Incidence of human granulocytic anaplasmosis in returning travellers with fever.

Although tick-borne pathogens have been reported as an important cause of imported fever, the incidence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the causative agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), in travellers is unknown. We conducted a prospective cohort study to investigate the aetiologies of fever in returning travellers (November 2017-July 2019). Polymerase chain reaction for msp2 gene amplification and indirect immunofluorescence assay for A. phagocitophilum were performed in all returning travellers with undifferentiated non-malarial fever. Among 141 travellers included, 8 patients were diagnosed with probable or confirmed HGA. The overall incidence rate of HGA was 19.9 cases/1000 person-week of travel. The main destination of travel was Asia, accounting for 62.5% patients with HGA. Co-infections were found in 37.5% of patients with HGA. Diagnosis of HGA and empirical treatment with doxycycline should be considered in travellers with fever

Redox regulation of methylthioadenosine phosphorylase in liver cells: molecular mechanism and functional implications

MTAP (5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase) catalyses the reversible phosphorolytic cleavage of methylthioadenosine leading to the production of methylthioribose-1-phosphate and adenine. Deficient MTAP activity has been correlated with human diseases including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. In the present study we have investigated the regulation of MTAP by ROS (reactive oxygen species). The results of the present study support the inactivation of MTAP in the liver of bacterial LPS (lipopolysaccharide)-challenged mice as well as in HepG2 cells after exposure to t-butyl hydroperoxide. Reversible inactivation of purified MTAP by hydrogen peroxide results from a reduction of V(max) and involves the specific oxidation of Cys(136) and Cys(223) thiols to sulfenic acid that may be further stabilized to sulfenyl amide intermediates. Additionally, we found that Cys(145) and Cys(211) were disulfide bonded upon hydrogen peroxide exposure. However, this modification is not relevant to the mediation of the loss of MTAP activity as assessed by site-directed mutagenesis. Regulation of MTAP by ROS might participate in the redox regulation of the methionine catabolic pathway in the liver. Reduced MTA (5'-deoxy-5'-methylthioadenosine)-degrading activity may compensate for the deficient production of the precursor S-adenosylmethionine, allowing maintenance of intracellular MTA levels that may be critical to ensure cellular adaptation to physiopathological conditions such as inflammation

Survey of molecular methods for the typing of wine yeast strains

A survey of the genetic polymorphisms produced by distinct methods was performed in 23 commercial winery yeast strains. The microsatellite typing, using 6 different loci, an optimized interdelta sequence analysis and RFLP of mitochondrial DNA generated by the enzyme Hinf I had the same discriminatory power: among the 23 commercial yeast strains, 21 distinct patterns were obtained. Karyotype analysis originated 22 patterns, thereby allowing the discrimination of one of the three strains that were not distinguished by the other methods. Due to the equivalence of the results obtained in this survey, any of the methods can be applied at the industrial scale.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - POCTI/BIO/38106/2001 (Eixo 2, Medida 2.3, QCAIII - FEDER).Instituto de Cooperação Científica e Tecnológica Internacional (ICCTI) - grant nº 657 C2.Comunidade Europeia (UE) - contract number QLK4-CT-2001-51873

Site Fidelity in Space Use by Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Animal home ranges may vary little in their size and location in the short term but nevertheless show more variability in the long term. We evaluated the degree of site fidelity of two groups of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) over a 10- and 13-year period, respectively, in the northeastern Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. We used the Local Convex Hull method to estimate yearly home ranges and core areas (defined as the 60% probability contour) for the two groups. Home ranges varied from 7.7 to 49.6 ha and core areas varied from 3.1 to 9.2 ha. We evaluated the degree of site fidelity by quantifying the number of years in which different areas were used as either home ranges or core areas. Large tracts were used only as home ranges and only for a few years, whereas small areas were used as either core area or home range for the duration of the study. The sum of the yearly core areas coincided partially with the yearly home ranges, indicating that home ranges contain areas used intermittently. Home ranges, and especially core areas, contained a higher proportion of mature forest than the larger study site as a whole. Across years and only in one group, the size of core areas was positively correlated with the proportion of adult males in the group, while the size of home ranges was positively correlated with both the proportion of males and the number of tree species included in the diet. Our findings suggest that spider monkey home ranges are the result of a combination of long-term site fidelity and year-to-year use variation to enable exploration of new resources

A code to Make Your Own Synthetic ObservaTIonS (MYOSOTIS)

We introduce our new code MYOSOTIS (Make Your Own Synthetic ObservaTIonS) which is designed to produce synthetic observations from simulated clusters. The code can synthesize observations from both ground-and spaced-based observatories, for a range of different filters, observational conditions and angular/spectral resolution. In this paper, we highlight some of the features of MYOSOTIS, creating synthetic observations from young massive star clusters. Our model clusters are simulated using NBODY6 code and have different total masses, halfmass radii, and binary fractions. The synthetic observations are made at the age of 2 Myr with Solar metallicity and under different extinction conditions. For each cluster, we create synthetic images of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the visible (WFPC2/F555W) as well as Very Large Telescopes in the nearIR (SPHERE/IRDIS/Ks). We show how MYOSOTIS can be used to look at mass function (MF) determinations. For this aim we re-estimate stellar masses using a photometric analysis on the synthetic images. The synthetic MF slopes are compared to their actual values. Our photometric analysis demonstrate that depending on the adopted filter, extinction, angular resolution, and pixel sampling of the instruments, the power-law index of the underlying MFs can be shallower than the observed ones by at least ±0.25 dex which is in agreement with the observed discrepancies reported in the literature, specially for young star clusters

Characterization of Microbialites and Microbial Mats of the Laguna Negra Hypersaline Lake (Puna of Catamarca, Argentina)

Microbial carbonates provide an invaluable tool to understand biogeochemical processes in aqueous systems, especially in lacustrine and marine environments. Lakes are strongly sensitive to climatically driven environmental changes, and microbialites have recently been shown to provide a record of these changes. Unraveling physicochemical and microbiological controls on carbonates textures and geochemistry is necessary to correctly interpret these signals and the microbial biosphere record within sedimentary carbonates. The Laguna Negra is a high-altitude hypersaline Andean lake (Puna of Catamarca, Argentina), where abundant carbonate precipitation takes place and makes this system an interesting example that preserves a spectrum of carbonate fabrics reflecting complex physical, chemical, and biological interactions. The extreme environmental conditions (high UV radiation, elevated salinity, and temperature extremes) make the Laguna Negra a good analogue to some Precambrian microbialites (e.g., Tumbiana Fm., Archean, Australia). In addition, the discovery of ancient evaporating playa-lake systems on Mars’ surface (e.g., ShalbatanaVallis, Noachian, Mars) highlights the potential of Laguna Negra to provide insight into biosignature preservation in similar environments, in both terrestrial and extraterrestrial settings, given that microbial processes in the Laguna Negra can be studied with remarkable detail.Fil: Boidi, Flavia Jaquelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Mlewski, Estela Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Gomez, Fernando Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Gérard, Emmanuelle. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Franci

The spatial evolution of young massive clusters - I. A new tool to quantitatively trace stellar clustering

Context. There are a number of methods that identify stellar sub-structure in star forming regions, but these do not quantify the degree of association of individual stars – something which is required if we are to better understand the mechanisms and physical processes that dictate structure. Aims. We present the new novel statistical clustering tool “INDICATE” which assesses and quantifies the degree of spatial clustering of each object in a dataset, discuss its applications as a tracer of morphological stellar features in star forming regions, and to look for these features in the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372). Methods. We employ a nearest neighbour approach to quantitatively compare the spatial distribution in the local neighbourhood of an object with that expected in an evenly spaced uniform (i.e. definitively non-clustered) field. Each object is assigned a clustering index (“I”) value, which is a quantitative measure of its clustering tendency. We have calibrated our tool against random distributions to aid interpretation and identification of significant I values. Results. Using INDICATE we successfully recover known stellar structure of the Carina Nebula, including the young Trumpler 14-16, Treasure Chest and Bochum 11 clusters. Four sub-clusters contain no, or very few, stars with a degree of association above random which suggests these sub-clusters may be fluctuations in the field rather than real clusters. In addition we find: (1) Stars in the NW and SE regions have significantly different clustering tendencies, which is reflective of differences in the apparent star formation activity in these regions. Further study is required to ascertain the physical origin of the difference; (2) The different clustering properties between the NW and SE regions are also seen for OB stars and are even more pronounced; (3) There are no signatures of classical mass segregation present in the SE region – massive stars here are not spatially concentrated together above random; (4) Stellar concentrations are more frequent around massive stars than typical for the general population, particularly in the Tr14 cluster; (5) There is a relation between the concentration of OB stars and the concentration of (lower mass) stars around OB stars in the centrally concentrated Tr14 and Tr15, but no such relation exists in Tr16. We conclude this is due to the highly sub-structured nature of Tr16. Conclusions. INDICATE is a powerful new tool employing a novel approach to quantify the clustering tendencies of individual objects in a dataset within a user-defined parameter space. As such it can be used in a wide array of data analysis applications. In this paper we have discussed and demonstrated its application to trace morphological features of young massive clusters

ABCA4 c.6480-35A>G, a novel branchpoint variant associated with Stargardt disease

Introduction: Inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) can be caused by variants in more than 280 genes. The ATP-binding cassette transporter type A4 (ABCA4) gene is one of these genes and has been linked to Stargardt disease type 1 (STGD1), fundus flavimaculatus, cone–rod dystrophy (CRD), and pan-retinal CRD. Approximately 25% of the reported ABCA4 variants affect RNA splicing. In most cases, it is necessary to perform a functional assay to determine the effect of these variants.Methods: Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed in one Spanish proband with Stargardt disease. The putative pathogenicity of c.6480-35A>G on splicing was investigated both in silico and in vitro. The in silico approach was based on the deep-learning tool SpliceAI. For the in vitro approach we used a midigene splice assay in HEK293T cells, based on a previously established wild-type midigene (BA29) containing ABCA4 exons 46 to 48. Through the analysis of WGS data, we identified two candidate variants in ABCA4 in one proband: a previously described deletion, c.699_768+342del (p.(Gln234Phefs*5)), and a novel branchpoint variant, c.6480-35A>G. Segregation analysis confirmed that the variants were in trans. For the branchpoint variant, SpliceAI predicted an acceptor gain with a high score (0.47) at position c.6480-47. A midigene splice assay in HEK293T cells revealed the inclusion of the last 47 nucleotides of intron 47 creating a premature stop codon and allowed to categorize the variant as moderately severe. Subsequent analysis revealed the presence of this variant as a second allele besides c.1958G>A p.(Arg653His) in an additional Spanish proband in a large cohort of IRD cases.Conclusion: A splice-altering effect of the branchpoint variant, confirmed by the midigene splice assay, along with the identification of this variant in a second unrelated individual affected with STGD, provides sufficient evidence to classify the variant as likely pathogenic. In addition, this research highlights the importance of studying non-coding regions and performing functional assays to provide a conclusive molecular diagnosis

S2D2: Small-scale Significant substructure DBSCAN Detection

Context. The spatial and dynamical structure of star-forming regions can offer insights into stellar formation patterns. The amount of data from current and upcoming surveys calls for robust and objective procedures for detecting structures in order to statistically analyse the various regions and compare them. Aims. We aim to provide the community with a tool capable of detecting, above random expectations, the small-scale significant structure in star-forming regions that could serve as an imprint of the stellar formation process. The tool makes use of the one-point correlation function to determine an appropriate length scale for ϵ and uses nearest-neighbour statistics to determine a minimum number of points Nmin for the DBSCAN algorithm in the neighbourhood of ϵ. Methods. We implemented the procedure and applied it to synthetic star-forming regions of different nature and characteristics to obtain its applicability range. We also applied the method to observed star-forming regions to demonstrate its performance in realistic circumstances and to analyse its results. Results. The procedure successfully detects significant small-scale substructures in heterogeneous regions, fulfilling the goals it was designed for and providing very reliable structures. The analysis of regions close to complete spatial randomness (Q ∈ [0.7, 0.87]) shows that even when some structure is present and recovered, it is hardly distinguishable from spurious detection in homogeneous regions due to projection effects. Thus, any interpretation should be done with care. For concentrated regions, we detect a main structure surrounded by smaller ones, corresponding to the core plus some Poisson fluctuations around it. We argue that these structures do not correspond to the small compact regions we are looking for. In some realistic cases, a more complete hierarchical, multi-scale analysis would be needed to capture the complexity of the region. Conclusions. We carried out implementations of our procedure and devised a catalogue of the Nested Elementary STructures (NESTs) detected as a result in four star-forming regions (Taurus, IC 348, Upper Scorpius, and Carina). This catalogue is being made publicly available to the community. Implementations of the 3D versionsof the procedure, as well as up to 6D versions, including proper movements, are in progress and will be provided in a future work

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30