Developing a business case for greening hard coastal and estuarine infrastructure: preliminary results

This paper presents a new framework of critical success factors (CSF) that is being developed to aid approval of ecological enhancements and green engineering options in cities, historic conservation areas, estuaries and at the coast. This is intended to support asset managers, engineers, conservation and biodiversity teams, decision-makers, and other end-users. The CSF framework is outlined and demonstrated by assessing the engineering performance and ecosystem services benefits of ecological enhancements used in specific operational scale case studies. Where data availability permits, the costs and benefits of different greening approaches compared to ‘business as usual’ are assessed. Three coastal and estuarine case studies are presented to demonstrate how the framework can be applied to compare traditional engineering solutions to green-grey options. Results show that simple, inexpensive ecological enhancement and green engineering solutions can deliver more multifunctional benefits than business as usual solutions for similar or reduced costs. They also demonstrate that the CSF framework will be a powerful tool that can aid practitioners in evaluating green engineering solutions compared with business as usual

Protection of cells from salinity stress by extracellular polymeric substances in diatom biofilms.

Diatom biofilms are abundant in the marine environment. It is assumed (but untested) that extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), produced by diatoms, enable cells to cope with fluctuating salinity. To determine the protective role of EPS, Cylindrotheca closterium was grown in xanthan gum at salinities of 35, 50, 70 and 90 ppt. A xanthan matrix significantly increased cell viability (determined by SYTOX-Green), growth rate and population density by up to 300, 2,300 and 200%, respectively. Diatoms grown in 0.75% w/v xanthan, subjected to acute salinity shock treatments (at salinities 17.5, 50, 70 and 90 ppt) maintained photosynthetic capacity, Fq'/Fm', within 4% of pre-shock values, whereas Fq'/Fm' in cells grown without xanthan declined by up to 64% with hypersaline shock. Biofilms that developed in xanthan at standard salinity helped cells to maintain function during salinity shock. These results provide evidence of the benefits of living in an EPS matrix for biofilm diatoms

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

© Copyright © 2020 Legge, Johnson, Hicks, Jickells, Diesing, Aldridge, Andrews, Artioli, Bakker, Burrows, Carr, Cripps, Felgate, Fernand, Greenwood, Hartman, Kröger, Lessin, Mahaffey, Mayor, Parker, Queirós, Shutler, Silva, Stahl, Tinker, Underwood, Van Der Molen, Wakelin, Weston and Williamson. A carbon budget for the northwest European continental shelf seas (NWES) was synthesized using available estimates for coastal, pelagic and benthic carbon stocks and flows. Key uncertainties were identified and the effect of future impacts on the carbon budget were assessed. The water of the shelf seas contains between 210 and 230 Tmol of carbon and absorbs between 1.3 and 3.3 Tmol from the atmosphere annually. Off-shelf transport and burial in the sediments account for 60–100 and 0–40% of carbon outputs from the NWES, respectively. Both of these fluxes remain poorly constrained by observations and resolving their magnitudes and relative importance is a key research priority. Pelagic and benthic carbon stocks are dominated by inorganic carbon. Shelf sediments contain the largest stock of carbon, with between 520 and 1600 Tmol stored in the top 0.1 m of the sea bed. Coastal habitats such as salt marshes and mud flats contain large amounts of carbon per unit area but their total carbon stocks are small compared to pelagic and benthic stocks due to their smaller spatial extent. The large pelagic stock of carbon will continue to increase due to the rising concentration of atmospheric CO2, with associated pH decrease. Pelagic carbon stocks and flows are also likely to be significantly affected by increasing acidity and temperature, and circulation changes but the net impact is uncertain. Benthic carbon stocks will be affected by increasing temperature and acidity, and decreasing oxygen concentrations, although the net impact of these interrelated changes on carbon stocks is uncertain and a major knowledge gap. The impact of bottom trawling on benthic carbon stocks is unique amongst the impacts we consider in that it is widespread and also directly manageable, although its net effect on the carbon budget is uncertain. Coastal habitats are vulnerable to sea level rise and are strongly impacted by management decisions. Local, national and regional actions have the potential to protect or enhance carbon storage, but ultimately global governance, via controls on emissions, has the greatest potential to influence the long-term fate of carbon stocks in the northwestern European continental shelf

Aspirin as an adjuvant treatment for cancer:feasibility results from the Add-Aspirin randomised trial

BACKGROUND: Preclinical, epidemiological, and randomised data indicate that aspirin might prevent tumour development and metastasis, leading to reduced cancer mortality, particularly for gastro-oesophageal and colorectal cancer. Randomised trials evaluating aspirin use after primary radical therapy are ongoing. We present the pre-planned feasibility analysis of the run-in phase of the Add-Aspirin trial to address concerns about toxicity, particularly bleeding after radical treatment for gastro-oesophageal cancer.METHODS: The Add-Aspirin protocol includes four phase 3 randomised controlled trials evaluating the effect of daily aspirin on recurrence and survival after radical cancer therapy in four tumour cohorts: gastro-oesophageal, colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer. An open-label run-in phase (aspirin 100 mg daily for 8 weeks) precedes double-blind randomisation (for participants aged under 75 years, aspirin 300 mg, aspirin 100 mg, or matched placebo in a 1:1:1 ratio; for patients aged 75 years or older, aspirin 100 mg or matched placebo in a 2:1 ratio). A preplanned analysis of feasibility, including recruitment rate, adherence, and toxicity was performed. The trial is registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number registry (ISRCTN74358648) and remains open to recruitment.FINDINGS: After 2 years of recruitment (October, 2015, to October, 2017), 3494 participants were registered (115 in the gastro-oesophageal cancer cohort, 950 in the colorectal cancer cohort, 1675 in the breast cancer cohort, and 754 in the prostate cancer cohort); 2719 (85%) of 3194 participants who had finished the run-in period proceeded to randomisation, with rates consistent across tumour cohorts. End of run-in data were available for 2253 patients; 2148 (95%) of the participants took six or seven tablets per week. 11 (0·5%) of the 2253 participants reported grade 3 toxicity during the run-in period, with no upper gastrointestinal bleeding (any grade) in the gastro-oesophageal cancer cohort. The most frequent grade 1-2 toxicity overall was dyspepsia (246 [11%] of 2253 participants).INTERPRETATION: Aspirin is well-tolerated after radical cancer therapy. Toxicity has been low and there is no evidence of a difference in adherence, acceptance of randomisation, or toxicity between the different cancer cohorts. Trial recruitment continues to determine whether aspirin could offer a potential low cost and well tolerated therapy to improve cancer outcomes.FUNDING: Cancer Research UK, The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme, The MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL.</p

Selective incorporation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during sea ice formation

This study investigated the incorporation of DOM from seawater into >2 day-old sea ice in tanks filled with seawater alone or amended with DOM extracted from the microalga, Chlorella vulgaris. Optical properties, including chromophoric DOM (CDOM) absorption and fluorescence, as well as concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), dissolved carbohydrates (dCHOs) and dissolved uronic acids (dUAs) were measured. Enrichment factors (EFs), calculated from salinity-normalized concentrations of DOM in bulk ice, brine and frost flowers relative to under-ice water, were generally >1. The enrichment factors varied for different DOM fractions: EFs were the lowest for humic-like DOM (1.0–1.39) and highest for amino acid-like DOM (1.10–3.94). Enrichment was generally highest in frost flowers with there being less enrichment in bulk ice and brine. Size exclusion chromatography indicated that there was a shift towards smaller molecules in the molecular size distribution of DOM in the samples collected from newly formed ice compared to seawater. Spectral slope coefficients did not reveal any consistent differences between seawater and ice samples. We conclude that DOM is incorporated to sea ice relatively more than inorganic solutes during initial formation of sea ice and the degree of the enrichment depends on the chemical composition of DO

Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020

We show the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three available genomic nomenclature systems for SARS-CoV-2 to all sequence data from the WHO European Region available during the COVID-19 pandemic until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation. We provide a comparison of the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.Peer reviewe

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Seasonal changes in diatom biomass, sediment stability and biogenic stabilization in the severn estuary

Epipelic diatoms represented the dominant microphytobenthos on the intertidal mudflats of the Severn Estuary, south-western Britain. Algal biomass (measured as chlorophyll a concentration) varied over a seasonal cycle and was strongly correlated with sediment shear strength and critical shear stress and therefore with position on the shore. High levels of diatom biomass were positively correlated with the concentration of colloidal carbohydrate within the surface sediments. The critical shear strength for incipient erosion was significantly correlated with position on the shore (moisture content) and with both chlorophyll a and colloidal carbohydrate, the latter being the best biochemical predictor for the incipient erosion threshold. The range of stress required to cause incipient erosion varied from 1.0 to 8.0 Nm-2, with the sediment increasing in resistance landwards. Two-way analysis of variance using both moisture content and colloidal carbohydrate as variables explained the stability of the sediment better than individual pair-wise comparisons. Treatment of an experimental transect with biocide uncoupled the relationship between position on the shore and diatom biomass. Treated sediments became compacted and shear strength increased. However, there was no associated increase in the critical erosion threshold as compared with the less compacted natural sediments and this may be explained by the stabilizing activity of the natural biotic assemblages on untreated sediments. This study emphasises the importance of in situ technology because of the complex coupling between physical and biological processes and the importance of episodic climatic events.</p

Seasonal changes in diatom biomass, sediment stability and biogenic stabilization in the severn estuary

Epipelic diatoms represented the dominant microphytobenthos on the intertidal mudflats of the Severn Estuary, south-western Britain. Algal biomass (measured as chlorophyll a concentration) varied over a seasonal cycle and was strongly correlated with sediment shear strength and critical shear stress and therefore with position on the shore. High levels of diatom biomass were positively correlated with the concentration of colloidal carbohydrate within the surface sediments. The critical shear strength for incipient erosion was significantly correlated with position on the shore (moisture content) and with both chlorophyll a and colloidal carbohydrate, the latter being the best biochemical predictor for the incipient erosion threshold. The range of stress required to cause incipient erosion varied from 1.0 to 8.0 Nm-2, with the sediment increasing in resistance landwards. Two-way analysis of variance using both moisture content and colloidal carbohydrate as variables explained the stability of the sediment better than individual pair-wise comparisons. Treatment of an experimental transect with biocide uncoupled the relationship between position on the shore and diatom biomass. Treated sediments became compacted and shear strength increased. However, there was no associated increase in the critical erosion threshold as compared with the less compacted natural sediments and this may be explained by the stabilizing activity of the natural biotic assemblages on untreated sediments. This study emphasises the importance of in situ technology because of the complex coupling between physical and biological processes and the importance of episodic climatic events.</p

Extracellular matrix assembly in diatoms (Bacillariophyceae). V. Environmental effects on polysaccharide synthesis in the model diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum

The effects of phosphate (P) limitation, varying salinity (5-65 psu), and solid media growth conditions on the polysaccharides produced by the model diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin were determined. Sequential extraction was used to separate polymers into colloidal (CL), colloidal extracellular polymeric substances (cEPS), hot water soluble (HW), hot bicarbonate soluble (HB), and hot alkali (HA) soluble fractions. Media-soluble polymers (CL and cEPS) were enriched in 4-linked mannosyl, glucosyl, and galactosyl residues as well as terminal and 3-linked xylosyl residues, whereas HW polymers consisted mainly of 3-linked glucosyl as well as terminal and 2,4-linked glucuronosyl residues. The HB fraction was enriched in terminal and 2-linked rhamnosyl residues derived from the mucilage coating solubilized by this treatment. Hot alkali treatment resulted in the complete dissolution of the frustule releasing 2,3- and 3-linked mannosyl residues. The fusiform morphotype predominated in standard and P-limited cultures and cultures subjected to salinity variations, but growth on solid media resulted in an enrichment of the oval morphotype. The proportion and linkages of 15 residues, including neutral, uronic acid, and O-methylated sugars, varied with environmental conditions. P limitation and salinity changes resulted in 1.5- to 2.5-fold increase in carbohydrate production, with enrichment of highly branched/substituted and terminal rhamnose, xylose, and fucose as well as O-methylated sugars, uronic acids, and sulfate. The increased deoxy- and O-methylated sugar content under unfavorable environments enhances the hydrophobicity of the polymers, whereas the anionic components may play important roles in ionic cross-linking, suggesting that these changes could ameliorate the effects of salinity or P-stress and that these altered polysaccharide characteristics may be useful as bioindicators for environmental stress. © 2006 Phycological Society of America