Here, we report the recent discovery of 87 Neandertal footprints on the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula (Doñana shoreline, Spain) located on an upper Pleistocene aeolian littoral setting (about ...106 ± 19 kyr). Morphometric comparisons, high resolution digital photogrammetric 3D models and detailed sedimentary analysis have been provided to characterized the footprints and the palaeoenvironment. The footprints were impressed in the shoreline of a hypersaline swamped area related to benthic microbial mats, close to the coastline. They have a rounded heel, a longitudinal arch, relatively short toes, and adducted hallux, and represent the oldest upper Pleistocene record of Neandertal footprints in the world. Among these 87 footprints, 31 are longitudinally complete and measure from 14 to 29 cm. The calculated statures range from 104 to 188 cm, with half of the data between 130 and 150 cm. The wide range of sizes of the footprints suggests the existence of a social group integrated by individuals of different age classes but dominated, however, by non-adult individuals. The footprints, which are outside the flooded area are oriented perpendicular to the shoreline. These 87 footprints reinforce the ecological scenario of Neandertal groups established in coastal areas.
The intestinal barrier is composed of a complex cell network defining highly compartmentalized and specialized structures. Here, we use spatial transcriptomics to define how the transcriptomic ...landscape is spatially organized in the steady state and healing murine colon. At steady state conditions, we demonstrate a previously unappreciated molecular regionalization of the colon, which dramatically changes during mucosal healing. Here, we identified spatially-organized transcriptional programs defining compartmentalized mucosal healing, and regions with dominant wired pathways. Furthermore, we showed that decreased p53 activation defined areas with increased presence of proliferating epithelial stem cells. Finally, we mapped transcriptomics modules associated with human diseases demonstrating the translational potential of our dataset. Overall, we provide a publicly available resource defining principles of transcriptomic regionalization of the colon during mucosal healing and a framework to develop and progress further hypotheses.
Previous studies from our laboratory showed that in the anesthetized cat, the intradermal injection of capsaicin in the hindpaw facilitated the intraspinal field potentials (IFPs) evoked by ...stimulation of the intermediate and high-threshold myelinated fibers in the posterior articular nerve (PAN). The capsaicin-induced facilitation was significantly reduced 3–4 h after the injection, despite the persistence of hindpaw inflammation. Although this effect was attributed to an incremented descending inhibition acting on the spinal pathways, it was not clear if it was set in operation once the capsaicin-induced effects exceeded a certain threshold, or if it was continuously operating to keep the increased neuronal activation within manageable limits. To evaluate the changes in descending inhibition, we now examined the effects of successive reversible spinal blocks on the amplitude of the PAN IFPs evoked at different times after the intradermal injection of capsaicin. We found that after capsaicin the PAN IFPs recorded in laminae III–V by activation of high-threshold nociceptive Aδ myelinated fibers increased gradually during successive reversible spinal blocks, while the IFPs evoked by intermediate and low threshold proprioceptive Aβ afferents were only slightly affected. It is concluded that during the development of the central sensitization produced by capsaicin, there is a gradual increase of descending inhibition that tends to limit the nociceptive-induced facilitation, mainly by acting on the neuronal populations receiving inputs from the capsaicin-activated afferents without significantly affecting the information on joint angle transmitted by the low threshold afferents.
A previous study has indicated that during the state of central sensitization induced by the intradermic injection of capsaicin, there is a gradual facilitation of the dorsal horn neuronal responses ...produced by stimulation of the high-threshold articular afferents that is counteracted by a concurrent increase of descending inhibitory actions. Since these changes occurred without significantly affecting the responses produced by stimulation of the low-threshold articular afferents, it was suggested that the capsaicin-induced descending inhibition included a preferential presynaptic modulation of the synaptic efficacy of the slow conducting nociceptive joint afferents (Ramírez-Morales et al., Exp Brain Res 237:1629–1641, 2019). The present study was aimed to investigate more directly the contribution of presynaptic mechanisms in this descending control. We found that in the barbiturate anesthetized cat, stimulation of the high-threshold myelinated afferents in the posterior articular nerve (PAN) produces primary afferent hyperpolarization (PAH) in the slow conducting (25–35 m/s) and primary afferent depolarization (PAD) in the fast conducting (40–50 m/s) articular fibers. During the state of central sensitization induced by capsaicin, there is a supraspinally mediated shift of the autogenic PAH to PAD that takes place in the slow conducting fibers, basically without affecting the autogenic PAD generated in the fast conducting afferents. It is suggested that the change of presynaptic facilitation to presynaptic inhibition induced by capsaicin on the slow articular afferents is part of an homeostatic process aimed to keep the nociceptive-induced neuronal activity within manageable limits while preserving the proprioceptive information required for proper control of movement.
Keeping bio‐alive in geography education Morales‐Ramirez, Carlos A.; Wang, Yi‐Chen
Area (London 1969),
March 2022, 2022-03-00, 20220301, Letnik:
54, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
With the rapid changes our planet is undergoing, biogeography plays a key role in addressing real‐world issues such as species distribution change. However, biogeography is a discipline lacking a ...strong presence in education. This paper examines various curricula from Asia, the United Kingdom, and United States to understand the current status of biogeography education. We found that while some biogeographic concepts, especially those around biodiversity, are included in some geography and biology curricula, there is not a strong focus on the discipline. Some individuals only find out about the discipline from their graduate studies. Our questionnaire survey conducted with students at a university in Singapore showed that only 25% of the students had some understanding of the discipline’s focus, and they associated the discipline with keywords of plants, animals, organisms, environment, biology, and geography. Even incorrect responses included similar words associating biogeography with ecosystems and the environment. Based on the results, we make some recommendations, including the addition of biogeography in school standards and the availability of education tools and resources for educators. It is imperative for researchers to make educational materials and training tools easily accessible.
This research investigates the state of biogeography in education through the analysis of several curricula and literature. It incorporates a knowledge‐based questionnaire provided to university‐level students to support the need for stronger connections of the discipline within education.
Maternal obesity programmes offspring development. We addressed maternal obesity effects induced by high-fat diets on maternal mammary gland (MG) structure and function and offspring brain, liver and ...fat outcomes. Mothers were fed control (C, n 5) or obesogenic (MO, n 5) diet from the time they were weaned through pregnancy beginning at 120 d, through lactation. At offspring postnatal day (PND) 20, milk leptin and nutrients were determined. At the end of lactation, maternal liver and MG fatty acid profile were measured. Desaturase (Δ6D and Δ5D) and elongase (ELOVL 5 and ELOVL 2) protein was measured by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting (WB) in the liver and WB in the MG. In mothers, liver, MG and milk fat content were higher in MO than in C. Liver arachidonic acid (AA) and EPA and MG EPA were lower in MO than in C. Liver desaturases were higher in MO. The MG was heavier in MO than in C, with decreased Δ5D expression in MO. Desaturases and elongases were immunolocalised in parenchymal cells of both groups. Milk yield, water, carbohydrate content, EPA and DHA were lower, whereas milk leptin and AA were higher in MO than in C. At PND 21 and 36, brain weight was less and fat depots were greater in MO offspring than in C. MO decreased male absolute brain weight but not female absolute brain weight. In conclusion, maternal obesity induced by an obesogenic diet negatively affects maternal liver and MG function with the production of significant changes in milk composition. Maternal obesity adversely affects offspring metabolism and development.
Coordination of multi-agent systems is an active and ongoing research topic. In particular, there exist several coordination strategies for multi-agent systems, in which the interaction between the ...agents is via static couplings, i.e. couplings that are constructed using static feedback. In contrast, this paper presents a novel coordination strategy, which introduces the use of dynamic couplings to coordinate a group of unicycle robots following a desired trajectory. The proposed control-scheme is composed by a nonlinear tracking controller and a first-order dynamic coupling. One advantage of this scheme is that, with respect to an energy index, the energy required by the dynamic coupling to perform a cooperative task is lower than the energy required by a traditional scheme based on static coupling. The stability of the closed-loop system is formally demonstrated by using the Lyapunov theory and the obtained theoretical results are illustrated with numerical simulations and validated through experiments. Also, a comparison of the proposed strategy against a coordination scheme reported in the literature, which is based on traditional static coupling, is provided. The results show that the proposed scheme has some practical implications, including reduction of the steady state error and reduced overshoot during the transient.
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