We describe a rapid, reliable radioimmunoassay for unconjugated estriol in plasma. Polyethylene glycol (Carbowax 6000) is used to separate antibody-bound and free steroid. The assay is sensitive (25 pg for standards), precise, and accurate. At high and low concentrations of estriol, intra-assay coefficients of variation were 7.1% and 7.6%, respectively, and inter-assay coefficients of variation...

The free amino acid asparagine and the reducing sugars glucose and fructose has been reported to serve as precursors for the heat-induced formation of potentially toxic acrylamide in a variety of plant-based food. To contribute to our knowledge about the levels of these precursors, we used ion-exchange chromatography to measure free asparagine and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) t...

Leptin, a protein hormone secreted by fat cells, is best known for its role as an adiposity signal; however, leptin has diverse physiological roles ranging from regulation of feeding behavior and body weight, to effects on reproduction and immune function. Although leptin has been extensively studied in mammals, the identification and function of leptin in birds remains controversial, and studi...

The role of population size is investigated within a neutrality induced local optima free search space. Neutrality decouples genotypic variation in evolvability from fitness variation. Population diversity and neutrality work in conjunction to facilitate evolvability exploration whilst restraining its loss to drift, ultimately facilitating the evolution of evolvability. The characterising dynam...

Timing is essential, but circadian clocks, which play a crucial role in timekeeping, are almost unaddressed in evolutionary ecology. A key property of circadian clocks is their free-running period length (τ), i.e. the time taken for a full cycle under constant conditions. Under laboratory conditions, concordance of τ with the ambient light-dark cycle confers major fitness benefits, but little i...