Association of Maternal Diet during Pregnancy and Metabolite Profile in Cord Blood

Cord blood metabolites can be predictive of long-term disease risk, but how levels of different metabolites might vary with respect to maternal diet is not well understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations of different dietary patterns during pregnancy with cord blood metabolites (including glycerophospholipid fatty acids, polar lipids, non-esterified fatty acids, amino acids, and the sum of hexoses). Participants from the German LISA birth cohort study, with available data on targeted cord blood metabolomics and maternal diet, were included (n = 739). Maternal diet during the last 4 weeks of pregnancy was assessed by a non-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Using factor analysis, ten dietary patterns were identified, which were used in linear regression models exploring associations with cord blood metabolites. After correction for multiple hypothesis testing and adjustment for basic covariates, fish and shellfish was associated with higher glycerophospholipid fatty acid C20:5 n3 and lower C22:5 n6, whereas the meat and potato pattern was directly associated with propionylcarnitine (C3:0). The observed associations highlight potential metabolic pathways involved in the early programming of health and disease through maternal diet, as well as the potential for establishing quantitative biomarkers for dietary patterns of pregnant women

I spy with my little eye: a simple behavioral assay to test color sensitivity on digital displays

Passive and interactive virtual reality (VR) environments are becoming increasingly popular in the field of behavioral neuroscience. While the technique was originally developed for human observers, corresponding applications have been adopted for the research of visual-driven behavior and neural circuits in animals. RGB color reproduction using red, green and blue primary color pixels is generally calibrated for humans, questioning if the distinct parameters are also readily transferable to other species. In particular, a visual image in the RGB color space has a clearly defined contrast pattern for humans, but this may not necessarily be the case for other mammals or even non-mammalian species, thereby impairing any interpretation of color-related behavioral or neuronal results. Here, we present a simple method to estimate the sensitivity of animals to the three primary colors of digital display devices based on the performance of object motion-driven visuomotor reflexes and demonstrate differences in the color sensitivity between Xenopus laevis and Ambystoma mexicanum (Axolotl)

Efficacy of tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222) as an anesthetic agent for blocking sensory-motor responses in Xenopus laevis tadpoles.

Anesthetics are drugs that reversibly relieve pain, decrease body movements and suppress neuronal activity. Most drugs only cover one of these effects; for instance, analgesics relieve pain but fail to block primary fiber responses to noxious stimuli. Alternately, paralytic drugs block synaptic transmission at neuromuscular junctions, thereby effectively paralyzing skeletal muscles. Thus, both analgesics and paralytics each accomplish one effect, but fail to singularly account for all three. Tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222) is structurally similar to benzocaine, a typical anesthetic for anamniote vertebrates, but contains a sulfate moiety rendering this drug more hydrophilic. MS-222 is used as anesthetic in poikilothermic animals such as fish and amphibians. However, it is often argued that MS-222 is only a hypnotic drug and its ability to block neural activity has been questioned. This prompted us to evaluate the potency and dynamics of MS-222-induced effects on neuronal firing of sensory and motor nerves alongside a defined motor behavior in semi-intact in vitro preparations of Xenopus laevis tadpoles. Electrophysiological recordings of extraocular motor discharge and both spontaneous and evoked mechanosensory nerve activity were measured before, during and after administration of MS-222, then compared to benzocaine and a known paralytic, pancuronium. Both MS-222 and benzocaine, but not pancuronium caused a dose-dependent, reversible blockade of extraocular motor and sensory nerve activity. These results indicate that MS-222 as benzocaine blocks the activity of both sensory and motor nerves compatible with the mechanistic action of effective anesthetics, indicating that both caine-derivates are effective as single-drug anesthetics for surgical interventions in anamniotes

Effect of benzocaine on extraocular motoneuronal discharge in <i>Xenopus</i> tadpoles.

<p><b><i>A-B</i></b>, Single sweeps of spontaneous (<b><i>A</i></b>), roll motion (Tpos)-evoked (<b><i>B₁</i></b>) multiple-unit discharge of the superior oblique (SO) eye muscle-innervating trochlear nerve and average firing rate modulation (± SEM, shaded areas; <b><i>B₂</i></b>) over a single cycle (dashed line; <b><i>B₂</i></b>) before (Control, gray traces and plot), 10 min after application of dimethylsulfoxide (Control w/DMSO, green traces and plot), 5 min (orange traces) and 15 min after application of benzocaine (0.05%; red traces) and four hours after wash-out (blue traces and plot); inset in <b><i>A</i></b> show relative resting rates before (gray), in the presence of DMSO (green), benzocaine (orange and red, complete block) and after wash-out (blue); number of experiments in parentheses; while no significant change (<i>n.s.</i>, <i>p</i> = 0.880) of the peak firing rate occurred after adding DMSO to the bath, benzocaine (0.05%) blocked the motor responses entirely (***, <i>p</i>≤0.0001).</p

Effect of pancuronium, benzocaine and MS-222 on the horizontal aVOR in <i>Xenopus</i> tadpoles.

<p><b><i>A</i></b>, Schematic of the experimental setting depicting the semi-intact preparation, horizontal sinusoidal turntable positional changes (Tpos; 0.5 Hz, ±10°) and video capture of eye motion. <b><i>B,C</i></b>, Single sweeps of co-aligned horizontal positional oscillations of the left (green) and right (red) eye, extracted from video sequences during turntable rotation (<b><i>B</i></b>) and average responses (± SEM, shaded areas; <i>n</i> = 8) over a single cycle (<b><i>C</i></b>); note that table and eye motion are oppositely directed in agreement with aVOR behavior. <b><i>D-I</i></b>, Effect of bath-applied pancuronium (0.12 mg/ml, <b><i>D,G</i></b>), benzocaine (0.05%, <b><i>E,H</i></b>) and MS-222 (0.05%, <b><i>F,I</i></b>) on single sweeps of horizontal sinusoidal turntable motion (Tpos)-evoked eye movements (<b><i>D-F</i></b>) and average response (± SEM, shaded areas; <i>n</i> = 8, respectively) over a single cycle (dashed line; <b><i>G-I</i></b>); recordings (same color code in <b><i>G-I</i></b>) were obtained before (Control, black traces), 5 min (orange traces) and 15 min (red traces) after onset of drug application as well as 1 hour (blue traces, <b><i>D-F</i></b>) and 3 hours after beginning of the wash-out (brown trace, <b><i>F</i></b>). <b><i>J</i></b>, Progression of pharmacological influence on eye motion gain (ratio of eye/table motion magnitude) after application/wash-out of pancuronium, benzocaine and MS-222. <b><i>K</i></b>, Dose-response curve of MS-222 impact on the gain of rotation-induced eye motion 5 and 15 min after drug application; the significance of difference in <b><i>J,K</i></b> is indicated: *, <i>p</i>≤0.01; **, <i>p</i>≤0.001; ***, <i>p</i>≤0.0001, with respect to control values. Calibration bars in <b><i>D,G</i></b> also apply to <b><i>E,F</i></b> and <b><i>H,I</i></b>, respectively.</p

Smart summaries from sport broadcast using OCR based scorecard analysis

Engineering of Sport 15 - Proceedings from the 15th International Conference on the Engineering of Sport (ISEA 2024) Sport analytics have become a vital aspect of training for a professional athlete. Part of the training routine is based on the video analysis of themselves or competitors. Video can be obtained either from (i) controlled sensor based footage (ii) amateur footage or (iii) televised broadcasts. Television based broadcasting is the easiest to acquire and follows a systematic order for each sport. Also, considerable metadata is embedded through the broadcasters’ scorecard information on screen that may be critical in pinpointing key segments in the game. Traditional methods for automated sports highlights have focused on audio-visual features, speech recognition of commentary, shot cut detection. Broadcaster footage displays metadata on screen that needs to become accessible. To prevent double entry of annotations, this paper proposes a semi automated manner to extract metadata and process it to find keypoints (highlights) within the broadcast stream. </p

Effect of pancuronium, benzocaine and MS-222 on extraocular motoneuronal discharge in <i>Xenopus</i> tadpoles.

<p><b><i>A</i></b>, Schematic of the experimental setting depicting the semi-intact preparation, roll-axis turntable positional changes (T_pos, 0.5 Hz, ±10°) and extracellular recordings of spontaneous and motion-evoked multiple-unit discharge of the superior oblique (SO) eye muscle-innervating trochlear nerve. <b><i>B-D</i></b>, Single sweeps of sinusoidal roll motion (Tpos)-evoked discharge modulation (<b><i>B₁</i></b>,<b><i>C₁</i></b>,<b><i>D₂</i></b>), spontaneous firing of the trochlear nerve (<b><i>D₁</i></b>) and average firing rate modulation (± SEM, shaded areas) over a single cycle (dashed line; <b><i>B₂</i></b>,<b><i>C₂</i></b>,<b><i>D₃</i></b>) before (Control, gray traces and plots), 5 min (orange traces and plots), 15 min (red traces and plots) and after wash-out (blue traces and plots) of bath-applied pancuronium (0.12 mg/ml, <b><i>B</i></b>), benzocaine (0.05%, <b><i>C</i></b>) and MS-222 (0.05%, <b><i>D</i></b>); inset in <b><i>B₂</i></b> shows relative peak firing rates before (gray) and after pancuronium application (red); insets in <b><i>D_1,3</i></b> show relative resting rates (<b><i>D₁</i></b>) and peak firing rates during roll motion stimulation (<b><i>D₃</i></b>) before and during drug application and after wash-out; number of experiments in parentheses in insets; while no significant change (<i>n.s.</i>, <i>p</i> = 0.975) of the peak firing rate occurred after adding pancuronium to the bath (<b><i>B</i></b>), benzocaine (<b><i>C</i></b>) and MS-222 (<b><i>D</i></b>) blocked the motor responses entirely (***, <i>p</i>≤0.0001). <b><i>E</i></b>, Dose-response curve of benzocaine and MS-222 (<i>n</i> = 20, respectively) on spontaneous and motion-triggered peak modulation values of multiple-unit trochlear motor spike discharge.</p