% of those with PPS \textless=60) to 69% (841 of 1224; 88% of those with PPS \textless=60). Factors independently associated with HC referral were poor PPS (P \textless .001) and older age (P = .003). Thus OPCC involvement resulted in markedly increased HC referrals, particularly for older patients with poor performance status.

Recently, children in protective custody have increasingly been placed with kin, rather than with unrelated foster parents. However, there has been a lack of well-controlled research supporting this shift. For the present study, a database was created from Children's Aid Society of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo case files, and used to examine 971 children put into foster care, group homes, kinship care, or kinship service from 2008 to 2011. Data were collected relating to the age and sex of the child; the reason for the child's removal from the birth home; the child's initial placement type; the child's relationship to the primary caregiver; the length of the placement; the income of the placement family; and the child's subsequent placement. Older children were more often apprehended for abandonment issues, and children apprehended for issues related to physical and sexual abuse were older, on average, than those apprehended for neglect or caregiver capacity concerns. Males were more frequently placed in group homes, and children initially placed in group homes tended to be older than children in other placements. No age or sex bias was identified for the family placements. Children who were removed from their birth home due to abuse by commission were placed more frequently with unrelated caregivers; this may indicate a bias that could produce illusions of better outcomes within kin placements. There was also variation with respect to characteristics of the kin caregiver. Maternal caregivers were more likely to be in a low-income bracket than paternal caregivers, and to take on more challenging children. This indicates a possible effect of paternity uncertainty within the population of kin caregivers.