Anger, Quality of Life and Mood in Multiple Sclerosis

This research was funded by The Multiple Sclerosis Society (UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Effect of Different Types of Physical Activity on Activities of Daily Living in Older Adults : Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Peer reviewedPostprin

Emotion processing and social participation following stroke : study protocol

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Multiple sclerosis, emotion perception and social functioning

Funding Information: This research was supported by a PhD studentship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council through the Scottish Graduate School for Social Sciences, and a grant from the UK MS Society.Peer reviewedPostprin

Visual attention, biological motion perception and healthy ageing

Open Access via Springer Compact Agreement This study was funded by a grant from the Development Trust to Karin S. Pilz and Louise H. Phillips.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An improved method for surface immobilisation of RNA: application to small Non-Coding RNA - mRNA pairing

Characterisation of RNA and its intermolecular interactions is increasing in importance as the inventory of known RNA functions continues to expand. RNA-RNA interactions are central to post-transcriptional gene regulation mechanisms in bacteria, and the interactions of bacterial small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) with their mRNA targets are the subject of much current research. The technology of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is an attractive approach to studying these interactions since it is highly sensitive, and allows interaction measurements to be recorded in real-time. Whilst a number of approaches exist to label RNAs for surface-immobilisation, the method documented here is simple, quick, efficient, and utilises the high-affinity streptavidin-biotin interaction. Specifically, we ligate a biotinylated nucleotide to the 3' end of RNA using T4 RNA ligase. Although this is a previously recognised approach, we have optimised the method by our discovery that the incorporation of four or more adenine nucleotides at the 3' end of the RNA (a poly-A-tail) is required in order to achieve high ligation efficiencies. We use this method within the context of investigating small non-coding RNA (sRNA)-mRNA interactions through the application of surface technologies, including quantitative SPR assays. We first focus on validating the method using the recently characterised Escherichia coli sRNA-mRNA pair, MicA-ompA, specifically demonstrating that the addition of the poly-A-tail to either RNA does not affect its subsequent binding interactions with partner molecules. We then apply this method to investigate the novel interactions of a Vibrio cholerae Qrr sRNA with partner mRNAs, hapR and vca0939; RNA-RNA pairings that are important in mediating pathogenic virulence. The calculated binding parameters allow insights to be drawn regarding sRNA-mRNA interaction mechanisms

The role of social attention in older adults’ ability to interpret naturalistic social scenes

Funding This work was supported by a Discovery Project grant (DP150100302) from the Australian Research Council awarded to J.D.H. and L.H.P.Peer reviewedPostprin

Older adults have difficulty in decoding sarcasm

This research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom (F/00152/W). We acknowledge the assistance of Francis Quinn in collecting the data.Peer reviewedPostprin

Age Deficits in Facial Affect Recognition : The Influence of Dynamic Cues

Funding This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, Australia (DP150100302) and the Leverhulme Trust, U.K. (F/00152/W).Peer reviewedPostprin