Prevalence, Virulence, and Antimicrobial Resistance of Major Mastitis Pathogens Isolated from Taiwanese Dairy Farms.

Mastitis, a highly prevalent disease in dairy cows, is responsible for massive financial losses due to decreased milk yield, milk quality, and costly medication. This research paper investigates antimicrobial susceptibility in cows and the role played by both resistance and virulence gene distribution in bovine mastitis. A total of 984 raw milk samples were collected from five different dairy farms and cultured on sheep blood agar plates.

Loss-of-function of an α-SNAP gene confers resistance to soybean cyst nematode.

Plant-parasitic nematodes are one of the most economically impactful pests in agriculture resulting in billions of dollars in realized annual losses worldwide. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the number one biotic constraint on soybean production making it a priority for the discovery, validation and functional characterization of native plant resistance genes and genetic modes of action that can be deployed to improve soybean yield across the globe. Here, we present the discovery and functional characterization of a soybean resistance gene, GmSNAP02.

Development of a Standardized Soybean Cyst Nematode Screening Assay in Pennycress and Identification of Resistant Germplasm.

The prospect of incorporating pennycress as an oilseed cover crop in the Midwest's corn-soybean rotation system has drawn researcher and farmer attention. The inclusion of pennycress will be beneficial as it provides an excellent soil cover to reduce soil erosion and nutrient leaching while serving as an additional source for oilseed production and income. However, pennycress is an alternative host for soybean cyst nematode (SCN), which is a major biological threat to soybean that needs to be addressed for sustainable pennycress adoption into our current production systems.

Road Traffic Accidents among Patients Visiting Department of Emergency of a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Road Traffic Accidents, are one of the major neglected global health burdens which are predicted to be the 7th leading cause of global deaths by 2030 as per the World Health Organization hence, seem to be one of the major global threats in near future. Most road traffic accidents affect the most vulnerable age groups in developing countries. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of road traffic accidents among patients visiting the Department of Emergency of a tertiary care centre.

Mechanisms of chromosomal instability (CIN) tolerance in aggressive tumors: surviving the genomic chaos.

Chromosomal instability (CIN) is a pervasive feature of human cancers involved in tumor initiation and progression and which is found elevated in metastatic stages. CIN can provide survival and adaptation advantages to human cancers. However, too much of a good thing may come at a high cost for tumor cells as excessive degree of CIN-induced chromosomal aberrations can be detrimental for cancer cell survival and proliferation.

Harnessing transcriptionally driven chromosomal instability adaptation to target therapy-refractory lethal prostate cancer.

Metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) inevitably acquires resistance to standard therapy preceding lethality. Here, we unveil a chromosomal instability (CIN) tolerance mechanism as a therapeutic vulnerability of therapy-refractory lethal PCa. Through genomic and transcriptomic analysis of patient datasets, we find that castration and chemotherapy-resistant tumors display the highest CIN and mitotic kinase levels.

Collateral Development in Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Coronary artery disease is one of the major cardiovascular diseases affecting the global human population. When the primary stenotic or blocked channel fails to deliver enough blood to the myocardium, the coronary collateral circulation serves as a backup source of blood supply. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of collateral development in patients undergoing coronary angiography in a tertiary care centre.

Childhood Invasive Bacterial Disease in Kathmandu, Nepal (2005-2013).

Background: Invasive bacterial disease (IBD; including pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children in low-income countries.

Methods: We analyzed data from a surveillance study of suspected community-acquired IBD in children <15 years of age in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 2005 to 2013 before introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV). We detailed the serotype-specific distribution of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and incorporated antigen and PCR testing of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from children with meningitis.

The relation between lignin sequence and its 3D structure.

Background: Lignin, the second most abundant biopolymer on earth, plays a major structural role in plants, conferring mechanical strength and regulating water conduction. Understanding the three-dimensional structure of lignin is important for fundamental reasons as well as engineering plants towards lignin valorization. Lignin lacks a specific primary sequence, making its average chemical composition the focus of most recent studies.

How to Untie a Protein Knot.

The origin of protein backbone threading through a topological knot remains elusive. To understand the evolutionary origin of protein knots, in this issue of StructureKo et al. (2019) used circular permutation to untie a knotted protein.

A unique analytical solution of the white matter standard model using linear and planar encodings.

Purpose: It is known that white matter modeling based on commonly used linear diffusion encoding is an ill-posed problem. We analyze the additional information gained from a double pulsed diffusion encoding.

Methods: Zeroth (spherical means) and second-order (harmonic powers) rotation invariant signal features are used to factor micro- and mesoscopic contributions.

Intra-axonal diffusivity in brain white matter.

Biophysical modeling lies at the core of evaluating tissue cellular structure using diffusion-weighted MRI, albeit with shortcomings. The challenges lie not only in the complexity of the diffusion phenomenon, but also in the need to know the diffusion-specific properties of diverse cellular compartments in vivo. The likelihood function obtained from the commonly acquired Stejskal-Tanner diffusion-weighted MRI data is degenerate with different parameter constellations explaining the signal equally well, thereby hindering an unambiguous parameter estimation.

Quantification of desmosine and isodesmosine using MALDI-ion trap tandem mass spectrometry.

Desmosine (Des) and isodesmosine (Isodes), cross-linking amino acids in the biomolecule elastin, may be used as biomarkers for various pathological conditions associated with elastin degradation. The current study presents a novel approach to quantify Des and Isodes using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS) in a linear ion trap coupled to a vacuum MALDI source. MALDI-MS analyses of Des and Isodes are performed using stable-isotope-labeled desmosine d (labeled-Des) as an internal standard in different biological fluids, such as urine and serum.

Modelfree global tractography.

Tractography based on diffusion-weighted MRI investigates the large scale arrangement of the neurite fibers in brain white matter. It is usually assumed that the signal is a convolution of a fiber specific response function (FRF) with a fiber orientation distribution (FOD). The FOD is the focus of tractography.

The absence of restricted water pool in brain white matter.

Understanding diffusion-weighted MR signal in brain white matter (WM) has been a long-sought-after goal. Modern research pursues this goal by focusing on the biological compartments that contributes essentially to the signal. In this study, we experimentally address the apparent presence of a compartment in which water motion is restricted in all spatial directions.

Ultraviolet radiation reduces desmosine cross-links in elastin.

Elastic fibers, a major component of the extracellular matrix of the skin, are often exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation throughout mammalian life. We report on an study of the alterations in bovine nuchal ligament elastic fibers resulting from continuous UV-A exposure by the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), histology, mass spectrometry, and solid state C NMR methodologies. TEM images reveal distinct cracks in elastic fibers as a result of UV-A irradiation and histological measurements show a disruption in the regular array of elastic fibers present in unirradiated samples; elastic fibers appear shorter, highly fragmented, and thinner after UV-A treatment.

Probing single-molecule electron-hole transfer dynamics at a molecule-NiO semiconductor nanocrystalline interface.

Interfacial charge transfer dynamics in dye-sensitized NiO nanoparticles are being investigated for photocathodes in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells. In the photoreaction, after fast electron transfer from NiO to a molecule, the recombination of the hole in the nanoparticles with the electron in a reduced molecule plays an important role in the charge separation process and solar energy harvesting. Nevertheless, knowledge of the interfacial charge recombination (CR) rate and its mechanism is still limited due to the complex photoinduced electron and hole dynamics and lack of characterization of the inhomogeneity of the dynamics.

After over 200 years, 7 T magnetic resonance imaging reveals the foliate structure of the human corpus callosum in vivo.

Objective: A fine structure of the corpus callosum (CC), consisting of radial lines, is seen in historical anatomical atlases as far back as that of Vicq d'Azyr (1786). This study examines a similar pattern observed in vivo using high-resolution MR images at 7 T.

Methods: 8 healthy subjects were examined with 7.

Disentangling micro from mesostructure by diffusion MRI: A Bayesian approach.

Diffusion-sensitized magnetic resonance imaging probes the cellular structure of the human brain, but the primary microstructural information gets lost in averaging over higher-level, mesoscopic tissue organization such as different orientations of neuronal fibers. While such averaging is inevitable due to the limited imaging resolution, we propose a method for disentangling the microscopic cell properties from the effects of mesoscopic structure. We further avoid the classical fitting paradigm and use supervised machine learning in terms of a Bayesian estimator to estimate the microstructural properties.

Pregnancy-Induced Dynamical and Structural Changes of Reproductive Tract Collagen.

The tissues and organs of the female reproductive tract and pelvic floor undergo significant remodeling and alterations to allow for fetal growth and birth. In this work, we report on a study of the alterations of murine reproductive tract collagen resulting from pregnancy and parturition by spectrophotometry, histology, and (13)C, (2)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Four different cohorts of rats were investigated that included virgin, multiparous, two- and fourteen-day postpartum primiparous rats.

Gibbs-ringing artifact removal based on local subvoxel-shifts.

Purpose: To develop a fast and stable method for correcting the gibbs-ringing artifact.

Methods: Gibbs-ringing is a well-known artifact which manifests itself as spurious oscillations in the vicinity of sharp image gradients at tissue boundaries. The origin can be seen in the truncation of k-space during MRI data-acquisition.

Probing Electric Field Effect on Covalent Interactions at a Molecule-Semiconductor Interface.

Fundamental understanding of the energetic coupling properties of a molecule-semiconductor interface is of great importance. The changes in molecular conformations and vibrational modes can have significant impact on the interfacial charge transfer reactions. Here, we have probed the change in the interface properties of alizarin-TiO2 system as a result of the externally applied electric field using single-hot spot microscopic surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SMSERS) and provided a theoretical understanding of our experimental results by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Temperature dependence of water diffusion pools in brain white matter.

Water diffusion in brain tissue can now be easily investigated using magnetic resonance (MR) techniques, providing unique insights into cellular level microstructure such as axonal orientation. The diffusive motion in white matter is known to be non-Gaussian, with increasing evidence for more than one water-containing tissue compartment. In this study, freshly excised porcine brain white matter was measured using a 125-MHz MR spectrometer (3T) equipped with gradient coils providing magnetic field gradients of up to 35,000 mT/m.

Probing Driving Force and Electron Accepting State Density Dependent Interfacial Electron Transfer Dynamics: Suppressed Fluorescence Blinking of Single Molecules on Indium Tin Oxide Semiconductor.

Photoinduced, interfacial electron transfer (ET) dynamics between m-ZnTCPP and Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) film has been studied using single-molecule photon-stamping spectroscopy. The observed ET dynamics of single m-ZnTCPP adsorbed on ITO was compared with that of m-ZnTCPP adsorbed on TiO2 NPs with and without applied electric potential. Compared to m-ZnTCPP on the TiO2 NP surface, m-ZnTCPP on the ITO surface shows a reduced lifetime as well as suppressed blinking and a quasi-continuous distribution of fluorescence intensities, presumably due to higher electron density in ITO.