A submarine volcanic eruption leads to a novel microbial habitat

Submarine volcanic eruptions are major catastrophic events that allow investigation of the colonization mechanisms of newly formed seabed. We explored the seafloor after the eruption of the Tagoro submarine volcano off El Hierro Island, Canary Archipelago. Near the summit of the volcanic cone, at about 130 m depth, we found massive mats of long, white filaments that we named Venus’s hair. Microscopic and molecular analyses revealed that these filaments are made of bacterial trichomes enveloped within a sheath and colonized by epibiotic bacteria. Metagenomic analyses of the filaments identified a new genus and species of the order Thiotrichales, Thiolava veneris. Venus’s hair shows an unprecedented array of metabolic pathways, spanning from the exploitation of organic and inorganic carbon released by volcanic degassing to the uptake of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. This unique metabolic plasticity provides key competitive advantages for the colonization of the new habitat created by the submarine eruption. A specialized and highly diverse food web thrives on the complex three-dimensional habitat formed by these microorganisms, providing evidence that Venus’s hair can drive the restart of biological systems after submarine volcanic eruption

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV

Prevençao Secundária da Morte Súbita: Importância do Marcapasso Definitivo Prévio ao Implante de Cardioversor-desfibrilador Implantável (CDI) na Sobrevida de Pacientes com Miocardiopatia Chagásica

Objetivo: Avaliar a importância clínica da presença de marcapasso definitivo (MPD) previamente ao implante de CDI, considerando variáveis clínicas e epidemiológicas. Métodos: Dos 321 pacientes do banco de dados de CDI de nossa instituiçao, foram selecionados 275 submetidos a implante de CDI para prevençao secundária de morte súbita cardíaca (MSC), agrupados de acordo com a cardiomiopatia de base e a presença de MPD prévio ao implante de CDI. As variáveis analisadas foram: sexo, idade, CF-NYHA, medicaçoes, ritmo cardíaco, FEVE e TVNS. Para análise estatística, utilizou-se o método de Kaplan-Meier e o teste de log-rank. Resultados: A amostra reduzida de pacientes com cardiomiopatia nao chagásica e MPD prévio ao implante de CDI (N=6) nao permitiu análises estatísticas consistentes. Nos pacientes com cardiomiopatia chagásica (CCH), as características de base nos subgrupos com e sem MPD prévio foram estatisticamente semelhantes, exceto pela maior prevalência de TVNS no subgrupo sem MPD prévio. Nos pacientes com CCH, a comparaçao das curvas de sobrevida dos subgrupos com e sem MPD prévio evidenciou uma diferença significativa (p&0,05). A probabilidade de sobrevida no final do primeiro e terceiro anos foi de 78% e 39% nos pacientes com MPD prévio (N=18) e 87% e 58% nos pacientes sem MPD prévio (N=72). Conclusoes: Nos pacientes com CCH submetidos a implante de CDI para prevençao secundária de MSC, a presença de MPD previamente ao implante de CDI apresentou prevalência elevada (20%) e associou-se a um pior prognóstico

Prevençao Secundária da Morte Súbita: Importância do Marcapasso Definitivo Prévio ao Implante de Cardioversor-desfibrilador Implantável (CDI) na Sobrevida de Pacientes com Miocardiopatia Chagásica

Objetivo: Avaliar a importância clínica da presença de marcapasso definitivo (MPD) previamente ao implante de CDI, considerando variáveis clínicas e epidemiológicas. Métodos: Dos 321 pacientes do banco de dados de CDI de nossa instituiçao, foram selecionados 275 submetidos a implante de CDI para prevençao secundária de morte súbita cardíaca (MSC), agrupados de acordo com a cardiomiopatia de base e a presença de MPD prévio ao implante de CDI. As variáveis analisadas foram: sexo, idade, CF-NYHA, medicaçoes, ritmo cardíaco, FEVE e TVNS. Para análise estatística, utilizou-se o método de Kaplan-Meier e o teste de log-rank. Resultados: A amostra reduzida de pacientes com cardiomiopatia nao chagásica e MPD prévio ao implante de CDI (N=6) nao permitiu análises estatísticas consistentes. Nos pacientes com cardiomiopatia chagásica (CCH), as características de base nos subgrupos com e sem MPD prévio foram estatisticamente semelhantes, exceto pela maior prevalência de TVNS no subgrupo sem MPD prévio. Nos pacientes com CCH, a comparaçao das curvas de sobrevida dos subgrupos com e sem MPD prévio evidenciou uma diferença significativa (p&0,05). A probabilidade de sobrevida no final do primeiro e terceiro anos foi de 78% e 39% nos pacientes com MPD prévio (N=18) e 87% e 58% nos pacientes sem MPD prévio (N=72). Conclusoes: Nos pacientes com CCH submetidos a implante de CDI para prevençao secundária de MSC, a presença de MPD previamente ao implante de CDI apresentou prevalência elevada (20%) e associou-se a um pior prognóstico

Genome comparison between clinical and environmental strains of Herbaspirillum seropedicae reveals a potential new emerging bacterium adapted to human hosts

Abstract Background Herbaspirillum seropedicae is an environmental β-proteobacterium that is capable of promoting the growth of economically relevant plants through biological nitrogen fixation and phytohormone production. However, strains of H. seropedicae have been isolated from immunocompromised patients and associated with human infections and deaths. In this work, we sequenced the genomes of two clinical strains of H. seropedicae, AU14040 and AU13965, and compared them with the genomes of strains described as having an environmental origin. Results Both genomes were closed, indicating a single circular chromosome; however, strain AU13965 also carried a plasmid of 42,977 bp, the first described in the genus Herbaspirillum. Genome comparison revealed that the clinical strains lost the gene sets related to biological nitrogen fixation (nif) and the type 3 secretion system (T3SS), which has been described to be essential for interactions with plants. Comparison of the pan-genomes of clinical and environmental strains revealed different sets of accessorial genes. However, antimicrobial resistance genes were found in the same proportion in all analyzed genomes. The clinical strains also acquired new genes and genomic islands that may be related to host interactions. Among the acquired islands was a cluster of genes related to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis. Although highly conserved in environmental strains, the LPS biosynthesis genes in the two clinical strains presented unique and non-orthologous genes within the genus Herbaspirillum. Furthermore, the AU14040 strain cluster contained the neuABC genes, which are responsible for sialic acid (Neu5Ac) biosynthesis, indicating that this bacterium could add it to its lipopolysaccharide. The Neu5Ac-linked LPS could increase the bacterial resilience in the host aiding in the evasion of the immune system. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the lifestyle transition from environment to opportunist led to the loss and acquisition of specific genes allowing adaptations to colonize and survive in new hosts. It is possible that these substitutions may be the starting point for interactions with new hosts.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152201/1/12864_2019_Article_5982.pd

Sudden cardiac death multiparametric classification system for Chagas heart disease's patients based on clinical data and 24-hours ECG monitoring

About 6.5 million people are infected with Chagas disease (CD) globally, and WHO estimates that $ > million people worldwide suffer from ChHD. Sudden cardiac death (SCD) represents one of the leading causes of death worldwide and affects approximately 65% of ChHD patients at a rate of 24 per 1000 patient-years, much greater than the SCD rate in the general population. Its occurrence in the specific context of ChHD needs to be better exploited. This paper provides the first evidence supporting the use of machine learning (ML) methods within non-invasive tests: patients' clinical data and cardiac restitution metrics (CRM) features extracted from ECG-Holter recordings as an adjunct in the SCD risk assessment in ChHD. The feature selection (FS) flows evaluated 5 different groups of attributes formed from patients' clinical and physiological data to identify relevant attributes among 57 features reported by 315 patients at HUCFF-UFRJ. The FS flow with FS techniques (variance, ANOVA, and recursive feature elimination) and Naive Bayes (NB) model achieved the best classification performance with 90.63% recall (sensitivity) and 80.55% AUC. The initial feature set is reduced to a subset of 13 features (4 Classification; 1 Treatment; 1 CRM; and 7 Heart Tests). The proposed method represents an intelligent diagnostic support system that predicts the high risk of SCD in ChHD patients and highlights the clinical and CRM data that most strongly impact the final outcome

Assessment of disease progression in dysferlinopathy: A 1-year cohort study

ObjectiveTo assess the ability of functional measures to detect disease progression in dysferlinopathy over 6 months and 1 year.MethodsOne hundred ninety-three patients with dysferlinopathy were recruited to the Jain Foundation's International Clinical Outcome Study for Dysferlinopathy. Baseline, 6-month, and 1-year assessments included adapted North Star Ambulatory Assessment (a-NSAA), Motor Function Measure (MFM-20), timed function tests, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), Brooke scale, Jebsen test, manual muscle testing, and hand-held dynamometry. Patients also completed the ACTIVLIM questionnaire. Change in each measure over 6 months and 1 year was calculated and compared between disease severity (ambulant [mild, moderate, or severe based on a-NSAA score] or nonambulant [unable to complete a 10-meter walk]) and clinical diagnosis.ResultsThe functional a-NSAA test was the most sensitive to deterioration for ambulant patients overall. The a-NSAA score was the most sensitive test in the mild and moderate groups, while the 6MWT was most sensitive in the severe group. The 10-meter walk test was the only test showing significant change across all ambulant severity groups. In nonambulant patients, the MFM domain 3, wrist flexion strength, and pinch grip were most sensitive. Progression rates did not differ by clinical diagnosis. Power calculations determined that 46 moderately affected patients are required to determine clinical effectiveness for a hypothetical 1-year clinical trial based on the a-NSAA as a clinical endpoint.ConclusionCertain functional outcome measures can detect changes over 6 months and 1 year in dysferlinopathy and potentially be useful in monitoring progression in clinical trials.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:NCT01676077

PDGF-BB serum levels are decreased in adult onset Pompe patients

Adult onset Pompe disease is a genetic disorder characterized by slowly progressive skeletal and respiratory muscle weakness. Symptomatic patients are treated with enzymatic replacement therapy with human recombinant alfa glucosidase. Motor functional tests and spirometry are commonly used to follow patients up. However, a serological biomarker that correlates with the progression of the disease could improve follow-up. We studied serum concentrations of TGFβ, PDGF-BB, PDGF-AA and CTGF growth factors in 37 adult onset Pompe patients and 45 controls. Moreover, all patients performed several muscle function tests, conventional spirometry, and quantitative muscle MRI using 3-point Dixon. We observed a statistically significant change in the serum concentration of each growth factor in patients compared to controls. However, only PDGF-BB levels were able to differentiate between asymptomatic and symptomatic patients, suggesting its potential role in the follow-up of asymptomatic patients. Moreover, our results point to a dysregulation of muscle regeneration as an additional pathomechanism of Pompe disease