Deep drying and torrefaction compose a thermal pretreatment method where biomass is heated in the temperature range of 150-300 °C in an inert or reduced environment. The process parameters, like torrefaction temperature and residence time, have a significant impact on the proximate, ultimate, and energy properties. In this study, torrefaction experiments were conducted on 2-mm ground lodgepole ...

Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), like most rodent species, exhibit a phenotypic polymorphism in reproductive response to winter conditions or to short day lengths in the laboratory. Laboratory studies on seasonally breeding species have traditionally focused on the role of photoperiod in modulating reproduction and other seasonal adaptions. However, because animals use proximate environmen...

In the present study, the heavy metal concentration in different organs (skin, tissue, liver, kidney, gill, intestine, and ovary) and muscle proximate composition were studied in marine edible puffer fishes Takifugu oblongus, Lagocephalus guentheri, Arothron hispidus, Chelonodon patoca and Arothron immaculatus collected from Mandapam fish landing centre, South east coast of India. Heavy metals ...

Ca2+ signals, produced by Ca2+ release from cellular stores, switch metabolic responses inside cells. In muscle, Ca2+ sparks locally exhibit the rapid start and termination of the cell-wide signal. By imaging Ca2+ inside the store using shifted excitation and emission ratioing of fluorescence, a surprising observation was made: Depletion during sparks or voltage-induced cell-wide release occurs...

Ernst Mayr’s (1961, Science 131: 1501–1506) distinction between proximate and ultimate causation in biology is examined with regard to the acquisition of understanding in biological systematics. Rather than a two-part distinction, understanding in systematics is characterized by relations between three explanatory components: descriptive (observation statements)—proximate (ontogenetic hypothese...

Recent studies have found that processing information according to an evolutionary relevant (i.e., survival) scenario improves its subsequent memorability, potentially as a result of fitness advantages gained in the ancestral past. So far, research has not revealed much about any proximate mechanisms that might underlie this so-called survival processing advantage in memory. Intriguingly, resea...

Proximate composition (moisture, protein, total fat, and total ash) and textural characteristics (hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and firmness and work of shear) of cooked sausages formulated from mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDCM) with addition of chicken offal (heart, gizzard or liver) were investigated. Chicken offal replaced equal weight (15 kg) of MDCM in...

The present study was aimed to analyse the proximate composition and endophytic microbial colonization in six marine fishes such as Nemipterus japonicas, Epinephelus areolatus, Lutjanusquin quelineatus, Scolopsis bimaculatus, Lutjanus decussate and Lethrinus lensus, were collected from Mudasalodai coastal region, Tamil Nadu, South east coast of India. Maximum protein recorted Lethrinus lensus 4...

For a better understanding of development, we are interested in why in the long run some countries or societies forge ahead, while others stagnate or fall behind. We are especially interested in the conditions under which growth and catchup can be realised in developing countries. In section 1 of this paper, we develop a framework of proximate, intermediate and ultimate sources of growth and de...

An unresolved controversy regarding social behaviors is exemplified when natural selection might lead to behaviors that maximize fitness at the social-group level but are costly at the individual level. Except for the special case of groups of clones, we do not have a general understanding of how and when group-optimal behaviors evolve, especially when the behaviors in question are flexible. To...