The optimisation of legacy water treatment works to produce a more consistent final water quality

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Adaptive responses by mouse early embryos to maternal diet protect fetal growth but predispose to adult onset disease

Poor maternal nutrition during pregnancy can alter postnatal phenotype and increase susceptibility to adult cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we show that maternal low protein diet (LPD), fed exclusively during mouse preimplantation development, leads to offspring with increased weight from birth, sustained hypertension, and abnormal anxiety-related behavior, especially in females. These adverse outcomes were interrelated with increased perinatal weight being predictive of later adult overweight and hypertension. Embryo transfer experiments revealed that the increase in perinatal weight was induced within blastocysts responding to preimplantation LPD, independent of subsequent maternal environment during later pregnancy. We further identified the embryo-derived visceral yolk sac endoderm (VYSE) as one mediator of this response. VYSE contributes to fetal growth through endocytosis of maternal proteins, mainly via the multiligand megalin (LRP2) receptor and supply of liberated amino acids. Thus, LPD maintained throughout gestation stimulated VYSE nutrient transport capacity and megalin expression in late pregnancy, with enhanced megalin expression evident even when LPD was limited to the preimplantation period. Our results demonstrate that in a nutrient-restricted environment, the preimplantation embryo activates physiological mechanisms of developmental plasticity to stablize conceptus growth and enhance postnatal fitness. However, activation of such responses may also lead to adult excess growth and cardiovascular and behavioral diseases. © 2008 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Inc.

Small pelagics in a changing ocean : Biological responses of sardine early stages to warming

Small pelagic fishes are known to respond rapidly to changes in ocean climate. In this study, we evaluate the effects of future environmental warming (+2°C) during the early ontogeny of the European sardine, Sardina pilchardus. Warming reduced the survival of 30-day-old larvae by half. Length at hatching increased with temperature as expected, but no significant effect was observed on the length and growth at 30 days post-hatching. Warming did not significantly affect the thermal tolerance of sardine larvae, even though the mean lethal temperature increased by 1°C. In the warm conditions, sardine larvae showed signs of thermal stress, indicated by a pronounced increase in larval metabolism (Q 10 = 7.9) and a 45% increase in the heat shock response. Lipid peroxidation was not significantly affected by the higher temperature, even though the mean value doubled. Warming did not affect the time larvae spent swimming, but decreased by 36% the frequency of prey attacks. Given the key role of these small pelagics in the trophic dynamics off the Western Iberian upwelling ecosystem, the negative effects of warming on the early stages may have important implications for fish recruitment and ecosystem structure.

Efficacy of early skin-to-skin contact on the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in term neonates: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Despite multiple benefits of breast milk, the rates of exclusive breastfeeding in developing countries are low. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of early skin -to -skin contact (SSC) on the rate of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) at 6 weeks of age among term neonates born by vaginal delivery. Methods: Term neonates born by vaginal delivery and did not require any resuscitation were randomized at birth to SSC (n=100) and control (n=100) group. Immediately after clamping the umbilical cord, SSC group neonates were placed on the bare bosom of mother and control group neonates were placed under a radiant warmer for a period of 45 minutes each while mothers underwent management of the third stage of labor and episiotomy repair. Pain experienced by mother during episiotomy repair was recorded using a numerical pain scale The primary outcome evaluated was the rate of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 weeks of postnatal age. Results: A significantly higher proportion of neonates were exclusively breastfeed at 6 weeks of age in the SSC group than in the control group (72% vs. 57.6%, p=0.04, relative risk: 1.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.0 -1.6). The pain score during episiotomy repair in mothers of the SSC group was significantly lower than the control group (4.74±0.85 versus 5.34±0.81; P <0.01). Conclusions: Early SSC significantly improved the rate of exclusively breastfeeding at 6 weeks of age among healthy term neonates. An important additional effect was a decrease in the amount of pain that mothers in the SSC group experienced during episiotomy repair.

História de Farrapos: biografia, historiografia e cultura histórica no Rio Grande do Sul oitocentista

Este trabalho procura conhecer os caminhos pelos quais a história do movimento político-militar Farroupilha (1835-1845) foi escrita. Situando essa busca na produção historiográfica do século XIX, optamos por enfatizar o papel da obra biográfica História do General Osório, nesse processo. Escrita por Fernando Luis Osório sobre seu pai, o marquês do Herval, Manoel Luis Osorio e publicada em 1894, o primeiro volume da narrativa biográfica da vida do General Osorio possuí 7 capítulos sobre sua participação nos conturbados quase 10 anos do movimento Farroupilha. É nesses capítulos que concentramos nossa analise, buscando estabelecer o como essa narrativa participou do processo que delegou à Farroupilha um local de destaque na cultura histórica riograndense como experiência histórica valorosa, que lhe permite ser lembrada, narrada e comemorada em festa patriótica até hoje. Dessa forma, procurou-se estabelecer as bases dessa cultura histórica e o papel da Farroupilha junto à ela. Da mesma maneira, visitamos a produção historiográfica do XIX na intenção de compreender seu papel no estabelecimento de valor para o movimento. Analisamos as possibilidades historiografias da obra e as características principais da narrativa como o uso documental, o narrador, as discussões historiográficas e o personagem General Osorio que ali é construído. Identificamos na obra de Fernando Luis Osório impulsos historiográficos característicos do XIX, buscamos relações entre a narrativa ali desenvolvida e a história da Farroupilha e pensamos a participação da mesma no estabelecimento do espaço valoroso dado ao movimento na cultura histórica riograndense de fins do oitocentos.

The Sunday-school : its origin, mission, methods, and auxiliaries / by H. Clay Trumbull.

http://www.archive.org/details/thesundayschooli00trumuoft

Bax and the 'Celtic North'

A feature of scholarship on Arnold Bax is his indebtedness, in his early works, to the Irish literary revival (particularly in the mythology-suffused works of 'AE' and early Yeats) and, in his later works, to the music of Jean Sibelius, and the relationship between these periods. I argue that this relationship, which I summarize by using Bax's portmanteau term of 'Celtic North', is underpinned by the stimulus of landscape, which, as well as being a means by which to return to the Romantic idea of the sublime, also provides a means by which Bax critiques the more modernist relationship with landscape that underpins the English pastoral school of the 1920s. Thus the 'Celtic North' is the antithesis to the English 'south land' of Vaughan Williams and others.