Life in the sun and the deep-freeze

The future effects of climate change will potentially have massive impacts upon society, infrastructure, energy and food supplies. Considerable research is focused upon the development of sophisticated predictive climate models that forecast the implications and effects of climate change over the next few millennia. However, two obvious questions arise. Firstly, how can we test whether these models work? Secondly, are we being short-sighted and not looking far enough into the future? Both of these questions can be examined by looking at analogues from the geological record

Dynamic landscape change during the late Early to early Middle Pleistocene: evidence from East Anglia, UK

The late Early to early Middle Pleistocene (0.9-0.48 Ma) is one of the most dynamic periods of Quaternary-time, coinciding with the transition from obliquity- to eccentricity-forced climate. East Anglia possesses Britain’s most complete (albeit highly-fragmented) onshore record of environmental change during this time-interval and was situated within the western margins of the North Sea Basin of the time. The geological record from the region offers an important insight into the complex patterns of climatic and palaeogeographic variability that occurred. However, attempts to apply a robust chronostratigraphic framework to this part of the Quaternary sequence have proven challenging and in some instances controversial. Difficulties have arisen due to contrasting chronological interpretations based upon different types of utilised geological evidence (e.g. river terrace chronologies, biostratigraphy and amino acid chronologies) and the tendency to attempt to correlate assemblages directly with marine isotope stages. A significant problem with these approaches is that they can underestimate the temporal responses of physical systems to change. Within this presentation, we attempt to go back-to-basics by examining the late Early to early Middle Pleistocene record of environmental change in East Anglia from the perspective of the main sedimentary building-blocks. In particular we focus upon the large-scale geometry of units and more discrete evidence (soils, first appearance lithologies, sedimentary facies variability) for palaeogeographic change and attempt to demonstrate the speed of landscape change relative to modern and other geological analogues. The findings of this approach suggest that East Anglia and the North Sea Basin were highly-sensitive to climate-forcing that acted to drive major changes in palaeogeography and geological processes that occurred at sub-Milankovitch time-scales

The case for a MIS 16 Glaciation in Britain and the North Sea region - evidence, significance, complications, and potential resolution

The issue of a MIS 16 glaciation in Britain and the adjacent area of the North Sea basin has received much attention in recent years. It is important because it would be concerned with the first extensive glaciation of lowland Britain and has immense significance for early human occupation of the British Isles. It has been proposed that a glaciation moved south from eastern Scotland to reach northern East Anglia prior to the Anglian glacial stage, and this has been called the Happisburgh Glaciation. The attribution to MIS 16 is based on correlation of the glacial deposits with terrace aggradations of the Bytham River, the presence of temperate climate palaeosol features between the till attributed to this event and an overlying till attributed to the Anglian (MIS 12) Stage, and the presence of marine deposits, associated with a high sea-level event between the two sets of glacial deposits. This model is supported by evidence for glaciation over Britain and the North Sea region from Core MD01-2448 in the Bay of Biscay, based on sediment accumulation rates. However, recent detailed work on sediment sequences within north Norfolk using biostratigraphy and AAR determinations has come to the conclusion that the deposits attributed to the Happisburgh Glaciation are of MIS 12 age, and an MIS 16 age is untenable. The explanation for this conundrum is far from clear. This presentation seeks to investigate this issue and will present all the views. We wish to set-out the evidence in order to engage more fully with the community and attempt to resolve the issue together, by either inspired insight or by the proposition of new research directions

Functional characterization of RGA downstream targets in the GA signaling pathway

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Effects of UV Light on Local Stream Frog Behavior

Amphibian declines have been well documented throughout the world. Several studies have examined whether UV radiation from the sun is a possible contributing cause to declining populations. In Southern California, two closely related species of treefrogs, Pseudacris hypochondriaca and Pseudacris cadaverina, coexist in many perennial streams. P. hypochondriaca is primarily nocturnal while P. cadaverina is known to bask in direct sunlight. The purpose of the study is to determine how the two different species of frogs will react under different types of light emitted by a portable flashlight. The light was emitting either UV radiation or visible light, or was turned off as it was slowly brought toward the frog. When the frog jumped from its resting position, the light was held stationary and the distance from the light to the original frog perch was recorded. Our results suggest that both species are more sensitive to the UV light than to the light that was turned off or the visible light. Frogs jumped much sooner when presented with UV even the light was farther away from them. There appeared to be no differences in the sensitivity of the two species to the UV light. Our results suggest that both species of treefrogs are sensitive to UV. This sensitivity may be due in part to the large levels of UV that reach streams after wildfires. Wildfires are a natural part of these ecosystems and the removal of tree canopy by wildfire may create periodic strong selection on riparian animals to avoid increased levels of UV radiation

Developing a geographically detailed housing stock model for the North East of England

Housing stock models predict long term changes in the stock to inform national policy. They operate with a set of reference dwellings representing the national stock, which are changed in response to different scenarios. However, national level models do not consider geographical variations (urban location/rural surroundings, index of multiple deprivation score, etc.), so cannot aid in targeting improvement measures (eg: insulation, microgeneration, etc.) locally. A geographically varying model can identify which measures are most appropriate in a particular location. In this paper a method has been designed and implemented using information at LSOA level (c. 700 dwellings each) to introduce geographical variation for a model of the North East of England. It has been tested against DECC meter data and over 80% of LSOAs are predicted to within ±25% of DECC’s data. The model allows localised policies and interventions to be tested, and is principally of interest to local government and energy efficiency initiatives

Dynamic modelling of a large scale retrofit programme for the housing stock in the North East of England

Housing stock models have long been employed to estimate the baseline energy demand of the existing housing stock, as well as to predict the effectiveness of applying different retrofit measures and renewable technologies on reducing the energy demand and corresponding CO2 emissions. This research aims to develop a dynamic housing stock model to simulate the hourby-hour energy demands of 1.2 million dwellings in the North East (NE) of England using the 2008-9 English Housing Survey (EHS) data. The model is validated by comparison to a steady-state energy model. Using the model, new results predicting the impact of a large scale retrofit programme for the NE housing stock are generated

Transcription Factor Nrf1 Mediates the Proteasome Recovery Pathway after Proteasome Inhibition in Mammalian Cells

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, chemical or genetic inhibition of proteasome activity induces new proteasome synthesis promoted by the transcription factor RPN4. This ensures that proteasome activity is matched to demand. This transcriptional feedback loop is conserved in mammals, but its molecular basis is not understood. Here, we report that nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-related factor 1 (Nrf1), a transcription factor of the cap “n” collar basic leucine zipper family, but not the related Nrf2, is necessary for induced proteasome gene transcription in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Promoter-reporter assays revealed the importance of antioxidant response elements in Nrf1-mediated upregulation of proteasome subunit genes. Nrf1^(−/−) MEFs were impaired in the recovery of proteasome activity after transient treatment with the covalent proteasome inhibitor YU101, and knockdown of Nrf1 in human cancer cells enhanced cell killing by YU101. Taken together, our results suggest that Nrf1-mediated proteasome homeostasis could be an attractive target for therapeutic intervention in cancer

Coupling a stochastic occupancy model to EnergyPlus to predict hourly thermal demand of a neighbourhood

When designing and managing integrated renewable energy technologies at a community level, prediction of hourly thermal demand is essential. Dynamic thermal modelling, using deterministic occupancy profiles, has been widely used to predict the highresolution temporal thermal demand of individual buildings. Only in recent years has this approach started to be applied to simulate all buildings in a neighbourhood or an entire housing stock of a region. This study explores the potential of predicting hourly thermal demand for a group of dwellings by applying a stochastic occupancy model to dynamic thermal modelling. A case study with 125 new houses demonstrates the approach. The result was a more realistic and representative hourly thermal demand profile, compared to using standard deterministic occupancy profiles