News

Dr. Sara Villa from University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, and her collaborators, used LoliTrack software for video tracking groups of Daphnia and analyzed the behavior to study sublethal effects of waste water effluents in the Italian Alps. The software enabled the researchers to determine average speed, distance moved and the level of activity for each individual Daphnia in an automated way. After exposing two species of Daphnia for 24 h and 48 h to various dilutions of waste water, the scientists found significant effects on behavior, and a level of sensitivity that underlines the potential for using Daphnia sp. in biological early warning systems protocols.

Full article:

Effects of a treated sewage effluent on behavioural traits in Diamesa cinerella and Daphnia magna
Villa, Sara; Di Nica, Valeria; Bellamoli, Francesco; Pescatore, Tanita; Ferrario, Claudia; Finizio, Antonio; Lencioni, Valeria; (2018)
Journal of Limnology

Link to article

Next month, we will exhibit Loligo products at meetings in the US, Canada and in Europe:

The SETAC NORTH AMERICA 39TH ANNUAL MEETING will take place at Sacramento Convention Center in Sacramento, California. The event runs from November 4^th - November 8^th. Visit this link for more information.

The ENTOMOLOGY 2018 JOINT ANNUAL MEETING takes place at Vancouver Convention Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, and starts November 11^th and ends November 14^th. Visit this link for more information.

The FISH AND AMPHIBIAN EMBRYOS AS ALTERNATIVE MODELS IN TOXICOLOGY AND TERATOLOGY will take place at Aulnay-sous-Bois/Paris in France. The event is from November 29^th to November 30^th. Visit this link for more information.

Feel free to stop by our booth if attending these meetings for a talk, a product demonstration or just to say hello.

We are happy to welcome and introduce a new staff member at Loligo Systems. Simon Niels Esbjerg is a skilled software developer with a master’s degree in mathematics and physics from Aarhus University here in Denmark. Simon will be coding new Loligo software as well as taking part in R&D projects involving algorithms and statistics.

At the same time, we say goodbye to Erik Jessen, who is leaving the company after +11 years to take over his family’s business in Germany. We all wish Erik the best of luck and thank him for many years of dedicated work.

For the past few years, Erik has been in charge of our tech support and this task is now taken over by Andreas Mørck Nielsen (am@loligosystems.com).

Andreas has a master’s degree in fish physiology from University of Southern Denmark, and a BBC master’s degree in wildlife filmmaking too.

We are confident that Andreas will help Loligo customers get fast, efficient and free support as we have always offered.

Picture: Farewell reception "kagemand" (cake)

A recent study by Cooper et al. from University of Glasgow used a shuttlebox system to see whether three-spined sticklebacks sacrifice exposure to their individual preferred or optimal environmental conditions so they can remain part of a social group. The group published their findings in PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B and included a detailed description on using the system to measure individual thermal preference as well as the effect of behavioral traits on thermal compromise.

Full article:

Individual variation in the compromise between social group membership and exposure to preferred temperatures
B. Cooper, B. Adriaenssens and S. S. Killen (2018)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Link to article

The research group from the Jill Leonard’s lab at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI, is taking Loligo respirometry into the field. The objective is to evaluate resting and maximal metabolic rate in wild brook trout with the goal of classifying individual fish by metabolic ranking. To accomplish this, Jill’s team is taking a Loligo 4-chambered intermittent flow system to the streamside.

“We have validated field measurement protocols for our metrics with matching lab experiments that compare to traditional experimental parameters. The system will run on a generator for power and use native river water for experimentation and temperature control. Once the fish are ranked, they will be PIT tagged and released back to their native river where we will monitor movement behaviors with stationary and mobile antenna systems.” says Jill Leonard.

Prior research has identified a continuum of movement strategies in the species ranging from stationed at a specific site to wandering throughout the entire river to true migration. This research seeks to correlate movement behaviors with physiological metrics at the individual level to help understand why different life history strategies are selected within partially migrant populations.

Please meet Loligo^® Systems at the 13^th International Congress on the Biology of Fish in Calgary, Alberta.

The biennial event is expected to attract around 400 delegates from all over the globe. Symposia range in topics related to fish biology, including behavior, stress physiology, ion regulation, swimming and energetics, toxicants, growth and metabolism, genomics, impact of climate change, use of zebrafish as a model for biomedical research and many more.

ICBF 2018 will take place from July 15^th – 19^th at University of Calgary.

We have just launched a new version of our MicroResp^® software with added features and improvements for better performance, and a handy quick guide for the MicroResp^® systems.

New software features:

• “Show All”-graph showing real-time oxygen traces for all 24 wells during experiments, with different colors for each user-defined treatment
• Guides for lower/upper limits and wait time on experiment graphs
• More user choices for sampling rate

Please download the new quick guide.

We hope that the guide will help new and current users.

Best of luck with your future microplate projects!

Our office will be closed for the summer holiday from 16th - 27th of July (both days included).

We wish everyone a lovely summer!

The Loligo^® team

Dr. Maria Bertuzzi & Dr. Konstantinos Ampatzis from Karolinska Institutet used a Loligo^® 5 L swim tunnel respirometer to test the critical swimming speed (U_crit) in multiple adult zebrafish. The researchers investigated the functional flexibility of motoneurons and how the neurons execute locomotion at different speeds. Specifically, Bertuzzi & Ampatzis found that cholinergic interneurons are present in the zebrafish spinal cord and differentially control the excitability of distinct classes of motoneurons (slow, intermediate and fast) in a muscarinic dependent manner. Their unexpected findings are published in Nature’s Scientific Reports. Scientific Reports.

Full article:

Spinal cholinergic interneurons differentially control motoneuron excitability and alter the locomotor network operational range

Maria Bertuzzi & Konstantinos Ampatzis (2018)

Scientific Reports

Link to article