The importance of artificial drains for macroinvertebrate biodiversity in reclaimed agricultural landscapes

Artificial drainage networks, ubiquitous within lowland agricultural landscapes in Europe and North America, exhibit a range of physical and chemical conditions, and may provide important habitat for aquatic organisms. Drains share hydromorphological characteristics with both lotic rivers and lentic ditches, potentially providing opportunities for a diverse range of taxa. However, little is known about the communities they support. A 23-year benthic macroinvertebrate dataset from four English catchments was used to determine the contributions of drains to biodiversity in a reclaimed agricultural landscape through a comparison of catchments, drain and river channels. A lack of significant differences in gamma diversity and high compositional overlap between rivers and drains showed that drains were not depauperate, and consistently contributed a richness comparable to that of rivers. High-compositional overlap suggested that drains from different catchments contributed comparably to aquatic biodiversity at the landscape scale. Significant differences in environmental conditions (inferred from biotic indices) between catchments may have marginally increased landscape gamma diversity through turnover. Despite similarities in community composition, non-native species were less abundant in drains. This study demonstrates the importance of drains for habitat provision in intensively farmed catchments, and highlights the need for focused research into their management and conservation potential

Recognition of viral glycoproteins by influenza A-specific cross- reactive cytolytic T lymphocytes

Two populations of cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) generated after influenza A virus infection can be distinguished into one with specificity for the sensitizing hemagglutinin type and a second with cross-reactivity for antigens induced by other type-A influenza viruses. The molecules carrying the antigenic determinants recognized by the cross-reactive CTL were studied. In L-929 cells abortively infected with fowl plague virus, matrix (M) protein synthesis is specifically inhibited, whereas the envelope glycoproteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, are synthesized and incorporated into the plasma membrane. These target cells were lysed by cross-reactive CTL. The envelope proteins of type A/Victoria virus were separated from the other virion components and reconstituted into lipid vesicles that lacked M protein that subsequently were used to prepare artificial target cells. Target-cell formation with vesicles was achieved by addition of fusion-active Sendai virus. These artificial target cells were also susceptible to lysis by cross-reactive CTL. In contrast to previous observations that suggested that the M protein of influenza viruses is recognized by these effector cells, we present evidence that the antigencic determinants induced by the viral glycoproteins are recognized

Towards an energy ‘literate’ architecture graduate? UK educators’ and students’ evaluation

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Whilst calls for upskilling and retraining the UK construction workforce to meet increasingly stringent energy targets are repeatedly documented in construction strategy and policy reports, it remains unclear how higher education, particularly architecture, is responding. The purpose of this paper is to examine how educators and students across UK architecture institutions view energy-related content in their teaching and learning, and how some of the policy initiatives are being approached. The analysis focuses on what educators and students perceive is being taught and how they evaluate issues that need to be ‘upskilled’ or ‘retrained’. This study draws on evaluative practice literature using multiple data sources including focus groups across UK accredited architecture institutions. The research identifies evaluative perspectives that educators and students draw on to discuss views such as personal interests, institutional sovereignty, experience, physical and disciplinary disconnects and an expectation that ‘something will change’. Transforming the status quo is perceived as a major obstacle whereby a school design agenda, design studio educators’ motivations and a curriculum that only gets added to are shared concerns. The findings enable foundational discussions that will help define recommendations of required educational approaches to ‘upskilling’ and ‘retraining’ in a fast-developing international energy policy agenda

Atmospheric fluctuations below 0.1 Hz during drift-scan solar diameter measurements

Measurements of the power spectrum of the seeing in the range 0.001-1 Hz have been performed in order to understand the criticity of the transits' method for solar diameter monitoring.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, proc. of the Fourth French-Chinese meeting on Solar Physics Understanding Solar Activity: Advances and Challenges, 15 - 18 November, 2011 Nice, Franc