Comparable High Rates of Extended-Spectrum-Beta-Lactamase-Producing Escherichia coli in Birds of Prey from Germany and Mongolia

Frequent contact with human waste and liquid manure from intensive livestock breeding, and the increased loads of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that result, are believed to be responsible for the high carriage rates of ESBL- producing E. coli found in birds of prey (raptors) in Central Europe. To test this hypothesis against the influence of avian migration, we initiated a comparative analysis of faecal samples from wild birds found in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany and the Gobi-Desert in Mongolia, regions of dissimilar human and livestock population characteristics and agricultural practices. We sampled a total of 281 wild birds, mostly raptors with primarily north-to-south migration routes. We determined antimicrobial resistance, focusing on ESBL production, and unravelled the phylogenetic and clonal relatedness of identified ESBL-producing E. coli isolates using multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and macrorestriction analyses. Surprisingly, the overall carriage rates (approximately 5%) and the proportion of ESBL-producers among E. coli (Germany: 13.8%, Mongolia: 10.8%) were similar in both regions. Whereas blaCTX-M-1 predominated among German isolates (100%), blaCTX-M-9 was the most prevalent in Mongolian isolates (75%). We identified sequence types (STs) that are well known in human and veterinary clinical ESBL-producing E. coli (ST12, ST117, ST167, ST648) and observed clonal relatedness between a Mongolian avian ESBL-E. coli (ST167) and a clinical isolate of the same ST that originated in a hospitalised patient in Europe. Our data suggest the influence of avian migratory species in the transmission of ESBL-producing E. coli and challenge the prevailing assumption that reducing human influence alone invariably leads to lower rates of antimicrobial resistance

Formal concept analysis and structures underlying quantum logics

A Hilbert space $H$ induces a formal context, the Hilbert formal context $\overline H$, whose associated concept lattice is isomorphic to the lattice of closed subspaces of $H$. This set of closed subspaces, denoted $\mathcal C(H)$, is important in the development of quantum logic and, as an algebraic structure, corresponds to a so-called ``propositional system'', that is, a complete, atomistic, orthomodular lattice which satisfies the covering law. In this paper, we continue with our study of the Chu construction by introducing the Chu correspondences between Hilbert contexts, and showing that the category of Propositional Systems, PropSys, is equivalent to the category of $\text{ChuCors}_{\mathcal H}$ of Chu correspondences between Hilbert contextsUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Phase transition in the collisionless regime for wave-particle interaction

Gibbs statistical mechanics is derived for the Hamiltonian system coupling self-consistently a wave to N particles. This identifies Landau damping with a regime where a second order phase transition occurs. For nonequilibrium initial data with warm particles, a critical initial wave intensity is found: above it, thermodynamics predicts a finite wave amplitude in the limit of infinite N; below it, the equilibrium amplitude vanishes. Simulations support these predictions providing new insight on the long-time nonlinear fate of the wave due to Landau damping in plasmas.Comment: 12 pages (RevTeX), 2 figures (PostScript

Biophysical Characterization of Fluorotyrosine Probes Site-Specifically Incorporated into Enzymes:

Fluorinated tyrosines (F[subscript n]Y's, n = 2 and 3) have been site-specifically incorporated into E. coli class Ia ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) using the recently evolved M. jannaschii Y-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pair. Class Ia RNRs require four redox active Y's, a stable Y radical (Y·) in the β subunit (position 122 in E. coli), and three transiently oxidized Y's (356 in β and 731 and 730 in α) to initiate the radical-dependent nucleotide reduction process. F[subscript n]Y (3,5; 2,3; 2,3,5; and 2,3,6) incorporation in place of Y₁₂₂-β and the X-ray structures of each resulting β with a diferric cluster are reported and compared with wt-β2 crystallized under the same conditions. The essential diferric-F[subscript n]Y· cofactor is self-assembled from apo F[subscript n]Y-β2, Fe ²⁺, and O₂ to produce ∼1 Y·/β2 and ∼3 Fe ³⁺ /β2. The F[subscript n]Y· are stable and active in nucleotide reduction with activities that vary from 5% to 85% that of wt-β2. Each F[subscript n] Y·-β2 has been characterized by 9 and 130 GHz electron paramagnetic resonance and high-field electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopies. The hyperfine interactions associated with the 19 F nucleus provide unique signatures of each F[subscript n]Y· that are readily distinguishable from unlabeled Y·'s. The variability of the abiotic F[subscript n]Y pK a 's (6.4 to 7.8) and reduction potentials (-30 to +130 mV relative to Y at pH 7.5) provide probes of enzymatic reactions proposed to involve Y·'s in catalysis and to investigate the importance and identity of hopping Y·'s within redox active proteins proposed to protect them from uncoupled radical chemistry.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM29595)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0645960

Research Paper Youth Service

An assumption that most people would probably agree on is that service to community, on a voluntary basis, builds character, self esteem, pride toward one\u27s self and his/her community, develops personal growth and respect or compassion for others. I don\u27t think many people look beyond that. Does the service need to be voluntary? Is service a responsibility that goes with being a part of a community? Why is service a positive aspect of community life? What are the characteristics of service that make it a fulfilling experience? Should youth be required to serve their community? If so, are there other options? Is service a community or school issue? Or both? There are many more questions, however; most people just know it\u27s important, as do some of the youth that were surveyed or interviewed for this paper

Estimating non-response bias in family studies: application to mental health and lifestyle.

Non-response to mailed surveys reduces the effective sample size and may introduce bias. Non-response has been studied by (1) comparison to available data in population based registers, (2) directly contacting non-respondents by telephone or single-item reply cards, and (3) longitudinal repetition of the survey. The goal of this paper was to propose an additional method to study non-response bias: when the variable of interest has a familial component, data from respondents can be used as proxy for the data from their non-responding family members. This approach was used with data on smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, coffee- and tea-use, education, body mass index, religion, burnout, life events, personality and mental health in large number of siblings and DZ twins registered with the Netherlands Twin Register. In addition, for smoking behavior, we also used the second strategy by sending a reply card. Results show that scores of members from less cooperative families or incomplete twin pairs tended to be more unfavorable than the scores from highly cooperative families or complete twin pairs. For example, family members from less cooperative families cycled less often and scored higher on anxious depression and neuroticism. For smoking, both the results of the reply card and the results of the additional method suggested a higher percentage smokers among the non-respondents but this was only significant with reply card method. In general, differences between highly/less cooperative families and complete/incomplete DZ twins were small. Results suggest that, even for studies with moderate response rates, data collected on health, personality and lifestyle are relatively unbiased

Spacings of Quarkonium Levels with the Same Principal Quantum Number

The spacings between bound-state levels of the Schr\"odinger equation with the same principal quantum number $N$ but orbital angular momenta $\ell$ differing by unity are found to be nearly equal for a wide range of power potentials $V = \lambda r^\nu$, with $E_{N \ell} \approx F(\nu, N) - G(\nu,N) \ell$. Semiclassical approximations are in accord with this behavior. The result is applied to estimates of masses for quarkonium levels which have not yet been observed, including the 2P $c \bar c$ states and the 1D $b \bar b$ states.Comment: 20 pages, latex, 3 uuencoded figures submitted separately (process using psfig.sty

Toward a Novel Multilocus Phylogenetic Taxonomy for the Dermatophytes.

Type and reference strains of members of the onygenalean family Arthrodermataceae have been sequenced for rDNA ITS and partial LSU, the ribosomal 60S protein, and fragments of β-tubulin and translation elongation factor 3. The resulting phylogenetic trees showed a large degree of correspondence, and topologies matched those of earlier published phylogenies demonstrating that the phylogenetic representation of dermatophytes and dermatophyte-like fungi has reached an acceptable level of stability. All trees showed Trichophyton to be polyphyletic. In the present paper, Trichophyton is restricted to mainly the derived clade, resulting in classification of nearly all anthropophilic dermatophytes in Trichophyton and Epidermophyton, along with some zoophilic species that regularly infect humans. Microsporum is restricted to some species around M. canis, while the geophilic species and zoophilic species that are more remote from the human sphere are divided over Arthroderma, Lophophyton and Nannizzia. A new genus Guarromyces is proposed for Keratinomyces ceretanicus. Thirteen new combinations are proposed; in an overview of all described species it is noted that the largest number of novelties was introduced during the decades 1920-1940, when morphological characters were used in addition to clinical features. Species are neo- or epi-typified where necessary, which was the case in Arthroderma curreyi, Epidermophyton floccosum, Lophophyton gallinae, Trichophyton equinum, T. mentagrophytes, T. quinckeanum, T. schoenleinii, T. soudanense, and T. verrucosum. In the newly proposed taxonomy, Trichophyton contains 16 species, Epidermophyton one species, Nannizzia 9 species, Microsporum 3 species, Lophophyton 1 species, Arthroderma 21 species and Ctenomyces 1 species, but more detailed studies remain needed to establish species borderlines. Each species now has a single valid name. Two new genera are introduced: Guarromyces and Paraphyton. The number of genera has increased, but species that are relevant to routine diagnostics now belong to smaller groups, which enhances their identification