Project description:Plastic additives are agents responsible to the flame resistance, durability, microbial resistance, and flexibility of plastic products. High demand for production and use of plastic additives is associated with environmental accumulation and various health hazards. One of the suitable methods of depleting plastic additive in the environment is bioremediation as it offers cost-efficiency, convenience, and sustainability. Microbial activity is one of the effective ways of detoxifying various compounds as microorganisms can adapt in an environment with high prevalence of pollutants. The present review discusses the use and abundance of these plastic additives, their health-related risks, the microorganisms capable of degrading them, the proposed mechanism of biodegradation, and current innovations capable of improving the efficiency of bioremediation.
Project description:PurposeDespite the importance of patient flow to emergency department (ED) management, there is a need to strengthen and expand training in flow strategies for practicing ED staff. To date, there has been limited academic inquiry into the skills and training that ED staff require to improve patient flow. As part of a quality improvement initiative, our team aimed to identify the topics and training methods that should be included in flow training for ED staff.MethodsWe conducted an integrative review and modified Delphi. For the integrative review, we sought to identify appropriate skills, training strategies, and training modalities to include in a curriculum for ED staff. The findings from the review were compiled and distributed to Canadian experts in ED efficiency through a modified Delphi, including physicians, nurses, and nurse practitioners.ResultsOur literature search retrieved 8359 articles, of which 46 were included in the review. We identified 19 skills, 9 training strategies, and 12 training modalities used to improve ED efficiency in the literature. For the modified Delphi, we received responses from 39 participants in round one and 28 in round two, with response rates of 57% and 41%, respectively. The topics chosen by the most respondents were: "flow decisions," "teamwork," "backlog and surge management," "leadership," and "situational awareness."ConclusionOur findings suggest that flow training should teach ED staff how to make decisions that improve flow, work more effectively as a team, manage patient backlog and surge, improve leadership skills, and develop situational awareness. These findings add to a gap in the academic literature regarding the training ED staff require to improve patient flow.
Project description:BackgroundExtreme terrestrial, analogue environments are widely used models to study the limits of life and to infer habitability of extraterrestrial settings. In contrast to Earth's ecosystems, potential extraterrestrial biotopes are usually characterized by a lack of oxygen.MethodsIn the MASE project (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration), we selected representative anoxic analogue environments (permafrost, salt-mine, acidic lake and river, sulfur springs) for the comprehensive analysis of their microbial communities. We assessed the microbiome profile of intact cells by propidium monoazide-based amplicon and shotgun metagenome sequencing, supplemented with an extensive cultivation effort.ResultsThe information retrieved from microbiome analyses on the intact microbial community thriving in the MASE sites, together with the isolation of 31 model microorganisms and successful binning of 15 high-quality genomes allowed us to observe principle pathways, which pinpoint specific microbial functions in the MASE sites compared to moderate environments. The microorganisms were characterized by an impressive machinery to withstand physical and chemical pressures. All levels of our analyses revealed the strong and omnipresent dependency of the microbial communities on complex organic matter. Moreover, we identified an extremotolerant cosmopolitan group of 34 poly-extremophiles thriving in all sites.ConclusionsOur results reveal the presence of a core microbiome and microbial taxonomic similarities between saline and acidic anoxic environments. Our work further emphasizes the importance of the environmental, terrestrial parameters for the functionality of a microbial community, but also reveals a high proportion of living microorganisms in extreme environments with a high adaptation potential within habitability borders. Video abstract.