Learning to feed in the dark: how light level influences feeding in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta.

Nocturnal insects like moths are essential for pollination, providing resilience to the diurnal pollination networks. Moths use both vision and mechanosensation to locate the nectary opening in the flowers with their proboscis. However, increased light levels due to artificial light at night (ALAN) pose a serious threat to nocturnal insects. Here, we examined how light levels influence the efficacy by which the crepuscular hawkmoth Manduca sexta locates the nectary. We used three-dimensional-printed artificial flowers fitted with motion sensors in the nectary and machine vision to track the motion of hovering moths under two light levels: 0.1 lux (moonlight) and 50 lux (dawn/dusk). We found that moths in higher light conditions took significantly longer to find the nectary, even with repeated visits to the same flower. In addition to taking longer, moths in higher light conditions hovered further from the flower during feeding. Increased light levels adversely affect learning and motor control in these animals.

Tactile active sensing in an insect plant pollinator.

The interaction between insects and the flowers they pollinate has driven the evolutionary diversity of both insects and flowering plants, two groups with the most numerous species on Earth. Insects use vision and olfaction to localize host plants, but we know relatively little about how they find the tiny nectary opening in the flower, which can be well beyond their visual resolution. Especially when vision is limited, touch becomes crucial in successful insect-plant pollination interactions. Here, we studied the remarkable feeding behavior of crepuscular hawkmoths Manduca sexta, which use their long, actively controlled, proboscis to expertly explore flower-like surfaces. Using machine vision and 3D-printed artificial flower-like feeders, we revealed a novel behavior that shows moths actively probe surfaces, sweeping their proboscis from the feeder edge to its center repeatedly until they locate the nectary opening. Moreover, naive moths rapidly learn to exploit these flowers, and they adopt a tactile search strategy to more directly locate the nectary opening in as few as three to five consecutive visits. Our results highlight the proboscis as a unique active sensory structure and emphasize the central role of touch in nectar foraging insect-plant pollinator interactions.

Robot-assisted Laparoscopic Pyeloplasty in Adults: A Comparison Analysis of Primary versus Redo Pyeloplasty in a Single Center.

PURPOSE: Approximately 10% of all primary pyeloplasties will require at least one secondary intervention. Our aim was to analyze whether secondary repair will pose additional challenges during robotic pyeloplasty compared with the primary pyeloplasty. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 114 patients who underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty (RALP) between February 2015 and August 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into; primary and secondary repair. The demographics, intraoperative parameters, postoperative parameters, and success rate of these two groups were collected and compared. Primary RALP data were further stratified into those who previously underwent ipsilateral endourological surgeries (IES) at the obstruction site and those who did not, to evaluate the effect of IES has on the outcome of RALP. Success was defined as symptomatic and radiological relief. RESULTS: Of the 114 patients, five complicated cases (three horseshoe kidneys, one duplicated system, and one retrocaval ureter) were excluded from the comparison. The remaining 96 primary and 13 secondary repairs were compared. Intraoperative and postoperative parameters showed no significant difference between the two groups. The results of 99 patients (87 vs. 12 in primary vs. secondary, respectively) were available after 27.5 months mean follow-up. The overall success was 92%, 8 patients failed (5 vs. 3 in primary vs. secondary, respectively) and required further surgical interventions. CONCLUSION: Though surgically challenging with increased recurrence rates according to the literature we reviewed. However, our data failed to show any significant difference between the primary and redo RALP perhaps due to the smaller size in the redo RALP group.

Is secondary robotic pyeloplasty safe and effective as primary robotic pyeloplasty? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty (RLP) has excellent surgical safety and efficacy in primary pyeloplasty. In recent, the application of robotics has explored to more complex surgical conditions such as failed pyeloplasty. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the surgical and clinical outcomes of secondary RLP compared with primary RLP. Following PRISMA guidelines, we carried out an extensive literature search in the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Google Scholar to extract the published articles comparing primary vs. secondary RLP up to April 2019. Interested surgical and clinical outcomes were extracted from each study and then used RevMan 5.3 Software for meta-analysis comparison. Furthermore, the quality of each study was assessed using the Modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for cohort studies. Our search has yielded seven studies that met our inclusion criteria. These studies contained 613 vs. 107 patients in primary vs. secondary RLP, respectively. Using random effect model, the analysis showed no statistical difference between the groups in the presence of a crossing vessel, complications, length of hospital stays (LOS), and follow-up period. However, the operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), and recurrence rate were significantly higher in the secondary RLP compared with primary RLP (p = 0.004), (p = 0.01), and (p = 0.04), respectively. Our results indicate that secondary RLP is associated with significantly increased operative time and EBL and higher recurrence rates compared with primary RLP. We believe that our findings might help surgeon's decision making in patient selection and consultation during redo pyeloplasty surgical planning.