ASSISIbf: A new pathway to examine collective behaviours in honeybees

Dissertação de mestrado em Biologia Celular e Molecular, apresentada ao Departamento de Ciências da Vida da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra.Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a degenerative disease representing one of the greatest concerns to modern global health, and worryingly with its incidence increasing worldwide at epidemic rates. DM is associated with the emergence of a variety of clinical complications, including reproductive dysfunction. Given the extension and multifactorial nature of diabetes-induced physiological changes, it remains unclear what are the mechanisms that may contribute for the reproductive dysfunction described in male diabetic patients. Considering that hyperglycemia has been described as a major effector of the disease pathophysiology, two different in vitro approaches were used to address the isolated effect of high glucose conditions on sperm function and spermatogenesis, thus avoiding other in vivo confounding players. A complete and integrated analysis, through a diversity of important indicators of spermatozoa functionality (motility, viability, capacitation status, acrosomal integrity, mitochondrial superoxide production and mitochondrial membrane potential) suggests that high glucose concentrations does not seem to directly affect spermatozoa, at least in vitro. Organ culture experiments, mimicking the spermatogenic process, determined that high glucose levels increase Sertoli cell number while decreasing tubular luminal area, therefore suggesting an impairment of this somatic cell type with hub importance in spermatogenic control. Taken together, this study suggests that high glucose levels per se seems to influence the male reproductive system only at the spermatogenesis level, stressing the importance of other factors involved in the disease.A Diabetes mellitus (DM) é uma doença degenerativa cuja incidência está a aumentar de forma galopante, sendo actualmente considerada um grave problema de saúde pública. A DM está ainda associada ao surgimento de uma grande variedade de complicações clínicas afectando todos os sistemas de órgãos, não sendo o sistema reprodutor masculino uma excepção. Dada a extensão e natureza multifatorial das alterações fisiológicas induzidas pela DM, permanecem ainda por esclarecer quais os mecanismos responsáveis pela disfunção reprodutora frequentemente reportada em pacientes diabéticos do sexo masculino, incluindo alterações na espermatogénese ou em vários parâmetros seminais. Considerando que a hiperglicémia tem sido descrita como um dos principais efectores das alterações associadas à DM, no presente projecto, foi estudado, através de duas abordagens in vitro distintas, o efeito isolado da hiperglicémia na função espermática e na progressão do processo espermatogénico. Estes sistemas permitiram assim excluir outros factores envolvidos na doença. Uma análise completa e integrada, realizada através da avaliação de uma grande diversidade de importantes indicadores da funcionalidade espermática (mobilidade, viabilidade, estado de capacitação, integridade acrossomal, produção de superóxido mitocondrial e potencial membranar mitocondrial) sugere que, pelo menos in vitro, elevadas concentrações de glucose não afectam directamente o espermatozóide. Os resultados obtidos com um sistema de cultura de órgãos permitiram verificar que elevados níveis de glucose levaram a um aumento do número de células de Sertoli e a uma diminuição da área luminal tubular. Estes resultados sugerem, portanto, uma disfunção neste tipo de células somáticas essenciais para o controlo da espermatogénese. Através deste estudo foi possível verificar e sugerir que a disfunção reprodutora de pacientes do sexo masculino parece não resultar apenas da influência da glucose, apesar de terem sido detectadas alterações ao nível da espermatogénese, sublinhando a importância da natureza multifactorial da doença

Lifeforms potentially useful for automated underwater monitoring systems

Biohybrids combine artificial robotic elements with living organisms. These novel technologies allow for obtaining useful data on the environment by implementing organisms as “living sensors”. Natural water resources are under serious ecological threat and there is always a need for new, more efficient methods for aquatic monitoring. Project Robocoenosis introduces the use of biohybrid entities as low-cost and long-term environmental monitoring devices. This will be done by combining lifeforms with technical parts which will be powered with the use of MFCs. This concept will allow for a more well-rounded data collection and provide an insight into the water body with minimal human impact

Multispecies Communities

Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter, Dr. Pablo Abend und Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beil sind Herausgeber der Reihe. Die Herausgeber*innen der einzelnen Hefte sind renommierte Wissenschaftler*innen aus dem In- und Ausland."Multispecies Communities" sind nicht mehr alleine auf den Menschen fixiert und bringen andere Akteure ins Spiel. Damit ergeben sich neue Formen der Kommunikationen und Kollaborationen, der Verantwortlichkeiten und der Rücksichtnahmen (awareness), der Vergemeinschaftungen und der Teilhaben: Diese finden statt zwischen Menschen und Tieren, Pflanzen und Algorithmen, Artefakten und Biofakten, Maschinen und Medien; zwischen den Sphären von belebt und unbelebt, real und virtuell, unberührt und augmentiert. Der Umgang mit Technik ist längst kein menschliches Privileg mehr, wie die Ausdifferenzierungen von Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) oder Plant-Computer Interaction (PCI) verdeutlichen. Diese Ausdifferenzierungen finden ihren Niederschlag ebenso in den verschiedenen Disziplinen der Wissenschaft und in der Kunst sowie in gesellschaftlichen, sozialen, ethischen und politischen Aushandlungen des gemeinsamen Miteinanders. In dieser Ausgabe sind für diesen Diskussionszusammenhang relevante programmatische Texte versammelt und erstmals für den deutschsprachigen Raum zugänglich gemacht."Multispecies communities" are no longer focused on humans alone and bring other actors into play. This results in new forms of communication and collaboration, of responsibilities and awareness, of communalisation and participation: These take place between humans and animals, plants and algorithms, artefacts and biofacts, machines and media; between the spheres of animate and inanimate, real and virtual, untouched and augmented. Dealing with technology is no longer a human privilege, as the differentiations from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) into Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) or Plant-Computer Interaction (PCI) exemplify. These differentiations are also reflected in the various disciplines of science and art as well as in societal, social, ethical and political negotiations of shared interaction. In this issue, relevant programmatic texts have been collected for this discussion context and made available for the first time for the German-speaking area

Daphnia’s phototaxis as an indicator in ecotoxicological studies: A review

Animal-based sensors have been increasingly applied to many water monitoring systems and ecological studies. One of the staple organisms used as living sensors for such systems is Daphnia. This organism has been extensively studied and, with time, used in many toxicological and pharmaceutical bioassays, often used for exploring the ecology of freshwater communities. One of its behaviours used for evaluating the state of the aquatic environment is phototaxis. A disruption in the predicted behaviour is interpreted as a sign of stress and forms the basis for further investigation. However, phototaxis is a result of complex processes counteracting and interacting with each other. Predator presence, food quality, body pigmentation and other factors can greatly affect the predicted phototactic response, hampering its reliability as a bioindicator. Therefore, a holistic approach and meticulous documentation of the methods are needed for the correct interpretation of this behavioural indicator. In this review, we present the current methods used for studying phototaxis, the factors affecting it and proposed ways to optimise the reliability of the results

How Two Cooperating Robot Swarms Are Affected by Two Conflictive Aggregation Spots

Abstract. Previous studies showed that two swarms of autonomous robots pursuing two conflicting goals can cooperate efficiently, especially at small swarm sizes. In this study we investigate how the spatial separation of the two conflictive aggregation spots affect the cooperation behaviour. The swarms are controlled by the BEECLUST algorithm, which is a robot control algorithm inspired by honeybee behaviour. We found that the spatial separation of the optima does not affect the aggregation efficiency of swarm sizes of 9 individuals or more. In contrast smaller cooperating swarms take advantage in their aggregation efficiency. Heterogeneous swarms are a big challenge in swarm robotics. When several tasks have to be achieved in parallel, swarms have to split up in taskrelated sub-swarms. Then efficiency enhancement by cooperation and the exploitation of side effects are a successful recipe for developing swarm intelligent algorithms.