New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, April 23, 2017

Catching up after a couple of busy weeks. Microbes in the hospital Diversity changes of microbial communities into hospital surface environments – Rika Yano – Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy ($31.50)  Previous works have demonstrated considerable variability in hospital cleanliness in Japan, suggesting that contamination is driven by factors that are currently poorly controlled. We undertook 16S …

EPA: Opportunity to comment on air and radiation issues – Executive Order 13777

(Thanks to Paula Olsiewski for passing on this information from the EPA) Dear Stakeholder, Consistent with Executive Order 13777, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) is hosting a public teleconference on April 24, 2017, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT to solicit input on specific air and radiation …

This is calling out for a large microbiome study: Salt from icy roads is contaminating North America’s lakes

It seems to me that this is calling out for some large scale comparative microbial community study: Salt from icy roads is contaminating North America’s lakes – The Washington Post Basically, there is evidence that lakes throughout North America have seen a big increase in salt levels connected to salt used to try and deal …

Project Scientist – Earth & Planetary Science and IGI Institute at UC Berkeley

Job posting of possible interest Source: Recruitment Details – UC Berkeley AP Recruit DESCRIPTION Bioinformatics and Biochemist Scientist, IGI Institute – University of California, Berkeley. The IGI Institute and the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California seek applications for a full time (100%) Associate Project Scientist, Step I – III, …

NASA. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award Fellowships to Study ISS Microbes 

Of interest: Source: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award Fellowships to Study ISS Microbes | NASA Fellow: Melissa Dsouza, University of Auckland, New Zealand PI-Advisor: Kasthuri Venkateswaran, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Investigating mechanisms for the acquisition and prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in the ISS cultivable microbiome. Awarded by the NASA Space Biology Program. Fellow: Michael Lee, University of …

WTH is ILR?

WTH is ILR? by Alex Washburne & Jamie Morton Jamie and I have penned a popularization of the isometric log-ratio transform with the intention to allow non-mathematicians to understand the intuition behind what it is, why we use it, and how different methods use the same tool in different ways. The full write-up is available …

Health + Energy Research Consortium

. The Biology and the Built Environment Center (BioBE) and Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory (ESBL) at the University of Oregon, are pleased to announce the launch of the the Health + Energy Research Consortium!  On May 4-5, 2017, in Portland Oregon, we begin our journey to dramatically reduce energy consumption and maximize human health …

Your help is wanted in this #CitizenMicrobiology project: “BashTheBug – Help us fight antibiotic resistance!”

Just found out about this new Citizen Microbiology project via Andrew Su on Twitter who retweeted a post of Jennifer Gardy’s A neat citizen science project launched today as part of the big TB sequencing consortium -help spot drug resistance https://t.co/rFHsrmdBJk — Jennifer Gardy (@jennifergardy) April 7, 2017 Source: BashTheBug – Help us fight antibiotic resistance! …