Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Too important to tamper with: predation risk affects body mass and escape behaviour but not escape ability

Summary Escaping from a predator is a matter of life or death, and prey are expected to adaptively alter their physiology under chronic predation risk in ways that may affect escape. Theoretical models assume that escape performance is mass dependent, whereby scared prey strategically maintain an optimal body mass to enhance escape. Experiments testing the mass-dependent predation risk hypothesis have demonstrated that prior experience of predation risk can affect body mass, and the behavioural decisions about evasive actions to take. Other studies on natural changes in body mass indicate that mass can affect escape. No single experiment has tested if all of these components are indeed linked, which is a critical necessary condition underpinning the mass-dependent predation risk hypothesis. We tested all components of the mass-dependent predation risk hypothesis in a repeated measures experiment by presenting predator and non-predator cues to brown-headed cowbirds housed in semi-natural conditions. Exposure to predator cues affected body mass, fat, pectoral muscle thickness and evasive actions (take-off angle and speed), but not the physiological capacity to escape, as measured by flying ability. Examining individual variation revealed that flying ability was unrelated to mass loss in either sex, unrelated to mass gain in males, and only females that gained a very large amount of mass flew poorly. We next conducted a body mass manipulation in the laboratory to rigorously test whether small to large perturbations in mass can ever affect flying ability. We induced either no change in mass (control), a moderate reduction of 10% which the literature suggests should enhance flight. Flying ability was maintained regardless of treatment. Examining individual variation revealed the same precise patterns as in the first experiment. We conclude that prey may alter their mass and evasive actions in response to predation risk, but their escape ability remains robust and inelastic, presumably because disabling oneself is likely to lead to disastrous consequences. We suggest that animals may only face a mass-dependent predation risk trade-off in a narrow set of circumstances linked to life-history stages that require large amounts of mass gain, for example, parturition and migration. A lay summary is available for this article.
Is biodiversity energy-limited or unbounded? A test in fossil and modern bivalves

Abstract. The quantity of biomass in an ecosystem is constrained by energy availability. It is less clear, however, how energy availability constrains taxonomic and functional diversity. Competing models suggest biodiversity is either resource-limited or far from any bound. We test the hypothesis that functional diversity in marine bivalve communities is constrained by energy availability, measured as particulate organic carbon (POC) flux, in the modern oceans. We find that POC flux predicts the relative prevalence of ecological modes in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Moreover, the associations of ecological modes with POC fluxes are similar between the Atlantic and Pacific despite being based on independent sets of species, indicating a direct causal relationship. We then use the relationship between POC flux and the prevalence of functional groups in the modern to test the hypothesis that the trend of increasing functional diversity in bivalves across the past 500 Myr has occurred in response to increased POC flux. We find no evidence that the earliest-appearing modes of life are preferentially associated with low-POC environments or that the mean POC flux experienced by marine bivalves has increased across geological time. To reconcile the close association between ecological mode and POC flux in the modern oceans with the lack of evidence for increasing POC fluxes across time, we propose that POC flux has not increased substantially over time but, rather, the increase in bivalve functional diversity enabled bivalves to become more abundant, to occupy a broader range of environments, and to capture a greater fraction of the total POC flux. The results here suggest at the geographic scale of oceans and through geologic time bivalve diversity was not bounded by food availability.
Endothelial TRPV4 dysfunction in a streptozotocin-diabetic Rat Model

Diabetes mellitus is a complex disease characterised by chronic hyperglycaemia due to compromised insulin synthesis and secretion, or decreased tissue sensitivity to insulin, if not all three conditions. Endothelial dysfunction is a common complication in diabetes in which endothelium-dependent vasodilation is impaired. The aim of this study was to examine the involvement of TRPV4 in diabetes endothelial dysfunction. Male Charles River Wistar rats (350–450 g) were injected with 65mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) intraperitoneally. STZ-injected rats were compared with naïve rats (not injected with STZ) or control rats (injected with 10ml/kg of 20mM citrate buffer, pH 4.0–4.5), if not both. Rats with blood glucose concentrations greater than 16mmol/L were considered to be diabetic. As the results revealed, STZ-diabetic rats showed significant endothelial dysfunction characterised by impaired muscarinic-induced vasodilation, as well as significant impairment in TRPV4-induced vasodilation in aortic rings and mesenteric arteries. Furthermore, STZ-diabetic primary aortic endothelial cells (ECs) showed a significant reduction in TRPV4-induced intracellular calcium ([Ca]i) elevation. TRPV4, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and caveolin-1 (CAV-1) were also significantly downregulated in STZ-diabetic primary aortic ECs and were later significantly restored by in vitro insulin treatment. Methylglyoxal (MGO) was significantly elevated in STZ-diabetic rat serum, and nondiabetic aortic rings incubated with MGO (100μM) for 12 hours showed significant endothelial dysfunction. Moreover, nondiabetic primary aortic ECs treated with MGO (100μM) for 5 days showed significant TRPV4 downregulation and significant suppression of 4-α-PDD-induced [Ca]i elevation, which was later restored by L-arginine (100μM) co-incubation. Incubating nondiabetic aortic rings with MGO (100μM) for 2 hours induced a spontaneous loss of noradrenaline-induced contractility persistence. Moreover, MGO induced significant [Ca]i elevation in Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing rat TRPM8 channels (rTRPM8), which was significantly inhibited by AMTB (1–5μM). Taken together, TRPV4, CAV-1, and eNOS can form a functional complex that is downregulated in STZ-diabetic aortic ECs and restored by insulin treatment. MGO elevation might furthermore contribute to diabetes endothelial dysfunction and TRPV4 downregulation. By contrast, MGO induced the loss of contractility persistence, possibly due to MGO’s acting as a TRPM8 agonist.
Classification of European and Mediterranean coastal dune vegetation

Aims: Although many phytosociological studies have provided detailed local and regional descriptions of coastal dune vegetation, a unified classification of this vegetation in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin has been missing. Our aim is to produce a formalized classification of this vegetation and to identify the main factors driving its plant species composition at a continental scale. LocationAtlantic and Baltic coasts of Europe, Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea region. - Methods: We compiled a database of 30,759 plots of coastal vegetation, which were resampled to reduce unbalanced sampling effort, obtaining a data set of 11,769 plots. We classified these plots with TWINSPAN, interpreted the resulting clusters and used them for developing formal definitions of phytosociological alliances of coastal dune vegetation, which were included in an expert system for automatic vegetation classification. We related the alliances to climatic factors and described their biogeographic features and their position in the coastal vegetation zonation. We examined and visualized the floristic relationships among these alliances by means of DCA ordination. - Results: We defined 18 alliances of coastal dune vegetation, including the newly described Centaureo cuneifoliae-Verbascion pinnatifidi from the Aegean region. The main factors underlying the differentiation of these alliances were biogeographic and macroclimatic contrasts between the Atlantic-Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, along with ecological differences between shifting and stable dunes. The main difference in species composition was between the Atlantic-Baltic and Mediterranean-Black Sea regions. Within the former region, the main difference was driven by the different ecological conditions between shifting and stable dunes, whereas within the latter, the main difference was biogeographic between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. - Conclusions: The first formal classification of the European coastal dune vegetation was established, accompanied by an expert system containing the formal definitions of alliances, which can be applied to new data sets. The new classification system critically revised the previous concepts and integrated them into a consistent framework, which reflects the main gradients in species composition driven by biogeographic influences, macroclimate and the position of the sites in the coast-inland zonation of the dune systems. A revision of the class concept used in EuroVegChecklist is also proposed.
Discriminating among yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares nursery areas in the Atlantic Ocean using otolith chemistry

Otolith chemistry of young-of-year (YOY) yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares was examined to determine whether chemical signatures are distinct across major spawning areas in the Atlantic Ocean. YOY yellowfin tuna otoliths were collected from 4 locations in the Atlantic Ocean (Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, Cape Verde, and Gulf of Guinea) from 2013−2015, and trace element (Li, Mg, Mn, Sr, Zn, and Ba) and stable isotope (δ13C and δ18O) analyses were conducted to investigate regional variation in otolith chemical composition. Results indicated that significant regional differences in chemical signatures existed for each cohort of YOY yellowfin tuna investigated. Quadratic discriminant function analysis showed that nursery assignment accuracies based on otolith trace elements and stable isotopes were 64−85% for each cohort, justifying the use of these natural tracers as regional discriminators for yellowfin tuna. Significant interannual variability in regional signatures was also detected, highlighting the importance of age-class matching when using the baseline of nursery signatures to estimate the origin of sub-adult and adult yellowfin tuna. This study clearly demonstrates that baseline chemical signatures in the otoliths of YOY yellowfin tuna are distinct and can therefore serve as an effective tool for assigning older individuals to their nursery of origin, ultimately providing a way to improve our understanding of the population connectivity and mixing rates of this species in the Atlantic Ocean.
Genotoxic effects of acrylamide in mouse bone marrow cells

Abstract Acrylamide (AA) is a human carcinogen generated in carbohydrate-rich foodstuffs upon heating. It has been shown to cause neurotoxic effects in humans, and genotoxic and carcinogenic effects in laboratory animals. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of AA on the frequency of chromosomal aberrations (CA), frequency of micronuclei (MN) and mitotic index (MI). Four groups of four mice, each weighing approximately 20–25 g, were orally administered AA once daily for 30 days with doses of 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 mg kg–1 body weight of AA. The control group consisted of four animals orally administered deionized water. Bone marrow was collected 24 h after the last treatment following standard protocols. AA significantly increased (p < 0.05) the number of CA and the frequency of micronucleated cells and decreased the MI in exposed groups compared to the negative control. The results obtained in this study further support that AA induces genotoxicity in mouse bone marrow cells.
Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) genotypes in Escherichia coli from patients at the Landspítali University Hospital in Iceland from 2006-2012

3 Úrdráttur . 4 Acknowledgements . 6 Table of contents. 7 List of figures . 9 List of tables . 9 List of abbreviations . 10
RNA Interference Mediated Silencing of Tissue Factor in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Objective: To construct to silence tissue factor (TF) expression in Human Um-bilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) for providing evidence of the gene therapy and prevention of coagulation dysfunction in placental abruption (PA) neonates. Methods: Cultured HUVECs in vitro were divided into control group and PA group, each including non-prevention, scramble siRNA and TF-siRNA subgroups. pENTRTM/U6-shRNA/TF vector expressing TF were constructed and transfected into HUVECs. The mRNA expression of TF was tested with RT-PCR, and TF protein expression was detected with immunofluorescence staining. Results: Monolayer HUVECs with short-rod and short spindle shaped were adherent to the bottom, forming paving stone arrangement. The TF mRNA expression was significantly different between control group and PA group (P < 0.01) and among different subgroups (P < 0.01). In non-prevention subgroups, significant difference was observed in TF mRNA expression between control group and PA group (P < 0.05). Significant difference in TF mRNA expression was found in false-prevention subgroups (P < 0.05). The TF mRNA expression was markedly different among different subgroups in control (P < 0.01), and the similar result among different PA subgroups (P < 0.01). In both control and PA groups, the TF mRNA expression was the lowest after TF silencing. Immunofluorescence staining showed high TF expression in HUVECs in false-prevention subgroups. In scramble siRNA group, the TF protein expression reduced as compared to non-prevention group and reduced dramatically after TF silencing as compared to control. Conclusion: pENTRTM/U6-TF-shRNA is able to significantly inhibit the TF mRNA and protein expression in HUVECs from healthy neonates and PA neonates.
Models of the major evolutionary transitions

This thesis is concerned with the major transitions view of evolution; the idea that general principles operate in the evolution of each new level of the biological hierarchy (Bourke, 2011). We discuss the theoretical background of this field, focussing on inclusive fitness theory and multi-level selection theory, different approaches to analysing the selection of traits. Many of the commonalities between different transitions are dependent on whether they occur within or between species, and whether relatedness is absent (`egalitarian') or present (`fraternal') (Queller, 1997). Altruism underpins fraternal transitions, and mutually beneficial behaviour underpins egalitarian transitions (Bourke, 2011). We focus on several different models relating to this four-way decomposition. Firstly, we focus on arguments that between-species donation may amount to between-species altruism; this has been a point of contention within the literature (Fletcher and Doebeli, 2009; Gardner et al., 2011; Wyatt et al., 2013). We discuss both deterministic (resting on an assumption of quasi-linkage equilibrium) and stochastic approaches to a simple model of between-species donation, finding that stable donation behaviour can evolve in the presence of assortment across all loci, but is vulnerable to unassorted modifiers. We argue that this behaviour can be interpreted as within-species altruism, using the other species as a vector for altruism, and, further, consider our models in relation to the current literature on greenbeards. Our second model concerns maternally-transmitted sex-distorting endosymbionts. Many species, particularly insect populations, are infected by sex-distorting parasites such as the bacteria Wolbachia, which are maternally-transmitted; thus, distortion of sex ratios towards the production of females may be beneficial to the symbiont. We investigate the potential for a reproductive parasite to transition towards mutualism, laying the foundation for an egalitarian transition between species; in particular, we find that population structure is key to this transition. Finally, we discuss several potential avenues for future research; in particular, we note that the social group transformation phase of a major transition involves a number of open questions, or ideas open to further investigation.
Temporal Gap Between Knowledge and Conservation Needs in High Andean Anurans: The Case of the Ascotán Salt Flat Frog in Chile (Anura: Telmatobiidae: Telmatobius)

Abstract. The natural history of most species of Telmatobius that live in the Altiplano of the Andes is unknown due to the difficulty of performing long-term studies and the logistics of working in these remote areas with extreme environmental conditions. One of these anurans inhabits the springs of the Ascotán salt flat of Chile. Here, we provide for the first time information on its distribution, habitat, microhabitat, density, diet and reproductive activity. Suitable habitat for the specie is restricted to a few springs that drain into the salt flat. Amphibian density was variable among springs and seasons and diet was composed mainly of bottom-dwelling invertebrates. We also found evidence of selection for some benthonic prey. Reproductive activity occurred mainly at night. Larvae were found during the whole year, which suggests a long larval developmental period. The salt flat is under strong anthropic pressure, although so far this anuran has managed to persist in spite of habitat perturbations. Our biological and ecological data might increase our ability to act and protect this high Andean anuran species.
Updated biochronology of the Madrid Basin: species distribution and implications for the Middle Miocene rodent faunas of Spain

Abstract The works carried out in the Madrid area during the last fifteen years have yielded almost twenty new localities including small-mammals. A taxonomical description of the rodent fauna of the new sites and a revision of those previously published has enabled us to present an updated biostratigraphy and biochronology for the middle and upper Aragonian of the Madrid Basin. Seven local biozones are recognised: Db, Dc, Dd, E, F, G1 and G2. The rodent assemblage of biozone Db is here described for the first time in Madrid. The new finds have also filled poorly-known parts of biozones Dc, Dd, E and F, making now the rodent assemblages of biozones Dc and E from Madrid one of the most complete and best-represented records. Considering the faunal variability in biozone G1 in the Madrid Basin, we propose a new definition for it. The comparison of the rodent assemblages between the Madrid and Calatayud-Montalbán basins points out that both share several similarities in their taxonomical distributions, although with less diverse faunas in Madrid. A relative impoverishment in taxa of complicated dental pattern in Madrid could be interpreted as due to differences in the local environment with Calatayud.
Effects of reduced protein and diet complexity on performance and cost of nursery pigs

Two 35-d experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of reducing crude protein by 2.5% and diet complexity with amino acid supplementation on performance and feed cost during the nursery phase. In Exp. 1 and 2, 32 PIC barrows (initial wt. = 7.28 ± 0.44 and 6.89 ± 0.77 kg, respectively) were weaned at 21 d and allotted to one of four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (RCD) with four replicate pens per treatment with two pigs/pen. The four diets were: 1) corn-soybean meal based diet; 2) diet 1 with inclusion of fishmeal (FM) and spray-dried plasma (SDP) in Exp. 1 or soy protein concentrate (SPC) and spray-dried blood cells (SDBC) in Exp. 2; 3) low crude-protein diet (LCP) with 2.5% reduction; 4) LCP containing FM and SDP in Exp. 1 or SPC and SDBC in Exp. 2. In order to reduce CP by 2.5%, diets were supplemented with synthetic lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan (Trp) in Exp. 1 and in Exp. 2, LCP diets were additionally fortified with synthetic valine (Val) and isoleucine (Ile). Blood samples were collected on d 14, 21, 28 and 35 xi for determining plasma urea N (PUN). Growth performance was determined weekly. Overall in Exp. 1, pigs fed corn-soybean meal based diet containing higher CP had greater ADG (P = 0.001) than pigs fed LCP diet (0.60 vs. 0.52 kg/d, respectively) and final BW (25.28 vs. 22.95 kg, respectively) (P = 0.002). Pigs fed diets containing FM and SDP had higher final BW when compared to pigs fed less complex diets (24.87 vs. 23.35 kg, respectively) (P = 0.034). These data suggest that Val and Ile become the next limiting amino acids in LCP nursery diets. In Exp. 2, there was no effect on overall ADG and final BW. However, pigs fed HCP diets had decreased ADFI (P = 0.009) when compared to pigs fed LCP diets (0.92 vs. 1.01 kg/d, respectively). Meanwhile, pigs fed diets containing SDBC and SPC had decreased ADFI (P = 0.019) compared to pigs fed noncomplex diets (0.93 vs. 1.00 kg/d, respectively). Overall in Exp. 1 and 2, pigs fed LCP diets had lower PUN concentration (P < 0.001). Pigs fed LCP diets had an average PUN concentration of 3.47 or 3.02 mg/dl, compared to pigs fed high CP diets that had PUN concentrations of 6.69 or 6.51 mg/dl, respectively. In Exp. 1 and 2, the nursery phase resulted in LCP diets averaging $0.09 or $0.08 more per kg/gain, respectively, compared to typical corn-soybean meal animal protein based diets. In conclusion, LCP diets can be fed to nursery pigs if Val and Ile requirements are met. However, the current cost of synthetic Trp, Val and Ile do not make these diets economical.
Blood Chemical Profiles and Symbiotic Relationships of Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) Nesting in Campeche, Mexico

Abstract Although the shores of Campeche, Mexico, are critical breeding grounds for the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), so far there is neither clinical nor ecological information about nesting females at this area; such information could help to improve conservation and management of this species. We describe the blood chemical profile based on 13 analytes, and the effect of prevalence of ectoparasites and epibionts of nesting female green turtles. Although we observed low atypical values for amylase and blood ureic nitrogen, and high atypical values for creatinine, phosphorus, and total bilirubin, these results are likely due to feeding habits and nesting-related stress and not to illness or parasitism.