Recent studies have shown that Providencia alcalifaciens is a diarrhoeal pathogen. It may cause diarrhoea by an invasive mechanism, as it invades cultured mammalian cells in vitro and intestinal ...epithelial cells of experimentally inoculated rabbits in vivo. To locate the gene(s) involved in invasion, TnphoA mutants of a diarrhoeal isolate of P. alcalifaciens were generated. Compared with the parent strain, these mutants exhibited negligible invasion and actin condensation in HEp-2 cells. TnphoA insertion was located in fragments of 4.9 kb and 11.1 kb of the bacterial chromosome by Southern blot. These mutants did not secrete a 28-kDa protein, which may be involved in invasion. It should be possible now to study the gene(s) involved in invasion of P. alcalifaciens with these mutants. This investigation is another example of the usefulness of TnphoA mutagenesis in the study of bacterial virulence genes.
The study was conducted at the farm of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur during the period of November to December, 2010 to enhance the production of red ...amaranth (cv: BARI lal shak 1) through the determination of nutrient accumulations and their uptake by optimizing the appropriate levels of nitrogen (N) from urea. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) comprising six treatments with four replicate each. There were altogether six levels of N viz. N0 (0 kg N ha-1), N50 (50 kg N ha-1), N75 (75 kg N ha-1), N100 (100 kg N ha-1), N125 (125 kg N ha-1) and N150 (150 kg N ha-1), respectively. P, K and S were applied from TSP, MoP and gypsum @ 23, 17 and 4 kg ha-1, respectively. Results revealed that different levels of N significantly influenced the nutrient accumulation and their uptake by red amaranth. Highest nutrient contents in most of the cases were observed when N was applied @ 150 kg ha-1 which was identical with the treatment N100 and the lowest contents were found in N0 treatment. Nutrient uptake followed similar trend like nutrient accumulation. The over result suggests that N @ 150 kg N ha-1 can be applied to boost up the production of red amaranth cv: BARI lal shak 1 under the agro-climatic conditions of the study area. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbau.v11i1.18200 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 11(1): 29-32, 2013
Studying RS CVn binaries is challenging, because in addition to spot activity, other effects such as mass transfer between the components and gravitational distortion of their spherical forms may ...distort their light curves. Such effects can, however, be removed from the data by subtracting a mean light curve phased with the orbital period. We study a quarter of a century of standard Johnson differential V photometry of the RS CVn binary BM CVn. Our main aims are to determine the activity cycles, the rate of surface differential rotation and the rotation period of the active longitudes of BM CVn. The Continuous Period Search (CPS) is applied to the photometry. The changes of the mean and amplitude of the light curves are used to search for activity cycles. The rotation period changes give an estimate of the rate of surface differential rotation. The Kuiper method is applied to the epochs of the primary and secondary minima to search for active longitudes. The photometry reveals the presence of a stable mean light curve (MLC) connected to the orbital period P_orb = 20d.6252 of this binary. We remove this MLC from the original V magnitudes which gives us the corrected V' magnitudes. These two samples of V and V' data are analysed separately with CPS. The fraction of unreliable CPS models decreases when the MLC is removed. The same significant activity cycle of approximately 12.5 years is detected in both V and V' samples. The estimate for the surface differential rotation coefficient, k >= 0.10, is the same for both samples, but the number of unrealistic period estimates decreases after removing the MLC. The same active longitude period of P_al = 20d.511 +- 0d.005 is detected in the V and V' magnitudes. This long-term regularity in the epochs of primary and secondary minima of the light curves is not caused by the MLC. On the contrary, the MLC hampers the detection of active longitudes.
Purpose: This study aims to identify the role of technological progress in the distribution sector in Saudi Arabia. Research design, data, and methodology: The study applies the Autoregressive ...Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to estimate the Cobb Douglas production function of the wholesale and retail trade sector in Saudi Arabia, relied on annual data from the General Authority for Statistics from 2005 to 2019. Results: The results show that there is a long run relationship between the production of the wholesale and retail trade sector in KSA and the factors of production labour, capital and technology progress. The elasticity of the wholesale and retail trade production with respect to capital and labour are 0.26 and 0.78 respectively; the coefficients are positive and statistically significant. The wholesale and retail trade sector is operating under increasing returns to scale. The main result indicates that the elasticity of the wholesale and retail production with respect to the technology progress is 4.62%, which is positive and statistically significant. Conclusions: The study concluded that technological progress has a positive contribution to the growth of the distribution sector in KSA. Therefore, the technological progress can improve the productivity and efficiency of the resources allocated to the dis.
The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.75 variant emerged in May 2022. BA.2.75 is a BA.2 descendant but is phylogenetically distinct from BA.5, the currently predominant BA.2 descendant. Here, we show that ...BA.2.75 has a greater effective reproduction number and different immunogenicity profile than BA.5. We determined the sensitivity of BA.2.75 to vaccinee and convalescent sera as well as a panel of clinically available antiviral drugs and antibodies. Antiviral drugs largely retained potency, but antibody sensitivity varied depending on several key BA.2.75-specific substitutions. The BA.2.75 spike exhibited a profoundly higher affinity for its human receptor, ACE2. Additionally, the fusogenicity, growth efficiency in human alveolar epithelial cells, and intrinsic pathogenicity in hamsters of BA.2.75 were greater than those of BA.2. Our multilevel investigations suggest that BA.2.75 acquired virological properties independent of BA.5, and the potential risk of BA.2.75 to global health is greater than that of BA.5.
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•BA.2.75 is more transmissible than BA.5•Immunogenicity of BA.2.75 spike is different from that of BA.2 and BA.5•Compared with BA.2, BA.2.75 exhibits higher affinity to ACE2 and greater fusogenicity•In infected hamsters, BA.2.75 exhibits greater pathogenicity than BA.2
Saito and G2P-Japan Consortium et al. elucidate the virological properties of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.75 variant. BA.2.75 is more transmissible than BA.5 and exhibits different antigenicity than BA.2 and BA.5. The BA.2.75 spike exhibits higher affinity to ACE2 and higher fusogenicity, and BA.2.75 is more pathogenic than BA.2 in hamsters.
The gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne intracellular pathogen that is widespread in the environment. The functions of hypothetical proteins (HP) from various ...pathogenic bacteria have been successfully annotated using a variety of bioinformatics strategies. In this study, a HP Imo0888 (NP_464414.1) from the Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e strain was annotated using several bioinformatics tools. Various techniques, including CELLO, PSORTb, and SOSUIGramN, identified the candidate protein as cytoplasmic. Domain and motif analysis revealed that the target protein is a PemK/MazF-like toxin protein of the type II toxin-antitoxin system (TAS) which was consistent with BLASTp analysis. Through secondary structure analysis, we found the random coil to be the most frequent. The Alpha Fold 2 Protein Structure Prediction Database was used to determine the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the HP using the template structure of a type II TAS PemK/MazF family toxin protein (DB ID_AFDB: A0A4B9HQB9) with 99.1% sequence identity. Various quality evaluation tools, such as PROCHECK, ERRAT, Verify 3D, and QMEAN were used to validate the 3D structure. Following the YASARA energy minimization method, the target protein's 3D structure became more stable. The active site of the developed 3D structure was determined by the CASTp server. Most pathogens that harbor TAS create a crucial risk to human health. Our aim to annotate the HP Imo088 found in Listeria could offer a chance to understand bacterial pathogenicity and identify a number of potential targets for drug development.
Background: Adults with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are susceptible to mental disorders that might significantly affect their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Therefore, the purpose ...of this study was to evaluate how HRQoL in individuals with GERD is related to coexisting anxiety and depression. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 3068 adult patients 22 years of age and older with GERD diagnoses have been identified using the data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2017 to 2020 for United States adults. Data are gathered by MEPS using an overlapping panel design over a period of two and a half years. HRQoL was established using the Physical and Mental Component Summary (PCS & MCS) values from the SF-12. Multivariate forward linear regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between anxiety, depression, and HRQoL in people with GERD after accounting for various factors. Results: Of the 3068 people with GERD who had been identified, 56.4% were women, 59.4% were in their 50s or 60s and 64.8% were employed. Thirteen per cent of people with GERD had depression, thirteen per cent had anxiety, and ten per cent had both. Adults with concurrent anxiety and depression had the lowest mean PCS and MCS scores compared to those with GERD. After adjusting for all independent factors, GERD patients with anxiety (MCS = −10.819, p-value < 0.0001), depression (MCS = −6.395, p-value < 0.0001), and both (MCS= −42.869, p-value < 0.0001) had substantially worse HRQoL than those without these comorbidities. Notably, better HRQoL scores were positively associated with marital status, employment, perceived overall health, and physical activity. Conclusions: The results from this nationally representative sample shed insight into the relationships between low HRQoL and anxiety and depression among individuals with GERD. It also demonstrated the detrimental impacts of co-occurring chronic illnesses, low socioeconomic status, and the positive benefits of employment and exercise on HRQoL. This study emphasizes the clinical, policy, and public health implications for better healthcare, allocation of resources, and promotion of lifestyle modifications to improve the HRQoL in patients with GERD.
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