Rearing conditions and life history influence the progress of gametogenesis and reproduction performances in pikeperch males and females

International audienc

On the Second Law of thermodynamics and the piston problem

The piston problem is investigated in the case where the length of the cylinder is infinite (on both sides) and the ratio $m/M$ is a very small parameter, where $m$ is the mass of one particle of the gaz and $M$ is the mass of the piston. Introducing initial conditions such that the stochastic motion of the piston remains in the average at the origin (no drift), it is shown that the time evolution of the fluids, analytically derived from Liouville equation, agrees with the Second Law of thermodynamics. We thus have a non equilibrium microscopical model whose evolution can be explicitly shown to obey the two laws of thermodynamics.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures submitted to Journal of Statistical Physics (2003

Kinetic analysis of N-alkylaryl carboxamide hexitol nucleotides as substrates for evolved polymerases

Six 1′,5′-anhydrohexitol uridine triphosphates were synthesized with aromatic substitutions appended via a carboxamide linker to the 5-position of their bases. An improved method for obtaining such 5-substituted hexitol nucleosides and nucleotides is described. The incorporation profile of the nucleotide analogues into a DNA duplex overhang using recently evolved XNA polymerases is compared. Long, mixed HNA sequences featuring the base modifications are generated. The apparent binding affinity of four of the nucleotides to the enzyme, the rate of the chemical step and of product release, plus the specificity constant for the incorporation of these modified nucleotides into a DNA duplex overhang using the HNA polymerase T6G12_I521L are determined via pre-steady-state kinetics. HNA polymers displaying aromatic functional groups could have significant impact on the isolation of stable and high-affinity binders and catalysts, or on the design of nanomaterials

Consensus Paper: Cerebellum and Social Cognition.

The traditional view on the cerebellum is that it controls motor behavior. Although recent work has revealed that the cerebellum supports also nonmotor functions such as cognition and affect, only during the last 5 years it has become evident that the cerebellum also plays an important social role. This role is evident in social cognition based on interpreting goal-directed actions through the movements of individuals (social "mirroring") which is very close to its original role in motor learning, as well as in social understanding of other individuals' mental state, such as their intentions, beliefs, past behaviors, future aspirations, and personality traits (social "mentalizing"). Most of this mentalizing role is supported by the posterior cerebellum (e.g., Crus I and II). The most dominant hypothesis is that the cerebellum assists in learning and understanding social action sequences, and so facilitates social cognition by supporting optimal predictions about imminent or future social interaction and cooperation. This consensus paper brings together experts from different fields to discuss recent efforts in understanding the role of the cerebellum in social cognition, and the understanding of social behaviors and mental states by others, its effect on clinical impairments such as cerebellar ataxia and autism spectrum disorder, and how the cerebellum can become a potential target for noninvasive brain stimulation as a therapeutic intervention. We report on the most recent empirical findings and techniques for understanding and manipulating cerebellar circuits in humans. Cerebellar circuitry appears now as a key structure to elucidate social interactions

Effects of geographic origin on growth and food intake in Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) juveniles under intensive culture conditions

Survival, growth, and food intake of Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) juveniles from different stocks originating from various geographic regions of Europe were compared under the same conditions of laboratory-scale intensive culture. In Experiment 1, four stocks originating from Italy (1), southwest (SF) and northwest (NF) France, and Belgium (B) were examined at larval and early juvenile (initial body weight, IBW = 0.53 g) stages. In Experiment 2, B stock was compared to a Finnish (F) one in two trials, including small (IBW = 1.26 g) and large (IBW = 32 g) juveniles. In Experiment 3, small (IBW = 1.29 g) and large (IBW = 7.33 g) juveniles from Polish (P), F, and B stocks were examined. In Experiment 1, body weight means at hatching and survival at the end of the larval stage were significantly lower in the I and SF stocks than in the B and NF stocks. In the early juvenile stage, survival and growth rates were significantly lower in the I and SF stocks than in the B and NF ones. In Experiment 2, {early juvenile stage} survival in the F stock was significantly lower than in the B stock, partly due to a higher incidence of cannibalism. During this stage, growth rates and food intake or feed efficiency in the F and B stocks were comparable, but at the end of the juvenile stage, the F stock outperformed the B one. In Experiment 3, survival in all the three stocks was comparable both in small and large juveniles. In contrast to the higher performance of F juveniles in Experiment 2, growth rates were comparable between the B and F stocks, and fish from the P stock had the highest growth rates. The results indicate a high level of variation within and between hatchery stocks in survival rates, growth rates, and food intake. These variations depended on the geographic origin of the fish, with the lowest survival and growth potentials being in the stocks originating from the southern regions. These findings highlight the interest in evaluating growth and food consumption of different Eurasian perch stocks. Such evaluation is a necessary tool for genetic selection in improving performance in perch aquaculture. (C) 2004 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved