Eggshell appearance does not signal maternal corticosterone exposure in Japanese quail:an experimental study with brown-spotted eggs

Reproduction is a critical period for birds as they have to cope with many stressful events. One consequence of an acute exposure to stress is the release of corticosterone, the avian stress hormone. Prolonged stress can have negative impacts on the immune system, resulting in, for example, increased oxidative stress. Through maternal effects, females are known to modulate their investment in eggs content according to their own physiological condition. Less is known about maternal investment in eggshells, especially in pigments. The two main eggshell pigments may possess opposite antioxidant properties: protoporphyrin (brown) is a pro-oxidant, whereas biliverdin (blue-green) is an antioxidant. In Japanese quail, we know that the deposition of both pigments is related to female body condition. Thus, a chronic stress response may be reflected in eggshell coloration. Using female Japanese quails that lay brown-spotted eggs, we explored whether physiological exposure to corticosterone induces a change in female basal stress and antioxidant factors, and eggshell pigment concentration, spectrophotometric reflectance, and maculation coverage. We supplemented adult females over a 2 week period with either peanut oil (control) or corticosterone (treatment). We collected pre- and post-supplementation eggs and analysed the effect of corticosterone treatment on female physiology and eggshell appearance parameters. Except for corticosterone-fed birds which laid eggs with brighter spots, supplementation had no significant effect on female physiology or eggshell pigment concentration, reflectance and maculation. The change in eggshell spot brightness was not detected by a photoreceptor noise-limited color opponent model of avian visual perception. Our data confirms that eggshell reflectance in spotted eggs varies over the laying sequence, and spot reflectance may be a key factor that is affected by females CORT exposure, even if the changes are not detected by an avian visual model

Communicating evidence about the environment's role in obesity and support for government policies to tackle obesity: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Public support for many policies that tackle obesity by changing environments is low. This may reflect commonly held causal beliefs about obesity, namely that it is due to failures of self-control rather than environmental influences. Several studies have sought to increase public support by changing these and similar causal beliefs, with mixed results. The current review is the first systematic synthesis of these studies. Searches of PsycInfo, Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Open Grey yielded 20 eligible studies (N = 8977) from 11,776 abstracts. Eligible studies were controlled experiments with an intervention group that communicated information about the environment's role in obesity, and a measure of support for environment-based obesity policies. The protocol was prospectively registered on PROSPERO. Meta-analyses showed no evidence that communicating information about the environment's influence on obesity changed policy support or the belief that the environment influences obesity. A likely explanation for this null effect is the ineffectiveness of interventions that were designed to change the belief that the environment influences obesity. The possibility remains, however, that the association observed between beliefs about the causes of obesity and attitudes towards obesity policies is correlational and not causal

The age of onset of cannabis use and executive function.

This thesis explored the association between cannabis use and executive function, with a specific focus on the age of onset of cannabis use. Previous research has provided some preliminary evidence that early onset cannabis use, namely cannabis initiation during the early teenage years or younger, is associated with greater cognitive deficits than later onset use. The first study within this thesis included a large battery of validated neuropsychological tasks administered to cannabis users, controls and tobacco using controls to compare executive function performance. This approach found several cognitive domains in which cannabis users performed at significantly lower levels than the two controls groups. Further analyses showed that the early onset cannabis users (16 years) when compared to the control groups. While the early onset hypothesis did not explain all of the deficits in the cannabis using groups there was a clear pattern for early onset users to be impaired at a greater level on some tests. In particular, it appeared that the cannabis-related deficits were more pronounced on tests which required visual scanning, set switching abilities and visuo-motor coordination. While the visuo-motor deficits were quite clear, it could not be determined if visual scanning deficits were explaining the performance deficits on the set switching task.Subsequently an eye-tracking study was conducted to investigate the age of onset of cannabis use effects on visual scanning and set switching processes. This study suggested that visual scanning was impaired while set switching processes remained intact in cannabis users. Furthermore, this study found some support of an age of onset effect; two of the dependent variables showed evidence of greater impairments among early onset cannabis users relative to the other groups.In addition this thesis includes a large scale survey which assessed lifestyle predictors of the age of onset of cannabis use. Two lifestyle factors were highly associated with executive function abilities - other drug use and educational achievement - were predictors of the age of onset of cannabis use. As the two quasi-experimental studies controlled for these two variables, in addition to other confounding variables, it is unlikely they were explaining the pattern of deficits reported.Based on data presented here and supported by existing multidisciplinary research, it is argued that the relationship between cannabis use and cognition reported in this thesis is causal. While cannabis may have a causal impact on cognitive performance, such as visual search and visuo-motor coordination, the cannabis users still performed at a "normal" level. The severity of cognitive impairments does appear to be mediated by early onset cannabis use, however not all cognitive processes appear to be at risk for these greater impairments. Findings may indicate a developmental vulnerability to cannabis use

Bone mineral density in patients with inherited bone marrow failure syndromes.

BackgroundPatients with inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) may have several risk factors for low bone mineral density (BMD). We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of low BMD in IBMFS and determine the associated risk factors.MethodsPatients with IBMFS with at least one dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan were evaluated. Diagnosis of each IBMFS, Fanconi anemia (FA), dyskeratosis congenita, Diamond-Blackfan anemia, and Shwachman-Diamond syndrome was confirmed by syndrome-specific tests. Data were gathered on age, height, and clinical history. DXA scans were completed at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and forearm. BMD was adjusted for height (HAZ) in children (age ≤20 years). Low BMD was defined as a BMD Z-score and HAZ ≤-2 in adults and children, respectively, in addition to patients currently on bisphosphonate therapy.ResultsNine of thirty-five adults (26%) and eleven of forty children (27%) had low BMD. Adults with FA had significantly lower BMD Z-scores than those with other diagnoses; however, HAZ did not vary significantly in children by diagnosis. Risk factors included hypogonadism, iron overload, and glucocorticoid use.ConclusionsAdults and children with IBMFS have high prevalence of low BMD. Prompt recognition of risk factors and management are essential to optimize bone health

Upgrading Aerated Lagoon Effluent with Intermittent Sand Filtration

Intermittent sand filtration was evaluated as a means of upgrading the quality of aerated lagoon effluents to satisfy the requirements of PL 92-500. The aerated lagoon in question treats the wastes from a milk and cheese factory located in northern Utah. The treatment system consists of two diffused air aeration ponds followed by a facultative settling pond, were applied to pilot scale intermittent sand filters with 0.17 mm and 0.40 mm effective size sands. The filters were loaded hydraulically from 0.25 million gallons per acre per day to 1.0 million gallons per acre per day. It was found that sand size has a profound effect on the quality of effluent produced by filtration. Also, sand size was related to the time of operation before plugging occurred. At the levels of application studied, hydraulic loading rate was found to affect BOD removal regardless of influent concentration. However, effluent suspended and volatile suspended solids concentrations reflected changes in influent concentrations regardless of hydraulic loading rate. It was found that filtration of facultative settling pond effluent provided better removals than direct filtration of aerated lagoon effluent using equivalent sand sixes and hydraulic loading rates. It was concluded that intermittent sand filtration was capable of upgrading the effluent from aerated lagoons to meet present and future discharge requirements when effluent from the facultative settling pond was applied to 0.17 mm effective size sand

LUNASKA simultaneous neutrino searches with multiple telescopes

The most sensitive method for detecting neutrinos at the very highest energies is the lunar Cherenkov technique, which employs the Moon as a target volume, using conventional radio telescopes to monitor it for nanosecond-scale pulses of Cherenkov radiation from particle cascades in its regolith. Multiple-antenna radio telescopes are difficult to effectively combine into a single detector for this purpose, while single antennas are more susceptible to false events from radio interference, which must be reliably excluded for a credible detection to be made. We describe our progress in excluding such interference in our observations with the single-antenna Parkes radio telescope, and our most recent experiment (taking place the week before the ICRC) using it in conjunction with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, exploiting the advantages of both types of telescope.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, in Proceedings of the 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference (Beijing 2011