scholarly journals Bacterial colonization and succession in a newly opened hospital

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (391) ◽  
pp. eaah6500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Lax ◽  
Naseer Sangwan ◽  
Daniel Smith ◽  
Peter Larsen ◽  
Kim M. Handley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Bacterial Colonization ◽  
Dynamic Bayesian Network ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Hospital Environment ◽  
Temporal Correlations ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Bacterial Dynamics ◽  
Surgical Recovery

The microorganisms that inhabit hospitals may influence patient recovery and outcome, although the complexity and diversity of these bacterial communities can confound our ability to focus on potential pathogens in isolation. To develop a community-level understanding of how microorganisms colonize and move through the hospital environment, we characterized the bacterial dynamics among hospital surfaces, patients, and staff over the course of 1 year as a new hospital became operational. The bacteria in patient rooms, particularly on bedrails, consistently resembled the skin microbiota of the patient occupying the room. Bacterial communities on patients and room surfaces became increasingly similar over the course of a patient’s stay. Temporal correlations in community structure demonstrated that patients initially acquired room-associated taxa that predated their stay but that their own microbial signatures began to influence the room community structure over time. The α- and β-diversity of patient skin samples were only weakly or nonsignificantly associated with clinical factors such as chemotherapy, antibiotic usage, and surgical recovery, and no factor except for ambulatory status affected microbial similarity between the microbiotas of a patient and their room. Metagenomic analyses revealed that genes conferring antimicrobial resistance were consistently more abundant on room surfaces than on the skin of the patients inhabiting those rooms. In addition, persistent unique genotypes ofStaphylococcusandPropionibacteriumwere identified. Dynamic Bayesian network analysis suggested that hospital staff were more likely to be a source of bacteria on the skin of patients than the reverse but that there were no universal patterns of transmission across patient rooms.

scholarly journals Selective bacterial colonization processes on polyethylene waste samples in an abandoned landfill site

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edoardo Puglisi ◽  
Francesco Romaniello ◽  
Serena Galletti ◽  
Enrico Boccaleri ◽  
Alberto Frache ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Bacterial Colonization ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Microbial Colonization ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Plastic Type ◽  
Plastic Wastes ◽  
Ft Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Degradation Degree

Abstract The microbial colonization of plastic wastes has been extensively studied in marine environments, while studies on aged terrestrial wastes are scarce, and mostly limited to the isolation of plastic-degrading microorganisms. Here we have applied a multidisciplinary approach involving culturomics, next-generation sequencing analyses and fine-scale physico-chemical measurements to characterize plastic wastes retrieved in landfill abandoned for more than 35 years, and to assess the composition of bacterial communities thriving as biofilms on the films’ surfaces. All samples were characterized by different colors but were all of polyethylene; IR and DSC analyses identified different level of degradation, while FT-Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence further assessed the degradation level and the presence of pigments. Each plastic type harbored distinct bacterial communities from the others, in agreement with the differences highlighted by the physico-chemical analyses. Furthermore, the most degraded polyethylene films were found to host a bacterial community more similar to the surrounding soil as revealed by both α- and β-diversity NGS analyses. This work confirms the novel hypothesis that different polyethylene terrestrial waste samples select for different bacterial communities, and that structure of these communities can be correlated with physico-chemical properties of the plastics, including the degradation degree.

scholarly journals The capacity of wastewater treatment plants drives bacterial community structure and its assembly

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Kyung Kim ◽  
Keunje Yoo ◽  
Min Sung Kim ◽  
Il Han ◽  
Minjoo Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Bacterial Community ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Rrna Gene

Abstract Bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) affect plant functionality through their role in the removal of pollutants from wastewater. Bacterial communities vary extensively based on plant operating conditions and influent characteristics. The capacity of WWTPs can also affect the bacterial community via variations in the organic or nutrient composition of the influent. Despite the importance considering capacity, the characteristics that control bacterial community assembly are largely unknown. In this study, we discovered that bacterial communities in WWTPs in Korea and Vietnam, which differ remarkably in capacity, exhibit unique structures and interactions that are governed mainly by the capacity of WWTPs. Bacterial communities were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and exhibited clear differences between the two regions, with these differences being most pronounced in activated sludge. We found that capacity contributed the most to bacterial interactions and community structure, whereas other factors had less impact. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that microorganisms from high-capacity WWTPs are more interrelated than those from low-capacity WWTPs, which corresponds to the tighter clustering of bacterial communities in Korea. These results will contribute to the understanding of bacterial community assembly in activated sludge processing.

scholarly journals Enhancing Air Quality for Embedded Hospital Germicidal Lamps

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2389
Author(s):  
Jung-Shun Chen
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Ventilation Rate ◽  
Hospital Environment ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Flow Noise ◽  
Air Ventilation ◽  
Air Disinfection ◽  
Type 3

The indoor air of a hospital is always full of bacteria and viruses due to patients with different diseases. These bacteria and viruses could be highly infectious to the people in the hospital irrespective of their health conditions, and could be hazardous to the patients, their care takers, and hospital staff. Thus, keeping a good hospital air quality is very essential to the operation of the hospital. This study aims at enhancing ventilation of the interior lighting of hospitals with germicidal capabilities. Air disinfection is accomplished by adding the specially designed disinfecting filters and fans to existing embedded lamps in the hospitals. The embedded lamp has a square shape of 601 mm in width and 112 mm in thickness. In the design stage, the air flow inside the embedded lamp with the added filters and fans was investigated by numerical simulation using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool. Three designs, referred to as Types 1, 2, and 3, were evaluated using steady-state CFD flow simulations. The ventilation rate of the Type 1 design was about 251.9 CMH, and 348.3 CMH for the Type 2 design by increasing the fan outlet area. However, even though the ventilation was increased by 34%, the flow field of the Type 2 design was not uniform, resulting in flows being circulated around the side locations. Thus, the Type 3 design further treats this aspect by streamlining the outlet geometry and adding flow guiding vanes to reduce flow resistance and flow unsteadiness; the corresponding air ventilation rate reached 376.3 CMH. Hence, the Type 3 design was fabricated and tested. The test results confirm that the design not only has a higher ventilation rate but also operates under a smaller pressure drop, thus accomplishing the goal of providing good air quality in the hospital environment efficiently. Moreover, the associated flow noise is reduced by about 8 dBA. Hence, both an increase in the air ventilation rate and a reduction of noise are achieved simultaneously by the present method.

scholarly journals Effects of Plastic Debris on the Biofilm Bacterial Communities in Lake Water

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1465
Author(s):  
Chao Shen ◽  
Liuyan Huang ◽  
Guangwu Xie ◽  
Yulai Wang ◽  
Zongkai Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Bacterial Community ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Bacterial Community Structure ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Plastic Substrate ◽  
Simpson Index ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
Plastic Substrates ◽  
Wiener Diversity Index

Increasing discharge of plastic debris into aquatic ecosystems and the worsening ecological risks have received growing attention. Once released, plastic debris could serve as a new substrate for microbes in waters. The complex relationship between plastics and biofilms has aroused great interest. To confirm the hypothesis that the presence of plastic in water affects the composition of biofilm in natural state, in situ biofilm culture experiments were conducted in a lake for 40 days. The diversity of biofilm attached on natural (cobble stones (CS) and wood) and plastic substrates (Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)) were compared, and the community structure and composition were also analyzed. Results from high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA showed that the diversity and species richness of biofilm bacterial communities on natural substrate (observed species of 1353~1945, Simpson index of 0.977~0.989 and Shannon–Wiener diversity index of 7.42~8.60) were much higher than those on plastic substrates (observed species of 900~1146, Simpson index of 0.914~0.975 and Shannon–Wiener diversity index of 5.47~6.99). The NMDS analyses were used to confirm the taxonomic significance between different samples, and Anosim (p = 0.001, R = 0.892) and Adonis (p = 0.001, R = 808, F = 11.19) demonstrated that this classification was statistically rigorous. Different dominant bacterial communities were found on plastic and natural substrates. Alphaproteobacterial, Betaproteobacteria and Synechococcophycideae dominated on the plastic substrate, while Gammaproteobacteria, Phycisphaerae and Planctomycetia played the main role on the natural substrates. The bacterial community structure of the two substrates also showed significant difference which is consistent with previous studies using other polymer types. Our results shed light on the fact that plastic debris can serve as a new habitat for biofilm colonization, unlike natural substrates, pathogens and plastic-degrading microorganisms selectively attached to plastic substrates, which affected the bacterial community structure and composition in aquatic environment. This study provided a new insight into understanding the potential impacts of plastics serving as a new habitat for microbial communities in freshwater environments. Future research should focus on the potential impacts of plastic-attached biofilms in various aquatic environments and the whole life cycle of plastics (i.e., from plastic fragments to microplastics) and also microbial flock characteristics using microbial plastics in the natural environment should also be addressed.

scholarly journals Organisational change in hospitals: a qualitative case-study of staff perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Pomare ◽  
Kate Churruca ◽  
Janet C. Long ◽  
Louise A. Ellis ◽  
Jeffrey Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
Health Systems ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Hospital Environment ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Metropolitan Hospital ◽  
The Face ◽  
Negative Expectations

Abstract Background Organisational change in health systems is common. Success is often tied to the actors involved, including their awareness of the change, personal engagement and ownership of it. In many health systems, one of the most common changes we are witnessing is the redevelopment of long-standing hospitals. However, we know little about how hospital staff understand and experience such potentially far-reaching organisational change. The purpose of this study is to explore the understanding and experiences of hospital staff in the early stages of organisational change, using a hospital redevelopment in Sydney, Australia as a case study. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 46 clinical and non-clinical staff working at a large metropolitan hospital. Hospital staff were moving into a new building, not moving, or had moved into a different building two years prior. Questions asked staff about their level of awareness of the upcoming redevelopment and their experiences in the early stage of this change. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Some staff expressed apprehension and held negative expectations regarding the organisational change. Concerns included inadequate staffing and potential for collaboration breakdown due to new layout of workspaces. These fears were compounded by current experiences of feeling uninformed about the change, as well as feelings of being fatigued and under-staffed in the constantly changing hospital environment. Nevertheless, balancing this, many staff reported positive expectations regarding the benefits to patients of the change and the potential for staff to adapt in the face of this change. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that it is important to understand prospectively how actors involved make sense of organisational change, in order to potentially assuage concerns and alleviate negative expectations. Throughout the processes of organisational change, such as a hospital redevelopment, staff need to be engaged, adequately informed, trained, and to feel supported by management. The use of champions of varying professions and lead departments, may be useful to address concerns, adequately inform, and promote a sense of engagement among staff.

An inter-dependence of flood and drought: disentangling amphibian beta diversity in seasonal floodplains

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (11) ◽  
pp. 2115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo F. B. Moreira ◽  
Tainá F. Dorado-Rodrigues ◽  
Vanda L. Ferreira ◽  
Christine Strüssmann
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Ecological Role ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Amphibian Community ◽  
Dry Seasons

Species composition in floodplains is often affected by different structuring factors. Although floods play a key ecological role, habitat selection in the dry periods may blur patterns of biodiversity distribution. Here, we employed a partitioning framework to investigate the contribution of turnover and nestedness to β-diversity patterns in non-arboreal amphibians from southern Pantanal ecoregion. We investigated whether components of β-diversity change by spatial and environmental factors. We sampled grasslands and dense arboreal savannas distributed in 12 sampling sites across rainy and dry seasons, and analysed species dissimilarities using quantitative data. In the savannas, both turnover and nestedness contributed similarly to β diversity. However, we found that β diversity is driven essentially by turnover, in the grasslands. In the rainy season, balanced variation in abundance was more related to altitude and factors that induce spatial patterns, whereas dissimilarities were not related to any explanatory variable during dry season. In the Pantanal ecoregion, amphibian assemblages are influenced by a variety of seasonal constraints on terrestrial movements and biotic interactions. Our findings highlighted the role of guild-specific patterns and indicated that mass effects are important mechanisms creating amphibian community structure in the Pantanal.

scholarly journals Attractions to Fuel the Imagination: Reframing Understandings of the Role of Distraction Relative to Well-Being in the Pediatric Hospital

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca McLaughlan ◽  
Ahmed Sadek ◽  
Julie Willis
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Hospital Environment ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Pediatric Hospital ◽  
Waiting Room ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Patient Resistance ◽  
Outpatient Appointments

Objective: Ulrich’s (1991) definition of “positive distraction” includes that which “elicits positive feelings and holds attention,” implying that the capacity of an environmental feature to hold attention is a necessary component. This article examines whether, in the context of a pediatric hospital, a distraction needs to “hold attention” to secure positive benefits for patient well-being. Background: Data collected from 246 patients at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital (Australia) revealed a discrepancy between what children and young people told us they did, and valued, within the hospital, relative to the time they spent engaging in, or paying attention to, these same features. This motivated a closer interrogation of the relationship between well-being, distraction, and socialization within the pediatric context. Method: Data were collected using a mixed-methods approach that included 178 surveys, 43 drawings contributed by patients/siblings within the outpatient waiting room, 25 photo-elicitation interviews with patients, and 100 hr of spatial observations within public and waiting room spaces. This was supplemented by interviews with architects and hospital staff. Conclusions: The mechanism by which we have understood positive distraction to contribute to well-being within the pediatric hospital environment is more complex than existing models accept. Within this context, environmental features that can positively transform expectations of visiting the hospital—that can ignite the imagination and incite a desire to return—can offer significant benefits to well-being. This is particularly relevant in the context of absenteeism from outpatient appointments and in reducing patient resistance to future, or ongoing, treatments.

scholarly journals Active Anaerobic Archaeal Methanotrophs in Recently Emerged Cold Seeps of Northern South China Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Zhang ◽  
Xi Xiao ◽  
Songze Chen ◽  
Jing Zhao ◽  
Zongheng Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Northern South China Sea ◽  
Sulfate Reducing Bacteria ◽  
Cold Seep ◽  
Cold Seeps ◽  
Sulfate Reducing ◽  
Reducing Bacteria ◽  
Rna And Dna

Cold seep ecosystems are developed from methane-rich fluids in organic rich continental slopes, which are the source of various dense microbial and faunal populations. Extensive studies have been conducted on microbial populations in this unique environment; most of them were based on DNA, which could not resolve the activity of extant organisms. In this study, RNA and DNA analyses were performed to evaluate the active archaeal and bacterial communities and their network correlations, particularly those participating in the methane cycle at three sites of newly developed cold seeps in the northern South China Sea (nSCS). The results showed that both archaeal and bacterial communities were significantly different at the RNA and DNA levels, revealing a higher abundance of methane-metabolizing archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria in RNA sequencing libraries. Site ROV07-01, which exhibited extensive accumulation of deceased Calyptogena clam shells, was highly developed, and showed diverse and active anaerobic archaeal methanotrophs (ANME)-2a/b and sulfate-reducing bacteria from RNA libraries. Site ROV07-02, located near carbonate crusts with few clam shell debris, appeared to be poorly developed, less anaerobic and less active. Site ROV05-02, colonized by living Calyptogena clams, could likely be intermediary between ROV07-01 and ROV07-02, showing abundant ANME-2dI and sulfate-reducing bacteria in RNA libraries. The high-proportions of ANME-2dI, with respect to ANME-2dII in the site ROV07-01 was the first report from nSCS, which could be associated with recently developed cold seeps. Both ANME-2dI and ANME-2a/b showed close networked relationships with sulfate-reducing bacteria; however, they were not associated with the same microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Based on the geochemical gradients and the megafaunal settlements as well as the niche specificities and syntrophic relationships, ANMEs appeared to change in community structure with the evolution of cold seeps, which may be associated with the heterogeneity of their geochemical processes. This study enriched our understanding of more active sulfate-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) in poorly developed and active cold seep sediments by contrasting DNA- and RNA-derived community structure and activity indicators.

scholarly journals Exploration of Intrinsic Microbial Community Modulators in the Rice Endosphere Indicates a Key Role of Distinct Bacterial Taxa Across Different Cultivars

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Wang ◽  
Xiao Kong ◽  
Hongsong Chen ◽  
Youlun Xiao ◽  
Huijun Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Rice Cultivars ◽  
Rice Varieties ◽  
Microbial Network ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Group I ◽  
Α Diversity ◽  
Microbe Interactions ◽  
Endophytic Bacterial Community ◽  
Group Ii

Microbial communities associated with the plant phyllosphere and endosphere can have both beneficial as well as detrimental effects on their hosts. There is an ongoing debate to which extend the phyllosphere and endosphere microbiome assembly is controlled by the host plant how pronounced cultivar effects are. We investigated the bacterial and fungal communities from the phyllosphere and endosphere of 10 different rice cultivars grown under identical environmental conditions in the frame of a targeted approach to identify drivers of community assembly. The results indicated that the endophytic bacterial communities were clearly separated into two groups. The α-diversity and microbial network complexity within Group I were significantly lower than in Group II. Moreover, the genera Nocardioides, Microvirga, and Gaiella were significantly more abundant in Group II and only present in the interaction networks of this group. These three genera were significantly correlated with α- and β-diversity of the endophytic bacterial community and thus identified as major drivers of the endosphere community. We have identified keystone taxa that shape endophytic bacterial communities of different rice cultivars. Our overall findings provide new insights into plant-microbe interactions, and may contribute to targeted improvements of rice varieties in the future.

scholarly journals Diversity of Soil Bacterial Community Is Influenced by Spatial Location and Time but Not Potato Cultivar

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-238
Author(s):  
Kamrun Nahar ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Floc’h ◽  
Claudia Goyer ◽  
Bernie J. Zebarth ◽  
Sean Whitney
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Community ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Common Scab ◽  
Potato Cultivar ◽  
Community Diversity ◽  
Bacterial Community Diversity ◽  
Streptomyces Spp ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Soil Bacterial ◽  
Spatial Locations

Potato cultivars susceptible to common scab were previously reported to harbor five to six times more abundant pathogenic Streptomyces spp. in the rhizosphere soils compared with tolerant cultivars. It is still unclear if the diversity of soil bacterial communities is related to the abundance of pathogenic Streptomyces spp. This study evaluated the effects of potato cultivar on the diversity of bacterial communities in three spatial locations (soil located close to the plant [SCP], in the rhizosphere soil [RS], and in the geocaulosphere soil [GS]) in 2013 and 2014. Common scab tolerant (Goldrush and Hindenburg) and susceptible cultivars (Green Mountain and Agria) were planted in a field infested with pathogenic Streptomyces spp. causing common scab. The β-diversity of the bacterial community was significantly different between years and on dates within each year according to a permutational multivariate analysis of variance. The β-diversity also varied significantly among spatial locations (i.e., SCP, RS, and GS), probably due to changes in soil properties, but did not change significantly among potato cultivars. The architecture of the bacterial network in RS in 2014 was more complex compared with 2013 with a 2.5-fold increase in the number of bacteria included according to a co-occurrence analysis. These results indicated that the soil bacterial community diversity changed temporally and spatially. However, bacterial community diversity and richness were not affected by potato cultivar, suggesting that there were no relationships between bacterial community diversity or richness and the abundance of pathogenic Streptomyces spp.

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