Structure, function and context : the impact of morphometry and ecology on olfactory sensitivity

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February, 2005In this thesis, the relationships of olfactory sensitivity to three biological variables were tested. The sensitivity of a marine mammal, the sea otter (Enhydra lutris) was measured in order to determine whether a marine lifestyle results in impaired olfaction. The effect of dietary relevance on sensitivity to specific odorants was evaluated. Finally, a new morphometric model of olfactory uptake efficiency was developed and tested against behavioral measurements of olfactory sensitivity in twelve mammalian species from five orders. Olfactory thresholds were obtained for the first time from two sea otters for seven odorant compounds from various natural sources. Otters were trained using operant conditioning to participate in direct behavioral testing. Sea otter olfactory sensitivity was comparable to that of previously studied terrestrial mammals. The incidence of an odorant in the diet of the olfactor was found to influence specific sensitivity to that compound but to varying degrees among different mammalian orders. Nasal cavity specimens were measured using radiologic (CT scan) and histologic (light microscopy) techniques. Surface areas and volumes of the nasal cavity were used to calculate the Olfactory Uptake Efficiency (OUE). OUE is significantly related to olfactory bulb volume. A possible relationship was found between OUE and general olfactory sensitivity.I am grateful to the Oregon Zoo and the Oregon Coast Aquarium, whose exhibit animals provided the olfactory threshold data, as well as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Point Defiance Zoo and the New England Aquarium, which also participated. Nasal cavity specimens were generously donated by the American Museum of Natural History, the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Biology Department of MIT, the California Oiled Wildlife Network, the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Institute for Hydrology and Ecology at Monk's Hood, Tufts Veterinary School, the New England Regional Primate Research Center, Lion Country Safari Zoo, and the Cameron Park Zoo. Funding was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Education Department, Biology Department and Ocean Ventures Fund, the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Gen Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Student Assistance Fund, the European Chemoreception Research Organization, the Society for Experimental Biology, the Company of Biologists, and the Office of Naval Research

Impact of morphometry and ecology on olfactory sensitivity

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology; and, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2005.Handwritten on CDROMS: v. [1]. Appendix, histological images -- v. [2]. CT images. -- Table of contents refers to CDROMS as: Appendix and CT and histological images for all species, attached CD)Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 216-247).In this thesis, the relationships of olfactory sensitivity to three biological variables were tested. The sensitivity of a marine mammal, the sea otter (Enhydra lutris) was measured in order to determine whether a marine lifestyle results in impaired olfaction. The effect of dietary relevance on sensitivity to specific odorants was evaluated. Finally, a new morphometric model of olfactory uptake efficiency was developed and tested against behavioral measurements of olfactory sensitivity in twelve mammalian species from five orders. Olfactory thresholds were obtained for the first time from two sea otters for seven odorant compounds from various natural sources. Otters were trained using operant conditioning to participate in direct behavioral testing. Sea otter olfactory sensitivity was comparable to that of previously studied terrestrial mammals. The incidence of an odorant in the diet of the olfactor was found to influence specific sensitivity to that compound but to varying degrees among different mammalian orders. Nasal cavity specimens were measured using radiologic (CT scan) and histologic (light microscopy) techniques. Surface areas and volumes of the nasal cavity were used to calculate the Olfactory Uptake Efficiency (OUE). OUE is significantly related to olfactory bulb volume. A possible relationship was found between OUE and general olfactory sensitivity.by Jennifer Hammock.Ph.D

TraitBank : practical semantics for organism attribute data

© IOS Press and The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Semantic Web 7 (2016): 577-588, doi:10.3233/SW-150190.Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) has developed TraitBank (http://eol.org/traitbank), a new repository for organism attribute (trait) data. TraitBank aggregates, manages and serves attribute data for organisms across the tree of life, including life history characteristics, habitats, distributions, ecological relationships and other data types. We describe how TraitBank ingests and manages these data in a way that leverages EOL’s existing infrastructure and semantic annotations to facilitate reasoning across the TraitBank corpus and interoperability with other resources. We also discuss TraitBank’s impact on users and collaborators and the challenges and benefits of our lightweight, scalable approach to the integration of biodiversity data.Support for TraitBank was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Effects of triclosan in breast milk on the infant fecal microbiome

Triclosan is frequently used for its antimicrobial properties and has been detected in human serum, urine, and breast milk. Animal and molecular studies have shown that triclosan exerts a wide range of adverse health effects at both high (ppm) and low (ppb) concentrations. Since triclosan is of growing concern to human and environmental health, there is a need to improve extraction procedures and to study additional effects from triclosan exposure. In this study, we have improved triclosan extraction from breast milk by using salt (MgSO4) to reduce emulsion formation and increase water polarity and water (~80%) to enhance the overall extraction efficiency (~3.5 fold). This extraction method was applied to breast milk samples collected from donors who i) recorded their use of triclosan-containing personal care products and ii) provided matching infant stool samples. Of the participants who had detectable amounts of triclosan in their breast milk, nine (75%) of them reported daily use of triclosan-containing personal care products. Levels of triclosan in breast milk were compared to the donor\u27s infant\u27s fecal microbiome. We found that the bacterial diversity in the fecal microbiome of the infants exposed to breast milk with detectable triclosan levels differed compared to their peers exposed to milk containing non-detectable amounts. This finding implies that exogenous chemicals are impacting microbiome diversity

ENVIRONMENTS and EOL : identification of Environment Ontology terms in text and the annotation of the Encyclopedia of Life

© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Bioinformatics 31 (2015): 1872-1874, doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btv045.The association of organisms to their environments is a key issue in exploring biodiversity patterns. This knowledge has traditionally been scattered, but textual descriptions of taxa and their habitats are now being consolidated in centralized resources. However, structured annotations are needed to facilitate large-scale analyses. Therefore, we developed ENVIRONMENTS, a fast dictionary-based tagger capable of identifying Environment Ontology (ENVO) terms in text. We evaluate the accuracy of the tagger on a new manually curated corpus of 600 Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) species pages. We use the tagger to associate taxa with environments by tagging EOL text content monthly, and integrate the results into the EOL to disseminate them to a broad audience of users.The Encyclopedia Of Life Rubenstein Fellows Program [CRDF EOL-33066-13/E33066], the LifeWatchGreece Research Infrastructure [384676-94/GSRT/ NSRF(C&E)] and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research [NNF14CC0001]

Roswell, GA

Prepared by the Spring 2010 Preservation planning class. The Roswell Historic District Design Guidelines give an overview of the historic boundaries and their modern expansion. The guidelines illustrate appropriate structure styles for the district, both residential and commercial. Districts outlined in this design guidelines are the Mill Village and Town Square, Mimosa Boulevard Neighborhood, Uptown- Alpharetta Street Neighborhood, Uptown- Canton Street Neighborhood, and South Atlanta Street Neighborhood.https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_heritagepreservation/1037/thumbnail.jp

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges

Natural Products in the Prevention of Metabolic Diseases: Lessons Learned from the 20th KAST Frontier Scientists Workshop

The incidence of metabolic and chronic diseases including cancer, obesity, inflammation-related diseases sharply increased in the 21st century. Major underlying causes for these diseases are inflammation and oxidative stress. Accordingly, natural products and their bioactive components are obvious therapeutic agents for these diseases, given their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Research in this area has been significantly expanded to include chemical identification of these compounds using advanced analytical techniques, determining their mechanism of action, food fortification and supplement development, and enhancing their bioavailability and bioactivity using nanotechnology. These timely topics were discussed at the 20th Frontier Scientists Workshop sponsored by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on 23 November 2019. Scientists from South Korea and the U.S. shared their recent research under the overarching theme of Bioactive Compounds, Nanoparticles, and Disease Prevention. This review summarizes presentations at the workshop to provide current knowledge of the role of natural products in the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases