A metabolite-sensitive, thermodynamically-constrained model of\ud cardiac cross-bridge cycling: Implications for force development during ischemia

We present a metabolically regulated model of cardiac active force generation with which we investigate the effects of ischemia on maximum forceproduction. Our model, based on the Rice et al. (2008) model of cross-bridge kinetics, reproduces many of the observed effects of MgATP, MgADP, Pi and H+ on force development while still retaining the force/length/Ca2+ properties of the original model. We introduce three new parameters to account for the competitive binding of H+ to the Ca2+ binding site on troponin C and the binding of MgADP within the cross-bridge cycle. These parameters along with the Pi and H+ regulatory steps within the cross-bridge cycle were constrained using data from the literature and validated using a range of metabolic and sinusoidal length perturbation protocols. The placement of the MgADP binding step between two strongly-bound and force-generating states leads to the emergence of an unexpected effect on the force-MgADP curve, where the trend of the relationship (positive or negative) depends on the concentrations of the other metabolites and [H+]. The model is used to investigate the sensitivity of maximum force production to changes in metabolite concentrations during the development of ischemia

Is contact with adult mental health services helpful for individuals with a diagnosable BPD?:a study of service users views in the UK

BACKGROUND: Previous research in the UK has suggested that individuals with a diagnosable borderline personality disorder (BPD) have often found contact with adult mental health services unhelpful. In 2003, UK government guidance outlined how services might address this issue. Since this guidance, there has been little research that seeks to understand services users' experiences of services and provide information about how services might improve. AIMS: To explore the experiences of individuals with a diagnosis of BPD in accessing adult mental health services and to better understand which aspects of contact with services can be helpful or unhelpful. METHODS: Nine service users with a diagnosable BPD were recruited through voluntary sector services in England. Semi-structured interviews were used and interview data was analysed using an inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three themes were generated including "The diagnostic process influences how service users feel about BPD", "Non-caring care" and "It's all about the relationship". CONCLUSION: The participants' accounts identify a number of practical points which services could implement to improve the experiences of service users

Reducing Global Warming: The Potential of Organic Agriculture

Climate change mitigation is urgent, and adaptation to climate change is crucial, particularly in agriculture, where food security is at stake. Agriculture, currently responsible for 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (counting direct and indirect agricultural emissions), can however contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. The main mitigation potential lies in the capacity of agricultural soils to sequester CO2 through building organic matter. This potential can be realized by employing sustainable agricultural practices, such as those commonly found within organic farming systems. Examples of these practices are the use of organic fertilizers and crop rotations including legume leys and cover crops. Mitigation is also achieved in organic agriculture through the avoidance of open biomass burning, and the avoidance of synthetic fertilizers, the production of which causes emissions from fossil fuel use. , Andreas Gattinger1, Nic Lampkin3, Urs Niggli1 Common organic practices also contribute to adaptation. Building soil organic matter increases water retention capacity, and creates more stabile, fertile soils, thus reducing vulnerability to drought, extreme precipitation events, floods and water logging. Adaptation is further supported by increased agro-ecosystem diversity of organic farms, based on management decisions, reduced nitrogen inputs and the absence of chemical pesticides. The high diversity together with the lower input costs of organic agriculture is key to reducing production risks associated with extreme weather events. All these advantageous practices are not exclusive to organic agriculture. However, they are core parts of the organic production system, in contrast to most non-organic agriculture, where they play a minor role only. Mitigation in agriculture is however not restricted to the agricultural sector alone. Consumer preferences for products from conventional or organic farms, seasonal and local production, pest and disease resistant varieties, etc. strongly influence agricultural production systems, and thus the overall mitigation potential of agriculture. Even more influential are meat consumption and food wastage. Any discussion on mitigation of climate change in agriculture thus needs to address the entire food chain, and to be linked to general sustainable development strategies. The main challenges to dealing appropriately with the climate change mitigation and adaptation potential of organic agriculture, and agriculture in general, stem from a) insufficient understanding of some of the basic processes, such as the interaction of N2O emissions and soil carbon sequestration, contributions of roots to soil carbon sequestration, and the life-cycle emissions of organic fertilizers, such as compost; b) lack of procedures for emissions accounting which adequately represent agricultural production systems with multiple and diverse outputs, which also encompass ecosystem services; c) the problem to identify and design adequate policy frameworks for supporting mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, i.e. such that do not put systemic approaches at a disadvantage due to difficulties in the quantification of emissions, and in their allocation to single products; d) the necessity to assure that the current focus on mitigation does not lead to neglect of other factors influencing the sustainability of agriculture, such as pesticide loads, eutrophication, acidification or soil erosion; and e) the open questions, how to address consumer behaviour and how to further changes in consumption patterns, in order to utilize their mitigation potential

Assessing the public goods provided by organic agriculture: lessons learned from practice

The role of farms as providers of public goods has long been recognised, and measuring performance in this area is of increasing interest to policy makers, in light of the approaching Common Agricultural Policy reform. The Organic Research Centre has been working on this topic in recent years, through the development of sustainability assessment tools. The latest outcome from this process is a ‘Public Goods’ assessment tool, developed through a Natural England funded project which aimed to evaluate the benefits accruing from organic management and entering into an Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) agreement. This paper describes the development of the Public Goods (PG) tool, and what has been learned in the process

Investigation into the effects of transmission-channel fidelity loss in RGBD sensor data for SLAM

Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM) is computationally expensive, and requires high-fidelity sensor data. This paper investigates the effects of transmission channel fidelity loss in Red-Green-Blue-Depth (RGBD) sensor data. A mobile robotic platform developed for Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) is used, with a highly constrained data and video link to a base station which computes a SLAM solution. Experiments were conducted offline, using well known data-sets with ground truth data, and their results have been compared to determine the effect of fidelity loss under various multiplexing approaches with a constrained transmission channel

Bone mineral density, rib pain and other features of the female athlete triad in elite lightweight rowers

Objective: To determine bone mineral density (BMD) and the associations among BMD, menstrual history, disordered eating (DE), training history, intentional weight loss (IWL) and rib pain for the first time in female lightweight rowers. Setting: 9 lightweight rowing clubs, UK. Participants: 29 Caucasian female lightweight rowers volunteered. 21 (12 active, 9 retired) completed the study. Inclusion criteria: female lightweight rowers aged over 18 years. Exclusion criteria: participants with a history of bone disease, used medications known to influence BMD or if they were pregnant, lactating or postmenopausal. Main outcome measures: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measured total body (TB) composition and BMD at the spine, femoral neck (FN), radius and TB. DE, oligomenorrhoea/amenorrhoea years; rib pain and training history. Results: DE was reported in six of the rowers. The active with DE started rowing younger (p<0.05) than those without, and their amount of IWL was associated with Eating Attitudes Test-26 score (p<0.05). Some participants reported a history of oligomenorrhoea/amenorrhoea 17 (76%) and/or rib pain 7 (32%) with those with rib pain having lower spine and TB Z-scores (p<0.05) than those without. Those with oligomenorrhoea/amenorrhoea had lower spine Z-scores (p<0.01) than those without. Twelve participants had low BMD; three at spine; one at FN; and eight at radius. Thirteen per cent of mean total training hours (18.6±9.1 h/week) were spent strength training (2.4±2.2 h/week). Conclusions: Upper body exercises incorporating multidimensional high peak bone strain were not reported and may need to be considered in their strength training to improve radial BMD. Results suggest IWL and high level training at a young age increases the likelihood of DE and there may be a lack of quality nutritional support for these athletes. Thus, multidisciplinary sport science support should be offered at a young age and perhaps also to consider changing the weight rules to prevent the development of the Triad

Building a repertoire: exploring the role of active play in improving physical literacy in children

Una persona que es físicamente alfabetizada es motivada para desarrollar plenamente su potencial movimiento y participar en actividades físicas a lo largo de toda su vida. Esta investigación, explorando la relación entre el juego y la alfabetización física, busca una comprensión crítica del rol del juego activo en la promoción de alfabetización física desde una perspectiva de los niños. Niños de 10-11 años utilizaron cámaras desechables para registrar sus "espacios de juego" y más adelante reflexionar sobre sus experiencias de juego. Los temas que surgieron indican que actividades de juego semiestructurados (por ejemplo, juegos tradicionales) y no estructurados podrían tener una relación positiva en la alfabetización física.UY-MoUC

Analysis of Sry Duplications On the Rattus Norvegicus Y-Chromosome

Background: Gene copy number variation plays a large role in the evolution of genomes. In Rattus norvegicus and other rodent species, the Y-chromosome has accumulated multiple copies of Sry loci. These copy number variations have been previously linked with changes in phenotype of animal models such as the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). This study characterizes the Y-chromosome in the Sry region of Rattus norvegicus, while addressing functional variations seen in the Sry protein products. Results: Eleven Sry loci have been identified in the SHR with one (nonHMG Sry) containing a frame shift mutation. The nonHMGSry is found and conserved in the related WKY and SD rat strains. Three new, previously unidentified, Sry loci were identified in this study (Sry3BII, Sry4 and Sry4A) in both SHR and WKY. Repetitive element analysis revealed numerous LINE-L1 elements at regions where conservation is lost among the Sry copies. In addition we have identified a retrotransposed copy of Med14 originating from spliced mRNA, two autosomal genes (Ccdc110 and HMGB1) and a normal mammalian Y-chromosome gene (Zfy) in the Sry region of the rat Y-chromosome. Translation of the sequences of each Sry gene reveals eight proteins with amino acid differences leading to changes in nuclear localization and promoter activation of a Sry-responsive gene. Sry-beta (coded by the Sry2 locus) has an increased cytoplasmic fraction due to alterations at amino acid 21. Sry gamma has altered gene regulation of the Sry1 promoter due to changes at amino acid 76. Conclusions: The duplication of Sry on the Rattus norvegicus Y-chromosome has led to proteins with altered functional ability that may have been selected for functions in addition to testis determination. Additionally, several other genes not normally found on the Y-chromosome have duplicated new copies into the region around the Sry genes. These suggest a role of active transposable elements in the evolution of the mammalian Y-chromosome in species such as Rattus norvegicus