Demonstration of IS711 transposition in Brucella ovis and Brucella pinnipedialis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The <it>Brucella </it>genome contains an insertion sequence (IS) element called IS<it>711 </it>or IS<it>6501</it>, which is specific to the genus. The copy number of IS<it>711 </it>varies in the genome of the different <it>Brucella </it>species, ranging from 7 in <it>B. abortus</it>, <it>B. melitensis </it>and <it>B. suis </it>to more than 30 in <it>B. ovis </it>and in <it>Brucella </it>strains isolated from marine mammals. At present, there is no experimental evidence of transposition of IS<it>711</it>, but the occurrence of this element with a high copy number in some species, and the isolation of <it>Brucella </it>strains with "ectopic" copies of IS<it>711 </it>suggested that this IS could still transpose.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study we obtained evidence of transposition of IS<it>711 </it>from the <it>B. ovis </it>and <it>B. pinnipedialis </it>chromosomes by using the "transposon trap" plasmid pGBG1. This plasmid expresses resistance to tetracycline only if the repressor gene that it contains is inactivated. The strains <it>B. melitensis </it>16 M, <it>B. abortus </it>RB51, <it>B. ovis </it>BOC22 (field strain) and <it>B. pinnipedialis </it>B2/94, all containing the plasmid pGBG1, were grown in culture media with tetracycline until the appearance of tetracycline resistant mutants (Tc^R). Tc^Rmutants due to IS<it>711 </it>transposition were only detected in <it>B. ovis </it>and <it>B. pinnipedialis </it>strains.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Four different copies of IS<it>711 </it>were found to transpose to the same target sequence in the plasmid pGBG1. This demonstrated that IS<it>711 </it>are active <it>in vivo</it>, specially in <it>Brucella </it>species with a high number of IS<it>711 </it>copies as <it>B. ovis </it>and <it>B. pinnipedialis</it>.</p

El coeficiente de arrastre sobre la superficie del mar como función de las características del oleaje

An analysis of the performance of parameterizations for the drag coefficient CD over the ocean is presented. The results were obtained by considering detailed observations from the recent IntOA experiment in which a co-existence of wind sea and swell provides characteristic mixed sea conditions in a wide range of wind speeds. Recent research has advanced our understanding of air-sea fluxes, proposing new functional forms for the drag coefficient, as well as applying wavelength scaling and determining dimensionally consistent expressions for the drag coefficient. Nevertheless, a detailed analysis of the influence of wind sea parameters confirms the need to include the sea state dependence on parameterizing CD for mixed sea conditions. It is also shown that better results are obtained when aerodynamic roughness is considered as a function of wave age and wave steepness, or equivalently if CD is expressed as a function of a characteristic peak frequency defined through the wave momentum spectrum.Se presenta un análisis del desempeño de algunas parametrizaciones del coeficiente de arrastre CD sobre la superficie del mar. Los resultados se obtienen a partir de observaciones detalladas durante el experimento IntOA. En ese experimento la existencia simultánea de oleaje generado localmente y oleaje que proviene de tormentas lejanas, nos brinda características únicas del estado del mar con constituyentes mixtas de oleaje en una gama amplia de velocidades del viento. A través de investigaciones recientes se ha avanzado en el conocimiento de los flujos entre el océano y la atmósfera, al proponer nuevas formas funcionales del coeficiente de arrastre, así como al utilizar expresiones dimensionalmente consistentes que se basan en escalas asociadas a la longitud de onda de las olas. Los resultados de este trabajo confirman la necesidad de incluir la influencia del estado del mar en las parametrizaciones del coeficiente de arrastre, especialmente bajo condiciones mixtas de oleaje. También se demuestra que se obtienen mejores resultados cuando la escala de rugosidad aerodinámica se considera como una función de la edad de la ola y de la pendiente del oleaje local o de forma equivalente, cuando CD se expresa como función de una frecuencia característica asociada al pico espectral que se determina mediante el espectro del momento del oleaje

Solid-state cultures of Fusarium oxysporum transform aromatic components of olive-mill dry residue and reduce its phytotoxicity

The present study mainly investigated the ability of solid-state cultures of the non-pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum strain BAFC 738 to transform aromatic components to reduce the phytotoxicity in olive-mill dry residue (DOR), the waste from the two-phase manufacturing process. Lignin, hemicellulose, fats and water-soluble extractives contents of DOR colonized by the fungus for 20 weeks were reduced by 16%, 25%, 71% and 13%, respectively, while the cellulose content increased by 25%. In addition, the ethyl acetate-extractable phenolic fraction of the waste was reduced by 65%. However, mass-balance ultra-Wltration and size-exclusion chromatography experiments suggested that the apparent removal of that fraction, mainly including 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)ethyl alcohol and 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) ethyl alcohol, was due to polymerization. Mn-peroxidase and Mn-independent peroxidase activities were found in F. oxysporum solid-state cultures, while laccase and aryl alcohol oxidase activities were not detected. Tests performed with seedlings of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum L.), soybean (Glycine maximum Merr.), and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) grown on soils containing 6% (w/w) of bioconverted DOR (kg soil)¡1 showed that the waste’s phytotoxicity was removed by 20 weeks-old fungal cultures. By contrast, the same material exhibited a high residual toxicity towards lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.).L'articolo é disponibile sul sito dell'editore: http://www.sciencedirect.co

Preferences of Mexican anesthesiologists for vecuronium, rocuronium, or other neuromuscular blocking agents: a survey

BACKGROUND: Several neuromuscular blocking (NMB) agents are available for clinical use in anesthesia. The present study was performed in order to identify preferences and behaviors of anesthesiologists for using vecuronium, rocuronium or other NMB agents in their clinical practice. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The cross-sectional survey was applied at the Updated Course of the Colegio Mexicano de Anestesiología performed last year. Of 989, 282 (28.5%) surveys were returned. RESULTS: Most anesthesiologists were working at both public and private hospitals, performed anesthetic procedures for hospitalized and ambulatory patients, and anesthetized children as well as adults. Respondents did not consider mechanomyography as the gold standard method for neuromuscular monitoring. The T(25) was not recognized as a pharmacodynamic parameter that represents the clinical duration of the neuromuscular block. Most answered that vecuronium induces less histamine release than rocuronium, had never used any neuromuscular monitor, did not know the cost of vecuronium and rocuronium, and preferred rocuronium in multiple-sampling vials and vecuronium in either a vial for single or multiple sampling. Rocuronium was preferred for emergency surgery in patients with full stomach only. Almost all of anesthesiologists that conserve the unused drug did it without refrigeration and more than 30% conserve the unused drug in one syringe for further use. CONCLUSION: Vecuronium was preferred for most clinical situations, and the decision for this choice was not based on costs. Storage of unused drugs without refrigeration in a single syringe for purpose of future use in several patients represented a dangerous common practice

Reconstructing the parameter space of non-analytical cosmological fixed points

Dynamical system theory is a widely used technique in the analysis of cosmological models. Within this framework, the equations describing the dynamics of a model are recast in terms of dimensionless variables, which evolve according to a set of autonomous first-order differential equations. The fixed points of this autonomous set encode the asymptotic evolution of the model. Usually, these points can be written as analytical expressions for the variables in terms of the parameters of the model, which allows a complete characterization of the corresponding parameter space. However, a thoroughly analytical treatment is impossible in some cases. In this work, we give an example of a dark energy model, a scalar field coupled to a vector field in an anisotropic background, where not all the fixed points can be analytically found. Then, we put forward a general scheme that provides a numerical description of the parameter space. This allows us to find interesting accelerated attractors of the system with no analytical representation. This work may serve as a template for the numerical analysis of highly complicated dynamical systems.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Changes match the published versio

SMOS soil moisture product validation in croplands

A validation campaign has been carried out to evaluate the Level 2 Soil Moisture (SM) product (version 5.51) given by the European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite in the Pampean Region of Argentina. The study region was selected because it is a plain, avoiding topography problems, with an SMOS nominal land use class (low vegetation crops, 1-2m height). Transects of ground SM measurements were collected at 5-cm and 6-cm depth using Delta-T ThetaProbe ML2x and Stevens Hydra Probe II SM sensors, respectively. The volumetric measurements were calibrated using gravimetric and bulk density data collected at the same time as the SM sensor measurements. The SM transects covered ISEA-grid SMOS nodes over four extensive agricultural areas with prevalence of soy crops (site 1: -32.982N, -62.505E; site 2: -32.510N, -62.788E; site 3: -32.024N, -63.692E; and site 4: -37.315N, -58.868E, WGS84). The validation sites were selected taking as reference the locations of permanent SM stations property of the Argentinean Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE, National Commission of Space Activities), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA, National Institute of Farming Technology) and Instituto de Hidrología de Llanuras (IHLLA, Plain Hydrology Institute). Therefore, additionally to validate the SMOS SM product with the ground data collected during the experimental campaign, the measurements are useful to evaluate the station SM data reliability at the SMOS spatial resolution with the aim of using station data series as reference to test different versions of the SMOS SM product. Previously to the campaign, SMOS SM data variability, ESA Globcover land use classification, soil edaphic properties, water bodies and topography were analyzed around the station locations to select the best sites and the experimental methodology. Temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) temporal and spatial variability was also studied at the sites. Additionally, transects of land surface temperature were carried out with Cimel Electronique CE312 6-band radiometers concurrently with thermal-infrared (TIR) satellite overpasses. In previous works, we studied the dependence of land surface emissivities on SM. The analysis of concurrent TIR and SM data make possible to evaluate the utility of the SMOS SM product to improve land surface emissivities and temperature determinations from satellite, giving an added value to the research

Geology of La Reforma caldera complex, Baja California, Mexico

A new geological map at 1:50,000 scale of La Reforma Caldera Complex has been produced applying modern survey methodologies to volcanic areas. This map aims to represent a reliable and objective tool to understand the geological evolution of the region. La Reforma Caldera Complex is a Pleistocene nested caldera located in the central part of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. The twelve formations defined within the Quaternary volcanic record were grouped into three phases (pre-caldera, caldera, and post-caldera). The pre-caldera phase (>1.35 Ma) is characterized by scattered eruptions, mostly occurred in submarine environment. The caldera phase (1.35–0.96 Ma) groups several distinct explosive and effusive eruptions that formed the present-day caldera depression. The post caldera phase includes scattered effusive eruptions (ended at 0.28 Ma) and resurgence, characterized by several hundred meters of uplift of the central block within the caldera depression