Long-term Store Research Articles

Essential Role for Hypothalamic Calcitonin Receptor‒Expressing Neurons in the Control of Food Intake by Leptin.

The adipocyte-derived hormone leptin acts via its receptor (LepRb) on central nervous system neurons to communicate the repletion of long-term energy stores, to decrease food intake, and to promote energy expenditure. We generated mice that express Cre recombinase from the calcitonin receptor (Calcr) locus (Calcrcre mice) to study Calcr-expressing LepRb (LepRbCalcr) neurons, which reside predominantly in the arcuate nucleus (ARC). Calcrcre-mediated ablation of LepRb in LepRbCalcrknockout (KO) mice caused hyperphagic obesity. Because LepRb-mediated transcriptional control plays a crucial role in leptin action, we used translating ribosome affinity purification followed by RNA sequencing to define the transcriptome of hypothalamic Calcr neurons, along with its alteration in LepRbCalcrKO mice. We found that ARC LepRbCalcr cells include neuropeptide Y (NPY)/agouti-related peptide (AgRP)/γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) ("NAG") cells as well as non-NAG cells that are distinct from pro-opiomelanocortin cells. Furthermore, although LepRbCalcrKO mice exhibited dysregulated expression of several genes involved in energy balance, neither the expression of Agrp and Npy nor the activity of NAG cells was altered in vivo. Thus, although direct leptin action via LepRbCalcr cells plays an important role in leptin action, our data also suggest that leptin indirectly, as well as directly, regulates these cells.

Online Shopping Malls: Behavioral Impacts of Short- and Long-term Store Loyalty

This study addresses how customers develop loyalty toward focal stores within an online shopping mall, and how this construct affects behavioral mall loyalty in both the short- and long-term. We employ a type II Tobit model to dynamically capture the short- and long-term impacts of store loyalty on purchase incidence and purchase amount. We further embed this model within a model of store loyalty formation to elucidate its driving factors. Applying the models to purchase history data of new customers in an online shopping mall, we observe that store loyalty has an immediate negative effect on purchase incidence; however, given a purchase, this variable increases the purchase amount in the long-term. Additionally, the formation of store loyalty appears to be significantly affected by gender, age, cumulative purchase amount, cumulative purchase frequency, and time trend. We discuss the implications of these findings for mall owners in an effort to increase revenue contribution of their tenants.

HDAC3 Inhibitor RGFP966 Modulates Neuronal Memory for Vocal Communication Signals in a Songbird Model.

Epigenetic mechanisms that modify chromatin conformation have recently been under investigation for their contributions to learning and the formation of memory. For example, the role of enzymes involved in histone acetylation are studied in the formation of long-lasting memories because memory consolidation requires gene expression events that are facilitated by an open state of chromatin. We recently proposed that epigenetic events may control the entry of specific sensory features into long-term memory by enabling transcription-mediated neuronal plasticity in sensory brain areas. Histone deacetylases, like HDAC3, may thereby regulate the specific sensory information that is captured for entry into long-term memory stores (Phan and Bieszczad, 2016). To test this hypothesis, we used an HDAC3-selective inhibitor (RGFP966) to determine whether its application after an experience with a sound stimulus with unique acoustic features could contribute to the formation of a memory that would assist in mediating its later recognition. We gave adult male zebra finches limited exposure to unique conspecific songs (20 repetitions each, well below the normal threshold to form long-term memory), followed by treatment with RGFP966 or vehicle. In different groups, we either made multi-electrode recordings in the higher auditory area NCM (caudal medial nidopallidum), or determined expression of an immediate early gene, zenk (also identified as zif268, egr-1, ngfi-a and krox24), known to participate in neuronal memory in this system. We found that birds treated with RGFP966 showed neuronal memory after only limited exposure, while birds treated with vehicle did not. Strikingly, evidence of neuronal memory in NCM induced by HDAC3-inhibition was lateralized to the left-hemisphere, consistent with our finding that RGFP966-treatment also elevated zenk expression only in the left hemisphere. The present findings show feasibility for epigenetic mechanisms to control neural plasticity underlying the formation of specific memories for conspecific communication sounds. This is the first evidence in zebra finches that epigenetic mechanisms may contribute to gene expression events for memory of acoustically-rich sensory cues.

Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different.

A commonly expressed view is that short-term memory (STM) is nothing more than activated long-term memory. If true, this would overturn a central tenet of cognitive psychology—the idea that there are functionally and neurobiologically distinct short- and long-term stores. Here I present an updated case for a separation between short- and long-term stores, focusing on the computational demands placed on any STM system. STM must support memory for previously unencountered information, the storage of multiple tokens of the same type, and variable binding. None of these can be achieved simply by activating long-term memory. For example, even a simple sequence of digits such as “1, 3, 1” where there are 2 tokens of the digit “1” cannot be stored in the correct order simply by activating the representations of the digits “1” and “3” in LTM. I also review recent neuroimaging data that has been presented as evidence that STM is activated LTM and show that these data are exactly what one would expect to see based on a conventional 2-store view.

Rocking the Boat: Damage to Eelgrass by Swinging Boat Moorings.

Seagrass meadows commonly reside in shallow sheltered embayments typical of the locations that provide an attractive option for mooring boats. Given the potential for boat moorings to result in disturbance to the seabed due to repeated physical impact, these moorings may present a significant threat to seagrass meadows. The seagrass Zostera marina (known as eelgrass) is extensive across the northern hemisphere, forming critical fisheries habitat and creating efficient long-term stores of carbon in sediments. Although boat moorings have been documented to impact seagrasses, studies to date have been conducted on the slow growing Posidonia species’ rather than the fast growing and rapidly reproducing Z. marina that may have a higher capacity to resist and recover from repeated disturbance. In the present study we examine swinging chain boat moorings in seagrass meadows across a range of sites in the United Kingdom to determine whether such moorings have a negative impact on the seagrass Zostera marina at the local and meadow scale. We provide conclusive evidence from multiple sites that Z. marina is damaged by swinging chain moorings leading to a loss of at least 6 ha of United Kingdom seagrass. Each swinging chain mooring was found to result in the loss of 122 m2 of seagrass. Loss is restricted to the area surrounding the mooring and the impact does not appear to translate to a meadow scale. This loss of United Kingdom seagrass from boat moorings is small but significant at a local scale. This is because it fragments existing meadows and ultimately reduces their resilience to other stressors. Boat moorings are prevalent in seagrass globally and it is likely this impairs their ecosystem functioning. Given the extensive ecosystem service value of seagrasses in terms of factors such as carbon storage and fish habitat such loss is of cause for concern. This indicates the need for the widespread use of seagrass friendly mooring systems in and around seagrass.

Decay of Scots pine coarse woody debris in boreal peatland forests: Mass loss and nutrient dynamics

Although boreal forests have been the setting for numerous studies on the decomposition of coarse woody debris (CWD), these have been limited to mineral soils. In boreal peatland forests, CWD decay rates and nutrient dynamics have not been previously quantified. Therefore, we investigated the decomposition of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) logs incubated for 10–15 years in three climatically and nutritionally different, managed peatland forests in the European boreal zone. This information is needed for, e.g., estimations of the ecosystem carbon balance. Further, our motivation for studying nutrient dynamics was to evaluate if deliberate retention of large pieces of CWD can make a difference in the nutrient management of the post-harvest stand. We focused on the wood component, which, unlike pine bark, is known to decay slowly, and may thus be important as a long-term nutrient store and source. Changes in wood nutrient concentrations and contents were studied at our primary experimental site (south boreal), which included both control (i.e., forested) and clearcut treatments. Based on mass loss from logs over time, decay rates (k, year−1) decreased with increasing latitude as follows: hemiboreal (0.081), south boreal (0.068), and north boreal (0.062); however, the difference between the latter two was not significant. The hemiboreal site, which had the mildest climate and highest nutrient status, thus accounted for the fastest rate of CWD decay. Generally, smaller logs decayed faster than larger ones. At the south boreal site, the clearcut environment accelerated CWD decomposition (k, 0.085 year−1) compared to that under forest canopy. After fifteen years of decay, logs retained N, and accumulated P to more than double initial amounts at our P-limited site. The loss of carbon typically surpassed the loss of nutrients, even base cations. Nutrient trends were mostly similar with versus without forest canopy, but faster decay in the clearcut consequently expedited these trends (e.g., P accumulated faster). However, at CWD quantities of 5–100 m3 ha−1, the nutrient store in the wood component of CWD was small relative to that in the peat. Hence, CWD retention is apparently not a long-term solution for conserving nutrients in managed pine-dominated peatland forest.

Filopodia: A Rapid Structural Plasticity Substrate for Fast Learning.

Formation of new synapses between neurons is an essential mechanism for learning and encoding memories. The vast majority of excitatory synapses occur on dendritic spines, therefore, the growth dynamics of spines is strongly related to the plasticity timescales. Especially in the early stages of the developing brain, there is an abundant number of long, thin and motile protrusions (i.e., filopodia), which develop in timescales of seconds and minutes. Because of their unique morphology and motility, it has been suggested that filopodia can have a dual role in both spinogenesis and environmental sampling of potential axonal partners. I propose that filopodia can lower the threshold and reduce the time to form new dendritic spines and synapses, providing a substrate for fast learning. Based on this proposition, the functional role of filopodia during brain development is discussed in relation to learning and memory. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the postnatal brain starts with a single-stage memory system with filopodia playing a significant role in rapid structural plasticity along with the stability provided by the mushroom-shaped spines. Following the maturation of the hippocampus, this highly-plastic unitary system transitions to a two-stage memory system, which consists of a plastic temporary store and a long-term stable store. In alignment with these architectural changes, it is posited that after brain maturation, filopodia-based structural plasticity will be preserved in specific areas, which are involved in fast learning (e.g., hippocampus in relation to episodic memory). These propositions aim to introduce a unifying framework for a diversity of phenomena in the brain such as synaptogenesis, pruning and memory consolidation.

Semantic Encoding in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Preliminary ERP Study

Background: This study examines semantic encoding in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using the event-related potential (ERP) technique. Subsequent memory effect (SME) is used as an index of successful memory encoding. Typically, SMEs are positive at P550 and late positive component (LPC) time windows. Methods: Ten MCI participants were recruited to complete the ERP experiment. A study and recognition paradigm was employed. Participants determined whether the item referred to by the Chinese character was able to produce sound at study phase and whether the Chinese character was studied at recognition phase while having their electroencephalograms recorded. Results: Behaviourally, correct percentage at study was 81% and reaction time was 998.5±325.5. Correct percentage at recognition was 61% (d prime=0.87±0.7). Significant SMEs were not identified in P550 and LPC windows. Conclusion: The behavioural and ERP results showed extensive cerebral deficits in MCI when performing semantic encoding. These deficits may be associated with assessing semantic memory and binding new information with long-term memory store.

Clay illuviation provides a long-term sink for C sequestration in subsoils

Soil plays a key role in the global carbon (C) cycle. Most current assessments of SOC stocks and the guidelines given by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focus on the top 30 cm of soil. Our research shows that, when considering only total quantities, most of the SOC stocks are found in this top layer. However, not all forms of SOC are equally valuable as long-term stable stores of carbon: the majority of SOC is available for mineralisation and can potentially be re-emitted to the atmosphere. SOC associated with micro-aggregates and silt plus clay fractions is more stable and therefore represents a long-term carbon store. Our research shows that most of this stable carbon is located at depths below 30 cm (42% of subsoil SOC is located in microaggregates and silt and clay, compared to 16% in the topsoil), specifically in soils that are subject to clay illuviation. This has implications for land management decisions in temperate grassland regions, defining the trade-offs between primary productivity and C emissions in clay-illuviated soils, as a result of drainage. Therefore, climate smart land management should consider the balance between SOC stabilisation in topsoils for productivity versus sequestration in subsoils for climate mitigation.

Contrasting Transit Times and Water-rock Interaction in Australian Upland Catchments Draining Peatland and Eucalypt Forest

Catchments draining upland peat in the Victorian Alps, Australia contain water that has 3H activities closely similar to modern rainfall implying very short transit times (<2 years). By contrast the water that drains adjacent eucalypt forest has mean transit times of several years to decades. The differences in transit times most likely reflect the higher evapotranspiration rates in the eucalypt forests that results in lower infiltration rates and slower rates of flow. Major ion concentrations reflect a combination of evapotranspiration and water-rock interaction and may be used to provide first-order estimates of transit times. The short transit times in the peat imply that it does not represent a long-term store of water for the river systems during drought. The peat is also highly susceptible to drying during low rainfall periods, which renders it vulnerable to the periodic bushfires that impact the region.

A cortical-hippocampal-cortical loop of information processing during memory consolidation.

Hippocampal replay during sharp-wave ripple events (SWRs) is thought to drive memory consolidation in hippocampal and cortical circuits. Changes in neocortical activity can precede SWR events, but whether and how these changes influence the content of replay remains unknown. Here we show that during sleep there is a rapid cortical-hippocampal-cortical loop of information flow around the times of SWRs. We recorded neural activity in auditory cortex (AC) and hippocampus of rats as they learned a sound-guided task and during sleep. We found that patterned activation in AC precedes and predicts the subsequent content of hippocampal activity during SWRs, while hippocampal patterns during SWRs predict subsequent AC activity. Delivering sounds during sleep biased AC activity patterns, and sound-biased AC patterns predicted subsequent hippocampal activity. These findings suggest that activation of specific cortical representations during sleep influences the identity of the memories that are consolidated into long-term stores.

Individual personality associated with interactions between physiological condition and the environment

An emerging focus of behavioural ecology is to determine the driving forces behind animal personalities. While numerous theories have been proposed to explain these behavioural variations, empirical studies on this subject remain lacking. Here, we test ecological theory by studying the combined effects of physiological condition and habitat quality on the behaviour of individual mud crabs, Panopeus herbstii, across the spawning season (early spawning season and 2 months after). We assessed the boldness, energy stores and reproductive effort of crabs collected across 10 oyster reefs of low and high quality using laboratory observations and subsequent dissections. Crab boldness was significantly dependent on the interaction between habitat quality and season. While crab behaviour remained relatively constant on healthy reefs, crabs on degraded reefs exhibited a nearly two-fold increase in boldness during the late spawning season, approximating the boldness of crabs on healthy reefs. This behavioural change corresponds to a seasonal shift in crab energy store content and is likely to represent a switch in the primary driving force of crab behaviour. During the early season, crab boldness was positively correlated with short-term stores, whereas later in the season, crab boldness was negatively correlated with long-term stores. Our results suggest that behaviour is driven by predation pressure and refuge availability during the early spawning season, but afterwards depends on replenishing energy stores used for reproduction. These findings support ecological theory and also provide new insight into the stability of behavioural drivers.

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Food caching is a behavioural strategy used by a wide range of animals to store food for future use. When food is stored, it is susceptible to environmental conditions that can lead to spoilage via microbial proliferation or physical and chemical processes. Given that the nutrition gained from consuming cached food will almost always be less than consuming it immediately upon capture, the degree of degradation will play a central role in determining the ecological threshold at which caching is no longer profitable. Our framework proposes that the degree of susceptibility among caching species is based primarily on the duration of storage, and the perishability of stored food. We first summarize the degree of susceptibility of 203 vertebrate caching species. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of these species are long-term cachers (>10 days) but only 2% are both long-term cachers and store highly perishable food. We then integrate insights from the fields of applied food science and plant biology to outline potential mechanisms by which climate change may influence food-caching species. Four climatic factors (temperature, number of freeze-thaw events, deep-freeze events and humidity) have been shown to affect the degradation of food consumed by humans and are also expected to influence the quality of perishable food cached in the wild. Temperature and moisture are likely important factors influencing seemingly nonperishable seeds. Although we are able to provide broad classifications for caching species at risk of climate change, an improved understanding of how environmental conditions affect the quality and persistence of cached food may allow us to better predict the impact of changing climatic conditions on the fitness of food-caching animals.

Contrasting transit times of water from peatlands and eucalypt forests in the Australian Alps determined by tritium: implications for vulnerability and the source of water in upland catchments

Abstract. Peatlands are a distinctive and important component of many upland regions that commonly contain distinctive flora and fauna which are different from those of adjacent forests and grasslands. Peatlands also represent a significant long-term store of organic carbon. While their environmental importance has long since been recognised, water transit times within peatlands are not well understood. This study uses tritium (3H) to estimate the mean transit times of water from peatlands and from adjacent gullies that contain eucalypt forests in the Victorian Alps (Australia). The 3H activities of the peatland water range from 2.7 to 3.3 tritium units (TUs), which overlap the measured (2.9 to 3.0 TU) and expected (2.8 to 3.2 TU) average 3H activities of rainfall in this region. Even accounting for seasonal recharge by rainfall with higher 3H activities, the mean transit times of the peatland waters are &lt; 6.5 years and may be less than 2 years. Water from adjacent eucalypt forest streams has 3H activities of 1.6 to 2.1 TU, implying much longer mean transit times of 5 to 29 years. Cation ∕ Cl and Si ∕ Cl ratios are higher in the eucalypt forest streams than the peatland waters and both of these water stores have higher cation ∕ Cl and Si ∕ Cl ratios than rainfall. The major ion geochemistry reflects the degree of silicate weathering in these catchments that is controlled by both transit times and aquifer lithology. The short transit times imply that, unlike the eucalypt forests, the peatlands do not represent a long-lived store of water for the local river systems. Additionally, the peatlands are susceptible to drying out during drought, which renders them vulnerable to damage by the periodic bushfires that occur in this region.

Revisiting 'Effectiveness of problem-based learning curricula: theory, practice and paper darts'.

Revisiting 'Effectiveness of problem-based learning curricula: theory, practice and paper darts'.

Biochar Application Promotes Growth Parameters of Soybean and Reduces the Growth Difference

ABSTRACTBiochar is derived from the pyrolysis of biomass, and when buried in soil, can act as a long-term soil carbon store. Evidence suggests that biochar can improve soil fertility and crop production in some circumstances. However, the potential for promoting crop growth in agroecosystems is poorly understood, with different reports of soil properties following biochar application. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the spatial variability of soybean growth parameters in different biochar application rates and the reasons for the results obtained. The study used field plots with five biochar application rates (0, 20,40, 80, and 160 t·ha−1). There were 15 field plots in total and the trial was fully randomized with three replications. The biochar was mixed into the topsoil (0–20 cm depth) before the soybean was sown. Soybean growth parameters were determined during the flowering–podding phase. The results showed that biochar not only improved the growth parameters of soybean, but also reduced growth differences in the same treatment, and higher biochar application rates would result in a larger effect size in a certain range (0–103.4 t·ha−1). The leaf area in the no biochar treatment showed moderate variation, whereas the growth parameters (height, stem diameter, and leaf area) showed weak variation in the other biochar treatments; and the growth parameters, when the soybean were subjected to the biochar treatments, had moderate spatial dependence. In addition, the introduction of geostatistical theory can provide a theoretical foundation for further studying biochar–soil–crop system and the spatial variability of soybean growth and their relevance.

Hemispheric processing of memory is affected by sleep

Sleep is known to affect learning and memory, but the extent to which it influences behavioural processing in the left and right hemispheres of the brain is as yet unknown. We tested two hypotheses about lateralised effects of sleep on recognition memory for words: whether sleep reactivated recent experiences of words promoting access to the long-term store in the left hemisphere (LH), and whether sleep enhanced spreading activation differentially in semantic networks in the hemispheres. In Experiment 1, participants viewed lists of semantically related words, then slept or stayed awake for 12h before being tested on seen, unseen but related, or unrelated words presented to the left or the right hemisphere. Sleep was found to promote word recognition in the LH, and to spread activation equally within semantic networks in both hemispheres. Experiment 2 ensured that the results were not due to time of day effects influencing cognitive performance.

A levels of processing interpretation of dual-system theories of judgment and decision making

Recently there has been spirited disagreement about the merits of dual-system theories of higher cognition. I suggest that this dispute is very similar to the 1970s dispute between two-store theories of memory and levels of processing theory. The two-store or “box” theorists stipulated that short-term memory and long-term memory stores were quite dissimilar and therefore represented separate memory stores. Levels of processing theorists disputed the evidence for separate memory stores and asserted that memory was an epiphenomenon of the depth to which a stimulus was processed. I adopt the levels of processing approach to show how it can help clarify the phenomena previously described by dual-system theories. Furthermore, this proposed resolution to the controversy renders moot the serious disagreements about what features might characterize each of the two processes in dual-system theories.

Leptin signaling regulates glucose homeostasis, but not adipostasis, in the zebrafish

Leptin is the primary adipostatic factor in mammals. Produced largely by adipocytes in proportion to total adipose mass, the hormone informs the brain regarding total energy stored as triglycerides in fat cells. The hormone acts on multiple circuits in the brain to regulate food intake, autonomic outflow, and endocrine function to maintain energy balance. In addition to regulating adipose mass, mammalian leptin also plays a role in the regulation of glucose homeostasis and as a gating factor in reproductive competence. Leptin-deficient mice and people exhibit early onset profound hyperphagia and obesity, diabetes, and infertility. Although leptin and the leptin receptor are found in fish, the hormone is not expressed in adipose tissue, but is found in liver and other tissues. Here, we show that adult zebrafish lacking a functional leptin receptor do not exhibit hyperphagia or increased adiposity, and exhibit normal fertility. However, leptin receptor-deficient larvae have increased numbers of β-cells and increased levels of insulin mRNA. Furthermore, larval zebrafish have been shown to exhibit β-cell hyperplasia in response to high fat feeding or peripheral insulin resistance, and we show here that leptin receptor is required for this response. Adult zebrafish also have increased levels of insulin mRNA and other alterations in glucose homeostasis. Thus, a role for leptin in the regulation of β-cell mass and glucose homeostasis appears to be conserved across vertebrates, whereas its role as an adipostatic factor is likely to be a secondary role acquired during the evolution of mammals.

The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus.

The physiological condition and fecundity of an organism is frequently controlled by diet. As changes in environmental conditions often cause organisms to alter their foraging behavior, a comprehensive understanding of how diet influences the fitness of an individual is central to predicting the effect of environmental change on population dynamics. We experimentally manipulated the diet of the economically and ecologically important blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, to approximate the effects of a dietary shift from primarily animal to plant tissue, a phenomenon commonly documented in crabs. Crabs whose diet consisted exclusively of animal tissue had markedly lower mortality and consumed substantially more food than crabs whose diet consisted exclusively of seaweed. The quantity of food consumed had a significant positive influence on reproductive effort and long-term energy stores. Additionally, seaweed diets produced a three-fold decrease in hepatopancreas lipid content and a simultaneous two-fold increase in crab aggression when compared to an animal diet. Our results reveal that the consumption of animal tissue substantially enhanced C. sapidus fitness, and suggest that a dietary shift to plant tissue may reduce crab population growth by decreasing fecundity as well as increasing mortality. This study has implications for C. sapidus fisheries.