THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA IN RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS) IS INFLUENCED BY DIET TYPE AND YERSINIA RUCKERI CHALLENGE

In recent years it has become more and more evident that the bacterial flora in the gut of warm-blooded animals modulates physiological processes and the immunological status of the host. Besides effects on growth parameters, commensal intestinal bacteria balance the immune system and prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria. The question is if the gut microbiota is also important in lower vertebrates such as fish? Is the microbiota related to the diet type and does it play a protective role in connection to pathogenic challenge? To examine these questions rainbow trout fry were fed two different diets of either a marine or vegetable origin from first feeding and onwards. At a size of about four gram the fish were bath challenged by Yersinia ruckeri serotype O1 and intestines were then sampled 5 days post challenge for subsequent metagenomic examination. Next-generation sequencing was applied for the metagenomic studies using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. The results showed two distinctly different microbial patterns in the intestines dependent on the diet type. Fish fed a marine based diet overall had a significantly higher amount of the class β-proteobacteria, while the amount of reads belonging to phylum Firmicutes were significantly higher in the intestines of vegetable fed fish. The genera within phylum Firmicutes present in significantly higher amounts in vegetable fed fish were Weissella, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. Genus Aeromonas from the γ-proteobacteria class was also present in significantly higher amounts in the vegetable fed fish. When challenged with Yersinia ruckeri, fish with a high amount of sequence reads belonging to genus Yersinia had a significantly lower amount of reads from the order Burkholderiales relative to non-infected control fish and fish with a low amount of Yersinia specific sequences. Further, these infected fish further clustered separately when analyzing the bacterial community on a PCA plot. The immunological examinations using RT-qPCR showed similar constitutive expression between the two diet groups, but the response differed between the two diet groups in challenged fish. Here, the general pattern was a pro-inflammatory response in the intestine of marine fed fish challenged with Yersinia ruckeri relative to non-infected control fish, while several immune genes were down-regulated in vegetable fed fish relative to non-infected control fish. Overall, the results indicate that the gut microbiota in rainbow trout is highly plastic according to the type of diet and does further seem to be involved in the immunological response in connection to pathogenic challenge

Is the intestinal microbiota in rainbow trout influenced by diet type and challenge by Yersinia ruckeri?

In recent years it has become more and more evident that the bacterial flora in the gut of warm-blooded animals modulates physiological processes and the immunological status of the host. Besides effects on growth parameters, commensal intestinal bacteria balance the immune system and prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria. The question is if the gut microbiota is also important in lower vertebrates such as fish? And does it play a role in connection to pathogenic challenge? To examine these questions rainbow trout fry were fed two different diets of either a marine or vegetable origin directly after first feeding. At a size of about four gram the fish were bath challenged by Yersinia ruckeri and intestines were then sampled 5 and 18 days post challenge for subsequent metagenomic and immunological examinations. Next-generation sequencing was applied for the metagenomic studies using the Illumina HiSeq platform. The results clearly showed two different microbial patterns in the intestines dependent on the diet type. Control fish fed a marine based diet overall had a higher amount of proteobacteria, while high amount of reads belonging to phylum Firmicutes dominated in the intestines of vegetable fed fish. Several genera within the order Lactobacillales belonged to the many reads from Firmicutes. In challenged fish with a high load of reads from genus Yersinia there was a significantly lower amount of reads from the order Burkholderiales. Further, these fish further clustered separately when analyzing the bacterial community on a PCA plot. The immunological examinations using RT-qPCR showed no different expression patterns between the diet groups in control fish, but the response was very different in connection to challenge. Here, the general pattern was a pro-inflammatory response in the intestine of marine fed fish challenged with Yersinia ruckeri, while several immune genes were down-regulated in vegetable fed fish. Overall, the results indicate that the gut microbiota in rainbow trout is highly plastic according to the type of diet and does further seem to be involved in the immunological response in connection to pathogenic challenge

DIET TYPE AND CHALLENGE BY YERSINIA RUCKERI INFLUENCE THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA IN RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS)

In warm-blooded animals such as humans and pigs the intestinal microbial composition is dependent on the type of ingested diet. It is known that it also influences the immune system and prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria. The question is if the gut microbiota has the same impact in lower vertebrates such as fish? To examine this rainbow trout fry were fed two different diets of either a marine or vegetable origin. At a size of about four gram a subset of the fish was bath challenged by Yersinia ruckeri serotype O1 and intestines were then sampled 5 days post challenge from challenged fish (n = 40) and non-challenged control fish (n = 40). Subsequent metagenomic examination based on the 16S rDNA gene was then performed using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Obtained sequences were paired, sorted, filtered, checked for chimeras and finally mapped against the Greengene database using the open-source package Bion-meta. Analysis of the microbial communities when then made for the non-infected control fish and Yersinia ruckeri challenged fish. For the non-infected control fish, the results showed two distinctly different microbial patterns in the intestines dependent on the administered diet type. Fish fed a marine based diet overall had a significantly higher amount of the class β-proteobacteria, while phylum Firmicutes was significantly higher abundant in the intestines of vegetable fed fish. The genera within phylum Firmicutes present in significantly higher amounts in vegetable fed fish were Weissella, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. Genus Aeromonas from the γ-proteobacteria class was also present in significantly higher amounts in the vegetable fed fish. The microbial community was different in the fish that were challenged by Yersinia ruckeri. Challenged fish clustered into two groups according to the load of Yersinia ruckeri specific reads in their intestine; the main part of challenged fish (n = 34) had a low amount of Yersinia specific reads (≤ 1.2 % of total amount of reads), while a minor group (n = 6) had a high load ranging between 13.9 and 23.2 % of all reads. These ‘high Yersinia level’ fish had a significantly lower amount of reads from the order Burkholderiales relative to the ‘low Yersinia level’ fish and non-infected control fish. Further, the ‘high Yersinia level’ fish further clustered separately when analyzing the bacterial community on a PCA plot. The immunological examinations were performed by RT-qPCR in order to measure the expression of selected immune genes. The results showed a similar expression pattern between the two diet groups of non-infected fish, but the response differed between the two diet groups in challenged fish. Overall, the results indicate that the gut microbiota in rainbow trout, like in warm-blooded animals, is highly plastic according to the type of diet and does also seem to be involved in the immunological response in connection to pathogenic challenge

Calibration of photometry from the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini North

All available observations of photometric standard stars obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph at Gemini North in the period from August 2001 to December 2003 have been used to establish the calibrations for photometry obtained with the instrument. The calibrations presented in this paper are based on significantly more photometric standard star observations than usually used by the individual users. Nightly photometric zero points as well as color terms are determined. The color terms are expected to be valid for all observations taken prior to UT 2004 November 21 at which time the Gemini North primary mirror was coated with silver instead of aluminum. While the nightly zero points are accurate to 0.02 mag or better (random errors), the accuracy of the calibrations is limited by systematic errors from so-called "sky concentration", an effect seen in all focal reducer instruments. We conclude that an accuracy of 0.035 to 0.05 mag can be achieved by using calibrations derived in this paper. The color terms are strongest for very red objects, e.g. for objects with (r'-z')=3.0 the resulting z' magnitudes will be ~0.35 mag too bright if the color term is ignored. The calibrations are of importance to the large Gemini user community with data obtained prior to UT 2004 November 21, as well as future users of achive data from this period in time.Comment: Accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 13 pages, 8 figures, emulateapj forma

Tornehamn Kirkegaard i Lappland

Intet resumé

Bruk av musikk i spesialpedagogisk leseundervisning

Lese- og skriveferdigheter er viktig kompetanse å ha for å fungere i det norske kunnskapssamfunnet. På tross av dette går flere ut av grunnskolen uten de nødvendige ferdighetene for å fungere i videreutdanning, arbeidslivet eller samfunnet generelt. Denne studien undersøker problemstillingen «Hvordan kan anvendelse av musikk i leseundervisningen støtte elever med sen leseutvikling?». Hensikten med studien var å finne alternative inngangsporter for å styrke den spesialpedagogiske leseundervisningen som allerede eksisterer. Dette er gjort ved å gjennomføre en aksjonsforskningsstudie. Resultatene i studien indikerer at det er flere fordeler med å anvende musikk for å støtte elever med sen leseutvikling. Musikk kan være en morsom og engasjerende måte å gi elevene den mengdetreningen de trenger, på områder elevene finner ekstra krevende. Videre så kan en benytte seg av rytmer og sanger for å øve på spesifikke områder elevene finner utfordrende. En kan også benytte seg av en kjent sang for å gi elevene fonologisk støtte til avkoding. Det er i tillegg en fin måte for å skape et godt psykososialt miljø på. Dette kan skape rom for mestring, engasjement og trivsel. En annen fordel som kom fram i studien, er at det ga muligheter for å tilpasse opplæringen etter elevenes forutsetninger. Videre ga det mulighet og rom for tilpasninger slik at alle kunne delta og være en del av felleskapet Resultatene fra studien indikerer også at musikk, slik det ble brukt i denne studien, ikke kan fungere som en egen metodikk i leseundervisningen. Det kan heller være et tilleggssupplement til de tradisjonelle undervisningsmetodene. Det kom også fram at det å bruke musikk som tilnærming for å hjelpe elever med spesifikke vansker, vil kreve mye kunnskap og kompetanse fra den enkelte lærer, noe som kan gjøre bruken av musikk krevende. En mulig løsning for dette kan være et tverrfaglig samarbeid mellom spesialpedagoger og musikklærere slik at en kan nyte godt av begge feltenes fagkunnskaper

The Gemini/HST Cluster Project: Structural and Photometric Properties of Galaxies in Three z =0.28-0.89 Clusters

We present the data processing and analysis techniques we are using to determine structural and photometric properties of galaxies in our Gemini/HST Galaxy Cluster Project sample. The goal of this study is to understand cluster galaxy evolution in terms of scaling relations and structural properties of cluster galaxies at redshifts 0.15 < z < 1.0. To derive parameters such as total magnitude, half-light radius, effective surface brightness, and Sersic n, we fit r^{1/4} law and Sersic function 2-D surface brightness profiles to each of the galaxies in our sample. Using simulated galaxies, we test how the assumed profile affects the derived parameters and how the uncertainties affect our Fundamental Plane results. We find that while fitting galaxies which have Sersic index n < 4 with r^{1/4} law profiles systematically overestimates the galaxy radius and flux, the combination of profile parameters that enter the Fundamental Plane has uncertainties that are small. Average systematic offsets and associated random uncertainties in magnitude and log r_e for n > 2 galaxies fitted with r^{1/4} law profiles are -0.1+-0.3 and 0.1+-0.2 respectively. The combination of effective radius and surface brightness, log r_e - \beta log _e, that enters the Fundamental Plane produces offsets smaller than -0.02+-0.10. This systematic error is insignificant and independent of galaxy magnitude or size. A catalog of photometry and surface brightness profile parameters is presented for three of the clusters in our sample, RX J0142.0+2131, RX J0152.7-1357, and RX J1226.9+3332 at redshifts 0.28, 0.83, and 0.89 respectively.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figure