mGluR5 knockout mice exhibit normal conditioned place-preference to cocaine

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) null mutant (-/-) mice have been reported to totally lack the reinforcing or locomotor stimulating effects of cocaine. We tested mGluR5 -/- and +/+ mice for their locomotor and conditioned place- preference response to cocaine. Unlike the previous finding, here we show that compared to mGluR5 +/+ mice, -/- mice exhibit no difference in the locomotor response to low to moderate doses of cocaine (10 or 20 mg/kg). A high dose of cocaine (40 mg/kg) resulted in a blunted rather than absent locomotor response. We tested mGluR5 -/- and +/+ mice for conditioned place-preference to cocaine and found no group differences at a conditioning dose of 10 mg/kg, suggesting normal conditioned rewarding properties of cocaine. These results differ substantially from Chiamulera et al. (2001) and replicates Olsen et al., (2010), who found normal cocaine place-preference in mGluR5 -/- mice at 5 mg/kg. Our results indicate mGluR5 receptors exert a modulatory rather than necessary role in cocaine-induced locomotor stimulation and exert no effect on the conditioned rewarding effects of cocaine

Can A Poll Tax Ever Be Acceptable? - Evidence from Colonial New Zealand

Poll taxes, while simple in concept, have a regressive effect and unsurprisingly are usually unpopular for this reason which is why they are not commonly used today. Poll taxes were imposed in 19th century New Zealand, with one of the earliest being a form of poll tax imposed by the Nelson Province in 1856 to fund public education. Despite the inherent shortcomings of a poll tax, the Nelson education tax was eventually accepted and defended by the community and produced revenue to fund public education. This paper examines the history of the Nelson poll tax to determine why it was successful when elsewhere, both in earlier and later times, poll taxes have been the focus of considerable dissent which has eventually lead to their demise. Among other reasons, the poll tax revenue being ear-marked for a specific purpose that was perceived by the wider community as important was a major factor in the success of the tax

The piloting of an Academic Literacy Education Course (ALEC) to improve academic literacy of first semester undergraduate students in a Western Australian University

Widening participation has enabled access to higher education for an increasing number of students via a range of non-traditional pathways. Consequently, whilst having a large repertoire of skills and experience, these students may not have developed sufficient competence in academic literacy. The School of Nursing and Midwifery has a large proportion of such students who have difficulty making the academic transition to university study. It is believed that a ‘built in’ approach to supporting these students to develop academic literacy will result in an improvement in their abilities to meet the requirements of the University and to better prepare them to graduate. This paper discusses the piloting of an Academic Literary Education Course (ALEC) for undergraduate students enrolled in the first semester unit of a three year health degree, within the disciplines of nursing and paramedical science. The students completed tests on academic literacy before and after completion of the ALEC. Particular areas of difficulty for students were found to be in referencing and unpacking the assessment question. When mean scores were compared between pre and post-tests in the same group, it was found there was a significant difference between scores at t value = -7,721, degrees of freedom = 181 with a p value of 0.000 or p value \u3c .001. Recommendations include incorporating the ALEC approach in further stages of the undergraduate degree program to support developing levels of academic literacy

The cavity-chaperone Skp protects its substrate from aggregation but allows independent folding of substrate domains

Outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of Gram-negative bacteria are synthesized in the cytosol and must cross the periplasm before insertion into the outer membrane. The 17-kDa protein (Skp) is a periplasmic chaperone that assists the folding and insertion of many OMPs, including OmpA, a model OMP with a membrane embedded β-barrel domain and a periplasmic αβ domain. Structurally, Skp belongs to a family of cavity-containing chaperones that bind their substrates in the cavity, protecting them from aggregation. However, some substrates, such as OmpA, exceed the capacity of the chaperone cavity, posing a mechanistic challenge. Here, we provide direct NMR evidence that, while bound to Skp, the β-barrel domain of OmpA is maintained in an unfolded state, whereas the periplasmic domain is folded in its native conformation. Complementary cross-linking and NMR relaxation experiments show that the OmpA β-barrel is bound deep within the Skp cavity, whereas the folded periplasmic domain protrudes outside of the cavity where it tumbles independently from the rest of the complex. This domain-based chaperoning mechanism allows the transport of β-barrels across the periplasm in an unfolded state, which may be important for efficient insertion into the outer membrane

Vegetative Erosion Control Project : Final Report

The Vegetative Erosion Control (VEC) project is a four-year study with coordinated efforts by the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Commmission (VS&WCC) through their Shoreline Erosion Advisory Service (SEAS), the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). Initial funding was appropriated in 1980 following the recommendation of the Coastal Erosion Abatement Commission and contracted out to the SCS and VIMS by the VS&WCC, the lead agency. (...) The purpose of the VEC project is to supplement previous research with detailed site analysis of the early stages of marsh development and to more precisely define the physical limits of marsh implantation for shoreline erosion control. The project also provides demonstration sites which will help the average land owner, the advisory and regulatory agencies in determining whether or not a property is conducive to this low cost erosion control method

New Wilson’s Phalarope Nesting Record from the Central Platte River Valley, Mormon Island, Hall County, Nebraska

The southeastern portion of the Wilson’s Phalarope’s (Phalaropus tricolor) breeding range encompasses parts of Nebraska (Colwell and Jehl 1994), including the Sandhills and northern Panhandle (Silcock and Jorgensen 2018). Additionally, there have been a number of breeding records from southcentral and southeastern Nebraska within the Rainwater Basin ecoregion since the mid-1990s (Mollhoff 2016, Silcock and Jorgensen 2018). However, there is very little evidence of regular breeding activity in the nearby Central Platte River Valley (CPRV), which spans from Chapman west to Overton, Nebraska, and is considered a globally important area for waterbirds (Johnsgard and Brown 2013, Silcock and Jorgensen 2018). Sutton and Arcilla (2018) documented two juvenile Wilson’s Phalaropes with two adults on 28 June 2017, confirming successful breeding in the CPRV on Mormon Island, Hall County, Nebraska. However, Sutton and Arcilla (2018) did not document an active nest and therefore lack a detailed description of the nesting habitat used by Wilson’s Phalaropes in this unique ecoregion. On 6 June 2019 we found a Wilson’s Phalarope nest while walking between avian point count stations on Mormon Island, 4.7 km northwest of Doniphan and 14.4 km southwest of Grand Island, Nebraska, on land owned and managed for the benefit of migratory birds by the Crane Trust (https://cranetrust.org/). The landscape is managed with rotational grazing and prescribed fire to simulate natural disturbance regimes (Fuhlendorf et al. 2009). Mormon Island contains the largest contiguous tract of wet meadow remaining in the CPRV (Currier and Henszey 1996, Brei and Bishop 2008). Mormon Island consists of about 1075 hectares (ha) or 2,656 acres (ac) of primarily relict and restored wet meadow and lowland tallgrass prairie habitat, and exists within a complex of 2,425 ha (5,992 ac) of land protected for conservation purposes along a 13 km (~8 mi.) stretch of the Platte River. The nest was found when an adult male Wilson’s Phalarope flushed directly off the nest from the ground at a distance of approximately 3 meters (m) from approaching observers

Switching the stereochemical outcome of 6-endo-trig cyclizations; Synthesis of 2,6-Cis-6-substituted 4-oxopipecolic acids

A base-mediated 6-endo-trig cyclization of readily accessible enone-derived α-amino acids has been developed for the direct synthesis of novel 2,6-cis-6- substituted-4-oxo-L-pipecolic acids. A range of aliphatic and aryl side chains were tolerated by this mild procedure to give the target compounds in good overall yields. Molecular modeling of the 6-endo-trig cyclization allowed some insight as to how these compounds were formed, with the enolate intermediate generated via an equilibrium process, followed by irreversible tautomerization/neutralization providing the driving force for product formation. Stereoselective reduction and deprotection of the resulting 2,6-cis-6-substituted 4-oxo-L-pipecolic acids to the corresponding 4-hydroxy-L-pipecolic acids was also performed

Glacial melt under a porous debris layer

In this paper we undertake a quantitative analysis of the dynamic process by which ice underneath a dry porous debris layer melts. We show that the incorporation of debris-layer airflow into a theoretical model of glacial melting can capture the empirically observed features of the so-called Østrem curve (a plot of the melt rate as a function of debris depth). Specifically, we show that the turning point in the Østrem curve can be caused by two distinct mechanisms: the increase in the proportion of ice that is debris-covered and/or a reduction in the evaporative heat flux as the debris layer thickens. This second effect causes an increased melt rate because the reduction in (latent) energy used for evaporation increases the amount of energy available for melting. Our model provides an explicit prediction for the melt rate and the temperature distribution within the debris layer, and provides insight into the relative importance of the two effects responsible for the maximum in the Østrem curve. We use the data of Nicholson and Benn (2006) to show that our model is consistent with existing empirical measurements