Multi-modal imaging and analysis in the search for iron-based magnetoreceptors in the honeybee
            Apis mellifera

The honeybee Apis mellifera is one of many animal species for which empirical evidence of a magnetic sense has been provided. The underlying mechanisms postulated for magnetoreception in bees are varied, but most point towards the abdomen as the most likely anatomical region for its location, partly owing to the large accumulation of iron in trophocyte cells that comprise the honeybee fat body. Using a multi-modal imaging and analysis approach, we have investigated iron in the honeybee, with a particular focus on the abdomen and the utility of such techniques as applied to magnetoreception. Abdominal iron is shown to accumulate rapidly, reaching near maximum levels only 5 days after emerging from the comb and is associated with the accumulation of iron within the fat body. While fat body iron could be visualized, no regions of interest, other than perhaps the fat body itself, were identified as potential sites for magnetoreceptive cells. If an iron-based magnetoreceptor exists within the honeybee abdomen the large accumulation of iron in the fat body is likely to impede its discovery.

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Effect of yeast and essential oil-enriched diets on critical determinants of health and immune function in Africanized Apis mellifera

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.12164 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. e12164

Author(s):

César Canché-Collí ◽

Humberto Estrella-Maldonado ◽

Luis A. Medina-Medina ◽

Humberto Moo-Valle ◽

Luz Maria Calvo-Irabien ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Food Intake ◽

Essential Oils ◽

Immune Function ◽

Honey Bees ◽

Fat Body ◽

Control Diet ◽

Starmerella Bombicola ◽

Expression Of Genes ◽

Brewers Yeast

Nutrition is vital for health and immune function in honey bees (Apis mellifera). The effect of diets enriched with bee-associated yeasts and essential oils of Mexican oregano (Lippia graveolens) was tested on survival, food intake, accumulated fat body tissue, and gene expression of vitellogenin (Vg), prophenoloxidase (proPO) and glucose oxidase (GOx) in newly emerged worker bees. The enriched diets were provided to bees under the premise that supplementation with yeasts or essential oils can enhance health variables and the expression of genes related to immune function in worker bees. Based on a standard pollen substitute, used as a control diet, enriched diets were formulated, five with added bee-associated yeasts (Starmerella bombicola, Starmerella etchellsii, Starmerella bombicola 2, Zygosaccharomyces mellis, and the brewers’ yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and three with added essential oils from L. graveolens (carvacrol, thymol, and sesquiterpenes). Groups of bees were fed one of the diets for 9 or 12 days. Survival probability was similar in the yeast and essential oils treatments in relation to the control, but median survival was lower in the carvacrol and sesquiterpenes treatments. Food intake was higher in all the yeast treatments than in the control. Fat body percentage in individual bees was slightly lower in all treatments than in the control, with significant decreases in the thymol and carvacrol treatments. Expression of the genes Vg, proPO, and GOx was minimally affected by the yeast treatments but was adversely affected by the carvacrol and thymol treatments.

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Exploring an adaptability approach: how creative return processors impact firm performance

The International Journal of Logistics Management ◽

10.1108/ijlm-10-2019-0293 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer A. Espinosa ◽

James Stock ◽

David J. Ortinau ◽

Lisa Monahan

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Complex Adaptive Systems ◽

Adaptive Systems ◽

Online Survey ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

Product Returns ◽

Content Type ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Returns Management ◽

The Relationship

PurposeThe authors explore complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory as an updated theoretical perspective for managing product returns that better matches the chaotic nature of recent consumer behaviors. CAS theory highlights the importance of agents who create and self-organize to help systems adapt in unpredictable environments.Design/methodology/approachThis research utilizes data collected from return managers in an online survey and applies regression analyses to estimate the influence of the focal variables.FindingsEmpirical evidence of the firm flexibility–firm adaptability link is established, and return processor creativity positively relates to this link. The firm flexibility–firm adaptability link fully mediates the relationship between return processor creativity and returns management performance and partially mediates the relationship between return processor creativity and relationship quality. Nonmediated effects were observed for turnover and revenue size.Practical implicationsManagers of returns who embrace an adaptability approach become facilitators of returns by supporting processor creativity. Enhancing the autonomy of processors in their day-to-day work increases the knowledge-creation capabilities of the firm, which helps the firm move forward and adapt in an uncertain environment.Originality/valueThis research presents empirical evidence of the underlying mechanisms of CAS theory in the product returns context by studying processor agents and argues that CAS theory better fits the current dynamics of the product returns environment. Further, this paper extends work by Espinosa et al. (2019) and Nilsson (2019) by studying how a specific human characteristic – creativity – impacts product returns management.

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Winter honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations show greater potential to induce immune response than summer ones after immune stimuli

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.232595 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. jeb.232595

Author(s):

Silvie Dostálková ◽

Pavel Dobeš ◽

Martin Kunc ◽

Jana Hurychová ◽

Mária Škrabišová ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Immune Response ◽

Apis Mellifera ◽

Fat Body ◽

Immune Systems ◽

Colony Fitness ◽

Middle Europe ◽

Immune Challenges ◽

The Difference ◽

Vitellogenin Gene

In the temperate climates of middle Europe and North America, two distinct honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations are found in colonies: short-living summer bees emerge in spring and survive until summer, whereas long-living winter bees emerge in late August and overwinter. Besides the difference in their life spans, each of these populations fulfills a different role in the colonies and individual bees have distinct physiological and immunological adaptations depending on their roles. For instance, winter worker bees have higher vitellogenin levels and larger reserves of nutrients in the fat body than summer bees. The differences between the immune systems of both populations are well described at the constitutive level; however, our knowledge of its inducibility is still very limited. In this study, we focus on the response of 10-day-old honeybee workers to immune challenges triggered in vivo by injecting heat-killed bacteria, with particular focus on honeybees that emerge and live under hive conditions. Responses to bacterial injections differed between summer and winter bees. The latter induced more intense response, including higher expression of antimicrobial genes and antimicrobial activity, as well as a significant decrease in vitellogenin gene expression and its concentration in the hemolymph. The intense immune response observed in winter honeybees may contribute to our understanding of the relationships between colony fitness and infection with pathogens, as well as its association with successful overwintering.

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Treating the binge or the (fat) body? Representations of fatness in a gold standard psychological treatment manual for binge eating disorder

Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine ◽

10.1177/1363459316674788 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 21-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Amy Brown-Bowers ◽

Ashley Ward ◽

Nicole Cormier

Keyword(s):

Weight Loss ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Binge Eating ◽

Binge Eating Disorder ◽

Gold Standard ◽

Fat Body ◽

Psychological Treatment ◽

Treatment Manual ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

The Individual

This article reports the results of a Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis exploring representations of fatness embedded within an empirically based psychological treatment manual for binge eating disorder, a condition characterized by overvaluation of weight and shape. Analyses indicate that the manual prioritizes weight loss with relatively less emphasis placed on treating the diagnostic symptoms and underlying mechanisms of binge eating disorder. We raise critical concerns about these observations and link our findings to mainstream psychology’s adoption of the medical framing of fatness as obesity within the “gold standard” approach to intervention. We recommend that psychology as a discipline abandons the weight loss imperative associated with binge eating disorder and fat bodies. We recommend that practitioners locate the problem of fat shame in society as opposed to the individual person’s body and provide individuals with tools to identify and resist fat stigma and oppression, rather than provide them with tools to reshape their bodies.

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Sir2 is essential for intergenerational effects of parental diet on offspring metabolism in Drosophila

10.1101/641076 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Ryoya Hayashi ◽

Satomi Takeo ◽

Toshiro Aigaki

Keyword(s):

Fat Body ◽

Tca Cycle ◽

Primary Energy ◽

Standard Diet ◽

Wild Type ◽

Intergenerational Effects ◽

Transgenic Expression ◽

Fat Bodies ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

High Level

AbstractRecent studies have revealed that parental diet can affect offspring metabolism and longevity in Drosophila. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. Here we demonstrate that Sir2 encoding an NAD+-dependent histone deacetylase is required for the intergenerational effects of low nutrition diet (1:5 dilution of standard diet). We observed an increased amount of triacylglyceride (TAG) in the offspring when fathers were maintained on a low nutrition diet for 2 days. The offspring had increased levels of metabolites of glycolysis and TCA cycle, the primary energy producing pathways. We found that Sir2 mutant fathers showed no intergenerational effects. RNAi-mediated knockdown of Sir2 in the fat body was sufficient to mimic the Sir2 mutant phenotype, and the phenotype was rescued by transgenic expression of wild-type Sir2 in the fat body. Interestingly, even fathers had no experience of low nutrition diet, overexpression of Sir2 in their fat bodies induced a high level of TAG in the offspring. These findings indicated that Sir2 is essential in the fat body of fathers to induce intergenerational effects of low nutrition diet.

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Diversity of Coronavirus Receptors

10.20944/preprints202108.0071.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pritha Ghosh ◽

Savita Jayaram ◽

Dhruti Patwardhan ◽

Saranya Marimuthu ◽

Patrick Lenehan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Animal Species ◽

Protein S ◽

Human Infection ◽

Spike Protein ◽

Receptor Binding Domain ◽

Infection Cycle ◽

Wide Range ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Phylogenetic Lineages ◽

Host Cell Membranes

Several recent surges in COVID-19 cases due to newly emerging variant strains of SARS-CoV-2 with greater transmissibility have highlighted the virus’s capability to directly modulate spike-ACE2 interactions and promote immune evasion by sterically masking the immunogenic epitopes. Recently, there have also been reports of the bidirectional transfer of coronavirus between different animal species and humans. The ability of coronavirus to infect and adapt to a wide range of hosts can be attributed to new variants that modify the molecular recognition profile of the spike protein (S protein). The receptor-binding domain of the spike protein specifically interacts with key host receptor molecules present on the host cell membranes to gain entry into the host and begin the infection cycle. In this review, we discuss the molecular, structural, and functional diversity associated with the coronavirus receptors across their different phylogenetic lineages and its relevance to various symptomatology in the rapid human-to-human infection in COVID-19 patients, tropism, and zoonosis. Despite this seeming diversity of host receptors, there may be some common underlying mechanisms that influence the host range, virus transmissibility, and pathogenicity. Understanding these mechanisms may be crucial in not only controlling the ongoing pandemic but also help in stopping the resurgence of such virus threats in the future.

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Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641994 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Lorenzi ◽

Matilde Perrino ◽

Giorgio Vallortigara

Keyword(s):

Neural Networks ◽

Nervous System ◽

Artificial Neural Networks ◽

Sensory Input ◽

Animal Species ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Number Cognition ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Taxonomic Groups ◽

Basic Similarity

The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. We do not know, however, to what extent similarity in behavioral data corresponds to basic similarity in underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we review evidence for magnitude representation, both discrete (countable) and continuous, following the sensory input path from primary sensory systems to associative pallial territories in the vertebrate brains. We also speculate on possible underlying mechanisms in invertebrate brains and on the role played by modeling with artificial neural networks. This may provide a general overview on the nervous system involvement in approximating quantity in different animal species, and a general theoretical framework to future comparative studies on the neurobiology of number cognition.

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