Antimicrobial Properties of Native American Herbal Tea: Hypericum hypericoides

Patients with obesity and type II diabetes are characterized by an altered gut microbiome. Antimicrobial agents may be a possible avenue to restore normal gut microbiota. These experiments were designed to test Hypericum hypericoides or St. John the Worker, a traditional medicine of the Lumbee Native American tribe of North Carolina, for antimicrobial properties on thirteen different bodily bacteria. Experiments from Spring 2018 suggested that plant-paste made from Hypericum hypericoides had antibiotic properties. For further experiments, the thirteen bacteria were streaked over three Mueller-Hinton agar plates per bacteria, and each plate was divided into four sections with three different antibiotics and one disc of water per plate as a negative control. The third plate per bacteria had two different antibiotics, one water disc, and 75% plant-paste to test Hypericum hypericoides antibiotic properties against seven standard antibiotics. The plant-pastes for all experiments were made with approximate concentrations of 100% and 75% with 0.5g of plant to 0.5mL of water and 0.375g of plant to 0.5mL of water respectively. Experiments on Mueller-Hinton agar plates instead of bacteria specific growth media illustrated inhibition on three of five bacteria. Since both experiments yielded antibiotic inhibition to some degree, we also performed the same tests done on the Mueller-Hinton agar plates on Tryptic Soy Agar and Luria Broth Agar plates to compare the antibiotic standard inhibition zones to the inhibition results seen from the plant-pastes in Spring 2018. The results suggest growth inhibition of five of the thirteen studied species: Corynebacterium xerosis, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Neisseria sicca. Our experimental data suggest a possible avenue of therapy by using traditional medicines to target altered microbiomes in obesity and type II diabetes

Missionary Station, No. 7 [Word list in Dakota and Wasicun] [n.p., n. d.].

On verso: 24 n 5

Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research

Miles et al focus on uncrewed ocean gliders and saildrones support hurricane forecasting and research. Components of the sustained ocean observing system are useful for understanding the role of the ocean in hurricane intensity changes. Here, the authors provide a broad overview of the ongoing US hurricane glider project and details of a new effort with the Saildrone USV during the 2021 hurricane season. While this article focuses on the US East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea, similar efforts are underway in Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and China, among other countries

Evaluating Community-Based Translational Interventions Using Historical Controls: Propensity Score vs. Disease Risk Score Approach.

Many community-based translations of evidence-based interventions are designed as one-arm studies due to ethical and other considerations. Evaluating the impacts of such programs is challenging. Here, we examine the effectiveness of the lifestyle intervention implemented by the Special Diabetes Program for Indians Diabetes Prevention (SDPI-DP) demonstration project, a translational lifestyle intervention among American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Data from the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program placebo group was used as a historical control. We compared the use of propensity score (PS) and disease risk score (DRS) matching to adjust for potential confounder imbalance between groups. The unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) for diabetes risk was 0.35 for SDPI-DP lifestyle intervention vs. control. However, when relevant diabetes risk factors were considered, the adjusted HR estimates were attenuated toward 1, ranging from 0.56 (95% CI 0.44-0.71) to 0.69 (95% CI 0.56-0.96). The differences in estimated HRs using the PS and DRS approaches were relatively small but DRS matching resulted in more participants being matched and smaller standard errors of effect estimates. Carefully employed, publicly available randomized clinical trial data can be used as a historical control to evaluate the intervention effectiveness of one-arm community translational initiatives. It is critical to use a proper statistical method to balance the distributions of potential confounders between comparison groups in this kind of evaluations

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns (code)

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable, with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions. However, under strict lockdowns, 10-day 95th percentile displacements increased by 73%, suggesting increased landscape permeability. Animals' 1-hour 95th percentile displacements declined by 12%, and animals were 36% closer to roads in areas of high human footprint, indicating reduced avoidance during lockdowns. Overall, lockdowns rapidly altered some spatial behaviors, highlighting variable but substantial impacts of human mobility on wildlife worldwide