Electrode Fabrication and Implantation in Aplysia californica for Multi-channel Neural and Muscular Recordings in Intact,Freely Behaving Animals

Recording from key nerves and muscles of Aplysia during feeding behavior allows us to study the patterns of neural control in an intact animal. Simultaneously recording from multiple nerves and muscles gives us precise information about the timing of neural activity. Previous recording methods have worked for two electrodes, but the study of additional nerves or muscles required combining and averaging the recordings of multiple animals, which made it difficult to determine fine details of timing and phasing, because of variability from response to response, and from animal to animal. Implanting four individual electrodes has a very low success rate due to the formation of adhesions that prevent animals from performing normal feeding movements. We developed a new method of electrode fabrication that reduces the bulk of the electrodes inside the animal allowing for normal feeding movements. Using a combination of glues to attach the electrodes results in a more reliable insulation of the electrode which lasts longer, making it possible to record for periods as long as a week. The fabrication technique that we describe could be extended to incorporate several additional electrodes, and would be applicable to vertebrate animals.Download video file.^{(145M, mp4)}     

Comparison of the Distal Gut Microbiota from People and Animals in Africa

The gut microbiota plays a key role in the maintenance of healthy gut function as well as many other aspects of health. High-throughput sequence analyses have revealed the composition of the gut microbiota, showing that there is a core signature to the human gut microbiota, as well as variation in its composition between people. The gut microbiota of animals is also being investigated. We are interested in the relationship between bacterial taxa of the human gut microbiota and those in the gut microbiota of domestic and semi-wild animals. While it is clear that some human gut bacterial pathogens come from animals (showing that human – animal transmission occurs), the extent to which the usually non-pathogenic commensal taxa are shared between humans and animals has not been explored. To investigate this we compared the distal gut microbiota of humans, cattle and semi-captive chimpanzees in communities that are geographically sympatric in Uganda. The gut microbiotas of these three host species could be distinguished by the different proportions of bacterial taxa present. We defined multiple operational taxonomic units (OTUs) by sequence similarity and found evidence that some OTUs were common between human, cattle and chimpanzees, with the largest number of shared OTUs occurring between chimpanzees and humans, as might be expected with their close physiological similarity. These results show the potential for the sharing of usually commensal bacterial taxa between humans and other animals. This suggests that further investigation of this phenomenon is needed to fully understand how it drives the composition of human and animal gut microbiotas.     

Travelling Companions: Emerging Diseases of People, Animals and Plants Along the Malawi-Mozambique Border

Humans, animals and plants suffer from similar types of diseases (e.g., fungal, viral etc.). These can “emerge” as new diseases by expanding their geographical range or by jumping species (from plants to plants, or from animals to humans). Emerging diseases place an additional burden on developing countries which are often struggling to manage the diseases they already have. New diseases spread through weather, insects or other vectors, or by the movement of people, animals or goods. This study examines the role of cross-border travel in the spread of diseases. A survey of travelers and of residents along the Malawi-Mozambique border found that most cross it frequently and that they rarely travel empty-handed, often taking plants and animals with them. People also cross borders seeking medical attention. Attempting to limit travel would hamper an already struggling economy, where many people make a living by producing, processing or transporting plants and animals for food. Cross border travel per se may pose slight danger for the spread of diseases, if governments can collaborate on sharing information about the status of diseases within their border.     

The Firefly and the Trout: Recent Shifts Regarding the Relationship Between People and other Animals in Japanese Culture

ABSTRACT

Scholars of Japan like to point out that the Japanese are interested in tamed (miniature trees, ikebana, gardens) as opposed to wild nature, and that for the Japanese, culture and nature are not mutually exclusive concepts. Moreover, there hardly seems to be any direct relationship between the Japanese sensitivity to nature and Japanese environmental behaviour. Bearing these general assumptions in mind, this paper analyzes the changes in the relationship between the Japanese and animals through two recent movements in Japan: firefly protection and fly fishing.

This study is based on interviews and participant observation among several firefly protection groups in the Kansai area from 1989 to 1997, among fly-fishing fishermen, and in fishing cooperatives of Gifu prefecture since 1997. In order to ascertain tendencies regarding new shifts in attitudes toward animals, specific observations regarding each of these issues will be disregarded so as to deal only with the commonalities. The similarities between the movements are indeed striking. Traditionally caught by the thousands, and released in houses and gardens for people's enjoyment, fireflies play a role in linking humans with what the Japanese call “close nature.” The firefly image is also very conspicuous in poetry and art. But the firefly population declined in the 1950s, and they are now being protected through drastic legal and social policies, partly influenced by Western environmentalism. The issue of firefly protection is entangled in a criss-cross of interests involving environmental concerns, urban renewal policies and the revival of depopulated rural areas, for which the firefly has become a widely used symbol. At the same time, the movement for firefly protection is highly critical of the traditional ways of dealing with fireflies. Similarly, despite the existence of a traditional Japanese method of “fly-fishing” (tenkara), the recent fly fishing boom seems to be the result of environmental trends such as the “outdoor boom,” and the “catch and release” method.

The introduction of a new fishing technique and the emergence of a consciousness and a commitment to protect fauna and flora disrupted the complex traditional relationship between humans and certain species of animals in both cases. And in both cases, the new approach to nature provoked a strong “cultural resistance” to the loss of the specific Japanese way of dealing with animals. Like “woodpigeon hunting” in southern France, or the whaling issue in other cultural areas, these phenomena appear to be symptomatic of the opposition between tradition(al culture) and environmental concerns. Indeed, the objectification of nature that underscores environmental concern is only possible through a distancing from nature, in which people differentiate and disassociate themselves from other animals… a very “un-Japanese” idea.     

Some Characteristics of the People who Attend Mexican Rooster (Cock) Fighting Events

ABSTRACT

Participants were profiled at one of the two largest cockfighting events in Mexico. In general, the participants were mainly rural and small town dwellers; were married with children. They involved their family and friends in their sport, have middle and lower middle class vocations, have a better educational background and income than the population at large, and belong to the major religious faith. Unlike in the U.S., in Mexican cockfighting i) alcohol consumption, and ii) singers appear as part of the attraction.     

Collinear Stimuli Induce Local and Cross-Areal Coherence in the Visual Cortex of Behaving Monkeys

Background

Collinear patterns of local visual stimuli are used to study contextual effects in the visual system. Previous studies have shown that proximal collinear flankers, unlike orthogonal, can enhance the detection of a low contrast central element. However, the direct neural interactions between cortical populations processing the individual flanker elements and the central element are largely unknown.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) we imaged neural population responses in V1 and V2 areas in fixating monkeys while they were presented with collinear or orthogonal arrays of Gabor patches. We then studied the spatio-temporal interactions between neuronal populations processing individual Gabor patches in the two conditions. Time-frequency analysis of the stimulus-evoked VSDI signal showed power increase mainly in low frequencies, i.e., the alpha band (α; 7–14 Hz). Power in the α-band was more discriminative at a single trial level than other neuronal population measures. Importantly, the collinear condition showed an increased intra-areal (V1-V1 and V2-V2) and inter-areal (V1-V2) α-coherence with shorter latencies than the orthogonal condition, both before and after the removal of the stimulus contribution. α-coherence appeared between discrete neural populations processing the individual Gabor patches: the central element and the flankers.

Conclusions/Significance

Our findings suggest that collinear effects are mediated by synchronization in a distributed network of proximal and distant neuronal populations within and across V1 and V2.     

Identical Assemblage of Giardia duodenalis in Humans,Animals and Vegetables in an Urban Area in Southern Brazil Indicates a Relationship among Them

Background

Giardia duodenalis infects humans and other mammals by ingestion of cysts in contaminated water or food, or directly in environments with poor hygiene. Eight assemblages, designated A–H, are described for this species.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We investigated by microscopy or by direct immunofluorescence technique the occurrence of G. duodenalis in 380 humans, 34 animals, 44 samples of water and 11 of vegetables. G. duodenalis cysts present in samples were genotyped through PCR-RFLP of β giardin and glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) genes and sequencing of gdh. The gdh gene was amplified in 76.5% (26/34) of the human faeces samples with positive microscopy and in 2.9% (1/34) of negative samples. In 70.4% (19/27) of the positive samples were found BIV assemblage. In two samples from dogs with positive microscopy and one negative sample, assemblages BIV, C, and D were found. Cysts of Giardia were not detected in water samples, but three samples used for vegetable irrigation showed total coliforms above the allowed limit, and Escherichia coli was observed in one sample. G. duodenalis BIV was detected in two samples of Lactuca sativa irrigated with this sample of water. BIV was a common genotype, with 100% similarity, between different sources or hosts (humans, animals and vegetables), and the one most often found in humans.

Conclusions/Significance

This is the first study in Brazil that reports the connection among humans, dogs and vegetables in the transmission dynamics of G. duodenalis in the same geographic area finding identical assemblage. BIV assemblage was the most frequently observed among these different links in the epidemiological chain.     

Animals and the Limits of Ethnography

Is ethnography (as constituted in the social sciences) a reliable method with which to understand interspecies intersubjectivity? Can a method that has become a cornerstone approach to a qualitative understanding of humans for more than a century interrogate the social ties between humans and animals? Will it illuminate the similarities and differences between humans and their animal familiars? Using a programmatic approach to ethnography, and drawing on lessons from cyber ethnography, this article examines the challenges facing an ethnography that takes animals seriously as social beings and ethnographic subjects. The ability of ethnography to deliver a faithful portrait of being relies in large part on the communicative trust developed between ethnographers and their participants and interlocutors; it lies in the quality of the intersubjective exchange. Communicative intersubjective trust is both the paragon quality one wants in ethnographic social exchange and the most ill-defined and difficult to ascertain. So much ethnographic authority is underpinned by the hope that ethnographers have understood the people they work with in their terms and can faithfully re-present and interpret that world view. This article argues that the tricky and ambiguous business of intersubjective exchange poses important methodological questions for anthrozoology.