Assessment of bio-contaminants during COVID-19 outbreak from the indoor environment of Hail city,Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Biocontaminants are minute particles derived from different biological materials. Indoor biocontaminants are associated with major public health problems. In Gulf countries, it is more precarious due to the harsh climatic conditions, including high ambient temperatures and relative humidity. In addition, due to COVID-19 pandemic, most of the time public is inside their home. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the load of biocontaminants in the indoor environment of Hail city. The results showed that most of the bacteria are gram-positive and higher in polymicrobial (87.1%) than monomicrobial (62.7%) association. There was no significant association with sample collection time and types of isolates. The most abundant microbes found in all samples were Staphylococcus aureus followed by Bacillus spp. Among Gram-negative bacterial isolates, E. coli was most common in tested indoor air samples. The study will be useful to find the biocontaminants associated with risk factors and their impact on human health in indoor environment, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results indicate the need to implement health care awareness programs in the region to improve indoor air quality.     

Fungal pollution of indoor environments and its management

Indoor environments play important roles in human health. The health hazards posed by polluted indoor environments include allergy, infections and toxicity. Life style changes have resulted in a shift from open air environments to air tight, energy efficient, environments, in which people spend a substantial portion of their time. Most indoor air pollution comes from the hazardous non biological agents and biological agents. Fungi are ubiquitous in distribution and are a serious threat to public health in indoor environments. In this communication, we have reviewed the current status on biotic indoor air pollution, role of fungi as biological contaminants and their impact on human health.     

Prediction of both conserved and nonconserved microRNA targets in animals

MOTIVATION: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in many diverse biological processes and they may potentially regulate the functions of thousands of genes. However, one major issue in miRNA studies is the lack of bioinformatics programs to accurately predict miRNA targets. Animal miRNAs have limited sequence complementarity to their gene targets, which makes it challenging to build target prediction models with high specificity. RESULTS: Here we present a new miRNA target prediction program based on support vector machines (SVMs) and a large microarray training dataset. By systematically analyzing public microarray data, we have identified statistically significant features that are important to target downregulation. Heterogeneous prediction features have been non-linearly integrated in an SVM machine learning framework for the training of our target prediction model, MirTarget2. About half of the predicted miRNA target sites in human are not conserved in other organisms. Our prediction algorithm has been validated with independent experimental data for its improved performance on predicting a large number of miRNA down-regulated gene targets. AVAILABILITY: All the predicted targets were imported into an online database miRDB, which is freely accessible at http://mirdb.org.     

Alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis and human biomonitoring for genotoxicity: a study on subjects with residential exposure to radon.

Based on theoretical estimates and various correlation studies, it has been suggested that ingestion of radon in drinking water represents an increased risk for cancer. Such a risk has never been conclusively shown in epidemiological or experimental animal studies, however, and it has been questioned whether the radon level in the drinking water is of any significance in terms of overall radon exposure. Using primary DNA damage as a biological marker for an ongoing exposure to ionising radiation, the present study was undertaken to investigate whether people with different types of residential radon exposures differed with regard to their levels of DNA damage in circulating lymphocytes. DNA damage was measured in coded blood samples from 125 residents living in 45 households with different levels of radon-222 in the drinking water (10-2410 Bq/l) and indoor air (35-1025 Bq/m3) using alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (the 'Comet' assay). Increased levels of radon in indoor air (>200 Bq/m3) were found to be associated with an increased level of DNA damage in peripheral lymphocytes (P相似文献   

Effects of solar UV radiation on morphology and photosynthesis of filamentous cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis

To study the impact of solar UV radiation (UVR) (280 to 400 nm) on the filamentous cyanobacterium Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis, we examined the morphological changes and photosynthetic performance using an indoor-grown strain (which had not been exposed to sunlight for decades) and an outdoor-grown strain (which had been grown under sunlight for decades) while they were cultured with three solar radiation treatments: PAB (photosynthetically active radiation [PAR] plus UVR; 280 to 700 nm), PA (PAR plus UV-A; 320 to 700 nm), and P (PAR only; 400 to 700 nm). Solar UVR broke the spiral filaments of A. platensis exposed to full solar radiation in short-term low-cell-density cultures. This breakage was observed after 2 h for the indoor strain but after 4 to 6 h for the outdoor strain. Filament breakage also occurred in the cultures exposed to PAR alone; however, the extent of breakage was less than that observed for filaments exposed to full solar radiation. The spiral filaments broke and compressed when high-cell-density cultures were exposed to full solar radiation during long-term experiments. When UV-B was screened off, the filaments initially broke, but they elongated and became loosely arranged later (i.e., there were fewer spirals per unit of filament length). When UVR was filtered out, the spiral structure hardly broke or became looser. Photosynthetic O(2) evolution in the presence of UVR was significantly suppressed in the indoor strain compared to the outdoor strain. UVR-induced inhibition increased with exposure time, and it was significantly lower in the outdoor strain. The concentration of UV-absorbing compounds was low in both strains, and there was no significant change in the amount regardless of the radiation treatment, suggesting that these compounds were not effectively used as protection against solar UVR. Self-shading, on the other hand, produced by compression of the spirals over adaptive time scales, seems to play an important role in protecting this species against deleterious UVR. Our findings suggest that the increase in UV-B irradiance due to ozone depletion not only might affect photosynthesis but also might alter the morphological development of filamentous cyanobacteria during acclimation or over adaptive time scales.     

Stachybotrys chartarum: current knowledge of its role in disease

Stachybotrys chartarum is one of several species of filamentous fungi capable of producing mycotoxins under certain environmental conditions. In some observational studies, the growth of this toxigenic mold in the indoor environment has been implicated as a cause of building-related illness. Following reports of a cluster of cases of pulmonary hemosiderosis and hemorrhage associated with exposure to Stachybotrys, public health measures have been recommended which have far-reaching implications. Although the hazards associated with exposure to some mycotoxins have been well studied, the health risks from environmental exposure to Stachybotrys remain poorly defined. The purpose of this review is to critically evaluate the current body of epidemiologic knowledge regarding Stachybotrys and to increase physician awareness regarding this emerging environmental health issue.     

Evolution of Volatile Sulfur Compounds during Laboratory-Scale Incubations and Indoor Preparation of Compost Used as a Substrate in Mushroom Cultivation

Volatile sulfur compounds are known to be produced during the preparation of compost used as a substrate in mushroom cultivation. Because they cause odor problems, attempts have been made to reduce the production of these compounds. The influences of temperature and various additions on the production of volatile sulfur compounds from composting material were tested on laboratory-scale preparations. The production of H₂S, COS, CH₃SH, and (CH₃)₂S was proven to be a biological process with an optimal temperature that coincides with the optimal temperature for biological activity. The formation of CS₂ and (CH₃)₂S₂ was shown to be a nonbiological process. The emission of volatile sulfur compounds during the indoor preparation of mushroom compost appeared to be remarkably reduced (about 90%) as compared with the emission during the conventional outdoor process. Introduction of this indoor composting process would result in a significant reduction in environmental pollution.     

Public policy and partnership in research on biological control in France

Most public institutions and companies of plant protection industry have a favourable opinion of biological control; they feel concerned by the issue, but weakly engaged in its solution. Biological plant protection is however poorly developed in agriculture, the success of biological control being insufficiently known due to severe competition with chemical pesticides that are reliable, efficient, specific and safer for the environment. In this context, and to improve the implementation of biological control, the following actions are proposed:

1. more interdisciplinarity in research between agronomists, economists and biologists who have to take better advantage of the various concepts of evolutionary biology and to carry out more field experiments on a large scale;
2. wider and more integrated objectives: the successful control of a pest using biological means is not a sufficient aim. We absolutely need to consider all aspects of IPM, in particular resistance to pesticides, cultural means, plant breeding and all alternative biotechnical means;
3. larger partnership: during too many years, only researchers of public institutions were involved in biological control. Today, many partners, including public institutions (Plant Protection Service, Technical Institutes) and private companies (large and small) are engaged in alternative plant protection. To facilitate cooperation between them, a specific committee has been set up in France in order to coordinate experimentations for registration and quality control of biopesticides.

With such improved relationships between all partners, specific arguments and lobbying pressure should be stronger on the distribution and retailers of agricultural goods with a view to promoting plant products obtained via biological or integrated control methods and to seeking public understanding and support.     

Parameters influencing the accuracy and practical applicability of UV indicator cards.

In order to evaluate the potential hazard for the skin and the eye presented by solar ultraviolet radiation, and to take appropriate precautions, it is necessary to characterise the biological effective irradiance or dose. Recently, inexpensive UV indicator cards became available that in principle would provide an attractive means to roughly indicate the local level of erythemal solar UV irradiance. We have characterised the properties of a number of different types of UV indicator cards. Several parameters which may influence the colour of the cards were examined with both outdoor trials under solar UV as well as indoor trials using a filtered xenon arc lamp. Our findings show that the tested cards do not give an appropriate estimation of the effective irradiance due to their spectral sensitivity and their temperature dependence. The application area of the tested UV indicator cards is therefore limited to certain temperature ranges and to seasons where a certain ratio between solar UV-A and solar UV-B occurs.     

Issues in Human Particulate Exposure Assessment: Relationship between Outdoor,Indoor, and Personal Exposures

The recent review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for particuslate matter and the resultant new health-based PM_2.5 standard was in part motivated by findings from epidemiological studies. These studies reported significant associations between adverse health effects and concentrations of ambient particulate matter at levels below the previously existing PM₁₀ standard. Interpretation of these results has been hindered by our relatively poor understanding of the relationship between personal exposures and concentrations in the indoor and outdoor environments. Individuals spend the majority of their time in indoor environments. Therefore, it is important to understand where and how they may be exposed to the contaminants which may be causing the health effects, and which activities place them at a higher risk of exposure to these agents. In addition, since particulate matter is a complex mixture of contaminants, further research is required to examine its formation process, sources, composition, and health effects. Without an improved scientific understanding of these issues, it is difficult to assess whether the new PM_2.5 standard will be implemented, and if so, whether it can be adequately protective of public health.     

Effects of Solar UV Radiation on Morphology and Photosynthesis of Filamentous Cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis

To study the impact of solar UV radiation (UVR) (280 to 400 nm) on the filamentous cyanobacterium Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis, we examined the morphological changes and photosynthetic performance using an indoor-grown strain (which had not been exposed to sunlight for decades) and an outdoor-grown strain (which had been grown under sunlight for decades) while they were cultured with three solar radiation treatments: PAB (photosynthetically active radiation [PAR] plus UVR; 280 to 700 nm), PA (PAR plus UV-A; 320 to 700 nm), and P (PAR only; 400 to 700 nm). Solar UVR broke the spiral filaments of A. platensis exposed to full solar radiation in short-term low-cell-density cultures. This breakage was observed after 2 h for the indoor strain but after 4 to 6 h for the outdoor strain. Filament breakage also occurred in the cultures exposed to PAR alone; however, the extent of breakage was less than that observed for filaments exposed to full solar radiation. The spiral filaments broke and compressed when high-cell-density cultures were exposed to full solar radiation during long-term experiments. When UV-B was screened off, the filaments initially broke, but they elongated and became loosely arranged later (i.e., there were fewer spirals per unit of filament length). When UVR was filtered out, the spiral structure hardly broke or became looser. Photosynthetic O₂ evolution in the presence of UVR was significantly suppressed in the indoor strain compared to the outdoor strain. UVR-induced inhibition increased with exposure time, and it was significantly lower in the outdoor strain. The concentration of UV-absorbing compounds was low in both strains, and there was no significant change in the amount regardless of the radiation treatment, suggesting that these compounds were not effectively used as protection against solar UVR. Self-shading, on the other hand, produced by compression of the spirals over adaptive time scales, seems to play an important role in protecting this species against deleterious UVR. Our findings suggest that the increase in UV-B irradiance due to ozone depletion not only might affect photosynthesis but also might alter the morphological development of filamentous cyanobacteria during acclimation or over adaptive time scales.     

菊科几种入侵和非入侵植物种子需光发芽特性差异

对入侵菊科植物(假苍耳、薇甘菊、紫茎泽兰、飞机草)以及非入侵菊科植物(扫帚梅、天人菊、金鸡菊、麦秆菊、翠菊、黑心菊)对比研究发现,入侵组种子往往是需光发芽,即有光条件下平均高出无光条件发芽率40%(P0.01),而非入侵组的需光发芽特性不明显,即有光和无光条件下种子发芽率差异不显著(P0.05)。以入侵植物假苍耳为例对其种子需光发芽的特性研究发现:红光有利于提高种子的萌发率(萌发率为62%),而蓝光起到相反的作用(萌发率37%);当以全光的25%照射种子时,最能够促进种子的萌发(萌发率59%),更高的光强抑制种子萌发(100%光强时,发芽率为21%)。适宜浓度水杨酸SA处理(0.01mmol/L)可以起到与光照类似的效果而促进种子萌发(提高30%发芽率),而PEG和低温处理对其不存在显著影响,说明这种需光发芽的机理可能与SA处理影响种子萌发存在一定的联系。研究证实了入侵和非入侵菊科植物之间确实存在需光发芽的差异,其生理生化差异及是否有利于入侵植物的快速入侵需深入研究。     

Ecological correlates of the popularity of birds and butterflies in Internet information resources

The success of conservation programs depends on using appropriate methods to demonstrate the importance of conservation to society. For example, flagship species are among the key marketing tools to motivate public support. However, they are rarely selected in a systematic, manner. In this study we addressed the issue of the colonization of human information resources by birds and butterflies in the context of wildlife conservation. We used a simple method to measure the popularity of species based on Google browsing and made an attempt to link biological characteristics of the species with their popularity in human information resources. Biological traits of species contributed significantly to explaining the occupancy (invasion) of cyberspace by the species. Commonness and body size of the species appeared to be the most informative predictors of their Google score. We believe that these results may be used by conservation organizations to assist in the selection of flagship/charismatic species, and their use in logos, for TV programs or for other public presentations. Moreover, we showed that some biological traits can affect the popularity of wildlife in society and in virtual resources.     

Veiled Muslim women’s views on law banning the wearing of the niqab (face veil) in public

In August 2018, Denmark became the latest European country to ban the wearing of the niqab (face veil) in public. Indeed, several European countries such as France, Belgium and Austria have already implemented a ban on the wearing of the niqab in public places in these countries on the basis that the niqab is a symbol of gender oppression, Islamist fundamentalism and lack of integration. This issue has been the subject of heated media, political and public debates; however, the voices of veiled Muslim women remain unheard. Within the framework of Critical Race Feminism, the paper draws on qualitative interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab in the United Kingdom (UK), in order to explore their views on legislation banning the wearing of the niqab in public.     

The Welfare of Bears in Zoos: A Case Study of Poland

The welfare of captive bears became a big issue of concern in Poland when a case of a bear being ill-treated became a high-profile case in the media. This case created a challenge to verify, study, and understand the main problems associated with bear keeping so that zoos could significantly improve the conditions in which they keep bears or ensure they keep bears at the minimum required standards. The results presented here are from 1 of the few countrywide studies of captive bear conditions conducted in all the captive institutions in Poland that keep bears. Thirteen institutions kept bears at the time of the study (2007–2009), including 54 individuals of 5 species. Major welfare problems were identified, and the results have been used to challenge zoos to address the changes required and focus the government's attention on areas that require legislative improvement.     

Exploring the effects of working for endowments on behaviour in standard economic games

In recent years, significant advances have been made in understanding the adaptive (ultimate) and mechanistic (proximate) explanations for the evolution and maintenance of cooperation. Studies of cooperative behaviour in humans invariably use economic games. These games have provided important insights into the mechanisms that maintain economic and social cooperation in our species. However, they usually rely on the division of monetary tokens which are given to participants by the investigator. The extent to which behaviour in such games may reflect behaviour in the real world of biological markets--where money must be earned and behavioural strategies incur real costs and benefits--is unclear. To provide new data on the potential scale of this problem, we investigated whether people behaved differently in two standard economic games (public goods game and dictator game) when they had to earn their monetary endowments through the completion of dull or physically demanding tasks, as compared with simply being given the endowment. The requirement for endowments to be 'earned' through labour did not affect behaviour in the dictator game. However, the requirement to complete a dull task reduced cooperation in the public goods game among the subset of participants who were not familiar with game theory. There has been some effort to test whether the conclusions drawn from standard, token-based cooperation games adequately reflect cooperative behaviour 'in the wild.' However, given the almost total reliance on such games to study cooperation, more exploration of this issue would be welcome. Our data are not unduly worrying, but they do suggest that further exploration is needed if we are to make general inferences about human behaviour from the results of structured economic games.     

6-O-取代红霉素衍生物的研究进展

大环内酯类抗生素广泛用于治疗呼吸道感染,但日益泛滥的大环内酯耐药菌正影响着公众的健康。为了解决这一问题,科研工作者 对大环内酯类化合物进行了大量的结构修饰。综述近年来对红霉素衍生物C6位进行的结构改造及对其生物活性的影响。     

Discovery of an endemic area of Gnathostoma turgidum infection among opossums, Didelphis virginiana, in Mexico

Gnathostomosis, caused by Gnathostoma binucleatum, is a serious public health issue in Mexico. Although 2 other Gnathostoma spp., G. turgidum and G. lamothei, have been found in wild animals, their natural life cycle or their relation to human disease remains unclear. While we were conducting an epidemiological survey on Gnathostoma spp. in Sinaloa State, Mexico, we found an endemic area for G. turgidum in common opossums, Didelphis virginiana, located in Tecualilla, Sinaloa. The species identification was carried out by morphological and molecular biological methods. This is the first record of an endemic area for G. turgidum infection in opossums, D. virginiana, in the Americas.     

Environmental management for the control of Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille, 1811), (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in Costa Rica: a pilot project

An ecological control method, using environmental management operations, based on biological and behavioral characteristics of Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille, 1811), was implemented as a pilot project in an area of Costa Rica where the bug is prevalent. The sample was represented by 20 houses with peridomestic colonies (two also had indoor infestation), divided in two equivalent groups of 10 each. In one group we intervened the houses, i.e. all objects or materials that were serving as artificial ecotopes for the bugs were removed, and the second group was used as control houses. After a year of periodic follow up, it became evident that in those houses with a modified environment the number of insects had decreased notoriously even after the first visits and this was more evident after a period of 12.5 to 13.5 months in which no insects were detected in eight of the houses. It also became clear that in this group of houses, recolonization by wild bugs from the surrounding areas, became more difficult, probably due to the absence of protection from bug predators. In the control houses, with the exception of three in which the inhabitants decided to intervene on their own, and another house with a peculiar situation, the insect populations remained the same or even showed a tendency to increase, as confirmed at the end of the experiment. We believe that the method is feasible, low costing and non contaminating. It could be used successfully in other places where T. dimidiata is common and also in countries where other species colonize peridomestic areas of homes. Environmental management of this kind should seek the participation of the members of the communities, in order to make it a more permanent control measure.