The sheep conceptus modulates proteome profiles in caruncular endometrium during early pregnancy

This project was funded by NHS Grampian R&D project number RG05/019Peer reviewedPostprin

The conceptus induces a switch in protein expression and activities of superoxide dismutase 1 and 2 in the sheep endometrium during early pregnancy

Acknowledgements We thank Philippe Bolifraud (INRA, France), Krawiec Angele, Sandra Grange, Laurence Puillet-Anselme (CHU Grenoble, France) and Margaret Fraser (Aberdeen, UK) for their expert technical assistance. The authors also thank the staff of the sheep sheds of Jouy-en-Josas (INRA, France). The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their close examination of this article and their useful comments. Funding This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.Peer reviewedPostprin

Lattice-Gas Simulations of Ternary Amphiphilic Fluid Flow in Porous Media

We develop our existing two-dimensional lattice-gas model to simulate the flow of single-phase, binary-immiscible and ternary-amphiphilic fluids. This involves the inclusion of fixed obstacles on the lattice, together with the inclusion of ``no-slip'' boundary conditions. Here we report on preliminary applications of this model to the flow of such fluids within model porous media. We also construct fluid invasion boundary conditions, and the effects of invading aqueous solutions of surfactant on oil-saturated rock during imbibition and drainage are described.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures (1 and 6 are in color), RevTeX with epsf and graphic

Early maturation processes in coal. Part 1: Pyrolysis mass balances and structural evolution of coalified wood from the Morwell Brown Coal seam

In this work, we develop a theoretical approach to evaluate maturation process of kerogen-like material, involving molecular dynamic reactive modeling with a reactive force field to simulate the thermal stress. The Morwell coal has been selected to study the thermal evolution of terrestrial organic matter. To achieve this, a structural model is first constructed based on models from the literature and analytical characterization of our samples by modern 1-and 2-D NMR, FTIR, and elemental analysis. Then, artificial maturation of the Morwell coal is performed at low conversions in order to obtain, quantitative and qualitative, detailed evidences of structural evolution of the kerogen upon maturation. The observed chemical changes are a defunctionalization of the carboxyl, carbonyl and methoxy functional groups coupling with an increase of cross linking in the residual mature kerogen. Gaseous and liquids hydrocarbons, essentially CH4, C4H8 and C14+ liquid hydrocarbons, are generated in low amount, merely by cleavage of the lignin side chain

Epistasis not needed to explain low dN/dS

An important question in molecular evolution is whether an amino acid that occurs at a given position makes an independent contribution to fitness, or whether its effect depends on the state of other loci in the organism's genome, a phenomenon known as epistasis. In a recent letter to Nature, Breen et al. (2012) argued that epistasis must be "pervasive throughout protein evolution" because the observed ratio between the per-site rates of non-synonymous and synonymous substitutions (dN/dS) is much lower than would be expected in the absence of epistasis. However, when calculating the expected dN/dS ratio in the absence of epistasis, Breen et al. assumed that all amino acids observed in a protein alignment at any particular position have equal fitness. Here, we relax this unrealistic assumption and show that any dN/dS value can in principle be achieved at a site, without epistasis. Furthermore, for all nuclear and chloroplast genes in the Breen et al. dataset, we show that the observed dN/dS values and the observed patterns of amino acid diversity at each site are jointly consistent with a non-epistatic model of protein evolution.Comment: This manuscript is in response to "Epistasis as the primary factor in molecular evolution" by Breen et al. Nature 490, 535-538 (2012

Fragmentation of Nuclei at Intermediate and High Energies in Modified Cascade Model

The process of nuclear multifragmentation has been implemented, together with evaporation and fission channels of the disintegration of excited remnants in nucleus-nucleus collisions using percolation theory and the intranuclear cascade model. Colliding nuclei are treated as face--centered--cubic lattices with nucleons occupying the nodes of the lattice. The site--bond percolation model is used. The code can be applied for calculation of the fragmentation of nuclei in spallation and multifragmentation reactions.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Increased circulating ANG II and TNF-α represents important risk factors in obese Saudi adults with hypertension irrespective of diabetic status and BMI

Central adiposity is a significant determinant of obesity-related hypertension risk, which may arise due to the pathogenic inflammatory nature of the abdominal fat depot. However, the influence of pro-inflammatory adipokines on blood pressure in the obese hypertensive phenotype has not been well established in Saudi subjects. As such, our study investigated whether inflammatory factors may represent useful biomarkers to delineate hypertension risk in a Saudi cohort with and without hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2). Subjects were subdivided into four groups: healthy lean controls (age: 47.9±5.1 yr; BMI: 22.9±2.1 Kg/m2), non-hypertensive obese (age: 46.1±5.0 yr; BMI: 33.7±4.2 Kg/m2), hypertensive obese (age: 48.6±6.1 yr; BMI: 36.5±7.7 Kg/m2) and hypertensive obese with DMT2 (age: 50.8±6.0 yr; BMI: 35.3±6.7 Kg/m2). Anthropometric data were collected from all subjects and fasting blood samples were utilized for biochemical analysis. Serum angiotensin II (ANG II) levels were elevated in hypertensive obese (p<0.05) and hypertensive obese with DMT2 (p<0.001) compared with normotensive controls. Systolic blood pressure was positively associated with BMI (p<0.001), glucose (p<0.001), insulin (p<0.05), HOMA-IR (p<0.001), leptin (p<0.01), TNF-α (p<0.001) and ANG II (p<0.05). Associations between ANG II and TNF-α with systolic blood pressure remained significant after controlling for BMI. Additionally CRP (p<0.05), leptin (p<0.001) and leptin/adiponectin ratio (p<0.001) were also significantly associated with the hypertension phenotype. In conclusion our data suggests that circulating pro-inflammatory adipokines, particularly ANG II and, TNF-α, represent important factors associated with a hypertension phenotype and may directly contribute to predicting and exacerbating hypertension risk

Optimizing wellfield operation in a variable power price regime

Wellfield management is a multi-objective optimization problem. One important management objective has been energy efficiency in terms of minimizing the energy footprint (EFP) of delivered water (MWh/m3). However, power systems in most countries are moving in the direction of deregulated power markets and power price variability is increasing in many markets because of increased penetration of intermittent renewable power sources. In this context the relevant management objective becomes minimizing the cost of energy used for pumping and distribution of groundwater rather than minimizing energy use itself."br/""br/"We estimated energy footprint as a function of wellfield pumping rate (EFP-Q relationship) for a wellfield in Denmark using a coupled well and pipe network model. This EFP-Q relationship was subsequently used in a stochastic dynamic programming framework to minimize total cost of operating the combined wellfield-storage-demand system over the course of a 2-year planning period based on a time series of observed price on the Danish power market and a deterministic, time-varying hourly water demand. In the SDP setup, hourly pumping rates are the decision variables. Constraints include storage capacity and hourly water demand fulfilment. The SDP was solved for a baseline situation and for four scenario runs representing different EFP-Q relationships and different maximum wellfield pumping rates."br/""br/"Savings were quantified as differences in total cost between the scenario and a constant-rate pumping policy. Minor savings up to 10% were found in the baseline scenario, while the scenario with constant EFP and unlimited pumping rate resulted in savings up to 40%. Key factors determining potential cost savings obtained by flexible wellfield operation under a variable power price regime are the shape of the EFP-Q relationship, the maximum feasible pumping rate and the capacity of available storage facilities."b