The sponge microbiome within the greater coral reef microbial metacommunity

Much recent marine microbial research has focused on sponges, but very little is known about how the sponge microbiome fits in the greater coral reef microbial metacommunity. Here, we present an extensive survey of the prokaryote communities of a wide range of biotopes from Indo-Pacific coral reef environments. We find a large variation in operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness, with algae, chitons, stony corals and sea cucumbers housing the most diverse prokaryote communities. These biotopes share a higher percentage and number of OTUs with sediment and are particularly enriched in members of the phylum Planctomycetes. Despite having lower OTU richness, sponges share the greatest percentage (>90%) of OTUs with >100 sequences with the environment (sediment and/or seawater) although there is considerable variation among sponge species. Our results, furthermore, highlight that prokaryote microorganisms are shared among multiple coral reef biotopes, and that, although compositionally distinct, the sponge prokaryote community does not appear to be as sponge-specific as previously thought.publishe

The Impact of Increased Awareness of Acute Kidney Injury in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on Acute Kidney Injury Incidence and Reporting: Results of a Retrospective Cohort Study

Objective: To evaluate the impact of nephrology integration in the NICU on acute kidney injury (AKI) incidence, provider reporting, and nephrology referral. Study design: Cohort study in a single-center NICU from January 2012 to December 2017 (n = 1464). We assessed the impact of clinical practice changes including neonatal-nephrology rounds on the incidence of AKI. Results: AKI occurred in 318 neonates (22%). AKI occurred less frequently in those admitted after clinical practice changes (P < 0.001). After multivariable adjustment, clinical practice changes were associated with reduced odds of AKI (adjusted odds ratio, 0.31; 95% CI 0.22-0.44, P < 0.001). Provider reporting of AKI improved (P < 0.001) and more neonates were referred for nephrology follow-up (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Increased nephrology integration in the NICU was associated with decreased AKI incidence. While recognition of AKI improved, AKI remained poorly reported and nephrology AKI follow-up did not routinely occur. This study supports the importance of increased nephrology involvement in the NICU

Integrating Mindfulness into Positive Psychology: a Randomised Controlled Trial of an Online Positive Mindfulness Program

The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of an 8-week online intervention-based Positive Mindfulness Program (PMP) that integrated mindfulness with a series of positive psychology variables, with a view to improving wellbeing scores measured in these variables. The positive mindfulness cycle, based on positive intentions and savouring, provides the theoretical foundation for the PMP. The study was based on a randomised wait-list controlled trial; and 168 participants (128 females, mean age = 40.82) completed the intervention which included daily videos, meditations, and activities. The variables tested included wellbeing measures, such as gratitude, self-compassion, self-efficacy, meaning, and autonomy. Pre- and post- intervention data, including one month after the end of the intervention, were collected from both experimental and control groups. The post-test measurements of the experimental participants showed a significant improvement in all the dependent variables compared with the pre-test ones and were also significantly higher than those of the control group. One month after the intervention, the experimental group participants retained their improvement in 10 out of the 11 measurements. These positive results indicate that PMP may be effective in enhancing wellbeing and other positive variables in adult, non-clinical populations

The Comparative Economics of ICT, Environmental Degradation and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study examines how information and communication technology (ICT) could be employed to dampen the potentially damaging effects of environmental degradation in order to promote inclusive human development in a panel of 44 Sub-Saharan African countries. ICT is captured with internet and mobile phone penetration rates whereas environmental degradation is measured in terms of CO2 emissions per capita and CO2 intensity. The empirical evidence is based on Fixed Effects and Tobit regressions using data from 2000-2012. In order to increase the policy relevance of this study, the dataset is decomposed into fundamental characteristics of inclusive development and environmental degradation based on income levels (Low income versus (vs.) Middle income); legal origins (English Common law vs. French Civil law); religious domination (Christianity vs. Islam); openness to sea (Landlocked vs. Coastal); resource-wealth (Oil-rich vs. Oil-poor) and political stability (Stable vs. Unstable).Baseline findings broadly show that improvement in both of measures of ICT would significantly diminish the possibly harmful effect of CO2 emissions on inclusive human development. When the analysis is extended with the abovementioned fundamental characteristics, we observe that the moderating influence of both our ICT variables on CO2 emissions is higher in the group of English Common law, Middle income and Oil-wealthy countries than in the French Civil law, Low income countries and Oil-poor countries respectively. Theoretical and practical policy implications are discussed

Biotechnological Perspective of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-Mediated Stress Tolerance in Plants

All environmental cues lead to develop secondary stress conditions like osmotic and oxidative stress conditions that reduces average crop yields by more than 50% every year. The univalent reduction of molecular oxygen (O2) in metabolic reactions consequently produces superoxide anions (O2•−) and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) ubiquitously in all compartments of the cell that disturbs redox potential and causes threat to cellular organelles. The production of ROS further increases under stress conditions and especially in combination with high light intensity. Plants have evolved different strategies to minimize the accumulation of excess ROS like avoidance mechanisms such as physiological adaptation, efficient photosystems such as C4 or CAM metabolism and scavenging mechanisms through production of antioxidants and antioxidative enzymes. Ascorbate-glutathione pathway plays an important role in detoxifying excess ROS in plant cells, which includes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in detoxifying O2•−radical and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) respectively, monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR) involved in recycling of reduced substrates such as ascorbate and glutathione. Efficient ROS management is one of the strategies used by tolerant plants to survive and perform cellular activities under stress conditions. The present chapter describes different sites of ROS generation and and their consequences under abiotic stress conditions and also described the approaches to overcome oxidative stress through genomics and genetic engineering