Intergenerational Metabolomic Analysis of Mothers with a History of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Their Offspring

Shared metabolomic patterns at delivery have been suggested to underlie the mother-to-child transmission of adverse metabolic health. This study aimed to investigate whether mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and their offspring show similar metabolomic patterns several years postpartum. Targeted metabolomics (including 137 metabolites) was performed in plasma samples obtained during an oral glucose tolerance test from 48 mothers with GDM and their offspring at a cross-sectional study visit 8 years after delivery. Partial Pearson’s correlations between the area under the curve (AUC) of maternal and offspring metabolites were calculated, yielding so-called Gaussian graphical models. Spearman’s correlations were applied to investigate correlations of body mass index (BMI), Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI-M), dietary intake, and physical activity between generations, and correlations of metabolite AUCs with lifestyle variables. This study revealed that BMI, ISI-M, and the AUC of six metabolites (carnitine, taurine, proline, SM(-OH) C14:1, creatinine, and PC ae C34:3) were significantly correlated between mothers and offspring several years postpartum. Intergenerational metabolite correlations were independent of shared BMI, ISI-M, age, sex, and all other metabolites. Furthermore, creatinine was correlated with physical activity in mothers. This study suggests that there is long-term metabolic programming in the offspring of mothers with GDM and informs us about targets that could be addressed by future intervention studies.     

Solution Structure and Dynamics of the Small Protein HVO_2922 from Haloferax volcanii

Past sequencing campaigns overlooked small proteins as they seemed to be irrelevant due to their small size. However, their occurrence is widespread, and there is growing evidence that these small proteins are in fact functionally very important in organisms found in all kingdoms of life. Within a global proteome analysis for small proteins of the archaeal model organism Haloferax volcanii, the HVO_2922 protein has been identified. It is differentially expressed in response to changes in iron and salt concentrations, thus suggesting that its expression is stress-regulated. The protein is conserved among Haloarchaea and contains an uncharacterized domain of unknown function (DUF1508, UPF0339 family protein). We elucidated the NMR solution structure, which shows that the isolated protein forms a symmetrical dimer. The dimerization is found to be concentration-dependent and essential for protein stability and most likely for its functionality, as mutagenesis at the dimer interface leads to a decrease in stability and protein aggregation.     

A proactive and resilient seismic risk mitigation strategy for existing school buildings

Different methods and procedures have been developed to define prioritisation strategies of retrofit interventions aimed at reducing the seismic risk of school buildings on a large territorial scale. However, these approaches fail to demonstrate how risk analysis has been used successfully to quantitatively assess and select the optimal risk management decision. This article proposes innovative and useful metrics to measure the potential costs and benefits related to the prioritisation of retrofit intervention and the resilience of the analysed school system by directly integrating engineering, organisational, socio-economic and political aspects in the realm of seismic resilience assessment. Based on probabilistic risk assessments considering the new vulnerability of the prioritised school buildings, these measures could predict the expected economic and functional losses associated with a disastrous seismic event, as well as the possible post-disaster recovery of the system. In order to help decision-makers in selecting the optimal mitigation strategy with a multidisciplinary and multidimensional perspective, different political scenarios, the relative prioritisations of interventions and their intervention options are also defined. The proposed framework is demonstrated in a complex case study of 1,825 public schools in the Lima metropolitan area, Peru. Policymakers, planners and engineering professionals could benefit from results.     

Development and comparison of loop-mediated isothermal amplification and quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays for the detection of Mycoplasma bovis in milk

Bovine mastitis is an economic burden for dairies worldwide. Mycoplasma species, and especially Mycoplasma bovis, are among the most important causative agents, and rapid, precise, and low-cost methods for Mycoplasma detection are urgently needed. For this purpose, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays were developed and compared. The LAMP assay was designed and primer concentrations optimized to M. bovis oppD, encoding oligopeptide permease D. For qPCR, a Taqman assay (Applied Biosystems, Carlsbad, CA) targeting M. bovis gltX, encoding glutamate transfer RNA ligase, was optimized for primer concentration, annealing temperature, and DNA polymerase. Both assays were similarly sensitive, with a detection limit of approximately 10⁴ to 10⁵ M. bovis cells/mL. Both assays were also successful in confirming M. bovis identity in laboratory culture suspensions and in bovine milk. The LAMP and qPCR assays combined with the MoBio DNA extraction kit (MoBio Laboratories Inc., Carlsbad, CA) resulted in the correct detection of 13 out of 13 M. bovis isolates and 14 out of 16 M. bovis-positive milk samples collected from commercial dairies in California. When combined with the PrepMan Ultra reagent (Applied Biosystems), the qPCR assay resulted in confirming 21 out of 21 M. bovis-positive milk samples. Comparison of the assays to milk containing either Mycoplasma arginini, Mycoplasma bovigenitalium, Mycoplasma californicum, M. alkalescens, or Acholeplasma laidlawii or milk lacking any detectable Mycoplasma species or relatives resulted in 3 out of 17 (LAMP with MoBio), 1 out of 17 (qPCR with MoBio), and 2 out of 36 (qPCR with PrepMan Ultra) false positives. Overall, the qPCR assay was more robust than LAMP and could be used on DNA recovered from milk prepared with the PrepMan Ultra reagent, a method that does not include a DNA purification step. The use of this qPCR method enables M. bovis detection in bovine milk in 40 to 55 min, and therefore provides new opportunities to accelerate and simplify M. bovis detection in unpasteurized milk to reduce the incidence of M. bovis mastitis outbreaks.     

The effect of additives on the treatment of oil-in-water emulsions by vacuum evaporation

A simple batch vacuum evaporation process for the treatment of several oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions is reported. The experiments were carried out with waste emulsions from an industrial copper rolling process and with model emulsions prepared in the laboratory. No detailed information on the formulation of the industrial waste O/W emulsions was available. Several model emulsions were formulated using the same base oil (an 85–15% (w/w) mixture of a synthetic poly-α-olefin and a trimethylol propane trioleate ester, respectively) and one of the three following surfactants: Brij-76 (polyethylene glycol octadecyl ether, non-ionic), CTAB (hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide, cationic), and Oleth-10 (glycolic acid ethoxylate oleyl ether, anionic). Experimental results show a strong influence of operating conditions, such as pressure or bath temperature, on the evaporation performance. As a general trend, the higher the values of these parameters, the higher the pollutant content in the obtained aqueous effluent. The presence of surfactants increase the evaporation rate, especially at low operating vacuum pressures, the solubility of oil molecules in water and the evaporation temperature of model O/W emulsions. Furthermore, COD reductions higher than 99.5% for the treated waste O/W emulsions were achieved.     

PBDEs in European background soils: levels and factors controlling their distribution

Surface soils (0-5 cm) from remote/rural woodland (coniferous and deciduous) and grassland locations on a latitudinal transectthrough the United Kingdom and Norway were analyzed for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Concentrations ranged between 65 and 12 000 sigma(ALL)PBDE ng kg(-1) dry weight. PBDE-47, -99, -100, -153, and -154-the major constituents of the penta-BDE technical product-dominated the average congener pattern of the soils. Indeed, the average congener composition and distribution measured in these European background soils closely matched that reported in the technical penta-BDE product. This is interpreted as evidence that transfer of the congeners present in penta-BDE-treated products from source-air-soil occurs with broadly similar efficiency, perhaps because there has been little weathering/degradation/alteration of the congener source pattern by processes operating during atmospheric transport or within the soil itself. BDE-183, a marker for the octa-BDE mix, was detected at concentrations ranging from <9 to 7000 (median approximately 50 ng kg(-1)). In most soils, it made a minor contribution to the sigma(ALL)PBDE concentration, but it was a major component in some samples from northern England. Forest soils tended to have higher concentrations than grasslands. Underlying the average soil composition, some differences in the congener pattern were observed. Notably, there was evidence of latitudinal fractionation, with the relative contribution of PBDE-47 and lighter congeners to the sigmaPBDE increasing northwards (with increasing distance from source areas), while the proportion of PBDE-99 and heavier congeners decreased. Plots of concentration against percentage soil organic matter had different slopes for different congeners. Higher slopes were generally seen for the lighter PBDEs (e.g., PBDE-47), indicating that they have undergone some air-surface exchange (hopping), while the slopes of heavier congeners (e.g., PBDE-153) were close to zero, indicating that they are retained more effectively by soils after deposition.     

Incorporation of hydroxypyridinone ligands into self-assembled monolayers on mesoporous supports for selective actinide sequestration

In this study, three isomers of hydroxypyridinones (1,2-HOPO, 3,2-HOPO, and 3,4-HOPO) were attached to self-assembled monolayers on mesoporous silica (SAMMS). The HOPO-SAMMS materials have superior solid adsorbents properties: they do not suffer from solvent swelling; their rigid, open pore structure allows rapid sorption kinetics; their extremely high surface area enables the installation of high functional density; and being silica-based, they are compatible with vitrification into a final vitreous waste form. Kinetics, equilibrium, and selectivity of the adsorptions of actinide on the HOPO-SAMMS at various pH values and in the presence of other metal cations, anions, and competing ligands are reported. Rapid sequestration of U(VI), Np(V), and Pu(IV) was observed. Very little competition from transition metal cations and common species was observed.