The solvability of groups with nilpotent minimal coverings

A covering of a group is a finite set of proper subgroups whose union is the whole group. A covering is minimal if there is no covering of smaller cardinality, and it is nilpotent if all its members are nilpotent subgroups. We complete a proof that every group that has a nilpotent minimal covering is solvable, starting from the previously known result that a minimal counterexample is an almost simple finite group

Flow-cytometric quantification of microbial cells on sand from water biofilters

Rapid quantification of absolute microbial cell abundances is important for a comprehensive interpretation of microbiome surveys and crucial to support theoretical modelling and the design of engineered systems. In this paper, we propose a protocol specifically optimised for the quantification of microbial abundances in water biofilters using flow cytometry (FCM). We optimised cell detachment from sand biofilter particles for FCM quantification through the evaluation of five chemical dispersants (NaCl, Triton-X100, CaCl2, sodium pyrophosphate (PP), Tween 80 combined with PP), different mechanical pre-treatments (low and high energy sonication and shaking) and two fixation methods (glutaraldehyde and ethanol). The developed protocol was cross-compared using other established and commonly employed methods for biomass quantification in water filter samples (adenosine triphosphate (ATP) quantification, real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and volatile solids (VS)). The highest microbial count was obtained by detaching the biofilm from biofilter grains and dispersing clusters into singles cells using Tween 80 and sodium pyrophosphate combined with four steps of high energy sonication (27W, for 80 s each step); glutaraldehyde was shown to be the best fixative solution. The developed protocol was reliable and highly reproducible and produced results that are comparable to data from alternative quantification methods. Indeed, high correlations were found with trends obtained through ATP and qPCR (ρ = 0.98 and ρ = 0.91) measurements. The VS content was confirmed as an inaccurate method to express biomass in sand samples since it correlated poorly with all the other three methods (ρ = 0.005 with FCM, 0.002 with ATP and 0.177 with qPCR). FCM and ATP showed the strongest agreement between absolute counts with a slope of the correlation equal to 0.7, while qPCR seemed to overestimate cell counts by a factor of ten. The rapidity and reproducibility of the method developed make its application ideal for routine quantification of microbial cell abundances on sand from water biofilters and thus useful in revealing the ecological patterns and quantifying the metabolic kinetics involved in such systems

Medium shapes the microbial community of water filters with implications for effluent quality

Little is known about the forces that determine the assembly of diverse bacterial communities inhabiting drinking water treatment filters and how this affects drinking water quality. Two contrasting ecological theories can help to understand how natural microbial communities assemble; niche theory and neutral theory, where environmental deterministic factors or stochastic factors predominate respectively. This study investigates the development of the microbial community on two common contrasting filter materials (quartz sand and granular activated carbon-GAC), to elucidate the main factors governing their assembly, through the evaluation of environmental (i.e. filter medium type) and stochastic forces (random deaths, births and immigration). Laboratory-scale filter columns were used to mimic a rapid gravity filter; the microbiome of the filter materials, and of the filter influent and effluent, was characterised using next generation 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and flow-cytometry. Chemical parameters (i.e. dissolved organic carbon, trihalomethanes formation) were also monitored to assess the final effluent quality. The filter communities seemed to be strongly assembled by selection rather than neutral processes, with only 28% of those OTUs shared with the source water detected on the filter medium following predictions using a neutral community model. GAC hosted a phylogenetically more diverse community than sand. The two filter media communities seeded the effluent water, triggering differences in both water quality and community composition of the effluents. Overall, GAC proved to be better than sand in controlling microbial growth, by promoting higher bacterial decay rates and hosting less bacterial cells, and showed better performance for putative pathogen control by leaking less Legionella cells into the effluent water

Exploring Health-Promoting Attributes of Plant Proteins as a Functional Ingredient for the Food Sector : A Systematic Review of Human Interventional Studies

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Earthquake risk: Including Uncertainties in the Ground Motion Calculations

Earthquake risk models used by the insurance industry for estimating the damage caused by an event typically use the mean of the ground motion intensity to predict the damage to a particular building. On the other hand, the ground motion intensity can be modelled as a ran- dom variable. Literature related to ground-motion predictive equation derivation includes, as a rule, the estimate of the standard deviation associated with the distribution of the intensity. The Study Group was asked to find a way to include the uncertainty associated with the predic- tion of the ground motion intensity contained in the standard deviation into the damage calculation, in a way in which the computational effort is not increased significantly The Study Group proposed a way forward based on Bayes’ theorem for the marginal distribution of damage and found an analytical expression for the damage distribution function. However, the expression is an in- tegral that needs to be evaluated numerically and the Gaussian-Hermite quadrature was proposed to carry out the calculations. The approach seems plausible to be included in the existing models and the additional computational load is estimated as to be marginal relating to the current computational demands

Post-synthesis incorporation of Al into germanosilicate ITH zeolites : the influence of treatment conditions on the acidic properties and catalytic behavior in tetrahydropyranylation

M. S. thanks the Czech Science Foundation for support through the project 14-30898P. M. O. acknowledges the Czech Science Foundation for the project 13-17593P. R. E. M. thanks the EPSRC for funding (EP/K025112/1 and EP/L014475/1).Post-synthesis alumination of germanosilicate medium-pore ITH zeolites was shown to be an effective procedure for tuning their acidity. Treatment of ITH zeolites synthesized with different chemical compositions (i.e. Si/Ge = 2.5, 4.4 and 5.8) with aqueous Al(NO3)3 solution led to the formation of strong Brønsted and Lewis acid sites and an increasing fraction of ultramicro- and meso-pores in Ge-rich ITH samples (Si/Ge = 2.5 and 4.4). The concentration of Al incorporated into the framework increases with decreasing Si/Ge ratio of the parent ITH. The increasing temperature of alumination from 80 to 175 °C (HT conditions) resulted in (1) a 1.5-2-fold increase in the concentration of Brønsted acid sites formed and (2) a decreasing fraction of framework Al atoms detectable with base probe molecules (i.e. pyridine, 2,6-di-tert-butylpyridine), i.e. an increased concentration of the "inner" acid sites. The activity of prepared Al-substituted ITH zeolites in tetrahydropyranylation of alcohols is enhanced with increasing amount of accessible acid sites in bulky crystals (e.g. alumination at lower temperature) or with increasing total concentration of acid centres within tiny ITH crystals (e.g. alumination under HT conditions). This trend became more prominent with increasing kinetic diameter of the substrate molecules under investigation (methanol <1-propanol <1-hexanol).PostprintPeer reviewe

Characterisation and classification of oligometastatic disease : a European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer consensus recommendation

Oligometastatic disease has been proposed as an intermediate state between localised and systemically metastasised disease. In the absence of randomised phase 3 trials, early clinical studies show improved survival when radical local therapy is added to standard systemic therapy for oligometastatic disease. However, since no biomarker for the identification of patients with true oligometastatic disease is clinically available, the diagnosis of oligometastatic disease is based solely on imaging findings. A small number of metastases on imaging could represent different clinical scenarios, which are associated with different prognoses and might require different treatment strategies. 20 international experts including 19 members of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer OligoCare project developed a comprehensive system for characterisation and classification of oligometastatic disease. We first did a systematic review of the literature to identify inclusion and exclusion criteria of prospective interventional oligometastatic disease clinical trials. Next, we used a Delphi consensus process to select a total of 17 oligometastatic disease characterisation factors that should be assessed in all patients treated with radical local therapy for oligometastatic disease, both within and outside of clinical trials. Using a second round of the Delphi method, we established a decision tree for oligometastatic disease classification together with a nomenclature. We agreed oligometastatic disease as the overall umbrella term. A history of polymetastatic disease before diagnosis of oligometastatic disease was used as the criterion to differentiate between induced oligometastatic disease (previous history of polymetastatic disease) and genuine oligometastatic disease (no history of polymetastatic disease). We further subclassified genuine oligometastatic disease into repeat oligometastatic disease (previous history of oligometastatic disease) and de-novo oligometastatic disease (first time diagnosis of oligometastatic disease). In de-novo oligometastatic disease, we differentiated between synchronous and metachronous oligometastatic disease. We did a final subclassification into oligorecurrence, oligoprogression, and oligopersistence, considering whether oligometastatic disease is diagnosed during a treatment-free interval or during active systemic therapy and whether or not an oligometastatic lesion is progressing on current imaging. This oligometastatic disease classification and nomenclature needs to be prospectively evaluated by the OligoCare study

Whole-genome-wide linkage and IBS/IBD studies

Twelve families with exuberant and early-onset calcium pyrophosphate dehydrate chondrocalcinosis (CC) and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH), hereafter designated DISH/CC, were identified in Terceira Island, the Azores, Portugal. Ninety-two (92) individuals from these families were selected for whole-genome-wide linkage analysis. An identity-by-descent (IBD) analysis was performed in 10 individuals from 5 of the investigated pedigrees. The chromosome area with the maximal logarithm of the odds score (1.32; P=0.007) was not identified using the IBD/identity-by-state (IBS) analysis; therefore, it was not investigated further. From the IBD/IBS analysis, two candidate genes, LEMD3 and RSPO4, were identified and sequenced. Nine genetic variants were identified in the RSPO4 gene; one regulatory variant (rs146447064) was significantly more frequent in control individuals than in DISH/CC patients (P=0.03). Four variants were identified in LEMD3, and the rs201930700 variant was further investigated using segregation analysis. None of the genetic variants in RSPO4 or LEMD3 segregated within the studied families. Therefore, although a major genetic effect was shown to determine DISH/CC occurrence within these families, the specific genetic variants involved were not identified.publishersversionpublishe