The significance of hazardous chemicals in wastewater treatment works effluents

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Science of The Total Environment. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.The advent of increasingly stringent and wider ranging European Union legislation relating to water and the environment has required regulators to assess compliance risk and to respond by formulating appropriate pollution control measures. To support this process the UK Water Industry has completed a national Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP), to monitor over 160 wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) for 70 determinands. Final effluent concentrations of zinc, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene), “penta” congeners (BDEs) 47 and 99, tributyltin, triclosan, erythromycin, oxytetracycline, ibuprofen, propranolol, fluoxetine, diclofenac, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethinyl estradiol exceeded existing or proposed Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) in over 50% of WwTWs. Dilution by receiving water might ensure compliance with EQSs for these chemicals, apart from the BDEs. However, in some cases there will be insufficient dilution to ensure compliance and additional management options may be required

Habitat structure: a fundamental concept and framework for urban soil ecology

Habitat structure is defined as the composition and arrangement of physical matter at a location. Although habitat structure is the physical template underlying ecological patterns and processes, the concept is relatively unappreciated and underdeveloped in ecology. However, it provides a fundamental concept for urban ecology because human activities in urban ecosystems are often targeted toward management of habitat structure. In addition, the concept emphasizes the fine-scale, on-the-ground perspective needed in the study of urban soil ecology. To illustrate this, urban soil ecology research is summarized from the perspective of habitat structure effects. Among the key conclusions emerging from the literature review are: (1) habitat structure provides a unifying theme for multivariate research about urban soil ecology; (2) heterogeneous urban habitat structures influence soil ecological variables in different ways; (3) more research is needed to understand relationships among sociological variables, habitat structure patterns and urban soil ecology. To stimulate urban soil ecology research, a conceptual framework is presented to show the direct and indirect relationships among habitat structure and ecological variables. Because habitat structure serves as a physical link between sociocultural and ecological systems, it can be used as a focus for interdisciplinary and applied research (e.g., pest management) about the multiple, interactive effects of urbanization on the ecology of soils

Favourable antibody responses to human coronaviruses in children and adolescents with autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Background: Differences in humoral immunity to coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), between children and adults remain unexplained and the impact of underlying immune dysfunction or suppression unknown. Here, we sought to examine the antibody immune competence of children and adolescents with prevalent inflammatory rheumatic diseases, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE), against the seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 that frequently infects this age group. // Methods: Sera were collected from JIA (n=118), JDM (n=49) and JSLE (n=30) patients, and from healthy control (n=54) children and adolescents, prior to the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. We employed sensitive flow cytometry-based assays to determine titres of antibodies that reacted with the spike and nucleoprotein of HCoV-OC43 and cross-reacted with the spike and nucleoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, and compared with respective titres in sera from patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and adolescents (MIS-C). // Findings: Despite immune dysfunction and immunosuppressive treatment, JIA, JDM and JSLE patients maintained comparable or stronger humoral responses than healthier peers, dominated by IgG antibodies to HCoV-OC43 spike, and harboured IgG antibodies that cross-reacted with SARS-CoV-2 spike. In contrast, responses to HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 nucleoproteins exhibited delayed age-dependent class-switching and were not elevated in JIA, JDM and JSLE patients, arguing against increased exposure. // Conclusions: Consequently, autoimmune rheumatic diseases and their treatment were associated with a favourable ratio of spike to nucleoprotein antibodies

Impact and implications of international financial reporting standards in the UK : evidence from the alternative investment market

This paper investigates implications of the IFRS adoption from the perspective of small and growing companies listed on the UK Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The study considers the cost-benefit issues of the IFRS adoption and investigates its economic consequences. The results reveal that only a small number of comparatively larger AIM companies have voluntarily adopted IFRS for some anticipated economic objectives. The results also suggest that most of the mandatory adopters have done so for regulation compliance purposes and that they would have not adopted IFRS if a choice was available to them. As the existing literature mainly covers the impact of IFRS adoption on large listed companies, the findings of this study will give better insights about extending IFRS to private companies. The findings show an association between the early adoption of IFRS and firm size and conclude that size matters in both the adoption and implications of the IFRS. This study also contributes to the debate on the implication of the new IFRS based UK GAAP for SMEs-FRS 102, which will replace the majority of existing UK accounting standards for SMEs with effect from 2015. Our findings have implications for managers, regulators, market participants, practitioners, and other stakeholders

Introduction to star-tup creation for the smart ecoefficient built environment

This chapter starts by briefly reviewing worrying evidence concerning Earth?s environment. The importance of entrepreneurship is highlighted as a way not only to mobilize the energy of young people in developed countries for a sustainability based new economy. But also to tackle the despair of young people in poor countries that could end in terrorist actions. Dynamics of start-up creation are briefly reviewed. The stigma on startup failure is also briefly addressed. The importance of start-up creation for the smart eco-efficient built environment is highlighted.  An outline of the book is included

Parallel Germline Infiltration of a Lentivirus in Two Malagasy Lemurs

Retroviruses normally infect the somatic cells of their host and are transmitted horizontally, i.e., in an exogenous way. Occasionally, however, some retroviruses can also infect and integrate into the genome of germ cells, which may allow for their vertical inheritance and fixation in a given species; a process known as endogenization. Lentiviruses, a group of mammalian retroviruses that includes HIV, are known to infect primates, ruminants, horses, and cats. Unlike many other retroviruses, these viruses have not been demonstrably successful at germline infiltration. Here, we report on the discovery of endogenous lentiviral insertions in seven species of Malagasy lemurs from two different genera—Cheirogaleus and Microcebus. Combining molecular clock analyses and cross-species screening of orthologous insertions, we show that the presence of this endogenous lentivirus in six species of Microcebus is the result of one endogenization event that occurred about 4.2 million years ago. In addition, we demonstrate that this lentivirus independently infiltrated the germline of Cheirogaleus and that the two endogenization events occurred quasi-simultaneously. Using multiple proviral copies, we derive and characterize an apparently full length and intact consensus for this lentivirus. These results provide evidence that lentiviruses have repeatedly infiltrated the germline of prosimian species and that primates have been exposed to lentiviruses for a much longer time than what can be inferred based on sequence comparison of circulating lentiviruses. The study sets the stage for an unprecedented opportunity to reconstruct an ancestral primate lentivirus and thereby advance our knowledge of host–virus interactions

Evidence for Restriction of Ancient Primate Gammaretroviruses by APOBEC3 but Not TRIM5α Proteins

Because of evolutionary pressures imposed through episodic colonization by retroviruses, many mammals express factors, such as TRIM5α and APOBEC3 proteins, that directly restrict retroviral replication. TRIM5 and APOBEC restriction factors are most often studied in the context of modern primate lentiviruses, but it is likely that ancient retroviruses imposed the selective pressure that is evident in primate TRIM5 and APOBEC3 genes. Moreover, these antiretroviral factors have been shown to act against a variety of retroviruses, including gammaretroviruses. Endogenous retroviruses can provide a ‘fossil record’ of extinct retroviruses and perhaps evidence of ancient TRIM5 and APOBEC3 antiviral activity. Here, we investigate whether TRIM5 and APOBEC3 proteins restricted the replication of two groups of gammaretroviruses that were endogenized in the past few million years. These endogenous retroviruses appear quite widespread in the genomes of old world primates but failed to colonize the human germline. Our analyses suggest that TRIM5α proteins did not pose a major barrier to the cross-species transmission of these two families of gammaretroviruses, and did not contribute to their extinction. However, we uncovered extensive evidence for inactivation of ancient gammaretroviruses through the action of APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases. Interestingly, the identities of the cytidine deaminases responsible for inactivation appear to have varied in both a virus and host species–dependent manner. Overall, sequence analyses and reconstitution of ancient retroviruses from remnants that have been preserved in the genomes of modern organisms offer the opportunity to probe and potentially explain the evolutionary history of host defenses against retroviruses

The ACER pollen and charcoal database: A global resource to document vegetation and fire response to abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period

This is the final version of the article. Available from Copernicus Publications via the DOI in this record.Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st-century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles during the last glacial period, which were sufficiently large to have had a potential feedback through changes in albedo and greenhouse gas emissions on climate. Previous reconstructions of vegetation and fire changes during the D-O cycles used independently constructed age models, making it difficult to compare the changes between different sites and regions. Here, we present the ACER (Abrupt Climate Changes and Environmental Responses) global database, which includes 93 pollen records from the last glacial period (73-15ka) with a temporal resolution better than 1000years, 32 of which also provide charcoal records. A harmonized and consistent chronology based on radiometric dating (14C, 234U/230Th, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), 40Ar/39Ar-dated tephra layers) has been constructed for 86 of these records, although in some cases additional information was derived using common control points based on event stratigraphy. The ACER database compiles metadata including geospatial and dating information, pollen and charcoal counts, and pollen percentages of the characteristic biomes and is archived in Microsoft Access™ at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.870867.The members of the ACER project wish to thank the QUEST-DESIRE (UK and France) bilateral project, the INQUA International Focus Group ACER and the INTIMATE-COST action for funding a suite of workshops to compile the ACER pollen and charcoal database and the workshop on ACER chronology that allow setting the basis for harmonizing the chronologies. Josué M. Polanco-Martinez was funded by a Basque Government postdoctoral fellowship (POS_2015_1_0006) and Sandy P. Harrison by the ERC Advanced Grant GC2.0: unlocking the past for a clearer future

Quantitative metabolomics based on gas chromatography mass spectrometry: status and perspectives

Metabolomics involves the unbiased quantitative and qualitative analysis of the complete set of metabolites present in cells, body fluids and tissues (the metabolome). By analyzing differences between metabolomes using biostatistics (multivariate data analysis; pattern recognition), metabolites relevant to a specific phenotypic characteristic can be identified. However, the reliability of the analytical data is a prerequisite for correct biological interpretation in metabolomics analysis. In this review the challenges in quantitative metabolomics analysis with regards to analytical as well as data preprocessing steps are discussed. Recommendations are given on how to optimize and validate comprehensive silylation-based methods from sample extraction and derivatization up to data preprocessing and how to perform quality control during metabolomics studies. The current state of method validation and data preprocessing methods used in published literature are discussed and a perspective on the future research necessary to obtain accurate quantitative data from comprehensive GC-MS data is provided

Problem drug use the public health imperative: what some of the literature says

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With more than 200,000 problem drug users is contact with structured treatment services in England the public health imperative behind drug treatment is great. Problem drug use for many is a chronic and relapsing condition, where "cure" is often neither a reasonable or appropriate expectation and it can further be argued that in these circumstances problem drug use is no different from any number of chronic and enduring health conditions that are managed in the health care system and therefore should be conceptualised as such.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>A public health approach to drug treatment emphasises the need for drug users in or accessing treatment, to reduce their harmful drug use, reduce drug use related risks such as sepsis and overdose and stay alive for longer. However a public health perspective in relation to problem drug use isn't always either apparent or readily understood and to that end there is still a significant need to continue the arguments and debate that treatment and interventions for problem and dependent drug users need to extend beyond an individualistic approach. For the purposes of discussion in this article public and population health will be used interchangeably.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>A recognition and acceptance that a public and population health approach to the management of problem drug users is sound public health policy also then requires a long term commitment in terms of staffing and resources where service delivery mirrors that of chronic condition management.</p