Search results for "HPA"
showing 10 items of 72 documents
Modularity as a source of new morphological variation in the mandible of hybrid mice.
2012
Abstract Background Hybridization is often seen as a process dampening phenotypic differences accumulated between diverging evolutionary units. For a complex trait comprising several relatively independent modules, hybridization may however simply generate new phenotypes, by combining into a new mosaic modules inherited from each parental groups and parts intermediate with respect to the parental groups. We tested this hypothesis by studying mandible size and shape in a set of first and second generation hybrids resulting from inbred wild-derived laboratory strains documenting two subspecies of house mice, Musmusculus domesticus and Musmusculus musculus. Phenotypic variation of the mandible…
Mandible morphology, dental microwear, and diet of the extinct giant rats Canariomys (Rodentia: Murinae) of the Canary Islands (Spain)
2010
An ecomorphological approach of mandible shape through Fourier analyses combined with a paleodietary analysis of dental microwear patterns is used to reconstruct the diet of the extinct endemic Canariomys bravoi Crusafont, Pairo & Petter, 1964 and Canariomys tamarani Lopez-Martinez & Lopez-Jurado, 1987. These two large rodents, respectively, lived on Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the central islands of the Canarian Archipelago. Mandible shape and dental microwear respectively inform us on the volume of vegetal matter and on the presence of grass in the diet. Both Canariomys, which are of similar size, possess relatively similar mandible outlines and microwear patterns. For each species, a diet…
The systematic position of Ergasticus (Decapoda, Brachyura) and allied genera, a molecular and morphological approach
2013
13 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables
Neighbor-list-free molecular dynamics on sunway TaihuLight supercomputer
2020
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are playing an increasingly important role in many research areas. Pair-wise potentials are widely used in MD simulations of bio-molecules, polymers, and nano-scale materials. Due to a low compute-to-memory-access ratio, their calculation is often bounded by memory transfer speeds. Sunway TaihuLight is one of the fastest supercomputers featuring a custom SW26010 many-core processor. Since the SW26010 has some critical limitations regarding main memory bandwidth and scratchpad memory size, it is considered as a good platform to investigate the optimization of pair-wise potentials especially in terms of data reusage. MD algorithms often use a neighbor-list …
The Effects of Early Life Stress on the Brain and Behaviour: Insights From Zebrafish Models
2021
The early life period represents a window of increased vulnerability to stress, during which exposure can lead to long-lasting effects on brain structure and function. This stress-induced developmental programming may contribute to the behavioural changes observed in mental illness. In recent decades, rodent studies have significantly advanced our understanding of how early life stress (ELS) affects brain development and behaviour. These studies reveal that ELS has long-term consequences on the brain such as impairment of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, altering learning and memory. Despite such advances, several key questions remain inadequately answered, including a comprehensive overview…
Improvements to Healthspan Through Environmental Enrichment and Lifestyle Interventions: Where Are We Now?
2020
Environmental enrichment (EE) is an experimental paradigm that is used to explore how a complex, stimulating environment can impact overall health. In laboratory animal experiments, EE housing conditions typically include larger-than-standard cages, abundant bedding, running wheels, mazes, toys, and shelters which are rearranged regularly to further increase stimulation. EE has been shown to improve multiple aspects of health, including but not limited to metabolism, learning and cognition, anxiety and depression, and immunocompetence. Recent advances in lifespan have led some researchers to consider aging as a risk factor for disease. As such, there is a pressing need to understand the pro…
The 40-Year Mystery of Insect Odorant-Binding Proteins
2021
International audience; The survival of insects depends on their ability to detect molecules present in their environment. Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) form a family of proteins involved in chemoreception. While OBPs were initially found in olfactory appendages, recently these proteins were discovered in other chemosensory and non-chemosensory organs. OBPs can bind, solubilize and transport hydrophobic stimuli to chemoreceptors across the aqueous sensilla lymph. In addition to this broadly accepted “transporter role”, OBPs can also buffer sudden changes in odorant levels and are involved in hygro-reception. The physiological roles of OBPs expressed in other body tissues, such as mouthpar…
A Novel Biomimetic Approach to Repair Enamel Cracks/Carious Damages and to Reseal Dentinal Tubules by Amorphous Polyphosphate.
2017
Based on natural principles, we developed a novel toothpaste, containing morphogenetically active amorphous calcium polyphosphate (polyP) microparticles which are enriched with retinyl acetate (“a-polyP/RA-MP”). The spherical microparticles (average size, 550 ± 120 nm), prepared by co-precipitating soluble Na-polyP with calcium chloride and supplemented with retinyl acetate, were incorporated into a base toothpaste at a final concentration of 1% or 10%. The “a-polyP/RA-MP” ingredient significantly enhanced the stimulatory effect of the toothpaste on the growth of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). This increase was paralleled by an upregulation of the MSC marker genes for osteoblast differ…
Clinical effect of toothpaste and mouth rinse containing zinc lactate on oral malodor reduction
2019
Background This study aimed to investigate the effect of toothpaste and mouth rinse containing 0.14% zinc lactate on the reduction of three volatile oral malodor gases. Material and Methods Ten subjects with good health were recruited to take part in a crossover design study with a 7-day washout period. They were randomly assigned to use the test (toothpaste and rinse containing 0.14% zinc lactate) or placebo (negative control) treatment regimens within the two-week period. All subjects were asked to refrain from tooth brushing and eating in the morning prior to the gas collection periods. The assessment of malodor measured the quantity of three volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) using an Or…
Surge of Peripheral Arginine Vasopressin in a Rat Model of Birth Asphyxia
2018
Mammalian birth is accompanied by a period of obligatory asphyxia, which consists of hypoxia (drop in blood O2 levels) and hypercapnia (elevation of blood CO2 levels). Prolonged, complicated birth can extend the asphyxic period, leading to a pathophysiological situation, and in humans, to the diagnosis of clinical birth asphyxia, the main cause of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). The neuroendocrine component of birth asphyxia, in particular the increase in circulating levels of arginine vasopressin (AVP), has been extensively studied in humans. Here we show for the first time that normal rat birth is also accompanied by an AVP surge, and that the fetal AVP surge is further enhanced in…