School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Research Publications

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    Restoring Geomorphic Integrity in Urban Streams via Mechanistically Based Stormwater Management: Minimizing Excess Sediment Transport Capacity
    Hawley, RJ ; Russell, K ; Taniguchi-Quan, K ( 2021-11-09)
    Stream channel erosion, enlargement, and habitat degradation are ubiquitous in urban watersheds with conventional stormwater management. Hydrologic-based restoration aims to discharge a more natural flow regime via stormwater management interventions. Whether such interventions facilitate geomorphic recovery depends, in part, on the degree to which they restrict discharges that would otherwise contribute to channel erosion. Erosion potential (E), the ratio of post-developed to predeveloped sediment transport capacity, provides a simplified, mechanistic framework to quantify the relative influence of stormwater interventions on the geomorphic effectiveness of the flow regime. This paper compiles ca. five years of data following stormwater-based interventions in three distinct settings in the United States and Australia to demonstrate how the E framework can be used to elucidate the role of hydrologic restoration interventions in helping to facilitate trajectories of geomorphic recovery (or lack thereof). In a previously developed watershed with unstable streams, substantial reductions in E coincided with a trajectory of geomorphic recovery, whereas our case study that did not reduce E between the study periods exhibited continued instability. Furthermore, a greenfield study site that used the E framework to optimize their SCMs to match the sediment transport capacity of the predeveloped regime (E = 1) was able to maintain a recovery trajectory in a legacy-impacted setting that is otherwise highly susceptible to hydromodification. Although available space and funding will limit the ability to fully reduce E in previously developed watersheds, these case studies underscore the mechanistic value of using stormwater controls to maximize reductions in E if geomorphic stability is a goal of stormwater interventions. Streambed material size and channel evolution stage also likely affect the level of E reduction necessary to promote geomorphic recovery, with coarser-grained and/or over-widened streams potentially needing less reduction than finer-grained and/or more entrenched channels.
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    Hexapeptides from a mammalian inhibitory hormone activate and inactivate nematode reproduction
    Hart, JE ; Mohan, S ; Davies, KG ; Ferneyhough, B ; Clarke, IJ ; Hunt, JA ; Shnyder, SD ; Mundy, CR ; Howlett, DR ; Newton, RP ( 2021-09-30)
    Background: Biopurification has been used to disclose an evolutionarily conserved inhibitory reproductive hormone involved in tissue mass determination. A (rat) bioassay-guided physicochemical fractionation using ovine materials yielded via Edman degradation a 14-residue amino acid (aa) sequence. As a 14mer synthetic peptide (EPL001) this displayed antiproliferative and reproduction-modulating activity, while representing only a part of the native polypeptide. Even more unexpectedly, a scrambled-sequence control peptide (EPL030) did likewise. Methods: Reproduction has been investigated in the nematode Steinernema siamkayai, using a fermentation system supplemented with different concentrations of exogenous hexapeptides. Peptide structure-activity relationships have also been studied using prostate cancer and other mammalian cells in vitro, with peptides in solution or immobilized, and via the use of mammalian assays in vivo and through molecular modelling. Results: Reproduction increased (x3) in the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema siamkayai after exposure to one synthetic peptide (IEPVFT), while fecundity was reduced (x0.5) after exposure to another (KLKMNG), both effects being dose-dependent. These hexamers are opposite ends of the synthetic peptide KLKMNGKNIEPVFT (EPL030). Bioactivity is unexpected as EPL030 is a control compound, based on a scrambled sequence of the test peptide MKPLTGKVKEFNNI (EPL001). EPL030 and EPL001 are both bioinformatically obscure, having no convincing matches to aa sequences in the protein databases. EPL001 has antiproliferative effects on human prostate cancer cells and rat bone marrow cells in vitro. Intracerebroventricular infusion of EPL001 in sheep was associated with elevated growth hormone in peripheral blood and reduced prolactin. The highly dissimilar EPL001 and EPL030 nonetheless have the foregoing biological effects in common in mammalian systems, while being divergently pro- and anti-fecundity respectively in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Peptides up to a 20mer have also been shown to inhibit the proliferation of human cancer and other mammalian cells in vitro, with reproductive upregulation demonstrated previously in fish and frogs, as well as nematodes. EPL001 encodes the sheep neuroendocrine prohormone secretogranin II (sSgII), as deduced on the basis of immunoprecipitation using an anti-EPL001 antibody, with bespoke bioinformatics. Six sSgII residues are key to EPL001’s bioactivity : MKPLTGKVKEFNNI. A stereospecific bimodular tri-residue signature is described involving simultaneous accessibility for binding of the side chains of two specific trios of amino acids, MKP & VFN. An evolutionarily conserved receptor is conceptualised having dimeric binding sites, each with ligand-matching bimodular stereocentres. The bioactivity of the 14mer control peptide EPL030 and its hexapeptide progeny is due to the fortuitous assembly of subsets of the novel hormonal motif, MKPVFN, a default reproductive and tissue-building OFF signal.
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    Predicting reliability through structured expert elicitation with repliCATS (Collaborative Assessments for Trustworthy Science)
    Fraser, H ; Bush, M ; Wintle, B ; Mody, F ; Smith, ET ; Hanea, A ; Gould, E ; Hemming, V ; Hamilton, DG ; Rumpff, L ; Wilkinson, DP ; Pearson, R ; Singleton Thorn, F ; Ashton, R ; Willcox, A ; Gray, CT ; Head, A ; Ross, M ; Groenewegen, R ; Marcoci, A ; Vercammen, A ; Parker, TH ; Hoekstra, R ; Nakagawa, S ; Mandel, DR ; van Ravenzwaaij, D ; McBride, M ; Sinnott, RO ; Vesk, PA ; Burgman, M ; Fidler, F (Early Release, 2021-02-22)

    Replication is a hallmark of scientific research. As replications of individual studies are resource intensive, techniques for predicting the replicability are required. We introduce a new technique to evaluating replicability, the repliCATS (Collaborative Assessments for Trustworthy Science) process, a structured expert elicitation approach based on the IDEA protocol. The repliCATS process is delivered through an underpinning online platform and applied to the evaluation of research claims in social and behavioural sciences. This process can be deployed for both rapid assessment of small numbers of claims, and assessment of high volumes of claims over an extended period. Pilot data suggests that the accuracy of the repliCATS process meets or exceeds that of other techniques used to predict replicability. An important advantage of the repliCATS process is that it collects qualitative data that has the potential to assist with problems like understanding the limits of generalizability of scientific claims. The repliCATS process has potential applications in alternative peer review and in the allocation of effort for replication studies.