HomeBook

Having a reliable address system is something that is often taken for granted, but simply having one comes with immense benefits. People can easily find locations of friends and family, services like taxis know exactly where to pick customers up, and emergency response units can accurately find the scene of emergencies quickly. However, in many developing countries, these are luxuries only afforded by the wealthy and privileged neighborhoods. Locations are given haphazardly through description, often leading to late arrivals. In some cases this can be a dire possibility. Our solution aims to change this by developing a mobile application that anyone can download onto their mobile device. The application uses GPS coordinates to generate a permanent address, which can then be shared with other people and services

Plasma Proteomic Signature in Overweight Girls Closely Correlates with Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA), an Objective Measure of Insulin Resistance

Obesity is known to be associated with a large number of long-term morbidities, and while in some cases the relationship of obesity and the consequences is clear (for example, excess weight and lower extremity orthopedic problems) in others the mechanism is not as clear. One common system of categorizing overweight in terms of the likelihood of negative consequences involves using the concept of “metabolic syndrome”. We hypothesized that the development of a plasma protein profile of overweight adolescents with and without the metabolic syndrome might give a more precise and informative picture of the disease process than the current clinical categorization and permit early targeted intervention. For this paper, we used antibody microarrays to analyze the plasma proteome of a group of 15 overweight female adolescent patients. Upon analysis of the proteome, the overweight patients diverged from the nonoverweight female controls. Furthermore, the overweight patients were divided by the analysis into two population clusters, each with distinctive protein expression patterns. Interestingly, the clusters were characterized by differences in insulin resistance, as measured by HOMA. Categorization according to the presence or absence of the metabolic syndrome did not yield such clusters

Acetylene and oxygen as inhibitors of nitrous oxide production in Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrosospira briensis: a cautionary tale

Autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria produce nitrous oxide (N2O) as a by-product of nitrification or as an intermediate of nitrifier denitrification. In soil incubations, acetylene (C2H2) and large partial pressures of oxygen (O2) are used to distinguish between these sources. C2H2 inhibits ammonia oxidation and should therefore inhibit N2O production by both nitrification and nitrifier denitrification. O2 suppresses the reduction pathway of nitrifier denitrification. However, doubts concerning the reliability of C2H2 and O2 as inhibitors have arisen recently. Therefore, in this study we tested the influence of C2H2 and large partial pressures of O2 alone and in combination on N2O production in pure cultures of the ammonia oxidizers Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrosospira briensis. C2H2 largely inhibited nitrite production in both ammonia oxidizers and N2O production by N. europaea. Surprisingly, it did not affect the N2O production in N. briensis. The variable response of ammonia oxidizers to C2H2 might have consequences for the use of C2H2 as an inhibitor of nitrification in soils. Different partial pressures of O2 ranging from less than 10 kPa O2 to 100 kPa O2 were tested for their effectiveness in inhibiting N2O production via nitrifier denitrification. The partial pressure of 100 kPa O2 yielded minimal N2O production by both ammonia-oxidizing species and seemed to inhibit N2O emission from nitrifier denitrification to a large extent. However, a negative effect of 100 kPa O2 on ammonia oxidation itself could not be excluded. The applicability of both inhibitors in determining N2O production pathways in soils is discussed. [KEYWORDS: Nitrous oxide; Acetylene; Oxygen; Ammonia oxidizer; Nitrifier denitrification]

Nitrosospira spp. can produce nitrous oxide via a nitrifier denitrification pathway

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emission from soils is a major contributor to the atmospheric loading of this potent greenhouse gas. It is thought that autotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) are a significant source of soil-derived N2O and a denitrification pathway (i.e. reduction of NO2- to NO and N2O), so-called nitrifier denitrification, has been demonstrated as a N2O production mechanism in Nitrosomonas europaea. It is thought that Nitrosospira spp. are the dominant AOB in soil, but little information is available on their ability to produce N2O or on the existence of a nitrifier denitrification pathway in this lineage. This study aims to characterize N2O production and nitrifier denitrification in seven strains of AOB representative of clusters 0, 2 and 3 in the cultured Nitrosospira lineage. Nitrosomonas europaea ATCC 19718 and ATCC 25978 were analysed for comparison. The aerobically incubated test strains produced significant (P < 0.001) amounts of N2O and total N2O production rates ranged from 2.0 amol cell(-1) h(-1), in Nitrosospira tenuis strain NV12, to 58.0 amol cell(-1) h(-1), in N. europaea ATCC 19718. Nitrosomonas europaea ATCC 19718 was atypical in that it produced four times more N2O than the next highest producing strain. All AOB tested were able to carry out nitrifier denitrification under aerobic conditions, as determined by production of N-15-N2O from applied N-15-NO2-. Up to 13.5% of the N2O produced was derived from the exogenously applied N-15-NO2-. The results suggest that nitrifier denitrification could be a universal trait in the betaproteobacterial AOB and its potential ecological significance is discussed

Clinical decision support to Optimize Care of patients with Atrial Fibrillation or flutter in the Emergency department: protocol of a stepped-wedge cluster randomized pragmatic trial (O’CAFÉ trial)

BackgroundManagement of adults with atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter in the emergency department (ED) includes rate reduction, cardioversion, and stroke prevention. Different approaches to these components of care may lead to variation in frequency of hospitalization and stroke prevention actions, with significant implications for patient experience, cost of care, and risk of complications. Standardization using evidence-based recommendations could reduce variation in management, preventable hospitalizations, and stroke risk.MethodsWe describe the rationale for our ED-based AF treatment recommendations. We also describe the development of an electronic clinical decision support system (CDSS) to deliver these recommendations to emergency physicians at the point of care. We implemented the CDSS at three pilot sites to assess feasibility and solicit user feedback. We will evaluate the impact of the CDSS on hospitalization and stroke prevention actions using a stepped-wedge cluster randomized pragmatic clinical trial across 13 community EDs in Northern California.DiscussionWe hypothesize that the CDSS intervention will reduce hospitalization of adults with isolated AF or atrial flutter presenting to the ED and increase anticoagulation prescription in eligible patients at the time of ED discharge and within 30&nbsp;days. If our hypotheses are confirmed, the treatment protocol and CDSS could be recommended to other EDs to improve management of adults with AF or atrial flutter.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05009225 .&nbsp;&nbsp;Registered on&nbsp;17 August 2021

Strategies of aerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria for coping with nutrient and oxygen fluctuations

In most natural environments as well as in engineered environments, such as wastewater treatment plants, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) experience fluctuating substrate concentrations. Several physiological traits, such as low maintenance energy demand and decay rate, cell-to-cell communication, cell mobility, stable enzymes and RNAs, could allow AOB to maintain themselves under unfavourable circumstances. This review examines whether AOB possess such traits and how these traits might offer advantages over competing organisms such as heterotrophic bacteria during periods of starvation. In addition, within the AOB groups, differences exist in adaptation to and competitiveness under conditions of high or low ammonia or oxygen concentrations. Because these findings are of importance with regard to the ecology and activity of AOB in natural and engineered environments, concluding remarks are directed towards future research objectives that may clarify unanswered questions, thereby contributing to the general knowledge of the ecology and activity of ammonia oxidizer