Impact of ocean acidification on the intestinal microbiota of the marine sea bream (Sparus aurata L.)

Within a scenario of increasing atmospheric CO2 and ocean acidification (OA), it is highly relevant to investigate its impacts not only on fish performance but also on fish intestinal microbiome and how that reflects on host performance and health. The main objective of this study was to establish if the intestinal microbiota of the sea bream (Sparus aurata) was affected by high level of CO2 in line with the predictions for this century. The bacterial communities of the intestinal fluid were characterized in animals kept at the present-day level of CO2 (400 μatm) and in animals switched to high CO2 (1200 μatm) for 1 month. Bacterial taxa identification was based on molecular methods, using the DNA coding for the 16S ribosomal RNA and primers targeting the regions V1-V3. Amplicons obtained from DNA samples of animals in the same tank were combined, cloned to obtain a bacterial DNA library, and the clones were sequenced. No significant differences were found between the two treatments for alpha diversity. However, beta diversity analysis revealed distinct dysbiosis in response to hypercapnia, with phylum Firmicutes absent from the bacterial communities of fish exposed to 1200 μatm CO2, whereas Proteobacteria relative abundance was increased at elevated CO2, due to the presence of Gammaproteobacteria (Vibrionaceae and Alteromonadaceae), a class not present in the control samples. This study provides a first glimpse at the impact of OA in fish intestinal microbiota and highlights potential downstream effects to the general condition of fishes under hypercapnia.Funding Agency Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PTDC/MAR-BIO/3034/2014 Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology UID/Multi/04326/2019 Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Polandinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Shallow water marine sediment bacterial community shifts along a natural CO2 gradient in the Mediterranean Sea off Vulcano, Italy.

The effects of increasing atmospheric CO(2) on ocean ecosystems are a major environmental concern, as rapid shoaling of the carbonate saturation horizon is exposing vast areas of marine sediments to corrosive waters worldwide. Natural CO(2) gradients off Vulcano, Italy, have revealed profound ecosystem changes along rocky shore habitats as carbonate saturation levels decrease, but no investigations have yet been made of the sedimentary habitat. Here, we sampled the upper 2 cm of volcanic sand in three zones, ambient (median pCO(2) 419 μatm, minimum Ω(arag) 3.77), moderately CO(2)-enriched (median pCO(2) 592 μatm, minimum Ω(arag) 2.96), and highly CO(2)-enriched (median pCO(2) 1611 μatm, minimum Ω(arag) 0.35). We tested the hypothesis that increasing levels of seawater pCO(2) would cause significant shifts in sediment bacterial community composition, as shown recently in epilithic biofilms at the study site. In this study, 454 pyrosequencing of the V1 to V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene revealed a shift in community composition with increasing pCO(2). The relative abundances of most of the dominant genera were unaffected by the pCO(2) gradient, although there were significant differences for some 5 % of the genera present (viz. Georgenia, Lutibacter, Photobacterium, Acinetobacter, and Paenibacillus), and Shannon Diversity was greatest in sediments subject to long-term acidification (>100 years). Overall, this supports the view that globally increased ocean pCO(2) will be associated with changes in sediment bacterial community composition but that most of these organisms are resilient. However, further work is required to assess whether these results apply to other types of coastal sediments and whether the changes in relative abundance of bacterial taxa that we observed can significantly alter the biogeochemical functions of marine sediments

Applications in Fixed Point Theory

Banach's contraction principle is probably one of the most important theorems in fixed point theory. It has been used to develop much of the rest of fixed point theory. Another key result in the field is a theorem due to Browder, Göhde, and Kirk involving Hilbert spaces and nonexpansive mappings. Several applications of Banach's contraction principle are made. Some of these applications involve obtaining new metrics on a space, forcing a continuous map to have a fixed point, and using conditions on the boundary of a closed ball in a Banach space to obtain a fixed point. Finally, a development of the theorem due to Browder et al. is given with Hilbert spaces replaced by uniformly convex Banach spaces

Strong Choquet Topologies on the Closed Linear Subspaces of Banach Spaces

In the study of Banach spaces, the development of some key properties require studying topologies on the collection of closed convex subsets of the space. The subcollection of closed linear subspaces is studied under the relative slice topology, as well as a class of topologies similar thereto. It is shown that the collection of closed linear subspaces under the slice topology is homeomorphic to the collection of their respective intersections with the closed unit ball, under the natural mapping. It is further shown that this collection under any topology in the aforementioned class of similar topologies is a strong Choquet space. Finally, a collection of category results are developed since strong Choquet spaces are also Baire spaces

Charity Retailing in the UK: A Managerial Capabilities Perspective

Nonprofit organizations are venturing into commercial activities due to the intense competition for the limited government funds and declining availability of donor funds for third sector organizations that address social problems. Charity retailing, a popular choice of commercial activity for nonprofit organization, has filled vacant premises in the high streets of the small towns and suburbs of large cities in the UK. Successful charity retail operation requires distinctive capabilities necessary to manage organizations’ resources in commercial environment. Using sixty in-depth elite interviews, we introduce the concept of managerial capabilities for charity retailing. Research propositions and management implications are discussed

A process-mining-based scenarios generation method for SOA application development

Business process models which are usually constructed by business designers from experience and analysis are the main guidelines for services composition in the service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications development. However, due to the complexity of business models, it is a challenging task for business process designers to optimize the process models dynamically in accordance with changes in business environments. In this paper, a process-mining-based method is proposed to support business process designers to monitor efficiency or capture the changes of a business process. Firstly, we define a scenario model to depict business elements and their relationships which are critical to business process design. Based on the proposed scenario model, process mining algorithms, including control flow mining, roles mining and data flow mining are carried out in a certain sequence synthetically to extract business scenarios from event logs recorded by SOA application systems. Finally, we implement a prototype using a logistic scenario to illustrate the feasibility of our method in SOA applications development

Examining the Responsibilities of Faculty Senates

Faculty senates function to preserve and represent the interest of the faculty during the decision-making process. The purpose of this article is to initiate dialogue focused on increasing the influence of the faculty senates in an era of declining power

Management of type 2 diabetes: the current situation and key opportunities to improve care in the UK

In common with global trends, the number of individuals with type 2 diabetes in the UK is rising, driven largely by obesity. The increasing prevalence of younger individuals with type 2 diabetes is of particular concern because of the accelerated course of diabetes-related complications that is observed in this population. The importance of good glycaemic control in the prevention of microvascular complications of diabetes is widely accepted, and there is a growing body of evidence to support a benefit in the reduction of cardiovascular events in the long term. Despite the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for the prevention of type 2 diabetes, the results from trials of lifestyle intervention strategies to reduce body weight have been disappointing. New glucose-lowering agents offer some promise in this regard, offering an opportunity to combat the dual burden of hyperglycaemia and obesity simultaneously. The timing and appropriate choice of glucose-lowering therapy has never been more complex as a result of rising prevalence of obesity in the young, concomitant obesity in some 90% of adults with type 2 diabetes and an ever-increasing range of therapeutic options. The present review evaluates performance measures specific to weight and glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes in the UK using data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework in England and Wales, and the Scottish Diabetes Survey. Potential barriers to improvement in standards of care for people with type 2 diabetes are considered, including patient factors, clinical inertia and the difficulties in translating therapeutic guidelines into everyday clinical practice

The Citizen Nurse: An Educational Innovation for Change

Background: Nursing education needs to provide the necessary tools for students to develop leadership skills and to practice civic agency to create meaningful change in the shifting health care field. This article focuses on facilitating a student\u27s role in becoming a citizen nurse through curricular modifications. Method: Through an ongoing partnership, nursing faculty and community organizers implemented a year-long pilot project to discover the deeper insights into the role of a citizen nurse and to analyze the skills students need to be effective agents of change. Pilot lectures and workshops were held throughout the academic year, and curricular changes were implemented. Results: Based on input from pilot class experiences, student reflections, and faculty workshop feedback, the decision to implement ongoing curricular changes was made by the department. Conclusion: The development of citizen nurses in nursing education will pave the way for praxis embedded in meaningful work with just solutions, enhancing the agency of all involved in promoting health and well-being. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(4):247–250.