Genome-scale co-expression network comparison across escherichia coli and salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium reveals significant conservation at the regulon level of local regulators despite their dissimilar lifestyles

Availability of genome-wide gene expression datasets provides the opportunity to study gene expression across different organisms under a plethora of experimental conditions. In our previous work, we developed an algorithm called COMODO (COnserved MODules across Organisms) that identifies conserved expression modules between two species. In the present study, we expanded COMODO to detect the co-expression conservation across three organisms by adapting the statistics behind it. We applied COMODO to study expression conservation/divergence between Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, and Bacillus subtilis. We observed that some parts of the regulatory interaction networks were conserved between E. coli and S. enterica especially in the regulon of local regulators. However, such conservation was not observed between the regulatory interaction networks of B. subtilis and the two other species. We found co-expression conservation on a number of genes involved in quorum sensing, but almost no conservation for genes involved in pathogenicity across E. coli and S. enterica which could partially explain their different lifestyles. We concluded that despite their different lifestyles, no significant rewiring have occurred at the level of local regulons involved for instance, and notable conservation can be detected in signaling pathways and stress sensing in the phylogenetically close species S. enterica and E. coli. Moreover, conservation of local regulons seems to depend on the evolutionary time of divergence across species disappearing at larger distances as shown by the comparison with B. subtilis. Global regulons follow a different trend and show major rewiring even at the limited evolutionary distance that separates E. coli and S. enterica

Let's talk about varying G

It is possible that fundamental constants may not be constant at all. There is a generally accepted view that one can only talk about variations of dimensionless quantities, such as the fine structure constant $\alpha_{\rm e}\equiv e^2/4\pi\epsilon_0\hbar c$. However, constraints on the strength of gravity tend to focus on G itself, which is problematic. We stress that G needs to be multiplied by the square of a mass, and hence, for example, one should be constraining $\alpha_{\rm g}\equiv G m_{\rm p}^2/\hbar c$, where $m_{\rm p}$ is the proton mass. Failure to focus on such dimensionless quantities makes it difficult to interpret the physical dependence of constraints on the variation of G in many published studies. A thought experiment involving talking to observers in another universe about the values of physical constants may be useful for distinguishing what is genuinely measurable from what is merely part of our particular system of units.Comment: 6 pages, Gravity Research Foundation essa

The decrease in NKG2D+ Natural Killer cells in peripheral blood of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Background: Natural killer (NK) cells play important roles in the immune defense against tumors such as colorectal cancer. In humans, NKG2D is an activating immune receptor constitutively expressed in most cytotoxic lymphocytes including NK and CD8+ T cells. In this study, the expression of NKG2D molecule was investigated in peripheral blood NK cells from colorectal cancer patients and compared with healthy subjects. Methods: We studied 21 non-metastatic (low-grade), 17 non-metastatic (high-grade), 16 metastatic colorectal cancer patients, and 24 healthy controls. Peripheral blood samples were obtained to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and the percentage of peripheral blood NKG2D+CD3-CD56+ NK cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. The expression of NKG2D at mRNA level was also measured by real-time PCR in both, patients and control subjects. Results: The results showed a significant reduction in the percentage of NKG2D+NK cells as well as NKG2D mRNA expression in peripheral blood of metastatic colon cancer patients. Conclusion: This result suggests that decreased expression of activating NKG2D receptor in metastatic colorectal cancer might compromise NK cell function and allow tumor to evade immunity (Tab. 3, Fig. 4, Ref. 33). Text in PDF www.elis.sk

Agr typing of Staphylococcus aureus species isolated from clinical samples in training hospitals of Isfahan and Shahrekord

OBJECTIVE: As an opportunistic pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus is associated with serious nosocomial infections and growing antimicrobial resistance against beta-lactams among S. aureus strains has become a global challenge. The current study was designed to investigate the presence of agr genes among S. aureus strains recovered from clinical samples in university hospitals of Isfahan and Shahrekord. RESULTS: A total of 150 S. aureus isolates were screened by Disk diffusion method (DDM) and conventional PCR. The minimum (17.3%) and maximum (46%) antibiotic resistance rates were found in vancomycin and cefoxitin, respectively. The majority of our isolates were classified as agr type I followed by type II, type IV, and type III. The statistical analysis showed a significant correlation between agr type I and antibiotic resistance against cefoxitin and erythromycin (p = 0.04 and p = 0.03, respectively). Based on our findings, the agr typing could be considered an effective approach for molecular tracking of S. aureus infections

Effects of cinnamon supplementation on antioxidant status and serum lipids in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background The objectives of study were to investigate the effects of cinnamon supplementation on antioxidant status and serum lipids in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods This double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 84 overweight or obese PCOS patients; aged 20�38 years. Subjects in cinnamon (n = 42) and placebo (n = 42) groups were given 3 cinnamon capsules (each one contained 500 mg cinnamon) or placebo daily for 8 weeks. Fasting blood samples, anthropometric measurements and dietary intake data were gathered at the beginning and at the end of the study. Independent t test, paired t test and analysis of covariance were used to analyze of data. Results Cinnamon significantly increased serum total antioxidant capacity (P = 0.005). Malondialdehyde was significantly decreased compared with placebo (P = 0.014). Cinnamon supplementation significantly improved serum level of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (all P < 0.05). No significant effect was detected on serum triglyceride level. Conclusions Cinnamon supplementation improved antioxidant status and serum lipid profile in women with PCOS and may be applicable for reducing PCOS risk factors. © 2017 Center for Food and Biomolecules, National Taiwan Universit

Aharonov-Casher effect for spin one particles in a noncommutative space

In this work the Aharonov-Casher (AC) phase is calculated for spin one particles in a noncommutative space. The AC phase has previously been calculated from the Dirac equation in a noncommutative space using a gauge-like technique [17]. In the spin-one, we use kemmer equation to calculate the phase in a similar manner. It is shown that the holonomy receives non-trivial kinematical corrections. By comparing the new result with the already known spin 1/2 case, one may conjecture a generalized formula for the corrections to holonomy for higher spins.Comment: 9 page

Effects of cinnamon supplementation on antioxidant status and serum lipids in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background The objectives of study were to investigate the effects of cinnamon supplementation on antioxidant status and serum lipids in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods This double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 84 overweight or obese PCOS patients; aged 20�38 years. Subjects in cinnamon (n = 42) and placebo (n = 42) groups were given 3 cinnamon capsules (each one contained 500 mg cinnamon) or placebo daily for 8 weeks. Fasting blood samples, anthropometric measurements and dietary intake data were gathered at the beginning and at the end of the study. Independent t test, paired t test and analysis of covariance were used to analyze of data. Results Cinnamon significantly increased serum total antioxidant capacity (P = 0.005). Malondialdehyde was significantly decreased compared with placebo (P = 0.014). Cinnamon supplementation significantly improved serum level of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (all P < 0.05). No significant effect was detected on serum triglyceride level. Conclusions Cinnamon supplementation improved antioxidant status and serum lipid profile in women with PCOS and may be applicable for reducing PCOS risk factors. © 2017 Center for Food and Biomolecules, National Taiwan Universit

Dimensionless cosmology

Although it is well known that any consideration of the variations of fundamental constants should be restricted to their dimensionless combinations, the literature on variations of the gravitational constant $G$ is entirely dimensionful. To illustrate applications of this to cosmology, we explicitly give a dimensionless version of the parameters of the standard cosmological model, and describe the physics of Big Bang Neucleosynthesis and recombination in a dimensionless manner. The issue that appears to have been missed in many studies is that in cosmology the strength of gravity is bound up in the cosmological equations, and the epoch at which we live is a crucial part of the model. We argue that it is useful to consider the hypothetical situation of communicating with another civilization (with entirely different units), comparing only dimensionless constants, in order to decide if we live in a Universe governed by precisely the same physical laws. In this thought experiment, we would also have to compare epochs, which can be defined by giving the value of any {\it one} of the evolving cosmological parameters. By setting things up carefully in this way one can avoid inconsistent results when considering variable constants, caused by effectively fixing more than one parameter today. We show examples of this effect by considering microwave background anisotropies, being careful to maintain dimensionlessness throughout. We present Fisher matrix calculations to estimate how well the fine structure constants for electromagnetism and gravity can be determined with future microwave background experiments. We highlight how one can be misled by simply adding $G$ to the usual cosmological parameter set