Morphology, geographical variation and the subspecies of marsh tit Poecile palustris in Britain and central Europe

Capsule: All British Marsh Tits belong to subspecies Poecile palustris dresseri, being smaller than nominate P. p. palustris of central Europe. Aims: Determining the subspecies of Marsh Tit in Britain to test whether ssp. P. p. palustris occurs in northern England and Scotland, by assessing regional variation in size compared with central European birds. Methods: 1147 wing length and 250 tail length measurements from 953 Marsh Tits were compared between eight British locations to test for regional variation. Biometrics were compared between birds from Britain and six locations within the continental European range of ssp. palustris. Results: There was no regional variation in wing or tail lengths among British Marsh Tits, indicating that all resident birds belong to ssp. dresseri. There was no evidence supporting the existence of ssp. palustris in northern England. British birds were significantly smaller than those from continental Europe, with proportionately shorter tails, consistent across all age and sex classes. Conclusion: All British Marsh Tits should be considered as ssp. dresseri, with ssp. palustris being limited to continental Europe. With no evidence of regional variation in size within Britain, reliable sexing methods based on biometrics could be applied in demographic studies throughout the country

Energy expenditure during flight in relation to body mass: effects of natural increases in mass and artificial load in Rose Coloured Starlings

Rose Coloured Starlings (Sturnus roseus) flew repeatedly for several hours in a wind tunnel while undergoing spontaneous variation in body mass. The treatments were as follows: flying unrestrained (U), with a control harness of 1.2% of their body mass (C), or with a harness of 7.4% of their body mass, which was either applied immediately before the flight (LS) or at least 9 days in advance (LL). Energy expenditure during flight (ef in W) was measured with the Doubly Labelled Water method. Flight costs in LS and LL were not significantly different and therefore were pooled (L). The harness itself did not affect ef, i.e. U and C flights were not different. ef was allometrically related with body mass m (in g). The slopes were not significantly different between the treatments, but ef was increased by 5.4% in L compared to C flights (log10(ef) = 0.050 + 0.47 × log10(m) for C, and log10(ef) = 0.073 + 0.47 × log10(m) for L). The difference in ef between C, LS and LL was best explained by taking the transported mass mtransp (in g) instead of m into account (log10(ef) = −0.08 + 0.54 × log10(mtransp)). Flight costs increased to a lesser extent than expected from interspecific allometric comparison or aerodynamic theory, regardless of whether the increase in mass occurred naturally or artificially. We did not observe an effect of treatment on breast muscle size and wingbeat frequency. We propose that the relatively low costs at a high mass are rather a consequence of immediate adjustments in physiology and/or flight behaviour than of long-term adaptations

ICA 2013 Montreal

An auditory model "PhyBAM" is presented which in the long term aims at reproducing the human auditory perception. In recent years the awareness has grown that many perceptive features have their origin in the peripheral ear, above all in the cochlea. In the present stage PhyBAM is actually just a model of the peripheral ear. To simulate the perception of arbitrary sound signals, the signal processing occurring in the cochlea has to be formulated close to the physiological basis. Even so the model must be kept as simple as possible for the given aim. As a compromise PhyBAM is set up as an ordinary circuit model. In this first of two associated papers the model structure and the computational methods are presented. The model covers ear canal, middle ear, and cochlea. The cochlea model is by far the most sophisticated part. To include the unsymmetrical conditions at both cochlear windows and the resulting common and differential modes, a two-canal circuit is used. The main challenge is the implementation of the cochlear amplifier on the basis of measured tuning curves and otoacoustic emissions. Finding an appropriate model structure and proper parameters turns PhyBAM into an instrument of cochlear research

Integriertes System zur Auswahl und Anpassung von Hoergeraeten Schlussbericht

Available from TIB Hannover: F97B1189+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Activated polyamidoamine dendrimers, a non-viral vector for gene transfer to the corneal endothelium.

We investigated the efficiency of activated polyamidoamine dendrimers, a new class of nonviral vectors, to transfect rabbit and human corneas in ex vivo culture. In addition to assessing the expression of a marker gene we have demonstrated that this approach can be used to induce the production of TNF receptor fusion protein (TNFR-Ig), a protein with therapeutic potential. Whole thickness rabbit or human corneas were transfected ex vivo with complexes consisting of dendrimers and plasmids containing lacZ or TNFR-Ig genes. Following optimisation 6-10% of the corneal endothelial cells expressed the marker gene. Expression was restricted to the endothelium and was maximal after transfection with 18:1 (w/w) activated dendrimer:plasmid DNA ratio and culture for 3 days. The supernatant of corneas transfected with TNFR-Ig plasmid contained TNFR-Ig protein which was able to inhibit TNF-mediated cytotoxicity in a bioassay. We have therefore shown that activated dendrimers are an efficient nonviral vector capable of transducing corneal endothelial cells ex vivo. They may have applications in gene-based approaches aimed at prevention of corneal allograft rejection or in treatment of other disorders of corneal endothelium