Aspects of Romanian Palaeozoic Palaeobotany and Palynology. Part III. The Late Carboniferous flora of Baia Nouă, Sirinia Basin

The Cucuiova Formation is a Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous) coal-bearing unit in the intramontane Sirinia Basin, which was formed in the Danubian Units of the South Carpathians. The main coal seam in the Cucuiova Formation was worked at Baia Nouă (Nové Doly) and this locality has yielded a typical adpression coal flora. Previous studies have suggested that this flora was Moscovian (late Westphalian or even earliest Stephanian) in age. However, newly collected samples from Baia Nouă have included abundant Neuralethopteris, which clearly indicates a late Bashkirian (Langsettian) age. This suggests a possible link with the Svoge Basin in northern Bulgaria, which is another intramontane basin located on the Balkan Terrane with early Westphalian coal-bearing deposits.</p

A reappraisal of the Carboniferous macrofloras of the Zonguldak – Amasra Coal Basin, north-western Turkey

The Zonguldak – Amasra Coal Basin in north-western Turkey has Carboniferous terrestrial deposits ranging in age from Arnsbergian to late Asturian or possibly early Cantabrian. They yield macrofloras that allow detailed biostratigraphical correlations with sequences in Europe. These correlations suggest there are substantial gaps in the Zonguldak – Amasra succession, with middle to upper Namurian, upper Langsettian, Duckmantian and lower Asturian strata apparently being missing. This in turn suggests the area was subjected to significant tectonic instability during Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous) times and that this might have been instrumental in initiating the progressive change in composition and eventual collapse of the coal swamp biome across Variscan Euramerica during Westphalian times.</p

Durrington Walls to West Amesbury by way of Stonehenge: a major transformation of the Holocene landscape

A new sequence of Holocene landscape change has been discovered through an investigation of sediment sequences, palaeosols, pollen and molluscan data discovered during the Stonehenge Riverside Project. The early post-glacial vegetational succession in the Avon valley at Durrington Walls was apparently slow and partial, with intermittent woodland modification and the opening-up of this landscape in the later Mesolithic and earlier Neolithic, though a strong element of pine lingered into the third millennium BC. There appears to have been a major hiatus around 2900 cal BC, coincident with the beginnings of demonstrable human activities at Durrington Walls, but slightly after activity started at Stonehenge. This was reflected in episodic increases in channel sedimentation and tree and shrub clearance, leading to a more open downland, with greater indications of anthropogenic activity, and an increasingly wet floodplain with sedges and alder along the river’s edge. Nonetheless, a localized woodland cover remained in the vicinity of DurringtonWalls throughout the third and second millennia BC, perhaps on the higher parts of the downs, while stable grassland, with rendzina soils, predominated on the downland slopes, and alder–hazel carr woodland and sedges continued to fringe the wet floodplain. This evidence is strongly indicative of a stable and managed landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age times. It is not until c 800–500 cal BC that this landscape was completely cleared, except for the marshy-sedge fringe of the floodplain, and that colluvial sedimentation began in earnest associated with increased arable agriculture, a situation that continued through Roman and historic times

Glutamate cycling may drive organic anion transport on the basal membrane of human placental syncytiotrophoblast

The organic anion transporter OAT4 (SLC22A11) and organic anion transporting polypeptide OATP2B1 (SLCO2B1) are expressed in the basal membrane of the placental syncytiotrophoblast. These transporters mediate exchange whereby uptake of one organic anion is coupled to efflux of a counter-ion. In placenta, these exchangers mediate placental uptake of substrates for oestrogen synthesis as well as clearing waste products and xenobiotics from the fetal circulation. However, the identity of the counter-ion driving this transport in the placenta, and in other tissues, is unclear. While glutamate is not a known OAT4 or OATP2B1 substrate, we propose that its high intracellular concentration has the potential to drive accumulation of substrates from the fetal circulation. In the isolated perfused placenta, glutamate exchange was observed between the placenta and the fetal circulation. This exchange could not be explained by known glutamate exchangers. However, glutamate efflux was trans-stimulated by an OAT4 and OATP2B1 substrate (bromosulphothalein). Exchange of glutamate for bromosulphothalein was only observed when glutamate reuptake was inhibited (by addition of aspartate). To determine if OAT4 and/or OATP2B1 mediate glutamate exchange, uptake and efflux of glutamate were investigated in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Our data demonstrate that in Xenopus oocytes expressing either OAT4 or OATP2B1 efflux of intracellular [14C]glutamate could be stimulated by conditions including extracellular glutamate (OAT4), estrone-sulphate and bromosulphothalein (both OAT4 and OATP2B1) or pravastatin (OATP2B1). Cycling of glutamate across the placenta involving efflux via OAT4 and OATP2B1 and subsequent reuptake will drive placental uptake of organic anions from the fetal circulation.<br/

Differential pathways to adult metabolic dysfunction following poor nutrition at two critical developmental periods in sheep

Epidemiological and experimental studies suggest early nutrition has long-term effects on susceptibility to obesity, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Small and large animal models confirm the influence of different windows of sensitivity, from fetal to early postnatal life, on offspring phenotype. We showed previously that undernutrition in sheep either during the first month of gestation or immediately after weaning induces differential, sex-specific changes in adult metabolic and cardiovascular systems. The current study aims to determine metabolic and molecular changes that underlie differences in lipid and glucose metabolism induced by undernutrition during specific developmental periods in male and female sheep. Ewes received 100% (C) or 50% nutritional requirements (U) from 1–31 days gestation, and 100% thereafter. From weaning (12 weeks) to 25 weeks, offspring were then fed either ad libitum (CC, UC) or were undernourished (CU, UU) to reduce body weight to 85% of their individual target. From 25 weeks, all offspring were fed ad libitum. A cohort of late gestation fetuses were studied after receiving either 40% nutritional requirements (1–31 days gestation) or 50% nutritional requirements (104–127 days gestation). Post-weaning undernutrition increased in vivo insulin sensitivity, insulin receptor and glucose transporter 4 expression in muscle, and lowered hepatic methylation at the delta-like homolog 1/maternally expressed gene 3 imprinted cluster in adult females, but not males. Early gestational undernutrition induced lower hepatic expression of gluconeogenic factors in fetuses and reduced in vivo adipose tissue insulin sensitivity in adulthood. In males, undernutrition in early gestation increased adipose tissue lipid handling mechanisms (lipoprotein lipase, glucocorticoid receptor expression) and hepatic methylation within the imprinted control region of insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor in adulthood. Therefore, undernutrition during development induces changes in mechanisms of lipid and glucose metabolism which differ between tissues and sexes dependent on the period of nutritional restriction. Such changes may increase later life obesity and dyslipidaemia risk

Using Facial Gestures to Drive Narrative in VR

We developed an exploratory VR environment, where spatial features and narratives can be manipulated in real time by the facial and head gestures of the user. We are using the Faceteq prototype, exhibited in 2017, as the interactive interface. Faceteq consists of a wearable technology that can be adjusted on commercial HMDs for measuring facial expressions and biometric responses. Faceteq project was founded with the aim to provide a human-centred additional tool for affective human-computer interaction. The proposed demo will exhibit the hardware and the functionality of the demo in real time

The Free-movement pattern Y-maze:A cross-species measure of working memory and executive function

Numerous neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders are associated with deficits in executive functions, such as working memory and cognitive flexibility. Progress in developing effective treatments for disorders may benefit from targeting these cognitive impairments, the success of which is predicated on the development of animal models with validated behavioural assays. Zebrafish offer a promising model for studying complex brain disorders, but tasks assessing executive function are lacking. The Free movement pattern (FMP) Ymaze combines aspects of the common Y-maze assay, which exploits the inherent motivation of an organism to explore an unknown environment, with analysis based on a series of sequential two-choice discriminations. We validate the task as a measure of working memory and executive function by comparing task performance parameters in adult zebrafish treated with a range of glutamatergic, cholinergic and dopaminergic drugs known to impair working memory and cognitive flexibility. We demonstrate the cross-species validity of the task by assessing performance parameters in adapted versions of the task for mice and Drosophila, and finally a virtual version in humans, and identify remarkable commonalities between vertebrate species’ navigation of the maze. Together, our results demonstrate that the FMP Y-maze is a sensitive assay for assessing working memory and cognitive flexibility across species from invertebrates to humans, providing a simple and widely applicable behavioural assay with exceptional translational relevance