Phage Lytic Enzyme Cpl-1 for Antibacterial Therapy in Experimental Pneumococcal Meningitis

Treatment of bacterial meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae is increasingly difficult, because of emerging resistance to antibiotics. Recombinant Cpl-1, a phage lysin specific for S. pneumoniae, was evaluated for antimicrobial therapy in experimental pneumococcal meningitis using infant Wistar rats. A single intracisternal injection (20 mg/kg) of Cpl-1 resulted in a rapid (within 30 min) decrease in pneumococci in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by 3 orders of magnitude lasting for 2 h. Intraperitoneal administration of Cpl-1 (200 mg/kg) led to an antibacterial effect in CSF of 2 orders of magnitude for 3 h. Cpl-1 may hold promise as an alternative treatment option in pneumococcal meningiti

Anomalous transport in Charney-Hasegawa-Mima flows

Transport properties of particles evolving in a system governed by the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima equation are investigated. Transport is found to be anomalous with a non linear evolution of the second moments with time. The origin of this anomaly is traced back to the presence of chaotic jets within the flow. All characteristic transport exponents have a similar value around $\mu=1.75$, which is also the one found for simple point vortex flows in the literature, indicating some kind of universality. Moreover the law $\gamma=\mu+1$ linking the trapping time exponent within jets to the transport exponent is confirmed and an accumulation towards zero of the spectrum of finite time Lyapunov exponent is observed. The localization of a jet is performed, and its structure is analyzed. It is clearly shown that despite a regular coarse grained picture of the jet, motion within the jet appears as chaotic but chaos is bounded on successive small scales.Comment: revised versio

The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Genetic Determinism vs. Phenotypic Plasticity in Protist Morphology

Untangling the relationships between morphology and phylogeny is key to building a reliable taxonomy, but is especially challenging for protists, where the existence of cryptic or pseudocryptic species makes finding relevant discriminant traits difficult. Here we use Hyalosphenia papilio (a testate amoeba) as a model species to investigate the contribution of phylogeny and phenotypic plasticity in its morphology. We study the response of H. papilio morphology (shape and pores number) to environmental variables in (i) a manipulative experiment with controlled conditions (water level), (ii) an observational study of a within-site natural ecological gradient (water level), and (iii) an observational study across 37 European peatlands (climate). We showed that H. papilio morphology is correlated to environmental conditions (climate and water depth) as well as geography, while no relationship between morphology and phylogeny was brought to light. The relative contribution of genetic inheritance and phenotypic plasticity in shaping morphology varies depending on the taxonomic group and the trait under consideration. Thus, our data call for a reassessment of taxonomy based on morphology alone. This clearly calls for a substantial increase in taxonomic research on these globally still under-studied organisms leading to a reassessment of estimates of global microbial eukaryotic diversity.</p

Phage lytic enzyme Cpl-1 for antibacterial therapy in experimental pneumococcal meningitis

Treatment of bacterial meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae is increasingly difficult, because of emerging resistance to antibiotics. Recombinant Cpl-1, a phage lysin specific for S. pneumoniae, was evaluated for antimicrobial therapy in experimental pneumococcal meningitis using infant Wistar rats. A single intracisternal injection (20 mg/kg) of Cpl-1 resulted in a rapid (within 30 min) decrease in pneumococci in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by 3 orders of magnitude lasting for 2 h. Intraperitoneal administration of Cpl-1 (200 mg/kg) led to an antibacterial effect in CSF of 2 orders of magnitude for 3 h. Cpl-1 may hold promise as an alternative treatment option in pneumococcal meningitis

Non-linear magnetohydrodynamic modeling of plasma response to resonant magnetic perturbations

The interaction of static Resonant Magnetic Perturbations (RMPs) with the plasma flows is modeled in toroidal geometry, using the non-linear resistive MHD code JOREK, which includes the X-point and the scrape-off-layer. Two-fluid diamagnetic effects, the neoclassical poloidal friction and a source of toroidal rotation are introduced in the model to describe realistic plasma flows. RMP penetration is studied taking self-consistently into account the effects of these flows and the radial electric field evolution. JET-like, MAST, and ITER parameters are used in modeling. For JET-like parameters, three regimes of plasma response are found depending on the plasma resistivity and the diamagnetic rotation: at high resistivity and slow rotation, the islands generated by the RMPs at the edge resonant surfaces rotate in the ion diamagnetic direction and their size oscillates. At faster rotation, the generated islands are static and are more screened by the plasma. An intermediate regime with static islands which slightly oscillate is found at lower resistivity. In ITER simulations, the RMPs generate static islands, which forms an ergodic layer at the very edge (ψ ≥0.96) characterized by lobe structures near the X-point and results in a small strike point splitting on the divertor targets. In MAST Double Null Divertor geometry, lobes are also found near the X-point and the 3D-deformation of the density and temperature profiles is observed

Synergetic effects of collisions, turbulence and sawtooth crashes on impurity transport

This paper investigates the interplay of neoclassical, turbulent and MHD processes, which are simultaneously at play when contributing to impurity transport. It is shown that these contributions are not additive, as assumed sometimes. The interaction between turbulence and neoclassical effects leads to less effective thermal screening, i.e. lowers the outward flux due to temperature gradient. This behavior is attributed to poloidal asymmetries of the flow driven by turbulence. Moreover sawtooth crashes play an important role to determine fluxes across the q = 1 surface. It is found that the density profile of a heavy impurity differs significantly in sawtoothing plasmas from the one predicted by neoclassical theory when neglecting MHD events. Sawtooth crashes impede impurity accumulation, but also weaken the impurity outflux due to the temperature gradient when the latter is dominant