Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

U of A ranked among world’s top energy research universities – Folio – University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is among the worlds best, if not the best, energy research universities according to an updated version of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, which also placed the U of A in the top 10 of sport-related subjects for the fourth year in a row.

The amended 2020 version of the subject rankings saw the U of A land in the top 50 in three new energy-related categoriespetroleum engineering (eighth), geophysics (46th) and geology (50th)to go with a previous 11th-place ranking in mining and minerals.

Clayton Deutsch, director of the U of As School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, said part of the programs success is the impact alumni are having on the mining industry.

You go around to different mining schools around the world, there will be U of A alumni there, said Deutsch. In mining companies all over the world, there are always U of A alumni around there.

He also said the programs approach of being committed academically while remaining practical is what places the U of As mining education among the worlds best.

Even despite some economic woes in the province, we have essentially 100 per cent employment of our students graduating within six months of finishing, said Deutsch. We do that by remaining current and steadfast in our focus on solving real-world mining problems.

One of the enduring legacies of Kerry Mummery, outgoing dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, will be the university ranked in the top 10 in the category of sport-related fields in each of the final four years of his tenure, up to seventh from ninth this year.

"During my tenure as dean, I've had the pleasure of working with and bringing in some of the top professors in their field," said Mummery. "I've always been impressed with the quality of their work and how that work makes its way into the classroom to provide our students with a solid foundation of knowledge they wouldn't have found anywhere else."

In the original rankings published in March, other U of A subjects that made the top 50 included nursing, which fought its way back into the top 20 to land at 18th; earth and marine sciences, which rose from 44th to tie for 41st; education, which rebounded from 47th to stick at 44th; and anatomy and physiology, which ranked 44th.

James Young, professor and chair of the U of As Department of Physiology, said he pins the U of As excellence in physiology to strategic recruitment pushes over the past four decades.

We've had sustained recruitment of really excellent young faculty members who want to be part of an excellent environment, and we offer that, said Young. They're not just joining the Department of Physiology, they're joining the faculty and becoming part of a number of research institutes and facilities that really are world class.

Overall, the U of A ranked in the top 100 in 17 subjects and 38 in the top 250. No ranked subject had the U of A lower than ninth nationally, and the university was ranked top five in Canada in 21 categories.

As for the five broad subject ranks, the U of A moved up seven spots to 90th in life sciences and medicine, while dipping slightly in engineering and technology (down to 112 from 107), natural sciences (111 to 116) and arts and humanities (137 to 143). Social sciences and management surged 12 spots to finish at 160.

The methodology for compiling each subject ranking can vary greatly and depends on the publishing rates in each area. Academic reputation, which accounts for anywhere from 30 to 90 per cent of the weight given in determining the rank in a subject area, draws on responses from thousands of academics worldwide.

Other measures include employer reputation, which makes up between 10 and 30 per cent of the measure; citations per paper, which also accounts for between 10 and 30 per cent; and h-indexa way of measuring both the productivity and impact of an academic's published workwhich is valued anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent.

The success in this latest QS ranking follows news in October that the U of A moved back into the top five in Maclean's 2020 Canadian University Rankings, thanks in part to strong showings by the faculties of nursing, business and science.

In August, the ShanghaiRanking Consultancys 2019 Academic Ranking of World Universities by Subject saw the U of A jump into an eighth-place tie with Princeton in the category of environmental science and engineering. Overall, the U of A finished among the top 100 in 21 of the 54 subjects assessed for the ranking, one more than the previous year, with eight subjects ranking in the top 50.

Earlier, the 2019 NTU Ranking of research output placed the U of A 81st in the world, up seven spots over the prior year. The advancement was bolstered by the university's 43rd-place performance in the subject of agricultural science, 47th in environment/ecology and 48th in electrical engineering.

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U of A ranked among world's top energy research universities - Folio - University of Alberta

Physiology

Does Diet And Gut Bacteria Contribute To Arteries Aging? – Anti Aging News

Recent research from University of Colorado Boulder researchers published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension suggests that a compound produced in the gut when we eat red meat damages our arteries, and it may play a role in boosting the risk of developing heart disease as we get older.

The report also suggests that an individual may be able to prevent or even reverse this age related decline by making some simple dietary changes and implementing targeted therapies such as nutritional supplements.

Our work shows for the first time that not only is this compound directly impairing artery function, it may also help explain the damage to the cardiovascular system that naturally occurs with age, said first author Vienna Brunt, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Integrative Physiology.

When a person eats a portion of steak or a plate of scrambled eggs the resident gut bacteria immediate set to work at breaking it down, as they metabolize the amino acids L-carnitine and choline they churn out trimethylamine metabolic byproducts which the liver then converts into trimethylamine-N-Oxide, known as TMAO, and sends it coursing through the bloodstream.

Studies have shown that those with higher blood levels of TMAO are more than twice as likely to experience a heart attack or stroke, and those with higher blood levels of TMAO also tend to die earlier. However, scientists dont fully understand why.

This team set out to answer three questions drawing on both animal and human experiments: Does TMAO somehow damage the vascular system? If it does damage the vascular system how? And is it one of the reasons why cardiovascular health declines, even among those who dont smoke and exercise as they get older?

Blood and arterial health of 101 older adults and 22 young adults were measured, which revealed that TMAO levels significantly increase with age. This finding supports a previous mouse study showing the gut microbiome changes with age, breeding more bacteria that help to produce TMAO. Adults with higher levels of TMAO were found to have significantly worse artery function and showed greater signs of oxidative stress or tissue damage in the lining of their blood vessels.

When TMAO was fed directly to young mice their blood vessels aged rapidly. Just putting it in their diet made them look like old mice, said Brunt. She noted that 12-month-old mice (the equivalent of humans about 35 years old) looked more like 27-month-old mice (age 80 in people) after eating TMAO for several months.

Preliminary data suggest that mice with higher levels of TMAO also exhibit decreases in learning and memory, indicating that it may play a role in age related cognitive decline.

Older mice that ate dimethyl butanol were observed to experience their vascular dysfunction reverse; the team believes that this compound may prevent the production of TMAO. Dimethyl butanol can be found in olive oil, vinegar, and red wine in trace amounts.

The team notes that even a young vegan will produce some TMAO, but over time consuming a lot of animal products may take a toll on vascular health. The more red meat you eat, the more you are feeding those bacteria that produce it, said Brunt.

According to senior author Doug Seals who is the director of the Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory this study is an important breakthrough as it sheds new light in why the arteries erode with age, even within the seemingly healthiest of people.

Aging is the single greatest risk factor for cardiovascular disease, primarily as a result of oxidative stress to our arteries, said Seals. But what causes oxidative stress to develop in our arteries as we age? That has been the big unknown. This study identifies what could be a very important driver.

The team is further exploring possible compounds that may block the production of TMAO to prevent age related vascular decline. Until something is found perhaps it may be a good idea to skip that big steak or at least limit the intake of animal products to incorporate more plant based options, as the gut friendly plant based diet can help to reduce levels of TMAO as well.

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Does Diet And Gut Bacteria Contribute To Arteries Aging? - Anti Aging News

Physiology

A redox-active switch in fructosamine-3-kinases expands the regulatory repertoire of the protein kinase superfamily – Science

Kinase regulation conserved under stress

Oxidative stress is necessary for normal cellular function and tissue physiology but can also be pathological, and its effects are mediated in part through functional modification of various proteins. Shrestha et al. and Byrne et al. found that the oxidation of kinases at active siteadjacent cysteine residues, which were conserved across the eukaryotic kinome, regulated cell metabolism and mitosis. Shrestha et al. found that conserved cysteine residues within the diabetes-associated metabolic kinase FN3K acted as a toggle switch upon oxidation, promoting its functional oligomerization and consequently altering cellular redox status. Byrne et al. found that oxidation of mitotic kinases in human cells and yeast suppressed kinase catalytic activity and, in yeast, impaired cellular division. Exploring the effect of chronic oxidative stress on kinase function and how that may be spatiotemporally regulated may enable the development of new targeted therapeutics.

Aberrant regulation of metabolic kinases by altered redox homeostasis substantially contributes to aging and various diseases, such as diabetes. We found that the catalytic activity of a conserved family of fructosamine-3-kinases (FN3Ks), which are evolutionarily related to eukaryotic protein kinases, is regulated by redox-sensitive cysteine residues in the kinase domain. The crystal structure of the FN3K homolog from Arabidopsis thaliana revealed that it forms an unexpected strand-exchange dimer in which the ATP-binding P-loop and adjoining strands are swapped between two chains in the dimer. This dimeric configuration is characterized by strained interchain disulfide bonds that stabilize the P-loop in an extended conformation. Mutational analysis and solution studies confirmed that the strained disulfides function as redox switches to reversibly regulate the activity and dimerization of FN3K. Human FN3K, which contains an equivalent P-loop Cys, was also redox sensitive, whereas ancestral bacterial FN3K homologs, which lack a P-loop Cys, were not. Furthermore, CRISPR-mediated knockout of FN3K in human liver cancer cells altered the abundance of redox metabolites, including an increase in glutathione. We propose that redox regulation evolved in FN3K homologs in response to changing cellular redox conditions. Our findings provide insights into the origin and evolution of redox regulation in the protein kinase superfamily and may open new avenues for targeting human FN3K in diabetic complications.

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A redox-active switch in fructosamine-3-kinases expands the regulatory repertoire of the protein kinase superfamily - Science

Physiology

Abnormal proteins in the gut linked to Alzheimers Disease – The Siasat Daily

Hong Kong:Misfolded protein build-up in the gut could contribute to the development of Alzheimers-like symptoms, researchers have shown.

This new finding, published in the Journal of Physiology, suggests a new treatment approach for Alzheimers disease that would target the gut before symptoms of cognitive deficits appear in patients.

As these proteins were found in the gut, this suggests environmental factors might be contributing to cognitive deficits seen in Alzheimers disease and other conditions, the researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, wrote.

Beta-amyloid, the misfolded protein known to be involved in Alzheimers disease, was injected into the guts of mice and travelled to the gut-brain (the nervous system in the gut), and also to the brain.

The proteins moved to the nervous system in the gut.

The misfolded proteins were seen a year later in parts of the brain involved in cognitive deficits of Alzheimers disease including the hippocampus, the part of the brain that affects the memory.

According to the researchers, these animals experienced cognitive impairment.

As this study was conducted in mice, it needs verification by looking for post-mortem changes in inflammation in the gut and brain of patients with Alzheimers disease, the research team noted.

This concept is similar to the transport of misfolded proteins from the gut such as those responsible for mad cow disease, said study senior author John A. Rudd.

If this is the case, a similar process may start in humans many years ahead of the manifestations of the classical hallmarks of AD including memory loss, and so prevention strategies would need to start earlier as well, he added.

Development of drug treatments for Alzheimers disease has been unsuccessful so we instead need new approaches for preventing AD development, the study authors wrote. This could be a potential route for preventing the disease by targeting these misfolded proteins in the gut, they noted.

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Abnormal proteins in the gut linked to Alzheimers Disease - The Siasat Daily

Physiology

News > Environment > The global abundance of palm trees – University of Leeds

A major study has conducted the first global assessment of palm tree numbers to better understand tropical forest diversity and reduce uncertainty about carbon balance in these ecosystems.

This study, which includedseveral Leeds researchers, surveyed the total numbers of palms in tropical rainforests around theglobe.

Led by Uppsala University (Sweden) and University of Campinas (Brazil), the research reveals that in the Neotropical rainforests such as the Amazon,palms are more than five times more numerous than in comparable Asian andAfrican forests. Many palms were already known to prefer land with a goodgroundwater supply, and the new study confirmed that palm trees were moreplentiful in wetter areas with less fertile soils and shallower groundwater.

Tropical rainforestsare often seen as synonymous with biodiversity. However, this diversity is notevenly distributed, and most plants in a given area belong to only a handful ofspecies. More than half of the total biomass in the Amazon rainforest isdistributed among fewer than 300 tree species including several species of palms.

Palms are among themost common tree species in the Amazon rainforest, but in some tropical areasthey are unusual, or conspicuously absent.Palms are more closely relatedto grasses than to the deciduous trees of the tropics. They therefore differ inmany fundamental ways, in anatomy and physiology, from other tropical trees.

These differences mayhave far-reaching implications when it comes to estimating uptake and storageof carbon in tropical forests, as well as their resilience to climate change.The new study provides knowledge with a vital bearing on further research intoboth of these aspects.

Aerial photo of Quistococha, a Mauritia felxuosapalmswamp close to Iquitos, Peru. Picture: Gabriel Hidalgo

By using large networks of forest plots, the researchers were able to compile a huge database of 2,548 plots and then quantified palm numbers relative to other tree species in the sample plots.The team drew heavily on the networks led by the University of Leeds, particularly RAINFOR, AfriTRON and ForestPlots.net.

Professor Oliver Philips, from Leeds'School of Geography, said:This study shows the exciting potential ofnew, collaborative science that reaches across the world's tropical forests.

We are linking more than 1,000 researchers via plotnetworks and the ForestPlots.net technology developed at Leeds. ForestPlots.netalone includes over 4.5 million tree measurements from more than 15,000different species. The first was made as long ago as 1939, the latest asrecently as last month.

This resource andothers like it combined a huge field effort to reveal the fundamental patternof the tropics' most iconic plants.

Study co-lead author,Bob Muscarella, from Uppsala University, said: To get a better understanding of tropical forests and reduceuncertainty about carbon balance in these ecosystems during climate change, wesummarised data to show how the number of palms vary around the world comparedwith other tree species.

Understanding thedominant species in tropical forests is crucial to recognising how theseforests function and how vulnerable theyre going to be to disturbances andclimate change in the future.

Livistonasaribus in Vietnam. Picture: Nguyen Xuan Hong

Study co-lead author ThaiseEmilio, from the University of Campinas, said: Impressive levels of palm abundance do not come as a surprise to manytropical forest researchers. Days of work may be necessary to measure all thepalms of a single hectare in some places in the middle of Amazon.

However, afair representation of palms in studies of tropical forests functioning is yetto come. Showing where and when palms must be considered is a majorcontribution of our new study.

Further information

Top image credit:Howea forsteriana in Lord Howe Island (Australia). Picture by WilliamJ Baker.

The paperThe Global Abundance of Tree Palms is published inGlobal Ecology and Biogeography 6 July 2020. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13123

For additional information contact University of Leeds press officer Anna Harrison viaa.harrison@leeds.ac.uk

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News > Environment > The global abundance of palm trees - University of Leeds

Physiology

The Now and Next of Cotton Scouting Technology – CropLife

When it comes to in-season management, the cotton crop presents agronomists with challenges that must be monitored.

With the plethora of technologies unleashed on agriculture for a wide range of crops in recent years, a number of individuals, companies, and organizations are working to test their mettle in the cotton market. Among those leading the way is Ed Barnes, Senior Director of Agricultural and Environmental Research at Cotton Inc.

Barnes works extensively with companies and Universities on identifying the best pathways to commercializing technology for in-season scouting, and there are several promising products and practices that have, or will soon, emerge for use in the cotton production cycle.

The ubiquity of phone connectivity has led to targeted, highly functional apps to provide support and help maximize every scouting trip in the field.

For example, while irrigation in the southeast and mid-south regions has increased substantially in cotton and other crops, its a tricky business. Hyper-local pop-up storm activity is the norm, which confounds weather models based on ground sensing technology. And less is understood about the physiology of cotton as far as the impact of moisture depravation how much yield is lost if no rain falls during boll fill time?

Developed by the University of Georgia in conjunction with Cotton Incorporated, the SmartIrrigation Cotton app has been available to alert field scouts to irrigation deficit issues in fields since 2014. The app combines data from a farm-based sensor station, which is required for maximum effectiveness, with data aggregated from a range of available sources: Meteorological data, soil parameters, crop growth stage, crop coefficients, measured rainfall, and irrigation applications. The app returns an estimate of root zone soil water deficits in terms of inches of water and percent of total, which can be used to decide whether the time is right to apply water to a field.

GA Cotton Insect Advisor is an expert system for determining Extension prescribed insecticide treatments for management of cotton insect pests in the state of Georgia. The app displays the most appropriate insecticide or tankmix after users provide the appropriate week of bloom, predominant stink bug species, percent internal boll injury, and other pests present. At present, the app is intended for management of stink bugs. Recommendations are based on information on the manufacturers label and performance data from research and extension trials the University of Georgia.

On the insect side, North Carolina State University offers its Thrips Infestation Predictor for Cotton, an online tool that uses weather data to make predictions on the intersection of thrips dispersal and the development of susceptible seedlings, allowing for optimum timing of insecticide application.

There are also resources available through the Cotton Incorporated website, Cotton Cultivated, with connections to state level cotton sites that will keep you current with the latest recommendations specific to your area, notes Barnes.

The recent wave of technology investment in ag features extensive work in the area of sensing technology. And while a lot of stand-alone systems have come and gone, the next wave of systems and concepts are more targeted and collaborative.

Barnes notes that unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are continuing to demonstrate their value for crop scouting, in particular for taking plant counts. Research at the University of Tennessee and at North Carolina State University have demonstrated that UAV images can provide very robust stand counts to help in cotton replant decisions, he explains. More and more tools are coming to turn these UAS images into information.

Farmwaves on-the-go crop damage recognition system on soybeans.

A bit farther down the path but very focused technology is Farmwaves employment of artificial intelligence to detect disease issues on cotton. Using a camera mounted to a piece of field equipment to capture images in real time, the Farmwave system is able to see and diagnose disease issues while mounted on a rig travelling up to 20 miles per hour. The algorithm is powered by soybean and corn disease data collected over eight years and validated by scientists, and the results have been very positive, says Chris Palczynski, Farmwaves Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.

SpadeGeo is a recently launched company looking to expand machine learning technology to the broader agriculture industry, with particular interest in cotton. Cofounder Bobby Vick, who left a UAV company to start the new venture, sees opportunity to collaborate with existing ag companies and help farmers make gains in difficult but essential activities such as irrigation control, pest monitoring, harvest timing, and stand counts.

Schrimpf, an award-winning journalist, has covered the agriculture market since 1998. He is Group Editor of the Agribusiness Group at Meister Media Worldwide, with full editorial responsibility for CropLife, CropLife IRON, and PrecisionAg Professional. See all author stories here.

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The Now and Next of Cotton Scouting Technology - CropLife

Physiology

Pirbright Institute: Pigs ideal for assessing flu antibody therapies – The Pig Site

They also demonstrated pigs are suitable for analysing the delivery systems used to administer the antibodies in order to provide longer lasting protection.

Having been successfully utilised for Ebola virus and respiratory syncytial virus, the use of antibodies to provide protection and reduce symptoms of influenza is an area of great interest. Although several influenza antibodies have progressed to clinical trials based on their success in small animals (ferrets and mice), the outcome has been disappointing as no antibodies have shown therapeutic effect in humans.

A previous study by Pirbright showed that pigs are good models for influenza vaccine studies as they are naturally infected by the same subtypes of influenza viruses as humans, have similar immune systems and are more comparable in size and physiology than smaller animals.

The teams new research, published in the Journal of Immunology established that a human antibody (2-12C) can neutralise the H1N1 2009 flu pandemic virus in pigs, thereby providing protection. Both the amount of virus and signs of infection in the lungs were reduced in pigs that received treatment.

Alongside testing the efficiency of 2-12C, the team also assessed a new antibody delivery method that works by administering the antibody genes to pigs. Once inside pig cells, the genes continuously generate antibodies, providing longer term protection than a single direct inoculation of antibodies. The team showed that this gene delivery method for 2-12C was able to protect pigs from signs of disease typically caused by H1N1.

The success of this antibody and delivery platform in the pig model indicates that these treatments could potentially also work in humans. The pig provides an excellent intermediate step between trials in smaller animals and humans and could provide more accurate assessments of antibody therapies against influenza.

Dr Elma Tchilian, Head of the Mucosal Immunology Group at Pirbright said: We are very excited that the pig model is becoming useful for testing and refining antibody treatments for life threatening influenza infections and could be equally useful for other infectious diseases.

This research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Pirbright Institute: Pigs ideal for assessing flu antibody therapies - The Pig Site

Physiology

Male fruit flies’ decline in fertility with age is not only driven by changes in sperm – Mirage News

Infertility is one of the most striking effects of ageing. The impact of ageing on females fertility is more severe and much better understood, but it also affects males. Male reproductive ageing is less researched, but of those studies that do address it, most focus on sperm. However, ejaculate contains more than just sperm. Proteins in the seminal fluid are important for fertility, and in many animals, they have a dramatic effect on female physiology and behaviour. Little is currently known about the impact of male ageing on these proteins, and whether any changes contribute to poorer ejaculates in older males.

To resolve these questions, researchers at the University of Oxfords Department of Zoology conducted experiments in a model organism, the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This species typically lives for less than five weeks, which means that researchers can very rapidly measure the impact of age on male fertility, and their sperm and seminal fluid proteins. This species is also highly amenable to genetic studies, which allowed the researchers to genetically manipulate male lifespan, to see how this impacted the decline in fertility with age.

Published this week in PNAS are their results which show that both sperm and seminal fluid protein quality and quantity decline with male age, making distinct contributions to declining reproductive performance in older males. However, the relative impacts on sperm and seminal fluid often differ, leading to mismatches between ejaculate components. Despite these differences, experimental extension of male lifespan improved overall ejaculate performance in later life, suggesting that such interventions can delay both male reproductive ageing and death.

Lead author Dr Irem Sepil, from the University of Oxfords Department of Zoology, says: These results highlight that the decline in fertility with male age is not exclusively driven by changes in sperm. The quality and quantity of the seminal fluid proteins also change as males age, and these patterns can differ from the changes seen in sperm, but still impact male reproductive function. However, a manipulation aimed at increasing lifespan also slows down age-related reproductive decline. This means that it is possible that drugs and treatments aimed at promoting healthy ageing could be co-opted to slow down male reproductive ageing.

Going forward, the researchers want to look into the health of offspring. In humans, children of old fathers are more at risk of certain medical disorders, but the mechanisms driving these changes remain unclear. Also, whilst a lifespan-extending genetic manipulation helped fertility in older males, it is not clear whether less invasive treatments, which might be used in human medicine, would work similarly. There is ongoing research to understand how we can increase the healthspan of individuals. The aim is not to live longer but to age healthily, slowing down the onset of age-related diseases such as cancer, Alzheimers and arthritis.

It is important to note that the work described here was on a species of fly. While ageing mechanisms are often similar across animals, to understand whether the patterns are commonly shared, they will need to be examined in other species.

Read the paper in PNAS: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/30/2009053117

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Male fruit flies' decline in fertility with age is not only driven by changes in sperm - Mirage News

Physiology

Bringing smart science used to protect premiership footballers to the offshore market in the fight against Covid-19 – Bdaily

Tyneside-based marine engineering specialists, TSG Marine, is taking the latest molecular technology offshore to support the energy sector on its journey out of the Covid-19 crisis.

Utilising the same smart science used to protect premiership football players and staff in stadiums, TSG Marine has secured a deal to make the technology available to oil and gas, marine and renewable assets operating in the North Sea and beyond.

Energy companies have been particularly hard hit during the pandemic and ensuring offshore teams and their families are protected against the transmission of the Covid-19 virus is critical.

Going beyond disinfecting an environment, TSG Marine is deploying a rapid sanitisation system which not only renders a workplace virus-free but a molecular layer, when applied to surfaces, kills all viral, bacterial, mould and organisms for up to 30 days.

TSG Marines Protect+ is a process based on science, using the physiology of viruses, bacteria, mould and organisms against them.

When applied to a surface, ZOONO leaves behind a mono-molecular layer that bonds to the surface. These molecules form a barrier of positively charged microscopic spines that attract and pierce pathogens causing them to break up with lethal effect. This layer of molecular antimicrobial spines is laboratory tested to carry on working for up to 30 days on surfaces and isnt disrupted by regular cleaning practices.

TSG Marine, managing director, Erika Leadbeater, said: Were working with companies in the offshore energy sector as they plan their route out of the COVID-19 crisis. Its important we establish new ways of working that protect their teams and we believe this technology is the solution.

We work with our customers to design the most appropriate programme for their facilities to reduce risk, identifying high transmission areas, utilising fogging for maximum coverage and spray application for exterior locations. With training and supplies of top-up fluids for high contact areas, we will work with the infield personnel to educate and inform, keeping their environment safe. On completion, our technicians will issue a certificate of sanitation which customers can use to help reassure workers of their safety.

We are also bringing temperature monitoring equipment, as weve seen deployed in airports, to help the industry test workers joining facilities for signs of infection. This not only reduces the spread of the virus but ensures those workers showing signs of infection are not putting their own health at risk by travelling offshore.

This non-contact, fast screening process, utilises artificial intelligence to detect elevated temperatures in up to 30 people a second with an accuracy range of +/-0.5oC. Together with TSG Marines expertise in marine and offshore environments, this technology can be applied to make the offshore industry safer amidst a public health crisis that is challenging all companies to change the way they do things.

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Bringing smart science used to protect premiership footballers to the offshore market in the fight against Covid-19 - Bdaily

Physiology

Paul Meakin – The Conversation UK

2020

Elevated circulating amyloid promotes concentrations in obesity and diabetes promote vascular dysfunction. , Journal of Clinical Investigation

2018

Small vessels, dementia and chronic diseases molecular mechanisms and pathophysiology. , Clinical Science

2018

Bace1-dependent amyloid processing regulates hypothalamic leptin sensitivity in obese mice. , Scientific Reports

2018

The beta secretase BACE1 regulates the expression of the insulin receptor in the liver. , Nature Communications

2018

Itaconate is an anti-inflammatory metabolite that activates Nrf2 via alkylation of Keap1, Nature

2018

The BACE1 product sAPP induces ER stress, inflammation and attenuates insulin signaling in skeletal muscle. , Metabolism

2016

Dimethyl fumarate blocks pro-inflammatory cytokine production via inhibition of TLR induced M1 and K63 ubiquitin chain formation., Scientific Reports

2015

Beta2-integrin knock-in mice remain glucose tolerant in spite of insulin resistance, neutrophil infiltration and inflammation. , PLoS One

2015

Neuronal development is promoted by weakened intrinsic antioxidant defenses due to epigenetic repression of Nrf2, Nature Communications

2015

Prophylactic and therapeutic treatment with a synthetic analogue of a parasitic worm product prevents experimental arthritis and inhibits IL-1b production via NRF2-mediated counter-regulation of the inflammasome., Journal of Autoimmunity

2014

The susceptibility of Nrf2-null mice to hepatic steatosis and cirrhosis upon consumption of a high-fat diet is associated with a profound disturbance in metabolic enzymes in the liver, but not with insulin resistance. , Journal of Cell Biology

2014

Antioxid Redox Phosphoinositide 3-kinases upregulate system xc- via eIF2 and ATF4 a pathway active in glioblastomas and epilepsy. , Antioxidant & Redox Signaling

2014

Nrf2 target genes can be controlled by neuronal activity in the absence of Nrf2 and astrocytes. , PNAS

2014

Altered amyloid precursor protein processing regulates glucose uptake and oxidation in cultured rodent myotubes. , Diabetologia

2013

Anorexigenic and orexigenic hormone modulation of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 activity and the regulation of hypothalamic agouti-related protein mRNA expression. , Neurosignals

2011

Reduction in BACE1 decreases body weight, protects against diet-induced obesity and enhances insulin sensitivity in mice. , Biochemical Journals

2010

Loss of Nrf2 markedly exacerbates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. , Free Radical Biology and Medicine

2010

The unfolded protein response is activated in skeletal muscle by high-fat feeding: potential role in the down-regulation of protein synthesis. , American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism

2007

Fructose metabolism in the adult mouse optic nerve, a central white matter tract. , Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism

2006

Fructose supports energy metabolism of some, but not all, axons in adult mouse optic nerve. , Journal of Neurophysiology

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Paul Meakin - The Conversation UK