Many studies suggest a role for endogenous opioid peptides and their receptors in regulation of ethanol intake. It is commonly accepted that the κ-opioid receptors and their endogenous ligands, dynorphins, produce a dysphoric state and therefore may be responsible for avoidance of alcohol. We used mutant mice lacking preprodynorphin in a variety of behavioral tests of alcohol actions. Null mutant female, but not male, mice showed significantly lower preference for alcohol and consumed lower amounts of alcohol in a two-bottle choice test as compared with wild-type littermates. In the same test, knockout mice of both sexes showed a strong reduction of preference for saccharin compared to control mice. In contrast, under conditions of limited (4 hours) access (light phase of the light/dark cycle), null mutant mice did not show any differences in consumption of saccharin but they showed significantly reduced intake of sucrose. To determine the possible cause for reduction of ethanol preference and intake, we studied other ethanol-related behaviors in mice lacking the preprodynorphin gene. There were no differences between null mutant and wild type mice in ethanol-induced loss of righting reflex, acute ethanol withdrawal, ethanol-induced conditioned place preference or conditioned taste aversion to ethanol. These results indicate that deletion of preprodynorphin leads to substantial reduction of alcohol intake in female mice, and suggest thath this is caused by decreased orosensory reward of alcohol (sweet taste and/or palatability).

To directly evaluate the association between taste perception and alcohol intake, we used three different mutant mice, each lacking a gene expressed in taste buds and critical to taste transduction: a-gustducin (Gnat3), Tas1r3 or Trpm5. Null mutant mice lacking any of these three genes showed lower preference score for alcohol and consumed less alcohol in a two-bottle choice test, as compared with wild-type littermates. These null mice also showed lower preference score for saccharin solutions than did wild-type littermates. In contrast, avoidance of quinine solutions was less in Gnat3 or Trpm5 knockout mice than in wild-type mice, whereas Tas1r3 null mice were not different from wild type in their response to quinine solutions. There were no differences in null vs. wild-type mice in their consumption of sodium chloride solutions. To determine the cause for reduction of ethanol intake, we studied other ethanolinduced behaviors known to be related to alcohol consumption. There were no differences between null and wild-type mice in ethanol-induced loss of righting reflex, severity of acute ethanol withdrawal or conditioned place preference for ethanol. Weaker conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to alcohol in null mice may have been caused by weaker rewarding value of the conditioned stimulus (saccharin). When saccharin was replaced by sodium chloride, no differences in CTA to alcohol between knockout and wild-type mice were seen. Thus, deletion of any one of three different genes involved in detection of sweet taste leads to a substantial reduction of alcohol intake without any changes in pharmacological actions of ethanol.

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This study evaluated the application of positive reinforcement training (PRT) as an intervention for abnormal behaviors in singly housed laboratory rhesus macaques at 2 large primate facilities. Training involved basic control behaviors and body-part presentation. The study compared baseline behavioral data on 30 adult males and 33 adult females compared with 3 treatment phases presented in counterbalanced order: 6 min per week of PRT, 20 or 40 min per week of PRT, and 6 min per week of unstructured human interaction (HI). Within-subject parametric tests detected no main or interaction effects involving experimental phase. However, among a subset of subjects with levels of abnormal in the top quartile of the range (n = 15), abnormal behavior was reduced from 35% to 25% of samples with PRT but not with HI. These results suggest that short durations of PRT applied as enrichment for this species and in this context may not in itself be sufficient intervention for abnormal behavior because levels remained high. However, it may be appropriate as an adjunct to other interventions and may be best targeted to the most severely affected individuals.

Although Scandinavian flint is one of the most important materials used for prehistoric stone tool production in Northern and Central Europe, a conclusive method for securely differentiating between flint sources, geologically bound to northern European chalk formations, has never been achieved. The main problems with traditional approaches concern the oftentimes high similarities of SiO2 raw materials (i.e. chert and flint) on different scales due to similar genetic conditions and higher intra- than inter-source variation. Conventional chert and flint provenance studies chiefly concentrate on visual, petrographic or geochemical investigations. Hence, attempts to generate characteristic fingerprints of particular chert raw materials were in most cases unsatisfying. Here we show that the Multi Layered Chert Sourcing Approach (MLA) achieves a clear differentiation between primary sources of Scandinavian flint. The MLA combines visual comparative studies, stereo-microscopic analyses of microfossil inclusions, geochemical trace element analyses applying LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) and statistical analyses through CODA (Compositional Data Analysis). For archaeologists, provenance studies are the gateway to advance interpretations of economic behavior expressed in resource management strategies entailing the procurement, use and distribution of lithic raw materials. We demonstrate the relevance of our results for archaeological materials in a case study in which we were able to differentiate between Scandinavian flint sources and establish the provenance of historic ballast flint from a shipwreck found near Kristiansand close to the shore of southern Norway from a beach source in Northern Jutland, the Vigsø Bay.