We examined the effects of short- and long-duration exposure to cell phone radiation (CPR) on phototactic response (PR) and circadian characteristics of locomotor-activity rhythm, respectively, in ...zebrafish. We exposed four groups (10 in each) randomly selected fish to CPR emitted by a 2300 MHz 4G cell phone for 0.5 h, 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, and 4 h duration at two different time points of a day, i.e. morning and evening, to assess the PR. We also studied the effects of 1 week CPR exposure on circadian rhythm in locomotor activity pattern in eight singly housed zebrafish. We had eight singly housed sham-exposed zebrafish as the control. Results of two-way ANOVA revealed statistically significant effects of the factors exposure time and exposure duration on the PR of zebrafish. Fish exhibited photo-positive response till 2 h following morning exposure, and thereafter, showed photo-negative response with increased duration of exposure. During evening exposure, the fish were mostly photo-negative. However, 1 week exposure to CPR did not produce any significant effects on the circadian characteristics of locomotor activity rhythm. It is concluded that the CPR might alter phototaxis, but not the parameters of circadian rhythm in locomotor activity pattern of zebrafish.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is a global health emergency warranting the development of targeted treatment. The main protease M
pro
is considered as a key drug target in coronavirus ...infections because of its vital role in the proteolytic processing of two essential polyproteins required for the replication and transcription of viral RNA. Targeting and inhibiting the M
pro
activity represents a valid approach to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 replication and spread. Based on the structure-assisted drug designing, here we report a circadian clock-modulating small molecule "SRT2183" as a potent inhibitor of M
pro
to block the replication of SARS-CoV-2. The findings are expected to pave the way for the development of therapeutics for COVID-19.
In the urban landscape of developing countries like India, three species, i.e., humans, cattle, and dogs coexist and interact regularly. In the current study, we evaluated the intra- and ...interspecific interactions with special reference to street cattle in an urban area. We conducted the study at ten different locations in Raipur City and observed different types of possible interactions. We found licking and butting as the most frequent positive and negative intraspecific interactions, respectively among individuals of the street cattle population. The frequency of neutral interaction among the three species is statistically significantly higher than either positive or negative interactions. The positive interaction between cattle and dogs was more than the negative interaction. But, in the case of cattle-human interactions, the negative interaction was greater than the positive interaction. A statistically significant time-of-day variation was noticed in the licking, playing, mounting, pushing, and butting behavior under the intraspecific interaction category in the cattle. The negative interaction of cattle with dog and human, human towards cattle, positive interaction of dog towards cattle, and neutral interactions between cattle-dog and cattle-human also exhibited time-of-day variability. In conclusion, all three species coexist in the urban landscape with a markedly higher frequency of neutral interaction followed by negative interactions among them. For the welfare of all three species minimization of dumping of open garbage is recommended as one of the key strategies to overcome the cattle and dogs menace on the urban streets of India and elsewhere.
Circadian rhythms in the physiological and behavioral processes of humans play a crucial role in the quality of living and also in the magnitude of success and failure in various endeavors including ...competitive sports. The rhythmic activities of the body and performance in sportspersons do have a massive impact on their every cutthroat competition. It is essential to schedule sports activities and training of players according to their circadian typology and time of peak performance for improved performance and achievement. In this review, the focus is on circadian rhythms and diurnal variations in peak athletic performance in sportspersons. Accuracy and temporal variability in peak performance in an individual could be attributed to various factors, namely chronotype, time of the day, body temperature, jetlag, hormones, and prior light exposure. Circadian rhythm of mood, alertness, T-core, and ultimately athletic performance is not only affected by sleep but also by circadian variations in hormones, such as cortisol, testosterone, and melatonin. There are, however, a few reports that are not consistent with the conclusions drawn in this review. Nevertheless, circadian rhythm and performance among sportspersons and athletes are important areas of research. This review might be useful to the managers and policymakers associated with competitive sports and athletic events.
We evaluated the effects of the exposure to radio-frequency radiation emanating from the base transceiver station (BTS) on the characteristics of circadian rest-activity rhythm and behavioral sleep ...variables in humans. We performed this exploratory field study in a sample of 89 healthy subjects randomly chosen out of 1434 individuals surveyed for the purpose. We divided 89 subjects into five groups, including the control, as a function of distance from the BTS. The E-field strength was higher in the groups of the inter-tower region and between 0 and 150 m away from the BTS. The E-field (distance) did not significantly affect the circadian rhythm parameters and behavioral sleep variables, except a marginal delay in the peak timings of the rest-activity rhythm of subjects in the inter-tower and 300-500 m groups. Notable secondary effects of the factor gender were noticed on circadian amplitude, sleep efficiency, dichotomy index, and wake after sleep onset. We concluded that exposure to radiation from the BTS did not modulate actigraphy-based behavioral sleep variables of people residing around BTS installations. We recommend more extensive field-based studies with rigorous longitudinal designs to validate the effects of radiation from the BTS in humans.
We studied time-of-day and seasonal variations in the foraging behavior of street cattle in Raipur city, India. We recorded the foraging behavior of street cattle at 48-time points each day for over ...three consecutive days at 10 different locations of Raipur city across three distinct seasons of the year. We log-transformed the time series data and employed Single Cosinor to compute the characteristics of time-of-day variation in foraging activity. We also determined the effects of the factors "time-of-day" and "season" on foraging behavior and the number of cattle. We found statistically significant time-of-day variation in foraging pattern with the peaks located mostly at midday hours, irrespective of seasons. The amplitude of foraging was the least in the summer as compared with the rainy and the winter seasons. The factors "time-of-day" and "season" modulated both foraging activity and frequency of cattle on the streets statistically significantly. The observed spatiotemporal patterns in the foraging behavior of cattle on the streets might provide useful information to the stakeholders engaged in mitigating the urban cattle menace in Raipur city and elsewhere in the world.
It is well known that cancer and its treatment produce marked impact on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of cancer patients. Research concerning impact of chronotype on HRQoL in cancer ...patients is almost not studied yet, but the interests are growing in several diseases. Present study was carried out to explore the impact of socio-demographics, chronotype and consumption of tobacco, alcohol and sleeping medicine on HRQoL of Indian oncology patients. Self-reported Quality-of-Life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) were administered to the cancer patients (N = 1000) in the native Hindi language. Results revealed that among the socio-demographic factors, only age exhibited significant negative association with physical, role and cognitive functioning and positive association with symptoms, namely fatigue and pain. Interestingly, chronotype was found to be positively associated with emotional functioning and negatively with nausea-vomiting, dyspnoea, diarrhoea and depression. Patients who consumed tobacco, alcohol or sleeping medicine exhibited lower functioning and higher symptoms. Further, treatment of cancer also produced effect on a few measures of HRQoL of patients. In conclusion, age, chronotype and consumption of tobacco, alcohol or sleeping medicine were found to be important determinants of HRQoL of the patients.
Behavior and foraging ecology of cattle: A review Sahu, Bhupendra Kumar; Parganiha, Arti; Pati, Atanu Kumar
Journal of veterinary behavior,
November-December 2020, 2020-11-00, Letnik:
40
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Cattle are diurnal and distributed all over the world. They are true ruminants and exhibit several behaviors, namely, foraging, reproductive, social, maternal care, dominance, cognitive behavior, and ...so on. Foraging behavior is essential for their survival, growth, and reproductive fitness. A review of the literature reveals that in most of the research papers and projects, the study of cattle behavior has not been one of the primary objectives of the research—most of the documents focused on foraging and reproductive behavior from the angle of economic prospective only. The Scopus and other searches revealed only 2 publications on street/stray cattle. Street/stray cattle are the perfect model to study their changing behavior during urbanization. Therefore, information on the behavioral ecology of street/stray cattle will be relevant and valuable for the ethologists studying urban ecology and landscape.
Chemotherapy administration may result in the disruption of circadian rhythms and impairment of quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients. Nevertheless, we have little knowledge on the long-term ...consequences of chemotherapy and the effects of hospitalization. In the present study, we employed the two-factor repeated-measure cross-sectional design to determine the effects of chemotherapy and hospitalization on rest-activity (RA) rhythm and QoL of breast cancer patients. Initially, we randomly selected 39 inpatients and 42 outpatients, scheduled to receive six cycles of chemotherapy, from the Regional Cancer Center (RCC), Raipur, India. Finally, 30 patients in each group were included in the current study. We monitored circadian RA rhythm and QoL using wrist actigraphy and QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23, respectively, during the 1st (C1), 3rd (C3) and 6th (C6) chemotherapy cycles. Results revealed that with the progression of chemotherapy cycles (from C1 to C6), all rhythm parameters, namely mesor, amplitude, acrophase, rhythm quotient (RQ), circadian quotient (CQ), peak activity (PA), dichotomy index and autocorrelation coefficient, significantly decreased in both cancer in- and outpatients. In both groups of patients and during C1-C6, all functional and global QoL measures of QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 significantly decreased and the symptoms significantly increased, except constipation, body image, sexual functioning and future perspectives in outpatients. The hospitalization exacerbated the problems associated with the RA rhythm and the QoL of the patients. In conclusion, the current study highlighted the negative consequences of hospitalization among inpatients, irrespective of the stage of cancer. We, therefore, recommend that cancer patients should be administered with chemotherapy as outpatients. The proposed protocol might have a covert bearing on the expression of better physiological state leading to satisfactory treatment outcomes.
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