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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1978 H35 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 W33 / Master of Science

Endothermic homeothermy is a major feature of the adaptive suites of tachymetabolic animals such as mammals and birds. The advantages homeothermy confers on birds and mammals include relative independence from the environment, a stable internal milieu, and possibly the ability to sustain high aerobic activity (Bennett and Ruben 1979). Some mammals in situations of limited water or energy availability, however, depart markedly from homeothermy and instead display patterns of heterothermy. Torpor is a lowering of body temperature (T(b)) to conserve energy and/or water. I studied the energetics of arousal from torpor in two desert pocket mice species. The species differed in warming rates and arousal durations, but used similar amounts of energy to arouse. The smaller species, Perognathus amplus, lost mass more quickly while fasting in the cold, yet waited as long as the larger species, Chaetodipus baileyi, before entering torpor. P. amplus maintained a lower T(b) during topor than C. baileyi. The thermodynamics of arousal indicated that metabolic rate during arousal was a function of T(b) but not ambient temperature (Tₐ), that the animals changed thermal conductance to increase heat gain when Tₐ was greater than T(b), and that Q₁₀ decreased during arousals. In contrast to torpor, adaptive hyperthermia provides desert mammals in dry, hot environments a means to conserve water that would normally be used for evaporative cooling. I modeled the effects of body size on adaptive hyperthermia and discovered that small mammals gain the most in terms of water savings using this strategy, and that small and large mammals can spend larger fractions of the day active than do medium size mammals. I demonstrated that two desert ground squirrel species make use of adaptive hyperthermia during the summer near Tucson, Arizona by following free-ranging squirrels implanted with temperature-sensitive radio transmitters. Ground squirrel T(b) fluctuated almost continuously, ranging from about 35°C to over 42°C, and rarely approached steady state. Of the two species studied, Ammospermophilus harrisii had higher mean T(b), similar maximum T(b), and lower T(b) variability compared to Spermophilus tereticaudus. These results are consistent with the more wide-ranging foraging style of A. harrisii compared to S. tereticaudus.

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Animals have evolved diverse strategies to control solar and thermal radiations so that they can better adapt to their natural habitats. Structured materials utilized by these animals to control electromagnetic waves often surpass analogous man-made optical materials in both sophistication and efficiency. Understanding the physical mechanism behind these structured materials of nature inspires one to create novel materials and technologies. Our optical and thermodynamic measurements of insects (Saharan silver ants and cocoons of the Madagascar comet moth) living in harsh thermal environments showed their unique ability to simultaneously enhance solar reflectivity and thermal emissivity, and to maintain a cool body temperature. Saharan silver ants, Cataglyphis bombycina, forage on the desert surface during the middle of the day. The ants’ conspicuous silvery glance is caused by a coating of hairs with unique triangular cross-sections. The hair coating enhances not only the reflectivity of the ant’s body surface in the visible and near-infrared range of the spectrum, where solar radiation culminates, but also the emissivity of the ant in the mid-infrared. The latter effect enables the animals to efficiently dissipate heat back to the surroundings via blackbody radiation under full daylight conditions. The fibers produced by the wild comet moth, Argema mittrei, are populated with a high density of air voids that have a random distribution in the fiber cross-section but are invariant along the fiber. These filamentary air voids strongly back-scatter light in the solar spectrum, which, in combination with the fibers’ intrinsic high emissivity in the mid-infrared, enables the cocoon to function as an efficient radiative-cooling device, preventing the pupa inside from overheating. The reduced dimensionality of the random voids leads to strong optical scattering in the transverse direction of the cocoon fibers. This enables tightly confined optical modes to propagate along the fibers via transverse Anderson localization. We made the first observation of transverse Anderson localization in a natural fiber and further demonstrated light focusing and image transport in the fibers. This discovery opens up the possibility to use wild silk fibers as a biocompatible and bioresorbable material for transporting optical signals and images. Drawing inspirations from these discoveries, we designed and developed high-throughput fabrication processes to create coatings and fibers with passive radiative-cooling properties. The radiative-cooling coatings consist of various nanoparticles imbedded within a silicone thin film. The sizes and materials of the nanoparticles were chosen to provide simultaneously high solar reflectivity and thermal emissivity. The coating has been implemented in two site studies on real roofs and has demonstrated reduced roof temperature by up to 30oC in the summer and associated reduction of electricity usage by up to 30%. We also made biomimetic fibers from regenerated silk fibroin and a thermoplastic using wet spinning. Spectroscopic measurements showed that these man-made fibers exhibit exceptional optical properties for radiative-cooling applications.

In an attempt to elucidate the mechanism by which ethanol affects vertebrate thermoregulation, the effect of ethanol on temperature selection was studied in the goldfish, Carassius auratus. Ethanol was administered to 10 to 15 g fish by mixing it in the water of a temperature gradient. The dose response curve was very steep between 0.5% (v/v) ethanol (no response) and 0.7% (significant lowering of selected temperature in treated fish). Fish were exposed to concentrations of ethanol as high as 1.7%, at which concentration most experimental fish lost their ability to swim upright in the water. At concentrations higher than 0.7%, the magnitude of the effect did not increase with increasing concentration of ethanol; treated animals continued to select temperatures about 2 C below temperatures selected by controls. Experiments alternating exposure to 1.0% ethanol and water showed that the rate of onset and disappearance of the ethanol effect was rapid (within 10 min). Other experiments exposing fish to 1.0% ethanol for up to 3 hr showed that the effect remained stable for this period of time. The thermoregulatory responses of fish are behavioral, and therefore relatively easy to observe and quantify. Ethanol produces a prompt, stable and reproducible depression of selected temperature in the goldfish. Because the temperature at which fish regulate is controlled by a central nervous system set point and not altered by effects on peripheral effector systems, it appears that ethanol may cause hypothermia in goldfish by directly acting to lower the set point.

The ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH) is an important central effector site involved in activating brown adipose tissue (BAT) or non-shivering thermogenesis. VMH neurons have previously been shown to be thermally responsive to changes in local temperature of the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (PO/AH). However, the thermoresponsiveness of VMH neurons of room temperature acclimatized and cold acclimatized rats to peripheral thermal stimulation has not been tested. In this thesis, a series of studies was designed to determine the thermoresponsiveness of VMH neurons to peripheral (scrotal) thermal stimulation of rats. Extracelluiar VMH neuronal activity was recorded from urethane anaesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats, which were acclimatized either to room temperature (21°C for 4 weeks) or to cold (4°C for 4 weeks) prior to testing, during scrotal cooling and heating with glass-micropipettes filled with 0.5 M sodium acetate containing 2% pontamine sky blue. The rats' colonic temperatures were kept at normothermia (37°C), or hypothermia (33-35°C) during scrotal thermal stimulation. In the room temperature acclimatized rats, VMH neurons were temperature responsive to scrotal heating and cooling and were classified as warm responsive (WRN), cold responsive (CRN) and temperature non-responsive neurons (TNRN), based on their thermal coefficients. The ratio of VMH WRNs and CRNs was similar to that of thermoresponsive neurons observed in other brain regions (eg, the PO/AH and thalamus). VMH WRNs and CRNs were further classified as biphasic or monophasic in nature according to their thermal responses to scrotal heating and cooling. VMH neurons sustained their thermoresponsiveness to repeated trials of scrotal thermal stimulation with colonic temperatures maintained at 37°C or when colonic temperatures were acutely lowered from 37°C to 35°C and 33°C. In addition, scrotal thermal signals specifically altered neuronal activity of VMH thermoresponsive neurons, as changes in EEG activity did not occur with changes in VMH neuronal activity. Scrotal thermal inputs were functionally shown to be transmitted via the medial preoptic nucleus (MPO) prior to reaching the VMH nucleus because thermoresponsive VMH neuronal activity was blocked with the pretreatment of lidocaine into the MPO. Scrotal heating or cooling to 21°C-acclimatized rats did not increase IBAT temperatures, inferring that scrotal cooling had not evoked IBAT thermogenesis in this group. In cold acclimatized (CA) rats, prolonged (over 2 hours) and transient localized scrotal cooling caused IBAT temperatures to increase, inferring that scrotal cooling activated BAT thermogenesis. Mean basal firing rates of all recorded VMH neurons of CA-groups significantly increased, compared to those of VMH neurons observed in room temperature acclimatized (RA) groups. More VMH CRNs than WRNs were recorded in the CA-group and the thermoresponsiveness (ie, thermal coefficient) of VMH CRNs significantly increased during localized scrotal cooling in the cold acclimatized group, compared to thermal coefficients of VMH CRNs of the RA-groups. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

No description available.

Field observations indicated a difference in the ability to locomote at low body temperatures in two closely related species of lizards from very different habitats and with radically different seasonal behavior. I measured the critical thermal minimum (the body temperature at which a cooling lizard just loses the ability to right itself) in both species. The winter-active, montane Sceloporus jarrovi had a significantly lower critical thermal minimum in both summer and winter than the winter-hibernating, lowland S. magister. Critical thermal minima were significantly lower in winter than in summer for both species. To determine a physiological basis for these differences, I examined the activity of myosin ATPase, which plays the limiting role in the velocity of muscle contraction, and the energetics of muscle as reflected by high energy phosphate compounds. Microenvironmental conditions were correlated with behavior, constraints on winter activity, and muscle physiology. Ca²⁺-activated myosin ATPase activity in S. magister of valley bottoms is greater than that in the vertical rock-dwelling S. jarrovi. No seasonal acclimatization occurs in myosin ATPase activity in either species. Changes in the muscle metabolism of hibernating animals has been attributed to the lack of muscular contractions in the dormant animals. I measured levels of phosphorylated compounds in a hindlimb muscle from summer and winter lizards of both species. Significant seasonal changes occur in some of the phosphate compounds in both species even though, within a given season, respective levels of phosphorylated compounds are similar in both species. Phosphorylcreatine and total acid-soluble phosphate levels increased in winter animals of both species. Apparently the high levels of phosphorylcreatine in winter S. magister are not simply due to inactivity; winter-active S. jarrovi contain similar amounts. Seasonal cycling of phosphate compounds may relate more to parathyroid status than to muscle activity. Winter activity in S. jarrovi was site-specific and highly dependent on a favorable microclimate. Winter dormancy in S. magister apparently is not dictated by the severity of the microclimate nor physiological limitations of skeletal muscle, but may be strongly influenced by the thermal inertia of that relatively large species.