Inflammatory responses in primary muscle cell cultures in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

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Seawater transfer alters the intestinal microbiota profiles of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.)

This study was funded by a BBSRC Eastbio PhD studentship to CED and BBSRC grant BB/M026604/1. The authors wish to thank Ana Rita Sancho Silva for facilitating the sampling for the experiment. Furthermore we would like to express our gratitude to Ian and Alastair Fraser for their support at the SFF fish farms on the Isle of Mull.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cloning and characterisation of multiple ferritin isoforms in the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

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Monolith formation and ring-stain suppression in low-pressure evaporation of poly(ethylene oxide) droplets

When droplets of dilute suspensions are left to evaporate the final dry residue is typically the familiar coffee-ring stain, with nearly all material deposited at the initial triple line (Deegan et al, Nature, vol. 389, 1997, pp. 827-829). However, aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) droplets only form coffee-ring stains for a very narrow range of the experimental parameters molecular weight, concentration and drying rate. Instead, over a wide range of values they form either a flat disk or a very distinctive tall central monolith via a four-stage deposition process which includes a remarkable bootstrap-building step. To predict which deposit will form, we present a quantitative model comparing the effects of advective build-up at the triple line to diffusive flux and use this to calculate a dimensionless number χ. By experimentally varying concentration and flux (using a low-pressure drying chamber), the prediction is tested over nearly two orders of magnitude in both variables and shown to be in good agreement with the boundary between disks and monoliths at χ ≈ 1.6

Charge Transfer mechanism in the Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering of 2,2'-bipyridine recorded on a silver electrode

Nowadays, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) has become a powerful technique to investigate the electronic structure of surface-molecule hybrid systems due to the huge enhancement of the Raman signal. It is established that the origin of this enhancement has two main contributions; the electromagnetic (EM), related to surface plasmons, and the chemical mechanism, due to resonant charge transfer (CT) processes between the adsorbate and the metal. With the aim to investigate the SERS-CT of bipyridine and to identify charge transfer process, the spectra were recorded on silver electrode by using three different wavelengths (473, 532 and 785 nm) in a range from 0.0 up to -1.4 V electrode potential. The electrode potential was modelled in the calculations with atomic silver wires of different size and charge attached to the BPy molecule (AgnBPyq, with q = 0 for n = 2 and q = ±1 for n = 3, 5, 7) and were computed with Density Functional Theory (DFT). Although BPy shows a trans conformation in solution, a cis conformation was chosen for its chelating properties. The results indicate that the intensification of the ~1550 cm-1 band at negative potentials is due the Franck-Condon factors related to the resonant CT process from the metal to the BPy molecule.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The compositional and metabolic responses of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) to a gradient of dietary fish oil and associated n-3 long-chain PUFA content

The authors express their gratitude to the technical team at the BioMar Feed Trial Unit, Hirtshals, in particular, Svend Jørgen Steenfeldt for expert care of the experimental subjects, for training and supervision provided by laboratory staff at Nutrition Analytical Services and Molecular Biology at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK. S. J. S. H’s. PhD was co-funded by BioMar and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland. BioMar provided the experimental feeds, trial facilities and fish, and covered travel expenses. V. K. and J. T. designed and executed the nutritional trial and all authors contributed to planning the analyses. V. K., J. T. and S. J. S. H. carried out the sampling. O. M., D. R. T and S. A. M. M. supervised the lead author. M. B. B. provided training in molecular biology to S. J. S. H. who carried out all analytical procedures. S. J. S. H. analysed all of the data and prepared the manuscript. Subsequently the manuscript was shared between all authors who made amendments, contributions and recommendations. The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interestPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Operationalising factors that explain the emergence of infectious diseases : A case study of the human campylobacteriosis epidemic

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Band widths and gaps from the Tran-Blaha functional : Comparison with many-body perturbation theory

For a set of ten crystalline materials (oxides and semiconductors), we compute the electronic band structures using the Tran-Blaha [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 226401 (2009)] (TB09) functional. The band widths and gaps are compared with those from the local-density approximation (LDA) functional, many-body perturbation theory (MBPT), and experiments. At the density-functional theory (DFT) level, TB09 leads to band gaps in much better agreement with experiments than LDA. However, we observe that it globally underestimates, often strongly, the valence (and conduction) band widths (more than LDA). MBPT corrections are calculated starting from both LDA and TB09 eigenenergies and wavefunctions. They lead to a much better agreement with experimental data for band widths. The band gaps obtained starting from TB09 are close to those from quasi-particle self-consistent GW calculations, at a much reduced cost. Finally, we explore the possibility to tune one of the semi-empirical parameters of the TB09 functional in order to obtain simultaneously better band gaps and widths. We find that these requirements are conflicting.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figure

Environmental and physiological factors shape the gut microbiota of Atlantic salmon parr (Salmo salar L.)

This study was funded by the BBSRC Eastbio PhD studentship of CED and BBSRC grant BB/M026604/1. The authors wish to thank the team at the Centre for Genome Enabled Biology and Medicine (CGEBM, Aberdeen) for their help and support, especially Brennan Martin for technical support and Matthew Gemmel for bioinformatics support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Directional responses following recombinant cytokine stimulation of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) RTS-11 macrophage cells as revealed by transcriptome profiling

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