Many different definitions for multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and pandrug-resistant (PDR) bacteria are being used in the medical literature to characterize the different ...patterns of resistance found in healthcare-associated, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. A group of international experts came together through a joint initiative by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to create a standardized international terminology with which to describe acquired resistance profiles in Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp., Enterobacteriaceae (other than Salmonella and Shigella), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp., all bacteria often responsible for healthcare-associated infections and prone to multidrug resistance. Epidemiologically significant antimicrobial categories were constructed for each bacterium. Lists of antimicrobial categories proposed for antimicrobial susceptibility testing were created using documents and breakpoints from the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). MDR was defined as acquired non-susceptibility to at least one agent in three or more antimicrobial categories, XDR was defined as non-susceptibility to at least one agent in all but two or fewer antimicrobial categories (i.e. bacterial isolates remain susceptible to only one or two categories) and PDR was defined as non-susceptibility to all agents in all antimicrobial categories. To ensure correct application of these definitions, bacterial isolates should be tested against all or nearly all of the antimicrobial agents within the antimicrobial categories and selective reporting and suppression of results should be avoided.
We introduce an incentivized elicitation method for identifying social norms that uses simple coordination games. We demonstrate that concern for the norms we elicit and for money predict changes in ...behavior across several variants of the dictator game, including data from a novel experiment and from prior published laboratory studies, that are unaccounted for by most current theories of social preferences. Moreover, we find that the importance of social norm compliance and of monetary considerations is fairly constant across different experiments. This consistency allows prediction of treatment effects across experiments, and implies that subjects have a generally stable willingness to sacrifice money to take behaviors that are socially appropriate.
Escherichia coli represents a classical intestinal gram-negative commensal. Despite this commensalism, different E. coli strains can mediate disparate immunogenic properties in a given host. ...Symbiotic E. coli strains such as E. coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) are attributed beneficial properties, e.g., promotion of intestinal homeostasis. Therefore, we aimed to identify molecular features derived from symbiotic bacteria that might help to develop innovative therapeutic alternatives for the treatment of intestinal immune disorders. This study was performed using the dextran sodium sulphate (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model, which is routinely used to evaluate potential therapeutics for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs). We focused on the analysis of flagellin structures of different E. coli strains. EcN flagellin was found to harbor a substantially longer hypervariable region (HVR) compared to other commensal E. coli strains, and this longer HVR mediated symbiotic properties through stronger activation of Toll-like receptor (TLR)5, thereby resulting in interleukin (IL)-22-mediated protection of mice against DSS-induced colitis. Furthermore, using bone-marrow-chimeric mice (BMCM), CD11c+ cells of the colonic lamina propria (LP) were identified as the main mediators of these flagellin-induced symbiotic effects. We propose flagellin from symbiotic E. coli strains as a potential therapeutic to restore intestinal immune homeostasis, e.g., for the treatment of IBD patients.
Genetic diversity is the amount of variation observed between DNA sequences from distinct individuals of a given species. This pivotal concept of population genetics has implications for species ...health, domestication, management and conservation. Levels of genetic diversity seem to vary greatly in natural populations and species, but the determinants of this variation, and particularly the relative influences of species biology and ecology versus population history, are still largely mysterious. Here we show that the diversity of a species is predictable, and is determined in the first place by its ecological strategy. We investigated the genome-wide diversity of 76 non-model animal species by sequencing the transcriptome of two to ten individuals in each species. The distribution of genetic diversity between species revealed no detectable influence of geographic range or invasive status but was accurately predicted by key species traits related to parental investment: long-lived or low-fecundity species with brooding ability were genetically less diverse than short-lived or highly fecund ones. Our analysis demonstrates the influence of long-term life-history strategies on species response to short-term environmental perturbations, a result with immediate implications for conservation policies.
Abstract
The growth of lithium dendrites in inorganic solid electrolytes is an essential drawback that hinders the development of reliable all-solid-state lithium metal batteries. Generally, ex situ ...post mortem measurements of battery components show the presence of lithium dendrites at the grain boundaries of the solid electrolyte. However, the role of grain boundaries in the nucleation and dendritic growth of metallic lithium is not yet fully understood. Here, to shed light on these crucial aspects, we report the use of operando Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements to map locally time-dependent electric potential changes in the Li
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garnet-type solid electrolyte. We find that the Galvani potential drops at grain boundaries near the lithium metal electrode during plating as a response to the preferential accumulation of electrons. Time-resolved electrostatic force microscopy measurements and quantitative analyses of lithium metal formed at the grain boundaries under electron beam irradiation support this finding. Based on these results, we propose a mechanistic model to explain the preferential growth of lithium dendrites at grain boundaries and their penetration in inorganic solid electrolytes.
The daily solar cycle allows organisms to synchronize their circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles to the correct temporal niche. Changes in day-length, shift-work, and transmeridian travel lead to ...mood alterations and cognitive function deficits. Sleep deprivation and circadian disruption underlie mood and cognitive disorders associated with irregular light schedules. Whether irregular light schedules directly affect mood and cognitive functions in the context of normal sleep and circadian rhythms remains unclear. Here we show, using an aberrant light cycle that neither changes the amount and architecture of sleep nor causes changes in the circadian timing system, that light directly regulates mood-related behaviours and cognitive functions in mice. Animals exposed to the aberrant light cycle maintain daily corticosterone rhythms, but the overall levels of corticosterone are increased. Despite normal circadian and sleep structures, these animals show increased depression-like behaviours and impaired hippocampal long-term potentiation and learning. Administration of the antidepressant drugs fluoxetine or desipramine restores learning in mice exposed to the aberrant light cycle, suggesting that the mood deficit precedes the learning impairments. To determine the retinal circuits underlying this impairment of mood and learning, we examined the behavioural consequences of this light cycle in animals that lack intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. In these animals, the aberrant light cycle does not impair mood and learning, despite the presence of the conventional retinal ganglion cells and the ability of these animals to detect light for image formation. These findings demonstrate the ability of light to influence cognitive and mood functions directly through intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells.
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