Virulence Traits of Inpatient Campylobacter jejuni Isolates, and a Transcriptomic Approach to Identify Potential Genes Maintaining Intracellular Survival

There are still major gaps in our understanding of the bacterial factors that influence the outcomes of human Campylobacter jejuni infection. The aim of this study was to compare the virulence-associated features of 192 human C. jejuni strains isolated from hospitalized patients with diarrhoea (150/192, 78.1%), bloody diarrhoea (23/192, 11.9%), gastroenteritis (3/192, 1.6%), ulcerative colitis (3/192, 1.5%), and stomach ache (2/192, 1.0%). Traits were analysed with genotypic and phenotypic methods, including PCR and extracellular matrix protein (ECMP) binding, adhesion, and invasion capacities. Results were studied alongside patient symptoms, but no distinct links with them could be determined. Since the capacity of C. jejuni to invade host epithelial cells is one of its most enigmatic attributes, a high throughput transcriptomic analysis was performed in the third hour of internalization with a C. jejuni strain originally isolated from bloody diarrhoea. Characteristic groups of genes were significantly upregulated, outlining a survival strategy of internalized C. jejuni comprising genes related (1) to oxidative stress; (2) to a protective sheath formed by the capsule, LOS, N-, and O- glycosylation systems; (3) to dynamic metabolic activity supported by different translocases and the membrane-integrated component of the flagellar apparatus; and (4) to hitherto unknown genes

Antibacterial Effect of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) against the Aetiological Agents of Pitted Keratolyis

Pitted keratolysis (PK) is a bacterial skin infection mostly affecting the pressure-bearing areas of the soles, causing unpleasant symptoms. Antibiotics are used for therapy, but the emergence of antiobiotic resistance, makes the application of novel topical therapeutic agents necessary. The antibacterial effects of 12 EOs were compared in the first part of this study against the three known aetiological agents of PK (Kytococcus sedentarius, Dermatophilus congolensis and Bacillus thuringiensis). The results of the minimal inhibitory concentration, minimal bactericidal concentration and spore-formation inhibition tests revealed that lemongrass was the most effective EO against all three bacterium species and was therefore chosen for further analysis. Seventeen compounds were identified with solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-MS) analysis while thin-layer chromatography combined with direct bioautography (TLC-BD) was used to detect the presence of antibacterially active compounds. Citral showed a characteristic spot at the Rf value of 0.47, while the HS-SPME/GC-MS analysis of an unknown spot with strong antibacterial activity revealed the presence of α-terpineol, γ-cadinene and calamenene. Of these, α-terpineol was confirmed to possess an antimicrobial effect on all three bacterium species associated with PK. Our study supports the hypothesis that, based on their spectrum, EO-based formulations have potent antibacterial effects against PK and warrant further investigation as topical therapeutics

DIMA - Annotation Guidelines for German Intonation

Kügler F, Smolibocki B, Arnold D, et al. DIMA - Annotation Guidelines for German Intonation. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, Scotland; 2015: 317.This paper presents newly developed guidelines for prosodic annotation of German as a consensus system agreed upon by German intonologists. The DIMA system is rooted in the framework of autosegmental-metrical phonology. One important goal of the consensus is to make exchanging data between groups easier since German intonation is currently annotated according to different models. To this end, we aim to provide guidelines that are easy to learn. The guidelines were evaluated running an inter-annotator reliability study on three different speech styles (read speech, monologue and dialogue). The overall high κ between 0.76 and 0.89 (depending on the speech style) shows that the DIMA conventions can be applied successfully

DIMA - Annotation Guidelines for German Intonation

Kügler F, Smolibocki B, Arnold D, et al. DIMA - Annotation Guidelines for German Intonation. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, Scotland; 2015: 317.This paper presents newly developed guidelines for prosodic annotation of German as a consensus system agreed upon by German intonologists. The DIMA system is rooted in the framework of autosegmental-metrical phonology. One important goal of the consensus is to make exchanging data between groups easier since German intonation is currently annotated according to different models. To this end, we aim to provide guidelines that are easy to learn. The guidelines were evaluated running an inter-annotator reliability study on three different speech styles (read speech, monologue and dialogue). The overall high κ between 0.76 and 0.89 (depending on the speech style) shows that the DIMA conventions can be applied successfully

Identification of regulatory variants associated with genetic susceptibility to meningococcal disease.

Non-coding genetic variants play an important role in driving susceptibility to complex diseases but their characterization remains challenging. Here, we employed a novel approach to interrogate the genetic risk of such polymorphisms in a more systematic way by targeting specific regulatory regions relevant for the phenotype studied. We applied this method to meningococcal disease susceptibility, using the DNA binding pattern of RELA - a NF-kB subunit, master regulator of the response to infection - under bacterial stimuli in nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. We designed a custom panel to cover these RELA binding sites and used it for targeted sequencing in cases and controls. Variant calling and association analysis were performed followed by validation of candidate polymorphisms by genotyping in three independent cohorts. We identified two new polymorphisms, rs4823231 and rs11913168, showing signs of association with meningococcal disease susceptibility. In addition, using our genomic data as well as publicly available resources, we found evidences for these SNPs to have potential regulatory effects on ATXN10 and LIF genes respectively. The variants and related candidate genes are relevant for infectious diseases and may have important contribution for meningococcal disease pathology. Finally, we described a novel genetic association approach that could be applied to other phenotypes

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

DIMA – Annotation guidelines for German intonation

This paper presents newly developed guidelines for prosodic annotation of German as a consensus system agreed upon by German intonologists. The DIMA system is rooted in the framework of autosegmental-metrical phonology. One important goal of the consensus is to make exchanging data between groups easier since German intonation is currently annotated according to different models. To this end, we aim to provide guidelines that are easy to learn. The guidelines were evaluated running an inter-annotator reliability study on three different speech styles (read speech, monologue and dialogue). The overall high κ between 0.76 and 0.89 (depending on the speech style) shows that the DIMA conventions can be applied successfully

Restricted unlimited domain synthesis

This paper describes the hybrid unit selection strategy for restricted domain synthesis in the SmartKom dialog system. Restricted domains are characterized as being biased toward domain specific utterances while being unlimited in terms of vocabulary size. This entails that unit selection in restricted domains must deal with both domain specific and open-domain material. The strategy presented here combines the advantages of two existing unit selection approaches, motivated by the claim that the phonological structure matching approach is advantageous for domain specific parts of utterances, while the acoustic clustering algorithm is more appropriate for opendomain material. This dichotomy is also reflected in the speech database, which consists of a domain specific and an opendomain part. The text material for the open-domain part was constructed to optimize coverage of diphones and phonemes in different contexts. 1

Unit SelectionSynthesisin the SmartWeb Project

This paper describesthree aspectsof the unit selectionsynthesis used in the SmartWeb dialog system. The synthesismodule has been implementedin the IMS GermanFestival speechsynthesis system. First, we comparea unit selectionstrategy developed in the course of the projectto a strategy developed earlier. Second, we discuss our experiences with F0 smoothing and amplitude modeling, which were both devised to reduce audible discontinuities. However, the results are inconclusive so far. Finally, we sketch a simple mechanism that addresses the problem of language disambiguationfor proper names. 1

Antimicrobial Efficacy and Spectrum of Phosphorous-Fluorine Co-Doped TiO2 Nanoparticles on the Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella Typhimurium, Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, Shewanella putrefaciens, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus

Contamination of meats and meat products with foodborne pathogenic bacteria raises serious safety issues in the food industry. The antibacterial activities of phosphorous-fluorine co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (PF-TiO2) were investigated against seven foodborne pathogenic bacteria: Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella Typhimurium, Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, Shewanella putrefaciens, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus. PF-TiO2 NPs were synthesized hydrothermally at 250 °C for 1, 3, 6 or 12 h, and then tested at three different concentrations (500 μg/mL, 100 μg/mL, 20 μg/mL) for the inactivation of foodborne bacteria under UVA irradiation, daylight exposure or dark conditions. The antibacterial efficacies were compared after 30 min of exposure to light. Distinct differences in the antibacterial activities of the PF-TiO2 NPs, and the susceptibilities of tested foodborne pathogenic bacterium species were found. PF-TiO2/3 h and PF-TiO2/6 h showed the highest antibacterial activity by decreasing the living bacterial cell number from ~106 by ~5 log (L. monocytogenes), ~4 log (EHEC), ~3 log (Y. enterolcolitca, S. putrefaciens) and ~2.5 log (S. aureus), along with complete eradication of C. jejuni and S. Typhimurium. Efficacy of PF-TiO2/1 h and PF-TiO2/12 h NPs was lower, typically causing a ~2–4 log decrease in colony forming units depending on the tested bacterium while the effect of PF-TiO2/0 h was comparable to P25 TiO2, a commercial TiO2 with high photocatalytic activity. Our results show that PF-co-doping of TiO2 NPs enhanced the antibacterial action against foodborne pathogenic bacteria and are potential candidates for use in the food industry as active surface components, potentially contributing to the production of meats that are safe for consumption