Santiago-Rodriguez et al. [1] report on the putative gut microbiome and resistome of Inca and Italian mummies, and find that Italian mummies exhibit higher bacterial diversity compared to the Inca mummies.[...].

Dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes occurs mostly by conjugation, which mediates DNA transfer between cells in direct contact. Conjugative plasmids of the IncA/C incompatibility group have become a substantial threat due to their broad host-range, the extended spectrum of antimicrobial resistance they confer, their prevalence in enteric bacteria and their very efficient spread by conju...

Antibiotic resistance has grown steadily in Vibrio cholerae over the last few decades to become a major threat in countries affected by cholera. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) spreads among clinical and environmental V. cholerae strains by lateral gene transfer often mediated by integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) of the SXT/R391 family. However, in a few reported but seemingly isolated ca...

This paper presents the design principles, development and implementation of an e-learning framework, called Intelligent Cognitive Agents (InCA). The InCA framework is an ontology driven system articulated according to three interrelated components: (1) a user ontology that covers various characteristics of the user and an inferred behavioral profile (2) a domain ontology, a set of interrelated...

This chapter describes the intelligent network controller assistant (INCA), an innovative system that shows that large-scale, real-time expert systems can be developed as a matter of course, on schedule, and with the same degree of reliability expected of conventional data processing systems. In developing this system, several more detailed innovative aspects were introduced. First, real-time p...

The prevalence and intensity of blood parasites in three species of wild doves were studied in the municipality of Junqueirópolis, in the western region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Three species of doves were surveyed: 331 specimens of Zenaida auriculata Des Murs, 1847, 62 specimens of Columbina talpacoti Temminck, 1811 and 57 specimens of Scardafella squammata Lesson, 1831. Haemoproteus...

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate, intracellular bacterial pathogen that has until more recently remained recalcitrant to genetic manipulation. However, the field still remains hindered by the absence of tools to create selectable, targeted chromosomal mutations. Previous work with mobile group II introns demonstrated that they can be retargeted by altering DNA sequences within the intron's ...

Chlamydia trachomatis replicates in a parasitophorous membrane-bound compartment called an inclusion. The inclusions corrupt host vesicle trafficking networks to avoid the degradative endolysosomal pathway but promote fusion with each other in order to sustain higher bacterial loads in a process known as homotypic fusion. The Chlamydia protein IncA (Inclusion protein A) appears to play central ...

The present study describes the presence of os inca, incomplete metopic suture with asymmetrical frontal sinuses and multiple sutural deformities in a skull bone. Os inca has been reported to be associated with other cranial deformities. However, the present study, besides reporting os inca and associated sutural abnormalities, also highlights the presence of an unusual pterion in such cases. T...

Chlamydia is an obligate intracellular bacterium and, as such, has significantly reduced its genome size and content. Although recent advances have allowed for transformation of C. trachomatis with an exogenous plasmid, genetic manipulation of Chlamydia remains challenging. In particular, the ability to create conditional knockouts has not been developed. This is particularly important given th...