Introduction/purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that cardiovascular (CV) drift and associated decrements in maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O 2max ) are greater in high-fit compared with low-fit women during exercise at the same %V̇O 2max , but comparable at the same rate of metabolic heat production.
Methods: Six high-fit (HI) and six low-fit (LO) women cycled in 35°C for 15 or 45 min at the same relative intensity (60% V̇O 2max ; 15REL and 45REL) or fixed rate of heat production (500 W; 15FX and 45FX), immediately followed by a graded exercise test to measure V̇O 2max . The separate 15- and 45-min trials permitted measurements of V̇O 2max over the same time interval as CV drift.
Drift and gene flow affect genetic diversity. Given that the strength of genetic drift increases as population size decreases, management activities have focused on increasing population size through preserving habitats to preserve genetic diversity. Few studies have empirically evaluated the impacts of drift and gene flow on genetic diversity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe amphibian skin microbiome is an important component of anti-pathogen defense, but the impact of environmental change on the link between microbiome composition and host stress remains unclear. In this study, we used radiotelemetry and host translocation to track microbiome composition and function, pathogen infection, and host stress over time across natural movement paths for the forest-associated treefrog, Boana faber. We found a negative correlation between cortisol levels and putative microbiome function for frogs translocated to forest fragments, indicating strong integration of host stress response and anti-pathogen potential of the microbiome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPassive dispersal via wind or ocean currents can drive asymmetric gene flow, which influences patterns of genetic variation and the capacity of populations to evolve in response to environmental change. The mangrove rivulus fish (), hereafter "rivulus," is an intertidal fish species restricted to the highly fragmented New World mangrove forests of Central America, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Florida. Mangrove patches are biological islands with dramatic differences in both abiotic and biotic conditions compared to adjacent habitat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the extent to which behavioural variance is underlain by genotypic, environmental and genotype-by-environment effects is important for predicting how behavioural traits might respond to selection and evolve. How behaviour varies both within and among individuals can change across ontogeny, leading to differences in the relative contribution of genetic and environmental effects to phenotypic variation across ages. We investigated among-individual and among-genotype variation in aggression across ontogeny by measuring, twice as juveniles and twice as adults, both approaches and attacks against a three-dimensional-printed model opponent in eight individuals from each of eight genotypes ( = 64).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The aim of this study was to examine the potential differences in acute hemodynamic responses and muscular performance outcomes following resistance exercise between traditional blood flow restriction (TRA) and a novel band tissue flossing method (BTF).
Methods: Fifteen healthy young adults (23.27 ± 2.
The adaptive significance of colorful or exaggerated traits (i.e., ornaments) expressed in females is often unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFColorful traits (i.e., ornaments) that signal quality have well-established relationships with individual condition and physiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWarm dense matter is a region of phase space that is of high interest to multiple scientific communities ranging from astrophysics to inertial confinement fusion. Further understanding of the conditions and properties of this complex state of matter necessitates experimental benchmarking of the current theoretical models. We discuss the development of an x-ray radiography platform designed to measure warm dense matter transport properties at large laser facilities such as the OMEGA Laser Facility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vertebrate stress response comprises a suite of behavioural and physiological traits that must be functionally integrated to ensure organisms cope adaptively with acute stressors. Natural selection should favour functional integration, leading to a prediction of genetic integration of these traits. Despite the implications of such genetic integration for our understanding of human and animal health, as well as evolutionary responses to natural and anthropogenic stressors, formal quantitative genetic tests of this prediction are lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To develop an interactive television program, Room with a View, to address social isolation in older adults residing Rhode Island (RI) and Southern Massachusetts (MA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using an Omaha System guideline for best practices in reducing social isolation and loneliness in older adults, the project team developed 25 evidence-based television episodes with the help of a production company. The program was aired on commercial, traditional (non-cable) television to allow for easy access.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmotions encompass cognitive and behavioural responses to reward and punishment. Using contests as a case-study, we propose that short-term emotions underpin animals' assessments, decision-making and behaviour. Equating contest assessments to emotional 'appraisals', we describe how contestants appraise more than resource value and outcome probability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Compared to other modulators of physiological strain associated with exercise heat stress, hyperthermia results in the greatest magnitude of cardiovascular (CV) drift and associated decrements in maximal oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]).
Purpose: To determine if elevated core temperature in the luteal phase (LP) of the menstrual cycle results in greater CV drift and reductions in [Formula: see text] versus the follicular phase (FP).
Methods: Seven women performed 15- and 45-min cycling bouts on separate occasions (60% [Formula: see text], 35 °C) followed by a [Formula: see text] test during the FP and LP.
Prominent theory suggests that factor one psychopathic traits may develop from increased input from hormones in the hypothalamic pituitary gonadal axis (HPG; i.e., testosterone) and decreased input from the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA; i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcdysteroids are a family of insect hormones that may play a role in modulating aggressive behavior in reproductive contexts. In Hymenoptera, the few studies investigating the link between ecdysteroid titers, reproduction and aggressiveness during contests concern solely eusocial species. Here, we explored whether ecdysteroid titers influenced female reproductive status as well as aggressiveness and resolution of conflict in a solitary ectoparasitoid, Eupelmus vuilleti (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFβ-N-Methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA), a neurotoxin naturally produced by cyanobacteria, diatoms and dinoflagellates, constitutes a serious environmental and health threat especially during acute blooms, which are becoming more frequent. This neurotoxin is implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases (ND) in humans through contaminated water or food consumption. Even low doses of neurotoxic compounds (NCs) can have lasting effects later in life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed to characterize cardiac-autonomic responses to a 13-day preseason camp in the heat among an American college football team. Players were categorized as linemen (n=10) and non-linemen (n=18). RHR, natural logarithm of the root-mean square of successive differences multiplied by twenty (LnRMSSD), and subjective wellbeing (LnWellness) were acquired daily.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtreme inbreeding is expected to reduce the incidence of hybridization, serving as a prezygotic barrier. Mangrove rivulus is a small killifish that reproduces predominantly by self-fertilization, producing highly homozygous lines throughout its geographic range. The Bahamas and Caribbean are inhabited by two highly diverged phylogeographic lineages of mangrove rivulus, Kryptolebias marmoratus and a 'Central clade' closely related to K.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn heterogeneous environments, mobile species should occupy habitats in which their fitness is maximized. Mangrove rivulus fish inhabit mangrove ecosystems where salinities range from 0 to 65 ppt, but are most often collected from areas with salinities of ∼25 ppt. We examined the salinity preference of mangrove rivulus in a lateral salinity gradient, in the absence of predators and competitors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the ecological pressures that generate variation in body shape is important because body shape profoundly affects physiology and overall fitness. Using , a genus of fish that exhibits considerable morphological and physiological variation with evidence of repeated transitions between freshwater and saltwater habitats, we tested whether habitat salinity has influenced the macroevolution of body shape at different stages in development. After accounting for phylogenetic inertia, we find that body shape deviates from the optimal streamlined shape in a manner consistent with different osmoregulatory pressures exerted by different salinity niches at every stage of ontogeny that we examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetabolic rate and life-history traits vary widely both among and within species, reflecting trade-offs in energy allocation, but the proximate and ultimate causes of variation are not well understood. We tested the hypothesis that these trade-offs are mediated by environmental heterogeneity, using isogenic strains of the amphibious fish that vary in the amount of time each can survive out of water. Consistent with pace of life theory, the strain that survived air exposure the longest generally exhibited a 'slow' phenotype, including the lowest metabolic rate, largest scope for metabolic depression, slowest consumption of energy stores and least investment in reproduction under standard conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSnarr, RL, Esco, MR, Tolusso, DV, Hallmark, AV, Earley, RL, Higginbotham, JC, Fedewa, MV, and Bishop, P. Comparison of lactate and electromyographical thresholds after an exercise bout. J Strength Cond Res 33(12): 3322-3331, 2019-The electromyographical threshold (EMGT) has been previously validated as a means to predict the work rate at which lactate threshold (LT) occurs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Laser Shock Station in the Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) [Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory] links a laser-driven shock compression platform with high energy x-ray pulses from the APS to achieve in situ, time-resolved x-ray measurements (diffraction and imaging) in materials subjected to well-characterized, high stress, short duration shock waves. This station and the other DCS experimental stations provide a unique and versatile facility to study condensed state phenomena subjected to shocks with a wide range of amplitudes (to above ∼350 GPa) and time-durations (∼10 ns-1 µs). The Laser Shock Station uses a 100 J, 5-17 ns, 351 nm frequency tripled Nd:glass laser with programmable pulse shaping and focal profile smoothing for maximum precision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) laser is a 100-J ultraviolet Nd:glass system designed and built by the Laboratory for Laser Energetics for experimental research at the DCS located at the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne National Laboratory). Its purpose is to serve as a shock driver to study materials under extreme dynamic pressures. It was designed to deposit energy within a uniformly illuminated 500-μm spot on target, with additional optics provided to implement spot sizes of 250 and 1000 μm.
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