Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

Is The Secret to Saving Migratory Birds in the Meal Prep? – Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

The Bird House team at the Smithsonians National Zoo has many beaks to feed, including 23 species of migratory songbirds and shorebirds. But what happens when they are hungry to migrate and theres nowhere to go? Curator Sara Hallager and nutritionist Erin Kendrick share some of the valuable lessons they have learned from taking these marvelous migrators under their wing.

Come fall and spring, migratory songbirds and shorebirds are programmed to do two things: fly and eat. In preparing for the long journey ahead, these birds exhibit a normal behavior called migratory restlessness. During this period, they dont sleep much at night. They eat more. They put on a lot of weight. They expend all that energy (and those extra calories) as they embark on their marvelous migrations.

But what happens when those birds cannot travel, say, because they are housed in a Zoo? Do they gorge themselves, even though they have nowhere to go? How do keepers and Zoo nutritionists help individual animals stay physically fit and healthy, even as their physiology changes naturally with the seasons?

The answer lies in the meal prep.

Before we get into the ins-and-outs of our birds diets, lets look at how they eat in the wild.

ABOVE: Mealworms are on the menu for the Zoos American avocets. To help them acclimate to sharing a space with their caretakers, keeper Lori Smith crouches a short distance away. She tosses the tasty snacks onto a placemat, and the avocets gobble them up.

Songbirds know its time to migrate in the fall, when their food staples (like bugs and berries) decrease. In the spring, they get the urge to migrate back to their breeding grounds for one reasoninsectswhich provide essential protein to newly hatched chicks. There arent enough insects in the tropics to feed both year-round residents and visitors, so migratory species return home in the spring. There, they find an abundance of food resources for themselves and their chicksuntil the cycle begins again.

Like songbirds, shorebirds follow their prey: aquatic and terrestrial insects, crustaceans, mollusks and very small fish. Most insects are only on the menu during the Northern Hemisphere summers. To find food the rest of the year, shorebirds need to fly south.

Stopover points, including the Delaware Bay on the Eastern Shore, are critical to shorebirds journeys. They fill up on fattening foods, such as nutrient-rich horseshoe crab eggs. Food is fuel. Without enough of it, a bird may leave the stopover point late and miss the opportunity to mate. They may find a mate, but lack the energy to breed. Or, they may die during the grueling journey.

Migratory birds in human care do not have to worry about finding food like their wild counterparts do. However, our experience has shown us that these birds can gain (or lose) weight very quickly with the seasons, even if their diets remain the same. They appear to be hard-wired to do this.

ABOVE: Over the summer,we celebrated the arrival of three wood thrush chickstwo females and one maleJune 9, 10 and 12. This was incredibly exciting for several reasons, not the least of which is that mom hatched at the Zoo last year.

Knowing that their weight fluctuates depending on the season, we use what we know about each species food preferences, weight and physiology to make daily tweaks and seasonal adjustments to their diets. A species-appropriate, nutritionally balanced diet will support a migratory bird over its lifetime, through breeding, raising chicks, growth and eventually geriatric care. As such, we aim to keep them within the weight ranges that their wild counterparts exhibit.

During breeding season, songbirds drive for insect consumption increases greatly. So, we increase the amount of insects we feed them, and decrease our plant-based offerings. Heading into winter, we do the opposite. Because there are naturally fewer insects, we feedand the birds consumemore plant parts.

Shorebirds seem to have hearty appetites year-round. They receive pellets formulated for insectivorous animals as well as chopped shrimp, krill, mealworms crickets, clam meat, mussels and the occasional crab. It has been remarkable how well they have taken to their Zoo diets. Some birds even consumed pellets immediately upon arrival!

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Is The Secret to Saving Migratory Birds in the Meal Prep? - Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Physiology

Kinesiology Doctoral Students Win NEACSM Awards at 2020 Annual Meeting – UMass News and Media Relations

Kinesiology doctoral students Robert Marcotte and Joseph Gordon III received scholarship awards during the annual New England Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (NEACSM) Fall Conference held virtually Oct. 15 and 16.

Marcotte received the Linda S. Pescatello 2020 Doctoral Scholarship, and Gordon received the Lawrence E. Armstrong Minority Scholarship. Both scholarships are awarded based on academic excellence, professional experience, professional activities such as attending conferences and workshops, publication of peer-reviewed research, and skill in obtaining grants.

I continue to be impressed by and very proud of our graduate students, both individually and collectively, says professor and chair of kinesiology Jane Kent. Both Jay and Rob are emerging scholars in their areas of research. They are also providing important leadership outside the lab, as well. I wish them the best of luck as they pursue their dissertation studies.

Marcotte is a member of associate professor John Sirards Physical Activity and Health Lab. For his dissertation, Marcotte is developing a scalable and convenient method to estimate the relative intensity of physical activities using wearable activity trackers (i.e., accelerometers) and evaluate its validity under naturalistic, free-living settings.

It's an honor to be recognized for the efforts I have been putting into my academics and research thus far, says Marcotte. My achievements are a result of the support and encouragement of my advisor, Dr. John Sirard, and my lab mates. We strive to produce quality work and motivate one another to continue moving forward on our projects, and for that I am grateful!

Gordon specializes in muscle physiology under the supervision of Kent. His work in Kents Muscle Physiology Lab investigates the effects of aging, sex-differences, fat deposition and training on muscle function. His dissertation research will examine the effects of fat deposition on the biochemical environment, muscle architecture, and functional performance of a variety of populations using magnetic resonance (MR) techniques.

Under normal circumstances I would feel happy to be selected for any merit-based award, says Gordon. That being said, this year I also feel particularly proud to earn this award with the social climate of our country being as polarized as it has been in its history. My goal is to perennially shed light on the disproportionate underrepresentation of all people of color within research, academia, and STEM. I hope this acknowledgement is one way to increase awareness about inherently disadvantaged populations, and others can feel encouraged to provide resources for these groups.

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Kinesiology Doctoral Students Win NEACSM Awards at 2020 Annual Meeting - UMass News and Media Relations

Physiology

Explained: From dolphins and whales, new insights on Covid-19 – The Indian Express

By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Updated: December 5, 2020 8:06:51 amRain, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. (University of California - Santa Cruz)

When infected by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, people experience a drop in oxygen levels in their blood. This makes them vulnerable to damage in a large range of tissues. Compare this with marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, which spend their lifetime switching between environments of high and low oxygen levels, but tolerate both because their bodies have adapted that way.

In a review article published in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology on Thursday, ecologist and evolutionary biologist Terrie Williams of the University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz explores how the diving physiology of marine mammals can help us understand the effects of Covid-19. Williams has spent decades studying the physiology of marine mammals and their extraordinary ability to perform strenuous activities while holding their breath for long periods under water. Texas A&M University marine biologist Randall Davis has co-authored the paper with her.

Marine mammals have ways to protect themselves and allow their organs to keep functioning while holding their breath for hours at a time. But to be able do that, they have had to undergo a whole suite of biological adaptations.

The fact that humans lack these adaptations makes it important for people to protect themselves from infection with this virus. Damage to oxygen-deprived tissues happens fast and can be irreversible, which may account for the long-term effects we are beginning to see in people after coronavirus infections, Williams said in a statement on her research. Follow Express Explained on Telegram

The heart and brain are especially sensitive to oxygen deprivation, and marine mammals have multiple mechanisms to protect these and other critical organs

Marine mammals have a capacity for carrying much more oxygen than humans.

Some marine mammals contract their spleen during dives, which releases oxygen-rich blood cells into the circulation.

To avoid blood clots resulting from such high concentrations of red blood cells, many marine mammal species lack a clotting mechanism found in other mammals.

Marine mammals have greatly increased concentrations of oxygen-carrying proteins such as myoglobin in heart and skeletal muscles, and neuroglobin and cytoglobin in the brain.

Numerous safety factors enable tissues in marine mammals to withstand low oxygen and the subsequent reperfusion of tissues with oxygenated blood. In humans, reperfusion after a heart attack or stroke often leads to additional tissue damage.

According to Williams, the solutions that marine mammals have evolved provide a natural template for understanding the potential for damage to oxygen-deprived tissues in humans.

There are so many ramifications of shutting down the oxygen pathway, and I think thats what were seeing in these Covid patients, she said.

Our heart and brain cells are meant to last a lifetime, and we cannot replace them once they are damaged, she added. Dolphins and whales have natural protections that humans lack, so we are highly vulnerable to hypoxia.

The research was funded by the Office of Naval Research.

Source: University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz

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Explained: From dolphins and whales, new insights on Covid-19 - The Indian Express

Physiology

Utilizing consumer cameras for contact-free physiological measurement in telehealth and beyond – Microsoft

Our research is enabling robust and scalable measurement of physiology. Cameras on everyday devices can be used to detect subtle changes in light reflected from the body caused by physiological processes. Machine learning algorithms are then used to process the camera images and recover the underlying pulse and respiration signals that can then be used for health and wellness tracking.

According to the CDC WONDER Online Database, heart disease is currently the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. However, most deaths due to cardiovascular diseases could be prevented with suitable interventions. Early detection of changes in health and well-being can have a significant impact on the success of these interventions and boost the chances of positive outcomes. Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is an example of a symptom that can indicate increased risk of heart disease, and when detected early, it can inform interventions that help to reduce risk of stroke.

Physiological sensing plays an important role in helping people track their health and detect the onset of symptoms. However, there are barriers to conducting physiological sensing that act as a disincentive, such as access to medical devices and the inconvenience of performing regular measurements. Making physiological sensing more accessible and less obtrusive can reduce the burden on people to perform physiological assessments of this kind and help catch early warning signs of symptoms like AFib.

Over the past decade, researchers have discovered that increasingly available webcams and cellphone cameras combined with AI algorithms can be used as effective health sensors. These methods involve measurement of very subtle changes in the appearance of the body across time, in many cases changes imperceptible to the unaided human eye, to recover physiological information. In essence, as ambient light in a room hits your body, some is absorbed and some is reflected. Physiological processes such as blood flow and breathing change the appearance of the body very subtly over time.

A smartphone camera can pick up this reflected light, and the changes in pixel intensities over time can be used to recover the underlying sources of these variations (namely a persons pulse and respiration). Using optical models grounded in our knowledge of these physiological processes, a video of a person can be processed to determine their pulse rate, respiration, and even the concentration of oxygen in their blood.

Building on previous work, our team of researchers from Microsoft Research, University of Washington, and OctoML have collaborated to create an innovative video-based on-device optical cardiopulmonary vital sign measurement approach. The approach uses everyday camera technology (such as webcams and mobile devices) and a novel convolutional attention network, called MTTS-CAN, to make real-time cardio-pulmonary measurements possible on mobile platforms with state-of-the-art accuracy. Our paper, Multi-Task Temporal Shift Attention Networks for On-Device Contactless Vitals Measurement, has been accepted at the 34th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2020) and will be presented in a Spotlight talk on Monday, December 7th at 6:15PM- 6:30PM (PT).

Camera-based physiological sensing has numerous fitness, well-being and clinical applications. For everyday consumers, it could make home monitoring and fitness tracking more convenient. Imagine if your treadmill or smart at-home fitness equipment could continuously track your vitals during your run without you needing to wear a device or sync the data. In clinical contexts, camera-based measurements could enable a cardiologist to more objectively analyze a patients heart health over a video call. Contact sensors, necessary for monitoring vitals in intensive care, can damage the skin of infantsremote sensing could provide a more comfortable solution.

Perhaps the most obvious application for camera-based physiological sensing is in telehealth. The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic is transforming the face of healthcare around the world. One example of this revolution can be seen in the number of medical appointments held via teleconference, which has increased by more than an order of magnitude because of stay-at-home orders and greater burdens on healthcare systems. This is due to the desire to protect healthcare workers and restrictions on travel, but telehealth also benefits patients by saving them time and costs. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending the use of telehealth strategies when feasible to provide high-quality patient care and reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in healthcare settings. The COVID-19 virus has been linked to increased risk of myocarditis and other serious cardiac (heart) conditions, and experts are suggesting that particular attention should be given to cardiovascular and pulmonary protection during treatment.

In most telehealth scenarios, however, physicians lack access to objective measurements of a patients condition because of the inability to capture signals such as the patients vital signs. This concerns many patients because they worry about the quality of the diagnosis and care they can receive without objective measurements. Ubiquitous sensing could help transform how telehealth is conducted, and it could also contribute to establishing telehealth as a mainstream form of healthcare.

It can take many years for new technologies such as these to transition from research discoveries to mature applications. The fields of AI and computer vision, as a whole, are six decades old, yet it is only in the past 10 years that many applications have started to reach fruition. Research on camera-based vital sign monitoring began much more recentlywithin the past 15 yearsso there is still a lot of effort required to help it reach maturity.

Contact sensors (electrocardiograms, oximeters) are the current gold standard for measurement of heart and lung function, yet these devices are still not ubiquitously available, especially in low-resource settings. The development of video-based contactless sensing of vital signs presents an opportunity for highly scalable physiological monitoring. Computer vision for remote cardiopulmonary measurement is a growing field, and there is room for improvement in the existing methods.

First, the accuracy of measurements is critical to avoid false alarms or misdiagnoses. The US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) mandates that testing of a new device for cardiac monitoring should show substantial equivalence in accuracy with a legal predicate device (for example, a contact sensor). This standard has not been obtained in non-contact approaches. Second, designing models that run on-device helps reduce the need for high-bandwidth internet connections, making telehealth more practical and accessible. Our method, detailed below, works to improve accuracy with a newly designed algorithm (see Figure 1) and runs on-device.

Camera-based cardiopulmonary measurement is also a highly privacy-sensitive application. This data is personally identifiable, combining videos of a patients face with sensitive physiological signals. Therefore, streaming and uploading data to the cloud to perform analysis is not ideal. This motivated our focus to develop methods that run on devicehelping keep peoples data under their control.

Finally, the ability to run at a high frame rate enables opportunistic sensing (for example, obtaining measurements each time you look at your phone) and helps capture waveform dynamics that could be used to detect atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and heart rate variability where high-frame rates (at least 100Hz) are a requirement to yield precise measurements of the waveform dynamics.

To help address the gaps in the current research, we developed an algorithm for multi-parameter physiological measurement that can run on a standard mid-range mobile phone, even at high frame rates. The method uses a type of deep learning algorithm called a convolutional neural network and analyzes pixels in a video over time to extract estimates of heart and respiration rates. The algorithm extracts two representations of the face: 1) the motion representation that contains the temporal changes pixel information and 2) the appearance representation that helps guide the network toward the spatial regions of the frame to focus on. Our specific design of this method is called a multi-task temporal shift convolutional attention network (MTTS-CAN). See Figure 2 below for details.

We introduced several features to help address the challenges of privacy, portability, and precision in contactless physiological measurement. Our end-to-end MTTS-CAN performs efficient temporal modeling and removes sources of noise without any added computational overhead by leveraging temporal shift operations rather than 3D convolutions, which are computationally onerous.

These shift operations allow the model to capture complex temporal dependencies, which are particularly important for recovering the subtle dynamics of the pulse and respiration signals. An attention module improves signal source separation by helping the model learn which regions of the video frame to apply greater importance to, and a multi-task mechanism shares the intermediate representations between pulse and respiration to jointly estimate both simultaneously.

Multi-task learning is effective for two reasons. First, the heart rhythms are correlated with breathing patterns meaning the two signals share some common propertiesthis is a principle known as Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA). Second, by sharing many of the preliminary processing steps, we can dramatically reduce the computation required.

By combining these three techniques, our proposed network can run on a mobile CPU and achieve state-of-the-art accuracy and inference speed. Ultimately, these features result in significant improvements for gathering real physiological signals, like heart rate and pulse (see Figure 3).

One concern with optical measurement of vital signs is whether performance will work equally across people, including all skin types and appearances (for example, those with facial hair, wearing cosmetics, head coverings, or glasses). We have worked on characterizing these differences and helping to reduce them using personalization and data augmentation. Improving sensing technology to create equitable performance is a central focus to this research.

We hope that this work advances the speed at which scalable non-contact sensing can be adopted. Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is just one of most common cardiovascular symptoms that impact millions of people and could be better detected with more accurate, easily deployed non-contact health sensing systems. Our work is a step in this direction. Through our research we are continuing to develop methods for sensing other physiological parameters, such as blood oxygen saturation and pulse transit time.

If youre interested in learning more about our research in physiological sensing, there are a number of resources available. Our project page is a hub for publications and related content, including links to open-source code. We also recently gave a webinar on contactless camera-based health sensing that further elaborates on this work and dives deeper into how the technology works. Register now to watch the on-demand webinar/Q&A.

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Utilizing consumer cameras for contact-free physiological measurement in telehealth and beyond - Microsoft

Physiology

OCTC to offer 4-week winter session – The Owensboro Times

Owensboro Community & Technical College will offer a condensed four-week winter session due to the popularity of the initial offering in 2019. This term will begin on Dec. 14 and run through Jan. 10.

The session will include online courses in a condensed format, including Accounting; Principles of Marketing; Introduction to Art; Introduction to Biology; Basic Anatomy/Physiology with lab and Basic Anatomy/Physiology Lab (paired courses); Human Anatomy and Physiology/Human A7P with Lab (paired courses); Introduction to Computers; Basic Public Speaking; Introduction to Interpersonal Communication; and History of Women in America.

For the full listing of OCTC Winter session courses,click here. This is an opportunity for students to get ahead, catch up, or lighten their course load for future semesters.

Registration is open now and will continue through Dec. 14.

New students can sign up in person at the START Center, located in the upper level of the Campus Center at 4800 New Hartford Road, open 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m Monday through Thursday.

For a virtual or scheduled appointment new students may emailoctc.startcenter@kctcs.edu or call 270-686-4522.

Current students may register online or see an advisor in the Pathfinder Den, located in the lower level of the Campus Center.or a personal or virtual appointment students may call 270-686-4683 or emailoctc.pathfinderden@kctcs.edu.

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OCTC to offer 4-week winter session - The Owensboro Times

Physiology

December: optimal stress levels | News and features – University of Bristol

Scientists have created an evolutionary model to predict how animals should react in stressful situations.

Almost all organisms have fast-acting stress responses, which help them respond to threats but being stressed uses energy, and chronic stress can be damaging.

The new study by an international team, including researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, suggests most animals remain stressed for longer than is optimal after a stress-inducing incident.

The reasons for this are not clear, but one possibility is that there is a limit to how quickly the body can remove stress hormones from circulation.

While the physiological basis for the stress response system has been extensively studied, we previously understood remarkably little about why this system has evolved,"saidDr Sian Englishfrom the University of Bristols School of Biological Sciences.

Weve shown that considering both mechanisms of hormone clearance, and features of the environment - how predictable the threat is across time - can help explain the universal stress response, and how it varies.

Our findings are all the more relevant today when we live in such uncertain times, and stress being a topic of every day discussion."

Dr English worked with experts in mathematical modelling, including Bristol Professor, John McNamara and Dr Tim Fawcett from the University of Exeter, to develop the conceptual framework and to consider the broader implications on stress in fish, birds and mammals.

We have created one of the first mathematical models to understand how organisms have evolved to deal with stressful events," said Dr Fawcett.

It combines existing research on stress physiology in a variety of organisms with analysis of optimal responses that balance the costs and benefits of stress.

We know stress responses vary hugely between different species and even among individuals of the same species as we see in humans.

Our study is a step towards understanding why stress responses are so variable.

The researchers define stress as the process of an organism responding to stressors (threats and challenges in their environment), including both detection and the stress response itself.

A key point highlighted in the study is the importance of how predictable threats are.

The model suggests that an animal living in a dangerous environment should have a high "baseline" stress level, while an animal in a safer environment would benefit from being able to raise and reduce stress levels rapidly.

"Our approach reveals environmental predictability and physiological limits as key factors shaping the evolution of stress responses," said lead author Professor Barbara Taborsky, of the University of Bern.

"More research is needed to advance scientific understanding of how this core physiological system has evolved."

The study was carried out by the universities of Bern, Exeter, Bristol, Stockholm and Turku, and the Brain Mind Institute at cole polytechnique fdrale de Lausanne.

Funding was provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Paper:

Towards an evolutionary theory of stress responses, by Taborsky, B., English, S., Fawcett, T.W. et al.; in Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

Life Sciences at the University of BristolThe Faculty of Life Sciences brings together the five Schools of:

We have a long-standing tradition of excellence in research and teaching. Our broad range of expertise opens up a wealth of opportunities for all our students. Hereyou can study a range of challenging, research-focused, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, all taught in the context of world-leading research environments, usingspecialist equipment and facilities. We also work closely with the Faculty of Health Sciences contributing to the delivery of the University's three professional programmes:Medicine,DentistryandVeterinary Science.

Our research addresses a range of the important challenges in the life sciences. From tackling ecosystem and global change, to innovation in fundamental biosciences for better human, animal, plant and ocean health. From understanding animal and human behaviour and wellbeing, to developing future synthetic biotechnologies and so driving the UK's bioeconomy. Early career research training in the faculty is supported by a powerful range of3 and 4 year Doctoral Training Programmes.

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December: optimal stress levels | News and features - University of Bristol

Physiology

Elf Physiology, According to Lord of the Rings | CBR – CBR – Comic Book Resources

The Lord of the Rings' Elves are the height of grace amongst fantasy species, unique in their physiology and abilities.

The Elves in The Lord of the Rings are, in many ways, what people think of when they think of the mythical species theclassic, archetypical fantasy Elves with their lithe forms and mystical countenances. However, Tolkien's version of the beings is still unique, as there are many different interpretations of them throughout folklore. The Elves of The Lord of the Rings have specific characteristics that make them particularly special.

Elves are some of the Children of Ilvatar (the others being Men), and Ilvatar is this universe's supreme being. They were the first species to find Middle-earth. Some other names of the Elves are Quendi, which means "those who speak" in Quenya (one of the primary languages spoken by Elves),and Minnnar, which means "Firstborn." Elves are considered the closest beings to the Valar, who are akin to angels in this universe, and the Vala Orom was specifically bonded to the Elves. He was the one that prompted the arrest of the evil Melkor, who is akin to the devil, and the Sundering of the Elves.

RELATED: How Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Movies Changed the Book's Characters

The Elves are split into groups, which are defined less by physical differences and more by the choices of their forebears. The Avari Elves, chose to remain in Middle-earth after Orom suggested they migrate to Valinor, the "Land of the Valar," in Aman, the "blessed realm;" others, theVanyar and the oldor, were quick to make the journey, while the Teleri arrived later and were therefore seen as lesser, and these groups became the Eldar. In Valinor, they learned to excel in art, building and metalwork. After Melkor escaped, sowed chaos in Valinor and prompted a war, some Elves returned to Middle-earth and lived there until the Third Age, when The Lord of the Rings takes place. This includes the Elves of Rivendell and Mirkwood, who are featured most prominently in the story. The Rivendell elves are some of the oldor, while Mirkwood's population is comprised of Sindar and Silvan Elves, descended from the Teleri.

Like many fictional immortal species, Elves are somewhat immortal not in the sense that they cannot be killed, but in the sense that they are long-lived, it is incredibly difficult to kill them and they are immune to things like age and illness. Some Elves have healing powers, which are connected to their fa or spirit, and can also create items to aid in healing. Physical injury can kill them, however, and they are capable of wasting away if they lose their will to live. When Elves do die, they pass to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor, where they wait and reflect on their lives until, (unless they do not wish to be or have committed serious crimes in their lives) they are reincarnated. If an Elf with mortal ancestry chooses to become fully mortal, like Arwen (Liv Tyler) did, they will be able to die of natural causes.

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Elf Physiology, According to Lord of the Rings | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Physiology

In Alzheimers, Connection Between Bone, Brain, and Microbiome May Be Critical – Newswise

Newswise TROY, NY - An estimated 50 million people worldwide live with dementia, a syndrome that progressively affects a persons cognitive function. Alzheimers disease is the most common form of dementia, but a full understanding of the mechanisms behind how and why it occurs remains elusive.

With the support of a new grant from the National Institutes of Health, a team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will examine the interactions between the brain, bone, and the gut microbiota in relation to Alzheimers disease. What the researchers learn could lead to new biomarker and therapeutic discoveries for both diagnosis and treatment.

We believe that we live in a very bone-centric world, said Deepak Vashishth, the director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at Rensselaer. Anything that goes on in the body is somehow stored in bone, so it has a memory.

Vashishth, a foremost expert on osteoporosis, is leading this research with Blanca Barquera, a professor of biological sciences and member of CBIS. Their angle on Alzheimers is unique.

They are focusing their efforts on osteocalcin, a bone-specific protein that affects a number of physiological processes, including energy expenditure and glucose levels. Osteocalcin also has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, where it binds to neurons and affects the synthesis of neurotransmitters.

Our theory is that the bone produces a protein, osteocalcin, which gets modified or not modified by the microbiome and then affects the brain function, Vashishth said. We are trying to determine if there is a correlation and a mechanistic link between the two, especially in the context of Alzheimers disease.

In the microbiota the collection of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses that live inside the human body vitamin K, produced by some bacteria in the gut, regulates carboxylation, which in turn regulates the level of osteocalcin in the body. An altered composition of bacteria in the gut could affect vitamin K production, therefore affecting the level of osteocalcin in the body. Distorted levels of osteocalcin may affect glucose metabolism, leading to the formation of advanced glycation end-products, which are linked to Alzheimers disease and diabetes-related skeletal fragility.

This project, a collaboration between an engineer who studies bones and a biochemist who studies bacterial physiology, is an example of how fruitful interdisciplinary cooperation can be, Barquera said.

This collaboration embodies the New Polytechnic model that drives education and research at Rensselaer. Leaning on Vashishths expertise in bone health and Barqueras expertise on the gut microbiota, the team will determine the bone and microbiome alterations that happen alongside Alzheimers progression. Vashishth and Barquera will evaluate the effects of altering vitamin K production by gut bacteria on carboxylated osteocalcin, which may affect the onset of Alzheimers disease.

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In Alzheimers, Connection Between Bone, Brain, and Microbiome May Be Critical - Newswise

Physiology

Lindsey Bryant: a track and field star for the Wildcats – The Orion

Ryan McCasland/Chico State Sports Information

Lindsey Bryant, a sophomore and exercise physiology major who is a current member of the high jump/javelin track and field team at Chico State.

Lindsey Bryant is a sophomore at Chico State and is a member of the womens track and field team. Bryant was born in Paradise and attended Durham High School.

Bryant represents the team as a member of the high jump and javelin squad. Bryants mom participated with the track and field team at Chico State as well, so the family legacy has been of great inspiration.

My mom did track at Chico State, Bryant said. She opened me up to the idea of doing it at Durham High School and from there, I fell in love with it. I missed it once I graduated high school.

Before coronavirus shut down the teams season last semester, Bryant got a chance to compete in an event called The Stanislaus State Kim Duyst International in Turlock, California on March 6 and 7.

In the final results of the Womens High Jump, Bryant finished in a three way tie for 11th place at 1.48m. She also took home ninth place in the Womens Javelin competition with a mark of 31.27m.

Even though sports are halted this semester, Bryant still finds ways to stay active so that when it comes time to return to action, she is ready to go.

I run on my own time, Bryant said. Ive been getting big into yoga because thats good for the mind especially with everything going on. I do workouts at home trying to stay fit that way.

While Bryant may not be out on the field competing, she does manage to keep strong relationships and friendships going with her roommates, Jacqueline Massey-Blake and Lara Condosta, both of which are also on the track and field team.

Shes very laid back, Condosta said. Shes one of the chillest people Ive ever met. She has a funny personality. Shes very honest in the best way. Shes just a very real friend.

When Bryant is not hanging with her friends, she is working hard in school and has a dog who she has a strong relationship with.

Im an exercise physiology major, Bryant said. I have a dog named Ace. He is my pride and joy. I spend a lot of time with him. I take him on walks and things like that.

With the pandemic going on and all classes being on Zoom, Bryants head coach Robert Nooney stays in touch with the team pretty regularly to make sure everyone is doing good. Nooney has a strong relationship with Bryant and has nothing but positive things to say about her.

Shes a local gal, Nooney said. Thats always really cool. Shes a very good athlete. Shes super positive and a great teammate. It was almost as if she had been with our team for a while.

Outside of just talking with one another whether its on the phone or via Zoom, Nooney and Bryant have even had a chance to workout together outside of school.

Ive had a chance to connect with her (Lindsey) in person just a few times weve done some curbside meetups, Nooney said. On Monday I would do the workout with her in the hills. It was fun. We didnt say much at times because we were training and we were tired, but I think there was that connection and that respect.

Alex Martin can be reached at [emailprotected] or @alexmartinjour on Twitter.

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Lindsey Bryant: a track and field star for the Wildcats - The Orion

Physiology

In a warming climate, can birds take the heat? – Agri News

URBANA, Ill. We dont know precisely how hot things will get as climate change marches on, but theres reason to believe animals in the tropics may not fare as well as their temperate relatives.

Many scientists think tropical animals, because theyre accustomed to a more stable thermal environment, may be pushed beyond their limits quickly as temperatures soar. And that could lead to massive species loss.

Yet, in a first-of-its-kind study, University of Illinois researchers show both temperate and tropical birds can handle acute heat stress much better than expected.

In terms of their thermal physiology, a lot of these birds, including tropical species, can tolerate temperatures that are a lot higher than what they experience in their daily lives. That was surprising because tropical ectotherms, such as insects, have been shown to be extremely vulnerable to climate warming, said Henry Pollock, postdoctoral researcher at Illinois and first author on the study. Were just not seeing the same things in birds. It is somewhat encouraging.

Although they observed some promising trends, the researchers caution against celebrating too soon.

Its not necessarily comforting news. If someone walked away from this thinking tropical birds are going to do fine because theyre not going to overheat, that would be a simplistic bottom line to take away from this paper, said Jeff Brawn, professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at U of I and co-author on the study.

Warming is likely to affect tropical birds indirectly, by impacting their resources, the structure of tropical forests. So, they may not be flying around panting, suffering from heat exhaustion, but there may be more indirect effects.

To test the assumption that tropical and temperate birds differ in their ability to cope with heat stress, Pollock brought 81 species from Panama and South Carolina into field labs to test their responses to rising temperatures.

Using tiny sensors, he was able to detect internal body temperatures, as well as metabolic rates, when he exposed the birds to warmer and warmer environments.

Species from both temperate and tropical zones handled the rising temperatures just fine. Birds from South Carolina had a higher heat tolerance, on average, than Panamanian birds, but both groups exceeded Pollock and Brawns expectations.

And among all the birds, doves and pigeons emerged as thermal superstars. Most birds cool down by panting, but doves and pigeons take advantage of their unique-among-birds ability to sweat.

In fact, Pollock said, they exceeded the limits of his testing equipment.

Although the study provided the first-ever heat tolerance data for many bird species, the results take on more meaning when put into the context of warming projections.

Both temperate and tropical birds were able to tolerate temperatures into the 40s (in degrees Celsius), but they only experience maximum temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius in their everyday environments, so they have a substantial buffer, Pollock said.

In other words, even if maximum air temperatures rise 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, as projected by some scientists, thats well within the thermal safety margins of all the birds Pollock measured.

Its important to note the experiment, which measured acute heat stress, doesnt exactly replicate whats projected to happen during much more gradual climate warming.

But few studies have examined the effects of chronic heat stress in birds, and having this baseline knowledge of their acute physiological limits is a good start.

This is the first geographic comparison ever for birds. We need more data from more sites and studies of chronic heat stress over longer periods of time. But I think at the very least, what we can say is that theyre able to tolerate higher temperatures than I think anybody expected, Pollock said.

Brawn added: Were just starting to scratch the surface of what we need to do to really understand how climate change is going to affect birds. But this is an important first step.

The article, Heat tolerances of temperate and tropical birds and their implications for susceptibility to climate warming, is published in Functional Ecology. Authors include Pollock, Brawn and Zachary Cheviron.

The research was supported by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U of I.

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In a warming climate, can birds take the heat? - Agri News