A Psychological Examination of the Status Syndrome and Its Application for Promoting Well-Being.

The status syndrome proposed by Marmot is located at the closest level of influence within the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) framework, connecting the body's response to the mental states that arise from the subjective experience of social status. Marmot defines these psychological states through concepts of autonomy and social integration articulated in the Capability Approach (CA). These elements are further explored and expanded upon with the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), an empirically based framework with an extensive tradition of practical application. This lays the groundwork not only for understanding what makes a social environment conducive to well-being but also for shedding light on ways to promote it. The article goes beyond theoretical discussions by introducing a structured model based on the principles of the SDT for health promotion interventions. The model emphasizes the importance of providing a supportive atmosphere and is organized into four distinct phases aimed at aligning interventions with individual motivations, and cultural contexts. Ultimately, the goal is to engage individuals to actively participate in their own well-being while addressing the complexities associated with social inequalities in developed societies.

Direct toxicity of six antibiotics on soil bacterial communities affected by the addition of bio-adsorbents.

Reducing the toxicity caused by antibiotics on bacterial communities in the soil is one of the great challenges of this century. For this, the effectiveness of amending the soil with different bioadsorbents such as crushed mussel shell (CMS), pine bark (PB) and biomass ash (BA), as well as combinations of them (CMS + PB and PB + BA) was studied at different doses (0 g kg-1 to 48 g kg-1). Soil samples were spiked, separately, with increasing doses (0-2000 mg kg-1) of cefuroxime (CMX), amoxicillin (AMX), clarithromycin (CLA), azithromycin (AZI), ciprofloxacin (CIP) and trimethoprim (TMP). Their toxicity on bacterial growth was estimated using the tritium-labeled leucine (3H) incorporation method. Toxicity was observed to behave differently depending on the antibiotic family and bioadsorbent, although in different magnitude and at different doses. The toxicity of ß-lactams (AMX and CXM) was reduced by up to 54% when the highest doses of bio-adsorbents were added due to the increase in pH (CMS and BA) and carbon (PB) contribution. Macrolides (CLA and AZI) showed slight toxicity in un-amended soil samples, which increased by up to 65% with the addition of the bio-adsorbents. The toxicity of CIP (a fluoroquinolone) increased with the dose of the bio-adsorbents, reaching up to 20% compared with the control. Finally, the toxicity of TMP (a diaminopyrimidine) slightly increased with the dose of bio-adsorbents. The by-products that increase soil pH are those that showed the highest increases of CLA, AZI, CIP and TMP toxicities. These results could help to prevent/reduce environmental pollution caused by different kinds of antibiotics, selecting the most appropriated bio-adsorbents and doses.

Effects of ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim, and amoxicillin on microbial structure and growth as emerging pollutants reaching crop soils.

The presence of emerging pollutants, and specifically antibiotics, in agricultural soils has increased notably in recent decades, causing growing concern as regards potential environmental and health issues. With this in mind, the current study focuses on evaluating the toxicity exerted by three antibiotics (amoxicillin, trimethoprim, and ciprofloxacin) on the growth of soil bacterial communities, when these pollutants are present at different doses, and considered in the short, medium, and long terms (1, 8 and 42 days of incubation). Specifically, the research was carried out in 12 agricultural soils having different physicochemical characteristics and was performed by means of the leucine (3H) incorporation method. In addition, changes in the structure of soil microbial communities at 8 and 42 days were studied in four of these soils, using the phospholipids of fatty acids method for this. The main results indicate that the most toxic antibiotic was amoxicillin, followed by trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin. The results also show that the toxicity of amoxicillin decreases with time, with values of Log IC50 ranging from 0.07 ± 0.05 to 3.43 ± 0.08 for day 1, from 0.95 ± 0.07 to 3.97 ± 0.15 for day 8, and from 2.05 ± 0.03 to 3.18 ± 0.04 for day 42, during the incubation period. Regarding trimethoprim, 3 different behaviors were observed: for some soils the growth of soil bacterial communities was not affected, for a second group of soils trimethoprim toxicity showed dose-response effects that remained persistent over time, and, finally, for a third group of soils the toxicity of trimethoprim increased over time, being greater for longer incubation times (42 days). As regards ciprofloxacin, this antibiotic did not show a toxicity effect on the growth of soil bacterial communities for any of the soils or incubation times studied. Furthermore, the principal component analysis performed with the phospholipids of fatty acids results demonstrated that the microbial community structure of these agricultural soils, which persisted after 42 days of incubation, depended mainly on soil characteristics and, to a lesser extent, on the dose and type of antibiotic (amoxicillin, trimethoprim or ciprofloxacin). In addition, it was found that, in this research, the application of the three antibiotics to soils usually favored the presence of fungi and Gram-positive bacteria.

Time-course evolution of bacterial community tolerance to tetracycline antibiotics in agricultural soils: A laboratory experiment.

The presence of antibiotics in soils may increase the selection pressure on soil bacterial communities and cause tolerance to these pollutants. The temporal evolution of bacterial community tolerance to different concentrations of tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC) and chlortetracycline (CTC) was evaluated in two soils. The results showed an increase of soil bacterial community tolerance to TC, CTC and OTC only in samples polluted with the highest antibiotic concentrations tested (2000 mg kg-1). The magnitude of those increases was higher in the soil with the lower organic carbon content (1.6%) than in the soil with an organic carbon content reaching 3.4%. In the soil with low organic carbon content, the time-course evolution showed a maximum increase in the tolerance of bacterial communities to tetracycline antibiotics between 45 and 100 incubation days, while for longer incubation times (360 days) the tolerance decreased. In the soil with high organic carbon content, a similar behavior was found for OTC. However, for CTC and TC, slightly increases and decreases (respectively) were found in the bacterial community tolerance at intermediate incubation times, followed by values close to zero for TC after 360 days of incubation, while for CTC they remained higher than in the control. In conclusion, soil pollution due to tetracyclines may cause bacterial community tolerance to these antibiotics when present at high concentrations. In addition, the risk is higher in soils with low organic matter content, and it decreases with time.

The Toxicity Exerted by the Antibiotic Sulfadiazine on the Growth of Soil Bacterial Communities May Increase over Time.

The toxicity exerted by the antibiotic sulfadiazine on the growth of soil bacterial communities was studied in two agricultural soils for a period of 100 days. In the short-term (2 days of incubation), the effect of sulfadiazine on bacterial growth was low (no inhibition or inhibition <32% for a dose of 2000 mg·kg-1). However, sulfadiazine toxicity increased with time, achieving values of 40% inhibition, affecting bacterial growth in both soils after 100 days of incubation. These results, which were here observed for the first time for any antibiotic in soil samples, suggest that long-term experiments would be required for performing an adequate antibiotics risk assessment, as short-term experiments may underestimate toxicity effects.

Degenerate PCR primers for assays to track steps of nitrogen metabolism by taxonomically diverse microorganisms in a variety of environments.

Steps in the global nitrogen cycle are mainly catalyzed by microorganisms. Accordingly, the activities of these microorganisms affect the health and productivity of ecosystems. Their activities are also used in wastewater treatment systems to remove reactive nitrogen compounds and prevent eutrophication events triggered by nutrient discharges. Therefore, tracking the activities of these microorganisms can provide insights into the functioning of these systems. The presence and abundance of genes encoding nitrogen-metabolizing enzymes can be traced via polymerase chain reaction (PCR); however, this requires primers that are sensitive to a heterogenous gene pool yet specific enough to the target biomarker. The ever-expanding diversity of sequences available from databases includes many sequences relevant to nitrogen metabolism that match poorly with primers previously designed to track their presence and/or abundance. This includes genes encoding ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) of ammonia oxidizing microorganisms, nitrite oxidoreductase (NXR) of nitrite oxidizing bacteria, and nitrous oxide reductase (NOS) of denitrifying bacteria. Some primers are also not designed to generate the short (~200 nucleotides) amplicons required for real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and reverse-transcriptase qPCR (qRT-PCR). In this study, genes collected from the Integrated Microbial Genomes database (IMG) were aligned to design PCR primers that could capture more sequence diversity than is possible using existing primers. Primers were designed to target three clades of AMO (Betaproteobacteria, Chrenarchaeota, and complete ammonia oxidizing Nitrospira), periplasmic NXR and two clades of NOS (Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes). These primers successfully amplified target sequences from two wastewater treatment plants with biological nitrogen removal (one with simultaneous nitrification/denitrification and one with distinct anoxic/oxic zones) and estuary sediment. Nucleotide sequences of the amplicons retrieved homologs when used to query GenBank by BLAST. While convincingly identified as target sequences for these primer pairs, these amplicons were divergent from each other, and quite divergent (as low as 73%) from those present in GenBank, suggesting these primers are capable of capturing a diverse range of sequences. A direct comparison showed that primers designed here are better suited to environmental samples, such as wastewater treatment facilities, by producing a greater number of amplicons from the same sample than primers currently established in literature.

Effect of oyster shell medium and organic substrate on the performance of a particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) process.

The use of pyrite as an electron donor for biological denitrification has the potential to reduce alkalinity consumption and sulfate by-product production compared with sulfur oxidizing denitrification. This research investigated the effects of oyster shell and organic substrate addition on the performance of a particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) process. Side-by-side bench-scale studies were carried out in upflow packed bed bioreactors with pyrite and sand, with and without oyster shells as an alkalinity source. Organic carbon addition (10% by volume wastewater) was found to improve PPAD denitrification performance, possibly by promoting mixotrophic metabolism. After organic carbon addition and operation at a six-hour empty bed contact time, total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal reached 90% in the column with oyster shells compared with 70% without. SEM images and biofilm protein measurements indicated that oyster shells enhanced biofilm growth. The results indicate that PPAD is a promising technology for treatment of nitrified wastewater.

Comparison of particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) and sulfur oxidizing denitrification (SOD) for treatment of nitrified wastewater.

The use of reduced sulfur compounds as electron donors for biological denitrification has the potential to reduce chemical and sludge disposal costs as well as carry-over of organic carbon to the effluent that often occurs with heterotrophic denitrification. Although a number of prior studies have evaluated sulfur oxidizing denitrification (SOD), no prior studies have evaluated particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) in continuous flow systems. Bench-scale upflow packed bed reactors (PBRs) were set up to compare denitrification rates, by-product production and alkalinity consumption of PPAD and SOD. At an empty bed contact time of 2.9 h, average NO3--N removal efficiencies were 39.7% and 99.9% for PPAD and SOD, respectively. Although lower denitrification rates were observed with PPAD than SOD, lower alkalinity consumption and reduced sulfur by-product formation (SO42-, S2- and SO32- plus S2O32-) were observed with PPAD. Furthermore, higher denitrification rates and lower by-product production was observed for SOD than in prior studies, possibly due to the media composition, which included sand and oyster shells. The results show that both pyrite and elemental sulfur can be used as electron donors for wastewater denitrification in PBRs.

Fomento de la eliminación fecal en neonatos y lactantes / Encouraging fecal elimination in newborns and infants

El cólico y el estreñimiento son causas frecuentes de malestar en los recién nacidos y lactantes y fuente de angustia en los padres. Ambos problemas pueden aliviarse con sencillos cuidados, como son el masaje abdominal y la estimulación rectal. Son procedimientos que permiten resolver estos problemas de forma mecánica, evitando el uso de fármacos, pero cuya eficacia y seguridad dependen de que se ejecuten correctamente. Con este trabajo se pretende contribuir al buen uso de estas técnicas, tanto si van a ser realizadas por los profesionales sanitarios, como si se trata de enseñar a los padres cómo utilizarlas. Se hace una descripción de los aspectos a considerar en la valoración enfermera del recién nacido con estos problemas, de los pasos para realizar cada uno de los dos procedimientos, el masa-je abdominal y el sondaje rectal, y de las complicaciones potenciales de su utilización

Colic and constipation are frequent causes of discomfort in newborns and infants, and a source of anxiety for parents. Both problems can be relieved with simple care measures, such as abdominal massage and rectal stimulation. These are procedures which allow to solve these problems in a mechanical way, avoiding the use of drugs, but their efficacy and safety will depend on their adequate conduction. This article intends to contribute to the good use of these techniques when conducted by healthcare professionals, as well as for training parents on how to use them. There is a description of the aspects to be considered in the assessment by nurses of newborns with these problems, the steps to follow in order to conduct each one of the procedures, abdominal massage and rectal tube, and the potential complications in their usage