Effects of chlorpyrifos on macroinvertebrate communities in coastal stream mesocosms

This study measured the effects of a single pulse of chlorpyrifos at nominal concentrations of 1 and 10 μg/l on the macroinvertebrate community structure of a coastal stream mesocosm system. Analysis of data using Principal Response Curves (PRC) and Monte Carlo tests showed significant changes in the treated stream mesocosms relative to that of the controls. These changes in the macroinvertebrate assemblages occurred within 6 h, and persisted for at least 124 days after dosing. Significant community-level effects were detected at the lowest concentration on days 2 and 16 post-dosing, giving a no-observed effect concentration (NOECcommunity) of 1.2 μg/l (measured). The mayflies Atalophlebia sp. and Koorrnonga sp., Chironomidae and Acarina were all sensitive to chlorpyrifos and decreased in abundance in treated mesocosms after dosing. The fauna of these coastal stream mesocosms showed similar sensitivity to chlorpyrifos with that of other reported studies, but there was no evidence of recovery after 124 days. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Study protocol for a multicentre longitudinal mixed methods study to explore the Outcomes of ChildrEn and fAmilies in the first year after paediatric Intensive Care: the OCEANIC study.

INTRODUCTION: Annually in the UK, 20 000 children become very ill or injured and need specialist care within a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Most children survive. However, some children and their families may experience problems after they have left the PICU including physical, functional and/or emotional problems. It is unknown which children and families experience such problems, when these occur or what causes them. The aim of this mixed-method longitudinal cohort study is to understand the physical, functional, emotional and social impact of children surviving PICU (aged: 1 month-17 years), their parents and siblings, during the first year after a PICU admission. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A quantitative study involving 300 child survivors of PICU; 300 parents; and 150-300 siblings will collect data (using self-completion questionnaires) at baseline, PICU discharge, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-PICU discharge. Questionnaires will comprise validated and reliable instruments. Demographic data, PICU admission and treatment data, health-related quality of life, functional status, strengths and difficulties behaviour and post-traumatic stress symptoms will be collected from the child. Parent and sibling data will be collected on the impact of paediatric health conditions on the family's functioning capabilities, levels of anxiety and social impact of the child's PICU admission. Data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Concurrently, an embedded qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with 24 enrolled families at 3 months and 9 months post-PICU discharge will be undertaken. Framework analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has received ethical approval from the National Health Services Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 19/WM/0290) and full governance clearance. This will be the first UK study to comprehensively investigate physical, functional, emotional and social consequences of PICU survival in the first-year postdischarge.Clinical Trials Registration Number: ISRCTN28072812 [Pre-results]

High-pressure study of the behavior of mineral barite by X-ray diffraction

In this paper, we report the angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction data of barite, BaSO 4, measured in a diamond-anvil cell up to a pressure of 48 GPa, using three different fluid pressure-transmitting media (methanol-ethanol mixture, silicone oil, and He). Our results show that BaSO 4 exhibits a phase transition at pressures that range from 15 to 27 GPa, depending on the pressure media used. This indicates that nonhydrostatic stresses have a crucial role in the high-pressure behavior of this compound. The new high-pressure (HP) phase has been solved and refined from powder data, having an orthorhombic P2 12 12 1 structure. The pressure dependence of the structural parameters of both room- and HP phases of BaSO 4 is also discussed in light of our theoretical first-principles total-energy calculations. Finally, a comparison between the different equations of state obtained in our experiments is reported. © 2011 American Physical Society.Financial support from the Spanish Consolider Ingenio 2010 Program (Project No. CDS2007-00045) is acknowledged. The work was also supported by Spanish MICCIN under Projects No. CTQ2009-14596-C02-01 and No. MAT2010-21270-C04-01 as well as from Comunidad de Madrid and European Social Fund: S2009/PPQ-1551 4161893 (QUIMAPRES). The ESRF is acknowledged for provision of beamtime.Santamaría-Pérez, D.; Gracia, L.; Garbarino, G.; Beltrán, A.; Chuliá-Jordán, R.; Gomis Hilario, O.; Errandonea, D.... (2011). High-pressure study of the behavior of mineral barite by X-ray diffraction. Physical Review B. 84:54102-1-54102-8. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.054102S54102-154102-884RUBIN, A. E. (1997). Mineralogy of meteorite groups. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 32(2), 231-247. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1997.tb01262.xVegas, A. (2000). Cations in Inorganic Solids. Crystallography Reviews, 7(3), 189-283. doi:10.1080/08893110008044245Santamaría-Pérez, D., & Vegas, A. (2003). The Zintl–Klemm concept applied to cations in oxides. I. The structures of ternary aluminates. Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Science, 59(3), 305-323. doi:10.1107/s0108768103005615Vegas, A., & Jansen, M. (2001). Structural relationships between cations and alloys; an equivalence between oxidation and pressure. Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Science, 58(1), 38-51. doi:10.1107/s0108768101019310Lee, P.-L., Huang, E., & Yu, S.-C. (2001). Phase diagram and equations of state of BaSO4. High Pressure Research, 21(2), 67-77. doi:10.1080/08957950108201005Lee, P.-L., Huang, E., & Yu, S.-C. (2003). High-pressure Raman and X-ray studies of barite, BaSO4. High Pressure Research, 23(4), 439-450. doi:10.1080/0895795031000115439Crichton, W. A., Merlini, M., Hanfland, M., & Muller, H. (2011). The crystal structure of barite, BaSO4, at high pressure. American Mineralogist, 96(2-3), 364-367. doi:10.2138/am.2011.3656Errandonea, D., Santamaria-Perez, D., Bondarenko, T., & Khyzhun, O. (2010). New high-pressure phase of HfTiO4 and ZrTiO4 ceramics. Materials Research Bulletin, 45(11), 1732-1735. doi:10.1016/j.materresbull.2010.06.061López-Solano, J., Rodríguez-Hernández, P., Muñoz, A., Gomis, O., Santamaría-Perez, D., Errandonea, D., … Raptis, C. (2010). Theoretical and experimental study of the structural stability ofTbPO4at high pressures. Physical Review B, 81(14). doi:10.1103/physrevb.81.144126Hammersley, A. P., Svensson, S. O., Hanfland, M., Fitch, A. N., & Hausermann, D. (1996). Two-dimensional detector software: From real detector to idealised image or two-theta scan. High Pressure Research, 14(4-6), 235-248. doi:10.1080/08957959608201408Mao, H. K., Xu, J., & Bell, P. M. (1986). Calibration of the ruby pressure gauge to 800 kbar under quasi-hydrostatic conditions. Journal of Geophysical Research, 91(B5), 4673. doi:10.1029/jb091ib05p04673Rodríguez-Carvajal, J. (1993). Recent advances in magnetic structure determination by neutron powder diffraction. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 192(1-2), 55-69. doi:10.1016/0921-4526(93)90108-iBecke, A. D. (1993). Density‐functional thermochemistry. III. The role of exact exchange. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 98(7), 5648-5652. doi:10.1063/1.464913Lee, C., Yang, W., & Parr, R. G. (1988). Development of the Colle-Salvetti correlation-energy formula into a functional of the electron density. Physical Review B, 37(2), 785-789. doi:10.1103/physrevb.37.785Gracia, L., Beltrán, A., & Andrés, J. (2007). Characterization of the High-Pressure Structures and Phase Transformations in SnO2. A Density Functional Theory Study. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 111(23), 6479-6485. doi:10.1021/jp067443vGracia, L., Beltrán, A., & Errandonea, D. (2009). Characterization of theTiSiO4structure and its pressure-induced phase transformations: Density functional theory study. Physical Review B, 80(9). doi:10.1103/physrevb.80.094105Blanco, M. A., Francisco, E., & Luaña, V. (2004). GIBBS: isothermal-isobaric thermodynamics of solids from energy curves using a quasi-harmonic Debye model. Computer Physics Communications, 158(1), 57-72. doi:10.1016/j.comphy.2003.12.001Errandonea, D., Santamaría-Perez, D., Vegas, A., Nuss, J., Jansen, M., Rodríguez-Hernandez, P., & Muñoz, A. (2008). Structural stability ofFe5Si3andNi2Sistudied by high-pressure x-ray diffraction andab initiototal-energy calculations. Physical Review B, 77(9). doi:10.1103/physrevb.77.094113Santamarı́a-Pérez, D., Nuss, J., Haines, J., Jansen, M., & Vegas, A. (2004). Iron silicides and their corresponding oxides: a high-pressure study of Fe5Si3. Solid State Sciences, 6(7), 673-678. doi:10.1016/j.solidstatesciences.2004.03.027Errandonea, D., Meng, Y., Somayazulu, M., & Häusermann, D. (2005). Pressure-induced transition in titanium metal: a systematic study of the effects of uniaxial stress. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 355(1-4), 116-125. doi:10.1016/j.physb.2004.10.030Klotz, S., Paumier, L., Le March, G., & Munsch, P. (2009). The effect of temperature on the hydrostatic limit of 4:1 methanol–ethanol under pressure. High Pressure Research, 29(4), 649-652. doi:10.1080/08957950903418194Errandonea, D., & Manjón, F. J. (2008). Pressure effects on the structural and electronic properties of ABX4 scintillating crystals. Progress in Materials Science, 53(4), 711-773. doi:10.1016/j.pmatsci.2008.02.001Lacomba-Perales, R., Errandonea, D., Meng, Y., & Bettinelli, M. (2010). High-pressure stability and compressibility ofAPO4(A=La, Nd, Eu, Gd, Er, and Y) orthophosphates: An x-ray diffraction study using synchrotron radiation. Physical Review B, 81(6). doi:10.1103/physrevb.81.064113Crichton, W. A., Parise, J. B., Antao, S. M., & Grzechnik, A. (2005). Evidence for monazite-, barite-, and AgMnO4(distorted barite)-type structures of CaSO4at high pressure and temperature. American Mineralogist, 90(1), 22-27. doi:10.2138/am.2005.1654Huang, T., Shieh, S. R., Akhmetov, A., Liu, X., Lin, C.-M., & Lee, J.-S. (2010). Pressure-induced phase transition inBaCrO4. Physical Review B, 81(21). doi:10.1103/physrevb.81.214117Zhang, F. X., Wang, J. W., Lang, M., Zhang, J. M., Ewing, R. C., & Boatner, L. A. (2009). High-pressure phase transitions ofScPO4andYPO4. Physical Review B, 80(18). doi:10.1103/physrevb.80.184114Panchal, V., Garg, N., & Sharma, S. M. (2006). Raman and x-ray diffraction investigations on BaMoO4under high pressures. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 18(16), 3917-3929. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/18/16/00

Fructose transport-deficient Staphylococcus aureus reveals important role of epithelial glucose transporters in limiting sugar-driven bacterial growth in airway surface liquid.

Hyperglycaemia as a result of diabetes mellitus or acute illness is associated with increased susceptibility to respiratory infection with Staphylococcus aureus. Hyperglycaemia increases the concentration of glucose in airway surface liquid (ASL) and promotes the growth of S. aureus in vitro and in vivo. Whether elevation of other sugars in the blood, such as fructose, also results in increased concentrations in ASL is unknown and whether sugars in ASL are directly utilised by S. aureus for growth has not been investigated. We obtained mutant S. aureus JE2 strains with transposon disrupted sugar transport genes. NE768(fruA) exhibited restricted growth in 10 mM fructose. In H441 airway epithelial-bacterial co-culture, elevation of basolateral sugar concentration (5-20 mM) increased the apical growth of JE2. However, sugar-induced growth of NE768(fruA) was significantly less when basolateral fructose rather than glucose was elevated. This is the first experimental evidence to show that S. aureus directly utilises sugars present in the ASL for growth. Interestingly, JE2 growth was promoted less by glucose than fructose. Net transepithelial flux of D-glucose was lower than D-fructose. However, uptake of D-glucose was higher than D-fructose across both apical and basolateral membranes consistent with the presence of GLUT1/10 in the airway epithelium. Therefore, we propose that the preferential uptake of glucose (compared to fructose) limits its accumulation in ASL. Pre-treatment with metformin increased transepithelial resistance and reduced the sugar-dependent growth of S. aureus. Thus, epithelial paracellular permeability and glucose transport mechanisms are vital to maintain low glucose concentration in ASL and limit bacterial nutrient sources as a defence against infection

A qualitative study exploring the experiences of parents of children admitted to seven Dutch pediatric intensive care units

Purpose: To explore parents' experiences during the admission of their children to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Method: Qualitative method using in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was applied to capture parents' experiences. Thirty-nine mothers and 25 fathers of 41 children admitted to seven of the eight PICUs in university medical centers in The Netherlands were interviewed. Results: Parents were interviewed within 1 month after their child's discharge from a PICU. Thematic analysis identified 1,514 quotations that were coded into 63 subthemes. The subthemes were categorized into six major themes: attitude of the professionals; coordination of care; emotional intensity; information management; environmental factors; parent participation. Most themes had an overarching relationship representing the array of experiences encountered by parents when their child was staying in a PICU. The theme of emotional intensity was in particular associated with all the other themes. Conclusions: The findings provided a range of themes and subthemes describing the complexity of the parental experiences of a PICU admission. The subthemes presen

High-pressure structural study of the scheelite tungstates CaWO4 and SrWO4

Angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction (ADXRD) and x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurements have been performed in the AWO4 tungstates CaWO4 and SrWO4 under high pressure up to approximately 20 GPa. Similar phase transitions and phase transition pressures have been observed for both tungstates using the two techniques in the studied pressure range. Both materials are found to undergo a pressure-induced scheelite-to-fergusonite phase transition under sufficiently hydrostatic conditions. Our results are compared to those found previously in the literature and supported by ab initio total energy calculations. From the total energy calculations we have also predicted a second phase transition from the fergusonite structure to a new structure identified as Cmca. Finally, a linear relationship between the charge density in the AO8 polyhedra of ABO4 scheelite-related structures and the bulk modulus is discussed and used to predict the bulk modulus of other materials, like zircon.Comment: 52 pages, 9 figure, 4 table