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ABSTRACTIntroductionThe growing body of real-life data on maintenance treatment with durvalumab suggests that immunological markers of the cancer host interplay may have significant effects on the efficacy of multimodal therapy in patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC.Areas coveredWe summarize real-world clinical data regarding this new tri-modal approach and report on potential biomarker landscape.Expert opinionThe obvious question posed in this context of a very heterogeneous inoperable stage III NSCLC disease is: How can we augment an ability to predict checkpoint inhibition success or failure? Which tools and biomarkers, which clinical metadata and genetic background are relevant and feasible? No single biomarker will ever fully dominate the unresectable stage III NSCLC space, so we advocate multilevel and multivariate analysis of biomarkers. In this particular opinion piece, we explore the impact of PD-L1 expression on tumor cells, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, EGFR and STK11 mutational status, interferon-gamma signature, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes among others.

The insufficient capacity of interchange has negative impact on environment in terms of emission production in urban areas. We are limited by dense urban development that force us to look for the new construction designs in terms of the interchange renovation.

Microorganisms in marine sediments play major roles in marine biogeochemical cycles by mineralizing substantial quantities of organic matter from decaying cells. Proteins and lipids are abundant components of necromass, yet the taxonomic identities of microorganisms that actively degrade them remain poorly resolved. Here, we revealed identities, trophic interactions, and genomic features of bacteria that degraded 13C-labeled proteins and lipids in cold anoxic microcosms containing sulfidic subarctic marine sediment. Supplemented proteins and lipids were rapidly fermented to various volatile fatty acids within 5 days. DNA-stable isotope probing (SIP) suggested Psychrilyobacter atlanticuswas an important primary degrader of proteins, and Psychromonasmembers were important primary degraders of both proteins and lipids. Closely related Psychromonaspopulations, as represented by distinct 16S rRNA gene variants, differentially utilized either proteins or lipids. DNA-SIP also showed 13C-labeling of various Deltaproteobacteriawithin 10 days, indicating trophic transfer of carbon to putative sulfate-reducers. Metagenome-assembled genomes revealed the primary hydrolyzers encoded secreted peptidases or lipases, and enzymes for catabolism of protein or lipid degradation products. Psychromonasspecies are prevalent in diverse marine sediments, suggesting they are important players in organic carbon processing in situ. Together, this study provides new insights into the identities, functions, and genomes of bacteria that actively degrade abundant necromass macromolecules in the seafloor.

Microorganisms in marine sediments play major roles in marine biogeochemical cycles by mineralizing substantial quantities of organic matter from decaying cells. Proteins and lipids are abundant components of necromass, yet the taxonomic identities of microorganisms that actively degrade them remain poorly resolved. Here, we revealed identities, trophic interactions, and genomic features of bacteria that degraded 13C-labeled proteins and lipids in cold anoxic microcosms containing sulfidic subarctic marine sediment. Supplemented proteins and lipids were rapidly fermented to various volatile fatty acids within 5 days. DNA-stable isotope probing (SIP) suggested Psychrilyobacter atlanticuswas an important primary degrader of proteins, and Psychromonasmembers were important primary degraders of both proteins and lipids. Closely related Psychromonaspopulations, as represented by distinct 16S rRNA gene variants, differentially utilized either proteins or lipids. DNA-SIP also showed 13C-labeling of various Deltaproteobacteriawithin 10 days, indicating trophic transfer of carbon to putative sulfate-reducers. Metagenome-assembled genomes revealed the primary hydrolyzers encoded secreted peptidases or lipases, and enzymes for catabolism of protein or lipid degradation products. Psychromonasspecies are prevalent in diverse marine sediments, suggesting they are important players in organic carbon processing in situ. Together, this study provides new insights into the identities, functions, and genomes of bacteria that actively degrade abundant necromass macromolecules in the seafloor.

As researchers from different nationalities and disciplines collaborate in research projects with joint grants, science becomes more and more global. For conducting the research, project members from several different professional and national backgrounds work together on a daily basis using English as lingua franca (ELF). This results in a very heterogenic linguistic setting, influenced by several mother tongues and languages for specific purposes (LSPs). Systematic approaches have been neglected during the last years while LSP research moved more and more towards applied approaches working on concrete case studies. The present study follows an alternative approach. Applied linguistics and further development of systematic approaches shall here be seen as a circular flow. For instance, communication optimisation during a case study benefits from system-thinking and vice versa. How could the project language of a case study be structured and which long established classifications need to be revised based on these data? Is there a need for a new understanding of applied LSP research?

Sulfur-cycling microorganisms impact organic matter decomposition in wetlands and consequently greenhouse gas emissions from these globally relevant environments. However, their identities and physiological properties are largely unknown. By applying a functional metagenomics approach to an acidic peatland, we recovered draft genomes of seven novel Acidobacteriaspecies with the potential for dissimilatory sulfite (dsrAB, dsrC, dsrD, dsrN, dsrT, dsrMKJOP) or sulfate respiration (sat, aprBA, qmoABCplus dsrgenes). Surprisingly, the genomes also encoded DsrL, which so far was only found in sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms. Metatranscriptome analysis demonstrated expression of acidobacterial sulfur-metabolism genes in native peat soil and their upregulation in diverse anoxic microcosms. This indicated an active sulfate respiration pathway, which, however, might also operate in reverse for dissimilatory sulfur oxidation or disproportionation as proposed for the sulfur-oxidizing Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus. Acidobacteriathat only harbored genes for sulfite reduction additionally encoded enzymes that liberate sulfite from organosulfonates, which suggested organic sulfur compounds as complementary energy sources. Further metabolic potentials included polysaccharide hydrolysis and sugar utilization, aerobic respiration, several fermentative capabilities, and hydrogen oxidation. Our findings extend both, the known physiological and genetic properties of Acidobacteriaand the known taxonomic diversity of microorganisms with a DsrAB-based sulfur metabolism, and highlight new fundamental niches for facultative anaerobic Acidobacteriain wetlands based on exploitation of inorganic and organic sulfur molecules for energy conservation.

Sulfur-cycling microorganisms impact organic matter decomposition in wetlands and consequently greenhouse gas emissions from these globally relevant environments. However, their identities and physiological properties are largely unknown. By applying a functional metagenomics approach to an acidic peatland, we recovered draft genomes of seven novel Acidobacteriaspecies with the potential for dissimilatory sulfite (dsrAB, dsrC, dsrD, dsrN, dsrT, dsrMKJOP) or sulfate respiration (sat, aprBA, qmoABCplus dsrgenes). Surprisingly, the genomes also encoded DsrL, which so far was only found in sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms. Metatranscriptome analysis demonstrated expression of acidobacterial sulfur-metabolism genes in native peat soil and their upregulation in diverse anoxic microcosms. This indicated an active sulfate respiration pathway, which, however, might also operate in reverse for dissimilatory sulfur oxidation or disproportionation as proposed for the sulfur-oxidizing Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus. Acidobacteriathat only harbored genes for sulfite reduction additionally encoded enzymes that liberate sulfite from organosulfonates, which suggested organic sulfur compounds as complementary energy sources. Further metabolic potentials included polysaccharide hydrolysis and sugar utilization, aerobic respiration, several fermentative capabilities, and hydrogen oxidation. Our findings extend both, the known physiological and genetic properties of Acidobacteriaand the known taxonomic diversity of microorganisms with a DsrAB-based sulfur metabolism, and highlight new fundamental niches for facultative anaerobic Acidobacteriain wetlands based on exploitation of inorganic and organic sulfur molecules for energy conservation.

There is no currently known systematic and quantitative procedure developed to design smart workplace environments through guiding efficient and effective adoption and exploitation of the currently available wide variety of smart-environment-enabling technologies. This article presents a novel methodology to design a smart workplace environment objectively to improve, for example, productivity and safety. The proposed methodology starts by analysing the given subject workplace environment in terms of tasks and goals, and then structures and quantifies effect relations among workplace overall goals and the smart-environment-enabling technologies through linking them to the intermediate task objectives, potential improvement opportunities and smart characteristics affected by those smart technologies. Fuzzy relations are utilized to express vague effect relations among related goals, objectives, concepts and technology elements of the proposed design model. The Max–Min composition is used to compose relations to obtain the final overall goal-technology relationships. The methodology eventually yields a composed relation among workplace overall performance goals and the investigated smart-environment-enabling technologies. This overall composed relation reveals promising enabling technologies that are relevant to achievement of the specified goals. Identification of goals promising smart technologies can be used directly as a guide to realize a goal-based smart workplace environment design. Promising technology relations to task goals also help to deploy those promising technologies to the relevant tasks. A comprehensive example case is used to demonstrate the applicability of the methodology.

Zusammenfassung.Immer mehr Lernende benötigen professionelle Begleitung, um erfolgreich lernen zu können. Am Bildungscampus Koblenz (BicK) wird aus diesem Grund seit einem Jahr Lernunterstützung in Form eines Lerncoachings angeboten. Die hier beschriebene Methode kann problemlos in den Schulalltag integriert werden.

Email flooding, deleting emails without reading them – both common parts of our daily workflows. Emails need to motivate their recipients to read them and of course, the number of emails we receive every day play a crucial role. The present paper shall not only describe how the email communication between the members of a research project could be enhanced, but also show how helpful emails are for implementing strategic communication optimisation. By involving the project members as probands in a study based on AMASA (Research project “Accessing Medicines in Africa and South Asia”) emails for developing a restructuring of the internal communication, the process of communication optimisation was accepted by the project members and the strategic superiour aims could be met.

Nanofiltration (NF) can be considered as an interesting alternative to remove disinfection by-products especially trihalomethanes (THM). However, the results have been contradictory in the literature regarding THM rejection. In this work, the rejection of four THM by three commercial NF membranes of different materials was investigated, including the effect of adsorption and organic fouling on rejection performance. Results indicated that in general NF membranes have actually limited rejection of THM, even when the molecular weight was larger than the molecular weight cut-off of the membrane. Adsorption has significant influence on rejection, facilitating the mass transport of THM through NF membrane. NF90, the tightest investigated membrane showed a steady-state rejection of 33%, 36%, 42% and 49% for chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane and bromoform, respectively. Membrane material plays a substantial role in adsorption and, consequently, influences rejection. The cellulose acetate membrane (SB90) showed little adsorption capacity of THM but at the same time THM could pass cellulose acetate very quickly. Availability of the adsorption sites in the membrane plays a significant role in how the adsorption facilitates the transport of molecules through the membrane, decreasing membrane rejection. Natural organic matter in feed solution and organic fouling layer had little effects on THM rejection.

Health literacy has been increasingly recognized as one of the most important social determinants for health. However, an appropriate and comprehensive assessment tool is not available in many Asian countries. This study validates a comprehensive health literacy survey tool European health literacy questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) for the general public in several Asian countries.