Publications by authors named "Philip James"

Aims: Myxobacteria are non-pathogenic, saprophytic, soil-dwelling predatory bacteria known for their antimicrobial potential. Many pathogenic bacteria form biofilms to protect themselves from antimicrobial agents and the immune system. This study has investigated the predatory activities of myxobacteria against pathogenic bacteria in biofilms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Storage of platelets as platelet concentrates for transfusion is limited to 7 days in the United Kingdom due to deleterious effects on platelet quality and function that occur over time. Oxygen (O) availability and sufficient gaseous exchange are known to be essential in maintaining the viability and function of platelets stored for transfusion. Despite this, there is a paucity of studies undertaking direct measures of O and optimization of conditions throughout storage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Substance use is a persistent concern for adolescents in many countries due to the significant negative impact on mental, physical and social outcomes. US research indicates that while 4.1% of 12-17-year-olds require treatment, <10% of those who require it access it.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Stress in sea urchins leads to high mortality and economic losses in both the environment and aquaculture. The green sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis has been documented emitting complex biofluorescence, yet how this responds to external stressors is unknown. Adult sea urchins (n = 210) were divided between control (n = 30) and experimental groups (n = 180), using three transport variables: out of water, in water at elevated temperatures, (warm-water) and in water at seawater temperature (cold-water).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The impact of the biophysical environment on the platelet storage lesion (PSL) has mainly focused on reduced temperature storage, overlooking the significance of storage-induced shear stress. Shear stress in platelet storage refers to the frictional force acting parallel to the bag surface and exists solely through the implementation of agitation. This study investigates whether minimizing exposure to agitation-induced shear stress can alleviate the unexplained loss of function in stored platelet concentrates for neonatal transfusion (neonatal PCs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Myxobacteria are unique predatory bacteria known for their antimicrobial properties and complex mechanisms for killing prey, making them a focus of antibiotic research.
  • MyxoPortal is an extensive genomic database featuring 262 genomes of different myxobacterial strains, providing detailed annotations on genes, functions, and evolutionary relationships.
  • The database also includes biosynthetic gene clusters, antimicrobial peptide sequences, and other genomic data, making it a valuable resource for researchers studying myxobacteria's potential in antimicrobial and ecological research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Addressing undernutrition requires strategies that remove barriers to health for all. We adapted an intervention from the 'UPAVAN' trial to a mobile intervention (m-UPAVAN) during the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Odisha, India. In UPAVAN, women's groups viewed and discussed participatory videos on nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive agricultural (NSA) topics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bryant-Li-Bhoj syndrome (BLBS), which became OMIM-classified in 2022 (OMIM: 619720, 619721), is caused by germline variants in the two genes that encode histone H3.3 (H3-3A/H3F3A and H3-3B/H3F3B) [1-4]. This syndrome is characterized by developmental delay/intellectual disability, craniofacial anomalies, hyper/hypotonia, and abnormal neuroimaging [1, 5].

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Corallococcus species are diverse in the natural environment with 10 new Corallococcus species having been characterized in just the last 5 years. As well as being an abundant myxobacterial genus, they produce several secondary metabolites, including Corallopyronin, Corramycin, Coralmycin, and Corallorazine. We isolated a novel strain Corallococcus spp RDP092CA from soil in South Wales, UK, using Candida albicans as prey bait and characterized its predatory activities against pathogenic bacteria and yeast.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Undernutrition remains a global struggle and is associated with almost 45% of deaths in children younger than 5 years. Despite advances in management of severe wasting (though less so for nutritional edema), full and sustained recovery remains elusive. Children with severe wasting and/or nutritional edema (also commonly referred to as severe acute malnutrition and part of the umbrella term "severe malnutrition") continue to have a high mortality rate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biofluorescence in echinoderms is largely unexplored, and even though the green sea urchinis a well-studied species, the presence and/or function of fluorescence remains very poorly understood. Hyperspectral imaging was conducted on adult sea urchins (N = 380) while fluorospectrometric analysis was conducted on sea urchin coelomic fluid (N = 30). Fluorescence was documented in both the spines and coelomic fluid of.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In order to effectively balance enforced guidance/regulation during a pandemic and limit infection transmission, with the necessity for public transportation services to remain safe and operational, it is imperative to understand and monitor environmental conditions and typical behavioural patterns within such spaces. Social distancing ability on public transport as well as the use of advanced computer vision techniques to accurately measure this are explored in this paper. A low-cost depth-sensing system is deployed on a public bus as a means to approximate social distancing measures and study passenger habits in relation to social distancing.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is a large amount of coproduct generated by the sea urchin fisheries around the world as well as a growing interest in removing large quantities of undersize and low value sea urchins from barren areas in the northern Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as other areas around the world. The authors believe there is scope to develop a hydrolysate product from this and this study gives preliminary observations on the characteristics of hydrolysate from the sea urchin . The biochemical composition for is moisture 64.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: In a development of the ecosemiotic vivo-scape concept, a 'safety eco-field' is proposed as a model of a species response to the safety of its environment. The safety eco-field is based on the ecosemiotic approach which considers environmental safety as a resource sought and chosen by individuals to counter predatory pressure. To test the relative safety of different locations within a landscape, 66 bird feeders (BF) were deployed in a regular 15 × 15 m grid in a rural area, surrounded by shrubs, small trees, hedgerows, and buildings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global concern, and as soon as new antibiotics are introduced, resistance to those agents emerges. Therefore, there is an increased appetite for alternative antimicrobial agents to traditional antibiotics. Here, we used in silico methods to investigate potential antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from predatory myxobacteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Women's nutrition has been highlighted as a global priority to ensure the health and well-being of both them and future generations. This systematic review summarises the available literature on the integration of nutrition services for girls and women of reproductive age (GWRA) into existing public health systems across low- and middle-income countries, as well as any barriers to integration. We searched PubMed and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for articles published since 2011 according to eligibility criteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anaemia in pregnancy is a persistent health problem in Nepal and could be reduced through nutrition counselling and strengthened iron folic acid supplementation programmes. We analysed 24-hour diet recall data from 846 pregnant women in rural plains Nepal, using linear programming to identify the potential for optimised food-based strategies to increase iron adequacy. We then conducted qualitative research to analyse how anaemia was defined and recognised, how families used food-based strategies to address anaemia, and the acceptability of optimised food-based strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ageing and urbanisation pose significant challenges for public health and urban planning. Ageing populations are at particular risk from hazards arising from urbanisation processes, some of which are in turn exacerbated by climate change. One approach for mitigating the negative effects of urbanisation on ageing populations is the leveraging of the beneficial effects of urban green infrastructure as a public health intervention in the planning process.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A trial of three nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions with participatory videos and women's group meetings in rural Odisha, India, found improvements in maternal and child dietary diversity, limited effects on agricultural production, and no effects on women and children's nutritional status. Our process evaluation explored fidelity, reach, and mechanisms behind interventions' effects. We also examined how context affected implementation, mechanisms, and outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Childhood wasting and stunting affect large numbers of children globally. Both are important risk factors for illness and death yet, despite the fact that these conditions can share common risk factors and are often seen in the same child, they are commonly portrayed as relatively distinct manifestations of undernutrition. In 2014, the Wasting and Stunting project was launched by the Emergency Nutrition Network.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Economic evaluations of nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions are scarce, limiting assessment of their potential affordability and scalability.

Objectives: We conducted cost-consequence analyses of 3 participatory video-based interventions of fortnightly women's group meetings using the following platforms: 1) NSA videos; 2) NSA and nutrition-specific videos; or 3) NSA videos with a nutrition-specific participatory learning and action (PLA) cycle.

Methods: Interventions were tested in a 32-mo, 4-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial, Upscaling Participatory Action and Videos for Agriculture and Nutrition (UPAVAN) in the Keonjhar district, Odisha, India.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Passive immunotherapy using polyclonal antibodies plays an important role in preventing and treating antigenic and pathogenic diseases. Polyclonal antibodies are used for therapeutic, diagnostic and investigational purposes, with adjuvants employed to enhance the immune response against proteins that are poorly antigenic or self-antigens. This study aimed to optimize current immunization methods by evaluating the novel adjuvant CoVaccine HT™ against the established Freund's at producing ovine polyclonal antibodies against pro-inflammatory cytokine human recombinant tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF