Ocean acidification (OA) refers to a global decline in the average pH of seawater driven by the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Marine macroalgae, while affected by this pH change, are also able to modify seawater pH through their own interaction with inorganic carbon in the carbonate system. Through this action, macroalgae-dominated habitats are potential refugia from OA for associated marine species. This review summarises the most prominent literature on the role of macroalgae in OA mitigation and the potential of macroalgal habitats to serve as OA refugia. It includes a brief overview of macroalgal distribution in an effort to illustrate where such refugia might be most prevalent. Macroalgae influence seawater carbonate chemistry through the absorption of CO2 and HCO3− during photosynthesis, raising surrounding seawater pH in the process. This transient effect on seawater chemistry could provide some respite from the negative effects of OA for many marine species. This refuge role varies over a range of scales along with macroalgal architecture, which varies in size from low-growing turfs to large canopy-forming stands. The associated pH changes can range over various temporal (daily and seasonal) and spatial (from centimetre to kilometre) scales. Areas of high macroalgal biomass are likely to play an important role as significant OA refugia. Such communities are distributed widely throughout the globe. Large brown macroalgae (Laminariales) dominated communities are common in temperate regions, while members of the Fucales are responsible for substantial macroalgal stands in warmer tropical regions. These marine fields and forests have great potential to serve as localised refuges from OA. While more work needs to be done to clarify the effect of macroalgal communities on seawater pH on a large scale, such refuge areas could become important considerations for the management of marine resources and in protected area selection.

Fructose (C6H12O6), also known as levulose, is a hexose. Chronic consumption of fructose may be associated with increased intrahepatic fat concentration and the development of insulin resistance as well as an increase in the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and hyperlipidemia during pregnancy. Despite the existence of many studies regarding the consumption of fructose in pregnancy, its effects on fetuses have not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic and biochemical effects in offspring (male and female) of female mice treated with fructose during pregnancy and lactation. Pairs of 60-day-old Swiss mice were used and divided into three groups; negative control and fructose, 10%/l and 20%/l doses of fructose groups. After offspring birth, the animals were divided into six groups: P1 and P2 (males and females), water; P3 and P4 (males and females) fructose 10%/l; and P5 and P6 (males and females) fructose 20%/l. At 30 days of age, the animals were euthanized for genetic and biochemical assessments. Female and male offspring from both dosage groups demonstrated genotoxicity (evaluated through comet assay) and oxidative stress (evaluated through nitrite concentration, sulfhydril content and superoxide dismutase activity) in peripheral and brain tissues. In addition, they showed nutritional and metabolic changes due to the increase in food consumption, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and metabolic syndrome. Therefore, it is suggested that high consumption of fructose by pregnant female is harmful to their offspring. Thus, it is important to carry out further studies and make pregnant women aware of excessive fructose consumption during this period.

The Nutrition Society Spring Conference 2018, held in Glasgow, brought together experts focusing on the interaction between different nutrients and how this impacts absorption, metabolism and health from biochemical and physiological perspectives. This cross-cutting theme was examined from a range of perspectives, bringing together experts on topics ranging from food processing to the impact of inflammation on nutrient status. Two plenary lectures provided a food landscape and lifecourse background to the proceedings, with on the first day a focus on processed/ultra-processed foods and their nutrient composition and, on the second day, a plenary lecture exploring the role that nutrient–nutrient interactions within the maternal diet have for the lifelong health of the offspring. The meeting was framed around three symposia, examining the competition and bioavailability of dietary components, nutrient–nutrient interactions and their role in protection from chronic diseases and the mechanisms of nutrient–nutrient interactions. The meeting ended with a round table, and an overall conclusion highlighting the opportunities to derive further understanding of the short- and long-term implications of diets through the study of nutrient–nutrient interactions.

The eastern bettong Bettongia gaimardi, a potoroid marsupial, has been extinct on the Australian mainland since the 1920s. Sixty adult bettongs were reintroduced from the island of Tasmania to two predator-free fenced reserves on mainland Australia. We examined baseline health parameters (body weight, haematology and biochemistry, parasites and infectious disease exposure) in a subset of 30 (13 male, 17 female) individuals at translocation and again at 12–24 months post-reintroduction. The mean body weight increased significantly post-reintroduction but there were no significant differences in body weight between the two reintroduction sites or between the sexes in response to reintroduction. Differences were evident in multiple haematological and biochemical variables post-reintroduction but there were few differences between the two reintroduced populations or between the sexes in response to reintroduction. Ectoparasite assemblages differed, with five of 13 species failing to persist, and an additional four species were identified post-reintroduction. None of the bettongs had detectable antibodies to the alphaherpesviruses Macropodid herpesvirus 1 and 2 post-reintroduction, including one individual that was seropositive at translocation. Similarly, the novel gammaherpesvirus potoroid herpesvirus 1 was not detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in any of the bettongs post-reintroduction, including one individual that was PCR-positive at translocation. None of the bettongs had detectable antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii either at translocation or post-reintroduction. Our data demonstrate changing baseline health parameters in eastern bettongs following reintroduction to the Australian mainland are suggestive of improved health in the reintroduced populations, and provide additional metrics for assessing the response of macropodoids to reintroduction.

The probability that an individual will suffer from a major depressive episode is often considered to be influenced by risk factors such as gender, premature parental loss, exposure to pathogenic parental rearing, personality, a history of traumatic events, a previous history of major depression, low social support, recent stressful life events and difficulties and predisposing genetic influences. Although several studies suffer from methodological limitations, major depression (endogenous depression) is regarded as a multifactorial disorder and understanding its etiology requires the rigorous integration of several risk factors.

The ability of the biochemical measurements, haem iron, intramuscular fat (IMF%), moisture content, and total, soluble and insoluble collagen contents, to predict untrained consumer sensory scores both across different muscles and within the same muscle from different carcasses were investigated. Sensory scores from 540 untrained French consumers (tenderness, flavour liking, juiciness and overall liking) were obtained for six muscles; outside (m. biceps femoris), topside (m. semimembranosus), striploin (m. longissimus thoracis), rump (m. gluteus medius), oyster blade (m. infraspinatus) and tenderloin (m. psoas major) from each of 18 French and 18 Australian cattle. The four sensory scores were weighted and combined into a single score termed MQ4, which was also analysed. All sensory scores were highly correlated with each other and with MQ4. This in part reflects the fact that MQ4 is derived from the consumer scores for tenderness, juiciness, flavour and overall liking and also reflects an interrelationship between the sensory scores themselves and in turn validates the use of the MQ4 term to reflect the scope of the consumer eating experience. When evaluated across the six different muscles, all biochemical measurements, except soluble collagen, had a significant effect on all of the sensory scores and MQ4. The average magnitude of impact of IMF%, haem iron, moisture content, total and insoluble collagen contents across the four different sensory scores are 34.9, 5.1, 7.2, 36.3 and 41.3, respectively. When evaluated within the same muscle, only IMF% and moisture content had a significant effect on overall liking (5.9 and 6.2, respectively) and flavour liking (6.1 and 6.4, respectively). These results indicate that in a commercial eating quality prediction model including muscle type, only IMF% or moisture content has the capacity to add any precision. However, all tested biochemical measurements, particularly IMF% and insoluble collagen contents, are strong predictors of eating quality when muscle type is not known. This demonstrates their potential usefulness in extrapolating the sensory data derived from these six muscles to other muscles with no sensory data, but with similar biochemical parameters, and therefore reducing the amount of future sensory testing required.

Mathematical and computational neuroscience have contributed to the brain sciences by thestudy of the dynamics of individual neurons and more recently the study of the dynamics ofelectrophysiological networks. Often these studies treat individual neurons as points orthe nodes in networks and the biochemistry of the brain appears, if at all, as someintermediate variables by which the neurons communicate with each other. In fact, manyneurons change brain function not by communicating in one-to-one fashion with otherneurons, but instead by projecting changes in biochemistry over long distances. Thisbiochemical network is of crucial importance for brain function and it influences and isinfluenced by the more traditional electrophysiological networks. Understanding howbiochemical networks interact with electrophysiological networks to produce brain functionboth in health and disease poses new challenges for mathematical neuroscience.

Here we analyze the outcomes of unlimited access to a low-energy (LE) diet in dams and their offspring. At 3 weeks’ gestation, pregnant Wistar rats were divided into two groups: (1) the control group received a normoenergetic diet; and (2) the experimental group received the LE diet. In dams, lactation outcomes, food intake, body weight, plasma IGF-1, prealbumin, transferrin and retinol-binding protein levels were evaluated; in offspring, biometric and biochemical parameters and food intake were evaluated. No differences were observed during pregnancy. However, after lactation, dams that received the LE diet demonstrated significant reductions in body weight (P<0.05), plasma IGF-1 (P=0.01), prealbumin and visceral fat (P<0.001). Pups born to dams that received the LE diet demonstrated reduced body length and weight at weaning (P<0.001) and were lighter than the control animals at the end of the experimental period. Pups also demonstrated reduced plasma, low-density lipoprotein (P=0.04), triglycerides (P=0.002) and glucose levels (P<0.05), and differences were noted in visceral fat. These results indicate that feeding dams with LE diet during the reproductive period induces acute malnutrition and impairs the growth and development of offspring, as well as certain metabolic parameters.

The stereocilia of the inner ear are unique cellular structures which correlate anatomically with distinct cochlear functions, including mechanoelectrical transduction, cochlear amplification, adaptation, frequency selectivity and tuning. Their function is impaired by inner ear stressors, by various types of hereditary deafness, syndromic hearing loss and inner ear disease (e.g. Ménière's disease). The anatomical and physiological characteristics of stereocilia are discussed in relation to inner ear malfunctions.

Successful completion of endurance exercise is facilitated by conditioning that enhances the capacity of the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems to maintain a high level of aerobic activity. Insufficiency or disease in these systems may be diagnosed using routine haematology and serum chemistry testing. Pre-race blood samples obtained from 82 endurance-trained sled dogs were used to test the hypothesis that common haematological and serum chemistry values could identify subjects with occult disease, decreasing the likelihood of their finishing a multi-day exercise challenge. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the combinations of specific biomarkers that best predicted the eventual outcome of the exercise challenge for an individual dog. This analysis constructed six different predictive formulas. In all cases, the formulae contained the pre-race values for creatine kinase and some measurement of erythrocyte abundance. When a probability of 0.4 was used as a cut-off value, all dogs with values below the cut-off did not complete the race. These results suggest that in a population of healthy, aerobically conditioned subjects, routine clinical biomarkers can be used to identify subjects unsuited to performance for endurance exercise.

The isoenzymatic pattern of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) has been described for Ascaris suum, a parasite of Sus scrofa domestica. Only one band of activity has been revealed, suggesting a monomorphic condition for this enzyme. Also, the structure of GDH has been assayed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE) and silver staining. Only one subunit was present with a molecular weight of about 55 000. A hexameric structure for GDH of A. suum is suggested.

Isozymic patterns of lactate dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1.27) by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) were observed m various categories of filariasis and controls, i.e. asymptomatic microfilaraemia and symptomatic amicrofilaraemia, endemic normal and non-endemic normal. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity was also observed amongst the above categories of patients. An increase in enzyme activity and change in the isozymic pattern was observed in the above categories of filaria infected serum. LDH activity doubled in asymptomatic microfilaraemia whereas in symptomatic amicrofilaraemia the increase in LDH activity was thirtyfold. The isozymic pattern of microfilaraemia cases showed the presence of three bands B4, A1B3, A2 B2, which are quite thick as compared to normal healthy subjects, whereas the patients with symptomatic amicrofilaraemia showed marked elevation of serum LDH-4 or A3B1. The LDH was partially purified by combined treatment of (NH4)2SO4 fractionation and gel filtration. The isozymic pattern of purified LDH showed a similar pattern.

The activities of selected enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism were measured in tetrathyridia of Mesocestoides corti and in adult females and males of Heterakis spumosa. When the species were compared, only lactate dehydrogenase and phosphoenolphyruvate carboxykinase activities were considerably higher in M. corti. Activities of other enzymes were higher in H. spumosa, with malate dehydrogenase activity being considerable so. In H. spumosa, enzyme activity was higher, and succinate dehydrogenase markedly so in males, when compared with females. Tetrathyridia aged 170 and 210 days show relatively stable malate and lactate dehydrogenase activities, and mice of ICR and BALB/c strains are suitable for the maintenance of tetrathyridia.

The protein content of fresh homogenates and their corresponding TCA precipitated fractions of 10 different species of helminths was estimated by the methods of Lowry et al. and Spector using the Folin phenol reagent and Coomassie brilliant blue G-250 respectively. The former method gives exaggerated values as compared to the latter method. The parasite phenols, phenolic proteins and catecholamines could be responsible for interference in the Lowry's procedure. The TCA non-precipitable moieties also give colour only with the Folin phenol assay. The pronounced intra-specific differences in the total protein content of helminths reflect their metabolic variations and adaptations. Habitat does not appear to influence the protein content of parasites, however, the effect of host variation was evident in the pouched amphistome G. crumenifer. It is concluded that the dye binding method gives more consistent results and it can be conveniently applied to crude tissue homogenates of helminths.

A comparative studs of the spectral, electrophoretic and isoelectric properties of the haemoglobins of three trematodes. Paramphistomum epiclitum. Gigantocotyle explanatum and Gastrothylax erumenifer was carried out. A high absorption in the beta band region indicates that trematode haemoglobins have high oxygen affinities. Electrophoretic mobilities of all trematode and their host haemoglobins were different. The isoelectric points of trematode haemoglobins were found to focus in the acidic range except that of G. crumenifer haemoglobin I. which focused at an alkaline pH.

Analysis of the major biochemical components of Taenia hydatigena cysticerci collected from goats and pigs showed marked differences, particularly in glycogen, protein, lipid and DNA levels. Differences were also detected in the levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids and phospholipids. Furthermore, the profile of phospholipid fractions revealed quantitative differences between the two species. It is concluded that the cysticerci of goat and pig origin probably represent two different strains and possibly follow the same pattern of speciation as reported in the related taeniid, Echinococcus granulosus.

The cyst wall of Microphallus madrasensis resisted 6 N and 11·3 N hydrochloric acids (HCL) 36 N concentrated sulphuric acid (H2S04) and 0·35 M sodium hypochlorite. It was partially dissolved in 0·6 M sodium azide and completely dissolved in 16 N nitric acid (HNO3). An HCl hydrolysate of the cyst wall contained 10 amino acids viz. alanine, leucine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, lysine, histidine. phenylalanine. tyrosine. cystine and proline. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed the presence of a fast moving fraction which stained with periodic acid-Schiffs (PAS) reagent and toluidine blue was noticed in tris-glycine buffer soluble and methanol water soluble substances present in the cyst wall. Triton X-100 soluble substances present in the cyst wall revealed the presence of two slow-moving fractions stained only with PAS, and also a fast-moving fraction stained only with toluidine blue. Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) soluble substances in the cyst wall revealed the presence of two fast-moving fractions which stained with PAS and toluidine blue. The slow-moving fractions are protein-bound carbohydrates. The fast-moving fractions obtained after fractionation with SDS are acid mucopolysaccharides or nucleoproteins whereas the single fraction (Triton X-100 soluble substances) which stained with toluidine blue appears to be a carbohydrate-free protein. The cyst wall of M. madrasensis also consisted of phospholipids and neutral lipids.