TY - JOUR A1 - Ruf, Katharina A1 - Demerath, Antonia A1 - Hebestreit, Helge A1 - Kunzmann, Steffen T1 - Is sweat testing for cystic fibrosis feasible in patients with down syndrome? JF - BMC Pulmonary Medicine N2 - Background: Recurrent airway infections are common in patients with Down's syndrome (DS). Hence, ruling out Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in these patients is often required. In the past, the value of sweat testing the gold standard to diagnose CF -has been questioned in DS as false positive results have been reported. However, these reports are based on measurements of sweat osmolality or sodium concentrations, not chloride concentrations. This study analyses sweat secretion rate and chloride concentration in sweat samples of patients with DS in comparison to healthy controls. Methods: We assessed sweat samples in 16 patients with DS and 16 healthy controls regarding sweat secretion rate (SSR) and sweat chloride concentration. Results: All measured chloride concentrations were within the normal range. The chloride concentrations were slightly, but not significantly lower in patients with DS (15,54 mmol/l (±4,47)) compared to healthy controls (18,31 mmol/l (±10,12)). While no gender gap in chloride concentration could be found, chloride concentration increased with age in both groups. Insufficient sweat was collected in 2 females with DS (12.5% of the study group) but not in an individual of the control group. A significant lower sweat secretion rate was found in the DS group (27,6 μl/30 min (± 12,18)) compared to the control group (42,7 μl/30 min (± 21,22)). In a sub-analysis, female patients produced significantly less sweat (20,8 ± 10,6 μl/30 min) than male patients with DS (36,4 ± 7,8 μl/30 min), which accounts for the difference between patients and controls. Furthermore, while the sweating secretion rate increased with age in the control group, it did not do so in the DS group. Once again this was due to female patients with DS, who did not show a significant increase of sweat secretion rate with age. Conclusions: Sweat chloride concentrations were within the normal range in patients with DS and therefore seem to be a reliable tool for testing for CF in these patients. Interestingly, we found a reduced sweat secretion rate in the DS group. Whether the last one has a functional and clinical counterpart, possibly due to a disturbed thermoregulation in DS patients, requires further investigation. KW - sweat secretion rate KW - sweat osmolality KW - gender gap KW - non-responder KW - thermoregulation Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-175519 VL - 18 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zinner, C. A1 - Krueger, M. A1 - Reed, J. L. A1 - Kohl-Bareis, M. A1 - Holmberg, H. C. A1 - Sperlich, B. T1 - Exposure to a combination of heat and hyperoxia during cycling at submaximal intensity does not alter thermoregulatory responses JF - Biology of Sport N2 - In this study, we tested the hypothesis that breathing hyperoxic air (F\(_{in}\)O\(_2\) = 0.40) while exercising in a hot environment exerts negative effects on the total tissue level of haemoglobin concentration (tHb); core (T\(_{core}\)) and skin (T\(_{skin}\)) temperatures; muscle activity; heart rate; blood concentration of lactate; pH; partial pressure of oxygen (P\(_a\)O\(_2\)) and carbon dioxide; arterial oxygen saturation (S\(_a\)O\(_2\)); and perceptual responses. Ten well-trained male athletes cycled at submaximal intensity at 21°C or 33°C in randomized order: first for 20 min while breathing normal air (FinO\(_2\) = 0.21) and then 10 min with F\(_{in}\)O\(_2\) = 0.40 (HOX). At both temperatures, S\(_a\)O\(_2\) and P\(_a\)O\(_2\), but not tHb, were increased by HOX. Tskin and perception of exertion and thermal discomfort were higher at 33°C than 21°C (p < 0.01), but independent of F\(_{in}\)O\(_2\). T\(_{core}\) and muscle activity were the same under all conditions (p > 0.07). Blood lactate and heart rate were higher at 33°C than 21°C. In conclusion, during 30 min of submaximal cycling at 21°C or 33°C, T\(_{core}\), T\(_{skin}\) and T\(_{body}\), tHb, muscle activity and ratings of perceived exertion and thermal discomfort were the same under normoxic and hyperoxic conditions. Accordingly, breathing hyperoxic air (F\(_{in}\)O\(_2\) = 0.40) did not affect thermoregulation under these conditions. KW - heat stress KW - hyperthermia KW - skin blood flow KW - thermoregulation KW - vasoconstriction Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-160993 VL - 33 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klein, Barett Anthony A1 - Stiegler, Martin A1 - Klein, Arno A1 - Tautz, Jürgen T1 - Mapping Sleeping Bees within Their Nest: Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Worker Honey Bee Sleep JF - PLOS ONE N2 - Patterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an invertebrate society. We introduce the concept of mapping sleep across an insect society, and provide an empirical example, mapping sleep patterns within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Honey bees face variables such as temperature and position of resources within their colony's nest that may impact their sleep. We mapped sleep behavior and temperature of worker bees and produced maps of their nest's comb contents as the colony grew and contents changed. By following marked bees, we discovered that individuals slept in many locations, but bees of different worker castes slept in different areas of the nest relative to position of the brood and surrounding temperature. Older worker bees generally slept outside cells, closer to the perimeter of the nest, in colder regions, and away from uncapped brood. Younger worker bees generally slept inside cells and closer to the center of the nest, and spent more time asleep than awake when surrounded by uncapped brood. The average surface temperature of sleeping foragers was lower than the surface temperature of their surroundings, offering a possible indicator of sleep for this caste. We propose mechanisms that could generate caste-dependent sleep patterns and discuss functional significance of these patterns. KW - apis mellifera KW - age polyethism KW - waggle dance KW - colony KW - hive KW - thermoregulation KW - deprivation KW - dynamics KW - rhythms KW - comb Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115857 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 9 IS - 7 ER - TY - THES A1 - Weidenmüller, Anja T1 - From individual behavior to collective structure T1 - Von individuellem Verhalten zu kollektiven Strukturen N2 - The social organization of insect colonies has long fascinated naturalists. One of the main features of colony organization is division of labor, whereby each member of the colony specializes in a subset of all tasks required for successful group functioning. The most striking aspect of division of labor is its plasticity: workers switch between tasks in response to external challenges and internal perturbations. The mechanisms underlying flexible division of labor are far from being understood. In order to comprehend how the behavior of individuals gives rise to flexible collective behavior, several questions need to be addressed: We need to know how individuals acquire information about their colony's current demand situation; how they then adjust their behavior according; and which mechanisms integrate dozens or thousands of insect into a higher-order unit. With these questions in mind I have examined two examples of collective and flexible behavior in social bees. First, I addressed the question how a honey bee colony controls its pollen collection. Pollen foraging in honey bees is precisely organized and carefully regulated according to the colony's needs. How this is achieved is unclear. I investigated how foragers acquire information about their colony's pollen need and how they then adjust their behavior. A detailed documentation of pollen foragers in the hive under different pollen need conditions revealed that individual foragers modulate their in-hive working tempo according to the actual pollen need of the colony: Pollen foragers slowed down and stayed in the hive longer when pollen need was low and spent less time in the hive between foraging trips when pollen need of their colony was high. The number of cells inspected before foragers unloaded their pollen load did not change and thus presumably did not serve as cue to pollen need. In contrast, the trophallactic experience of pollen foragers changed with pollen need conditions: trophallactic contacts were shorter when pollen need was high and the number and probability of having short trophallactic contacts increased when pollen need increased. Thus, my results have provided support for the hypothesis that trophallactic experience is one of the various information pathways used by pollen foragers to assess their colony's pollen need. The second example of collective behavior I have examined in this thesis is the control of nest climate in bumble bee colonies, a system differing from pollen collection in honey bees in that information about task need (nest climate parameters) is directly available to all workers. I have shown that an increase in CO2 concentration and temperature level elicits a fanning response whereas an increase in relative humidity does not. The fanning response to temperature and CO2 was graded; the number of fanning bees increased with stimulus intensity. Thus, my study has evidenced flexible colony level control of temperature and CO2. Further, I have shown that the proportion of total work force a colony invests into nest ventilation does not change with colony size. However, the dynamic of the colony response changes: larger colonies show a faster response to perturbations of their colony environment than smaller colonies. Thus, my study has revealed a size-dependent change in the flexible colony behavior underlying homeostasis. I have shown that the colony response to perturbations in nest climate is constituted by workers who differ in responsiveness. Following a brief review of current ideas and models of self-organization and response thresholds in insect colonies, I have presented the first detailed investigation of interindividual variability in the responsiveness of all workers involved in a collective behavior. My study has revealed that bumble bee workers evidence consistent responses to certain stimulus levels and differ in their response thresholds. Some consistently respond to low stimulus intensities, others consistently respond to high stimulus intensities. Workers are stimulus specialists rather than task specialists. Further, I have demonstrated that workers of a colony differ in two other parameters of responsiveness: response probability and fanning activity. Response threshold, response probability and fanning activity are independent parameters of individual behavior. Besides demonstrating and quantifying interindividual variability, my study has provided empirical support for the idea of specialization through reinforcement. Response thresholds of fanning bees decreased over successive trials. I have discussed the importance of interindividual variability for specialization and the collective control of nest climate and present a general discussion of self-organization and selection. This study contributes to our understanding of individual behavior and collective structure in social insects. A fascinating picture of social organization is beginning to emerge. In place of centralized systems of communication and information transmission, insect societies frequently employ mechanisms based upon self-organization. Self-organization promises to be an important and unifying principle in physical, chemical and biological systems. N2 - Ein besonderes Merkmal sozialer Insekten ist die Arbeitsteilung. Die Mitglieder einer Kolonie führen jeweils unterschiedliche Arbeiten aus und wechseln, je nach Bedarfslage der Kolonie, flexibel zwischen den verschiedenen Tätigkeiten. Die Mechanismen dieser flexiblen Arbeitsteilung sind bislang weitgehend unverstanden. Wie erfahren einzelne Arbeiterinnen welche Tätigkeiten gerade notwendig sind? Nach welchen Regeln ändern sie ihr Verhalten, wenn sich die Anforderungen an die Kolonie ändern? Wie wird das Verhalten vieler Einzelindividuen so koordiniert, daß die Kolonie als Ganzes sinnvoll auf eine sich verändernde Umwelt reagieren kann? In der vorliegenden Arbeit bin ich diesen Fragen an zwei unterschiedlichen Systemen nachgegangen. Im ersten Kapitel dieser Arbeit untersuchte ich die Regulation des Pollensammelns bei Honigbienen. Pollen ist für Honigbienen eine wichtige Proteinquelle zur Aufzucht der Brut. Sowohl die Menge an Brut als auch die bereits im Stock vorhanden Menge an Pollen beeinflußt die Sammelaktivität. Bislang ist unklar, wie die Sammelbienen Information über den Pollenbedarf ihrer Kolonie erhalten und wie sie ihr Verhalten dementsprechend ändern. Meine Versuche zeigten, daß Pollensammlerinnen ihr Arbeitstempo der aktuellen Bedarfslage anpassen: Ist der Pollenbedarf der Kolonie hoch, verbringen sie wenig Zeit im Stock, ist ausreichend Pollen vorhanden, gehen sie ihrer Sammeltätigkeit langsamer nach. Während ihres Aufenthalts im Stock haben die Sammlerinnen eine Vielzahl trophallaktischer Kontakte mit anderen Bienen. Die Anzahl solcher Kontakte änderte sich mit dem Pollenbedarf der Kolonie: Bei hohem Pollenbedarf sind die trophallaktischen Kontakte kürzer und die Anzahl sehr kurzer Kontakte hoch. Diese Ergebnisse unterstützen die Hypothese, daß Änderungen in der trophallaktischen Erfahrung eine wichtige Informationsquelle über den aktuellen Pollenbedarf einer Kolonie darstellen. Das zweite Beispiel flexibler Arbeitsteilung, welches ich in dieser Arbeit untersucht habe, ist die Regulation des Nestklimas in Hummelkolonien. Dieses System unterscheidet sich von dem oben dargestellten grundlegend, da Information über Änderungen im Bedarf an Arbeitskraft jedem Koloniemitglied zugänglich ist. Jedes Koloniemitglied im Nest kann direkt erfahren wie sich das Nestklima ändert. Ich konnte zeigen, daß Hummelkolonien auf einen Temperaturanstieg und eine Zunahme der Kohlendioxidkonzentration im Nest mit Ventilationsverhalten reagieren. Einzelne Hummeln fächeln dabei mit ihren Flügeln und sorgen so für Evaporationskühlung bzw. eine verstärkte Belüftung des Nestes. Erhöhte Luftfeuchtigkeit löste diese Reaktion nicht aus. Die Anzahl fächelnder Hummeln war abhängig von den Temperatur/CO2 Werten, die Kolonie reagierte fein abgestimmt auf die aktuellen Bedingungen. Unabhängig von ihrer Größe investierten die untersuchten Kolonien einen bestimmten Anteil ihrer Arbeiterinnen in die Ventilation des Nestes. Große Kolonien unterschieden sich jedoch von kleinen Kolonien in ihrer Antwortgeschwindigkeit: Große Kolonien antworten schneller auf einen Temperatur / CO2 Anstieg als kleine. Die flexible und fein abgestimmte Kolonieantwort auf Veränderungen im Nestklima basiert auf dem Verhalten vieler Einzelindividuen. Im dritten Kapitel dieser Arbeit stellte ich aktuelle Ideen und Hypothesen zu Selbstorganisation und dem Einfluß interindividueller Variabilität auf Kolonieverhalten dar. Regulation des Nestklimas in Hummelkolonien ist ein ideales System um interindividuelle Variabilität und ihre Auswirkungen zu untersuchen. Ich konnte zum ersten Mal Unterschiede im Antwortverhalten aller an einem kollektiven Verhalten beteiligten Koloniemitglieder quantifizieren. Neben Unterschieden in Antwortschwellen, die in der Literatur zwar viel diskutiert, aber noch nie schlüssig nachgewiesen wurden, konnte ich zeigen, daß sich Arbeiterinnen einer Kolonie in zwei weiteren Parametern unterscheiden: Die Wahrscheinlichkeit auf einen Stimulus zu reagieren und die Dauer, mit der die Arbeiterinnen das Verhalten ausführen (Aktivität) ist zwischen Individuen unterschiedlich. Diese drei Parameter (Reaktionsschwelle, Antwortwahrscheinlichkeit und Aktivität) sind vermutlich unabhängige Parameter individuellen Verhaltens. Neben diesen interindividuellen Unterschieden konnte ich nachweisen, daß sich die Antwortschwellen verändern, je häufiger eine Hummel fächelt: Arbeiterinnen reagieren von Mal zu Mal auf niedrigere Stimulusintensitäten. Diese Ergebnisse sind für unser Verständnis von Arbeitsteilung und Spezialisierung bei sozialen Insekten von besonderer Bedeutung. In dieser Arbeit habe ich sowohl das Verhalten individueller Arbeiterinnen als auch die daraus resultierende kollektive Antwort der Kolonie untersucht. Es wird zunehmend deutlicher, daß dem faszinierenden Verhalten sozialer Insekten häufig nicht zentrale Informationsverarbeitung sondern Selbstorganisation zugrunde liegt. KW - Hummeln KW - Soziale Insekten KW - Thermoregulation KW - Arbeitsteilung KW - Bienenstaat KW - Pollen KW - Sammeln KW - Arbeitsteilung KW - Pollen KW - Nestklima KW - Thermoregultion KW - CO2 KW - Antwortschwellen KW - Selbstorgansation KW - social organization KW - division of labor KW - pollen foraging KW - nest climate KW - thermoregulation KW - CO2 KW - response threshold models KW - self-organization Y1 - 2001 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-2448 ER -