Mid-ocean exchange of container vessel ballast water. 2: effects of vessel type in the transport of diatoms and dinoflagellates from Manzanillo, Mexico, to Hong Kong, China

Plankton samples were collected from 4 container ships which took on ballast water in Manzanillo, Mexico, and discharged it 21 d later in Hong Kong, China. As expected, the lack of light during transport in ballast tanks was inimical to the survival of many autotrophic (phytoplankton) species. After 21 d at sea, few of the dinoflagellate and diatom species taken on in Manzanillo Harbour were alive in the ballast water delivered to Hong Kong. In addition, 5 ships from Manzanillo which reballasted with open ocean water were sampled. To assess the effectiveness of mid-ocean exchange, the mean number of diatoms and dinoflagellates in the coastal ballast water (838 cells l-1) was compared with the number in the open ocean ballast water (436 cells l-1) delivered to Hong Kong. Open ocean exchange of ballast water (reballasting) was 48% effective in reducing diatom and dinoflagellate abundance. When we compared the Manzanillo study with our previous study of ships from Oakland, California, we concluded that the older container ships such as those coming from Manzanillo were not as effective in getting rid of diatom and dinoflagellate species as the newer container ships. This is probably because the reballasting design of the older ships is not as efficient in removing the water and sediments located near the bottom of the ballast tanks. This bottom water is associated with a large number of resting cysts and cells.published_or_final_versio

Mid-ocean exchange of container vessel ballast water. 1: seasonal factors affecting the transport of harmful diatoms and dinoflagellates

Our study of 34 ships (20 direct from Oakland, California, USA, and 14 more after open ocean exchange) is the first year-long seasonal study to assess the effectiveness of open ocean exchange of ballast waters. The highest number of harmful species occurred in April and February when water temperatures in Hong Kong (China) and Oakland were low. The periods with the greatest species richness of harmful species did not correspond to periods with the highest abundance of harmful species. The latter occurred in early September and mid-August, when Skeletonema costatum (14000 cells l-1) dominated the plankton in the ballast water from Oakland Harbor. From April 1996 to April 1997, ballast water samples were collected from 34 Orient Overseas Container Lines Ltd ships which took 16 d to travel from Oakland to Hong Kong. Of the 34 ships, 14 exchanged their Oakland Harbor ballast water for open ocean water (referred to here as reballasting). Open ocean was defined as waters with a depth >2000 m. Once reballasting was completed, the contents of ballast tank no. 1 were not discharged until the ship reached Hong Kong. Six harmful diatoms and 9 harmful dinoflagellate species were observed in the ballast water from Oakland Harbor. These included the diatom Chaetoceros concavicornis and the PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning) toxin producing dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella. Of the 15 harmful species found in the Oakland Harbor ballast water, 8 (53%) were also found in the ballast water of ships that had exchanged coastal for open ocean ballast water. The abundance of harmful species in open ocean ballast water was 87% lower than those in the ballast water from Oakland Harbor. The reason that mid-ocean exchange failed to eliminate all harmful diatoms and dinoflagellates was probably because the ballast tank was never completely emptied before it was reballasted with mid-ocean water.published_or_final_versio

Identification and analysis of genomic islands in Burkholderia cenocepacia AU 1054 with emphasis on pathogenicity islands

published_or_final_versio

Visual and Ocular Manifestations of Alzheimer's Disease and Their Use as Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Progression

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia affecting the growing aging population today, with prevalence expected to rise over the next 35 years. Clinically, patients exhibit a progressive decline in cognition, memory, and social functioning due to deposition of amyloid β (Aβ) protein and intracellular hyperphosphorylated tau protein. These pathological hallmarks of AD are measured either through neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, or diagnosed post-mortem. Importantly, neuropathological progression occurs in the eye as well as the brain, and multiple visual changes have been noted in both human and animal models of AD. The eye offers itself as a transparent medium to cerebral pathology and has thus potentiated the development of ocular biomarkers for AD. The use of non-invasive screening, such as retinal imaging and visual testing, may enable earlier diagnosis in the clinical setting, minimizing invasive and expensive investigations. It also potentially improves disease management and quality of life for AD patients, as an earlier diagnosis allows initiation of medication and treatment. In this review, we explore the evidence surrounding ocular changes in AD and consider the biomarkers currently in development for early diagnosis

Thirty years of heart transplantation at the University Medical Centre Utrecht.

PURPOSE: To analyse patient demographics, indications, survival and donor characteristics for heart transplantation (HTx) during the past 30 years at the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU). METHODS: Data have been prospectively collected for all patients who underwent HTx at the UMCU from 1985 until 2015. Patients who were included underwent orthotopic HTx at an age >14 years. RESULTS: In total, 489 hearts have been transplanted since 1985; 120 patients (25%) had left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation prior to HTx. A shift from ischaemic heart disease to dilated cardiomyopathy has been seen as the leading indication for HTx since the year 2000. Median age at HTx was 49 years (range 16-68). Median waiting time and donor age have also increased from 40 to 513 days and from 27 to 44 years respectively (range 11-65). Donor cause of death is now primarily stroke, in contrast to head and brain injury in earlier years. Estimated median survival is 15.4 years (95% confidence interval 14.2-16.6) There is better survival throughout these years. CONCLUSION: Over the past 30 years, patient and donor demographics and underlying diseases have shifted substantially. Furthermore, the increase in waiting time due to lack of available donor hearts has led to a rise in the use of LVADs as bridge to transplant. Importantly, an improvement in survival rates is found over time which could be explained by better immunosuppressive therapy and improvements in follow-up care

The road to functional recovery : temporal effects of matrix regeneration on Amazonian bats

Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonment. Although secondary forest is an expanding type of landscape matrix that has been shown to buffer some of the negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on taxonomic diversity, little is known in this regard about the functional dimension of biodiversity. We took advantage of an ecosystem-wide fragmentation experiment to investigate longer term changes in functional diversity of a mega-diverse Amazonian bat assemblage associated with regrowth development in the matrix. We found that matrix regeneration affected several facets of bat functional diversity in secondary forest over time, increasing functional α diversity, species- and community-level functional uniqueness, altering functional trait composition, and resulting in functional β-diversity changes via trait gains. However, approximately 30 years of matrix regeneration were insufficient for functional diversity to recover to the same levels as in continuous forest. Our results suggest that a combination of natural, human-assisted, and active restoration is likely to be the most successful strategy for restoring functional biodiversity of bats in human-modified tropical landscapes, a finding that most likely also applies to many other taxa

Design matters : an evaluation of the impact of small man-made forest clearings on tropical bats using a before-after-control-impact design

In recent years, large clearings (>1000 ha) accounted for gradually smaller amounts of total annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, whereas the proportion of small clearings (<50 ha) nowadays represents more than 80% of annual deforestation. Despite the ubiquity of small clearings in fragmented Amazonian landscapes, most fragmentation research has focused on the effects of large-scale deforestation, leading to a poor understanding of the impacts of smaller barriers on Amazonian vertebrates. We capitalized on the periodical re-isolation of experimental forest fragments at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in the Central Amazon as a before-after-control-impact experiment to investigate the short-term effects of small clearings on bat assemblages. Over the course of three years we sampled six control sites in continuous forest, the interiors and edges of eight forest fragments as well as eight sites in the surrounding matrix. Sampling took place both before and after the experimental manipulation (clearing of a 100 m wide strip of regrowth around each fragment), resulting in ~4000 bat captures. Species were classified as old-growth specialists and habitat generalists according to their habitat affinities and a joint species distribution modeling framework was used to investigate the effect of fragment re-isolation on species occupancy. Following fragment re-isolation, species richness declined in all habitats other than fragment edges and, although responses were idiosyncratic, this decline was more pronounced for forest specialist than for generalist species. Additionally, fragment re-isolation led to a reduction in the similarity between assemblages in modified habitats (fragment interiors, edges and matrix) and continuous forest. Sampling of controls in continuous forest both prior to and after reisolation revealed that much of the variation in bat species occupancy between sampling periods did not arise from fragment re-isolation but rather reflected natural spatiotemporal variability. This emphasizes the need to sample experimental controls both before and after experimental manipulation and suggests caution in the interpretation of results from studies in which the effects of habitat transformations are assessed based solely on data collected using space-for-time substitution approaches

Characteristics of neonatal near-miss in hospitals in Benin, Burkina Faso and Morocco in 2012-2013.

: The objective of this study is to explore the usefulness of neonatal near miss in low- and middle-income countries by examining the incidence of neonatal near miss and pre-discharge neonatal deaths across various obstetric risk categories in 17 hospitals in Benin, Burkina Faso and Morocco. : Data were collected on all maternal deaths, maternal near miss, neonatal near miss (based on organ-dysfunction markers), Caesarean sections, stillbirths, neonatal deaths before discharge and non-cephalic presentations, and on a sample of births not falling in any of the above categories. : The burden of stillbirth, pre-discharge neonatal death or neonatal near miss ranged from 23 to 129 per 1000 births in Moroccan and Beninese hospitals, respectively. Perinatal deaths (range 17-89 per 1000 births) were more common than neonatal near miss (range 6-43 per 1000 live births), and between a fifth and a third of women who had suffered a maternal near miss lost their baby. Pre-discharge neonatal deaths and neonatal near miss had a similar distribution of markers of organ dysfunction, but unlike pre-discharge neonatal deaths most neonatal near miss (63%, 81% and 71% in Benin, Burkina Faso and Morocco, respectively) occurred among babies who were not considered premature, low birthweight or with a low 5-min Apgar score as defined by WHO's pragmatic markers of severe neonatal morbidity. : Whether the measurement of neonatal near miss adds useful insights into the quality of perinatal or newborn care in settings where facility-based intrapartum and early newborn mortality is very high is uncertain. Perhaps the greatest advantage of adding near miss is the shift in focus from failure to success so that lessons can be learned on how to save lives even when clinical conditions are life-threatening.<br/

SUMO chain formation is required for response to replication arrest in S. pombe

SUMO is a ubiquitin-like protein that is post-translationally attached to one or more lysine residues on target proteins. Despite having only 18% sequence identity with ubiquitin, SUMO contains the conserved betabetaalphabetabetaalphabeta fold present in ubiquitin. However, SUMO differs from ubiquitin in having an extended N-terminus. In S. pombe the N-terminus of SUMO/Pmt3 is significantly longer than those of SUMO in S. cerevisiae, human and Drosophila. Here we investigate the role of this N-terminal region. We have used two dimensional gel electrophoresis to demonstrate that S. pombe SUMO/Pmt3 is phosphorylated, and that this occurs on serine residues at the extreme N-terminus of the protein. Mutation of these residues (in pmt3-1) results in a dramatic reduction in both the levels of high Mr SUMO-containing species and of total SUMO/Pmt3, indicating that phosphorylation of SUMO/Pmt3 is required for its stability. Despite the significant reduction in high Mr SUMO-containing species, pmt3-1 cells do not display an aberrant cell morphology or sensitivity to genotoxins or stress. Additionally, we demonstrate that two lysine residues in the N-terminus of S. pombe SUMO/Pmt3 (K14 and K30) can act as acceptor sites for SUMO chain formation in vitro. Inability to form SUMO chains results in aberrant cell and nuclear morphologies, including stretched and fragmented chromatin. SUMO chain mutants are sensitive to the DNA synthesis inhibitor, hydroxyurea (HU), but not to other genotoxins, such as UV, MMS or CPT. This implies a role for SUMO chains in the response to replication arrest in S. pomb