Individuals Maintain Similar Rates of Protein Synthesis Over Time on the Same Plane of Nutrition Under Controlled Environmental Conditions

Consistent individual differences in animal performance drive individual fitness under variable environmental conditions and provide the framework through which natural selection can operate. Underlying this concept is the assumption that individuals will display consistent levels of performance in fitness-related traits and interest has focused on individual variation and broad sense repeatability in a range of behavioural and physiological traits. Despite playing a central role in maintenance and growth, and with considerable inter-individual variation documented, broad sense repeatability in rates of protein synthesis has not been assessed. In this study we show for the first time that juvenile flounder Platichthys flesus reared under controlled environmental conditions on the same plane of nutrition for 46 days maintain consistent whole-animal absolute rates of protein synthesis (As). By feeding meals containing 15N-labelled protein and using a stochastic end-point model, two non-terminal measures of protein synthesis were made 32 days apart (d14 and d46). As values (mass-corrected to a standard mass of 12 g) showed 2- to 3-fold variation between individuals on d14 and d46 but individuals showed similar As values on both days with a broad sense repeatability estimate of 0.684 indicating significant consistency in physiological performance under controlled experimental conditions. The use of non-terminal methodologies in studies of animal ecophysiology to make repeat measures of physiological performance enables known individuals to be tracked across changing conditions. Adopting this approach, repeat measures of protein synthesis under controlled conditions will allow individual ontogenetic changes in protein metabolism to be assessed to better understand the ageing process and to determine individual physiological adaptive capacity, and associated energetic costs of adaptation, to global environmental change

Characterisation of selected speciated organic compounds associated with particulate matter in London

Total suspended particulate matter (TSP) was collected and analysed at two sites in central and north London during 1995/6 for particulate-associated total organic carbon (TOC), particulate elemental carbon (PEC), 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 23 n-alkanes. The analysis revealed slightly higher concentrations of all of these substances at the central London location and generally low correlations between variables. Overall, PEC was measured as 1-13% of TSP, whilst TOC was measured as 7-45 % of TSP. Seasonal differences in concentrations were identified at both sites, with higher concentrations of combustion related compounds occurring in winter and autumn. The dominant PAH compounds were found to be the higher molecular weight compounds, namely BghiP, BaA and Chrys. n-alkane compound distributions between C-10 and C-34 showed that the highest concentrations of compounds were between C-21 and C-29 Three methods were used to identify specific sources of particulate-associated organic compounds. Ratios of PAHs indicated a dominant petroleum source at both sites, with a higher diesel component at the central London site. Carbon preference index (CPI) values of 1.03 and 1.28 for the central and north London sites, respectively, indicated a stronger anthropogenic (vehicular) influence at the central London location. Using principal component analysis (PCA), key principal components (PCs) were extracted from each data set. These PCs collectively accounted for 76.4 and 78.1% of the total variations within the north and central London data sets, respectively, although differentiation of sources proved difficult because the organic compounds monitored may not be statistically independent

Internal marketing as an agent of change – implementing a new human resource information system for Malaysian Airlines

The first part of this research determines the relationship between ten selected variables andemployees’acceptanceofaplannedchangeinMalaysianAirlines.Thesecondpartdrawsontheoriginal findings to conceptually investigate the potential role, degree and nature of internalmarketing as a positive agent of change. The findings initially determine the causality of theprimary research results. Subsequently and prescriptively, they indicate that ‘perceptionmanagement’ through internal marketing may play a critical role in both the acceptance andthe implementation of change, especially regarding the more professional positions/processesof an organisation. The paper finally develops a provisional prescriptive model of internalmarketing towards organisational change and expands on the practical and managerial implica-tions of the findings. The value of the research lies primarily in its unorthodox introduction of internal marketing as a catalytic agent of organisational change, as well as in its prescriptivemanagerial implications and its innovative contemporary marketing contex