Extraction and measurement of adenosine triphosphate from marine sediment, The

Includes bibliographical references (pages 479-480).A technique has been developed, using boiling sodium bicarbonate buffer, to extract adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from marine sediments and has been tested on a variety of sediments, including those with high organic content, clay, and carbonate. Recovery of ATP, as measured by the addition of bacteria of known ATP content to sediment, varied from 64-100%. The technique also was as effective as the conventional Tris buffer for extraction of ATP from both pure cultures of bacteria grown in broth and natural seawater samples.Publisher version: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2835285

Improved Management of Stillbirth using a Care Pathway.

PurposeEach year approximately 3,200 women have a stillbirth in the UK. Although national evidence-based guidance has existed since 2010, case reviews continue to identify suboptimal clinical care and communication with parents. Inconsistencies in management include induction and management of labour and the frequency of investigation after stillbirth. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachAn audit of stillbirths was performed in 2014 in 13 maternity units in the North West of England, this confirmed variation in practice described nationally. An integrated care pathway (ICP) was developed from national guidelines to enable optimal care for the management of stillbirth, reduce variation, standardise investigations and coordinate patient-focussed care. This was launched in 2015 and updated in 2016 to resolve the issues that were apparent after implementation.FindingsEach participating unit had commenced using the ICP by May 2015. Following implementation there were changes in care, most notably from diverse methods for the induction of labour to guideline-directed induction of labour. There were trends towards better care in terms of information given, choices offered, more appropriate analgesia in labour and improved post-delivery investigation for cause. Staff feedback about the ICP was positive.Practical implicationsThe use of this ICP improved care for women who had a stillbirth and their families. Issues with implementing a changed care pathway meant that further iterations were required, ongoing improvement is expected following the refinement of the ICP.Originality/valueICPs have been used for various clinical conditions. However, this is the first example of their use in women who had a stillbirth

Facilitators and barriers of inclusion: a critical incident technique analysis of one non-binary Physical Education teacher’s workplace experiences

Background: Publications documenting how teaching is typically undertaken in highly cis-normative school spaces are beginning to increase in popularity. Scholars highlight how school Physical Education (PE) departments operate as highly gendered, and exclusive spaces which are typically ruled by gender-binarised discourses. This ideology is heavily manifested in everyday practices such as male/female-divided changing rooms, PE uniforms, and curriculums. However, the experiences of non-binary PE teachers working in these spaces remains mostly non-existent. Purpose: The research questions for this study were to explore the experiences of a non-binary PE teacher and disrupt the inequalities of power in PE spaces where cisgender teachers are deemed the ‘norm’, and anything outside of this is positioned as the ‘other’. This paper highlights the stories of one non-binary PE teacher’s everyday experiences. Context: The participant, who will be referred to as Seb, was in the 25–35 age group and worked in a state-funded school in a rural area in the northwest of England. Design and Analysis: This study employed a qualitative, single-participant case study method to analyse the experiences of the teacher. Data consists of a participant’s narrative account via online interviews. The participant was encouraged to tell uninterrupted stories of their career, achieved through accessing their own ideas and thoughts in their own words. The interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed. The researchers analysed the data using deductive and latent coding processes. Conclusion: The paper will conclude by highlighting the main findings, limitations of the study, and opportunities for further research. Practice recommendations will be suggested, focussing on practices that infuse cultural humility such as encouraging a personalised, socially-nuanced pedagogical approach towards including and affirming the identities of gender diverse PE teachers in schools

Altered visual and haptic verticality perception in posterior cortical atrophy and Alzheimer's disease

Abstract: There is increasing theoretical and empirical support for the brain combining multisensory information to determine the direction of gravity and hence uprightness. A fundamental part of the process is the spatial transformation of sensory signals between reference frames: eye-centred, head-centred, body-centred, etc. The question ‘Am I the right way up?’ posed by a patient with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) suggests disturbances in upright perception, subsequently investigated in PCA and typical Alzheimer's disease (tAD) based on what looks or feels upright. Participants repeatedly aligned to vertical a rod presented either visually (visual-vertical) or haptically (haptic-vertical). Visual-vertical involved orienting a projected rod presented without or with a visual orientation cue (circle, tilted square (±18°)). Haptic-vertical involved orientating a grasped rod with eyes closed using a combination of side (left, right) and hand (unimanual, bimanual) configurations. Intraindividual uncertainty and bias defined verticality perception. Uncertainty was consistently greater in both patient groups than in control groups, and greater in PCA than tAD. Bias in the frontal plane was strongly directionally affected by visual cue tilt (visual-vertical) and grip side (haptic-vertical). A model was developed that assumed verticality information from multiple sources is combined in a statistically optimal way to produce observed uncertainties and biases. Model results suggest the mechanism that spatially transforms graviceptive information between body parts is disturbed in both patient groups. Despite visual dysfunction being typically considered the primary feature of PCA, disturbances were greater in PCA than tAD particularly for haptic-vertical, and are considered in light of posterior parietal vulnerability. (Figure presented.). Key points: The perception of upright requires accurate and precise estimates of orientation based on multiple noisy sensory signals. The question ‘Am I the right way up?’ posed by a patient with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA; purported ‘visual variant Alzheimer's’) suggests disturbances in the perception of upright. What looks or feels upright in PCA and typical Alzheimer's disease (tAD) was investigated by asking participants to repeatedly align to vertical a rod presented visually (visual-vertical) or haptically (haptic-vertical). PCA and tAD groups exhibited not only greater perceptual uncertainty than controls, but also exaggerated bias induced by tilted visual orientation cues (visual-vertical) and grip side (haptic-vertical). When modelled, these abnormalities, which were particularly evident in PCA haptic-vertical performance, were compatible with disruption of a mechanism that spatially transforms verticality information between body parts. The findings suggest an important role of posterior parietal cortex in verticality perception, and have implications for understanding spatial disorientation in dementia. © 2021 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Physiological Society

Interleukin (Il)-18 Promotes the Development of Chronic Gastrointestinal Helminth Infection by Downregulating IL-13

Expulsion of the gastrointestinal nematode Trichuris muris is mediated by a T helper (Th) 2 type response involving interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13. Here we show that Th1 response–associated susceptibility involves prior activation of IL-18 and caspase-1 followed by IL-12 and interferon (IFN)-γ in the intestine. IL-18–deficient mice are highly resistant to chronic T. muris infection and in vivo treatment of normal mice with recombinant (r)IL-18 suppresses IL-13 and IL-4 secretion but does not affect IFN-γ

Chronic Trichuris muris infection in C57BL/6 mice causes significant changes in most microbiota and metabolome:effects reversed by pathogen clearance

Trichuris species are a globally important and prevalent group of intestinal helminth parasites, in which Trichuris muris (mouse whipworm) is an ideal model for this disease. This paper describes the first ever highly controlled and comprehensive investigation into the effects of T. muris infection on the faecal microbiota of mice and the effects on the microbiota following successful clearance of the infection. Communities were profiled using DGGE, 454 pyrosequencing, and metabolomics. Changes in microbial composition occurred between 14 and 28 days post infection, resulting in significant changes in α and β- diversity. This impact was dominated by a reduction in the diversity and abundance of Bacteroidetes, specifically Prevotella and Parabacteroides. Metabolomic analysis of stool samples of infected mice at day 41 showed significant differences to uninfected controls with a significant increase in the levels of a number of essential amino acids and a reduction in breakdown of dietary plant derived carbohydrates. The significant reduction in weight gain by infected mice probably reflects these metabolic changes and the incomplete digestion of dietary polysaccharides. Following clearance of infection the intestinal microbiota underwent additional changes gradually transitioning by day 91 towards a microbiota of an uninfected animal. These data indicate that the changes in microbiota as a consequence of infection were transitory requiring the presence of the pathogen for maintenance. Interestingly this was not observed for all of the key immune cell populations associated with chronic T. muris infection. This reflects the highly regulated chronic response and potential lasting immunological consequences of dysbiosis in the microbiota. Thus infection of T. muris causes a significant and substantial impact on intestinal microbiota and digestive function of mice with affects in long term immune regulation