2011 German Escherichia coli outbreak: Alignment-free whole-genome phylogeny by feature frequency profiles

Accuracy of SNP-based whole-genome phylogeny reconstruction relies heavily on quality of sequence alignment which is particularly hindered by poorly assembled genomes. Alignment-free methods might provide additional insights. Here, we constructed a whole-genome phylogeny of 9 E.coli isolates from the 2011 German outbreak against existing E. coli genomes using the alignment-free feature frequency profile method. In addition, we looked for gene elements that distinguish the outbreak group from the other E. coli strains and possibly accounted for the emergence of the outbreak isolates using the distinguishing feature analysis

Entanglement dynamics of two-qubit system in different types of noisy channels

In this paper, we study entanglement dynamics of a two-qubit extended Werner-like state locally interacting with independent noisy channels, i.e., amplitude damping, phase damping and depolarizing channels. We show that the purity of initial entangled state has direct impacts on the entanglement robustness in each noisy channel. That is, if the initial entangled state is prepared in mixed instead of pure form, the state may exhibit entanglement sudden death (ESD) and/or be decreased for the critical probability at which the entanglement disappear.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Hidden Trends in 90 Years of Harvard Business Review

In this paper, we demonstrate and discuss results of our mining the abstracts of the publications in Harvard Business Review between 1922 and 2012. Techniques for computing n-grams, collocations, basic sentiment analysis, and named-entity recognition were employed to uncover trends hidden in the abstracts. We present findings about international relationships, sentiment in HBR's abstracts, important international companies, influential technological inventions, renown researchers in management theories, US presidents via chronological analyses.Comment: 6 pages, 14 figures, Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on Technologies and Applications of Artificial Intelligenc

Regional Differences and Influencing Factors of Psychological Integration of Urban Floating Population in China

Based on the dynamic monitoring survey data of floating population in 2017, this paper analyzes the regional differences and influencing factors of psychological integration of urban floating population in China. The results show that: (1) The psychological integration of floating population is at a high level; (2) there are significant regional differences in the psychological integration of floating population. The psychological integration of Southeast coastal and a few Western cities is lower than the national average level, and the psychological integration of Northeast, Shandong, Sichuan and Chongqing is higher than the national average level; (3) the psychological integration of floating population has spatial agglomeration effect. In addition to Sichuan and Chongqing, hot spots are concentrated in the North and cold spots are concentrated in the Southeast. (4) Factors like owning real estate, employer status and high education level accelerate the psychological integration of floating population; the increase of income is not conducive to psychological integration, which is related to the sense of relative deprivation; participation in the “new rural cooperative medical system” has a restrictive effect on the psychological integration of floating population; The equalization of temporary residence permit/residence permit and basic public services is an important way to realize psychological integration. The rapid development of urban economy is conducive to the psychological integration of floating population. Inter provincial mobility has an inhibitory effect, and the effects of economic development level, family size and local residence time are not significant

The immunomodulatory functions and molecular mechanism of a new bursal heptapeptide (BP7) in immune responses and immature B cells

International audienceAbstractThe bursa of Fabricius (BF) is the acknowledged central humoural immune organ unique to birds and plays a vital role in B lymphocyte development. In addition, the unique molecular immune features of bursal-derived biological peptides involved in B cell development are rarely reported. In this paper, a novel bursal heptapeptide (BP7) with the sequence GGCDGAA was isolated from the BF and was shown to enhance the monoclonal antibody production of a hybridoma. A mouse immunization experiment showed that mice immunized with an AIV antigen and BP7 produced strong antibody responses and cell-mediated immune responses. Additionally, BP7 stimulated increased mRNA levels of sIgM in immature mouse WEHI-231 B cells. Gene microarray results confirmed that BP7 regulated 2465 differentially expressed genes in BP7-treated WEHI-231 cells and induced 13 signalling pathways and various immune-related functional processes. Furthermore, we found that BP7 stimulated WEHI-231 cell autophagy and AMPK-ULK1 phosphorylation and regulated Bcl-2 protein expression. Finally, chicken immunization showed that BP7 enhanced the potential antibody and cytokine responses to the AIV antigen. These results suggested that BP7 might be an active biological factor that functions as a potential immunopotentiator, which provided some novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of the effects of bursal peptides on immune functions and B cell differentiation

Entanglement and quantum phase transition in alternating XY spin chain with next-nearest neighbour interactions

By using the method of density-matrix renormalization-group to solve the different spin-spin correlation functions, the nearest-neighbouring entanglement(NNE) and next-nearest-neighbouring entanglement(NNNE) of one-dimensional alternating Heisenberg XY spin chain is investigated in the presence of alternating nearest neighbour interactions of exchange couplings, external magnetic fields and next-nearest neighbouring interactions. For dimerized ferromagnetic spin chain, NNNE appears only above the critical dimerized interaction, meanwhile, the dimerized interaction effects quantum phase transition point and improves NNNE to a large value. We also study the effect of ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic next-nearest neighboring (NNN) interactions on the dynamics of NNE and NNNE. The ferromagnetic NNN interaction increases and shrinks NNE below and above critical frustrated interaction respectively, while the antiferromagnetic NNN interaction always decreases NNE. The antiferromagnetic NNN interaction results to a larger value of NNNE in comparison to the case when the NNN interaction is ferromagnetic.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures,. accepted by Chinese Physics B 2008 11 (in press

MYOELECTRIC STIMULATION ON GLUTEUS MEDIUS OR BICEPS FEMORIS REDUCED KNEE VALGUS TORQUE DURING A FORWARD LANDING TASK

Anterior cruciate ligament injury can be caused by excessive knee valgus torque. This study demonstrated the effect of myoelectric stimulation to the gluteus medius and biceps femoris on the reduction of knee valgus torque. Twelve females performed a forward drop landing task in a biomechanics laboratory. A 130V myoelectric stimulation was delivered to either or both the gluteus medius and biceps femoris through electrodes of different size (38 or 19 cm2) when the subject landed. A motion analysis system was used to obtain the normalized knee valgus torque data. Results showed a significant drop from 15.7 Nm to 11.0-11.4 Nm in stimulating either one muscle with the big electrodes. The technology could be a new option to be implemented as active functional sport apparel for the prevention of sport-related injury induced by knee valgus spraining motion

2011 German Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak: whole-genome phylogeny without alignment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A large-scale <it>Escherichia coli </it>O104:H4 outbreak occurred in Germany from May to July 2011, causing numerous cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) and deaths. Genomes of ten outbreak isolates and a historical O104:H4 strain isolated in 2001 were sequenced using different new generation sequencing platforms. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using various approaches which either are not genome-wide or may be subject to errors due to poor sequence alignment. Also, detailed pathogenicity analyses on the 2001 strain were not available.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We reconstructed the phylogeny of <it>E. coli </it>using the genome-wide and alignment-free feature frequency profile method and revealed the 2001 strain to be the closest relative to the 2011 outbreak strain among all available <it>E. coli </it>strains at present and confirmed findings from previous alignment-based phylogenetic studies that the HUS-causing O104:H4 strains are more closely related to typical enteroaggregative <it>E. coli </it>(EAEC) than to enterohemorrhagic <it>E. coli</it>. Detailed re-examination of pathogenicity-related virulence factors and secreted proteins showed that the 2001 strain possesses virulence factors shared between typical EAEC and the 2011 outbreak strain.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study represents the first attempt to elucidate the whole-genome phylogeny of the 2011 German outbreak using an alignment-free method, and suggested a direct line of ancestry leading from a putative EAEC-like ancestor through the 2001 strain to the 2011 outbreak strain.</p