The foramen ovale, which is part of the normal fetal cardiopulmonary circulation, fails to close after birth in ∼35% of the population and represents a potential source of right-to-left shunt. Despite the prevalence of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in the general population, cardiopulmonary, exercise, thermoregulatory, and altitude physiologists may have underestimated the potential effect of this...

How should we analyze repeated trials in neuropsychological testing? It has long been known that experimental subjects display distinct stages of acclimatization and subsequent saturation during cognitive testing (Thurstone, 1927). For example, in list learning tests examining memory, it has been demonstrated that repeated exposure to a fixed enumeration of items can improve recall. However, we...

A remarkable number of adaptive responses; including changes in the cardiovascular, respiratory and hematologic systems; takes place during acclimatization to natural or simulated high altitude. This adaptation to chronic hypoxia confers the heart an improved tolerance to all major deleterious consequences of acute O2 deprivation, not only reducing infarct size but also alleviating post-ischemi...

Reef corals are highly sensitive to heat, yet populations resistant to climate change have recently been identified. To determine the mechanisms of temperature tolerance, we reciprocally transplanted corals between reef sites experiencing distinct temperature regimes and tested subsequent physiological and gene expression profiles. Local acclimatization and fixed effects, such as adaptation, co...

RNA editing is a rare post-transcriptional event that provides cells with an additional level of gene expression regulation. It has been implicated in various processes including adaptation, viral defence and RNA interference; however, its potential role as a mechanism in acclimatization has just recently been recognised. Here, we show that RNA editing occurs in 1.6% of all nuclear-encoded gene...

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Biological characteristics of aquatic species 2.1. They live and breathe in water 2.1.1. Stabilization and movements 2.1.2. Respiration and excretion 2.1.3. Salinity and light 2.2. They do not control their internal temperature 2.3. They often are "carnivorous" 3. From the wild to domestication 3.1. Rearing based on juvenile or breeder capture from the wild 3.1.1. Ca...