Chronic bioaccumulation and toxicity of cadmium from a periphyton diet to Hyalella azteca

Dietary cadmium (Cd) can contribute significantly to chronic bioaccumulation and toxicity in aquatic organisms. This contribution needs to be quantified so that the relative importance of waterborne and dietary cadmium exposure pathways can be incorporated into protective water quality guidelines and ecological risk assessments. In this research, the contribution of dietary Cd from a natural periphyton diet to chronic (28 d) bioaccumulation and toxicity in the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca was quantified using a mechanistically-based saturation bioaccumulation model. Factors that influence dietary Cd bioavailability such as food type, food form, dietary Cd speciation and concentration were investigated. Assimilation efficiency, ingestion rate and the excretion rate constant of dietary Cd were determined for each of these factors. Food nutrition was also considered. Lastly, model predictions of Cd bioaccumulation and toxicity were compared to measurements of tissue concentration and survival when H. azteca were exposed to metal contaminated water and periphyton collected from lakes in the metal mining region of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada. In 28 d laboratory experiments where H. azteca bioaccumulated Cd from water and food, dietary Cd was estimated to contribute markedly (21 – 94 %) to bioaccumulated Cd in H. azteca. Effects on chronic survival were best predicted from body concentration rather than water or food exposure concentration. Assimilation efficiency of dietary Cd differed with food type likely as a result of Cd speciation, but did not differ with Cd concentration or food form. Ingestion rate differed with food form while excretion rate constants were unaffected by dietary Cd bioavailability. Predictions of chronic Cd bioaccumulation in H. azteca exposed to field contaminated samples were robust, however the model did not account for effects of water chemistry on Cd bioaccumulation and is thus constrained in its application. Predictions of chronic survival were over-estimated likely due to the additional toxicity caused by the low nutritional quality of the field contaminated periphyton. This research demonstrated that both waterborne and dietary Cd need to be considered in models that assess chronic risk of exposure and effects to H. azteca

Hidden racism and systematic racism: is it contributing to the decreased health and well-being of Aboriginal homeless persons in the inner city of Cairns?

The presence of chronic rough sleeping Aboriginal persons in the Cairns inner city has been an ongoing issue for decades. Differing approaches have been taken to address this issue, including the 'hard approach' (zero tolerance) and the 'soft approach' (self-determination). However neither of these approaches has succeeded and have only served to perpetuate and escalate the problem. The complexity of the issue of long-term rough sleepers is further exacerbated by hidden racism and systemic racism which is underpinned by issues such as culture and the polemic divides that separate the service approaches to addressing this issue. Ultimately, the health and well-being of Aboriginal rough sleepers in Cairns is worsening and their quality of life is declining due to this unseen and incalculable racism. Of critical importance to their decreasing health and well-being is how their basic human needs are not being met due to the underlying racism that confounds it. This paper seeks to identify the issues of hidden racism and systemic racism among the Cairns inner city Aboriginal rough sleepers and explanations of hidden and systemic racism are offered and how this contributes to the decline in their health and well-being

Re-Engineering of the Computing Curriculum: The Case of University of Technology, Jamaica

The current literature on computing education suggests that there is a paradigm shift taking place in the discipline. Evidence of this is in the discipline’s rapid evolution and the volatility in the enrollments. This has prompted university administrations to make important strategic decisions as to how to reengineer their curriculum to remain viable, relevant and reflect innovation. This paper uses a case study approach to describe how the School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) at the University of Technology, Jamaica, employed a market orientation approach to reengineer its curriculum. In developing the curriculum, SCIT employed among other things; students views, international industry trends, the Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula 2005, local/regional requirements and recommendations from the School’s Advisory Committee. The intent was to provide a broader portfolio that would attract and retain a wider student population. This model curriculum program can be a blueprint for small computing programs, especially in developing countries with modest resources

Inter-Professional Collaborative Care: A Way to Enhance Services for Adults with Intellectual Disability and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder and Mental Health Problems

This article describes our inter-professional mental health service for adults with intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. The service consists of an inpatient unit and outpatient program that are closely aligned and operate within a mental health and addictions teaching hospital. We provide information about recent changes to our model of care and the structures and activities that are used to support inter-professional team development and team functioning. Roles and functions of different mental health professionals on the team are outlined and case examples of adults with intellectual disability and complex mental health needs are provided to illustrate how the inter-professional team members work together

Developing H++ climate change scenarios for heat waves, droughts, floods, windstorms and cold snaps

This report describes the results of a project to investigate the development of plausible high-end climate change scenarios. It covers the following climate hazards: heat waves, cold snaps, low and high rainfall, droughts, floods and windstorms. The scope of the project does not extend into defining the consequences of these hazards such as mortality, property damage or impacts on the natural environment. The scenarios created for this report are referred to as H++ scenarios, and are typically more extreme climate change scenarios on the margins or outside of the 10th to 90th percentile range presented in the 2009 UK climate change projections (also known as ‘UKCP09’)

Properly folded bacterially expressed H1N1 hemagglutinin globular head and ectodomain vaccines protect ferrets against H1N1 pandemic influenza virus. PLoS One 5:e11548

Abstract Background: In the face of impending influenza pandemic, a rapid vaccine production and mass vaccination is the most effective approach to prevent the large scale mortality and morbidity that was associated with the 1918 ''Spanish Flu''. The traditional process of influenza vaccine production in eggs is time consuming and may not meet the demands of rapid global vaccination required to curtail influenza pandemic

Aquatic live animal radiotracing studies for ecotoxicological applications : addressing fundamental methodological deficiencies

The use of live animal gamma radioisotope tracer techniques in the field of ecotoxicology allows laboratory studies to accurately monitor contaminant biokinetics in real time for an individual organism. However, methods used in published studies for aquatic organisms are rarely described in sufficient detail to allow for study replication or an assessment of the errors associated with live animal radioanalysis to be identified. We evaluate the influence of some important methodological deficiencies through an overview of the literature on live aquatic animal radiotracer techniques and through the results obtained from our radiotracer studies on four aquatic invertebrate species. The main factors discussed are animal rinsing, radioanalysis and geometry corrections. We provide examples of three main techniques in live aquatic animal radiotracer studies to improve data quality control and demonstrate why each technique is crucial in interpreting the data from such studies. The animal rinsing technique is also relevant to non-radioisotope tracer studies, especially those involving nanoparticles. We present clear guidance on how to perform each technique and explain the importance of proper reporting of the validation of each technique for individual studies. In this paper we describe methods that are often used in lab-based radioecology studies but are rarely described in great detail. We hope that this paper will act as the basis for standard operating procedures for future radioecology studies to improve study replication and data quality control

A Rapid Flp-In System for Expression of Secreted H5N1 Influenza Hemagglutinin Vaccine Immunogen in Mammalian Cells

Continuing transmissions of highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses in poultry and humans underscores the need for a rapid response to potential pandemic in the form of vaccine. Recombinant technologies for production of immunogenic hemagglutinin (HA) could provide an advantage over the traditional inactivated vaccine manufacturing process. Generation of stably transfected mammalian cells secreting properly folded HA proteins is important for scalable controlled manufacturing.We have developed a Flp-In based 293 stable cell lines through targeted site-specific recombination for expression of secreted hemagglutinin (HA) proteins and evaluated their immunogenicity. H5N1 globular domain HA1(1-330) and HA0(1-500) proteins were purified from the supernatants of 293 Flp-In stable cell lines. Both proteins were properly folded as confirmed by binding to H5N1-neutralizing conformation-dependent human monoclonal antibodies. The HA0 (with unmodified cleavage site) was monomeric, while the HA1 contained oligomeric forms. Upon rabbit immunization, both HA proteins elicited neutralizing antibodies against the homologous virus (A/Vietnam/1203/2004, clade 1) as well as cross-neutralizing antibodies against heterologous H5N1 clade 2 strains, including A/Indonesia/5/2005. These results exceeded the human antibody responses against the inactivated sub-virion H5N1 vaccine.Our data suggest that the 293 Flp-In system could serve as a platform for rapid expression of HA immunogens in mammalian cells from emerging influenza strains

Incursion of European Bat Lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) in Serotine Bats in the United Kingdom.

Lyssaviruses are an important genus of zoonotic viruses which cause the disease rabies. The United Kingdom is free of classical rabies (RABV). However, bat rabies due to European bat lyssavirus 2 (EBLV-2), has been detected in Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii) in Great Britain since 1996, including a fatal human case in Scotland in 2002. Across Europe, European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) is commonly associated with serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus). Despite the presence of serotine bats across large parts of southern England, EBLV-1 had not previously been detected in this population. However, in 2018, EBLV-1 was detected through passive surveillance in a serotine bat from Dorset, England, using a combination of fluorescent antibody test, reverse transcription-PCR, Sanger sequencing and immunohistochemical analysis. Subsequent EBLV-1 positive serotine bats have been identified in South West England, again through passive surveillance, during 2018, 2019 and 2020. Here, we confirm details of seven cases of EBLV-1 and present similarities in genetic sequence indicating that emergence of EBLV-1 is likely to be recent, potentially associated with the natural movement of bats from the near continent

Properly Folded Bacterially Expressed H1N1 Hemagglutinin Globular Head and Ectodomain Vaccines Protect Ferrets against H1N1 Pandemic Influenza Virus

Background: In the face of impending influenza pandemic, a rapid vaccine production and mass vaccination is the most effective approach to prevent the large scale mortality and morbidity that was associated with the 1918 "Spanish Flu". The traditional process of influenza vaccine production in eggs is time consuming and may not meet the demands of rapid global vaccination required to curtail influenza pandemic. Methodology/Principal Findings: Recombinant technology can be used to express the hemagglutinin (HA) of the emerging new influenza strain in a variety of systems including mammalian, insect, and bacterial cells. In this study, two forms of HA proteins derived from the currently circulating novel H1N1 A/California/07/2009 virus, HA1 (1-330) and HA (1- 480), were expressed and purified from E. coli under controlled redox refolding conditions that favoured proper protein folding. However, only the recombinant HA1 (1-330) protein formed oligomers, including functional trimers that bound receptor and caused agglutination of human red blood cells. These proteins were used to vaccinate ferrets prior to challenge with the A/California/07/2009 virus. Both proteins induced neutralizing antibodies, and reduced viral loads in nasal washes. However, the HA1 (1-330) protein that had higher content of multimeric forms provided better protection from fever and weight loss at a lower vaccine dose compared with HA (1-480). Protein yield for the HA1 (1-330) ranged around 40 mg/Liter, while the HA (1-480) yield was 0.4-0.8 mg/Liter. Conclusions/Significance: This is the first study that describes production in bacterial system of properly folded functional globular HA1 domain trimers, lacking the HA2 transmembrane protein, that elicit potent neutralizing antibody responses following vaccination and protect ferrets from in vivo challenge. The combination of bacterial expression system with established quality control methods could provide a mechanism for rapid large scale production of influenza vaccines in the face of influenza pandemic threat