Panama City Pit

Our project is located in the village of Coclecito, Panama. Here we have proposed to relocate a village into a 1850’ x 1500’ by 400 deep mining pit that has been left behind by the mining company. Our thought is that with the terries left in the mine we can use them to create terries farming in which it can provide sustainable life to the people. With this the building would be set on stable volcanic rock, taking advantage of regional geology. We tend to use a concrete mixture with volcanic rock to create most of the structure

BIN1 protein isoforms are differentially expressed in astrocytes, neurons, and microglia: neuronal and astrocyte BIN1 are implicated in tau pathology

Background Identified as an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) susceptibility gene by genome wide-association studies, BIN1 has 10 isoforms that are expressed in the Central Nervous System (CNS). The distribution of these isoforms in different cell types, as well as their role in AD pathology still remains unclear. Methods Utilizing antibodies targeting specific BIN1 epitopes in human post-mortem tissue and analyzing mRNA expression data from purified microglia, we identified three isoforms expressed in neurons and astrocytes (isoforms 1, 2 and 3) and four isoforms expressed in microglia (isoforms 6, 9, 10 and 12). The abundance of selected peptides, which correspond to groups of BIN1 protein isoforms, was measured in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and their relation to neuropathological features of AD was assessed. Results Peptides contained in exon 7 of BIN1’s N-BAR domain were found to be significantly associated with AD-related traits and, particularly, tau tangles. Decreased expression of BIN1 isoforms containing exon 7 is associated with greater accumulation of tangles and subsequent cognitive decline, with astrocytic rather than neuronal BIN1 being the more likely culprit. These effects are independent of the BIN1 AD risk variant. Conclusions Exploring the molecular mechanisms of specific BIN1 isoforms expressed by astrocytes may open new avenues for modulating the accumulation of Tau pathology in AD

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Investigating the environmental conditions that drive mercury methylation in freshwater systems

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a hazardous neurotoxin that bioaccumulates throughout the food web, which is converted from inorganic mercury (Hg) by microorganisms in oxygen-deprived (hypoxic, or anoxic) conditions. Climate change challenges the ability to limit Hg methylation in the environment since increasing temperatures are predicted to increase the prevalence of hypoxic and anoxic conditions in water columns. My Master thesis project aimed to investigate the diversity, abundance, composition, and structure of Hg-methylating communities to tie together the influence of environmental conditions. To do so, I used bioinformatic tools to analyze a dataset containing freshwater environmental DNA sequences from a broad diversity of metagenomes. The dataset was collected in tandem with environmental metadata (e.g., oxygen) which was used to compare the abundance of one of the two Hg-methylating genes; hgcA. I found that the majority of hgcA genes came from metagenomes collected in hypoxic and anoxic water layers. Interestingly, certain metagenomes in hypoxic and anoxic water layers did not contain any hgcA genes and thus potentially no Hg methylators. Some hgcA genes were found in metagenomes from oxic water layers, which could be explained by settling particles originating from the sediment-water interface acting as oxygen deprived niches. These findings are crucial as they imply that the anticipated changes in freshwater oxygenation, resulting from climate change, will lead to increased niches for Hg-methylating microorganisms. Particularly, increasing algal blooms and persistent lake stratification leads to more deoxygenated water columns, which explains why MeHg can become an increasing hazard to animal and human well-being

Panama City Pit

Our project is located in the village of Coclecito, Panama. Here we have proposed to relocate a village into a 1850’ x 1500’ by 400 deep mining pit that has been left behind by the mining company. Our thought is that with the terries left in the mine we can use them to create terries farming in which it can provide sustainable life to the people. With this the building would be set on stable volcanic rock, taking advantage of regional geology. We tend to use a concrete mixture with volcanic rock to create most of the structure.</p