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At least 343 records · Page 19

Occurrence of NDM-1-producing Morganella morganii and Proteus mirabilis in a single patient in Portugal: probable in vivo transfer by conjugation

Abstract Objectives To decipher the genetics of acquisition of carbapenemase-encoding genes identified in two carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae recovered from a single patient in Portugal. Methods Carbapenemase genes were searched by PCR assays and mating-out assays were performed to further characterize the plasmid support of the carbapenemase genes. Genetic characterization of the plasmid supports was performed by whole-plasmid sequencing using the Illumina technology. Results We identified here two NDM-1-producing isolates, namely a Morganella morganii and a Proteus mirabilis, sharing the same blaNDM-1-positive plasmid. This 154 kb plasmid belonged to the IncA/C2 type, recently renamed IncC, and co-harboured two AmpC β-lactamase genes, namely blaCMY-4 and blaDHA-1, in addition to the 16S rRNA methylase gene armA encoding high-level resistance to aminoglycosides. In addition, the M. morganii isolate produced the CTX-M-33 extended-spectrum β-lactamase possessing weak carbapenemase activity, encoded by another plasmid. Conclusions We showed here that, in addition to KPC-type and OXA-181 carbapenemases, which have been identified as widespread in this country, another concern is the emergence of NDM-1-producing enterobacterial isolates in Portugal. We demonstrated here the in vivo plasmid transfer of a blaNDM-1-positive plasmid leading to dissemination of this carbapenemase gene within different enterobacterial species in a single patient.

Aires-de-Sousa, Marta↗

Mutation-driven RRE stem-loop II conformational change induces HIV-1 nuclear export dysfunction

Abstract The Rev response element (RRE) forms an oligomeric complex with the viral protein Rev to facilitate the nuclear export of intron-retaining viral RNAs during the late phase of HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus type 1) infection. However, the structures and mechanisms underlying this process remain largely unknown. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the HIV-1 RRE stem-loop II (SLII), revealing a unique three-way junction architecture in which the base stem (IIa) bifurcates into the stem-loops (IIb and IIc) to compose Rev binding sites. The crystal structures of various SLII mutants demonstrated that while some mutants retain the same “compact” fold as the wild type, other single-nucleotide mutants induce drastic conformational changes, forming an “extended” SLII structure. Through in vitro Rev binding assays and Rev activity measurements in HIV-1-infected cells using structure-guided SLII mutants designed to favor specific conformers, we showed that while the compact fold represents a functional SLII, the alternative extended conformation inhibits Rev binding and oligomerization and consequently stimulates HIV-1 RNA nuclear export dysfunction. The propensity of SLII to adopt multiple conformations as captured in crystal structures and their influence on Rev oligomerization illuminate emerging perspectives on RRE structural plasticity-based regulation of HIV-1 nuclear export and provide opportunities for developing anti-HIV drugs targeting specific RRE conformations.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology↗

Predictive Flow Simulation with the P2R Model for the 200-IA-1 Preliminary Remediation Goal Saturated Zone Abstraction

In order to develop and evaluate alternatives for remediation of waste sites constituting the 200-IA-1 Operable Unit (OU), a focused feasibility study (FFS) is currently underway. The 200-IA-1 OU FFS requires preliminary remediation goals (PRGs) protective of groundwater be evaluated which includes estimates of fate and transport of contaminants in the groundwater from multiple sources within the Central Plateau Inner Area. This document details the application of the Plateau-to-River (P2R) Model version 8.3 to predict the flow of groundwater on the Central Plateau for the 10,000-year simulation to support the 200-IA-1 OU PRG calculation. The simulated flow field will support the simulation of fate and transport of contaminants for use in estimating peak unit-length concentration as part of the 200-IA-1 OU PRG calculation presented in a separate environmental calculation file (ECF) (ECF-200IA1-20-0108, Determination of Preliminary Remediation Goals for 200-IA-1 Source Operable Unit).

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

ERIM progress report on use of ERTS-1 data: Summary report of work on ten tasks

The author has identified the following significant results. Several of the tasks have produced significant results which are summarized: (1) Absolute water depth can be calculated from a ratio of signals from bands MSS 4 and MSS 5. (2) A 13 category terrain feature classification map of Yellowstone National Park has been produced using supervised pattern recognition techniques. (3) ERTS-1 data has been shown to provide a detection and monitoring capability for a number of water quality problems associated with off-shore ocean dumping sites and inland lakes. (4) A corrected ratio of bands MSS-5 and MSS-7 signals has been formed. (5) A concise format has been devised for storing the ratio signatures of geologic rock and mineral materials determined from laboratory reflectance spectra. (6) Results of work in information extraction demonstrate: signal variability exists among ERTS-1 detectors in any one spectral band that will impact users doing quantitative analysis on successive ERTS-1 images; a newly developed computer-aided procedure for correlating ERTS-1 pixels to ground features; the strong influence of atmospheric effects in ERTS-1 data; and area estimation accuracies are better using the ERIM proportion estimation algorithm than for conventional recognition techniques.

Thomson, F. J.↗

Inventory and monitoring of natural vegetation and related resources in an arid environment: A comparative evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. A comparative evaluation of an ERTS-1 MSS color reconstitution and an Apollo 6 and Gemini 4 color photograph for information content was conducted. A greater variety of image detail was indicated for the Apollo 6 imagery. A study of terrain feature variable-vegetation relationships has been concluded. However, there were no substantial differences among space photo types when macrorelief classes were interpreted. Vegetation distribution is influenced in varying degrees by characteristics of the terrain, some of which are quite apparent on ERTS-1 imagery and, therefore, provide the means for inferring possible vegetation types for a specified location. Spectral signatures have been determined for some natural vegetation systems from the ERTS-1 MSS data. Those signatures have been used to classify ERTS-1 data for a portion of the study area. Work continues on multistage sampling for natural vegetation, terrain feature identification of ERTS-1 photographs, plant phenology, and spectral signature studies.

Schrumpf, B. J.↗

Analysis of ERTS-1 imagery and its application to evaluation of Wyoming's natural resources

The author has identified the following significant results. A summary of the significant results of the studies completed during the July-August, 1973 period includes: (1) ERTS-1 image brightness contrasts can be related to important contrasts in rangeland and forest vegetation communities of the Laramie Basin. (2) Stereoscopic viewing is essential for correct structural interpretation in outcrop patterns in some areas. (3) Complex fracture patterns which may have exerted a controlling influence on intrusive activity in the Absaroka Mountains can be mapped from ERTS. (4) Volcanic lithologies of the Yellowstone region are often differentiated on the basis of their textures, and cannot be successfully mapped by photogeologic interpretation of ERTS-1 imagery. Ground spectral readings confirm a general lack of contrast between these lithologies in the four ERTS-1 MSS bands. (5) Major dune fields can be recognized and defined from ERTS-1 image interpretations and recognition of differences in stabilizing plant communities (some of which may be mappable from ERTS-1) yields information about migration history of the dune fields.

Marrs, R. W.↗

Fracture trends identified by ERTS-1 imagery in Utah and Nevada

The author has identified the following significant results. In the Utah-Nevada area, linear structural trends recorded on ERTS-1 imagery conform in part to previously recognized structures. In addition, the ERTS-1 imagery reveals cryptic structures not previously identified and not readily apparent in other imagery. These structures are illustrated by prominent east-west trending structures which appear to be concentrated in pre-volcanic rocks. This suggests that the structures are older than many of those with other trends which are equally prominent in volcanic and non-volcanic terrain. Since the older east-west structures may have controlled early Tertiary emplacement of magma or the ascent of mineralizing fluids, their recognition is important in minerial exploration. Soil-gas sampling and analysis for mercury content is being continued over structures, and projected trends of buried structures which appear, from studies of ERTS-1 imagery, to be favorable to mineralization. Comparison of ERTS-1 and Skylab imagery indicated that ERTS-1 imagery records more previously unrecognized linear structures than the Skylab imagery. In differentiating and identifying different rock types, the Skylab imagery appears to be more effective.

Jensen, M. L.↗

Mapping coastal vegetation, land use and environmental impact from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Vegetation map overlays at a scale of 1:24,000 compiled by multispectral analysis from NASA aircraft imagery for all of Delaware's wetlands are being used as ground truth for ERTS-1 mapping and by state agencies for wetlands management. Six major vegetation species were discriminated and mapped, including percentages of minor species. Analogue enhancements of wetlands vegetation and dredge-fill operations have been produced using General Electric's GEMS data processing and ERTS-1 false color composites. Digital, thematic land use, and vegetation mapping of entire Delaware Bay area is in progress using Bendix Corporation's Earth Resources Data System and ERTS-1 digital tapes. Statistical evaluation of target-group selection reliability has been completed. Three papers have been published on ERTS-1 coastal vegetation and land use. Local and state officials are participating in the ERTS-1 program as co-investigators.

Klemas, V.↗

Monitoring coastal water properties and circulation from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Imagery and digital tapes from nine successful ERTS-1 passes over Delaware Bay during different portions of the tidal cycle have been analyzed with special emphasis on turbidity, current circulation, waste disposal plumes, and convergent boundaries between different water masses. ERTS-1 image radiance correlated well with Secchi depth and suspended sediment concentration. MSS band 5 seemed to give the best representation of sediment load in the upper one meter of the water column. Circulation patterns observed by ERTS-1 during different parts of the tidal cycle, agreed well with predicted and measured currents throughout Delaware Bay. During flood tide the suspended sediment as visible from ERTS-1 also correlated well with the depth profile. Convergent shear boundaries between different water masses were observed from ERTS-1, with foam lines containing high concentrations of lead, mercury, and other toxic substances. Several fronts have been seen. Those near the mouth of the bay are associated with the tidal intrusion of shelf water. Fronts in the interior of the bay on the Delaware side appear to be associated with velocity shears induced by differences in bottom topography. Waste disposal plumes have benn detected 36 miles offshore.

Klemas, V.↗

Correlation of ERTS-1 and aircraft optical data with water quality parameters of Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

The author has identified the following significant results. Attempts to correlate optical aircraft remote sensing of water quality with the optical data from the ERTS-1 satellite using calibrated imagery of Charlotte Amalie harbor, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands are reported. The harbor at Charlotte Amalie has a concentration of a number of factors affecting water quality: untreated sewage, land runoff, and sediment from navigation and dredging operations. Calibration procedures have been originated and applied to ERTS-1 and I2S camera imagery. The results indicate that the ERTS-1 and I2S imagery are correlated with optical in situ measurements of the harbor water. The aircraft green photographic and ERTS-1 MSS-4 bands have been found most suitable for monitoring the scattered light levels under the conditions of the investigation. The chemical parameters of the harbor water were found to be correlated to the optical properties for two stations investigated in detail. The biological properties of the harbor water (chlorophyll and carotenoids), correlate inversely with the optical data near the pollution sources compared to further away. Calibration procedures developed in this investigation were essential to the interpretation of the photographic and ERTS-1 photometric responses.

Coulbourn, W. C.↗

Relevance of ERTS-1 to the State of Ohio

The author has identified the following significant results. During the first year of project effort the ability of ERTS-1 imagery to be used for mapping and inventorying strip-mined areas in south eastern Ohio, the potential of using ERTS-1 imagery in water quality and coastal zone management in the Lake Erie region, and the extent that ERTS-1 imagery could contribute to localized (metropolitan/urban), multicounty, and overall state land use needs were experimentally demonstrated and reported as significant project results. Significant research accomplishments were achieved in the technological development of manual and computerized methods to extract multi-feature information as well as singular feature information from ERTS-1 data as is exemplified by the forestry transparency overlay. Fabrication of an image transfer device to superimpose ERTS-1 data onto existing maps and other data sources was also a significant analytical accomplishment.

Sweet, D. C.↗

ERTS-1 flood hazard studies in the Mississippi River Basin

The Spring 1973 Mississippi River flood was investigated using remotely sensed data from ERTS-1. Both manual and automatic analyses of the data indicate that ERTS-1 is extremely useful as a regional tool for flood and floodplain management. The maximum error of such flood area measurements is conservatively estimated to be less than five percent. Change detection analysis indicates that the flood had major impacts on soil moisture, land pattern stability, and vegetation stress. Flood hazard identification was conducted using photointerpretation techniques in three study areas along the Mississippi River using pre-flood ERTS-1 imagery down to 1:100,000 scale. Flood prone area boundaries obtained from ERTS-1 were generally in agreement with flood hazard maps produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey although the latter are somewhat more detailed because of their larger scale. Initial results indicate that ERTS-1 digital mapping of the flood-prone areas can be performed at least 1:62,500 which is comparable to conventional flood hazard map scales.

Rango, A.↗

STS-1 operational flight profile. Volume 4: Onorbit profile-cycle 3.1.1

The orbital flight test (OFT) phase of the shuttle program consists of four orbital flights beginning in November 1980and continuing through 1981. The major purpose of the OFT program is to demonstrate and verify shuttle systems and flight capabilities by satisfying the OFT requirements, is presented. The onorbit portion of the operational flight profile (OFP) for the first Space Transportation System-1 (STS-1) flight is presented. This onorbit document (volume 4) is one in a series that, taken together, will define the STS-1 OFP. This OFP onorbit document represents a combination of the STS-1 ground rules and constraints and the initialization data. The STS-1 flight activities described reflect the trajectory, consumable, crew activity, and flight requirement baseline as of May 1, 1980. Flight plans for the ascent, onorbit, and descent phases of the test flight are presented.

Source record↗

Upper limits for the ethyl-cyanide abundances in TMC-1 and L134N - Chemical implications

Interstellar ethyl-cyanide has been sought via its 2(02)-1(01) transition towards two cold, dark clouds, and upper limits of the total column densities of 3 x 10 to the 12th/sq cm and 2 x 10 to the 12th/sq cm for TMC-1 and L134N, respectively. The 2(02)-1(01) transition of vynil cyanide, previously identified in TMC-1 by Matthews and Sears (1983b), was also observed. The detection of vinyl cyanide and the nondetection of ethyl cyanide in TMC-1 are consistent with gas phase ion-molecule chemical models, and there is thus no necessity of invoking grain surface synthesis for vinyl cyanide in cold clouds.

Minh, Y. C.↗

The 144 second periodic flux variations during x ray turn-on of Hercules X-1

Hercules X-1 is a well known bright binary X ray pulsator. It has a 1.70 day orbital period, a pulsation period of 1.24 second, and a 35 day semiperiodic variability. The discovery is reported of a new 144 second periodicity in the X ray emission from Her X-1. The periodicity is seen in X ray observations of Her X-1 by the LAC instrument onboard the Ginga satellite during Aug. to Sep. 1988. The periodic flux variations occur during the time of X ray turnon at the beginning of a high state of Her X-1, in the same time that a pre-eclipse dip also occurs. An analysis of the LAC spectra of Her X-1 during this period is also presented. Large changes in spectral shape occur associated with the dip.

Leahy, D. A.↗

A self-consistent model for the long-term gamma-ray spectral variability of Cygnus X-1

The long-term transitions of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 (between the states gamma-1, gamma-2, and gamma-3) include the occasional appearance of a strong nearly-MeV bump (gamma-1), whose strength appears to be anticorrelated with the continuum flux (below 400 keV) due to the Compton upscattering of cold disk photons by the inner, hot corona. We develop a self-consistent disk picture in which the bump is seen as due to the self-Comptonization of bremsstrahlung photons emitted predominantly near the plane of the corona itself. A decrease by a factor of about two in the viscosity parameter alpha is responsible for quenching this bump and driving the system to the gamma-2 state, whereas a transition from gamma-2 to gamma-3 appears to be induced by an increase of about 25 percent in the accretion rate M. In view of the fact that most of the transitions observed in this source seem to be of the gamma-2-gamma-3 variety, we conclude that much of the long-term gamma-ray spectral variability in Cygnus X-1 is due to these small fluctuations in M. The unusual appearance of the gamma-1 state apparently reflects a change in the dissipative processes within the disk.

Melia, Fulvio↗

Self-Consistent Thermal Accretion Disk Corona Models for Compact Objects: Application to Cygnus X-1 - II

We apply our self-consistent accretion disk corona (ADC) model, with two different geometries, to the broadband X-ray spectrum of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1. As shown in a companion paper, models in which the Comptonizing medium is a slab surrounding the cold accretion disk cannot have a temperature higher than about 140 keV for optical depths greater than 0.2, resulting in spectra that are much softer than the observed 10-30 keV spectrum of Cyg X-1. In addition, the slab-geometry models predict a substantial "soft excess" at low energies, a feature not observed for Cyg X-1, and Fe K-alpha fluorescence lines that are stronger than observed. Previous Comptonization models in the literature have invoked a slab geometry with optical depth tau(sub T) approx. greater than 0.3 and coronal temperature T(sub c) approx. 150 keV, but they are not self-consistent. Therefore, ADC models with a slab geometry are not appropriate for explaining the X-ray spectrum of Cyg X-1. Models with a spherical corona and an exterior disk, however, predict much higher self-consistent coronal temperatures than the slab-geometry models. The higher coronal temperatures are due to the lower amount of reprocessing of coronal radiation in the accretion disk, giving rise to a lower Compton cooling rate. Therefore, for the sphere-plus-disk geometry, the predicted spectrum can be hard enough to describe the observed X-ray continuum of Cyg X-1 while predicting Fe fluorescence lines having an equivalent width of approx. 40 eV. Our best-fit parameter values for the sphere-plus-disk geometry are tau(sub T) approx. equal to 1.5 and T(sub c) approx. equal to 90 keV.

Dove, James B.↗

A Multi-Year Light Curve of Scorpius X-1 Based on CGRO BATSE Spectroscopy Detector Observations

A multi-year light curve of the low mass X-ray binary, Scorpius X-1, is constructed based on the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory (CGRO) Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) Spectroscopy Detector (SD) data in the nominal energy range of 10-20 keV. A detailed discussion is given of the reduction process of the BATSE/SD data. Corrections to the SD measurements are made for off-axis pointings, spectral and bandpass changes, and differences in the eight SD sensitivities. The resulting 4.4 year Sco X-1 SD light curve is characterized in terms of the time scales over which various types of emission changes occur. This light curve is then compared with Sco X-1 light curves obtained by Axiel 5, the BATSE Large Area Detectors (LADs), and the RXTE all-sky monitor (ASM). Coincident temporal coverage by the BATSE/SD and RXTE/ASM allows a direct comparison of the behavior of Sco X-1 over a range of high energies to be made. These ASM light curves are then used to discuss model constraints on the Sco X-1 system.

McNamara, B. J.↗