Effect of photoperiod and ambient temperature on activity patterns and body weight cycles of mountain pygmy-possums, Burramys parvus (Marsupialia)

2009 ◽  
Vol 235 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Körtner ◽  
F. Geiser
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel G. Curtis ◽  
Timothy Olds ◽  
François Fraysse ◽  
Dorothea Dumuid ◽  
Gilly A. Hendrie ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Almost one in three Australian adults are now obese, and the rate continues to rise. The causes of obesity are multifaceted and include environmental, cultural and lifestyle factors. Emerging evidence suggests there may be temporal patterns in weight gain related, for example, to season and major festivals such as Christmas, potentially due to changes in diet, daily activity patterns or both. The aim of this study is to track the annual rhythm in body weight, 24 h activity patterns, dietary patterns, and wellbeing in a cohort of Australian adults. In addition, through data linkage with a concurrent children’s cohort study, we aim to examine whether changes in children’s body mass index, activity and diet are related to those of their parents. Methods A community-based sample of 375 parents aged 18 to 65 years old, residing in or near Adelaide, Australia, and who have access to a Bluetooth-enabled mobile device or a computer and home internet, will be recruited. Across a full year, daily activities (minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, light physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep) will be measured using wrist-worn accelerometry (Fitbit Charge 3). Body weight will be measured daily using Fitbit wifi scales. Self-reported dietary intake (Dietary Questionnaire for Epidemiological Studies V3.2), and psychological wellbeing (WHOQOL-BREF and DASS-21) will be assessed eight times throughout the 12-month period. Annual patterns in weight will be examined using Lowess curves. Associations between changes in weight and changes in activity and diet compositions will be examined using repeated measures multi-level models. The associations between parent’s and children’s weight, activity and diet will be investigated using multi-level models. Discussion Temporal factors, such as day type (weekday or weekend day), cultural celebrations and season, may play a key role in weight gain. The aim is to identify critical opportunities for intervention to assist the prevention of weight gain. Family-based interventions may be an important intervention strategy. Trial registration Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, identifier ACTRN12619001430123. Prospectively registered on 16 October 2019.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Lienhard ◽  
Lea Mirwald ◽  
Thomas Hötzl ◽  
Ilse Kranner ◽  
Gerald Kastberger

Diurnal activities ofHalictus scabiosaebees and their nest parasites (major bee-flies, cuckoo wasps, ichneumon wasps,Sphecodesbees, and velvet ants) were investigated at a study site with 159 nests in Eastern Austria. Foraging activity correlated with ambient temperature only before midday and decreased in the afternoon. The activity of nest-infesting parasites increased during the day and correlated with ambient temperature. The match factorfmbetween the ratios of the foraging activities ofH. scabiosaeand the ratios of aspects of morning temperature was assessed on three consecutive days with different weather. The activity patterns of halictine bees and their nest parasites differed: the parasites exhibited only small time windows in which their activities were synchronised with those of their hosts. The bees exhibited an anticyclic behaviour and collected food in times of low parasite pressure and decreased foraging activity when parasite pressure increased.


1957 ◽  
Vol 188 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Fregly ◽  
N. B. Marshall ◽  
J. Mayer

Goldthioglucose-obese mice cannot adjust their food intake to meet the increased energy requirements due to cold. At all ambient temperatures above 15°C the spontaneous running activity of these animals is less than that observed for nonobese controls. Activity of obese mice is maximal at 19°C and minimal at 15°C or lower. Body weights decrease during exposure to cold. In contrast to that of obese mice, running activity of nonobese controls is maximal at an ambient temperature of 25°C but nearly ceases at 15°C or lower. The food intake of these animals increases in the cold and remains elevated even at temperatures at which activity decreases. The body weight of nonobese controls is either maintained constant or increases during exposure to cold air.


1971 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. B. Stephens

SUMMARY1. The metabolic rates of 58 individual piglets kept either on a straw or on a concrete floor at ambient temperatures near to 10°, 20° or 30°C have been measured with ages ranging from newborn to 9 days, and body weight from 1·0 to 3·2 kg. The oxygen consumption was measured on each floor material at the chosen ambient temperature thus allowing paired comparisons for each animal.2. In comparison with the concrete floor, oxygen consumption on straw was reduced by 18% at 10°C, 27% at 20°C and by 12% at 30°C for pigs 2 to 9 days old. The regression coefficients of mean log (oxygen consumption) on log (body weight) were around 0·66 at 10° and 20°C. At 30°C the value was 0·99 ± 0·14. The regression coefficients were not significantly affected by the presence of a straw floor showing that its effect did not vary with body weight. Corresponding values foi piglets below 24 hours of age were 17% at 10°C, 27% at 20°C and 22% at 30°C ambient temperature.3. Moving a piglet on to a straw floor at 10°C had the same thermal effect as raising the ambient temperature to 18°C. Similar treatment at 30°C was equivalent to raising the ambient temperature to 32°C.4. Lowering ambient temperature to increase the temperature gradient between the homeothermic body of the piglet and the environment progressively increased heat loss in all cases. There was a concomitant decrease in the calculated conductance between core and environment which was more pronounced for the piglets lying on the concrete floor.


2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 1196-1211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio Gutiérrez ◽  
Melissa T. Baysari ◽  
Olaia Carrera ◽  
Thomas J. Whitford ◽  
Robert A. Boakes

Author(s):  
E. Golini ◽  
M. Rigamonti ◽  
F. Iannello ◽  
C. De Rosa ◽  
F. Scavizzi ◽  
...  

AbstractAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that affects both central and peripheral nervous system, leading to the degeneration of motor neurons, which eventually results in muscle atrophy, paralysis and death. Sleep disturbances are common in patients with ALS, leading to even further deteriorated quality of life. Investigating methods to potentially assess sleep and rest disturbances in animal models of ALS is thus of crucial interest.We used an automated home cage monitoring system (DVC®) to capture activity patterns that can potentially be associated with sleep and rest disturbances and thus to the progression of ALS in the SOD1G93A mouse model. DVC® enables non-intrusive 24/7 long term animal activity monitoring, which we assessed together with body weight decline and neuromuscular function deterioration measured by grid hanging and grip strength tests in male and female mice from 7 until 24 weeks of age.We show that as the ALS progresses over time in SOD1G93A mice, activity patterns during day time start becoming irregular, with frequent activity bouts that are neither observed in control mice nor in SOD1G93A at a younger age. The increasing irregularities of activity patterns during day time are quantitatively captured by designing a novel digital biomarker, referred to as Rest Disturbance Index (RDI). We show that RDI is a robust measure capable of detecting rest/sleep-related disturbances during the disease progression earlier than conventional methods, such as the grid hanging test. Moreover RDI highly correlates with grid hanging and body weight decline, especially in males.The non-intrusive long-term continuous monitoring of animal activity enabled by DVC® has been instrumental in discovering activity patterns potentially correlated with sleep and rest disturbances in the SOD1G93A mouse model of the ALS disease.


eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangho Yu ◽  
Helia Cheng ◽  
Marie François ◽  
Emily Qualls-Creekmore ◽  
Clara Huesing ◽  
...  

The adipokine leptin acts on the brain to regulate energy balance but specific functions in many brain areas remain poorly understood. Among these, the preoptic area (POA) is well known to regulate core body temperature by controlling brown fat thermogenesis, and we have previously shown that glutamatergic, long-form leptin receptor (Lepr)-expressing neurons in the POA are stimulated by warm ambient temperature and suppress energy expenditure and food intake. Here we further investigate the role of POA leptin signaling in body weight regulation and its relationship to body temperature regulation in mice. We show that POA Lepr signaling modulates energy expenditure in response to internal energy state, and thus contributes to body weight homeostasis. However, POA leptin signaling is not involved in ambient temperature-dependent metabolic adaptations. Our study reveals a novel cell population through which leptin regulates body weight.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 153-159
Author(s):  
Emma Quirosa

La biología térmica es uno de los aspectos más necesarios para entender la distribución y los patrones de actividad de las especies, sobretodo de los organismos ectotermos. El presente estudio aporta información sobre temperatura corporal de seis ofidios ibéricos y temperatura ambiental para el lugar donde habitan. Para tres de las especies, Coronella girondica (Daudin 1803), Macroprotodon brevis (Günter 1862) y Hemorrhois hip­pocrepis (Linnaeus 1758), estos son los primeros datos publicados en España. En el caso de Natrix maura (Linnaeus 1758) los datos de este estudio incluyen temperatura tanto en medio acuático como en medio terrestre. En total se han obtenido 31 registros de temperatura corporal y 30 registros de temperatura ambiente. También se aportan datos sobre temperatura corporal y ambiental de Malpolon monspessulanus (Hermann 1804) y Zamenis scalaris (Schinz 1822). Thermal biology is one of the most necessary aspects in understanding the distribution and activity patterns of species, above all of ectothermal organisms. The present study provides data on body temperature of six Iberian ophidians and the environmental temperature of the place they inhabit. For three species, southern smooth snake Coronella girondica (Daudin 1803), western false smooth snake Macroprotodon brevis (Günter 1862), and horse-shoe snake Hemorrhois hippocrepis (Linnaeus 1758), these are the first data published in Spain. In the case of Natrix maura (Linnaeus 1758), the present data include its temperature on land as well as in aquatic environments. In total, 31 body temperature records and 30 ambient temperature records were obtained. Additionally, data is given on body and environmental temperature for the ophidian species Malpolon monspessulanus (Hermann 1804) and Zamenis scalaris (Schinz 1822).


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Zentrich ◽  
Steven R. Talbot ◽  
André Bleich ◽  
Christine Häger

For ethical and legal reasons it is necessary to assess the severity of procedures in animal experimentation. To estimate the degree of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm, objective methods that provide gradebale parameters need to be tested and validated for various models. In this context, automated home-cage monitoring becomes more important as a contactless, objective, continuous and non-invasive method. The aim of this study was to examine a recently developed large scale automated home-cage monitoring system (Digital Ventilated Cage, DVC®) with regard to the applicability and added value for severity assessment in a frequently used acute colitis mouse model. Acute colitis was induced in female C57BL/6J mice by varying doses of DSS (1.5 and 2.5%), matched controls received water only (0%). Besides DVC® activity monitoring and nest scoring, model specific parameters like body weight, clinical colitis score, and intestinal histo-pathology were used. In a second approach, we questioned whether DVC® can be used to detect an influence of different handling methods on the behavior of mice. Therefore, we compared activity patterns of mice that underwent tunnel vs. tail handling for routine animal care procedures. In DSS treated mice, disease specific parameters confirmed induction of a graded colitis. In line with this, DVC® revealed reduced activity in these animals. Furthermore, the system displayed stress-related activity changes due to the restraining procedures necessary in DSS-treatment groups. However, no significant differences between tunnel vs. tail handling procedures were detected. For further analysis of the data, a binary classifier was applied to categorize two severity levels (burdened vs. not burdened) based on activity and body weight. In all DSS-treatment groups data points were allocated to the burdened level, in contrast to a handling group. The fraction of “burdened” animals reflected well the course of colitis development. In conclusion, automated home-cage monitoring by DVC® enabled severity assessment in a DSS-induced colitis model equally well as gold standard clinical parameters. In addition, it revealed changes in activity patterns due to routine handling procedures applied in experimental model work. This indicates that large scale home-cage monitoring can be integrated into routine severity assessment in biomedical research.


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