Fin-Tail Coordination during Escape and Predatory Behavior in Larval Zebrafish

Larval zebrafish innately perform a suite of behaviors that are tightly linked to their evolutionary past, notably escape from threatening stimuli and pursuit and capture of prey. These behaviors have been carefully examined in the past, but mostly with regard to the movements of the trunk and tail of the larvae. Here, we employ kinematics analyses to describe the movements of the pectoral fins during escape and predatory behavior. In accord with previous studies, we find roles for the pectoral fins in slow swimming and immediately after striking prey. We find novel roles for the pectoral fins in long-latency, but not in short-latency C-bends. We also observe fin movements that occur during orienting J-turns and S-starts that drive high-velocity predatory strikes. Finally, we find that the use of pectoral fins following a predatory strike is scaled to the velocity of the strike, supporting a role for the fins in braking. The implications of these results for central control of coordinated movements are discussed, and we hope that these results will provide baselines for future analyses of cross-body coordination using mutants, morphants, and transgenic approaches

A whey protein supplement decreases post-prandial glycemia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Incidence of diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance are associated with high glycemic load diets. Identifying food components that decrease post-prandial glycemia may be beneficial for developing low glycemic foods and supplements. This study explores the glycemic impact of adding escalating doses of a glycemic index lowering peptide fraction (GILP) from whey to a glucose drink.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ten healthy subjects (3M, 7F, 44.4 ± 9.3 years, BMI 33.6 ± 4.8 kg/m²) participated in an acute randomised controlled study. Zero, 5, 10 and 20 g of protein from GILP were added to a 50 g glucose drink. The control (0 g of GILP) meal was repeated 2 times. Capillary blood samples were taken fasting (0 min) and at 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after the start of the meal and analyzed for blood glucose concentration.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Increasing doses of GILP decreased the incremental areas under the curve in a dose dependant manner (Pearson's r = 0.48, p = 0.002). The incremental areas (iAUC) under the glucose curve for the 0, 5, 10, and 20 g of protein from GILP were 231 ± 23, 212 ± 23, 196 ± 23, and 138 ± 13 mmol.min/L respectively. The iAUC of the 20 g GILP was significantly different from control, 5 g GILP and 10 g GILP (p < 0.001). Average reduction in the glucose iAUC was 4.6 ± 1.4 mmol.min/L per gram of ingested GILP.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Addition of GILP to a oral glucose bolus reduces blood glucose iAUC in a dose dependent manner and averages 4.6 ± 1.4 mmol.min/L per gram of GILP. These data are consistent with previous research on the effect of protein on the glycemic response of a meal.</p

The Use of Twitter to Track Levels of Disease Activity and Public Concern in the U.S. during the Influenza A H1N1 Pandemic

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its millions of users to send and read each other's “tweets,” or short, 140-character messages. The service has more than 190 million registered users and processes about 55 million tweets per day. Useful information about news and geopolitical events lies embedded in the Twitter stream, which embodies, in the aggregate, Twitter users' perspectives and reactions to current events. By virtue of sheer volume, content embedded in the Twitter stream may be useful for tracking or even forecasting behavior if it can be extracted in an efficient manner. In this study, we examine the use of information embedded in the Twitter stream to (1) track rapidly-evolving public sentiment with respect to H1N1 or swine flu, and (2) track and measure actual disease activity. We also show that Twitter can be used as a measure of public interest or concern about health-related events. Our results show that estimates of influenza-like illness derived from Twitter chatter accurately track reported disease levels

Heavy reliance on plants for Romanian cave bears evidenced by amino acid nitrogen isotope analysis

Heavy reliance on plants is rare in Carnivora and mostly limited to relatively small species in subtropical settings. The feeding behaviors of extinct cave bears living during Pleistocene cold periods at middle latitudes have been intensely studied using various approaches including isotopic analyses of fossil collagen. In contrast to cave bears from all other regions in Europe, some individuals from Romania show exceptionally high δ15N values that might be indicative of meat consumption. Herbivory on plants with high δ15N values cannot be ruled out based on this method, however. Here we apply an approach using the δ15N values of individual amino acids from collagen that offsets the baseline δ15N variation among environments. The analysis yielded strong signals of reliance on plants for Romanian cave bears based on the δ15N values of glutamate and phenylalanine. These results could suggest that the high variability in bulk collagen δ15N values observed among cave bears in Romania reflects niche partitioning but in a general trophic context of herbivory

Fresh-blood-free diet for rearing malaria mosquito vectors

Mosquito breeding depends on the supply of fresh vertebrate blood, a major bottleneck for large-scale production of Anopheles spp. Feeding alternatives to fresh blood are thus a priority for research, outdoor large-cage trials and control interventions. Several artificial meal compositions were tested and Anopheles oogenesis, egg laying and development into the next generation of adult mosquitoes were followed. We identified blood-substitute-diets that supported ovarian development, egg maturation and fertility as well as, low progeny larval mortality, and normal development of offspring into adult mosquitoes. The formulated diet is an effective artificial meal, free of fresh blood that mimics a vertebrate blood meal and represents an important advance for the sustainability of Anopheles mosquito rearing in captivity.Agência financiadora / Número do subsídio Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation OPP1138841 Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia GHTM - UID/Multi/04413/201 CCMAR - UID/Multi/04326/2013 UID/Multi/04326/2013 RF SFRH/BPD/89811/2012 FAPEAM, Brazil 19716.UNI472.2459.20022014info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fin Spine Bone Resorption in Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus, and Comparison between Wild and Captive-Reared Specimens

Bone resorption in the first spine of the first dorsal fin of Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT) has long been considered for age estimation studies. In the present paper spine bone resorpion was assessed in wild (aged 1 to 13 years) and captive-reared (aged 2 to 11 years) ABFT sampled from the Mediterranean Sea. Total surface (TS), solid surface (SS) and reabsorbed surface (RS) were measured in spine transverse sections in order to obtain proportions of SS and RS. The spine section surface was found to be isometrically correlated to the fish fork length by a power equation. The fraction of solid spine bone progressively decreased according to a logarithmic equation correlating SS/TS to both fish size and age. The values ranged from 57% in the smallest examined individuals to 37% in the largest specimens. This phenomenon was further enhanced in captive-reared ABFT where SS/TS was 22% in the largest measured specimen. The difference between the fraction of SS of wild and captive-reared ABFT was highly significant. In each year class from 1- to 7-year-old wild specimens, the fraction of spine reabsorbed surface was significantly higher in specimens collected from March to May than in those sampled during the rest of the year. In 4-year-old fish the normal SS increase during the summer did not occur, possibly coinciding with their first sexual maturity. According to the correlations between SS/TS and age, the rate of spine bone resorption was significantly higher, even almost double, in captive-reared specimens. This could be attributed to the wider context of systemic dysfunctions occurring in reared ABFT, and may be related to a number of factors, including nutritional deficiencies, alteration of endocrine profile, cortisol-induced stress, and loss of spine functions during locomotion in rearing conditions.Versión del editor4,411

The quantified self: what counts in the neoliberal workplace

Implementation of quantified self technologies in workplaces relies on the ontological premise of Cartesian dualism with mind dominant over body. Contributing to debates in new materialism, we demonstrate that workers are now being asked to measure our own productivity and health and wellbeing in art-houses and warehouses alike in both the global north and south. Workers experience intensified precarity, austerity, intense competition for jobs, and anxieties about the replacement of labour-power with robots and other machines as well as, ourselves replaceable, other humans. Workers have internalized the imperative to perform, a subjectification process as we become observing, entrepreneurial subjects and observed, objectified labouring bodies. Thinking through the implications of the use of wearable technologies in workplaces, this article shows that these technologies introduce a heightened Taylorist influence on precarious working bodies within neoliberal workplaces

Pharmacology and therapeutic implications of current drugs for type 2 diabetes mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a global epidemic that poses a major challenge to health-care systems. Improving metabolic control to approach normal glycaemia (where practical) greatly benefits long-term prognoses and justifies early, effective, sustained and safety-conscious intervention. Improvements in the understanding of the complex pathogenesis of T2DM have underpinned the development of glucose-lowering therapies with complementary mechanisms of action, which have expanded treatment options and facilitated individualized management strategies. Over the past decade, several new classes of glucose-lowering agents have been licensed, including glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. These agents can be used individually or in combination with well-established treatments such as biguanides, sulfonylureas and thiazolidinediones. Although novel agents have potential advantages including low risk of hypoglycaemia and help with weight control, long-term safety has yet to be established. In this Review, we assess the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety profiles, including cardiovascular safety, of currently available therapies for management of hyperglycaemia in patients with T2DM within the context of disease pathogenesis and natural history. In addition, we briefly describe treatment algorithms for patients with T2DM and lessons from present therapies to inform the development of future therapies

Gut Microbiota, Probiotics and Diabetes

Diabetes is a condition of multifactorial origin, involving several molecular mechanisms related to the intestinal microbiota for its development. In type 2 diabetes, receptor activation and recognition by microorganisms from the intestinal lumen may trigger inflammatory responses, inducing the phosphorylation of serine residues in insulin receptor substrate-1, reducing insulin sensitivity. In type 1 diabetes, the lowered expression of adhesion proteins within the intestinal epithelium favours a greater immune response that may result in destruction of pancreatic β cells by CD8+ T-lymphocytes, and increased expression of interleukin-17, related to autoimmunity. Research in animal models and humans has hypothesized whether the administration of probiotics may improve the prognosis of diabetes through modulation of gut microbiota. We have shown in this review that a large body of evidence suggests probiotics reduce the inflammatory response and oxidative stress, as well as increase the expression of adhesion proteins within the intestinal epithelium, reducing intestinal permeability. Such effects increase insulin sensitivity and reduce autoimmune response. However, further investigations are required to clarify whether the administration of probiotics can be efficiently used for the prevention and management of diabetes

Utility of Saxagliptin in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes: Review of Efficacy and Safety

The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex disease in which multiple organs and hormones contribute to the pathogenesis of disease. The intestinal hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), secreted i