The crossed mesostriatal pathway and circling behaviour in rats

Bibliography: pages 326-345.Rats with unilateral 6-OHDA lesions of the nigrostriatal (NS) projection display motor asymmetry in the form of rotational behaviour. The rotation is in the direction ipsilateral with respect to the lesioned side (Ungerstedt 1979). The nett ipsilateral rotations decrease with time, from 1 week to about a month. This decrease has been interpreted as recovery from the lesion-induced motor asymmetry (Glick and Cox 1978). Pritzel et al. (1983) have ascribed the recovery from motor asymmetry to increased activity of a crossed NS projection, which is spared by the ipsilateral lesion. The present study has defined the size and anatomical path of this crossed projection, and has examined its involvement in the behavioural recovery of rats from lesion-induced motor asymmetry. The anatomy of the crossed projection was investigated in male Long-Evans rats using retrograde HRP tract tracing from deposition sites in the striatum

Drowning in data, thirsty for information and starved for understanding: A biodiversity information hub for cooperative environmental monitoring in South Africa

The world is firmly cemented in a notitian age (Latin: notitia, meaning data) – drowning in data, yet thirsty for information and the synthesis of knowledge into understanding. As concerns over biodiversity declines escalate, the volume, diversity and speed at which new environmental and ecological data are generated has increased exponentially. Data availability primes the research and discovery engine driving biodiversity conservation. South Africa (SA) is poised to become a world leader in biodiversity conservation. However, continent-wide resource limitations hamper the establishment of inclusive technologies and robust platforms and tools for biodiversity informatics. In this perspectives piece, we bring together the opinions of 37 co-authors from 20 different departments, across 10 SA universities, 7 national and provincial conservation research agencies, and various institutes and private conservation, research and management bodies, to develop a way forward for biodiversity informatics in SA. We propose the development of a SA Biodiversity Informatics Hub and describe the essential components necessary for its design, implementation and sustainability. We emphasise the importance of developing a culture of cooperation, collaboration and interoperability among custodians of biodiversity data to establish operational workflows for data synthesis. However, our biggest challenges are misgivings around data sharing and multidisciplinary collaboration

Drowning in data, thirsty for information and starved for understanding : a biodiversity information hub for cooperative environmental monitoring in South Africa

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL : TABLE S1: List of all biodiversity data stakeholders in SA, collated to encourage collaborative partnerships that can leverage combined expertise and datasets. TABLE S2: List of online biodiversity databases highlighting the magnitude of the challenge behind heterogeneous data integration. TABLE S3: Challenges (red) and opportunities (green) for biodiversity informatics in South Africa illustrated in Figure 1.DATA AVAILABILITY : No data was used for the research described in the article.The world is firmly cemented in a notitian age (Latin: notitia, meaning data) – drowning in data, yet thirsty for information and the synthesis of knowledge into understanding. As concerns over biodiversity declines escalate, the volume, diversity and speed at which new environmental and ecological data are generated has increased exponentially. Data availability primes the research and discovery engine driving biodiversity conservation. South Africa (SA) is poised to become a world leader in biodiversity conservation. However, continent-wide resource limitations hamper the establishment of inclusive technologies and robust platforms and tools for biodiversity informatics. In this perspectives piece, we bring together the opinions of 37 co-authors from 20 different departments, across 10 SA universities, 7 national and provincial conservation research agencies, and various institutes and private conservation, research and management bodies, to develop a way forward for biodiversity informatics in SA. We propose the development of a SA Biodiversity Informatics Hub and describe the essential components necessary for its design, implementation and sustainability. We emphasise the importance of developing a culture of cooperation, collaboration and interoperability among custodians of biodiversity data to establish operational workflows for data synthesis. However, our biggest challenges are misgivings around data sharing and multidisciplinary collaboration. We recommend a system that is free, user friendly, functional, stable, integrative and designed to cater for different data access agreement levels. Sharing data through this pipeline will directly advance the science and practice of conservation, giving multiple stakeholders and decision-makers access to valuable biodiversity data to support research and biodiversity conservation.The National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) and the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS) research programme: Advancing Biodiversity Informatics and Ecological Modelling.https://www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon2023-09-28hj2023Zoology and Entomolog