Establishing rod shape from spherical, peptidoglycan-deficient bacterial spores

International audienceChemical-induced spores of the Gram-negative bacterium Myxococcus xanthus are peptidoglycan (PG)-deficient. It is unclear how these spherical spores germinate into rod-shaped, walled cells without preexisting PG templates. We found that germinating spores first synthesize PG randomly on spherical surfaces. MglB, a GTPase-activating protein, forms a cluster that responds to the status of PG growth and stabilizes at one future cell pole. Following MglB, the Ras family GTPase MglA localizes to the second pole. MglA directs molecular motors to transport the bacterial actin homolog MreB and the Rod PG synthesis complexes away from poles. The Rod system establishes rod shape de novo by elongating PG at nonpolar regions. Thus, similar to eukaryotic cells, the interactions between GTPase, cytoskeletons, and molecular motors initiate spontaneous polarization in bacteria

Research on Users’ Privacy-Sharing Intentions in the Health Data Tracking System Providing Personalized Services and Public Services

The utilization of user privacy data in the health data tracking system (HDTS) offers numerous benefits for businesses and public services, contingent upon users’ privacy sharing intentions. However, previous research neglected users’ preferences for public services and focused mainly on personalized services. Additionally, traditional privacy calculus theory has a limited focus on data security, leaving gaps in understanding individual and societal aspects. This study aims to fill these gaps by examining the influence of risk perception and factors like potential loss expectations, perceived personalized service benefits, group value identification, perceived public service utility, and perceived privacy on privacy sharing intentions in the context of personalized and public services. The results indicate a positive relationship between individual privacy protection perception and data sharing intention, as well as a positive relationship between group value identification and perceived public service utility with individuals’ privacy sharing intentions. Moreover, this research uncovers the moderating effect of information type sensitivity on the impact of perceived privacy and perceived public service utility on privacy sharing intentions, while there is no moderating effect of information type sensitivity on the relationship between group value identification and privacy sharing intentions. We recommend improving individual privacy education, ensuring data use transparency, and fostering identification with common group values to increase users’ privacy sharing intentions

Acute kidney injury in China: a cross-sectional survey

Summary Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) has become a worldwide public health problem, but little information is available about the disease burden in China. We aimed to evaluate the burden of AKI and assess the availability of diagnosis and treatment in China