Quantifying the energetic cost of food quality constraints on resting metabolism to integrate nutritional and metabolic ecology

Abstract The energetic cost of incubation of a free-living Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) female was studied during two breeding seasons by measuring the rate of oxygen consumption in a nest box converted into a metabolic chamber. Like its congeners, only the female Blue Tit incubates and during that time is fed by the male. Just before and during the egg-laying period the female spends the night in the nest. Because of the progressive development of incubation behavior during this period, it is possible to measure the oxygen-consumption rate of a nonincubating female (resting metabolism) and to compare it with values obtained later when the bird is incubating a full clutch under otherwise similar conditions. The air temperature in the metabolic chamber was regulated experimentally. The results show that the energy cost of incubation is relatively important below the lower critical temperature (about 15°C). With a fall in the air temperature, energy expenditure increased in relation to that of the resting metabolism. The energy cost of incubation also increased with clutch size, by about 6-7% for each additional egg. At air temperatures around 0°C, which are frequent under natural conditions in Fennoscandia, the female must increase her metabolic rate by 50-90% to keep the eggs in a normal-size clutch (10-13 eggs) warm. During the last days of incubation we accounted for the metabolism of the embryos, which on the day before hatching contributed about 15% of the total oxygen consumption when the female was incubating a clutch of 13 eggs.

Download Full-text

The energetic cost of vision and the evolution of eyeless Mexican cavefish

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.1500363 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 1 (8) ◽

pp. e1500363 ◽

Cited By ~ 86

Author(s):

Damian Moran ◽

Rowan Softley ◽

Eric J. Warrant

Keyword(s):

Visual System ◽

Optic Tectum ◽

Brain Size ◽

Juvenile Fish ◽

Neural Tissue ◽

Energetic Cost ◽

Metabolic Costs ◽

Resting Metabolism ◽

The Cost ◽

Expensive Tissue Hypothesis

One hypothesis for the reduction of vision in cave animals, such as the eyeless Mexican cavefish, is the high energetic cost of neural tissue and low food availability in subterranean habitats. However, data on relative brain and eye mass in this species or on any measure of the energetic cost of neural tissue are not available, making it difficult to evaluate the “expensive tissue hypothesis.” We show that the eyes and optic tectum represent significant metabolic costs in the eyed phenotype. The cost of vision was calculated to be 15% of resting metabolism for a 1-g fish, decreasing to 5% in an 8.5-g fish as relative eye and brain size declined during growth. Our results demonstrate that the loss of the visual system in the cave phenotype substantially lowered the amount of energy expended on expensive neural tissue during diversification into subterranean rivers, in particular for juvenile fish.

Download Full-text

Food quality and cognition: Effects of a purified, refined diet on performance on a progressive ratio schedule in rats

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e598032013-023 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Aaron P. Blaisdell ◽

Matthew Yan Lam Lau ◽

Cynthia Fast ◽

Katie Telminova ◽

Boyang Fan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Quality ◽

Progressive Ratio ◽

Ratio Schedule ◽

Progressive Ratio Schedule

Download Full-text

Managing Service Quality, Food Quality, Price Fairness and Customer Retention: A Holistic Perspective

Annals of Contemporary Developments in Management & HR ◽

10.33166/acdmhr.2020.01.001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1-5

Author(s):

Ammar Ahmed ◽

Rafat Naseer ◽

Muhammad Asadullah ◽

Hadia Khan

Keyword(s):

Service Quality ◽

Food Quality ◽

Service Sector ◽

Customer Retention ◽

Price Fairness ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Restaurant Management ◽

The Subject ◽

Research Propositions ◽

The Impact

In this competitive environment, organizations strive to satisfy their customer by providing best quality service at affordable and fair prices with a view to enhance their revenues. To achieve the objective of revenue maximization, organizations strive to identify the factors that help them in retaining their customers. Drawing from the signalling theory of marketing, the current study proposes a novel conceptual model representing the impact of service quality with food quality and price fairness on customer retention in restaurant sector of Pakistan. The paper underlines an important arena of knowledge for academicians as well as organizational scientists on the subject. On the basis of literature available on the variables understudy, the present study forwards eight research propositions worthy of urgent scholarly attention. The conceptualized model of the present article can also be viewed significant in unleashing further avenues for the restaurant management entities, policy makers and future researchers in the domain of managing in the service sector businesses.

Download Full-text

Proteomics for Studying Foodborne Microorganisms and Their Impact on Food Quality and Human Health

10.3389/978-2-88963-076-9 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Food Quality

Download Full-text

Quasi-Barrierless Submolecular Motion in Mechanically Interlocked Carbon Nanotubes

10.26434/chemrxiv.12136248 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Julia Villalva ◽

Belén Nieto-Ortega ◽

Manuel Melle-Franco ◽

Emilio Pérez

Keyword(s):

Density Functional ◽

Close Contact ◽

Tight Binding ◽

Energetic Cost ◽

Molecular Fragments ◽

Activation Barriers ◽

Flat Surfaces ◽

Different Types ◽

Atomically Flat ◽

Derivatives Of

The motion of molecular fragments in close contact with atomically flat surfaces is still not fully understood. Does a more favourable interaction imply a larger barrier towards motion even if there are no obvious minima? Here, we use mechanically interlocked rotaxane-type derivatives of SWNTs (MINTs) featuring four different types of macrocycles with significantly different affinities for the SWNT thread as models to study this problem. Using molecular dynamics, we find that there is no direct correlation between the interaction energy of the macrocycle with the SWNT and its ability to move along or around it. Density functional tight-binding calculations reveal small (<2.5 Kcal·mol-1) activation barriers, the height of which correlates with the commensurability of the aromatic moieties in the macrocycle with the SWNT. Our results show that macrocycles in MINTs rotate and translate freely around and along SWNTs at room temperature, with an energetic cost lower than the rotation around the C−C bond in ethane.<br>

Download Full-text

SAMPL6 Octanol-Water Partition Coefficients from Alchemical Free Energy Calculations with MBIS Atomic Charges

10.26434/chemrxiv.9924806 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Maximiliano Riquelme ◽

Esteban Vöhringer-Martinez

Keyword(s):

Free Energy ◽

Electron Density ◽

Free Energy Calculations ◽

Basis Set ◽

Energetic Cost ◽

Atomic Charges ◽

Free Energies ◽

Energy Calculations ◽

Alchemical Free Energy ◽

Alchemical Free Energy Calculations

In molecular modeling the description of the interactions between molecules forms the basis for a correct prediction of macroscopic observables. Here, we derive atomic charges from the implicitly polarized electron density of eleven molecules in the SAMPL6 challenge using the Hirshfeld-I and Minimal Basis Set Iterative Stockholder(MBIS) partitioning method. These atomic charges combined with other parameters in the GAFF force field and different water/octanol models were then used in alchemical free energy calculations to obtain hydration and solvation free energies, which after correction for the polarization cost, result in the blind prediction of the partition coefficient. From the tested partitioning methods and water models the S-MBIS atomic charges with the TIP3P water model presented the smallest deviation from the experiment. Conformational dependence of the free energies and the energetic cost associated with the polarization of the electron density are discussed.

Download Full-text