Biological Effects of Dispersants and Dispersed Oil in Surface and Deep Ocean Species

Beginning with the use of industrial-strength detergents, dispersing agents have been employed in spill response for decades. The Corexit series of agents in common use today generally consist of non-ionic and/or anionic surfactants in a solvent base designed to enhance miscibility under varying temperature and salinity conditions; cationic surfactants tend to be too toxic for use. While dispersants generally serve to decrease the interfacial surface tension of oil, thus facilitating its weathering under low-energy conditions, their surface-active nature also causes their interaction with cell surfaces – those of single-celled organisms as well as the gills of vertebrates and invertebrates

Challenges and Opportunities Facing Local Governance Agents in Advancing an Ecosystem Approach to Conceptualizing and Governing Community Health in Norfolk County, Ontario

This research focuses on the challenges and opportunities facing local governance agents in advancing an ecosystem approach to conceptualizing and governing community health in Norfolk County, Ontario. Norfolk County is a rural, agriculturally-based community dependent upon tobacco production. This industry has collapsed, triggering widespread socioeconomic impacts and community health pressures. The government is searching for alternative modes of economic development and tensions are high with respect to the direction and nature of these developments. Some citizens are concerned about the security of their rural livelihoods. Others are concerned about ecological integrity. Still others are convinced of the need for aggressive economic growth. Local decision-makers are struggling to meet all of these requirements. An ecosystem approach views health as part of the broader socio-ecological system, recognizing that health outcomes are by-products of complex biophysical, social, political and economic system interactions at nested spatial and temporal scales. The approach contrasts with conventional health models, which tend to be reactionary, narrowly focused, and short-sighted. Such models are typical of the hierarchical, technocratic nature of public administration which renders decision-making structures and processes ill equipped to deal with complex problems. More systemic, integrated, participatory and collaborative approaches to decision-making are needed in order to better address the complexities involved in facilitating healthy and sustainable community development. Additionally, governance agents must also be able to embrace and navigate these evolving approaches to health conceptualization and governance. An investigation into Norfolk County grounds this analysis by revealing the challenges and opportunities facing local governance agents in advancing an ecosystem approach. The case study research effectively tests the utility and feasibility of the ecosystem approach through a qualitative analysis. The research contributes criteria required for advancing an ecosystem approach to community health governance and practice and empirically tests them within the context of Norfolk County

Pursuit of environmental justice in urban forest planning and practice

IntroductionThere is a growing demand for urban forest management that prioritizes genuine community involvement, acknowledges power imbalances within society, and embraces the principles of environmental justice. To assess current initiatives and share better/best approaches, examining how environmental justice principles are applied in urban forest planning and practice is crucial. This study aims to understand the perspectives of urban foresters on the factors that either facilitate or impede the attainment of environmental justice goals.MethodsInterviews were conducted with urban foresters from non-profit organizations and municipal government in San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington. The interviewees were asked to identify and discuss their tree planting and maintenance strategies, public engagement protocol, and inter-organizational collaboration processes. To provide a contextual understanding of environmental injustice in the study cities, the historical racist practice of neighborhood redlining was examined alongside current tree canopy cover, locations of environmental hazards, and the spatial distribution of persons of color and those living in poverty.ResultsThe findings revealed that urban forestry professionals in each city approached environmental justice in distinct yet complementary ways: San Francisco prioritized distributional justice, while Seattle focused on elements of procedural and recognitional justice. The Race and Social Justice Initiative in Seattle and Proposition E in San Francisco have been instrumental in identifying and addressing inequities in urban forest planning and practice.Discussion/conclusionCreating fair and inclusive urban forestry practices that prioritize disadvantaged neighborhoods has been a difficult task for both cities. Acknowledging and addressing past policies and cultural perspectives that have led to marginalization is crucial for building trust with these communities. Moving forward, prioritizing recognitional justice in urban forest planning and management should be a top priority

The predictive and prognostic potential of plasma telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) RNA in rectal cancer patients

Background: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by surgery is the standard care for locally advanced rectal cancer, but tumour response to CRT and disease outcome are variable. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of plasma telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) levels in predicting tumour response and clinical outcome. Methods: 176 rectal cancer patients were included. Plasma samples were collected at baseline (before CRT\ubcT0), 2 weeks after CRT was initiated (T1), post-CRT and before surgery (T2), and 4\u20138 months after surgery (T3) time points. Plasma TERT mRNA levels and total cell-free RNA were determined using real-time PCR. Results: Plasma levels of TERT were significantly lower at T2 (Po0.0001) in responders than in non-responders. Post-CRT TERT levels and the differences between pre- and post-CRT TERT levels independently predicted tumour response, and the prediction model had an area under curve of 0.80 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73\u20130.87). Multiple analysis demonstrated that patients with detectable TERT levels at T2 and T3 time points had a risk of disease progression 2.13 (95% CI 1.10\u20134.11)-fold and 4.55 (95% CI 1.48\u201313.95)-fold higher, respectively, than those with undetectable plasma TERT levels. Conclusions: Plasma TERT levels are independent markers of tumour response and are prognostic of disease progression in rectal cancer patients who undergo neoadjuvant therapy

Why health visiting? Examining the potential public health benefits from health visiting practice within a universal service: A narrative review of the literature

INTRODUCTION: There is increasing international interest in universal, health promoting services for pregnancy and the first three years of life and the concept of proportionate universalism. Drawing on a narrative review of literature, this paper explores mechanisms by which such services might contribute to health improvement and reducing health inequalities. OBJECTIVES: Through a narrative review of empirical literature, to identify: DESIGN: The paper draws upon a scoping study and narrative review. REVIEW METHODS: We used three complementary approaches to search the widely dispersed literature: Our key inclusion criterion was information about health visiting practice. We included empirical papers from United Kingdom (UK) from 2004 to February 2012 and older seminal papers identified in search (3), identifying a total of 348 papers for inclusion. A thematic content analysis compared the older (up to 2003) with more recent research (2004 onwards). RESULTS: The analysis revealed health visiting practice as potentially characterized by a particular 'orientation to practice.' This embodied the values, skills and attitudes needed to deliver universal health visiting services through salutogenesis (health creation), person-centredness (human valuing) and viewing the person in situation (human ecology). Research about health visiting actions focuses on home visiting, needs assessment and parent-health visitor relationships. The detailed description of health visitors' skills, attitudes, values, and their application in practice, provides an explanation of how universal provision can potentially help to promote health and shift the social gradient of health inequalities. CONCLUSIONS: Identification of needs across an undifferentiated, universal caseload, combined with an outreach style that enhances uptake of needed services and appropriate health or parenting information, creates opportunities for parents who may otherwise have remained unaware of, or unwilling to engage with such provision. There is a lack of evaluative research about health visiting practice, service organization or universal health visiting as potential mechanisms for promoting health and reducing health inequalities. This paper offers a potential foundation for such research in future

Two snakebite antivenoms have potential to reduce Eswatini’s dependency upon a single, increasingly unavailable product: Results of preclinical efficacy testing

Background Snakebite is a major public health concern in Eswatini, where treatment relies upon one antivenom—SAIMR Polyvalent. Although effective in treating snakebite, SAIMR Polyvalent is difficult to source outside its manufacturing country (South Africa) and is dauntingly expensive. We compared the preclinical venom-neutralising efficacy of two alternative antivenoms with that of SAIMR Polyvalent against the lethal and tissue-destructive effects of venoms from five species of medically important snakes using in vivo murine assays. The test antivenoms were ‘Panafrican’ manufactured by Instituto Clodomiro Picado and ‘PANAF’ manufactured by Premium Serums & Vaccines. Principal findings In vivo murine preclinical studies identified both test antivenoms were equally or more effective than SAIMR Polyvalent at neutralising lethal and tissue-destructive effects of Naja mossambica venom. Both test antivenoms were less effective than SAIMR Polyvalent at neutralising the lethal effects of Bitis arietans, Dendroaspis polylepis, Hemachatus haemachatus and Naja annulifera venoms, but similarly effective at neutralising tissue damage induced by B. arietans and H. haemachatus venoms. In vitro immunological assays identified that the titres and toxin-specificities of immunoglobulins (iGs) in the test antivenoms were comparable to that of SAIMR Polyvalent. Plasma clotting disturbances by H. haemachatus and N. mossambica were neutralised by the test antivenoms, whereas SAIMR Polyvalent failed to neutralise this bioactivity of N. mossambica venom. B. arietans SVMP activity was equally reduced by all three antivenoms, and H. haemachatus and N. mossambica PLA2 activities were neutralised by all three antivenoms. Conclusions While both Panafrican and PANAF antivenoms exhibited promising preclinical efficacies, both were less poly-specifically effective than SAIMR Polyvalent in these murine assays. The efficacy of these antivenoms against the lethal and tissue-destructive effects of N. mossambica venom, the most common biting species in Eswatini, identify that Panafrican and PANAF antivenoms offer effective alternatives to SAIMR Polyvalent for the treatment of snakebite in Eswatini, and potentially for neighbouring countries

Production of a reference transcriptome and transcriptomic database (PocilloporaBase) for the cauliflower coral, Pocillopora damicornis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Motivated by the precarious state of the world's coral reefs, there is currently a keen interest in coral transcriptomics. By identifying changes in coral gene expression that are triggered by particular environmental stressors, we can begin to characterize coral stress responses at the molecular level, which should lead to the development of more powerful diagnostic tools for evaluating the health of corals in the field. Furthermore, the identification of genetic variants that are more or less resilient in the face of particular stressors will help us to develop more reliable prognoses for particular coral populations. Toward this end, we performed deep mRNA sequencing of the cauliflower coral, <it>Pocillopora damicornis</it>, a geographically widespread Indo-Pacific species that exhibits a great diversity of colony forms and is able to thrive in habitats subject to a wide range of human impacts. Importantly, <it>P. damicornis </it>is particularly amenable to laboratory culture. We collected specimens from three geographically isolated Hawaiian populations subjected to qualitatively different levels of human impact. We isolated RNA from colony fragments ("nubbins") exposed to four environmental stressors (heat, desiccation, peroxide, and hypo-saline conditions) or control conditions. The RNA was pooled and sequenced using the 454 platform.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>Both the raw reads (n = 1, 116, 551) and the assembled contigs (n = 70, 786; mean length = 836 nucleotides) were deposited in a new publicly available relational database called PocilloporaBase <url>http://www.PocilloporaBase.org</url>. Using BLASTX, 47.2% of the contigs were found to match a sequence in the NCBI database at an E-value threshold of ≤.001; 93.6% of those contigs with matches in the NCBI database appear to be of metazoan origin and 2.3% bacterial origin, while most of the remaining 4.1% match to other eukaryotes, including algae and amoebae.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>P. damicornis </it>now joins the handful of coral species for which extensive transcriptomic data are publicly available. Through PocilloporaBase <url>http://www.PocilloporaBase.org</url>, one can obtain assembled contigs and raw reads and query the data according to a wide assortment of attributes including taxonomic origin, PFAM motif, KEGG pathway, and GO annotation.</p

Comparative analysis of the responses to water stress in eggplant (Solanum melongena) cultivars

[EN] Little information is available on the physiological and biochemical responses to water stress in eggplant (Solanum melongena). We valuated four genetically diverse eggplant varieties (MEL3-MEL6) under control and water stress conditions. Measurements were taken for plant growth, tissue water content, levels of chlorophylls a and b, carotenoids, roline, malondialdehyde, total phenolics, total flavonoids, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase APX), and glutathione reductase (GR) activities. For most traits, the water stress treatment had a greater contribution than the variety effect to the total sums of squares in an ANOVA analysis, except for total flavonoids, SOD, APX, and GR. The water stress treatment had a strong effect on plant growth and tissue water content. In general, water tress reduced the three photosynthetic pigments, increased proline, malondialdehyde, total phenolics, and total flavonoids, although some varietal differences were ob- served. Different patterns were also detected in the activities of the four enzymes evaluated, but few differences were observed for individual varieties between the control and water stress treatments. Many significant phe- notypic orrelations were observed among the traits studied, but only eight environmental correlations were detected. A PCA analysis distinctly separated individuals according to the treatment, and revealed a clearer separation of varieties under water stress than under control conditions, pointing to varietal differences in the responses to stress. Our results suggest that proline could be used as a marker for drought stress tolerance in this species. The information obtained provides new insight on the physiological and biochemical responses of eggplant to drought stressAuthors are grateful to the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 677379 (G2P-SOL project: Linking genetic resources, genomes and phenotypes of Solanaceous crops), to Ministerio de Economfa, Industria y Competitividad and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (grant AGL2015-64755-R from MINECO/FEDER), to Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovation y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigation and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (grant RTI-2018-094592-B-100 from MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), to the Generalitat Valenciana and Fondo Social Europeo (Ayuda a Grupos Emergentes; GV/2019/033), to the Vicerrectorado de Investigacien, Innovation y Transferencia de la Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Ayuda a Primeros Proyectos de Investigation; PAID-06-18), and to the initiative "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives", which is supported by the Government of Norway. This latter project is managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and implemented in partnership with national and international gene banks and plant breeding institutes around the world. For further information see the project website: http://www.cwrdiversity.org/. Mariola Plazas is grateful to Generalitat Valenciana and Fondo Social Europeo for a post-doctoral contract (APOSTD/2018/014). The contribution of Huu Trong Nguyen to this paper has been developed as a result of a mobility stay funded by Erasmus + KA1 Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees Programme of the European Commission under the PLANT HEALTH project.Plazas, M.; Nguyen, HT.; González-Orenga, S.; Fita, A.; Vicente, O.; Prohens Tomás, J.; Boscaiu, M. (2019). Comparative analysis of the responses to water stress in eggplant (Solanum melongena) cultivars. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. 143:72-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2019.08.031S728214