A systematic review and meta-analysis of the epidemiology of pathogenic Escherichia coli of calves and the role of calves as reservoirs for human pathogenic E. coli

Escherichia coli bacteria are the most common causes of diarrhea and septicemia in calves. Moreover, calves form a major reservoir for transmission of pathogenic E. coli to humans. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of publications on Escherichia coli as calf pathogens and the role of calves as reservoir have not been done so far. We reviewed studies between 1951 and 2013 reporting the presence of virulence associated factors (VAFs) in calf E. coli and extracted the following information: year(s) and country of sampling, animal number, health status, isolate number, VAF prevalence, serotypes, diagnostic methods and biological assays. The prevalence of VAFs or E. coli pathotypes was compared between healthy and diarrheic animals and was analysed for time courses. Together, 106 papers with 25982 E. coli isolates from 27 countries tested for VAFs were included. F5, F17 and F41 fimbriae and heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) – VAFs of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) were significantly associated with calf diarrhea. On the contrary, ETEC VAF F4 fimbriae and heat-labile enterotoxin as well as enteropathogenic (EPEC), Shiga toxin-producing (STEC), and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) were not associated with diarrhea. The prevalence increased overtime for ST-positive isolates, but decreased for F5- and STEC-positive isolates. Our study provides useful information about the history of scientific investigations performed in this domain so far, and helps to define etiological agents of calf disease, and to evaluate calves as reservoir hosts for human pathogenic E. coli

Morfologiczne i funkcjonalne efekty treningu oporowego i wysokiej aktywności fizycznej o charakterze rekreacyjnym u młodych mężczyzn

The influence of different types of physical activity on body composition, muscle function, bones and joints is indisputable. It also shapes physical efficiency in different periods of ontogenesis. The aim of this research was to evaluate the morphological and functional effects of the resistance training used by amateur bodybuilders, with reference to subjects declaring high physical activity of different type performed as recreation. Research data was taken from the measurement of 31 amateur bodybuilders and 33 students attending the University School of Physical Education, who declared high physical activity of recreational type. The age of the subjects ranged from 21 to 24 years old. The anthropometric features were examined. Fat mass was assessed on the basis on the skinfolds thickness. The level of three body build components: endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy were determined with used of Sheldon method. In order to compute static strength in forearm muscles, researchers measured the handgrip of right and left hands. The examined group of students and bodybuilders did not reveal any statistically significant differences in mean body height and components, e.g. length of trunk and lower limbs. However, observable differences were recorded in reference to body mass, which was higher for the group of bodybuilders. The bodybuilders were characterised by significantly wider shoulders and chest. Also, the values of wrist and knee bone breadth were higher in comparison to the group of students. The two groups differed distinctly in muscle development within the upper trunk area, shoulder girdle and upper limbs. Endomorphy and mesomorphy obtained higher values in bodybuilders, while in students they were characterised by greater body slenderness. Handgrip strength was significantly higher for bodybuilders. The research confirmed that both recreational physical activities (jogging, swimming, cycling) and resistance training have a positive influence on the correct body composition and improvement of respiratory and strength capabilities.Różnorodne ćwiczenia fizyczne mają znaczący wpływ na skład ciała, funkcjonowanie mięśni, kości i stawów oraz kształtowanie wydolności fizycznej człowieka w różnych okresach ontogenezy. Celem podjętych badań była ocena efektów morfologicznych i funkcjonalnych treningu oporowego stosowanego przez kulturystów amatorów na tle osób deklarujących wysoką aktywność fizyczną o charakterze rekreacyjnym. Materiał badawczy stanowią wyniki pomiarów 31 kulturystów amatorów oraz 33 studentów Akademii Wychowania Fizycznego, którzy deklarowali wysoką aktywność fizyczną o charakterze rekreacyjnym. Wiek badanych mieści się w przedziale 21-24 lata. Do badań uwzględniono cechy antropometryczne (wysokości, szerokości, obwody i fałdy skórno-tłuszczowe). Zawartość tłuszczu określono metodą antropometryczną. Określono poziom rozwoju trzech komponentów budowy: endomorfii, mezomorfii i ektomorfii. Zmierzono także siłę ścisku ręki prawej i lewej, która określa siłę statyczną mięśni przedramienia. Średnia wysokość ciała ani jej składowe, tzn. długość korpusu ciała i kończyn dolnych nie różnią istotnie badanych kulturystów i studentów. Wyraźne różnice występują natomiast w przypadku masy ciała, która kształtuje się na korzyść kulturystów. Kulturyści dominują istotnie nad grupą studentów pod względem szerokości barków, klatki piersiowej oraz szerokości międzyrylcowej i kolanowej. Bardzo wyraźnie różnią obie grupy także cechy opisujące rozwój umięśnienia w obrębie górnej części tułowia, obręczy barkowej i kończyn górnych. Endomorfia i mezomorfia osiągają wyższe wartości u kulturystów. Natomiast studenci charakteryzują się większą smukłością ciała. Siła ścisku ręki prawej i lewej jest istotnie wyższa u kulturystów. Badania dowiodły, że zarówno systematyczne ćwiczenia fizyczne o charakterze rekreacyjnym (biegi, pływanie, jazda na rowerze), jak i trening oporowy wpływają pozytywnie na kształtowanie się prawidłowych stosunków tkankowych, poprawę sprawności oddechowej oraz możliwości siłowych człowieka

Zmiany budowy ciała i siły u kobiet po okresie 4-miesięcznego treningu judo i treningu siłowego

In judo great significance is attached to the development of strength, which is crucial for performing offensive and defensive actions during fights. Another aspect of strength training is improvement of body build and general physical health of female athletes. The present study aims to estimate the changes of strength and body composition in non-elite female judoists from academic sports clubs after a combined judo and strength training program.The study examined changes in body build and muscle strength in 20 female judoists participating in judo training and additional adaptive strength training. The anthropometric, physical and motoric measurements were performed twice at four months interval, before and after a combined training program.After the completion of the training program, significant increases of about 10 kg in back muscle strength and of about 2 kg in hand grip strength were noted. No increases in muscle mass and body girths were observed; however, fat mass decreased for about 0.6 kg, which was additionally confirmed by skinfolds thickness measurements. Body mass and BMI remained unchanged. The analysis using Sheldon’s somatotypes revealed a tendency towards lower endomorphy among the studied judoists after four months training period. The results of the present study indicate that even experienced but non-elite academic female judoists could improve their back muscle strength, handgrip strength, and body composition by completing the proposed strength training program along with judo training.Rozwój siły mięśniowej jest ważnym elementem treningu judo, ponieważ duża siła umożliwia zdobycie przewagi nad przeciwnikiem podczas walki. Ważnym aspektem treningu siłowego jest też poprawa budowy ciała i ogólnego zdrowia fizycznego zawodniczek. Prezentowane badania mają na celu ocenę zmian w budowie ciała i sile zawodniczek judo z akademickich klubów sportowych pod wpływem dodatkowego treningu siłowego.Badano zmiany w masywności ciała i składzie tkan-kowym ciała u 20 zawodniczek judo średniej klasy przed i po okresie 4-miesięcznego treningu siłowego prowadzonego metodą adaptacyjną według Stefaniaka. Zaobserwowano u kobiet zwiększenie siły mięśni grzbietu o10 kg i siły ścisku ręki o2 kg. Nie odnotowano istotnego zwiększenia masy mięśniowej ani obwodów mięśniowych zawodniczek, natomiast masa tłuszczu zmniejszyła się średnio o0.6 kg. Po okresie treningu siłowego zaobserwowano u zawodniczek judo także zmniejszenie grubości fałdów skórno-tłusz-czowych. Także analiza somatotypów metodą Sheldona wykazała nieznaczne zmniejszenie endomorfii. Ogólna masywność ciała (BMI) pozostała na stałym poziomie.Wyniki badań wskazują, że zastosowanie dodatkowego treningu siłowego u judoczek skutkuje poprawą siły mięśni grzbietu i siły ścisku ręki, a także składu tkankowego ciała. Zmiany takie są pożądane zarówno pod względem efektów sportowych jak też ogólnego zdrowia zawodniczek

Identification of amyloidogenic proteins in the microbiomes of a rat Parkinson's disease model and wild-type rats

Cross seeding between amyloidogenic proteins in the gut is receiving increasing attention as a possible mechanism for initiation or acceleration of amyloid formation by aggregation‐prone proteins such as αSN, which is central in the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). This is particularly pertinent in view of the growing number of functional (i.e., benign and useful) amyloid proteins discovered in bacteria. Here we identify two amyloidogenic proteins, Pr12 and Pr17, in fecal matter from PD transgenic rats and their wild type counterparts, based on their stability against dissolution by formic acid (FA). Both proteins show robust aggregation into ThT‐positive aggregates that contain higher‐order β‐sheets and have a fibrillar morphology, indicative of amyloid proteins. In addition, Pr17 aggregates formed in vitro showed significant resistance against FA, suggesting an ability to form highly stable amyloid. Treatment with proteinase K revealed a protected core of approx. 9 kDa. Neither Pr12 nor Pr17, however, affected αSN aggregation in vitro. Thus, amyloidogenicity does not per se lead to an ability to cross‐seed fibrillation of αSN. Our results support the use of proteomics and FA to identify amyloidogenic protein in complex mixtures and suggests that there may be numerous functional amyloid proteins in microbiomes

Long-term Changes in Body Build of Male and Female Judo Competitors

The aim of the study was to determine if changes in the body build of judo athletes over a time span of 20 years are in line with trends described in the literature. Anthropometry of 60 male and 46 female judokas was performed. Data was collected from two cohorts: the first involved 30 males and 23 females measured in 1994–1995 and the second 30 males and 23 females in 2013. Anthropometric profiles included measurements of skinfolds, height, weight, and body and segment lengths, breadths, and girths. Although relatively identical heights and weights were found between the cohorts, significant differences were detected for body proportion measures. Males in 1994–1995 showed a significantly longer trunk, wider shoulders and hips, and more subcutaneous adipose tissue than the 2013 cohort. Females in 1994–1995 showed a shorter trunk, larger diameters of the trunk in relation to body height, and significantly lower skinfold thicknesses than the 2013 cohort. The direction of changes in the physical characteristics of judokas should be taken into consideration by coaches during training. Combat techniques should be adapted to the morphological traits of the athletes to achieve success and minimize the risk of overloading or injury

Identification of Natural Mutations Responsible for Altered Infection Phenotypes of Salmonella enterica Clinical Isolates by Using Cell Line Infection Screens.

The initial steps of Salmonella pathogenesis involve adhesion to and invasion into host epithelial cells. While well-studied for Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, the factors contributing to this process in other, host-adapted serovars remains unexplored. Here, we screened clinical isolates of serovars Gallinarum, Dublin, Choleraesuis, Typhimurium, and Enteritidis for adhesion to and invasion into intestinal epithelial cell lines of human, porcine, and chicken origins. Thirty isolates with altered infectivity were used for genomic analyses, and 14 genes and novel mutations associated with high or low infectivity were identified. The functions of candidate genes included virulence gene expression regulation and cell wall or membrane synthesis and components. The role of several of these genes in Salmonella adhesion to and invasion into cells has not previously been investigated. The genes dksA (encoding a stringent response regulator) and sanA (encoding a vancomycin high-temperature exclusion protein) were selected for further analyses, and we confirmed their roles in adhesion to and invasion into host cells. Furthermore, transcriptomic analyses were performed for S Enteritidis and S Typhimurium, with two highly infective and two marginally infective isolates for each serovar. Expression profiles for the isolates with altered infection phenotypes revealed the importance of type 3 secretion system expression levels in the determination of an isolate's infection phenotype. Taken together, these data indicate a new role in cell host infection for genes or gene variants previously not associated with adhesion to and invasion into the epithelial cells.IMPORTANCESalmonella is a foodborne pathogen affecting over 200 million people and resulting in over 200,000 fatal cases per year. Its adhesion to and invasion into intestinal epithelial cells represent one of the first and key steps in the pathogenesis of salmonellosis. Still, around 35 to 40% of bacterial genes have no experimentally validated function, and their contribution to bacterial virulence, including adhesion and invasion, remains largely unknown. Therefore, the significance of this study is in the identification of new genes or gene allelic variants previously not associated with adhesion and invasion. It is well established that blocking adhesion and/or invasion would stop or hamper bacterial infection; therefore, the new findings from this study could be used in future developments of anti-Salmonella therapy targeting genes involved in these key processes. Such treatment could be a valuable alternative, as the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is increasing very rapidly

Benchmarks in antimicrobial peptide prediction are biased due to the selection of negative data

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a heterogeneous group of short polypeptides that target not only microorganisms but also viruses and cancer cells. Due to their lower selection for resistance compared with traditional antibiotics, AMPs have been attracting the ever-growing attention from researchers, including bioinformaticians. Machine learning represents the most cost-effective method for novel AMP discovery and consequently many computational tools for AMP prediction have been recently developed. In this article, we investigate the impact of negative data sampling on model performance and benchmarking. We generated 660 predictive models using 12 machine learning architectures, a single positive data set and 11 negative data sampling methods; the architectures and methods were defined on the basis of published AMP prediction software. Our results clearly indicate that similar training and benchmark data set, i.e. produced by the same or a similar negative data sampling method, positively affect model performance. Consequently, all the benchmark analyses that have been performed for AMP prediction models are significantly biased and, moreover, we do not know which model is the most accurate. To provide researchers with reliable information about the performance of AMP predictors, we also created a web server AMPBenchmark for fair model benchmarking. AMP Benchmark is available at http://BioGenies.info/AMPBenchmark

AmyloGraph : a comprehensive database of amyloid-amyloid interactions

Information about the impact of interactions between amyloid proteins on their fibrillization propensity is scattered among many experimental articles and presented in unstructured form. We manually curated information located in almost 200 publications (selected out of 562 initially considered), obtaining details of 883 experimentally studied interactions between 46 amyloid proteins or peptides. We also proposed a novel standardized terminology for the description of amyloid-amyloid interactions, which is included in our database, covering all currently known types of such a cross-talk, including inhibition of fibrillization, cross-seeding and other phenomena. The new approach allows for more specific studies on amyloids and their interactions, by providing very well-defined data. AmyloGraph, an online database presenting information on amyloid-amyloid interactions, is available at (). Its functionalities are also accessible as the R package (). AmyloGraph is the only publicly available repository for experimentally determined amyloid-amyloid interactions

MIRRAGGE – Minimum Information Required for Reproducible AGGregation Experiments

Reports on phase separation and amyloid formation for multiple proteins and aggregation-prone peptides are recurrently used to explore the molecular mechanisms associated with several human diseases. The information conveyed by these reports can be used directly in translational investigation, e.g., for the design of better drug screening strategies, or be compiled in databases for benchmarking novel aggregation-predicting algorithms. Given that minute protocol variations determine different outcomes of protein aggregation assays, there is a strong urge for standardized descriptions of the different types of aggregates and the detailed methods used in their production. In an attempt to address this need, we assembled the Minimum Information Required for Reproducible Aggregation Experiments (MIRRAGGE) guidelines, considering first-principles and the established literature on protein self-assembly and aggregation. This consensus information aims to cover the major and subtle determinants of experimental reproducibility while avoiding excessive technical details that are of limited practical interest for non-specialized users. The MIRRAGGE table (template available in Supplementary Information) is useful as a guide for the design of new studies and as a checklist during submission of experimental reports for publication. Full disclosure of relevant information also enables other researchers to reproduce results correctly and facilitates systematic data deposition into curated databases.This work was supported by (i) the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE 2020—Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT/MCTES) in the framework of grants POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031173, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031323 (“Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences”), UID/Multi/04046/2013 (BioISI) and PTDC/NEUNMC/2138/2014 (to CMG). SV was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BIO2016-78310-R) and by ICREA (ICREA-Academia 2015). ZG and ZB were funded by Slovak research agentures VEGA 02/0145/17, 02/0030/18 and APVV-18-0284. RS was funded by VEGA 02/0163/19. DEO was funded by the Lundbeck Foundation (grant no. R276-2018-671) and the Independent Research Foundation Denmark | Natural Sciences (grant no. 8021-00208B). AP research was supported by UK Dementia Research Institute (RE1 3556) and by ARUK (ARUK-PG2019B-020)