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Lactococcus garvieae Lg-per was originally isolated from rainbow trout cultured in cages located on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea in 2011. A whole genome sequence of Lg-per was performed in the present study. The complete genome of Lg-per mapped to the reference genomes of L. garvieae (GCF_000269925.1) and Lactococcus petauri (GCF_014830225.1) had a total of 1,694,407 and 1,945,297 base pairs, respectively. Lg-per had 1955 protein-coding genes and 4 rRNA, 46 tRNA and 1 tmRNA operons. The orthoANI value was 98.30% between Lg-per and L. petauri (GCF_014830225.1) and 93.1% between Lg-per and L. garvieae (GCF_000269925.1). A phylogenetic tree generated from the whole genome sequences (WGS) of several Lactococcus species found that L. petauri (GCA 002154895) was closely related to the Lg-per strain with 98% similarity. Although L. garvieae Lg-per was confirmed as L. garvieae based on phenotypical, biochemical and 16S rRNA sequence, WGS of the Lg-per strain revealed that Lg-per was L. petauri. Using a 16S rRNA-based PCR detection approach, Lg-per was misdiagnosed as L. garvieae since its 16S rRNA gene was 99.9% similar to that of L. garvieae strains. Consequently, the 16S rRNA-based PCR detection approach may not be adequate for the identification of the Lactococcus genus. This is the first study to document the presence of L. petauri in Türkiye. L. garvieae isolates should be analysed using WGS since the same issue might occur in other countries.

This study aimed to investigate changes in complement system-related molecules in patients undergoing hemodialysis.Patients18 years of age on maintenance hemodialysis were included. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) methods complement related molecules ficolin-1, ficolin-2, ficolin-3 mannose-binding lectin, long pentraxin 3, complement activation products C3c, and complement activation potentials were measured before and after a single hemodialysis treatment. All patients were dialyzed with synthetic high flux filters1.6 mThree hundred and four patients were included. There was a modest decrease in plasma level of ficolin-1 (p 0.001). Ficolin-2 was virtually depleted with median 3.9 (interquartile range [IQR]: 2.6-6.1, range 0.3-13.5) μg/ml before dialysis to median 0.0 (IQR: 0.0-0.5, range 0.0-5.5) μg/ml after dialysis (p 0.001). No significant difference before and after hemodialysis was seen for mannose-binding lectin and long pentraxin 3 (p 0.05). In a random subgroup of 160 patients ficolin-2-binding, ficolin-3-mediated lectin pathway capacity and classical pathway capacity were significantly decreased due to hemodialysis. The complement capacity of the alternative pathway was increased after hemodialysis (p = 0.0101), while mannose-binding lectin-mediated lectin pathway capacity was unaltered (p = 0.79). There was an increase in the complement activation product C3c (p 0.0001), while the concentration of total C4 and C3 did not change (p 0.158). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses showed an increased risk for all-cause mortality with increasing ficolin-2 (p = 0.002) after hemodialysis.Plasma ficolin-2 was virtually depleted from the circulation after hemodialysis. However, elevated plasma ficolin-2 levels after hemodialysis was independently associated with increased mortality.

International audience; Numerical simulation of cable systems remain delicate due to their geometrical non-linearity and also to their intrinsic unilateral constitutive law. Indeed finite element approaches (if not implemented carefully) fail to predict accurate equilibrium for cable structures. The major issue to be addressed is the ill-conditioning, starting configuration and wrong choice of descent direction during iterative methods. An iterative scheme based on Finite Element Method is presented to overcome this issue, even with large number of elements.

[EN] Conducting Polymers (CPs), in recent times have contributed significantly in the detection of High Energy Materials possessing nitro functional groups through fluorescence quenching studies. Camphor sulphuric acid doped polyaniline (C-PANI) is studied with a view to obtain easily processable PANI without pi-stacking for the detection of Picric acid(PA) and p-nitro toluene(pNT) in trace levels. The quenching constant and limit of detection were found to be 2.236x10(-6) M and 6.14x10(-7) M for PA and 1.9447x10(-7) M and 3.57x10(-7) M for pNT, respectively showing a very good sensitivity in detection. Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) showed the involvement of the bipolaronic and benzenoid group in the charge transfer complex formed between the conducting polymer and the analyte. The photoluminescence studies indicated a predominant PET mechanism. The electrochemical studies employing cyclic voltammetry gave higher band gap on comparison with absorption studies. The positive and negative shift in oxidation and reduction potential of polymer-analyte was observed and collaborated with the fluorescence studies to understand the possible fluorescence quenching mechanism from electrochemical approach., The authors greatly acknowledge and thank Prof. G. U. Kulkarni, the Director of Centre for Nano and Soft Matter (CeNS) for providing the facility to work in the centre. Specifically, one of our author, Satish Ashok Ture, expresses his thanks to M/s Premier Explosive Limited for their Financial support (H/A: 4254). We also thank the Spanish Government (RTI2018-100910-B-C41 (MCUI/AEI/FEDER, UE)) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO2018/024) for their support. Part of this work is carried out under the Gulbarga University-Central University of Karnataka MoU program.

Stored platelets undergo biochemical, structural and functional changes that lead to decreased efficacy and safety of platelet transfusions. Not only do platelets acquire markers of activation during storage, but they also fail to respond normally to agonists post-storage. We hypothesized that resveratrol, a cardioprotective antioxidant, could act as a novel platelet storage additive to safely prevent unwanted platelet activation during storage, while simultaneously preserving normal haemostatic function. Human platelets treated with resveratrol and stored for five days released less thromboxane B2 and prostaglandin E2 compared to control platelets. Resveratrol preserved the ability of platelets to aggregate, spread and respond to thrombin, suggesting an improved ability to activate post-storage. Utilizing an in vitro model of transfusion and thromboelastography, clot strength was improved with resveratrol treatment compared to conventionally stored platelets. The mechanism of resveratrol’s beneficial actions on stored platelets was partly mediated through decreased platelet apoptosis in storage, resulting in a longer half-life following transfusion. Lastly, an in vivo mouse model of transfusion demonstrated that stored platelets are prothrombotic and that resveratrol delayed vessel occlusion time to a level similar to transfusion with fresh platelets. We show resveratrol has a dual ability to reduce unwanted platelet activation during storage, while preserving critical haemostatic function.

[11C]Methylation (t1/2 = 20.4 min) is a main labeling strategy for the development of PET (positron emission tomography) radiotracers. A straight radiomethylation of amines with cyclotron-produced 11CO2 has been developed to obtain various radiolabeled compounds with good radiochemical yields. This strategy is a new approach to simplifying radiolabeling processes and transpositions onto automatic synthesizers and has been applied to the synthesis of radiolabeled drugs and a PET radiotracer used in the study of Alzheimer's disease.

The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in hemodialysis patients with spirometry and to examine the effects of fluid removal by hemodialysis on lung volumes. Patients ≥18 years at two Danish hemodialysis centers were included. Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1 ), forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1 /FVC ratio were measured with spirometry before and after hemodialysis. The diagnosis of COPD was based on both the GOLD criteria and the lower limit of normal criteria. There were 372 patients in treatment at the two centers, 255 patients (69%) completed spirometry before dialysis and 242 of these (65%) repeated the test after. In the initial test, 117 subjects (46%) had airflow limitation indicative of COPD with GOLD criteria and 103 subjects (40.4%) with lower limit of normal criteria; COPD was previously diagnosed in 24 patients (9%). Mean FVC and FEV1 decreased mildly after dialysis (FVC: 2.84 to 2.79 L, P

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a fatal systemic viral infection which is an important health problem in Turkey. Many systemic symptoms have been reported including fever, hemorrhage, headache, fatigue, muscle ache, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. A 45-year-old male farmer with CCHF presented with massive peritoneal effusion and hyperbilirubinemia. To our knowledge, this is the first case of peritoneal effusion and hyperbilirubinemia in an adult patient with CCHF. His clinical symptoms successfully improved with supportive therapy. In patients who live in endemic areas with atypical presentation for the diagnosis of CCHF should be kept in mind.

Objective The pathogenesis of Behcet's disease (BD), an inflammatory disease with multisystem involvement, remains poorly understood. This study was undertaken to investigate whether there are DNA methylation abnormalities in BD that might contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease. Methods We examined genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in monocytes and CD4+ T cells from 16 male patients with untreated BD and age, sex, and ethnicity–matched healthy controls. Additional samples were collected from 12 of the same BD patients after treatment and achievement of disease remission. Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns were assessed using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array, which includes >485,000 individual methylation sites across the genome. Results We identified 383 CpG sites in monocytes, and 125 in CD4+ T cells, that were differentially methylated between BD patients and controls. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a pattern of aberrant DNA methylation among genes that regulate cytoskeletal dynamics, suggesting that aberrant DNA methylation of multiple classes of structural and regulatory proteins of the cytoskeleton might contribute to the pathogenesis of BD. Further, treatment of BD modified the differences in DNA methylation observed in patients compared to controls; indeed, among CpG sites that were differentially methylated after disease remission versus before treatment, there was widespread reversal of the direction of aberrant DNA methylation observed between the patient and control groups. Conclusion The results of this epigenome-wide study—the first such study in BD—provide strong evidence that epigenetic modification of cytoskeletal dynamics underlies the pathogenesis of BD and its response to treatment.

Many dietary factors or substances exert effects on the three components of energy balance, and one strategy for tackling weight gain could be to use the inherent properties of these substances. Here, we will review the evidence regarding nutritional factors with a potential impact on energy balance, such as wholegrain foods, dietary fiber and protein content, calcium, and certain spices. There is ample evidence to suggest that dietary protein, wholegrain, and fiber promote satiety and either reduce energy absorption or stimulate energy expenditure. Dietary calcium reduces fat absorption, and a sufficient intake may also prevent excessive hunger during weight loss diets. Chili and mustard have beneficial effects on energy balance, although the quantitative importance of this may be modest. Manipulation of diet composition with an aim to prevent weight gain and weight regain is a promising avenue of research.

In this paper the recent use AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and integrated circuits on both semi-insulating silicon carbide(SiC) and silicon substrates for radio communication in the microwave and mm-wave frequency range is described. AlGaN/GaN monolithically microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) are extremely useful for point-to-point (P2P)-links in the backbones of the 4th and upcoming 5th generation of mobile communication networks as power amplifiers, as they provide a great amount of linear power. At the same time GaN-based power conversion electronics has driven the advancement of the growth of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on conductive silicon (111) substrates. This again has indirectly led to advancements in the growth capabilities of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on highly-resistive (HR) silicon substrates. The paper gives examples of transistors and microstrip transmission-line-based MMICs realized in a direct comparison of GaN on s.i. SiC and GaN on HR-silicon. Constraints and performances for highly-efficient MMICs are discussed up tomm-wave frequencies beyond 100 GHz.

SUMMARY Partial-strength composite steel–concrete moment-resisting (MR) frame structures represent an open research field in seismic design from both a theoretical and an experimental standpoint. Among experimental techniques, vibration testing is a well-known and powerful technique for damage detection, localization and quantification, where actual modal parameters of a structure at different states can be determined from test data by using system identification methods. However, the identification of semi-rigid connections in framed structures is limited, and hence this paper focuses on a series of vibration experiments that were carried out on a realistic MR frame structure, following the application of pseudo-dynamic and quasi-static cyclic loadings at the European laboratory for structural assessment of the Joint Research Centre at Ispra, Italy, with the scope of understanding the structural behaviour and identifying changes in the dynamic response. From the forced vibration response, natural frequencies, damping ratios, modal displacements and rotations were extracted using the circle fitting technique. These modal parameters were used for local and global damage identification by updating a 3D finite element model of the intact structure. The identified results were then correlated with observations performed on the structure to understand further the underlying damage mechanisms. Finally, the latin hypercube sampling technique, a variant of the Monte Carlo method, was employed in order to study the sensitivity of the updated parameters of the 3D model to noise on the modal inputs. Copyright q 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Udgivelsesdato: 2009-Mar Despite detailed knowledge of the overall structural changes and stoichiometries of surfactant binding, little is known about which protein regions constitute the preferred sites of attack for initial unfolding. Here we have exposed three proteins to limited proteolysis at anionic (SDS) and cationic (DTAC) surfactant concentrations corresponding to specific conformational transitions, using the surfactant-robust broad-specificity proteases Savinase and Alcalase. Cleavage sites are identified by SDS-PAGE and N-terminal sequencing. We observe well-defined cleavage fragments, which suggest that flexibility is limited to certain regions of the protein. Cleavage sites for alpha-lactalbumin and myoglobin correspond to regions identified in other studies as partially unfolded at low pH or in the presence of organic solvents. For Tnfn3, which does not form partially folded structures under other conditions, cleavage sites can be rationalized from the structure of the protein's folding transition state and the position of loops in the native state. Nevertheless, they are more sensitive to choice of surfactant and protease, probably reflecting a heterogeneous and fluctuating ensemble of partially unfolded structures. Thus, for proteins accumulating stable intermediates on the folding pathway, surfactants encourage the formation of these states, while the situation is more complex for proteins that do not form these intermediates. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 91: 221-231, 2009.This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com.

In this work, five yttria powders with slightly different states of agglomeration, inherited from various procedures of dewatering the same precursor, were densified by a combination of vacuum sintering followed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). In order to relate the densification behavior of each powder to its state of agglomeration, all powders were characterized by tap density measurements, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption, and laser scattering, while the microstructures of the corresponding densified samples were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The five yttria powders produced sintered samples that differed remarkably from each other in terms of transparency. These discrepancies were related to the degree of fineness in the powders at two different levels. At the level of primary particles, fine and weakly agglomerated powder was very sinterable, causing abnormal grain growth to occur only in the very late stage of sintering. However, the resulting entrapped pores and reduction due to vacuum sintering were responsible for poor optical properties. At the agglomerate level, a bimodal size distribution was identified for all powders. For powders showing severe agglomeration of the primary particles, increasing the relative content of the smaller size population of agglomerates was found to trigger abnormal grain-growth earlier during presintering. This was attributed to the density around large agglomerates exceeding a critical threshold in the green bodies. Finally, transparency was achieved in samples for which presintering was stopped before grain growth became abnormal. This confirmed that the key to successfully obtaining transparency was to keep porosity intergranular, which could be removed subsequently by HIP treatment.

Background Saliva contains antimicrobial peptides derived from oral epithelium as well as neutrophils in the innate immune response. The aim of this study was to examine the association between salivary human neutrophil peptide (HNP) 1–3 levels originating from neutrophils and oral ulcers in patients with Behcet’s disease (BD). Methods Ninety-five patients with BD (F/M: 39/56; mean age: 38.7 ± 11.9 years) and 53 healthy controls (HC; F/M: 23/30; mean age: 35.2 ± 10.1 years) were included in the study. The disease control group (F/M: 20/33; mean age: 33.7 ± 10.7 years) was comprised of patients with oral infection regarding endodontic infection (n = 32) and pericoronitis (n = 21). Salivary HNP 1–3 levels of groups were measured in unstimulated samples by ELISA (Hycult, the Netherlands). Results A statistically significant increase was found in salivary HNP 1–3 levels of patients with BD (2268.28 ± 1216.38 μg/ml) compared with HC (1836.49 ± 857.76 μg/ml), patients with endodontic infection (849.9 ± 376.1 μg/ml), and patients with pericoronitis (824.3 ± 284.02 μg/ml; P = 0.024, 0.000 and 0.000, respectively). The ratio of active oral ulcer (100%, n = 14) was higher in low HNP 1–3 levels (≤1000 μg/ml) than the others (66.7%, n = 54) in active patients with BD (P = 0.008). Moreover, salivary HNP 1–3 levels were significantly lower in patients with endodontic infection and patients with pericoronitis compared with those in the HC group and patients with BD (P = 0.000). Conclusion A decrease in salivary HNP 1–3 levels might be a biological factor for predisposition to oral ulcers in patients with BD and oral infection in healthy patients.

The synthesis of isoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid derivatives via Heck reaction and subsequent cyclization is studied.