A Horizon Scan to Support Chemical Pollution-Related Policymaking for Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Economies.

While chemicals are vital to modern society through materials, agriculture, textiles, new technology, medicines, and consumer goods, their use is not without risks. Unfortunately, our resources seem inadequate to address the breadth of chemical challenges to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is important we use our intelligence and knowledge wisely to prepare for what lies ahead.

Proportional contributions to organic chemical mixture effects in groundwater and surface water.

Semi-quantitative GC-MS and LC-MS measurements of organic chemicals in groundwater and surface waters were used to assess the overall magnitude and contribution of the most important substances to calculated mixture hazard. Here we use GC-MS and LC-MS measurements taken from two separate national monitoring programs for groundwater and surface water in England, in combination with chronic species sensitivity distribution (SSD) HC50 values published by Posthuma et al. (2019, Environ.

Worst-case ranking of organic chemicals detected in groundwaters and surface waters in England.

The Environment Agency has been using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Accurate-mass Quadrupole Time-of-Flight (Q-TOF) / Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) target screen analysis to semi-quantitatively measure organic substances in groundwater and surface water since 2009 for GC-MS and 2014 for LC-MS. Here we use this data to generate a worst-case "risk" ranking of the detected substances. Three sets of hazard values relating to effects on aquatic organisms, namely Water Framework Directive EQSs, NORMAN Network PNECs (hereafter NORMAN PNEC) and chronic Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) HC50s from Posthuma et al.

Insights into growth kinetics and roles of enzymes of Krebs' cycle and sulfur oxidation during exochemolithoheterotrophic growth of Achromobacter aegrifaciens NCCB 38021 on succinate with thiosulfate as the auxiliary electron donor.

Achromobacter aegrifaciens NCCB 38021 was grown heterotrophically on succinate versus exochemolithoheterotrophically on succinate with thiosulfate as auxiliary electron donor. In batch culture, no significant differences in specific molar growth yield or specific growth rate were found for the two growth conditions, but in continuous culture in the succinate-limited chemostat, the maximum specific growth yield coefficient increased by 23.3% with thiosulfate present, consistent with previous studies of endo- and exochemolithoheterotrophs and thermodynamic predictions.

Biocide Resistance and Transmission of Clostridium difficile Spores Spiked onto Clinical Surfaces from an American Health Care Facility.

is the primary cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea globally. In unfavorable environments, the organism produces highly resistant spores which can survive microbicidal insult. Our previous research determined the ability of spores to adhere to clinical surfaces, finding that spores had markedly different hydrophobic properties and adherence abilities.

Reclassification of Thiomicrospira hydrogeniphila (Watsuji et al. 2016) to Thiomicrorhabdus hydrogeniphila comb. nov., with emended description of Thiomicrorhabdus (Boden et al., 2017).

The genus Thiomicrorhabdus (Tmr) in the Piskirickettsiaceae in the Thiotrichales of the Gammaproteobacteria contains four species of sulfur-oxidising obligate chemolithoautotroph with validly published names, all previously classified as Thiomicrospira (Tms) species. Here we demonstrate that Thiomicrospira hydrogeniphila, a recently published hydrogen-utilising chemolithoautotroph closely related to Thiomicrorhabdus frisia (type species of Thiomicrorhabdus) should be classified as a member of the genus Thiomicrorhabdus and not Thiomicrospira, as Thiomicrorhabdus hydrogeniphila comb. nov.

An evaluation of Thiomicrospira, Hydrogenovibrio and Thioalkalimicrobium: reclassification of four species of Thiomicrospira to each Thiomicrorhabdus gen. nov. and Hydrogenovibrio, and reclassification of all four species of Thioalkalimicrobium to Thiomicrospira.

Thiomicrospira(Tms) species are small sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic members of the Gammaproteobacteria. Whilst the type species Tms. pelophila and closely related Tms.

Reclassification of Thiobacillus aquaesulis (Wood & Kelly, 1995) as Annwoodia aquaesulis gen. nov., comb. nov., transfer of Thiobacillus (Beijerinck, 1904) from the Hydrogenophilales to the Nitrosomonadales, proposal of Hydrogenophilalia class. nov. within the 'Proteobacteria', and four new families within the orders Nitrosomonadales and Rhodocyclales.

The genus Thiobacillus comprises four species with validly published names, of which Thiobacillus aquaesulis DSM 4255T (=ATCC 43788T) is the only species that can grow heterotrophically or mixotrophically - the rest being obligate autotrophs - and has a significant metabolic difference in not producing tetrathionate during the oxidation of thiosulfate during autotrophic growth. On the basis of this and differential chemotaxonomic properties and a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 93.4 % to the type species Thiobacillus thioparus DSM 505T, we propose that it is moved to a novel genus, Annwoodia gen.

Permanent draft genome of DSM 505, an obligately chemolithoautotrophic member of the .

DSM 505 is one of first two isolated strains of inorganic sulfur-oxidising . The original strain of was lost almost 100 years ago and the working type strain is Culture C (=DSM 505 = ATCC 8158) isolated by Starkey in 1934 from agricultural soil at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. It is an obligate chemolithoautotroph that conserves energy from the oxidation of reduced inorganic sulfur compounds using the Kelly-Trudinger pathway and uses it to fix carbon dioxide It is not capable of heterotrophic or mixotrophic growth.

Erratum to: Permanent draft genome of DSM 3134, a moderately thermophilic, obligately chemolithoautotrophic member of the .

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40793-016-0188-0.].

Permanent draft genome of DSM 3134, a moderately thermophilic, obligately chemolithoautotrophic member of the .

DSM 3134 was originally isolated (1983) from the waters of a sulfidic spring entering the Roman Baths (Temple of Sulis-Minerva) at Bath, United Kingdom and is an obligate chemolithoautotroph growing at the expense of reduced sulfur species. This strain has a genome size of 2,958,498 bp. Here we report the genome sequence, annotation and characteristics.

Improving activity and engagement for patients with dementia.

This is the second in a short series that presents case study examples of the positive work achieved by trusts that participated in the Royal College of Nursing's development programme to improve dementia care in acute hospitals. Staff often think that there is insufficient time to get to know patients and carers, especially with large and challenging workloads. Combined with a lack of activities and stimulation for patients with dementia in hospital, this can result in poor engagement and a disconnect between staff and patients.

Freebies for subject 641: a discussion of the ethical prospect of providing drug trial subjects with post-trial access to the drug tested--a Canadian perspective.

"Pharmaceutical Company Incorporated" is developing a new drugs to treat AIDS. The Company is hoping to begin clinical trials soon and has submitted its tiral proposal for consideration by the Research Ethics Board (REB). The proposal includes provision to supply the drug free of charge to trial subjects if the drug is shown to be effective and safe.

A Collaborative Approach to Workforce Transformation: Food and Nutrition Services Staff Education.

Recent health care system changes have required the food and nutrition services workforce to learn new job skills, and to work with significantly less supervision. At Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care (892 beds), the Food and Nutrition and the Education and Organizational Development Departments collaborated to budget for, plan, and implement an educational program to transform a traditional food service workforce into an effective self-managing team. The workforce actively participated in a needs assessment process to identify the skills and behaviours requiring change.

Turn geometry for minimizing band broadening in microfabricated capillary electrophoresis channels.

Turns in microfabricated capillary electrophoresis channels generally result in degraded separation quality. To circumvent this limitation, channels were constructed with different types of turns to determine the design that minimizes turn-induced band broadening. In particular, tapered turns were created by narrowing the separation channel width before the start of a turn and widening the channel after the turn is complete.

Microfabricated capillary electrophoresis amino acid chirality analyzer for extraterrestrial exploration.

Chiral separations of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled amino acids have been performed on a microfabricated capillary electrophoresis chip to explore the feasibility of using such devices to analyze for extinct or extant life signs in extraterrestrial environments. The test system consists of a folded electrophoresis channel (19.0 cm long x 150 microns wide x 20 microns deep) that was photolithographically fabricated in a 10-cm-diameter glass wafer sandwich, coupled to a laser-excited confocal fluorescence detection apparatus providing subattomole sensitivity.

REM sleep and EEG abnormalities in criminal psychopaths.

Hare's (1970) REM deficit theory in psychopathy was investigated. The repeated finding of EEG slowing in waking psychopaths has been interpreted as reflecting cortical immaturity, cortical underarousal, and an intense need for sensory stimulation of psychopaths. REM sleep has been implicated in cortical maturation during development and in daily cortical maintenance.

Persistent transfusion-associated infectious mononucleosis with transient acquired immunodeficiency.

Trauma and blood transfusion led to profound, persistent infectious mononucleosis in a 21 year old man. Splenectomy and trauma had apparently produced transient immune deficiency which was complicated by osteomyelitis of a fractured tibia. The transfused blood probably contained Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

Epstein-Barr virus infections in the X-linked recessive lymphoproliferative syndrome.

Prospective studies demonstrated variable phenotypic expression of the X-linked recessive lymphoproliferative syndrome (X.L.R.