Carbon and nitrogen dynamics: Greenhouse gases in groundwater beneath a constructed wetland treating municipal wastewater

Conference oral presentationConstructed wetlands (CW) act as nitrogen (N) sinks and reactors facilitating a number of physical, chemical and biological processes. The N removal efficiency of through-flowing water in such systems when used to treat municipal wastewater is variable. Their overall removal efficiencies do not specifically explain which N species have been removed by physical attenuation, and by biological assimilation or transformation to other forms. A wider understanding of how N removal occurs would help elucidate how losses of N and associated gases from CW impact on water and air quality. The objective of this study is to investigate the C and N cycling processes in the porewater of soils immediately adjacent, up-gradient and down- gradient to helophyte —vegetated CW cells

Phosphorus Retention and sorption by constructed wetland soils.

End of Project ReportPhosphorus plays a major role in the eutrophication of freshwater systems. Wetland systems either natural or constructed have an inherent ability to cycle and retain P. Physical, chemical and biological processes regulate P retention in wetland soils and sediments. Of those processes, sorption and precipitation are important in retaining P. Sorption is typically greater under aerobic soil/sediment conditions than anaerobic conditions. Under anaerobic conditions, Fe plays a major role in P dynamics, whereas Al is not affected by changes in redox. Precipitation of P as insoluble Ca bound P is a dominant transformation at high pH. Long-term P retention by wetland systems includes accretion and decomposition of organic and detrital material, and its associated P content. Case studies reviewed illustrated that P retention in natural and constructed wetland systems can vary by several orders of 30 magnitude depending on site-specific factors. The literature reviewed also indicates that using wetlands to retain P from agricultural practices is significant and variable

A Farm Scale integrated constructed wetland to treat farmyard dirty water.

End of Project ReportIn Ireland, the use of constructed wetlands to manage agricultural waters such as farm yard dirty water has been primarily based on an ecosystems approach. Integrated constructed wetlands, which are a design specific approach of conventional surface flow constructed wetlands, were first used in the Anne Valley, Waterford, Ireland (Harrington and Ryder, 2002). At present, 13 farms in the Anne Valley catchment use integrated constructed wetlands to manage farmyard dirty water (Harrington et al., 2004). Fundamental to their design is water quality improvement, landscape fit (designing the wetland into the topography of the landscape) and that the wetland provides an ecological habitat within the agricultural landscape. Typically, integrated constructed wetlands have greater land area requirements than conventional surface flow constructed wetlands in order to provide for these other fundamental ecological services. Few studies (Ryan, 1990) have addressed the issue of quality and quantity of farmyard dirty generated at farm-scales in Ireland. No studies were readily available documenting the effectiveness of a farm-scale constructed or integrated constructed wetland in Ireland to remove nutrients such as phosphorus (P) from dairy farmyard dirty water on a mass basis. To address such, the main objectives of this research were to (i) determine the quality and quantity of farmyard dirty water generated at a farm-scale (ii) determine the effectiveness of three treatment cells of an integrated constructed wetland to treat farmyard dirty, using the difference between input and output mass loadings, (iii) investigate if there were seasonal effects in the wetland’s performance to retain phosphorus, and (iv) assess the impact of the integrated constructed wetland on the receiving environment by monitoring soil-water parameter concentrations up gradient, down gradient and within the wetland system using piezometers at different soil depths.Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm

“Damp in bathroom. Damp in back room. It's very depressing!” exploring the relationship between perceived housing problems, energy affordability concerns, and health and well-being in UK social housing

Social housing residents often struggle with achieving adequate levels of warmth in their home on a limited household budget. Additionally, other housing problems such as damp are common. Previous research has found a link between housing problems and poor health and reduced well-being, but this relationship is complex and poorly understood. A survey among UK social housing residents (N=536) investigated the association between cold and damp housing, as well as the role of energy affordability concerns in the relationship between housing problems and health. The findings indicated that struggles with keeping warm related to a cluster of damp and mould issues rather than any one specific issue. In describing these problems householders expressed a sense of frustration and helplessness. Support was found for an indirect effect on health whereby households experiencing cold, damp or mould issues reported more difficulty with affording their energy bills, these affordability concerns in turn related to poor health and well-being. The effects were found to be more consistent and stronger for men compared to women. Policies aimed at reducing housing problems should consider the important role of affordability concerns and the need for households to regain control of their energy bills

Randomized trials fit for the 21st century. A joint opinion from the European Society of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the World Heart Federation

© The Author(s) 2022. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The articles are identical except for minor stylistic and spelling differences in keeping with each journal's style. When citing this article, a citation from any of the journals listed is appropriate. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] controlled trials are the cornerstone for reliably evaluating therapeutic strategies. However, during the past 25 years, the rules and regulations governing randomized trials and their interpretation have become increasingly burdensome, and the cost and complexity of trials has become prohibitive. The present model is unsustainable, and the development of potentially effective treatments is often stopped prematurely on financial grounds, while existing drug treatments or non-drug interventions (such as screening strategies or management tools) may not be assessed reliably. The current ‘best regulatory practice’ environment, and a lack of consensus on what that requires, too often makes it unduly difficult to undertake efficient randomized trials able to provide reliable evidence about the safety and efficacy of potentially valuable interventions. Inclusion of underrepresented population groups and lack of diversity also remain among the challenges.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

High fidelity fibre-based physiological sensing deep in tissue

Physiological sensing deep in tissue, remains a clinical challenge. Here a flexible miniaturised sensing optrode providing a platform to perform minimally invasive in vivo in situ measurements is reported. Silica microspheres covalently coupled with a high density of ratiometrically configured fluorophores were deposited into etched pits on the distal end of a 150 micron diameter multicore optical fibre. With this platform, multiplexed photonic measurements of pH and oxygen concentration with high precision in the distal alveolar space of the lung is reported. We demonstrated the phenomenon that high-density deposition of carboxyfluorescein covalently coupled to silica microspheres shows an inverse shift in fluorescence in response to varying pH. This platform delivered fast and accurate measurements, near instantaneous response time, no photobleaching, immunity to power fluctuations and a flexible architecture for addition of multiple sensors

A blood atlas of COVID-19 defines hallmarks of disease severity and specificity.

Treatment of severe COVID-19 is currently limited by clinical heterogeneity and incomplete description of specific immune biomarkers. We present here a comprehensive multi-omic blood atlas for patients with varying COVID-19 severity in an integrated comparison with influenza and sepsis patients versus healthy volunteers. We identify immune signatures and correlates of host response. Hallmarks of disease severity involved cells, their inflammatory mediators and networks, including progenitor cells and specific myeloid and lymphocyte subsets, features of the immune repertoire, acute phase response, metabolism, and coagulation. Persisting immune activation involving AP-1/p38MAPK was a specific feature of COVID-19. The plasma proteome enabled sub-phenotyping into patient clusters, predictive of severity and outcome. Systems-based integrative analyses including tensor and matrix decomposition of all modalities revealed feature groupings linked with severity and specificity compared to influenza and sepsis. Our approach and blood atlas will support future drug development, clinical trial design, and personalized medicine approaches for COVID-19

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

A Farm Scale integrated constructed wetland to treat farmyard dirty water.

End of Project ReportIn Ireland, the use of constructed wetlands to manage agricultural waters such as farm yard dirty water has been primarily based on an ecosystems approach. Integrated constructed wetlands, which are a design specific approach of conventional surface flow constructed wetlands, were first used in the Anne Valley, Waterford, Ireland (Harrington and Ryder, 2002). At present, 13 farms in the Anne Valley catchment use integrated constructed wetlands to manage farmyard dirty water (Harrington et al., 2004). Fundamental to their design is water quality improvement, landscape fit (designing the wetland into the topography of the landscape) and that the wetland provides an ecological habitat within the agricultural landscape. Typically, integrated constructed wetlands have greater land area requirements than conventional surface flow constructed wetlands in order to provide for these other fundamental ecological services. Few studies (Ryan, 1990) have addressed the issue of quality and quantity of farmyard dirty generated at farm-scales in Ireland. No studies were readily available documenting the effectiveness of a farm-scale constructed or integrated constructed wetland in Ireland to remove nutrients such as phosphorus (P) from dairy farmyard dirty water on a mass basis. To address such, the main objectives of this research were to (i) determine the quality and quantity of farmyard dirty water generated at a farm-scale (ii) determine the effectiveness of three treatment cells of an integrated constructed wetland to treat farmyard dirty, using the difference between input and output mass loadings, (iii) investigate if there were seasonal effects in the wetland’s performance to retain phosphorus, and (iv) assess the impact of the integrated constructed wetland on the receiving environment by monitoring soil-water parameter concentrations up gradient, down gradient and within the wetland system using piezometers at different soil depths.Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm