Mechanical stimulation induces opposite behavioral responses in the adult and dauer pharynx. Tail tap of adults inhibits pharyngeal pumping via a pathway involving the innexin gene unc-7 and components of the glutamatergic pathway encoded by the genes avr-14 and avr-15. Tail tap of dauers stimulates pumping through a mechanism involving G alpha o and G alpha q. The nematocidal drug ivermectin i...

A kinematic analysis was made of swimming of larval herring Clupea harengus L. Swimming style was found to change with growth and development; the amplitude of swimming movements of early post-yolk-sac larvae increases linearly towards the tail, a style of swimming which relies mainly on resistive forces for propulsion. Later, after the caudal and dorsal fins have developed, the swimming style ...

The Student's-t mixture model, which is heavily tailed and more robust than the Gaussian mixture model, has recently received great attention on image processing. In this paper, we propose a robust non-rigid point set registration algorithm using the Student's-t mixture model. Specifically, first, we consider the alignment of two point sets as a probability density estimation problem and treat ...

Voltage-gated Na and Ca2+ channels comprise distinct ion channel superfamilies, yet the carboxy tails of these channels exhibit high homology, hinting at a long-shared and purposeful module. For different Ca2+ channels, carboxyl-tail interactions with calmodulin do elaborate robust and similar forms of Ca2+ regulation. However, Na channels have only shown subtler Ca2+ modulation that differs am...

Two hypotheses have been considered in the literature regarding how anuran morphology reduces predation risk: by (1) improving escape swimming performance, or (2) using the tail as a lure to draw predator strikes away from the body of the tadpole. We investigated these hypotheses using a modification of the morphology, performance, and fitness path analysis of Arnold (1983, Am. Zool. 23:347-361...

Flexible propulsors are ubiquitous in aquatic and flying organisms of great interest for bioinspired engineering. However, many animal models, especially those found the deep sea, remain inaccessible to direct observation laboratory. We address this challenge by conducting an integrative study giant larvacean, invertebrate swimmer “fluid pump” mesopelagic zone. demonstrate a workflow involving ...

In this study, electromyography showed that scup can swim to a maximum speed of 80 cm s-1 with their red muscle whereas previous results showed that carp can swim to only 45 cm s-1. Our aim was to evaluate the adaptations that enable scup to swim nearly twice as fast as carp. Although we anticipated that, at their respective maximum speeds, the red muscle of scup would be shortening at twice th...

TO THE EDITOR: For the successful translation of basic research to humans, the adequacy of the animal model being studied is of crucial importance. With respect to the frequently occurring spastic syndrome, as a consequence of brain or spinal cord damage, the spastic rat tail is commonly applied as a model. Animal studies using this model focus on the mechanisms underlying increased neuronal ac...

Vertebrate non-muscle and smooth muscle myosin molecules, like almost all other myosins, have two heads, each of which carries an essential and a regulatory light chain. The rest of the molecule forms a rod-like tail, and it is these tails which are responsible for the self-assembly of myosin at physiological ionic strength to form filaments. The heads project from the resulting filaments, form...