Search results for "physiology"
showing 10 items of 8671 documents
De novo transcriptome assembly and its annotation for the aposematic wood tiger moth (Parasemia plantaginis)
2017
In this paper we report the public availability of transcriptome resources for the aposematic wood tiger moth (Parasemia plantaginis). A comprehensive assembly methods, quality statistics, and annotation are provided. This reference transcriptome may serve as a useful resource for investigating functional gene activity in aposematic Lepidopteran species. All data is freely available at the European Nucleotide Archive (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena) under study accession number: PRJEB14172. Peer reviewed
Timing of complementary feeding and associations with maternal and infant characteristics: A Norwegian cross-sectional study.
2018
Norwegian Health authorities recommend solid food to be introduced between child age 4-6 months, depending on both the mother´s and infant's needs. The aim of this paper is to describe timing of complementary feeding in a current sample of Norwegian mother/infant-dyads and explore potential associations between timing of introduction to solid foods and a wide range of maternal and infant characteristics known from previous literature to influence early feeding interactions. The paper is based on data from the Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health. In 2016, a total of 715 mothers completed a web-based questionnaire at child age 5.5 months. We found that 5% of the…
Social regulation of insulin signaling and the evolution of eusociality in ants
2018
The benefits of being well fed In eusocial insects, the vast majority of individuals sacrifice their reproductive potential to support the reproductive queen. Although this system has evolved repeatedly, there is still much debate surrounding its origin. Working with seven different species of ants, Chandra et al. used a transcriptomic approach to show that a single gene is consistently up-regulated in queens. This gene seems to confer reproductive status through integration with increased nutrition. In a clonal ant, larval signals disrupt this gene up-regulation, destabilizing the division of reproductive labor. Increasing levels of the associated peptide override these larval signals and …
Let the machine do the work: learning to reduce the energetic cost of walking on a split‐belt treadmill
2019
In everyday tasks such as walking and running, we often exploit the work performed by external sources to reduce effort. Recent research has focused on designing assistive devices capable of performing mechanical work to reduce the work performed by muscles and improve walking function. The success of these devices relies on the user learning to take advantage of this external assistance. Although adaptation is central to this process, the study of adaptation is often done using approaches that seem to have little in common with the use of external assistance. We show in 16 young, healthy participants that a common approach for studying adaptation, split-belt treadmill walking, can be under…
Higher physiopathogenicity byFasciola giganticathan by the genetically closeF. hepatica: experimental long-term follow-up of biochemical markers
2016
Background: Fascioliasis is caused by Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. The latter, always considered secondary in human infection, nowadays appears increasingly involved in Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, little is known about its pathogenicity, mainly due to difficulties in assessing the moment a patient first becomes infected and the differential diagnosis with F. hepatica. Methods: A long-term, 24-week, experimental study comparing F. hepatica and F. giganticawas made for the first time in the same animal model host, Guirra sheep. Serum biochemical parameters of liver damage, serum electrolytes, protein metabolism, plasma proteins, carbohydrate metabolism, hepatic lipid metabolism and…
Comparison of environmental risk factors for esophageal atresia, anorectal malformations, and the combined phenotype in 263 German families
2015
Esophageal atresia with or without tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF) and anorectal malformations (ARM) represent the severe ends of the fore- and hindgut malformation spectra. Previous research suggests that environmental factors are implicated in their etiology. These risk factors might indicate the influence of specific etiological mechanisms on distinct developmental processes (e.g. fore- vs. hindgut malformation). The present study compared environmental factors in patients with isolated EA/TEF, isolated ARM, and the combined phenotype during the periconceptional period and the first trimester of pregnancy in order to investigate the hypothesis that fore- and hindgut malformations invo…
Biophysics of high density nanometer regions extracted from super-resolution single particle trajectories: application to voltage-gated calcium chann…
2019
AbstractThe cellular membrane is very heterogenous and enriched with high-density regions forming microdomains, as revealed by single particle tracking experiments. However the organization of these regions remain unexplained. We determine here the biophysical properties of these regions, when described as a basin of attraction. We develop two methods to recover the dynamics and local potential wells (field of force and boundary). The first method is based on the local density of points distribution of trajectories, which differs inside and outside the wells. The second method focuses on recovering the drift field that is convergent inside wells and uses the transient field to determine the…
Visualizing the spatiotemporal map of Rac activation in bovine aortic endothelial cells under laminar and disturbed flows.
2017
Disturbed flow can eliminate the alignment of endothelial cells in the direction of laminar flow, and significantly impacts on atherosclerosis in collateral arteries near the bifurcation and high curvature regions. While shear stress induced Rac polarity has been shown to play crucial roles in cell polarity and migration, little is known about the spatiotemporal map of Rac under disturbed flow, and the mechanism of flow-induced cell polarity still needs to be elucidated. In this paper, disturbed flow or laminar flow with 15 dyn/cm2 of average shear stress was applied on bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) for 30 minutes. A genetically-encoded PAK-PBD-GFP reporter was transfected into BA…
A specific prelimbic-nucleus accumbens pathway controls resilience versus vulnerability to food addiction
2019
Food addiction is linked to obesity and eating disorders and is characterized by a loss of behavioral control and compulsive food intake. Here, using a food addiction mouse model, we report that the lack of cannabinoid type-1 receptor in dorsal telencephalic glutamatergic neurons prevents the development of food addiction-like behavior, which is associated with enhanced synaptic excitatory transmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). In contrast, chemogenetic inhibition of neuronal activity in the mPFC-NAc pathway induces compulsive food seeking. Transcriptomic analysis and genetic manipulation identified that increased dopamine D2 receptor express…
Polymers and Biopolymers with Antiviral Activity: Potential Applications for Improving Food Safety
2018
Gastroenteritis and hepatitis, caused by human noroviruses (HuNoVs) and hepatitis A virus (HAV), respectively, are the most common illnesses resulting from the consumption of food contaminated with human enteric viruses. Food-grade polymers can be tailor designed to improve food safety, either as novel food-packaging materials imparting active antimicrobial properties, applied in food contact surfaces to avoid cross-contamination, or as edible coatings to increase fresh produce's shelf life. The incorporation of antimicrobial agents into food-grade polymers can be used to control the food microbiota and even target specific foodborne pathogens to improve microbiological food safety and to e…