Biodegradation of Polyethylene Using Bacillus Subtilis

AbstractPolyethylene is among the major plastics being dumped in the environment. The study explores methods to enhance the rate of biodegradation of polyethylene using physical and biological means. Bacterial species –Bacillus subtilis – was tested for its potential in utilizing polyethylene as their sole carbon source. The microbial species produced surface active compounds (Biosurfactants) that enhance the degradation process. Pretreatment of polymer films with Ultraviolet radiation aids its accessibility as food for the microorganisms thus enabling a much faster rate of biodegradation. Inoculation of pretreated polyethylene films of thickness 18μ with Bacillus subtilis with the addition of its biosurfactant (surfactin) proved to be most efficient with a weight loss percentage of 9.26% in 30 day

Case Study of a School Wellbeing Initiative: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Support Positive Change

Drawing from the fields of positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship and educational administration, this case study reports on the process used in a large K-12 school to implement the strategic goal of fostering student wellbeing. This case study outlines the three strategic phases used to build wellbeing over a two-and-a-half-year time period: 1) development; 2) implementation; and 3) monitoring. The school aligned its change process to the goal of achieving wellbeing by adopting appreciative inquiry as the overarching change approach. Appreciative inquiry is a systematic, holistic, and collaborative methodology that follows a strengths-based model of change. Through the use of appreciative inquiry, 15 bottom-up (instigated by students and staff) and top-down (instigated by leadership) initiatives were generated over a two-and-a-half-year period. This paper provides an applied example of how AI can be woven into a strategic change process to support the wellbeing of students. The paper aims to contribute to the rapidly developing field of positive education.

The Evolution of the Far-UV Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate Density of the Chandra Deep Field South from z=0.2-1.2 with Swift/UVOT

We use deep Swift UV/Optical Telescope (UVOT) near-ultraviolet (1600A to 4000A) imaging of the Chandra Deep Field South to measure the rest-frame far-UV (FUV; 1500A) luminosity function (LF) in four redshift bins between z=0.2 and 1.2. Our sample includes 730 galaxies with u < 24.1 mag. We use two methods to construct and fit the LFs: the traditional V_max method with bootstrap errors and a maximum likelihood estimator. We observe luminosity evolution such that M* fades by ~2 magnitudes from z~1 to z~0.3 implying that star formation activity was substantially higher at z~1 than today. We integrate our LFs to determine the FUV luminosity densities and star formation rate densities from z=0.2 to 1.2. We find evolution consistent with an increase proportional to (1+z)^1.9 out to z~1. Our luminosity densities and star formation rates are consistent with those found in the literature, but are, on average, a factor of ~2 higher than previous FUV measurements. In addition, we combine our UVOT data with the MUSYC survey to model the galaxies' ultraviolet-to-infrared spectral energy distributions and estimate the rest-frame FUV attenuation. We find that accounting for the attenuation increases the star formation rate densities by ~1 dex across all four redshift bins.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Digi-Care: Exploring the Impacts of Digitization on Nursing Work in Switzerland

In this paper we present first findings of the Digi-Care project, a multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder research project investigating the impacts of digitization on nursing work practices and in particular the transmission of patient care information within and beyond nursing work practices. We completed the initial data collection of the funded 3-year research project and report on a plethora of significant and critical IT-related events. Some of them can be attributed to usability issues

Prognostic value of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in type 2 diabetic patients with mild, stable angina pectoris

Aim: To determine the prognostic value of reversible myocardial perfusion defects on myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and mild anginal complaints. Methods and results: In the MERIDIAN trial, patients with diabetes mellitus type 2, stable, mild anginal symptoms (Canadian Cardiovascular Society classification (CCS) I-II/IV) and reversible perfusion defects were randomized to either continued pharmacological treatment or early invasive treatment. In this sub analysis, the severity of the myocardial perfusion defect was related to the occurrence of cardiac death and non-fatal myocardial infarction, in 319 patients (63% male, 65 ± 9 years). During follow-up (2.2 ± 0.6 years), 14 patients had a cardiac event: 3 in 171 patients without myocardial ischemia and 11 in 148 patients with myocardial ischemia. Annual event rates rose from 0.8% to 5.8% with increasing severity of myocardial ischemia. Multivariable analysis identified the presence of severe myocardial ischemia (hazard ratio (HR) 5.45, 95%CI 1.89-15.71) and insulin use (HR 4.00, 95%CI 1.25-12.75) as independent predictors of cardiac events. Conclusions: Type 2 diabetics with mild anginal symptoms with no or moderate myocardial ischemia have a low annual cardiac event rate. In patients with severe myocardial ischemia event rate increased 3-6 fold

Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome performed worse than controls in a controlled repeated exercise study despite a normal oxidative phosphorylation capacity

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that a decreased mitochondrial ATP synthesis causes muscular and mental fatigue and plays a role in the pathophysiology of the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME).Methods: Female patients (n = 15) and controls (n = 15) performed a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) by cycling at a continuously increased work rate till maximal exertion. The CPET was repeated 24 h later. Before the tests, blood was taken for the isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), which were processed in a special way to preserve their oxidative phosphorylation, which was tested later in the presence of ADP and phosphate in permeabilized cells with glutamate, malate and malonate plus or minus the complex I inhibitor rotenone, and succinate with rotenone plus or minus the complex II inhibitor malonate in order to measure the ATP production via Complex I and II, respectively. Plasma CK was determined as a surrogate measure of a decreased oxidative phosphorylation in muscle, since the previous finding that in a group of patients with external ophthalmoplegia the oxygen consumption by isolated muscle mitochondria correlated negatively with plasma creatine kinase, 24 h after exercise.Results: At both exercise tests the patients reached the anaerobic threshold and the maximal exercise at a much lower oxygen consumption than the controls and this worsened in the second test. This implies an increase of lactate, the product of anaerobic glycolysis, and a decrease of the mitochondrial ATP production in the patients. In the past this was also found in patients with defects in the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. However the oxidative phosphorylation in PBMC was similar in CFS/ME patients and controls. The plasma creatine kinase levels before and 24 h after exercise were low in patients and controls, suggesting normality of the muscular mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.Conclusion: The decrease in mitochondrial ATP synthesis in the CFS/ME patients is not caused by a defect in the enzyme complexes catalyzing oxidative phosphorylation, but in another factor

Differential Scanning Fluorometry Signatures as Indicators of Enzyme Inhibitor Mode of Action: Case Study of Glutathione S-Transferase

Differential scanning fluorometry (DSF), also referred to as fluorescence thermal shift, is emerging as a convenient method to evaluate the stabilizing effect of small molecules on proteins of interest. However, its use in the mechanism of action studies has received far less attention. Herein, the ability of DSF to report on inhibitor mode of action was evaluated using glutathione S-transferase (GST) as a model enzyme that utilizes two distinct substrates and is known to be subject to a range of inhibition modes. Detailed investigation of the propensity of small molecule inhibitors to protect GST from thermal denaturation revealed that compounds with different inhibition modes displayed distinct thermal shift signatures when tested in the presence or absence of the enzyme's native co-substrate glutathione (GSH). Glutathione-competitive inhibitors produced dose-dependent thermal shift trendlines that converged at high compound concentrations. Inhibitors acting via the formation of glutathione conjugates induced a very pronounced stabilizing effect toward the protein only when GSH was present. Lastly, compounds known to act as noncompetitive inhibitors exhibited parallel concentration-dependent trends. Similar effects were observed with human GST isozymes A1-1 and M1-1. The results illustrate the potential of DSF as a tool to differentiate diverse classes of inhibitors based on simple analysis of co-substrate dependency of protein stabilization

Both loved and feared: third party punishers are viewed as formidable and likeable, but these reputational benefits may only be open to dominant individuals

Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright: © 2014 Gordon et al.The datasets associated with this article are available in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15639Third party punishment can be evolutionarily stable if there is heterogeneity in the cost of punishment or if punishers receive a reputational benefit from their actions. A dominant position might allow some individuals to punish at a lower cost than others and by doing so access these reputational benefits. Three vignette-based studies measured participants' judgements of a third party punisher in comparison to those exhibiting other aggressive/dominant behaviours (Study 1), when there was variation in the success of punishment (Study 2), and variation in the status of the punisher and the type of punishment used (Study 3). Third party punishers were judged to be more likeable than (but equally dominant as) those who engaged in other types of dominant behaviour (Study 1), were judged to be equally likeable and dominant whether their intervention succeeded or failed (Study 2), and participants believed that only a dominant punisher could intervene successfully (regardless of whether punishment was violent or non-violent) and that subordinate punishers would face a higher risk of retaliation (Study 3). The results suggest that dominance can dramatically reduce the cost of punishment, and that while individuals can gain a great deal of reputational benefit from engaging in third party punishment, these benefits are only open to dominant individuals. Taking the status of punishers into account may therefore help explain the evolution of third party punishment.School of Psychology, University of Exete

High-affinity CD8 variants enhance the sensitivity of pMHCI antigen recognition via low-affinity TCRs

The recognition of cell surface presented peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I (pMHCI) molecules by CD8 T-cells involves cooperative binding of the T-cell receptor (TCR) and CD8 co-receptor. CD8 T-cell antigen specificity is conferred by the TCR, whilst CD8 acts to stabilize the TCR/pMHCI complex and enhance T-cell antigen sensitivity. Earlier work has shown that the sensitivity of antigen recognition can be regulated in vitro by altering the strength of the pMHCI/CD8 interaction. Here, we characterize two CD8 variants with an enhanced affinity for MHCI that remains below the affinity threshold at which non-specific activation is observed. In model systems, expression of these CD8 variants preferentially enhanced pMHCI antigen recognition in the context of low-affinity TCRs. When combined with MHCI-restricted TCRs in primary CD4 T-cells, high affinity CD8 variants could improve T-cell functionality, without loss of antigen specificity. In primary CD8 T-cells, the introduction of high affinity CD8 enhanced T-cell activation compared to endogenous CD8 expression only, although we observed that the introduction of transgenic wild-type CD8 into primary CD8 T-cells also resulted in a similar T-cell effector function enhancement. Collectively, these findings could provide a generically applicable and immediately translatable strategy to augment the therapeutic efficacy of clinically relevant TCRs, which are already being delivered alongside wild-type CD8

Scientific, sustainability and regulatory challenges of cultured meat

Producing meat without the drawbacks of conventional animal agriculture would greatly contribute to future food and nutrition security. This Review Article covers biological, technological, regulatory and consumer acceptance challenges in this developing field of biotechnology. Cellular agriculture is an emerging branch of biotechnology that aims to address issues associated with the environmental impact, animal welfare and sustainability challenges of conventional animal farming for meat production. Cultured meat can be produced by applying current cell culture practices and biomanufacturing methods and utilizing mammalian cell lines and cell and gene therapy products to generate tissue or nutritional proteins for human consumption. However, significant improvements and modifications are needed for the process to be cost efficient and robust enough to be brought to production at scale for food supply. Here, we review the scientific and social challenges in transforming cultured meat into a viable commercial option, covering aspects from cell selection and medium optimization to biomaterials, tissue engineering, regulation and consumer acceptance