Microbiota studies of Aedes aegypti and other mosquitoes generally focus on the bacterial communities found in adult female midguts. However, other compartments of the digestive tract maintain ...communities of bacteria which remain almost entirely unstudied. For example, the Dipteran crop is a food storage organ, but few studies have looked at the microbiome of crops in mosquitoes, and only a single previous study has investigated the crop in Ae. aegypti. In this study, we used both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods to compare the bacterial communities in midguts and crops of laboratory reared Ae. aegypti. Both methods revealed a trend towards higher abundance, but also higher variability, of bacteria in the midgut than the crop. When present, bacteria from the genus Elizabethkingia (family Weeksellaceae) dominated midgut bacterial communities. In crops, we found a higher diversity of bacteria, and these communities were generally dominated by acetic acid bacteria (family Acetobacteriaceae) from the genera Tanticharoenia and Asaia. These three taxa drove significant community structure differences between the tissues. We used FAPROTAX to predict the metabolic functions of these communities and found that crop bacterial communities were significantly more likely to contain bacteria capable of methanol oxidation and methylotrophy. Both the presence of acetic acid bacteria (which commonly catabolize sugar to produce acetic acid) and the functional profile that includes methanol oxidation (which is correlated with bacteria found with natural sources like nectar) may relate to the presence of sugar, which is stored in the mosquito crop. A better understanding of what bacteria are present in the digestive tract of mosquitoes and how these communities assemble will inform how the microbiota impacts mosquito physiology and the full spectrum of functions provided by the microbiota. It may also facilitate better methods of engineering the mosquito microbiome for vector control or prevention of disease transmission.
Antibiotic-resistant organisms enter into water environments from human and animal sources. These bacteria are able to spread their genes into water-indigenous microbes, which also contain resistance ...genes. On the contrary, many antibiotics from industrial origin circulate in water environments, potentially altering microbial ecosystems. Risk assessment protocols for antibiotics and resistant bacteria in water, based on better systems for antibiotics detection and antibiotic-resistance microbial source tracking, are starting to be discussed. Methods to reduce resistant bacterial load in wastewaters, and the amount of antimicrobial agents, in most cases originated in hospitals and farms, include optimization of disinfection procedures and management of wastewater and manure. A policy for preventing mixing human-originated and animal-originated bacteria with environmental organisms seems advisable.
The trend in power electronic applications is to reach higher power density and higher efficiency. Currently, the wide band-gap devices such as silicon carbide MOSFET (SiC MOSFET) are of great ...interest because they can work at higher switching frequency with low losses. The increase of the switching speed in power devices leads to high power density systems. However, this can generate problems such as overshoots, oscillations, additional losses, and electromagnetic interference (EMI). In this paper, a novel active gate driver (AGD) for improving the SiC MOSFET switching trajectory with high performance is presented. The AGD is an open-loop control system and its principle is based on gate energy decrease with a gate resistance increment during the Miller plateau effect on gate-source voltage. The proposed AGD has been designed and validated through experimental tests for high-frequency operation. Moreover, an EMI discussion and a performance analysis were realized for the AGD. The results show that the AGD can reduce the overshoots, oscillations, and losses without compromising the EMI. In addition, the AGD can control the turn-on and turn-off transitions separately, and it is suitable for working with asymmetrical supplies required by SiC MOSFETs.
Tumor suppression by TP53 involves cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous mechanisms. TP53 can suppress tumor growth by modulating immune system functions; however, the mechanistic basis for this ...activity is not well understood. We report that p53 promotes the degradation of the DNA exonuclease TREX1, resulting in cytosolic dsDNA accumulation. We demonstrate that p53 requires the ubiquitin ligase TRIM24 to induce TREX1 degradation. The cytosolic DNA accumulation resulting from TREX1 degradation activates the cytosolic DNA-sensing cGAS/STING pathway, resulting in induction of type I interferons. TREX1 overexpression sufficed to block p53 activation of the cGAS/STING pathway. p53-mediated induction of type I interferon (IFNB1) is suppressed by cGAS/STING knockout, and p53’s tumor suppressor activities are compromised by the loss of signaling through the cGAS/STING pathway. Thus, our study reveals that p53 utilizes the cGAS/STING innate immune system pathway for both cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic tumor suppressor activities.
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•Wild-type p53 (WTp53) activates the cytosolic DNA-sensing cGAS/STING pathway•WTp53 requires TRIM24 to promote TREX1 degradation•TREX1 degradation causes cytosolic DNA accumulation and activation of cGAS/STING•Loss of cGAS or STING compromises WTp53’s tumor suppressor activity
Ghosh et al. report that the tumor suppressor, TP53, activates the innate immune response to suppress tumor growth. TP53 promotes the degradation of the cytosolic DNA exonuclease TREX1, resulting in cytoplasmic DNA accumulation and activation of the cGAS/STING pathway. The absence of cGAS or STING compromises p53’s tumor suppressor activity.
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•First comprehensive study of 53 antibiotics in WWTP final effluents of 7 Countries.•Portugal, Spain and Ireland showed the highest levels of antibiotics.•Norway, Finland Germany and ...Cyprus showed the lowest levels of antibiotics.•Some antibiotics might occasionally pose a risk for the aquatic environment.•Ciprofloxacin, azithromycin and cephalexin as markers of antibiotic pollution.
A comprehensive monitoring of a broad set of antibiotics in the final effluent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of 7 European countries (Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus, Germany, Finland, and Norway) was carried out in two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). This is the first study of this kind performed at an international level. Within the 53 antibiotics monitored 17 were detected at least once in the final effluent of the WWTPs, i.e.: ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, enrofloxacin, orbifloxacin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, sulfapyridine, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, nalidixic acid, pipemidic acid, oxolinic acid, cefalexin, clindamycin, metronidazole, ampicillin, and tetracycline. The countries exhibiting the highest effluent average concentrations of antibiotics were Ireland and the southern countries Portugal and Spain, whereas the northern countries (Norway, Finland and Germany) and Cyprus exhibited lower total concentration. The antibiotic occurrence data in the final effluents were used for the assessment of their impact on the aquatic environment. Both, environmental predicted no effect concentration (PNEC-ENVs) and the PNECs based on minimal inhibitory concentrations (PNEC-MICs) were considered for the evaluation of the impact on microbial communities in aquatic systems and on the evolution of antibiotic resistance, respectively. Based on this analysis, three compounds, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin and cefalexin are proposed as markers of antibiotic pollution, as they could occasionally pose a risk to the environment. Integrated studies like this are crucial to map the impact of antibiotic pollution and to provide the basis for designing water quality and environmental risk in regular water monitoring programs.
Mutant p53 (mtp53) proteins can exert cancer-promoting gain-of-function activities. We report a mechanism by which mtp53 suppresses both cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous signaling to promote ...cancer cell survival and evasion of tumor immune surveillance. Mtp53 interferes with the function of the cytoplasmic DNA sensing machinery, cGAS-STING-TBK1-IRF3, that activates the innate immune response. Mtp53, but not wild-type p53, binds to TANK-binding protein kinase 1 (TBK1) and prevents the formation of a trimeric complex between TBK1, STING, and IRF3, which is required for activation, nuclear translocation, and transcriptional activity of IRF3. Inactivation of innate immune signaling by mtp53 alters cytokine production, resulting in immune evasion. Restoring TBK1 signaling is sufficient to bypass mtp53 and lead to restored immune cell function and cancer cell eradication. This work is of translational interest because therapeutic approaches that restore TBK1 function could potentially reactivate immune surveillance and eliminate mtp53 tumors.
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•Mutant p53 suppresses innate immune signaling and promotes immune evasion•Mutant p53 interacts with TBK1 to prevent STING-IRF3-TBK1 trimeric complex formation•Mutant p53 promotes tumor progression via cell-autonomous and non-autonomous signaling
Ghosh et al. show that mutant p53 suppresses downstream signaling from the cGAS/STING cytosolic DNA-sensing pathway by interacting with TANK-binding protein kinase 1 (TBK1), resulting in the attenuation of the type I interferon response and the promotion of tumor growth through immune evasion.
A hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS) is defined as a subset of ordered consecutive linguistic terms, and it has been successfully applied to deal with experts hesitation in decision-making ...problems when experts have to provide their assessments. This concept has been recently extended to manage ordered consecutive and nonconsecutive linguistic terms, called extended HFLTS (EHFLTS), which is used in linguistic group decision-making problems to represent the group opinion without loss of information. This paper is focused on studying how to measure the uncertainty presented by the information of an EHFLTS and also of an HFLTS. To do so, a new comprehensive entropy measure for EHFLTSs, which considers two types of uncertainty, fuzziness and hesitation, is proposed. The construction methods of the two types of entropy are studied and a comprehensive entropy formula is defined. Finally, a comparative study is carried out to analyze the results obtained from the proposed entropy measures.
Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat to global public health, but little is known about the effects of microbial control on the microbiota and its associated resistome. Here we compare the ...microbiota present on surfaces of clinical settings with other built environments. Using state-of-the-art metagenomics approaches and genome and plasmid reconstruction, we show that increased confinement and cleaning is associated with a loss of microbial diversity and a shift from Gram-positive bacteria, such as Actinobacteria and Firmicutes, to Gram-negative such as Proteobacteria. Moreover, the microbiome of highly maintained built environments has a different resistome when compared to other built environments, as well as a higher diversity in resistance genes. Our results highlight that the loss of microbial diversity correlates with an increase in resistance, and the need for implementing strategies to restore bacterial diversity in certain built environments.
In this paper we report on the influence of light and oxygen on the stability of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite‐based photoactive layers. When exposed to both light and dry air the mp‐Al2O3/CH3NH3PbI3 ...photoactive layers rapidly decompose yielding methylamine, PbI2, and I2 as products. We show that this degradation is initiated by the reaction of superoxide (O2−) with the methylammonium moiety of the perovskite absorber. Fluorescent molecular probe studies indicate that the O2− species is generated by the reaction of photoexcited electrons in the perovskite and molecular oxygen. We show that the yield of O2− generation is significantly reduced when the mp‐Al2O3 film is replaced with an mp‐TiO2 electron extraction and transport layer. The present findings suggest that replacing the methylammonium component in CH3NH3PbI3 to a species without acid protons could improve tolerance to oxygen and enhance stability.
The influence of light and oxygen on the stability of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite‐based photoactive layers is investigated. Upon exposure to both light and dry air, the mesoporous (mp) Al2O3/CH3NH3PbI3 layers decompose to methylamine, PbI2, and I2. This degradation is initiated by the reaction of superoxide (O2−) with the methylammonium moiety of the perovskite absorber. MA=methyl ammonium, CB=conduction band, VB=valence band.