Using blubber explants to investigate adipose function in grey seals:glycolytic, lipolytic and gene expression responses to glucose and hydrocortisone

Adipose tissue is fundamental to energy balance, which underpins fitness and survival. Knowledge of adipose regulation in animals that undergo rapid fat deposition and mobilisation aids understanding of their energetic responses to rapid environmental change. Tissue explants can be used to investigate adipose regulation in wildlife species with large fat reserves, when opportunities for organismal experimental work are limited. We investigated glucose removal, lactate, glycerol and NEFA accumulation in media, and metabolic gene expression in blubber explants from wild grey seals. Glycolysis was higher in explants incubated in 25 mM glucose (HG) for 24 h compared to controls (C: 5.5 mM glucose). Adipose-derived lactate likely contributes to high endogenous glucose production in seals. Lipolysis was not stimulated by HG or high hydrocortisone (HC: 500 nM hydrocortisone) and was lower in heavier animals. HC caused NEFA accumulation in media to decrease by ~30% relative to C in females, indicative of increased lipogenesis. Lipolysis was higher in males than females in C and HG conditions. Lower relative abundance of 11-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 mRNA in HG explants suggests glucose involvement in blubber cortisol sensitivity. Our findings can help predict energy balance responses to stress and nutritional state in seals, and highlight the use of explants to study fat tissue function in wildlife

Structure and compositional trends in alkali-metal containing titanium and vanadium oxide chalcogenides and the new van der Waals phase Ti2Te2O

We report the solid-state synthesis of all eighteen layered oxide chalcogenides in the structural family 22O (A = K/Rb/Cs; M = Ti/V; Q = S/Se/Te), allowing the determination of trends in composition and reactivity within the series. All materials are isostructural, crystallising in the primitive tetragonal space group 4∕ as reported previously for five compounds in the series. The titanium or vanadium ions have intermediate valency on a single crystallographic site, leading to temperature-independent paramagnetism and correlated electronic behaviour which is influenced by the compositional variation. Furthermore, the alkali metal ions in KTi2Te2O and RbTi2Te2O can be removed by oxidative deintercalation using H2O at room temperature to produce a new metastable van der Waals layered phase, Ti2Te2O. During the deintercalation reaction the oxide chalcogenide layers undergo a relative shift by (0.5, 0.5) in the plane such that Ti2Te2O is body-centered with space group 4∕

Energetic, environmental and economic modelling of a solar-assisted residential micro-trigeneration system in a Mediterranean climate

Reducing energy consumption in buildings has become a priority for most countries. However, designing energy-efficient buildings is not a straightforward task - the increasing demand for high comfort standards, provided by conventional 'energy-hungry' cooling and heating devices conflicts with the need for demand reduction. Trigeneration, the simultaneous production of electricity, cooling and heating is often viewed as a means of improving energy-efficiency in large and medium sized buildings whilst still delivering thermal comfort. For hot climates, the benefit of utilising the waste heat emitted from an engine unit to power a thermally driven cooling device provides scope to utilise an otherwise wasted energy stream. However, in smaller sized residential buildings, the relatively low and intermittent energy demand coupled with high capital costs, has stifled the uptake of the technology - although the potential for substantial energy savings exists. Moreover, it is very common for home owners in hot climates to opt for other energy-saving devices such as solar water heaters (SWH), which would tend to reduce further the possible demand for space and water heating, possibly making the simultaneous use of both micro-trigeneration and SWH unfeasible. This paper compares the performance of a residential micro-trigeneration system to a hybrid micro-trigeneration/SWH system. The performance of both systems was simulated using a whole building simulation tool run at a high time resolution. The results obtained were then used to quantify the energetic and environmental performance of both systems; and also to assess their financial viability against the effect of varying fuel prices, electricity tariffs and a varying Feed-in Tariff (FIT). Results show that whereas the solar aided micro-trigeneration system obtains an overall higher (though marginal) energetic and environmental performance, the financial performance for the same fiscal parameters (fuel prices and electricity tariffs) deteriorates. Moreover FIT, plays an important role in the financial feasibility of the system

Effective homework in the middle school

This literature review examines the studies and research of the best practices and most effective implementation of homework in the middle school classrooms. It is found that parental involvement, teacher design and proper implementation of the homework are the most important factors for homework to have the desired effect on an adolescent\u27s success in a subject. There are significant differences of opinion on many homework related issues, especially with regard to the overall contribution of homework academic success. However, one aspect that is universally agreed upon is that students, teachers, and parents are all important in determining the degree to which homework is effective in meeting its goals

Attention Strongly Modulates Reliability of Neural Responses to Naturalistic Narrative Stimuli

Attentional engagement is a major determinant of how effectively we gather information through our senses. Alongside the sheer growth in the amount and variety of information content that we are presented with through modern media, there is increased variability in the degree to which we “absorb” that information. Traditional research on attention has illuminated the basic principles of sensory selection to isolated features or locations, but it provides little insight into the neural underpinnings of our attentional engagement with modern naturalistic content. Here, we show inhumansubjects that the reliability of an individual’s neural responses with respect to a larger group provides a highly robust index of the level of attentional engagement with a naturalistic narrative stimulus. Specifically, fast electroencephalographic evoked responses were more strongly correlated across subjects when naturally attending to auditory or audiovisual narratives than when attention was directed inward to a mental arithmetic task during stimulus presentation. This effect was strongest for audiovisual stimuli with a cohesive narrative and greatly reduced for speech stimuli lacking meaning. For compelling audiovisual narratives, the effect is remarkably strong, allowing perfect discrimination between attentional state across individuals. Control experiments rule out possible confounds related to altered eye movement trajectories or order of presentation. We conclude that reliability of evoked activity reproduced across subjects viewing the same movie is highly sensitive to the attentional state of the viewer and listener, which is aided by a cohesive narrative

Consumer insights and the importance of competitiveness Factors for mature and developing destinations

This article aims to understand the importance of various destination attributes to the competitiveness of tourism destinations from a consumer perspective, while at the same time contrasting these in a mature versus developing destination. A sample of Australian-based domestic tourists were surveyed to assess the relative importance of tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) attributes in the context of developing and mature destinations. This research firstly appears to verify that the importance of many TDC elements, highlighted by consumers, is not dissimilar from other stakeholder-based TDC studies. Furthermore, this research effort established that in terms of attribute performance, relative destination immaturity may well constrain a developing destination’s ability to satisfy the needs of consumers

Using Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles to estimate availability and group size error for aerial surveys of coastal dolphins

Aerial surveys are frequently used to estimate the abundance of marine mammals, but their accuracy is dependent upon obtaining a measure of the availability of animals to visual detection. Existing methods for characterizing availability have limitations and do not necessarily reflect true availability. Here, we present a method of using small, vessel-launched, multi-rotor Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones) to collect video of dolphins to characterize availability and investigate error surrounding group size estimates. We collected over 20 h of aerial video of dive-surfacing behaviour across 32 encounters with Australian humpback dolphins Sousa sahulensis off north-western Australia. Mean surfacing and dive periods were 7.85 sec (se = 0.26) and 39.27 sec (se = 1.31) respectively. Dolphin encounters were split into 56 focal follows of consistent group composition to which example approaches to estimating availability were applied. Non-instantaneous availability estimates, assuming a 7 sec observation window, ranged between 0.22 and 0.88, with a mean availability of 0.46 (CV = 0.34). Availability tended to increase with increasing group size. We found a downward bias in group size estimation, with true group size typically one individual more than would have been estimated by a human observer during a standard aerial survey. The variability of availability estimates between focal follows highlights the importance of sampling across a variety of group sizes, compositions and environmental conditions. Through data re-sampling exercises, we explored the influence of sample size on availability estimates and their precision, with results providing an indication of target sample sizes to minimize bias in future research. We show that UAVs can provide an effective and relatively inexpensive method of characterizing dolphin availability with several advantages over existing approaches. The example estimates obtained for humpback dolphins are within the range of values obtained for other shallow-water, small cetaceans, and will directly inform a government-run program of aerial surveys in the region

Energetic, environmental and economic modeling of a solar-assisted residential micro-trigeneration system in a Mediterranean climate

Reducing energy consumption in buildings has become a priority for most countries. However, designing energy-efficient buildings is not a straightforward task - the increasing demand for high comfort standards, provided by conventional ‘energy-hungry’ cooling and heating devices conflicts with the need for demand reduction. Trigeneration, the simultaneous production of electricity, cooling and heating is often viewed as a means of improving energy-efficiency in large and medium sized buildings whilst still delivering thermal comfort. For hot climates, the benefit of utilising the waste heat emitted from an engine unit to power a thermally driven cooling device provides scope to utilise an otherwise wasted energy stream. However, in smaller sized residential buildings, the relatively low and intermittent energy demand coupled with high capital costs, has stifled the uptake of the technology - although the potential for substantial energy savings exists. Moreover, it is very common for home owners in hot climates to opt for other energy-saving devices such as solar water heaters (SWH), which would tend to reduce further the possible demand for space and water heating, possibly making the simultaneous use of both micro-trigeneration and SWH unfeasible. This paper compares the performance of a residential micro-trigeneration system to a hybrid micro-trigeneration/SWH system. The performance of both systems was simulated using a whole building simulation tool run at a high time resolution. The results obtained were then used to quanti fy the energetic and environmental performance of both systems; and also to assess their financial viability against the effect of varying fuel prices, electricity tariffs and a varying Feed-in Tariff (FIT). Results show that whereas the solar aided micro-trigeneration system obtains an overall higher (though marginal) energetic and environmental performance, the financial performance for the same fiscal parameters (fuel prices and electricity tariffs) deteriorates. Moreover FIT, plays an important role in the financial feasibility of the system.peer-reviewe

Potential for natural and enhanced attenuation of sulphanilamide in a contaminated chalk aquifer

Understanding antibiotic biodegradation is important to the appreciation of their fate and removal from the environment. In this research an Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) method was developed to evaluate the extent of biodegradation of the antibiotic, sulphanilamide, in contaminated groundwater. Results indicted an enrichment in δ13C of 8.44‰ from − 26.56 (at the contaminant source) to − 18.12‰ (300 m downfield of the source). These results confirm reductions in sulphanilamide concentrations (from 650 to 10 mg/L) across the contaminant plume to be attributable to biodegradation (56%) vs. other natural attenuation processes, such as dilution or dispersion (42%). To understand the controls on sulphanilamide degradation ex-situ microcosms assessed the influence of sulphanilamide concentration, redox conditions and an alternative carbon source. Results indicated, high levels of anaerobic capacity (~ 50% mineralisation) to degrade sulphanilamide under high (263 mg/L), moderate (10 mg/L) and low (0.02 mg/L) substrate concentrations. The addition of electron acceptors; nitrate and sulphate, did not significantly enhance the capacity of the groundwater to anaerobically biodegrade sulphanilamide. Interestingly, where alternative carbon sources were present, the addition of nitrate and sulphate inhibited sulphanilamide biodegradation. These results suggest, under in-situ conditions, when a preferential carbon source was available for biodegradation, sulphanilamide could be acting as a nitrogen and/or sulphur source. These findings are important as they highlight sulphanilamide being used as a carbon and a putative nitrogen and sulphur source, under prevailing iron reducing conditions

Direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide in water at ambient temperature

The direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) from hydrogen and oxygen has been studied using an Au–Pd/TiO2 catalyst. The aim of this study is to understand the balance of synthesis and sequential degradation reactions using an aqueous, stabilizer-free solvent at ambient temperature. The effects of the reaction conditions on the productivity of H2O2 formation and the undesirable hydrogenation and decomposition reactions are investigated. Reaction temperature, solvent composition and reaction time have been studied and indicate that when using water as the solvent the H2O2 decomposition reaction is the predominant degradation pathway, which provides new challenges for catalyst design, which has previously focused on minimizing the subsequent hydrogenation reaction. This is of importance for the application of this catalytic approach for water purification