In vitro induction of lymph node cell proliferation by mouse bone marrow dendritic cells following stimulation with different Echinococcus multilocularis antigens

The immune response of mice experimentally infected with Echinococcus multilocularis metacestodes becomes impaired so as to allow parasite survival and proliferation. Our study tackled the question on how different classes of E. multilocularis antigens (crude vesicular fluid (VF); purified proteinic rec-14-3-3; purified carbohydrate Em2(G11)) are involved in the maturation process of bone-marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and subsequent exposure to lymph node (LN) cells. In our experiments, we used BMDCs cultivated from either naïve (control) or alveolar echinococcosis (AE)-infected C57BL/6 mice. We then tested surface markers (CD80, CD86, MHC class II) and cytokine expression levels (interleukin (IL)-10, IL-12p40 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α) of non-stimulated BMDCs versus BMDCs stimulated with different Em-antigens or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). While LPS and rec-14-3-3-antigen were able to induce CD80, CD86 and (to a lower extent) MHC class II surface expression, Em2(G11) and, strikingly, also VF-antigen failed to do so. Similarly, LPS and rec-14-3-3 yielded elevated IL-12, TNF-α and IL-10 expression levels, while Em2(G11) and VF-antigen didn't. When naïve BMDCs were loaded with VF-antigen, they induced a strong non-specific proliferation of uncommitted LN cells. For both, BMDCs or LN cells, isolated from AE-infected mice, proliferation was abrogated. The most striking difference, revealed by comparing naïve with AE-BMDCs, was the complete inability of LPS-stimulated AE-BMDCs to activate lymphocytes from any LN cell group. Overall, the presenting activity of BMDCs from AE-infected mice seemed to trigger unresponsiveness in T cells, especially in the case of VF-antigen stimulation, thus contributing to the suppression of clonal expansion during the chronic phase of AE infectio

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

Inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases attenuates brain damage in experimental meningococcal meningitis

Background: Approximately 7% of survivors from meningococcal meningitis (MM) suffer from neurological sequelae due to brain damage in the course of meningitis. The present study focuses on the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in a novel mouse model of MM-induced brain damage. Methods: The model is based on intracisternal infection of BALB/c mice with a serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis strain. Mice were infected with meningococci and randomised for treatment with the MMP inhibitor batimastat (BB-94) or vehicle. Animal survival, brain injury and host-response biomarkers were assessed 48 h after meningococcal challenge. Results: Mice that received BB-94 presented significantly diminished MMP-9 levels (p < 0.01), intracerebral bleeding (p < 0.01), and blood brain barrier (BBB) breakdown (p < 0.05) in comparison with untreated animals. In mice suffering from MM, the amount of MMP- 9 measured by zymography significantly correlated with both intracerebral haemorrhage (p < 0.01) and BBB disruption (p < 0.05). Conclusions: MMPs significantly contribute to brain damage associated with experimental MM. Inhibition of MMPs reduces intracranial complications in mice suffering from MM, representing a potential adjuvant strategy in MM post-infection sequelae

The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Lessons learnt from the adoption of open source GIS for quality control of the Hungarian LPIS

Abstract Compet-Terra is carrying out QA (Quality Assurance) services for the Hungarian Agriculture and Regional Development Agency. Quality control of the LPIS is one of the important QA duties. The LPIS data set is updated yearly according to the cycles of agricultural subsidies. Compet-Terra elaborated an Open Source Software based checking method that could be adopted by the client without the financial expense of software. QuantumGIS (as the primary tool), gvSIG, and LibreOffice were used for the quality control of the LPIS. Four primary quality types were checked: (1) the land parcel attributes, (2) the areas of the polygons, (3) the completeness of the content and (4) the topological quality. For these investigations topological GIS functions and database management functions were used. The most important functions were topological difference calculation, polygon area calculation and geometry validity check. Complex procedures were also carried out with proprietary tools to compare the results and the run-time performances. The result of the adoption of OSS GIS tools for LPIS checking was positive. All the planned procedures could be implemented using OSS GIS. OSS tools proved to be robust, reliable, userfriendly and performed well

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

On the relationship between residual zonal flows and bump-on tail saturated instabilities

A connection is established between two classical problems: the non linear saturation of a bump-on tail instability in collisionless regime, and the decay of a zonal flow towards a finite amplitude residual. Reasons for this connection are given and commented

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

Daptomycin in experimental murine pneumococcal meningitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Daptomycin, a lipopeptide antibiotic, could be an alternative to vancomycin for treatment of pneumococcal meningitis. We determined the activity of daptomycin versus vancomycin, with dexamethasone as an adjuvant, in a murine model of pneumococcal meningitis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ninety-six 25–30 gram mice were inoculated intracisternally with serotype 3 <it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>modified by the integration of a luminescent <it>lux </it>operon. All mice were treated with either dexamethasone 1 mg/kg intraperitoneally every 6 hours alone or in combination with either vancomycin or daptomycin, also administered intraperitoneally. Serum antimicrobial concentrations were selected to approximate those achieved in humans. Following treatment, bioluminescence and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) bacterial concentrations were determined. Caspase-3 staining was used to assess apoptosis on brain histopathology.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixteen hours post intracisternal inoculation, bacterial titers in CSF were 6.8 log₁₀cfu/ml. Amongst the animals given no antibiotic, vancomycin 50 mg/kg at 16 and 20 hours or daptomycin 25 mg/kg at 16 hours, CSF titers were 7.6, 3.4, and 3.9 log₁₀cfu/ml, respectively, at 24 hours post infection (p-value, < 0.001 for both vancomycin or daptomycin versus no antibiotic); there was no significant difference in bactericidal activity between the vancomycin and daptomycin groups (p-value, 0.18). CSF bioluminescence correlated with bacterial titer (Pearson regression coefficient, 0.75). The amount of apoptosis of brain parenchymal cells was equivalent among treatment groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Daptomycin or vancomycin, when given in combination with dexamethasone, is active in the treatment of experimental pneumococcal meningitis.</p

Pneumococcal meningitis: Clinical-pathological correlations (meningene-path)

Pneumococcal meningitis is associated with substantial mortality and morbidity. We systematically assessed brain histopathology of 31 patients who died of pneumococcal meningitis from a nationwide study (median age 67 years; 21 (67 %) were male) using a pathology score including inflammation and vascular damage. Of the 27 patients with known time from the admission to death, 14 patients died within 7 days of admission and 13 after 7 days of admission. Eleven of 25 (44 %) patients had been treated with adjunctive dexamethasone therapy. Observed pathological processes were inflammation of medium-large arteries in 30 brains (97 %), cerebral haemorrhage in 24 (77 %), cerebritis in 24 (77 %), thrombosis in 21 (68 %), infarction in 19 (61 %) and ventriculitis in 19 (of 28 cases, 68 %). Inflammation of medium-large arteries led to obstruction of the vascular lumen in 14 (of 31 cases, 45 %). Vascular inflammation was associated with infarction and thrombosis of brain parenchymal vessels. Hippocampal dentate gyrus apoptosis between patients treated with and without dexamethasone was similar (p = 0.66); however, dexamethasone treated patients had higher total pathology score than non-dexamethasone treated patients (p = 0.003). Our study shows that vascular damage is key in the process of brain damage in pneumococcal meningitis. Data and material of this study will be made open-access for translational research in pneumococcal meningitis (MeninGene-Path)