424 research outputs found
EUREGIO MRSA-net Twente/Munsterland - a Dutch-German cross-border network for the prevention and control of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Binary file ES_Abstracts_Final_ECDC.txt matches
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Model for the bee apiary location evaluation
Honeybees are predominant and ecologically as well as economically important group
of pollinators in most geographical regions. As a result of analysing current situation in studies
and practices, a conclusion was drawn that beekeeping sector is in decline. The identified reasons
for this are land-use intensification, monocropping, pesticide poisoning, colony diseases,
parasites and adverse climate. One of the solutions is to find a proper bee colony harvesting
location and use luring methods to attract bees to this location. Usually beekeepers choose the
apiary location based on their own previous experience and sometimes the position is not optimal
for the bees. This can be explained by different flowering periods, variation of resources at the
known fields, as well as other factors. This research presents a model for evaluation of possible
apiary locations, taking into account resource availability estimation in different surrounding
agricultural fields. Authors propose a model for real agricultural field location digitization and
evaluation of possible apiary location by fusing information about available field resources. To
achieve this, several steps have to be completed, such as selection of fields of interest, converting
selection to polygons for further calculations, defining the potential values and coefficients for
amount of resources depending on type of crops and season and calculation of harvesting
locations. As the outcome of the model, heat map of possible apiary locations are presented to
the end-user (beekeeper) in the visual way. Based on the outcome, beekeepers can plan the
optimal placement of the apiary and change it in the case of need. The Python language was used
for the model development. Model can be extended to use additional factors and values to increase
the precision for field resource evaluation. In addition, input from users (farmers, agricultural
specialists, etc.) about external factors, that can affect the apiary location can be taken into
account. This work is conducted within the Horizon 2020 FET project HIVEOPOLIS (Nr.824069
– Futuristic beehives for a smart metropolis)
The LOCATA challenge data corpus for acoustic source localization and tracking
Algorithms for acoustic source localization and tracking are essential for a wide range of applications such as personal assistants, smart homes, tele-conferencing systems, hearing aids, or autonomous systems. Numerous algorithms have been proposed for this purpose which, however, are not evaluated and compared against each other by using a common database so far. The IEEE-AASP Challenge on sound source localization and tracking (LOCATA) provides a novel, comprehensive data corpus for the objective benchmarking of state-of-the-art algorithms on sound source localization and tracking. The data corpus comprises six tasks ranging from the localization of a single static sound source with a static microphone array to the tracking of multiple moving speakers with a moving microphone array. It contains real-world multichannel audio recordings, obtained by hearing aids, microphones integrated in a robot head, a planar and a spherical microphone array in an enclosed acoustic environment as well as positional information about the involved arrays and sound sources represented by moving human talkers or static loudspeakers
Can consumption predict advertising expenditures? The advertising-consumption relation before and after the dot-com crisis in Germany
Two contradictory schools of thought—the activists and the determinists—predict that either diffusion of knowledge (e.g., through advertising) leads to economic growth or that economic growth increases marketing and advertising activities. This study assesses the causal relation between corporate advertising expenditures and private consumption applying vector autoregressive (VAR) models to aggregate German quarterly data from 1991 to 2009. Results indicate a break in the advertising-consumption relation after the dot-com crisis. Hence, the macroeconomic advertising-consumption relation is not stable over time. Since 2001, consumption has Granger-caused advertising expenditures. This change suggests a higher relevance of consumer behavior for advertising budgeting decisions
Prospective genomic characterization of the German enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak by rapid next generation sequencing technology. PLoS One 6: e22751
Abstract An ongoing outbreak of exceptionally virulent Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli O104:H4 centered in Germany, has caused over 830 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and 46 deaths since May 2011. Serotype O104:H4, which has not been detected in animals, has rarely been associated with HUS in the past. To prospectively elucidate the unique characteristics of this strain in the early stages of this outbreak, we applied whole genome sequencing on the Life Technologies Ion Torrent PGM TM sequencer and Optical Mapping to characterize one outbreak isolate (LB226692) and a historic O104:H4 HUS isolate from 2001 (01-09591). Reference guided draft assemblies of both strains were completed with the newly introduced PGM TM within 62 hours. The HUS-associated strains both carried genes typically found in two types of pathogenic E. coli, enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). Phylogenetic analyses of 1,144 core E. coli genes indicate that the HUS-causing O104:H4 strains and the previously published sequence of the EAEC strain 55989 show a close relationship but are only distantly related to common EHEC serotypes. Though closely related, the outbreak strain differs from the 2001 strain in plasmid content and fimbrial genes. We propose a model in which EAEC 55989 and EHEC O104:H4 strains evolved from a common EHEC O104:H4 progenitor, and suggest that by stepwise gain and loss of chromosomal and plasmid-encoded virulence factors, a highly pathogenic hybrid of EAEC and EHEC emerged as the current outbreak clone. In conclusion, rapid next-generation technologies facilitated prospective whole genome characterization in the early stages of an outbreak
The ubiquitination landscape of the influenza A virus polymerase.
During influenza A virus (IAV) infections, viral proteins are targeted by cellular E3 ligases for modification with ubiquitin. Here, we decipher and functionally explore the ubiquitination landscape of the IAV polymerase proteins during infection of human alveolar epithelial cells by applying mass spectrometry analysis of immuno-purified K-ε-GG (di-glycyl)-remnant-bearing peptides. We have identified 59 modified lysines across the three subunits, PB2, PB1 and PA of the viral polymerase of which 17 distinctively affect mRNA transcription, vRNA replication and the generation of recombinant viruses via non-proteolytic mechanisms. Moreover, further functional and in silico analysis indicate that ubiquitination at K578 in the PB1 thumb domain is mechanistically linked to dynamic structural transitions of the viral polymerase that are required for vRNA replication. Mutations K578A and K578R differentially affect the generation of recombinant viruses by impeding cRNA and vRNA synthesis, NP binding as well as polymerase dimerization. Collectively, our results demonstrate that the ubiquitin-mediated charge neutralization at PB1-K578 disrupts the interaction to an unstructured loop in the PB2 N-terminus that is required to coordinate polymerase dimerization and facilitate vRNA replication. This provides evidence that IAV exploits the cellular ubiquitin system to modulate the activity of the viral polymerase for viral replication
Priorities for energy efficiency measures in agriculture.
This report provides a compilation of energy efficiency measures in agriculture, their
opportunities and constraints to implement energy efficient agricultural systems across
Europe as a result of the AGREE (Agriculture & Energy Efficiency) Coordination and Support
Action funded by the 7th research framework of the EU (www.agree.aua.gr). The report
dwells on earlier reports of the consortium, which listed potential energy efficiency
measures (Project Deliverable 2.3: Energy Saving Measures in Agriculture – Overview on the Basis of National Reports) and identified trade-offs and win-win situations of various energy efficiency measures in agriculture (Project Deliverable 3.1: Economic and environmental
analysis of energy efficiency measures in agriculture). It shows research gaps in crop
production, greenhouse production, animal husbandry and system approaches, which can
be regarded as priorities for energy efficiency measures in agriculture. The report is na important input for the strategic research agenda, which is one of the main outputs of the AGREE project
Antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation ability among coagulase-negative staphylococci in healthy individuals from Portugal
In the past few years the interest in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) species has significantly increased due to their impact on human health and disease. CoNS are common bacterial colonizers of the normal human microflora and usually have a benign relationship with the host.This work was funded by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) and COMPETE grants PTDC/BIA-MIC/113450/2009 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-014309
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