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This work is supported by a scholarship from the University of Stirling and a research grant from SINAPSE (Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence). The action observation network has been proposed to play a key role in predicting the action intentions (or goals) of others, thereby facilitating social interaction. Key information when interacting with others is whether someone (an agent) is moving towards or away from us, indicating whether we are likely to interact with the person. In addition, to determine the nature of a social interaction, we also need to take into consideration the distance of the agent relative to us as the observer. How this kind of information is processed within the brain is unknown, at least in part because prior studies have not involved live whole-body motion. Consequently, here we recorded mobile EEG in 18 healthy participants, assessing the neural response to the modulation of direction (walking towards or away) and distance (near vs. far distance) during the observation of an agent walking. We evaluated whether cortical alpha and beta oscillations were modulated differently by direction and distance during action observation. We found that alpha was only modulated by distance, with a stronger decrease of power when the agent was further away from the observer, regardless of direction. Critically, by contrast, beta was found to be modulated by both distance and direction, with a stronger decrease of power when the agent was near and facing the participant (walking towards) compared to when they were near but viewed from the back (walking away). Analysis revealed differences in both the timing and distribution of alpha and beta oscillations. We argue that these data suggest a full understanding of action observation requires a new dynamic neuroscience, investigating actual interactions between real people, in real world environments. Publisher PDF

Cupriavidus necator is a Gram-negative soil bacterium of major biotechnological interest. It is a producer of the bioplastic 3-polyhydroxybutyrate, has been exploited in bioremediation processes, and it's lithoautotrophic capabilities suggest it may function as a microbial cell factory upgrading renewable resources to fuels and chemicals. It remains necessary however to develop appropriate experimental resources to permit controlled bioengineering and system optimisation of this microbial chassis. A key resource for physiological, biochemical and metabolic studies of any microorganism is a chemically defined growth medium. Here we use 1 mL micro-well cell cultures, automated liquid handling and a statistical engineering approach to develop a model that describes the effect of key media components and their interactions on C. necator culture cell density. The model is predictive and was experimentally validated against novel media compositions. Moreover, the model was further validated against larger culture volumes at 100 mL and 1 L volumes and found to correlate well. This approach provides valuable and quantifiable insights into the impact of media components on cell growth as well as providing predictions to guide culture scale-up.

Recombinant fusion proteins containing arthropod toxins have been developed as a new class of biopesticides. The recombinant fusion protein Hv1a/GNA, containing the spider venom toxin w-ACTX-Hv1a linked to snowdrop lectin (GNA) was shown to reduce survival of the peach-potato aphid Myzus persicae when delivered in artificial diet, with survival