Bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons in coastal sediments

The biodegradation of dispersed crude oil in the ocean is relatively rapid (a half-life of a few weeks). However, it is often much slower on shorelines, usually attributed to low moisture content, nutrient limitation, and higher oil concentrations in beaches than in dispersed plumes. Another factor may be the increased salinity of the upper intertidal and supratidal zones since these parts of the beach are potentially subject to prolonged evaporation and only intermittent inundation. Therefore, two laboratory experiments are conducted to investigate whether such an increase in porewater salinity results in additional inhibitory effects on oil biodegradation in seashores. In the first experiment, oil biodegradation is investigated in seawater at different salinities by evaporating sampled seawater to a concentrated brine and then adding it to fresh seawater to generate high salinity microcosms. Artificially weathered Hibernia crude oil is added, and biodegradation is followed for 76 days. Results show that the biodegradation of hydrocarbons is substantially inhibited at high salinities, whereby the half-life slows down by 20-fold when increasing the salinity from 30 to 160 g/L. Genera of well-known aerobic hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria are only identified at 30 g/L salt in the presence of oil, and only a few halophilic hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms show a slight enrichment at higher salt concentrations. In the second experiment, oil biodegradation is investigated in coastal sediments. Lightly weathered Hibernia crude oil is added to beach sand at 1 or 10 mL/kg, and fresh seawater, at salinities of 30, 90, and 160 g/L, is added to 20% saturation. The sand mixtures are placed in glass cylinders, with and without the addition of nutrients. All microcosms are analyzed every 30 days for a total incubation period of 180 days. Results show that the biodegradation of oil is slower at higher salinities, where the half-life increases from 40 days at 30 g/L salt to 58 and 76 days at 90 and 160 g/L salt, respectively, and adding fertilizers somewhat enhances oil biodegradation. Increasing oil concentration in the sand, from 1 to 10 mL/kg, slows the half-life by about 10-fold. Interestingly, the biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons is much slower at higher salinities, while that of alkanes is not considerably affected. The relative abundance and diversity of genera vary significantly with the increase in porewater salinity, whereby halophilic hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms, particularly the ones of the Marinobacter genus, are the most abundant only under hypersaline conditions. Enzymes pertaining to hydrocarbon biodegradation pathways are noticeably less abundant at high salinities, specifically for those pertaining to the degradation pathways of aromatics. Both experiments indicated that high porewater salinity in the upper parts of sandy beaches could significantly slow down the microbial degradation of crude oil, specifically that of the aromatic fraction. Consequently, occasional irrigation with seawater (i.e., to decrease the salinity) with fertilization could be a suitable bioremediation strategy for the upper parts of contaminated beaches. However, given that the high oil concentration in sandy beaches also plays a major role in the persistence of petroleum hydrocarbons on contaminated shorelines, chemically dispersing the spilled oil at sea and preventing it from reaching the coast is probably the most suitable option for its optimal removal from marine and coastal ecosystems

Mitochondrial-Derived Peptides Are Down Regulated in Diabetes Subjects

Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and the development of diabetes related complications such as cardiovascular disease and stroke. Mitochondria produce several small polypeptides that may influence mitochondrial function and may impact on insulin sensitivity, such as humanin (HN) and the mitochondrial open reading frame of the 12S rRNA type-c (MOTS-c) that are mitochondrial derived proteins (MDP). The aim of this study was to determine MDP in normal, prediabetes and diabetes subjects.Subjects and Measurements: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the serum concentrations of MDP and adiponectin (ADP) in 225 subjects: normal (n = 68), pre-diabetes (n = 33), T2D less than (good control; n = 31), and greater than HbA1c 7% (poor control; n = 93) subjects. The relationship of serum MDP and ADP concentrations with biochemical and anthropometric measurements were performed and assessed by multilinear regression.Results: Serum HN concentrations were lower in T2D (p < 0.0001) and negatively correlated with age (p < 0.0001), HbA1c (p < 0.0001), glucose (p < 0.0001), triglycerides (p < 0.003), ALT (p < 0.004), and TG/HDL ratio (p < 0.001). Circulating HN levels were positively correlated to cholesterol (p < 0.017), LDL (p < 0.001), and HDL (p < 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed that HbA1c and ALT were two independent predictors of circulating HN. Similarly, serum MOTS-c was significantly lower in T2D subjects compared to controls (p < 0.007). Circulating MOTS-c positively correlated with BMI (p < 0.035), total cholesterol (p < 0.0001), and LDL (p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with age (p < 0.002), HbA1c (p < 0.001), and glucose (p < 0.002). Serum ADP concentrations were lower in T2D (p < 0.002) and negatively correlated with HbA1c (p < 0.001), weight (p < 0.032) TG (p < 0.0001), and ALT (p < 0.0001); and positively correlated with HDL (p < 0.0001) and HN (p < 0.003). Linear regression analysis showed that HbA1c and weight were two independent predictors of circulating ADP. Multilinear regression showed that HN and MOT-c correlated with each other, and only HN correlated with HbA1c.Conclusion: The MDPs HN and MOT-c, similar to ADP, are decreased in T2D and correlate with HbA1c. The data provide an additional evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to glycemic dysregulation and metabolic defects in T2D

Public health effects of travel-related policies on the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods systematic review

Objectives: To map travel policies implemented due to COVID-19 during 2020, and conduct a mixed methods systematic review of health effects of such policies, and related contextual factors. Design: Policy mapping and systematic review. Data sources and Eligibility Criteria: for the policy mapping, we searched websites of relevant government bodies and used data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker for a convenient sample of 31 countries across different regions. For the systematic review, we searched Medline (Ovid), PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and COVID-19 specific databases. We included randomized controlled trial, non-randomized studies, modeling studies, and qualitative studies. Two independent reviewers selected studies, abstracted data and assessed risk of bias. Results: Most countries adopted a total border closure at the start of the pandemic. For the remainder of the year, partial border closure banning arrivals from some countries or regions was the most widely adopted measure, followed by mandatory quarantine and screening of travelers. The systematic search identified 69 eligible studies, including 50 modeling studies. Both observational and modeling evidence suggest that border closure may reduce the number of COVID-19 cases, disease spread across countries and between regions, and slow the progression of the outbreak. These effects are likely to be enhanced when implemented early, and when combined with measures reducing transmission rates in the community. Quarantine of travelers may decrease the number of COVID-19 cases but its effectiveness depends on compliance and enforcement and is more effective if followed by testing, especially when less than 14 day-quarantine is considered. Screening at departure and/or arrival is unlikely to detect a large proportion of cases or to delay an outbreak. Effectiveness of screening may be improved with increased sensitivity of screening tests, awareness of travelers, asymptomatic screening, and exit screening at country source. While four studies on contextual evidence found that the majority of the public is supportive of travel restrictions, they uncovered concerns about the unintended harms of those policies.Peer Reviewe

Children's Philosophical Abilities: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry Into Children's Ability To Practice Philosophy

Title: Children's Philosophical Abilities: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry Into Children's Ability To Practice Philosophy. Author: Abou Khalil, Charbel Supervisor: Maesschalck, Marc Academic year: 2020-2021 Title of the study programme: Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in French and German Philosophies: Contemporary Challenges. Abstract: Is the child capable of philosophising? The doxa answers in the negative. In fact, childhood has long been equated with intellectual immaturity. According to the work of Jean Piaget, which continues to guide many current pedagogical practices, philosophy, requiring inner dialogue, abstraction, and formal logic, is inaccessible to children whose thinking is egocentric, concrete and irrational. Yet, since the 1970s, we have witnessed the emergence of new pedagogical practices, designed for the philosophical education of children from the age of five: Philosophy for Children (P4C), advocated by Matthew Lipman, is based on the principle of educational interventionism, and seeks to challenge the child's reason in order to discover its dormant cognitive potential. With its theoretical foundations in John Dewey's pragmatism and Lev Vygotsky's social constructivism, it opposes the Piagetian conception of cognitive development and challenges the three characteristics of the child's..

Filosofické dovednosti dětí: Interdisciplinární výzkum schopnosti dětí praktikovat filosofii

Titre : Les capacités philosophiques des enfants : enquête interdisciplinaire sur l'habileté des enfants à pratiquer la philosophie. Auteur : Abou Khalil, Charbel Promoteur : Maesschalck, Marc Année académique : 2020-2021 Intitulé du master et de la finalité : Master [120] en philosophie, à finalité spécialisée : philosophies allemandes et françaises : enjeux contemporains. Résumé : L'enfant est-il capable de philosopher ? La doxa répond par la négative. En effet, l'enfance a longtemps été assimilée à l'immaturité intellectuelle. Selon les travaux de Jean Piaget qui continuent d'orienter de nombreuses pratiques pédagogiques actuelles, la philosophie, nécessitant le dialogue intérieur, l'abstraction et la logique formelle, s'avère inaccessible à l'enfant dont la pensée est égocentrique, concrète et irrationnelle. Et pourtant, à partir des années 1970, nous avons assisté à l'émergence de nouvelles pratiques pédagogiques, conçues pour l'éducation philosophique des enfants dès l'âge de cinq ans : la Philosophie pour enfants (P4C), préconisée par Matthew Lipman, repose sur le principe d'interventionnisme éducatif et cherche à défier la raison enfantine afin de découvrir son potentiel cognitif dormant. Ayant ses fondements théoriques dans le pragmatisme de John Dewey et le socioconstructivisme de Lev Vygotski,...Title: Children's Philosophical Abilities: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry Into Children's Ability To Practice Philosophy. Author: Abou Khalil, Charbel Supervisor: Maesschalck, Marc Academic year: 2020-2021 Title of the study programme: Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in French and German Philosophies: Contemporary Challenges. Abstract: Is the child capable of philosophising? The doxa answers in the negative. In fact, childhood has long been equated with intellectual immaturity. According to the work of Jean Piaget, which continues to guide many current pedagogical practices, philosophy, requiring inner dialogue, abstraction, and formal logic, is inaccessible to children whose thinking is egocentric, concrete and irrational. Yet, since the 1970s, we have witnessed the emergence of new pedagogical practices, designed for the philosophical education of children from the age of five: Philosophy for Children (P4C), advocated by Matthew Lipman, is based on the principle of educational interventionism, and seeks to challenge the child's reason in order to discover its dormant cognitive potential. With its theoretical foundations in John Dewey's pragmatism and Lev Vygotsky's social constructivism, it opposes the Piagetian conception of cognitive development and challenges the three characteristics of the child's...Department of PhilosophyKatedra filosofieFakulta humanitních studiíFaculty of Humanitie

Flow sculpting enabled anaerobic digester for energy recovery from low-solid content waste

Traditionally, energy recovery from low-solid-content wastes occurs in Continuously Stirred Tank Reactors, whereas Plug Flow Reactors (PFR) are used to treat high-solid-content wastes. In comparison, this study uses a special configuration of anaerobic PFR (AnPFR), consisting of a coiled tubular structure, for energy recovery from a mixture of Food Waste and Wastewater, fed at a loading rate of 3 gVS.L−1.d−1 and a solids content of 2.5%. The AnPFR was upgraded into a Flow Sculpting enabled Anaerobic Digester (FSAD), an innovative plug flow design relying on flow sculpting via a sequence of pillars to provide passive mixing. The purpose of the FSAD design is to optimize operational performance while maintaining minimum mixing energy requirements. Computational fluid dynamics simulations revealed that pillars induce local vorticity in the fluid and contribute to the inertial deformation of the flow to enhance mixing. Coherently, experimental results proved that upgrading the AnPFR to FSAD resulted in a better stability (VFA dropped from 4433 to 2034 mg L−1) and a higher efficiency (removal efficiencies of COD and volatile solids increased from 75% to 77%–88% and 91%, respectively). Equally important, the methane yield, indicative of energy generation potential, increased from 181 L kg VSfed−1 to 291 L kg VSfed−1.This is a manuscript of an article published as Ghanimeh, Sophia, Charbel Abou Khalil, Daniel Stoecklein, Aditya Kommasojula, and Baskar Ganapathysubramanian. "Flow sculpting enabled anaerobic digester for energy recovery from low-solid content waste." Renewable Energy (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.02.071. Posted with permission.</p

Post-Formation of Oil Particle Aggregates: Breakup and Biodegradation

Spilled oil slicks are likely to break into droplets in the subtidal and intertidal zones of seashores due to wave energy. The nonliving suspended fine particles in coastal ecosystems can interact with the dispersed oil droplets, resulting in the formation of Oil Particle Aggregates (OPAs). Many investigations assumed that these aggregates will settle due to the particles’ high density. Recent studies, however, reported that some particles penetrate the oil droplets, which results in further breakup while forming smaller OPAs that remain suspended in the water column. Here, we investigated the interaction of crude oil droplets with intertidal and subtidal sediments, as well as artificial pure kaolinite, in natural seawater. Results showed that the interaction between oil droplets and intertidal sediments was not particularly stable, with an Oil Trapping Efficiency (OTE) < 25%. When using subtidal sediments, OTE reached 56%. With artificial kaolinite, OPA formation and breakup were more significant (OTE reaching up to 67%) and occurred faster (within 12 h). Oil chemistry analysis showed that the biodegradation of oil in seawater (half-life of 485 h) was significantly enhanced with the addition of sediments, with half-lives of 305, 265, and 150 h when adding intertidal sediments, subtidal sediments, and pure kaolinite, respectively. Such results reveal how the sediments’ shape and size affect the various oil–sediment interaction mechanisms, and the subsequent impact on the microbial degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons. Future studies should consider investigating the application of fine (several microns) and sharp (elongated-sheeted) sediments as a nondestructive and nontoxic technique for dispersing marine oil spills

Global variation in postoperative mortality and complications after cancer surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study in 82 countries

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licenseBackground: 80% of individuals with cancer will require a surgical procedure, yet little comparative data exist on early outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared postoperative outcomes in breast, colorectal, and gastric cancer surgery in hospitals worldwide, focusing on the effect of disease stage and complications on postoperative mortality. Methods: This was a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of consecutive adult patients undergoing surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia. The primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery. Multilevel logistic regression determined relationships within three-level nested models of patients within hospitals and countries. Hospital-level infrastructure effects were explored with three-way mediation analyses. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03471494. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and Jan 31, 2019, we enrolled 15 958 patients from 428 hospitals in 82 countries (high income 9106 patients, 31 countries; upper-middle income 2721 patients, 23 countries; or lower-middle income 4131 patients, 28 countries). Patients in LMICs presented with more advanced disease compared with patients in high-income countries. 30-day mortality was higher for gastric cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (adjusted odds ratio 3·72, 95% CI 1·70–8·16) and for colorectal cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (4·59, 2·39–8·80) and upper-middle-income countries (2·06, 1·11–3·83). No difference in 30-day mortality was seen in breast cancer. The proportion of patients who died after a major complication was greatest in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (6·15, 3·26–11·59) and upper-middle-income countries (3·89, 2·08–7·29). Postoperative death after complications was partly explained by patient factors (60%) and partly by hospital or country (40%). The absence of consistently available postoperative care facilities was associated with seven to 10 more deaths per 100 major complications in LMICs. Cancer stage alone explained little of the early variation in mortality or postoperative complications. Interpretation: Higher levels of mortality after cancer surgery in LMICs was not fully explained by later presentation of disease. The capacity to rescue patients from surgical complications is a tangible opportunity for meaningful intervention. Early death after cancer surgery might be reduced by policies focusing on strengthening perioperative care systems to detect and intervene in common complications. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Global Health Research Unit

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseBackground: Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide. Methods: A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study—a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3·85 [95% CI 2·58–5·75]; p<0·0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63·0% vs 82·7%; OR 0·35 [0·23–0·53]; p<0·0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer. Interpretation: Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised. Funding: National Institute for Health and Care Research