Engineered bidirectional communication mediates a consensus in a microbial biofilm consortium

Microbial consortia form when multiple species colocalize and communally generate a function that none is capable of alone. Consortia abound in nature, and their cooperative metabolic activities influence everything from biodiversity in the global food chain to human weight gain. Here, we present an engineered consortium in which the microbial members communicate with each other and exhibit a “consensus” gene expression response. Two colocalized populations of Escherichia coli converse bidirectionally by exchanging acyl-homoserine lactone signals. The consortium generates the gene-expression response if and only if both populations are present at sufficient cell densities. Because neither population can respond without the other's signal, this consensus function can be considered a logical AND gate in which the inputs are cell populations. The microbial consensus consortium operates in diverse growth modes, including in a biofilm, where it sustains its response for several days

Blended Learning Environments in Higher Education: A Case Study of How Professors Make it Happen

Blended learning has become a prominent method of course content delivery in higher education. Researchers have found that motivation, communication, and course design are three factors that contribute to the overall success of blended learning courses and students’ satisfaction with blended learning courses. This qualitative study also found that course preparation emerged through the participant interviews as a contributing factor. What remains unclear, however, is whether faculty take these factors into consideration when preparing to teach a blended learning course and, if so, how. In this study, a collective case study of five faculty of blended learning courses was conducted to investigate how they prepared to teach a blended learning course and how they considered course preparation, course design, communication, and motivation. The findings suggest that the faculty did consider these four factors to varying degrees

Is there a Role for miRNA in Bone Dynamics, Bone Disease and Osteoporotic Hip Fracture?

Bone is a dynamic material critical to human form and function. Bone strength and structure is maintained by a dynamic homeostasis; bone re-modelling. Osteoporosis is a degenerative bone disease whereby reduced bone quantity and quality results in increased fracture risk. Osteoporotic fractures confer high levels of morbidity and mortality. Osteoporosis is escalating in its impact worldwide in parallel with the growing global population and increasing life expectancy affecting both individuals and the health care systems that serve them. Novel diagnostics, prognostics and therapeutics are needed for osteoporosis. miRNA are small non-coding RNAs which achieve a regulatory function by complimentary binding to the 3\u27 UTR of target mRNA to bring about their translational inhibition or degradation, thus regulating gene expression. miRNA have been shown to have a role in many body systems and diseases and have previously been associated with bone dynamics and disease in-vitro. A method was designed and optimised for the processing, homogenisation and reliable extraction of good quality total RNA from fresh frozen bone tissue. Amplification of rniRNA from this total RNA was achieved. The miRNA profiles of trabecular and cortical femoral bone tissue from osteopenic and osteoporotic hip fracture patients were assessed and compare to controls. miRNA consistently differentially expressed with disease were short-listed and cross referenced to identify their predicted mRNA targets of interest in bone dynamics and disease. 76 miRNA were demonstrated to be consistently differentially expressed in diseased bone tissue, with most being specifically differentially expressed in either cortical or trabecular bone. Only 5 miRNA were differentially regulated in both bone types. The differential expression of miRNA with disease state indicates a role for miRNA in bone dynamics and disease, with miRNA short-listed linked to predicted target mRNA previously shown to be key in osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation and proliferation. Two of the miRNA short-listed by profiling, miR-532-3p and miR-877, were specifically experimentally up- and down-regulated in a human osteoblast cell line. The promotion and suppression of these two miRNA was shown to have no effect on alkaline phosphatase and collagen type 1 A1 expression levels over the course of a 6 day study in-vitro

The Influence of Typography on Algorithms that Predict the Speed and Comfort of Reading.

1. The speed with which text can be read is determined in part by the spatial regularity and similarity of vertical letter strokes as assessed by the height of the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation of the text. The height of this peak was determined for two passages in 20 fonts. The peak was unaffected by the size of the text or its content but was influenced by the font design. Sans serif fonts usually had a lower peak than serif fonts because the presence of serifs usually (but not invariably) resulted in a more even spacing of letter strokes. There were small effects of justification and font-dependent effects of font expansion and compression. 2. The visual comfort of images can be estimated from the extent to which the Fourier amplitude spectrum conforms to 1/f. Students were asked to adjust iBooks to obtain their preferred settings of font and layout. The preference was predicted by the extent to which the Fourier amplitude spectrum approximated 1/f, which in turn was jointly affected by the design of the font, its weight and the ratio of x-height to line separation. Two algorithms based on the autocorrelation and Fourier transformation of text can be usefully applied to any orthography to estimate likely speed and comfort of reading

Novel approaches to screening for noncommunicable diseases: Lessons from Neno, Malawi

Background: As Malawi continues to suffer from a large burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), models for NCD screening need to be developed that do not overload a health system that is already heavily burdened by communicable diseases.Methods: This descriptive study examined 3 screening programmes for NCDs in Neno, Malawi, that were implemented from June 2015 to December 2016. The NCD screening models were integrated into existing platforms, utilising regular mass screening events in the community, patients awaiting to be seen in a combined NCD and HIV clinic, and patients awaiting treatment at outpatient departments (OPDs). Focusing on hypertension and diabetes, we screened all adults 30 years and above for hypertension using a single blood pressure cut-off of 160/110 mmHg, as well as adults 40 years and above for diabetes, measuring either random blood sugar (RBS) or fasting blood sugar (FBS), with referral criteria of FBS > 126 mg/dL and RBS > 200 mg/dL. Data were collected on specifically designed screening registers, then entered and analysed in Excel.Results: Over 14,000 adults (≥ 12 years old) were screened for an array of common conditions at community screening events. Of these adults, 58% (n = 8133) and 29% (n = 4016) were screened for hypertension and diabetes, respectively. Nine percent (n = 716) and 3% ( n = 113) were referred for further hypertension and diabetes assessment respectively. At one OPD, 5818 patients (60%) had their blood pressures measured, and among adults 30 years and above, 168 eligible adults were referred for further hypertension assessment. Since the initiation of the screening programmes, the number of patients ever enrolled for NCD care every 3 months has nearly tripled, from 40 to 114.Conclusions: The screening models have shown that it is not only feasible to introduce NCD screening into a public system, but screening may have also contributed to increased enrolment in NCD care in Neno, Malawi

Carbon­yl[tris­(3,5-diphenyl­pyrazol-1-yl-κN 2)methane]copper(I) hexa­fluorido­phosphate–dichloro­methane–diethyl ether (4/3/1)

In the title compound, [Cu(C46H34N6)(CO)]PF6·0.75CH2Cl2·0.25C4H10O, the CuI atom is coordinated by three N atoms from the tridentate chelating tris­(3,5-diphenyl­pyrazol-1-yl)methane ligand (average Cu—N distance = 2.055 Å) and the C atom from a carbon monoxide ligand in a distorted tetra­hedral coordination geometry. The average N—Cu—N angle between adjacent pyrazole-ring-coordinated N atoms is 88.6°, while the average N—Cu—C angle between the pyrazole-bound N atom and the C atom of carbon monoxide is 126.3°. One of the 3-phenyl rings of the tris­(pyrazol­yl)methane ligand is disordered over two sites each with an occupancy factor of 0.50. The structure also exhibits disorder of the monosolvate that has been modeled with 0.75 CH2Cl2 and 0.25 Et2O occupancy

Evaluating the impact of a community health worker program on non-communicable disease, malnutrition, tuberculosis, family planning and antenatal care in Neno, Malawi : protocol for a stepped-wedge, cluster randomized controlled trial

Introduction: This protocol concerns the implementation and evaluation of an intervention designed to realign the existing cadre of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Neno District, Malawi to better support the care needs of the clients they serve. The proposed intervention is a ‘Household Model’ where CHWs will be reassigned to households, rather than to specific patients with HIV and/or TB. Methods and Analysis: Using a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized design, this study investigates whether high HIV retention rates can be replicated for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and the Model’s impact on TB and pediatric malnutrition case-finding, as well as the uptake of family planning and antenatal care. Eleven sites (health centres and hospitals) were arranged into six clusters (average cluster population 21,800). Primary outcomes include retention in care for HIV and chronic NCDs, TB case finding, pediatric malnutrition case finding, and utilization of early and complete antenatal. Clinical outcomes are based on routinely collected data the Ministry of Health’s District Health Information System 2 and an OpenMRS Electronic Medical Record supported by Partners In Health. Additionally, semi-structured qualitative interviews with various stakeholders will assess community perceptions and context of the Household Model. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been obtained from the Malawian National Health Science Research Committee (#16/11/1694) in Lilongwe, Malawi; Partners Healthcare Human Research Committee (#2017P000548/PHS) in Somerville, Massachusetts; and by the Biomedical and Scientific Research Ethics Sub-Committee (REGO-2017-2060) at the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom. Dissemination will include manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication as well as a full report detailing the findings of the intervention for the Malawian Ministry of Health. Registration: Registered on ClinicalTrials.gov in April 2017. Identifier: NCT0310672

Controlling the symmetry of inorganic ionic nanofilms with optical chirality

Manipulating symmetry environments of metal ions to control functional properties is a fundamental concept of chemistry. For example, lattice strain enables control of symmetry in solids through a change in the nuclear positions surrounding a metal centre. Light–matter interactions can also induce strain but providing dynamic symmetry control is restricted to specific materials under intense laser illumination. Here, we show how effective chemical symmetry can be tuned by creating a symmetry-breaking rotational bulk polarisation in the electronic charge distribution surrounding a metal centre, which we term a meta-crystal field. The effect arises from an interface-mediated transfer of optical spin from a chiral light beam to produce an electronic torque that replicates the effect of strain created by high pressures. Since the phenomenon does not rely on a physical rearrangement of nuclear positions, material constraints are lifted, thus providing a generic and fully reversible method of manipulating effective symmetry in solids

Self-Organization, Layered Structure, and Aggregation Enhance Persistence of a Synthetic Biofilm Consortium

Microbial consortia constitute a majority of the earth’s biomass, but little is known about how these cooperating communities persist despite competition among community members. Theory suggests that non-random spatial structures contribute to the persistence of mixed communities; when particular structures form, they may provide associated community members with a growth advantage over unassociated members. If true, this has implications for the rise and persistence of multi-cellular organisms. However, this theory is difficult to study because we rarely observe initial instances of non-random physical structure in natural populations. Using two engineered strains of Escherichia coli that constitute a synthetic symbiotic microbial consortium, we fortuitously observed such spatial self-organization. This consortium forms a biofilm and, after several days, adopts a defined layered structure that is associated with two unexpected, measurable growth advantages. First, the consortium cannot successfully colonize a new, downstream environment until it selforganizes in the initial environment; in other words, the structure enhances the ability of the consortium to survive environmental disruptions. Second, when the layered structure forms in downstream environments the consortium accumulates significantly more biomass than it did in the initial environment; in other words, the structure enhances the global productivity of the consortium. We also observed that the layered structure only assembles in downstream environments that are colonized by aggregates from a previous, structured community. These results demonstrate roles for self-organization and aggregation in persistence of multi-cellular communities, and also illustrate a role for the techniques of synthetic biology in elucidating fundamental biological principles