Isolation and Characterization of Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibodies from a Large Panel of Murine Antibodies against RBD of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein.

The COVID-19 pandemic, once a global crisis, is now largely under control, a testament to the extraordinary global efforts involving vaccination and public health measures. However, the relentless evolution of SARS-CoV-2, leading to the emergence of new variants, continues to underscore the importance of remaining vigilant and adaptable. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have stood out as a powerful and immediate therapeutic response to COVID-19.

An EAPC white paper on multi-disciplinary education for spiritual care in palliative care.

Background: The EAPC White Paper addresses the issue of spiritual care education for all palliative care professionals. It is to guide health care professionals involved in teaching or training of palliative care and spiritual care; stakeholders, leaders and decision makers responsible for training and education; as well as national and local curricula development groups.

Methods: Early in 2018, preliminary draft paper was written by members of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) spiritual care reference group inviting comment on the four core elements of spiritual care education as outlined by Gamondi et al.

Improving the ecological relevance of aquatic bacterial communities in biodegradability screening assessments.

Concentrating cells from aqueous samples is a common requirement for the enumeration of biomass, investigations of microbial diversity and detection of relatively rare organisms in the environment. Accurately representing the initial sampled environments in the concentrated cells is of particular importance when the subsequent analyses have tangible environmental, economic and societal consequences, as is the case with environmental exposure and risk assessment of chemicals. This study investigated the potential use of four different cell concentration methods: centrifugation, membrane filtration, tangential flow filtration and column colonisation.

High Throughput Biodegradation-Screening Test To Prioritize and Evaluate Chemical Biodegradability.

Comprehensive assessment of environmental biodegradability of pollutants is limited by the use of low throughput systems. These are epitomized by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Ready Biodegradability Tests (RBTs), where one sample from an environment may be used to assess a chemical's ability to readily biodegrade or persist universally in that environment. This neglects the considerable spatial and temporal microbial variation inherent in any environment.

'I think you just learnt as you went along' - community clergy's experiences of and attitudes towards caring for dying people: A pilot study.

Background: Spiritual distress is a factor associated with poor outcomes at the end of life. Timely interventions, assessing and meeting spiritual distress, among patients are contained within nationally agreed guidance. Community clergy are well placed to work alongside healthcare professionals and chaplains to meet spiritual needs.

PA6 Death chat: engaging with dying and death.

Background: Talking about death continues to be a social taboo. St Christopher's has a large, welcoming social space, (The Anniversary Centre) and is committed to opening up its buildings in a number of ways. The St Christopher's social programme, of which Death Chat is part, aims to break down social taboos.

Standard inocula preparations reduce the bacterial diversity and reliability of regulatory biodegradation tests.

OECD ready biodegradability tests have been central to understanding the biodegradation of chemicals from a regulatory perspective for many decades. They are not fit for contemporary prioritisation of chemicals based on persistence, however, due to the low concentration of inocula used, short duration and high variability between tests. Two OECD standard inoculum pretreatment methods (settlement and filtration) were investigated to observe their effect on the probability of biodegradation and associated changes in bacterial community structure and diversity of inocula sourced from the activated sludge process of wastewater treatment plants.