Molecular and Cellular Analysis of Chlamydia Trachomatis: Persistence and Reactivation

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the most prevalent sexually-transmitted infection in the United States. It has been suggested that CT infections can become latent. This has not been substantiated. CT persistence was examined at the molecular and cellular level in vitro and in vivo. Penicillin treatment of CT in vitro results in abnormal inclusions and reduced recovery of infectious CT. Penicillin did not inhibit initial stages of infection, but did downregulate CT rRNA levels after 25 hours post-inoculation (p.i.). DNA amplification was employed to differentiate between a resolved infection and a persistent one. Utilizing a primer pair that amplified a 144 bp fragment in the CT MOMP gene, CT-persistently-infected McCoy cells maintained in penicillin medium were examined. Though undetectable by other assay methods, these cells harbored the CT genome for 18 passages. Removal of penicillin 1, 3 or 6 passages p.i. and subsequent cultivation in permissive medium resulted in recovery to productive infection. Removal of penicillin at later passages resulted in low level inclusion formation but no infectious progeny. Penicillin treatment in vitro resulted in a persistent infection undetectable by most methods. Female C\sb3H/HeNCRL mice were inoculated with CT intrauterinely and intravaginally in two separate experiments. In one, CT infection was established in untreated and Depo-Provera (DP)-pretreated mice. DP pretreatment enhanced vaginal shedding of infectious CT. A negative vaginal culture did not correlate with elimination of CT from the upper tract. In the second, penicillin therapy did not halt vaginal CT shedding, however, it reduced frequency of recurrent vaginal CT shedding. To examine reactivation, culture-negative mice ($\geq$2 successive vaginal cultures) were injected with cortisone-acetate (CA) or DP; mice from same subpopulation injected with saline served as controls. Transient vaginal CT shedding was reactivated in penicillin-treated mice (14% CA-injected), and in unmedicated mice (28% CA-injected, 33% DP-injected). Saline injection did not reactivate vaginal CT shedding. At time of sacrifice (16 or 22 weeks p.i.) no infectious CT was detected in upper tract tissues, although tissue damage was observed in most mice (70-71%). It is unknown if these mice harbored a persistent infection undetectable by culture. Further work utilizing molecular techniques is needed to resolve this question

Influence of Plating Parameter and Surface Morphology on Mild Steel

The plating parameter effect of zinc deposition on mild steel substrates was investigated. The results showed an improved surface finished and homogeneous layer. The distance between the anode and the cathode on voltage, plating time and coating thickness were considered. The mild steel was deposited into solution of zinc bath for varying voltage between 0.5 v and 1.0v. It was discovered that the sample plated at 0.8v for 15 minutes gives the best plating deposition and appearance. The surface morphology of the plated sample was analyzed by Focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), AFM and X-ray diffraction

Phase transitions in simple and not so simple binary fluids

Compared to pure fluids, binary mixtures display a very diverse phase behavior, which depends sensitively on the parameters of the microscopic potential. Here we investigate the phase diagrams of simple model mixtures by use of a microscopic implementation of the renormalization group technique. First, we consider a symmetric mixture with attractive interactions, possibly relevant for describing fluids of molecules with internal degrees of freedom. Despite the simplicity of the model, slightly tuning the strength of the interactions between unlike species drastically changes the topology of the phase boundary, forcing or inhibiting demixing, and brings about several interesting features such as double critical points, tricritical points, and coexistence domains enclosing `islands' of homogeneous, mixed fluid. Homogeneous phase separation in mixtures can be driven also by purely repulsive interactions. As an example, we consider a model of soft particles which has been adopted to describe binary polymer solutions. This is shown to display demixing (fluid-fluid) transition at sufficiently high density. The nature and the physical properties of the corresponding phase transition are investigated.Comment: 6 pages + 3 figures, presented at the 5th EPS Liquid Matter Conference, Konstanz, 14-18 September 200

Effect of Process Parameter on the in-situ Intermetallic Composite Coating and Microstructural Evolution of Zn-Al2O3 in the Presence of TEA/MEA on Mild Steel

Zn-Al2O3 composite coating electrodeposits have been produced from chloride bath in the presence of Triethanolamine (TEA) and Monoethanolamine (MEA). The plating effect of TEA and MEA as addition agent on the Zn-Al2O3 alloy is investigated using SEM/EDS, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The mechanical properties were examined through micro-hardness tester. The presence of TEA and MEA as a surface-active additive is also felt to accompany the performance of the fabricated coating. The SEM results for Zn-Al2O3 deposits in the presence of TEA/MEA indicate that surface-active additive have a strong influence on the deposit surface morphology and improved micro-hardness behavior which is assisted by the change in the deposition process parameter

Expresión y rol del slpi (secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor) en la inmunidad innata del ojo asociado a procesos inflamatorios e infecciosos oculares.

En la terapia antimicrobiana, se pretende comprender y desarrollar sinergia con los mecanismos de defensa innatos del huésped, en el área oftalmológica, los relacionados a procesos oculares infecciosos tanto específicos como no específicos. Conservando y estimulando la presencia de los péptidos antimicrobianos, se obtendría una prevención e inhibición de los microorganismos responsables de los principales procesos infecciosos e inflamatorios oculares, que permitirá un tratamiento rápido y eficaz en el control del proceso patológico.De esta forma se podrá evitar secuelas devastadoras de dichas complicaciones que en un gran porcentaje llevan a la ceguera del paciente asociadas al diagnóstico tardío, inespecífico o asociado a resistencia a los antibióticos actuales.Los péptidos antimicrobianos y anti-inflamatorios prometen ser un método terapéutico eficaz, natural, libre de efectos secundarios y adversos en la terapia antimicrobiana e inmuno moduladora futura.Basados en estudios publicados realizados en animales, estos péptidos con capacidad antibacteriana se expresarían en tejidos oculares normales actuando como agentes antimicrobianos de la inmunidad innata del ojo y así también como regulador de la actividad inflamatoria. Estos péptidos antimicrobianos – anti inflamatorios podrían utilizarse para la prevención y tratamiento de procesos infecciosos oculares, en formulaciones simples o combinadas a otras sustancias antibióticas antimicrobianas en forma sinérgica.Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI), terminología anglosajona que se utilizo para definir a una proteína de 12 kDa de peso molecular cuya única función conocida hasta hace unos años era la de ser secretada por leucocitos para inhibir proteasas de la matriz extracelular. El objetivo es estudiar la presencia del péptido antimicrobiano SLPI en relación con el remodelado cicatrizal de la matriz extracelular de la cornea y otras estructuras intra oculares, como así también su expresión en relación a procesos inflamatorios e infecciosos del ojo como agente antimicrobiano de la inmunidad innata del huéspe

Development and evaluation of a multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeats analysis assay for subtyping Salmonella Typhi strains from sub-Saharan Africa

Purpose: Molecular epidemiological investigations of the highly clonal Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) are important in outbreak detection and in tracking disease transmission. In this study, we developed and evaluated a multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeats (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) assay for characterization of S. Typhi isolates from sub-Saharan Africa. Methodology: Twelve previously reported VNTR loci were evaluated and an MLVA assay consisting of five polymorphic loci was adopted. The MLVA assay was developed for use on capillary electrophoresis systems by testing a collection of 50 S. Typhi isolates. This S. Typhi strain panel consisted of six outbreak related isolates and 44 epidemiologically unlinked isolates. Amongst these were nine S.Typhi haplotype H58 isolates. Results: The MLVA assay characterized the 50 isolates into 47 MLVA profiles while PFGE analysis of the same isolates revealed 34 pulsotypes. MLVA displayed higher discriminatory power (Simpson’s index of diversity (DI) 0.998 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.995–1.000)] as compared to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [Simpson’s DI 0.984 (95% CI 0.974–0.994)]. Conclusion: The MLVA assay presented in this study is a simple, rapid and more accessible tool that serves as a good alternative to other molecular subtyping methods for S. Typhi

Implementation of the Hierarchical Reference Theory for simple one-component fluids

Combining renormalization group theoretical ideas with the integral equation approach to fluid structure and thermodynamics, the Hierarchical Reference Theory is known to be successful even in the vicinity of the critical point and for sub-critical temperatures. We here present a software package independent of earlier programs for the application of this theory to simple fluids composed of particles interacting via spherically symmetrical pair potentials, restricting ourselves to hard sphere reference systems. Using the hard-core Yukawa potential with z=1.8/sigma for illustration, we discuss our implementation and the results it yields, paying special attention to the core condition and emphasizing the decoupling assumption's role.Comment: RevTeX, 16 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes, published versio

Probing the statistical properties of Anderson localization with quantum emitters

Wave propagation in disordered media can be strongly modified by multiple scattering and wave interference. Ultimately, the so-called Andersonlocalized regime is reached when the waves become strongly confined in space. So far, Anderson localization of light has been probed in transmission experiments by measuring the intensity of an external light source after propagation through a disordered medium. However, discriminating between Anderson localization and losses in these experiments remains a major challenge. In this paper, we present an alternative approach where we use quantum emitters embedded in disordered photonic crystal waveguides as light sources. Anderson-localized modes are efficiently excited and the analysis of the photoluminescence spectra allows us to explore their statistical properties, for example the localization length and average loss length. With increasing the amount of disorder induced in the photonic crystal, we observe a pronounced increase in the localization length that is attributed to changes in the local density of states, a behavior that is in stark contrast to entirely random systems. The analysis may pave the way for accurate models and the control of Anderson localization in disordered photonic crystalsWe thank P T Kristensen and N A Mortensen for fruitful discussions on the simulations and theoretical model and gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Villum Foundation, the Danish Council for Independent Research (Natural Sciences and Technology and Production Sciences) and the European Research Council (ERC consolidator grant). LSFP acknowledges financial support from the Spanish MICINN Consolider Nanolight project (CSD2007-00046

Interfacial investigation and strengthening behaviour of Zn–Ni multifacial TEA/MEA thin films induced by electrodeposition

Zinc–nickel films were obtained by electrocodeposition using electrolytic deposition techniques in the presence of TEOA (C6H15NO3) and a surfactants consisting of triethylamine and monoethylamine with other bath additives. The modified structure of the films was analysed with scanning electron microscopy attached to energy-dispersive spectrometer, atomic force microscope and X-ray diffraction. Micro-hardness and corrosion of the coated body was examined and used as a criterion to justify the adhesion of the crystal deposited. The corrosion resistance of the coated and uncoated composites was studied in 3.5 % sodium chloride static solution using linear polarization technique. The hardness value increased from 38HV—substrate to 180HV—coated body, indicating a 78.89 % improvement. Equally, the corrosion resistance of the deposited matrix was enhanced by 84.62 %

A Comprehensive Resource for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Patients with Primary Tauopathies.

Primary tauopathies are characterized neuropathologically by inclusions containing abnormal forms of the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) and clinically by diverse neuropsychiatric, cognitive, and motor impairments. Autosomal dominant mutations in the MAPT gene cause heterogeneous forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tauopathy (FTLD-Tau). Common and rare variants in the MAPT gene increase the risk for sporadic FTLD-Tau, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). We generated a collection of fibroblasts from 140 MAPT mutation/risk variant carriers, PSP, CBD, and cognitively normal controls; 31 induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from MAPT mutation carriers, non-carrier family members, and autopsy-confirmed PSP patients; 33 genome engineered iPSCs that were corrected or mutagenized; and forebrain neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Here, we present a resource of fibroblasts, iPSCs, and NPCs with comprehensive clinical histories that can be accessed by the scientific community for disease modeling and development of novel therapeutics for tauopathies