The Arctic Avengers: Investigating, Developing, and Implementing Community Engagement Strategies for Polar Bear Conservation

Over the period of 1950 to 2010, the observed global average surface temperature increased from 0.6°C to 0.7°C. In their Fifth Assessment Report, released in November 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) determined that more than half of this observed temperature increase was caused by an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations from anthropogenic forcings—the consequences of which are seen incontrovertibly in the Arctic ecosystem. Since satellite observations began in 1979, the rate of decrease in Arctic sea ice extent—which has decreased every season without fail—was in the range of 3.5% to 4.1% per decade; it has most rapidly decreased during the summer, in the range of 9.4% to 13.6% per decade. The apex predator of the Arctic ecosystem, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus), is one of several creatures whose survival depends entirely upon the existence of sea ice. The polar bear has long been used as the captivating poster child of climate change to encourage conservation efforts. However, despite the widely known realities of climate change, there still appear to be significant barriers that prevent individuals from taking sustainable actions on a daily basis. What strategies, then, are needed to foster community engagement efforts that confront and eliminate that disconnect? I address this query through an in-depth examination of scholarly research, a review of survey data from individuals within the field of polar bear-conservation, and the implementation of a grassroots conservation project. My findings lead me to propose a two-pronged approach to successfully tackle those perceived barriers: the provision of (1) evidence of one’s sustainable habits having a positive effect, and (2) simple tools to help maintain one’s sustainable habits

Traces of Exotic Physics in Cosmology

In recent years it has become increasingly clear that our universe is far more intricate than we might ever have imagined. While theoretical formulations of the fundamental aspects of Nature have, for many years, hinted at its vast and elusive complexity, suggesting that our known world is but a tiny facet of the greater reality in which it is embedded, it has only been within the last several decades that observations have really begun to confirm this. Indeed, while deep-field surveys of the universe have uncovered myriads of galaxies, constituting an untold number of gravitationally bound microcosms such as ours, precision cosmological measurements have revealed that all of this luminous baryonic matter is a near negligible fraction of the total energy and matter in the universe. The vast majority of our cosmos is a dark universe, comprised of some kind of invisible substances or dark fluids that only interact gravitationally with visible matter. Even among the objects that are visible to us, there are many mysterious entities which are predicted by theory and which may or may not as yet have been glimpsed in the cosmos. In the first part of this thesis we will study the interactions between two such entities, namely cosmic strings and rotating black holes. In the latter part, we will turn to the invisible sector and explore whether or not the dark phenomena in the universe could in fact be the shadows of fundamental objects moving in higher dimensions beyond our own

Improving Literacy Through Indigenous Languages in South Africa

To better understand early grade reading in African languages, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, the University of South Africa and Funda Wande, together with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in South Africa, are working towards a deeper understanding of higher reading gains in English and three African languages. In South African primary schools, more than three quarters of nine to ten year-olds fail to reach the expected benchmarks in reading. Despite the high proportion of children learning to read in their mother tongue, there is little research on African language reading. This research is contributing to the development of national reading benchmarks in indigenous languages, leading to deeper understanding of how proficiency in African languages can contribute to improved literacy.ESRC-DFI

Hydrogen Production by His Mutants of Artificial Hydrogenase

Nickel enzymes are relatively new to be studied, but they have been found to be useful in creating artificial hydrogenases. Nickel alone can be harmful, but when combined with proteins to create an enzyme, the hope is that through catalysts, hydrogen can be produced for viable energy. The proteins used in the experiments had respective mutations at points 113 and 26. The cysteine at both of these points was replaced by a histidine to hopefully enhance metal binding. To create artificial hydrogenases and produce energy, the proteins were induced by various metals including nickel, copper, and cobalt. After experimentation and analysis by UV spectroscopy, nickel was found to successfully stay bound to both C113H and C26H, and the proteins contained significant increases at the peaks of 280 nm which shows a higher concentration of protein. C26H and C113H when bound to copper and cobalt also showed increased peaks at 280 nm, increasing the protein concentrations drastically. Due to these increases, it is inherent that some catalytic activity occurred, but it is unsure whether these metals continued to stay bound due to a lack of UV-Vis peaks around 450 nm after spectroscopy analysis. Overall, experimental studies show success in creating viable energy when subjecting the nickel metalloenzymes to metal induction and photocatalysis

RACI Chemistry Education Division Workshop

PURPOSE Each year, the RACI Chemistry Education Division hold a Discipline Day workshop with a shifting agenda in response to current challenges within the Australian chemistry education realm and the feedback received by attendees. We welcome all education-interested individuals – students, professional/casual/academic staff, secondary educators in chemistry or science fields. Your thoughts and perspectives are valuable and we hope that these projects can serve the scientific community at large. WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES In the first session of this workshop (~30 minutes) we will provide a brief summary on a number of key projects discussed at the 2022 ACSME RACI Chemistry Education Division Workshop. These include: The development of a modular-based resource collection for undergraduate and postgraduate training in chemistry education research; A revamp of the Chemistry Discipline Network website for better functionality and access; Building a business case for the introduction of a chemistry education and/or discipline-based education Field of Research (FoR) code for use in ARC grant processes; Actively seeking opportunities to host an international conference in chemistry education or discipline-based education more broadly; Actively seeking sponsorship opportunities to support RACI Chemistry Education Division awards/bursaries at related conferences and/or financial support for small research projects within our community. The second session of this workshop (~1 hour) will focus on Project 1 above (bolded). The aim of this session is to: Provide community feedback on the proposed structure and identified topics of relevance to chemistry education research; Identify existing resources from the community that can be contributed; Discuss any missed opportunities or potential contributions. We would also like to acknowledge the broader RACI Chemistry Education Division committee who volunteer their time without whom these projects would not be achievable

A Mutation in the DNA Polymerase Accessory Factor of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Restores Viral DNA Replication in the Presence of Raltegravir

This is the published version. Copyright 2014 American Society for MicrobiologyPrevious reports showed that raltegravir, a recently approved antiviral compound that targets HIV integrase, can inhibit the nuclease function of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV terminase) in vitro. In this study, subtoxic levels of raltegravir were shown to inhibit the replication of four different herpesviruses, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), HSV-2, HCMV, and mouse cytomegalovirus, by 30- to 700-fold, depending on the dose and the virus tested. Southern blotting and quantitative PCR revealed that raltegravir inhibits DNA replication of HSV-1 rather than cleavage of viral DNA. A raltegravir-resistant HSV-1 mutant was generated by repeated passage in the presence of 200 μM raltegravir. The genomic sequence of the resistant virus, designated clone 7, contained mutations in 16 open reading frames. Of these, the mutations F198S in unique long region 15 (UL15; encoding the large terminase subunit), A374V in UL32 (required for DNA cleavage and packaging), V296I in UL42 (encoding the DNA polymerase accessory factor), and A224S in UL54 (encoding ICP27, an important transcriptional regulator) were introduced independently into the wild-type HSV-1(F) genome, and the recombinant viruses were tested for raltegravir resistance. Viruses bearing both the UL15 and UL32 mutations inserted within the genome of the UL42 mutant were also tested. While the UL15, UL32, and UL54 mutant viruses were fully susceptible to raltegravir, any virus bearing the UL42 mutation was as resistant to raltegravir as clone 7. Overall, these results suggest that raltegravir may be a valuable therapeutic agent against herpesviruses and the antiviral activity targets the DNA polymerase accessory factor rather than the nuclease activity of the terminase

Human Cytomegalovirus Upregulates Expression of HCLS1 Resulting in Increased Cell Motility and Transendothelial Migration during Latency.

Human cytomegalovirus establishes a lifelong, latent infection in the human host and can cause significant morbidity and mortality, particularly, in immunocompromised individuals. One established site of HCMV latency and reactivation is in cells of the myeloid lineage. In undifferentiated myeloid cells, such as CD14+ monocytes, virus is maintained latently. We have recently reported an analysis of the total proteome of latently infected CD14+ monocytes, which identified an increase in hematopoietic lineage cell-specific protein (HCLS1). Here we show that this latency-associated upregulation of HCLS1 occurs in a US28-dependent manner and stabilizes actin structure in latently infected cells. This results in their increased motility and ability to transit endothelial cell layers. Thus, latency-associated increases in monocyte motility could aid dissemination of the latently infected reservoir, and targeting this increased motility could have an impact on the ability of latently infected monocytes to distribute to tissue sites of reactivation.This work was funded by the British Medical Research Council, Grant from the British Medical Research Council (Grant G0701279) and the Cambridge NIHR BRC Cell Phenotyping Hub

Crystal Field Splitting and Optical Bandgap of Hexagonal LuFeO3 Films

Hexagonal LuFeO3 films have been studied using x-ray absorption and optical spectroscopy. The crystal splitting of Fe3+ is extracted as Ee′−Ee″ = 0.7 eV and Ea1′−Ee′ = 0.9 eV, and a 2.0 eV optical bandgap is determined assuming a direct gap. First-principles calculations confirm the experiments that the relative energies of crystal field splitting states do follow Ea1′\u3eEe′\u3eEe″ with slightly underestimated values and a bandgap of 1.35 eV

Crystal field splitting and optical bandgap of hexagonal LuFeO3 films

Hexagonal LuFeO3 films have been studied using x-ray absorption and optical spectroscopy. The crystal splitting of Fe3+ is extracted as Ee\u27 - Ee = 0.7 eV and Ea\u271 - Ee\u27 = 0.9 eV, and a 2.0 eV optical bandgap is determined assuming a direct gap. First-principles calculations confirm the experiments that the relative energies of crystal field splitting states do follow Ea\u271 \u3e Ee\u27 \u3e Ee with slightly underestimated values and a bandgap of 1.35 eV