Research is needed to inform environmental management of hydrothermally inactive and extinct polymetallic sulfide (PMS) deposits

Polymetallic sulfide (PMS) deposits produced at hydrothermal vents in the deep sea are of potential interest to miners. Hydrothermally active sulfide ecosystems are valued for the extraordinary chemosynthetic communities that they support. Many countries, including Canada, Portugal, and the United States, protect vent ecosystems in their Exclusive Economic Zones. When hydrothermal activity ceases temporarily (dormancy) or permanently (extinction), the habitat and associated ecosystem change dramatically. Until recently, so-called "inactive sulfide" habitats, either dormant or extinct, received little attention from biologists. However, the need for environmental management of deep-sea mining places new imperatives for building scientific understanding of the structure and function of inactive PMS deposits. This paper calls for actions of the scientific community and the emergent seabed mining industry to i) undertake fundamental ecological descriptions and study of ecosystem functions and services associated with hydrothermally inactive PMS deposits, ii) evaluate potential environmental risks to ecosystems of inactive PMS deposits through research, and iii) identify environmental management needs that may enable mining of inactive PMS deposits. Mining of some extinct PMS deposits may have reduced environmental risk compared to other seabed mining activities, but this must be validated through scientific research on a case-by-case basis.FCT: IF/00029/2014/CP1230/CT0002/ UID/05634/2020/ CEECIND005262017/ UID/MAR/00350/2019; Direcao-Geral de Politica do Mar (DGPM) Mining2/2017/005/ Mining2/2017/001info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Point-of-care lithium monitoring in whole blood using a disposable, prefilled and ready-to-use capillary electrophoresis microchip

This paper describes a microfluidic capillary electrophoresis device with integrated conductivity detection. The device satisfies all major requirements for pointof- care testing, i.e., simple handling, low sample volume, fast measurements, clear readout, and inexpensive disposable cartridge usage. The system is currently being utilized and commercialized for monitoring lithium in whole blood, however, can potentially be applied to various other ions present in blood, urine or other bodily fluids. The chip contains a single inlet only and will be shipped prefilled with background electrolyte, sealed and blistered; ready for use at the patient’s place. A single droplet of blood is required to be placed inside the cartridge to perform the analysis typically within a couple of minutes

Body mass index and mortality in Korean intensive care units: A prospective multicenter cohort study

10.1371/journal.pone.0090039PLoS ONE94e9003