Prolonged chronic stress has deleterious effects on immune function and is associated with numerous negative health outcomes. The spleen harbors one-fourth of the body's lymphocytes and mediates both innate and adaptive immune responses. However, the subset of splenic lymphocytes that respond, either adaptively or maladaptively, to various stressors remains largely unknown. Here we investigated...

Fish rearing in cages installed in reservoirs has developed rapidly in Brazil over the last decade. However, this type of aquaculture induces some changes in the environment because of the high quantity of nutrients released into the surroundings. This study evaluated trophic changes resulting from these nutrient inputs into the diet, feeding activity and nutritional condition of Auchenipterus ...

We report here the first photo-chemical control of a ribozyme reaction by the site-specific modification of the 2'-hydroxyl nucleophile in the hammerhead system with a caging functionality. Rapid laser photolysis of the O-(2-nitrobenzyl) caging group initiates an efficient and accurate hammerhead-catalyzed cleavage of substrate RNA under native conditions. RNAs in which reactive functionalities...

This paper digs into the relationship between cages and grasps of a rigid body. In particular, it considers the use of cages as waypoints to grasp an object. We introduce the concept of pregrasping cages, caging configurations from which an object can be grasped without first breaking the cage. For two-fingered manipulators, all cages are pregrasping cages and, consequently, useful waypoints to...

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are keystone predators that consume a variety of benthic invertebrates, including the intertidal mussel, Mytilus californianus. By virtue of their competitive dominance, large size, and longevity, M. californianus are ecosystem engineers that form structurally complex beds that provide habitat for diverse invertebrate communities. We investigated whether otters affec...

Enhancing laboratory animal welfare, particularly in rodents, has been achieved through environmental enrichment in caging systems. Traditional enrichment such as adding objects has shown to impact development, reproductive and maternal performance as well as cognition. However, effects of increased spatial complexity as part of larger novel caging systems have not been investigated. While adop...

Proposition 2, which requires that egg-laying hens be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely, was passed by the voters of California in 2008. These new housing requirements were introduced in the USA and European Union without considering the potential impact of changes in layer hen housing on the health of poultry w...

Iatrogenic preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (iPPROM) remains the main complication after invasive interventions into the intrauterine cavity. Here, the proteolytic stability of mussel-mimetic tissue adhesive (mussel glue) and its sealing behavior on punctured fetal membranes are evaluated. The proteolytic degradation of mussel glue and fibrin glue were compared in vitro. Critical pressures...

Intrinsic motivation, that is, internal rewards that reinforce certain behaviors in organisms, is an integral part of human development. This idea can be translated to the field of developmental robotics as a way to implement autonomous learning. This paper introduces the Curiously Adaptive Growing Intelligent Neural Gas (CAGING) algorithm, a hybrid system that builds on previous implementation...

In colonies, bacteria are often densely packed due to strong attractive forces between neighboring cells. For organisms where aggregation is mediated by type 4 pili interactions, the pilus-mediated motor activity fluidizes these but it unclear how close packaging affects bacterial motility. Here, we characterize dynamics of single cells over five orders magnitude in time. At short timescales, f...