A refined rat primary neonatal microglial culture method that reduces time, cost and animal use

We thank the Development Trust of The University of Aberdeen and the Scottish Rugby Union for their financial support. We also thank Dr Elizabeth Old from Wolfson Centre for Age-related Diseases, King’s College London for providing technical training with the previous protocol and helping in the editorial process of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Phosphoprotein enriched in astrocytes (PEA)-15 is a novel regulator of adipose tissue expansion

Acknowledgements P.J.V. was funded by a British Heart Foundation Ph.D. scholarship (FS/16/25/32136). This work was also sup- ported by the Medical Research Council (MR/L002620/1 to J.J.R.), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K017772/1 to J.J.R.), Diabetes UK (18/0005884 to J.J.R.) and the British Heart Foundation (PG/14/43/30889 to M.D.). The authors gratefully acknowledge the Microscopy and Histology core facility and the Medical Research Facility, University of Aberdeen for their support and assistance in this work.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

From flying rockets to Tesla: examining the sustainable mobility preferences of primary school children in Denmark and the Netherlands

The relationship between children and cars is not directly obvious, but they are a core group of passengers moving daily from and to school and they are future potential buyers. Moreover, many of the values, worldviews, and patterns of energy (and mobility) consumption enshrined in adults become formed and perhaps cemented in childhood. Lastly, children are not directly concerned with many of the choices and information that adults handle, so measuring what they know could proxy for popular knowledge in society. This paper offers a first international comparison between 587 surveyed schoolchildren between 9-13 years of age in Denmark and the Netherlands on EV knowledge and current and future car transport. Results indicate that national and regional context matter, as do gender, age, and to a certain extent the level experience with low-carbon innovations such as electric vehicles. In general, however, children rank the environmental impact of cars just below personal safety and we can conclude that they are aware of EVs and their main benefits. Simultaneously, they also know that EVs are costlier to purchase. Most important, the children overwhelmingly agree on the future direction of car-based transport with cars that are safer, more energy efficient and alternatively fueled

Loss of GPR75 protects against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and body fat accumulation

Open Access via the Elsevier Agreement L.K.H. designed the experiments with input from F.M., G.S.H.Y., and J.J.R.; F.M. and J.I. created the CRISPR-Cas9-deleted Gpr75 mouse line with input from A.M.; A.L.-P., C.M., B.Y.H.L., G.K.C.D., N.S., P.B.M.d.M., R.C., K.K., E.J.G., J.R.B.P., F.G., J.R.S., and J.J.R. performed experiments and/or data analysis; D.T. provided reagents and intellectual contributions; and L.K.H. and A.L.-P. wrote the manuscript with input from all other authors.Peer reviewe

Tide model accuracy in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, from radar interferometry observations of ice shelf motion

This study assesses the accuracy of tide model predictions in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica. Tide model accuracy in this region is poorly constrained, yet tide models contribute to simulations of ocean heat transfer and to the removal of tidal signals from satellite observations of ice shelves. We use two satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) methods to measure the tidal motion of the Dotson Ice Shelf at multiple epochs: a single-difference technique that measures tidal displacement and a double-difference technique that measures changes in tidal displacement. We use these observations to evaluate predictions from three tide models (TPXO7.1, CATS2008a-opt, and FES2004). All three models perform comparably well, exhibiting root-mean-square deviations from the observations of ∼9 cm (single-difference technique) and ∼10 cm (double-difference technique). Care should be taken in generalizing these error statistics because (1) the Dotson Ice Shelf experiences relatively small semidiurnal tides and (2) our observations are not sensitive to all tidal constituents. An error analysis of our InSAR-based methods indicates measurement errors of 7 and 4 cm for the single-and double-difference techniques, respectively. A model-based correction for the effect of fluctuations in atmospheric pressure yields an ∼6% improvement in the agreement between tide model predictions and observations. This study suggests that tide model accuracy in the Amundsen Sea is comparable to other Antarctic regions where tide models are better constrained. These methods can be used to evaluate tide models in other remote Antarctic waters