Nest site selection by sea turtles

The distribution of 38 nests of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) on beaches on Sanibel and Captiva islands, south-western Florida (26°26\u27N 82°16\u27W), and of 70 first digging attempts by green turtles (Chelonia mydas) on Ascension Island (7°57\u27S 14°22\u27W), was quantified. For loggerhead turtles on Sanibel and Captiva, nests were clumped close to the border between the open sand and the supra-littoral vegetation that backed the beaches. This spatial pattern of nests was closely reproduced by assuming simply that turtles crawled a random distance above the most recent high water line prior to digging. In contrast, green turtles on Ascension Island clumped their first digging attempts on the uneven beach above the springs high water line, crawling up to 80 m to reach this beach zone

Monitoring the Crosstalk Between the Estrogen Receptor and Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 with PET

Purpose: Ovarian cancer (OC) leads to poor survival rates mainly due to late stage detection and innate or acquired resistance to chemotherapy. Thus, efforts have been made to exploit the estrogen receptor (ER) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) to treat OC. However, patients eventually become resistant to these treatments as well. HER2 overexpression contributes to the acquired resistance to ER-targeted treatment. Trastuzumab treatment, on the other hand, can result in increased expression of ER, which, in turn, increases the sensitivity of the tumors towards anti-estrogen therapy. More insight into the crosstalk between ER and HER2 signaling could improve our knowledge about acquired resistance in ovarian cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether PET could be used to detect changes in ER expression induced by HER2-targeted treatment in vivo. Procedures: Male athymic nude mice were subcutaneously (sc) inoculated with 106 SKOV3 human ovarian cancer cells (HER2+/ER+). Two weeks after inoculation, tumor-bearing mice were treated intraperitoneally with either vehicle, the HER2 antibody trastuzumab (20 mg/kg, 2×/week), or the HER2-tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib (40 mg/kg, 5 days/week) for 2 weeks. Thereafter, ER expression in the tumor was assessed by PET imaging with 16α-[18F]-fluoro-17β-estradiol ([18F]FES). Tumors were excised for ex vivo ER and HER2 measurement with Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Results: All treatments led to smaller tumors than vehicle-treated tumors. Higher [18F]FES maximum standardize tumor uptake (SUVmax) was observed in animals treated with trastuzumab (+ 29 %, P = 0.002) or lapatinib (+ 20 %, P = 0.096) than in vehicle-treated controls. PET results were in agreement with ex vivo analyses. Conclusion: FES-PET imaging can detect changes in ER expression induced by HER2-targeted treatment and therefore can be used to investigate the crosstalk between ER and HER2 in a noninvasive manner

Unique tracheal fluid microRNA signature predicts response to FETO in patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia

"Epub ahead of print 2015 Jan 5"OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND: Our objective was to determine the fetal in vivo microRNA signature in hypoplastic lungs of human fetuses with severe isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and changes in tracheal and amniotic fluid of fetuses undergoing fetoscopic endoluminal tracheal occlusion (FETO) to reverse severe lung hypoplasia due to CDH. METHODS:: We profiled microRNA expression in prenatal human lungs by microarray analysis. We then validated this signature with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in tracheal and amniotic fluid of CDH patients undergoing FETO. We further explored the role of miR-200b using semiquantitative in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry for TGF-ß2 in postnatal lung sections. We investigated miR-200b effects on TGF-ß signaling using a SMAD-luciferase reporter assay and Western blotting for phospho-SMAD2/3 and ZEB-2 in cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells. RESULTS:: CDH lungs display an increased expression of 2 microRNAs: miR-200b and miR-10a as compared to control lungs. Fetuses undergoing FETO display increased miR-200 expression in their tracheal fluid at the time of balloon removal. Future survivors of FETO display significantly higher miR-200 expression than those with a limited response. miR-200b was expressed in bronchial epithelial cells and vascular endothelial cells. TGF-ß2 expression was lower in CDH lungs. miR-200b inhibited TGF-ß-induced SMAD signaling in cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells. CONCLUSIONS:: Human fetal hypoplastic CDH lungs have a specific miR-200/miR-10a signature. Survival after FETO is associated with increased miR-200 family expression. miR-200b overexpression in CDH lungs results in decreased TGF-ß/SMAD signaling

Características das espécies que podem influenciar as dinâmicas populacionais de beija-flores na Floresta Atlântica no Sul do Brasil

Orientador : Prof. Dr. James Joseph RoperTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação. Defesa: Curitiba, 18/03/2016Inclui referências : f. 08-14;24-28;56-62;112-120Área de concentração : Ecologia e conservaçãoResumo: A dinâmica populacional em beija-flores na América do Sul é praticamente desconhecida e pouco estudada, devido à dificuldade de captura e, consequentemente, ao baixo número de marcações e recapturas. No entanto, pela diversidade de espécies desta família e sua ampla distribuição, e o papel que desempenha na polinização de recursos efêmeros, entender a sua dinâmica populacional é importante para compreender também a sua ecologia e evolução. Aqui, começamos a preencher esta lacuna através da utilização de estudos de captura-marcação-recaptura para examinar a dinâmica da população e outros aspectos da ecologia de beija-flores. Examinamos a muda de algumas espécies e o dimorfismo sexual e identificação sexual molecular em um grupo de cinco espécies aparentemente monomórficas. Todas as espécies de beija-flores na área de estudo tendem a migrar, mas os detalhes da migração e as comparações foram difíceis de determinar, já que os indivíduos marcados não foram recapturados longe da nossa área. A espécie mais abundante e consistentemente comum foi o beija-flor-de-papo-branco (Leucochloris albicollis), com tamanho populacional variando aproximadamente entre 150-450 indivíduos (variação mensal), e com o pico de abundância em março, após a aparente temporada de reprodução entre novembro e dezembro. A sobrevivência para esta espécie foi estimada em 33% ao ano, o que é baixa para uma ave tropical. O padrão da muda das penas primárias de voo em nossa assembleia é semelhante ao já registrado em outras assembleias de beija-flores, no sentido proximal para o distal. Entretanto, em nossas espécies houve menos variação na sequência de troca das penas mais distais em comparação aos outros estudos. A muda das penas secundárias foi mais variável na sequência de troca, enquanto as retrices foram mais consistentes. O período de muda iniciou-se a partir de dezembro e se estendeu até meados de abril, mas determinar corretamente a duração do período foi difícil, uma vez que alguns indivíduos migraram enquanto realizavam a muda, delimitando a recaptura para determinar o período concreto. Três das cinco espécies aparentemente monomórficas - uma vez que o sexo foi identificado através de nossa nova técnica molecular para beija-flores - são sexualmente dicromáticas (Colibri serrirostris, Eupetomena macroura, L. albicollis) na reflexão de luz UV em suas penas. O tamanho e forma, no entanto, foram semelhantes em ambos os sexos para todas as espécies. Estes resultados demonstram que algumas espécies de beija-flores podem ser muito abundantes, mas que esta abundância pode variar amplamente ao longo do ano. Também, mostramos a existência de migração durante a muda, porém sem detalhamentos sobre a duração total deste período, permanecendo esta questão ainda desconhecida. As taxas de sobrevivência foram baixas para L. albicollis comparadas à outras espécies de aves tropicais, sugerindo relativamente alto sucesso reprodutivo. Por fim, mostramos dicromatismo sexual à luz UV (imperceptível aos seres humanos) em três das cinco espécies, sugerindo que pode haver também nas demais, mas que precisa ser descoberto em uma análise mais aprofundada das penas de outras regiões do corpo. Assim, com este estudo nós iniciamos um melhor entendimento das dinâmicas populacionais em beija-flores. Palavras-chave: coloração, dimorfismo sexual, dinâmicas populacionais, morfometria, muda das penas de voo, sexagem, TrochilidaeAbstract: Population dynamics in hummingbirds in South America is virtually unknown and unstudied, due to difficulty in their capture in numbers for mark and recapture studies. Yet, due to species diversity, distributions, the role they play as pollinators of ephemeral resources and their colorful displays, study of their population dynamics is important for understanding their ecology and evolution. Here, we begin to fill this lacuna by using capture-mark-recapture to examine population dynamics, and other aspects of hummingbird ecology. We examined molt in a variety of species and sexual dimorphism and molecular identification of the sexes in a group of five apparently monomorphic species. All hummingbird species in the study area tend to migrate, but details of migration and comparisons are difficult to determine because marked birds were never recaptured away from the study area. The most abundant and consistently common species, the Whitethroated Hummingbird (Leucochloris albicollis) had a population size that varied from ~150-450 individuals (monthly variation) in the study area, with the peak abundance in March, following after the apparent breeding season in November-December. Survival was estimated at 33% per year, which is low for a tropical bird. Molt is similar to that of other hummingbirds, from proximal to distal primary feathers, but in our study species varied less in the sequence of the most distal feathers as compared to other studies. Secondaries were quite variable in their sequence of molt, while retrices were more consistent. Molt took place beginning in December and continued to April, but defining the end of molt was difficult because species migrate while undergoing molt, and so recaptures to delimit the end of molt was not possible. Three of the five apparently monomorphic species, once sex was identified through our new molecular technique for hummingbirds, were sexually dichromatic (Colibri serrirostris, Eupetomena macroura, L. albicollis) in UV light reflectance in their feathers. Size and shape, however, were similar in both sexes. With these results, we find that hummingbird species can be very abundant, but abundance varies widely over the year, they migrate while molting but the details of their end points of migration remain unknown, and survival rates are low, suggesting relatively high reproductive success. We show sexual dichromatism in UV light (which humans do not perceive) in three of five species, and suggest that the others also are dichromatic, which will be discovered on further examination of the appropriate feathers. Thus, with this study we have begun to better understand hummingbird population dynamics. Keywords: coloration, molting of flight feathers, morphometry, population dynamics, sexing, sexual dimorphism, Trochilida

The influence of sex and diet on the characteristics of hibernation in Syrian hamsters

Research on deep hibernators almost exclusively uses species captured from the wild or from local breeding. An exception is Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), the only standard laboratory animal showing deep hibernation. In deep hibernators, several factors influence hibernation quality, including body mass, sex and diet. We examined hibernation quality in commercially obtained Syrian hamsters in relation to body mass, sex and a diet enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Animals (M/F:30/30, 12 weeks of age) were obtained from Harlan (IN, USA) and individually housed at 21 A degrees C and L:D 14:10 until 20 weeks of age, followed by L:D 8:16 until 27 weeks. Then conditions were changed to 5 A degrees C and L:D 0:24 for 9 weeks to induce hibernation. Movement was continuously monitored with passive infrared detectors. Hamsters were randomized to control diet or a diet 3x enriched in linoleic acid from 16 weeks of age. Hamsters showed a high rate of premature death (n = 24, 40%), both in animals that did and did not initiate torpor, which was unrelated to body weight, sex and diet. Time to death (31.7 +/- 3.1 days, n = 12) or time to first torpor bout (36.6 +/- 1.6 days, n = 12) was similar in prematurely deceased hamsters. Timing of induction of hibernation and duration of torpor and arousal was unaffected by body weight, sex or diet. Thus, commercially obtained Syrian hamsters subjected to winter conditions showed poor survival, irrespective of body weight, sex and diet. These factors also did not affect hibernation parameters. Possibly, long-term commercial breeding from a confined genetic background has selected against the hibernation trait

Analysis and Functional Consequences of Increased Fab-Sialylation of Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) after Lectin Fractionation

It has been proposed that the anti-inflammatory effects of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) might be due to the small fraction of Fc-sialylated IgG. In this study we biochemically and functionally characterized sialic acid-enriched IgG obtained by Sambucus nigra agglutinin (SNA) lectin fractionation. Two main IgG fractions isolated by elution with lactose (E1) or acidified lactose (E2) were analyzed for total IgG, F(ab’)2 and Fc-specific sialic acid content, their pattern of specific antibodies and anti-inflammatory potential in a human in vitro inflammation system based on LPS- or PHA-stimulated whole blood. HPLC and LC-MS testing revealed an increase of sialylated IgG in E1 and more substantially in the E2 fraction. Significantly, the increased amount of sialic acid residues was primarily found in the Fab region whereas only a minor increase was observed in the Fc region. This indicates preferential binding of the Fab sialic acid to SNA. ELISA analyses of a representative range of pathogen and auto-antigens indicated a skewed antibody pattern of the sialylated IVIG fractions. Finally, the E2 fraction exerted a more profound anti-inflammatory effect compared to E1 or IVIG, evidenced by reduced CD54 expression on monocytes and reduced secretion of MCP-1 (CCL2); again these effects were Fab- but not Fc-dependent. Our results show that SNA fractionation of IVIG yields a minor fraction (approx. 10%) of highly sialylated IgG, wherein the sialic acid is mainly found in the Fab region. The tested anti-inflammatory activity was associated with Fab not Fc sialylation

Metal hydrides for concentrating solar thermal power energy storage

The development of alternative methods for thermal energy storage is important for improving the efficiency and decreasing the cost for Concentrating Solar-thermal Power (CSP). We focus on the underlying technology that allows metal hydrides to function as Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems and highlight the current state-of-the-art materials that can operate at temperatures as low as room-temperature and as high as 1100 oC. The potential of metal hydrides for thermal storage is explored while current knowledge gaps about hydride properties, such as hydride thermodynamics, intrinsic kinetics and cyclic stability, are identified. The engineering challenges associated with utilising metal hydrides for high-temperature thermal energy storage are also addressed