Microalgal Growth in Aquaculture Effluent: Coupling Biomass Valorisation with Nutrients Removal

Natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and the need to control their consumption and recycle their use is growing. Water is one of the essential resources for human survival. Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in ways to save, recycle and treat water supplies. Aquaculture is one of the most polluting activities as it produces a significant wastewater volume, which needs proper treatment before being discharged into the environment or recycled. Microalgae are a potential solution for wastewater treatment. Due to their numerous advantages, the use of microalgal biomass is being studied, and, at present, there is already a market and room for profit in the sale of microalgal components in various forms, such as animal and human supplements. From a biorefinery point of view, it is important to take advantage of all the qualities and benefits that microalgae have by combining their great capacity to treat wastewater and exploit the produced biomass, analysing its composition for subsequent valorisation, for example. In this study, Chlorella vulgaris was used to treat aquaculture wastewater from a trout farm aquaculture facility, and the treatment efficiency was evaluated. To valorise the resulting biomass, its composition was also assessed. C. vulgaris successfully grew in the effluent with growth rates of 0.260 +/- 0.014 d(-1) and with average productivity of 32.9 +/- 1.6 mg L-1 d(-1). The achieved removal efficiencies were 93.5 +/- 2.1% for total nitrogen, 98.0 +/- 0.1% for nitrate-nitrogen and 92.7 +/- 0.1% for phosphate-phosphorus. Concerning biomass composition, the lipids (15.82 +/- 0.15%), carbohydrates (48.64 +/- 0.83%), and pigment contents (0.99 +/- 0.04% for chlorophyll a + b and 0.21 +/- 0.04% for carotenoids) were similar to the values of similar studies. However, the protein content obtained (17.93 +/- 1.21%) was lower than the ones mentioned in the literature

Fracture risk in systemic lupus erythematosus patients over 28 years

OBJECTIVES: Chronic glucocorticoid use is complicated by osteoporosis and increases the risk of fragility fractures. EULAR guidelines on SLE management recommend reducing chronic glucocorticoid dosage to ≤7.5 mg/day to minimize this risk. We examined the relationship of glucocorticoid dose to fragility fracture risk in a cohort of SLE patients. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of SLE patients attending University College Hospital over 28 years was undertaken. Collected data included consecutive steroid dose, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans and fragility fractures. RESULTS: We collected data on 250 patients with a median of 17 years' follow-up. Fragility fractures were diagnosed in 28 (11.2%) patients and the mean ± s.d. age of first fracture was 51 ± 16 years. A total of 94% received glucocorticoids, the average dose being 6.20 mg/day. Patients with fragility fractures had a lower average daily dose (5.36 vs 6.23 mg/day) but a higher median cumulative dose (25.19 vs 20.96 g). These differences were not significant (P = 0.127 and 0.229, respectively). Some 93% of patients received vitamin D, and 85% received calcium. Cox regression analysis showed older age at SLE diagnosis, osteoporosis and secondary hyperparathyroidism were associated with fragility fractures. Glucocorticoid dose was not significantly associated with the occurrence of fragility fractures. Twenty-two patients with fractures were treated with bisphosphonates, two with denosumab and two with teriparatide. CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant association between glucocorticoid treatment and fragility fractures in our group of patients; however, a prospective study including more patients not treated with CS would be necessary to confirm these results

Assessment of oxidative metabolism

Oxidative metabolism is one of the central physiological processes that regulate multiple functions in a cell including cell death and survival, proliferation, gene transcription, and protein modification. There are multitudes of techniques that are used to evaluate oxidative activity. Here, we summarize how to measure oxidative activity by flow cytometry. This versatile technique allows the evaluation of the level of oxidative activity within heterogeneous populations of cells and in cell culture. Flow cytometry is a quick method that yields highly reproducible results with small sample volumes. Therefore, it is an ideal technique for evaluating changes in oxidative activity in samples from mice

Modal beam splitter:Determination of the transversal components of an electromagnetic light field

The transversal profile of beams can always be defined as a superposition of orthogonal fields, such as optical eigenmodes. Here, we describe a generic method to separate the individual components in a laser beam and map each mode onto its designated detector with low crosstalk. We demonstrate this with the decomposition into Laguerre-Gaussian beams and introduce a distribution over the integer numbers corresponding to the discrete orbital and radial momentum components of the light field. The method is based on determining an eigenmask filter transforming the incident optical eigenmodes to position eigenmodes enabling the detection of the state of the light field using single detectors while minimizing cross talk with respect to the set of filter masks considered.UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/J01771X/1]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Mapping genetic variations to three- dimensional protein structures to enhance variant interpretation: a proposed framework

The translation of personal genomics to precision medicine depends on the accurate interpretation of the multitude of genetic variants observed for each individual. However, even when genetic variants are predicted to modify a protein, their functional implications may be unclear. Many diseases are caused by genetic variants affecting important protein features, such as enzyme active sites or interaction interfaces. The scientific community has catalogued millions of genetic variants in genomic databases and thousands of protein structures in the Protein Data Bank. Mapping mutations onto three-dimensional (3D) structures enables atomic-level analyses of protein positions that may be important for the stability or formation of interactions; these may explain the effect of mutations and in some cases even open a path for targeted drug development. To accelerate progress in the integration of these data types, we held a two-day Gene Variation to 3D (GVto3D) workshop to report on the latest advances and to discuss unmet needs. The overarching goal of the workshop was to address the question: what can be done together as a community to advance the integration of genetic variants and 3D protein structures that could not be done by a single investigator or laboratory? Here we describe the workshop outcomes, review the state of the field, and propose the development of a framework with which to promote progress in this arena. The framework will include a set of standard formats, common ontologies, a common application programming interface to enable interoperation of the resources, and a Tool Registry to make it easy to find and apply the tools to specific analysis problems. Interoperability will enable integration of diverse data sources and tools and collaborative development of variant effect prediction methods