Do we think dreams are in black and white due to memory problems?

The present study was designed to investigate whether memory processes play a role in why some persons say their dreams are black and white. The findings indicate that the percentages of black and white dreams are related negatively to color memory and dream recall frequency. When colors were recorded immediately after the dream was recorded, the percentage of black and white dream elements dropped to 2.7%. When participants were presented the option that dream colors might not be remembered, the percentage of explicit black and white dreams became very small, and the findings are thus in line with the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. Future studies might use extensive training of color memory and dream recall in order to investigate whether highly trained persons still have some dreams or dream elements that are in black and white. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cancer and diet: How are they related?

Extensive research in the past decade has revealed cancer to be a multigenic disease caused by perturbation of multiple cell signalling pathways and dysregulation of numerous gene products, all of which have been linked to inflammation. It is also becoming evident that various lifestyle factors, such as tobacco and alcohol use, diet, environmental pollution, radiation and infections, can cause chronic inflammation and lead to tumourigenesis. Chronic diseases caused by ongoing inflammation therefore require chronic, not acute, treatment. Nutraceuticals, compounds derived from fruits, vegetables, spices and cereals, can be used chronically. This study discusses the molecular targets of some nutraceuticals that happen to be markers of chronic inflammation and how they can prevent or treat cancer. These naturally-occurring agents in the diet have great potential as anti-cancer drugs, thus proving Hippocrates, who proclaimed 25 centuries ago, 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food'.     

Maturation characteristics of Rubus pennsylvanicus fruit: are black and red the same?

Summary Fruit of the blackberry, Rubus pennsylvanicus Poir. (Rosaceae), were examined to determine variation in maturation characteristics. Maturation timing and rate varied greatly among individual fruits, resulting in a bi-colored fruiting display comprised largely of two maturation stages, pre-ripe (salmon and scarlet) and ripe (dark brown and black). While ripe fruit were generally larger and heavier than pre-ripe fruit, exhibiting greater fresh and dry fruit weight, diameter, water content, and total seed weight, no significant differences were found in energy content, i.e. numbers of calories per gram pulp, or in pulp:seed ratio. The differences between ripe and pre-ripe fruit appear to be due largely to an increase in water content and seed weight with maturity. The fact that little energetic benefit accrues to the preferential selection of ripe fruit suggests that bi-colored Rubus displays may be considered to be unicolored.     

Hyponatremia: Is it related to the seasons?

BackgroundHyponatremia is a common electrolyte disorder in inpatients related to morbidity and mortality. In this study, we aimed to examine whether there is a relationship between the incidence of hyponatremia and the seasons among the patients hospitalized in our nephrology department.MethodsThe inpatients in our Nephrology Department between 2012 and 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients with serum sodium levels below 135 mmol/L were included in the study. Hyponatremia incidence was calculated as the proportion of inpatients with low sodium levels in a season to the total number of inpatients in the same season.ResultsOut of 1950 inpatients in four years, 509 were found to have hyponatremia (26.1%). The mean serum sodium level of the patients was 129.7±4.7 mmol/L. Hyponatremia incidences in autumn, winter, spring, and summer were found to be 28.7%, 15.4%, 20.4%, and 36.6%, respectively. Upon comparing the incidence of hyponatremia in patients hospitalized in winter and summer seasons, there was a significantly higher incidence of hyponatremia in summer (p<0.001). We found a positive correlation between hyponatremia incidence and temperature (r=0.867, p=0.001). However, there was a negative correlation between hyponatremia incidence and relative humidity (r=-0.735, p=0.001).ConclusionsThe highest hyponatremia incidence was observed in summer in a four-year period. Loss of sodium by perspiration, along with increased temperature and/or excessive hypotonic fluid intake, might contribute to the development of hyponatremia.     

Phytoplankton configuration in six deep lakes in the peri-Alpine region: are the key drivers related to eutrophication and climate?

The aim of this study was to draw a general picture of the phytoplankton community in peri-Alpine lakes, including for the first time a broad data set of six deep peri-Alpine lakes, belonging to the same geographical region. The objective was to define the main key drivers that influence the phytoplankton community composition in this particular vulnerable region, for which the impacts of climate change have been demonstrated to be stronger than on a global average. The phytoplankton was investigated with a particular focus on cyanobacteria and using a classification approach based on morpho-functional groups. We hypothesized that phytoplankton in peri-Alpine lakes is mainly driven by nutrient loads as well as by water temperatures, variables that are strongly influenced by climate change and eutrophication. Though different phytoplankton configurations among lakes were partly due to their geographical (altitude) position, assemblages were mostly linked to temperature and nutrients. Furthermore, the results confirmed the significant role of the spring fertilization on the seasonal phytoplankton development. Cyanobacteria were related to the increasing annual average of air and water temperature gradient and therefore might become more important under future warming scenario. Air temperatures have a significant impact on water temperature in the uppermost meters of the water column, with a stronger influence on warmer lakes.     

Ciliary subcompartments: how are they established and what are their functions?

Cilia are conserved subcellular organelles with diverse sensory and developmental roles. Recently, they have emerged as crucial organelles whose dysfunction causes a wide spectrum of disorders called ciliopathies. Recent studies on the pathological mechanisms underlying ciliopathies showed that the ciliary compartment is further divided into subdomains with specific roles in the biogenesis, maintenance and function of cilia. Several conserved sets of molecules that play specific roles in each subcompartment have been discovered. Here we review recent progress on our understanding of ciliary subcompartments, especially focusing on the molecules required for their structure and/or function. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(7): 380-387]     

Individual aging and mortality rate: how are they related?

Many researchers working in the area of aging and longevity base their conclusions on the behavior of empirical age trajectories of mortality rates. In such analyses, changes in the slope of the logarithm of the mortality curve are often associated with changes in the rate of individual aging. We show that such interpretation may be incorrect: the changes in the slope of this curve do not necessarily correspond to the changes in the rate of individual aging. We use three models of mortality and aging to illustrate this statement. The first one is based on the idea of frailty. We show that changes in frailty distribution alone may be responsible for changes in the slope. The second model exploits the idea of saving lives. It evaluates changes in mortality rate after elimination of lethal stressful events. The third model uses the idea of Strehler and Mildvan (1960). It shows that changes in the rate of individual aging may take place without changes in the slope of the logarithm of the mortality curve.     

Developmental rules in the hematopoietic and immune systems of birds: how general are they?

Fundamental rules about the development of the hematopoietic and immune systems have been established in birds, some of which are reviewed here. The organ rudiments belonging to this system provide the stroma, that has to be seeded by extrinsic stem cells. This particular developmental pattern makes it possible to create chimeric organs with stromal cells and stem cells from different origins. Grafting the thymic epithelium alone in a young embryo is sufficient to induce tolerance to tissues of the same origin as that of epithelium, even in a xenogeneic combination. Stem cells that seed the rudiments during development are born in the embryo rather than in the yolk sac and are responsible for definitive hematopoiesis. Data in frog and mouse indicate that these conclusions may be valid in other classes of vertebrates.     

Long-term changes in Krill biomass and distribution in the Barents Sea: are the changes mainly related to capelin stock size and temperature conditions?

Krill plays a significant role in the Barents Sea ecosystem, providing energy transport between different trophic levels. The current paper presents the results of a long-term study (1980–2009) based on pelagic trawl catches from August to September. Our investigations show that the krill species were distributed widely in the Barents Sea and that the largest krill concentrations were restricted to the west-central and eastern parts of the Barents Sea. The current paper presents the relative biomass indices, and the estimates must be interpreted as minimum biomass. The mean annual krill biomass was estimated to be 22 million tonnes in wet weight, with the highest values being as much as 48 million tonnes. Capelin is the largest pelagic stock, and in some years, their biomass can amount to 4–7 million tonnes, which can impose high predation pressure on krill. When their biomass is high, capelin may consume close to 26 million tonnes annually. The predation from pelagic (herring and blue whiting) and bottom (cod and haddock) fish species was much lower, being 9 and 1 million tonnes, respectively. A negative relationship between krill biomass and capelin stock size above 74°N was observed during the study period. However, during the last decade, the krill biomass has increased despite heavy predation from capelin in some years. A positive significant linear relationship between the mean annual Kola temperature and the krill biomass seems to indicate that the recent warming conditions have favourable impacts on the krill populations in the Barents Sea.     

Sexual dimorphism and the differential mortality model: is behaviour related to survival?

There are numerous hypotheses to explain the evolution of sexual dimorphism in spiders. One of the most controversial is the differential mortality model (DMM) which proposes that differing rates of (adult) male and female mortality can result in a skewed operational sex ratio and lead to the evolution of small males. This hypothesis has been examined using a comparative approach which assumes that the behaviour of males and females could be used as a surrogate measure of mortality. We tested this assumption using two model species, Hogna helluo and Pardosa milvina (Araneae: Lycosidae) that differ in the degree of sexual dimorphism both in terms of body size and level of activity. Our data demonstrate that differences in male and female behaviour are not predictive of differences in mortality. Rather, as in other organisms, mortality is a complex phenomenon dependent on activity as well as size. These data call into question the methods previously used to test the DMM and suggest that understanding sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in spiders will require evaluation of historical constraints as well as how size currently influences fitness in each sex.  © 2003 The Linnean Society of London . Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2003, 78 , 97−103.     

Size and asymmetry: are there costs to winning the royalty race?

Body size and morphology are key fitness-determining traits that can vary genotypically. They are likely to be important in social insect queens, which mate in swarms and found colonies independently, but genetic influences on queen morphology have been little investigated. Here, we show that the body size and morphology of queens are influenced by their genotype in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior, a species in which certain lineages (patrilines) bias their development towards reproductive queens rather than sterile workers. We found no relationship between the queen-worker skew of patrilines and the size or morphology of queens, but there was a significant relationship with fluctuating asymmetry, which was greater in more queen-biased patrilines. Our results suggest that queen-biased patrilines do not incur a fitness cost in terms of body size, but may face more subtle costs in developmental stability. Such costs may constrain the evolution of royal cheating in social insects.