Infektionsabwehr und lymphatischer Rachenring

Foraging behaviours used by two female Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) were documented during controlled feeding trials. During these trials the seals were presented with prey either free-floating in open water or concealed within a mobile ball or a static box feeding device. When targeting free-floating prey both subjects primarily used raptorial biting in combination with suction, which was used to draw prey to within range of the teeth. When targeting prey concealed within either the mobile or static feeding device, the seals were able to use suction to draw out prey items that could not be reached by biting. Suction was followed by lateral water expulsion, where water drawn into the mouth along with the prey item was purged via the sides of the mouth. Vibrissae were used to explore the surface of the feeding devices, especially when locating the openings in which the prey items had been hidden. The mobile ball device was also manipulated by pushing it with the muzzle to knock out concealed prey, which was not possible when using the static feeding device. To knock prey out of this static device one seal used targeted bubble blowing, where a focused stream of bubbles was blown out of the nose into the openings in the device. Once captured in the jaws, prey items were manipulated and re-oriented using further mouth movements or chews so that they could be swallowed head first. While most items were swallowed whole underwater, some were instead taken to the surface and held in the teeth, while being vigorously shaken to break them into smaller pieces before swallowing. The behavioural flexibility displayed by Australian fur seals likely assists in capturing and consuming the extremely wide range of prey types that are targeted in the wild, during both benthic and epipelagic foraging

The design of a learning environment based on the theory of multiple intelligence and the study its effectiveness on the achievements, attitudes and retention of students

AbstractMultiple intelligences theory (MIT) which takes into account students’ individual differences has an important role in the teaching and learning process. In this study a novel learning environment based on MIT which takes students’ interests and needs into an account has been developed. Many activities were carried out depending on students’ intelligence types. The effects of different activities on students’ achievements, attitudes toward chemistry and retention of knowledge in periodical features’ variety at the 10th class were measured and compared. The comparison between experimental group, which was instructed through MIT learning strategies and materials, and control group thought by traditional methods was observed. The research was applied in the first semester of 2009-2010 education years. The study carried out on 75 high school students in Izmir. The application of the study was lasted for 8 weeks containing methods and tests’ practices. Following MIT assessment survey, achievement test and attitude scales were used to analyze its effectiveness. Based on the theories and literature data, an instructional material included concept maps, puzzles, stories, classical music in background, group games, and photos about periodic features’ variety as an alternative to traditional written material. As a result of statistical analysis there were significant differences between achievement post-test and attitudes post-test towards chemistry course of control and experimental groups. Consequently, instructional methods needed to be varied so students could use their intellectual strengths to better understand topics, increase their intrinsic motivation, intervention and encourage active student engagement to improve learning at middle school level

Seismic air gun exposure during early-stage embryonic development does not negatively affect spiny lobster Jasus edwardsii larvae (Decapoda:Palinuridae)

Marine seismic surveys are used to explore for sub-seafloor oil and gas deposits. These surveys are conducted using air guns, which release compressed air to create intense sound impulses, which are repeated around every 8-12 seconds and can travel large distances in the water column. Considering the ubiquitous worldwide distribution of seismic surveys, the potential impact of exposure on marine invertebrates is poorly understood. In this study, egg-bearing female spiny lobsters (Jasus edwardsii) were exposed to signals from three air gun configurations, all of which exceeded sound exposure levels (SEL) of 185 dB re 1 µPa2·s. Lobsters were maintained until their eggs hatched and the larvae were then counted for fecundity, assessed for abnormal morphology using measurements of larval length and width, tested for larval competency using an established activity test and measured for energy content. Overall there were no differences in the quantity or quality of hatched larvae, indicating that the condition and development of spiny lobster embryos were not adversely affected by air gun exposure. These results suggest that embryonic spiny lobster are resilient to air gun signals and highlight the caution necessary in extrapolating results from the laboratory to real world scenarios or across life history stages

Hearing Loss in Stranded Odontocete Dolphins and Whales

The causes of dolphin and whale stranding can often be difficult to determine. Because toothed whales rely on echolocation for orientation and feeding, hearing deficits could lead to stranding. We report on the results of auditory evoked potential measurements from eight species of odontocete cetaceans that were found stranded or severely entangled in fishing gear during the period 2004 through 2009. Approximately 57% of the bottlenose dolphins and 36% of the rough-toothed dolphins had significant hearing deficits with a reduction in sensitivity equivalent to severe (70–90 dB) or profound (>90 dB) hearing loss in humans. The only stranded short-finned pilot whale examined had profound hearing loss. No impairments were detected in seven Risso's dolphins from three different stranding events, two pygmy killer whales, one Atlantic spotted dolphin, one spinner dolphin, or a juvenile Gervais' beaked whale. Hearing impairment could play a significant role in some cetacean stranding events, and the hearing of all cetaceans in rehabilitation should be tested

Auditory temporal resolution and evoked responses to pulsed sounds for the Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis)

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 197 (2011): 1149-1158, doi:10.1007/s00359-011-0677-y.Temporal cues are important for some forms of auditory processing, such as echolocation. Among odontocetes (toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises), it has been suggested that porpoises may have temporal processing abilities which differ from other odontocetes because of their relatively narrow auditory filters and longer duration echolocation signals. This study examined auditory temporal resolution in two Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis) using auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) to measure: (i) rate following responses and modulation rate transfer function for 100 kHz centered pulse sounds and (ii) hearing thresholds and response amplitudes generated by individual pulses of different durations. The animals followed pulses well at modulation rates up to 1250 Hz, after which response amplitudes declined until extinguished beyond 2500 Hz. The subjects had significantly better hearing thresholds for longer, narrower-band pulses similar to porpoise echolocation signals compared to brief, broadband sounds resembling dolphin clicks. Results indicate that the Yangtze finless porpoise follows individual acoustic signals at rates similar to other odontocetes tested. Relatively good sensitivity for longer duration, narrow-band signals suggests that finless porpoise hearing is well-suited to detect their unique echolocation signals.The work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, a WHOI Mellon Joint Initiatives Award , the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (grant No: 30730018) and the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences2012-09-1

ApoB siRNA-induced Liver Steatosis is Resistant to Clearance by the Loss of Fatty Acid Transport Protein 5 (Fatp5)

The association between hypercholesterolemia and elevated serum apolipoprotein B (APOB) has generated interest in APOB as a therapeutic target for patients at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. In the clinic, mipomersen, an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) APOB inhibitor, was associated with a trend toward increased hepatic triglycerides, and liver steatosis remains a concern. We found that siRNA-mediated knockdown of ApoB led to elevated hepatic triglycerides and liver steatosis in mice engineered to exhibit a human-like lipid profile. Many genes required for fatty acid synthesis were reduced, suggesting that the observed elevation in hepatic triglycerides is maintained by the cell through fatty acid uptake as opposed to fatty acid synthesis. Fatty acid transport protein 5 (Fatp5/Slc27a5) is required for long chain fatty acid (LCFA) uptake and bile acid reconjugation by the liver. Fatp5 knockout mice exhibited lower levels of hepatic triglycerides due to decreased fatty acid uptake, and shRNA-mediated knockdown of Fatp5 protected mice from diet-induced liver steatosis. Here, we evaluated if siRNA-mediated knockdown of Fatp5 was sufficient to alleviate ApoB knockdown-induced steatosis. We determined that, although Fatp5 siRNA treatment was sufficient to increase the proportion of unconjugated bile acids 100-fold, consistent with FATP5's role in bile acid reconjugation, Fatp5 knockdown failed to influence the degree, zonal distribution, or composition of the hepatic triglycerides that accumulated following ApoB siRNA treatment

Increased noise levels have different impacts on the anti-predator behaviour of two sympatric fish species.

types: Journal ArticleCopyright: © 2014 Voellmy et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Animals must avoid predation to survive and reproduce, and there is increasing evidence that man-made (anthropogenic) factors can influence predator-prey relationships. Anthropogenic noise has been shown to have a variety of effects on many species, but work investigating the impact on anti-predator behaviour is rare. In this laboratory study, we examined how additional noise (playback of field recordings of a ship passing through a harbour), compared with control conditions (playback of recordings from the same harbours without ship noise), affected responses to a visual predatory stimulus. We compared the anti-predator behaviour of two sympatric fish species, the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), which share similar feeding and predator ecologies, but differ in their body armour. Effects of additional-noise playbacks differed between species: sticklebacks responded significantly more quickly to the visual predatory stimulus during additional-noise playbacks than during control conditions, while minnows exhibited no significant change in their response latency. Our results suggest that elevated noise levels have the potential to affect anti-predator behaviour of different species in different ways. Future field-based experiments are needed to confirm whether this effect and the interspecific difference exist in relation to real-world noise sources, and to determine survival and population consequences.University of BristolBasler Stiftung für Biologische ForschungDefr

The Dichotomous Pattern of IL-12R and IL-23R Expression Elucidates the Role of IL-12 and IL-23 in Inflammation

IL-12 and IL-23 cytokines respectively drive Th1 and Th17 type responses. Yet, little is known regarding the biology of these receptors. As the IL-12 and IL-23 receptors share a common subunit, it has been assumed that these receptors are co-expressed. Surprisingly, we find that the expression of each of these receptors is restricted to specific cell types, in both mouse and human. Indeed, although IL-12Rβ2 is expressed by NK cells and a subset of γδ T cells, the expression of IL-23R is restricted to specific T cell subsets, a small number of B cells and innate lymphoid cells. By exploiting an IL-12- and IL-23-dependent mouse model of innate inflammation, we demonstrate an intricate interplay between IL-12Rβ2 NK cells and IL-23R innate lymphoid cells with respectively dominant roles in the regulation of systemic versus local inflammatory responses. Together, these findings support an unforeseen lineage-specific dichotomy in the in vivo role of both the IL-12 and IL-23 pathways in pathological inflammatory states, which may allow more accurate dissection of the roles of these receptors in chronic inflammatory diseases in humans

Divergent Pro-Inflammatory Profile of Human Dendritic Cells in Response to Commensal and Pathogenic Bacteria Associated with the Airway Microbiota

Recent studies using culture-independent methods have characterized the human airway microbiota and report microbial communities distinct from other body sites. Changes in these airway bacterial communities appear to be associated with inflammatory lung disease, yet the pro-inflammatory properties of individual bacterial species are unknown. In this study, we compared the immune stimulatory capacity on human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) of selected airway commensal and pathogenic bacteria predominantly associated with lungs of asthma or COPD patients (pathogenic Haemophillus spp. and Moraxella spp.), healthy lungs (commensal Prevotella spp.) or both (commensal Veillonella spp. and Actinomyces spp.). All bacteria were found to induce activation of DCs as demonstrated by similar induction of CD83, CD40 and CD86 surface expression. However, asthma and COPD-associated pathogenic bacteria provoked a 3–5 fold higher production of IL-23, IL-12p70 and IL-10 cytokines compared to the commensal bacteria. Based on the differential cytokine production profiles, the studied airway bacteria could be segregated into three groups (Haemophilus spp. and Moraxella spp. vs. Prevotella spp. and Veillonella spp. vs. Actinomyces spp.) reflecting their pro-inflammatory effects on DCs. Co-culture experiments found that Prevotella spp. were able to reduce Haemophillus influenzae-induced IL-12p70 in DCs, whereas no effect was observed on IL-23 and IL-10 production. This study demonstrates intrinsic differences in DC stimulating properties of bacteria associated with the airway microbiota

Type I IFN Promotes IL-10 Production from T Cells to Suppress Th17 Cells and Th17-Associated Autoimmune Inflammation

Whereas the immune system is essential for host defense against pathogen infection or endogenous danger signals, dysregulated innate and adaptive immune cells may facilitate harmful inflammatory or autoimmune responses. In the CNS, chronic inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Our previous study has demonstrated a critical role for the type I IFN induction and signaling pathways in constraining Th17-mediated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of human MS. However, it remains unknown if self-reactive Th17 cells can be reprogrammed to have less encephalitogenic activities or even have regulatory effects through modulation of innate pathways. In this study, we investigated the direct effects of type I IFN on Th17 cells. Our data show that IFNβ treatment of T cells cultured under Th17 polarizing conditions resulted in reduced production of IL-17, but increased production of IL-10. We also found that IFNβ induced IL-10 production by antigen specific T cells derived from immunized mice. Furthermore, IFNβ treatment could suppress the encephalitogenic activity of myelin-specific T cells, and ameliorate clinical symptoms of EAE in an adoptive transfer model. Together, results from this study suggest that IFNβ may induce antigen-specific T cells to produce IL-10, which in turn negatively regulate Th17-mediate inflammatory and autoimmune response