Alien Registration- Boutin, Melanie (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/28997/thumbnail.jp

“Take an Ounce of Suffolk Cheese”: Home Repair of Eighteenth Century Ceramics at Ferry Farm, George Washington’s Boyhood Home

The archaeological discovery at Ferry Farm of eighteenth century glue residues on tea and tablewares belonging to George Washington’s mother, Mary, raised a number of questions. Although recent research in the archaeological and decorative arts community on repaired ceramic and glasswares was helpful to some extent it primarily focused on professional repairs. At-home mending remained a mystery. Archaeologists at Ferry Farm responded by conducting extensive experimental archaeology on historic glues, replicating period glue recipes to determine the properties of these historic adhesives. Additionally, residue samples of suspected glue were analyzed by chemists from Eastern Michigan and Lourdes Universities utilizing Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) Mass Spectrometry. The resulting data have shed light on what these sociotechnic artifacts say about a woman in Mary Washington’s social and economic position while highlighting an extremely common yet archaeologically ephemeral activity

Disease severity in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: comparing routine surveillance with cohort data from the LEOSS study in 2020 in Germany

Introduction Studies investigating risk factors for severe COVID-19 often lack information on the representativeness of the study population. Here, we investigate factors associated with severe COVID-19 and compare the representativeness of the dataset to the general population. Methods We used data from the Lean European Open Survey on SARS-CoV-2 infected patients (LEOSS) of hospitalized COVID-19 patients diagnosed in 2020 in Germany to identify associated factors for severe COVID-19, defined as progressing to a critical disease stage or death. To assess the representativeness, we compared the LEOSS cohort to cases of hospitalized patients in the German statutory notification data of the same time period. Descriptive methods and Poisson regression models were used. Results Overall, 6672 hospitalized patients from LEOSS and 132,943 hospitalized cases from the German statutory notification data were included. In LEOSS, patients above 76 years were less likely represented (34.3% vs. 44.1%). Moreover, mortality was lower (14.3% vs. 21.5%) especially among age groups above 66 years. Factors associated with a severe COVID-19 disease course in LEOSS included increasing age, male sex (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 1.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.53–1.86), prior stem cell transplantation (aRR 2.27, 95% CI 1.53–3.38), and an elevated C-reactive protein at day of diagnosis (aRR 2.30, 95% CI 2.03–2.62). Conclusion We identified a broad range of factors associated with severe COVID-19 progression. However, the results may be less applicable for persons above 66 years since they experienced lower mortality in the LEOSS dataset compared to the statutory notification data.Peer Reviewe

Novel cyclic di-GMP effectors of the YajQ protein family control bacterial virulence

Bis-(3 ',5 ') cyclic di-guanylate (cyclic di-GMP) is a key bacterial second messenger that is implicated in the regulation of many critical processes that include motility, biofilm formation and virulence. Cyclic di-GMP influences diverse functions through interaction with a range of effectors. Our knowledge of these effectors and their different regulatory actions is far from complete, however. Here we have used an affinity pull-down assay using cyclic di-GMP-coupled magnetic beads to identify cyclic di-GMP binding proteins in the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc). This analysis identified XC_3703, a protein of the YajQ family, as a potential cyclic di-GMP receptor. Isothermal titration calorimetry showed that the purified XC_3703 protein bound cyclic di-GMP with a high affinity (K-d similar to 2 mu M). Mutation of XC_3703 led to reduced virulence of Xcc to plants and alteration in biofilm formation. Yeast two-hybrid and far-western analyses showed that XC_3703 was able to interact with XC_2801, a transcription factor of the LysR family. Mutation of XC_2801 and XC_3703 had partially overlapping effects on the transcriptome of Xcc, and both affected virulence. Electromobility shift assays showed that XC_3703 positively affected the binding of XC_2801 to the promoters of target virulence genes, an effect that was reversed by cyclic di-GMP. Genetic and functional analysis of YajQ family members from the human pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia showed that they also specifically bound cyclic di-GMP and contributed to virulence in model systems. The findings thus identify a new class of cyclic di-GMP effector that regulates bacterial virulence

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Alien Registration- Boutin, Melanie (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/28997/thumbnail.jp

Expired drugs in the remote environment

The British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit works in a very remote area of the world, with several Antarctic bases receiving only a single annual resupply of consumable goods. Pharmaceuticals supplied in this manner will often be approaching or past the end of their nominal shelf life before the following year's resupply. Drugs are transported from the UK via ship; the hold is not temperature controlled, and the ship crosses through the tropics (air temperature 25–30°C for approximately 3 wk). The drugs then must be transported from the ship to the base, often in temperatures substantially below freezing. This study assessed the stability of 5 expired drugs (atropine, nifedipine, flucloxacillin, naproxen, and bendroflumethiazide) returned from Antarctic bases

A pendant drop method for the production of calibrated double emulsions and emulsion gels

International audienceWe describe a pendant drop method that allows one to produce double emulsions in a controllable way. Using a co-flowing drop-maker, we generate a periodic train made of monodisperse droplets that is directed toward the end of a capillary tube where a pendant drop forms. When this drop detaches from the tip of the capillary under the influence of gravity, it may or may not encapsulate one or several droplets depending on experimental conditions. We discuss the advantages of this method when compared with other techniques described in the literature and we present a simple model that predicts well the mean volume of the outer drops and the mean number of encapsulated droplets per drop as a function of the various physical parameters at play in experiments. We illustrate the high potentiality of this simple method by producing well-calibrated emulsion gels of large sizes and we discuss possible applications

Assembly of HE800 exopolysaccharide produced by a deep-sea hydrothermal bacterium into microgels for protein delivery applications

Assembly of biopolymers into microgels is an elegant strategy for bioencapsulation with various potential biomedical applications. Such biocompatible and biodegradable microassemblies are developed not only to protect the encapsulated molecule but also to ensure its sustained local delivery. The present study describes the fabrication of microassemblies from a marine HE800 exopolysaccharide (EPS), which displays a glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-like structure and biological properties. HE800 EPS was assembled, through physical cross-linking with divalent ions, into microgel particles and microfibers using microfluidics. The microparticle morphology was highly affected by the polysaccharide concentration and its molecular weight. A model protein, namely Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was subsequently encapsulated within HE800 microparticles in one-step process using microfluidics. The protein release was tuned by the microparticle morphology with a lower protein amount released from the most homogeneous structures. Our findings demonstrate the high potential of HE800 EPS based microassemblies as innovative protein microcarriers for further biomedical applications

Investigation of interactions between the marine GY785 exopolysaccharide and transforming growth factor-β1 by atomic force microscopy

International audienc