Monitoring the activity of a southern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus latifrons, using temperature dataloggers.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 205 ◽  
Author(s):  
GR Finlayson ◽  
GA Shimmin ◽  
PD Temple-Smith ◽  
K Handasyde ◽  
DA Taggart

THERE is limited information on the activity of the southern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus latifrons, due predominantly to the cryptic nature of this species and its burrowing lifestyle. As part of a recent field study of L. latifrons, temperature data loggers were employed to determine the usefulness of this equipment for studying activity patterns in this species including; emergence times, total length of bouts of activity, patterns and variation in activity throughout the year. Data from this pilot study suggest that temperature dataloggers provide an extremely useful and relatively non-invasive means of determining activity patterns in a semi-fossorial mammal.

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Finlayson ◽  
C. R. White ◽  
R. Dibben ◽  
G. A. Shimmin ◽  
D. A. Taggart

The southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) is a large, semifossorial, herbivorous marsupial, adapted to a harsh and unpredictable environment in semi-arid Australia. Limited information is available on the biology and general behaviour of the species. The present study examines monthly variability in ‘nocturnal’ activity patterns. Data-loggers were used to investigate the effect of climate on 57 months of activity patterns of 18 wombats between 1999 and 2004. The average period of activity across the study was 6.27 ± 0.24 h in duration across the study. Multiple excursions above ground were more common in September and significantly correlated with both available water and median temperature. Periods of activity were strongly correlated with temperature across the entire study.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh P. Arasaradnam ◽  
Michael McFarlane ◽  
Emma Daulton ◽  
Erik Westenbrink ◽  
Nicola O’Connell ◽  
...  

Background & Aims: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the commonest cause of chronic liver disease in the western world. Current diagnostic methods including Fibroscan have limitations, thus there is a need for more robust non-invasive screening methods. The gut microbiome is altered in several gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders resulting in altered, unique gut fermentation patterns, detectable by analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine, breath and faeces. We performed a proof of principle pilot study to determine if progressive fatty liver disease produced an altered urinary VOC pattern; specifically NAFLD and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).Methods: 34 patients were recruited: 8 NASH cirrhotics (NASH-C); 7 non-cirrhotic NASH; 4 NAFLD and 15 controls. Urine was collected and stored frozen. For assay, the samples were defrosted and aliquoted into vials, which were heated to 40±0.1°C and the headspace analyzed by FAIMS (Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectroscopy). A previously used data processing pipeline employing a Random Forrest classification algorithm and using a 10 fold cross validation method was applied.Results: Urinary VOC results demonstrated sensitivity of 0.58 (0.33 - 0.88), but specificity of 0.93 (0.68 - 1.00) and an Area Under Curve (AUC) 0.73 (0.55 -0.90) to distinguish between liver disease and controls. However, NASH/NASH-C was separated from the NAFLD/controls with a sensitivity of 0.73 (0.45 - 0.92), specificity of 0.79 (0.54 - 0.94) and AUC of 0.79 (0.64 - 0.95), respectively.Conclusions: This pilot study suggests that urinary VOCs detection may offer the potential for early non-invasive characterisation of liver disease using 'smell prints' to distinguish between NASH and NAFLD.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Moore ◽  
Alex Shorter ◽  
Tom Hurst ◽  
Alessandro Bocconcelli ◽  
Mark Johnson ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hope J. Woods ◽  
Ming Fei Li ◽  
Ujas A. Patel ◽  
B. Duncan X. Lascelles ◽  
David R. Samson ◽  
...  

AbstractThe study of companion (pet) dogs is an area of great translational potential, as they share a risk for many conditions that afflict humans. Among these are conditions that affect sleep, including chronic pain and cognitive dysfunction. Significant advancements have occurred in the ability to study sleep in dogs, including development of non-invasive polysomnography; however, basic understanding of dog sleep patterns remains poorly characterized. The purpose of this study was to establish baseline sleep–wake cycle and activity patterns using actigraphy and functional linear modeling (FLM), for healthy, adult companion dogs. Forty-two dogs were enrolled and wore activity monitors for 14 days. FLM demonstrated a bimodal pattern of activity with significant effects of sex, body mass, and age; the effect of age was particularly evident during the times of peak activity. This study demonstrated that FLM can be used to describe normal sleep–wake cycles of healthy adult dogs and the effects of physiologic traits on these patterns of activity. This foundation makes it possible to characterize deviations from normal patterns, including those associated with chronic pain and cognitive dysfunction syndrome. This can improve detection of these conditions in dogs, benefitting them and their potential as models for human disease.


2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 231-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Corte Franco ◽  
Floriane Gallay ◽  
Marc Berenguer ◽  
Christine Mourrain ◽  
Pascal Couturier

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. e0170668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jully Gogoi-Tiwari ◽  
Vincent Williams ◽  
Charlene Babra Waryah ◽  
Paul Costantino ◽  
Hani Al-Salami ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Browarska ◽  
Jaroslaw Zygarlicki ◽  
Mariusz Pelc ◽  
Michal Niemczynowicz ◽  
Malgorzata Zygarlicka ◽  
...  

F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1514
Author(s):  
Prakash Ghosh ◽  
Israel Cruz ◽  
Albert Picado ◽  
Thomas Edwards ◽  
Md. Anik Ashfaq Khan ◽  
...  

Background: Detection of Leishmania antigens in the urine provides a non-invasive means of diagnosis and treatment monitoring of cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Leishmania antigen load in the urine may vary between different time-points within a day, thus influencing the performance of antigen-detection tests. Methods: We investigated the dynamics of Leishmania antigen in urine collected at three different time points (08:00, 12:00 and 16:00 hours). All urine samples collected were tested with the Leishmania Antigen ELISA (VL ELISA) kit, produced by Kalon Biological Ltd., UK. Results: The median concentration of Leishmania antigen in urine collected at 08:00 (2.7 UAU-urinary antigen units/ml) was higher than at 12:00 (1.7 UAU/ml) and at 16:00 (1.9 UAU/ml). These differences were found to be statistically significant (08:00 vs. 12:00, p=0.011; 08:00 vs. 16:00, p=0.041). Conclusion: This pilot study indicates that the Leishmania antigen concentration is higher in urine samples collected in the morning, which has important implications when the VL ELISA kit or other tests to detect Leishmania antigen in urine are used for diagnosis of VL and treatment monitoring.


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