4,418 research outputs found
Cloning, sequencing, and characterization of the hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine degradation gene cluster from Rhodococcus rhodochrous
Hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) is a high explosive which presents an environmental hazard as a major land and groundwater contaminant. Rhodococcus rhodochrous strain 11Y was isolated from explosive contaminated land and is capable of degrading RDX when provided as the sole source of nitrogen for growth. Products of RDX degradation in resting-cell incubations were analyzed and found to include nitrite, formaldehyde, and formate. No ammonium was excreted into the medium, and no dead-end metabolites were observed. The gene responsible for the degradation of RDX in strain 11Y is a constitutively expressed cytochrome P450-like gene, xpLA, which is found in a gene cluster with an adrenodoxin reductase homologue, xplB. The cytochrome P450 also has a flavodoxin domain at the N terminus. This study is the first to present a gene which has been identified as being responsible for RDX biodegradation. The mechanism of action of XplA on RDX is thought to involve initial denitration followed by spontaneous ring cleavage and mineralization
The effect of sampling rate on observed statistics in a correlated random walk
Tracking the movement of individual cells or animals can provide important information about their motile behaviour, with key examples including migrating birds, foraging mammals and bacterial chemotaxis. In many experimental protocols, observations are recorded with a fixed sampling interval and the continuous underlying motion is approximated as a series of discrete steps. The size of the sampling interval significantly affects the tracking measurements, the statistics computed from observed trajectories, and the inferences drawn. Despite the widespread use of tracking data to investigate motile behaviour, many open questions remain about these effects. We use a correlated random walk model to study the variation with sampling interval of two key quantities of interest: apparent speed and angle change. Two variants of the model are considered, in which reorientations occur instantaneously and with a stationary pause, respectively. We employ stochastic simulations to study the effect of sampling on the distributions of apparent speeds and angle changes, and present novel mathematical analysis in the case of rapid sampling. Our investigation elucidates the complex nature of sampling effects for sampling intervals ranging over many orders of magnitude. Results show that inclusion of a stationary phase significantly alters the observed distributions of both quantities
Pathogenic Potential to Humans of Bovine Escherichia coli O26, Scotland
Escherichia coli O26 and O157 have similar overall prevalences in cattle in Scotland, but in humans, Shiga toxinâproducing E. coli O26 infections are fewer and clinically less severe than E. coli O157 infections. To investigate this discrepancy, we genotyped E. coli O26 isolates from cattle and humans in Scotland and continental Europe. The genetic background of some strains from Scotland was closely related to that of strains causing severe infections in Europe. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling found an association between hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and multilocus sequence type 21 strains and confirmed the role of stx<sub>2</sub> in severe human disease. Although the prevalences of E. coli O26 and O157 on cattle farms in Scotland are equivalent, prevalence of more virulent strains is low, reducing human infection risk. However, new data on E. coli O26âassociated HUS in humans highlight the need for surveillance of non-O157 enterohemorrhagic E. coli and for understanding stx<sub>2</sub> phage acquisition
Sex-bias in COVID-19: a meta-analysis and review of sex differences in disease and immunity
A striking anecdotal feature of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is the difference in morbidity and mortality between the sexes. Here, we present a meta-analysis of 206, 128 reported cases to demonstrate that whilst there is no difference in the proportion of males and females with confirmed COVID-19, male patients have more than double the odds of requiring intensive treatment unit admission (OR 2.5) and higher odds of death (OR 1.60) when compared to females. We review data revealing how previous Coronavirus outbreaks have demonstrated a similar pattern. Important differences in the immune response to infection exist between sexes, which are likely to contribute to this observation. In this review, we discuss these differences highlighting that females have a more robust innate antiviral response and a better adaptive immune response to infection. An appreciation of how sex is influencing COVID-19 outcomes will have important implications for clinical management and mitigation strategies for this disease
Gated rotation mechanism of site-specific recombination by ÏC31 integrase
Integrases, such as that of the Streptomyces temperate bacteriophage ÏC31, promote site-specific recombination between DNA sequences in the bacteriophage and bacterial genomes to integrate or excise the phage DNA. ÏC31 integrase belongs to the serine recombinase family, a large group of structurally related enzymes with diverse biological functions. It has been proposed that serine integrases use a âsubunit rotationâ mechanism to exchange DNA strands after double-strand DNA cleavage at the two recombining att sites, and that many rounds of subunit rotation can occur before the strands are religated. We have analyzed the mechanism of ÏC31 integrase-mediated recombination in a topologically constrained experimental system using hybrid âphesâ recombination sites, each of which comprises a ÏC31 att site positioned adjacent to a regulatory sequence recognized by Tn3 resolvase. The topologies of reaction products from circular substrates containing two phes sites support a right-handed subunit rotation mechanism for catalysis of both integrative and excisive recombination. Strand exchange usually terminates after a single round of 180° rotation. However, multiple processive â360° rotationâ rounds of strand exchange can be observed, if the recombining sites have nonidentical base pairs at their centers. We propose that a regulatory âgatingâ mechanism normally blocks multiple rounds of strand exchange and triggers product release after a single round
Quantum Computer with Mixed States and Four-Valued Logic
In this paper we discuss a model of quantum computer in which a state is an
operator of density matrix and gates are general quantum operations, not
necessarily unitary. A mixed state (operator of density matrix) of n two-level
quantum systems is considered as an element of 4^n-dimensional operator Hilbert
space (Liouville space). It allows to use a quantum computer model with
four-valued logic. The gates of this model are general superoperators which act
on n-ququat state. Ququat is a quantum state in a four-dimensional (operator)
Hilbert space. Unitary two-valued logic gates and quantum operations for an
n-qubit open system are considered as four-valued logic gates acting on
n-ququat. We discuss properties of quantum four-valued logic gates. In the
paper we study universality for quantum four-valued logic gates.Comment: 17 page
Efficient implementation of selective recoupling in heteronuclear spin systems using Hadamard matrices
We present an efficient scheme which couples any designated pair of spins in
heteronuclear spin systems. The scheme is based on the existence of Hadamard
matrices. For a system of spins with pairwise coupling, the scheme
concatenates intervals of system evolution and uses at most pulses
where . Our results demonstrate that, in many systems, selective
recoupling is possible with linear overhead, contrary to common speculation
that exponential effort is always required.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, mypsfig2, revtex, submitted April 27, 199
Orthogonally bifunctionalised polyacrylamide nanoparticles: a support for the assembly of multifunctional nanodevices
Polyacrylamide nanoparticles bearing two orthogonal reactive functionalities were prepared by reverse microemulsion polymerisation. Water-soluble photosensitisers and peptide or carbohydrate moieties were sequentially attached to the new nanospecies by orthogonal conjugations based on copper- catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition and isothiocyanate chemistry
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