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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Competitive exclusion and coexistence of species with complex life cycles.

Complex life cycles are life histories in which abrupt ontogenetic transformations and niche shifts occur at the transition between stages. The effects of this niche differentiation between stages on coexistence between species are investigated using a simple discrete model of two-stage populations. The model incorporates exploitation competition for limiting resources within stages, between stages, and between species. While species with simple life cycles can never coexist at equilibrium, stable coexistence is shown to be possible between species with complex life cycles provided that (1) one species is more efficient in resource utilization at low resource abundance in the larval stage while the other is more efficient at low resource abundance in the adult stage; and (2) each species is mainly limited by that stage which is less efficient at low resource abundance. Stable coexistence is somewhat easier between a species with a simple life cycle and one with a complex life cycle. It requires that (1) the species with the simple life cycle should not be decidedly more efficient than that with the complex life cycle in utilizing the resource on which it lives; and (2) the main resource limitation for the species with a complex life cycle should occur in that stage which escapes competition with the species with a simple life cycle. Lastly, a complex life cycle can offer a decisive competitive superiority over a simple life cycle in interspecific competition, which suggests that competition can be a driving force of the evolution of complex life cycles.

Animals↗

Psychological issues affecting women throughout the life cycle.

Throughout life, some psychological issues facing women are shared with men, and some are unique to women. This article compares the traditional life cycle perspective with the complementary perspective of different lines of development that characterize women's lives. Traditionally, there was a concept, especially of the woman's life cycle, linking growth and reproduction to expected work, social status, and sources of self-esteem. Today, there is no single life cycle for women, but rather a number of predictable areas of growth and development. The article will explore the biologic-reproductive life cycle, the family-marital life cycle, and the educational-vocational life cycle, from before birth to old age. It will also review psychological problems most common at each stage, and it will discuss how societal changes in expectations of women may be changing women's growth and development today.

Aging↗

Life cycle emission distributions within the economy: implications for life cycle impact assessment.

Refinements of methods for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) are directed at removing unjustified simplifications and quantifying and reducing uncertainties in results. The amount of uncertainty reduction that is actually achieved through LCIA method refinement depends on the structure of the life cycle inventory model. We investigate the general structure of inventory models using an economic input/output (I/O) life cycle assessment model of the U.S. economy. In particular, we study the results of applying a streamlining algorithm to the I/O LCA model. The streamlining algorithm retains only those "branches" of the process tree that are jointly required to account for a specified fraction of the total impacts upstream of each point in the tree. We examine the implications of these "tree pruning" results for site-informed LCIA. Percentiles are presented for U.S. commodities and several important pollutants, for the share of total upstream emissions contributed by the set of processes in each supply tier, that is, each set of processes that directly supply inputs to another set of processes Capturing at least 90% of the total direct plus upstream emissions for criteria air pollutants and toxic releases for at least 75% of the commodities in the U.S. economy requires full modeling of direct emissions plus the first five supply tiers. The requirements for capturing a high percentage (e.g., >80%) of total emissions vary widely across products or commodities. To capture more than 60% of total emissions for more than half of all commodities requires models with more than 4,000 process instances. To well characterize the total impacts of products, life cycle impact assessment methods must characterize foreground process impacts in a site-informed way and mean impacts of far-removed processes in an unbiased way.

Air Pollutants↗

Two separate growth phases during the development of Leishmania in sand flies: implications for understanding the life cycle.

The life cycle of Leishmania alternates between two main morphological forms: intracellular amastigotes in the mammalian host and motile promastigotes in the sand fly vector. Several different forms of promastigote have been described in sandfly infections, the best known of these being metacyclic promastigotes, the mammal-infective stages. Here we provide evidence that for Leishmania (Leishmania) mexicana and Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (syn. chagasi) there are two separate, consecutive growth cycles during development in Lutzomyia longipalpis sand flies involving four distinct life cycle stages. The first growth cycle is initiated by procyclic promastigotes, which divide in the bloodmeal in the abdominal midgut and subsequently give rise to non-dividing nectomonad promastigotes. Nectomonad forms are responsible for anterior migration of the infection and in turn transform into leptomonad promastigotes that initiate a second growth cycle in the anterior midgut. Subsequently, leptomonad promastigotes differentiate into non-dividing metacyclic promastigotes in preparation for transmission to a mammalian host. Differences in timing, prevalence and persistence of the four promastigote stages were observed between L. mexicana and L. infantum in vivo, which were reproduced in cultures initiated with lesion amastigotes, indicating that development is to some extent governed by a programmed series of events. A new scheme for the life cycle in the subgenus Leishmania (Leishmania) is proposed that incorporates these findings.

Animals↗

On nitric oxide signaling, metamorphosis, and the evolution of biphasic life cycles.

Complex life cycles are ancient and widely distributed, particularly so in the marine environment. Generally, the marine biphasic life cycle consists of pre-reproductive stages that exist in the plankton for various periods of time before settling and transforming into a benthic reproductive stage. Pre-reproductive stages are frequently phenotypically distinct from the reproductive stage, and the life cycle transition (metamorphosis) linking the larval and juvenile stages varies in extent of change but is usually rapid. Selection of suitable adult sites apparently involves the capacity to retain the larval state after metamorphic competence is reached. Thus two perennial and related questions arise: How are environmentally dependent rapid transitions between two differentiated functional life history stages regulated (a physiological issue) and how does biphasy arise (a developmental issue)? Two species of solitary ascidian, a sea urchin and a gastropod, share a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent signaling pathway as a repressive regulator of metamorphosis. NO also regulates life history transitions among several simple eukaryotes. We review the unique properties of inhibitory NO signaling and propose that (a) NO is an ancient and widely used regulator of biphasic life histories, (b) the evolution of biphasy in the metazoa involved repression of juvenile development, (c) functional reasons why NO-based signaling is well suited as an inhibitory regulator of metamorphosis after competence is reached, and (d) signaling pathways that regulate metamorphosis of extant marine animals may have participated in the evolution of larvae.

Animals↗

The parasitic ecology of the rodent mite, Myobia musculi. IV. Life cycle.

The life cycle of Myobia musculi was determined by daily examination (under anesthesia) of experimentally infested mice. It was found that the larval period lasted 10 days followed by a 5-day nymphal period. Adult forms were seen on the 16th day. Adults produced fertile eggs within 24 hours of their appearance and eggs hatched in 7 days. Thus, the life cycle was completed in 23 days. Application of this information for a successful treatment regimen was discussed. Any treatment which does not kill embryonated eggs must be repeated subsequent to hatching of the eggs but prior to oviposition of fertile eggs by newly hatched females.

Animals↗

Thermoregulation in a parasite's life cycle.

The life cycle of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum goes through three developmental stages (schizogony, gametogony and sporogony), each of which presents different environmental constraints that must be met by an adaptive response in the parasite. Here we show that thermoregulation, in which the transcription of select RNAs is upregulated at cooler temperatures, is crucial to the developmental transition that occurs during the transmission of P. falciparum from human to mosquito. Our findings offer new insight into how the malaria parasite senses and reacts to its environment.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Life cycle benefits.

Life cycle benefits are designed to meet the needs of employees throughout the stages of life. Many employers in both the public and private sectors are finding that this approach to benefits makes sense from a number of perspectives.

Absenteeism↗

Assessment of the sustainability of technology by means of a thermodynamically based life cycle analysis.

Life cycle analysis is one of the tools in the assessment of the sustainability of technological options. It takes into account all effects on the ecosystem and the population which may endanger the possibilities of current and future generations. However, the main bottleneck in current LCA methodologies is the balancing of different effects, being all quantified on different scales. In this work, a methodology is proposed, which allows one to quantify different effects of the production, consumption and disposal of goods, and services on a single scale. The basis of the methodology is the second law of thermodynamics. All production, consumption and disposal processes affecting the ecosystem and the population, are quantified in terms of loss of exergy. The exergy content of a material is the maximum amount of energy which can be transformed into work at given environmental conditions. Next to the elaboration of the methodology, the new approach is illustrated by examples of the production of synthetic organic polymers, inorganic building insulation materials and different waste gas treatment options.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗

[Study on the Eurytrema pancreaticum: II. Life Cycle]

The life cycle of Eurytrema pancreaticum has been studied locally at Chejudo (Quelpart Island) in Korea, and found a land snail, Acusta despecta Gray served as the first intermediate host of the pancreatic fluke. The second intermediate host of the fluke also has been surveyed there, the tettigoniid grasshoppers, Conocephalus maculatus Le Guillon and C. gladiatius Redtenbacher. The land snail, Acusta despecta Gray, is acquired infection with the eggs of the fluke in the autum, then the miracidia grow in the liver of the land snails and become mother sporocysts through the winter. After one mother sporocyst has been divided into many spindle shaped daughter sporocysts during spring session, the fully matured daughter sporocysts penetrate into the membrane of mantle cavity in the land snail, and then, pass actively the membrane between June and July. The daughter sporocysts are eaten by the tettigoniid grasshoppers, C. maculatus and C. gladiatus, through the summer and autumn. Cercariae in the grasshoppers grow for about 20 days, and become matured metacercariae in the abdominal cavity. Finally, the matured metacercariae together with the grasshoppers are eaten by their final hosts; goat, rabbit, etc. The artificial infection with the metacercariae of the pancreatic fluke to rabbit as the final host in laboratory room was carried out successfully. The miracidia have been forced out by pressure from the eggs incubated at 20 degrees ~ 25 degrees C could live more than three hours swimming around the medium under the microscope.

Journal Article↗

Trypanosoma (Nannomonas) congolense: changes in respiratory metabolism during the life cycle.

All four life cycle stages (bloodstream, procyclic, epimastigote, and metacyclic) of Trypanosoma congolense IL 3000 were assayed with an oxygen electrode (polarograph) for the presence of terminal oxidases and carbon-source preference. In addition, these stages were used for histochemical analysis of mitochondrial activity using rhodamine 123, nitroblue tetrazolium, and diaminobenzidine. Morphometry was used to compare mitochondrial volumes and surface area among the different life cycle stages. It was found that in contrast to epimastigote forms, which were metabolically almost identical to procyclic forms, metacyclic forms showed characteristics of, and seemed preadapted to, differentiation into the bloodstream stage. While mitochondrial NAD+ diaphorase activity and an electrochemical potential were detected in all life cycle stages, metacyclic metabolism was glucose-based and terminal oxidase activity was primarily dependent upon the trypanosome alternative oxidase with the contribution of cyanide-sensitive respiration accounting for only 20-30% of the total respiratory capacity.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Morphological and ultrastructural analysis of Turritopsis nutricula during life cycle reversal.

The hydrozoa life cycle is characterized, in normal conditions, by the alternation of a post-larval benthic polyp and an adult pelagic medusa; however, some species of Hydrozoa react to environmental stress by reverting their life cycle: i.e. an adult medusa goes back to the juvenile stage of polyp. This very uncommon life cycle could be considered as some sort of inverted metamorphosis. A morphological study of different stages during the reverted life cycle of Turritopsis nutricula led to the characterization of four different stages: healthy medusa, unhealthy medusa, four-leaf clover and cyst. The ultrastructural study of the cellular modifications (during the life cycle reversion of T. nutricula) showed the presence of both degenerative and apoptotic processes. Degeneration was prevalent during the unhealthy medusa and four-leaf clover stages, while the apoptotic rate was higher during the healthy medusa and cyst stages. The significant presence of degenerative and apoptotic processes could be related to the occurrence of a sort of metamorphosis when an adult medusa transforms itself into a polyp.

Animals↗