Sex-specific ultrasonic vocalization patterns and alcohol consumption in high alcohol-drinking (HAD-1) rats

Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) have been established as an animal model of emotional status and are often utilized in drug abuse studies as motivational and emotional indices. Further USV functionality has been demonstrated in our recent work showing accurate identification of selectively-bred high versus low alcohol-consuming male rats ascertained exclusively from 22 to 28 kHz and 50–55 kHz FM USV acoustic parameters. With the hypothesis that alcohol-sensitive sex differences could be revealed through USV acoustic parameters, the present study examined USVs and alcohol consumption in male and female selectively bred high-alcohol drinking (HAD-1) rats. For the current study, we examined USV data collected during a 12-week experiment in male and female HAD-1 rats. Experimental phases included Baseline (2 weeks), 4-h EtOH Access (4 weeks), 24-h EtOH Access (4 weeks) and Abstinence (2 weeks). Findings showed that both male and female HAD-1 rats spontaneously emitted a large number of 22–28 kHz and 50–55 kHz FM USVs and that females drank significantly more alcohol compared to males over the entire course of the experiment. Analyses of USV acoustic characteristics (i.e. mean frequency, duration, bandwidth and power) revealed distinct sex-specific phenotypes in both 50–55 kHz FM and 22–28 kHz USV transmission that were modulated by ethanol exposure. Moreover, by using a linear combination of these acoustic characteristics, we were able to develop binomial logistic regression models able to discriminate between male and female HAD-1 rats with high accuracy. Together these results highlight unique emotional phenotypes in male and female HAD-1 rats that are differentially modulated by alcohol experience

NEUROCHEMICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES

approved version of the following dissertation

Contractile forces at tricellular contacts modulate epithelial organization and monolayer integrity

10.1038/ncomms13998Nature Communications81399

CONCERTO at APEX: Installation and first phase of on-sky commissioning

International audienceCONCERTO (CarbON CII line in post-rEionisation and ReionisaTiOn) is a large field-of-view (FoV) spectro-imager that has been installed on the Cassegrain Cabin of Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) telescope in April 2021. CONCERTO hosts 2 focal planes and a total number of 4000 Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID), with an instantaneous FoV of 18.6 arcminutes in the range of 130-310 GHz. The spectral resolution can be easily tuned down to 1 GHz depending on the scientific target. The scientific program of CONCERTO has many objectives, with two main programs focused on mapping the fluctuations of the [CII] line intensity in the reionisation and postreionisation epoch (4.5<z<8.5), and on studying galaxy clusters via the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect. CONCERTO will also measure the dust and molecular gas contents of local and intermediate-redshift galaxies, it will study the Galactic star-forming clouds and finally it will observe the CO intensity fluctuations arising from 0.3<z<2 galaxies.The design of the instrument, installation at APEX and current status of the commissioning phase and science verification will be presented. Also we describe the deployment and first on-sky tests performed between April and June 2021

CONCERTO at APEX: Installation and Technical Commissioning

We describe the deployment and first tests on sky of CONCERTO, a large field-of-view (18.6&nbsp;arc-min) spectral-imaging instrument. The instrument operates in the range 130–310&nbsp;GHz from the APEX 12-metres telescope located at 5100&nbsp;m a.s.l. on the Chajnantor plateau. Spectra with R=ν/ Δ ν≤ 300 are obtained using a fast (2.5&nbsp;Hz mechanical frequency) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), coupled to a continuous dilution cryostat with a base temperature of 60&nbsp;mK. Two 2152-pixels arrays of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKID) are installed in the cryostat that also contains the cold optics and the front-end electronics. CONCERTO, installed in April 2021, generates more than 20k spectra per second during observations. We describe the final development phases, the installation and the first results obtained on sky

CONCERTO at APEX: Installation and Technical Commissioning

International audienceWe describe the deployment and first tests on sky of CONCERTO, a large field-of-view (18.6 arc-min) spectral-imaging instrument. The instrument operates in the range 130-310 GHz from the APEX 12-metres telescope located at 5100 m a.s.l. on the Chajnantor plateau. Spectra with R=ν /Δ ν ≤300 are obtained using a fast (2.5 Hz mechanical frequency) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), coupled to a continuous dilution cryostat with a base temperature of 60 mK. Two 2152-pixels arrays of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKID) are installed in the cryostat that also contains the cold optics and the front-end electronics. CONCERTO, installed in April 2021, generates more than 20k spectra per second during observations. We describe the final development phases, the installation and the first results obtained on sky