Temporal variability in the nutrient biogeochemistry of the surface North Atlantic: 15 years of ship of opportunity data

Ocean biological processes play an important role in the global carbon cycle via the production of organic matter and its subsequent export. Often, this flux is assumed to be in steady state; however, it is dependent on nutrients introduced to surface waters via multiple mechanisms, some of which are likely to exhibit both intra‐annual and interannual variability leading to comparable variability in ocean carbon uptake. Here we test this variability using surface (5 m) inorganic nutrient concentrations from voluntary observing ships and satellite‐derived estimates of chlorophyll and net primary production. At lower latitudes, the seasonality is small, and the monthly averages of nitrate:phosphate are lower than the canonical 16:1 Redfield ratio, implying nitrogen limitation, a situation confirmed via a series of nutrient limitation experiments conducted between Bermuda and Puerto Rico. The nutrient seasonal cycle is more pronounced at higher latitudes, with clear interannual variability. Over a large area of the midlatitude North Atlantic, the winters of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 had nitrate values more than 1μmol L−1 higher than the 2002–2017 average, suggesting that during this period, the system may have shifted to phosphorus limitation. This nitrate increase meant that, in the region between 31° and 39° N, new production calculated from nitrate uptake was 20.5g C m−2 in 2010, more than four times higher than the median value of the whole observing period. Overall, we suggest that substantial variability in nutrient concentrations and biological carbon uptake occurs in the North Atlantic with interannual variability apparent over a number of different time scales

Activation of ERAD Pathway by Human Hepatitis B Virus Modulates Viral and Subviral Particle Production

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) belongs to the Hepadnaviridae family of enveloped DNA viruses. It was previously shown that HBV can induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activate the IRE1-XBP1 pathway of the unfolded protein response (UPR), through the expression of the viral regulatory protein X (HBx). However, it remained obscure whether or not this activation had any functional consequences on the target genes of the UPR pathway. Of these targets, the ER degradation-enhancing, mannosidase-like proteins (EDEMs) are thought to play an important role in relieving the ER stress during UPR, by recognizing terminally misfolded glycoproteins and delivering them to the ER-associated degradation (ERAD). In this study, we investigated the role of EDEMs in the HBV life-cycle. We found that synthesis of EDEMs (EDEM1 and its homologues, EDEM2 and EDEM3) is significantly up-regulated in cells with persistent or transient HBV replication. Co-expression of the wild-type HBV envelope proteins with EDEM1 resulted in their massive degradation, a process reversed by EDEM1 silencing. Surprisingly, the autophagy/lysosomes, rather than the proteasome were involved in disposal of the HBV envelope proteins. Importantly, inhibition of the endogenous EDEM1 expression in HBV replicating cells significantly increased secretion of both, enveloped virus and subviral particles. This is the first report showing that HBV activates the ERAD pathway, which, in turn, reduces the amount of envelope proteins, possibly as a mechanism to control the level of virus particles in infected cells and facilitate the establishment of chronic infections

Interference-assisted squeezing in fluorescence radiation

The squeezing spectrum of the resonance fluorescence is studied for a coherently driven four-level atom in the Y-type configuration. It is found that the squeezing properties of the fluorescence radiation are modified significantly when quantum interference of the spontaneous decays channels is included. We show a considerable enhancement of steady-state squeezing in spectral components for strong and off-resonant driving fields. The squeezing may be increased in both the inner and outer sidebands of the spectrum depending upon the choice of parameters. We also show that the interference can degrade the spectral squeezing by increasing the decay rates of atomic transitions. An analytical description using dressed states is provided to explain the numerical results.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, minor changes in text, results unchanged, published versio

Separation of energy scales in undoped YbRh2_2Si2_2 under hydrostatic pressure

The temperature ($T$)-magnetic field ($H$) phase diagram of YbRh$_2$Si$_2$ in the vicinity of its quantum critical point is investigated by low-$T$ magnetization measurements. Our analysis reveals that the energy scale $T^\star(H)$, previously related to the Kondo breakdown and terminating at 0.06 T for $T\to 0$, remains unchanged under pressure, whereas the antiferromagnetic critical field increases from 0.06 T ($p=0$) to 0.29 T ($p=1.28$ GPa), resulting in a crossing of $T_N(H)$ and $T^\star(H)$. Our results are very similar to those on Yb(Rh$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$Si$_2$, proving that the Co-induced disorder can not be the reason for the detachment of both scales under chemical pressure

Quantum entanglement and disentanglement of multi-atom systems

We present a review of recent research on quantum entanglement, with special emphasis on entanglement between single atoms, processing of an encoded entanglement and its temporary evolution. Analysis based on the density matrix formalism are described. We give a simple description of the entangling procedure and explore the role of the environment in creation of entanglement and in disentanglement of atomic systems. A particular process we will focus on is spontaneous emission, usually recognized as an irreversible loss of information and entanglement encoded in the internal states of the system. We illustrate some certain circumstances where this irreversible process can in fact induce entanglement between separated systems. We also show how spontaneous emission reveals a competition between the Bell states of a two qubit system that leads to the recently discovered "sudden" features in the temporal evolution of entanglement. An another problem illustrated in details is a deterministic preparation of atoms and atomic ensembles in long-lived stationary squeezed states and entangled cluster states. We then determine how to trigger the evolution of the stable entanglement and also address the issue of a steered evolution of entanglement between desired pairs of qubits that can be achieved simply by varying the parameters of a given system.Comment: Review articl

Bacterial Gut Symbionts Contribute to Seed Digestion in an Omnivorous Beetle

Obligate bacterial symbionts alter the diets of host animals in numerous ways, but the ecological roles of facultative bacterial residents that colonize insect guts remain unclear. Carabid beetles are a common group of beneficial insects appreciated for their ability to consume insect prey and seeds, but the contributions of microbes to diet diversification in this and similar groups of facultative granivores are largely unknown.Using 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and terminal restriction fragment (tRF) length polymorphism analyses of these genes, we examined the bacterial communities within the guts of facultatively granivorous, adult Harpalus pensylvanicus (Carabidae), fed one of five dietary treatments: 1) an untreated Field population, 2) Seeds with antibiotics (seeds were from Chenopodium album), 3) Seeds without antibiotics, 4) Prey with antibiotics (prey were Acheta domesticus eggs), and 5) Prey without antibiotics. The number of seeds and prey consumed by each beetle were recorded following treatment. Harpalus pensylvanicus possessed a fairly simple gut community of approximately 3-4 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTU) per beetle that were affiliated with the Gammaproteobacteria, Bacilli, Alphaproteobacteria, and Mollicutes. Bacterial communities of the host varied among the diet and antibiotic treatments. The field population and beetles fed seeds without antibiotics had the closest matching bacterial communities, and the communities in the beetles fed antibiotics were more closely related to each other than to those of the beetles that did not receive antibiotics. Antibiotics reduced and altered the bacterial communities found in the beetle guts. Moreover, beetles fed antibiotics ate fewer seeds, and those beetles that harbored the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis consumed more seeds on average than those lacking this symbiont.We conclude that the relationships between the bacterium E. faecalis and this factultative granivore's ability to consume seeds merit further investigation, and that facultative associations with symbiotic bacteria have important implications for the nutritional ecology of their hosts

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Genetic Diversity among Enterococcus faecalis

Enterococcus faecalis, a ubiquitous member of mammalian gastrointestinal flora, is a leading cause of nosocomial infections and a growing public health concern. The enterococci responsible for these infections are often resistant to multiple antibiotics and have become notorious for their ability to acquire and disseminate antibiotic resistances. In the current study, we examined genetic relationships among 106 strains of E. faecalis isolated over the past 100 years, including strains identified for their diversity and used historically for serotyping, strains that have been adapted for laboratory use, and isolates from previously described E. faecalis infection outbreaks. This collection also includes isolates first characterized as having novel plasmids, virulence traits, antibiotic resistances, and pathogenicity island (PAI) components. We evaluated variation in factors contributing to pathogenicity, including toxin production, antibiotic resistance, polymorphism in the capsule (cps) operon, pathogenicity island (PAI) gene content, and other accessory factors. This information was correlated with multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) data, which was used to define genetic lineages. Our findings show that virulence and antibiotic resistance traits can be found within many diverse lineages of E. faecalis. However, lineages have emerged that have caused infection outbreaks globally, in which several new antibiotic resistances have entered the species, and in which virulence traits have converged. Comparing genomic hybridization profiles, using a microarray, of strains identified by MLST as spanning the diversity of the species, allowed us to identify the core E. faecalis genome as consisting of an estimated 2057 unique genes

Microbial Fuel Cells and Microbial Ecology: Applications in Ruminant Health and Production Research

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) systems employ the catalytic activity of microbes to produce electricity from the oxidation of organic, and in some cases inorganic, substrates. MFC systems have been primarily explored for their use in bioremediation and bioenergy applications; however, these systems also offer a unique strategy for the cultivation of synergistic microbial communities. It has been hypothesized that the mechanism(s) of microbial electron transfer that enable electricity production in MFCs may be a cooperative strategy within mixed microbial consortia that is associated with, or is an alternative to, interspecies hydrogen (H2) transfer. Microbial fermentation processes and methanogenesis in ruminant animals are highly dependent on the consumption and production of H2in the rumen. Given the crucial role that H2 plays in ruminant digestion, it is desirable to understand the microbial relationships that control H2 partial pressures within the rumen; MFCs may serve as unique tools for studying this complex ecological system. Further, MFC systems offer a novel approach to studying biofilms that form under different redox conditions and may be applied to achieve a greater understanding of how microbial biofilms impact animal health. Here, we present a brief summary of the efforts made towards understanding rumen microbial ecology, microbial biofilms related to animal health, and how MFCs may be further applied in ruminant research