Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals Changes in the Benchmark Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Biovar Equi Exoproteome after Passage in a Murine Host

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis biovar equi is the etiologic agent of ulcerative lymphangitis. To investigate proteins that could be related to the virulence of this pathogen, we combined an experimental passage process using a murine model and high-throughput proteomics with a mass spectrometry, data-independent acquisition (LC-MSE) approach to identify and quantify the proteins released into the supernatants of strain 258_equi. To our knowledge, this approach allowed characterization of the exoproteome of a C. pseudotuberculosis equi strain for the first time. Interestingly, the recovery of this strain from infected mouse spleens induced a change in its virulence potential, and it became more virulent in a second infection challenge. Proteomic screening performed from culture supernatant of the control and recovered conditions revealed 104 proteins that were differentially expressed between the two conditions. In this context, proteomic analysis of the recovered condition detected the induction of proteins involved in bacterial pathogenesis, mainly related to iron uptake. In addition, KEGG enrichment analysis showed that ABC transporters, bacterial secretion systems and protein export pathways were significantly altered in the recovered condition. These findings show that secretion and secreted proteins are key elements in the virulence and adaptation of C. pseudotuberculosis. Collectively, bacterial pathogenesis-related proteins were identified that contribute to the processes of adherence, intracellular growth and evasion of the immune system. Moreover, this study enhances our understanding of the factors that may influence the pathogenesis of C. pseudotuberculosis.Fil: Marques Da Silva, Wanderson. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; Brasil. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; Francia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Carvalho, Rodrigo D. De Oliveira. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Dorella, Fernanda A.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Folador, Edson L.. Universidade Federal da Paraíba. Centro de Biotecnologia; BrasilFil: Souza, Gustavo H. M. F.. Waters Corporation; BrasilFil: Pimenta, Adriano M. C.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; BrasilFil: Figueiredo, Henrique C. P.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Le Loir, Yves. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; FranciaFil: Silva, Artur. Universidade Federal do Pará; BrasilFil: Azevedo, Vasco. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; Brasi

Radiological Consequences Modelling for a Land Based Operations Environment

Radiological Dispersive Devices (RDD) are often portrayed as weapons used by radical (asymmetric) forces, however they can also be used in a regular war. In this study, a hypothetical scenario where an asymmetric force contaminates the battlefield, by detonating an RDD prior to the soldier’s arrival without being detected, is simulated. The software HotSpot was used due to its speed and conservative results which can help inform the decisions made by the commanding officers. HotSpot performs a Gaussian simulation of the radioactive dispersion in the environment. The plumes that arise from the explosion are considered to be affected by the atmospheric conditions. In this study, those conditions are represented by the Pasquill-Gifford stability classes. The results of the simulation show that remaining stationary, if the contaminated area size is not affected by the PG class variation, may increase the radiological risk. It is better to move the soldiers around in order to avoid additional exposure, however that may also be a challenge for various reasons including changes in the shape of the contaminated area. Nevertheless, the variations in local PG classes gain importance as the distance from the release point increases

Straight to the Point:Fast-forwarding Videos via Reinforcement Learning Using Textual Data

The rapid increase in the amount of published visual data and the limited time of users bring the demand for processing untrimmed videos to produce shorter versions that convey the same information. Despite the remarkable progress that has been made by summarization methods, most of them can only select a few frames or skims, which creates visual gaps and breaks the video context. In this paper, we present a novel methodology based on a reinforcement learning formulation to accelerate instructional videos. Our approach can adaptively select frames that are not relevant to convey the information without creating gaps in the final video. Our agent is textually and visually oriented to select which frames to remove to shrink the input video. Additionally, we propose a novel network, called Visually-guided Document Attention Network (VDAN), able to generate a highly discriminative embedding space to represent both textual and visual data. Our experiments show that our method achieves the best performance in terms of F1 Score and coverage at the video segment level

Tolerance to water deficit of cowpea genotypes

Objetivou-se, neste trabalho, avaliar o efeito do déficit hídrico sobre as características fisiológicas e produtivas do feijão-caupi e selecionar genótipos tolerantes à seca. Avaliaram-se a condutância estomática, o potencial hídrico foliar, a temperatura das folhas e a produtividade de grãos de 20 genótipos de feijão-caupi nas condições de solo e clima de Teresina, Piauí, no ano de 2008 e se conduziram dois experimentos em delineamento de blocos ao acaso com 20 tratamentos e quatro repetições, um sob déficit hídrico durante a fase reprodutiva e outro sob irrigação plena, para fins de comparação. O déficit hídrico, que foi obtido aplicando-se aproximadamente metade da lâmina requerida pelo feijão-caupi, reduziu em 72% a condutância estomática, 62% o potencial de água nas folhas, 60% a produção de grãos e aumentou em 11,7% a temperatura foliar. Nas condições de déficit hídrico treze genótipos produziram acima da média (466 kg ha-1), com destaque para o BRS-Paraguaçu, Pingo-de-ouro-1-2 e Pingo-de-ouro-2, que produziram 712 kg ha-1, 667 kg ha-1 e 642 kg ha-1, respectivamente. Em média, a produtividade de grãos dos genótipos sob irrigação plena foi 150% superior.The objective of this study was to evaluate physiological and productive characteristics of cowpea under water deficit and total irrigation, under soil and climate conditions of Teresina, Piauí State, in 2008. The stomatal conductance, leaf water potential, leaf temperature and grain yield of twenty cowpea cultivars were evaluated. Two experiments were carried out in a randomized block design with 20 treatments and four replications, one under water deficit during the reproductive phase and another one under total irrigation. The water deficit was obtained applying half of the water depth required by cowpea. The water deficit reduced 72% of the stomatal conductance, 40% the leaf transpiration, 62% of the leaf water potential, 60% of the grain yield and increased 11.7% the leaf temperature. Under water deficit, 13 genotypes produced above average (466 kg ha-1), and BRS-Paraguaçu, Pingo-de-ouro-1-2 and Pingo-de-ouro-2 presented the best grain yield with712 kg ha-1, 667 kg ha-1 and 642 kg ha-1, respectively. The average grain yield of the experiment under total irrigation was 150% higher

N′-[(2E)-3-Phenyl­prop-2-eno­yl]benzo­hydrazide

In the title compound, C16H14N2O2, the conformation about the C=C bond is E, and the two amide groups are effectively orthogonal [the C—N—N—C torsion angle is 104.5 (2)°]. In the crystal structure, the amide groups groups associate via N–H⋯O hydrogen bonding, forming supra­molecular tapes with undulating topology along the c-axis direction

Genome Sequence of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis MB20 bv. equi Isolated from a Pectoral Abscess of an Oldenburg Horse in California.

The genome of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis MB20 bv. equi was sequenced using the Ion Personal Genome Machine (PGM) platform, and showed a size of 2,363,089 bp, with 2,365 coding sequences and a GC content of 52.1%. These results will serve as a basis for further studies on the pathogenicity of C. pseudotuberculosis bv. equi

Portable dehumidifiers as an original matrix for the study of inhalable nanoparticles in school

Good air quality is documented as a significant factor of social justice. The human health hazards associated with air pollution are not distributed equally across cities; the most vulnerable people are more exposed to ambient air as they commute to work and wait for buses or trains at the stations. Aerosols play important roles in atmosphere quality and the climate; their oxidation at the nanoscale level may possibly increase the reactivity and toxicity of atmospheric particulates. Indoor school environments are characterized by high concentrations of different airborne particulate and gaseous pollutants. The documentation of nanoparticles (NPs), ultra-fine particles (UFPs), and micron-size particle species present in indoor primary schools are an important aspect in the recognition of their influence in respirational difficulties and decreased cognitive progress in children. This work utilizes the study of condensed water, sampled with portable dehumidifiers (PD), to describe NPs and UFPs in the vapor stage of enclosed zones. The acquired extracts were analyzed by advanced electron microscopy techniques. A total of 392 NPs and 251 UFPs were examined in a set of 22 samples acquired in moderately limited or inadequately ventilated indoor areas from several schools. Noting that NPs-related disorders happen at particular places of respirational structure, identification of site-specific NPs accumulation should be anticipated in direction to better verify the corresponding human health outcomes resulting from respirable NPs

Casbane diterpene as novel and natural antimicrobial agent against biofilm infections

Croton nepetaefolius is a plant native from northeastern Brazil and belongs to Euphorbiaceae family. The essential oil of this plant is widely used in folk medicine from the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders to the use as an antiseptic agent, with an antifungal action scientifically proven. The action of this plant has been extensively explored by the scientific community, being the secondary metabolites, which are responsible for their properties, alkaloids, diterpenes, and triterpenes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of the secondary metabolite, casbane diterpene (CD) (isolated of the species mentioned above), to inhibit microbial growth and biofilm formation of several clinical relevant species (about 15 species among bacteria and fungi). Minimal inhibitory concentration was assessed by the standard technique of microdilution and biofilm inhibition was tested using microtiter plates with biomass quantification by crystal violet staining method. It was found that the CD possessed biocidal and biostatic activity for the majority of the species screened, with the minimal concentration active between 125 and 500 mg/L. Moreover, CD anti-biofilm action was also observed for some of the species. In addition, it was noticed some biofilm formation inhibition even when the planktonic growth was not significantly affected. In conclusion it can be speculated that casbane diterpene shows potential to be a natural tool for the treatment of diseases caused by different infectious microorganisms