Sialic acid utilization by Cronobacter sakazakii

Background: The Cronobacter genus is composed of seven species, and can cause infections in all age groups. Of particular concern is C. sakazakii, as this species is strongly associated with severe and often fatal cases of necrotizing enterocolitis and meningitis in neonates and infants. Whole genome sequencing has revealed that the nanAKT gene cluster required for the utilisation of exogenous sialic acid is unique to the C. sakazakii species (ESA_03609-13). Sialic acid is found in breast milk, infant formula, intestinal mucin, and gangliosides in the brain, hence its metabolism by C. sakazakii is of particular interest. Therefore its metabolism could be an important virulence factor. To date, no laboratory studies demonstrating the growth of C. sakazakii on sialic acid have been published nor have there been reports of sialidase activity. The phylogenetic analysis of the nan genes is of interest to determine whether the genes have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer

Draft genome sequences of three newly identified species in the genus Cronobacter, C. helveticus LMG23732T, C. pulveris LMG24059, and C. zurichensis LMG23730T

Cronobacter helveticus, Cronobacter pulveris, and Cronobacter zurichensis are newly described species in the Cronobacter genus, which is associated with serious infections of neonates. This is the first report of draft genome sequences for these species

Draft genome sequence of the earliest Cronobacter sakazakii sequence type 4 strain, NCIMB 8272

The Cronobacter sakazakii clonal lineage defined as sequence type 4 (ST4) is associated with severe cases of neonatal meningitis and persistence in powdered infant formula. For genome sequencing of the earliest deposited culture collection strain of Cronobacter sakazakii ST4, we used the strain NCIMB 8272, originally isolated from milk powder in 1950

Draft genome sequence of a meningitic isolate of Cronobacter sakazakii clonal complex 4, strain 8399

The Cronobacter sakazakii clonal lineage defined as clonal complex 4 (CC4), composed of nine sequence types, is associated with severe cases of neonatal meningitis. To date, only closely related C. sakazakii sequence type 4 (ST4) strains have been sequenced. C. sakazakii strain 8399, isolated from a case of neonatal meningitis, was sequenced as the first non-ST4 C. sakazakii strain

Eupatorium Capilifolium (Lam.) Small Ex Porter & Britton (Asteraceae: Eupatorieae), REKAMAN BARU untuk FLORA JAWA

Sebanyak 227 jenis tumbuhan Asteraceae terdapat di Pulau Jawa berdasarkan Flora of Java. Namun, suku Asteraceae di Pulau Jawa belum banyak ditinjau kembali sejak buku tersebut terbit 51 tahun yang lalu, sehingga memungkinkan adanya jenis-jenis tambahan yang belum terekam. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memberikan informasi adanya jenis tambahan yang terdapat di Pulau Jawa. Penelitian dilakukan menggunakan metode jelajah di Labuan (Banten), Bogor (Jawa Barat), Malang, dan Situbondo (Jawa Timur). Eupatorium capillifolium (Lam.) Small ex Porter & Britton merupakan rekaman baru yang dapat melengkapi flora Jawa. Jenis tersebut dikelompokkan ke dalam puak Eupatorieae

A portable platform for accelerated PIC codes and its application to GPUs using OpenACC

We present a portable platform, called PIC_ENGINE, for accelerating Particle-In-Cell (PIC) codes on heterogeneous many-core architectures such as Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). The aim of this development is efficient simulations on future exascale systems by allowing different parallelization strategies depending on the application problem and the specific architecture. To this end, this platform contains the basic steps of the PIC algorithm and has been designed as a test bed for different algorithmic options and data structures. Among the architectures that this engine can explore, particular attention is given here to systems equipped with GPUs. The study demonstrates that our portable PIC implementation based on the OpenACC programming model can achieve performance closely matching theoretical predictions. Using the Cray XC30 system, Piz Daint, at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), we show that PIC_ENGINE running on an NVIDIA Kepler K20X GPU can outperform the one on an Intel Sandybridge 8-core CPU by a factor of 3.4

Catatan Tentang Solanum Diphyllum L. (Solanaceae) Ternaturalisasi di Pulau Jawa

Solanum merupakan salah satu marga terbesar pada kelompok tumbuhan Angiospermae. Marga tersebut terdiri dari 1400 jenis yang terdistribusi di kawasan tropis dan subtropis. Banyak anggotanya yang memiliki nilai ekonomi tinggi, sehingga telah dibudidayakan secara luas sebagai tanaman pangan, sayuran, tumbuhan obat, dan tanaman hias. Oleh sebab itu, beberapa di antaranya telah diintroduksi ke Pulau Jawa sejak lama. Sebanyak 24 jenis Solanum telah tercatat dalam buku Flora of Java vol. 2. Meskipun demikian, masih memungkinkan adanya jenis-jenis lain yang belum terekam dalam buku tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memberikan informasi mengenai jenis tambahan yang telah ternaturalisasi di Pulau Jawa. Pengamatan dilakukan di beberapa lokasi di Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, dan Jawa Timur pada tahun 2015 hingga 2017. Solanum diphyllum telah dikoleksi dari Bogor (Darmaga), Bandung (Taman Sari dan Pasir Impun), Sumedang (Jatinangor), Wonogiri (Desa Johunut), Semarang (Desa Mesu), Trenggalek (Desa Watulimo), Situbondo (Desa Wringin Anom dan Banyuputih), Bondowoso (Desa Bandilan), dan Sumenep (Desa Pakong). Jenis ini memiliki potensi untuk dimanfaatkan sebagai tumbuhan obat. Tumbuhan ini ditemukan tumbuh meliar di semua lokasi pengamatan dan keberadaannya perlu diperhatikan karena jenis tersebut merupakan tumbuhan asing invasif di kawasan lain

Sensitivity of gyre-scale marine connectivity estimates to fine-scale circulation

We investigated the connectivity properties of an idealized western boundary current system separating two ocean gyres, where the flow is characterized by a well-defined mean circulation as well as energetic fine-scale features (i.e., mesoscale and submesoscale currents). We used a time-evolving 3D flow field from a high-resolution (HR-3D) ocean model of this system. In order to evaluate the role of the fine scales in connectivity estimates, we computed Lagrangian trajectories in three different ways: using the HR-3D flow, using the same flow but filtered on a coarse-resolution grid (CR-3D), and using the surface layer flow only (HR-SL). We examined connectivity between the two gyres along the western boundary current and across it by using and comparing different metrics, such as minimum and averaged values of transit time between 16 key sites, arrival depths, and probability density functions of transit times. We find that when the fine-scale flow is resolved, the numerical particles connect pairs of sites faster (between 100 to 300 d) than when it is absent. This is particularly true for sites that are along and near the jets separating the two gyres. Moreover, the connectivity is facilitated when 3D instead of surface currents are resolved. Finally, our results emphasize that ocean connectivity is 3D and not 2D and that assessing connectivity properties using climatologies or low-resolution velocity fields yields strongly biased estimates.</p