Physiological levels of nitrate support anoxic growth by denitrification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa at growth rates reported in cystic fibrosis lungs and sputum

© 2014 Line, Alhede, Kolpen, Kuhl, Ciofu, Bjarnsholt, Moser, Toyofuku, Nomura, H0i'by and Jensen. Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection is the most severe complication in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The infection is characterised by the formation of biofilm surrounded by numerous polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and strong O2 depletion in the endobronchial mucus. We have reported that O2 is mainly consumed by the activated PMNs, while O2 consumption by aerobic respiration is diminutive and nitrous oxide (N2O) is produced in infected CF sputum. This suggests that the reported growth rates ofP. aeruginosa in lungs and sputum may result from anaerobic respiration using denitrification. The growth rate of P. aeruginosa achieved by denitrification at physiological levels (~400 μM) of nitrate (NO3-) is however, not known. Therefore, we have measured growth rates of anoxic cultures of PAO1 and clinical isolates (n = 12) in LB media supplemented with NO3- and found a significant increase of growth when supplementing PAO1 and clinical isolates with > 150 μM NO3- and 100 μM NO3-, respectively. An essential contribution to growth by denitrification was demonstrated by the inability to establish a significantly increased growth rate by a denitrification deficient ΔnirS-N mutant at <1 mM of NO3-. Activation of denitrification could be achieved by supplementation with as little as 62.5 μM of NO3- according to the significant production of N2O by the nitrous oxide reductase deficient ΔnosZ mutant. Studies of the promoter activity, gene transcripts and enzyme activity of the four N-oxide reductases in PAO1 (Nar, Nir, Nor, Nos) further verified the engagement of denitrification, showing a transient increase in activation and expression and rapid consumption of NO3- followed by a transient increase of NO2-. Growth rates obtained by denitrification in this study were comparable to our reported growth rates in the majority of P. aeruginosa cells in CF lungs and sputum. Thus, we have demonstrated that denitrification is required for P. aeruginosa growth in infected endobronchial CF mucus

Giant ambipolar Rashba effect in a semiconductor: BiTeI

We observe a giant spin-orbit splitting in bulk and surface states of the non-centrosymmetric semiconductor BiTeI. We show that the Fermi level can be placed in the valence or in the conduction band by controlling the surface termination. In both cases it intersects spin-polarized bands, in the corresponding surface depletion and accumulation layers. The momentum splitting of these bands is not affected by adsorbate-induced changes in the surface potential. These findings demonstrate that two properties crucial for enabling semiconductor-based spin electronics -- a large, robust spin splitting and ambipolar conduction -- are present in this material.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Pseudo-boundaries in discontinuous 2-dimensional maps

It is known that Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser boundaries appear in sufficiently smooth 2-dimensional area-preserving maps. When such boundaries are destroyed, they become pseudo-boundaries. We show that pseudo-boundaries can also be found in discontinuous maps. The origin of these pseudo-boundaries are groups of chains of islands which separate parts of the phase space and need to be crossed in order to move between the different sub-spaces. Trajectories, however, do not easily cross these chains, but tend to propagate along them. This type of behavior is demonstrated using a ``generalized'' Fermi map.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Revtex, epsf, submitted to Physical Review E (as a brief report

Self-pulsing effect in chaotic scattering

We study the quantum and classical scattering of Hamiltonian systems whose chaotic saddle is described by binary or ternary horseshoes. We are interested in parameters of the system for which a stable island, associated with the inner fundamental periodic orbit of the system exists and is large, but chaos around this island is well developed. In this situation, in classical systems, decay from the interaction region is algebraic, while in quantum systems it is exponential due to tunneling. In both cases, the most surprising effect is a periodic response to an incoming wave packet. The period of this self-pulsing effect or scattering echoes coincides with the mean period, by which the scattering trajectories rotate around the stable orbit. This period of rotation is directly related to the development stage of the underlying horseshoe. Therefore the predicted echoes will provide experimental access to topological information. We numerically test these results in kicked one dimensional models and in open billiards.Comment: Submitted to New Journal of Physics. Two movies (not included) and full-resolution figures are available at http://www.cicc.unam.mx/~mejia

Beyond locutionary denotations: exploring trust between practitioners and policy

This study reports the findings of a research on the trust relationship between practitioners in the Skills for Life (SfL) area and the policy that informs their practice. The exploration of this relationship was premised on an extended notion of trust relationship which draws from the Speech Act theory of Austin (1962; Searle 1969; Kissine 2008), leading to the claim that the existence of different layers of imports in textual analysis makes it possible for a trust relationship to exist between the human/physical and the non human/non physical. The study found that the majority of practitioners in the SfL field trust policy to deliver its inherent policy only to a limited extent. Amongst others, the study identified the impact of the perlocutionary import of policy text on practitioners as a viable reason for this limited level of trust. Such perlocutionary imports, it also found, have adverse impact on practitioners who are considered to have drawn from previous experience to mediate the import of contemporary policies

Mixmaster universe in Horava-Lifshitz gravity

We consider spatially homogeneous (but generally non-isotropic) cosmologies in the recently proposed Horava-Lifshitz gravity and compare them to those of general relativity using Hamiltonian methods. In all cases, the problem is described by an effective point particle moving in a potential well with exponentially steep walls. Focusing on the closed-space cosmological model (Bianchi type IX), the mixmaster dynamics is now completely dominated by the quadratic Cotton tensor potential term for very small volume of the universe. Unlike general relativity, where the evolution towards the initial singularity always exhibits chaotic behavior with alternating Kasner epochs, the anisotropic universe in Horava-Lifshitz gravity (with parameter lambda > 1/3) is described by a particle moving in a frozen potential well with fixed (but arbitrary) energy E. Alternating Kasner epochs still provide a good description of the early universe for very large E, but the evolution appears to be non-ergodic. For very small E there are harmonic oscillations around the fully isotropic model. The question of chaos remains open for intermediate energy levels.Comment: 1+35 pages, 4 figure

Cells' Flow and Immune Cell Priming under alternating g-forces in Parabolic Flight

Gravitational stress in general and microgravity (mu g) in particular are regarded as major stress factors responsible for immune system dysfunction in space. To assess the effects of alternating mu g and hypergravity (hyper-g) on immune cells, the attachment of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to adhesion molecules under flow conditions and the antigen-induced immune activation in whole blood were investigated in parabolic flight (PF). In contrast to hyper-g (1.8 g) and control conditions (1 g), flow and rolling speed of PBMCs were moderately accelerated during mu g-periods which were accompanied by a clear reduction in rolling rate. Whole blood analyses revealed a "primed" state of monocytes after PF with potentiated antigen-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine responses. At the same time, concentrations of anti-inflammatory cytokines were increased and monocytes displayed a surface molecule pattern that indicated immunosuppression. The results suggest an immunologic counterbalance to avoid disproportionate immune responses. Understanding the interrelation of immune system impairing and enhancing effects under different gravitational conditions may support the design of countermeasures to mitigate immune deficiencies in space

Chaos in Anisotropic Pre-Inflationary Universes

We study the dynamics of anisotropic Bianchi type-IX models with matter and cosmological constant. The models can be thought as describing the role of anisotropy in the early stages of inflation. The concurrence of the cosmological constant and anisotropy are sufficient to produce a chaotic dynamics in the gravitational degrees of freedom, connected to the presence of a critical point of saddle-center type in the phase space of the system. The invariant character of chaos is guaranteed by the topology of the cylinders emanating from unstable periodic orbits in the neighborhood of the saddle-center. We discuss a possible mechanism for amplification of specific wavelengths of inhomogeneous fluctuations in the models. A geometrical interpretation is given for Wald's inequality in terms of invariant tori and their destruction by increasing values of the cosmological constant.Comment: 14 pages, figures available under request. submitted to Physical Review

Theory of Circle Maps and the Problem of One-Dimensional Optical Resonator with a Periodically Moving Wall

We consider the electromagnetic field in a cavity with a periodically oscillating perfectly reflecting boundary and show that the mathematical theory of circle maps leads to several physical predictions. Notably, well-known results in the theory of circle maps (which we review briefly) imply that there are intervals of parameters where the waves in the cavity get concentrated in wave packets whose energy grows exponentially. Even if these intervals are dense for typical motions of the reflecting boundary, in the complement there is a positive measure set of parameters where the energy remains bounded.Comment: 34 pages LaTeX (revtex) with eps figures, PACS: 02.30.Jr, 42.15.-i, 42.60.Da, 42.65.Y