Biofilms: from the cradle of life to life support

The ecohealth approach is a core concept integrating environmental aspects with human and animal health (domestic and wild animals). Zoonotic and emerging diseases affect human health and impact negatively on food security. Although both the risk of contracting a disease and the subsequent impacts vary between different genders, age groups, cultures and social conditions, very little research has been done on this and few guidelines or interventions focus adequately on these aspects. This paper is based on a conceptual framework identifying the relationship between gender inequalities and the risk of contracting a disease in an ecohealth perspective. It looks at the varying impacts of plant, animal and human diseases and identifies four contributing factors. This paper first discusses the socially defined roles including social, economic, cultural, legal and political factors that often determine which place men and women occupy in society, which animals and plants men or women have accumulated knowledge of, which they have control of and which they benefit from and consequently the impact men and women have on the environment due to these specific roles. Secondly, it analyses the gender differences in risk of infection. It also analyses cultural differences that influence practices connected to animal, plant and human diseases and discusses respective preventions and treatments. Thirdly, it also identifies the ways men and women are impacted by the diseases of human, plants and animals in different ways. Lastly, this paper assesses the biological factors that influence the differences in exposure, infection rates and mortality rates between men and women during their life cycle. These four factors contribute to gender variations in relation to animal, human, plant and ecological health.

The Global Plant Health Assessment (GPHA) is a collective, volunteer-based effort to assemble expert opinions on plant health and disease impacts on ecosystem services based on published scientific evidence. The GPHA considers a range of forest, agricultural, and urban systems worldwide. These are referred to as (Ecoregion × Plant System), i.e., selected case examples involving keystone plants in given parts of the world. The GPHA focuses on infectious plant diseases and plant pathogens, but encompasses the abiotic (e.g., temperature, drought, and floods) and other biotic (e.g., animal pests and humans) factors associated with plant health. Among the 33 (Ecoregion × Plant System) considered, 18 are assessed as in fair or poor health, and 20 as in declining health. Much of the observed state of plant health and its trends are driven by a combination of forces, including climate change, species invasions, and human management. Healthy plants ensure (i) provisioning (food, fiber, and material), (ii) regulation (climate, atmosphere, water, and soils), and (iii) cultural (recreation, inspiration, and spiritual) ecosystem services. All these roles that plants play are threatened by plant diseases. Nearly none of these three ecosystem services are assessed as improving. Results indicate that the poor state of plant health in sub-Saharan Africa gravely contributes to food insecurity and environmental degradation. Results further call for the need to improve crop health to ensure food security in the most populated parts of the world, such as in South Asia, where the poorest of the poor, the landless farmers, are at the greatest risk. The overview of results generated from this work identifies directions for future research to be championed by a new generation of scientists and revived public extension services. Breakthroughs from science are needed to (i) gather more data on plant health and its consequences, (ii) identify collective actions to manage plant systems, (iii) exploit the phytobiome diversity in breeding programs, (iv) breed for plant genotypes with resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses, and (v) design and implement plant systems involving the diversity required to ensure their adaptation to current and growing challenges, including climate change and pathogen invasions.

The launch of the One Health Initiative, which 'seeks to promote, improve and defend the health and well-being of all species', is an important recognition of how linking human and animal health has prompted new ideas and actions. Surprisingly, plant health is not explicitly addressed by the initiative. This chapter first provides an overview of the 3 major health movements (namely, One Health, agriculture and health, and ecosystem approaches to health (ecohealth)), and examines their relation to plant health. It then reviews past and recent works in plant health, to show examples of how new approaches and ideas from plant health clinics could strengthen One Health and improve health outcomes for all. The chapter considers the strategic and practical role of plant health in One Health through 3 areas: joint service delivery, cross-sectoral coordination and cross-sectoral learning. It compares the current view of plants as part of One Health and related movements and the meaning of plant health more generally: it is more than crop protection or integrated pest management. Recent developments in service delivery and health systems are reviewed for plants, people and animals. Lastly, a tripartite approach to plant, human and animal health is proposed, showing how this could help stimulate and shape cross-sectoral actions.

Starting from increasing the impact of phytosanitary agents and deepening the ecological problems caused by their combat, it becomes rational to change the paradigm of the protection of plants with their health. The purpose of the paper is to highlight and establish the role of the main factors that are the basis of plant health and how they determine the phytosanitary status of agroecosystems and the degree of food security. Research methods and methodology are oriented to the identification and determination of the biological peculiarities of agents, as well as the biological, ecological and economic analysis of protection means of agricultural crops. As effective measures in promoting plant health, it is proposed to apply the link between soil, plant and human health, the role and place of GMOs in solving phytosanitary problems, the perspectives of genome editing, the expansion of the implementation of regenerative agriculture. In order to overcome this problem, the paper contains information on the possibilities of application of synergic phenomena in plant protection, the interaction between which provides a significant increase in performance indicators and stability of the system state. The article describes the role and place of several factors: link between soil, plant and human health, the role and place of GMOs in addressing phytosanitary issues, prospects for genome editing, activities to extend the implementation of regenerative agriculture, synergic phenomena as direction to increase the effectiveness of plant protection means and other phenomena that determine food security and food safety, the achievements of the institute in the direction of the development and implementation of biological means of plant protection, especially biological preparations.

Starting from increasing the impact of phytosanitary agents and deepening the ecological problems caused by their combat, it becomes rational to change the paradigm of the protection of plants with their health. The purpose of the paper is to highlight and establish the role of the main factors that are the basis of plant health and how they determine the phytosanitary status of agroecosystems and the degree of food security. Research methods and methodology are oriented to the identification and determination of the biological peculiarities of agents, as well as the biological, ecological and economic analysis of protection means of agricultural crops. As effective measures in promoting plant health, it is proposed to apply the link between soil, plant and human health, the role and place of GMOs in solving phytosanitary problems, the perspectives of genome editing, the expansion of the implementation of regenerative agriculture. In order to overcome this problem, the paper contains information on the possibilities of application of synergic phenomena in plant protection, the interaction between which provides a significant increase in performance indicators and stability of the system state. The article describes the role and place of several factors: link between soil, plant and human health, the role and place of GMOs in addressing phytosanitary issues, prospects for genome editing, activities to extend the implementation of regenerative agriculture, synergic phenomena as direction to increase the effectiveness of plant protection means and other phenomena that determine food security and food safety, the achievements of the institute in the direction of the development and implementation of biological means of plant protection, especially biological preparations.

The climate crisis presents an urgent challenge for Earth's living creatures and the habitats in which they have been adapted to thrive. Climate-related stress presents risks to microorganisms, the stability of the functions they provide, and their maintenance of beneficial interactions with their hosts and ecosystems. Microbes move across the continuum of anthropogenic influence on Earth's ecosystems, from pristine to human-managed to fully urbanized environments. Because microbial feedback within and across this continuum exists at multiple, connected scales from molecules to ecosystem-level processes, predicting microbial responses to climate stress and their potentially wide-ranging consequences remains difficult. Here, we discuss the broad implications of microbial and microbiome responses to climate change as they interface with human, plant, and ecosystem health. For each section on human, plant and ecosystem health, we briefly discuss the state of knowledge for each and follow with proposed future research, including some directions that are promising but require more work to evaluate. We end by considering overarching microbial ecology research needs across these systems and microbial solutions under investigation as possible climate-resilient interventions to maintain human, plant, and ecosystem health. This work draws on diverse expertise to identify broad research directions across typically separated disciplines and builds a holistic framework for considering their interrelationships.

Pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are detected in the aquatic environment and our drinking water supplies. The need for high quality drinking water is one of the most challenging problems of our times, but still only little knowledge exists on the impact of these compounds on ecosystems, animals, and man. Biological waste water treatment in constructed wetlands is an effective and low-cost alternative, especially for the treatment of non-industrial, municipal waste water. In this situation, plants get in contact with pharmaceutical compounds and have to tackle their detoxification. The mechanisms for the detoxification of xenobiotics in plants are closely related to the mammalian system. An activation reaction (phase I) is followed by a conjugation (phase II) with hydrophilic molecules like glutathione or glucose. Phase III reactions can be summarized as storage, degradation, and transport of the xenobiotic conjugate. Until now, there is no information available on the fate of pharmaceuticals in plants. In this study, we want to investigate the fate and metabolism of N-acetyl-4-aminophenol (paracetamol) in plant tissues using the cell culture of Armoracia rusticana L. as a model system. A hairy root culture of A. rusticana was treated with acetaminophen in a liquid culture. The formation and identification of metabolites over time were analyzed using HPLC-DAD and LC-MSn techniques. With LC-MS technique, we were able to detect paracetamol and identify three of its metabolites in root cells of A. rusticana. Six hours after incubation with 1 mM of acetaminophen, the distribution of acetaminophen and related metabolites in the cells resulted in 18% paracetamol, 64% paracetamol-glucoside, 17% paracetamol glutathione, and 1% of the corresponding cysteine conjugate. The formation of two independently formed metabolites in plant root cells again revealed strong similarities between plant and mammalian detoxification systems. The detoxification mechanism of glucuronization in mammals is mirrored by glucosidation of xenobiotics in plants. Furthermore, in both systems, a glutathione conjugate is formed. Due to the existence of P450 enzymes in plants, the formation of the highly reactive NAPQI intermediate is possible. In this study, we introduce the hairy root cell culture of A. rusticana L. as a suitable model system to study the fate of acetaminophen in plant tissues. Our first results point to the direction of plants being able to take up and detoxify the model substrate paracetamol. These first findings underline the great potential of using plants for waste water treatments in constructed wetlands. This very first study on the detoxification of a widely used antipyretic agent in plant tissues again shows the flexibility of plant detoxification systems and their potential in waste water treatment facilities. This study covers only the very first steps of acetaminophen detoxification in plants; still, there is no data on long-term exposure as well as the possible impact of pharmaceuticals on the plant health and stress defense. Long-term experiments need to be performed to follow the fate of acetaminophen in root and leaf cells in a whole plant system, and to evaluate possible usage of plants for the remediation of acetaminophen from waste water.

Background: The simple act of hand washing has been proven to reduce the risk of acquiring hospital infection, especially with the current concern of Ebola viral disease. Hospital acquired infections have contributed significantly to overall mortality and morbidity and health care cost. They report that hand washing remains at an unacceptable low level in most medical environments, with large numbers of doctors and nurses routinely forgetting to wash their hands before touching patients. Transmission of health-care-associated infections often occurs via the contaminated hands of health care workers. Materials and Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out among randomly selected doctors and nurses in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano. The questionnaires were administered to the respondents during their ward rounds or clinic sessions. Results: One hundred and forty health professionals comprising 98 nurses and 42 doctors were studied. About 64.4% of them were aware of the World Health Organization (WHO) global hand washing day but only 15% stated the date correctly. About 99.3% of them believed that if hand washing is done correctly it can reduce the risk of infection. All (100%) of the health professionals use water and soap or hand rubs as agents of hand washing. About 93.6% were taught hand washing technique and 47% were aware of the five moments in hand washing but only 17% of them could list the five moments in hand washing. Only 25.7% health professionals knew the correct steps of hand washing ( χ 2 = 2.444, df = 2, P = 0.295). Ninety-one percent of the health professionals had seen posters on hand washing. Majority (72.1%) adhered to principles of hand washing ( χ 2 = 0.015, df = 1, P = 0.902) while 82.1% wash their hands before touching patients ( χ 2 = 2.841, df = 1, P = 0.092). However, most of them (95%) washed their hands after touching patients and 97% washed their hands after handling body fluids or secretions from patients. On the other hand, only 39% health professionals washed hands before wearing hand gloves ( χ 2 = 0.321, df = 1, P = 0.571) but 95% washed hands after removing the hand gloves. Ninety-nine percent washed their hands after visiting or using the restroom. Conclusion: This study underscores the need for continuous information and education of health professionals on the importance WHO global hand washing day. As doctors and nurses are important in the health care team, it is important to provide the appropriate knowledge and training regarding preventive practices of infectious diseases. Training and retraining of health professionals on correct steps of hand washing will encourage and remind them on the importance of washing hands before wearing gloves and before touching patients to reduce the risk of infection and cross infection.

Plant protection, the Cinderella of the one health strategy?

This study analyses the opportunities and pitfalls of using chatgroups for plant health systems. It also examines the conditions for strengthening chatroom functions and considers the possibility of replicating reported successes in healthcare settings to plant health systems. We use mixed qualitative methods, which include stakeholder surveys and observation of chatgroup activity interactions in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Sri Lanka. Our findings show that there is evidence of the benefits of chatgroups to human health which can be replicated in plant health. Replication should, however, not be a ‘copy and paste’ approach. This is due to the general lack of evidence-based guidelines and lessons learned to move beyond the initial adoption success of communication applications. Also, in practice, plant doctor chatgroups are generally much larger than groups in healthcare settings and it remains to be seen whether increasing chatroom activity could benefit specific plant health objectives; or whether it would lead to increased labour costs, and/or diminish the participation of plant doctors. One Health impact statement The article is relevant in a One Health context as it demonstrates that there is a lot to learn between sectors about interventions and approaches. The work used literature from human health interventions to shed light on how a similar intervention in plant health functioned and could be improved. It shows that if actors in the plant health sector had engaged early on with actors in the human health sector, they may have avoided pitfalls in the ways that chatgroups can be used to support plant health management. It is expected that human, animal and plant health sectors would benefit from the knowledge and recommendations in this article to establish new online chatgroups that can support transformative change.

F-box E3-ubiquitin ligases regulate critical biological processes in plant development and stress responses. Future research could elucidate why and how plants have acquired a large number of F-box genes. The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is a predominant regulatory mechanism employed by plants to maintain the protein turnover in the cells and involves the interplay of three classes of enzymes, E1 (ubiquitin-activating), E2 (ubiquitin-conjugating), and E3 ligases. The diverse and most prominent protein family among eukaryotes, F-box proteins, are a vital component of the multi-subunit SCF (Skp1-Cullin 1-F-box) complex among E3 ligases. Several F-box proteins with multifarious functions in different plant systems have evolved rapidly over time within closely related species, but only a small part has been characterized. We need to advance our understanding of substrate-recognition regulation and the involvement of F-box proteins in biological processes and environmental adaptation. This review presents a background of E3 ligases with particular emphasis on the F-box proteins, their structural assembly, and their mechanism of action during substrate recognition. We discuss how the F-box proteins regulate and participate in the signaling mechanisms of plant development and environmental responses. We highlight an urgent need for research on the molecular basis of the F-box E3-ubiquitin ligases in plant physiology, systems biology, and biotechnology. Further, the developments and outlooks of the potential technologies targeting the E3-ubiquitin ligases for developing crop improvement strategies have been discussed.

2022 Interim Guidance to Health Care Providers for Basic and Advanced Cardiac Life Support in Adults, Children, and Neonates With Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19: From the Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Adult and Pediatric Task Forces of the American Heart Association in Collaboration With the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for Respiratory Care, the Society

Organic Farming, Soil Health, and Food Quality: Considering Possible Links

Volume 1: Part 1 The Space Environment: Vacuum, Temperature, and Microgravity, Giovanni G. Fazio Radiation Biology, John R. Letaw. Part 2 Response of Living Systems to Spaceflight: Cellular Responses to Spaceflight, Marian L. Lewis and Millie Hughes-Fulford Response of the Cardiovascular System to Spaceflight, Susanne E. Churchill and Michael W. Bungo Response of the Neurovestibular System to Spaceflight, Corinna E. Lathan and Gilles Clement Response of the Skeletal System to Spaceflight, Christopher E. Cann Response of Skeletal Muscle to Spaceflight, V. Reggie Edgerton and Roland R. Roy Response of the Immune System to Spaceflight, David H. Sherr and Gerald Sonnenfield Response of the Respiratory System to Spaceflight, Ludwig A. Engel and Harold J. B.. Guy Food and Nutrition During Spaceflight, Robert W. Phillips Operational Medicine and Health Care Delivery, James S. Logan Countermeasures and Artificial Gravity, Peter H. Diamandis. Volume 2: Part 3 Psychosocial Issues of Spaceflight: The Experience of Spaceflight - Personal Insights, Byron Lichtenberg Behaviour and Performance in the Space Environment, Patricia A. Santy Circadian Rhythms, Sleep, and Performance in Space, Claudio Stampi Human Factors and Habitability Issues for the Design of Space Habitats, Francesco Brunelli Will Space Change Humanity?, Benjamin Finney. Part 4 Life Support Systems: Introduction to Life Support Systems, William J. Crump and Daniel Scott Janik Issues and Solutions for Short-Duration Flights - An Historical Perspective on Physiochemical Systems, William J. Crump Microbiological Issues of Space Life Support Systems, Melvin V. Kilgore Jr, Alfred T. Mikell Jr. and Duane L. Pierson Bioregenerative Life Support for Space Habitation and Extended Planetary Missions, Mark Nelson Life Support and Performance Issues for Extravehicular Activity, Dava Newman and Michael Barrat.

Connecting microbial capabilities with the soil and plant health: Options for agricultural sustainability