Riparian functioning condition refers to a rating and description of the current ecological status of a reach of a riparian ecosystem in consideration of its potential hydrology, vegetation, and geomorphology. Reach rating options are Proper Functioning Condition (PFC), Functional-At-Risk (FAR), Non-Functional, and apparent or monitored trends. We assessed the functioning condition of flowing riverbank areas of Back Creek located in Virginia (USA) following a PFC protocol developed by the U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGut dysbiosis is linked to mortality and the development of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), but the impact of cutaneous dysbiosis remains unexplored. We performed a pilot observational study and obtained retroauricular and forearm skin swabs from 12 adult patients prior to conditioning chemotherapy/radiation, and at 1-week, 1-month and 3-months after allogeneic HSCT, and performed shotgun metagenomic sequencing. The cutaneous microbiome among HSCT patients was enriched for gram-negative bacteria such as E coli and Pseudomonas, fungi, and viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance can arise in the natural environment via prolonged exposure to the effluent released by manufacturing facilities. In addition to antibiotics, pharmaceutical plants also produce non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals, both the active ingredients and other components of the formulations. The effect of these on the surrounding microbial communities is less clear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bioengineering of human teeth for replacement is an appealing regenerative approach in the era of gene therapy. Developmentally regulated transcription factors hold promise in the quest because these transcriptional regulators constitute the gene regulatory networks driving cell fate determination. Atonal homolog 1 (Atoh1) is a transcription factor of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family essential for neurogenesis in the cerebellum, auditory hair cell differentiation, and intestinal stem cell specification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA rare neurodevelopmental disorder has been linked to a well-conserved splice site variant in the TRAPPC4 gene (c.454 + 3A > G), which causes mis-splicing of TRAPPC4 transcripts and reduced levels of TRAPPC4 protein. Patients present with severe progressive neurological symptoms including seizures, microcephaly, intellectual disability and facial dysmorphism.
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