Independent observations of catches and subsurface mitigation efficiencies of modified trawl nets for endangered, threatened and protected megafauna bycatch in the Pilbara Fish Trawl Fishery

Mitigation of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species is a challenge in many commercial fisheries globally and independent observer programs are often implemented to determine accurate estimates of interaction rates. However, interactions with ETP species may be extremely rare requiring very high and therefore costly levels of observer coverage to provide adequate statistical rigor for such programs

Carboniferous stratigraphical correlation and interpretation in the Irish Sea

This report systematically details the stratigraphy and palaeogeography of Carboniferous rocks of the UK Irish Sea for the 21CXRM Palaeozoic project. Each stratigraphical group of Carboniferous or Permian age is described in turn. This report describes the stratigraphical correlation of Carboniferous strata of the report area using principally well data, but incorporates information from new seismic interpretations (Pharaoh et al., 2016a) to identify key unconformities. The report provides: a systematic description of a spatially and temporally variable Carboniferous succession; Permian strata are also described for the succession above the Variscan Unconformity; a full incorporation of onshore knowledge is provided given the often limited offshore well data; a series of four correlation panels of key offshore and onshore wells/boreholes; a series of eight palaeogeogeographical maps which highlight the potential regional distribution of source and reservoir rock facies through selected time intervals during the Carboniferous. A spreadsheet of well tops accompanies this report

NRF2 Oxidative Stress Induced by Heavy Metals is Cell Type Dependent

Exposure to metallic environmental toxicants has been demonstrated to induce a variety of oxidative stress responses in mammalian cells. The transcription factor Nrf2 is activated in response to oxidative stress and coordinates the expression of antioxidant gene products. In this study, we describe the development of an Nrf2-specific reporter gene assay that can be used to study the oxidative stress response in multiple cell types. Using five different cell lines, the Nrf2-activating potency of twenty metals was assessed across a range of concentrations. While ten of the metals tested (cadmium, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, sodium arsenite and zinc) stimulated Nrf2-dependent transcriptional activity in at least three of the engineered cell lines, only three (cadmium, copper and sodium arsenite) were active in all five cell lines. A comparison of metal-induced Nrf2 transcriptional activation revealed significant differences in the absolute magnitude of activation as well as the relative potencies between the cell lines tested. However, there was no direct correlation between activity and potency. Taken together, these results show that the capacity to stimulate Nrf2 activity and relative potencies of these test compounds are highly dependent on the cell type tested. Since oxidative stress is thought to be involved in the mode of action of many toxicological studies, this observation may inform the design of paradigms for toxicity testing for toxicant prioritization and characterization

Progress in the development of a biopesticide for the structural treatment of grain stores

Chemical insecticides are used to protect stored grain from infestation by stored product insects and mites. In the UK only a limited number of products are available for application and there are concerns about safety, pest resistance and environmental impact of these conventional pesticides. Biological control offers an alternative to the use of chemical insecticides. The potential for biological control of storage pests in the UK using an insect-specific fungus, Beauveria bassiana, to treat the structure of the stores, has previously been established. However, this study also highlighted areas where improvements were needed; specifically to improve the uptake of the fungal conidia by the pests and to improve their germination and penetration into the pests. In addition it was necessary to ensure that potential formulations had a good shelf-life and to develop a mass production method to consistently produce high quality fungal conidia. A four year project has recently been completed examining these  areas in detail. The work has concentrated on two different fungal isolates of B. bassiana, both of which were found from insects in UK grain stores. Optimisation of production methods, formulation and delivery systems has resulted in prototype formulations that exhibit good viability over periods up to one year and that have good efficacy against a range of storage insect pests under conditions that are likely to be found in UK grain stores. Pilot scale trials using three species of stored product beetle have shown that significant levels of control can be achieved. An overview of the key findings is presented. The study has made a significant contribution to the development of a biopesticide as a structural treatment for grain storage areas in the UK.Keywords: Biological control; Beauveria bassiana; Oryzaephilus surinamensis; Structural treatment; Biopesticid

Large Scale Job Management and Experience in Recent Data Challenges within the LHC CMS experiment

From its conception the job management system has been distributed to increase scalability and robustness. The system consists of several applications (called ProdAgents) which manage Monte Carlo, reconstruction and skimming jobs on collections of sites within different Grid environments (OSG, NorduGrid, LCG) and submission systems such as GlideIn, local batch, etc... Production of simulated data in CMS mainly takes place on so called Tier2s (small to medium size computing centers) resources. Approximately ~50% of the CMS Tier2 resources are allocated to running simulation jobs. While the so-called Tier1s (medium to large size computing centers with high capacity tape storage systems) will be mainly used for skimming and reconstructing detector data. During the last one and a half years the job management system has been adapted such that it can be configured to convert Data Acquisition (DAQ) / High Level Trigger (HLT) output from the CMS detector to the CMS data format and manage the real time data stream from the experiment. Simultaneously the system has been upgraded to facilitate the increasing scale of the CMS production and adapting to the procedures used by its operators. In this paper we discuss the current (high level) architecture of ProdAgent, the experience in using this system in computing challenges, feedback from these challenges, and future work including migration to a set of core libraries to facilitate convergence between the different data management projects within CMS that deal with analysis, simulation, and initial reconstruction of real data. This migration is important, as it will decrease the code footprint used by these projects and increase maintainability of the code base

Double deletion of Panx1 and Panx3 affects skin and bone but not hearing

Pannexins (Panxs), large-pore channel forming glycoproteins, are expressed in a wide variety of tissues including the skin, bone, and cochlea. To date, the use of single knock-out mouse models of both Panx1 and Panx3 have demonstrated their roles in skin development, bone formation, and auditory phenotypes. Due to sequence homology between Panx1 and Panx3, when one Panx is ablated from germline, the other may be upregulated in a compensatory mechanism to maintain tissue homeostasis and function. To evaluate the roles of Panx1 and Panx3 in the skin, bone, and cochlea, we created the first Panx1/Panx3 double knock-out mouse model (dKO). These mice had smaller litters and reduced body weight compared to wildtype controls. The dKO dorsal skin had decreased epidermal and dermal area as well as decreased hypodermal area in neonatal but not in older mice. In addition, mouse skull shape and size were altered, and long bone length was decreased in neonatal dKO mice. Finally, auditory tests revealed that dKO mice did not exhibit hearing loss and were even slightly protected against noise-induced hearing damage at mid-frequency regions. Taken together, our findings suggest that Panx1 and Panx3 are important at early stages of development in the skin and bone but may be redundant in the auditory system. Key messages Panx double KO mice had smaller litters and reduced body weight. dKO skin had decreased epidermal and dermal area in neonatal mice. Skull shape and size changed plus long bone length decreased in neonatal dKO mice. dKO had no hearing loss and were slightly protected against noise-induced damage

Do patients with diabetes mellitus and polytrauma continue to have worse outcomes?

The management of patients with multiple injuries remains challenging. Patients presenting with comorbidities, such as diabetes mellitus, may have additional unpredictable outcomes with increased mortality. Therefore, we aim to investigate the impact of major trauma centres in the UK on the outcomes of polytrauma patients with diabetes. The Trauma Audit and Research Network was used to identify polytrauma patients presenting to centres in England and Wales between 2012 and 2019. In total, 32,345 patients were thereby included and divided into three groups: 2271 with diabetes, 16,319 with comorbidities other than diabetes and 13,755 who had no comorbidities. Despite an overall increase in diabetic prevalence compared to previously published data, mortality was reduced in all groups, but diabetic patient mortality remained higher than in the other groups. Interestingly, increasing Injury Severity Score (ISS) and age were associated with increasing mortality, whereas the presence of diabetes, even when taking into consideration age, ISS and Glasgow Coma Score, led to an increase in the prediction of mortality with an odds ratio of 1.36 (p < 0.0001). The prevalence of diabetes mellitus in polytrauma patients has increased, and diabetes remains an independent risk factor for mortality following polytrauma