Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Plymouth

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 10951 - 10980 of 11804

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

The Microbial Role In Carbon Cycling Within Seagrass Sediments, Heather Guy Jul 2010

The Microbial Role In Carbon Cycling Within Seagrass Sediments, Heather Guy

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Seagrasses are an important feature of coastal systems worldwide, capable of fixing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into cellular material, potentially helping to alleviate rising carbon dioxide levels. However, the capacity of seagrass beds to act as carbon sinks is largely dependent on the amount of organic matter accumulated within the sediments following transformations by the microbial community. The microbial role in carbon cycling within seagrass sediments has been poorly researched, most likely because the importance of marine microbes in ocean cycling processes was only recently recognized, due to key advancements in molecular biology. This review examines …


The Plymouth Student Scientist: Two Years On, Karen A. Gresty Jul 2010

The Plymouth Student Scientist: Two Years On, Karen A. Gresty

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Editorial from: Dr Karen Gresty, Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning), Faculty of Science and Engineering


Mollusk Species At A Pliocene Shelf Whale Fall (Orciano Pisano, Tuscany), S Danise, S Dominici, U Betocchi Jul 2010

Mollusk Species At A Pliocene Shelf Whale Fall (Orciano Pisano, Tuscany), S Danise, S Dominici, U Betocchi

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The recovery of an intact, 10 m long fossil baleen whale from the Pliocene of Tuscany (Italy) offers the first opportunity to study the paleoecology of a fully developed, natural whale-fall community at outer shelf depth. Quantitative data on mollusk species from the whale fall have been compared with data from the sediments below and around the bones, representing the fauna living in the muddy bottom before and during the sinking of the carcass, but at a distance from it. Although the bulk of the fauna associated with the fossil bones is dominated by the same heterotrophs as found in …


Investigating The 'Latent' Deficit Hypothesis: Age At Time Of Head Injury, Implicit And Executive Functions And Behavioral Insight, L. A. Barker, J. Andrade, N. Morton, C. A.J. Romanowski, D. P. Bowles Jul 2010

Investigating The 'Latent' Deficit Hypothesis: Age At Time Of Head Injury, Implicit And Executive Functions And Behavioral Insight, L. A. Barker, J. Andrade, N. Morton, C. A.J. Romanowski, D. P. Bowles

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.


Determinants Of Agricultural Land Rental Market Transactions In Bangladesh, S Rahman Jul 2010

Determinants Of Agricultural Land Rental Market Transactions In Bangladesh, S Rahman

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Land rental market transactions have been the norm in land scarce rural Bangladesh mainly due to the inadequacies of the governmental land distribution system to meet the growing demand for land and to correct imbalances in factor proportions at the farm-level. The present study jointly determines the socio-economic factors underlying decision to rent-in land and/or rent-out land by the Bangladeshi farmers in the land rental market using a bivariate Tobit model. The model diagnostic reveals that the decisions to rent-in and/or rent-out land is significantly correlated, implying that univariate analysis of such decisions are biased, thereby, justifying the use of …


Rapid Microsatellite Isolation From A Butterfly By De Novo Transcriptome Sequencing: Performance And A Comparison With Aflp-Derived Distances, As Mikheyev, T Vo, B Wee, Mc Singer, C Parmesan Jun 2010

Rapid Microsatellite Isolation From A Butterfly By De Novo Transcriptome Sequencing: Performance And A Comparison With Aflp-Derived Distances, As Mikheyev, T Vo, B Wee, Mc Singer, C Parmesan

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

BACKGROUND: The isolation of microsatellite markers remains laborious and expensive. For some taxa, such as Lepidoptera, development of microsatellite markers has been particularly difficult, as many markers appear to be located in repetitive DNA and have nearly identical flanking regions. We attempted to circumvent this problem by bioinformatic mining of microsatellite sequences from a de novo-sequenced transcriptome of a butterfly (Euphydryas editha). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By searching the assembled sequence data for perfect microsatellite repeats we found 10 polymorphic loci. Although, like many expressed sequence tag-derived microsatellites, our markers show strong deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in many populations, and, in some …


Modelling Visual Neglect: Computational Insights Into Conscious Perception, Lj Lanyon, Sl Denham Jun 2010

Modelling Visual Neglect: Computational Insights Into Conscious Perception, Lj Lanyon, Sl Denham

School of Psychology

BACKGROUND: Visual neglect is an attentional deficit typically resulting from parietal cortex lesion and sometimes frontal lesion. Patients fail to attend to objects and events in the visual hemifield contralateral to their lesion during visual search. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: The aim of this work was to examine the effects of parietal and frontal lesion in an existing computational model of visual attention and search and simulate visual search behaviour under lesion conditions. We find that unilateral parietal lesion in this model leads to symptoms of visual neglect in simulated search scan paths, including an inhibition of return (IOR) deficit, while frontal …


Herpetological Observations From Field Expeditions To North Karnataka And Southwest Maharashtra, India, T Lewis, S Piggott, R Griffin, P Grieg-Smith, G Martin, G Barretto, K Bajibab, C Thorpe, P Prodromou, M Fordham, D Willis, J Turner, A Radanovic, D Holloway, R Wood, N Hand, S Lloyd, M Clapson, J Hennesy, G Oldham Jun 2010

Herpetological Observations From Field Expeditions To North Karnataka And Southwest Maharashtra, India, T Lewis, S Piggott, R Griffin, P Grieg-Smith, G Martin, G Barretto, K Bajibab, C Thorpe, P Prodromou, M Fordham, D Willis, J Turner, A Radanovic, D Holloway, R Wood, N Hand, S Lloyd, M Clapson, J Hennesy, G Oldham

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The Western Ghats of India are one of the 34 global hotspots of biodiversity. They are one of the most important large natural areas in the world and are fast becoming recognised for their biological importance. The herpetofauna of the Western Ghats is hugely diverse, with many species exhibiting rare, endemic styles of autecology and niche preference that could equal that of countries such as Borneo and Madagascar. In this report we detail 18 amphibian and 37 reptile species from eight sites following three expeditions to the Western Ghats from 2007-2009. The report details species descriptions, habitat, ecology and conservation …


Background Document For Maerl, Jm Hall-Spencer, J Kelly, Ca Maggs Jun 2010

Background Document For Maerl, Jm Hall-Spencer, J Kelly, Ca Maggs

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.


Women’S Labour Contribution To Productivity And Efficiency In Agriculture: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh, S Rahman Jun 2010

Women’S Labour Contribution To Productivity And Efficiency In Agriculture: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh, S Rahman

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This article examines the contribution of women’s labour input to productivity and efficiency in crop farming using a large survey dataset of 1,839 households from 16 villages in two agro-ecological regions of Bangladesh. Results reveal that female labour accounts for a substantial 28% of total labour use (mainly supplied from the family) and contributes significantly to productivity as well as technical efficiency. Contrary to expectation, the cost share of female labour input is significantly higher than the male share, and has a substitution relationship with all other inputs, including male labour. The estimated mean level of technical efficiency is 0.90, …


Light Hadrons From Lattice Qcd With Light (U, D), Strange And Charm Dynamical Quarks, R. Baron, Ph Boucaud, J. Carbonell, A. Deuzeman, V. Drach, F. Farchioni, V. Gimenez, G. Herdoiza, K. Jansen, C. Mcneile, C. Michael, I. Montvay, D. Palao, E. Pallante, O Pene, S. Reker, C. Urbach, M. Wagner, U. Wenger Jun 2010

Light Hadrons From Lattice Qcd With Light (U, D), Strange And Charm Dynamical Quarks, R. Baron, Ph Boucaud, J. Carbonell, A. Deuzeman, V. Drach, F. Farchioni, V. Gimenez, G. Herdoiza, K. Jansen, C. Mcneile, C. Michael, I. Montvay, D. Palao, E. Pallante, O Pene, S. Reker, C. Urbach, M. Wagner, U. Wenger

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.


Grounding Language In Action And Perception: From Cognitive Agents To Humanoid Robots, A Cangelosi Jun 2010

Grounding Language In Action And Perception: From Cognitive Agents To Humanoid Robots, A Cangelosi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In this review we concentrate on a grounded approach to the modeling of cognition through the methodologies of cognitive agents and developmental robotics. This work will focus on the modeling of the evolutionary and developmental acquisition of linguistic capabilities based on the principles of symbol grounding. We review cognitive agent and developmental robotics models of the grounding of language to demonstrate their consistency with the empirical and theoretical evidence on language grounding and embodiment, and to reveal the benefits of such an approach in the design of linguistic capabilities in cognitive robotic agents. In particular, three different models will be …


Cbd & D9-Thc - The Two Faces Of Cannabis, Zeissler, Cb Carroll, J Zajicek May 2010

Cbd & D9-Thc - The Two Faces Of Cannabis, Zeissler, Cb Carroll, J Zajicek

Peninsula Medical School

Cannabidiol (CBD) and D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (D9-THC) are phytocannabinoids produced by the plant Cannabis sativa which have both shown promising therapeutic value as anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective agents in a variety of neurological disorders. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in their protective function are thought to be distinctly different probably due to their divergent receptor pharmacology. D9-THC is a potent agonist at the cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2 through which it is thought to modulate synaptic plasticity and inflammatory responses respectively. CBD on the other hand exhibits negligible affinity for both receptors prompting research into cannabinoid receptor independent mechanisms of action such as …


Creating Sustainable Identities: The Significance Of The Financially Affluent Self, V Hurth May 2010

Creating Sustainable Identities: The Significance Of The Financially Affluent Self, V Hurth

Plymouth Business School

This paper uses identity theory and postmodern identity perspectives to analyse why high-income groups often have values, attitudes and intentions to consume sustainably, yet tend to have the highest energy consumption of any group. Two key arguments are presented. The first is that the affluent identity is opposed to the environmentalist identity and is more salient, desirable and likely to result in more social support and self-esteem rewards. Therefore, where both identities are held the affluent identity is likely to be more dominant and invoked in more circumstances. Second, the invocation of the affluent identity is liable to result in …


Evaluation Of The Clinimetric Properties Of The Upper Limb Subscales Of The Motor Assessment Scale Using A Rasch Analysis Model., Kj Miller, A Slade, J Pallant, M Galea Apr 2010

Evaluation Of The Clinimetric Properties Of The Upper Limb Subscales Of The Motor Assessment Scale Using A Rasch Analysis Model., Kj Miller, A Slade, J Pallant, M Galea

School of Health Professions

OBJECTIVES: To apply Rasch analysis to evaluate the psychometric properties of the composite score of the 3 upper limb subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale (UL-MAS) when administered in the acute/subacute phase post-stroke. DESIGN: Prospective data collection of UL-MAS scores. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty Eighty individuals a mean of 64.8 days (standard deviation 53.3; range 4-193 days) following the onset of unilateral stroke. METHODS: All UL-MAS test items were administered in 30 participants assessed longitudinally over 3 occasions, and in 50 participants assessed on a single occasion. These 140 observations were pooled to be evaluated using Rasch analysis. RESULTS: With the elimination …


Report Of The Ices/Nafo Joint Working Group On Deep-Water Ecology (Wgdec), Jm Hall-Spencer Mar 2010

Report Of The Ices/Nafo Joint Working Group On Deep-Water Ecology (Wgdec), Jm Hall-Spencer

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.


The Advice Needs Of Gypsies And Travellers In Plymouth: Final Report, Zoe James, Lesley Simmonds Mar 2010

The Advice Needs Of Gypsies And Travellers In Plymouth: Final Report, Zoe James, Lesley Simmonds

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

No abstract provided.


Business As Usual? Britains First Womens Convict Prison, Brixton 1853-1869, Neil Davie Mar 2010

Business As Usual? Britains First Womens Convict Prison, Brixton 1853-1869, Neil Davie

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

This article concerns the 16 year penal experiment at Brixton, Britain's first convict prison for women (1853-1869). From the start, the regime at Brixton was seen by Home Office officials and prison staff alike as a second-best solution, since contemporary views on 'appropriate' women's work ruled out the hard physical labour of the men's public works prisons, felt to bring salutary effects to both body and mind. The emphasis was placed instead on inculcating those domestic, 'womanly' values felt to be under threat from the social forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution. However, a combination of the enforced sedentary lifestyle, …


Historiographical Contextualisation Of Current Issue, Judith Rowbotham, Kim Stevenson, Samantha Pegg Mar 2010

Historiographical Contextualisation Of Current Issue, Judith Rowbotham, Kim Stevenson, Samantha Pegg

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

No abstract provided.


Mony Utheris Divars Odious Crymes': Women, Petty Crime And Power In Later Sixteenth Century Aberdeen, J. R. D. Falconer Mar 2010

Mony Utheris Divars Odious Crymes': Women, Petty Crime And Power In Later Sixteenth Century Aberdeen, J. R. D. Falconer

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

This article examines the nature of petty crimes committed by sixteenth century Aberdonian women and the impact they had on burgh society. The evidence presented here challenges the notion that the burgh court charged women with a much more narrow range of criminal activities than men. Over a period of roughly 50 years (1541-1591), the Aberdeen Council Register and Baillie Court Books record nearly 2,000 individual convictions for a variety of criminal acts that included statute breaking, property crimes, and acts of verbal and physical assault. This article looks at a specific section of this evidence to argue that women …


Salient Egalitarian Norms Moderate Activation Of Out-Group Approach And Avoidance, Na Wyer Mar 2010

Salient Egalitarian Norms Moderate Activation Of Out-Group Approach And Avoidance, Na Wyer

School of Psychology

Recent research suggests that interaction-appropriate behavior may be automatically triggered by exposure to an out-group cue. Two experiments investigated the role of prejudice and salient egalitarian norms in determining the activation of two fundamental behavioral responses: approach and avoidance. The activation of approach and avoidance was investigated as a function of negative attitudes towards homosexuals (Experiment 1) and African-Caribbeans (Experiment 2). Results indicated that avoidance was automatically activated in response to out-group labels among participants with prejudiced attitudes (Experiments 1 and 2) whereas approach was less activated among prejudiced participants (Experiment 2). The former effect, however, was significantly diminished when …


A Five‐Gene Signature As A Potential Predictor Of Metastasis And Survival In Colorectal Cancer, J Hao, J Chen, H Sui, X Si‐Ma, Et Al Mar 2010

A Five‐Gene Signature As A Potential Predictor Of Metastasis And Survival In Colorectal Cancer, J Hao, J Chen, H Sui, X Si‐Ma, Et Al

School of Biomedical Sciences

To understand the molecular mechanisms of metastasis and prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC), we isolated single cell-derived progenies (SCPs) from SW480 cells in vitro and compared their metastatic potential in an orthotopic CRC tumour model in vivo. Two groups of SCPs with the capability of high and low metastasis, respectively, were obtained. By analysing the gene expression profiles of high (SCP51), low (SCP58) metastatic SCPs, and their parental cell line (SW480/EGFP), we demonstrated that 143 genes were differentially expressed either between SCP51 and SCP58 or between SCP58 and SW480/EGFP. Gene-annotation enrichment analysis of DAVID revealed 80 genes in the top …


A National Survey Of Pharmacist Transcribing Of Discharge Prescriptions, Gj Sewell, Rj Hobson Feb 2010

A National Survey Of Pharmacist Transcribing Of Discharge Prescriptions, Gj Sewell, Rj Hobson

School of Health Professions

Abstract Objective To provide quantitative data on pharmacist discharge prescription transcription service (PDPTS) provision in UK hospitals. Method Postal questionnaire survey of clinical pharmacy managers. Setting Selection criteria included one hospital in each acute trust in the UK. Key findings The response rate was 66% (135/206). In mid-2001, a PDPTS was provided by 49 hospital pharmacy departments (36%). PDPTS was the most common prescribing activity undertaken by pharmacists, followed by a prescription amendment policy (29%), prescribing in pre-admission clinics (18%) and re-writing drug charts (15%). 59 departments (44%) did not undertake any prescribing activity. Of the 86 non-transcribing hospitals, 69% …


In Situ Perturbation Experiments: Natural Venting Sites, Spatial/Temporal Gradients In Ocean Ph, Manipulative In Situ Pco2 Perturbations, Jp Barry, Jm Hall-Spencer, T Tyrell Feb 2010

In Situ Perturbation Experiments: Natural Venting Sites, Spatial/Temporal Gradients In Ocean Ph, Manipulative In Situ Pco2 Perturbations, Jp Barry, Jm Hall-Spencer, T Tyrell

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.


Comparison Of Two Storage Methods For The Analysis Of Cholinesterase Activities In Food Animals, Ka Askar, Ac Kudi, Aj Moody Jan 2010

Comparison Of Two Storage Methods For The Analysis Of Cholinesterase Activities In Food Animals, Ka Askar, Ac Kudi, Aj Moody

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Cholinesterases (ChE) are specialized carboxylic ester hydrolases that catalyse the hydrolysis of choline esters. They are classified into either acetylcholinesterase (AChE) or butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). Determination of ChE in the tissues is the appropriate tool for the diagnosis of organophosphorus and carbamate exposures. In general, a significant inhibition was seen in both AChE and BChE activities after 6 months of freezing at -80°C and after 3 months of freezing at -20°C. Linear regression of mean AChE and BChE was observed in all individual samples during the months of the two freezing methods. Bland and Altman plot of the ratios of the …


A Quantitative And Qualitative Evaluation Of Reports Of Clinical Trials Published In Six Brazilian Dental Journals Indexed In The Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo)., Souza Rf De, Cdal Chaves, Mona Nasser, Zbys Fedorowicz Jan 2010

A Quantitative And Qualitative Evaluation Of Reports Of Clinical Trials Published In Six Brazilian Dental Journals Indexed In The Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo)., Souza Rf De, Cdal Chaves, Mona Nasser, Zbys Fedorowicz

More Faculty of Health Research

INTRODUCTION: Open access publishing is becoming increasingly popular within the biomedical sciences. SciELO, the Scientific Electronic Library Online, is a digital library covering a selected collection of Brazilian scientific journals many of which provide open access to full-text articles.This library includes a number of dental journals some of which may include reports of clinical trials in English, Portuguese and/or Spanish. Thus, SciELO could play an important role as a source of evidence for dental healthcare interventions especially if it yields a sizeable number of high quality reports. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify reports of clinical trials …


Boldness And Reproductive Fitness Correlates In The Eastern Mosquitofish,Gambusia Holbrooki, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Jean Guy J. Godin, Ashley J.W. Ward Jan 2010

Boldness And Reproductive Fitness Correlates In The Eastern Mosquitofish,Gambusia Holbrooki, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Jean Guy J. Godin, Ashley J.W. Ward

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

AbstractAnimals are known to exhibit ‘personality’; that is, individual differences in behaviour that are consistent across time and/or situations. One axis of personality of particular importance for behavioural ecology is boldness, which can be defined as the tendency of an individual to take risks. The relationship between individual personality and fitness correlates, particularly those involved in reproduction, remains largely unexplored. In the current study, we used female Eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) to ascertain whether certain reproductive traits (e.g. stage of pregnancy, fecundity) are correlated with individual personality in two wild populations in New South Wales, Australia. To quantitatively assess this …


Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Invertebrate Settlement At Volcanic Co2 Vents, M. Cigliano, M. C. Gambi, R. Rodolfo-Metalpa, F. P. Patti, J. M. Hall-Spencer Jan 2010

Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Invertebrate Settlement At Volcanic Co2 Vents, M. Cigliano, M. C. Gambi, R. Rodolfo-Metalpa, F. P. Patti, J. M. Hall-Spencer

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.


Seamounts As Refugia From Ocean Acidification For Cold-Water Stony Corals, Derek P. Tittensor, Amy R. Baco, Jason M. Hall-Spencer, James C. Orr, Alex D. Rogers Jan 2010

Seamounts As Refugia From Ocean Acidification For Cold-Water Stony Corals, Derek P. Tittensor, Amy R. Baco, Jason M. Hall-Spencer, James C. Orr, Alex D. Rogers

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.


Physical And Chemical Stability Of Cisplatin Infusions In Pvc Containers, Gj Sewell Jan 2010

Physical And Chemical Stability Of Cisplatin Infusions In Pvc Containers, Gj Sewell

School of Health Professions

Study objectives: To determine the extended chemical and physical stability of cisplatin infusions in PVC containers at normal in-use concentrations in saline, with and without added electrolyte combinations relevant to clinical practice. Methods: Cisplatin infusions 0.1-0.4 mg/mL were prepared in normal saline, with and without magnesium sulphate and potassium chloride supplements in 500 mL PVC bags, and stored at 25°C protected from light. Chemical stability was assessed by a stability-indicating LC method. Evidence for precipitation was detected by a light-blocking particle count method for sub-visible particles, supported by visual examination. pH and weight changes were also monitored for at least …