Heineken WOBO for Heineken in Noordwijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Material of interest: Recycled materials Material used: Old Heinken bottles Properties of material: These bottles were manufactured as not only beer bottles, but also to be re- purposed for affordable housing. The neck of one bottle fits into the bottom of another bottle. Using a mortar the stacked bottles can form affordable housing.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bcs/1123/thumbnail.jp

Human DNA mismatch repair: coupling of mismatch recognition to strand-specific excision

Eukaryotic mismatch-repair (MMR) proteins MutSα and MutLα couple recognition of base mismatches to strand-specific excision, initiated in vivo at growing 3′ ends and 5′ Okazaki-fragment ends or, in human nuclear extracts, at nicks in exogenous circular substrates. We addressed five biochemical questions relevant to coupling models. Excision remained fully efficient at DNA:MutSα ratios of nearly 1 to 1 at various mismatch-nick distances, suggesting a requirement for only one MutSα molecule per substrate. As the mismatch-nick DNA contour distance D in exogenous substrates increased from 0.26 to 0.98 kbp, initiation of excision in extracts decreased as D−0.43 rather than the D−1 to D−2 predicted by some translocation or diffusion models. Virtually all excision was along the shorter (3′–5′) nick-mismatch, even when the other (5′–3′) path was less than twice as long. These observations argue against stochastically directed translocating/diffusing recognition complexes. The failure of mismatched DNA in trans to provoke excision of separate nicked homoduplexes argues against one-stage (concerted) triggering of excision initiation by recognition complexes acting through space. However, proteins associated with gapped DNA did appear to compete in trans with those in cis to mismatch-associated proteins. Thus, as in Escherichia coli, eukaryotic MMR may involve distinct initial-activation and excision-path-commitment stages

Forgotten Plotlanders: Learning from the survival of lost informal housing in the UK.

Colin Ward’s discourses on the arcadian landscape of ‘plotlander’ housing are unique documentations of the anarchistic birth, life, and death of the last informal housing communities in the UK. Today the forgotten history of ‘plotlander’ housing documented by Ward can be re-read in the context of both the apparently never-ending ‘housing crisis’ in the UK, and the increasing awareness of the potential value of learning from comparable informal housing from the Global South. This papers observations of a previously unknown and forgotten plotlander site offers a chance to begin a new conversation regarding the positive potential of informal and alternative housing models in the UK and wider Westernised world

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570