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Dispersed space heating alone accounts for 40% of UK energy use and 20% of CO2 emissions. Tackling heating and building cooling demands is therefore critical to achieve net zero ambitions in the UK. The most energy efficient way to decarbonise heating and cooling is through the use of ground source heat pumps and district heating technology. However, capital costs are often high, sometimes prohibitively so. To reduce investment costs, it is proposed to use buried infrastructure as sources and stores of thermal energy. Barriers to this innovative approach include lack of knowledge about the actual net amount of recoverable energy, and impacts on the primary function of any buried infrastructure, as well as the need for new investment and governance strategies integrated across the energy and infrastructure sectors. Additional opportunities from thermal utilisation in buried infrastructure include the potential mitigation of damaging biological and/or chemical processes that may occur. This paper presents a first assessment of the scale of the opportunity for thermal energy recovery and storage linked to new and existing buried infrastructure, along with strategic measures to help reduce barriers and start the UK on the journey to achieving of its infrastructure energy potential.

The ability to repair injuries among reptiles, i.e., ectothermic amniotes, is similar to that of mammals with some noteworthy exceptions. While large wounds in turtles and crocodilians are repaired through scarring, the reparative capacity involving the tail derives from a combined process of wound healing and somatic growth, the latter being continuous in reptiles. When the tail is injured in juvenile crocodilians, turtles and tortoises as well as the tuatara (Rhynchocephalia: Sphenodon punctatus, Gray 1842), the wound is repaired in these reptiles and some muscle and connective tissue and large amounts of cartilage are regenerated during normal growth. This process, here indicated as “regengrow”, can take years to produce tails with similar lengths of the originals and results in only apparently regenerated replacements. These new tails contain a cartilaginous axis and very small (turtle and crocodilians) to substantial (e.g., in tuatara) muscle mass, while most of the tail is formed by an irregular dense connective tissue containing numerous fat cells and sparse nerves. Tail regengrow in the tuatara is a long process that initially resembles that of lizards (the latter being part of the sister group Squamata within the Lepidosauria) with the formation of an axial ependymal tube isolated within a cartilaginous cylinder and surrounded by an irregular fat-rich connective tissue, some muscle bundles, and neogenic scales. Cell proliferation is active in the apical regenerative blastema, but much reduced cell proliferation continues in older regenerated tails, where it occurs mostly in the axial cartilage and scale epidermis of the new tail, but less commonly in the regenerated spinal cord, muscles, and connective tissues. The higher tissue regeneration of Sphenodon and other lepidosaurians provides useful information for attempts to improve organ regeneration in endothermic amniotes.

An outlook on the possibility to consider biohydrogen production process by dark fermentation as an important treatment step in biorefinery, as it can produce biofuels, fine chemicals and biomaterials.

Microscopic bristles (setae) present on digital pads permit the adhesion and climbing of geckos. Keratins of setae of the lizard Gekko gecko (Tokay gecko) were analyzed by the isolation of expressed mRNAs and by the generation of an EST library. Of the 510 sequences determined, 268 (52.9%) were unique. Of these, 14 appeared to encode alpha- and 111 beta-keratins. Within the beta-keratins, we identified five groups based on nucleotide sequence comparisons. Of these, one contained the bulk of beta-keratins, with 103 EST members. The mRNAs within this major group, together with two singlets, encoded cysteine-proline-serine-rich proteins of 10-14 kDa (Ge-cprp). One of the smaller groups of transcripts encoded slightly larger glycine-proline-serine-rich proteins, of 14-19 kDa (Ge-gprp). The remaining group consisted of smaller (9 kDa) serine-tyrosine-rich beta-keratins (Ge-strp). Thus three classes could be distinguished by amino acid sequence alignment. Exact matches for some of the peptide sequences obtained from setal proteins by ms/ms sequencing occur within several of these clones. Most of the beta-keratins were basic and contained a core-box region of two beta-strand sequences, with high homology to core-boxes present in avian scale and feather beta-keratins. Core-boxes are beta-folded regions that are likely responsible for polymerization into the beta-keratin filaments. The two deduced alpha-keratins of 52.7 kDa are both acidic, and contain the typical central rod region with some homology to mammalian and avian alpha-keratins, with variable N- and C-terminal regions. Basic beta-keratins and acidic alpha-keratins may interact electrostatically to form the resistant corneous material of setae.

Beta-keratins are responsible for the mechanical resistance of scales in reptiles. In a scaleless crotalus snake (Crotalus atrox), large areas of the skin are completely devoid of scales, and the skin appears delicate and wrinkled. The epidermis of this snake has been assessed for the presence of beta-keratin by immunocytochemistry and immunoblotting using an antibody against chicken scale beta-keratin. This antibody recognizes beta-keratins in normal snake scales with molecular weights of 15-18 kDa and isoelectric points at 6.8, 7.5, 8.3 and 9.4. This indicates that beta-keratins of the stratum corneum are mainly basic proteins, so may interact with cytokeratins of the epidermis, most of which appear acidic (isoelectric points 4.5-5.5). A beta-layer and beta-keratin immunoreactivity are completely absent in moults of the scaleless mutant, and the corneous layer comprises a multilayered alpha-layer covered by a flat oberhautchen. In conclusion, the present study shows that a lack of beta-keratins is correlated with the loss of scales and mechanical protection in the skin of this mutant snake.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a drought tolerant energy crop, identified as a possible bioethanol feedstock. Its cultivation is simple and economic, and it could be an alternative in regions where growth of starch¬rich crops is not favorable. The aim of this study was to assess the potential productions of methane of by¬products obtained from bioethanol production from sweet sorghum, in order to improve overall energy recovery. Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) batch tests were performed on bagasse and vinasse samples obtained both from fresh and ensiled sweet sorghum. Both by¬products showed high energetic potentials with high biodegradability ratios. The methane specific yields were 336±5 and 303±25 Nm3CH4/tVS for bagasses from fresh and ensiled sorghum, respectively, while 484±13 and 475±10 Nm3CH4/tVS for vinasses from fresh and ensiled sorghum, respectively. Co¬digestion of bagasse and vinasse resulted in a slight reduction of the methane yield of the single feedstocks, even though it resulted in a hastening of the process, by reducing the digestion time for the bagasse. Biogas production from bagasse and vinasse can remarkably improve the energetic yield of bioethanol chain from sweet sorghum, by almost triplicating the gross energy obtained from bioethanol alone., Proceedings of the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 18-22 June 2012, Milan, Italy, pp. 1394-1399

The caudal spinal cord of three 3-month old Sphenodon were examined by light and electron microscopy. The normal spinal cord shows white matter being invaded by dark cells of a seemingly oligodendrocyte type, which appear to be forming myelin sheaths. The presence of large numbers of filaments (7–10 nm in diameter) between the standard organelles, including microtubules of 20–24 nm diameter, is unusual for oligodendrocytes, but quite typical for astrocytes. A single oligodendrocyte-like cell can envelope many axons in order to delimit specific areas of white matter. In 3-month old tuatara it is difficult to discriminate between oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and various neural elements in the dorsal region of the spinal cord because they are still insufficiently differentiated. Motoneurons, however, are well developed. Ependymal cells resemble oligodendrocyte-like cells, but have retained an epithelial position with desmosomes in order to delimit the central canal. These cells possess intermediate...

The development of scales was analysed in embryos of the Jamaican Iguanid lizard Anolis lineatopus after the injection of cell proliferation markers [3H]thymidine and 5-bromodeoxyuridine. Embryos were fixed at successive postinjection periods, from 2 h up to 13 d and sections of developing skin were studied by autoradiography and immunocytochemistry. The epidermis during the initial stages of morphogenesis (flat epidermis and symmetric scale stages) expands chiefly by the tangential proliferation of the basal layer. The superficial periderm took part in its own laminar expansion. The rates of proliferation in the epidermis and dermis were similar during the flat epidermal stage, but dermal proliferation decreased under the wave-like epidermis of symmetric scales. No specific localisation of proliferating cells was visible either in the epidermis and or the dermis at these 2 early stages. Scale asymmetry is brought about by cell multiplication and hypertrophy of the cells of the future outer surface of the scale that behaves as an epithelial placode capable of producing beta-keratinised cells. The growth of the outer surface determines the asymmetry of the scale. Conversely, the future inner side and hinge region showed a lower degree of cell proliferation and cells remained cuboidal or became flat. Also the proliferation of the dermis under the scaling epidermis was significantly diminished. During the asymmetric scale stage, labelled cells were more common in the hypertrophied basel epithelium from 2 h until 4 d postinjection, during which time a few cells moved into the upper keratinizing layers. At 6-13 d postinjection, labelled cells were commonly seen in the upper beta-keratinising layers.

The differentiation of muscles in the lizards Anolis and Lampropholis with tails that had regenerated for 21-50 d was investigated by light and electron microscope autoradiography using tritiated thymidine. At the apex of the regenerating tail, groups of 4-8 myoblasts of the promuscle aggregates fused to produce bundles of myotubes whose multiple labelled and unlabelled nuclei appeared to be distributed at random. The formation of the first myotubes and their growth is responsible for the formation of the myotome primordia and their separation from the intermuscular connective myosepta. More nuclei were added with the lengthening of the myotubes--up to 14-18 nuclei in the oldest proximal myotubes. At 4-5 h after injection labelled nuclei were found outside the myotubes while at 2-6 d after injection many labelled nuclei were observed in the myotubes, particularly near the two ends of the myotubular sarcoplasm contacting the myoseptum. This change from the initial distribution suggests that the growth of the myotubes takes place mostly at their terminals. There is an apparent correlation between the number of nuclei and the final length of the myotubes and myotome. The insertion of fibres with a similar number of nuclei and lengths into the pinnated connective myoseptum of the original musculature, the autotomy plane, probably determines the wave-like shape of the muscles within the regenerated myotomes.