The Rimac river is the main source of water for Lima, Peru's capital megacity. The river is constantly affected by different types of contamination including mine tailings in the Andes and urban ...sewage in the metropolitan area. In this work, we aim to produce the first characterization of aquatic bacterial communities in the Rimac river using a 16S rRNA metabarcoding approach which would be useful to identify bacterial diversity and potential understudied pathogens. We report a lower diversity in bacterial communities from the Lower Rimac (Metropolitan zone) in comparison to other sub-basins. Samples were generally grouped according to their geographical location. Bacterial classes Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidia, Campylobacteria, Fusobacteriia, and Gammaproteobacteria were the most frequent along the river. Arcobacter cryaerophilus (Campylobacteria) was the most frequent species in the Lower Rimac while Flavobacterium succinicans (Bacteroidia) and Hypnocyclicus (Fusobacteriia) were the most predominant in the Upper Rimac. Predicted metabolic functions in the microbiota include bacterial motility and quorum sensing. Additional metabolomic analyses showed the presence of some insecticides and herbicides in the Parac-Upper Rimac and Santa Eulalia-Parac sub-basins. The dominance in the Metropolitan area of Arcobacter cryaerophilus, an emergent pathogen associated with fecal contamination and antibiotic multiresistance, that is not usually reported in traditional microbiological quality assessments, highlights the necessity to apply next-generation sequencing tools to improve pathogen surveillance. We believe that our study will encourage the integration of omics sciences in Peru and its application on current environmental and public health issues.
Abstract
Memoryless processes are ubiquitous in nature, in contrast with the mathematics of open systems theory, which states that non-Markovian processes should be the norm. This discrepancy is ...usually addressed by subjectively making the environment forgetful. Here we prove that there are physical non-Markovian processes that with high probability look highly Markovian for all orders of correlations; we call this phenomenon Markovianization. Formally, we show that when a quantum process has dynamics given by an approximate unitary design, a large deviation bound on the size of non-Markovian memory is implied. We exemplify our result employing an efficient construction of an approximate unitary circuit design using two-qubit interactions only, showing how seemingly simple systems can speedily become forgetful. Conversely, since the process is closed, it should be possible to detect the underlying non-Markovian effects. However, for these processes, observing non-Markovian signatures would require highly entangling resources and hence be a difficult task.
VCAM-1 and ICAM-1, receptors for leukocyte integrins, are recruited to cell-cell contact sites on the apical membrane of activated endothelial cells. In this study, we show that this recruitment is ...independent of ligand engagement, actin cytoskeleton anchorage, and heterodimer formation. Instead, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 are recruited by inclusion within specialized preformed tetraspanin-enriched microdomains, which act as endothelial adhesive platforms (EAPs). Using advanced analytical fluorescence techniques, we have characterized the diffusion properties at the single-molecule level, nanoscale organization, and specific intradomain molecular interactions of EAPs in living primary endothelial cells. This study provides compelling evidence for the existence of EAPs as physical entities at the plasma membrane, distinct from lipid rafts. Scanning electron microscopy of immunogold-labeled samples treated with a specific tetraspanin-blocking peptide identify nanoclustering of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 within EAPs as a novel mechanism for supramolecular organization that regulates the leukocyte integrin-binding capacity of both endothelial receptors during extravasation.
Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are the latest identified innate immune cell family. Given their similarity in transcription factor expression and cytokine secretion profiles, ILCs have been considered ...as the innate phenocopy of CD4 Th cells. Here, we explored the transcriptome of circulating human ILC subsets as opposed to CD4 Th cell subsets. We describe transcriptomic differences between total ILCs and total CD4 Th cells, as well as between paired innate and adaptive cell subsets (ILC1 vs. Th1; ILC2 vs. Th2; and ILC3 vs. Th17 cells). In particular, we observed differences in expression of genes involved in cell trafficking such as CCR1, CCR6 and CXCR3, innate activation and inhibitory functions, including CD119, 2B4, TIGIT, and CTLA‐4, and neuropeptide receptors, such as VIPR2. Moreover, we report for the first time on distinct expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in innate vs. adaptive cells, arguing for a potential role of lncRNA in shaping human ILC biology. Altogether, our results point for unique, rather than redundant gene organization in ILCs compared to CD4 Th cells, in regard to kinetics, fine‐tuning and spatial organization of the immune response.
Human ILCs and CD4 Th cells show shared, but also distinct transcriptomic profiles, including in lncRNAs, supporting their distinct temporal and spatial activation during immune responses.
We present the Database of Disordered Protein Prediction (D(2)P(2)), available at http://d2p2.pro (including website source code). A battery of disorder predictors and their variants, VL-XT, VSL2b, ...PrDOS, PV2, Espritz and IUPred, were run on all protein sequences from 1765 complete proteomes (to be updated as more genomes are completed). Integrated with these results are all of the predicted (mostly structured) SCOP domains using the SUPERFAMILY predictor. These disorder/structure annotations together enable comparison of the disorder predictors with each other and examination of the overlap between disordered predictions and SCOP domains on a large scale. D(2)P(2) will increase our understanding of the interplay between disorder and structure, the genomic distribution of disorder, and its evolutionary history. The parsed data are made available in a unified format for download as flat files or SQL tables either by genome, by predictor, or for the complete set. An interactive website provides a graphical view of each protein annotated with the SCOP domains and disordered regions from all predictors overlaid (or shown as a consensus). There are statistics and tools for browsing and comparing genomes and their disorder within the context of their position on the tree of life.
Solid Hybrid materials abound. But flowing versions of them are new actors in the materials science landscape and in particular for energy applications. This paper presents a new way to deliver ...nanostructured hybrid materials for energy storage, namely, in the form of nanofluids. We present here the first example of a hybrid electroactive nanofluid (HENFs) combining capacitive and faradaic energy storage mechanisms in a single fluid material. This liquid electrode is composed of reduced graphene oxide and polyoxometalates (rGO‐POMs) forming a stable nanocomposite for electrochemical energy storage in novel Nanofluid Flow Cells. Two graphene based hybrid materials (rGO‐phosphomolybdate, rGO‐PMo12 and rGO‐phosphotungstate, rGO‐PW12) were synthesized and dispersed with the aid of a surfactant in 1 M H2SO4 aqueous electrolyte to yield highly stable hybrid electroactive nanofluids (HENFs) of low viscosity which were tested in a home‐made flow cell under static and continuous flowing conditions. Remarkably, even low concentration rGO‐POMs HENFs (0.025 wt%) exhibited high specific capacitances of 273 F/g(rGO‐PW12) and 305 F/g(rGO‐PMo12) with high specific energy and specific power. Moreover, rGO‐POM HENFs show excellent cycling stability (∼95 %) as well as Coulombic efficiency (∼77–79 %) after 2000 cycles. Thus, rGO‐POM HENFs effectively behave as real liquid electrodes with excellent properties, demonstrating the possible future application of HENFs for dual energy storage in a new generation of Nanofluid Flow Cells.
This paper aims to explain the macroeconomic volatility due to microeconomic shocks to one or several sectors, recognizing the non-symmetrical relation in the interaction among the Ecuadorian ...economic sectors. To grasp the economic structure of this emerging economy, a statistical analysis of network data is applied to the respective input-output matrix of Ecuador from 1975 until 2012. We find periods wherein the production of domestic inputs is concentrated in a few suppliers; for example, in 2010, the concentration significantly affects sectors and their downstream providers, thus influencing aggregate volatility. Compared to the US productive structure, this emerging economy presents fewer sectors and degree distributions with less extreme fat-tail behavior. In this simpler economy, we continue to find a link between microeconomic shocks and aggregate volatility. Two new theoretical propositions are introduced to formalize our results.
This study offers a kinetic exploration of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in an acidic environment using a catalyst of MoS x modified with electrodeposited platinum atoms (Pt-MoS x ). Scanning ...electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images revealed a two-dimensional network structure of Pt-MoS x . The linear sweep voltammetries in a 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 solution demonstrated a high catalytic activity of the modified catalyst: an onset potential for hydrogen reduction reaction much more positive than that observed for MoS x , high mass activity (16.5 A/mg at an overpotential of −50 mV), a turnover frequency of 50 H2/s per surface site at a kinetic current density of 10 mA/cm2, and an overpotential of −39 mV. Based on classical models, including the Butler–Volmer equation, Kouteck-Levich equation, and Langmuir isotherm, essential kinetic parameters were obtained. The models in the frequency domain allowed the determination of the surface concentration of molecular hydrogen and the proposition of a transfer function for both dc frequency and infinite rotating disk speed conditions, enabling the determination of the exchange current density (8.51 × 10–4 A/cm2) and Tafel slope (40 mV/dec); the latter value suggested that the reaction proceeds through a Volmer–Heyrovsky pathway, predominantly limited by the Heyrovsky step. Based on the observed electrocatalytic behavior and the measured and calculated parameters, our findings suggest that the electrodeposition of small amounts of Pt on MoS x may represent a promising strategy for molecular hydrogen production.
This review deals with recent progress on the development of nanocomposite materials formed by conducting organic polymers (COPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNs), both from a fundamental and applied point ...of view. The combination of the unique properties of CNs with COPs makes of these materials interesting multifunctional systems with great potential in many applications such as supercapacitors, sensors, photovoltaic cells and photodiodes, optical limiting devices, solar cells, high-resolution printable conductor, electromagnetic absorbers, and, last but not least, advanced transistors.
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