Swiss veterinary research and development project in the Gambia: the point of view of the breeder concerning control of helminthiasis in livestock

The Ama have existed for more than 2000 years in Japan and Korea. They have been diving for seaweed and molluscs. Their traditional way of fishing, with goggles or a mask, but without a wetsuit, is still practised as a result of laws against overfishing. We investigated cardiovascular diving responses, expressed as heart rate (HR) reduction, peripheral vasoconstriction indicated by skin blood flow (SkBF) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) during breath-hold face immersion in a group of eight elderly male Ama at Chikura, Japan. Their data were compared to those from three other groups: a) elderly non-divers; b) young divers and c) young non-divers. Our previous studies have shown that young divers show a more pronounced bradycardia than young non-divers. The present study of elderly Ama and elderly non-divers was performed to investigate if this difference persists in old age. We found that, in spite of many years of diving experience, HR reduction of the elderly professional divers observed during face immersion did not differ from that of elderly non-divers, but it was much less pronounced than in the two younger groups. We conclude that even if a well-developed diving response at young age has been reduced to the level of non-divers, the Ama are still able to continue their work of diving in old age. Ama that has been a traditionally female occupation, is mostly practised by men at Chikura today. No young have been recruited for this profession. Therefore, the present Ama are senior and the traditional breath-hold diving will probably cease to exist in the near future. The probable reasons for these changes are discussed.     

Parathyroid hormone leads to the lysosomal degradation of the renal type II Na/Pi cotransporter

We have studied the involvement of proteolytic pathways in the regulation of the Na/Pi cotransporter type II by parathyroid hormone (PTH) in opossum kidney cells. Inhibition of lysosomal degradation (by leupeptin, ammonium chloride, methylamine, chloroquine, L-methionine methyl ester) prevented the PTH-mediated degradation of the transporter, whereas inhibition of the proteasomal pathway (by lactacystin) did not. Moreover it was found (i) that whereas lysosomal inhibitors prevented the PTH-mediated degradation of the transporter they did not prevent the PTH-mediated inhibition of the Na/Pi cotransport and (ii) that treating opossum kidney cells with lysosomal inhibitors led to an increased expression of the transporter without any concomitant increase in the Na/Pi cotransport. Further analysis by subcellular fractionation and morphological techniques showed (i) that the Na/Pi cotransporter is constitutively transported to and degraded within late endosomes/lysosomes and (ii) that PTH leads to the increased degradation of the transporter in late endosomes/lysosomes.     

Pathline: A Tool For Comparative Functional Genomics

Biologists pioneering the new field of comparative functional genomics attempt to infer the mechanisms of gene regulation by looking for similarities and differences of gene activity over time across multiple species. They use three kinds of data: functional data such as gene activity measurements, pathway data that represent a series of reactions within a cellular process, and phylogenetic relationship data that describe the relatedness of species. No existing visualization tool can visually encode the biologically interesting relationships between multiple pathways, multiple genes, and multiple species. We tackle the challenge of visualizing all aspects of this comparative functional genomics dataset with a new interactive tool called Pathline. In addition to the overall characterization of the problem and design of Pathline, our contributions include two new visual encoding techniques. One is a new method for linearizing metabolic pathways that provides appropriate topological information and supports the comparison of quantitative data along the pathway. The second is the curvemap view, a depiction of time series data for comparison of gene activity and metabolite levels across multiple species. Pathline was developed in close collaboration with a team of genomic scientists. We validate our approach with case studies of the biologists’ use of Pathline and report on how they use the tool to confirm existing findings and to discover new scientific insights.     

Affective responses to system messages in human–computer-interaction: Effects of modality and message type

Affective responses of users to system messages in human–computer interaction are a key to study user satisfaction. However, little is known about the particular affective patterns elicited by various types of system messages. In this experimental study we examined if and how different system messages, presented in different modalities, influence users’ affective responses. Three types of messages, input requests, status notifications, and error messages, were presented either as text or speech, and either alone or in combination with icons or sounds, while users worked on several typical computer tasks. Affective responses following system messages were assessed employing a multi-modal approach, using subjective rating scales as well as physiological measures. Results show that affective responses vary systematically depending on the type of message, and that spoken messages generally elicit more positive affect than written messages. Implications on how to enhance user satisfaction by appropriate message design are discussed.     

Optimality model of unsupervised spike-timing-dependent plasticity: synaptic memory and weight distribution

We studied the hypothesis that synaptic dynamics is controlled by three basic principles: (1) synapses adapt their weights so that neurons can effectively transmit information, (2) homeostatic processes stabilize the mean firing rate of the postsynaptic neuron, and (3) weak synapses adapt more slowly than strong ones, while maintenance of strong synapses is costly. Our results show that a synaptic update rule derived from these principles shares features, with spike-timing-dependent plasticity, is sensitive to correlations in the input and is useful for synaptic memory. Moreover, input selectivity (sharply tuned receptive fields) of postsynaptic neurons develops only if stimuli with strong features are presented. Sharply tuned neurons can coexist with unselective ones, and the distribution of synaptic weights can be unimodal or bimodal. The formulation of synaptic dynamics through an optimality criterion provides a simple graphical argument for the stability of synapses, necessary for synaptic memory.     

Bird's‐Eye ‐ Large‐Scale Visual Analytics of City Dynamics using Social Location Data

The analysis of behavioral city dynamics, such as temporal patterns of visited places and citizens' mobility routines, is an essential task for urban and transportation planning. Social media applications such as Foursquare and Twitter provide access to large‐scale and up‐to‐date dynamic movement data that not only help to understand the social life and pulse of a city but also to maintain and improve urban infrastructure. However, the fast growth rate of this data poses challenges for conventional methods to provide up‐to‐date, flexible analysis. Therefore, planning authorities barely consider it. We present a system and design study to leverage social media data that assist urban and transportation planners to achieve better monitoring and analysis of city dynamics such as visited places and mobility patterns in large metropolitan areas. We conducted a goal‐and‐task analysis with urban planning experts. To address these goals, we designed a system with a scalable data monitoring back‐end and an interactive visual analytics interface. The monitoring component uses intelligent pre‐aggregation to allow dynamic queries in near real‐time. The visual analytics interface leverages unsupervised learning to reveal clusters, routines, and unusual behavior in massive data, allowing to understand patterns in time and space. We evaluated our approach based on a qualitative user study with urban planning experts which demonstrates that intuitive integration of advanced analytical tools with visual interfaces is pivotal in making behavioral city dynamics accessible to practitioners. Our interviews also revealed areas for future research.     

Aeration Characteristics of Ski Jump Jets

Scour downstream of ski jumps may be avoided by jet deflection to an area where the energy dissipation is accomplished. The main purpose of this experimental study was the analysis of the jet air entrainment downstream of a ski jump, both for pure water and preaerated approach flow conditions. A systematic variation of the Froude number and the flow depth in the approach flow channel resulted in a range of discharge characteristics, whereas the geometry of the ski jump was maintained for all tests. The air concentration profile was measured at different locations downstream from the ski jump to evaluate the: (1) jet air concentration distribution; (2) location of minimum air concentration along the mixture flow jet and development of the minimum and the cross-sectional average air concentrations; (3) jet trajectories; and (4) process of air entrainment characteristics and jet disintegration. The results demonstrate the significant effect of the approach flow Froude number, the approach flow depth, and of preaeration on jet disintegration.     

Chute Aerators: Steep Deflectors and Cavity Subpressure

Chute aerators are applied to high-velocity spillways to entrain air into the flow so that cavitation damage is avoided. Air entrainment occurs locally at the aerator, whereas further downstream the flow is deaerated. This process is relevant because it defines the influence range of an aerator. A preliminary study investigated the effect of the aerator geometry and of the approach flow conditions on the streamwise bottom and average air concentration characteristics. Two aspects were excluded, namely, the effect of (1) steep deflectors, which operate more efficiently regarding air entrainment yet with simultaneously poor flow features; and (2) cavity subpressure effect on the streamwise air concentration field. A cavity subpressure reduces, in particular, the streamwise bottom air concentrations or it provokes aerator choking so that the cavitation protection is not ensured. Physical model tests indicate that optimum aerator performance results at deflector angles around 10°, i.e., a slope of 1∶5 relative to the chute bottom with acceptable shock wave formation, spray generation, and jet height.