Experimental Assembly and Sterilization Laboratory /EASL/ operations - Phase I

Facility description and operations for assembly and sterilization - microbiological testin

Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity

Renewable energy production is necessary to halt climate change and reverse associated biodiversity losses. However, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will drive an increase in the production of many metals, creating new mining threats for biodiversity. Here, we map mining areas and assess their spatial coincidence with biodiversity conservation sites and priorities. Mining potentially influences 50 million km2 of Earth’s land surface, with 8% coinciding with Protected Areas, 7% with Key Biodiversity Areas, and 16% with Remaining Wilderness. Most mining areas (82%) target materials needed for renewable energy production, and areas that overlap with Protected Areas and Remaining Wilderness contain a greater density of mines (our indicator of threat severity) compared to the overlapping mining areas that target other materials. Mining threats to biodiversity will increase as more mines target materials for renewable energy production and, without strategic planning, these new threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation

Transition from and MBBS to and MD – Using innovation and thinking outside the square

Background. There has been a trend globally to move from a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) to a Doctor of Medicine (MD) for primary medical education. This shift has seen many Australian universities change to an MD, mostly from graduate entry programs. This paper describes the novel and unique 3+2 model from one Australian university, that enabled undergraduate entry, student flexibility, and a master’s exit qualification without increasing time. Methods. The method included a curriculum review in 2013 where its problem-based learning curriculum shifted from a seven to a five-semester program; changing the third year to a virtual hospital clinical year using simulation, and introducing in 2016 a new 3+2 curriculum model in the final two years using a 100 point system as a masters level program. Results. The MD model was described in the external evaluation as ‘novel and innovative’, where students can choose from three project options – a research project, or a professional project or an international capstone experience as well as a number of scholarly tasks. The structure is fully integrated with the existing curriculum and assessment process, supported by an innovative technology platform. Conclusion. Now in its third year of implementation this innovative model is breaking new ground in the way in which a masters level MD program could be developed, whilst maintaining undergraduate entry

Effect of (in)organic additives on microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation

\ua9 The Author(s) 2023. Aim: This study aimed to understand the morphological effects of (in)organic additives on microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP). Methods and results: MICP was monitored in real time in the presence of (in)organic additives: bovine serum albumin (BSA), biofilm surface layer protein A (BslA), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), and poly-L-lysine. This monitoring was carried out using confocal microscopy to observe the formation of CaCO3 from the point of nucleation, in comparison to conditions without additives. Complementary methodologies, namely scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, were employed to assess the visual morphology, elemental composition, and crystalline structures of CaCO3, respectively, following the crystals’ formation. The results demonstrated that in the presence of additives, more CaCO3 crystals were produced at 100 min compared to the reaction without additives. The inclusion of BslA resulted in larger crystals than reactions containing other additives, including MgCl2. BSA induced a significant number of crystals from the early stages of the reaction (20 min) but did not have a substantial impact on crystal size compared to conditions without additives. All additives led to a higher content of calcite compared to vaterite after a 24-h reaction, with the exception of MgCl2, which produced a substantial quantity of magnesium calcite. Conclusions: The work demonstrates the effect of several (in)organic additives on MICP and sets the stage for further research to understand additive effects on MICP to achieve controlled CaCO3 precipitation

Bacterial Cellulose as a Building Material: Identifying opportunities, limitations and challenges

Bacterial cellulose (BC), a bacteria-synthesised cellulose material, has been intensively researched in biomedical, food and packaging over several decades. However, its application in the built environment (BE) has received less attention. This paper scopes out BC’s original properties and the methods used to modify them. This capability to modify the properties of BC offers exciting possibilities for creating building components with low environmental impact, enhanced properties and targeted performance. In its unprocessed hydrogel state, BC yields promising strength and durability. This biodegradable material\u27s production process can be sustained by several waste streams, making it a promising material for the circular economy. When used in composites, BC can act as a scaffold for multiple nanoparticles and polymers, extending its properties to, for example, provide electrical conductivity or antimicrobial surfaces. However, to support BC’s application in the BE, the material must be studied at multiple scales, namely nano-, micro- and macro-scale. Standardised tests need to be developed and tailored to measure BC behaviour under complex BE scenarios. Its interaction with humidity, durability and its regenerative properties are identified as potentially fruitful areas for further investigation

The Ideal Intersection Property for Groupoid Graded Rings

We show that if a groupoid graded ring has a certain nonzero ideal property, then the commutant of the center of the principal component of the ring has the ideal intersection property, that is it intersects nontrivially every nonzero ideal of the ring. Furthermore, we show that for skew groupoid algebras with commutative principal component, the principal component is maximal commutative if and only if it has the ideal intersection property

Surficial Redistribution of Fallout 131iodine in a Small Temperate Catchment

Isotopes of iodine play significant environmental roles, including a limiting micronutrient (127I), an acute radiotoxin (131I), and a geochemical tracer (129I). But the cycling of iodine through terrestrial ecosystems is poorly understood, due to its complex environmental chemistry and low natural abundance. To better understand iodine transport and fate in a terrestrial ecosystem, we traced fallout 131iodine throughout a small temperate catchment following contamination by the 11 March 2011 failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. We find that radioiodine fallout is actively and efficiently scavenged by the soil system, where it is continuously focused to surface soils over a period of weeks following deposition. Mobilization of historic (pre-Fukushima) 137cesium observed concurrently in these soils suggests that the focusing of iodine to surface soils may be biologically mediated. Atmospherically deposited iodine is subsequently redistributed from the soil system via fluvial processes in a manner analogous to that of the particle-reactive tracer 7beryllium, a consequence of the radionuclides’ shared sorption affinity for fine, particulate organic matter. These processes of surficial redistribution create iodine hotspots in the terrestrial environment where fine, particulate organic matter accumulates, and in this manner regulate the delivery of iodine nutrients and toxins alike from small catchments to larger river systems, lakes and estuaries

Associations between the gut microbiome and metabolome in early life

Background: The infant intestinal microbiome plays an important role in metabolism and immune development with impacts on lifelong health. The linkage between the taxonomic composition of the microbiome and its metabolic phenotype is undefined and complicated by redundancies in the taxon-function relationship within microbial communities. To inform a more mechanistic understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and health, we performed an integrative statistical and machine learning-based analysis of microbe taxonomic structure and metabolic function in order to characterize the taxa-function relationship in early life. Results: Stool samples collected from infants enrolled in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS) at approximately 6-weeks (n = 158) and 12-months (n = 282) of age were profiled using targeted and untargeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as well as DNA sequencing of the V4-V5 hypervariable region from the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. There was significant inter-omic concordance based on Procrustes analysis (6 weeks: p = 0.056; 12 months: p = 0.001), however this association was no longer significant when accounting for phylogenetic relationships using generalized UniFrac distance metric (6 weeks: p = 0.376; 12 months: p = 0.069). Sparse canonical correlation analysis showed significant correlation, as well as identifying sets of microbe/metabolites driving microbiome-metabolome relatedness. Performance of machine learning models varied across different metabolites, with support vector machines (radial basis function kernel) being the consistently top ranked model. However, predictive R2 values demonstrated poor predictive performance across all models assessed (avg: − 5.06% -- 6 weeks; − 3.7% -- 12 months). Conversely, the Spearman correlation metric was higher (avg: 0.344–6 weeks; 0.265–12 months). This demonstrated that taxonomic relative abundance was not predictive of metabolite concentrations. Conclusions: Our results suggest a degree of overall association between taxonomic profiles and metabolite concentrations. However, lack of predictive capacity for stool metabolic signatures reflects, in part, the possible role of functional redundancy in defining the taxa-function relationship in early life as well as the bidirectional nature of the microbiome-metabolome association. Our results provide evidence in favor of a multi-omic approach for microbiome studies, especially those focused on health outcomes