Records of adventive marine algae in New Zealand: Antithamnionella ternifolia, Polysiphonia senticulosa (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta), and Striaria attenuata (Dictyosiphonales, Phaeophyta)

Three species of introduced marine macroalgae are reported for Wellington Harbour (North Island, New Zealand). One of these, Polysiphonia senticulosa (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) is illustrated from New Zealand for the first time, and the known distributional ranges of two species, Striaria attenuata (Dictyosiphonales, Phaeophyta) and Antithamnionella ternifolia (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta), are extended to the North Island.

'Seven Devils': Gerald Griffin's 'The Brown Man' and the making of Irish gothic

This article explores Gerald Griffin's intriguing and neglected short story 'The Brown Man', arguing that it challenges and unsettles current critical understanding of the nature of Irish Gothic.

Development and validation of an ultrasensitive fluorescence planar waveguide biosensor for the detection of paralytic shellfish toxins in marine algae

Marine dinoflagellates of the genera Alexandrium are well known producers of the potent neurotoxic paralytic shellfish toxins that can enter the food web and ultimately present a serious risk to public health in addition to causing huge economic losses. Direct coastal monitoring of Alexandrium spp. can provide early warning of potential shellfish contamination and risks to consumers and so a rapid, sensitive, portable and easy-to-use assay has been developed for this purpose using an innovative planar waveguide device. The disposable planar waveguide is comprised of a transparent substrate onto which an array of toxin-protein conjugates is deposited, assembled in a cartridge allowing the introduction of sample, and detection reagents. The competitive assay format uses a high affinity antibody to paralytic shellfish toxins with a detection signal generated via a fluorescently labelled secondary antibody. The waveguide cartridge is analysed by a simple reader device and results are displayed on a laptop computer. Assay speed has been optimised to enable measurement within 15 min. A rapid, portable sample preparation technique was developed for Alexandrium spp. in seawater to ensure analysis was completed within a short period of time. The assay was validated and the LOD and CCß were determined as 12 pg/mL and 20 pg/mL respectively with an intra-assay CV of 11.3% at the CCß and an average recovery of 106%. The highly innovative assay was proven to accurately detect toxin presence in algae sampled from the US and European waters at an unprecedented cell density of 10 cells/L. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transcriptional regulation of a brown adipocyte-specific gene, UCP1, by KLF11 and KLF15

Several growth factors and transcription factors have been reported to play important roles in brown adipocyte differentiation and modulation of thermogenic gene expression, especially the expression of UCP1. In this study, we focused on KLF11 and KLF15, which were expressed highly in brown adipose tissue. Our data demonstrated that KLF11 and KLF15 interacted directly with the UCP1 promoter using GC-box and GT-boxes, respectively. Co-transfection of KLF11 and KLF15 in the mesenchymal stem cell line muBM3.1 during brown adipocyte differentiation enhanced the expression level of UCP1. KLF11, but not KLF15, was essential for UCP1 expression during brown adipocyte differentiation of muBM3.1.

Speciation and localization of arsenic in white and brown rice grains

Synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence (S-XRF) was utilized to locate arsenic (As) in polished (white) and unpolished (brown) rice grains from the United States, China, and Bangladesh. In white rice As was generally dispersed throughout the grain, the bulk of which constitutes the endosperm. In brown rice As was found to be preferentially localized at the surface, in the region corresponding to the pericarp and aleurone layer. Copper, iron, manganese, and zinc localization followed that of arsenic in brown rice, while the location for cadmium and nickel was distinctly different, showing relatively even distribution throughout the endosperm. The localization of As in the outer grain of brown rice was confirmed by laser ablation ICP-MS. Arsenic speciation of all grains using spatially resolved X-ray absorption near edge structure (micro-XANES) and bulk extraction followed by anion exchange HPLC-ICP-MS revealed the presence of mainly inorganic As and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). However, the two techniques indicated different proportions of inorganic:organic As species. A wider survey of whole grain speciation of white (n=39) and brown (n=45) rice samples from numerous sources (field collected, supermarket survey, and pot trials) showed that brown rice had a higher proportion of inorganic arsenic present than white rice. Furthermore, the percentage of DMA present in the grain increased along with total grain arsenic.

High-contrast imaging search for planets and brown dwarfs around the most massive stars in the solar neighborhood

There has been a long-standing discussion in the literature as to whether core accretion or disk instability is the dominant mode of planet formation. Over the last decade, several lines of evidence have been presented showing that core accretion is most likely the dominant mechanism for the close-in population of planets probed by radial velocity and transits. However, this does not by itself prove that core accretion is the dominant mode for the total planet population, since disk instability might conceivably produce and retain large numbers of planets in the far-out regions of the disk. If this is a relevant scenario, then the outer massive disks of B-stars should be among the best places for massive planets and brown dwarfs to form and reside. In this study, we present high-contrast imaging of 18 nearby massive stars of which 15 are in the B2-A0 spectral-type range and provide excellent sensitivity to wide companions. By comparing our sensitivities to model predictions of disk instability based on physical criteria for fragmentation and cooling, and using Monte Carlo simulations for orbital distributions, we find that ~85% of such companions should have been detected in our images on average. Given this high degree of completeness, stringent statistical limits can be set from the null-detection result, even with the limited sample size. We find that

Ranachensinin: A Novel Aliphatic Tachykinin from the Skin Secretion of the Chinese Brown Frog, Rana chensinensis

Amphibian skin secretions contain a plethora of pharmacologically-active substances and represent established sources of bioactive peptides, including tachykinins. Tachykinins are one of the most widely-studied peptide families in animals and are found in neuroendocrine tissues from the lowest vertebrates to mammals. They are characterized by the presence of a highly-conserved C-terminal pentapeptide amide sequence motif (-FXGLM-amide) that also constitutes the bioactive core of the peptide. Amidation of the C-terminal methioninyl residue appears to be mandatory in the expression of biological activity. Here, we describe the isolation, characterization and molecular cloning of a novel tachykinin named ranachensinin, from the skin secretion of the Chinese brown frog, Rana chensinensis. This peptide, DDTSDRSN QFIGLM-amide, contains the classical C-terminal pentapeptide amide motif in its primary structure and an Ile (I) residue in the variable X position. A synthetic replicate of ranachensinin, synthesized by solid-phase Fmoc chemistry, was found to contract the smooth muscle of rat urinary bladder with an EC50 of 20.46 nM. However, in contrast, it was found to be of low potency in contraction of rat ileum smooth muscle with an EC50 of 2.98 µM. These data illustrate that amphibian skin secretions continue to provide novel bioactive peptides with selective effects on functional targets in mammalian tissues.