Demanding stories: television coverage of sustainability, climate change and material demand

This paper explores the past, present and future role of broadcasting, above all via the medium of television, in shaping how societies talk, think about and act on climate change and sustainability issues. The paper explores these broad themes via a focus on the important but relatively neglected issue of material demand and opportunities for its reduction. It takes the outputs and decision-making of one of the world’s most influential broadcasters, the BBC, as its primary focus. The paper considers these themes in terms of stories, touching on some of the broader societal frames of understanding into which they can be grouped. Media decision-makers and producers from a range of genres frequently return to the centrality of ‘story’ in the development, commissioning and production of an idea. With reference to specific examples of programming, and drawing on interviews with media practitioners, the paper considers the challenges of generating broadcast stories that can inspire engagement in issues around climate change, and specifically material demand. The concluding section proposes actions and approaches that might help to establish material demand reduction as a prominent way of thinking about climate change and environmental issues more widely. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’

RCAN1.4 regulates VEGFR-2 internalisation, cell polarity and migration in human microvascular endothelial cells

Regulator of calcineurin 1 (RCAN1) is an endogenous inhibitor of the calcineurin pathway in cells. It is expressed as two isoforms in vertebrates: RCAN1.1 is constitutively expressed in most tissues, whereas transcription of RCAN1.4 is induced by several stimuli that activate the calcineurin-NFAT pathway. RCAN1.4 is highly upregulated in response to VEGF in human endothelial cells in contrast to RCAN1.1 and is essential for efficient endothelial cell migration and tubular morphogenesis. Here, we show that RCAN1.4 has a role in the regulation of agonist-stimulated VEGFR-2 internalisation and establishment of endothelial cell polarity. siRNA-mediated gene silencing revealed that RCAN1 plays a vital role in regulating VEGF-mediated cytoskeletal reorganisation and directed cell migration and sprouting angiogenesis. Adenoviral-mediated overexpression of RCAN1.4 resulted in increased endothelial cell migration. Antisense-mediated morpholino silencing of the zebrafish RCAN1.4 orthologue revealed a disrupted vascular development further confirming a role for the RCAN1.4 isoform in regulating vascular endothelial cell physiology. Our data suggest that RCAN1.4 plays a novel role in regulating endothelial cell migration by establishing endothelial cell polarity in response to VEGF

Early Cenozoic denudation of central west Britain in response to transient and permanent uplift above a mantle plume

Upwelling mantle plumes beneath continental crust are predicted to produce difficult to quantify, modest uplift and denudation. The contribution of permanent and transient components to the uplift is also difficult to distinguish. A pulse of denudation in Britain in the Early Paleogene has been linked, although with some controversy, with the arrival of the proto-Iceland mantle plume. In this contribution we show that combining apatite and zircon (U-Th-Sm)/He and apatite fission track analyses from central west Britain with numerical modeling clearly identifies a pulse of early Cenozoic denudation. The data indicate that rock uplift and denudation were centered on the northern East Irish Sea Basin and 1.0–2.4 km of rocks were removed during the latest Cretaceous-early Paleogene. Uplift and erosion appears to have started a few million years before the earliest magmatism in the region. The regional denudation pattern mirrors the distribution of low-density magmatic rocks that has been imaged in the deep crust. However, the injection of the underplating melt is not enough to account for the total denudation. An additional regional uplift of at least 300 m is required, which is consistent with a transient thermal effect from the hot mantle plume. The rapid exhumation event ceased by ~40 Ma and the data do not require significant Neogene exhumation

High-temperature performance of ferritic steels in fireside corrosion regimes: temperature and deposits

The paper reports high temperature resistance of ferritic steels in fireside corrosion regime in terms of temperature and deposits aggressiveness. Four candidate power plant steels: 15Mo3, T22, T23 and T91 were exposed under simulated air-fired combustion environment for 1000 h. The tests were conducted at 600, 650 and 700 °C according to deposit-recoat test method. Post-exposed samples were examined via dimensional metrology (the main route to quantify metal loss), and mass change data were recorded to perform the study of kinetic behavior at elevated temperatures. Microstructural investigations using ESEM-EDX were performed in order to investigate corrosion degradation and thickness of the scales. The ranking of the steels from most to the least damage was 15Mo3 > T22 > T23 > T91 in all three temperatures. The highest rate of corrosion in all temperatures occurred under the screening deposit

Influence of shot peening on high-temperature corrosion and corrosion-fatigue of nickel based superalloy 720Li

High-temperature corrosion fatigue, a combination of corrosion with a fatigue cycle, is an emerging generic issue affecting power generation and aero gas turbine engines and has the potential to limit component life. Historically, surface treatments, such as shot peening have been used to improve component life and have been optimised for fatigue response. Research into optimisation of shot peening techniques for hot corrosion and high-temperature corrosion fatigue has shown 6–8A 230H 200% coverage to provide overall optimum performance for nickel-based superalloy 720Li based on the limited data within this study. Utilisation of electron backscatter diffraction techniques, in combination with detailed assessment of corrosion products have been undertaken as part of this work. The resultant cold-work visualisation technique provides a novel method of determining the variation in material properties due to the shot peening process and the interaction with hot corrosion. Through this work it has been shown that all three shot peening outputs must be considered to minimise the effect of corrosion fatigue, the cold work, residual stress and surface roughness. Further opportunity for optimisation has also been identified based on this work

Adaptive response and enlargement of dynamic range

Many membrane channels and receptors exhibit adaptive, or desensitized, response to a strong sustained input stimulus, often supported by protein activity-dependent inactivation. Adaptive response is thought to be related to various cellular functions such as homeostasis and enlargement of dynamic range by background compensation. Here we study the quantitative relation between adaptive response and background compensation within a modeling framework. We show that any particular type of adaptive response is neither sufficient nor necessary for adaptive enlargement of dynamic range. In particular a precise adaptive response, where system activity is maintained at a constant level at steady state, does not ensure a large dynamic range neither in input signal nor in system output. A general mechanism for input dynamic range enlargement can come about from the activity-dependent modulation of protein responsiveness by multiple biochemical modification, regardless of the type of adaptive response it induces. Therefore hierarchical biochemical processes such as methylation and phosphorylation are natural candidates to induce this property in signaling systems.Comment: Corrected typos, minor text revision

On the selection and design of proteins and peptide derivatives for the production of photoluminescent, red-emitting gold quantum clusters

Novel pathways of the synthesis of photoluminescent gold quantum clusters (AuQCs) using biomolecules as reactants provide biocompatible products for biological imaging techniques. In order to rationalize the rules for the preparation of red-emitting AuQCs in aqueous phase using proteins or peptides, the role of different organic structural units was investigated. Three systems were studied: proteins, peptides, and amino acid mixtures, respectively. We have found that cysteine and tyrosine are indispensable residues. The SH/S-S ratio in a single molecule is not a critical factor in the synthesis, but on the other hand, the stoichiometry of cysteine residues and the gold precursor is crucial. These observations indicate the importance of proper chemical behavior of all species in a wide size range extending from the atomic distances (in the AuI-S semi ring) to nanometer distances covering the larger sizes of proteins assuring the hierarchical structure of the whole self-assembled system

HVOF and laser cladded Fe-Cr-B coating in simulated biomass combustion: microstructure and fireside corrosion

Biomass is often considered as a low carbon alternative to fossil fuels in the power industry. However the heat exchangers in biomass plants can suffer from chloride based aggressive fireside corrosion. A commercially available amorphous Fe-Cr-B alloy was deposited onto a stainless steel substrate by HVOF thermal spray and laser cladding. The controlled environment corrosion tests were conducted in a HCl rich environment at 700°C for 250 h with and without KCl deposits. The samples were examined with XRD, SEM and EDX mapping to understand the corrosion mechanisms. In the absence of any deposits, the amorphous HVOF coating performed very well with a thin oxide growth whereas the crystalline laser cladding suffered from ~350 μm metal loss. The scales were composed of MnWO₄, Fe₂O₃, Fe₃O₄ and Cr₂O₃. When a KCl deposit was present, the HVOF sprayed coating delaminated from the substrate and MnCl₂ was found in the scale

Inhibition of the glucocorticoid receptor results in an enhanced miR-99a/100-mediated radiation response in stem-like cells from human prostate cancers

Radiation therapy is a major primary treatment option for both localized early stage prostate cancer, and for advanced, regionally un-resectable, cancer. However, around 30% of patients still experience biochemical recurrence after radiation therapy within 10 years. Thus, identification of better biomarkers and new targets are urgently required to improve current therapeutic strategies. The miR-99 family has been shown to play an important role in the regulation of the DNA damage response, via targeting of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling factors, SMARCA5 and SMARCD1 in cell line models. In the present study, we have demonstrated that low expression of miR-99a and miR-100 is present in cell populations which are relatively radiation insensitive, for example in prostate cancer stem cells and in castration-resistant prostate cancer. Additionally, treatment of cells with the synthetic glucocorticoid, Dexamethasone resulted in decreased miR-99a and 100 expression, suggesting a new mechanism of miR-99a and 100 regulation in androgen-independent prostate cells. Strikingly, treatment of prostate cells with the glucocorticoid receptor inhibitor, Mifepristone was found to sensitize prostate cells to radiation by increasing the levels of miR-99a and miR-100. These results qualify the miR99 family as markers of radiation sensitivity and as potential therapeutic targets to improve efficiency of radiotherapy