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Physiology: Newborns lack the ability of thermogenesis due to underdeveloped shivering mechanism. Body heat is lost through conduction, convection, and radiant heat. [1] Thermoregulation is achieved through several methods: the metabolism of brown fat and Kangaroo care, also known as skin to skin.
This increases heat production as respiration is an exothermic reaction in muscle cells. Shivering is more effective than exercise at producing heat because the animal (includes humans) remains still. This means that less heat is lost to the environment through convection. There are two types of shivering: low-intensity and high-intensity.
In shivering, the heat is the main intended product and is utilized for warmth. [citation needed] Newborn babies, infants, and young children experience a greater (net) heat loss than adults because of greater surface-area-to-volume ratio. As they cannot shiver to maintain body heat, [citation needed] they rely on non-shivering thermogenesis.
Endothermic organisms known as homeotherms maintain internal temperatures with minimal metabolic regulation within a range of ambient temperatures called the thermal neutral zone (TNZ). Within the TNZ the basal rate of heat production is equal to the rate of heat loss to the environment. Homeothermic organisms adjust to the temperatures within ...
Convection-cooling is sometimes loosely assumed to be described by Newton's law of cooling. [6] Newton's law states that the rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings while under the effects of a breeze. The constant of proportionality is the heat transfer coefficient. [7]
A correction to Newton's law concerning convection for larger temperature differentials by including an exponent, was made in 1817 by Dulong and Petit. [5] (These men are better-known for their formulation of the Dulong–Petit law concerning the molar specific heat capacity of a crystal.)
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation.
Additionally, almost all eutherian mammals (with the only known exception of swine) have brown adipose tissue whose mitochondria are capable of non-shivering thermogenesis. [8] This process involves the direct dissipation of the mitochondrial gradient as heat via an uncoupling protein , thereby "uncoupling" the gradient from its usual function ...