Night work, season and alertness as occupational safety hazards in the Arctic: protocol for the Noralert observational crossover study among Norwegian process operators.

Introduction: The objective of this study is to determine the effects of night work, Arctic seasonal factors and cold working environments on human functions relevant to safety. The study aims to quantify the contribution of (1) several consecutive night shifts, (2) seasonal variation on sleepiness, alertness and circadian rhythm and (3) whether a computational model of sleep, circadian rhythms and cognitive performance can accurately predict the observed sleepiness and alertness.

Methods And Analysis: In an observational crossover study of outdoor and indoor workers (n=120) on a three-shift schedule from an industrial plant in Norway (70 °N), measurements will be conducted during the summer and winter.

Evaluation of the pilot wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in Norway, June 2022 - March 2023.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based surveillance gained great international interest as an additional tool to monitor SARS-CoV-2. In autumn 2021, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health decided to pilot a national wastewater surveillance (WWS) system for SARS-CoV-2 and its variants between June 2022 and March 2023. We evaluated the system to assess if it met its objectives and its attribute-based performance.

Molecular Epidemiology of the Norwegian SARS-CoV-2 Delta Lineage AY.63.

Extensive genomic surveillance has given great insights into the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and emerging variants. During the summer months of 2021, Norway was dominated by the Pango lineage AY.63 which is a sub-lineage of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Performance evaluation of a new custom, multi-component DNA isolation method optimized for use in shotgun metagenomic sequencing-based aerosol microbiome research.

Background: Aerosol microbiome research advances our understanding of bioaerosols, including how airborne microorganisms affect our health and surrounding environment. Traditional microbiological/molecular methods are commonly used to study bioaerosols, but do not allow for generic, unbiased microbiome profiling. Recent studies have adopted shotgun metagenomic sequencing (SMS) to address this issue.

The subway microbiome: seasonal dynamics and direct comparison of air and surface bacterial communities.

Background: Mass transit environments, such as subways, are uniquely important for transmission of microbes among humans and built environments, and for their ability to spread pathogens and impact large numbers of people. In order to gain a deeper understanding of microbiome dynamics in subways, we must identify variables that affect microbial composition and those microorganisms that are unique to specific habitats.

Methods: We performed high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing of air and surface samples from 16 subway stations in Oslo, Norway, across all four seasons.

Ablation of the Cβ2 subunit of PKA in immune cells leads to increased susceptibility to systemic inflammation in mice.

Protein kinase A (PKA) is a holoenzyme composed of a regulatory subunit dimer and two catalytic subunits and regulates numerous cellular functions including immune cell activity. There are two major catalytic subunit genes, PRKACA and PRKACB encoding the catalytic subunits Cα and Cβ. The PRKACB gene encodes several splice variants including Cβ2, which is enriched in T-, B- and natural killer cells.

Evolution of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) catalytic subunit isoforms.

The 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase, or protein kinase A (PKA), pathway is one of the most versatile and best studied signaling pathways in eukaryotic cells. The two paralogous PKA catalytic subunits Cα and Cβ, encoded by the genes PRKACA and PRKACB, respectively, are among the best understood model kinases in signal transduction research. In this work, we explore and elucidate the evolution of the alternative 5' exons and the splicing pattern giving rise to the numerous PKA catalytic subunit isoforms.

Observed correlation between the expression levels of catalytic subunit, Cβ2, of cyclic adenosine monophosphate-dependent protein kinase and prostate cancer aggressiveness.

Background: Today overtreatment of indolent prostate cancers and undertreatment of aggressive prostate cancer are a major concern for patients, their families, and the health care system. New biomarkers distinguishing indolent and aggressive prostate cancer are needed to improve precision medicine. In prostate cancer, protein kinase A (PKA) is known to activate the androgen receptor and published data indicate that PKA subunits can act as predictive markers for response to radiation and chemotherapy.

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcriptional landscape under genotoxic stress.

Background: As an intracellular human pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is facing multiple stressful stimuli inside the macrophage and the granuloma. Understanding Mtb responses to stress is essential to identify new virulence factors and pathways that play a role in the survival of the tubercle bacillus. The main goal of this study was to map the regulatory networks of differentially expressed (DE) transcripts in Mtb upon various forms of genotoxic stress.