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An improved genome editing system for <i>Sphingomonadaceae</i>
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All data and protocols used or generated through this work have been provided within this article or in the associated supplementary files.Two supplementary figures and two supplementary tables are available with the online version of this article.The sphingomonads encompass a diverse group of bacteria within the family Sphingomonadaceae, with the presence of sphingolipids on their cell surface instead of lipopolysaccharide as their main common feature. They are particularly interesting for bioremediation purposes due to their ability to degrade or metabolise a variety of recalcitrant organic pollutants. However, research and development on their full bioremediation potential has been hampered because of the limited number of tools available to investigate and modify their genome. Here, we present a markerless genome editing method for Sphingopyxis granuli TFA, which can be further optimised for other sphingomonads. This procedure is based on a double recombination triggered by a DNA double-strand break in the chromosome. The strength of this protocol lies in forcing the second recombination rather than favouring it by pressing a counterselection marker, thus avoiding laborious restreaking or passaging screenings. Additionally, we introduce a modification with respect to the original protocol to increase the efficiency of the screening after the first recombination event. We show this procedure step by step and compare our modified method with respect to the original one by deleting ecfG2, the master regulator of the general stress response in S. granuli TFA. This adds to the genetic tool repertoire that can be applied to sphingomonads and stands as an efficient option for fast genome editing of this bacterial group.This work was supported by grant PID2021-125491NB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades/Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and FEDER (UE) to F.R.-R. I.G.R. is supported by a postdoctoral contract (PAIDI 2020, POSTDOC_21_00064) funded by the Andalusian Government (Junta de Andalucía). R.D. is supported by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council New Investigator Award (BB/V007823/1) awarded to R.M
Asynchronous fieldwork in cross-country surveys: an application to physical activity
Get PDFJEL: I10, C81, C83.Data availability: All data used are publicly available at https://doi.org/10.21338/NSD-ESS7-2014 (European Social Survey Round 7 2014) and https://doi.org/10.4232/1.12252 (International Social Survey Programme 2011).Multi-country surveys often aim at cross-country comparisons. A common quality standard is conducting these surveys within a common fieldwork period, across all participating countries. However, the rate the target sample is achieved within that fieldwork period in each country varies substantially. Thus, the distribution of the interview month often varies substantially in the final sample. This may lead to biased estimates of cross-country differences if the variable of interest exhibit a non-constant trend over time. We demonstrate the implications of such an asynchronous fieldwork, using physical activity measured in the European Social Survey Round 7 collected between September 2014 and January 2015. Accounting for fieldwork month, we present a set of different post-estimation predictions. Physical activity varies across interview month, with countries with more observations during autumn were upward-biased, compared to countries with more observations during winter. Our results demonstrate how comparisons between countries are affected when interview month is omitted, and how accounting for interview month in the analysis is an easy way to mitigate this problem
Tape Parts
No full textZip file containing three streaming audio files remastered in 2024: 1. WaveStudies: Wake (TP) - 2024 Remaster (9' 58''). Available on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/track/4Jj50oxvZKX7QzALjGhAJg?si=9735e0a160dc4c65 ; 2. What if I just said... (TP) - Remaster 2024 (1' 06''). Available on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/track/47bUzis8VvEemw4lcejU8s?si=8f421e502fc14ece ; 3. WaveStudies: Ripples (In memorium ad astra) - Remix 2024 (9 ' 32''). Available on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/track/6aIatFzua5doP3lqz9TrnD?si=880915b3bb814b97 .Album of three works or remixed tape parts originally composed to be performed with instruments. The new works are meant to stand on their own as individual tracks: WaveStudies: Wake, What if I just said..., and WaveStudies: Ripples (In memorium ad astra). The idea of publishing these three works together comes from the original role as an accompanying element (the tape part, or the electronic part of the performance), thus the title "Tape Parts"
Performing Black beauty: the Congolese Community in London
Get PDFDrawing on an ethnographic study of the Miss Congo Beauty Pageant UK 2017, this chapter addresses the ways in which a diasporic form of individual and collective representation of Congolese values and norms are actively re–produced and mediated, and how the young London Congolese use the cultural practice to debate everyday concerns affecting their community and the Black African diasporas at large. The paper demonstrates the significance of performance as a cultural vehicle that facilitates young Congolese to negotiate with their own cultural traditions and the imagination of homeland in the context of postcolonial displacement, and disturbs conservative beliefs perpetuated by African elders, tackling, and advancing controversial disputes regarding Black African women’s rights, gender equality and socio–cultural stigmas. Additionally, the pageant disseminates notions of Black beauty and the ‘natural’ body, offering an Afro–diasporic alternative to the cultural representation of beauty dominated by Euro–Western aesthetic discourse. In conclusion, the Miss Congo UK becomes a meaningful site where ‘new’ racial, ethnic and gender identities are bodily articulated and the configuration of a forward–thinking mentality characterising the younger Congolese community in London is displayed
From prediction to measurement, an efficient method for digital human model obtainment
Get PDFDigital human has been increasingly used in industry, for example in Metaverse which has been a popular topic in recent years. The existing method of obtaining digital human models are either expensive or lack of accuracy. In this paper, we discuss a novel method to reconstruct a 3D human model from 2D images captured by a monocular camera. The input of our method only requires a set of rotated human body images that can accept slight movement. First, we apply a deep learning method to predict an initial 3D human body model from multi-view human body images. Then the total detailed digital human model will be computed and optimized. The typical method requires the human body and cameras fixed to obtain a visual hull from a significant number of camera images. This could be extremely expensive and inconvenient when such an application is developed for online users. Compared to the structural lighting measurement system, our predict-optimized framework only requires several input images captured by personal equipment to provide enough accuracy and online use resolution results
Determinants of the optimal selection of vascular access devices: A systematic review underpinned by the COM-B behavioural model
Get PDFData Availability Statement: Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.Protocoll Registration: Prospero (International prospective register of systematic reviews). Registration: CRD42022340905 https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=340905.Background:
Optimal selection of vascular access devices is based on multiple factors and is the first strategy to reduce vascular access device-related complications. This process is dependent on behavioural and human factors. The COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour) model was used as a theoretical framework to organize the findings of this systematic review.
Methods/Aims:
To synthesize the evidence on determinants shaping the optimal selection of vascular access devices, using the COM-B behavioural model as the theoretical framework.
Design:
Systematic review of studies which explore decision-making at the time of selecting vascular access devices.
Data Sources:
The Medline, Web of Science, Scopus and EbscoHost databases were interrogated to extract manuscripts published up to 31 December 2021, in English or Spanish.
Results:
Among 16 studies included in the review, 8/16 (50%) focused on physical capability, 8/16 (50%) psychological capability, 15/16 (94%) physical opportunity, 12/16 (75%) social opportunity, 1/16 (6%) reflective motivation and 0/16 (0%) automatic motivation. This distribution represents a large gap in terms of interpersonal and motivational influences and cultural and social environments. Specialist teams (teams created for the insertion or maintenance of vascular access devices) are core for the optimal selection of vascular access devices (75% physical capability, 62% psychological capability, 80% physical opportunity and 100% social opportunity).
Conclusion:
Specialist teams predominantly lead all actions undertaken towards the optimal selection of vascular access devices. These actions primarily centre on assessing opportunity and capability, often overlooking motivational influences and social environments.
Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care:
A more implementation-focused professional approach could decrease inequity among patients and complications associated with vascular access devices.
Impact:
* Optimal selection of vascular access devices is the primary strategy in mitigating complications associated with these devices.
* There is a significant disparity between interpersonal and motivational influences and the cultural and social environments. Furthermore, specialized teams play a pivotal role in facilitating the optimal selection of vascular access devices.
* The study can benefit institutions concerned about vascular access devices and their complications.
Reporting Method:
This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.
Patient or public contribution
No Patient or Public Contribution.
What does this article contribute to the wider global clinical community?
* Optimal selection of vascular devices remains a growing yet unresolved issue with costly clinical and patient experience impact.
* Interventions to improve the optimal selection of vascular devices have focused on training, education, algorithms and implementation of specialist vascular teams; alas, these approaches do not seem to have substantially addressed the problem.
* Specialist vascular teams should evolve and pivot towards leading the implementation of quality improvement interventions, optimizing resource use and enhancing their role.This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors
Exploring the Role of Platelets in Virus-Induced Inflammatory Demyelinating Disease and Myocarditis
Get PDFData Availability Statement:
The data generated for this study can be found in the GEO at the NCBI (accession no. GSE253385, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE253385 (accessed on 15 March 2024)).Supplementary Materials:
The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/ijms25063460/s1 .Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) infection has been used as a mouse model for two virus-induced organ-specific immune-mediated diseases. TMEV-induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD) in the central nervous system (CNS) is a chronic inflammatory disease with viral persistence and an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS) in humans. TMEV infection can also cause acute myocarditis with viral replication and immune cell infiltration in the heart, leading to cardiac fibrosis. Since platelets have been reported to modulate immune responses, we aimed to determine the role of platelets in TMEV infection. In transcriptome analyses of platelets, distinct sets of immune-related genes, including major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I, were up- or downregulated in TMEV-infected mice at different time points. We depleted platelets from TMEV-infected mice by injecting them with platelet-specific antibodies. The platelet-depleted mice had significantly fewer viral antigen-positive cells in the CNS. Platelet depletion reduced the severities of TMEV-IDD and myocarditis, although the pathology scores did not reach statistical significance. Immunologically, the platelet-depleted mice had an increase in interferon (IFN)-γ production with a higher anti-TMEV IgG2a/IgG1 ratio. Thus, platelets may play roles in TMEV infection, such as gene expression, viral clearance, and anti-viral antibody isotype responses.This work is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, through the Monbukagakusho (MEXT, 2021-2025) Scholarship (I.A.), Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research KAKENHI from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (JP22K07527 (S.O.), JP23K06493 (F.S.), JP21K07167 (H.T.), and JP22K18378 and JP23K08901 (I.T.)), Novartis Pharma Research Grants (S.O. and I.T.), the Royal Society Wolfson Foundation (RSWF\R3\183001, (F.N.E.G.)), the Hokkaido Lawyer Association for Hepatitis B (Orange funding) (H.T.), and Hokkaido Organization for Translational Research (A seeds) (H.T.)
Twelve tips for designing and implementing an academic coaching program
Get PDFCoaching has become increasingly popular as a mechanism to support learning across the health professions education (HPE) continuum. While there is a growing body of literature in this area, there is minimal guidance related to the design and implementation of academic coaching in health professional courses. This paper seeks to contribute to this literature by presenting guidance for academic developers who are considering introducing academic coaching into a health professional course. The 12 tips are based on the authors’ collective experiences of designing and implementing academic coaching in university medical courses in Australia and the UK. Although focused on medical education, this paper is intended to have applicability across the health professions, and potentially across university and postgraduate training contexts. Together, the tips offer a strategic and operational framework to guide the design and implementation of academic coaching initiatives in health professions education.The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article
Recursive State Estimation for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems With Binary Sensors: A Locally Minimized Variance Approach
Get PDFIn this paper, the locally-minimized-variance state estimation problem is investigated for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems with Lipschitz nonlinearities and binary sensors. The output of each binary sensor takes two possible values (e.g. 0 and 1) in accordance with whether the sensed variable surpasses a prescribed threshold or not. The purpose of this paper is to design a state estimation algorithm such that an upper bound of the estimation error covariance is firstly guaranteed and then minimized at each sampling instant by properly designing the estimator gain. The valid information of sensed variables is extracted from binary measurements, and a novel state estimator is constructed in a recursive form, which is suitable for online computations. Moreover, a sufficient condition is established to ensure the exponential boundedness of the prediction error in the mean square sense. Finally, two examples are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 61933007 and 62373333); Royal Society of the U.K.;Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany
Varying coefficient panel data models and methods under correlated error components: Application to disparities in mental health services in England
No full textThe contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it introduces novel regression models that combine two important areas of the methodological development in panel data analysis, namely a varying coefficient specification and spatial error dependence. The former allows relatively flexible nonlinear interactions; the latter enables spatial correlations of the disturbance and thus differ significantly from the other random effect models in the literature. To estimate the model, a new estimation procedure is established that can be viewed as a generalization of the quasi-maximum likelihood method for a spatial panel data model to the well-known conditional local likelihood procedure. Novel inference methods, particularly variable selection and hypothesis testing of the parameter constancy, are introduced and are shown to be effective under the complex spatial error dependence. Equally importantly, this paper makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of financing and expenditure for health and social care. In particular, we empirically analyze and explain the effects of political ideologies on the local fiscal policy in England, especially the expenditure on mental health services
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