Search results for "Adaptive"

The Impact of the Progressive Efficiency Test on a Rowing Ergometer on White Blood Cells Distribution and Clinical Chemistry Changes in Paralympic Ro…

2017

Abstract There is a large gap in knowledge regarding research on post-exercise blood changes in disabled athletes. There are relatively few data on adaptive mechanisms to exercise in disabled athletes, including disabled rowers. Two rowers from a Polish adaptive rowing settle TAMix2x that qualified for the Paralympic Games in Rio, 2016 took part in this study. They performed a progressive test on a rowing ergometer until exhaustion. The cardiorespiratory fitness measures, complete blood count, white blood cells’ distribution and 30 clinical chemistry variables describing laboratory diagnostic profiles and general health were determined. The extreme effort induced changes in all studied meta…

Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

2011

Abstract Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three dist…

Infanticide and Population Growth in the Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus): The Effect of Male Turnover and Density

2011

One major intrinsic factor affecting recruitment of young into a population is infanticide, the killing of conspecific young by adult males. It occurs in most mammal species, like our study species the bank vole (Myodes glareolus), and is widely accepted as an adaptive behavior, which may increase male fitness via nutritional gain, decreased competition, or an increased access to mates. A turnover of males in a population increases the risk of infanticide owing to a disruption of social structures. In a controlled field study, we tested the effects of total male turnover and density on juvenile recruitment and female space use in experimental bank vole populations. Juvenile recruitment decl…

Life in varying environments: experimental evidence for delayed effects of juvenile environment on adult life history

2011

Summary 1. The effects of environment experienced during early development on phenotype as an adult has started to gain vast amounts of interest in various taxa. Some evidence on long-term effects of juvenile environment is available, but replicated experimental studies in wild animals are still lacking. 2. Here we report the first replicated experiment in wild mammals which examines the long-term effects of juvenile and adult environments on individual fitness (reproduction, survival and health). The early development of bank vole (Myodes glareolus) individuals took place in either foodsupplemented or un-supplemented outdoor enclosures. After the summer, adult individuals were reciprocally…

Context dependent variation in corticosterone and phenotypic divergence of Rana arvalis populations along an acidification gradient

2022

Background Physiological processes, as immediate responses to the environment, are important mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity and can influence evolution at ecological time scales. In stressful environments, physiological stress responses of individuals are initiated and integrated via the release of hormones, such as corticosterone (CORT). In vertebrates, CORT influences energy metabolism and resource allocation to multiple fitness traits (e.g. growth and morphology) and can be an important mediator of rapid adaptation to environmental stress, such as acidification. The moor frog, Rana arvalis, shows adaptive divergence in larval life-histories and predator defense traits along an acidi…

Transcriptional Rewiring, Adaptation, and the Role of Gene Duplication in the Metabolism of Ethanol of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

2020

Ethanol is the main by-product of yeast sugar fermentation that affects microbial growth parameters, being considered a dual molecule, a nutrient and a stressor. Previous works demonstrated that the budding yeast arose after an ancient hybridization process resulted in a tier of duplicated genes within its genome, many of them with implications in this ethanol “produce-accumulate-consume” strategy. The evolutionary link between ethanol production, consumption, and tolerance versus ploidy and stability of the hybrids is an ongoing debatable issue. The implication of ancestral duplicates in this metabolic rewiring, and how these duplicates differ transcriptionally, remains unsolved. Here, we …

Elementary school teachers adapt their instructional support according to students' academic skills – A variable and person-oriented approach

2015

This study examined the longitudinal associations between children’s academic skills and the instructional support teachers gave individual students. A total of 253 Finnish children were tested on reading and math skills twice in the first grade and once in the second grade. The teachers of these children rated the instructional support that they gave each child in reading and mathematics. The results showed that the poorer the student’s reading and math skills were, the more support and attention the student received from his or her teacher later on. However, instructional support did not contribute positively to the subsequent development of the students’ academic skills. The person-orie…

ANALISI GIS E MODELLI STATISTICI PER LA VALUTAZIONE DELLA SUSCETTIBILITÀ DA FRANA A SCALA DI BACINO: IL CASO STUDIO DEL BACINO DEL TORRENTE MARVELLO

Lo studio condotto nel presente lavoro di tesi ha affrontato il tema della valutazione, a scala di bacino idrografico, della suscettibilità ai fenomeni di tipo colamento, attraverso l’applicazione di modelli statistici e tecniche di analisi spaziale GIS. La fase iniziale della preparazione di un modello di suscettibilità da frana prevede la realizzazione di un inventario degli eventi verificatesi nell’area di studio. Questo passo è di fondamentale importanza, considerando che proprio attraverso l’archivio frane è possibile analizzare ed individuare le condizioni che in passato hanno favorito l’innesco dei movimenti di versante. L’identificazione di queste condizioni, infatti, consente di pr…

A new trifocal corneal inlay for presbyopia

2021

[EN] Corneal inlays (CIs) are the most recent surgical procedure for the treatment of presbyopia in patients who want complete independence from the use of glasses or contact lenses. Although refractive surgery in presbyopic patients is mostly performed in combination with cataract surgery, when the implantation of an intraocular lens is not necessary, the option of CIs has the advantage of being minimally invasive. Current designs of CIs are, either: small aperture devices, or refractive devices, however, both methods do not have good performance simultaneously at intermediate and near distances in eyes that are unable to accommodate. In the present study, we propose the first design of a …

Ageing via sexual perception is a by-product of male adaptive plasticity inDrosophila melanogaster

2021

ABSTRACTSensory perception of environmental cues can dramatically modulate ageing across distant taxa. For example, maleDrosophila melanogasterage faster if they perceive female cues but fail to mate (ageing via sexual perception). This finding has been a breakthrough for our understanding of the mechanisms of ageing, yet we ignore how and why such responses have evolved. Here, we usedD. melanogasterto ask whether ageing via sexual perception may be a by-product of plastic adaptive responses to female cues, and found that while long-term sexual perception leads to reproductive costs, short-term perception increases male lifetime reproductive success in a competitive environment. Simulations…