A European epidemiological survey of Vibrio splendidus clade shows unexplored diversity and massive exchange of virulence factors.

The Vibrio splendidus clade has previously been associated with epidemic outbreaks of various aquatic animals, as in the case of the cupped oyster, Crassostrea gigas. To investigate whether involved strains could present a clonal origin and to identify possible alternative background carriage animals or zooplankton, a large epidemiological survey was conducted on isolates of the splendidus clade. For this purpose, Vibrio strains were isolated from various samples including oysters, mussels, sediments, zooplankton, and sea water on the basis of a North/South gradient of the European sea water zone (Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain). A total of 435 isolates were successfully associated to the V. splendidus clade using real time polymerase chain reaction with 16S specific primers and probes. A multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (VNTR) was conducted on all isolates based on a multiplex PCR-VNTR with a set of primer pairs designed from the V. tasmaniensis LGP32 genome. Preliminary validation of the primers on a set of collection strains from the V. splendidus clade confirmed that the former V. splendidus-related LGP32 and relative strains were related to V. tasmaniensis rather than to the type strain V. splendidus LMG 4042. The VNTR analysis was then successfully conducted on 335 isolates which led to the characterization of 87 different profiles. Our results showed that (1) the high diversity of VNTR did not enlighten significant correlation between a specific pattern and the origin of collected samples. However, populations isolated from animal samples tend to differ from those of the background environment; (2) oyster mortality events could not be linked to the clonal proliferation of a particular VNTR type. However, few different patterns seemed successively associated with samples collected during peaks of oyster's mortality. (3) Finally, no correlation could be seen between specific VNTR patterns and sequence phylogeny of the virulence factors vsm and ompU that were detected among strains isolated during as well as outside mortality events. These results, combined with incongruence observed between the ompU and vsm phylogenetic trees, suggested both large diffusion of strains and massive lateral gene transfer within the V. splendidus clade.

Support vector machines for histogram-based image classification.

Traditional classification approaches generalize poorly on image classification tasks, because of the high dimensionality of the feature space. This paper shows that support vector machines (SVM's) can generalize well on difficult image classification problems where the only features are high dimensional histograms. Heavy-tailed RBF kernels of the form K(x, y) = e(-rho)Sigma(i)/xia-yia/b with a < or = 1 and b < or = 2 are evaluated on the classification of images extracted from the Corel stock photo collection and shown to far outperform traditional polynomial or Gaussian radial basis function (RBF) kernels. Moreover, we observed that a simple remapping of the input x(i)-->x(i)(a) improves the performance of linear SVM's to such an extend that it makes them, for this problem, a valid alternative to RBF kernels.

[Retrospective evaluation and experimental radiographic study on bone reaction concomitant with orthodontic tooth movement]. / Retrospektive Erhebung und klinisch-experimentelle Studie zum Knochenumbau bei orthodontischen Zahnbewegungen.

Concomitant with orthodontic tooth movement a radiographically dense zone of high mineralisation can be observed on the periodontal tension side. This zone consists of the alveolar cortical bone and mineralized osteoid. This bone reaction has not evoked much interest in orthodontic literature in the past. In a retrospective study, orthopantomograms of children in orthodontic treatment were evaluated, and the discussed reaction was studied in relation with different treatment parameters. Opaque bone layers were found in cases in whom the orthopantomogram was made within 6 months after initiating tooth movement. When using elastics for tooth movement the bone reaction under discussion was comparatively rare. There is no proneness to root resorption in teeth showing the described adjacent bone reaction. Bone reaction was also studied with a densitometric radiological procedure. In all 9 cases the bone reaction was observed.

Cytogenetic findings in a prospective series of patients with DiGeorge anomaly.

High-resolution cytogenetics analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes was done prospectively on 27 of 28 patients with features of DiGeorge anomaly. Twenty-two patients (81%) had normal chromosome studies with no detectable deletion in chromosome 22. Five patients (18%) had demonstrable chromosome abnormalities. Three patients had monosomy 22q11, one due to a 4q;22q translocation, one due to a 20q;22q translocation, and one due to an interstitial deletion of 22q11. One patient had monosomy 10p13, and one patient had monosomy 18q21.33, although the latter had subsequent resolution of T-cell defects. These findings are consistent with the heterogeneity of DiGeorge anomaly but confirm the association with monosomy 22q11 in some cases. However, monosomy 10p13 may also lead to this phenotype. Because of these associated chromosome findings, cytogenetic analyses should be done on patients with suspected DiGeorge anomaly. This is particularly important since many of the abnormalities involving chromosome 22 are translocations that can be familial with a higher recurrence risk. Since only one subtle, interstitial deletion of chromosome 22 was observed, it is not clear whether high-resolution cytogenetic analysis is cost beneficial for all such patients.

Structure of the active site of carbonic anhydrase as determined by electron spin resonance.

High resolution electron spin resonance spectra of the stepwise formation of CN- complexes of Co(II) and Cu(II) carbonic anhydrase show that both metal enzymes form successive 1:1 and 2:1 addition products with CN- at 112 K. The 1:1 complex with the Cu(II) enzyme has a rhombic ESR spectrum similar to the spectra of the 1:1 complexes of the Cu(II) enzyme with CH3COO-, OCN-, N3-, and SH-. The 1:1 complex with the CO(II) enzyme shows a broad resonance at 10 K indicating the presence of high spin Co(II). Previous optical, ESR, and magnetic susceptibility data suggest that the 1:1 complexes are 4-coordinate. At high concentrations of 13CN- the Cu(II) enzyme forms a 2:1 CN- complex with a shift to an axial ESR signal showing ligand nuclear superhyperfine structure from two magnetically equivalent equatorial nitrogen nuclei of the protein and two magnetically equivalent equatorial carbon ligands from two 13CN- anions. Under the same conditions a structurally analogous dicyanide complex of the co(II) enzyme forms with the appearance of and axial ESR signal typical of low spin Co(II). Ligand nuclear superhyperfine structure shows the presence of an axial protein nitrogen as ligand and two magnetically equivalent equatorial carbon ligands from two 13CN- anions. The dicyanide complexes of the Co(II) and Cu(II) enzymes form completely only in frozen solutions and analysis of the ESR spectra show them to have a 5-coordinate square pyrimidal geometry. Comparison of the ligand superhyperfine structure on the ESR signals of both dicyanide complexes shows that there are three nitrogen nuclei of the protein present as ligands at the metal binding site; one axial and two equatorial in the dicyanide complexes. A transient 5-coordinate intermediate might play a role in the mechanism of action of carbonic anhydrase by facilitating ligand exchange reactions within the inner coordination sphere of the Zn(II) ion at the active center.