F Plasmid Lineages in Escherichia coli ST95: Implications for Host Range, Antibiotic Resistance, and Zoonoses.

Escherichia coli sequence type 95 (ST95) is an extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) renowned for its ability to cause significant morbidity and mortality in humans and poultry. A core genome analysis of 668 ST95 isolates generated 10 clades (A to J), 5 of which are reported here for the first time. F plasmid replicon sequence typing showed that almost a third (178/668 [27%]) of the collection carry pUTI89 (F29:B10) and were restricted to clade A and a sublineage of clade B. In contrast, almost half (328/668 [49%]) of the collection across multiple clades harbor ColV plasmids (multiple F types). Strikingly, ST95 lineages with pUTI89 were almost exclusively from humans, while ColV+ ST95 lineages were sourced from poultry and humans. Clade I was notable because it comprises temporally and geographically matched ColV+ isolates sourced from human and retail poultry meat, suggesting interspecies transmission via food. Clade F contained ST95 isolates of bovine origin, none of which carried ColV or pUTI89 plasmids. Remarkably, an analysis of a cohort of 34,176 E. coli isolates comprising 2,570 sequence types mirrored what was observed in ST95: (i) pUTI89 was overwhelmingly linked to E. coli sourced from humans but almost entirely absent from 13,027 E. coli isolates recovered from poultry, pigs, and cattle, and (ii) E. coli isolates harboring ColV plasmids were from multiple sources, including humans, poultry, and swine. Overall, our data suggest that F plasmids influence E. coli host range, clade structure, and zoonotic potential in ST95 and ExPEC more broadly. IMPORTANCE E. coli ST95 is one of five dominant ExPEC lineages globally and noted for causing urinary tract and bloodstream infections and neonatal meningitis in humans and colibacillosis in poultry. Using high-resolution phylogenomics, we show that F replicon sequence type is linked to ST95 clade structure and zoonotic potential. Specifically, human centric ST95 clades overwhelmingly harbor F29:B10 (pUTI89) plasmids, while clades carrying both human- and poultry-sourced isolates are typically ColV+ with multiple replicon types. Importantly, several clades identified clonal ColV+ ST95 isolates from human and poultry sources, but clade I, which housed temporally and spatially matched isolates, provided the most robust evidence. Notably, patterns of association of F replicon types with E. coli host were mirrored within a diverse collection of 34,176 E. coli genomes. Our studies indicate that the role of food animals as a source of human ExPEC disease is complex and warrants further investigation

Whole genome sequence analysis of Australian avian pathogenic Escherichia coli that carry the class 1 integrase gene

© 2019 The Authors. Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) cause widespread economic losses in poultry production and are potential zoonotic pathogens. Genome sequences of 95 APEC from commercial poultry operations in four Australian states that carried the class 1 integrase gene intI1, a proxy for multiple drug resistance (MDR), were characterized. Sequence types ST117 (22/95), ST350 (10/95), ST429 and ST57 (each 9/95), ST95 (8/95) and ST973 (7/95) dominated, while 24 STs were represented by one or two strains. FII and FIB repA genes were the predominant (each 93/95, 98 %) plasmid incompatibility groups identified, but those of B/O/K/Z (25/95, 26 %) and I1 (24/95, 25 %) were also identified frequently. Virulence-associated genes (VAGs) carried by ColV and ColBM virulence plasmids, including those encoding protectins [iss (91/95, 96 %), ompT (91/95, 96 %) and traT (90/95, 95 %)], iron-acquisition systems [sitA (88/95, 93 %), etsA (87/95, 92 %), iroN (84/95, 89 %) and iucD/iutA (84/95, 89 %)] and the putative avian haemolysin hylF (91/95, 96 %), featured prominently. Notably, mobile resistance genes conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones, colistin, extended-spectrum b-lactams and carbapenems were not detected in the genomes of these 95 APEC but carriage of the sulphonamide resistance gene, sul1 (59/95, 63 %), the trimethoprim resistance gene cassettes dfrA5 (48/95, 50 %) and dfrA1 (25/95, 27 %), the tetracycline resistance determinant tet(A) (51/95, 55 %) and the ampicillin resistance genes bla TEM-1A/B/C (48/95, 52 %) was common. IS26 (77/95, 81 %), an insertion element known to capture and mobilize a wide spectrum of antimicrobial resistance genes, was also frequently identified. These studies provide a baseline snapshot of drug-resistant APEC in Australia and their role in the carriage of ColV-like virulence plasmids

Biodiversity Loss and the Taxonomic Bottleneck: Emerging Biodiversity Science

Human domination of the Earth has resulted in dramatic changes to global and local patterns of biodiversity. Biodiversity is critical to human sustainability because it drives the ecosystem services that provide the core of our life-support system. As we, the human species, are the primary factor leading to the decline in biodiversity, we need detailed information about the biodiversity and species composition of specific locations in order to understand how different species contribute to ecosystem services and how humans can sustainably conserve and manage biodiversity. Taxonomy and ecology, two fundamental sciences that generate the knowledge about biodiversity, are associated with a number of limitations that prevent them from providing the information needed to fully understand the relevance of biodiversity in its entirety for human sustainability: (1) biodiversity conservation strategies that tend to be overly focused on research and policy on a global scale with little impact on local biodiversity; (2) the small knowledge base of extant global biodiversity; (3) a lack of much-needed site-specific data on the species composition of communities in human-dominated landscapes, which hinders ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation; (4) biodiversity studies with a lack of taxonomic precision; (5) a lack of taxonomic expertise and trained taxonomists; (6) a taxonomic bottleneck in biodiversity inventory and assessment; and (7) neglect of taxonomic resources and a lack of taxonomic service infrastructure for biodiversity science. These limitations are directly related to contemporary trends in research, conservation strategies, environmental stewardship, environmental education, sustainable development, and local site-specific conservation. Today’s biological knowledge is built on the known global biodiversity, which represents barely 20% of what is currently extant (commonly accepted estimate of 10 million species) on planet Earth. Much remains unexplored and unknown, particularly in hotspots regions of Africa, South Eastern Asia, and South and Central America, including many developing or underdeveloped countries, where localized biodiversity is scarcely studied or described. ‘‘Backyard biodiversity’’, defined as local biodiversity near human habitation, refers to the natural resources and capital for ecosystem services at the grassroots level, which urgently needs to be explored, documented, and conserved as it is the backbone of sustainable economic development in these countries. Beginning with early identification and documentation of local flora and fauna, taxonomy has documented global biodiversity and natural history based on the collection of ‘‘backyard biodiversity’’ specimens worldwide. However, this branch of science suffered a continuous decline in the latter half of the twentieth century, and has now reached a point of potential demise. At present there are very few professional taxonomists and trained local parataxonomists worldwide, while the need for, and demands on, taxonomic services by conservation and resource management communities are rapidly increasing. Systematic collections, the material basis of biodiversity information, have been neglected and abandoned, particularly at institutions of higher learning. Considering the rapid increase in the human population and urbanization, human sustainability requires new conceptual and practical approaches to refocusing and energizing the study of the biodiversity that is the core of natural resources for sustainable development and biotic capital for sustaining our life-support system. In this paper we aim to document and extrapolate the essence of biodiversity, discuss the state and nature of taxonomic demise, the trends of recent biodiversity studies, and suggest reasonable approaches to a biodiversity science to facilitate the expansion of global biodiversity knowledge and to create useful data on backyard biodiversity worldwide towards human sustainability

Management of Skin Toxicity Related to the Use of Imatinib Mesylate (STI571, Glivec™) for Advanced Stage Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumours

Skin toxicity is a common side-effect of treatment with imatinib mesylate (STI571, Glivec™) in advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) and chronic myeloid leukaemia. The optimal duration of treatment with imatinib mesylate in GIST has not yet been established, as durable remissions have been observed in patients. It is, therefore, important to develop strategies to deal with common side-effects of what may be a long-term treatment. Here we report the case of a patient with advanced GIST who developed a cutaneous drug reaction secondary to imatinib mesylate and the various management options that may be employed depending upon the severity of the toxicity. The case and literature are discussed

Gendered Risk Perceptions Associated with Human-Wildlife Conflict: Implications for Participatory Conservation

This research aims to foster discourse about the extent to which gender is important to consider within the context of participatory approaches for biological conservation. Our objectives are to: (1) gender-disaggregate data about stakeholders' risk perceptions associated with human-wildlife conflict (HWC) in a participatory conservation context, and (2) highlight insights from characterizing gendered similarities and differences in the way people think about HWC-related risks. Two communal conservancies in Caprivi, Namibia served as case study sites. We analyzed data from focus groups (n = 2) to create gendered concept maps about risks to wildlife and livelihoods and any associations of those risks with HWC, and semi-structured interviews (n = 76; men = 38, women = 38) to measure explicit risk attitudes associated with HWC. Concept maps indicated some divergent perceptions in how groups characterized risks to wildlife and livelihoods; however, not only were identified risks to wildlife (e.g., pollution, hunting) dissimilar in some instances, descriptions of risks varied as well. Study groups reported similar risk perceptions associated with HWC with the exception of worry associated with HWC effects on local livelihoods. Gendered differences in risk perceptions may signal different priorities or incentives to participate in efforts to resolve HWC-related risks. Thus, although shared goals and interests may seem to be an obvious reason for cooperative wildlife management, it is not always obvious that management goals are shared. Opportunity exists to move beyond thinking about gender as an explanatory variable for understanding how different groups think about participating in conservation activities

Search for Exotic Strange Quark Matter in High Energy Nuclear Reactions

We report on a search for metastable positively and negatively charged states of strange quark matter in Au+Pb reactions at 11.6 A GeV/c in experiment E864. We have sampled approximately six billion 10% most central Au+Pb interactions and have observed no strangelet states (baryon number A < 100 droplets of strange quark matter). We thus set upper limits on the production of these exotic states at the level of 1-6 x 10^{-8} per central collision. These limits are the best and most model independent for this colliding system. We discuss the implications of our results on strangelet production mechanisms, and also on the stability question of strange quark matter.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Nuclear Physics A (Carl Dover memorial edition

The RR Lyrae Distance Scale

We review seven methods of measuring the absolute magnitude M_V of RR Lyrae stars in light of the Hipparcos mission and other recent developments. We focus on identifying possible systematic errors and rank the methods by relative immunity to such errors. For the three most robust methods, statistical parallax, trigonometric parallax, and cluster kinematics, we find M_V (at [Fe/H] = -1.6) of 0.77 +/- 0.13, 0.71 +/- 0.15, 0.67 +/- 0.10. These methods cluster consistently around 0.71 +/- 0.07. We find that Baade-Wesselink and theoretical models both yield a broad range of possible values (0.45-0.70 and 0.45-0.65) due to systematic uncertainties in the temperature scale and input physics. Main-sequence fitting gives a much brighter M_V = 0.45 +/- 0.04 but this may be due to a difference in the metallicity scales of the cluster giants and the calibrating subdwarfs. White-dwarf cooling-sequence fitting gives 0.67 +/- 0.13 and is potentially very robust, but at present is too new to be fully tested for systematics. If the three most robust methods are combined with Walker's mean measurement for 6 LMC clusters, V_{0,LMC} = 18.98 +/- 0.03 at [Fe/H] = -1.9, then mu_{LMC} = 18.33 +/- 0.08.Comment: Invited review article to appear in: `Post-Hipparcos Cosmic Candles', A. Heck & F. Caputo (Eds), Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, in press. 21 pages including 1 table; uses Kluwer's crckapb.sty LaTeX style file, enclose

Campus Mental Health: Implications for Instructors Supporting Students

The recent escalation in student suicides due to mental health problems has encouraged higher education institutions to not only modify their overall support structures, but to also (re)define the role of faculty and staff. Despite the increased attention given to student mental health in Canadian higher education institutions, little is known and understood about how instructors view their role as supporters or promoters of student mental health. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of college instructors in supporting students with mental health problems or illnesses. Participants were 42 instructors between the ages of 25 to 64 from Molize College in Toronto, Ontario. Qualitative ethnography was employed to gather data from participants, specifically through a survey questionnaire and interviews. A constructivist framework was adopted to analyze and understand the values, perceptions, meanings, and practices post-secondary instructors carry around notions of student mental health and intervention. Findings revealed that instructors were generally aware of student mental health concerns in post-secondary institutions, but that greater awareness was still warranted, namely in the areas of instructor mental health and location of support services. Findings also demonstrated that most instructors evaluated their knowledge and confidence in relation to student mental health as poor, which was often credited to limited relevant professional development and training. Additionally, data indicated that instructors carried skepticism towards the role of some student support services departments, as well as towards their own role when supporting the mental health and well-being of students. On a final note, findings revealed that instructors commonly employed four practices to support the mental health and well-being of students: conversation, referral, accommodations, and curricular inclusion and instruction. Future studies are encouraged to acknowledge the narratives of instructors through ethnographic inquiry, to allow for greater insights into their awareness, knowledge/confidence, responsibilities, and practices when it comes to supporting the mental health and well-being of students in higher education settings. Incorporating the instructor may not be a panacea for the shortcomings of current mental health policies and practices in higher education settings, but it can certainly represent a colossal step in that direction. KEYWORDS: student mental health, higher education, instructor

A role for ColV plasmids in the evolution of pathogenic Escherichia coli ST58.

Escherichia coli ST58 has recently emerged as a globally disseminated uropathogen that often progresses to sepsis. Unlike most pandemic extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), which belong to pathogenic phylogroup B2, ST58 belongs to the environmental/commensal phylogroup B1. Here, we present a pan-genomic analysis of a global collection of 752 ST58 isolates from diverse sources. We identify a large ST58 sub-lineage characterized by near ubiquitous carriage of ColV plasmids, which carry genes encoding virulence factors, and by a distinct accessory genome including genes typical of the Yersiniabactin High Pathogenicity Island. This sub-lineage includes three-quarters of all ExPEC sequences in our study and has a broad host range, although poultry and porcine sources predominate. By contrast, strains isolated from cattle often lack ColV plasmids. Our data indicate that ColV plasmid acquisition contributed to the divergence of the major ST58 sub-lineage, and different sub-lineages inhabit poultry, swine and cattle