Share and share alike: Encouraging the reuse of academic resources through the Scottish electronic staff development library

This paper reports on the findings of a consultancy procedure conducted within the Scottish Higher Education staff development community and focusing on the reuse and sharing of communications and information technology resources for teaching and learning. While this consultancy was conducted primarily to inform the development of the Scottish electronic Staff Development Library (SeSDL), its findings, will be of relevance to colleagues working in the fields of staff development and C&IT and all those involved in the creation of shared teaching and learning resources. The consultancy identified general staff development demands, specific pedagogical requirements, and concerns relating to the provision, reuse and sharing of staff development resources. The SeSDL Project will attempt to address these demands through the development of a Web‐based resource centre, which will facilitate the reuse and sharing of high‐quality staff development resources. Library materials are stored in the form of granules which are branded with IMS compatible metadata and which are classified using a controlled educational taxonomy. Staff developers will be able to assemble these granular components to build customized lessons tailored to meet the needs of their own departments and institutions

To investigate the physiological role of arcuate nucleus cocaine- and amphetamine- regulated transcript in energy homeostasis

Cocaine- and amphetamine- regulated transcript (CART) was originally identified as a mRNA transcript upregulated in rats in response to administration of cocaine and amphetamine. CART is widely expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) with high levels of expression in hypothalamic nuclei such as the arcuate nucleus (ARC). CART was initially thought to act as an anorectic peptide since it is coexpressed with the anorectic neuropeptide pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) in the ARC. In addition, intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of CART (55-102) peptide inhibits feeding and administration of anti-CART antibody results in stimulation of feeding. However, subsequent studies have suggested CART may also act as an orexigen since injection of CART (55-102) specifically into the ARC and ventromedial nucleus (VMN) of the hypothalamus results in a significant increase in food intake. These data suggest CART acts through both anorectic and orexigenic circuits. Given the importance of the hypothalamus in the regulation of energy homeostasis, and the role of the ARC in integrating peripheral signals, it is essential to elucidate the role of ARC derived CART. In order to elucidate CART’s true physiological role in the ARC I used a combination of genetic approaches. I generated a recombinant Adeno-associated virus (rAAV) expressing CART antisense (CART-AS) and a transgenic mouse model which utilises the POMC promoter to drive expression of CART-AS. In the transgenic CART-AS model mice exhibited a significantly higher body weight relative to control animals, no significant difference in food intake was observed. In addition, mice expressing the CART-AS transgene demonstrated a reduction in uncoupling protein-1 (UCP- 1) mRNA expression in brown adipose tissue (BAT) which is suggestive of decreased thermogenesis. This may explain the observed increase in body weight in the transgenic mice. Bilateral intra-ARC injections of rAAV-CART-AS resulted in a significant increase in cumulative food intake and body weight gain compared to control animals. There was no significant difference in activity or metabolism levels. The data presented in my thesis provides an important contribution to understanding the role of CART within the ARC. The results from my genetic studies appear to suggest that ARC derived CART has an anorectic role

Assessment of apparent nonstationarity in time series of annual inflow, daily precipitation, and atmospheric circulation indices: A case study from southwest Western Australia

The southwest region of Western Australia has experienced a sustained sequence of low annual inflows to major water supply dams over the past 30 years. Until recently, the dominant interpretation of this phenomenon has been predicated on the existence of one or more sharp breaks (change or jump points), with inflows fluctuating around relatively constant levels between them. This paper revisits this interpretation. To understand the mechanisms behind the changes, we also analyze daily precipitation series at multiple sites in the vicinity and time series for several indices of regional atmospheric circulation that may be considered as drivers of regional precipitation. We focus on the winter half-year for the region (May to October) as up to 80% of annual precipitation occurs during this "season". We find that the decline in the annual inflow is in fact more consistent with a smooth declining trend than with a sequence of sharp breaks, the decline is associated with decreases both in the frequency of daily precipitation occurrence and in wet-day amounts, and the decline in regional precipitation is strongly associated with a marked decrease in moisture content in the lower troposphere, an increase in regionally averaged sea level pressure in the first half of the season, and intraseasonal changes in the regional north-south sea level pressure gradient. Overall, our approach provides an integrated understanding of the linkages between declining dam inflows, declining precipitation, and changes in regional atmospheric circulation that favor drier conditions

Alien Registration- Campbell, Charles (Rumford, Oxford County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/13464/thumbnail.jp