SOS

Similarly to its homologs in other bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa partitioning protein ParB facilitates segregation of newly replicated chromosomes. Lack of ParB is not lethal but results in increased frequency of anucleate cells production, longer division time, cell elongation, altered colony morphology and defective swarming and swimming motility. Unlike in other bacteria, inactivation of parB leads to major changes of the transcriptome, suggesting that, directly or indirectly, ParB plays a role in regulation of gene expression in this organism...

Objective * Chong Xie, Xiangfeng Chen, and Yulin Liu contributed equally to this work. Genetic defects are identified in nearly 20% of infertile males. Determining the frequency and types of major genetic abnormalities in severe male infertility helps inform appropriate genetic counseling before assisted reproductive techniques. Methods Cytogenetic results of 912 patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) and severe oligozoospermia (SOS) in Eastern China were reviewed in this multicenter study from January 2011 to December 2015...

The Ras/Erk signaling pathway plays a central role in diverse cellular processes ranging from development to immune cell activation to neural plasticity to cancer. In recent years, this pathway has been widely studied using live-cell fluorescent biosensors, revealing complex Erk dynamics that arise in many cellular contexts. Yet despite these high-resolution tools for measurement, the field has lacked analogous tools for control over Ras/Erk signaling in live cells. Here, we provide detailed methods for one such tool based on the optical control of Ras activity, which we call "Opto-SOS...

Bacteria, yeast and human cancer cells possess mechanisms of mutagenesis upregulated by stress responses. Stress-inducible mutagenesis potentially accelerates adaptation, and may provide important models for mutagenesis that drives cancers, host pathogen interactions, antibiotic resistance and possibly much of evolution generally. In Escherichia coli repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs) becomes mutagenic, using low-fidelity DNA polymerases under the control of the SOS DNA-damage response and RpoS general stress response, which upregulate and allow the action of error-prone DNA polymerases IV (DinB), II and V to make mutations during repair...

The sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS) is an uncommon form of portal hypertension that occurs in hematopoietic-cell transplant recipients who receive intense conditioning treatments. The diagnosis is clinical and it is usually delayed, because in these patients there are many causes that can damage the liver and can delay its detection. We present the case of a 47-year-old man, whose diagnosis was made with clinical and analytical data supported by ultrasound signs that showed hepatic congestion. After treatment with defibrotide the patient improved clinically and analytically...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) was adapted to be administered to the family caregiver/significant other (FC/SO) of hospitalized patients with heart failure (HF). The objective was to examine the psychometrics of the adapted scale (KCCQ-SO). METHODS: Factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and correlations were used. RESULTS: A 5-factor solution was found that explained 67.9% of the variance. The internal consistency of the KCCQ-SO factors were all greater than ...

PURPOSE: Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS) is a likely side effect of colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) chemotherapy. This study aimed to assess computed tomography scan (CT-scan) performance for SOS diagnosis for patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) prior to CRLM surgery, comparing obtained results with pathological gold standard. METHODS: Preoperative CT-scans of 67 patients who had received a NC prior to liver resection for CRLM from 2011 to 2016 were retrospectively analysed...

AIMS: A novel antibacterial peptide from Crocodylus siamensis hemoglobin hydrolysate (CHHs) was characterised for antimicrobial activity. METHODS AND RESULTS: CHHs was hydrolysed for 2 h (2h-CHH), 4 h (4h-CHH), 6 h (6h-CHH) and 8 h (8h-CHH). 8h-CHH showed antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at concentrations of 20, 20, 20 and 10 mg ml(-1) (w/v), respectively. Fluorescent microscopy revealed that 8h-CHH had bactericidal activity against E...

Enrofloxacin is the most commonly used antibiotic to control diseases in aquatic animals caused by A. hydrophila. This study conducted de novo transcriptome sequencing and compared the global transcriptomes of enrofloxacin-resistant and enrofloxacin-susceptible strains. We got a total of 4,714 unigenes were assembled. Of these, 4,122 were annotated. A total of 3,280 unigenes were assigned to GO, 3,388 unigenes were classified into Cluster of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COG) using BLAST and BLAST2GO software, and 2,568 were mapped onto pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes Pathway database...

We studied the relationships between endothelial extracellular vesicles (EV) and plasminogen-activator inhibitor type 1(PAI-1), to assess their modification in the early phase of sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS). ENTRY CRITERIA: patients who developed SOS at single center from January 2000 to December 2011. SELECTION: patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or actinomicyn-based chemotherapy for nephroblastoma. PARTICIPANTS: the study group comprised 5 patients with SOS who were compared with a control group of 7 patients without SOS...

There is currently great interest in human serine racemase (hSR), the enzyme responsible for producing the NMDA co-agonist D-serine. Reported correlation of D-serine levels with disorders including Alzheimers disease, ALS and ischemic brain damage (elevated D-serine), and schizophrenia (reduced D-serine) has further piqued this interest. Reported is a structure/activity relationships (SAR) study of position-(S)84, the putative re-face base. In the most extreme case of functional reprogramming, the S84D mutant displays a dramatic reversal of β-elimination substrate specificity in favor of L-serine over the normally preferred L-serine-O-sulfate (L-SOS; ~1200-fold change in kcat/Km ratios) and L-threo-β-hydroxyaspartate (L-THA; ~5000-fold change in kcat/Km ratios) alternative substrates...

Degradation of a 5'-ending strand is the hallmark of the universal process of DNA double strand break (DSB) resection, which results in creation of the central recombination intermediate, a 3'-ending overhang. Here we show that in Escherichia coli recB1080/recB1067 mutants, which are devoid of RecBCD's nuclease and RecA loading activities, degradation of the unwound 3' tail is as essential as is degradation of its 5'-ending complement. Namely, a synergistic action of ExoI, ExoVII, SbcCD and ExoX single-strand specific exonucleases (ssExos) of 3'-5' polarity was essential for preserving cell viability, DNA repair and homologous recombination in the recB1080/recB1067 mutants, to the same extent as the redundant action of 5'-tail trimming ssExos RecJ and ExoVII...

INTRODUCTION: Genetic constitution and inflammation both contribute to development of coronary artery disease (CAD). Several CAD-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have recently been identified, but their functions are largely unknown. We investigated the associations between CAD-associated SNPs and five CAD-related inflammatory biomarkers. METHODS: We genotyped 45 CAD-associated SNPs in 701 stable CAD patients in whom levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsRCP), interleukin-6, calprotectin, fibrinogen and complement component 3 levels had previously been measured...

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of a modified Swedish version of an interactive group education programme, the Active Communication Education (ACE) programme, in five Swedish regions. This study also explored whether the pre- and post-programme outcomes differed with regard to region, age, gender, hearing loss (HL) or the attendance of significant others (SOs). DESIGN: An intervention study with between- and within-group measurements was applied. STUDY SAMPLE: Seventy-seven individuals with hearing impairments and a mean age of 73...

Risk factors for osteoporosis may vary according to different populations. We aimed to investigate the relationship between risk factors of osteoporosis and bone health indices determined via calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) in a group of Malaysian women aged 50 years or above. A cross-sectional study was performed on 344 Malaysian women recruited from a tertiary medical centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They answered a self-administered questionnaire on their social-demographic details, medical history, lifestyle, and physical activity status...

Rapid whole-brain dynamic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is of particular interest in Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI). Faster acquisitions with higher temporal sampling of the BOLD time-course provide several advantages including increased sensitivity in detecting functional activation, the possibility of filtering out physiological noise for improving temporal SNR, and freezing out head motion. Generally, faster acquisitions require undersampling of the data which results in aliasing artifacts in the object domain...

BACKGROUND: Initial blood ammonia level is associated with neurologic outcomes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We tested the usefulness of blood ammonia for prediction of long-term neurological outcome of OHCA.Methods and Results:A total of 3,011 hospitalized adult OHCA patients were enrolled. Blood samples were obtained at the ED. Cut-offs (ammonia <100 μmol/L and lactate <12 mmol/L) were determined in a previous study. Neurological outcomes in survivors were assessed at 3 months...

Seasonal phenology of vegetation plays an important role in global carbon cycle and ecosystem productivity. In urban environments, vegetation phenology is also important because of its influence on public health (e.g., allergies), and energy demand (e.g. cooling effects). In this study, we studied the potential use of remotely sensed observations (i.e. Landsat data) to derive some phenology indicators for vegetation embedded within the urban core domains in four distinctly different U.S. regions (Washington, D...

The inappropriate and unsafe management practices related to disposal and recycling of electronic wastes in Nigeria has led to environmental and underground water contamination. Reports on the level and type of contamination as well as the possible DNA damage effects of this contamination are insufficient. This study evaluated the DNA damaging potential of e-waste simulated and raw leachates, and its contaminated underground water using the SOS chromotest on Escherichia coli PQ37 and the Ames Salmonella fluctuation test on Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100, without and with metabolic activation...

The coordination reaction of thorium (IV) with a ditopic bidentate ligand to form supramolecular polymer was studied by resonance light scattering (RLS) spectra, second-order scattering (SOS) spectra and frequency-doubling scattering (FDS) spectra, respectively. The ditopic bidentate ligand is isophthalaldehyde-tetrapyrrole (IPTP). It was synthesized through a condensation reaction of isophthalaldehyde with pyrrole. The formation of supramolecular polymer results in remarkable intensity enhancements of the three light scattering signals...