CsrA impacts survival of Yersinia enterocolitica by affecting a myriad of physiological activities.

BackgroundA previous study identified a Yersinia enterocolitica transposon mutant, GY448, that was unable to export the flagellar type three secretion system (T3SS)-dependent phospholipase, YplA. This strain was also deficient for motility and unable to form colonies on Lauria-Bertani agar medium. Preliminary analysis suggested it carried a mutation in csrA. CsrA in Escherichia coli is an RNA-binding protein that is involved in specific post-transcriptional regulation of a myriad of physiological activities. This study investigated how CsrA affects expression of the flagellar regulatory cascade that controls YplA export and motility. It also explored the effect of csrA mutation on Y. enterocolitica in response to conditions that cue physiological changes important for growth in environments found both in nature and the laboratory.ResultsThe precise location of the transposon insertion in GMY448 was mapped within csrA. Genetic complementation restored disruptions in motility and the YplA export phenotype (Yex), which confirmed this mutation disrupted CsrA function. Mutation of csrA affected expression of yplA and flagellar genes involved in flagellar T3SS dependent export and motility by altering expression of the master regulators flhDC. Mutation of csrA also resulted in increased sensitivity of Y. enterocolitica to various osmolytes, temperatures and antibiotics.ConclusionsThe results of this study reveal unique aspects of how CsrA functions in Y. enterocolitica to control its physiology. This provides perspective on how the Csr system is susceptible to adaptation to particular environments and bacterial lifestyles

On the soldering techniques of gold objects from the Boma site, Xinjiang, China

The soldering techniques used in ancient goldwork are of great interesting for scholars from various disciplines. In this paper, the soldering techniques of the 3rd to 5th century CE gold artefacts from the Boma site in Xinijang are investigated based on micro-analysis of cross-section samples. The results show that Au-Ag-Cu ternary alloy with high silver and copper content was used as solder material for connecting gold wire onto the arm armor, while copper salt bonding was used for the granulation of the finger ring and scabbard. The unusually slight compositional differences in the joining areas of the Boma granulation samples remind us of their complicated heat treatment, a crucial aspect for the understanding of ancient goldsmithing to which more attention needs to be paid

Characterization of a wheat HSP70 gene and its expression in response to stripe rust infection and abiotic stresses

Members of the family of 70-kD heat shock proteins (HSP70 s) play various stress-protective roles in plants. In this study, a wheat HSP70 gene was isolated from a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) cDNA library of wheat leaves infected by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. The gene, that was designated as TaHSC70, was predicted to encode a protein of 690 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 73.54 KDa and a pI of 5.01. Further analysis revealed the presence of a conserved signature that is characteristic for HSP70s and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that TaHSC70 is a homolog of chloroplast HSP70s. TaHSC70 mRNA was present in leaves of both green and etiolated wheat seedlings and in stems and roots. The transcript level in roots was approximately threefold less than in leaves but light–dark treatment did not charge TaHSC70 expression. Following heat shock of wheat seedlings at 40°C, TaHSC70 expression increased in leaves of etiolated seedlings but remained stable at the same level in green seedlings. In addition, TaHSC70 was differentially expressed during an incompatible and compatible interaction with wheat-stripe rust, and there was a transient increase in expression upon treatment with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment. Salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET) and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments had no influence on TaHSC70 expression. These results suggest that TaHSC70 plays a role in stress-related responses, and in defense responses elicited by infection with stripe rust fungus and does so via a JA-dependent signal transduction pathway

Triple sign reversal of Hall effect in HgBa_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{6} thin films after heavy-ion irradiations

Triple sign reversal in the mixed-state Hall effect has been observed for the first time in ion-irradiated HgBa_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{6} thin films. The negative dip at the third sign reversal is more pronounced for higher fields, which is opposite to the case of the first sign reversal near T_c in most high-T_c superconductors. These observations can be explained by a recent prediction in which the third sign reversal is attributed to the energy derivative of the density of states and to a temperature-dependent function related to the superconducting energy gap. These contributions prominently appear in cases where the mean free path is significantly decreased, such as our case of ion-irradiated thin films.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figures, submitted Phys. Rev. Let

Provenance analysis for instagram photos

As a feasible device fingerprint, sensor pattern noise (SPN) has been proven to be effective in the provenance analysis of digital images. However, with the rise of social media, millions of images are being uploaded to and shared through social media sites every day. An image downloaded from social networks may have gone through a series of unknown image manipulations. Consequently, the trustworthiness of SPN has been challenged in the provenance analysis of the images downloaded from social media platforms. In this paper, we intend to investigate the effects of the pre-defined Instagram images filters on the SPN-based image provenance analysis. We identify two groups of filters that affect the SPN in quite different ways, with Group I consisting of the filters that severely attenuate the SPN and Group II consisting of the filters that well preserve the SPN in the images. We further propose a CNN-based classifier to perform filter-oriented image categorization, aiming to exclude the images manipulated by the filters in Group I and thus improve the reliability of the SPN-based provenance analysis. The results on about 20, 000 images and 18 filters are very promising, with an accuracy higher than 96% in differentiating the filters in Group I and Group II

The Role of Celebrities’ Personality Traits & Endorsement on Consumers’ Online Brand Defending and Purchase Behaviour

Celebrity endorsements are widely adopted as part of the marketing strategies for many brands, given celebrities can engage their fans to patronize the brand and to distribute celebrity-featuring promotion messages online. With the proliferation of the Internet, these fans may also defend their beloved celebrities when they are being attacked. However, whether a consumer’s positive attitude to the endorser would impact their behaviour toward the endorsed brand remains unclear. Qualitatively studying based on a few leading online communities, we explored the impact of attitude towards brand-endorsing celebrities on online consumers’ behaviour (likelihood of brand defending and purchase intention), which would foster the brand’s electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). We also identified several endorsers’ traits that drive consumers’ attitudes towards brand-endorsing celebrities and the role of exposure frequency of celebrity-featured advertisements on consumers’ attitudes towards the endorsed brand

Cloning, purification and characterization of recombinant silkworm arginine kinase expressed in Escherichia coli

Arginine kinase (AK) is a major invertebrate phosphagen kinase that catalyzes the reversible transfer of high energy phosphoryl group of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to arginine, yielding phosphoarginine and adenosine diphosphate. In this study, the 1068 bp open reading frame of a putative Bombyx mori arginine kinase gene (BmAK) was amplified from a pool of B. mori cDNAs and inserted into the prokaryotic expression plasmid pET-28a(+). The recombinant His-tagged BmAK protein was expressed in soluble form in Escherichia coli Rosetta and purified by metal chelating affinity chromatography. The amino acid sequence of recombinant protein was confirmed by mass spectroscopic analysis and the enzyme activity assay that indicated the recombinant protein was able to transfer the gamma phosphoryl group of ATP to arginine.Key words: Arginine kinase, recombinant protein, enzymatic activity