Isolation of Toxigenic NocardiopsisStrains from Indoor Environments and Description of Two NewNocardiopsis Species, N. exhalans sp. nov. andN. umidischolae sp. nov

ABSTRACT Nocardiopsis strains were isolated from water-damaged indoor environments. Two strains (N. alba subsp.alba 704a and a strain representing a novel species, ES10.1) as well as strains of N. prasina, N. lucentensis,and N. tropica produced methanol-soluble toxins that paralyzed the motility of boar spermatozoa at <30 μg of crude extract (dry weight) ml−1. N. prasina, N. lucentensis, N. tropica, and strain ES10.1 caused cessation of motility by dissipating the mitochondrial membrane potential, Δψ, of the boar spermatozoa. Indoor strain 704a produced a substance that destroyed cell membrane barrier function and depleted the sperm cells of ATP. Indoor strain 64/93 was antagonistic towardsCorynebacterium renale. Two indoor Nocardiopsisstrains were xerotolerant, and all five utilized a wide range of substrates. This combined with the production of toxic substances suggests good survival and potential hazard to human health in water-damaged indoor environments. Two new species, Nocardiopsis exhalans sp. nov. (ES10.1T) and Nocardiopsis umidischolae sp. nov. (66/93T), are proposed based on morphology, chemotaxonomic and physiological characters, phylogenetic analysis, and DNA-DNA reassociations.

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Toxic-Metabolite-Producing Bacteria and Fungus in an Indoor Environment

Applied and Environmental Microbiology ◽

10.1128/aem.67.7.3269-3274.2001 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 67 (7) ◽

pp. 3269-3274 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

J. Peltola ◽

M. A. Andersson ◽

T. Haahtela ◽

H. Mussalo-Rauhamaa ◽

F. A. Rainey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mitochondrial Membrane ◽

Indoor Environment ◽

Bacillus Pumilus ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Toxic Metabolite ◽

Toxic Substances ◽

Bacterial Isolates ◽

Bacillus Simplex ◽

Membrane Barrier ◽

Boar Spermatozoa

ABSTRACT Toxic-metabolite-emitting microbes were isolated from the indoor environment of a building where the occupant was suffering serious building-related ill-health symptoms. Toxic substances soluble in methanol and inhibitory to spermatozoa at <10 μg (dry weight) ml−1 were found from six bacterial isolates and one fungus. The substances from isolates of Bacillus simplexand from isolates belonging to the actinobacterial generaStreptomyces and Nocardiopsis were mitochondriotoxic. These substances dissipated the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ) of boar spermatozoa. The substances from the Streptomyces isolates also swelled the mitochondria. The substances from isolates of Trichoderma harzianum Rifai and Bacillus pumilus damaged the cell membrane barrier function of sperm cells.

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Research of the activity and viability of spermatozoa at different concentrations and proportions of diluents after incubation

Pig breeding the interdepartmental subject scientific digest ◽

10.37143/0371-4365-2020-74-11 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 88-95

Author(s):

Svitlana Lobchenko ◽

Tetiana Husar ◽

Viktor Lobchenko

Keyword(s):

Plasma Concentration ◽

Incubation Time ◽

Coefficient Of Variation ◽

Incubation Medium ◽

Wide Range ◽

Series Of Experiments ◽

The Subject ◽

Boar Spermatozoa ◽

Native Plasma ◽

Better Than

The results of studies of the viability of spermatozoa with different incubation time at different concentrations and using different diluents are highlighted in the article. (Un) concentrated spermatozoa were diluented: 1) with their native plasma; 2) medium 199; 3) a mixture of equal volumes of plasma and medium 199. The experiment was designed to generate experimental samples with spermatozoa concentrations prepared according to the method, namely: 0.2; 0.1; 0.05; 0.025 billion / ml. The sperm was evaluated after 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours. The perspective of such a study is significant and makes it possible to research various aspects of the subject in a wide range. In this regard, a series of experiments were conducted in this area. The data obtained are statistically processed and allow us to highlight the results that relate to each stage of the study. In particular, in this article it was found out some regularities between the viability of sperm, the type of diluent and the rate of rarefaction, as evidenced by the data presented in the tables. As a result of sperm incubation, the viability of spermatozoa remains at least the highest trend when sperm are diluted to a concentration of 0.1 billion / ml, regardless of the type of diluent used. To maintain the viability of sperm using this concentration of medium 199 is not better than its native plasma, and its mixture with an equal volume of plasma through any length of time incubation of such sperm. Most often it is at this concentration of sperm that their viability is characterized by the lowest coefficient of variation, regardless of the type of diluent used, which may indicate the greatest stability of the result under these conditions. The viability of spermatozoa with a concentration of 0.1 billion / ml is statistically significantly reduced only after 6 or even 8 hours of incubation. If the sperm are incubated for only 2 hours, regardless of the type of diluent used, the sperm concentrations tested do not affect the viability of the sperm. Key words: boar, spermatozoa, sperm plasma, concentration, incubation, medium 199, activity, viability, rarefaction.

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An Overview of Ethics and Environmental Health

The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190245191.013.60 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 697-703

Author(s):

David B. Resnik

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Environmental Health ◽

Environmental Ethics ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Biomedical Ethics ◽

Public Health Ethics ◽

Social Utility ◽

Toxic Substances ◽

Health Ethics ◽

Wide Range

This chapter provides an overview of the ethics of environmental health, and it introduces five chapters in the related section of The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics. A wide range of ethical issues arises in managing the relationship between human health and the environment, including regulation of toxic substances, air and water pollution, waste management, agriculture, the built environment, occupational health, energy production and use, environmental justice, population control, and climate change. The values at stake in environmental health ethics include those usually mentioned in ethical debates in biomedicine and public health, such as autonomy, social utility, and justice, as well as values that address environmental concerns, such as animal welfare, stewardship of biological resources, and sustainability. Environmental health ethics, therefore, stands at the crossroads of several disciplines, including public health ethics, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, and business ethics.

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Current status of vascular access in Japan—from Dialysis Access Symposium 2017

The Journal of Vascular Access ◽

10.1177/1129729818762982 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. 38-44

Author(s):

Mizuya Fukasawa

Keyword(s):

Vascular Access ◽

Current Status ◽

Good Survival ◽

Chronic Glomerulonephritis ◽

Dialysis Access ◽

Dialysis Patients ◽

Survival Prognosis ◽

Access Methods ◽

Number Of Patients ◽

Wide Range

At the second Dialysis Access Symposium held in Nagoya, Japan, a proposal was made to investigate the differences in vascular access methods used in different countries. In this article, we describe the management of vascular access in Japan. The Japanese population is rapidly aging, and the proportion of elderly patients on dialysis is also increasing. There were 325,000 dialysis patients in Japan at the end of 2015, of whom 65.1% were aged 65 years or above. The number of patients with diabetic nephropathy or nephrosclerosis as the underlying condition is also increasing, whereas the number with chronic glomerulonephritis is steadily decreasing. The Japanese health insurance system enables patients to undergo medical treatment at almost no out-of-pocket cost. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty suffers from a severe device lag compared with other countries, but although there are limitations on permitted devices, the use of those that have been authorized is covered by medical insurance. One important point that is unique to Japan is that vascular access is performed and managed by doctors involved in dialysis across a wide range of disciplines, including nephrologists, surgeons, and urologists. This may be one factor contributing to the good survival prognosis of Japanese dialysis patients.

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A Visual and VAE Based Hierarchical Indoor Localization Method

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21103406 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (10) ◽

pp. 3406

Author(s):

Jie Jiang ◽

Yin Zou ◽

Lidong Chen ◽

Yujie Fang

Keyword(s):

Image Retrieval ◽

Indoor Localization ◽

Data Sets ◽

Indoor Environments ◽

Global Features ◽

Data Set ◽

Data Annotation ◽

Wide Range ◽

Annotation Costs ◽

Global And Local

Precise localization and pose estimation in indoor environments are commonly employed in a wide range of applications, including robotics, augmented reality, and navigation and positioning services. Such applications can be solved via visual-based localization using a pre-built 3D model. The increase in searching space associated with large scenes can be overcome by retrieving images in advance and subsequently estimating the pose. The majority of current deep learning-based image retrieval methods require labeled data, which increase data annotation costs and complicate the acquisition of data. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised hierarchical indoor localization framework that integrates an unsupervised network variational autoencoder (VAE) with a visual-based Structure-from-Motion (SfM) approach in order to extract global and local features. During the localization process, global features are applied for the image retrieval at the level of the scene map in order to obtain candidate images, and are subsequently used to estimate the pose from 2D-3D matches between query and candidate images. RGB images only are used as the input of the proposed localization system, which is both convenient and challenging. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method can localize images within 0.16 m and 4° in the 7-Scenes data sets and 32.8% within 5 m and 20° in the Baidu data set. Furthermore, our proposed method achieves a higher precision compared to advanced methods.

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Diet of European freshwater pearl mussels Margaritifera margaritifera (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionoida) in small river (Republic of Karelia, Russia)

Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS ◽

10.31610/trudyzin/2021.325.4.502 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 325 (4) ◽

pp. 502-515

Author(s):

S.F. Komulaynen

Keyword(s):

Algal Species ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Lake Ladoga ◽

Total Biomass ◽

Margaritifera Margaritifera ◽

Pearl Mussel ◽

Organic Detritus ◽

Unicellular Algae ◽

Wide Range ◽

Intestinal Contents

The freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus,1758) is endangered in Europe and is now listed in the Red Data Book of many countries and regions. The diet of the species in the Syskyänjoki River (a tributary of Lake Ladoga) has been studied. The contents of the intestine generally correspond to the composition of seston, and include organic detritus, ﬁlamentous and unicellular algae, fragments of invertebrates and macrophyte tissues mixed with silt and sand. The total biomass of the intestinal contents of varied from 0.8 to 30.6 mg per organism (absolutely dry weight). Margaritifera margaritifera consumes a wide range of particles, from 0.5 μm3 (bacteria and unicellular algae) to 200 000 μm3 (fragments of invertebrates and macrophyte tissues). About 90–95% (by volume) of the intestinal contents was consisted by ﬁne organic detritus. The food composition did not differ signiﬁcantly for mollusks of different sexes and size. In the intestinal contents, 63 taxa of algae were identiﬁed. The number of algal species in the content of one intestine varied from 3 to 17, with their abundance from 250 to 9560 cells per organism. The most abundant and constant in the contents of the intestines are unicellular algae. Diatoms are the most diverse, they make up 50.8% of the total number of species.

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Third generation progress in breeding white clover for resistance to root-knot nematode

NZGA: Research and Practice Series ◽

10.33584/rps.6.1995.3360 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. 163-166

Author(s):

J. Van den Bosch ◽

C.F. Mercer

Keyword(s):

White Clover ◽

Trifolium Repens ◽

Egg Production ◽

Control Method ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Third Generation ◽

Root Knot Nematode ◽

Root Dry Weight ◽

Wide Range ◽

Meloidogyne Sp

Root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne sp.) reduces growth and nutrition of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) in New Zealand, and breeding resistant cultivars (with low galls per gram of root) is the preferred control method. Resistant and susceptible selections were bred from a wide range of white clover lines for three generations. In the third generation there were significant differences between seed lines from the selections for number of galls, root dry weight, visual growth score and galls/gram of root dry weight. Resistant selections had 43% of the susceptible selections' galls per gram, and 50% of the number of galls. Germplasm showing resistance to Meloidogyne spp. in the USA showed partial resistance to the local Meloidogyne sp. Two resistant and two susceptible genotypes were also compared for nematode egg production; resistant genotypes had a mean of 3,460 eggs/plant, compared to 25,030 for susceptible genotypes. Keywords: breeding, Meloidogyne sp., resistance, rootknot nematode, screening, selection, Trifolium repens, white clover

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Cd and Zn interactions and toxicity in ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes in axenic culture

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.4478 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e4478 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Vinicius H. De Oliveira ◽

Mark Tibbett

Keyword(s):

Radial Growth ◽

Solid Medium ◽

Axenic Culture ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Zinc Toxicity ◽

Solid Media ◽

Wide Range ◽

Ecm Fungi ◽

Ectomycorrhizal Basidiomycetes ◽

Tolerance Indices

BackgroundMetal contamination in soils affects both above- and belowground communities, including soil microorganisms. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are an important component in belowground community and tolerant strains have great potential in enhancing plant-based remediation techniques. We assessed cadmium and zinc toxicity in five ECM species in liquid media (Hebeloma subsaponaceum;H. cylindrosporum;H. crustuliniforme;Sclerodermasp.;Austroboletus occidentalis) and investigated the potential of Zn to alleviate Cd toxicity. Due to highly divergent results reported in the literature, liquid and solid media were compared experimentally for the first time in terms of differential toxicity thresholds in Cd and Zn interactions.MethodsA wide range of Cd and Zn concentrations were applied to ectomycorrhizal fungi in axenic cultures (in mg L−1): 0; 1; 3; 9; 27; 81; 243 for the Cd treatments, and 0; 1; 30; 90; 270; 810; 2,430 for Zn. Combined Zn and Cd treatments were also applied toH. subsaponaceumandSclerodermasp. Dry weight was recorded after 30 days, and in case of solid medium treatments, radial growth was also measured.Results and DiscussionAll species were adversely affected by high levels of Cd and Zn, andA. occidentaliswas the most sensitive, with considerable biomass decrease at 1 mg L−1Cd, whileSclerodermasp. andH. subsaponaceumwere the most tolerant, which are species commonly found in highly contaminated sites. Cd was generally 10 times more toxic than Zn, which may explain why Zn had little impact in alleviating Cd effects. In some cases, Cd and Zn interactions led to a synergistic toxicity, depending on the concentrations applied and type of media used. Increased tolerance patterns were detected in fungi grown in solid medium and may be the cause of divergent toxicity thresholds found in the literature. Furthermore, solid medium allows measuring radial growth/mycelial density as endpoints which are informative and in this case appeared be related to the high tolerance indices found inH. subsaponaceum.

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Rhizobacteria inoculation in maize associated with nitrogen and zinc fertilization at sowing

Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agrícola e Ambiental ◽

10.1590/1807-1929/agriambi.v25n2p96-100 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 96-100

Author(s):

Andréia de L. Moreno ◽

Jorge F. Kusdra ◽

Angelita A. C. Picazevicz

Keyword(s):

Bacillus Subtilis ◽

Nitrogen Content ◽

Plant Height ◽

Nitrogen Fertilization ◽

Azospirillum Brasilense ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Stem Diameter ◽

Wide Range ◽

Maize Plants ◽

Total Dry Weight

ABSTRACT Rhizobacteria have a wide range of plant growth-promoting mechanisms of action, making them an alternative and/or complementary biological input for chemical fertilizers. In this respect, the present study aimed to assess growth and nitrogen accumulation in maize plants as a function of Azospirillum brasilense, Bacillus subtilis, zinc and nitrogen application at sowing. The experiment with the ‘AL Bandeirante’ maize variety was conducted in a greenhouse, using a completely randomized design. The treatments were arranged in a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial scheme, with six repetitions, considering the presence and absence of Azospirillum brasilense (5 g kg-1), Bacillus subtilis (5 mL kg-1) and zinc (20 g kg-1) in the seeds and addition or not of nitrogen (30 kg ha-1) to the soil. The variables assessed were plant height, stem diameter, leaf, stem, shoot, root and total dry weight, and shoot nitrogen content. Nitrogen fertilization in the absence of zinc increased shoot and total dry weight as well as shoot nitrogen content. Zinc applied to the seeds improved the total and stem dry weight of maize plants in the absence of Bacillus subtilis. Inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense and Bacillus subtilis increased the stem diameter and shoot nitrogen content of maize plants when nitrogen fertilization was not performed at sowing. There was no isolated or interaction effect between factors for plant height and root dry weight.

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Stilbenes in the different organs of Vitis vinifera cv. Merlot grafted on Teleki Kober 5BB rootstock

OENO One ◽

10.20870/oeno-one.2016.50.4.1068 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 323 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Gyöngyi Németh ◽

Orsolya Hegyi ◽

Attila Dunai ◽

Laszlo Kocsis

Keyword(s):

Vitis Vinifera ◽

Field Study ◽

Primary Source ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Shoot Tips ◽

Font Size ◽

Plant Organs ◽

Wide Range ◽

Berry Skins ◽

Winter Buds

Aim: To determine which of the grapevine organ is the richest in stilbene, like the t-piceid, t-resveratrol and ε-viniferin and would it be useful as by-product of viticulture for processing stilbene concentrate.Methods and results: Nine organs, such as cane, buds, shoot tips, inflorescences, clusters at veraison, matured berry skins, seeds and cluster stems, of Merlot grafted on Teleki Kober 5BB rootstock were collected during a year and its ethanolic extractions were analyzed via HPLC-FLD. Stilbene content of the different organs occurred in a wide range, the lowest was 3.15 mg/kg dry weight (dw) measured in the seeds and the highest 2265 mg/kg dw in the buds.Conclusion: The present research demonstrated that different grapevine organs contain different amount of stilbene in the vineyard. The winter-buds, the roots and the matured cane internodes of Merlot are significantly richer in t-resveratrol and t-ε-viniferin than the green vegetative and generative parts we examined in one growing year. Significance and impact of the study: According to our knowledge there was no stilbenes measuring in several plant organs of a vine cultivar in field study, in vineyard. Our research pointed out the pruned cane could be primary source of stilbene of the health-industry. Beside that grape root is a by-product of grapevine nursery is also rich in stilbene.

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