Plasma Homeostasis and Cloacal Urine Composition in Crocodylus porosus Caught Along a Salinity Gradient

Juveniles of the Estuarine or Saltwater Crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, maintain both osmotic pressure and plasma electrolyte homeostasis along a salinity gradient from fresh water to the sea. In fresh water (FW) the cloacal urine is a clear solution rich in ammonium and bicarbonate and containing small amounts of white precipitated solids with high concentrations of calcium and magnesium. In salt water (SW) the cloacal urine has a much higher proportion of solids, cream rather than white in colour, which are the major route for excretion of potassium in addition to calcium and magnesium. Neither liquid nor solid fractions of the cloacal urine represent a major route for excretion of sodium chloride. The solids are urates and uric acid, and their production probably constitutes an important strategy for water conservation by C. porosus in SW. These data, coupled with natural history observations and the recent identification of lingual salt glands, contribute to the conclusion that C. porosus is able to live and breed in either fresh or salt water and may be as euryhaline as any reptile

A Methodological Framework for the Evaluation of Syndromic Surveillance Systems: A Case Study of England

Background: Syndromic surveillance complements traditional public health surveillance by collecting and analysing health indicators in near real time. The rationale of syndromic surveillance is that it may detect health threats faster than traditional surveillance systems permitting more timely, and hence potentially more effective public health action. The effectiveness of syndromic surveillance largely relies on the methods used to detect aberrations. Very few studies have evaluated the performance of syndromic surveillance systems and consequently little is known about the types of events that such systems can and cannot detect. Methods: We introduce a framework for the evaluation of syndromic surveillance systems that can be used in any setting based upon the use of simulated scenarios. For a range of scenarios this allows the time and probability of to be determined and uncertainty is fully incorporated. In addition, we demonstrate how such a framework can model the benefits of increases in the number of centres reporting syndromic data and also determine the minimum size of outbreaks that can or cannot be detected. Here, we demonstrate its utility using simulations of national influenza outbreaks and localised outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis. Results: Influenza outbreaks are consistently detected with larger outbreaks being detected in a more timely manner. Small cryptosporidiosis outbreaks (<1000 symptomatic individuals) are unlikely to be detected. We also demonstrate the advantages of having multiple syndromic data streams (e.g. emergency attendance data, telephone helpline data, general practice consultation data) as different streams are able to detect different types outbreaks with different efficacy (e.g. emergency attendance data are useful for the detection of pandemic influenza but not for outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis). We also highlight that for any one disease, the utility of data streams may vary geographically, and that the detection ability of syndromic surveillance varies seasonally (e.g. an influenza outbreak starting in July is detected sooner than one starting later in the year). We argue that our framework constitutes a useful tool for public health emergency preparedness in multiple settings. Conclusions: The proposed framework allows the exhaustive evaluation of any syndromic surveillance system and constitutes a useful tool for emergency preparedness and response

Enhanced biological carbon consumption in a high CO2 ocean

The oceans have absorbed nearly half of the fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere since pre-industrial times1, causing a measurable reduction in seawater pH and carbonate saturation2. If CO2 emissions continue to rise at current rates, upper-ocean pH will decrease to levels lower than have existed for tens of millions of years and, critically, at a rate of change 100 times greater than at any time over this period3. Recent studies have shown effects of ocean acidification on a variety of marine life forms, in particular calcifying organisms4, 5, 6. Consequences at the community to ecosystem level, in contrast, are largely unknown. Here we show that dissolved inorganic carbon consumption of a natural plankton community maintained in mesocosm enclosures at initial CO2 partial pressures of 350, 700 and 1,050 μatm increases with rising CO2. The community consumed up to 39% more dissolved inorganic carbon at increased CO2 partial pressures compared to present levels, whereas nutrient uptake remained the same. The stoichiometry of carbon to nitrogen drawdown increased from 6.0 at low CO2 to 8.0 at high CO2, thus exceeding the Redfield carbon:nitrogen ratio of 6.6 in today’s ocean7. This excess carbon consumption was associated with higher loss of organic carbon from the upper layer of the stratified mesocosms. If applicable to the natural environment, the observed responses have implications for a variety of marine biological and biogeochemical processes, and underscore the importance of biologically driven feedbacks in the ocean to global change

Investigating the viability of sulfur polymers for the fabrication of photoactive, antimicrobial, water repellent coatings

Elemental sulfur (S8), a by-product of the petroleum refining industries, possesses many favourable properties including photocatalytic activity and antibacterial activity, in addition to being intrinsically hydrophobic. Despite this, there is a relative lack of research employing elemental sulfur and/or sulfur copolymers within superhydrophobic materials design. In this work, we present the use of sulfur copolymers to produce superhydrophobic materials with advanced functionalities. Using inverse vulcanization and the use of a natural organic crosslinker, perillyl alcohol (PER), stable S8-PER copolymers were synthesised and later combined with silica (SiO2) nanoparticles, to achieve highly water repellent composites that displayed both antimicrobial and photocatalytic properties, in the absence of carcinogenic and/or expensive materials. Here, we investigated the antibacterial performance of coatings against the Staphylococcus aureus bacterial strain, where coatings displayed great promise for use in antifouling applications, as they were found to limit surface adhesion by more than 99%, when compared to uncoated glass samples. Furthermore, UV dye degradation tests were performed, utilizing the commercially available dye resazurin, and it was shown that coatings had the potential to simultaneously exhibit surface hydrophobicity and photoactivity, demonstrating a great advancement in the field of superhydrophobic materials

Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae

This chapter describes the current classification scheme of supernovae (SNe). This scheme has evolved over many decades and now includes numerous SN Types and sub-types. Many of these are universally recognized, while there are controversies regarding the definitions, membership and even the names of some sub-classes; we will try to review here the commonly-used nomenclature, noting the main variants when possible. SN Types are defined according to observational properties; mostly visible-light spectra near maximum light, as well as according to their photometric properties. However, a long-term goal of SN classification is to associate observationally-defined classes with specific physical explosive phenomena. We show here that this aspiration is now finally coming to fruition, and we establish the SN classification scheme upon direct observational evidence connecting SN groups with specific progenitor stars. Observationally, the broad class of Type II SNe contains objects showing strong spectroscopic signatures of hydrogen, while objects lacking such signatures are of Type I, which is further divided to numerous subclasses. Recently a class of super-luminous SNe (SLSNe, typically 10 times more luminous than standard events) has been identified, and it is discussed. We end this chapter by briefly describing a proposed alternative classification scheme that is inspired by the stellar classification system. This system presents our emerging physical understanding of SN explosions, while clearly separating robust observational properties from physical inferences that can be debated. This new system is quantitative, and naturally deals with events distributed along a continuum, rather than being strictly divided into discrete classes. Thus, it may be more suitable to the coming era where SN numbers will quickly expand from a few thousands to millions of events.Comment: Extended final draft of a chapter in the "SN Handbook". Comments most welcom

Reassessing Britain’s ‘post-war consensus’: the politics of reason 1945–1979

Since the late-1970s, scholars have been engaged in a vibrant debate about the nature of post-war British politics. While some writers have suggested that the three decades that succeeded the Second World War witnessed a bi-partisan consensus on key policy questions, others have argued that it was conflict, not agreement, that marked the period. This article offers a novel contribution to this controversy by drawing attention to the epistemological beliefs of the Labour and Conservative parties. It argues that once these beliefs are considered, it becomes possible to reconcile some of the competing claims made by proponents and critics of the ‘post-war consensus’ thesis. Labour and Conservative leaders may have been wedded to different beliefs, but they also shared a common enthusiasm for empiricist reasoning and were both reluctant to identify fixed political ‘ends’ that they sought to realise. Consequently, they were both committed to evolutionary forms of change, and they eschewed the notion that any social or political arrangement was of universal value

The genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

We report the sequence and analysis of the 814-megabase genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, a model for developmental and systems biology. The sequencing strategy combined whole-genome shotgun and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) sequences. This use of BAC clones, aided by a pooling strategy, overcame difficulties associated with high heterozygosity of the genome. The genome encodes about 23,300 genes, including many previously thought to be vertebrate innovations or known only outside the deuterostomes. This echinoderm genome provides an evolutionary outgroup for the chordates and yields insights into the evolution of deuterostomes

Coffee resistance to the main diseases : leaf rust and coffee berry disease

Sucesso considerável tem sido obtido no uso do melhoramento clássico para o controle de doenças de plantas economicamente importantes, tais como a ferrugem alaranjada das folhas e a antracnose dos frutos do cafeeiro (CBD). Há um grande consenso de que o uso de plantas geneticamente resistentes é o meio mais apropriado e eficaz em termos de custos do controle das doenças das plantas, sendo também um dos elementos chave do melhoramento da produção agrícola. Tem sido também reconhecido que um melhor conhecimento do agente patogênico e dos mecanismos de defesa das plantas permitirá o desenvolvimento de novas abordagens no sentido de aumentar a durabilidade da resistência. Após uma breve descrição de conceitos na área da resistência das plantas às doenças, nesta revisão tentou-se dar uma idéia do progresso na investigação da ferrugem alaranjada do cafeeiro e do CBD relativamente ao processo de infecção e variabilidade dos agentes patogênicos, melhoramento do cafeeiro para a resistência e mecanismos de resistência do cafeeiro

School Effects on the Wellbeing of Children and Adolescents

Well-being is a multidimensional construct, with psychological, physical and social components. As theoretical basis to help understand this concept and how it relates to school, we propose the Self-Determination Theory, which contends that self-determined motivation and personality integration, growth and well-being are dependent on a healthy balance of three innate psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness and competence. Thus, current indicators involve school effects on children’s well-being, in many diverse modalities which have been explored. Some are described in this chapter, mainly: the importance of peer relationships; the benefits of friendship; the effects of schools in conjunction with some forms of family influence; the school climate in terms of safety and physical ecology; the relevance of the teacher input; the school goal structure and the implementation of cooperative learning. All these parameters have an influence in promoting optimal functioning among children and increasing their well-being by meeting the above mentioned needs. The empirical support for the importance of schools indicates significant small effects, which often translate into important real-life effects as it is admitted at present. The conclusion is that schools do make a difference in children’s peer relationships and well-being