Biology subjects

Mills, N.

Publications and source records attributed to Mills, N..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Assessment of the pollution incident performance of water and sewerage companies in England

Comparison of water and sewerage company pollution performance in relation to severity, frequency and self-reporting of pollution incidents is made difficult by differences in environmental and operational conditions. In England, the deterioration in pollution incident performance across the water industry, makes it important to investigate common trends that could be addressed at national and regional levels. Yet, to date there has been no external peer-reviewed analysis of national pollution incident data in England. This project aimed to analyse available pollution incident data to assess and compare the performance of water and sewerage companies in England. Results indicated that there was significant variation in pollution incident numbers and the severity of the impact on the water environment for different asset types (operational property of the water and sewerage company such as a sewage treatment works). Increasing numbers of pollution incidents from pumping stations and sewage treatment works, were largely responsible for overall increases in pollution incidents. The highest increase in pollution incidents in 2019, was observed from pumping stations. Variation was evident in company self-reporting percentages across asset types. There were significant positive relationships between the self-reporting percentages of pollution incidents and total numbers of reported pollution incidents per 10,000 km sewer length for pumping stations and sewage treatment works. These results indicate that in at least these asset types, an estimated 5% of pollution incidents could go unreported, if not self-reported by the company. Pollution events not reported quickly by companies, can lead to more severe impacts to the water environment so rapid and consistent reporting of incidents is crucial for limiting damage. The results have significance for the water industry internationally, because the issues presented here are not restricted to England. Whilst this research highlighted a number of key areas for more detailed analysis, in the short-term, research should focus on investigating best practice for reporting pollution incidents. It is important to get an accurate baseline of the number of pollution incidents and whether a proportion are currently going unreported. This research should seek to aid the standardisation of reporting practice across the water industry.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Trichoplein controls endothelial cell function by regulating autophagy

Autophagy is an essential cellular quality control process that emerged critical for vascular homeostasis. Here we describe, the role for Trichoplein (TCHP) protein in linking autophagy with endothelial cells (ECs) function. The depletion of TCHP in ECs impairs migration and sprouting. TCHP directly binds PCM1, to regulate degradation of GABARAP, thus leading to a defective autophagy. Mechanistically, TCHP is indispensable for autophagosome maturation and its depletion resulted in the accumulation of SQSTM1/p62 (p62) and unfolded protein aggregates in ECs. The latter process is coupled to TCHP-mediated NF-kB activation. Of note, low levels of TCHP and high p62 levels were detected in primary ECs from patients with coronary artery disease. In addition, Tchp knock-out mice showed accumulation of p62 in the heart and cardiac vessels and reduced cardiac vascularization. Here, we reveal an autophagy-mediated mechanism for TCHP down-regulation, which poses a plausible target for regulation of endothelial function.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2018

The genetic relationship between female reproductive traits and six psychiatric disorders

Female reproductive behaviors have an important implication in evolutionary fitness and health of offspring. Previous studies have shown that age at first birth of women (AFB) is genetically associated with schizophrenia (SCZ). However, for most other psychiatric disorders and reproductive traits, the latent shared genetic architecture is largely unknown. Here we used the second wave of UK Biobank data (N=220,685) to evaluate the association between five female reproductive traits and polygenetic risk scores (PRS) projected from genome-wide association study summary statistics of six psychiatric disorders (N=429,178). We found that the PRS of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were strongly associated with AFB (genetic correlation of -0.68 {+/-} 0.03 with p-value = 1.86E-89), age at first sexual intercourse (AFS) (-0.56 {+/-} 0.03 with p-value = 3.42E-60), number of live births (NLB) (0.36 {+/-} 0.04 with p-value = 4.01E-17) and age at menopause (-0.27 {+/-} 0.04 with p-value = 5.71E-13). There were also robustly significant associations between the PRS of eating disorder (ED) and AFB (genetic correlation of 0.35 {+/-} 0.06), ED and AFS (0.19 0.06), Major depressive disorder (MDD) and AFB (-0.27 {+/-} 0.07), MDD and AFS (- 0.27 {+/-} 0.03) and SCZ and AFS (-0.10 {+/-} 0.03). Our findings reveal the shared genetic architecture between the five reproductive traits in women and six psychiatric disorders, which have a potential implication that helps to improve reproductive health in women, hence better child outcomes. Our findings may also explain, at least in part, an evolutionary hypothesis that causal mutations underlying psychiatric disorders have positive effects on reproductive success.

genetics↗