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Antibiotic resistance causes serious health problems associated with an increase in hospitalization time, treatment cost, and mortality. In this study, the contamination levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria were determined in the Saigon River, which is impacted by different anthropogenic activities in Ho Chi Minh City. Five target antibiotics were supplemented to the R2A medium at the concentration of amoxicillin (9.6 µg/ml) / clavulanic acid (4.8 µg/ml), amikacin (19.2 µg/ml), cefixime (1.2 µg/ml), ciprofloxacin (1.2 µg/ml), and trimethoprim (2.4 µg/ml)/ sulfamethoxazole (45.6 µg/ml). As the results, the antibiotic resistant bacteria were found in all the sampling sites and at the highest concentration at the sites impacted by wastewater from both industrial and residential activities. Enterobacteriaceae was the most abundant family with 23.8% of total isolates of the antibiotic resistant bacteria. Human opportunistic pathogens and pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.74%), Enterobacter sp. (4.15%), Escherichia coli (6.63%), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (3.11%), Aeromonas Caviae (4.66%) were identified in all surface water samples. Correlation analysis suggested that the pollutions of dissolved salt, organic matter, and wastewaters may facilitate the antibiotic resistant bacteria in the aquatic environments.

Additional file 1: Supplemental Fig. 1. General description of phosphotyrosine-enriched analysis. a. Pearson correlation of technical replicates showed good correlation, replicate 1 represents a technical replicate in one dataset, while replicate 2 and 3 represent interexperiment replicates. b. Pie chart of all RTKs and non-RTKS identified in the discovery dataset show high coverage of the kinome. c. Unsupervised clustering of phosphorylated kinases identify an abundance of kinase activity. Supplemental Fig. 2. Evaluation of kinases and FAK in PDAC. a. Outlier analysis of kinases in the discovery dataset showed no outlier phosphorylation (Grubbs’ test, threshold 1%) in the top 10 phosphorylated kinases. Bar shows median with range. b. Phosphorylated FAK represents a significant quantity of total kinases identified. c. Sensitivity curves of VS-4718 and d. TAE226 confirms effectiveness of FAK inhibition in PDAC. (Error bars are SEM of biological replicates, n = 3). Supplemental Fig. 3. Defactinib is a potent FAK inhibitor. a. Unsupervised clustering of Suit-2 cells treated with vehicle or defactinib after two hours showed different clusters. b. Heatmap of INKA score upon treatment with defactinib. c. INKA score comparison of FAK activity d. Bar graph of significantly downregulated phosphopeptides (PP) of FAK substrates (Error bars are SD of biological replicates, n = 2, t-test *

Spin injection and detection in Co60Fe40-based all-metallic lateral spin-valves have been studied at both room and low temperatures. The obtained spin signals amplitudes have been compared to that of identical Ni80Fe20-based devices. The replacement of Ni80Fe20 by CoFe allows increasing the spin signal amplitude by up to one order of magnitude, thus reaching 50 m{\Omega} at room temperature. The spin signal dependence with the distance between the ferromagnetic electrodes has been analyzed using both a 1D spin transport model and finite elements method simulations. The enhancement of the spin signal amplitude when using CoFe electrodes can be explained by a higher effective polarization., Comment: 8 pages and 4 figures

The use of rammed aggregate pier (RAP) foundations for support of retaining walls and earth fill embankments has increased in recent years to become a geotechnical solution for rapid construction of earth structures in soft ground conditions. A nominal 6-m mechanically stabilized earth wall was constructed over piers installed in relatively compressible soil to investigate the performance of RAP foundation elements in terms of stress-deformation and settlement behaviors for such applications. Geotechnical instrumentation consisting of total earth pressure cells, settlement plates, and vibrating wire piezometers was installed within the pier elements and at the foundation surface for short- and long-term monitoring of pier response. Monitoring data indicate: (1) mobilization and concentration of vertical stress on pier elements and matrix soil; and (2) load transfer response for the boundary condition associated with support of geogrid-reinforced earth fill. The practical implications of the experimental research findings are briefly discussed.

This paper is the first of a two-part series investigating the mechanical behavior of rammed aggregate pier (RAP) groups supporting isolated rigid footings. The first paper presents the experimental test results from instrumented load tests performed on two different 2.3 m square reinforced concrete footings supported by four 0.76 m diameter RAPs of two different pier lengths—2.8 and 5.1 m . Comparisons are made to load tests performed on three isolated RAPs of the same diameter and lengths. Instrumentation consisted of total stress cells, inclinometers, and tell-tale reference plates. Soil conditions at the test site were evaluated using various in situ testing techniques and consist of relatively uniform soft alluvial clay overlain by a 1-m-thick desiccated layer. Interpretations of the test results focused on load-deformation behaviors of the isolated piers and pier groups, group efficiencies in terms of settlement and bearing capacity, stress concentrations as a function of applied load at the top of ...

This paper is the second of a two-part series describing an investigation of the mechanical behavior of rammed aggregate piers in supporting rigid square footings. In this paper, the performances of two pier-supported footings and three isolated piers during compressive load tests were simulated using an axisymmetric finite element model and compared to experimental data. A hardening-soil constitutive model with parameters estimated from in situ and laboratory tests was used to characterize the constitutive behaviors of the pier material and the matrix soil. Pier groups were modeled as unit cells with the tributary area determined from the center-to-center spacing. Cavity expansion modeling was used to simulate the pier installation process. Verifications of the numerical model were carried out by comparing the numerical results with the data obtained from full-scale, instrumented load tests. Interpretation of the numerical results focused on the load-deformation behavior, group effect, stress concentration ratio, and the development of stresses in the matrix soil. The distributions of vertical stress underneath the pier-supported footings are also characterized.

To investigate influences of pulsed electric field (PEF) on bovine IgG immunoactivity, soymilk enriched with hyperimmunized dairy milk protein concentrate was subjected to PEF and thermal treatments. Thermal treatment at 78.8 °C for 120 s inactivated 5.1 logs in natural flora and resulted in 86% decrease in IgG activity PEF at 41 kV/cm for 54 μS inactivated 5.3 logs of natural flora and resulted in no significant change (P > 0.05) in bovine IgG activity. Specific antigen-binding activity of bovine IgG against Salmonella enteritidis showed parallel correlation with the measurement of IgG concentration. No further significant change in IgG immunoactivity was observed during a 10-wk storage at 4°C in PEF-, thermally-, or un-treated samples.

Entry and exit flows through abrupt contractions are studied numerically for Casson fluids exhibiting a yield stress. The Casson constitutive equation recommended for describing blood flow is used with an appropriate modification proposed by Papanastasiou, which applies everywhere in the flow field in both yielded and practically unyielded regions. The emphasis is on determining the extent and shape of unyielded/yielded regions along with the swelling ratio of the free stream for planar and axisymmetric contraction flows for the whole range of Casson numbers. The results for pressure are used to determine the excess pressure losses that give rise to entrance, exit, and the total end correction. On etudie numeriquement les ecoulements d'entree et de sortie dans des contractions abruptes pour des fluides de Casson presentant une contrainte seuil. L'equation constitutive de Casson recommandee pour decrire l'ecoulement sanguin est utilisee avec une modification appropriee par Papanastasiou, qui s'applique partout dans le champ d'ecoulement, dans les regions cisaillees comme dans les regions non cisaillees. On s'attache surtout a determiner l'etendue et la forme des regions cisaillees/non cisaillees ainsi que le rapport de gonflement du courant libre pour des ecoulements dans des contractions planaires et axisymetriques pour toute la gamme de nombre de Casson. Les resultats pour la pression servent a determiner l'exces de perte de charge associe aux effets d'entree, de sortie et aux effets de bout combines.

This paper presents results from numerical study to investigate the interactions between rammed aggregate piers and geosynthetic reinforcement in pier-supported embankments. The investigation was conducted using a two-dimensional, plane-strain, finite element model. Linear elastic, perfectly plastic constitutive model parameters were assumed fir the rammed aggregate piers, the matrix soil stiffness ratios considered in the analyses, a range of center-to-center soakings between piers was included. The geosynthetic reinforcement was modeled as a tensile element with various tensile stiffness values. Results obtained from this study provide insight into: (1) the interaction between the pier elements and the geosynthetic reinforcement to reduce differential settlement; (2) range of stress concentration ratio; and (3) tensile forced developed in the geosynthetic reinforcement. It is concluded that the efficiency of using geosynthetic reinforcement is improved as both the geosynthetic modulus and the pier-soil stiffness ratio increase.

Several assay procedures for measuring the stimulatory effect on macrophages (møs) of bacterial-derived immunomodulators (OM-85, OM-89, OM-163, Laboratoires OM, Meyrin/Geneva, Switzerland) were evaluated with regard to their complexity, speed, and general convenience. To this effect, bone marrow-derived or peritoneal exudate macrophages were exposed to the immunomodulators in vitro, then tested for metabolic stimulation (glucose oxidation through the hexosemonophosphate shunt pathway, synthesis of type E prostaglandins, release of superoxide, and production of L-arginine-derived nitrogen oxidation products), as well as for enhancement of functional activities (production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, extracellular cytolysis of P815 target cells, and intracellular parasite destruction). All these tests were found to provide adequate measurements of the mø response to the immunomodulators, with significant effects detectable using the compounds in the ng/ml to microgram/ml range. Concomitant incubation with crude macrophage activating factor or with recombinant murine interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) dramatically increased the sensitivity of møs to the immunomodulators, and was an absolute requirement for induction of mø cytotoxic activities by the bacterial extracts. The measurement of nitrite production by møs exposed to the immunomodulators with or without treatment with 10 U/ml of IFN-gamma was found to be a highly convenient procedure, which correlated well with functional assays.

Exposure of Leishmania major-infected CBA/T6 mouse macrophages to lymph node cells (LNC) from infected animals led to antigen-specific killing of the micro-organisms. The effect depended on the number of added LNC, the duration of incubation with macrophages, and the presence of LPS in the incubation fluids. Incubation with immune LNC also resulted in lysis of part of the infected cells, however without release of live amastigotes, as parasites were destroyed intracellularly before macrophages were damaged. Supernates from antigen-stimulated LNC cultures activated macrophages for intracellular killing without damage to the host cells, suggesting that macrophage lysis was not a consequence of the activation process. Treatment of effector lymphocytes with anti-L3T4 antibodies abrogated both intracellular killing and macrophage lysis. Parasitized macrophages were also destroyed by alloimmune cytolytic T-lymphocytes; in this case, however, live amastigotes were released, showing that immune lysis of the infected cells would not entail parasite destruction per se. These studies support the hypothesis that recovery from L. major infection relates to the ability of lymphoid cells to generate MAF/IFN in response to parasite antigen and are compatible with the idea that lysis of parasitized macrophages may contribute to immune recovery from the infection.