Exercise on referral – symposium hosted by the Physical Activity Special Interest Group for the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University

The article discusses a symposium on exercise referral schemes (ERS) that was held at the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham on October 14, 2016. It mentions that exercise referral schemes have increased in popularity to address society's significant chronic disease burden. It also presents the views of Emily Oliver, from Physical Activity Special Interest Group, regarding the same

Novel method for shark age estimation using near infrared spectroscopy

Accurate age determination is an important component of assessing and managing fish populations, yet traditional ageing using growth bands is time-consuming and has limitations. In the present study, an alternative approach to shark age estimation using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was investigated using two species. The ages of Sphyrna mokarran and Carcharhinus sorrah vertebrae that had been traditionally aged and validated were successfully predicted up to 10 years of age using NIRS. The correlations between the known ages of the vertebrae and their near infrared spectra were strong, with R2 values of 0.89 and 0.84 for S. mokarran and C. sorrah respectively. The major advantage of the NIRS ageing approach was the rapid speed of age estimation, which could enable large numbers of sharks to be aged quickly. This would offer the fisheries management benefit of improving the reliability of age information for stock and risk assessments

Exercise on Referral - Symposium Hosted by the Physical Activity Special Interest Group of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University

Conference report on symposium hosted 14th October 2016 at the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham

Fossil avian eggshell preserves ancient DNA

Owing to exceptional biomolecule preservation, fossil avian eggshell has been used extensively in geochronology and palaeodietary studies. Here, we show, to our knowledge, for the first time that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognized source of ancient DNA (aDNA). We describe the successful isolation and amplification of DNA from fossil eggshell up to 19 ka old. aDNA was successfully characterized from eggshell obtained from New Zealand (extinct moa and ducks), Madagascar (extinct elephant birds) and Australia (emu and owl). Our data demonstrate excellent preservation of the nucleic acids, evidenced by retrieval of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from many of the samples. Using confocal microscopy and quantitative PCR, this study critically evaluates approaches to maximize DNA recovery from powdered eggshell. Our quantitative PCR experiments also demonstrate that moa eggshell has approximately 125 times lower bacterial load than bone, making it a highly suitable substrate for high-throughput sequencing approaches. Importantly, the preservation of DNA in Pleistocene eggshell from Australia and Holocene deposits from Madagascar indicates that eggshell is an excellent substrate for the long-term preservation of DNA in warmer climates. The successful recovery of DNA from this substrate has implications in a number of scientific disciplines; most notably archaeology and palaeontology, where genotypes and/or DNA-based species identifications can add significantly to our understanding of diets, environments, past biodiversity and evolutionary processes