Complete Genome Sequences of Four Toxigenic ;Clostridium difficile Clinical Isolates from Patients of the Lower Hudson Valley, New York, USA

Complete genome sequences of four toxigenic Clostridium difficile isolates from patients in the lower Hudson Valley, New York, USA, were achieved. These isolates represent four common sequence types (ST1, ST2, ST8, and ST42) belonging to two distinct phylogenetic clades. All isolates have a 4.0- to 4.2-Mb circular chromosome, and one carries a phage

Ruxolitinib Significantly Enhances in Vitro Apoptosis in Hodgkin Lymphoma and Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma and Survival in a Lymphoma Xenograft Murine Model

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) share similar molecular features by gene expression profiling. Frequent gains of chromosome 9p exhibit higher Janus Kinase 2 (JAK2) transcript levels with increased JAK2 activity, suggesting aberrant activity of JAK2 and STAT pathways. This signaling pathway alteration may in part play an important role in the pathogenesis and/or chemoradiotherapy resistance in HL and PMBL. Ruxolitinib is a potent and selective JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, with activity against myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) including those harboring the JAK2V617F mutation. We investigated the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of ruxolitinib and changes in downstream signaling pathways in HL and PMBL. We demonstrated that ruxolitinib significantly inhibited STAT signaling in both HL and PMBL with constitutively active JAK2 signaling. We also observed that ruxolitinib significantly induced in vitro anti-proliferative effects (p \u3c 0.05) and increased programmed cell death (p \u3c 0.05) against both HL and PMBL cells. Importantly, ruxolitinib significantly inhibited tumor progression by bioluminescence (p \u3c 0.05) and significantly improved survival in HL (p = 0.0001) and PMBL (p \u3c 0.0001) xenograft NSG mice. Taken altogether, these studies suggest that ruxolitinib may be a potential adjuvant targeted agent in the therapeutic approach in patients with high risk HL and PMBL

Towards an autonomous vision-based unmanned aerial system againstwildlife poachers

Poaching is an illegal activity that remains out of control in many countries. Based on the 2014 report of the United Nations and Interpol, the illegal trade of global wildlife and natural resources amounts to nearly $213 billion every year, which is even helping to fund armed conflicts. Poaching activities around the world are further pushing many animal species on the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, the traditional methods to fight against poachers are not enough, hence the new demands for more efficient approaches. In this context, the use of new technologies on sensors and algorithms, as well as aerial platforms is crucial to face the high increase of poaching activities in the last few years. Our work is focused on the use of vision sensors on UAVs for the detection and tracking of animals and poachers, as well as the use of such sensors to control quadrotors during autonomous vehicle following and autonomous landing.Peer Reviewe

Carbon nanotubes adhesion and nanomechanical behavior from peeling force spectroscopy

Applications based on Single Walled Carbon Nanotube (SWNT) are good example of the great need to continuously develop metrology methods in the field of nanotechnology. Contact and interface properties are key parameters that determine the efficiency of SWNT functionalized nanomaterials and nanodevices. In this work we have taken advantage of a good control of the SWNT growth processes at an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip apex and the use of a low noise (1E-13 m/rtHz) AFM to investigate the mechanical behavior of a SWNT touching a surface. By simultaneously recording static and dynamic properties of SWNT, we show that the contact corresponds to a peeling geometry, and extract quantities such as adhesion energy per unit length, curvature and bending rigidity of the nanotube. A complete picture of the local shape of the SWNT and its mechanical behavior is provided

Culture variation in the average identity extraction: The role of global vs. local processing orientation

Research has shown that observers often spontaneously extract a mean representation from multiple faces/objects in a scene even when this is not required by the task. This phenomenon, now known as ensemble coding, has so far mainly been based on data from Western populations. This study compared East Asian and Western participants in an implicit ensemble-coding task, where the explicit task was to judge whether a test face was present in a briefly exposed set of faces. Although both groups showed a tendency to mistake an average of the presented faces as target, thus confirming the universality of ensemble coding, East Asian participants displayed a higher averaging tendency relative to the Westerners. To further examine how a cultural default can be adapted to global or local processing demand, our second experiment tested the effects of priming global or local processing orientation on ensemble coding via a Navon task procedure. Results revealed a reduced tendency for ensemble coding following the priming of local processing orientation. Together, these results suggest that culture can influence the proneness to ensemble coding, and the default cultural mode is malleable to a temporary processing demand

Complete Genome Sequence of a Colistin-resistant Escherichia coli Strain Harboring mcr-1 on an InchI2 Plasmid in the United States

We report here the incidental detection and complete genome sequence of a urinary Escherichia coli strain harboring mcr-1 and resistant to colistin in a New York patient returning from Portugal in 2016. This strain, with sequence type 1485 (ST1485), was a non-extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and non-carbapenemase producer and carried the mcr-1 gene on an IncHI2 plasmid

Does Men’s Facial Sexual Dimorphism Affect Male Observers’ Selective Attention?

Facial sexual dimorphism affects observers’ physical dominance ratings. Here, we test whether such perceived dominance influences selective attention. To minimize demand characteristics, we examined whether task-irrelevant masculinized men’s faces would show an attentional bias in several experimental paradigms. Experiment 1 employed a Posner Cueing Paradigm in which participants classified shapes after a masculinized or feminized man’s face was presented. We could not find a difference in participants’ classification speeds when either feminized or masculinized face cued target position. Experiment 2 employed a Flanker Task in which participants judged letter orientation, while ignoring flanking faces. There was no observed difference in participants’ reaction time (RT) when masculinized faces flanked the target. Experiment 3 employed a Dot Probe Task, where participants were presented with a masculinized face and a feminized face to the left and right of center screen, and a target shape was presented in the location of one face. Participants’ task was to classify shape orientation. We observe a small effect of facial sexual dimorphism on participants’ classification speed. In Experiment 4, we primed participants with images meant to induce fear or arousal before each trial of a Dot Probe Task. Following the presentation of a fear inducing picture, participants RT to classify shapes when a masculinized face cued target position did not differ from when a feminized face cued target position. The two different presentation times did not create different patterns of results, indicating that masculinized faces did not induce either a cueing or inhibitory affect. Overall, we failed to support the hypothesis that people selectively attend to masculinized faces when they are presented as irrelevant information

The Effects of DLEU1 Gene Expression in Burkitt Lymphoma (BL): Potential Mechanism of Chemoimmunotherapy Resistance in BL

Following a multivariant analysis we demonstrated that children and adolescents with Burkitt lymphoma (BL) and a 13q14.3 deletion have a significant decrease in event free survival (EFS) despite identical short intensive multi-agent chemotherapy. However, how this deletion in the 13q14.3 region is associated with a significant decrease in EFS in children and adolescents with BL is largely unknown. The gene Deleted in Lymphocytic Leukemia 1 (DLEU1) is located in the region of 13q14.3. Here, we report that DLEU1 expression is implicated in the regulation of BL programmed cell death, cell proliferation, and expression of apoptotic genes in transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN)s-induced DLEU1 knockdown and DLEU1 overexpressing BL cell lines. Furthermore, NSG mice xenografted with DLEU1 knockdown BL cells had significantly shortened survival (p \u3c 0.05 and p \u3c 0.005), whereas those xenografted with DLEU1 overexpressing BL cells had significantly improved survival (p \u3c 0.05 and p \u3c 0.0001), following treatment with rituximab and/or cyclophosphamide. These data suggest that DLEU1 may in part function as a tumor suppressor gene and confer chemoimmunotherapy resistance in children and adolescents with BL

An Individualized Risk Calculator for Research in Prodromal Psychosis

About 20–35% of individuals aged 12–30 years who meet criteria for a prodromal risk syndrome convert to psychosis within two years. However, this estimate ignores the fact that clinical high-risk (CHR) cases vary considerably in risk. Here we sought to create a risk calculator that can ascertain the probability of conversion to psychosis in individual patients based on profiles of risk indicators. The high risk category predicted by this calculator can inform research criteria going forward