Optogenetics in primates: monkey see monkey look

Optogenetics has emerged as a powerful tool for studying the neural basis of simple behaviors in rodents and small animals. In the primate model, however, optogenetics has had limited utility because optical methods have not been able to drive behavior. Here, we report that monkeys reliably shift their gaze toward the receptive field of optically driven channelrhodopsin-2-expressing V1 neurons. This result establishes optogenetics as a viable means for the causal analysis of behavior in the primate model

An investigation into the concept of and factors leading to impact creep and its management

This study defines and explores the nature of impact creep within the context of two contrasting case studies. The methods applied in undertaking this study consisted of a literature review and development and distribution of questionnaires to visitors at Monkey Mia and an interview of managers at Monkey Mia and Tree Top Walk. The project considered impact creep relevant to both public and private facility developments. Impact creep can be defined as a temporal sequence of changes that lead to a site being more developed. These changes confer both negative and positive impacts. Each impact creep situation may be deemed unique according to different tourism situations and attractions. Both Tree Top Walk and Monkey Mia have a history of increasing visitation which has increased the potential for further impacts. Management has responded accordingly and the resultant actions have reduced negative environmental impacts through site hardening and associated developments. The resultant development in turn appears to have contributed to an increased attractiveness for a wider visitor profile. At both Monkey Mia and the Tree Top Walk increasing visitor numbers were not an immediate concern. Generally visitors to both sites are predominantly first time visitors on a multi-destination trip. Visitors to these sites are most likely to visit in family groups or with friends of two to four persons, aged in the 25 to 49 year age bracket. In both surveys there were a higher proportion of females to males. At Monkey Mia, the majority of respondents are from overseas and Western Australia with the lowest proportion from interstate. In contrast, at Tree Top Walk, the proportion of overseas, Western Australia and interstate visitors was fairly even. Respondents were most likely to travel to the respective regions in passenger vehicles and generally stay for short visits (less than a week). The main attraction for respondents was the natural area attraction, i.e. dolphins at Monkey Mia and the Tingle forest/Tree Top Walk at the Valley of the Giants. The Monkey Mia visitor survey was also used to determine if management actions of site hardening detract from the visitor experience and to determine how visitors feel about highly developed sites such as those that contain permanent accommodation facilities and infrastructure. The survey revealed that visitors generally prefer natural landscapes with limited facilities. However, the facilities provided were not seen as being detractive and had no influence on the quality of the visit. Moreover, facilities may be considered as a positive influence because of the convenience they offer. A major difference between the two case studies is that impact creep has occurred according to different policy directives. Tree Top Walk was developed under a management plan that had clear guidelines. Monkey Mia had no management plan and joint management with the Shire of Shark Bay. When accommodation facilities were developed at Monkey Mia, the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) recommendations were ignored in favour for economic returns and political pressure. A notable difference between the two sites, therefore, is that Tree Top Walk has no accommodation facility so the visitation period is short, while Monkey Mia has accommodation which means that limiting visitor use is problematic because as many as 600 people stay in the vicinity of the interaction area overnight. For Tree Top Walk a dispersal strategy in the form of a visitor centre may help to focus attention away from the main attraction during busy periods and during wait times if restrictions are operating due to heavy demand. Because of the potential for increased visitation, crowding, conflicts and reduced visitor satisfaction at Monkey Mia limitations on use may have to be applied. Previous work has shown that use/access restrictions, in the form of a reservation or permit system, may be the best approach

Results from the EPL monkey-pod experiment conducted as part of the 1974 NASA/Ames shuttle CVT-2

The participation of the Environmental Physiology Laboratory (EPL) in the general purpose laboratory concept verification test 3 is documented. The EPL Monkey-Pod Experiment was designed to incorporate a 10-12 kg, pig tailed monkey, Macaca nemestrina, into the pod and measure the physiological responses of the animal continuously. Four major elements comprise the EPL Monkey-Pod Experiment System: (1) a fiberglass pod containing the instrumented monkey plus feeder and watering devices, (2) an inner console containing the SKYLAB mass spectrometer with its associated valving and electronic controls, sensing, control and monitoring units for lower body negative pressure, feeder activity, waterer activity, temperatures, and gas metabolism calibration, (3) an umbilical complex comprising gas flow lines and electrical cabling between the inner and outer console and (4) an outer console in principle representing the experiment support to be provided from general spacecraft sources

A notion of graph likelihood and an infinite monkey theorem

We play with a graph-theoretic analogue of the folklore infinite monkey theorem. We define a notion of graph likelihood as the probability that a given graph is constructed by a monkey in a number of time steps equal to the number of vertices. We present an algorithm to compute this graph invariant and closed formulas for some infinite classes. We have to leave the computational complexity of the likelihood as an open problem.Comment: 6 pages, 1 EPS figur

Non-Measles Hemadsorption in a Cell Line Persistently Infected with Measles Virus (BGM/MV)

Adsorption of Rhesus monkey erythrocytes to the plasma membranes of measles virus infected cells is frequently carried out to detect the presence of plasma membrane-associated measles virus hemagglutinin. The hemagglutinin is a viral genome-coded structural glycoprotein of the measles virion that is associated with the plasma membrane of the host cell during measles virus replication. BGM/MV, anon-virogenic line of African green monkey kidney cells persistently-infected with measles virus, adsorbed Rhesus monkey erythrocytes in an inverse fashion relative to the number of cells present in the culture and the time post-seeding. Serological studies employing the hemadsorption-inhibition and membrane immunofluorescence assay procedures, suggested that this phenomenon was not mediated by the viral hemagglutinin. Assays for Simian virus-5 and mycoplasma, contaminating agents that induce erythrocyte adsorption, were negative. Incubation of BGM/MV cells at 33°C or with graded concentrations of fetal calf serum, to stimulate the metabolism of resting (Go) cells, suggested that adsorption was related to a phase(s) of the cell growth cycle other than Go₁, for adsorption was prolonged and stimulated in a dose-response fashion, respectively. Comparative adsorption studies employing the parent cell line (BGM), not infected with measles virus, were performed using various species of erythrocytes. While both cell lines adsorbed Rhesus monkey erythrocytes in an inverse fashion relative to cell density, differences were noted in the adsorption of some of the other species of erythrocytes. These data suggest that Rhesus monkey erythrocyte adsorption to BGM/MV cells was mediated by a receptor(s) of cellular origin

The Degenerate Monkey

The chapter discusses the following quotation from Charles Peirce: "One of these days, perhaps, there will come a writer of opinions less humdrum than those of Dr. (Alfred Russel) Wallace, and less in awe of the learned and official world...who will argue, like a new Bernard Mandeville, that man is but a degenerate monkey, with a paranoic talent for self-satisfaction, no matter what scrapes he may get himself into, calling them 'civilization,' and who, in place of the unerring instincts of other races, has an unhappy faculty for occupying himself with words and abstractions, and for going wrong in a hundred ways before he is driven, willy-nilly, into the right one. Dr. Wallace would condemn such an extravagant paradoxer." Charles Peirce, 190

The auditory discrimination behavior of monkeys - Bridge or barrier

Electrophysiological study of sound localization and auditory discrimination in monkey

Prey capture and meat-eating by the wild colobus monkey _Rhinopithecus bieti_ in Yunnan, China

If it is true that extant primates evolved from an insectivorous ancestor, then primate entomophagy would be a primitive trait. Many taxa, however, have undergone a dietary shift from entomophagy to phytophagy, evolving a specialised gut and dentition and becoming exclusive herbivores. The exclusively herbivorous taxa are the Malagasy families Indriidae and Lepilemuridae, and the Old World Monkey subfamily Colobinae, and among these meat-eating has not been observed except as an anomaly, with the sole exception of the Hanuman langur (_Semnopithecus entellus_), which feeds on insects seasonally, and a single observation of a nestling bird predated by wild Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (_Rhinopithecus roxellana_). Here, we describe the regular capture of warm-blooded animals and the eating of meat by a colobine, the critically endangered Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (_Rhinopithecus bieti_). This monkey engages in scavenge hunting as a male-biased activity that may, in fact, be related to group structure and spatial spread. In this context, meat-eating can be regarded as an energy/nutrient maximization feeding strategy rather than as a consequence of any special characteristic of meat itself. The finding of meat-eating in forest-dwelling primates might provide new insights into the evolution of dietary habits in early humans

A study to develop neutron activation for measuring bone calcium content

Neutron activation analysis for measuring calcium in monkey bone

Plaque formation and isolation of pure lines with poliomyelitis virus

Plaques have been produced with the three types of poliomyelitis viruses on monolayer tissue cultures of monkey kidney and monkey testis. The number of plaques was proportional to the concentration of the virus. Each plaque originates, therefore, from a single virus particle, defined as the virus unit that is unseparable by dilution. The plaques are due to the specific action of the virus since they are suppressed by type-specific antiserum. Pure virus lines were established by isolating the virus population produced in single plaques. These derived virus lines had the same morphological, serological, and pathogenic properties as the parent strain. High titer virus stocks, with titers up to 7 x 10^8 plaque-forming particles per ml., were obtained