The effect of stimulus discriminability on strategies for learning multiple temporal discriminations

The goal was to identify training conditions under which temporal intervals that are signaled by different stimuli are memorized (i.e., the temporal behavior is readily shown to be under stimulus control). Undergraduate students were trained on three signaled temporal discriminations using a peak procedure. The intervals were trained in either blocks of trials or with trials intermixed within the session, and then they were given a transfer test with intermixed trials. There were two levels of stimulus discriminability, defined by the similarity of the stimuli. Most participants memorized the intervals when the discriminations were intermixed within the session, or were easy, but not when the discriminations occurred in blocks and were difficult. In the transfer tests, those participants trained in the difficult discrimination that occurred in blocks of trials typically continued to perform as they did during the last-trained interval, regardless of the stimulus presented. These results are better explained by a memory retrieval than a memory storage account.     

The effects of elevated temperature and humidity on rectal temperature and respiration rate in the New Zealand white rabbit

In 2 replicated factorial experiments, 7-h climate chamber exposures were used to study the responses of adult NZW rabbits to a range of elevated temperatures and humidities. At 18 mm Hg water vapour pressure, 23.8° C was well tolerated, rectal temperature (RT) and respiration rate (RR) averaging 38.6±0.3° C and 82.9±15.5 breaths/min, respectively. Both parameters were elevated (P<0.001) at 32.2°, 37.8° and 43.3° C. RT and RR reached plateau levels of 39.5–40.1° C and 410–460/min at 32.2° C, which was tolerated for the full 7-h test period. Test temperatures of 37.8° and 43.3° C, on the other hand, could be tolerated for only 80 and 40 min respectively, before RT reached the safe upper limit of 41.7° C. Final RR values at 37.8° and 43.3° C were 701.6±42.7 and 812±55.1/min, respectively. In a 34.5° C atmosphere a humidity of 21 mm Hg water vapour pressure was classified as dry, and was tolerated for 323±123 min. RT and RR increased by 0.6° C and 316/min during the first 20 min of exposure (P<0.05). Thereafter both parameters increased progressively, but with no significant differences between successive recording periods, until RR reached 550.3±88.8/min at 41.7° C RT. Humidities of 25, 29 and 33 mm Hg water vapour pressure were, on the other hand, classified as wet and were tolerated for only 92±22, 81±16 and 119±50 min, respectively. RR at the times that RT reached 41.7° C at these 3 humidities was 732±26, 789±30 and 764±23/min, respectively. The results point to the likelihood that thermal stress will adversely affect the productivity and welfare of NZW rabbits in the tropics unless adequate housing environments are provided. Significant between-individual phenotypic differences in heat tolerance suggest the need for genetic studies of the possibility of selecting for improved heat tolerance.     

Sex differences in heat pain thresholds as a function of assessment method and rate of rise

Studies of sex differences in the responses to experimentally induced pain demonstrate greater pain sensitivity among females than males. However, studies investigating heat pain responses have produced inconsistent results. Differences in stimulus characteristics and assessment methods probably account for this variability. This study examined sex differences in the heat pain threshold as a function of two different assessment methods and varying rates of rise. Nineteen female and 18 male healthy volunteers underwent heat pain threshold assessment via the method of levels and the method of limits. In addition, both fast (4.0 C/s) and slow (0.5 C/s) rates of rise were used for the method of levels assessments. In order to examine the reliability of threshold values, each subject participated in two sessions, separated by approximately 8 days. Females evinced lower thresholds than males for the method of levels assessments with both slow and fast rates of rise ( ps < 0.05), while no sex differences emerged for the threshold assessed via the method of limits. Test-retest reliability coefficients were relatively high. However, thresholds generally increased significantly from session 1 to session 2. Between method correlations were generally low to moderate. These findings indicate that the method of levels may be more sensitive to sex differences than the more commonly used method of limits. Also, thresholds appear to increase from session 1 to session 2, and thresholds assessed via different methods are not strongly correlated. Potential implications of these results for experimental pain assessment are discussed.     

Influence of cooling temperature and duration on cold adaptation of Lactobacillus acidophilus RD758

The effect of different cooling temperatures and durations on resistance to freezing and to frozen storage at -20 degrees C in Lactobacillus acidophilus RD758 was studied, by using a central composite rotatable design. A cold adaptation was observed when the cells were maintained at moderate temperature (26 degrees C) for a long time (8h) before being cooled to the final temperature of 15 degrees C. These conditions led to a low rate of loss in acidification activity during frozen storage (0.64 minday(-1)) and a high residual acidification activity after 180 days of frozen storage (1011 min). The experimental design allowed us to determine optimal cooling conditions, which were established at 28 degrees C during 8h. Adaptation to cold temperatures was related to an increase in the unsaturated to saturated fatty acid ratio and in the relative cycC19:0 fatty acid concentration. Moreover, an increased synthesis of four specific proteins was observed as an adaptive response to the optimal cooling conditions. They included the stress protein ATP-dependent ClpP and two cold induced proteins: pyruvate kinase and a putative glycoprotein endopeptidase.     

The influence of storage temperature during machine perfusion on preservation quality of marginal donor livers

Background

Although non-heart-beating donors have the potential to increase the number of available organs, the livers are used very seldom because of the risk of primary non-function. There is evidence that machine perfusion is able to improve the preservation of marginal organs, and therefore we evaluated in our study the influence of the perfusate temperature during oxygenated machine perfusion on the graft quality.

Methods

Livers from male Wistar rats were harvested after 60-min warm ischemia induced by cardiac arrest. The portal vein was cannulated and the liver flushed with Lifor® (Lifeblood Medical, Inc.) organ preservation solution for oxygenated machine perfusion (MP) at 4, 12 or 21 °C. Other livers were flushed with HTK and stored at 4 °C by conventional cold storage (4 °C-CS). Furthermore two groups with either warm ischemic damage only or without any ischemic damage serve as control groups. After 6 h of either machine perfusion or cold storage all livers were normothermic reperfused with Krebs–Henseleit buffer, and functional as well as structural data were analyzed.

Results

Contrary to livers stored by static cold storage, machine perfused livers showed independently of the perfusate temperature a significantly decreased enzyme release of hepatic transaminases (ALT) during isolated reperfusion. Increasing the machine perfusion temperature to 21 °C resulted in a marked reduction of portal venous resistance and an increased bile production.

Conclusions

Oxygenated machine perfusion improves viability of livers after prolonged warm ischemic damage. Elevated perfusion temperature of 21 °C reconstitutes the hepatic functional capacity better than perfusion at 4 or 12 °C.     

The influence of temperature on the duration of egg development in West European grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Summary The relationship between embryonic postdiapause development (PDD) and temperature in ten Acridid species was studied by culturing eggpods from diapause onwards at constant temperatures (ranging from 15.0° C to 37.5° C). In six species PDD was also studied at fluctuating temperatures (12 h at 27.5° C and 12 h at 13.0° C). The PDD duration was strongly temperature dependent in all species studied (Q₁₀ values between 3.0 and 4.1) and differed greatly between species. To assess whether these differences affect habitat determination, PDD duration was related to habitat microclimate. We found that species with a relatively long PDD are restricted to relatively warm grasslands, while species with a short PDD are also found in colder grasslands. Two species have a more limited occurrence than predicted from PDD duration. It is argued that the length of PDD (and consequently hatching date) is crucial to the completion of the annual cycle. The results are applicable to conservation of grasshoppers in grasslands subject to eutrophication. Here increase of vegetation density and height will lead to lower maximum temperatures in the egg environment (i.e. near the soil surface) and consequently to a delay in hatching and loss of thermophilous species. Grassland management rules are proposed that should aid conservation of these species.     

Climate change and heat-related mortality in six cities Part 2: climate model evaluation and projected impacts from changes in the mean and variability of temperature with climate change

Previous assessments of the impacts of climate change on heat-related mortality use the “delta method” to create temperature projection time series that are applied to temperature–mortality models to estimate future mortality impacts. The delta method means that climate model bias in the modelled present does not influence the temperature projection time series and impacts. However, the delta method assumes that climate change will result only in a change in the mean temperature but there is evidence that there will also be changes in the variability of temperature with climate change. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of considering changes in temperature variability with climate change in impacts assessments of future heat-related mortality. We investigate future heat-related mortality impacts in six cities (Boston, Budapest, Dallas, Lisbon, London and Sydney) by applying temperature projections from the UK Meteorological Office HadCM3 climate model to the temperature–mortality models constructed and validated in Part 1. We investigate the impacts for four cases based on various combinations of mean and variability changes in temperature with climate change. The results demonstrate that higher mortality is attributed to increases in the mean and variability of temperature with climate change rather than with the change in mean temperature alone. This has implications for interpreting existing impacts estimates that have used the delta method. We present a novel method for the creation of temperature projection time series that includes changes in the mean and variability of temperature with climate change and is not influenced by climate model bias in the modelled present. The method should be useful for future impacts assessments. Few studies consider the implications that the limitations of the climate model may have on the heat-related mortality impacts. Here, we demonstrate the importance of considering this by conducting an evaluation of the daily and extreme temperatures from HadCM3, which demonstrates that the estimates of future heat-related mortality for Dallas and Lisbon may be overestimated due to positive climate model bias. Likewise, estimates for Boston and London may be underestimated due to negative climate model bias. Finally, we briefly consider uncertainties in the impacts associated with greenhouse gas emissions and acclimatisation. The uncertainties in the mortality impacts due to different emissions scenarios of greenhouse gases in the future varied considerably by location. Allowing for acclimatisation to an extra 2°C in mean temperatures reduced future heat-related mortality by approximately half that of no acclimatisation in each city.     

全球气候变化对四川盆地可能蒸散率(PER)的影响模拟

针对目前全球气候在降水和温度方面异常变化的情况 ,本文在利用信息技术对四川盆地的可能蒸散率 (PER)在未来 5种水热组合下的变化情况进行了模拟。结果表明 ,在全球气候变化的条件下 ,当温度升高时 ,四川省PER值将增高 ,分布区域将以 4个气候敏感区为核心 ,由东南向西北方向扩增 ,但随着降水量的增加 ,PER值将降低 ,分布区域将沿东南方向逐渐缩减     

The influence of stimulus intensity and inter-stimulus interval on the detection of pitch and loudness changes

This study illuminates processes underlying change detection for different features (detection of pitch versus loudness changes) and different amounts of attentional allocation (automatic versus attentive change detection). For this reason, the influence of important stimulus characteristics (intensity and inter-stimulus interval (ISI)) on these different types of change detection was determined. By varying intensity, it should be clarified whether these processes are mainly sensitive to the informational content of the change or to the total amount of stimulus energy. By varying ISI, it should be determined whether they are differentially sensitive to manipulations of encoding time and/or state of sensory refractoriness. Automatic change detection was indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN), which is a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). Attentive change detection was indexed by the N2b and P3 components of the ERP and by behavioral performance. Human subjects were presented with a high-probability standard tone and a low-probability deviant-tone, which differed from the standard tone in frequency (Experiment I) or intensity (Experiment II). In separate blocks, the intensities of the standard stimuli were of 55 and 70 dB SPL and ISIs were of 350 and 950 ms. During the first part of the experiments, subjects were engaged in silent reading, whereas they tried to discriminate deviants from standards in the second part. The MMN elicited by a frequency change was invariant to variations in intensity and ISI, whereas the MMN elicited by an intensity change was significantly modulated by both intensity and ISI. This implies functional differences between the neural traces underlying the frequency-MMN and the intensity-MMN. In addition, there were larger effects of the ISI on the N2b and P3 amplitudes as compared with the effects on the MMN amplitudes, suggesting stronger capacity limitations for attentive change detection than for automatic change detection.     

The influence of ambient temperature on the abundance of Poaceae pollen

The sampling of pollen concentrations over six seasons in north London has revealed the importance of temperature in influencing the start, severity, daily and diurnal variation of Poaceae pollen seasons. Using accumulated degree days above 6°C and rainfall amount as predictors, models have been developed which account for 96% of the variation in the starting date and 91% of the variation in the severity of the Poaceae pollen season. Maximum daily temperature is an important influence on the daily pollen count although this relationship is not linear and maximum daily temperatures within the range 21.1–25°C are associated with the highest daily pollen concentrations. Likewise, when the two-hourly variation of pollen concentration is examined, temperatures within 2–4.9°C above the normal diurnal range, rather than in excess of 5.0°C, are found to be associated with the highest two-hourly concentrations. Occasional night-time maxima of pollen concentration have also been recorded and these are examined in relation to the possibility of temperature inversions, although few conclusive results have emerged.     

The influence of pH and temperature on ethylene production by mycorrhizal fungi of pine

The production of ethylene by six mycorrhizal fungi of pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) grown in media with and without methionine at temperatures of 20° C and 26° C and at pH 4.0, 6.0 or 7.0 was studied. The fungi produced more ethylene at 26° C than at 20° C, and more ethylene in media containing methionine than in media without this precursor. The fungi studied synthesized the highest amounts of ethylene at 26° C and pH 6.O.     

小鼠下丘神经元声刺激跟随力与声时程及强度的关系

自由声场条件下,通过给予小鼠具有不同时程(10、40及100ms)、强度(最小阈值以上5、15、25、35及45dBSPL)、呈现率(0.5、1、2、3.3、5、6.7、10和20Hz)的纯音短声刺激,分析探讨了昆明小鼠下丘神经元声刺激跟随力与声时程及强度的关系。结果发现:多数神经元的脉冲发放数随声强增高而增加,随短声时程的延长而减少;随声强的增高,多数神经元的临界呈现率(CPR)和最大呈现率(MPR)变大,而随短声时程的延长,神经元的CPR、MPR变小为主要趋势;下丘神经元的声反应跟随力总体上随时程延长而下降,随声强加大而提高。推测当声时程延长、强度下降时,前次刺激对后继刺激声反应的抑制性影响增强,提示声时程适当缩短、声强增大可能有助于下丘神经元汇聚更多的声信息进行高级神经处理,从而提高听中枢表征高密度声信息的能力。     

The influence of climate on the timing and rate of spring bird migration

Ecological processes are changing in response to climatic warming. Birds, in particular, have been documented to arrive and breed earlier in spring and this has been attributed to elevated spring temperatures. It is not clear, however, how long-distance migratory birds that overwinter thousands of kilometers to the south in the tropics cue into changes in temperature or plant phenology on northern breeding areas. We explored the relationships between the timing and rate of spring migration of long-distance migratory birds, and variables such as temperature, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and plant phenology, using mist net capture data from three ringing stations in North America over a 40-year period. Mean April/May temperatures in eastern North America varied over a 5°C range, but with no significant trend during this period. Similarly, we found few significant trends toward earlier median capture dates of birds. Median capture dates were not related to the NAO, but were inversely correlated to spring temperatures for almost all species. For every 1°C increase in spring temperature, median capture dates of migratory birds averaged, across species, one day earlier. Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) budburst, however, averaged 3 days earlier for every 1°C increase in spring temperature, suggesting that the impact of temperature on plant phenology is three times greater than on bird phenology. To address whether migratory birds adjust their rate of northward migration to changes in temperature, we compared median capture dates for 15 species between a ringing station on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana in the southern USA with two stations approximately 2,500 km to the north. The interval between median capture dates in Louisiana and at the other two ringing stations was inversely correlated with temperature, with an average interval of 22 days, that decreased by 0.8 days per 1°C increase in temperature. Our results suggest that, although the onset of migration may be determined endogenously, the timing of migration is flexible and can be adjusted in response to variation in weather and/or phenology along migration routes.     

The influence of the rate of temperature change on the activation of dormant seeds of Rumex obtusifolius L.

1. One temperature shift from 20 to 30°C in darkness induces 30–40% germination in Rumex obtusifolius seeds. The same germination percentages are found with heat treatment varying between 1 and 6h duration, indicating that the total heat sum of the temperature shift is not important.
2. Germination is greatly enhanced by three consecutive heat shifts of 1h at 30°C separated by 1h periods at 20°C.
3. The seeds are activated to a small extent after a slow warming (+2°Ch^–1) from 20 to 30°C, followed by incubation for 1h at 30°C. Germination is much higher after rapid heating (+10°Ch^–1) to 30°C, followed by 1h incubation at this temperature. Repeated fast heating treatments on four consecutive days enhances germination. Moderately rapid heatings (+3·3°Ch^–1) give intermediate results.
4. The rate of cooling does not influence the germination percentage. Cooling alone cannot induce germination.
5. Heating alone from 15 to 25°C without cooling also activates germination. In this temperature range the seeds are more activated by rapid warming than by slow warming.
6. The ecological relevance of the response to different warming rate is discussed. The insensitivity of seeds to a slow warming might keep deeply buried seeds in a dormant stage.     

The influence of exercise intensity on the power spectrum of heart rate variability

The power spectral analysis of R-R interval variability (RRV) has been estimated by means of an autoregressive method in seven sedentary males at rest, during steady-state cycle exercise at 21 percent maximal oxygen uptake (%VO2max), SEM 2%, 49% VO2max, SEM 2% and 70% VO2max, SEM 2% and during recovery. The RRV, i.e. the absolute power of the spectrum, decreased 10, 100 and 500 times in the three exercise intensities, returning to resting value during recovery. In the RRV power spectrum three components have been identified: (1) high frequency peak (HF), central frequency about 0.24 Hz at rest and recovery, and 0.28 Hz, SEM 0.02, 0.37 Hz, SEM 0.03 and 0.48 Hz, SEM 0.06 during the three exercise intensities, respectively; (2) low frequency peak (LF), central frequency about 0.1 Hz independent of the metabolic state; (3) very low frequency component (VLF), less than 0.05 Hz, no peak observed. The HF peak power, as a percentage of the total power (HF%), averaged 16%, SEM 5% at rest and did not change during exercise, whereas during recovery it decreased to 5%-10%. The LF% and VLF% were about 50% and 35% at rest and during low exercise intensity, respectively. At higher intensities, LF% decreased to 16% and VLF% increased to 70%. During recovery a return to resting values occurred. The HF component may reflect the increased respiratory rate and the LF peak changes the resetting of the baroreceptor reflex with exercise. The hypothesis is made that VLF fluctuations in heart rate might be partially mediated by the sympathetic system.     

The influence of temperature on contractile properties of motor units in rat medial gastrocnemius

The effects of hypothermia and hyperthermia on mammalian skeletal muscle function have previously been reported. However, their effects on the contractile properties of different motor unit (MU) types were not described. This study aimed to explore the effect of temperature on contractile properties of MUs in rat medial gastrocnemius kept at 25 °C (hypothermia), 37 °C (normothermia), and 41 °C (hyperthermia). Hypothermia prolonged the twitch time parameters of all MU types, shifting the steep part of the force-frequency curve towards lower frequencies and increasing its steepness. In addition, it reduced the rate of force development but not the twitch and tetanus forces of slow-twitch (S) MUs. Moreover, it reduced the tetanic force of fast-twitch fatigable (FF) MUs and increased the twitch force of fast-twitch fatigue-resistant (FR) MUs. In contrast, hyperthermia had opposite effects on twitch time properties and the force-frequency relationship. The twitch-to-tetanus ratio decreased for FF and FR MUs, and the steep part of the force-frequency curve shifted towards higher frequencies and decreased in steepness. Our findings indicate that FF MUs are the most sensitive and S MUs are the least sensitive to temperature. Furthermore, force control processes involving changes in motoneuronal firing frequency were radically modified for fast MUs, especially FF MUs.