Search

The ClpX ATPase is critical for resistance to cell envelope targeting antibiotics in Bacillus anthracis, however, it is unclear whether this is due to its function as an independent chaperone or as part of the ClpXP protease. In this study, we demonstrate that antibiotic resistance is due to formation of the ClpXP protease through construction of a ClpX complementation plasmid that is unable to interact with ClpP. Additionally, we genetically disrupted both clpP genes, clpP1 and clpP2, found in B. anthracis Sterne and find that the loss of either increases susceptibility to cell envelope targeting antimicrobials, although neither has as strong of a phenotype as loss of clpX and neither clpP gene is essential for virulence in a G. mellonella model of infection. Lastly, we looked at changes to cell envelope morphology that could contribute to increased antibiotic sensitivity. We find no difference in cell charge or cell lysis, although we do see increased hydrophobicity in the ΔclpX strain, decreased cellular density and slightly thinner cells walls. We also see significant cell division defects in ΔclpX, although only when cells are grown in the mammalian cell culture medium, RPMI. We conclude that the intrinsic resistance of B. anthracis to cell wall active antimicrobials is dependent on formation of the ClpXP protease and that this could be due, at least in part, to the role of ClpX in regulating cell envelope morphology.

Purpose: This study evaluated pretreatment 2[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG)-PET/CT-based radiomic signatures for prediction of hyperprogression in metastatic melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). Material and method: Fifty-six consecutive metastatic melanoma patients treated with ICI and available imaging were included in the study and 330 metastatic lesions were individually, fully segmented on pre-treatment CT and FDG-PET imaging. Lesion hyperprogression (HPL) was defined as lesion progression according to RECIST 1.1 and doubling of tumor growth rate. Patient hyperprogression (PD-HPD) was defined as progressive disease (PD) according to RECIST 1.1 and presence of at least one HPL. Patient survival was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier curves. Mortality risk of PD-HPD status was assessed by estimation of hazard ratio (HR). Furthermore, we assessed with Fisher test and Mann-Whitney U test if demographic or treatment parameters were different between PD-HPD and the remaining patients. Pre-treatment PET/CT-based radiomic signatures were used to build models predicting HPL at three months after start of treatment. The models were internally validated with nested cross-validation. The performance metric was the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: PD-HPD patients constituted 57.1% of all PD patients. PD-HPD was negatively related to patient overall survival with HR=8.52 (95%CI 3.47-20.94). Sixty-nine lesions (20.9%) were identified as progressing at 3 months. Twentynine of these lesions were classified as hyperprogressive, thereby showing a HPL rate of 8.8%. CT-based, PET-based, and PET/CT-based models predicting HPL at three months after the start of treatment achieved testing AUC of 0.703 +/- 0.054, 0.516 +/- 0.061, and 0.704 +/- 0.070, respectively. The best performing models relied mostly on CT-based histogram features. Conclusions: FDG-PET/CT-based radiomic signatures yield potential for pretreatment prediction of lesion hyperprogression, which may contribute to reducing the risk of delayed treatment adaptation in metastatic melanoma patients treated with ICI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pig shoulder bones, by‐products from the meat industry, are rich in protein and could be used to produce high amino acid products for food processing. In this study, after formulating the bone soup by heating it in water, we optimized the hydrolyzing process of the bone soup using three commercial enzymes (Flavourzyme, Protamex, and Alcalase). Alcalase hydrolysis gained the highest soluble protein recovery efficiency of 70.45% at the optimum condition, including hydrolysis temperature of 56°C, hydrolysis time of 138 min, and E/S ratio of 2.3%. The Alcalase hydrolysate achieved the peptide average molecular weight of 532 Da. In terms of nutritional value, the amino acid content gradually increased from the samples hydrolyzed with Alcalase, Flavourzyme, and Protamex (15.96, 16.60, and 20.71 mg/ml, respectively). However, the hydrolysate using Alcalase was the most favorable sample in sensory evaluation. Novelty Impact Statement: Optimized soluble protein recovery of amino acids and peptides via enzymatic hydrolysis is essential to attain the highest possible nutritional value from raw materials like pig bone. Besides, thermal pretreatment and fat removal were implemented to identify soluble protein recovery efficiency (SPRE) precisely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ClpX ATPase is critical for resistance to cell envelope targeting antibiotics in Bacillus anthracis , however, it is unclear whether this is due to its function as an independent chaperone or as part of the ClpXP protease. In this study, we demonstrate that antibiotic resistance is due to formation of the ClpXP protease through construction of a ClpX complementation plasmid that is unable to interact with ClpP. Additionally, we genetically disrupted both clpP genes, clpP1 and clpP2 , found in B. anthracis Sterne and find that the loss of either increases susceptibility to cell envelope targeting antimicrobials, although neither has as strong of a phenotype as loss of clpX and neither clpP gene is essential for virulence in a G. mellonella model of infection. Lastly, we looked at changes to cell envelope morphology that could contribute to increased antibiotic sensitivity. We find no difference in cell charge or cell lysis, although we do see increased hydrophobicity in the Δ clpX strain, decreased cellular density and slightly thinner cells walls. We also see significant cell division defects in Δ clpX , although only when cells are grown in the mammalian cell culture medium, RPMI. We conclude that the intrinsic resistance of B. anthracis to cell wall active antimicrobials is dependent on formation of the ClpXP protease and that this could be due, at least in part, to the role of ClpX in regulating cell envelope morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shunt reactors are important components for high-voltage and extra high voltage transmission systems with large line lengths. They are used to absorb excess reactive power generated by capacitive power on the lines when no-load or under-load occurs. In addition, they play an important role in balancing the reactive power on the system, avoiding overvoltage at the end of the lines, and maintaining voltage stability at the specified level. In this paper, an analytical method based on the theory of magnetic circuit model is used to compute the electromagnetic fields of shunt reactors and then a finite element method is applied to simulate magnetic field distributions, joule power losses, and copper losses in the magnetic circuit. In order to reduce magnetic flux and avoid magnetic circuit saturation, it is necessary to increase the reluctance of the magnetic circuit by adding air gaps in the iron core. The air gaps are arranged along the iron core to decrease the influence of flux fringing around the air gap on shunt reactors' total loss. Non-magnetic materials are often used at the air gaps to separate the iron cores. The ANSYS Electronics Desktop V19.R1 is used as a computation and simulation tool in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the current density of charge carries of the radio electrical effect in parabolic quantum wells (PQW) subjected to a dc electric field E 0 and in a linearly polarized -i?t i?t electromagnetic wave (EMW) (...(t) = E(e-iwt + eiwt ), ...(t) = [...(t)]), (ħw << ...;... is an average carrier energy, in this paper), in the presence of a laser radiation ...(t) = ... sin Ωt; Ωτ >> 1τ is the characteristic relaxation time). By using the quantum kinetic equation method for electrons interacting with acoustic phonon at low temperatures, we obtain the expressions for the drag of the charge carriers in case the electron gas is completely degenerate. The dependence of the current density on the intensity F and the frequency ?Ω of the laser radiation, the frequency ω of the linearly polarized EMW, the frequency ω0 of the parabolic potential are obtained. The analytic expressions are numerically evaluated and plotted for a specific quantum wells, GaAs/AlGaAs, to show clearly the dependence of the current density of charge carriers on the radioelectrical effect on above parameters. The results of current density calculation in this case are compared with bulk semiconductors to show the dissimilarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a study related to the modeling of high viscosity oil-water cocurrent flow in horizontal and vertical pipes. It informs that the water is produced along with heavy oil either during the primary production or during the oil recovery. It further informs that the performance of the model is highly dependent on the prediction of phase inversion, distribution and interaction.

Poster: Physics track: Radiobiological and predictive modelling, and radiomics PO-1563: New voxel-based approach to study the relation of tumor location and survival in NSCLC (SAKK-16/00) D. Vuong, M. Bogowicz, J. Unkelbach, S. Hillinger, S. Thierstein, E.I. Eboulet, S. Peters, M. Pless, M. Guckenberger, S. Tanadini-Lang. [Extracted from the article]

Poster: Physics track: Radiobiological and predictive modelling, and radiomics PO-1571: Radiomics for prediction of metastatic melanoma patient survival after immunotherapy H. Gabrys, L. Basler, S. Hogan, M. Pavic, M. Bogowicz, D. Vuong, S. Tanadini-Lang, R. Förster, M. Huellner, R. Dummer, M. Guckenberger, M.P. Levesque. [Extracted from the article]