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Background/Aims Recent incidents have raised awareness about how corporate decisions and behaviour can negatively affect the health and wellbeing of healthcare professionals. This article uses a case study to explore the harm that failing to follow human resources procedures can cause to individuals, organisational culture and effectiveness, and make recommendations to improve practice. Methods Seven experts from a range of professional backgrounds offered opinions on an individual case study involving the misapplication of a human resources policy, considering how it may have deviated from lawful practice and the potential impact this had on both the individual and the organisation. Thematic analysis was carried out on this qualitative feedback to identify superordinate and subordinate themes. Results The thematic analysis identified four superordinate themes: failure to follow organisational policies; impact on the individual; impact on the organisation; and failure to learn. Conclusions Poor application of human resources procedures can cause harm to individuals and organisations in a number of different ways. Human resources departments need to actively protect the health and wellbeing of the individual/s involved in investigative procedures, rather than focusing solely on executing the process.

The use of prosthetic mesh in hernia repair provides a powerful tool to increase repair longevity, decrease recurrence rates, and facilitate complex abdominal wall reconstruction. Overall infection rates with mesh are low, but for those affected there is high morbidity and economic cost. The availability of a practicable small animal model would be advantageous for the preclinical testing of prophylactics, therapeutics, and new biomaterials. To this end, we have developed a novel mouse model for implantation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-infected surgical mesh and provide results from antibiotic and immunotherapeutic testing.Implantation of surgical mesh between fascial planes of the mouse hind limb was used to approximate hernia repair in humans. Surgical mesh was inoculated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to test the efficacy of antibiotic therapy with daptomycin and/or immunotherapy to induce macrophage phagocytosis using antibody blockade of the CD47 "don't eat me" molecule. Clinical outcomes were assessed by daily ambulation scores of the animals and by enumeration of mesh-associated bacteria at predetermined end points.A single prophylactic treatment with daptomycin at the time of surgery led to improved ambulation scores and undetectable levels of bacteria in seven of eight mice by 21 days postinfection. Anti-CD47, an activator of macrophage phagocytosis, was ineffective when administered alone or in combination with daptomycin treatment. Ten days of daily antibiotic therapy begun 3 days after infection was ineffective at clearing infection.This fast and simple model allows rapid in vivo testing of novel antimicrobials and immunomodulators to treat surgical implant infections.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) affect more than 10 million patients annually worldwide, causing long-term cognitive and psychosocial impairments. Frontal lobe TBIs commonly impair executive function, but laboratory models typically focus primarily on spatial learning and declarative memory. We implemented a multi-modal approach for clinically relevant cognitive-behavioral assessments of frontal lobe function in rats with TBI and assessed treatment benefits of the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, milnacipran (MLN). Two attentional set-shifting tasks (AST) evaluated cognitive flexibility via the rats' ability to locate food-based rewards by learning, unlearning, and relearning sequential rule sets with shifting salient cues. Adult male rats reached stable pre-injury operant AST (oAST) performance in 3-4 weeks, then were isoflurane-anesthetized, subjected to a unilateral frontal lobe controlled cortical impact (2.4 mm depth, 4 m/sec velocity) or Sham injury, and randomized to treatment conditions. Milnacipran (30 mg/kg/day) or vehicle (VEH; 10% ethanol in saline) was administered intraperitoneally via implanted osmotic minipumps (continuous infusions post-surgery, 60 μL/h). Rats had a 10-day recovery post-TBI/Sham before performing light/location-based oAST for 10 days and, subsequently, odor/media-based digging AST (dAST) on the last test day (26-27 days post-injury) before sacrifice. Both AST tests revealed significant deficits in TBI+VEH rats, seen as elevated total trials and errors (

It is well established that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a critical role in memory consolidation and the retrieval of remote long-term memories. Recent evidence suggests that the vmPFC also supports rapid neocortical learning and consolidation over shorter timescales, particularly when novel events align with stored knowledge. One mechanism by which the vmPFC has been proposed to support this learning is by integrating congruent information into existing neocortical knowledge during memory encoding. An important outstanding question is whether the vmPFC also plays a critical role in linking congruent information with existing knowledge before storage in long-term memory. The current study investigated this question by testing whether lesions to the vmPFC disrupt the ability to leverage stored knowledge in support of short-term memory. Specifically, we investigated the visuospatial bootstrapping effect, the phenomenon whereby immediate verbal recall of visually presented stimuli is better when stimuli appear in a familiar visuospatial array that is congruent with prior knowledge compared with an unfamiliar visuospatial array. We found that the overall magnitude of the bootstrapping effect did not differ between patients with vmPFC lesions and controls. However, a reliable bootstrapping effect was not present in the patient group alone. Post hoc analysis of individual patient performance revealed that the bootstrapping effect did not differ from controls in nine patients but was reduced in two patients. Although mixed, these results suggest that vmPFC lesions do not uniformly disrupt the ability to leverage stored knowledge in support of short-term memory.

This article argues against the lingering pejorative usage of the term ‘provincialism’ in public discourse in particular. It engages with transnational debates emerging from Australia and French-speaking settings, where provincialism often denotes backwardness, isolation, and a lack of high culture. Through explorations of (a) the universalizing value of the provincial and (b) the diversifying concept of ‘provincializing’, the article advocates for a reconceptualization of the term ‘provincialism’. This is worthwhile on at least two counts: challenging stale dichotomies such as cosmopolitan/unworldly; acknowledging the agency of so-called ‘provincials’ and their essential cultural contributions. The article contributes to debates in human geography and related disciplines by unpacking longstanding questions of inclusion and exclusion. Ultimately, it reclaims the value of provincialism as a term with the capacity to bridge varied areas of scholarship, thereby fostering empowerment and moving beyond deleterious ideas of geography.

Gemcitabine (dFdC) is a common treatment for pancreatic cancer; however, it is thought that treatment may fail because tumor stroma prevents drug distribution to tumor cells. Gemcitabine is a pro-drug with active metabolites generated intracellularly; therefore, visualizing the distribution of parent drug as well as its metabolites is important. A multimodal imaging approach was developed using spatially coregistered mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), imaging mass cytometry (IMC), multiplex immunofluorescence microscopy (mIF), and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining to assess the local distribution and metabolism of gemcitabine in tumors from a genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer (KPC) allowing for comparisons between effects in the tumor tissue and its microenvironment. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) enabled the visualization of the distribution of gemcitabine (100 mg/kg), its phosphorylated metabolites dFdCMP, dFdCDP and dFdCTP, and the inactive metabolite dFdU. Distribution was compared to small-molecule ATR inhibitor AZD6738 (25 mg/kg), which was codosed. Gemcitabine metabolites showed heterogeneous distribution within the tumor, which was different from the parent compound. The highest abundance of dFdCMP, dFdCDP, and dFdCTP correlated with distribution of endogenous AMP, ADP, and ATP in viable tumor cell regions, showing that gemcitabine active metabolites are reaching the tumor cell compartment, while AZD6738 was located to nonviable tumor regions. The method revealed that the generation of active, phosphorylated dFdC metabolites as well as treatment-induced DNA damage primarily correlated with sites of high proliferation in KPC PDAC tumor tissue, rather than sites of high parent drug abundance.

This study proposes the phytoremediation of phenanthrene (PHE)-, pyrene (PYR)-, and copper (Cu)-contaminated soil by Cannabis sativa L. The experimental campaign was conducted in 300 mL volume pots over a 50 d period using different initial polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations, i.e., 100 (PC1), 200 (PC2), and 300 (PC3) mg ƩPAHs kg−1 dry weight of soil, while maintaining a constant Cu concentration of 350 mg∙kg−1. PHE and PYR removal was 93 and 61%, 98 and 48%, and 97 and 36% in PC1, PC2, and PC3, respectively, in the greenhouse condition. The highest Cu extraction amounted to 58 mg∙kg−1. In general, the growth of C. sativa L. under the PC1, PC2, and PC3 conditions decreased by approximately 25, 65, and 71% (dry biomass), respectively, compared to the uncontaminated control. The present study is aimed at highlighting the phytoremediation potential of C. sativa L. and providing the preliminary results necessary for future field-scale investigations.

PAHs are largely spread in the aquatic environment, and the drawbacks of conventional remediation techniques as well as the expenditures for alternative disposal of polluted sediments lead to seek more effective, environmentally-friendly and sustainable approaches. Therefore, the present review shows a critical overview of the literature evaluated with VOSviewer, focusing on the problem of PAH-contaminated marine sediments and the knowledge of available remediation processes to shed light on what research and technology lack. This review supplies specific information about the key factors affecting biological, physical-chemical and thermal remediation techniques, and carefully examines the drawbacks associated with their employment for remediating PAH-polluted marine sediments by showing adequate alternatives. The technologies thoroughly discussed here are biostimulation, bioaugmentation, sediment washing, carbonaceous adsorbent addition and thermal desorption. The environmental and economic impacts associated with the application of the mentioned remediation technologies have been also taken into account. Finally, this review examines new research directions by showing future recommendations.

The issue of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is widespread in marine sediments involving ecological systems and human health. Sediment washing (SW) has proven to be the most effective remediation approach for sediments polluted by PAHs, such as phenanthrene (PHE). However, SW still raises waste handling concerns due to a considerable amount of effluents generated downstream. In this context, the biological treatment of a PHE- and ethanol-containing spent SW solution can represent a highly efficient and environmentally-friendly strategy, but its knowledge is still scarce in scientific literature and no studies have so far been conducted in continuous mode. Therefore, a synthetic PHE-polluted SW solution was biologically treated in a 1 L aerated continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor for 129 days by evaluating the effect of different pH values, aeration flowrates and hydraulic retention times as operating parameters over five successive phases. A PHE removal efficiency of up to 75-94% was achieved by an acclimated PHE-degrading consortium mainly composed of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and Firmicutes phyla through biodegradation following the adsorption mechanism. PHE biodegradation, mainly occurring via the benzoate route due to the presence of PAH-related-degrading functional genes and a phthalate accumulation up to 46 mg/L, was also accompanied by a reduction of dissolved organic carbon and ammonia nitrogen above 99% in the treated SW solution.

This chapter deals with an environmental aspect not sufficiently taken into account by the scientific community as well as the economy productive sectors: the removal of emerging contaminants (ECs) from sewage sludge. The most common ECs that can be found in the sludge, their adsorption mechanisms, and the most suitable removal treatments, in such order, are analyzed and discussed in the following pages. An accurate scientific literature survey has highlighted, primarily, that the anaerobic digestion (AD) process is the most common treatment used to stabilize sewage sludge and, secondly, that such process is not appropriate for properly treating ECs. Therefore, further treatments are required to be coupled with AD for removing ECs. Among all possible treatments, those innovative, chemical (ozonation, hydrogen peroxide, Fenton) as well as thermal (hydrothermal liquefaction) are discussed and their performance is compared.

Community forests are defined as forests that grow on private land and are managed by farmers on a small scale. Most of the community forests in Indonesia are managed by farmers, who mostly use social capital in community forest management. Understanding social capital of farmers in managing community forests is important to empower them. This research was a survey conducted by involving 240 respondents in three districts: Bulukumba (South Sulawesi Province), Gunungkidul (Yogyakarta Special Province), and Pati (Central Java Province). The research showed that majority of the farmers believed that community forests can support their livelihoods. Moreover, the research used trust, norm, and network to measure the social capital employed in the community forest management. The result revealed some trusted stakeholders for intervention in community forest management across the study locations were other farmers, farmer group committees, and farmer groups. Meanwhile, the norms that the farmers used in community forest were tradition and custom. In addition, the farming network was identified to understand behavior of the farmers in forest product marketing. A total of 68% of the farmers sell timber, whereas the others (52%) sell crops. Traders are the most important stakeholder in community forest product marketing. From this identification of social capital, we could develop appropriate strategies for intervention to manage the community forests for sustainable community forest management.

This paper proposes a new multiplier metric to understand the value contribution of industries. We build on the conventional input output employment and income multiplier methods familiar to policy makers and academic research communities to propose a ‘wage premium’ multiplier that facilitates focus on the quality of employment embedded in supply chains. Here, we use the illustrative case of a key Scottish manufacturing Chemicals industry. Crucially, our innovative and benchmarking approach demonstrates the potential vulnerabilities on the value contribution of key industries by identifying the interaction of higher average wages in some supply chain industries and numbers of jobs in others in delivering wage premium outcomes.

Climate change is contributing to increases in the size, severity, and cost of wildfires across western North America, and communities, policymakers, and legal experts are asking who bears responsibility. Research led by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that nearly 19.8 million acres of forest area burned by wildfires across western North America since 1986—an area equivalent to the state of Maine—is attributable to heat-trapping emissions traced to 88 of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. Emissions from those companies also contributed nearly half of the observed increase in fire-danger conditions across the region since 1901. These findings can inform discussions regarding the responsibility of major corporations for past, present, and future climate impacts.

The deep sea is known to host novel bacteria with the potential to produce a diverse array of undiscovered natural products. Thus, understanding these bacteria is of broad interest in ecology and could also underpin applied drug discovery, specifically in the area of antimicrobials. Here, we isolate a new strain of Streptomyces from the tissue of the deep-sea sponge Polymastia corticata collected at a depth of 1869 m from the Gramberg Seamount in the Atlantic Ocean. This strain, which was given the initial designation A15ISP2-DRY2T, has a genome size of 9.29 Mb with a G+C content of 70.83 mol%. Phylogenomics determined that A15ISP2-DRY2T represents a novel species within the genus Streptomyces as part of the Streptomyces aurantiacus clade. The biosynthetic potential of A15ISP2-DRY2T was assessed relative to other members of the S . aurantiacus clade via comparative gene cluster family (GCF) analysis. This revealed a clear congruent relationship between phylogeny and GCF content. A15ISP2-DRY2T contains six unique GCFs absent elsewhere in the clade. Culture-based assays were used to demonstrate the antibacterial activity of A15ISP2-DRY2T against two drug-resistant human pathogens. Thus, we determine A15ISP2-DRY2T to be a novel bacterial species with considerable biosynthetic potential and propose the systematic name 'Streptomyces ortus' sp. nov.

Sickle cell anemia is highly prevalent in Central Africa. The disease causes severe manifestations in children requiring treatment. Hydroxyurea is currently the most effective drug treatment. Therefore, we evaluated the use of HU in children living in rural Central Africa. We conducted a clinical trial with HU from November 2017 to February 2020 in the Hôpital Saint Luc de Kisantu in the DR Congo. Patients aged 6 months to 18 years with a moderate or severe form of SCA (Adegoke score) were treated with an initial HU dose of 15mg/kg per day, which was increased gradually in increments of 5mg/kg per day every six months, to a maximally dose of 30mg/Kg/day. To determine the clinical and biological response to the treatment, we compared the clinical and biological data from the first and second year of treatment with the baseline. From the 136 SCA children followed at KSLH, 69 (37 boys and 32 girls; sex-ratio M/F 1.15) started the clinical trial with HU. Of them, 39 patients reached the end of the clinical trial (56.5%). We observed a mean increase in the HbF rate of 3-fold at 12 months and 3.3-fold at 24 months, with a significant difference from the baseline. Thirty-seven (80.4%) patients presented a good clinical response, and 9 (19.6%) did not respond. In conclusion, our clinical trial showed the effectiveness of HU treatment clinically and biologically. Despite tremendous logistical difficulties, HU treatment in a rural area offers the prospect of improving the quality of children with SCA’ life.

We demonstrate that the multi-photon absorption edge transient-current technique (edge-TCT) can be used to three-dimensionally map the impact of defect distributions on device characteristics in situ inside the bulk of silicon carbide devices. A ∼5 μm wide defect-rich layer induced by proton irradiation at a depth of ∼27 μm was investigated in 4H-SiC samples and compared to the pristine case. Edge-TCT enables mapping of the position of the implantation peak as well as to identify the space charge polarity around the implanted region. The edge-TCT results are compared to Monte Carlo simulations of the proton irradiation that were verified by luminescence measurements and TCAD-based device simulations. In result, edge-TCT is found to be capable of distinguishing different device regions due to its charge sensitivity and directly visualizing space charge regions, facilitating calibration of charge carrier distribution models in semiconductor devices., Applied Physics Letters, 122 (18), ISSN:0003-6951, ISSN:1077-3118

Zirconium alloys are widely used as the fuel cladding material in pressurised water reactors, accumulating a significant population of defects and dislocations from exposure to neutrons. We present and interpret synchrotron microbeam X-ray diffraction measurements of proton-irradiated Zircaloy-4, where we identify a transient peak and the subsequent saturation of dislocation density as a function of exposure. This is explained by direct atomistic simulations showing that the observed variation of dislocation density as a function of dose is a natural result of the evolution of the dense defect and dislocation microstructure driven by the concurrent generation of defects and their subsequent stress-driven relaxation. In the dynamic equilibrium state of the material developing in the high dose limit, the defect content distribution of the population of dislocation loops, coexisting with the dislocation network, follows a power law with exponent $\alpha \approx 2.2$. This corresponds to the power law exponent of $\beta \approx 3.4$ for the distribution of loops as a function of their diameter that compares favourably with the experimentally measured values of $\beta$ in the range $ 3 \leq \beta \leq 4$.

Chromosome conformation capture (3C) sequencing approaches, like Hi-C or micro-C, allow for an unbiased view of chromatin interactions. Most analysis methods rely on so-called interaction matrices, which are derived from counting read pairs in bins of fixed size. To achieve high spatial resolution the general perception is that a high sequencing depth is required. Here, we show that high spatial resolution does not require high sequencing depth using the Voronoi diagram, as implemented in Voronoi for chromosome conformation capture data visualization (v3c-viz). The Voronoi diagram corresponds to an adaptive-binning strategy that adapts to the local densities of points. In this way, visualization of data obtained by moderate sequencing depth pinpoint many, if not most, interesting features such as high frequency contacts. The superior visualization properties of the Voronoi diagram calls for further developments towards algorithms for identifying contacts at a resolution approaching the typical size of enhancers and promoters.v3c-viz is available at https://github.com/imbbLab/v3c-viz

There is widespread scientific and cultural evidence that Earth’s planetary boundaries are being exceeded in irreparable ways due to unsustainable behavior in the Global North’s resource-hungry nations in particular, but responsiveness to the climate crisis is still lagging in many parts of the world. It has become clear that significant numbers of people have limited engagement with ecological risks accumulating on a scale much bigger than the micro-level human actions causing them, such as the day-to-day build-up of industrial pollutants including nitrogen dioxide. How best to go about galvanizing socially just degrowth in the face of barriers to individual commitment that range from a sense of powerlessness to disinterest in futures-thinking? Given the extent to which a preoccupation with wellbeing spans walks of life across the globe, it is worth considering the motivational power of understanding ecological dangers in terms of the potential for personal harm. With that end in mind, this article fleshes out an artistically and emotionally oriented approach to the totalizing extractivism of the Anthropocene as a source of public health problems, not least the COVID-19 pandemic., European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, Vol. 5 No. 2 (2022): Aesthetics of the Anthropocene, Part 2

Among various forms of anthropogenic pollution, the release of toxic metals in the environment is a global concern due to the high toxicity of these metals towards living organisms. In the last 20 years, sediment washing has gained increasing attention thanks to its capability to remove toxic metals from contaminated matrices. In this paper, we propose a Response Surface Methodology method for the washing of selected marine sediments of the Bagnoli-Coroglio Bay (Campania region, Italy) polluted with arsenic and other contaminants. We focused our attention on different factors affecting the clean-up performance (i.e., liquid/solid ratio, chelating concentration, and reaction time). The highest As removal efficiency (i.e., >30 μg/g) was obtained at a liquid/solid ratio of 10:1 (v/w), a citric acid concentration of 1000 mM, and a washing time of 94.22 h. Based on these optimum results, ecotoxicological tests were performed and evaluated in two marine model species (i.e., Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Aliivibrio fischeri), which were exposed to the washing solutions. Reduced inhibition of the model species was observed after nutrient addition. Overall, this study provides an effective tool to quickly assess the optimum operating conditions to be set during the washing procedures of a broad range of marine sediments with similar physicochemical properties (i.e., grain size and type of pollution).

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential components of modern technologies and are often challenging to acquire from natural resources. The demand for REEs is so high that there is a clear need to develop efficient and environmentally-friendly recycling methods. In the present study, freeze-dried cells of the extremophile Galdieria sulphuraria were employed to recover yttrium, cerium, europium, and terbium from quaternary-metal aqueous solutions. The biosorption capacity of G. sulphuraria freeze-dried algal biomass was tested at different pHs, contact times, and biosorbent dosages. All rare earths were biosorbed in a more efficient way by the lowest dose of biosorbent, at pH 4.5, within 30 min; the highest removal rate of cerium was recorded at acidic pH (2.5) and after a longer contact time, i.e., 360 min. This study confirms the potential of freeze-dried cells of G. sulphuraria as innovative ecological biosorbents in technological applications for sustainable recycling of metals from e-waste and wastewater. Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential components of modern technologies and are often challenging to acquire from natural resources. The demand for REEs is so high that there is a clear need to develop efficient and environmentally-friendly recycling methods. In the present study, freeze-dried cells of the extremophile Galdieria sulphuraria were employed to recover yttrium, cerium, europium, and terbium from quaternary-metal aqueous solutions. The biosorption capacity of G. sulphuraria freeze-dried algal biomass was tested at different pHs, contact times, and biosorbent dosages. All rare earths were biosorbed in a more efficient way by the lowest dose of biosorbent, at pH 4.5, within 30 min; the highest removal rate of cerium was recorded at acidic pH (2.5) and after a longer contact time, i.e., 360 min. This study confirms the potential of freeze-dried cells of G. sulphuraria as innovative ecological biosorbents in technological applications for sustainable recycling of metals from e-waste and wastewater.

The lanthanides are among the rare earth elements (REEs), which are indispensable constituents of modern technologies and are often challenging to acquire from natural resources. The demand for REEs is so high that there is a clear need to develop efficient and environmentally-friendly recycling methods. In the present study, living cells of the extremophile Galdieria sulphuraria were used to remove four REEs, Yttrium, Cerium, Europium, and Terbium, from single- and quaternary-metal aqueous solutions. Two different strains, SAG 107.79 and ACUF 427, were exposed to solutions buffered at pH 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5. Our data demonstrated that the removal performances were strain and pH dependent for all metal ions. At lower pH, ACUF 427 outperformed SAG 107.79 considerably. By increasing the pH of the solutions, there was a significant surge in the aqueous removal performance of both strains. The same trend was highlighted using quaternary-metal solutions, even if the quantities of metal removed were significantly lower. The present study provided the first insight into the comparative removal capacity of the Galdieria sulphuraria strains. The choice of the appropriate operational conditions such as the pH of the metal solutions is an essential step in developing efficient, rapid, and straightforward biological methods for recycling REEs.

Two field experiments were conducted to evaluate six Salicornia species (Salicornia bigelovii Torr., S. europaea L., S. persica Gorgan ecotype, S. persica Urmia ecotype, S. sinus persica Bushehr ecotype, and S. persica Central Plateau ecotype) at different planting dates and densities under irrigation with Persian Gulf water. Evaluated planting dates were 14 November and 18 December 2016 and 16 January, 8 February, 8 March, and 28 March 2017. Examined planting densities included 13, 20, and 40 plant m

This study was done to evaluate the appropriateness, diagnostic yield, and quality of paediatric gastrointestinal endoscopy in a large DGH with tertiary paediatric gastroenterology services. It was a retrospective cohort study of children who had at least one gastrointestinal endoscopy during 31 months (May 2018-Dec 2020) in a district general hospital in Southeast England. The participants were children (2–17 years). Two hundred ninety-three procedures were performed in total, 80% were diagnostic and 20% for surveillance. The median age was 12 years and 52.5% were males. Oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (OGD) corresponded to 79.5% of procedures, ileo-colonoscopy (IC) to 7.2% and the remaining had both procedures. The main diagnostic indication was persistent abdominal pain in 33.5% of cases, followed by suspected GORD (14.8%), recurrent vomiting (14.3%), dysphagia (9.1%) and blood loss per rectum (8.6%). A total of 64.7% showed abnormal macroscopic findings, and 69.2% showed histopathological signs of disease. The most common histological diagnosis was gastritis in 23% followed by coeliac disease in 13%, reflux oesophagitis in 12.2% and inflammatory bowel disease in 9.6%. Procedures were performed with utmost safety with two reported cases of complications, which were appropriately managed. The completion rate of diagnostic IC was 87%. A waiting time of 6 weeks was achieved in 50.4% of cases. Conclusion: Paediatric endoscopy can be safely performed in a district general hospital with the right setup and can aid in the management of gastrointestinal disease in the paediatric patient. It is important to monitor and regularly audit such practices to improve the quality of specialist services.What is Known:• Paediatric endoscopy is predominantly performed in large tertiary centres and included in the diagnostic algorithm for many paediatric gastrointestinal conditions.• There are recommendations on clinical indication endorsed by ESPGHAN and key quality indicators published jointly by JAG and BSPGHAN.What is New:• Paediatric endoscopy can be appropriately and safely performed in district general hospital by trained professionals, decreasing the workload in larger tertiary paediatric centres.• Adoption of regular audit practices is essential to ensure and improve quality and appropriateness of this specialist service.

Given the current resurgence of interest in decolonisation in education and the wider social sciences, this article aims to bring an original contribution to an evolving and important discussion. The methodology of this work is possibly unique in the sense that it allows a range of academics from an English university to voice their decolonising proclamations. The authors of the article are a combination of white, black, Asian and mixed raced colleagues who have come together as part of a support group entitled: ‘Beyond the Threshold: dismantling racism together’. They draw upon their research and apply professional practice in relation to differing aspects of generally decolonising education and specifically decolonising curricula. We believe as a group that the notion of decolonising applies to all sections of education and not only schools, but nurseries, colleges and universities. The objective of this paper is to proclaim our advocacy for the need to decolonise and provoke the reader into reflecting and thinking about her/his feelings, views and experiences on decolonising. We hope this will encourage more research within education contexts into the complexity of decolonising the curriculum, as well as increasing equity in education and society.

Here we include data to support our manuscript titled "Assessing human impact on intermittent streams: Heavy metals and VOCs in dry streambed sediments within the U.S. Virgin Islands." This .csv file contains streambed sediment contaminant (heavy metals and volatile organic compounds) concentrations for 30 sites located throughoutSt. Croix, USVI. Additionally, the file contains GPS coordinatesand various geospatial properties (e.g., elevation, land coverclassification)and soil taxonomy classificationsfor each site.&nbsp

Several studies have shown that combining TiO2 and Cu2O enhances the photocatalytic activity of the material by generating a heterojunction capable of extending the light absorption in the visible and reducing the electron-hole recombination rate. Ball milling has been chosen as an alternative methodology for photocatalyst preparation, among the several techniques documented in the literature review. The results of a previously reported investigation enabled the identification of the most effective photocatalyst that can be prepared for hydrogen generation by combining Cu2O and TiO2 (i.e., 1%wt Cu2O in TiO2 photocatalyst prepared by ball-milling method at 200 rpm and 1 min milling time). To optimize photocatalytic hydrogen generation in the presence of the greatest photocatalyst, the effects of (i) sacrificial species and their concentration, (ii) temperature, and (iii) pH of the system are taken into account, resulting in a light-to-chemical energy efficiency of 8% under the best-tested conditions. Last but not least, the possibility of using the present photocatalytic system under direct solar light irradiation is evaluated: the results indicate that nearly 60% of the hydrogen production recorded under sunlight can be attributed to the visible component of the solar spectrum, while the remaining 40% can be attributed to the UV component.

Several studies have shown that combining TiO2 and Cu2O enhances the photocatalytic activity of the material by generating a heterojunction capable of extending the light absorption in the visible and reducing the electron-hole recombination rate. Ball milling has been chosen as an alternative methodology for photocatalyst preparation, among the several techniques documented in the literature review. The results of a previously reported investigation enabled the identification of the most effective photocatalyst that can be prepared for hydrogen generation by combining Cu2O and TiO2 (i.e., 1%wt Cu2O in TiO2 photocatalyst prepared by ball-milling method at 200 rpm and 1 min milling time). To optimize photocatalytic hydrogen generation in the presence of the greatest photocatalyst, the effects of (i) sacrificial species and their concentration, (ii) temperature, and (iii) pH of the system are taken into account, resulting in a light-to-chemical energy efficiency of 8% under the best-tested conditions. Last but not least, the possibility of using the present photocatalytic system under direct solar light irradiation is evaluated: the results indicate that nearly 60% of the hydrogen production recorded under sunlight can be attributed to the visible component of the solar spectrum, while the remaining 40% can be attributed to the UV component.

Understanding oxide formation during corrosion of high-performance alloys in harsh environments is of great fundamental and industrial interest and provides a potential route for reducing the significant annual cost of corrosion globally. However, corrosion mechanisms involve multiple length scales, requiring a multitude of advanced experimental procedures. Here, we use correlated high resolution electron microscopy techniques over a range of length scales, combined with crystallographic modelling to show that there is a clear competition between epitaxial strain and growth stress during oxidation. The degree to which these competing mechanisms operate is shown to depend on the orientation of the substrate grains leading to significant local variations in oxide microstructure and thus protectiveness, even across a single sample. This leads to the possibility of tailoring substrate crystallographic textures in order to promote gradual phase transformation and the development of stress driven, well-oriented protective oxides, and so to improving overall corrosion performance.

Additional file 1. Detailed information for individual second passage recipient mice. Additional file 1 includes a table with observation periods, clinical signs, and RT-QuIC assay individual well data for all second passage mice.

Human cerebral organoids (COs) are three-dimensional self-organizing cultures of cerebral brain tissue differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells. We have recently shown that COs are susceptible to infection with different subtypes of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) prions, which in humans cause different manifestations of the disease. The ability to study live human brain tissue infected with different CJD subtypes opens a wide array of possibilities from differentiating mechanisms of cell death and identifying neuronal selective vulnerabilities to testing therapeutics. However, the question remained as to whether the prions generated in the CO model truly represent those in the infecting inoculum. Mouse models expressing human prion protein are commonly used to characterize human prion disease as they reproduce many of the molecular and clinical phenotypes associated with CJD subtypes. We therefore inoculated these mice with COs that had been infected with two CJD subtypes (MV1 and MV2) to see if the original subtype characteristics (referred to as strains once transmitted into a model organism) of the infecting prions were maintained in the COs when compared with the original human brain inocula. We found that disease characteristics caused by the molecular subtype of the disease associated prion protein were similar in mice inoculated with either CO derived material or human brain material, demonstrating that the disease associated prions generated in COs shared strain characteristics with those in humans. As the first and only in vitro model of human neurodegenerative disease that can faithfully reproduce different subtypes of prion disease, these findings support the use of the CO model for investigating human prion diseases and their subtypes.

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has shown success in past years for the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater containing inorganic nutrients (i.e., nitrogen). However, the increase in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated matrices calls for new strategies for efficient and environmentally sustainable remediation. Therefore, the present review examined the literature on the connection between the anammox process and PAHs using VOSviewer to shed light on the mechanisms involved during PAH biodegradation and the key factors affecting anammox bacteria. The scientific literature thoroughly discussed here shows that PAHs can be involved in nitrogen removal by acting as electron donors, and their presence does not adversely affect the anammox bacteria. Anammox activity can be improved by regulating the operating parameters (e.g., organic load, dissolved oxygen, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) and external supplementation (i.e., calcium nitrate) that promote changes in the microbial community (e.g., Candidatus Jettenia), favoring PAH degradation. The onset of a synergistic dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium and partial denitrification can be beneficial for PAH and nitrogen removal.