Ecological impacts, efficacy and economic feasibility of algal mat removal from temperate intertidal mudflats under blue nitrogen trading schemes.

Driven by eutrophic conditions, AM (algal mat) proliferation is now ubiquitous in coastal areas generating significant ecological and economic impacts. The need to mitigate negative effects has prompted the exploration of removal methods, but neither the success nor the impacts on intertidal mudflats have been assessed. Limited success using a specially-adapted vessel, prompted a shift to manual removal by hand-rake at two UK (Portsmouth and Poole) and two French study sites (Brittany and Normandy).

Dynamically-expressed prion-like proteins form a cuticle in the pharynx of Caenorhabditis elegans.

In molting animals, a cuticular extracellular matrix forms the first barrier to infection and other environmental insults. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans there are two types of cuticle: a well-studied collagenous cuticle lines the body, and a poorly-understood chitinous cuticle lines the pharynx. In the posterior end of the pharynx is the grinder, a tooth-like cuticular specialization that crushes food prior to transport to the intestine for digestion.

DAF-16/FOXO regulates homeostasis of essential sleep-like behavior during larval transitions in C. elegans.

Sleep homeostasis, which refers to the maintenance of sleep amount or depth following sleep deprivation, indicates that sleep and sleep-like states serve fundamental functions that cannot be bypassed [1]. Homeostasis of sleep-like behavior is observed during C. elegans lethargus, a 2-3 hr behavioral quiescent period that occurs during larval state transitions [2].

Dielectrophoresis of Caenorhabditis elegans.

We demonstrate for the first time the dielectrophoretic trapping and manipulation of a whole animal, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We studied the effect of the electric field on the nematode as a function of field intensity and frequency. We identified a range of electric field intensities and frequencies that trap worms without apparent adverse effect on their viability.