Genomes of keystone Mortierella species lead to better in silico prediction of soil mycobiome functions from Taiwan's offshore islands

The ability to correlate the functional relationship between microbial communities and their environment is critical to understanding microbial ecology. There is emerging knowledge on island biogeography of microbes but how island characteristics influence functions of microbial community remain elusive. Here, we explored soil mycobiomes from nine islands adjacent to Taiwan using ITS2 amplicon sequencing. Geographical distances and island size were positively correlated to dissimilarity in mycobiomes, and we identified 56 zero-radius operational taxonomic units (zOTUs) that were ubiquitously present across all islands, and as few as five Mortierella zOTUs dominate more than half of mycobiomes. Correlation network analyses revealed that seven of the 45 hub species were part of the ubiquitous zOTUs belonging to Mortierella, Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Clonostachys and Staphylotrichum. We sequenced and annotated the genomes of seven Mortierella isolates, and comparative predictions of KEGG orthologues using PICRUSt2 database updated with new genomes increased sequence reads coverage by 62.9% at the genus level. In addition, genes associated with carbohydrate and lipid metabolisms were differentially abundant between islands which remained undetected in the original database. Predicted functional pathways were similar across islands despite their geographical separation, difference in differentially abundant genes and composition. Our approach demonstrated the incorporation of the key taxa genomic data can improve functional gene prediction results and can be readily applied to investigate other niches of interests.

Obstacles and Solutions Driving the Development of a National Teleradiology Network

Background: Teleradiology has the potential to link medical experts and specialties despite geographical separation. In a project report about hospital-based teleradiology, the significance of technical and human factors during the implementation and growth of a teleradiology network are explored. Evaluation: The article identifies major obstacles during the implementation and growth of the teleradiology network of the Berlin Trauma Hospital (BG Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin) between 2004 and 2020 in semi-structured interviews with senior staff members. Quantitative analysis of examination numbers, patient numbers, and profits relates the efforts of the staff members to the monetary benefits and success of the network. Identification of qualitative and quantitative factors for success: Soft and hard facilitators and solutions driving the development of the national teleradiology network are identified. Obstacles were often solved by technical innovations, but the time span between required personal efforts, endurance, and flexibility of local and external team members. The article describes innovations driven by teleradiology and hints at the impact of teleradiology on modern medical care by relating the expansion of the teleradiology network to patient transfers and profits. Conclusion: In addition to technical improvements, interpersonal collaborations were key to the success of the teleradiology network of the Berlin Trauma Hospital and remained a unique feature and selling point of this teleradiology network.

An unbroken connection? New Zealand families, duty, and the First World War

<p>This thesis explores the topic of families during the First World War through a single New Zealand family and its social networks. The family at the core of the thesis, the Stewarts, were a well-to-do Dunedin family who moved in the most exclusive circles of colonial society. As members of the elite, and as prominent figures in the leadership of wartime patriotic organisations, they conceived of their wartime role as one of public benevolence and modelling patriotic virtue for others. Yet, like countless other families, their personal lives were shattered by the war. Drawing upon the extensive records left behind by the Stewart family, as well as associated archives, the thesis advances a number of larger arguments. It is the overarching claim of this study that families – in their emotional, material and symbolic manifestations – formed an integral part of the war experience and provide a significant way of understanding this global event and its devastating human consequences. The Stewart family’s extensive surviving archive of personal correspondence provides a window into the innermost emotions, beliefs and values of the family’s individual members. Episodes in their wartime lives shape the wider thesis themes: the impact of family separations, grief and bereavement, religious faith, duty and patriotism, philanthropy, the lingering shadow of war disability – and the inflection of all of these by gender and class. Analysing the letters that the family exchanged with other correspondents demonstrates the embeddedness of family in larger networks of association, as well as identifying the aspects of their world view they shared with others in their predominantly middle- and upper-class circles. The records of patriotic organisations members of the family were associated with provide a means of examining how they translated their private beliefs into public influence. The continual interplay between mobility and distance forms another of the study’s substantive themes. The distance created by the geographical separation between battlefronts and homefronts was a defining feature of the war for families in far-flung dominions such as New Zealand. But distance could be overcome by mobility: through the flow of things, money and people. Such movements, the thesis argues, blurred the boundaries between home and front. Thus, the correspondence members of the Stewart family exchanged during the war enabled them to sustain intimate ties across distance and helped them to mediate their own particular experience of wartime bereavement. The informal personal and kinship networks sustained by the female members of the family formed an important constituent of wartime benevolence, providing a conduit for the flow of information, goods and financial aid across national boundaries. During the war, the leadership of women’s patriotic organisations promoted an essentialised vision of feminine nature to justify their organisations’ separate existence and to stake a claim for women’s wider participation in the war effort. In doing so, they drew upon enlarged notions of kinship to argue that their female volunteers were uniquely qualified to bridge the distances of war, and to bring the emotional and practical comforts of home to frontline soldiers. An alternative perspective to the Stewart family’s story of war is provided in this thesis through counterpoints from casefiles of the Otago Soldiers’ and Dependents’ Welfare Committee, with which the Stewarts were involved. Here, the economic interdependence and mutual reliance of working-class families is laid bare in ways that differ markedly from the experience of the Stewarts, but which nevertheless underscores the centrality of the family as an institution for people of all social backgrounds. For some families the geographical separation imposed by the exigencies of war proved insurmountable. The very different kinds of families in this thesis illustrate that whether through their successes, or the sometimes dire consequences of their failures, families are nonetheless indispensable to understanding the First World War.</p>

An unbroken connection? New Zealand families, duty, and the First World War

<p>This thesis explores the topic of families during the First World War through a single New Zealand family and its social networks. The family at the core of the thesis, the Stewarts, were a well-to-do Dunedin family who moved in the most exclusive circles of colonial society. As members of the elite, and as prominent figures in the leadership of wartime patriotic organisations, they conceived of their wartime role as one of public benevolence and modelling patriotic virtue for others. Yet, like countless other families, their personal lives were shattered by the war. Drawing upon the extensive records left behind by the Stewart family, as well as associated archives, the thesis advances a number of larger arguments. It is the overarching claim of this study that families – in their emotional, material and symbolic manifestations – formed an integral part of the war experience and provide a significant way of understanding this global event and its devastating human consequences. The Stewart family’s extensive surviving archive of personal correspondence provides a window into the innermost emotions, beliefs and values of the family’s individual members. Episodes in their wartime lives shape the wider thesis themes: the impact of family separations, grief and bereavement, religious faith, duty and patriotism, philanthropy, the lingering shadow of war disability – and the inflection of all of these by gender and class. Analysing the letters that the family exchanged with other correspondents demonstrates the embeddedness of family in larger networks of association, as well as identifying the aspects of their world view they shared with others in their predominantly middle- and upper-class circles. The records of patriotic organisations members of the family were associated with provide a means of examining how they translated their private beliefs into public influence. The continual interplay between mobility and distance forms another of the study’s substantive themes. The distance created by the geographical separation between battlefronts and homefronts was a defining feature of the war for families in far-flung dominions such as New Zealand. But distance could be overcome by mobility: through the flow of things, money and people. Such movements, the thesis argues, blurred the boundaries between home and front. Thus, the correspondence members of the Stewart family exchanged during the war enabled them to sustain intimate ties across distance and helped them to mediate their own particular experience of wartime bereavement. The informal personal and kinship networks sustained by the female members of the family formed an important constituent of wartime benevolence, providing a conduit for the flow of information, goods and financial aid across national boundaries. During the war, the leadership of women’s patriotic organisations promoted an essentialised vision of feminine nature to justify their organisations’ separate existence and to stake a claim for women’s wider participation in the war effort. In doing so, they drew upon enlarged notions of kinship to argue that their female volunteers were uniquely qualified to bridge the distances of war, and to bring the emotional and practical comforts of home to frontline soldiers. An alternative perspective to the Stewart family’s story of war is provided in this thesis through counterpoints from casefiles of the Otago Soldiers’ and Dependents’ Welfare Committee, with which the Stewarts were involved. Here, the economic interdependence and mutual reliance of working-class families is laid bare in ways that differ markedly from the experience of the Stewarts, but which nevertheless underscores the centrality of the family as an institution for people of all social backgrounds. For some families the geographical separation imposed by the exigencies of war proved insurmountable. The very different kinds of families in this thesis illustrate that whether through their successes, or the sometimes dire consequences of their failures, families are nonetheless indispensable to understanding the First World War.</p>

Genetic Diversity of Plasmodium vivax Reticulocyte Binding Protein 2b in Global Parasite Populations

BackgroundPlasmodium vivax reticulocyte binding protein 2b (PvRBP2b) plays a critical role in parasite invasion of reticulocytes by binding the transferring receptor 1. PvRBP2b is a vaccine candidate since the antibody titers against PvRBP2b recombinant proteins are negatively correlated with the parasitemia and risk of vivax malaria. This study aims to analyze the genetic diversity of the PvRBP2b gene in the global P. vivax populations. MethodsThe near full-length PvRBP2b nucleotide sequences (190-8349 bp) were obtained from 88 P. vivax isolates collected from the China–Myanmar border (n=44) and Thailand (n=44). Additional 224 sequences of PvRBP2b were retrieved from genome sequences from the global parasite populations. The genetic diversity, neutral selections, haplotypes distribution and genetic differentiation of PvRBP2b were examined. ResultsThe genetic diversity of PvRBP2b was distributed unevenly with the peak in the reticulocyte binding region in the N-terminus and subjected to the balancing selection. Several amino acid variants were found in all or nearly all endemic fields. However, the critical residues responsible for reticulocyte binding were highly conserved. There was substantial population differentiation according to the geographical separation. The distribution of haplotypes in the reticulocyte binding region varied among regions; even the two major haplotypes Hap_6 and Hap_8 were found in only five populations. ConclusionsOur data showed considerable genetic variations of PvRBPb in global parasite populations, and the geographic divergence may pose a challenge to PvRBP2b-based vaccine development.

‘It was no different to a prison camp’: Oral accounts of adaptations, transitions and surviving an ‘emergency camp’; from Sophiatown to Ammunition Depot 91, 1955–1960s

The demolition of Sophiatown, Cato Manor, District Six and other areas under the apartheid regime hugely impacted the socio-economic lives of various South Africans (particularly those people classified as non-whites). The classification of South African cosmopolitan townships as slums according to the Slums Act of 1934, and the ambitions of achieving social segregation, resulted in the geographical separation of races facilitated by the Group Areas Act of 1950. The act legally justified the forced removal of Indian families from Sophiatown. Then, they were temporarily placed in a military base next to Lenasia. Through the use of oral interviews, this article interrogates the unknown history of the Indian families in their transitional period from Sophiatown to Ammunition Depot 91 (also referred to as the ‘military camp/military base’ in Lenasia). Furthermore, the article sheds light on their untold experiences; particularly on the arrival of Indian families in the military camp, their living conditions, health-related matters, the utilisation of coping mechanisms such as religion and recreational activities, perceptions about their stay, effects on transportation and their general experiences in the transition camp. The article accentuates the rapid nature of these removals particularly in Sophiatown which resulted in the lack of adequate alternative accommodation for the Indian residents.Contribution: The article offers fresh perspectives for deeper interrogation of the consequences of forced removals in apartheid South Africa, by reflecting on the memories and lived experiences of interviewees in a case study that has hitherto not been addressed by social historians.

Geographical separation and ethnic origin influence the human gut microbial composition: a meta-analysis from a Malaysian perspective

Ethnicity is consistently reported as a strong determinant of human gut microbiota. However, the bulk of these studies are from Western countries, where microbiota variations are mainly driven by relatively recent migration events. Malaysia is a multicultural society, but differences in gut microbiota persist across ethnicities. We hypothesized that migrant ethnic groups continue to share fundamental gut traits with the population in the country of origin due to shared cultural practices despite subsequent geographical separation. To test this hypothesis, the 16S rRNA gene amplicons from 16 studies comprising three major ethnic groups in Malaysia were analysed, covering 636 Chinese, 248 Indian and 123 Malay individuals from four countries (China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia). A confounder-adjusted permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) detected a significant association between ethnicity and the gut microbiota (PERMANOVA R 2=0.005, pseudo-F=2.643, P=0.001). A sparse partial least squares – discriminant analysis model trained using the gut microbiota of individuals from China, India and Indonesia (representation of Chinese, Indian and Malay ethnic group, respectively) showed a better-than-random performance in classifying Malaysian of Chinese descent, although the performance for Indian and Malay were modest (true prediction rate, Chinese=0.60, Indian=0.49, Malay=0.44). Separately, differential abundance analysis singled out Ligilactobacillus as being elevated in Indians. We postulate that despite the strong influence of geographical factors on the gut microbiota, cultural similarity due to a shared ethnic origin drives the presence of a shared gut microbiota composition. The interplay of these factors will likely depend on the circumstances of particular groups of migrants.

Deconstructing quality at multi-campus universities: what moderates staff and student satisfaction?

Purpose Through using a realist approach, this study aims to identify the key moderators of multi-campus effectiveness through a systematic literature review, with a focus on faculty staff and student satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines, information from peer-reviewed journal papers relating to multi-campus universities was located. The systematic search spanned a 10 year period (2009 to 2019) and returned 538 results. After duplicates were removed, and titles, abstracts and full-texts were screened, 14 papers matched the eligibility criteria. Findings Four key moderators were identified through the thematic analysis: inconsistent technology, hesitation to innovate, geographical separation of staff and geographical separation of students. Originality/value By exploring the moderators, the study provides policy and practice professionals in higher education with a complex understanding of the key contexts that can hinder the success of staff and student satisfaction at multi-campus universities. To enhance the tangibility of the current review, the study concludes with practical steps forward for enhancing staff and student satisfaction at multi-campus universities.

12. The Governance of Scotland and Wales

This chapter examines how the constitution has addressed the question of the geographical separation of government power in the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, and Wales, and discusses the Scotland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Acts of 1998 and 2006. It argues that although the Scotland Act 1998 and Government of Wales Act 2006 fall short of creating a ‘federal’ UK constitution similar to how the notion is understood in the United States, the constitutional significance of the devolution legislation should not be underestimated. The chapter also discusses the conduct and outcome of the 2014 independence referendum in Scotland. Consideration is given to the leading Supreme Court judgments on the nature and extent of the Scots Parliament’s legislative powers, and to the contents and implications of the Scotland Act 2016.