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Biofilm-based technologies, such as moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) systems, are widely used to treat wastewater. Biofilm development is important for MBBR systems as much of the microbial biomass is retained within reactors as biofilm on suspended carriers. Little is known about this process of biofilm development and the microorganisms upon which MBBRs rely. We documented successional changes in microbial communities as biofilms established in two full-scale MBBR systems treating municipal wastewater over two seasons. 16S rRNA gene-targeted pyrosequencing and clone libraries were used to describe microbial communities. These data indicate a successional process that commences with the establishment of an aerobic community dominated by Gammaproteobacteria (up to 52 % of sequences). Over time, this community shifts towards dominance by putatively anaerobic organisms including Deltaproteobacteria and Clostridiales. Significant differences were observed between the two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), mostly due to a large number of sequences (up to 55 %) representing Epsilonproteobacteria (mostly Arcobacter) at one site. Archaea in young biofilms included several lineages of Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota. In contrast, the mature biofilm consisted entirely of Methanosarcinaceae (Euryarchaeota). This study provides new insights into the community structure of developing biofilms at full-scale WWTPs and provides the basis for optimizing MBBR start-up and operational parameters.

Background Members of the bacterial genus Arthrobacter are both readily cultured and commonly identified in Antarctic soil communities. Currently, relatively little is known about the physiological traits that allow these bacteria to survive in the harsh Antarctic soil environment. The aim of this study is to investigate if Antarctic strains of Arthrobacter owe their resilience to substantial genomic changes compared to Arthrobacter spp. isolated from temperate soil environments. Results Quantitative PCR-based analysis revealed that up to 4% of the soil bacterial communities were comprised of Arthrobacter spp. at four locations in the Ross Sea Region. Genome analysis of the seven Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates revealed several features that are commonly observed in psychrophilic/psychrotolerant bacteria. These include genes primarily associated with sigma factors, signal transduction pathways, the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway and genes induced by cold-shock, oxidative and osmotic stresses. However, these genes were also identified in genomes of seven temperate Arthrobacter spp., suggesting that these mechanisms are beneficial for growth and survival in a range of soil environments. Phenotypic characterisation revealed that Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates demonstrate significantly lower metabolic versatility and a narrower salinity tolerance range compared to temperate Arthrobacter species. Comparative analyses also revealed fewer protein-coding sequences and a significant decrease in genes associated with transcription and carbohydrate transport and metabolism in four of the seven Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates. Notwithstanding genome incompleteness, these differences together with the decreased metabolic versatility are indicative of genome content scaling. Conclusions The genomes of the seven Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates contained several features that may be beneficial for growth and survival in the Antarctic soil environment, although these features were not unique to the Antarctic isolates. These genome sequences allow further investigations into the expression of physiological traits that enable survival under extreme conditions and, more importantly, into the ability of these bacteria to respond to future perturbations including climate change and human impacts.

One of the most alarming trends of the past decade has been the rise in authoritarianism and the growing support of strongman politics among citizens of democratic regimes. College instructors have a unique opportunity to challenge such thinking at a time when many of their students are still forming their political beliefs. Using a game, instructors not only can show students the perils of authoritarianism, they also can potentially expand students’ appreciation of democracy. This article describes a game suitable for this purpose. Students take on the role of workers, soldiers, and rulers in a military dictatorship to learn about the “guns-and-butter tradeoff” and authoritarian uncertainty.

Antarctic soils represent a unique environment characterised by extremes of temperature, salinity, elevated UV radiation, low nutrient and low water content. Despite the harshness of this environment, members of 15 bacterial phyla have been identified in soils of the Ross Sea Region (RSR). However, the survival mechanisms and ecological roles of these phyla are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate whether strains of Paenibacillus darwinianus owe their resilience to substantial genomic changes. For this, genome-based comparative analyses were performed on three P. darwinianus strains, isolated from gamma-irradiated RSR soils, together with nine temperate, soil-dwelling Paenibacillus spp. The genome of each strain was sequenced to over 1,000-fold coverage, then assembled into contigs totalling approximately 3 Mbp per genome. Based on the occurrence of essential, single-copy genes, genome completeness was estimated at approximately 88%. Genome analysis revealed between 3,043-3,091 protein-coding sequences (CDSs), primarily associated with two-component systems, sigma factors, transporters, sporulation and genes induced by cold-shock, oxidative and osmotic stresses. These comparative analyses provide an insight into the metabolic potential of P. darwinianus, revealing potential adaptive mechanisms for survival in Antarctic soils. However, a large proportion of these mechanisms were also identified in temperate Paenibacillus spp., suggesting that these mechanisms are beneficial for growth and survival in a range of soil environments. These analyses have also revealed that the P. darwinianus genomes contain significantly fewer CDSs and have a lower paralogous content. Notwithstanding the incompleteness of the assemblies, the large differences in genome sizes, determined by the number of genes in paralogous clusters and the CDS content, are indicative of genome content scaling. Finally, these sequences are a resource for further investigations into the expression of physiological attributes that enable survival under extreme conditions and selection processes that affect prokaryotic genome evolution.

Formerly incarcerated, homeless women on parole or probation experience individual-and structural-level barriers and facilitators as they prepare to transition into the community during reentry. A qualitative study was undertaken using focus group methods with formerly incarcerated, currently homeless women (N = 18, M age  = 37.67, SD 10.68, 23–53 years of age) exiting jail or prison. Major themes which emerged included the following: (1) access to resources—barriers and facilitators during community transition, (2) familial reconciliation and parenting during community transition, and (3) trauma and self-care support during community transition. These findings suggest a need to develop multi-level interventions at the individual, program and institutional/societal level with a gender-sensitive lens for women who are transitioning to community reentry. It is hoped that providing such resources will reduce the likelihood of homelessness and reincarceration.

While the world's attention is focused on the nuclearization of North Korea and Iran and the nuclear brinkmanship between India and Pakistan, China is believed to have doubled the size of its nuclear arsenal, making it \"the forgotten nuclear power,\" as described in Foreign Affairs . Susan Turner Haynes analyzes China's buildup and its diversification of increasingly mobile, precise, and sophisticated nuclear weapons. Haynes provides context and clarity on this complex global issue through an analysis of extensive primary source research and lends insight into questions about why China is the only nuclear weapon state recognized under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that continues to pursue qualitative and quantitative advancements to its nuclear force. As the gap between China's nuclear force and the forces of the nuclear superpowers narrows against the expressed interest of many nuclear and nonnuclear states, Chinese Nuclear Proliferation offers policy prescriptions to curtail China's nuclear growth and to assuage fears that the \"American world order\" presents a direct threat to China's national security. Presenting technical concepts with minimal jargon in a straightforward style, this book will be of use to casual China watchers and military experts alike.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need and benefits for all communities to be permitted timely access to on-demand screening for infectious respiratory diseases. This can be achieved with simplified testing approaches and affordable access to core resources. While RT-qPCR-based tests remain the gold standard for SARS-CoV-2 detection due to their high sensitivity, implementation of testing requires high upfront costs to obtain the necessary instrumentation. This is particularly restrictive in low-resource settings. The Ubiquitome Liberty16 system was developed as an inexpensive, portable, battery-operated single-channel RT-qPCR device with an associated iPhone app to simplify assay set-up and data reporting. When coupled with the SalivaDirect protocol for testing saliva samples for SARS-CoV-2, the Liberty16 device yielded a limit of detection (LOD) of 12 SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies/µL, comparable to the upper end of the LOD range for the standard SalivaDirect protocol when performed on larger RT-qPCR instruments. While further optimization may deliver even greater sensitivity and assay speed, findings from this study indicate that small portable devices such as the Liberty16 can deliver reliable results and provide the opportunity to further increase access to gold standard SARS-CoV-2 testing.

Using 12 104 publications from 2014 to 2023 in the DeepBone database, this study employs bibliometric methods, including full-text latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) modelling, co-occurrence network analysis and geographic mapping with ArcGIS, to examine three key aspects of vertebrate palaeontology development: geographic distribution of newly established taxa, gender demographics among researchers and research trends. Gender data were analysed using automated tools with manual verification to ensure accuracy, while methodological evolution was investigated through systematic text mining and classification. Among 8336 newly established taxa, mammals (34.72%) and fishes (29.76%) dominate, followed by reptiles (25.34%), birds (7.39%) and amphibians (2.80%). Geographic analysis reveals significant regional disparities, with the USA (13.50%) and China (13.32%) contributing the most, while Africa and Oceania remain under-represented (less than 10%). Gender analysis indicates a gradual increase in female representation from 22.78 to 27.20% over the decade, highlighting the imperative to address gender disparities in vertebrate palaeontology, thereby advancing equity in alignment with UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 5. LDA topic modelling identifies 15 distinct research topics, encompassing evolutionary biology, cranial and skeletal morphology, dinosaur–bird evolution and human evolution, while co-occurrence analysis highlights the evolution of research methodologies, revealing strong interconnections between phylogenetic analysis (15%), traditional morphological analysis (12%) and high-resolution imaging techniques (9%).

Increased interest in collaborative and inclusive approaches to healthcare improvement makes revisiting Elinor Ostrom's 'design principles' for enabling collective management of common pool resources (CPR) in polycentric systems a timely endeavour. Ostrom proposed a generalisable set of eight core design principles for the efficacy of groups. To consider the utility of Ostrom's principles for the planning, delivery, and evaluation of future health(care) improvement we retrospectively apply them to a recent co-design project. Three distinct aspects of co-design were identified through consideration of the principles. These related to: (1) understanding and mapping the system (2) upholding democratic values and (3) regulating participation. Within these aspects four of Ostrom's eight principles were inherently observed. Consideration of the remaining four principles could have enhanced the systemic impact of the co-design process. Reconceptualising co-design through the lens of CPR offers new insights into the successful system-wide application of such approaches for the purpose of health(care) improvement. The eight design principles - and the relationships between them - form a heuristic that can support the planning, delivery, and evaluation of future healthcare improvement projects adopting co-design. They may help to address questions of how to scale up and embed such approaches as self-sustaining in wider systems.

Sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are important members of the sulphur cycle in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this study, we investigate the diversity and activity of SRB within the developing and established biofilm of two moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) systems treating municipal wastewater in New Zealand. The larger of the two WWTPs (Moa Point) generates high levels of sulphide relative to the smaller Karori plant. Clone libraries of the dissimilatory (bi)sulphite reductase (dsrAB) genes and quantitative real-time PCR targeting dsrA transcripts were used to compare SRB communities between the two WWTPs. Desulfobulbus (35–53 % of total SRB sequences) and genera belonging to the family Desulfobacteraceae (27–41 %) dominated the SRB fraction of the developing biofilm on deployed plastic carriers at both sites, whereas Desulfovibrio and Desulfomicrobium were exclusively found at Moa Point. In contrast, the established biofilms from resident MBBR carriers were largely dominated by Desulfomonile tiedjei-like organisms (58–100 % of SRB sequences). The relative transcript abundance of dsrA genes (signifying active SRBs) increased with biofilm weight yet remained low overall, even in the mature biofilm stage. Our results indicate that although SRB are both present and active in the microbial community at both MBBR study sites, differences in the availability of sulphate may be contributing to the observed differences in sulphide production at these two plants.