Low-Temperature Conservation of Collection Cholera Vibrio Strains

Objective of the study is to evaluate cholera vibrio resistance to freezing and freeze preservation at -70 °C in the presence of cryoprotectors. The study outlines the results of storage of seven different V. cholerae strains within three-years term in the protective media containing glycerin or lactose (10, 20, 30 % aquatic solutions of glycerin, meat-peptone broth with 10 % of glycerin, a medium with 15 % of lactose and 3 % of gelatin) as cryoprotectors. Demonstrated is the fact that cholera vibrio death occurs during freezing-refreezing procedure and preservation of samples. After three-year conservation the numbers of living cells decrease in all types of media, but to different extent. The highest survival rate in cholera vibrios after freezing-refreezing procedure and freeze preservation in accordance with applicable protocols is observed in lactose-gelatin medium. When using aquatic solution of glycerin as protective medium, optimum turns out to be the cryoprotector concentration equal to 20 %. After three-year preservation at -70 °C all the strains, irrespective of the protective medium composition, retain their basic diagnostically significant phenotypic characteristics. Thus, cholera vibrios can be conserved free from subcultures within three-year term (period of observation) without alterations to their basic diagnostic properties in all tested protective media but at -70 °C

Ganglion-specific splicing of TRPV1 underlies infrared sensation in vampire bats.

Vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) are obligate blood feeders that have evolved specialized systems to suit their sanguinary lifestyle. Chief among such adaptations is the ability to detect infrared radiation as a means of locating hotspots on warm-blooded prey. Among vertebrates, only vampire bats, boas, pythons and pit vipers are capable of detecting infrared radiation. In each case, infrared signals are detected by trigeminal nerve fibres that innervate specialized pit organs on the animal's face. Thus, vampire bats and snakes have taken thermosensation to the extreme by developing specialized systems for detecting infrared radiation. As such, these creatures provide a window into the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary tuning of thermoreceptors in a species-specific or cell-type-specific manner. Previously, we have shown that snakes co-opt a non-heat-sensitive channel, vertebrate TRPA1 (transient receptor potential cation channel A1), to produce an infrared detector. Here we show that vampire bats tune a channel that is already heat-sensitive, TRPV1, by lowering its thermal activation threshold to about 30 °C. This is achieved through alternative splicing of TRPV1 transcripts to produce a channel with a truncated carboxy-terminal cytoplasmic domain. These splicing events occur exclusively in trigeminal ganglia, and not in dorsal root ganglia, thereby maintaining a role for TRPV1 as a detector of noxious heat in somatic afferents. This reflects a unique organization of the bat Trpv1 gene that we show to be characteristic of Laurasiatheria mammals (cows, dogs and moles), supporting a close phylogenetic relationship with bats. These findings reveal a novel molecular mechanism for physiological tuning of thermosensory nerve fibres

Mechanisms of Damaging Bacteria during Lyophilization and Protective Activity of Shielding Media

Considered are the current views on the mechanisms and factors of bacterial cell degradation during lyophilization and storage of dry preparations. Given are the data on the most effective lyo-rotectors and mechanisms of their shielding action. Lyophilization or sublimation from the frozen state is the basic method of bacteria preservation in culture collections and biological resource centers. In the process of lyophilization cells are exposed to damaging stress factors. Low temperatures, water crystallization, osmotic process, pH alterations, and dehydration affect cell cultures and molecules. Oxidative reactions, running in dry cell preparations, change the composition and structure of lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and, thereby reduce the number of living cells during the storage. One of the key factors that influences bacterial viability after lyophilization and storage is the composition of shielding medium, with which the cells are mixed up before conservation. Utilization of protective media, containing carbohydrates, amino acids, restored milk, gelatin and other components, decreases the probability of cell elements damaging and extends the assured storage life

TONE COMPRESSION ALGORITHM FOR HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE MEDICAL IMAGES

We propose here an HDR compression method for medical images based on a windowing operator, an adaptive tone mapping operator, and the probabilistic normal-gamma model. First, we use the windowing operator based on a structural fidelity measure for optimal visualization of the input HDR medical image. Then, we transform the windowed image to the logarithm domain and split it into base and detail layers with the help of the probabilistic normal-gamma model. Base and detail layers are used to make the tone map with help the adaptive tone mapping operator. Finally, the tone mapping result is the LDR image. The proposed method has comparable quality and low computation time compared to other tone mapping operators

Stress-induced orbital alignment of the Cr 2+ centers in KZnF 3 crystal

Observation of the intense linear dichroism spectrum on the 5E g → 5T 2g transition of Cr 2+ ions in KZnF 3 crystal under uniaxial stress is reported. The model is proposed which assigns the observed spectrum to alignment of the Jahn-Teller Cr 2+ centers, occurring due to redistribution between the minima of the adiabatic potential that become inequivalent under uniaxial stress applied along the C 4 axis of the crystal. Analysis of the observed dependencies of the dichroism on the applied stress has allowed to estimate the values of the electron-strain interaction constant V ES = 32900 ± 1200 cm -1 and the inversion splitting δ = 9.2 ± 1.3 cm -1, and also to characterize the random strain field

Optical studies of the uniaxial stress-induced orbital alignment of the Cr²⁺ centers in KZnF<inf>3</inf> single crystal

© 2016 Author(s).Observation of an intense optical linear dichroism arising in cubic KZnF3:Cr crystal at low temperatures under uniaxial stress applied along the four-fold axis is reported. Dichroism occurs in the range of the wide vibronic absorption band corresponding to 5Eg → 5T2g transition of the Cr2+ ions. Strain dependences of the dichroism value were studied at the temperatures of 2.0 K, 4.2 K, and 77 K. We associate our observations with the Jahn-Teller effect in the 5Eg ground state of the Cr2+ ion. The model is proposed based on a redistribution of the centers between the minima of the EO×e problem adiabatic potential that become inequivalent under uniaxial stress applied along the four-fold axis of the crystal. It is shown that random strains in the sample have to be taken into account to achieve the quantitative agreement of the model predictions with experimental data. It is found that random strains in the studied sample originate predominantly from point defects. Obtained parameter values are inversion splitting δ = 9.2 ± 1.6 cm-1, electron-strain coupling constant qVES = 16 500 ± 600 cm-1, width of the random strain distribution w = (6.9 ± 0.5) · 10-5. It is shown also that the minima of the [CrF6]4- cluster adiabatic potential correspond to the elongated along the four-fold axes configurations

Traditional and Modern Protective Media for the Low-Temperature Bacteria Preservation

Presented are the literature data on the efficiency of bacteria preservation at temperatures ranging from -20 to -196 °C in the protective media containing such cryoprotectors as glycerol, dimethyl sulfoxide, carbo-hydrates, substances of protein origin specified by regulatory guidelines. Most of the focus is on the publications reporting the results of the long-term bacteria preservation at sub-zero temperatures, optimization of the protective media for pathogenic bacteria, and usage of the compounds with potential cryoprotective activity. Noted is the necessity for approbation of the specified protective media for the conserved bacteria species at the applied preserving temperatures. One of the approaches to the enhancement of the low-temperature preservation techniques is a search for natural protectors, which can provide for surviving of bacteria in the unfavorable conditions, including low temperatures, and a search for possibility to integrate these natural protectors into the cryoprotective media. Displayed are the results of effective application of glycerol-betaine, and polysaccharides of Arctic microorganisms for the low-temperature bacteria preservation

Principles of Formation of Collection Funds of Microorganism Strains

The aim of the review was to consider the principles and criteria for the formation of funds of service microbiological collections and the specialized State collection of pathogenic bacteria (SCPB) at the RusRAPI “Microbe”. The rapid pace of characterization, study, and use of microbial diversity makes the development of criteria for the selection of microorganisms for permanent storage in collections particularly relevant. The number and format of these criteria are determined by the tasks the collection centers of different levels and specialization are facing. Service collections form their funds by depositing or acquiring type, reference, educational strains. In recent years, the practicability of expanding the range of strains, the deposition of which is desirable in service collections, has been recognized. These are strains characterized by phylogenetic, genomic, metabolic, ecological uniqueness; with a fully sequenced genome; known and emerging plant, animal and human pathogens that caused disease outbreaks; used in international research projects; having biotechnological and economic significance. The main task of the SCPB as a specialized state collection of pathogenic bacteria of groups I–II is to preserve strains characterizing the intraspecific diversity and populations of pathogens circulating in natural foci or in certain territories of the Russian Federation, isolated during epizootics, local or epidemic outbreaks. The selection criteria for strains for permanent storage are their ecological, phenotypic, and genetic peculiarities. The preservation of such a collection is important for future research using new technologies and tracking the evolution of pathogenic bacteria – causative agents of particularly dangerous infectious diseases

Solving Grid Equations Using the Alternating-triangular Method on a Graphics Accelerator

The paper describes a parallel-pipeline implementation of solving grid equations using the modified alternating-triangular iterative method (MATM), obtained by numerically solving the equations of mathematical physics. The greatest computational costs at using this method are on the stages of solving a system of linear algebraic equations (SLAE) with lower triangular and upper non-triangular matrices. An algorithm for solving the SLAE with a lower triangular matrix on a graphics accelerator using NVIDIA CUDA technology is presented. To implement the parallel-pipeline method, a three-dimensional decomposition of the computational domain was used. It is divided into blocks along the y coordinate, the number of which corresponds to the number of GPU streaming multiprocessors involved in the calculations. In turn, the blocks are divided into fragments according to two spatial coordinates — x and z. The presented graph model describes the relationship between adjacent fragments of the computational grid and the pipeline calculation process. Based on the results of computational experiments, a regression model was obtained that describes the dependence of the time for calculation one MATM step on the GPU, the acceleration and efficiency for SLAE solution with a lower triangular matrix by the parallel-pipeline method on the GPU were calculated using the different number of streaming multiprocessors.The paper describes a parallel-pipeline implementation of solving grid equations using the modified alternating-triangular iterative method (MATM), obtained by numerically solving the equations of mathematical physics. The greatest computational costs at using this method are on the stages of solving a system of linear algebraic equations (SLAE) with lower triangular and upper non-triangular matrices. An algorithm for solving the SLAE with a lower triangular matrix on a graphics accelerator using NVIDIA CUDA technology is presented. To implement the parallel-pipeline method, a three-dimensional decomposition of the computational domain was used. It is divided into blocks along the y coordinate, the number of which corresponds to the number of GPU streaming multiprocessors involved in the calculations. In turn, the blocks are divided into fragments according to two spatial coordinates — x and z. The presented graph model describes the relationship between adjacent fragments of the computational grid and the pipeline calculation process. Based on the results of computational experiments, a regression model was obtained that describes the dependence of the time for calculation one MATM step on the GPU, the acceleration and efficiency for SLAE solution with a lower triangular matrix by the parallel-pipeline method on the GPU were calculated using the different number of streaming multiprocessors

Mössbauer characterization of microbially mediated iron and manganese ores of variable geological ages

A combination of various techniques was applied to investigate the mineralogy of the Neoproterozoic Urucum iron and manganese deposit (Brazil) and Carboniferous and Permian manganese carbonate deposits (China). The examined deposits exhibited signs of microbial mediation from Fe and Mn bacteria and cyanobacteria. The studied samples showed diversity in their composition and particle size. Probes from Urucum deposit revealed that the rocks consist mainly of hematite, showing Mn substitution which reflects the oxidation of Mn on the active surface of Fe-rich biomat. Nanominerals occurring in significant concentration also supported the microbial contribution to the formation of these ores. Representative samples of Neoproterozoic and Permian deposits showed considerable amount of mixed carbonates with variable composition. 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy analysis supported by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy data provided a detailed characterization of Fe-rich mineral phases of the samples, including metal ratio outlooks, particle size dimension and presence and type of impurities. Integrity and high resolution of the methods allowed to determine new features of the samples reflecting important signatures of microbial activity revealing the biogeochemistry of the biomat formation