Draft Genome Sequence of Gordonia lacunae BS2T

We report here the draft genome sequence of the soil bacterium Gordonia lacunae BS2T ( DSM 45085T JCM 14873T NRRL B-24551T), isolated from an estuary in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. Analysis of the draft genome revealed that more than 40% of the secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes encode new compounds

The Community Water Initiative Fostering Water Security and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

This publication highlights some case studies that illustrate successful projects funded by the Community Water Initiative (CWI), which have helped foster water security in local communities while simultaneously helping them mitigate and adapt to climate change through: (i) Community-based water supply and sanitation services using low-cost systems manageable by communities; (ii) Water resource conservation and sustainable land management to create resilient systems to combat drought and floods; (iii) Providing clean energy for water pumping; and (iv) Capacity building for community-level governance through community water management committees, women’s empowerment, and the establishment of water user fee schemes

Therapeutic nanoproducts: from biology to innovative technology

Proceedings of the Conference Therapeutic nanoproducts: from biology to innovative technology - Rome, 19-20 June 2019 Co-Organized by Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and Associazione Italiana di Colture Cellulari (AICC

Construction of antimicrobial peptide-drug combination networks from scientific literature based on a semi-automated curation workflow

Considerable research efforts are being invested in the development of novel antimicrobial therapies effective against the growing number of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens. Notably, the combination of different agents is increasingly explored as means to exploit and improve individual agent actions while minimising microorganism resistance. Although there are several databases on antimicrobial agents, scientific literature is the primary source of information on experimental antimicrobial combination testing. This work presents a semi-automated database curation workflow that supports the mining of scientific literature and enables the reconstruction of recently documented antimicrobial combinations. Currently, the database contains data on antimicrobial combinations that have been experimentally tested against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Candida albicans, which are prominent pathogenic organisms and are well-known for their wide and growing resistance to conventional antimicrobials. Researchers are able to explore the experimental results for a single organism or across organisms. Likewise, researchers may look into indirect network associations and identify new potential combinations to be tested. The database is available without charges. Database URL: http://sing.ei.uvigo.es/antimicrobialCombination/This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145FEDER-006684), and support by FCT and the European Community fund FEDER, through the Programme COMPETE, under the scope of the Projects AntiPep PTDC/SAU-SAP/113196/2009 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-016012) and RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462). Authors acknowledge the PhD Grant of Paula Jorge, funded by FCT Ref. SFRH/BD/ 88192/2012, and the PhD grants of Martin Pérez-Pérez and Gael Pe´rez-Rodriguez, funded by the University of Vigo. Finally, this study was partially funded by the [15VI013] Contract-Programme from the University of Vigo and the Agrupamento INBIOMED from DXPCTSUG-FEDER unha maneira de facer Europa (2012/273). This document reflects only the authors views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein

Immunisation registers in Italy: a patchwork of computerisation

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Phenotype Characterization of HD Intermediate Alleles in PREDICT-HD

BACKGROUND: Huntington disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a CAG repeat expansion on chromosome 4. Pathology is associated with CAG repeat length. Prior studies examining people in the intermediate allele (IA) range found subtle differences in motor, cognitive, and behavioral domains compared to controls. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine baseline and longitudinal differences in motor, cognitive, behavioral, functional, and imaging outcomes between persons with CAG repeats in three ranges: normal (≤26), intermediate (27-35), and reduced penetrance (36-39). METHODS: We examined longitudinal data from 389 participants in three allele groups: 280 normal controls (NC), 21 intermediate allele [IA], and 88 reduced penetrance [RP]. We used linear mixed models to identify differences in baseline and longitudinal outcomes between groups. Three models were tested: 1) no baseline or longitudinal differences; 2) baseline differences but no longitudinal differences; and 3) baseline and longitudinal differences. RESULTS: Model 1 was the best fitting model for most outcome variables. Models 2 and 3 were best fitting for some of the variables. We found baseline and longitudinal trends of declining performance across increasing CAG repeat length groups, but no significant differences between the NC and IA groups. CONCLUSION: We did not find evidence to support differences in the IA group compared to the NC group. These findings are limited by a small IA sample size

The Safety After Fifty Evaluation trial: Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of antihypertensive therapy with metoprolol in patients 50 to 75 years of age: Study design

Hypertension increases in prevalence with advancing age and is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease in elderly patients. However, the presence of coexisting illness, altered drug metabolism, enhanced susceptibility to drug side effects, and physiologic changes such as reduced plasma volume and lower plasma renin levels make truatment of hypertension in elderly patients more difficult. Nonetheless, several studies have now demonstrated the beneficial effects of antihypertensive drug therapy in older parlents. The Safety After Fifty Evaluation trial was designed to determine the short-term efficacy and tolerabillty of once-daily therapy with the cardioselective [beta]-blocker metoprolol anone or in combination with hydrochlorothiazide in the treatment of mild hypertension in patients 50 to 75 years of age. A total of 24,816 patients were enrolled in the trial by 2821 practicing physicians from across the United States. This article describes the detalls of the Safety After Fiffy Evaluation study design. Results of the trial will be reported separately.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27529/1/0000573.pd

OcculterCut: A comprehensive survey of AT-rich regions in fungal genomes.

We present a novel method to measure the local GC-content bias in genomes and a survey of published fungal species. The method, enacted as "OcculterCut" (https://sourceforge.net/projects/occultercut), identified species containing distinct AT-rich regions. In most fungal taxa, AT-rich regions are a signature of repeat-induced point mutation (RIP), which targets repetitive DNA and decreases GC-content though the conversion of cytosine to thymine bases. RIP has in turn been identified as a driver of fungal genome evolution, as RIP mutations can also occur in single-copy genes neighbouring repeat-rich regions. Over time RIP perpetuates 'two speeds' of gene evolution in the GC-equilibrated and AT-rich regions of fungal genomes. In this study, genomes showing evidence of this process are found to be common, particularly among the Pezizomycotina. Further analysis highlighted differences in amino acid composition and putative functions of genes from these regions, supporting the hypothesis that these regions play an important role in fungal evolution. OcculterCut can also be used to identify genes undergoing RIP-assisted diversifying selection, such as small, secreted effector proteins that mediate host-microbe disease interactions