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Cities are focal points of introduction for invasive species. Urban evolution might facilitate the success of invasive species in recipient urban habitats. Here we test this hypothesis by rearing tadpoles of a successful amphibian urban coloniser and invader in a common garden environment. We compared growth rate, morphological traits, swimming performance, and developmental rate of guttural toad tadpoles (Sclerophrys gutturalis) from native rural, native urban, and non-native urban habitats. By measuring these traits across ontogeny, we were also able to compare divergence across different origins as the tadpoles develop. The tadpoles of non-native urban origin showed significantly slower developmental rate (e.g., the proportion of tadpoles reaching Gosner stage 31 or higher was lower at age 40 days) than tadpoles of native urban origin. Yet, tadpoles did not differ in growth rate or any morphological or performance trait examined, and none of these traits showed divergent ontogenetic changes between tadpoles of different origin. These findings suggest that prior adaptation to urban habitats in larval traits likely does not play an important role in facilitating the invasion success of guttural toads into other urban habitats. Instead, we suggest that evolutionary changes in larval traits after colonization (e.g., developmental rate), together with decoupling of other traits and phenotypic plasticity might explain how this species succeeded in colonising extra-limital urban habitats.

This article is currently in published at Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03061-w).

Behavioural variation is a hallmark of animal societies, which commonly contain breeders and nonbreeders, and helpers and nonhelpers. In some cases labour is divided, with nonbreeders “helping”, gaining indirectly via genetic benefits, or directly, e.g. by augmenting group size. Conversely, they may benefit by not helping, to conserve energy if they may later inherit a breeding position. However, predictions about subordinate behaviour after inheriting a breeding position are rarely evaluated. In the Australian interior, Acacia thrips Dunatothrips aneurae (Thysanoptera) glue Acacia phyllodes together into “domiciles”. Foundresses, usually sisters, build domiciles singly or communally. Some co-foundresses are nonreproductive, and their role is currently unknown. I experimentally rejected the idea that they may “help” by contributing to domicile repair. Nonreproductives were less likely to repair damage than reproductives. Alternatively, they may be waiting to inherit the domicile, or simply of too poor quality to reproduce or help. To test these alternatives, in the field, I allowed repairer or nonrepairer females to “inherit” a domicile by removing nestmate(s). Thus isolated, “nonrepairer” females took much longer to repair domiciles than “repairers”, control singletons or pairs. Although ovarian condition was equivalent across groups, after 21 days nonrepairers actually laid fewer eggs compared to other groups. Thus, labour was not divided: instead reproduction and helping covaried, probably depending on female quality and the outcome of intra-domicile competition. Nonreproductive nonhelpers were not waiting to breed, and their role remains unclear. They are likely subfertile, and may make the “best of a bad job” by gaining indirect benefits to the best of their limited ability.

This is the data and code for an article published in the Journal of Zoology (doi: 10.1111/jzo.12951)

Data and R code for the following research article from Urban Ecosystems: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01065-4

Data and R code for the following research article from Biology Letters: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0651

The 4m DAG telescope is under construction at East Anatolia Observatory in Turkey. DIRAC, the " DAG InfraRed Adaptive optics Camera", is one of the facility instruments. This paper describes the design of the camera to meet the performance specifications. Adaptive and auxiliary optics relay the telescope F/14 input 1:1 into DIRAC. The camera has an all refractive design for the wavelength range 0.9 - 2.4 micron. Lenses reimage the telescope focal plane 33 x 33 as (9 x 9 mm) on a 1k x 1k focal plane array. With magnification of 2x, the plate scale on the detector is 33 mas/pixel. There are 4 standard filters (Y, J, H, K) and 4 narrowband continuum filters. A 12 position filter wheel allows installation of 2 extra customer filters for specific needs; the filter wheel also deploys a pupil viewer lens. Optical tolerancing is carried out to deliver the required image quality at polychromatic Strehl ratio of 90% with focus compensator. This reveals some challenges in the precision assembly of optics for cryogenic environments. We require cells capable of maintaining precision alignment and keeping lenses stress free. The goal is achieved by a combination of flexures with special bonding epoxy matching closely the CTE of the lens cells and crystalline materials. The camera design is very compact with object to image distance

The effect of conventional anti-platelet agents is limited in secondary stroke prevention, and their effects are blunted under high shear stress in the presence of increased levels of circulating von Willebrand factor (VWF). VWF is critically involved in thrombus formation at sites of stenotic extracranial/intracranial arteries. A third generation anti-VWF aptamer (BT200) has been generated which could be useful for secondary stroke prevention. To characterize the effects of BT200 in blood of patients with large artery atherosclerosis stroke (LAA). Blood samples were obtained from 33 patients with acute stroke or transient ischemic attack to measure inhibition of VWF activity and VWF-dependent platelet function. Patients who received clopidogrel or dual antiplatelet therapy did not differ in VWF dependent platelet function tests from aspirin treated patients. Of 18 patients receiving clopidogrel with or without aspirin, only 3 had a prolonged collagen adenosine diphosphate closure time, and none of the patients had ristocetin induced aggregation in the target range. BT200 concentration-dependently reduced median VWF activity from 178 to 300 s. Baseline VWF activity correlated (r = 0.86, p

Amyotrophic, Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive and fatal disease, is characterized by loss of neurons specifically in the motor cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord. Current FDA approved therapeutics provide limited benefit to patients; thus a large unmet medical need exists. A G4C2 hexanucleotide expansion mapped to chromosome 9 (C9ORF72) presents as the leading genetic cause of familial (~40%), and sporadic ALS (~6%). Oligonucleotide therapeutics for C9ORF72 are currently in clinical trials. However, early results are not promising. My thesis work employed extensive screening of C9ORF72 to identify regions amenable to siRNA directed mRNA degradation. Importantly, we identify siRNA capable of reducing all C9ORF72 mRNA transcript variants, or selectively reducing repeat-containing mRNA variants while sparing non-repeat variants. This represents two possible therapeutic strategies for C9ORF72 mediated ALS. Using an siRNA chemical scaffold with widespread central nervous system activity, we show efficacy of siRNA in a mouse model of ALS. Importantly, we are able to significantly reduce C9ORF72 mRNA, as well as RNA foci and di-peptide repeat proteins, which are key disease hallmarks of C9ORF72-driven ALS. Our studies also demonstrate that C9ORF72 RNA localization is split between the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments and that disease-associated RNA foci are primarily comprised of non-repeat-containing RNA. Additionally, our work supports the intron retention model of C9ORF72 biology which has been previously debated. My thesis work demonstrates the promise of siRNA for the treatment of C9ORF72 driven ALS and highlights key biological features of C9ORF72 RNA which may drive future therapeutic development.

One of the strongest driving forces of evolution is environmental change. Within the modern era, some of the most rapid environmental change has occurred as a result of urbanisation. As such, recent research aims to understand how species are adapting to urban landscapes (urban evolution) and how natural selection is operating in unnatural environments (anthropic selection). This goal was the cornerstone of my thesis research, using Australian water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii) to examine how the selective forces within urban environments may shape their natural histories and alter their evolutionary trajectory. I took a multidisciplinary approach to explore water dragon urban evolution, by examining traits related to their behavioural ecology (social interactions and spatial organisation, behavioural traits, and innate antipredator responses; Chapters I, II, & III respectively), morphology (body length and size; Chapter IV), and physiology (performance capacity; Chapters V & VI), using both field observations and laboratory experiments. The basis of most of this thesis' research involved contrasting traits of lizards living in, or originating from, populations varying in their levels of urbanisation (urban, semi-natural, and natural). I also examined the mechanisms that may have caused urban-derived divergence of morphological and behavioural traits (i.e., heritable traits vs phenotypic plasticity). My research identified several urban-derived divergent phenotypes, including increased rates of aggressive encounters, increased boldness, decreased body size paired with increased limb and head size, and decreased endurance capacity. My research also identified that both divergent behavioural (boldness) and morphological (body length and size) traits have a genetic origin, suggesting they are heritable and may be adaptive. Overall, this thesis provides insight into the urban evolution of water dragons in the Sydney region, and provides a framework for using a multidisciplinary approach to rigorously examine mechanistic urban ecology and evolution.

For a remote sensing optical payload to achieve a Ground Sampling Distance of ~ 10-30 m, a critical problem is platform-induced motion blur. While forward motion compensation can reduce this transit speed, it comes at the expense of a more challenging satellite attitude control system and induces a variable observation/illumination angle. This relative motion can be frozen out by simply reading the sensor system at a frame rate that matches the ground resolution element's pixel crossing time. To achieve high resolution using this Time-Delay Integration (TDI)-like approach requires high speed and hence near "zero" readout noise detector arrays to avoid swamping the observed signal. This requires associated control electronics for fast frame readout and direct interface with smart- Artificial Intelligence (AI) onboard processing. With this technique, the platform freezes out its movement concerning the ground, reducing the demands placed on the attitude control systems, which can otherwise be difficult to implement on a small satellite platform. Here we report the Australian National University's OzFuel mission which applies this technical solution to deliver high ground resolution via high frame rate imaging. OzFuel is built around the Leonardo SAPHIRA Mercury Cadmium Telluride linear mode electron avalanche photodiode (LMeAPD) detector and the in-house developed Rosella electronics control system. The mission will deliver an integrated sensor system in a suite of Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) passbands dedicated to monitoring the flammability of Eucalypt trees. The OzFuel mission concept focuses on the application of SWIR remote sensing data to deliver a strategic evaluation of fuel loads and moisture content in the bushfire-prone Australian environment., Comment: 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Paris, France, September 2022

Introduction: Arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) are the ���gold standard��� vascular access for haemodialysis. Universal usage is limited, however, by a high early failure rate. Several small, single-centre studies have demonstrated better early patency rates for AVF created under regional anaesthesia (RA) compared with local anaesthesia (LA). The mechanistic hypothesis is that the sympathetic blockade associated with RA causes vasodilatation and increased blood flow through the new AVF. Despite this, considerable variation in practice exists in the UK. A high-quality, adequately powered, multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) is required to definitively inform practice. Methods and analysis: The Anaesthesia Choice for Creation of Arteriovenous Fistula (ACCess) study is a multicentre, observer-blinded RCT comparing primary radiocephalic/brachiocephalic AVF created under regional versus LA. The primary outcome is primary unassisted AVF patency at 1 year. Access-specific (eg, stenosis/thrombosis), patient-specific (including health-related quality of life) and safety secondary outcomes will be evaluated. Health economic analysis will also be undertaken. Ethics and dissemination: The ACCess study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research and ethics committee number 3 (20/WS/0178). Results will be published in open-access peer-reviewed journals within 12 months of completion of the trial. We will also present our findings at key national and international renal and anaesthetic meetings, and support dissemination of trial outcomes via renal patient groups. Trial registration number: ISRCTN14153938. Sponsor: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde GN19RE456, Protocol V.1.3 (8 May 2021), REC/IRAS ID: 290482.

Introduction: Arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) are the ‘gold standard’ vascular access for haemodialysis. Universal usage is limited, however, by a high early failure rate. Several small, single-centre studies have demonstrated better early patency rates for AVF created under regional anaesthesia (RA) compared with local anaesthesia (LA). The mechanistic hypothesis is that the sympathetic blockade associated with RA causes vasodilatation and increased blood flow through the new AVF. Despite this, considerable variation in practice exists in the UK. A high-quality, adequately powered, multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) is required to definitively inform practice. Methods and analysis: The Anaesthesia Choice for Creation of Arteriovenous Fistula (ACCess) study is a multicentre, observer-blinded RCT comparing primary radiocephalic/brachiocephalic AVF created under regional versus LA. The primary outcome is primary unassisted AVF patency at 1 year. Access-specific (eg, stenosis/thrombosis), patient-specific (including health-related quality of life) and safety secondary outcomes will be evaluated. Health economic analysis will also be undertaken. Ethics and dissemination: The ACCess study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research and ethics committee number 3 (20/WS/0178). Results will be published in open-access peer-reviewed journals within 12 months of completion of the trial. We will also present our findings at key national and international renal and anaesthetic meetings, and support dissemination of trial outcomes via renal patient groups. Trial registration number: ISRCTN14153938. Sponsor: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde GN19RE456, Protocol V.1.3 (8 May 2021), REC/IRAS ID: 290482.

This paper discusses a new approach for determining the calibration parameters of independently-actuated optical fibers in multi-object astronomical fiber positioning systems. This work comes from the development of a new type of piezoelectric motor intended to enhance the 'tilting spine' fiber positioning technology originally created by the Australian Astronomical Observatory. Testing has shown that the motor's performance can vary depending on the fiber's location within its accessible field, meaning that an individual fiber is difficult calibrate with a one-time routine. Better performance has resulted from constantly updating calibration parameters based on the observed movements of the fiber during normal closed-loop positioning. Over time, location-specific historical data is amassed that can be used to better predict the results of a future fiber movement. This is similar to a technique previously proposed by the Australian Astronomical Observatory, but with the addition of location-specific learning. Results from a prototype system are presented, showing a significant reduction in overall positioning error when using this new approach., 4 pages, 6 figures; Proceedings of Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) XXV, Sydney, 2015

Mutualisms are important ecological interactions that underpin much of the world's biodiversity. Predation risk has been shown to regulate mutualism dynamics in species-specific case studies; however, we lack studies which investigate whether predation can also explain broader patterns of mutualism evolution. We report that fish-anemone mutualisms have evolved on at least 55 occasions across 16 fish families over the past 60 million years and that adult body size is associated with the ontogenetic stage of anemone mutualisms: larger-bodied species partner with anemones as juveniles, while smaller-bodied species partner with anemones throughout their lives. Field and laboratory studies show that predators target smaller prey, that smaller fishes associate more with anemones, and that these relationships confer protection to small fishes. Our results indicate that predation is likely driving the recurrent convergent evolution of fish-anemone mutualisms and suggest that similar ecological processes may have selected convergence in interspecies interactions in other animal clades.

International audience; Mutualisms are important ecological interactions that underpin much of the world’s biodiversity.Predation risk has been shown to regulate mutualism dynamics in species-specific case studies;however, we lack studies which investigate whether predation can also explain broader patterns ofmutualism evolution. We report that fish-anemone mutualisms have evolved on at least 55 occa-sions across 16 fish families over the past 60 million years and that adult body size is associatedwith the ontogenetic stage of anemone mutualisms: larger-bodied species partner with anemonesas juveniles, while smaller-bodied species partner with anemones throughout their lives. Field andlaboratory studies show that predators target smaller prey, that smaller fishes associate more withanemones, and that these relationships confer protection to small fishes. Our results indicate thatpredation is likely driving the recurrent convergent evolution of fish-anemone mutualisms andsuggest that similar ecological processes may have selected convergence in interspecies interactionsin other animal clades.

The intensity of biotic interactions varies around the world, in such a way that mortality risk imposed by natural enemies is usually higher in the tropics. A major role of offspring attendance is protection against natural enemies, so the benefits of this behaviour should be higher in tropical regions. We tested this macroecological prediction with a meta‐regression of field experiments in which the mortality of guarded and unguarded broods was compared in arthropods. Mortality of unguarded broods was higher, and parental care was more beneficial, in warmer, less seasonal environments. Moreover, in these same environments, additional lines of defence further reduced offspring mortality, implying that offspring attendance alone is not enough to deter natural enemies in tropical regions. These results help to explain the high frequency of parental care among tropical species and how biotic interactions influence the occurrence of parental care over large geographic scales. Finally, our findings reveal that additional lines of defences – an oftentimes neglected component of parental care – have an important effect on the covariation between the benefits of parental care and the climate‐mediated mortality risk imposed by natural enemies.

Gaia is a revolutionary space mission developed by ESA and is delivering 5 parameter astrometry, photometry and radial velocities over the whole sky with astrometric accuracies down to a few tens of micro-arcseconds. A weakness of Gaia is that it only operates at optical wavelengths. However, much of the Galactic centre and the spiral arm regions, important for certain studies, are obscured by interstellar extinction and this makes it difficult for Gaia to deeply probe. This problem can be overcome by switching to the Near Infra-Red (NIR) but this is not possible with silicon CCDs. Additionally, to scan the entire sky and make global absolute parallax measurements the spacecraft must have a constant rotation and this requires the detectors operate in Time Delayed Integration (TDI) mode or similar.

(Abridged) This is the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer 2018 book. It is intended as a concise reference guide to all aspects of the scientific and technical design of MSE, for the international astronomy and engineering communities, and related agencies. The current version is a status report of MSE's science goals and their practical implementation, following the System Conceptual Design Review, held in January 2018. MSE is a planned 10-m class, wide-field, optical and near-infrared facility, designed to enable transformative science, while filling a critical missing gap in the emerging international network of large-scale astronomical facilities. MSE is completely dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy of samples of between thousands and millions of astrophysical objects. It will lead the world in this arena, due to its unique design capabilities: it will boast a large (11.25 m) aperture and wide (1.52 sq. degree) field of view; it will have the capabilities to observe at a wide range of spectral resolutions, from R2500 to R40,000, with massive multiplexing (4332 spectra per exposure, with all spectral resolutions available at all times), and an on-target observing efficiency of more than 80%. MSE will unveil the composition and dynamics of the faint Universe and is designed to excel at precision studies of faint astrophysical phenomena. It will also provide critical follow-up for multi-wavelength imaging surveys, such as those of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Gaia, Euclid, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, and the Next Generation Very Large Array.

(Abridged) This is the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer 2018 book. It is intended as a concise reference guide to all aspects of the scientific and technical design of MSE, for the international astronomy and engineering communities, and related agencies. The current version is a status report of MSE's science goals and their practical implementation, following the System Conceptual Design Review, held in January 2018. MSE is a planned 10-m class, wide-field, optical and near-infrared facility, designed to enable transformative science, while filling a critical missing gap in the emerging international network of large-scale astronomical facilities. MSE is completely dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy of samples of between thousands and millions of astrophysical objects. It will lead the world in this arena, due to its unique design capabilities: it will boast a large (11.25 m) aperture and wide (1.52 sq. degree) field of view; it will have the capabilities to observe at a wide range of spectral resolutions, from R2500 to R40,000, with massive multiplexing (4332 spectra per exposure, with all spectral resolutions available at all times), and an on-target observing efficiency of more than 80%. MSE will unveil the composition and dynamics of the faint Universe and is designed to excel at precision studies of faint astrophysical phenomena. It will also provide critical follow-up for multi-wavelength imaging surveys, such as those of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Gaia, Euclid, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, and the Next Generation Very Large Array., 5 chapters, 160 pages, 107 figures

Bees, important pollinators, have declined significantly in recent decades, and human- induced changes to nutritional landscapes are partly responsible. Changes to nutritional quality rather than quantity have been overlooked as a threat to bee health. Yet knowledge of bee nutrition is currently largely restricted to adults of social species. Larval stages, where most growth occurs, are relatively understudied - perhaps because most social bees provision progressively and collectively, making nutrition difficult to trace. In mass-provisioning solitary bees ( Osmia bicornis L.), we can manipulate and follow larval nutrition, and thereby determine effects of changes in diet quality. Under the Geometric Framework for Nutrition, we restricted larvae to 6 diets: 3 protein:carbohydrate ratios and 2 nutrient concentrations. We asked: (a) which diets maximise body size and survival, (b) what consumption rules do larvae follow when nutrients are imbalanced? Finally, (c) given a choice of complementary diets, are larvae able to select a dietary balance? Larvae pupated after consuming a fixed carbohydrate amount, but tolerated a wide range of protein. Body size and survival were maximised on our lowest P:C ratio diet, and having consumed the most carbohydrate. When eating freely from two diets, larvae converged on a P:C ratio of 1:1.8, but not an overall nutrient intake target. Nevertheless, larvae maintained stable carbohydrate intake, while protein intake varied with the available diet. Our results suggest solitary bee larvae regulate carbohydrate most closely, but that excessive indigestible material may limit their actual nutrient intake. Carbohydrate may be critical to overwinter survival, and/or may be more limiting than protein. The large variation in protein tolerated, despite its importance, suggests bee larvae may be vulnerable to landscape changes - and therefore reliant on parents to regulate protein. Given the mixed evidence on whether parents can sense pollen protein content, our results highlight bees’ potential vulnerability to a “nutritional trap”, i.e. where rapid changes in their nutritional environment outstrip their evolved capacity to detect those changes, impairing their fitness.

Uncovering latent community structure in complex networks is a field that has received an enormous amount of attention. Unfortunately, whilst potentially very powerful, unsupervised methods for uncovering labels based on topology alone has been shown to suffer from several difficulties. For example, the search space for many module extraction approaches, such as the modularity maximisation algorithm, appears to be extremely glassy, with many high valued solutions that lack any real similarity to one another. However, in this paper we argue that this is not a flaw with the modularity maximisation algorithm but, rather, information that can be used to aid the context specific classification of functional relationships between vertices. Formally, we present an approach for generating a high value modularity consensus space for a network, based on the ensemble space of locally optimal modular partitions. We then use this approach to uncover latent relationships, given small query sets. The methods developed in this paper are applied to biological and social datasets with ground-truth label data, using a small number of examples used as seed sets to uncover relationships. When tested on both real and synthetic datasets our method is shown to achieve high levels of classification accuracy in a context specific manner, with results comparable to random walk with restart methods., Comment: 14th International Workshop on Mining and Learning with Graphs

This thesis is not available on this repository until the author agrees to make it public. If you are the author of this thesis and would like to make your work openly available, please contact us: thesis@repository.cam.ac.uk., The Library can supply a digital copy for private research purposes; interested parties should submit the request form here: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/digital-content-unit/ordering-images, Please note that print copies of theses may be available for consultation in the Cambridge University Library's Manuscript reading room. Admission details are at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archives, This thesis concentrates on evolutionary costs and benefits of insect parental care. I use phylogenetic methods to test large-scale hypotheses, and field studies to test proximate hypotheses. Initially I look at the evolution of variation in the sex performing care, reconstructing transitions across insect evolutionary history. Consistent with theory, early insects had no care, and their descendants evolved either male care, or female care followed sometimes by biparental care. Secondly, I investigate parental care trade-offs. I find that in insects, care is associated positively with offspring survival but negatively with fecundity, suggesting a general trade-off between current and future reproduction. In the second part of the thesis, I use the assassin bug genus Rhinocoris to investigate proximate costs and benefits influencing male care, the rarest form of care. High density is predicted to favour male care; I investigate why male-caring Rhinocoris live at high density on the plant Stylosanthes. Plant preference is rare in predators and I show that the plant protects eggs from predators as well as harbouring favourable prey, factors not usually linked to parental care. Lastly I investigate an unstudied sexual conflict in male-carers. If females prefer caring males, males should be selected to display their eggs conspicuously. Conspicuousness may carry costs to eggs, so females should prefer inconspicuous locations. In the field this conflict exists for one Rhinocoris species but is absent in a sister species, showing that parental care can have complex effects. My results show that while broad patterns of costs and benefits largely follow theory, finer patterns depend on subtle ecological factors.

There is widespread concern regarding the effects of agro-chemical exposure on bee health, of which neonicotinoids, systemic insecticides detected in the pollen and nectar of both crops and wildflowers, have been the most strongly debated. The majority of studies examining the effect of neonicotinoids on bees have focussed on social species, namely honey bees and bumble bees. However, most bee species are solitary, their life histories differing considerably from these social species, and thus it is possible that their susceptibility to pesticides may be quite different. Studies that have included solitary bees have produced mixed results regarding the impact of neonicotinoid exposure on survival and reproductive success. While the majority of studies have focused on the effects of adult exposure, bees are also likely to be exposed as larvae via the consumption of contaminated pollen. Here we examined the effect of exposure of Osmia bicornis larvae to a range of field-realistic concentrations (0–10 ppb) of the neonicotinoid clothianidin, observing no effect on larval development time, overwintering survival or adult weight. Flow-through respirometry was used to test for latent effects of larval exposure on adult physiological function. We observed differences between male and female bees in the propensity to engage in discontinuous gas exchange; however, no effect of larval clothianidin exposure was observed. Our results suggest that previously reported adverse effects of neonicotinoids on O. bicornis are most likely mediated by impacts on adults.

We present the Final Design of the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), together with a status update on the details of manufacturing, integration and the overall project schedule now that all the major fabrication contracts are in place. We also present a summary of the current planning behind the 5-year initial phase of survey operations. WEAVE will provide optical ground-based follow up of ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2-degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick-and-place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres, 20 integral field units, or a single large IFU for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single (dual-beam) spectrograph, with total of 16k spectral pixels, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R~5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R~20000. The project is now in the manufacturing and integration phase with first light expected for early of 2018.

Evolutionary theory predicts that humans should adjust their life-history strategies in response to local ecological threats and opportunities in order to maximize their reproductive success. Cues representing threats to individuals' lives and health in modern, Western societies may come in the form of local ages at death, morbidity rate and crime rate in their local area, whereas the adult sex ratio represents a measure of the competition for reproductive partners. These characteristics are believed to have a strong influence over a wide range of behaviours, but whether they are accurately perceived has not been robustly tested. Here, we investigate whether perceptions of four neighbourhood characteristics are accurate across eight neighbourhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that median age at death and morbidity rates are accurately perceived, whereas adult sex ratios and crime rates are not. We suggest that both neighbourhood characteristics and personal experiences contribute to the formation of perceptions. This should be considered by researchers looking for associations between area-level factors.

Evolutionary theory predicts that humans should adjust their life-history strategies in response to local ecological threats and opportunities in order to maximize their reproductive success. Cues representing threats to individuals' lives and health in modern, Western societies may come in the form of local ages at death, morbidity rate and crime rate in their local area, whereas the adult sex ratio represents a measure of the competition for reproductive partners. These characteristics are believed to have a strong influence over a wide range of behaviours, but whether they are accurately perceived has not been robustly tested. Here, we investigate whether perceptions of four neighbourhood characteristics are accurate across eight neighbourhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that median age at death and morbidity rates are accurately perceived, whereas adult sex ratios and crime rates are not. We suggest that both neighbourhood characteristics and personal experiences contribute to the formation of perceptions. This should be considered by researchers looking for associations between area-level factors.

Figure S1â S6. (PDF 1580 kb)

Evolutionary theory predicts that humans should adjust their life-history strategies in response to local ecological threats and opportunities in order to maximize their reproductive success. Cues representing threats to individuals' lives and health in modern, Western societies may come in the form of local ages at death, morbidity rate and crime rate in their local area, whereas the adult sex ratio represents a measure of the competition for reproductive partners. These characteristics are believed to have a strong influence over a wide range of behaviours, but whether they are accurately perceived has not been robustly tested. Here, we investigate whether perceptions of four neighbourhood characteristics are accurate across eight neighbourhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that median age at death and morbidity rates are accurately perceived, whereas adult sex ratios and crime rates are not. We suggest that both neighbourhood characteristics and personal experiences contribute to the formation of perceptions. This should be considered by researchers looking for associations between area-level factors.

Evolutionary theory predicts that humans should adjust their life-history strategies in response to local ecological threats and opportunities in order to maximize their reproductive success. Cues representing threats to individuals' lives and health in modern, Western societies may come in the form of local ages at death, morbidity rate and crime rate in their local area, whereas the adult sex ratio represents a measure of the competition for reproductive partners. These characteristics are believed to have a strong influence over a wide range of behaviours, but whether they are accurately perceived has not been robustly tested. Here, we investigate whether perceptions of four neighbourhood characteristics are accurate across eight neighbourhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that median age at death and morbidity rates are accurately perceived, whereas adult sex ratios and crime rates are not. We suggest that both neighbourhood characteristics and personal experiences contribute to the formation of perceptions. This should be considered by researchers looking for associations between area-level factors.

We conducted a review of the literature and unpublished databases to describe the distribution, abundance, ecology and status of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina concolor) in U.S. Atlantic waters. The harbour seal is the most abundant and widespread seal species in this area. Since passage of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the number of harbour seals observed during the pupping season in this region has increased from about 10,500 animals in 1981 to 38,000 animals in 2001 (uncorrected counts), an average annual rate of 6.6%. This increase has beenrelatively consistent over the 20 years, and there is no indication that the population size has stabilized. Correspondingly, the seasonal distribution has expanded and interactions between seals and anthropogenic activities have increased.

Which sex should care for offspring is a fundamental question in evolution. Invertebrates, and insects in particular, show some of the most diverse kinds of parental care of all animals, but to date there has been no broad comparative study of the evolution of parental care in this group. Here, we test existing hypotheses of insect parental care evolution using a literature-compiled phylogeny of over 2000 species. To address substantial uncertainty in the insect phylogeny, we use a brute force approach based on multiple random resolutions of uncertain nodes. The main transitions were between no care (the probable ancestral state) and female care. Male care evolved exclusively from no care, supporting models where mating opportunity costs for caring males are reduced-for example, by caring for multiple broods-but rejecting the "enhanced fecundity" hypothesis that male care is favored because it allows females to avoid care costs. Biparental care largely arose by males joining caring females, and was more labile in Holometabola than in Hemimetabola. Insect care evolution most closely resembled amphibian care in general trajectory. Integrating these findings with the wealth of life history and ecological data in insects will allow testing of a rich vein of existing hypotheses.

This survey was conducted to obtain an abundance estimate for the New England harbor seal (Phoca vitulina concolor) population, as the previous estimate (2001) was outdated for stock assessment purposes. Aerial photographic surveys and radio tracking of harbor seals on ledges along the Maine coast were conducted during the pupping period in late May 2012. Twenty-nine harbor seals (20 adults and 9 juveniles) were captured and radio-tagged prior to the aerial survey. Of these, 18 animals (6 adult males, 6 adult females, 2 juvenile males and 4 juvenile females) were available during the survey to develop a correction factor for the fraction of seals not observed. The estimate of harbor seal abundance in 2012 was 75,834 (11,625 standard deviation [sd]; 0.153 coefficient of variation [CV]). Nmin, the lower 20% confidence limit, was 66,884. The 2012 point estimate is 24% lower than the 99,340 reported for 2001. Possible reasons for the lower estimate include changes in survey design, differences in the age/sex ratio of radio-tagged seals available for obtaining a correction factor, differences in harbor seal distribution between 2001 and 2012, and/or that the population has actually declined.

Evolutionary theory predicts that humans should adjust their life-history strategies in response to local ecological threats and opportunities in order to maximize their reproductive success. Cues representing threats to individuals' lives and health in modern, Western societies may come in the form of local ages at death, morbidity rate and crime rate in their local area, whereas the adult sex ratio represents a measure of the competition for reproductive partners. These characteristics are believed to have a strong influence over a wide range of behaviours, but whether they are accurately perceived has not been robustly tested. Here, we investigate whether perceptions of four neighbourhood characteristics are accurate across eight neighbourhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that median age at death and morbidity rates are accurately perceived, whereas adult sex ratios and crime rates are not. We suggest that both neighbourhood characteristics and personal experiences contribute to the formation of perceptions. This should be considered by researchers looking for associations between area-level factors.

Seed germination is a critical stage in the plant life cycle and the first step toward successful plant establishment. Therefore, understanding germination is of important ecological and agronomical relevance. Previous research revealed that different seed compartments (testa, endosperm, and embryo) control germination, but little is known about the underlying spatial and temporal transcriptome changes that lead to seed germination. We analyzed genome-wide expression in germinating Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seeds with both temporal and spatial detail and provide Web-accessible visualizations of the data reported (vseed.nottingham.ac.uk). We show the potential of this high-resolution data set for the construction of meaningful coexpression networks, which provide insight into the genetic control of germination. The data set reveals two transcriptional phases during germination that are separated by testa rupture. The first phase is marked by large transcriptome changes as the seed switches from a dry, quiescent state to a hydrated and active state. At the end of this first transcriptional phase, the number of differentially expressed genes between consecutive time points drops. This increases again at testa rupture, the start of the second transcriptional phase. Transcriptome data indicate a role for mechano-induced signaling at this stage and subsequently highlight the fates of the endosperm and radicle: senescence and growth, respectively. Finally, using a phylotranscriptomic approach, we show that expression levels of evolutionarily young genes drop during the first transcriptional phase and increase during the second phase. Evolutionarily old genes show an opposite pattern, suggesting a more conserved transcriptome prior to the completion of germination.

Our previous work showed that loss of the KIAA2022 gene protein results in intellectual disability with language impairment and autistic behavior (KIDLIA, also referred to as XPN). However, the cellular and molecular alterations resulting from a loss of function of KIDLIA and its role in autism with severe intellectual disability remain unknown. Here, we show that KIDLIA plays a key role in neuron migration and morphogenesis. We found that KIDLIA is distributed exclusively in the nucleus. In the developing rat brain, it is expressed only in the cortical plate and subplate region but not in the intermediate or ventricular zone. Usingin uteroelectroporation, we found that short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated knockdown of KIDLIA leads to altered neuron migration and a reduction in dendritic growth and disorganized apical dendrite projections in layer II/III mouse cortical neurons. Consistent with this, in cultured rat neurons, a loss of KIDLIA expression also leads to suppression of dendritic growth and branching. At the molecular level, we found that KIDLIA suppression leads to an increase in cell-surface N-cadherin and an elevated association of N-cadherin with δ-catenin, resulting in depletion of free δ-catenin in the cytosolic compartment. The reduced availability of cytosolic δ-catenin leads to elevated RhoA activity and reduced actin dynamics at the dendritic growth cone. Furthermore, in neurons with KIDLIA knockdown, overexpression of δ-catenin or inhibition of RhoA rescues actin dynamics, dendritic growth, and branching. These findings provide the first evidence on the role of the novel protein KIDLIA in neurodevelopment and autism with severe intellectual disability.

Homeostatic synaptic plasticity is a negative-feedback response employed to compensate for functional disturbances in the nervous system. Typically, synaptic activity is strengthened when neuronal firing is chronically suppressed or weakened when neuronal activity is chronically elevated. At both the whole cell and entire network levels, activity manipulation leads to a global up- or downscaling of the transmission efficacy of all synapses. However, the homeostatic response can also be induced locally at subcellular regions or individual synapses. Homeostatic synaptic scaling is expressed mainly via the regulation of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) trafficking and synaptic expression. Here we review the recently identified functional molecules and signaling pathways that are involved in homeostatic plasticity, especially the homeostatic regulation of AMPAR localization at excitatory synapses.

α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazole-4-propionic acid receptors (AMPARs) are the primary mediators of excitatory synaptic transmission in the brain. Alterations in AMPAR localization and turnover have been considered critical mechanisms underpinning synaptic plasticity and higher brain functions, but the molecular processes that control AMPAR trafficking and stability are still not fully understood. Here, we report that mammalian AMPARs are subject to ubiquitination in neurons and in transfected heterologous cells. Ubiquitination facilitates AMPAR endocytosis, leading to a reduction in AMPAR cell-surface localization and total receptor abundance. Mutation of lysine residues to arginine residues at the glutamate receptor subunit 1 (GluA1) C-terminus dramatically reduces GluA1 ubiquitination and abolishes ubiquitin-dependent GluA1 internalization and degradation, indicating that the lysine residues, particularly K868, are sites of ubiquitination. We also find that the E3 ligase neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated 4 (Nedd4) is enriched in synaptosomes and co-localizes and associates with AMPARs in neurons. Nedd4 expression leads to AMPAR ubiquitination, leading to reduced AMPAR surface expression and suppressed excitatory synaptic transmission. Conversely, knockdown of Nedd4 by specific siRNAs abolishes AMPAR ubiquitination. These data indicate that Nedd4 is the E3 ubiquitin ligase responsible for AMPAR ubiquitination, a modification that regulates multiple aspects of AMPAR molecular biology including trafficking, localization and stability.

The significance of school districts as an object of study lies in the direct manner in which the provision of public education serves the needs of society and is, in fact, a societal undertaking. Public schooling is a major instrument for the expression of the public will in a democratic society, and the school system both models and maintains the essential attributes of that society. As a result, school districts, the basic structural unit in the organization and operation of public schools in Canada, create records which reflect the educational values and concerns of this society at the most fundamental level. Because the effective administration of education requires that records be kept, sometimes by law, it is essential to analyze the functions of school boards as a means of understanding the records they produce and their significance. The aim of this study is to identify and synthesize those facts, laws, historical developments, functions, and competencies common to the local administration of education in British Columbia with the express purpose of establishing a framework in and through which the archival control of their records may be examined. This analysis is undertaken in accordance with the archival methodology of functional analysis. The need to examine and understand the legal foundation upon which school districts and their controlling boards rests is critical because so many of their activities are largely determined by law. Accordingly, the thesis begins with an analysis of the legal framework of school district activity and shows that as political and legal entities school districts are considered to be provincial agents, albeit acting in a local capacity, with the status of quasi-municipal corporations. From this point of departure, an analysis of the relevant statute law, common law, and administrative law is then undertaken in order to determine the historical evolution of British Columbia school boards, their mandate and their functions. This examination reveals that each school board shares three primary or governing functions (legislative, judicial, and executive) and two management functions (education administration and business administration). The thesis concludes by offering an evaluation of the implications of this study for archival practice through an examination of several issues related to the archival management of school board records as well as the reasons for their permanent preservation by an archival agency.

The current GENCODE gene count of ~ 30,000, including 21,727 protein-coding and 8,483 RNA genes, is significantly lower than the 100,000 genes anticipated by early estimates. Accurate annotation of protein-coding and non-coding genes and pseudogenes is essential in calculating the true gene count and gaining insight into human evolution. As part of the GENCODE Consortium, the HAVANA team produces high quality manual gene annotation, which forms the basis for the reference gene set being used by the ENCODE project and provides a rich annotation of alternative splice variants and assignment of functional potential. However, the protein-coding potential of some splice variants is uncertain and valid splice variants can remain unannotated if they are absent from current cDNA libraries. Recent technological developments in sequencing and mass spectrometry have created a vast amount of new transcript and protein data that facilitate the identification and validation of new and existing transcripts, while harboring their own limitations and problems.

A system of quality assurance for a surgical intensive care unit is described. A System Outcome Score (SOS) is devised incorporating only easily obtained objective components that reflect the likelihood of death. Through the use of a derived Outcome Index (OI) the actual mortality rate is compared with the predicted mortality as a method of monitoring the quality of care delivered. Subroutines exist to identify errors in data entry, to detect malicious interference in patient care, to add non-scoring components for the purposes of clinical studies and to facilitate retrieval of a concise summary of the major events during the stay of every patient admitted to the intensive care unit.