Soil bacterial communities of a calcium-supplemented and a reference watershed at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), New Hampshire, USA

Soil Ca depletion because of acidic deposition-related soil chemistry changes has led to the decline of forest productivity and carbon sequestration in the northeastern USA. In 1999, acidic watershed (WS) 1 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), NH, USA was amended with Ca silicate to restore soil Ca pools. In 2006, soil samples were collected from the Ca-amended (WS1) and reference watershed (WS3) for comparison of bacterial community composition between the two watersheds. The sites were about 125 m apart and were known to have similar stream chemistry and tree populations before Ca amendment. Ca-amended soil had higher Ca and P, and lower Al and acidity as compared with the reference soils. Analysis of bacterial populations by PhyloChip revealed that the bacterial community structure in the Ca-amended and the reference soils was significantly different and that the differences were more pronounced in the mineral soils. Overall, the relative abundance of 300 taxa was significantly affected. Numbers of detectable taxa in families such as Acidobacteriaceae, Comamonadaceae, and Pseudomonadaceae were lower in the Ca-amended soils, while Flavobacteriaceae and Geobacteraceae were higher. The other functionally important groups, e.g. ammonia-oxidizing Nitrosomonadaceae, had lower numbers of taxa in the Ca-amended organic soil but higher in the mineral soil

HUBUNGAN ANTARA BEBAN KERJA DAN KEPUASAN KERJA DENGAN STRES KERJA PADA PERAWAT DI RUMAH SAKIT UMUM DAERAH BITUNG

Stres kerja banyak dialami oleh tenaga kerja. Salah satu faktor yang menyebabkan tenaga kerja cenderung mengalami stres kerja yaitu beban kerja yang berlebih. Tingkat pembebanan yang terlalu tinggi dialami oleh pekerja memungkinkan pemakaian energi yang berlebihan sehingga menyebabkan terjadinya overstres. Tujuan penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui hubungan antara beban kerja dan kepuasan kerja dengan stres kerja pada perawat di Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah Bitung. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode survei analitik dengan rancangan penelitian cross sectional study yang dilaksanakan pada bulan Januari-Juni 2017 dan teknik pengambilan sampel menggunakan rancangan cross-sectional study, dan mengambil sampel berjumlah 89 perawat. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan kuesioner yang telah di uji validitasnya. Uji hubungan dengan Spearman a= 0,05.perawat yang mengalami sangat stres 55 ( 61,8%), perawat mengalami beban kerja sedang 71 (79,8%) dan perawat mengalami cukup puas 44 (49,4%). Terdapat hubungan antara beban kerja dan stres kerja pada perawat di Rumah sakit Umum Daerah Bitung dengan nilai p value 0,000 dan terdapat hubungan kepuasan kerja dengan stres kerja pada perawat di Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah Bitunng dengan Nilai p value 0,011.Kata Kunci: Beban Kerja, Kepuasan Kerja, Stres Kerja.ABSTRACTWorkplace stress is experienced by many workers. One factor that cause workers tend to experience work related stress is excessive workload. Excessive work load experienced by workers require excessive use of energy that can result overstress. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship of workload and job satisfaction to work stress of nurses at Bitung Regional General Hospital. This study used analytic survey method with cross sectional study design conducted from January until June 2017. Sampling was done using cross-sectional study design, and 89 nurses were selected as sample. The data were collected with questionnaire that had been tested for its validity. Correlation test was carried out with Spearman test at α = 0.05. The study revealed that 55 (61,8%), nurses suffering stress at work, 71 (79,8%) nurse experiencing moderate workload and 44 (49,4%). nurses with job dissatisfaction. There was correlation of work load to work stress of nurses at Bitung Regional General Hospital (p = 0.000) and there was correlation of job satisfaction to work stress of nurses at Bitung Regional General Hospital (p = 0.011).Keywords: Workload, job satisfaction, work stress

On the nature of fur evolution: A phylogenetic approach in Actinobacteria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An understanding of the evolution of global transcription regulators is essential for comprehending the complex networks of cellular metabolism that have developed among related organisms. The <it>fur </it>gene encodes one of those regulators – the ferric uptake regulator Fur – widely distributed among bacteria and known to regulate different genes committed to varied metabolic pathways. On the other hand, members of the Actinobacteria comprise an ecologically diverse group of bacteria able to inhabit various natural environments, and for which relatively little is currently understood concerning transcriptional regulation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>BLAST analyses revealed the presence of more than one <it>fur </it>homologue in most members of the Actinobacteria whose genomes have been fully sequenced. We propose a model to explain the evolutionary history of <it>fur </it>within this well-known bacterial phylum: the postulated scenario includes one duplication event from a primitive regulator, which probably had a broad range of co-factors and DNA-binding sites. This duplication predated the appearance of the last common ancestor of the Actinobacteria, while six other duplications occurred later within specific groups of organisms, particularly in two genera: <it>Frankia </it>and <it>Streptomyces</it>. The resulting paralogues maintained main biochemical properties, but became specialised for regulating specific functions, coordinating different metal ions and binding to unique DNA sequences. The presence of syntenic regions surrounding the different <it>fur </it>orthologues supports the proposed model, as do the evolutionary distances and topology of phylogenetic trees built using both Neighbor-Joining and Maximum-Likelihood methods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The proposed <it>fur </it>evolutionary model, which includes one general duplication and two in-genus duplications followed by divergence and specialization, explains the presence and diversity of <it>fur </it>genes within the Actinobacteria. Although a few rare horizontal gene transfer events have been reported, the model is consistent with the view of gene duplication as a main force of microbial genomes evolution. The parallel study of Fur phylogeny across diverse organisms offers a solid base to guide functional studies and allows the comparison between response mechanisms in relation with the surrounding environment. The survey of regulators among related genomes provides a relevant tool for understanding the evolution of one of the first lines of cellular adaptability, control of DNA transcription.</p

PYOMELANIN IS PRODUCED BY SHEWANELLA ALGAE BRY AND EFFECTED BY EXOGENOUS IRON

Melanin production by S. algae BrY occurred during late/post-exponential growth in lactate-basal-salts liquid medium supplemented with tyrosine or phenylalanine. The antioxidant ascorbate inhibited melanin production, but not production of the melanin precursor, homogentisic acid. In the absence of ascorbate, melanin production was inhibited by the 4-hydroxyplenylpyruvate dioxygenase inhibitor, sulcotrione and Fe(II) (&gt;0.2mM). These data support the hypothesis that pigment production by S. algae BrY was a result the conversion of tyrosine or phenylalanine to homogentisic acid which was excreted, auto-oxidized and self-polymerized to form pyomelanin. The inverse relationship between Fe(II) concentration and pyomelanin production has implications that pyomelanin may play a role in iron assimilation under Fe(II) limiting conditions

First in-vivo diffuse optics application of a time-domain multiwavelength wearable optode

The optode is an innovative, ultra-compact (few cm3) multiwavelength system for timedomain diffuse optics. We present here the first in-vivo measurements that benefit from this technological breakthrough

Draft Genome Sequence of Frankia sp. Strain QA3, a Nitrogen-Fixing Actinobacterium Isolated from the Root Nodule of Alnus nitida

Members of the actinomycete genus Frankia form a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with 8 different families of actinorhizal plants. We report a high-quality draft genome sequence for Frankia sp. strain QA3, a nitrogen-fixing actinobacterium isolated from root nodules of Alnus nitida

Draft Genome Sequence of Frankia sp. Strain CN3, an Atypical, Noninfective (Nod–) Ineffective (Fix–) Isolate from Coriaria nepalensis

We report here the genome sequence of Frankia sp. strain CN3, which was isolated from Coriaria nepalensis. This genome sequence is the first from the fourth lineage of Frankia, strains of which are unable to reinfect actinorhizal plants. At 10 Mb, it represents the largest Frankia genome sequenced to date

Breast lesion classification based on absorption and composition parameters: a look at SOLUS first outcomes

A machine learning classification algorithm is applied to the SOLUS database to discriminate benign and malignant breast lesions, based on absorption and composition properties retrieved through diffuse optical tomography. The Mann-Whitney test indicates oxy-hemoglobin (p-value = 0.0007) and lipids (0.0387) as the most significant constituents for lesion classification, but work is in progress for further analysis. Together with sensitivity (91%), specificity (75%) and the Area Under the ROC Curve (0.83), special metrics for imbalanced datasets (27% of malignant lesions) are applied to the machine learning outcome: balanced accuracy (83%) and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (0.65). The initial results underline the promising informative content of optical data

SOLUS: A Smart OpticaL and UltraSound device for the diagnostics of breast cancer

SOLUS is a H2020 funded project devoted to the design, development and testing in clinics of a Smart OpticaL and UltraSound device for the diagnostics of breast cancer. The collaboration of all partners allowed the first integration of time domain multi-wavelength diffuse optical tomography and commercial B-mo de ultrasound imaging, color doppler and shear wave elastography in a hand-held probe. The initial results of the clinical validation of the SOLUS system now ongoing on patients with breast lesions are presented