The reduction in antibiotic growth promoter use in poultry, due to antibiotic resistance concerns, has created a need for natural solutions that control enteric pathogens like Salmonella. One of ...these natural feed additives, a select blend of essential oils, fatty acids, and an enterosorbent mineral (NeutraPath), was assessed for its effects on the intestinal colonization of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium PHL2020 isolate (ST-PHL2020) in broiler chickens and ST-PHL2020 virulence gene expression. An in vitro digestion model simulating the pH and enzymatic conditions of 3 gastrointestinal compartments (crop, proventriculus, and intestine) was first used to evaluate the antibacterial effects of NeutraPath on ST-PHL2020. For the in vivo study, day-old male broilers (n = 90) were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 groups: control or NeutraPath supplemented at 0.25 or 0.5%. The dose rates were chosen to enable observable statistical effects during high Salmonella challenge. All groups were challenged with ST-PHL2020 (106 cfu/bird) via oral gavage on day 9. Bacterial load and prevalence of ST-PHL2020 were examined in ceca-cecal tonsils, and intestinal permeability was assessed via serum recovery of fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran (FITC-d) 24 h postchallenge. NeutraPath inhibited (P < 0.05) ST-PHL2020 growth in the in vitro digestion model compared to the control at all concentrations and in all compartments other than NeutraPath 0.25% in the crop. In vivo, NeutraPath 0.25 and 0.5% reduced (P < 0.05) the total cfu recovered and total prevalence of ST-PHL2020 in the ceca. The serum FITC-d levels were also reduced (P < 0.05) by NeutraPath. Further, NeutraPath's effects on ST-PHL2020’s Salmonella pathogenicity island-1 virulence network development were explored via treating ST-PHL2020 at subinhibitory concentration (1 mg/mL) of NeutraPath in vitro. Compared to the control, NeutraPath downregulated ST-PHL2020 hilA and invF mRNA expression, which further blocked expression of key downstream effectors involved in ST-PHL2020 invasion. Collectively, NeutraPath has the potential to reduce ST-PHL2020 intestinal colonization in broilers and preserve intestinal barrier integrity.
Objective
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) is a multifactorial disorder with high heterogeneity, thus the outcomes vary widely. This study aimed to develop predictive models based on four ...machine learning methods for SSHL, identifying the best performer for clinical application.
Design
Single‐centre retrospective study.
Setting
Chinese People's liberation army (PLA) hospital, Beijing, China.
Participants
A total of 1220 in‐patient SSHL patients were enrolled between June 2008 and December 2015.
Main outcome measures
An advanced deep learning technique, deep belief network (DBN), together with the conventional logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) were developed to predict the dichotomised hearing outcome of SSHL by inputting six feature collections derived from 149 potential predictors. Accuracy, precision, recall, F‐score and the area under the receiver operator characteristic curves (ROC‐AUC) were exploited to compare the prediction performance of different models.
Results
Overall the best predictive ability was provided by the DBN model when tested in the raw data set with 149 variables, achieving an accuracy of 77.58% and AUC of 0.84. Nevertheless, DBN yielded inferior performance after feature pruning. In contrast, the LR, SVM and MLP models demonstrated opposite trend as the greatest individual prediction powers were obtained when included merely three variables, with the ROC‐AUC ranging from 0.79 to 0.81, and then decreased with the increasing size of input features combinations.
Conclusions
With the input of enough features, DBN can be a robust prediction tool for SSHL. But LR is more practical for early prediction in routine clinical application using three readily available variables, that is time elapse between symptom onset and study entry, initial hearing level and audiogram.
Sun-tracking is an important mechanism to boost the electricity generation from photovoltaic systems by adjusting the orientation of the systems to receive more solar radiation. However, compared to ...the fixed-array systems, the use of the single-axis and dual-axis sun-tracking systems is usually impeded by increased cost, decreased reliability, and cumbersome maintenance. In this paper, we compare the performance of fixed-array, single-axis, and dual-axis rooftop photovoltaic systems in California using the data envelopment analysis method. For each system, an efficiency score is computed based on capacity, electricity generation, system cost, module use, solar irradiance and ambient temperature. We find the single-axis systems perform significantly better than the fixed-array and dual-axis systems. The fixed-array systems are more efficient than the dual-axis systems but the difference is not significant. The results imply the policymakers and solar installers should promote the single-axis sun-tracking and be cautious of using the dual-axis systems.
We report accelerated particles observed by Solar Wind Ion Detectors (SWIDs) on Chang'E‐1 spacecraft close to terminator regions of the Moon. As the spacecraft crosses the terminator, a stream of ...ions with energy of ∼200eV/q are detected. As the spacecraft moves to the anti‐subsolar point of the Moon, the energy of these ions increase by 600 ∼ 1500eV. This phenomenon occurs at north/south pole when IMF By component is dominant and negative/positive. It is proposed these particles are scattered solar wind protons, accelerated by the convection electric field of the solar wind and E × B drift in the ambipolar electric field at the flank of the lunar wake. This mechanism allows a new portion of solar wind protons to enter the central lunar wake, and provides a possibility to study the property of proton scattering at the dayside of the Moon.
The nature of the nucleosomal barrier that regulates access to the underlying DNA during many cellular processes is not fully understood. Here we present a detailed map of histone-DNA interactions ...along the DNA sequence to near base pair accuracy by mechanically unzipping single molecules of DNA, each containing a single nucleosome. This interaction map revealed a distinct approximately 5-bp periodicity that was enveloped by three broad regions of strong interactions, with the strongest occurring at the dyad and the other two about +/-40-bp from the dyad. Unzipping up to the dyad allowed recovery of a canonical nucleosome upon relaxation of the DNA, but unzipping beyond the dyad resulted in removal of the histone octamer from its initial DNA sequence. These findings have important implications for how RNA polymerase and other DNA-based enzymes may gain access to DNA associated with a nucleosome.
6.3
mm thick Mg–3Al–1Zn plates were friction stir welded with different shoulder dimensions at a traverse speed of 100
mm/min and a rotation rate of 800
rpm. With increasing the heat input by ...enlarging the shoulder diameter from 18 to 24
mm, the tensile strength of the welds tended to increase and the elongation was significantly improved, and the facture location shifted from the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) in the advancing side to the stir zone. The highest ultimate tensile strength of the welds was obtained by using the shoulder 24
mm in diameter and reached up to 86% of the base material. The variation in the mechanical properties and fracture location was mainly attributed to the texture change in the TMAZ. However, the hardness profiles of the welds were hardly influenced by the shoulder size.
Highlights • The expression of PHB1 was downregulated following SCI in rats. • Ad-PHB1 administration promoted functional recovery in rats with SCI. • Ad-PHB1 administration following SCI reduced ...apoptosis. • Ad-PHB1 administration following SCI suppressed ER stress. • Ad-PHB1 administration following SCI restored mitochondrial function.
Replication-transcription conflicts promote mutagenesis and give rise to evolutionary signatures, with fundamental importance to genome stability ranging from bacteria to metastatic cancer cells. ...This review focuses on the interplay between replication-transcription conflicts and the evolution of gene directionality. In most bacteria, the majority of genes are encoded on the leading strand of replication such that their transcription is co-directional with the direction of DNA replication fork movement. This gene strand bias arises primarily due to negative selection against deleterious consequences of head-on replication-transcription conflict. However, many genes remain head-on. Can head-on orientation provide some benefit? We combine insights from both mechanistic and evolutionary studies, review published work, and analyze gene expression data to evaluate an emerging model that head-on genes are temporal targets for adaptive mutagenesis during stress. We highlight the alternative explanation that genes in the head-on orientation may simply be the result of genomic inversions and relaxed selection acting on nonessential genes. We seek to clarify how the mechanisms of replication-transcription conflict, in concert with other mutagenic mechanisms, balanced by natural selection, have shaped bacterial genome evolution.
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