scholarly journals Conserved Metabolic and Evolutionary Themes in Microbial Degradation of Carbamate Pesticides

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harshit Malhotra ◽  
Sukhjeet Kaur ◽  
Prashant S. Phale
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Fate ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Enzyme Promiscuity ◽  
Adaptive Laboratory Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Ecological Disturbance ◽  
C1 Metabolism ◽  
Carbamate Pesticides ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biochemical Analyses

Carbamate pesticides are widely used as insecticides, nematicides, acaricides, herbicides and fungicides in the agriculture, food and public health sector. However, only a minor fraction of the applied quantity reaches the target organisms. The majority of it persists in the environment, impacting the non-target biota, leading to ecological disturbance. The toxicity of these compounds to biota is mediated through cholinergic and non-cholinergic routes, thereby making their clean-up cardinal. Microbes, specifically bacteria, have adapted to the presence of these compounds by evolving degradation pathways and thus play a major role in their removal from the biosphere. Over the past few decades, various genetic, metabolic and biochemical analyses exploring carbamate degradation in bacteria have revealed certain conserved themes in metabolic pathways like the enzymatic hydrolysis of the carbamate ester or amide linkage, funnelling of aryl carbamates into respective dihydroxy aromatic intermediates, C1 metabolism and nitrogen assimilation. Further, genomic and functional analyses have provided insights on mechanisms like horizontal gene transfer and enzyme promiscuity, which drive the evolution of degradation phenotype. Compartmentalisation of metabolic pathway enzymes serves as an additional strategy that further aids in optimising the degradation efficiency. This review highlights and discusses the conclusions drawn from various analyses over the past few decades; and provides a comprehensive view of the environmental fate, toxicity, metabolic routes, related genes and enzymes as well as evolutionary mechanisms associated with the degradation of widely employed carbamate pesticides. Additionally, various strategies like application of consortia for efficient degradation, metabolic engineering and adaptive laboratory evolution, which aid in improvising remediation efficiency and overcoming the challenges associated with in situ bioremediation are discussed.

scholarly journals The challenges of donor engagement with faith-based organizations in Cameroon’s health sector: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Herzig van Wees ◽  
Michael Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
International Development ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Past ◽  
Faith Based Organizations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract Substantial global advocacy efforts have been made over the past decade to encourage partnerships and funding of faith-based organizations in international development programmes in efforts to improve social and health outcomes. Whilst there is a wealth of knowledge on religion and development, including its controversies, less attention has been payed to the role that donors might play. The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the engagement between donors and faith-based organizations in Cameroon’s health sector, following the implementation of the Cameroon Health Sector Partnership Strategy (2012). Forty-six in-depth interviews were conducted in selected regions in Cameroon. The findings show that global advocacy efforts to increase partnerships with faith-based organizations have created a space for increasing donor engagement of faith-based organizations following the implementation of the strategy. However, the policy was perceived as top down as it did not take into account some of the existing challenges. The policy arguably accentuated some of the existing tensions between the government and faith-based organizations, fed faith-controversies and complicated the health system landscape. Moreover, it provided donors with a framework for haphazard engagement with faith-based organizations. As such, putting the implications of donor engagement with FBOs on the research map acknowledges the limitations of efforts to collaborate with faith-based organizations and brings to the surface still-remaining blinkers and limited assumptions in donor definitions of faith-based organizations and in ways of collaborating with them.

scholarly journals A Journey through and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indian Setup-Lessons Learnt So Far

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Divyesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Health Security ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lessons Learnt ◽  
The People ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Day By Day

World over life was going at its normal pace when an outbreak occurred in Hubei province of China in the later part of the year 2019. This outbreak was soon found to be caused by a virus named coronavirus (COVID-19). Rapidly the virus spread globally leading to a pandemic. The mortality rate was increasing day by day and helplessly everyone was wondering what actually could be done to prevent the spread. Lessons from the past epidemic made it possible to think that maintaining social distancing and adequate hygiene might help to combat the ailment. In India, majorly affected were the people from poor strata and the businessmen who were earning their daily bread by selling things of daily need. The health sector too witnessed an alarming ratio of patients suffering from COVID-19. The second wave, which soon followd the first wave, caused much more havoc. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic, exposed and challanged the health security system of every country. As the danger of pandemic still prevails, steps to curtail the spread of disease and future management strategies should be formulated from the lessons learnt through the COVID-19 phase.

Evolutionary dynamics of natural product biosynthesis in bacteria

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 566-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc G. Chevrette ◽  
Karina Gutiérrez-García ◽  
Nelly Selem-Mojica ◽  
César Aguilar-Martínez ◽  
Alan Yañez-Olvera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Enzyme Promiscuity ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Natural Product Biosynthesis ◽  
Metabolic Traits

We review known evolutionary mechanisms underlying the overwhelming chemical diversity of bacterial natural products biosynthesis, focusing on enzyme promiscuity and the evolution of enzymatic domains that enable metabolic traits.

What does Equity in Health Mean?

1993 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Equity In Health ◽  
International Debate ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research And Policy

ABSTRACTUp until very recently, the international debate on health inequality tended to disregard the issue of specifying equity objectives precisely. This was unfortunate, given the importance of normative analysis for understanding why people care about social justice in the field of health; the extent to which specific types of inequality are compatible with equity; how the concept should be measured; and how rational policies may be formulated and monitored. This article critically appraises six well established approaches to defining equity—egality, entitlement, the decent minimum, utilitarianism, Rawlsian maximin, and envy-free allocations—as well as two alternative formulations recently proposed by health economists—equity as choice and health maximisation. All of these are found wanting in some respect when applied to the health sector. It is argued that Sen's ‘capabilities’ concepts, strangely ignored by health services researchers in the past, could prove an effective framework within which to organise research and policy formulation in the area of health and health care inequality.

scholarly journals Glucosamine-6P and glucosamine-1P, respectively an activator and a substrate of rhodococcal ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylases, show a hint to ascertain (actino)bacterial glucosamine metabolism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
AE Cereijo ◽  
HM Alvarez ◽  
AA Iglesias ◽  
MD Asencion Diez
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Nitrogen Availability ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Catalytic Performance ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Enzyme Promiscuity ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Intermediary Metabolite ◽  
Main Regulator ◽  
Temporary Carbon Storage

AbstractRhodococcus spp. are important microorganisms for biotechnological purposes, such as bioremediation and biofuel production. The latter, founded on the oleaginous characteristic (high lipid accumulation) exhibited by many Rhodococcus species when grown in certain carbon sources under low nitrogen availability. These bacteria accumulate glycogen during exponential growth, and the glucan plays a role as an intermediary metabolite for temporary carbon storage related to lipid metabolism. The kinetic and regulatory properties of the ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (ADP-GlcPPase) from Rhodococcus jostii supports this hypothesis. The enzyme was found able to use glucosamine-1P as an alternative substrate. Curiously, the activity with glucosamine-1P was sensitive to glucose-6P, the main activator of actinobacterial ADP-GlcPPases. Herein, we report the study of glucosamine-1P related to the activity and regulation of ADP-GlcPPases from R. jostii and R. fascians, with the finding that glucosamine-6P is also a significant activator. Glucosamine-6P, belonging to a node between carbon and nitrogen metabolism, was identified as a main regulator in Actinobacteria. Thus, its effect on rhodococcal ADP-GlcPPases reinforces the function proposed for glycogen as temporary carbon storage. Results indicate that the activity of the studied enzymes using glucosamine-1P as a substrate responds to the activation by several metabolites that improve their catalytic performance, which strongly suggest metabolic feasibility. Then, studying the allosteric regulation exerted on an alternative activity would open two scenarios for consideration: (i) the existence of new molecules/metabolites yet undescribed, and (ii) evolutionary mechanisms underlying enzyme promiscuity that give rise new metabolic features in bacteria.

scholarly journals Health technology assessment development in China

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 202-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingyao Chen ◽  
David Banta ◽  
Zhiliu Tang
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Assessment Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
Insurance Benefit

Objectives: This study is to review health technology assessment (HTA) development in China during the past two decades, and to facilitate further development of HTA and its integration into policy making.Methods: The study depends very much on the extensive experiences of the authors in involvement of HTA in China. In addition, literature review and Web site searching have been used to trace the process of growth of HTA in China.Results: With its rapid economic development, the Chinese health system has had many achievements in the past 30 years. However, there are some weaknesses that have developed during this period. HTA is traced back to the early 1990s in China. First, HTA knowledge transfer and establishment of HTA units were effective ways to develop HTA in China. By the end of 1990s, the policy makers of the Ministry of Health (MoH) made efforts to merge HTA with policy making to improve the quality and efficiency of health care. The main government authorities related to health technology are the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and the MoH. Their involvements in HTA are varied.Conclusion: A technology licensure mechanism based on HTA, including technology permission for use, institution licensure, and workforce licensure, is being gradually carried out by the MoH in China. Moreover, HTA can play an important role in technology market entry, insurance benefit coverage, formulary, clinical pathway, reimbursement, and so on. There is a great opportunity for HTA to be an important part of health reform, especially to help policy makers within the health sector to make difficult decisions.

Applications of the balanced scorecard for strategic management and performance measurement in the health sector

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farshad Behrouzi ◽  
Awaluddin Mohamed Shaharoun ◽  
Azanizawati Ma'aram
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
The Past

In order to attain a useful balanced scorecard (BSC), appropriate performance perspectives and indicators are crucial to reflect all strategies of the organisation. The objectives of this survey were to give an insight regarding the situation of the BSC in the health sector over the past decade, and to afford a generic approach of the BSC development for health settings with specific focus on performance perspectives, performance indicators and BSC generation. After an extensive search based on publication date and research content, 29 articles published since 2002 were identified, categorised and analysed. Four critical attributes of each article were analysed, including BSC generation, performance perspectives, performance indicators and auxiliary tools. The results showed that ‘internal business process’ was the most notable BSC perspective as it was included in all reviewed articles. After investigating the literature, it was concluded that its comprehensiveness is the reason for the importance and high usage of this perspective. The findings showed that 12 cases out of 29 reviewed articles (41%) exceeded the maximum number of key performance indicators (KPI) suggested in a previous study. It was found that all 12 cases were large organisations with numerous departments (e.g. national health organisations). Such organisations require numerous KPI to cover all of their strategic objectives. It was recommended to utilise the cascaded BSC within such organisations to avoid complexity and difficulty in gathering, analysing and interpreting performance data. Meanwhile it requires more medical staff to contribute in BSC development, which will result in greater reliability of the BSC. What is known about the topic? Although there was initially a low perception of the BSC within the health sector, over the past decade interest in BSC utilisation has been growing among health service providers around the world in both developed and developing countries. Some papers have described the development or diffusion of the BSC in health settings. Some examples of BSC utilisation for private and public hospitals have been presented in the literature. However, the necessity of a comprehensive review of published articles in the health area is crucial in order to derive the most appropriate way to design and implement the BSC in the health sector in terms of perspectives and KPI. What does this paper add? This paper has analysed articles on the BSC in the health sector published over the last 10 years. The analysis is based on the following items: BSC generations; BSC perspectives; BSC indicators; auxiliary tools. This paper gives an insight into the situation of the BSC in the health sector over the past decade and affords a generic approach of BSC development for health settings in terms of the four items above. What are the implications for practitioners? This paper can be beneficial for managers and decision makers of all healthcare organisations. It can help them to change their thinking about performance assessment and to have a structural BSC approach for performance measurement and strategic management in healthcare. It presents an insight on designing BSC to help managers adopt appropriate performance perspectives and KPI. In addition, it introduces the cascaded BSC, which is useful for large health settings with too many KPI. It also presents all BSC generations to help healthcare managers utilise proper BSC based on their own requirements and strategic objectives.

scholarly journals Changes in Winter Warming Events in the Nordic Arctic Region

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (17) ◽  
pp. 6223-6244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagrun Vikhamar-Schuler ◽  
Ketil Isaksen ◽  
Jan Erik Haugen ◽  
Hans Tømmervik ◽  
Bartlomiej Luks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Region ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Climate Indices ◽  
Ecological Disturbance ◽  
Winter Warming ◽  
The Past ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Warm Weather ◽  
Soil Temperatures

Abstract In recent years extreme winter warming events have been reported in arctic areas. These events are characterized as extraordinarily warm weather episodes, occasionally combined with intense rainfall, causing ecological disturbance and challenges for arctic societies and infrastructure. Ground-ice formation due to winter rain or melting prevents ungulates from grazing, leads to vegetation browning, and impacts soil temperatures. The authors analyze changes in frequency and intensity of winter warming events in the Nordic arctic region—northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland, including the arctic islands Svalbard and Jan Mayen. This study identifies events in the longest available records of daily temperature and precipitation, as well as in future climate scenarios, and performs analyses of long-term trends for climate indices aimed to capture these individual events. Results show high frequencies of warm weather events during the 1920s–30s and the past 15 years (2000–14), causing weak positive trends over the past 90 years (1924–2014). In contrast, strong positive trends in occurrence and intensity for all climate indices are found for the past 50 years with, for example, increased rates for number of melt days of up to 9.2 days decade−1 for the arctic islands and 3–7 days decade−1 for the arctic mainland. Regional projections for the twenty-first century indicate a significant enhancement of the frequency and intensity of winter warming events. For northern Scandinavia, the simulations indicate a doubling in the number of warming events, compared to 1985–2014, while the projected frequencies for the arctic islands are up to 3 times higher.

scholarly journals Socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on Ghana's economy: challenges and prospects

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-556
Author(s):  
David Tanoh Aduhene ◽  
Eric Osei-Assibey
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Socio Economic Impact ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe world's economies are on their knees following the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic over the past 8 months. Growing number of researches has been conducted on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on developed countries with little attention on developing countries, who are still grappling with the negative impact of the coronavirus. The rationale for this study is to assess the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on Ghana's economy and government response to the pandemic as well as policy options to revive the ailing economy.Design/methodology/approachThis study explored the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus on Ghana's economy using a discourse analysis with data from various secondary sources to analyze the impact of the pandemic from the Ghanaian perspective.FindingsThe findings from the discourse analysis revealed that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted on the socio-economic situation of the citizens of Ghana. Whiles an estimated 42,000 people lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic in Ghana, tourist attraction sector of the country alone lost $171 million dollars in the past three months due to the partial lockdown and closure of tourism and hospitality centers in the country. The study revealed that Ghana's healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the number of increasing cases in the country to extent of making use of temporary structures as isolation and treatment centers of the pandemic. The study revealed that Ghana may convert these challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic into prospects and opportunities by investing massively in the health sector and creating support for the SMEs which creates massive employment for many Ghanaians.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 on Ghana's economy and how the pandemic has negatively affected the country. The study is an exploratory study that makes use of secondary data. However, conducting a study with primary data sources from specific communities or regions in the country may not produce the same results. The results from the primary level or community level may be different from the general results obtained from the study. In future it is expected that the study focuses specifically on the extent of the coronavirus pandemic on Ghana's fiscal deficit which seems to have ballooned in recent times.Originality/valueThe study is the first of its kind to extensively explore the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Ghanaian economy. The novelty of this paper is that it recognizes governments response to the pandemic and proposes three practical measures adopted to put the country's economy back on its feet through survive, revive and ensuring growth in all sectors of the economy.

scholarly journals Model-driven discovery of underground metabolic functions inEscherichia coli

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 929-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela I. Guzmán ◽  
José Utrilla ◽  
Sergey Nurk ◽  
Elizabeth Brunk ◽  
Jonathan M. Monk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Strain Analysis ◽  
Cross Reactivity ◽  
Enzyme Promiscuity ◽  
Adaptive Laboratory Evolution ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
Bioinformatic Tools ◽  
Metabolic Functions ◽  
Biological Discovery ◽  
Constraint Based Modeling ◽  
Genome Scale

Enzyme promiscuity toward substrates has been discussed in evolutionary terms as providing the flexibility to adapt to novel environments. In the present work, we describe an approach toward exploring such enzyme promiscuity in the space of a metabolic network. This approach leverages genome-scale models, which have been widely used for predicting growth phenotypes in various environments or following a genetic perturbation; however, these predictions occasionally fail. Failed predictions of gene essentiality offer an opportunity for targeting biological discovery, suggesting the presence of unknown underground pathways stemming from enzymatic cross-reactivity. We demonstrate a workflow that couples constraint-based modeling and bioinformatic tools with KO strain analysis and adaptive laboratory evolution for the purpose of predicting promiscuity at the genome scale. Three cases of genes that are incorrectly predicted as essential inEscherichia coli—aspC,argD, andgltA—are examined, and isozyme functions are uncovered for each to a different extent. Seven isozyme functions based on genetic and transcriptional evidence are suggested between the genesaspCandtyrB,argDandastC,gabTandpuuE, andgltAandprpC. This study demonstrates how a targeted model-driven approach to discovery can systematically fill knowledge gaps, characterize underground metabolism, and elucidate regulatory mechanisms of adaptation in response to gene KO perturbations.

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