ABSTRACT
Transition from historic grasslands to woody plants in semiarid regions has led to questions about impacts on soil functioning, where microorganisms play a primary role. Understanding the ...relationship between microbes, plant diversity and soil functioning is relevant to assess such impacts. We evaluate the effect that plant type change in semiarid ecosystems has for microbial diversity and composition, and how this is related to carbon mineralization (CMIN) as a proxy for soil functioning. We followed a mesocosm experiment during 2 years within the Biosphere 2 facility in Oracle, AZ, USA. Two temperature regimes were established with two types of plants (grass or mesquite). Soil samples were analyzed for physicochemical and functional parameters, as well as microbial community composition using 16S rRNA amplicon metagenomics (Illumina MiSeq). Our results show the combined role of plant type and temperature regime in CMIN, where CMIN in grass has lower values at elevated temperatures compared with the opposite trend in mesquite. We also found a strong correlation of microbial composition with plant type but not with temperature regime. Overall, we provide evidence of the major effect of plant type in the specific composition of microbial communities as a potential result of the shrub encroachment.
Relative role of plant type and temperature regime in soil microbial community assembly and associated functional dynamics in semiarid ecosystems.
Current and predicted trends indicate that an increasing proportion of the world's population is living in urban and suburban places. The nature of the urban environment becomes an important factor ...if we are concerned with the restoration and preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems in and around cities. This article highlights the varied impacts of cities on soils and their implications for restoration planning and expectations of restoration "success." Urban soils exist in different historical and formational trajectories than their local nonurbanized counterparts due to direct anthropogenic disturbance and indirect environmental impacts from urbanization. Therefore, urban soils often exhibit altered physical, chemical, and biological characteristics in comparison to local nonurbanized soils. Several unique features of urban soils and urban ecosystems pose particular issues for ecological restoration or the improvement of degraded soil conditions in cities. The creation of novel soil types, conditions that promote invasion by non-natives, the strong influence of past land use on soil properties, and the presence of strong interactions and alternative stable states set up unique difficulties for the restoration of urban soils. Soils in urban restorations are a medium that can be deliberately manipulated to improve site conditions or in the monitoring of soil conditions as indices of ecosystem status. Including an explicit role for strong manipulations of soils in urban ecosystems changes how we approach baselines, management, and reference conditions in urban ecological restoration. With an understanding of urban soil ecological knowledge, we can guide aspects of urban ecological restoration toward successful outcomes.
Most biological drug products elicit some level of anti-drug antibody (ADA) response. This antibody response can, in some cases, lead to potentially serious side effects and/or loss of efficacy. In ...humans, ADA often causes no detectable clinical effects, but in the instances of some therapeutic proteins these antibodies have been shown to cause a variety of clinical consequences ranging from relatively mild to serious adverse events. In nonclinical (preclinical) studies, ADA can affect drug exposure, complicating the interpretation of the toxicity, pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data. Therefore, the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins is a concern for clinicians, manufacturers and regulatory agencies.
In order to assess the immunogenic potential of biological drug molecules, and be able to correlate laboratory results with clinical events, it is important to develop reliable laboratory test methods that provide valid assessments of antibody responses in both nonclinical and clinical studies. For this, method validation is considered important, and is a necessary bioanalytical component of drug marketing authorization applications. Existing regulatory guidance documents dealing with the validation of methods address immunoassays in a limited manner, and in particular lack information on the validation of immunogenicity methods. Hence this article provides scientific recommendations for the validation of ADA immunoassays. Unique validation performance characteristics are addressed in addition to those provided in existing regulatory documents pertaining to bioanalyses. The authors recommend experimental and statistical approaches for the validation of immunoassay performance characteristics; these recommendations should be considered as examples of best practice and are intended to foster a more unified approach to antibody testing across the biopharmaceutical industry.
Urbanization affects ecosystem function and environmental quality through shifts in ecosystem fluxes that are brought on by features of the built environment. Green infrastructure (GI) has been ...suggested as a best management practice (BMP) to address urban hydrologic and ecological impacts of the built environment, but GI practice has only been studied from a limited set of climatic conditions and disciplinary approaches. Here, we evaluate GI features in a semiarid city from the perspective of soil ecology through the application of soil nematode community analysis. This study was conducted to investigate soil ecological interactions in small‐scale GI as a means of assessing curb‐cut rain garden basin design in a semiarid city. We looked at the choice of mulching approaches (organic vs. rock) and how this design choice affects the soil ecology of rain basins in Tucson, AZ. We sampled soils during the monsoon rain season and assessed the soil nematode community as a bioindicator of soil quality and biogeochemical processes. We found that the use of organic mulch in GI basins promotes enhanced soil organic matter contents and larger nematode populations. Nematode community indices point to enhanced food web structure in streetscape rain garden basins that are mulched with organic material. Results from this study suggest that soil management practices for GI can help promote ecological interactions and ecosystem services in urban ecosystems.
Core Ideas
Ecological interactions are important for green infrastructure function.
Green infrastructure soil management affected soil properties linked to function.
Food web structure was more complex with soil management.
Design and soil management enhanced ecosystem services of arid green infrastructure.
The hydrological functioning of urban trees can reduce stormwater runoff, mitigate the risk of flood, and improve water quality in developed areas. Tree canopies intercept rainfall and return water ...to the atmosphere through transpiration, while roots increase infiltration and storage in the soil. Despite this, the amount of stormwater that trees remove through these functions in urban settings is not well characterized, limiting the use of urban forests as practical stormwater management strategies. To address this gap, we use ecohydrological approaches to assess the transpiration rates of urban trees in different management settings. Our research questions are: Do transpiration rates of trees of the same species vary among different management contexts? Do relationships between environmental drivers and transpiration change among management contexts? These management settings included single trees over turfgrass and a cluster of trees over turfgrass in Montgomery County, MD, and closed canopy forest with a leaf litter layer in Baltimore, MD. We used sap flux sensors installed in 18 mature red maple (Acer rubrum L.) trees to characterize transpiration rates during the growing season. We also measured soil volumetric water content, air temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation at each site. In agreement with our initial hypothesis, we found that single trees had nearly three times the daily sum of sap flux density (J
) of closed canopy trees. When averaged over the entire measurement period, J
was approximately 260, 195, and 91 g H
O cm
day
for single trees, cluster trees and closed canopy trees, respectively. Additionally, single trees were more responsive to VPD than closed canopy and cluster trees. These results provide a better understanding of the influence of management context on urban tree transpiration and can help to identify targets to better manage urban forest settings to reduce urban stormwater runoff.
Varicella zoster virus (VZV) and the two herpes simplex viruses (HSV) are human α‐herpesviruses that establish life‐long latency in neural ganglia after initial primary infection. In the solid organ ...transplant (SOT) population, manifestations of VZV or HSV may be seen in up to 70% of recipients if no prophylaxis is used, some of them life and organ threatening. While there are effective vaccines to prevent VZV primary infection and reactivation in immunocompetent adults, these vaccines are contraindicated after SOT because they are live‐virus vaccines. For HSV, prevention has focused primarily on antiviral strategies because the immunologic correlates of protection and control are different from VZV, making vaccine development more challenging. Current antiviral therapy remains effective for the majority of clinical VZV and HSV infections.
Eisenmenger syndrome (ES) is a known complication of congenital heart disease associated with unrepaired systemic to pulmonary shunts. Evidence for use of targeted pulmonary arterial hypertension ...therapy in ES is limited. The early experience using ambrisentan was evaluated in a cohort of consecutive patients with ES who initiated ambrisentan at Columbia University's Pulmonary Hypertension Center from January 1, 2007, to August 1, 2008. Effects of ambrisentan on rest and exercise systemic arterial oxygen saturation (Sa O2 ), exercise capacity, functional status, hemoglobin levels, and hemodynamics were evaluated and compared using paired Student's t tests. Seventeen patients were evaluated at short-term (mean 163 ± 57 days) and longer term (mean 2.5 ± 0.5 years) follow-up. At short-term follow-up, there was an improvement in exercise capacity (6-minute walking distance 389 ± 74 vs 417 ± 77 m, p = 0.03, n = 11) and maintenance of rest Sa O2 (89 ± 7% vs 89% ± 6%, p = 0.75, n = 15), exercise Sa O2 (75 ± 15% vs 77% ± 15%, p = 0.33, n = 11), functional class (improvement in 2 patients, no change in 13), and hemoglobin (16.5 ± 2.8 vs 15.8 ± 1.8 g/dl, p = 0.11, n = 14). At longer term follow-up compared to baseline and short-term follow-up, there was stability of exercise capacity, Sa O2 , functional class, and hemoglobin. In conclusion, in this single-center cohort of patients with ES, ambrisentan was safe and was associated with increasing exercise capacity at short-term follow-up, with patients maintaining Sa O2 , functional class, and hemoglobin, and with no significant evidence of clinical deterioration at longer term follow-up. Additional studies are required to further assess the efficacy of ambrisentan in patients with ES.
Herpes Simplex Virus in Solid Organ Transplantation Wilck, M. B.; Zuckerman, R. A.
American journal of transplantation,
March 2013, 2013-Mar, 2013-03-00, 20130301, Letnik:
13, Številka:
s4
Journal Article
Neutralizing antibodies induced by immunization against hepatitis B infection are targeted to the conformational epitopes of the common
a determinant of the surface antigen. However, amino acid ...substitutions within this region of the surface protein of the virus, particularly in the region of amino acid 137–147 allow replication of hepatitis B virus in vaccinated subjects, since antibodies induced by current vaccines do not recognize crucial changes in the surface antigen domain. The G145R mutant is replication competent and is stable, and it appears to be the most common variant. There is evidence that these mutants may not be detected by current screening tests and diagnostic reagents. Epidemiological monitoring of hepatitis B virus surface mutants is essential.
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