Novel Characterization Techniques for Multifunctional Plasmonic-Magnetic Nanoparticles in Biomedical Applications.

In the rapidly emerging field of biomedical applications, multifunctional nanoparticles, especially those containing magnetic and plasmonic components, have gained significant attention due to their combined properties. These hybrid systems, often composed of iron oxide and gold, provide both magnetic and optical functionalities and offer promising avenues for applications in multimodal bioimaging, hyperthermal therapies, and magnetically driven selective delivery. This paper focuses on the implementation of advanced characterization methods, comparing statistical analyses of individual multifunctional particle properties with macroscopic properties as a way of fine-tuning synthetic methodologies for their fabrication methods. Special emphasis is placed on the size-dependent properties, biocompatibility, and challenges that can arise from this versatile nanometric system. In order to ensure the quality and applicability of these particles, various novel methods for characterizing the magnetic gold particles, including the analysis of their morphology, optical response, and magnetic response, are also discussed, with the overall goal of optimizing the fabrication of this complex system and thus enhancing its potential as a preferred diagnostic agent.

A Review of the Current State of Global Surgical Oncology and the Role of Surgeons Who Treat Cancer: Our Profession's Imperative to Act Upon a Worldwide Crisis in Evolution.

Worldwide, the capacity of healthcare systems and physician workforce is woefully inadequate for the surgical treatment of cancer. With major projected increases in the global burden of neoplastic disease, this inadequacy is expected to worsen, and interventions to increase the workforce of surgeons who treat cancer and strengthen the necessary supporting infrastructure, equipment, staffing, financial and information systems are urgently called for to prevent this inadequacy from deepening. These efforts must also occur in the context of broader healthcare systems strengthening and cancer control plans, including prevention, screening, early detection, safe and effective treatment, surveillance, and palliation. The cost of these interventions should be considered a critical investment in healthcare systems strengthening that will contribute to improvement in the public and economic health of nations. Failure to act should be seen as a missed opportunity, at the cost of lives and delayed economic growth and development. Surgeons who treat cancer must engage with a diverse array of stakeholders in efforts to address this critical need and are indispensably positioned to participate in collaborative approaches to influence these efforts through research, advocacy, training, and initiatives for sustainable development and overall systems strengthening.

First Reported Case of Neointimal Hyperplasia in the Midportion of a Polytetrafluoroethylene Dialysis Graft.

We report a case of stenosis involving the midportion of a polytetrafluoroethylene graft caused by the infiltration of fibroblasts into the lumen of the graft with the development of fibrovascular tissue.

Correction: Photothermal conversion of gold nanoparticles for uniform pulsed laser warming of vitrified biomaterials.

Correction for 'Photothermal conversion of gold nanoparticles for uniform pulsed laser warming of vitrified biomaterials' by Yilin Liu et al., Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 12346-12356, DOI: 10.1039/D0NR01614D.

Septic Bilateral Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis With Persistent Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteremia.

Septic cavernous sinus thrombosis (CST) is an extremely rare diagnosis that is characterized by nonspecific signs and symptoms. It is often precipitated by a recent facial or sinus infection, as the venous supply from these areas drains into the cavernous sinus. This case highlights significant morbidity and mortality in septic CST where all aggressive treatments did not lead to clinical improvement, and the precipitating cause of the thrombosis was never found. The patient reported herein decompensated despite several investigations and treatment measures due to the lack of proper evidence-based approach.

Photothermal conversion of gold nanoparticles for uniform pulsed laser warming of vitrified biomaterials.

Pulsed laser (ms, 1064 nm) gold nanoparticle (GNP) heating has been used recently to achieve fast (>10 000 000 °C min-1) warming of vitrified droplets using gold nanorods (GNRs) as photon-absorbers. To maximize the viability of biomaterials in vitrified droplets, the droplets must be warmed as uniformly as possible. A potential approach to such warming is to use an appropriate combination of photon-absorption and -scattering to distribute heat more uniformly throughout a droplet. To investigate this, 2 plasmonic gold nanorods (GNRs), 1 hollow gold nanoshell, and 2 silica-core gold nanoshells (GNSs) were synthesized and characterized under 1064 nm laser irradiation in water, propylene glycol, and protein-rich (egg white) solutions. Using a modified cuvette laser calorimetry experiment with complementary Monte Carlo modeling, the GNSs were found to have higher per-particle absorption and scattering cross sections, while the GNRs had higher photothermal conversion efficiency, absorption efficiency, and Au mass normalized absorption cross sections. In the characterization, the GNSs with larger scattering-to-absorption ratios could have ∼30% over-estimation of photothermal conversion efficiency if scattering and reabsorption inside the solution were not considered, while GNRs with lower ratios were less impacted. Combined Monte Carlo and COMSOL simulations were used to predict the specific absorption rate (W m-3) and heating behavior of GNP-loaded hemispherical droplets, thereby demonstrating that the GNS case with higher scattering-to-absorption ratio achieved more uniform heating than the GNR case. Interestingly, further tuning of the scattering and absorption coefficients of the hemispherical GNP-loaded droplet within the model suggests the ability to obtain an optimal scattering-to-absorption ratio for uniform heating. These results show the importance of considering the reabsorption of scattered light to accurately characterize the photothermal conversion efficiency of GNP solutions during laser irradiation. We also show that the relative scattering and absorption properties of the nanoparticles can be designed to promote both rapid and uniform laser rewarming of vitrified droplets for application in cryopreservation.

The environmental occurrence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is generally described as ubiquitous in natural settings, such as soil and water. However, because anecdotal observations and published reports have questioned whether or not this description is true, we undertook a rigorous study using three methods to investigate the occurrence of P. aeruginosa: We investigated environmental samples, analyzed 16S rRNA data, and undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of published data. The environmental sample screening identified P. aeruginosa as significantly associated with hydrocarbon and pesticide-contaminated environments and feces, as compared to uncontaminated environments in which its prevalence was relatively low. The 16S rRNA data analysis showed that P. aeruginosa sequences were present in all habitats but were most abundant in samples from human and animals. Similarly, the meta-analysis revealed that samples obtained from environments with intense human contact had a higher prevalence of P. aeruginosa compared to those with less human contact. Thus, we found a clear tendency of P. aeruginosa to be present in places closely linked with human activity. Although P. aeruginosa may be ubiquitous in nature, it is usually scarce in pristine environments. Thus, we suggest that P. aeruginosa should be described as a bacterium largely found in locations associated with human activity.

Cancer Registration in Resource-limited Environments-Experience in Lagos, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Cancer registration provides data that can be utilized to study the etiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer. Despite the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer registration is still underdeveloped in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is the case in Lagos, Nigeria. Lakeshore Cancer Center (LCC) sought to retrospectively collect and describe the characteristics of the patients seen in its first 2 y of existence. METHODS: A retrospective review of patient records presenting at LCC was performed. Various parameters were collected such as demographics and diagnoses. These data were used to perform a simple descriptive analysis. A series of consultations determined what parameters to include in the registry. CanReg, a cancer registration application, was customized to include these parameters. RESULTS: Between July 2014 and June 2016, a total of 226 cancer incidence cases were presented at LCC. There was an increasing number of new cancer cases when evaluated at 6-mo intervals. The most common cancers presented were breast (38%), prostate (12%), and colorectal (8%) cancers. The majority of patients (85%) were presented at later cancer stages. CONCLUSIONS: Breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers were the three most common cancer cases seen at LCC. Late-stage presentation remains a challenge. These results reveal the need for early detection and screening methods to help change the stage distribution. The cancer registry will be utilized to collect cancer data and to allow for analysis and better treatment/prevention protocols. Collaboration with other academic centers in the region will facilitate the establishment of a population-based registry.

Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism is an "old school" reliable technique for swift microbial community screening in anaerobic digestion.

The microbial community in anaerobic digestion has been analysed through microbial fingerprinting techniques, such as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP), for decades. In the last decade, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing has replaced these techniques, but the time-consuming and complex nature of high-throughput techniques is a potential bottleneck for full-scale anaerobic digestion application, when monitoring community dynamics. Here, the bacterial and archaeal TRFLP profiles were compared with 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiles (Illumina platform) of 25 full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. The α-diversity analysis revealed a higher richness based on Illumina data, compared with the TRFLP data. This coincided with a clear difference in community organisation, Pareto distribution, and co-occurrence network statistics, i.e., betweenness centrality and normalised degree. The ß-diversity analysis showed a similar clustering profile for the Illumina, bacterial TRFLP and archaeal TRFLP data, based on different distance measures and independent of phylogenetic identification, with pH and temperature as the two key operational parameters determining microbial community composition. The combined knowledge of temporal dynamics and projected clustering in the ß-diversity profile, based on the TRFLP data, distinctly showed that TRFLP is a reliable technique for swift microbial community dynamics screening in full-scale anaerobic digestion plants.

Denitrification activity of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) in full-scale wastewater treatment plants.

A comprehensive assessment of full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) plants (five plants, 19 independent tests) was undertaken to determine their effectiveness in terms of aerobic and anoxic P removal. By comparing parallel P uptake tests under only aerobic or under anoxic-aerobic conditions, results revealed that introducing an anoxic stage led to an overall P removal of on average 90% of the P removed under only aerobic conditions. This was achieved with negligible higher PHA and glycogen requirements, 30% lower overall oxygen consumption and with the simultaneous removal of nitrate, reducing up to an estimate of 70% of carbon requirements for simultaneous N and P removal. Varying fractions of denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms (DPAOs), from an average of 25% to 84%, were found in different plants. No correlation was found between the DPAO fractions and EBPR configuration, season, or the concentration of any of the microbial groups measured via quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridisation. These included Type I and Type II Ca. Accumulibacter and glycogen accumulating organisms, suggesting that chemical batch tests are the best methodology for quantifying the potential of anoxic P removal in full-scale wastewater treatment plants.

Impact of sludge retention time on the fine composition of the microbial community and extracellular polymeric substances in a membrane bioreactor.

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are an advanced technology for wastewater treatment whose wide application has been hindered by rapid fouling of the membranes. MBRs can be operated with long sludge retention time (SRT), a crucial parameter impacting microbial selection in the reactor. This also affects filtration performance, since a major fouling agent are the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). In this study, the impact of the SRT on the ecophysiology of the MBRs and, consequently, on membrane fouling was evaluated. A MBR was operated under a SRT of 60 days followed by a SRT of 20 days. A comprehensive analysis of the microbial community structure and EPS proteins and polysaccharide profiles of the mixed liquor and cake layer was carried out throughout both operation periods. The results of this study showed that the imposition of a shorter SRT led to a shift in the dominant bacterial populations. The mixed liquor and cake layer communities were very different, with Actinomycetales order standing out in the cake layer at SRT of 20 days. Overall, higher EPS concentrations (particularly proteins) were found at this SRT. Furthermore, EPS profiles were clearly affected by the SRT: it was possible to correlate a group of soluble EPS proteins with the SRT of 60 days, and a lower sludge age led to a lower diversity of polysaccharide sugar monomers, with an increase of glucose and galactose in the cake layer. This study improves our knowledge regarding the molecular reasons for fouling, which may contribute to improve MBR design and operation.

The activated sludge ecosystem contains a core community of abundant organisms.

Understanding the microbial ecology of a system requires that the observed population dynamics can be linked to their metabolic functions. However, functional characterization is laborious and the choice of organisms should be prioritized to those that are frequently abundant (core) or transiently abundant, which are therefore putatively make the greatest contribution to carbon turnover in the system. We analyzed the microbial communities in 13 Danish wastewater treatment plants with nutrient removal in consecutive years and a single plant periodically over 6 years, using Illumina sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA amplicons of the V4 region. The plants contained a core community of 63 abundant genus-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that made up 68% of the total reads. A core community consisting of abundant OTUs was also observed within the incoming wastewater to three plants. The net growth rate for individual OTUs was quantified using mass balance, and it was found that 10% of the total reads in the activated sludge were from slow or non-growing OTUs, and that their measured abundance was primarily because of immigration with the wastewater. Transiently abundant organisms were also identified. Among them the genus Nitrotoga (class Betaproteobacteria) was the most abundant putative nitrite oxidizer in a number of activated sludge plants, which challenges previous assumptions that Nitrospira (phylum Nitrospirae) are the primary nitrite-oxidizers in activated sludge systems with nutrient removal.

Identification of active denitrifiers in full-scale nutrient removal wastewater treatment systems.

Denitrification is essential to the removal of nitrogen from wastewater during treatment, yet an understanding of the diversity of the active denitrifying bacteria responsible in full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is lacking. In this study, stable-isotope probing (SIP) was applied in combination with microautoradiography (MAR)-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to identify previously unrecognized active denitrifying phylotypes in a full-scale WWTP with biological N and P removal. Acknowledging that different denitrifiers will have specific carbon source preferences, a fully (13)C-labelled complex substrate was used for SIP incubations, under nitrite-reducing conditions, in order to maximize the capture of the potentially metabolically diverse denitrifiers likely present. Members of the Rhodoferax, Dechloromonas, Sulfuritalea, Haliangium and Thermomonas were represented in the 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from DNA enriched in (13)C, with FISH probes optimized here for their in situ characterization. FISH and MAR confirmed that they were all active denitrifiers in the community. The combined approach of SIP and MAR-FISH represents an excellent approach for identifying and characterizing an un-described diversity of active denitrifiers in full-scale systems.

MiDAS: the field guide to the microbes of activated sludge.

The Microbial Database for Activated Sludge (MiDAS) field guide is a freely available online resource linking the identity of abundant and process critical microorganisms in activated sludge wastewater treatment systems to available data related to their functional importance. Phenotypic properties of some of these genera are described, but most are known only from sequence data. The MiDAS taxonomy is a manual curation of the SILVA taxonomy that proposes a name for all genus-level taxa observed to be abundant by large-scale 16 S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of full-scale activated sludge communities. The taxonomy can be used to classify unknown sequences, and the online MiDAS field guide links the identity to the available information about their morphology, diversity, physiology and distribution. The use of a common taxonomy across the field will provide a solid foundation for the study of microbial ecology of the activated sludge process and related treatment processes. The online MiDAS field guide is a collaborative workspace intended to facilitate a better understanding of the ecology of activated sludge and related treatment processes--knowledge that will be an invaluable resource for the optimal design and operation of these systems.

Ammonia and temperature determine potential clustering in the anaerobic digestion microbiome.

Anaerobic digestion is regarded as a key environmental technology in the present and future bio-based economy. The microbial community completing the anaerobic digestion process is considered complex, and several attempts already have been carried out to determine the key microbial populations. However, the key differences in the anaerobic digestion microbiomes, and the environmental/process parameters that drive these differences, remain poorly understood. In this research, we hypothesized that differences in operational parameters lead to a particular composition and organization of microbial communities in full-scale installations. A total of 38 samples were collected from 29 different full-scale anaerobic digestion installations, showing constant biogas production in function of time. Microbial community analysis was carried out by means of amplicon sequencing and real-time PCR. The bacterial community in all samples was dominated by representatives of the Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, covering 86.1 ± 10.7% of the total bacterial community. Acetoclastic methanogenesis was dominated by Methanosaetaceae, yet, only the hydrogenotrophic Methanobacteriales correlated with biogas production, confirming their importance in high-rate anaerobic digestion systems. In-depth analysis of operational and environmental parameters and bacterial community structure indicated the presence of three potential clusters in anaerobic digestion. These clusters were determined by total ammonia concentration, free ammonia concentration and temperature, and characterized by an increased relative abundance of Bacteroidales, Clostridiales and Lactobacillales, respectively. None of the methanogenic populations, however, could be significantly attributed to any of the three clusters. Nonetheless, further experimental research will be required to validate the existence of these different clusters, and to which extent the presence of these clusters relates to stable or sub-optimal anaerobic digestion.

Re-appraisal of the phylogeny and fluorescence in situ hybridization probes for the analysis of the Competibacteraceae in wastewater treatment systems.

Members of the family Competibacteraceae are common in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) designed for enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) and are putatively deleterious to the process of P removal. Their ability to accumulate large amounts of polyhydroxyalkanoates is also suggested to be of potential commercial interest for bioplastic production. In this study we have updated the 16S rRNA-based phylogeny of the Competibacter and the Plasticicumulans lineages. The former is delineated by 13 clades including two described genera; 'Ca. Competibacter' and 'Ca. Contendobacter'. The oligonucleotide probes used for detection of the family by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were re-evaluated and designed for coverage of these clades. Surveys of full-scale WWTPs based on 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and FISH analysis indicate that a number of member clades always coexist, with their relative abundances varying substantially between and temporally within plants. The hypothesis that these differences are based on niche partitioning is supported by marked phenotypic differences between clades. An in-depth understanding of the ecology of the family requires further studies of the metabolism of individual clades in situ. The proposed phylogeny and FISH probes will provide the foundation for such studies.

Metabolic modelling of full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal sludge.

This study investigates, for the first time, the application of metabolic models incorporating polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) towards describing the biochemical transformations of full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) activated sludge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). For this purpose, it was required to modify previous metabolic models applied to lab-scale systems by incorporating the anaerobic utilisation of the TCA cycle and the aerobic maintenance processes based on sequential utilisation of polyhydroxyalkanoates, followed by glycogen and polyphosphate. The abundance of the PAO and GAO populations quantified by fluorescence in situ hybridisation served as the initial conditions of each biomass fraction, whereby the models were able to describe accurately the experimental data. The kinetic rates were found to change among the four different WWTPs studied or even in the same plant during different seasons, either suggesting the presence of additional PAO or GAO organisms, or varying microbial activities for the same organisms. Nevertheless, these variations in kinetic rates were largely found to be proportional to the difference in acetate uptake rate, suggesting a viable means of calibrating the metabolic model. The application of the metabolic model to full-scale sludge also revealed that different Accumulibacter clades likely possess different acetate uptake mechanisms, as a correlation was observed between the energetic requirement for acetate transport across the cell membrane with the diversity of Accumulibacter present. Using the model as a predictive tool, it was shown that lower acetate concentrations in the feed as well as longer aerobic retention times favour the dominance of the TCA metabolism over glycolysis, which could explain why the anaerobic TCA pathway seems to be more relevant in full-scale WWTPs than in lab-scale systems.

'Candidatus Competibacter'-lineage genomes retrieved from metagenomes reveal functional metabolic diversity.

The glycogen-accumulating organism (GAO) 'Candidatus Competibacter' (Competibacter) uses aerobically stored glycogen to enable anaerobic carbon uptake, which is subsequently stored as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). This biphasic metabolism is key for the Competibacter to survive under the cyclic anaerobic-'feast': aerobic-'famine' regime of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) wastewater treatment systems. As they do not contribute to phosphorus (P) removal, but compete for resources with the polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAO), thought responsible for P removal, their proliferation theoretically reduces the EBPR capacity. In this study, two complete genomes from Competibacter were obtained from laboratory-scale enrichment reactors through metagenomics. Phylogenetic analysis identified the two genomes, 'Candidatus Competibacter denitrificans' and 'Candidatus Contendobacter odensis', as being affiliated with Competibacter-lineage subgroups 1 and 5, respectively. Both have genes for glycogen and PHA cycling and for the metabolism of volatile fatty acids. Marked differences were found in their potential for the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas and Entner-Doudoroff glycolytic pathways, as well as for denitrification, nitrogen fixation, fermentation, trehalose synthesis and utilisation of glucose and lactate. Genetic comparison of P metabolism pathways with sequenced PAOs revealed the absence of the Pit phosphate transporter in the Competibacter-lineage genomes--identifying a key metabolic difference with the PAO physiology. These genomes are the first from any GAO organism and provide new insights into the complex interaction and niche competition between PAOs and GAOs in EBPR systems.

Metabolic versatility in full-scale wastewater treatment plants performing enhanced biological phosphorus removal.

This study analysed the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) microbial community and metabolic performance of five full-scale EBPR systems by using fluorescence in situ hybridisation combined with off-line batch tests fed with acetate under anaerobic-aerobic conditions. The phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) in all systems were stable and showed little variability between each plant, while glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) were present in two of the plants. The metabolic activity of each sludge showed the frequent involvement of the anaerobic tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) in PAO metabolism for the anaerobic generation of reducing equivalents, in addition to the more frequently reported glycolysis pathway. Metabolic variability in the use of the two pathways was also observed, between different systems and in the same system over time. The metabolic dynamics was linked to the availability of glycogen, where a higher utilisation of the glycolysis pathway was observed in the two systems employing side-stream hydrolysis, and the TCA cycle was more active in the A(2)O systems. Full-scale plants that showed higher glycolysis activity also exhibited superior P removal performance, suggesting that promotion of the glycolysis pathway over the TCA cycle could be beneficial towards the optimisation of EBPR systems.