A sub-centennial, Little Ice Age climate reconstruction using beetle subfossil data from Nunalleq, southwestern Alaska

This research was funded through an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant (AH/K006029/1) awarded to Drs. Rick Knecht, Charlotta Hillerdal and Kate Britton, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 703322, and two NERC Radiocarbon Facility grants (NF/2015/1/6 and NF/2015/2/3) awarded to Drs. Rick Knecht and Paul Ledger. Our work at Nunalleq also benefitted from the support of the local community who made us all feel at home in Quinhagak and provided consistently warm hospitality. Logistical support from Warren Jones and Qanirtuuq Incorporated was also invaluable. VF would like to thank Anthony Davies for his invaluable help with the identification of Stenus species and for verifying her identification of other staphylinid taxa. Patrice Bouchard, Yves Bousquet, Henri Goulet and Aleš Smetana are also thanked for help provided with beetle identifications, as well as Professor Ian Foster, for kindly providing Pb210 dating support. Finally, we would like to thank Peter Jordan for the opportunity to publish in this special issue, as well as Philippe Ponel and an anonymous reviewer, whose comments helped us improve the original manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mechanisms for Controlling HIV-1 Infection: A Gene Therapy Approach

Current anti-retroviral treatment (ART) for HIV-1 is highly effectively at controlling the infection. However, during early infection the virus establishes a latent reservoir, which is not impacted by ART. Any treatment interruption rapidly results in virus rebound from the latent reservoir to pre-therapy levels and thus ART does not constitute an HIV-1 cure. Alternate treatments are currently being explored in the form of gene therapy, following the success of the Berlin patient who has had undetectable virus since 2007. This review will describe the contrasting cure approaches that are currently the focus of multiple studies to control HIV, then focus in on functional cure gene therapy strategies; specifically, epigenetic silencing of HIV-1 by various methods, including RNA-directed transcriptional gene silencing. The various delivery strategies for targeting cells of the latent reservoir will be reviewed and finally, the clinical status and current challenges for ex vivo versus in vivo gene therapy delivery approaches will be discussed

Solution of an industrially relevant coupled magneto–mechanical problem set on an axisymmetric domain

Eddy currents are generated when low frequency magnetic fields interact with conducting components and this, in turn, generates Lorentz forces, which can cause these metallic components to deform and vibrate. An important application of this magneto–mechanical coupling is in coil design for magnetic resonance imaging scanners, where such vibrations can have unwanted effects such as ghosting of images, reduction of the life span of devices and discomfort for the patient. This work is aimed at developing an accurate computational tool for better understanding these deformations by considering a benchmark problem proposed by Siemens plc (Kruip, personal communication, 2013) on an idealised axisymmetric geometry. We present a new fixed point algorithm and develop new weak variational statements, which use a stress tensor approach for force calculation and permit discretisation using H1 conforming hp-version finite elements. Numerical results are included, which show the importance of high order finite elements for predicting the eddy currents and the associated coupling in the resonance region

A placebo-controlled study to investigate the effect of Dog Appeasing Pheromone and other environmental and management factors on the reports of disturbance and house soiling during the night in recently adopted puppies (Canis familiaris]

Disturbance and house soiling during the night are common problems faced by the new puppy dog owner. They may result as consequence of a mismatch between the developmental status of the puppy and its new environment and/or separation distress in a typically social animal. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP, Ceva Santé Animale) as well as a range of other management and environmental factors that might affect this process. It has been suggested that DAP may help the puppy settle into the new home by continuing the provision of the maternal appeasing pheromone. In order to test this, a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of DAP was conducted with 60 pedigree puppies, aged between 6 and 10 weeks, as they entered their new home. A few days prior to the puppy's arrival, volunteer owners were supplied with either a verum or placebo plug-in diffuser designed for the slow release of the pheromone analogue over 4 weeks. Owners reported daily on disturbance and house soiling during the previous night over the following 8 weeks from the puppy's first night in the new home. The effect of the treatment together with the gender of the puppy, its maternal environment, the use of a puppy crate, sleeping with other dogs at night and the experience of the owner were included in a general linear model to explain the total number of nights spent disturbing and house soiling. Sleeping with another dog reduced the puppies' tendency to disturb at night to almost zero. Over 70 of puppies sleeping alone disturbed during the first night. The mean total number of nights of disturbance over the 2 months was between five and six nights, mostly in the first week in the home. A significant effect of DAP treatment was found in the case of the gundog breeds only (p = 0.003), gundogs receiving placebo cried for a median of nine nights, those receiving verum cried for a median of three nights. No effect of DAP treatment was observed on the total number of nights that the puppy soiled the house (p > 0.05). However, puppies that were placed in crates during the night (p = 0.004) or had come from domestic maternal environments (p = 0.006) had significantly fewer reports of house soiling over the first 2 months in the new home. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Past, present, and future of the Living Planet Index

As we enter the next phase of international policy commitments to halt biodiversity loss (e.g., Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework), biodiversity indicators will play an important role in forming the robust basis upon which targeted, and time sensitive conservation actions are developed. Population trend indicators are one of the most powerful tools in biodiversity monitoring due to their responsiveness to changes over short timescales and their ability to aggregate species trends from global down to sub-national or even local scale. We consider how the project behind one of the foremost population level indicators - the Living Planet Index - has evolved over the last 25 years, its value to the field of biodiversity monitoring, and how its components have portrayed a compelling account of the changing status of global biodiversity through its application at policy, research and practice levels. We explore ways the project can develop to enhance our understanding of the state of biodiversity and share lessons learned to inform indicator development and mobilise action

Past, present, and future of the Living Planet Index

As we enter the next phase of international policy commitments to halt biodiversity loss (e.g., Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework), biodiversity indicators will play an important role in forming the robust basis upon which targeted, and time sensitive conservation actions are developed. Population trend indicators are one of the most powerful tools in biodiversity monitoring due to their responsiveness to changes over short timescales and their ability to aggregate species trends from global down to sub-national or even local scale. We consider how the project behind one of the foremost population level indicators - the Living Planet Index - has evolved over the last 25 years, its value to the field of biodiversity monitoring, and how its components have portrayed a compelling account of the changing status of global biodiversity through its application at policy, research and practice levels. We explore ways the project can develop to enhance our understanding of the state of biodiversity and share lessons learned to inform indicator development and mobilise action

Disequilibrium, adaptation and the Norse settlement of Greenland

This research was supported by the University of Edinburgh ExEDE Doctoral Training Studentship and NSF grant numbers 1202692 and 1140106.There is increasing evidence to suggest that arctic cultures and ecosystems have followed non-linear responses to climate change. Norse Scandinavian farmers introduced agriculture to sub-arctic Greenland in the late tenth century, creating synanthropic landscapes and utilising seasonally abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Using a niche-construction framework and data from recent survey work, studies of diet, and regional-scale climate proxies we examine the potential mismatch between this imported agricultural niche and the constraints of the environment from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. We argue that landscape modification conformed the Norse to a Scandinavian style of agriculture throughout settlement, structuring and limiting the efficacy of seasonal hunting strategies. Recent climate data provide evidence of sustained cooling from the mid thirteenth century and climate variation from the early fifteenth century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Norse made incremental adjustments to the changing sub-arctic environment, but were limited by cultural adaptations made in past environments.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

NURBS-enhanced finite element method (NEFEM)

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Sevilla, R.; Fernandez, S.; Huerta, A. NURBS-enhanced finite element method (NEFEM). "International journal for numerical methods in engineering", Octubre 2008, vol. 76, núm. 1, p. 56-83., which has been published in final form at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117912616/abstractAn improvement to the classical finite element (FE) method is proposed. It is able to exactly represent the geometry by means of the usual CAD description of the boundary with non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS). Here, the 2D case is presented. For elements not intersecting the boundary, a standard FE interpolation and numerical integration are used. But elements intersecting the NURBS boundary need a specifically designed piecewise polynomial interpolation and numerical integration. A priori error estimates are also presented. Finally, some examples demonstrate the applicability and benefits of the proposed methodology. NURBS-enhanced finite element method (NEFEM) is at least one order of magnitude more precise than the corresponding isoparametric FE in every numerical example shown. This is the case for both continuous and discontinuous Galerkin formulations. Moreover, for a desired precision, NEFEM is also more computationally efficient, as shown in the numerical examples. The use of NEFEM is strongly recommended in the presence of curved boundaries and/or when the boundary of the domain has complex geometric details. The possibility of computing an accurate solution with coarse meshes and high-order interpolations makes NEFEM a more efficient strategy than classical isoparametric FE.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft