A Precision Microbiome Approach Using Sucrose for Selective Augmentation of Staphylococcus epidermidis Fermentation against Propionibacterium acnes.

Acne dysbiosis happens when there is a microbial imbalance of the over-growth of Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) in the acne microbiome. In our previous study, we demonstrated that Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis, a probiotic skin bacterium) can exploit glycerol fermentation to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which have antimicrobial activities to suppress the growth of P. acnes. Unlike glycerol, sucrose is chosen here as a selective fermentation initiator (SFI) that can specifically intensify the fermentation activity of S. epidermidis, but not P. acnes. A co-culture of P. acnes and fermenting S. epidermidis in the presence of sucrose significantly led to a reduction in the growth of P. acnes. The reduction was abolished when P. acnes was co-cultured with non-fermenting S. epidermidis. Results from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis revealed four SCFAs (acetic acid, butyric acid, lactic acid, and succinic acid) were detectable in the media of S. epidermidis sucrose fermentation. To validate the interference of S. epidermidis sucrose fermentation with P. acnes, mouse ears were injected with both P. acnes and S. epidermidis plus sucrose or phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The level of macrophage-inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and the number of P. acnes in ears injected with two bacteria plus sucrose were considerably lower than those in ears injected with two bacteria plus PBS. Our results demonstrate a precision microbiome approach by using sucrose as a SFI for S. epidermidis, holding future potential as a novel modality to equilibrate dysbiotic acne

Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana interference in a 3D transmon driven by a chirped microwave

By driving a 3D transmon with microwave fields, we generate an effective avoided energy-level crossing. Then we chirp microwave frequency, which is equivalent to driving the system through the avoided energy-level crossing by sweeping the avoided crossing. A double-passage chirp produces Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg-Majorana interference that agree well with the numerical results. Our method is fully applicable to other quantum systems that contain no intrinsic avoided level crossing, providing an alternative approach for quantum control and quantum simulation

Redshifts and Luminosities for 112 Gamma Ray Bursts

Two different luminosity indicators have recently been proposed for Gamma Ray Bursts that use gamma-ray observations alone. They relate the burst luminosity (L) with the time lag between peaks in hard and soft energies, and the spikiness or variability of the burst's light curve (V). These relations are currently justified and calibrated with only 6 or 7 bursts with known red shifts. We have examined BATSE data for the lag and V for 112 bursts. (1) A strong correlation between the lag and V exists, and it is exactly as predicted from the two proposed relations. This is proof that both luminosity indicators are reliable. (2) GRB830801 is the all-time brightest burst, yet with a small V and a large lag, and hence is likely the closest known event being perhaps as close as 3.2 Mpc. (3) We have combined the luminosities as derived from both indicators as a means to improve the statistical and systematic accuracy when compared with the accuracy from either method alone. The result is a list of 112 bursts with good luminosities and hence red shifts. (4) The burst averaged hardness ratio rises strongly with the luminosity of the burst. (5) The burst luminosity function is a broken power law, with the break at L = 2x10^{52} erg/s. The luminosity function has power law indices of -2.8+-0.2 above the break and -1.7+-0.1 below the break. (6) The number density of GRBs varies with red shift roughly as (1+z)^(2.5+-0.3) between 0.2<z<5. Excitingly, this result also provides a measure of the star formation rate out to z~5 with no effects from reddening, and the rate is rising uniformly for red shifts above 2.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJLet

Depth-aware neural style transfer

Neural style transfer has recently received significant attention and demonstrated amazing results. An efficient solution proposed by Johnson et al. trains feed-forward convolutional neural networks by defining and optimizing perceptual loss functions. Such methods are typically based on high-level features extracted from pre-trained neural networks, where the loss functions contain two components: style loss and content loss. However, such pre-trained networks are originally designed for object recognition, and hence the high-level features often focus on the primary target and neglect other details. As a result, when input images contain multiple objects potentially at different depths, the resulting images are often unsatisfactory because image layout is destroyed and the boundary between the foreground and background as well as different objects becomes obscured. We observe that the depth map effectively reflects the spatial distribution in an image and preserving the depth map of the content image after stylization helps produce an image that preserves its semantic content. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for neural style transfer that integrates depth preservation as additional loss, preserving overall image layout while performing style transfer

FAM129B, an antioxidative protein, reduces chemosensitivity by competing with Nrf2 for Keap1 binding.

BackgroundThe transcription factor Nrf2 is a master regulator of antioxidant response. While Nrf2 activation may counter increasing oxidative stress in aging, its activation in cancer can promote cancer progression and metastasis, and confer resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Thus, Nrf2 has been considered as a key pharmacological target. Unfortunately, there are no specific Nrf2 inhibitors for therapeutic application. Moreover, high Nrf2 activity in many tumors without Keap1 or Nrf2 mutations suggests that alternative mechanisms of Nrf2 regulation exist.MethodsInteraction of FAM129B with Keap1 is demonstrated by immunofluorescence, colocalization, co-immunoprecipitation and mammalian two-hybrid assay. Antioxidative function of FAM129B is analyzed by measuring ROS levels with DCF/flow cytometry, Nrf2 activation using luciferase reporter assay and determination of downstream gene expression by qPCR and wester blotting. Impact of FAM129B on in vivo chemosensitivity is examined in mice bearing breast and colon cancer xenografts. The clinical relevance of FAM129B is assessed by qPCR in breast cancer samples and data mining of publicly available databases.FindingsWe have demonstrated that FAM129B in cancer promotes Nrf2 activity by reducing its ubiquitination through competition with Nrf2 for Keap1 binding via its DLG and ETGE motifs. In addition, FAM129B reduces chemosensitivity by augmenting Nrf2 antioxidative signaling and confers poor prognosis in breast and lung cancer.InterpretationThese findings demonstrate the important role of FAM129B in Nrf2 activation and antioxidative response, and identify FMA129B as a potential therapeutic target. FUND: The Chang Gung Medical Foundation (Taiwan) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan)

Comment on the effect of Cs on photon and secondary ion emission during sputtering

The effect of Cs on photon and negative ion emission was discussed for the situations where the sputtered atom interacts either very weakly or very strongly with the target surface. The experimental data seem to favor the strong interaction case. 5 references