Influence of collaborative customer service by service robots and clerks in bakery stores.

In recent years, various service robots have been deployed in stores as recommendation systems. Previous studies have sought to increase the influence of these robots by enhancing their social acceptance and trust. However, when such service robots recommend a product to customers in real environments, the effect on the customers is influenced not only by the robot itself, but also by the social influence of the surrounding people such as store clerks. Therefore, leveraging the social influence of the clerks may increase the influence of the robots on the customers. Hence, we compared the influence of robots with and without collaborative customer service between the robots and clerks in two bakery stores. The experimental results showed that collaborative customer service increased the purchase rate of the recommended bread and improved the impressions of the robot and store experience of the customers. Because the results also showed that the workload required for the clerks to collaborate with the robot was not high, this study suggests that all stores with service robots may demonstrate high effectiveness in introducing collaborative customer service.

Sequence Type 5 (ST5) as a Possible Predictor of Bacterial Persistence in Adult Patients with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Pneumonia Treated with Vancomycin.

Vancomycin remains the mainstay of treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia. This study assessed risk factors for vancomycin failure in 63 patients with MRSA pneumonia through detailed clinical, microbiological, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic, and genetic analyses of prospective multicenter studies conducted from February 2012 to July 2018. Therapeutic drug monitoring was performed during vancomycin treatment, and the 24-h area under the curve (AUC0-24) was calculated. All baseline strains were collected for MIC determination, heterogeneous vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (hVISA) screening, and biofilm determination. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on the isolates to analyze their molecular typing and virulence and adhesion genes. Clinical signs and symptoms improved in 44 patients (44/63, 69.8%), with vancomycin daily dose (P = 0.045), peak concentration (P = 0.020), and sdrC (P = 0.047) being significant factors. Isolates were eradicated in 51 patients (51/63, 81.0%), with vancomycin daily dose (P = 0.009), cardiovascular disease (P = 0.043), sequence type 5 (ST5; P = 0.017), tst (P = 0.050), and sec gene (P = 0.044) associated with bacteriological failure. Although the AUC0-24/MIC was higher in the groups with bacterial eradication, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.108). Multivariate analysis showed that no variables were associated with clinical efficacy; ST5 was a risk factor for bacterial persistence (adjusted odds ratio, 4.449; 95% confidence interval, 1.103 to 17.943; P = 0.036). ST5 strains had higher frequencies of the hVISA phenotype, biofilm expression, and presence of some adhesion and virulence genes such as fnbB, tst, and sec than non-ST5 strains. Our study suggests that ST5 is a possible predictor of bacterial persistence in MRSA pneumonia treated with vancomycin. IMPORTANCE Few studies have simultaneously examined the influence of clinical characteristics of patients with pneumonia, the vancomycin pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) index, and the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. We assessed risk factors for vancomycin failure in patients with MRSA pneumonia by analyzing these influences in a prospective multicenter study. Sequence type 5 (ST5) was a possible predictor of bacterial persistence in adult patients with MRSA pneumonia (adjusted odds ratio, 4.449). We found that this may be related to ST5 strains having higher levels of vancomycin heterogeneous resistance, biofilms, and the presence of adhesion and virulence genes such as fnbB, tst, and sec.

Local vs. Avatar Robot: Performance and Perceived Workload of Service Encounters in Public Space.

In recent years, the demand for remote services has increased with concerns regarding the spread of infectious diseases and employees' quality of life. Many attempts have been made to enable store staff to provide various services remotely via avatars displayed to on-site customers. However, the workload required on the part of service staff by the emerging new work style of operating avatar robots remains a concern. No study has compared the performance and perceived workload of the same staff working locally versus remotely via an avatar. In this study, we conducted an experiment to identify differences between the performance of in-person services and remote work through an avatar robot in an actual public space. The results showed that there were significant differences in the partial performance between working via an avatar and working locally, and we could not find significant difference in the overall performance. On the other hand, the perceived workload was significantly lower when the avatar robot was used. We also found that customers reacted differently to the robots and to the in-person participants. In addition, the workload perceived by operators in the robotic task was correlated with their personality and experience. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first investigation of both performance and workload in remote customer service through robotic avatars, and it has important implications for the implementation of avatar robots in service settings.

Epidemiological and genomic characteristics of Acinetobacter baumannii from different infection sites using comparative genomics.

BACKGROUND: Acinetobacter baumannii is a common nosocomial pathogen that poses a huge threat to global health. Owing to the severity of A. baumannii infections, it became necessary to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of A. baumannii in Chinese hospitals and find the reasons for the high antibiotic resistance rate and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiologic and genetic characteristics of A. baumannii isolated from patients with hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP), bloodstream infection (BSI) and urinary tract infection (UTI) in China and uncover potential mechanisms for multi-drug resistance and virulence characteristics of A. baumannii isolates. RESULTS: All isolates were classified into two primary clades in core gene-based phylogenetic relationship. Clonal complex 208 (CC208) mainly consisted of ST195 (32 %) and ST208 (24.6 %). CC208 and non-CC208 isolates had carbapenem resistance rates of 96.2 and 9.1 %, respectively. Core genes were enriched in 'Amino acid transport and metabolism', 'Translation', 'Energy production and conversion', 'Transcription', 'Inorganic ion transport and metabolism' and 'Cell wall/membrane/envelope synthesis'. Most isolates possessed virulence factors related to polysaccharide biosynthesis, capsular polysaccharide synthesis and motility. Eleven isolates belong to ST369 or ST191 (oxford scheme) all had the virulence factor cap8E and it had a higher positive rate in UTI (35.3 %) than in BSI (18.9 %) and HAP (12.9 %). ABGRI1 antibiotic resistance islands were responsible for streptomycin, tetracycline and sulfonate resistance. The blaOXA-23 gene was the most probable cause for carbapenem resistance, although the blaOXA-66 gene with nonsynonymous SNPs (F82L, I129L) was not. CONCLUSIONS: A. baumannii is a genomically variable pathogen that has the potential to cause a range of infectious diseases. There is high proportion of carbapenem resistance in isolates from all three infection sites (HAP, BSI and UTI), which can be attributed to the blaOXA-23 gene. CC208 is the predominant clone in blaOXA-23-carrying A. baumannii that should be monitored. Virulence factors involving bacteria motility and polysaccharide biosynthesis which are widespread in clinical A. baumannii strains deserve our attention.

Enhanced bacterial killing with colistin/sulbactam combination against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.

AIMS: Polymyxin-based combination therapy is often used to treat carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) infections. Although sulbactam is intrinsically active against A. baumannii, few studies have investigated colistin/sulbactam combinations against carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii. METHODS: Whole genome sequencing was undertaken on eight carbapenem-resistant (colistin-susceptible) isolates of A. baumannii from Chinese patients. Bacterial killing of colistin and sulbactam, alone and in combination, was examined with checkerboard (all isolates) and static and dynamic time-kill studies (three isolates). In the dynamic studies, antibiotics were administered in various clinically-relevant dosing regimens that mimicked patient pharmacokinetics. RESULTS: The eight isolates consisted of ST195, ST191 and ST208 belonging to clonal complex 208, which is the most epidemic clonal type of A. baumannii globally. All isolates possessed Acinetobacter-derived cephalosporinase (ADC-61 or ADC-78) and seven of eight isolates contained the carbapenem-resistance gene blaOXA-23. The colistin/sulbactam combination was synergistic against two of eight isolates in checkerboard studies. In time-kill studies, rapid bacterial killing of ca. 3-6 log10 CFU/mL was observed with colistin monotherapy, followed by steady regrowth. Sulbactam monotherapy was generally ineffective. Substantially enhanced bacterial killing was observed with colistin/sulbactam combinations in both static and dynamic models, especially with the higher sulbactam concentration (2 g) and/or longer sulbactam infusion time (2 hours) in the dynamic model. CONCLUSIONS: This study was the first to use a pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics model to investigate synergistic activity of colistin/sulbactam combinations against A. baumannii. It showed that clinically-relevant dosing regimens of colistin combined with sulbactam may substantially improve bacterial killing of multidrug-resistant and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii.

Comparative genomic analysis of Chinese human leptospirosis vaccine strain and circulating isolate.

LEPTOSPIRA INTERROGANS: serogroup Canicola is one of the most important pathogens causing leptospirosis and is used as a vaccine strain of the current Chinese human leptospirosis vaccine. To characterize leptospiral pathogens, L. interrogans serogroup Canicola vaccine strain 611 and circulating isolate LJ178 from different hosts at different periods were sequenced using a combined strategy of Illumina X10 and PacBio technologies, and a comprehensive comparative analysis with other published Leptospira strains was conducted in this study. High levels of genomic similarities were observed between vaccine strain 611 and circulating isolate LJ178; both had two circular chromosomes and two circular extrachromosomal replicons. Compared with the strain 611 genome, 132 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 92 indels were found in strain LJ178. The larger lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis locus of serogroup Canicola was identified in both genomes. The phylogenetic analysis based on whole-genome sequences revealed that serogroup Canicola was not restricted to a specific host or geographic location, suggesting adaptive evolution associated with the ecologic diversity. In summary, our findings provide insights into a better molecular understanding of the component strains of human leptospirosis vaccine in China. Furthermore, these data detail the genetic composition and evolutionary relatedness of Leptospira strains that pose a health risk to humans.

Functional analysis of the role of CcpA in Lactobacillus plantarum grown on fructooligosaccharides or glucose: a transcriptomic perspective.

BACKGROUND: The catabolite control protein A (CcpA) is a master regulator of many important cellular processes in Gram-positive bacteria. In Lactobacillus plantarum, CcpA directly or indirectly controls the transcription of a large number of genes that are involved in carbohydrate metabolism, aerobic and anaerobic growth, stress response and metabolite production, but its role in response to different carbon sources remains unclear. RESULTS: Here a combined transcriptomic and physiological approach was used to survey the global alterations that occurred during the logarithmic growth phase of wild-type and ccpA mutant strains of L. plantarum ST-III using fructooligosaccharides (FOS) or glucose as the sole carbon source. The inactivation of ccpA significantly affected the growth and production of metabolites under both carbon sources. About 15% of the total genes were significantly altered between wild-type and ccpA strains grown on glucose and the value is deceased to 12% when these two strains were compared on FOS, while only 7% were obviously changed due to the loss of CcpA when comparing strains grown on glucose and FOS. Although most of the differentially expressed genes mediated by CcpA are glucose dependent, FOS can also induce carbon catabolite repression (CCR) through the CcpA pathway. Moreover, the inactivation of ccpA led to a transformation from homolactic fermentation to mixed fermentation under aerobic conditions. CcpA can control genes directly by binding in the regulatory region of the target genes (mixed fermentation), indirectly through local regulators (fatty acid biosynthesis), or have a double effect via direct and indirect regulation (FOS metabolism). CONCLUSION: Overall, our results show that CcpA plays a central role in response to carbon source and availability of L. plantarum and provide new insights into the complex and extended regulatory network of lactic acid bacteria.

Ambient Lights Influence Perception and Decision-Making.

Today's computers are becoming ever more versatile. They are used in various applications, such as for education, entertainment, and information services. In other words, computers are often required to not only inform users of information but also communicate with them socially. Previous studies explored the design of ambient light displays and suggested that such systems can convey information to people in the periphery of their attention without distracting them from their primary work. However, they mainly focused on using ambient lights to convey certain information. It is still unclear whether and how the lights can influence people's perception and decision-making. To explore this, we performed three experiments using a ping-pong game, Ultimatum game, and Give-Some game, in which we attached an LED strip to the front-bottom of a computer monitor and had it display a set of light expressions. Our evaluation of the results suggested that expressive lights do affect human perception and decision-making. Participants liked and anthropomorphized the computer more when it displayed light animations. Particularly, they perceived the computer as positive and friendlier when it displayed green and low intensity light animation, while red and high intensity light animation was perceived as negative and more hostile. They consequently behaved with more tolerance and cooperation to the computer when it was positive compared with when it was negative. The findings can open up possibilities for the design of ambient light systems for various applications where human-machine interaction is needed.

Gossypium barbadense genome sequence provides insight into the evolution of extra-long staple fiber and specialized metabolites.

Of the two cultivated species of allopolyploid cotton, Gossypium barbadense produces extra-long fibers for the production of superior textiles. We sequenced its genome (AD)2 and performed a comparative analysis. We identified three bursts of retrotransposons from 20 million years ago (Mya) and a genome-wide uneven pseudogenization peak at 11-20 Mya, which likely contributed to genomic divergences. Among the 2,483 genes preferentially expressed in fiber, a cell elongation regulator, PRE1, is strikingly At biased and fiber specific, echoing the A-genome origin of spinnable fiber. The expansion of the PRE members implies a genetic factor that underlies fiber elongation. Mature cotton fiber consists of nearly pure cellulose. G. barbadense and G. hirsutum contain 29 and 30 cellulose synthase (CesA) genes, respectively; whereas most of these genes (>25) are expressed in fiber, genes for secondary cell wall biosynthesis exhibited a delayed and higher degree of up-regulation in G. barbadense compared with G. hirsutum, conferring an extended elongation stage and highly active secondary wall deposition during extra-long fiber development. The rapid diversification of sesquiterpene synthase genes in the gossypol pathway exemplifies the chemical diversity of lineage-specific secondary metabolites. The G. barbadense genome advances our understanding of allopolyploidy, which will help improve cotton fiber quality.