scholarly journals Adaptive evolution of honeybee dance dialects

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1922) ◽  
pp. 20200190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick L. Kohl ◽  
Neethu Thulasi ◽  
Benjamin Rutschmann ◽  
Ebi A. George ◽  
Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Information ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Apis Cerana ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Symbolic Language ◽  
Foraging Range ◽  
Interspecific Differences ◽  
Evolutionary Success

Efficient communication is highly important for the evolutionary success of social animals. Honeybees (genus Apis ) are unique in that they communicate the spatial information of resources using a symbolic ‘language’, the waggle dance. Different honeybee species differ in foraging ecology but it remains unknown whether this shaped variation in the dance. We studied distance dialects—interspecific differences in how waggle duration relates to flight distance—and tested the hypothesis that these evolved to maximize communication precision over the bees' foraging ranges. We performed feeder experiments with Apis cerana , A. florea and A. dorsata in India and found that A. cerana had the steepest dialect, i.e. a rapid increase in waggle duration with increasing feeder distance, A. florea had an intermediate, and A. dorsata had the lowest dialect. By decoding dances for natural food sites, we inferred that the foraging range was smallest in A. cerana , intermediate in A. florea and largest in A. dorsata . The inverse correlation between foraging range and dialect was corroborated when comparing six (sub)species across the geographical range of the genus including previously published data. We conclude that dance dialects constitute adaptations resulting from a trade-off between the spatial range and the spatial accuracy of communication.

scholarly journals Emerging Evidences for an Implication of the Neurodegeneration-Associated Protein TAU in Cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 862
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Papin ◽  
Paolo Paganetti
Keyword(s):  
Neurodegenerative Disorders ◽  
Neurodegenerative Disorder ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Epidemiologic Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Cancer Resistance ◽  
Microtubule Network ◽  
Mapt Gene

Neurodegenerative disorders and cancer may appear unrelated illnesses. Yet, epidemiologic studies indicate an inverse correlation between their respective incidences for specific cancers. Possibly explaining these findings, increasing evidence indicates that common molecular pathways are involved, often in opposite manner, in the pathogenesis of both disease families. Genetic mutations in the MAPT gene encoding for TAU protein cause an inherited form of frontotemporal dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder, but also increase the risk of developing cancer. Assigning TAU at the interface between cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, two major aging-linked disease families, offers a possible clue for the epidemiological observation inversely correlating these human illnesses. In addition, the expression level of TAU is recognized as a prognostic marker for cancer, as well as a modifier of cancer resistance to chemotherapy. Because of its microtubule-binding properties, TAU may interfere with the mechanism of action of taxanes, a class of chemotherapeutic drugs designed to stabilize the microtubule network and impair cell division. Indeed, a low TAU expression is associated to a better response to taxanes. Although TAU main binding partners are microtubules, TAU is able to relocate to subcellular sites devoid of microtubules and is also able to bind to cancer-linked proteins, suggesting a role of TAU in modulating microtubule-independent cellular pathways associated to oncogenesis. This concept is strengthened by experimental evidence linking TAU to P53 signaling, DNA stability and protection, processes that protect against cancer. This review aims at collecting literature data supporting the association between TAU and cancer. We will first summarize the evidence linking neurodegenerative disorders and cancer, then published data supporting a role of TAU as a modifier of the efficacy of chemotherapies and of the oncogenic process. We will finish by addressing from a mechanistic point of view the role of TAU in de-regulating critical cancer pathways, including the interaction of TAU with cancer-associated proteins.

scholarly journals Arthropod Resource Partitioning Among Omnivorous Tanagers (Tangara SPP.) in Western Ecuador

The Auk ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuya Naoki
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Interspecific Differences ◽  
Fruit Species ◽  
Mixed Species Flocks ◽  
Different Characteristics

Abstract The distribution and abundance of food are primary factors affecting resource-use patterns in birds. Many bird species eat several food types, which may differ in their distribution and overall abundance. I studied foraging ecology of seven sympatric species of Tangara at Mindo, Ecuador, to determine whether the patterns of resource use differed between two food types: arthropods and fruits. Interspecific differences in arthropod-foraging were manifested in the fine segregation of microhabitat preference combined with different habitat use. By contrast, interspecific differences in fruit-foraging were manifested in preferences for different plant genera, often associated with different habitats. No evidence was found for spatial partitioning of the same fruit species. Interspecific overlap in fruit-for- aging was 3× higher than that in arthropod-foraging, and species of Tangara that frequently joined the same mixed-species flocks differed largely in arthropod-foraging but overlapped greatly in fruit-foraging. The differences in patterns between arthropod and fruit-foraging may be explained by the different characteristics of arthropods and fruits as food resources. High sympatry of species of Tangara and other omnivorous tanagers, in general, appears to be maintained not because fruits are abundant, resulting in little competition for them, but because these tanagers specialize on different microhabitats for foraging arthropods. Segregación de Artrópodos como Recurso Alimenticio de Tangaras Omnívoras (Tangara spp.) en el Oeste de Ecuador

scholarly journals Spatial Differences in the Chemical Composition of Surface Water in the Hornsund Fjord Area: A Statistical Analysis with A Focus on Local Pollution Sources

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 496
Author(s):  
Krystyna Koziol ◽  
Marek Ruman ◽  
Filip Pawlak ◽  
Stanisław Chmiel ◽  
Żaneta Polkowska
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Pollution Transport ◽  
Local Pollution ◽  
Water Composition ◽  
Spatial Differences

Surface catchments in Svalbard are sensitive to external pollution, and yet what is frequently considered external contamination may originate from local sources and natural processes. In this work, we analyze the chemical composition of surface waters in the catchments surrounding the Polish Polar Station in Svalbard, Hornsund fjord area. We have pooled unpublished and already published data describing surface water composition in 2010, related to its pH, electrical conductivity (EC), metals and metalloids, total organic carbon (TOC) and selected organic compound concentrations, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and surfactants. These data were statistically analyzed for spatial differences, using Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA and principal component analysis (PCA), with distance from the station in the PCA approximating local human activity impact. The geological composition of the substratum was found to be a strong determinant of metal and metalloid concentrations, sufficient to explain significant differences between the studied water bodies, except for the concentration of Cr. The past and present human activity in the area may have contributed also to some of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), although only in the case of naphthalene can such an effect be confirmed by an inverse correlation with distance from the station. Other likely factors contributing to the chemical concentrations in the local waters are marine influence, long-range pollution transport and release from past deposition in the environment.

Spatial memory and navigation by honeybees on the scale of the foraging range

1996 ◽  
Vol 199 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Dyer
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Relationships ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Feeding Sites ◽  
Environmental Features ◽  
Foraging Range

Honeybees and other nesting animals face the problem of finding their way between their nest and distant feeding sites. Many studies have shown that insects can learn foraging routes in reference to both landmarks and celestial cues, but it is a major puzzle how spatial information obtained from these environmental features is encoded in memory. This paper reviews recent progress by my colleagues and me towards understanding three specific aspects of this problem in honeybees: (1) how bees learn the spatial relationships among widely separated locations in a familiar terrain; (2) how bees learn the pattern of movement of the sun over the day; and (3) whether, and if so how, bees learn the relationships between celestial cues and landmarks.

scholarly journals Adaptive Multi-Scale Feature Fusion Based Residual U-net for Fracture Segmentation in Coal Rock Images

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengli Lu ◽  
Chengcai Fu ◽  
Guoying Zhang ◽  
Jie Shi
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Information ◽  
Feature Fusion ◽  
Ct Images ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Rock Fractures ◽  
Feature Maps ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Scale Feature ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Coal Rock

Abstract Accurate segmentation of fractures in coal rock CT images is important for safe production and the development of coalbed methane. However, the coal rock fractures formed through natural geological evolution, which are complex, low contrast and different scales. Furthermore, there is no published data set of coal rock. In this paper, we proposed adaptive multi-scale feature fusion based residual U-uet (AMSFFR-U-uet) for fracture segmentation in coal rock CT images. The dilated residual blocks (DResBlock) with dilated ratio (1,2,3) are embedded into encoding branch of the U-uet structure, which can improve the ability of extract feature of network and capture different scales fractures. Furthermore, feature maps of different sizes in the encoding branch are concatenated by adaptive multi-scale feature fusion (AMSFF) module. And AMSFF can not only capture different scales fractures but also improve the restoration of spatial information. To alleviate the lack of coal rock fractures training data, we applied a set of comprehensive data augmentation operations to increase the diversity of training samples. Our network, U-net and Res-U-net are tested on our test set of coal rock CT images with five different region coal rock samples. The experimental results show that our proposed approach improve the average Dice coefficient by 2.9%, the average precision by 7.2% and the average Recall by 9.1% , respectively. Therefore, AMSFFR-U-net can achieve better segmentation results of coal rock fractures, and has stronger generalization ability and robustness.

An Estimate of Energy Expenditure by Rainbow Trout (Salmo gairdneri) in a Small Mountain Stream

1973 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1755-1759 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Robert Feldmeth ◽  
Thomas M. Jenkins Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Rainbow Trout ◽  
Energy Expenditure ◽  
Beat Frequency ◽  
Live Weight ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Salmo Gairdneri ◽  
Mountain Stream ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Natural Stream

A method is presented which estimates energy expended by rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) in a natural stream habitat. Swimming speeds were determined by counting caudal fin beat frequency in the field. Published data on metabolic rates estimated in a water tunnel respirometer were then used to calculate energy expenditure.Swimming speeds and hence energy expenditure did not vary statistically for time of day or night (overall means: swimming speed, 16.1 cm/sec; energy expenditure, 736.5 cal/kg per hour). Our calculations indicate that swimming at 16 cm/sec would cost a 100-g rainbow trout 53 cal/hr at 15 C, and about 0.48 g (live weight) of natural food per 6 hr would be needed to offset the cost of swimming.

572 NUTRITIONAL PATTERNS MAY AFFECT ESOPHAGEAL ACID EXPOSURE, AND THE NUMBER AND TYPE OF GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUXES

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Morozov ◽  
V Kropochev ◽  
V Isakov
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Fibre ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Weak Acid ◽  
Esophageal Acid Exposure ◽  
Acid Exposure ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Esophageal Function ◽  
Energy Value ◽  
Food Structure

Abstract   The role of nutritional patterns on esophageal function testing parameters is not widely studied. Earlier published data focused on symptoms of GERD and their association with the food structure. Aim of the study was to assess the influence of nutritional patterns on esophageal acid exposure and types and number of gastroesophageal refluxes Methods The data of complete examination of 165 participants served as a source data for the study. Diagnosis of GERD was based on clinical data (heartburn and acid regurgitation at least once a week for not less than 6 month, actual during last 3 month, history of effective PPI treatment), GERD-Q questionnaire (≥8 points), endoscopic evaluation (Excera II, Olympus, Japan) and 24-hours esophageal pH-impedance studies (Ohmega, MMS, the Netherlands; 2 pH, 6 impedance catheters, UnisensorAG, USA). Food frequency questionnaire was used to analyse food structure. StatSoft (USA) software was used for correlation analysis. The work has been performed within RSF 19–76-30014. Results We enrolled 124 GERD patients and 41 controls. Significant (P < 0.05) correlation of AET was with energy value of the ration (Spearman rank R = 0.19), amount of fat (R = 0.2). Significant correlation of number of GERs was with energy values (R = 0.35), protein (R = 0.3), fat (R = 0.33), alcohol (R = 0.28) and dietary fibre (R = -0.22) consumption. Number of acid GERs correlated with calorie (R = 0.35), fat (R = 0.32), protein (R = 0.25), carbohydrates (R = 0.24) and alcohol (R = 0.24) consumption. Number of weak-acid GERs correlated with calories (R = 0.22), fat (R = 0.21), protein (R = 0.22), alcohol (R = 0.23) and dietary fibre (R = -0.24) consumption. High GERs correlated with fat (R = 0.3), protein (R = 0.22), alcohol (R = 0.25) and fibre (R = -0.25). Conclusion High energy value, consumption of fat and alcohol showed direct medium-strength correlation with esophageal acid exposure and the total number gastroesophageal refluxes. The total number of gastroesophageal refluxes, number of weak acid and high gastroesophageal refluxes had inverse correlation with the amount of dietary fibre consumed. Found trends are used to establish nutritional patterns for reflux events in GERD patients.

scholarly journals Exposure to Mycotoxin-Mixtures via Breast Milk: An Ultra-Sensitive LC-MS/MS Biomonitoring Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Braun ◽  
Chibundu N. Ezekiel ◽  
Doris Marko ◽  
Benedikt Warth
Keyword(s):  
Breast Milk ◽  
Matrix Effects ◽  
Biological Fluid ◽  
Monomethyl Ether ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Food Contaminants ◽  
Alternariol Monomethyl Ether ◽  
Milk Bank ◽  
Three Samples

Exposure to natural food contaminants during infancy may influence health consequences later in life. Hence, breast milk may serve as a vehicle to transport these contaminants, including mycotoxins, from mothers to their infants. Analytical methods mostly focused on single exposures in the past, thus neglecting co-occurrences and mixture effects. Here, we present a highly sensitive multi-biomarker approach by a sophisticated combination of steps during sample preparation including QuEChERS extraction followed by SPE cleanup and utilizing stable isotopes for compensating challenging matrix effects. The assay was validated in-house, reaching limits of detection (LOD) for all 34 analytes in the range of 0.1 to 300 ng/L with satisfying extraction efficiencies (75 - 109%) and stable intermediate precisions (1 - 18%) for most analytes. Compared a similar multi-mycotoxin assay for breast milk, LOD values were decreased by a factor of 2-60x enabling the assessment of chronic low-dose exposures. The new method was applied to a small set of Nigerian breast milk samples (n=3) to compare results with already published data. Concentration levels of samples that were found to be contaminated before could be confirmed. In addition, other mycotoxins were determined in all three samples, for example the newly investigated alternariol monomethyl ether (AME) was found for the first time in this biological fluid at concentrations up to 25 ng/L. Moreover, in a pooled Austrian sample obtained from a milk bank, trace amounts of multiple mycotoxins including AME (1.9 ng/L), beauvericin (5.4 ng/L), enniatin B (4.7 ng/L), enniatin B<sub>1</sub> (

Exposure to Mycotoxin-Mixtures via Breast Milk: An Ultra-Sensitive LC-MS/MS Biomonitoring Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Braun ◽  
Chibundu N. Ezekiel ◽  
Doris Marko ◽  
Benedikt Warth
Keyword(s):  
Breast Milk ◽  
Matrix Effects ◽  
Biological Fluid ◽  
Monomethyl Ether ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Food Contaminants ◽  
Alternariol Monomethyl Ether ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
Ultra Trace

Exposure to natural food contaminants during infancy may influence health consequences later in life. Hence, breast milk may serve as a vehicle to transport these contaminants, including mycotoxins, from mothers to their infants. Analytical methods mostly focused on single exposures in the past, thus neglecting co-occurrences and mixture effects. Here, we present a highly sensitive multi-biomarker approach by a sophisticated combination of steps during sample preparation including QuEChERS extraction followed by SPE cleanup and utilizing stable isotopes for compensating challenging matrix effects. The assay was validated in-house, reaching limits of detection (LOD) for all 34 analytes in the range of 0.1 to 300 ng/L with satisfying extraction efficiencies (75 - 109%) and stable intermediate precisions (1 - 18%) for most analytes. Compared to our first published multi-mycotoxin method LODs were decreased by a factor of 2-60x enabling the assessment of chronic low-dose exposures. The new method was applied to a small set of Nigerian breast milk samples to compare results with already published data. Concentration levels of samples determined to be contaminated before could be confirmed. The newly investigated alternariol monomethyl ether (AME) was found for the first time in this biological fluid at concentrations up to 25 ng/L. Moreover, in a pooled Austrian sample trace amounts of multiple mycotoxins confirmed co-occurrence and exposure even in countries with high food safety standards. In conclusion, the method facilitates the determination of mycotoxins at ultra-trace levels in breast milk, enabling the generation of occurrence data necessary for comprehensive co-exposure assessment.<br>

Uncorrelated change produces the apparent dependence of evolutionary rate on interval

Paleobiology ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. David Sheets ◽  
Charles E. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Rate ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Interval Length ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Measurement Interval ◽  
Rate Versus ◽  
Smooth Extension

An intriguing phenomenon in the study of evolutionary rates of morphological change measured from fossil lineages has been the dependence of these rates on the inverse of the measurement interval. This effect has been reported across wide ranges of species as well as within single lineages, and has been interpreted as representing a smooth extension of evolutionary rate from generational timescales to paleontological timescales, suggesting that macroevolution may be simply microevolution extended over longer intervals. There has been some debate about whether this inverse dependence is a real feature of evolutionary change, or a mathematical or psychological artifact associated with the interpretation of data.Our analysis indicates that the strong inverse dependence of rate on interval is an artifact produced by the phenomenon of spurious self-correlation. Spurious self-correlation can appear in any calculation when a ratio is plotted against its denominator, as is done in plotting rate versus interval, and when these two quantities are not well correlated with one another. We demonstrate that the effect of spurious self-correlation appears in seven published data sets of evolutionary rate that range from taxonomically broad compendia to studies of single families. The effect obscures the underlying information about the dependence of evolutionary change on interval that is present in the data sets. In five of the seven data sets examined there is no significant correlation between the extent of evolutionary change and elapsed time. Where such a correlation does exist, the inverse dependence of rate on interval length is weakened. We describe the role played by taxonomic, dynamic, and character inhomogeneity in producing the lack of correlation of change with interval in each of these data sets. This lack of correlation of change with interval, and the accompanying inverse correlation of rate with interval, most likely arises from discontinuous modes of evolutionary change in which a distinct long-term dynamic dominates net change over geological time spans. It is poorly explained by the extrapolationary microevolutionary models that have been said to account for this phenomenon.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document