The Gene Ontology Differs in Bursa of Fabricius Between Two Breeds of Ducks Post Hatching by Enriching the Differentially Expressed Genes

<div><p>ABSTRACT The bursa of Fabricius (BF) is the central humoral immune organ unique to birds. The present study investigated the possible difference on a molecular level between two duck breeds. The digital gene expression profiling (DGE) technology was used to enrich the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in BF between the Jianchang and Nonghua-P strains of ducks. DGE data identified 195 DEGs in the bursa. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis suggested that DEGs were mainly enriched in the metabolic pathways and ribosome components. Pathways analysis identified the spliceosome, RNA transport, RNA degradation process, Jak-STAT signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway and B cell receptor signaling pathway. The results indicated that the main difference in the BF between the two duck strains was in the capabilities of protein formation and B cell development. These data have revealed the main divergence in the BF on a molecular level between genetically different duck breeds and may help to perform molecular breeding programs in poultry in the future.</p></div

The burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in the WHO European region in 2019: a cross-country systematic analysis

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents one of the most crucial threats to public health and modern health care. Previous studies have identified challenges with estimating the magnitude of the problem and its downstream effect on human health and mortality. To our knowledge, this study presents the most comprehensive set of regional and country-level estimates of AMR burden in the WHO European region to date.  Methods: We estimated deaths and disability-adjusted life-years attributable to and associated with AMR for 23 bacterial pathogens and 88 pathogen–drug combinations for the WHO European region and its countries in 2019. Our methodological approach consisted of five broad components: the number of deaths in which infection had a role, the proportion of infectious deaths attributable to a given infectious syndrome, the proportion of infectious syndrome deaths attributable to a given pathogen, the percentage of a given pathogen resistant to an antimicrobial drug of interest, and the excess risk of mortality (or duration of an infection) associated with this resistance. These components were then used to estimate the disease burden by using two counterfactual scenarios: deaths attributable to AMR (considering an alternative scenario where infections with resistant pathogens are replaced with susceptible ones) and deaths associated with AMR (considering an alternative scenario where drug-resistant infections would not occur at all). Data were solicited from a wide array of international stakeholders; these included research hospitals, surveillance networks, and infection databases maintained by private laboratories and medical technology companies. We generated 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for final estimates as the 25th and 975th ordered values across 1000 posterior draws, and models were cross-validated for out-of-sample predictive validity.  Findings: We estimated 541 000 deaths (95% UI 370 000–763 000) associated with bacterial AMR and 133 000 deaths (90 100–188 000) attributable to bacterial AMR in the whole WHO European region in 2019. The largest fatal burden of AMR in the region came from bloodstream infections, with 195 000 deaths (104 000–333 000) associated with resistance, followed by intra-abdominal infections (127 000 deaths [81 900–185 000]) and respiratory infections (120 000 deaths [94 500–154 000]). Seven leading pathogens were responsible for about 457 000 deaths associated with resistance in 53 countries of this region; these pathogens were, in descending order of mortality, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumannii. Methicillin-resistant S aureus was shown to be the leading pathogen–drug combination in 27 countries for deaths attributable to AMR, while aminopenicillin-resistant E coli predominated in 47 countries for deaths associated with AMR.  Interpretation: The high levels of resistance for several important bacterial pathogens and pathogen–drug combinations, together with the high mortality rates associated with these pathogens, show that AMR is a serious threat to public health in the WHO European region. Our regional and cross-country analyses open the door for strategies that can be tailored to leading pathogen–drug combinations and the available resources in a specific location. These results underscore that the most effective way to tackle AMR in this region will require targeted efforts and investments in conjunction with continuous outcome-based research endeavours. </p

OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb: The First Spitzer Bulge Planet Lies Near the Planet/Brown-dwarf Boundary

We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which is likely to be the first Spitzer microlensing planet in the Galactic bulge/bar, an assignation that can be confirmed by two epochs of high-resolution imaging of the combined source-lens baseline object. The planet's mass, Mp= 13.4 ± 0.9 MJ, places it right at the deuterium-burning limit, i.e., the conventional boundary between "planets" and "brown dwarfs." Its existence raises the question of whether such objects are really "planets" (formed within the disks of their hosts) or "failed stars" (low-mass objects formed by gas fragmentation). This question may ultimately be addressed by comparing disk and bulge/bar planets, which is a goal of the Spitzer microlens program. The host is a G dwarf, Mhost= 0.89 ± 0.07 Mo, and the planet has a semimajor axis a ∼ 2.0 au. We use Kepler K2 Campaign 9 microlensing data to break the lens-mass degeneracy that generically impacts parallax solutions from Earth-Spitzer observations alone, which is the first successful application of this approach. The microlensing data, derived primarily from near-continuous, ultradense survey observations from OGLE, MOA, and three KMTNet telescopes, contain more orbital information than for any previous microlensing planet, but not quite enough to accurately specify the full orbit. However, these data do permit the first rigorous test of microlensing orbital-motion measurements, which are typically derived from data taken over <1% of an orbital period