PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF GROWING PIGS UNDER DIFFERENT SOCIAL CONDITIONS

Socijalno suočavanje mlade svinje u rastu s usporednom skupinom brzo dovodi do vrlo čestih agonističkih interakcija u prvih 30 minutia praćenih naglim ubrzanjem rada srca i koncentracijom katekolamina te usporenim porastom koncentracija kortizola. Suočavanje životinje s nepoznatom skupinom dovodi do većih agonističkih interakcija i veće reakcije adrenokortizola u usporedbi sa suočavanjem s poznatom skupinom. Najbolje životinje imaju više agonističkih interakcija u prvih trideset minuta praćenih ubrzanijim radom srca i višom adrenokortikalnom reakcijom ali pokazuju sposobnost snalaženja u novoj situaciji nakon kratkog razdoblja. Potrebna su daljnja istraživanja da se ocijene različite strategije prilagođavanja u svinja i uključivanje u promatrane fiziološke reakcije i reakcije ponašanja.The social confrontation of a young growing pig with a comparable group immediately leads to very frequent agonistic interactions during the first 30 minutes accompanied with a rapid increase of heart rate and catecholamine concentrations and a delayed increase of cortisol concentrations. Confrontation of the animal with an unfamiliar group results in more agonistic interactions and a higher adrenocortical reaction compared to the confrontation with the familiar group. High rank animals have more agonistic interactions during the first 30 minutes, accompanied with higher heart rates and a higher adrenocortical reaction but show the ability to cope with the new situation after a short period. Further research is necessary to evaluate the existence of different adaptation strategies in pigs and the involvement in the observed physiological and behavioural reactions

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices generated by quantized light fields

We study an ultracold gas of neutral atoms subject to the periodic optical potential generated by a high-$Q$ cavity mode. In the limit of very low temperatures, cavity field and atomic dynamics require a quantum description. Starting from a cavity QED single atom Hamiltonian we use different routes to derive approximative multiparticle Hamiltonians in Bose-Hubbard form with rescaled or even dynamical parameters. In the limit of large enough cavity damping the different models agree. Compared to free space optical lattices, quantum uncertainties of the potential and the possibility of atom-field entanglement lead to modified phase transition characteristics, the appearance of new phases or even quantum superpositions of different phases. Using a corresponding effective master equation, which can be numerically solved for few particles, we can study time evolution including dissipation. As an example we exhibit the microscopic processes behind the transition dynamics from a Mott insulator like state to a self-ordered superradiant state of the atoms, which appears as steady state for transverse atomic pumping.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, Published versio

Cavity cooling of a single atom

All conventional methods to laser-cool atoms rely on repeated cycles of optical pumping and spontaneous emission of a photon by the atom. Spontaneous emission in a random direction is the dissipative mechanism required to remove entropy from the atom. However, alternative cooling methods have been proposed for a single atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse cavity; the role of spontaneous emission is replaced by the escape of a photon from the cavity. Application of such cooling schemes would improve the performance of atom cavity systems for quantum information processing. Furthermore, as cavity cooling does not rely on spontaneous emission, it can be applied to systems that cannot be laser-cooled by conventional methods; these include molecules (which do not have a closed transition) and collective excitations of Bose condensates, which are destroyed by randomly directed recoil kicks. Here we demonstrate cavity cooling of single rubidium atoms stored in an intracavity dipole trap. The cooling mechanism results in extended storage times and improved localization of atoms. We estimate that the observed cooling rate is at least five times larger than that produced by free-space cooling methods, for comparable excitation of the atom

Expression of emotional arousal in two different piglet call types

Humans as well as many animal species reveal their emotional state in their voice. Vocal features show strikingly similar correlation patterns with emotional states across mammalian species, suggesting that the vocal expression of emotion follows highly conserved signalling rules. To fully understand the principles of emotional signalling in mammals it is, however, necessary to also account for any inconsistencies in the way that they are acoustically encoded. Here we investigate whether the expression of emotions differs between call types produced by the same species. We compare the acoustic structure of two common piglet calls—the scream (a distress call) and the grunt (a contact call)—across three levels of arousal in a negative situation. We find that while the central frequency of calls increases with arousal in both call types, the amplitude and tonal quality (harmonic-to-noise ratio) show contrasting patterns: as arousal increased, the intensity also increased in screams, but not in grunts, while the harmonicity increased in screams but decreased in grunts. Our results suggest that the expression of arousal depends on the function and acoustic specificity of the call type. The fact that more vocal features varied with arousal in scream calls than in grunts is consistent with the idea that distress calls have evolved to convey information about emotional arousal

The Weaker Sex? The Propensity for Male-Biased Piglet Mortality

For the most part solutions to farm animal welfare issues, such as piglet mortality, are likely to lie within the scientific disciplines of environmental design and genetic selection, however understanding the ecological basis of some of the complex dynamics observed between parent and offspring could make a valuable contribution. One interesting, and often discussed, aspect of mortality is the propensity for it to be sex-biased. This study investigated whether known physiological and behavioural indicators of piglet survival differed between the sexes and whether life history strategies (often reported in wild or feral populations) relating to parental investment were being displayed in a domestic population of pigs. Sex ratio (proportion of males (males/males+females)) at birth was 0.54 and sex allocation (maternal investment measured as piglet birth weight/litter weight) was statistically significantly male-biased at 0.55 (t35 = 2.51 P = 0.017), suggesting that sows invested more in sons than daughters during gestation. Despite this investment in birth weight, a known survival indicator, total pre-weaning male mortality was statistically significantly higher than female mortality (12% vs. 7% respectively z = 2.06 P = 0.040). Males tended to suffer from crushing by the sow more than females and statistically significantly more males died from disease-related causes. Although males were born on average heavier, with higher body mass index and ponderal index, these differences were not sustained. In addition male piglets showed impaired thermoregulation compared to females. These results suggest male-biased mortality exists despite greater initial maternal investment, and therefore reflects the greater susceptibility of this sex to causal mortality factors. Life history strategies are being displayed by a domestic population of pigs with sows in this study displaying a form of parental optimism by allocating greater resources at birth to males and providing an over-supply of this more vulnerable sex in expectation of sex-biased mortality

FOXA1 repression is associated with loss of BRCA1 and increased promoter methylation and chromatin silencing in breast cancer

FOXA1 expression correlates with the breast cancer luminal subtype and patient survival. RNA and protein analysis of a panel of breast cancer cell lines revealed that BRCA1 deficiency is associated with the downregulation of FOXA1 expression. Knockdown of BRCA1 resulted in the downregulation of FOXA1 expression and enhancement of FOXA1 promoter methylation in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, whereas the reconstitution of BRCA1 in Brca1-deficent mouse mammary epithelial cells (MMECs) promoted Foxa1 expression and methylation. These data suggest that BRCA1 suppresses FOXA1 hypermethylation and silencing. Consistently, the treatment of MMECs with the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycitydine induced Foxa1 mRNA expression. Furthermore, treatment with GSK126, an inhibitor of EZH2 methyltransferase activity, induced FOXA1 expression in BRCA1-deficient but not in BRCA1-reconstituted MMECs. Likewise, the depletion of EZH2 by small interfering RNA enhanced FOXA1 mRNA expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis demonstrated that BRCA1, EZH2, DNA methyltransferases (DNMT)1/3a/3b and H3K27me3 are recruited to the endogenous FOXA1 promoter, further supporting the hypothesis that these proteins interact to modulate FOXA1 methylation and repression. Further co-immunoprecipitation and ChIP analysis showed that both BRCA1 and DNMT3b form complexes with EZH2 but not with each other, consistent with the notion that BRCA1 binds to EZH2 and negatively regulates its methyltransferase activity. We also found that EZH2 promotes and BRCA1 impairs the deposit of the gene silencing histone mark H3K27me3 on the FOXA1 promoter. These associations were validated in a familial breast cancer patient cohort. Integrated analysis of the global gene methylation and expression profiles of a set of 33 familial breast tumours revealed that FOXA1 promoter methylation is inversely correlated with the transcriptional expression of FOXA1 and that BRCA1 mutation breast cancer is significantly associated with FOXA1 methylation and downregulation of FOXA1 expression, providing physiological evidence to our findings that FOXA1 expression is regulated by methylation and chromatin silencing and that BRCA1 maintains FOXA1 expression through suppressing FOXA1 gene methylation in breast cancer.Oncogene advance online publication, 22 December 2014; doi:10.1038/onc.2014.421.published_or_final_versio

Empowering Qualitative Research Methods in Education with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is one of the fastest growing disciplines, disrupting many sectors. Originally mainly for computer scientists and engineers, it has been expanding its horizons and empowering many other disciplines contributing to the development of many novel applications in many sectors. These include medicine and health care, business and finance, psychology and neuroscience, physics and biology to mention a few. However, one of the disciplines in which artificial intelligence has not been fully explored and exploited yet is education. In this discipline, many research methods are employed by scholars, lecturers and practitioners to investigate the impact of different instructional approaches on learning and to understand the ways skills and knowledge are acquired by learners. One of these is qualitative research, a scientific method grounded in observations that manipulates and analyses non-numerical data. It focuses on seeking answers to why and how a particular observed phenomenon occurs rather than on its occurrences. This study aims to explore and discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on qualitative research methods. In particular, it focuses on how artificial intelligence have empowered qualitative research methods so far, and how it can be used in education for enhancing teaching and learning