Biological Activity of Recently Discovered Halogenated Marine Natural Products

This review presents the biological activity—antibacterial, antifungal, anti-parasitic, antiviral, antitumor, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, and enzymatic activity—of halogenated marine natural products discovered in the past five years. Newly discovered examples that do not report biological activity are not included

Tiny Tusk Internship: The Relationship Between Duration of Breastfeeding and the Development of Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that remains highly prevalent in the youth community, yet its cause cannot be definitively placed. With the idea that this condition is primarily targeting children, the problem and possible solution may lie in infancy. The purpose of this literature review was to integrate evidence from studies published from 2015 to 2021 on the relationships between duration of breastfeeding during infancy and the development of ADHD. The results of this review supported the hypothesis that a longer duration of breastfeeding has a protective effect on childhood development and reduces the risk of developing ADHD symptoms or diagnosis

Brief as virtual building: How configurational is a construction brief?

This study explores current briefing practice and tests the proposition that a construction brief contains sufficient prescriptive information regarding spatial relationships to constitute a ‘virtual building’ with its own inequality genotype: it asks ‘how configurational is a construction brief?’ Starting from the premise that space syntax theory (Hillier and Hanson 1984) fills certain logical gaps in the literature on briefing, it argues that current advice on the briefing process which states that understanding the client’s organisation is critical, supports the direct use of space syntax methodology in developing the brief. The research methods used include an archival study of RIBA Client Design Advisor statements on briefing, a questionnaire on the content of construction briefs, unstructured interviews and a syntactic analysis of three generic briefs: government design guidance on magistrates’ courts (CSDG 2004), primary schools (BB99 2004), and acute mental health units (HBN 35 1996). The findings suggest that architects conceptualise the briefing process in at least 3 different ways and use a wide range of techniques to elicit information from the client. That a high proportion of construction briefs (in this study) include client attitudes and values with spatial implications and reference to spatial relationships in terms of permeability, visibility, intelligibility and control. And that generic briefs do encode meaningful regularities between syntactic measures and institutional attitudes towards different categories of building user. Despite recommendations that briefing should start early and continue throughout the project, this study indicates that in practice briefing is often separated from the design process. It is argued therefore that the cultural content of a construction brief should be made explicit so that informed decisions can be made regarding its validity and applicability. The findings of this study indicate that space syntax methodology could be used to this end. However, this proposition would need to be tested with a larger sample of construction briefs before this could be asserted with any confidence. Finally, further study is proposed into the circumstances in which the benefits of using generic design guidance, briefing templates and standard briefs outweigh the costs. It is suggested that this could draw on the ideas of transaction costs and human error theory

Utilising the views of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) and the findings of two case studies to explore the potential impact of how young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) understand and perceive their diagnosis. A study on well-being.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is predicted to affect 5% of young people (APA, 2013) with increasing rates of diagnosis across the western world (Safer, 2018). Young Minds (2018) also report that one in four young people are experiencing mental ill health. High comorbidity rates have been identified between ADHD and negative mental health outcomes, which has sparked a wealth of research into this relationship (Roy, Oldenhinkel, Velhurst, Oreml & Hartman, 2013; Booster, DuPaul, Eiraldi and Power, 2012; & Becker, Luebbe & Langberg, 2012). With this in mind, the aims of this research were to explore the understanding, perceptions and experiences of young people with ADHD. Although this research employed a mixed methods design, utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods, it aligns with an interpretivist perspective, seeking the views and experiences of young people and those around them. There were two phases to the research; the first used an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to seek the views of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) about young people’s experiences of ADHD. The second phase employed a case study design exploring the experiences of two young people with ADHD. Phase Two also sought to explore the use of tools derived from Personal Construct Psychology (Kelly, 1955) as a means to support young people with ADHD. The findings of this study are consistent with previous literature around the experiences of young people, their schools and their parents in that there may be a discrepancy between young people’s awareness of their needs and their understanding of their ADHD diagnosis. The findings also suggest that parents are not being adequately supported following their child’s diagnosis. Consistent with the literature, this thesis concluded that the ways in which young people perceive and understand their diagnosis is likely to affect their wellbeing

Distribution and characterisation of Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor expressing cells in the mouse brain.

© 2015 The Authors.Objective: Although Glucagon-like peptide 1 is a key regulator of energy metabolism and food intake, the precise location of GLP-1 receptors and the physiological relevance of certain populations is debatable. This study investigated the novel GLP-1R-Cre mouse as a functional tool to address this question. Methods: Mice expressing Cre-recombinase under the Glp1r promoter were crossed with either a ROSA26 eYFP or tdRFP reporter strain to identify GLP-1R expressing cells. Patch-clamp recordings were performed on tdRFP-positive neurons in acute coronal brain slices from adult mice and selective targeting of GLP-1R cells in vivo was achieved using viral gene delivery. Results: Large numbers of eYFP or tdRFP immunoreactive cells were found in the circumventricular organs, amygdala, hypothalamic nuclei and the ventrolateral medulla. Smaller numbers were observed in the nucleus of the solitary tract and the thalamic paraventricular nucleus. However, tdRFP positive neurons were also found in areas without preproglucagon-neuronal projections like hippocampus and cortex. GLP-1R cells were not immunoreactive for GFAP or parvalbumin although some were catecholaminergic. GLP-1R expression was confirmed in whole-cell recordings from BNST, hippocampus and PVN, where 100 nM GLP-1 elicited a reversible inward current or depolarisation. Additionally, a unilateral stereotaxic injection of a cre-dependent AAV into the PVN demonstrated that tdRFP-positive cells express cre-recombinase facilitating virally-mediated eYFP expression. Conclusions: This study is a comprehensive description and phenotypic analysis of GLP-1R expression in the mouse CNS. We demonstrate the power of combining the GLP-1R-CRE mouse with a virus to generate a selective molecular handle enabling future in vivo investigation as to their physiological importance

Dark deeds in a sunny land: or Blacks and whites in North-West Australia

The frontier of European settlement in the colony of Western Australia a hundred years ago stretched way beyond the south-western corner to the far north, and pastoralists were pushing steadily inland wherever the countryside offered promise of a living to be gained. Only the presence of Aborigines stood between them and the land they sought. On a frontier as far from the colonial capital as this where governmental representatives were few or absent, the newcomers were largely free to deal with the Aboriginal presence in their own way. Whether relations between the original inhabitants and the invaders were mostly peaceful or conflicting depended on a host of factors, such as the tenor of initial encounters, the expectations the Europeans had of the Aborigines, whether or not Aboriginal sacred sites or objects were violated, and so on. What was certain, however, in the absence of convict labour, was the vital need for an Aboriginal labour force if the fledgling industry was to survive in the more remote areas of the colony..

Spinally projecting preproglucagon axons preferentially innervate sympathetic preganglionic neurons

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) affects central autonomic neurons, including those controlling the cardiovascular system, thermogenesis, and energy balance. Preproglucagon (PPG) neurons, located mainly in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) and medullary reticular formation, produce GLP-1. In transgenic mice expressing glucagon promoter-driven yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), these brainstem PPG neurons project to many central autonomic regions where GLP-1 receptors are expressed. The spinal cord also contains GLP-1 receptor mRNA but the distribution of spinal PPG axons is unknown. Here, we used two-color immunoperoxidase labeling to examine PPG innervation of spinal segments T1–S4 in YFP-PPG mice. Immunoreactivity for YFP identified spinal PPG axons and perikarya. We classified spinal neurons receiving PPG input by immunoreactivity for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and/or Fluorogold (FG) retrogradely transported from the peritoneal cavity. FG microinjected at T9 defined cell bodies that supplied spinal PPG innervation. The deep dorsal horn of lower lumbar cord contained YFP-immunoreactive neurons. Non-varicose, YFP-immunoreactive axons were prominent in the lateral funiculus, ventral white commissure and around the ventral median fissure. In T1–L2, varicose, YFP-containing axons closely apposed many ChAT-immunoreactive sympathetic preganglionic neurons (SPN) in the intermediolateral cell column (IML) and dorsal lamina X. In the sacral parasympathetic nucleus, about 10% of ChAT-immunoreactive preganglionic neurons received YFP appositions, as did occasional ChAT-positive motor neurons throughout the rostrocaudal extent of the ventral horn. YFP appositions also occurred on NOS-immunoreactive spinal interneurons and on spinal YFP-immunoreactive neurons. Injecting FG at T9 retrogradely labeled many YFP-PPG cell bodies in the medulla but none of the spinal YFP-immunoreactive neurons. These results show that brainstem PPG neurons innervate spinal autonomic and somatic motor neurons. The distributions of spinal PPG axons and spinal GLP-1 receptors correlate well. SPN receive the densest PPG innervation. Brainstem PPG neurons could directly modulate sympathetic outflow through their spinal inputs to SPN or interneurons

It\u27s A Trap!: Responsible Enforcement of Texas Disaster Evacuation Orders

We see emergencies within our lives and communities every day without much fanfare. However, when emergencies impact entire neighborhoods, communities, or regions, they become disasters. Depending on its severity, residents can be forced to flee in search of safety. Texas has had nearly five times the annual average of federal disaster declarations than that of any other state in the union. To manage emergencies and disasters, Texas law affords local governments numerous powers, including the authority to order evacuations. While many states have a single mechanism to enforce evacuation orders, Texas has both a civil (recovery of rescue expenses) and criminal (misdemeanor offense) enforcement mechanism. While the criminal mechanism has a misdemeanor offense tied to it, the civil mechanism allows jurisdictions to recover the cost of a rescue from people who ignored an evacuation order. This Article examines Texas\u27s dual enforcement approach and the need for a statutory exception. This Article does not examine (1) whether mandatory evacuations constitute a Fifth Amendment taking or (2) whether a moral duty to rescue exists during a disaster