A Novel Chemosynthetic Peptide with β-Sheet Motif Efficiently Kills Klebsiella pnuemoniae in a Mouse Model

Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) is one of the most common pathogens in nosocomial infections and is increasingly becoming multiple drug resistant. However, the molecular pathogenesis of Kp in causing tissue injury and dysregulated host defense remains elusive, further dampening the development of novel therapeutic measures. We have previously screened a series of synthetic antimicrobial beta-sheet forming peptides and identified a peptide (IRIKIRIK; ie, IK8L) with a broad range of bactericidal activity and low cytotoxicity in vitro. Here, employing an animal model, we investigated the antibacterial effects of IK8L in acute infection and demonstrated that peritoneal injection of IK8L to mice down-regulated inflammatory cytokines, alleviated lung injury, and importantly, decreased mortality compared to sham-injected controls. In addition, a math model was used to evaluate in vivo imaging data and predict infection progression in infected live animals. Mechanistically, IK8L can kill Kp by inhibiting biofilm formation and modulating production of inflammatory cytokines through the STAT3/JAK signaling both in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, these findings reveal that IK8L may have potential for preventing or treating Kp infection

All-Optical Programmable Disaggregated Data Centre Network realized by FPGA-based Switch and Interface Card

This paper reports an FPGA-based switch and interface card (SIC) and its application scenario in an all-optical, programmable disaggregated data center network (DCN). Our novel SIC is designed and implemented to replace traditional optical network interface cards, plugged into the server directly, supporting optical packet switching (OPS)/optical circuit switching (OCS) or time division multiplexing (TDM)/wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) traffic on demand. Placing the SIC in each server/blade, we eliminate electronics from the top of rack (ToR) switch by pushing all the functionality on each blade while enabling direct intrarack blade-to-blade communication to deliver ultralow chip-to-chip latency. We demonstrate the disaggregated DCN architecture scenarios along with all-optical dimension-programmable N × M spectrum selective Switches (SSS) and an architecture-on-demand (AoD) optical backplane. OPS and OCS complement each other as do TDM and WDM, which can support variable traffic flows. A flat disaggregated DCN architecture is realized by connecting the optical ToR switches directly to either an optical top of cluster switch or the intracluster AoD optical backplane, while clusters are further interconnected to an intercluster AoD for scaling out

Constraints on the cosmological parameters with three-parameter correlation of Gamma-ray bursts

As one of the most energetic and brightest events, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be treated as a promising probe of the high-redshift universe. Similar to type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), GRBs with same physical origin could be treated as standard candles. We select GRB samples with the same physical origin, which are divided into two groups. One group is consisted of 31 GRBs with a plateau phase feature of a constant luminosity followed by a decay index of about -2 in the X-ray afterglow light curves, and the other has 50 GRBs with a shallow decay phase in the optical light curves. For the selected GRB samples, we confirm that there is a tight correlation between the plateau luminosity $L_0$, the end time of plateau $t_b$ and the isotropic energy release $E_{\gamma,iso}$. We also find that the $L_0-t_b-E_{\gamma,iso}$ correlation is insensitive to the cosmological parameters and no valid limitations on the cosmological parameters can be obtained using this correlation. We explore a new three-parameter correlation $L_0$, $t_b$, and the spectral peak energy in the rest frame $E_{p,i}$ ($L_0-t_b-E_{p,i}$), and find that this correlation can be used as a standard candle to constrain the cosmological parameters. By employing the optical sample only, we find the constraints of $\Omega_m = 0.697_{-0.278}^{+0.402}(1\sigma)$ for a flat $\Lambda$CDM model. For the non-flat $\Lambda$CDM model, the best-fitting results are $\Omega_m = 0.713_{-0.278}^{+0.346}$, $\Omega_{\Lambda} = 0.981_{-0.580}^{+0.379}(1\sigma)$. For the combination of the X-ray and optical smaples, we find $\Omega_m = 0.313_{-0.125}^{+0.179}(1\sigma)$ for a flat $\Lambda$CDM model, and $\Omega_m = 0.344_{-0.112}^{+0.176}$, $\Omega_{\Lambda} = 0.770_{-0.416}^{+0.366}(1\sigma)$ for a non-flat $\Lambda$CDM model.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 13 pages, 9 figures and 2 table

Genomic Inference of the Metabolism and Evolution of the Archaeal Phylum Aigarchaeota

Microbes of the phylum Aigarchaeota are widely distributed in geothermal environments, but their physiological and ecological roles are poorly understood. Here we analyze six Aigarchaeota metagenomic bins from two circumneutral hot springs in Tengchong, China, to reveal that they are either strict or facultative anaerobes, and most are chemolithotrophs that can perform sulfide oxidation. Applying comparative genomics to the Thaumarchaeota and Aigarchaeota, we find that they both originated from thermal habitats, sharing 1154 genes with their common ancestor. Horizontal gene transfer played a crucial role in shaping genetic diversity of Aigarchaeota and led to functional partitioning and ecological divergence among sympatric microbes, as several key functional innovations were endowed by Bacteria, including dissimilatory sulfite reduction and possibly carbon monoxide oxidation. Our study expands our knowledge of the possible ecological roles of the Aigarchaeota and clarifies their evolutionary relationship to their sister lineage Thaumarchaeota