AgRP and POMC neurons are two key cell types that regulate feeding in response to hormones and nutrients. Recently, it was discovered that these neurons are also rapidly modulated by the mere sight and smell of food. This rapid sensory regulation "resets" the activity of AgRP and POMC neurons before a single bite of food has been consumed. This surprising and counterintuitive discovery challeng...

T iny, membrane-bound packets of tinted protein, called melano-somes, dictate the color of human skin. Defi ciencies in melanosome production underlie pigmentation diseases, so it is important to understand how melanosomes are generated. But melanosomes are just one example of a larger family of lyso-some-related organelles, many of which are associated with pathologies when they are functional...

Mothers are important contributors to the development of eating behavior in children, but less is known about the influence of fathers. The purpose of this study was to investigate family perceptions of parental child feeding practices. Seventy two-parent American families including a mother, father, and two biologically related children participated in the study. Participants completed parent ...

Feeding behaviour is modulated by both environmental cues and internal physiological states. Appetite is commonly boosted by the pleasant smell (or appearance) of food and destroyed by a bad taste. In reality, animals sense multiple environmental cues at the same time and it is not clear how these sensory inputs are integrated and a decision is made to regulate feeding behaviour accordingly. He...

Based on theory that parents with higher levels of self-efficacy (PSE) should find it easier to parent effectively in the face of challenging child behaviors than should parents with lower levels of PSE, this study examines the link between PSE and parenting using children's behaviors as potential moderators. Participants were 130 parents who had an older adolescent (Mage = 17.58) in addition t...

This study examines the ability of a temperate marine fish, Hexagrammos decagrammus, to modulate its prey capture behavior in response to differences in prey type. This species has an extremely broad diet, feeding on prey which demonstrate very different anti-capture behaviors. Video-taped attacks on three shrimp species, one crab and pieces of shrimp were analyzed to determine the relative con...

Behavioral problems in cats have drawn more attention in recent years since they affect the cat-owner relationship. This study was designed to study the rate of cats with undesirable behaviors according to their owners. Frequency of behavioral problems in 167 cats attending Small Animal Hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, was evaluated using a questionnaire. Accordin...

This paper discusses the use of evolutionary computation to evolve behaviors that exhibit emergent intelligent behavior. Genetic algorithms are used to learn navigation and collision avoidance behaviors for robots. The learning is performed under simulation, and the resulting behaviors are then used to control the actual robot. Some of the emergent behavior is described in detail.

We propose a simple queueing model for TCP transfers sharing a bottleneck link and examine its behavior when the buffer at the bottleneck is large compared to the bandwidth-delay product. This model explains some behaviors of TCP that have already been observed, and predicts other behaviors that are new. We present measurements that demonstrate these behaviors in the current Internet.