text:
How good is Raheem Sterling?
Kevin De Bruyne's scintillating long-range strike against Borussia Monchengladbach last week was Manchester City's 100th goal of the season and maintained Pep Guardiola's record of his sides reaching a century in each of his 12 seasons in top-flight coaching.
At Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now at Manchester City, Guardiola the tactician is loath to go on the defensive.
However, whenever he feels the quality or worth of one of his players might have been called into question during a news conference, that position is second nature.
"He's an incredibly important player for us," the Catalan snapped back unequivocally when Raheem Sterling's declining output in front of goal was raised this year, two days after he put a penalty against Brighton and Hove Albion into orbit to prolong a lean spell of three goals in 18 games.
"Everything we have done in the past, without him would not have been possible."
Quite simply, that is a whole lot of everything.
Under Guardiola, City have won six major honours. They became the first team to reach the 100-points landmark when lifting the Premier League in 2017-18 and retained the title as part of an unprecedented domestic treble the following season.
A 14-point lead at the top of the table and next month's dates in the EFL Cup final and FA Cup semi-finals mean a clean sweep in England is once again a possibility as Borussia Dortmund await in the last eight of the Champions League.
One of the points of difference this time around is Guardiola's apparently assertion the past couple of weeks that more of the success he craves might be possible with Sterling confined to the margins.
After being defended by his manager in January, Sterling embarked upon a run of six goals in nine games across all competitions, including one in a deeply cathartic 4-1 win over former club Liverpool at Anfield and concluding with an early winner at Arsenal in February.
He has not added to a 13-goal haul in 2020-21 since and after, wasting two glorious late chances in the 2-0 derby defeat to Manchester United, Sterling was an unused substitute for the subsequent 5-2 win over Southampton.
That decision apparently prompted a row denied by both men – "nothing happened" said Guardiola, "FALSE" tweeted Sterling – after the England international was omitted from the travelling squad for a 3-0 win at Fulham.
It means, as Wednesday marks the ninth anniversary of the 26-year-old's top-flight debut, that one of the most impressive Premier League careers of the past decade has encountered some unusual on-field turbulence.
Chasing Shearer and Rooney
Aside from a tempestuous end to his final season at Liverpool as Sterling sought to leave and a patchy start at City as Manuel Pellegrini's tenure spluttered to an end, the winger's trajectory has aimed relentlessly upwards since Kenny Dalglish introduced him as a substitute against Wigan Athletic on March 24, 2012, aged 17 years and 107 days.
He has 144 direct goal involvements in 284 Premier League games, with 95 goals and 49 assists. Ranking all players in Premier League history before their 27th birthdays, this puts Sterling eighth – one place above David Beckham (128 goal involvements).
Wayne Rooney leads the way (215) from Alan Shearer (172), Harry Kane (163), Thierry Henry, Robbie Fowler (both 162), Michael Owen (156) and Romelu Lukaku (148), meaning a few of that esteemed group are within reach for Sterling before he turns 27 on December 8.
Overall, Shearer remains king, his all-time record haul of 260 Premier League goals among 325 goal involvements, ahead of Rooney on 311 (208 goals, 103 assists).
By all accounts, Sterling should be entering his peak years and is fractionally ahead of Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane (92 and 91 respectively) in the race to become the 30th member of the Premier League's 100 goals club.
Along with having the chance to join Rooney and Frank Lampard as the third dual goals and assists centurion in league history, Sterling's overall output means he will get close to Shearer and Rooney's levels if he can maintain it.
All of which makes Sterling's absence from a certain conversation fairly curious.
From #TheHatedOne to Premier League great?
In recent years, Manchester City bade fond farewells to the first batch of superstars that propelled the club's transformation from also-rans to trophy collectors.
When they departed, Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany and David Silva were all acclaimed as being among the very best in their positions to grace the division. Similar talk will accompany Sergio Aguero if, as looks increasingly likely, he leaves the Etihad Stadium when his contract expires in June.
De Bruyne is very much in the midst of his prime years, having joined City in the same 2015 close-season as Sterling, and is already spoken of in such terms.
But the notion of Raheem Sterling: Premier League great? Despite the numbers outlined above, it is a consideration seldom made.
This can be partly attributed to the vitriolic reaction that followed his Liverpool exit, which embedded poisonous and unfair perceptions of an ambitious young footballer.
"It just winds me up and angers me to the pit of my stomach," said Kop favourite Jamie Carragher of Sterling's desire to leave Anfield. John Aldridge declared a then 20-year-old "too young to think for himself", despite middle age seemingly not opening up such a capacity for the former striker.
Carragher, Aldridge and numerous other ex-Reds within the pundit class were speaking passionately in defence of the club they loved, but unfortunately with no regard for the abuse – both insidious and explicit – they helped to normalise.
Sterling was infamously dubbed "footie Idiot Raheem" in a Sun article – still available online, as it happens – following England's Euro 2016 exit against Iceland, where the City player won a penalty in a 2-1 defeat.
Earlier in the tournament, he labelled himself "#TheHatedOne" on social media. The vibrant performer from his Liverpool days began to return on the field under Guardiola, but the attitude from the terraces made it feel like Sterling had a point.
At grounds such as Turf Moor, the Hawthorns and the King Power Stadium, he was booed, despite no obvious rivalry existing between City and their opponents. For many there was grimly familiar discomfort and unease: surely it's not about that, is it?
Then, at Stamford Bridge in December 2018, Sterling was targeted by a group of home supporters, their faces contorted in anger. The incident led Chelsea to banning a fan for life for using "racially abusive language".
The day after the match, Sterling addressed the unequal media coverage given to black and white footballers in a social media post, and what this means to those on the receiving end. He remains a powerful voice in the fight against racism in football and society as a whole.
Sterling's status as a role model and an inspiration played a part alongside his phenomenal performances for treble-winning City as he was named 2018-19 FWA Footballer of the Year.
The surrounding and frequently vile noise accompanying his career in England is not something shared by Sterling's City counterparts. The stand he took after the Chelsea match will remain a defining time in his career and, in terms of performance analysis, it might be seen as the moment where all other noise faded into the background and a rare talent was given his due.
There is, however, another elephant in the room when it comes to assessing Sterling's elite credentials. Or, more accurately, an elephant in the six-yard box.
Floored by missed sitters
The 2019-20 season was the most prolific of Sterling's career as he scored 31 times overall and hit 20 in the Premier League.
Nevertheless, it concluded with him somehow blazing over from four yards with City 2-1 down to Lyon in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The Ligue 1 club soon led 3-1 and City were out – a nadir of the Guardiola era.
For a player who scores so frequently, Sterling's finishing remains maddeningly unreliable at times.
During City's 100-point season, Guardiola hauled him off after an implausible miss at Burnley and a couple of botched clear openings in that April Manchester derby, where City led 2-0 and lost 3-2, were a huge factor in the ultimate bragging rights of claiming a league title with victory over their bitter rivals going begging.
Then, despite contributing tirelessly to the collective effort, Sterling failed to score as England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup. It is impossible to imagine Rooney or Shearer doing likewise in similar circumstances, making that campaign an unhelpful anomaly in any pretentions to greatness.
So, is Sterling's finishing overall as bad as those forgettable moments suggest?
Since his debut, he is the fifth-highest scoring Premier League player on 95, behind Aguero (164), Harry Kane (159), Jamie Vardy (115) and Lukaku (113).
A shot conversion rate of 15.9 per cent tracks below that quartet, with Vardy the most efficient at 22.2 and Lukaku closest to Sterling on 16.7 per cent.
Of the 31 players to have scored 50 or more Premier League goals during that time, Sterling ranks around the middle of the pack, 15th overall in terms of shot conversion – Christian Benteke's tragicomic figure of 8.7 per cent conversion bring up the rear.
In terms of those defined by Opta as 'big chances', Sterling falls into the bottom third of the group in 22nd, having netted 66 and missed 83 over the course of his top-flight career for 44.3 percent.
This is perhaps what you'd expect from a man with a reputation for missing his share of high-profile sitters, but improvements over recent seasons show why he is still able to be on the trajectory of Shearer and Rooney for goal involvements.
The bulk of Sterling's Premier League goals came over the most recent three completed campaigns, with 18 in the 100-point season backed up by 17 to retain the title and 20 last time around – comfortably his three most prolific goalscoring seasons.
Each time, his shot conversion was above 20 per cent, with a high of 22 in 2018-19. The only other time he finished so efficiently was when scoring nine times from 45 attempts during Liverpool's surprise 2013-14 title tilt.
There has been a drop off this time around, with nine goals from 53 attempts amounting to a 17 per cent conversion rate, while he has missed two thirds of the big chances on offer (6/18).
On that metric, he tracked as high as 60 per cent in 2018-19, having registered 53.8 the season before – both success rates to rival any elite forward. Despite the overall strong returns of 2019-20, his big chance conversion rate dipped to 42.4 per cent.
The art of the tap-in merchant
This is another criticism some detractors like to level at Sterling: that he is a "tap-in merchant", who simply gorges on Guardiola's feast of football to pad his stats from close range.
But, as Gary Lineker is often keen to point out with a heavy helping of self-deprecation, if it were that easy then everyone would be doing it.
If the misses outlined above suggest a shortfall in Sterling's technique as a finisher, then his capacity to sniff out chances through intelligent and clinical movements stand as one of his main assets.
Throughout his City career, his shots-per-game average has ranged from between 2.3 to 3.3 when split by season. However, his expected goals (xG) figure per 90 minutes increased significantly in those three most prolific campaigns.
In 2017-18, his xG/90 was 0.56, set against 0.21 for Leroy Sane, City's other first-choice winger that year. Sane and Sterling had near-identical xG/90 scores of 0.28 and 0.27 during the previous season, Guardiola's first at the helm.
Despite averaging slightly more shots per game than Sterling in 2019-20 (3.4 to 3.3), Riyad Mahrez's xG/90 was 0.36 compared to his team-mate's 0.64.
This shows Sterling getting himself into notably better scoring areas, with a greater probability of finding the net, than team-mates playing in the same position. Even considering the fact Mahrez appears to have usurped Sterling in Guardiola's pecking order for now, his xG/90 is still half that of the England man in 2020-21 (0.21 vs 0.42).
If this suggests a notable tenacity and relentlessness around the opposition penalty area, Sterling's dribbling ability and productivity when carrying possession underlines the point.
Guardiola values forwards who can bring an unpredictable element to the possession-dominating foundations of his sides and Sterling certainly excels here, showing himself to be one of the most adept players in the division when it comes to running with the ball and making something happen.
Since joining City in 2015-16, he is ranked fifth (251) in the Premier League for shot involvements after a carry – meaning Sterling has either had a shot himself or set up a team-mate to do so.
As with his output in front of goal, Sterling's figures for carries and progressive carries are down this term, but a return to those levels seems comfortably within reach for a player of his age and ability.
At the risk of just loudly shouting, "KICK IT AT THE GOAL, RAHEEM!", he could also shoot more. An uneven return to the starting XI in Saturday's FA Cup win at Everton yielded four attempts on goal, a couple of them fairly wild.
That was up on his season average of 2.3 attempts per 90 minutes. And, if awful misses from close quarters is one of Sterling's main regrettable habits, taking too many touches and checking inside to be crowded out by defenders is another.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi average above five attempts per match. Obviously, there is a lot more to their majestic careers than just shooting a lot, but their continually handsome hauls show the value of a star forward backing themselves.
It feels like a relatively minor tweak that could take Sterling's game to the next level, when considering all his other demonstrable qualities.
A provocative newspaper interview with Marca last season, where he posed with a Real Madrid shirt, showed a man who thinks he belongs on the A-list and the returns of a nine-year Premier League career back that up. Being only the third player to score 100 goals under Guardiola after Messi and Aguero isn't bad, either.
With everything again possible for City on the other side of the international break, Sterling has the perfect platform to put a tricky couple of weeks behind him and step it up once more.
British and Irish Lions' tour of South Africa set to go ahead as scheduled
The British and Irish Lions' tour of South Africa is set to go ahead as planned later this year after proposals to stage matches elsewhere were rejected.
Due to continued complications surrounding the coronavirus crisis, questions were raised over whether the Lions would be able to travel to South Africa for the eight-match trip.
But rather than host matches in the UK and Ireland, or take up Australia's offer to play games Down Under, it has been decided to press ahead with the original itinerary
The Lions and SA Rugby released a joint statement on Tuesday to confirm an agreement is in place over the staging of the tour, which begins on July 3 and continues into early August.
"After reviewing information relating to the various contingency scenarios being considered, I can confirm that the board's intended position is for the Tour to go ahead as scheduled in South Africa in 2021," said Lions chairman Jason Leonard.
"We acknowledge that there is a significant amount of work still to be undertaken to deliver a robust Covid-19 countermeasure plan to ensure a successful, safe and uninterrupted Tour. SA Rugby will have our full support to help implement this plan."
However, the original plan for the Lions to play five warm-up matches against provincial teams, an invitational side and second-string South Africa A before the three-Test series with the Springboks could still change.
"We appreciate the Lions' faith and share their desire to see a safe and successful tour," said SA Rugby president Mark Alexander in the same statement.
"We have been in regular contact with our government to make that a reality against the backdrop of the pandemic and its predicted progression over the coming months.
"There are serious financial implications for SA Rugby, should the event take place without any supporters in attendance, and we cannot ignore that in our considerations.
"But we are determined that the eventual outcome will deliver the best occasion and experience for players, supporters and our commercial partners."
Speaking earlier on Tuesday, RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney acknowledged the preferred contingency plan of staging the tour in the UK had become increasingly unviable.
"It was always the preferred option to go to South Africa," he said. "We had to develop a whole range of different scenarios given the potential outcomes and one of those was a UK series.
"It's quite controversial as it's not the spirit of the Lions, but as fall-back option, we thought it was a strong one. If they can't host it, the agreement's off and we've probably run out of time to host it in the UK, so you play in 2025."
Lions coach Warren Gatland is due to announce a squad for the tour at the start of May, with the first warm-up match to be played on home soil on Murrayfield against Japan on June 26.
Sweet taste of victory delights Kohli
Virat Kohli hailed "one of our sweetest victories" after India fought hard to overcome England by 66 runs in the opening ODI in Pune.
Man-of-the-match Shikhar Dhawan laid a solid foundation for India with an assured 98, missing out on three figures when he miscued a pull off Ben Stokes to Eoin Morgan at midwicket.
Kohli made a similarly fluent half-century but the hosts had stumbled to 202-5 when debutant Krunal Pandya joined KL Rahul in the 41st over.
Krunal (58 not out) laid waste to an otherwise impressive England bowling performance, his 26-ball fifty the fastest ever in a maiden ODI, while wicketkeeper Rahul similarly impressed with an unbeaten 62 as India posted 317-5.
England threatened to make short work of that total as Jonny Bairstow (94) and Jason Roy (46) motored to 135 without loss inside 15 overs, before India's seamers turned the contest on its head.
Prasidh Krishna, also on debut, was the pick with 4-54, while Shardul Thakur's 3-37 accounted for the dangerous trio of Bairstow, Morgan (22) and Jos Buttler (2), and the excellent Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 2-30.
"That's one of our sweetest victories in the recent past. We haven't won many good games in ODIs," India skipper Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
"It was a great comeback from all our bowlers after going for few runs early on. Prasidh was amazing, Krunal as well. Shardul, Bhuvi were amazing. I am a really proud man right now.
"The team showed great character and intensity. As I've mentioned in the past as well, we promote players who have intent and back their skills.
"A special mention to Shikhar's innings as well and KL was back among the runs. We want to back people who will do a selfless job.
"It's a healthy competition between everyone for every slot. We have two or three players available for every slot."
Perhaps not to quite the same extent, but world champions England have their own enviable depth of talent.
Nevertheless, the steadying hand of Joe Root at number three, where Stokes stepped up to be dismissed for one, and Jofra Archer's death bowling were certainly missed as both players undertake a period of rest.
As in the recent 3-2 reverse in the T20I series, captain Morgan was left to rue middle-order failings, with the plummet form 135-0 to 176-5 key in England's challenge fading to 251 all out with 47 deliveries unused.
Nevertheless, he stood by the aggressive approach that has brought his side so much recent success.
"I thought the bowlers were outstanding and there was a bit more on offer for their seamers," he said.
"The two openers were outstanding, but we failed to build on from that. We need to execute better than we did. India did really well and deserved to win.
"Being able to take the attack to the opposition is something that we pride ourselves on. We want to continue to push the envelope in that regard. It's better for us to lose like this than losing by 20 runs.
"The game is always moving forward, technology and fitness are moving forward, so we need to push hard as we can. It's important for us to dictate the way we play."
England to conduct 'brutally honest' Six Nations review but won't rush decision on Jones future
England will conduct a "brutally honest" internal review of their Six Nations performance but will not rush the decision on the future of Eddie Jones.
The 2019 World Cup finalists finished fifth in this year's Six Nations tournament, losing all three games against Scotland, Wales and Ireland for the first time since 1976.
A spirited victory over France had restored some credibility to the side after a shock 11-6 home defeat to Scotland and a resounding 40-24 loss in Cardiff, but their campaign concluded last weekend with a 32-18 reverse in Dublin.
England conceded 121 points in their five games, more than in any previous Five or Six Nations championship, leaving Jones' position as head coach under serious scrutiny.
Bill Sweeney, CEO of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), accepted there was huge disappointment around their performance and that tough questions must be asked as they attempt to build a squad capable of winning the World Cup in two years' time.
However, he insisted on Tuesday that any possible changes to the team will be given great consideration.
Asked to summarise England's Six Nations campaign, Sweeney replied: "How long have you got?
"It's a tough question. We're all incredibly disappointed. England don't go into a Six Nations to come fifth, which is why we'll have a thorough debrief.
"We had a debrief scheduled for May and we'll probably bring it forward to April. It needs to be a thorough, brutally honest analysis of what went wrong and why.
"Since Japan, our focus is on going and winning a World Cup in France.
"You'd expect us to do an absolute and full debrief. You have to recognise and respect Eddie's achievements since he's been here: three Six Nations championships, a grand slam, a World Cup final - that's a tremendous performance.
"But he wants to understand this as much as anybody and we want to let him talk to us about what happened in the Six Nations and are we on track to where we want to get to in 2023.
"It's really important at this stage to apply good old English calm. We have to react, we won't do nothing, but it's important not to overreact. We won't leave any stone unturned in trying to understand it.
"It's a young squad, it was the youngest ever team in a World Cup final, and yet we're in a period of transition. It's unusual. When you're in transition, you want to make sure you're heading in the right direction.
"I don't think I can honestly answer [if he will be sacked]. He's as disappointed as we are, and we'll do this debriefing session together."
Krunal Pandya enjoys debut to savour as England collapse to defeat
A magnificent and emotional ODI debut from all-rounder Krunal Pandya helped to give India an authoritative 66-run win in the series opener against England.
The tourists twice looked to have taken control of the contest – initially when India squandered the platform laid by Shikhar Dhawan (98) and stumbled to 202-5, before Jonny Bairstow (94) and Jason Roy (46) tore after the eventual target of 317-5 with a 135-run opening stand inside 15 overs.
But Krunal clattered an unbeaten 58 form 31 deliveries, featuring seven fours and two sixes, as he and KL Rahul climbed into some sub-par death bowling from England.
In a curtailed mid-innings interview following his knock, Krunal broke down in tears as he dedicated his format debut to his father, who passed away in January.
Having seen his left-arm spin disappear under Roy and Bairstow's early assault, Krunal returned to claim the important wicket of Sam Curran (12) as England subsided meekly – seamers Prasidh Krishna (4-54), Bhuveneshwar Kumar (2-30) and Shardul Thakur (3-37) doing the bulk of the damage to dismiss Eoin Morgan's side for 251 in 42.1 overs.
Opportunity knocks for England in ODI series with India
Pune will be the venue as England round out their tour to India with a three-match one-day series, starting on Tuesday.
While the Test leg of the trip was won convincingly by the hosts, the two nations played out a high-quality Twenty20 battle that saw India rally from 2-1 down to prevail 3-2 in a decider.
Virat Kohli opened the innings in Saturday's fifth and final T20 fixture, but the India captain has confirmed he will be moving back down the order now the focus switches over quickly to the 50-over format.
"As far as the opening combination is concerned, Shikhar (Dhawan) and Rohit (Sharma) will definitely start. They have been amazing for us in the past few years," Kohli said ahead of the series.
England used only 12 players during the T20 games, a decision taken with the focus on gaining experience in Indian conditions ahead of the World Cup in the same country later this year.
However, white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan revealed the tourists will use the one-day fixtures to take a look at those players who have not featured too much on the trip so far.
"Throughout the one-day series, we will see guys given opportunities, more so than we did in the T20 series," Morgan told the media.
"It's going to be exciting, playing three games at the same ground against a very, very strong India side is a huge opportunity for everybody to go out there and get back into the frame of mind and the pace of 50-over cricket, but also for guys who haven't had an opportunity to really put their case forward.
"Given there is a (T20) World Cup around the corner, playing any international cricket at all is a huge opportunity for guys who have been here, on the fringes, and not made selection so far."
Jofra Archer will not be involved after returning home for treatment on a persistent elbow injury, while Joe Root and Chris Woakes – two key players in the side that secured World Cup glory on home soil in 2019 – are not involved, England choosing to rest and rotate amid a hectic schedule while staying in bio-secure bubbles.
Moeen Ali, Sam Billings and Liam Livingstone provide options to come into a batting order that will see Root missing from his usual position at number three. As for the bowling, leg-spinner Matt Parkinson will hope for a chance to impress, while Reece Topley could be the one to benefit the most from Archer's absence.
Jasprit Bumrah is a notable absentee from an India squad that does include Suryakumar Yadav - an exciting batsman yet to make his ODI debut - and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
Kohli close to matching Tendulkar
Having finished as leading run-scorer in the T20 series, Kohli is one away from equalling the record for most centuries for India in one-day cricket, the great Sachin Tendulkar sitting top of the pile with 20. The India captain is also one three-figure score shy of posting the joint-most hundreds for India in 50-games against England, as he stands on the brink of matching Yuvraj Singh's tally of four.
England aim to keep streak alive
England have put together a run of three successive victories versus India in the one-day format; another triumph in the opener on Tuesday would see them equal their longest winning streak against their opponents in the format (four in a row was achieved in games between 1974 and 1981).
Key series facts
- India are set to face off against England for the first time in an ODI since losing a Cricket World Cup group game by a margin of 31 runs against the eventual champions, back in June 2019.
- The hosts have been involved in only one completed ODI against England at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, beating them by three wickets there in January 2017.
- Both sides have only managed to win 50 per cent of their completed one-day games since the end of the Cricket World Cup. India have recorded seven victories, while their opponents have four wins across the same time period.
- Virat Kohli has registered 30 ODI knocks versus England, with his highest score against them in the format coming in Pune, posting 122 off 105 balls there in January 2017.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed to get Jos Buttler out on three occasions during the T20 series, the most instances of any bowler dismissing a batsman across those five fixtures (conceding just 26 runs).
#INCASEYOUMISSEDIT
Can anyone stop Manchester City?
#INCASEYOUMISSEDIT the 2021 edition with Mariah Ramharack On many a Sunday, I realize that people have looked at the stories they've seen throughout the week with different lenses. I have my own personal take on some of these trending issues and I will share them with you. Welcome to #INCASEYOUMISSEDIT the 2021 edition with Mariah
Barring injury, Manchester City on track for a quadruple.\
Based on current form Manchester City is on course to secure four titles – the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and the Carabao Cup.
The Citizens possess depth, quality and mental fortitude and guided by the tactical genius Pep Guardiola to sweep all that lies before them. In all competitions this season, Man City has won 25 of their last 26 games, their only defeat coming against Manchester United, who beat them 2-0 on March 7.
However, Guardiola will remind his players that there is no room for complacency as they have not won anything, yet. He will also be hoping that his players steer clear of injury during the international break.
Other than their silky smooth passing that break teams down with regularity, Manchester City have been blessed with an unyielding defence, which will be key to their success in the Champions League.
The first task will be overcoming German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals.
In the Premier League, City winning the title looks inevitable as with nine games to go, they hold a healthy 14-point lead over Manchester United who has 57 points.
The Manchester-based juggernauts have also sealed a place in the FA semi-finals following their recent 2-0 win over Everton. They are also set to face the inconsistent Tottenham Hot Sput in the Carabao Cup.
After a difficult start to the season, Manchester City has hit top form at the right time and as their genius coach explained, the secret to success is simple.
"It is not just tactics, it's mental-being ready every game," he said.
India showed its quality against England in the T20I series
India and England were locked at 2-2 heading into Sunday's final T20I match of their closely fought series and the final match was no different.
However, India showed their tremendous quality and class in securing a victory that was not as close as the scores suggested.
Sent to bat, India posted 224-2 in their 20 overs. It was a total that overwhelmed England, who fell short scoring 188-8 in 20 overs.
Opening the innings with Rohit Sharma, skipper Virat Kohli led from the front and was there at the end, scoring an unbeaten 80 not out from 52 balls, which prompted commentator Ian Bishop to tweet, "I would love to see Kohli open more often, especially when India bat first in T20I."
The Indian captain and Sharma and Kohli mounted a 94-run partnership that laid the foundation for India's mammoth score.
Sharma went on the attack early smashing 64 from 34 balls while Kohli supported from the other end.
Suryakumar Yadav's 32 from 17 and Hardik Pandya's unbeaten 39 not out ensured that India never lost momentum while Kohli played the perfect anchor taking over at the end to push India well beyond 200 runs.
It was then the turn of their bowlers to defend the total on an excellent batting strip and they duly obliged. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the difference maker taking 2-15 in his four overs. Shardul Thakur took 3-45 as England struggled to stay close to the required run rate.
"It was a complete game for us. We totally outplayed the opposition," said Kohli afterwards. "The fact Rishabh and Shreyas didn't get the chance to bat and still got close 230, is testament to how we did with the bat."
Rashford set to join up with England despite foot injury, Solskjaer confirms
Marcus Rashford will likely link up with the England squad next week despite a foot injury keeping him out of the FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.
The forward was hurt during Manchester United's 1-0 win over Milan in the Europa League last-16 second leg at San Siro on Thursday.
Rashford struggled to walk on Saturday and United manager Solskjaer confirmed scans showed he has sustained damage, meaning he was unavailable for the clash with Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.
Anthony Martial returned from a hip injury to take Rashford's place in attack, while Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beek were also recalled to the starting line-up after only recently regaining full fitness.
Solskjaer said Rashford was never likely to feature against Leicester, but he will not stop the 23-year-old from joining up with Gareth Southgate's Three Lions squad for this month's World Cup qualifiers.
"No, he wasn't close [to playing]," Solskjaer told BBC Sport. "We took him off [against Milan] and he thought he'd be ready but, yesterday, he had no chance of walking on his foot.
"The scans show there's an injury there but, of course, we've got players coming back – Anthony and Donny are back in, so there are positives as well.
"The doctor will speak to the English [national team] but I think he'll travel and report [for international duty]. Maybe he'll be fit for them."
England face San Marino next Thursday before further matches against Albania on March 28 and Poland on March 31.
ICC ODI Championship
Archer elbow misery as England name ODI squad for India series
England paceman Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the ODI series against India due to a worsening elbow injury.
After a 3-1 Test series defeat and a 3-2 setback in their T20I clashes with India, world champions England will look to end their tour on a high in three ODIs to be played in Pune over the next week.
Archer will be flying back home for checks on his injury, however, and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said he must also miss the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
That deals a blow to Rajasthan Royals ahead of the tournament that begins on April 9, with Archer having impressed against India in the T20 games.
The ECB said on Sunday: "Jofra Archer is returning to the UK for further management and investigation of his right elbow injury.
"Archer's elbow issue has deteriorated over the course of the Twenty20 International series and made it increasingly challenging for him to maintain performance levels. He has been deemed unfit for selection for the ODI series that features matches on 23, 26 and 28 March.
"The ECB medical team will assess the player and, together with Jofra, develop a treatment plan and a return-to-play schedule in due course. As a consequence, Jofra will miss the start of this year's Indian Premier League."
England's ODI squad, aside from the obvious loss of Archer, is comprised of players selected for the T20 series and the reserves for those games.
England squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood.
Also travelling with the squad: Jake Ball, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan.
Bellingham reveals racist abuse as Dortmund and England condemn racism
Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham revealed he received racist abuse on social media as the Bundesliga club and England showed their support.
Bellingham was the subject of abuse following Dortmund's 2-2 draw with Cologne in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
The 17-year-old England midfielder shared a screen grab of racist emojis that were sent to him via Instagram, with the caption: "Just another day on social media…"
Dortmund condemned racism post-match, tweeting: "We stand with you @BellinghamJude. Racism belongs nowhere #BorussiaVerbindet."
England also showed their support on Twitter, adding: "We continue to be disgusted by the discriminatory abuse our players - and others across the game - are being subjected to online.
"Something needs to change. We stand with you, @BellinghamJude."
Bellingham has score one goal in 35 appearances in all competitions for Dortmund after arriving from Birmingham City at the start of the season.
Dortmund are fifth in the standings, four points adrift of the top four and 18 points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
Bellingham and Dortmund are set to face Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Six Nations 2021: Ireland set the standard with Six Nations win over England - Sexton
Ireland set the standard for future performances in wrapping up their Six Nations campaign with a 32-18 win over England, according to captain Johnny Sexton.
First-half tries from Keith Earls and Jack Conan - along with 22 points from the boot of Sexton - helped Andy Farrell's side claim a convincing victory in Dublin.
Ireland's place in the standings will only be decided when France meet Scotland in the tournament's final fixture next week.
But, whether he and his team-mates are leapfrogged in second place or not, Sexton had one major positive to take from the 2021 Six Nations.
He told ITV: "It was brilliant. We felt like we weren't far away all through the championship and it kind of clicked in some things.
"There's still lots of stuff we can improve on and get better, but that was the performance we wanted against a top-quality side.
"[England are] one of the best sides in the world, who we have massive respect for - their players, their coaches, everyone - so that's the standard we've set now and hopefully we can keep backing it up and become more consistent.
"I said to the boys last night that the only worry we should have is about backing up today and we put in a performance that will make us think twice about some of the standards that we set in that game."
England added an arguably undeserved hint of respectability to the scoreline as they ran in late tries through Ben Youngs and Jonny May following Bundee Aki's dismissal just past the hour mark.
Sexton believes that sort of indiscipline had hampered Ireland throughout the tournament, and called for it to be eradicated.
He added: "We still felt we should have stopped the try - a missed tackle - but we showed great guts throughout the tournament.
"Sometimes when you don't take your chances, your performances are made out to be worse than they actually are.
"The first game, we go down to 14, and indiscipline is still an issue at times. And against France, small margins, all these games.
"Both of these teams could have been going for a championship today or a Grand Slam so they are the margins we have to make up next time we come together."
England put their points on the board through two Owen Farrell penalties - the second of which brought up his 500th Six Nations point - early in the first half and that late flurry of tries.
That left flanker Tom Curry rueing a failure to compete with Ireland in the "middle section" of the game.
"I'm obviously very disappointed. It's pretty gutting," he said.
"We knew it was going to be a really physical encounter. The past three times we have played them it has been all about physicality and today was no different.
"A bit of discipline cost us here and there. In the last 20 we showed a bit more of a glimpse of what we're about.
"It was that middle section where we need to back it up and we probably didn't do that today."
Six Nations 2021: Ireland 32-18 England
Johnny Sexton scored 22 points as 14-man Ireland saw off England 32-18 at the Aviva Stadium to end their Six Nations campaign on a high.
Both sides were out of contention to win the competition heading into the final round of fixtures, but it was Ireland who claimed a third win in a row thanks to first-half tries from Keith Earls and Jack Conan.
England were given an opportunity to launch a comeback 17 minutes from time when 26-6 behind, as Bundee Aki was dismissed for a high tackle on Billy Vunipola.
Yet despite Ben Youngs crossing over almost instantly, plus Jonny May adding a late second after Conor Murray was sin-binned, Ireland comfortably saw things through to earn a first win over England in five Tests.
England were forced into a late back-line rejig as Ollie Lawrence replaced the injured Max Malins, but they settled quickly and took the lead through an early Owen Farrell penalty.
Sexton slotted over three points to level things up, with the home side ahead four minutes later thanks to Earls' impressive score.
Conan outjumped Tom Curry at a lineout and popped the ball to Earls, who found a gap and jinked his way past a couple of opponents for his second try of the tournament.
It was the seventh Test running where England had conceded the first try and, while Farrell did reply with another penalty, Sexton restored Ireland's seven-point lead with one of his own.
Andy Farrell's side then tightened their grip on the contest before half-time, the recalled Conan applying the finish to a patient move.
England were given a lifeline when Earls had a try ruled out for Cian Healy's knock-on in the build-up, though Sexton split the sticks following an earlier infringement.
The fly-half nailed another kick with an hour played but, just when it looked to be plain sailing for Ireland, referee Mathieu Raynal deemed Aki's challenge on Vunipola to be worthy of dismissal.
Youngs charged over when played in by Jamie George to potentially set up a tense finale, only for the impressive Sexton to keep the hosts comfortably clear with two more penalties.
May went outside his man to restore some pride for England in the final stages, at which point Ireland were down to 13 men after Murray was shown a yellow card, but there was to be no late twist.
Tuchel tells Abraham and Gilmour to keep pushing for Chelsea chances
Thomas Tuchel has no concerns over the application or attitude of Tammy Abraham and Billy Gilmour, but he understands their frustration at a lack of game time.
Abraham has not featured for Chelsea since February 20, while Gilmour has made just one appearance, in an FA Cup tie against Barnsley last month, under Tuchel.
With Euro 2020 coming up at the end of the season, both players missed out on their respective national squads for the upcoming March internationals.
Tuchel knows this could be of concern but insisted that he was at fault in Abraham's case, rather than the striker, who has scored six league goals this season.
"He's had a bit of a tough time," Tuchel said of Abraham in a news conference previewing Sunday's FA Cup clash with Sheffield United.
"He suffers a little bit also from me not finding the real formation up front. Like, 'Okay, let's play always like this, this is your position, these are the guys you compete against, try to compete against A, B and C and therefore you can go'.
"It's a bit more complex because I need to get to know the team better. We have Timo [Werner] who can play as a number nine, we have Olivier [Giroud] and Kai [Havertz], so he suffers a little bit from all these circumstances.
"It's not his fault, it is also maybe more my fault than his fault. We have some talks now to encourage him never to give in, to accept the situation and to not overthink it and to just come back to the momentum in training and to stay positive.
"The team is winning now without him, he could feel a bit excluded, but it is not like this with him so hopefully he can be back now in the squad, be totally free. There are some hard choices, there's still a long way to go and he's part of it."
Across all competitions, Abraham averages a goal every 127 minutes, while he boasts an admirable big chance conversion rate of 62.5 per cent (10/16).
All 12 of Abraham's goals this season have come from inside the box, and his shooting accuracy stands at 51.22 per cent – excluding blocked efforts.
Asked if England international Abraham had voiced any concern over his participation in the Euros, Tuchel replied: "We have not talked about this. I feel more concerned about his role in our team.
"He clearly knows a role in our team improves the chances for him to have a role in the English national team, for sure.
"We did not talk about it, but it would not surprise me if it's in his head. This is totally normal that the players have their own interests to have a role in their team but also for their country.
"I hope that he's not too harsh on himself and does not overthink it. What is important is the situation in the club and he has every chance to find his way back."
In Gilmour's case, Tuchel stressed the Scottish youngster's limited opportunity has been merely down to the quality of Chelsea's midfield options.
"He has three big problems – N'Golo Kante, Kovacic and Jorginho," Tuchel said.
"They are never injured and perform on a level in central midfield, it is not easy to compete with them. This is the only thing. I have no trust issue with him, I have no problem with his attitude."
WC Qualifying
Musiala, Wirtz get first Germany call-ups, still no place for Muller, Hummels
Teenagers Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz have been called up to Germany's senior squad for the first time, but there is still no place for Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels or Jerome Boateng.
Musiala, 18, pledged his allegiance to Germany last month having previously represented England at every level from Under-15 to Under-21.
The versatile attacker played in the Chelsea academy from 2011 until 2019 before opting to move back to Germany, where the Stuttgart-born youngster has since made quite the impression at Bayern Munich.
He has made 18 Bundesliga appearances this term – only four players who are younger than him (18 years, 21 days) have played in more matches across the top five European leagues this term.
One of those is Wirtz, who has shown immense promise at Bayer Leverkusen since making his debut shortly after his 17th birthday in May last year.
With four goals and as many assists in 21 Bundesliga games, Wirtz – a technically gifted attacking midfielder – is one of only two players under the age of 20 (along with Arnaud Kalimuendo) across the top European leagues to be involved in eight league goals.
Similarly, across those same leagues, Adil Aouchiche (46) is the only individual yet to turn 20 with more key passes than Wirtz's tally of 37.
Joachim Low, who earlier this month confirmed he will leave his post later this year, is urging both players to relax despite the added pressures that come with international recognition.
"We are excited to get to know Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz even better," he told the German Football Association (DFB). "They earned the nomination with their recent good performances.
"But especially with such young players, our responsibility is to be careful with them and lead them step by step to the highest level.
"Both have huge potential, and I am sure that we will have a lot of fun with them in the next few years, but at the moment it is important not to rush into anything, they should take it easy and develop carefree. I think the next few days will be a good experience for Jamal and Florian."
Amin Younes, who has been impressing with Eintracht Frankfurt this term, has earned his first call-up since October 2017, while Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Emre Can, Lukas Klostermann and Kai Havertz all return after missing the November internationals, which included a 6-0 humiliation by Spain.
However, there is still no recall for Bayern duo Muller and Boateng, nor Borussia Dortmund centre-back Hummels.
All three World Cup winners were cast aside by Low in March last year as he looked to refresh the squad in the wake of the 2018 World Cup failure.
Earlier this month, Low did not rule out potentially bringing them back into the fold given their solid form at club level, yet he has ignored them again on this occasion as Germany begin their World Cup qualification campaign with games against Iceland, Romania and North Macedonia.
Six Nations 2021: The Breakdown – Wales on for clean sweep as England's Farrell nears milestone
Wales need a victory against France in Paris to reclaim the Six Nations crown, and complete a Grand Slam in the process.
Wayne Pivac's team have enjoyed a sensational turnaround in fortunes this year and last week's 48-7 thrashing of lowly Italy made it four wins from four.
With France subsequently losing to England at Twickenham, Wales will wrap up the title with a win on Saturday, while even a losing bonus point could be enough, though that may still leave the door open for Les Bleus to snatch glory should they win their postponed fixture against Scotland.
England are well out of the race, but their captain Owen Farrell is eyeing up a points landmark when the 2020 champions take on Ireland in Dublin.
Scotland, meanwhile, round off what will ultimately go down as a frustrating campaign against Italy.
We use Opta data to preview the round-five, Super Saturday encounters.
SCOTLAND V ITALY
Scotland have won their last five Six Nations games against Italy – the previous 10 clashes between the sides had seen them share five wins each.
Italy have lost 52 of 54 away games in the Six Nations, with their only two victories on the road coming in Scotland in 2007 and 2015.
That victory at Murrayfield in 2015 was Italy's last in the competition. Their losing streak now stands at 31 games, and they will pick up the wooden spoon for the 16th time in Six Nations history.
Scotland have the best tackle success rate (92 per cent) of any side in this year's competition. Hamish Watson leads the way in that regard, completing all 44 of his attempted tackles – he has made 133 consecutive tackles in the tournament without missing one, the second-longest such run in Six Nations history, behind Lionel Nallet's 154 for France.
Italy's Sebastian Negri has made 127 post-contact metres in the 2021 Six Nations, the most of any forward in the championship.
IRELAND V ENGLAND
England have won their last two meetings with Ireland in the Six Nations and could win three in a row against them for only the second time, after doing so between 2012 and 2014.
Ireland lost to France in their last home game, only once before have they suffered defeat in back-to-back home games in the Six Nations – in 2010 versus Scotland at Croke Park and 2011 versus France at the Aviva Stadium.
Jones' England have won their last four Tests against Ireland, preventing them from scoring any first-half points in their last two meetings and scoring an average of 4.3 tries per game in that run.
CJ Stander announced his retirement this week, with the 31-year-old set to hang up his boots at the end of the season. This will be his final appearance for Ireland, having won his 50th cap in the 27-24 win over Scotland in round four.
Owen Farrell, son of Ireland coach Andy, is the top scorer in the Six Nations this year (44) and is just six points away from 500 in the championship. Only Ronan O'Gara (557) has reached that milestone exclusively in the Six Nations (since 2000).
FRANCE V WALES
Wales are bidding to win a sixth Six Nations title (since 2000), only England (seven) have won the championship more often. If they win this match it would be their fifth
Grand Slam – no other side has more than three.
Recent history is on Wales' side heading to the Stade de France. They have won three of their last four away games against Les Bleus in the Six Nations (L1), triumphing in their last trip to Paris (24-19 in 2019) despite trailing by 16 points at half-time – the biggest comeback for a team in the competition.
Indeed, pre-tournament favourites France have won only two of their last nine Six Nations games against Wales (L7) after winning nine of the previous 12 (L3).
Antoine Dupont already has four try assists in this Six Nations, only five players have ever recorded more in an edition of the championship, with Frederic Michalak
(seven in 2006) the only Frenchman to do so.
Louis Rees-Zammit is the joint top try scorer in the 2021 Six Nations (four, level with England's Anthony Watson). Shane Williams (six in 2008) is the only Welsh player to score more than four in an edition of the tournament.


acct# 517604261529****. By the way that's a made up acct number just showing example. I was wondering how do I go about getting the complete number? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
you won't get the full number from your report.
why do you need the full number anyway?
If you are disputing the account with the CRA, you use the account number EXACTLY as it is listed on your hard copy credit report [including asterisks***]. The full account number is not needed for this purpose.
The creditor should be able to locate your account by ssn and other personal identifying information if you are only able to provide them the partial account number.
There's a military forum, you may also be able to get some useful advice over there based on others experience with your particular situation.


If your family enjoys game nights, you will want to add these three games to your stash. They are geared more for the older siblings which is perfect for us since ours are all getting married and still want to get together. Make sure to enter to win this set of games for your family game night. Good luck!


The recycling of the organic matter is a crucial function in any environment, especially in oligotrophic environments such as Acid Mine Drainages (AMDs). Polymer-degrading bacteria might play an important role in such ecosystem, at least by releasing by-products useful for the rest of the community. In this study, physiological, molecular and biochemical experiments were performed to decipher the role of a Paenibacillus strain isolated from the sediment of Carnoulès AMD.
Even though Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 was isolated from an oligotrophic AMD showing an acidic pH, it developed under both acidic and alkaline conditions and showed a heterotrophic metabolism based on the utilization of a broad range of organic compounds. It resisted to numerous metallic stresses, particularly high arsenite (As(III)) concentrations (> 1,800 mg/L). Q8 was also able to efficiently degrade polymers such as cellulose, xylan and starch. Function-based screening of a Q8 DNA-library allowed the detection of 15 clones with starch-degrading activity and 3 clones with xylan-degrading activity. One clone positive for starch degradation carried a single gene encoding a "protein of unknown function". Amylolytic and xylanolytic activities were measured both in growing cells and with acellular extracts of Q8. The results showed the ability of Q8 to degrade both polymers under a broad pH range and high As(III) and As(V) concentrations. Activity measurements allowed to point out the constitutive expression of the amylase genes and the mainly inducible expression of the xylanase genes. PACE demonstrated the endo-acting activity of the amylases and the exo-acting activity of the xylanases.
AMDs have been studied for years especially with regard to interactions between bacteria and the inorganic compartment hosting them. To date, no study reported the role of microorganisms in the recycling of the organic matter. The present work suggests that the strain Q8 might play an important role in the community by recycling the scarce organic matter (cellulose, hemicellulose, starch...), especially when the conditions change. Furthermore, function-based screening of a Q8 DNA library allowed to assign an amylolytic function to a gene previously unknown. AMDs could be considered as a reservoir of genes with potential biotechnological properties.
Ecosystems are complex systems driven by two major forces: a biotic community and abiotic conditions. The two forces interact with each other in a dependent manner. Physicochemical characteristics condition both the presence and relative abundance of each species, whereas the community modifies and adapts its surrounding environment to survive and grow. In these complex ecosystems, bacteria play key roles as they are able to efficiently change the environment, at the local scale (μm scale) as well as at much larger scales (earth scale). For example, Cyanobacteria are responsible for the major event that transformed the biogeochemistry of the earth about 3 billion years ago that is oxygen-evolving photosynthesis [1, 2]. Many studies highlighted the role of bacteria in the transformation of the abiotic conditions, such as anaerobic ammonium oxidation , oxidation of arsenite and/or iron followed by a co-precipitation of these inorganic elements , or degradation of pollutants such as naphtalene . All these processes are catalysed by bacteria but the corresponding activities are driven by their environment.
Polymers degradation by bacteria is also driven by the in situ conditions. Recently, it has been shown that cellulose degradation in peat extracts (pH 4.0) was significantly enhanced by adding nitrogen . Furthermore, hydrolysis of polymers is of great interest for industries as it can be used in a wide range of applications, from paper industries to biofuel production . For these reasons and because of the development of metagenomic approaches, many studies focused on the screening for new polymer-degrading enzymes [8–10]. Therefore, function-based screening of a DNA library allowed the discovery of various enzymes such as amylases, cellulases and lipases. Furthermore, function-based screening allows the detection of genes, without a priori and could therefore lead to the discovery of completely new sequences.
The Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) of Carnoulès (France) is an extreme environment characterized by very acidic conditions (pH 2.7-3.4) and heavy arsenic and iron contaminations in the water (up to 350 mg/L and 2,700 mg/L respectively) . This oligotrophic environment is however not devoid of life as bacterial communities are active in situ . In AMDs, many studies focused on the role of both cultured and uncultured bacteria in the transformation of inorganic compounds such as the oxidation of iron or arsenic, their resistance to metals and their ability to grow at low pH [4, 11, 13–16]. However, to our knowledge and despite its importance in any ecosystem, no study reported the role of bacteria in the recycling of organic matter in such oligotrophic environments.
In this study, a strain belonging to the genus Paenibacillus was isolated. As Paenibacillus species are known for the number of secreted enzymes [17–20] and because they were never described in AMDs, physiological, biochemical and molecular biology experiments were implemented to decipher the role of the strain Q8 in this extreme environment. Polymer-degrading activities of this bacterium were focused, both in homologous and heterologous conditions showing that even if this bacterium was isolated from a very acidic environment, this strain was still alive and active at neutral and alkaline conditions as Q8 was also able to degrade carboxymethylcellulose, hemicellulose (xylan) and starch in these conditions. A functional screening of a Q8 DNA-library in Escherichia coli allowed the detection of 15 clones positive for starch degradation and 3 for xylan degradation. Interestingly, the amino acids sequence of one starch-degrading enzyme was not identified in silico as an amylase, and corresponded to a "protein of unknown function". By its polymer-degrading activities, this strain may be important in the community function at least by providing easily degradable by-products to the rest of the community, contributing therefore to the functional redundancy.
Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 was isolated from the soft unstable layer corresponding to the 1-2 cm of particles sedimenting on the bottom of the water stream. The samples were collected directly below the running water of Carnoulès characterized by very acidic conditions (pH 3.2) and by heavy metals and arsenic contamination (Table 1). In order to test whether this strain has adapted to the extreme conditions found in situ, its growth rate in LB medium under a broad range of pH i.e. from 3 to 10 was measured. Q8 was able of rapid growth under a broad range of pH, from 6 to 8 without significant variation in the generation time (≈140 min-1) (Figure 1). Moreover, the strain was able to grow under both acidic (pH 5) and alkaline (pH 9) conditions with a generation time only slightly higher (e.g. ≈175 min-1 at pH 9). Additionally, no growth occurred for Q8 at pH 10 (data not shown). According to our data, Q8 is not a true acidophilic bacterium, as its growth was completely inhibited at pH below 5 (data not shown).
ND = Not Determined. *No speciation for chromium was undertaken. Observations were done after 72 hours incubation in LB medium supplemented with the corresponding metal.
Growth rate of Paenibacillus Q8 in LB medium at different pH. Blue lozenges represent the generation time of Q8. Growth experiments were done at least in quadruplicate in LB medium at 30°C. As no growth occurred under pH 5 and above pH 9, the corresponding generation times are not reported in the figure.
To further decipher the adaptation of Q8 to the in situ conditions, its resistance for various metals at different concentrations was tested. As shown in Table 1, this strain was able to grow under high metal stresses. For instance, Q8 was still able to grow at the concentration of 1800 mg/L of As(III), which is by far much higher than the in situ As(III) concentration of Carnoulès water at the Q8 sampling date (161.4 mg/L). In addition to metal resistance, Q8 was tested for its capability to resist to various antimicrobial agents. On solid media, the strain was resistant to chloramphenicol, gentamycin, kanamycin, streptomycin, spectinomycin and trimethoprim and not to ampicillin, nalidixic acid, rifampicin and tetracycline. All these results further pointed out its resistance to various stresses and its high adaptation capabilities.
The catabolic capabilities of Q8 were tested and this showed that this bacterium used a broad range of organic compounds, including sugars monomers (glucose, fructose, lactose...) as well as various polymers, such as pectin, starch and glycogen (Additional file 1). The Q8 ability to degrade polymers has then been tested on LB plates supplemented by cellulose (in its soluble form Carboxymethylcellulose CMC), hemicellulose (in the form of its major compound i.e. xylan) and starch. This screening allowed to confirm the starch-degrading activity already detected with API 50 CH. Moreover, Q8 was shown to degrade CMC and xylan after 24 hours incubation, thus demonstrating two more polymer-degrading activities (data not shown).
To characterize the genes involved in the degradation of the different polymers, a DNA library in the pcDNA2.1 vector was constructed and screened for cellulose (CMC), hemicellulose (xylan) and starch degradation capabilities. The size of the fragments was 1-5 kb in average. Among the 6700 clones screened for the 3 activities, 15 displayed hydrolytic activity on LB plates supplemented with 1% soluble starch that represented 0.22% of the total number of clones. Three (0.045%) were positive on LB plates supplemented with 0.2% xylan (data not shown). No positive clone was obtained on LB plates supplemented with 0.2% CMC for the degradation of cellulose.
Two clones positive for starch degradation (BB9 and KF4) and one for xylan degradation (GαC5) were randomly chosen and the corresponding inserts were sequenced. The sequences were analyzed using the ORF Finder program from the NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gorf/) and the corresponding ORFs were investigated with the NCBI-nr BLAST program.
Clone BB9 (2,152 bp), which was positive for the degradation of starch, carries a single ORF (1,614 bp) with 84% and 93% sequence identity at the nucleotidic (X60779) and proteic (CAA43194) level respectively, with the α-amylase gene amyE from Bacillus circulans.
Clone KF4 (1,635 bp) carries only one complete ORF (900 bp) whereas the two other possible ones were only 309 and 291 bp in length, and were therefore discarded. The 900 bp ORF encoded a hypothetical 299-aminoacids protein with unknown function, only partly related to a putative uncharacterized protein of Paenibacillus polymyxa (42% identity with YP 003869263, the first hit found by BLASTp search). The protein sequence was analyzed using the BLAST search at the Uniprot website (http://www.uniprot.org) and putative domains were searched using the prosite (http://prosite.expasy.org/) and InterProScan. Interestingly, this ORF showed no conserved hydrolytic domain, and did not share any sequence homology with proteins belonging to the different glycoside hydrolase (GH-) families.
Lastly, an ORF found in the clone GαC5 (867 bp, 288 aa) shared 76% nucleotidic identity (at a query coverage of 93%) with a predicted glycosidase of Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 (CP000154) and 80% at the proteic level (query coverage 95%) with a glycosidase-like protein of Paenibacillus polymyxa SC2 (YP003949339). This ORF presented domains that allowed the classification of the corresponding protein in the glycosyl hydrolase families GH43, 62, 32 and 68. The family GH-43 includes proteins known to degrade xylan (EC 3.2.1.8) (http://www.cazy.org).
In order to characterize the global starch- and xylan-degrading activities of Q8, polymer degradation experiments were performed, both with whole cells and with crude extracts of Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8.
After 34 hours incubation on LB plates supplemented with either starch or xylan, degradation halos were measured at different pH and arsenic (either arsenite As(III) or arsenate As(V)) concentrations. Q8 was able to efficiently degrade both polymers at pH 5-9 (Figure 2A). Furthermore, despite the absence of visible growth in liquid medium below pH 5 and above pH 9 during the course of experiments, Q8 was able to degrade both polymers at pH 4 and 10, and xylan at pH 3, albeit at lower efficiency (e.g. more than five fold decrease for xylanolytic activity at pH 3 as compared to pH 5-8). An increase of the As(V) concentration up to 1,000 mg/L had no effect on the polymer-degrading activities of Q8 (Figure 2B). These results confirmed also the resistance of Q8 to high As(V) concentration. In contrast, although Q8 was able to grow at 1,000 mg/L As(III) (Table 1), such concentration inhibited completely the xylanolytic activity of the strain (Figure 2C). Thus, the presence of As(III) seems to have a much higher impact on the xylan-degrading activity than on the starch-degrading activity.
Polymer degradation activities of Paenibacillus Q8 on Petri plates as a function of different stresses. 2A: as a function of pH, 2B: as a function of As(V) concentration and 2 C: as a function of As(III) concentration. Activities were measured on LB plates supplemented with either 0.2% xylan or 1% starch and read after 34 h incubation. In red: xylan degradation. In blue, starch degradation.
To further decipher the polymer-degrading activity, in vitro experiments with the crude extracts of Q8 grown in liquid LB medium, supplemented or not with either xylan or starch, were performed. Starch degradation was monitored by the measurement of the glucose formed after the incubation of the crude extracts with starch. For xylan degradation, reaction was monitored by the measurement of reducing sugars. Lastly, in vitro activity was measured both at pH 7 (pH of the LB medium) and at pH 3 (close to the pH measured in situ). When using starch as substrate for the crude extracts obtained for Q8 grown on LB and in LB-starch, a low activity was detected at pH 7 (5.21 +/-0.44 and 1.13 +/-0.36 nmol/h.mg of protein, respectively, Figure 3). These activities were globally within the same order of magnitude, indicating that a large part of these enzymes are probably expressed constitutively. Polysaccharide Analysis using Carbohydrate gel Electrophoresis (PACE) experiments confirmed the in vitro activity of the crude extracts. Indeed, bands comigrating with glucose were clearly observed at the bottom of the gel (Figure 3) for both starch-induced and non-induced cells. Furthermore, numerous other bands corresponding to glucose oligosaccharides were also formed. It should be noticed that the intensity of the glucose band is not particularly higher than the intensities of oligomers. This means that the crude extract contained mainly endo-acting amylases. Lastly, no starch-degrading activity was measured at pH 3 for the two crude extracts (data not shown). This is in good accordance with the results obtained on solid media (Figure 1A).
Analysis of the products formed by Paenibacillus Q8 crude extracts with starch as substrate. Lane 1: the standards cellotetraose, cellotriose and glucose (from top to bottom), lane 2: untreated starch, lane 3: substrate digested with the crude extract following the growth of the bacteria on LB and lane 4: substrate digested with the crude extract following the growth of the bacteria on LB-Starch.
High xylanase activity (2.09 +/-0.27 μmol/h.mg of protein) was detected when the cells were grown in the presence of xylan (Figure 4). In contrast, only a low activity (0.06 +/-0.02 μmol/h.mg of protein) was measured without induction of the cells with xylan, indicating that the xylan-degrading activity was mainly inducible. PACE experiments confirmed this hypothesis and showed that after induction with xylan, the bacteria produced enzymes able to yield an huge band of xylose and also small oligomers of xylose in much smaller quantities. This demonstrates that both endo-and exo-degrading activities were present with prevalence for the latter one. As for starch, no xylan-degrading activity was measured at pH 3.
Analysis of the product formed by Paenibacillus Q8 crude extracts with xylan as substrate. Lane 1: the standards xylotetraose, xylotriose, xylobiose and xylose (from top to bottom), lanes 2: untreated xylan, lane 3: substrate digested with the crude extract following the growth of the bacteria on LB and lane 4: substrate digested with the crude extract following the growth of the bacteria on LB-Xylan.
Bacteria belonging to the genus Paenibacillus are widespread in various terrestrial environments. This genus is also known for its important enzymatic arsenal . As such, those bacteria are able to interact with their surrounding environment and to transform it. This strategy has an important impact, both for Paenibacillus bacteria and for the microbial community as a whole. However, despite its presence and activity in various soils, this genus had never been detected in extreme environments such as AMDs, neither by culture-dependent nor -independent approaches before the isolation of Q8. To our knowledge, only a very recent work hypothesized the occurrence of a Paenibacillus macerans strain in AMDs . In this last study, the use of GeoChip permitted to detect the presence of functional genes and a nifH gene close to the one of Paenibacillus macerans. However, this last bacterium was not detected per se, neither by culture nor by using a 16S rDNA library.
Q8 was isolated from the sediment of the Carnoulès AMD, characterized by very acidic (2.7-3.5) conditions and by heavy metals and arsenic contamination . In order to decipher its role(s) in the community, the growth of the bacterium was tested under various pH conditions and in presence of metals or antibiotics. Although originated from an acidic environment, Q8 was able to grow under both acidic (pH 5) and alkaline (pH 9) conditions (Figure 1). It is noteworthy that under the tested conditions (LB medium at 30°C), the strain was unable to grow at pH below 5. This observation can be linked to the fact that moderate acidophilic bacteria have previously been isolated from AMDs . Alternatively, the ability of Q8 to grow at alkaline pH but not at very acidic pH may be related to the in situ occurrence of micro and macro-niches. Indeed, physical and chemical conditions can vary between two niches separated physically by a millimetre or centimetre order of magnitude [23–25]. It is therefore likely that Paenibacillus species live in situ in micro-environments where the pH is less acidic than the global pH measured in the ecosystem. It should be noted that this observation was confirmed by the isolation from the Carnoulès site of alkaliphilic bacteria, belonging to the genera Micromonospora and Thiomonas, using solid media at pH 8 and 9.8, respectively (unpublished work).
Metal and arsenic concentrations can vary at millimetre scale, but also during the course of the year  and the bacteria living in Carnoulès have to adapt to these extreme variations. The resistance of Q8 to high concentration of various metals (Table 1) would therefore allow Paenibacillus species to grow and to be active under such stresses. Arsenic stress is one of the most important stresses in Carnoulès, as exceptionally high concentration (up to 350 mg/L) in the water. A MIC of 750 mg/L As(III) (10 mM) was observed in a previous work for Thiomonas sp. 3As also isolated from Carnoulès . The present work showed that Q8 was still able to grow with an As(III) concentration twice as high as for Thiomonas sp. 3As (Table 1).
Taken together, the high growth rate measured for Q8 (Figure 1) and the high metal resistance (Table 1) highlighted its possible ability to adapt to drastic physical and chemical changes in its environment, such as an increase of the pH or the metal concentration. At the ecosystem level, bacteria that can grow under less acidic or even alkaline conditions can play a major role in the resilience of the community, i.e. the capability of the community to adapt to physico-chemical changes in the environment . This resilience is dependent on 1) the community structure, comprising both the abundant bacteria and the rare biosphere  and 2) the genetic potential carried by both abundant and rare bacteria.
Here, the possible role(s) of Q8 in the community function was investigated. The Carnoulès site is considered to be at least a partly oligotrophic environment . The ability to live in oligotrophic environments requires for every bacterium specific adaptations to find essential nutrients, especially in terms of carbon sources (for review see ). This necessity is further amplified when additional stresses occur, such as metal and acidic stress. Different strategies are possible in such environments. For example, it has been recently shown that most bacteria isolated from the AMD of Carnoulès were able to grow on FD2 medium, characterized by very low carbon concentration (0.01% casaminoacid) (unpublished work). Others were able to use inorganic carbon (autotrophic growth), as does Thiomonas arsenivorans, which was also able to use the oxidation of As(III) as sole energy source . Another adaptation concerns the capability carried by some strains to metabolize unusual carbon compounds. These compounds can be pollutants (eventually toxic for other strains) such as naphtalene , or polymers.
In our study, Q8 was able to use various carbon sources, and to efficiently and rapidly degrade starch, cellulose and hemicellulose (xylan). The degradation of monomers is not surprising, since the majority of the bacteria possess the metabolic pathways to use glucose or fructose. However, the degradation of various polymers is more surprising when considering the in situ conditions. Moreover, the starch and xylan degradation activities were more important when decreasing the acidic stress (Figure 2A), confirming that the growth depends on the pH. Furthermore, its ability to degrade xylane and starch was not affected by the presence of up to 1,000 mg/L As(V) (Figure 2B). The increase of the As(III) concentration led to a decrease of the polymers degradation activities, but activity was still measured with 750 mg/L As(III) (Figure 2C). The in vitro polymer degradation using the acellular extracts confirmed the activity at pH 7 and absence of activity at pH 3. Moreover, the gene expression of the amylases was constitutive and corresponded to both endo- and exo-activities, whereas xylan degradation required an induction of the corresponding genes to perform the mainly exo- but also endo-degradation of xylan.
Function-based screening allowed the characterization of an amylase (BB9) and a xylanase (GαC5). Moreover, this strategy allowed us to assign an amylolytic function to a gene previously identified as encoding a "protein of unknown function" (KF4), since the protein sequence showed no sequence homology with any already described amylase or glycosidase, nor possessed any known hydrolytic domain. This result can be compared to the one obtained by Graham et al. , who described a novel cellulase in an archaea consortium originated from a geothermal source (temperature 90°C). This enzyme had an optimum activity at 109°C, and possessed 2 domains that were not yet observed in hyperthermophilic cellulases. However, since the authors have used a sequence-based approach to find the corresponding gene, the aminoacid sequence of the novel cellulase is therefore not be completely different from others. Moreover, a screening for amylases using metagenomic DNA from an AMD led to the detection of two amylases sharing no significant proteic sequence similarity with any known amylase or glycosidase. Purification and characterization confirmed the amylolytic function carried by both proteins (Delavat et al., submitted). One possible explanation for this novelty is that the extreme conditions found in Carnoulès (in terms of pH and metal concentrations) would trigger an accelerated adaptation for many important bacterial processes, such as polymers degradation.
Therefore, Q8 presents a heterotrophic metabolism and may be able to change its surrounding environment by degrading complex polymers. A recent study based on functional gene array (GeoChip 2.0) in an AMD in China allowed the detection of genes involved in the degradation of cellulose, lignin and chitin . However, this method is based on the detection of labeled DNA, which represents the metabolic potential found in the community, but no insights was made into the functional activity as no activity was detected.
To our knowledge, no study focused on the role of a cultured organism isolated from AMDs in the recycling of complex organic matter. A recent meta- and proteogenomic study allowed the reconstruction of 7 genomes in Carnoulès, corresponding to the 7 dominant bacteria, called CARN1 to CARN7 . In this previous study, it was shown that CARN6 was the sole bacterium carrying the genes involved in cellulose metabolism. In depth analysis of the 7 genomes (http://www.genoscope.cns.fr/agc/microscope/carnoulescopes) showed that genes encoding xylanase were only found in CARN3, and genes encoding amylases were found in CARN3, CARN5 and CARN6. However, any ecosystem needs recyclers that transform complex organic matter, and, moreover, any ecosystem needs functions redundancy to assure the corresponding function when the conditions change i.e. when the relative abundance of the bacteria change. Here, Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 was able of cellulolytic, hemicellulolytic and amylolytic activities, especially when the acidic conditions were less stringent. The bacterium Q8 is likely to use complex carbon compounds in the AMD of Carnoulès, where they are scarce. It may therefore beneficiate of this extra source, on the contrary to many other microorganisms from the same site. At the community level, the strain Q8 can play a major role in the recycling of organic molecules by degrading complex compounds, especially when the conditions change.
Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 was isolated from the arsenic- and metal-contaminated AMD of Carnoulès (France). This strain was able of rapid growth under both acidic and alkaline conditions, and was resistant to high metal concentrations, highlighting its ability to survive under the extreme conditions found in situ. This strain carried an arsenal of polymer-degrading enzymes, as it degraded starch, cellulose and hemicellulose, and presented a polymer-degrading activity under a broad pH range and under high arsenic concentrations. Function-based screening of the Q8-DNA allowed the detection of amylases and xylanases. The genetic analysis of some clones allowed the characterization of a gene that was previously not assigned to any function. Therefore, function-based screening also allowed to assign a function to a gene and to further decipher the community function. At the community level, Q8 can act as a recycler of the organic matter by releasing by-products from complex polymers, in this oligotrophic site, to the whole community. This activity is particularly important when the in situ physico-chemical conditions change (e.g. in terms of pH) as the polymer-degrading activities for Q8 were more important under less acidic conditions. Therefore the strain Q8 participates to the community function, especially for the functional redundancy, hence for the resilience of the community.
To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the polymer-degrading activity at the phenotypic level and the role of polymer-degrading bacteria in the community function in AMDs. This study highlights the complexity of the community function in the AMD of Carnoulès. Further work has to be undertaken to understand the role of other bacteria in the community function. More in depth analysis of the in vitro polymer-degrading activities would also provide interesting informations, both in fundamental biology and in biotechnology for the finding of proteins with specific characteristics with regards to the in situ conditions.
Chemical analyses were performed on the Carnoulès water running above the soft unstable sediment collected for the isolation of Q8 according to procedures described previously [33, 34].
Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 was isolated from the sediment (up to 2 cm deep) of the Carnoulès AMD (France) using the Soil Substrate Membrane System (SSMS) as described by Ferrari et al. . Briefly, sediment sample taken from the same site was used as a growth medium, and 1 mL of a 1:100 dilution sample served as bacterial inoculum. After the incubation time (10 days at 20°C), the membrane was removed, cut with a sterile razor blade and vortexed 1 min with 1 mL 0.9% NaCl and 100 μL of the supernatant was then spread onto LB plates. This strain was routinely grown in LB medium at 30°C unless otherwise stated.
Escherichia coli strain DH5α (Invitrogen) was used for the heterologous expression of the genes from Paenibacillus sp. Q8. Vector pcDNA2.1 was used as cloning vectors for the DNA library construction. E. coli strains were routinely grown on LB agar (MP Biomedicals) plates supplemented by 100 mg/L ampicillin and incubated at 37°C.
Growth at different pH was monitored by measuring the absorbance (600 nm) in LB medium adjusted to pH 3-10 (increment 1) with H2SO4 and KOH before autoclaving.
Paenibacillus resistance to each metal was investigated in LB broth supplemented with the respective metal at different concentrations from stock solution previously adjusted to pH 7 and filtered-sterilized. Metals were provided in the form of salts as follows: C4H6Ni O3,4H20; Cu SO4,5H20; Na2HAs O4,7H20; NaAs O2; Mn SO4; Cr Cl3,6H20; Hg Cl2; Ag NO3. Stock solutions were conserved at 4°C until use.
Antibiotic resistance tests were performed using the disc method. Antibiotics and concentrations were as follows: Nalidixic acid (1.5 μg/disc), Ampicillin (3 μg/disc), Chloramphenicol (0.6 μg/disc), Gentamycin (0.06 μg/disc), Kanamycin (0.6 μg/disc), Rifampicin (7.5 μg/disc), Streptomycin (0.6 μg/disc), Spectinomycin (1.5 μg/disc), Tetracycline (0.24 μg/disc), and Trimethoprim (0.15 μg/disc).
The GEN III Microplate™ (Biolog) were used (with the fluid IF-A) and API 50 CH (with the API 50 CHB/E medium) (Biomérieux) to screen for organic molecule degradation, according to the manufacturer's protocol.
All experiments were done at least in quadruplicate.
Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 and the DNA library were screened for the degradation of different polymers. Amylolytic activity was first screened on LB plates supplemented with 1% starch (Sigma). After 24 hours, the plates were flooded with lugol solution (Sigma) and a clear halo around the colonies indicated degradation of starch. Hemicellulolytic activity was detected by the apparition of a clear halo around the colony upon flooding with lugol solution. Cellulolytic activity was detected on LB plates supplemented with 0.2% Carboxymethylcelullose CMC (Sigma). Plates were stained with Congo red (0.2%) for 20 min and plates were washed with 1 M NaCl. Cellulase-expressing colonies were surrounding by a yellow halo.
For polymer degradation activity as a function of pH, LB medium supplemented with the corresponding substrate was adjusted to pH 3-10 with KOH and NaOH (6 M) prior to sterilization by autoclaving. For polymer degradation activity as a function of As(III) and As(V) concentration, the metal was added and the pH adjusted to pH 7 before autoclaving. After deposing 10 μL of a Q8 suspension, the plates were incubated at 30°C for 34 hours before reading.
Paenibacillus sp. strain Q8 cells grown on LB medium (1 L) supplemented or not with either 1% wheat starch (Sigma, S2760) or 0.2% xylan from beechwood (Sigma, X4252) was collected by centrifugation (5,000 g, 10 min).
The pellets were resuspended in a minimal volume (1.5 to 2.5 mL) of Cellytic B (Sigma) containing 0.2 mg/mL of lysozyme, 48 U/mL of DNAseI and the appropriate volume of the anti-proteases cocktail Complete (Roche). They were incubated 30 min at 25°C under agitation. The supernatants, containing the bacterial crude extracts were then recovered after centrifugation (10,000 g, 30 min, 4°C). Protein concentrations were evaluated for each crude extract using the Bradford reagent (BioRad) and with BSA as standard. The action of the crude extracts on polysaccharides was tested by adding 350 mg of total proteins with a 1% solution of each substrate (potato and wheat starch, and birchwood xylan) prepared either in 0.1 M glycine-HCl buffer pH 3.0 or in 0.1 M phosphate buffer pH 7.0. Incubations were performed under agitation at 45°C and 100 μL samples were taken regularly and subsequently boiled for 10 min to stop enzymatic reaction. Glucose content was estimated using the chromogen 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethyl benzthiazoline-6-sulfonate). Reducing sugars were measured by the dinitrosalicylic acid method using xylose as standard. Standard deviations were calculated from two determinations.
To visualize the oligosaccharides produced during the reaction, Polysaccharide Analysis using Carbohydrate Electrophoresis  was performed. Briefly 50 μL of the reaction mixture were dried, the products labelled with a fluorophore, thereafter separated by electrophoresis and visualized under UV.
Paenibacillus Q8 DNA was extracted using the Wizard® Genomic DNA Purification Kit (Promega) and nebulized for 36 seconds and DNA fragments (1-5 kb) were gel-purified (MP biomedicals). The purified fragments were repaired using the T4 DNA polymerase and Bst X I adapters (Invitrogen) were ligated to both ends. Plasmid pcDNA 2-1 and Bst X I-ligated Q8 DNA fragments were digested with Bst X I and ligated using a T4 DNA ligase (Fermentas). DH5α electrocompetent cells were transformed and white colonies were picked and stored in 96-well microplates at -80°C until use.
Plasmid from positive clones were extracted with the QIAprep Spin Miniprep kit (Qiagen) and sequenced by Millegen with the universal primers M13(-21) (TGTAAAACGACGGCCAGT) and M13R(-29) (CAGGAAACAGCTATGACC). ORFs were searched using the ORF Finder program at the NCBI website ORFs sequence analyses were performed by using the NCBI-nr BLAST program (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and the Uniprot website (http://www.uniprot.org). Putative domains were searched using the prosite (http://prosite.expasy.org/). The sequences of clones BB9, KF4 and GαC5 were submitted to the EMBL databases under the accession numbers HE617173, HE617174 and HE617175, respectively.
FD was supported by a grant from the French Ministry of Education and Research. Financial support came from the Université de Strasbourg (Unistra), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) in the frame of the RARE project. This work was done in the frame of the 'Groupement de Recherche--Métabolisme de l'Arsenic chez les Microorganismes (GDR2909-CNRS)' (http://gdr2909.alsace.cnrs.fr/). The authors would like to thank Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers-OREME (http://www.oreme.univ-montp2.fr) and Mustapha Ouhssain for chemical analyses of Carnoulès water.
FD, VP, MCL and DL conceived, supervised and coordinated this study. FD carried out the physiological experiments, and the cloning, screening and sequencing steps. VP and AF carried out all in vitro biochemical experiments. FD and VP performed the interpretation of data. FD wrote the manuscript and VP, MCL and DL critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.


text:
Q: extracting string from bracket using boost spirit I have the following string:
%%DocumentNeededResources: CMap (90pv-RKSJ-UCS2C)

I want to parse it and store/extract the 90pv-RKSJ-UCS2C string which is in bracket.
My rule is as follows:
std::string strLinesRecur = "%%DocumentNeededResources: CMap (90pv-RKSJ-UCS2C)";
std::string strStartTokenRecur;
std::string token_intRecur;
bool bParsedLine1 = qi::phrase_parse(strLinesRecur.begin(), strLinesRecur.end(), +char_>>+char_,':', token_intRecur, strStartTokenRecur);

A: It looks like you thought a skipper is a split delimiter. It's quite the opposite (Boost spirit skipper issues).
In this rare circumstance I think I'd prefer a regular expression. But, since you asked here's the spirit take:
Live On Coliru
#include <boost/spirit/include/qi.hpp>

namespace qi = boost::spirit::qi;

int main() {
    std::string const line = "%%DocumentNeededResources: CMap (90pv-RKSJ-UCS2C)";

    auto first = line.begin(), last = line.end();

    std::string label, token;
    bool ok = qi::phrase_parse(
            first, last,
            qi::lexeme [ "%%" >> +~qi::char_(":") ] >> ':' >> qi::lexeme["CMap"] >> '(' >> qi::lexeme[+~qi::char_(')')] >> ')',
            qi::space,
            label, token);

    if (ok)
        std::cout << "Parse success: label='" << label << "', token='" << token << "'\n";
    else
        std::cout << "Parse failed\n";

    if (first!=last)
        std::cout << "Remaining unparsed input: '" << std::string(first, last) << "'\n";
}

Prints
Parse success: label='DocumentNeededResources', token='90pv-RKSJ-UCS2C'

A: Alright, so assuming we are given the following using and alias namespace directives:
using namespace boost::spirit::qi;
namespace phx = boost::phoenix;

And given the string:
std::string strLinesRecur = "%%DocumentNeededResources: CMap (90pv-RKSJ-UCS2C)";

We would like to extract the "code" inside the parenthesis into res:
std::string res;

One way to do this is to use boost::phoenix::ref as semantic action.
So given a code grammar as:
using boost::spirit::ascii::alnum;
auto code = copy(+(alnum | char_('-')));

(Which is along the lines of what in a regex would be [a-zA-Z\-])
We can create our own grammar for the whole string:
using boost::spirit::ascii::alpha;
auto grammar = copy(
    (char_('%') >> char_('%') >> +alpha >> char_(':'))
        >> +alpha >> char_('(') >> as_string[lexeme[code]][phx::ref(res) = _1] >> char_(')'));

Which parses anything that begins with two %, follows with some alphabetic characters and a :, then follows with some "code" within parenthesis.
The whole point to this is as_string[lexeme[code]][phx::ref(res) = _1]. If we break it down: lexeme[code] just says to treat the parsed code as an atomic unit, as_string "returns" the result as std::string (as opposed to std::vector<char>) and [phx::ref(res) = _1] uses semantic actions to store the parsed string into res (_1 is a placeholder for the first match within that grammar).
In this case spaces are skipped by the following call:
using boost::spirit::ascii::blank;
phrase_parse(begin(strLinesRecur), end(strLinesRecur), grammar, blank);

Live demo
This is of course just an example of a grammar that would fit the string.
Note: copy refers to qi::copy and it's one way to be able to store pieces of grammars like in the objects code and grammar. Without that the use of auto will fail (probably with a segmentation fault).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
TED Fellows TED FellowsTED Prize
TED Prize winner Sarah Parcak unearths ancient mysteries on "60 Minutes"
Posted by: Chelsea Catlett
May 22, 2017	at 3:17 pm EDT
What's the best way to find something lost on the ground, like a historical site from a civilization lost to time? For archaeologist Sarah Parcak, the answer's obvious — from way up above, using satellites, of course. As a space archaeologist, she's mapped the lost city of Tanis (of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark fame) and identified thousands of other potential ancient sites in Iceland, Europe and across North Africa — and now she's letting everyone in on the fun with her $1 million TED Prize wish, GlobalXplorer.
To get an up-close introduction to the revolutionary techniques of space archaeology, 60 Minutes joined Parcak at her tomb excavation site in Lisht, Egypt, a village 40 minutes south of Cairo with a history dating back more than 4,000 years.
When they arrived, the biggest find of the season had just been unearthed — a hand, and a piece of stone tablet describing a powerful man, inscribed with one name: Intef. Interestingly, the slab is damaged in a way that hints it might have been intentionally desecrated. "Did he step on too many people on his way to the top?" Parcak speculates. "Who was this guy? What did he do?"
"But that's what makes archeology interesting," says Parcak. "It's like you're reading the ancient version of the National Enquirer in slow time."
Yet, ironically, archaeologists like Sarah are in a perpetual race against time — hoping to find and secure ancient sites before they can be looted.
So far, less than 10% of the Earth has been explored and secured by archeologists, leaving many sites vulnerable to looting. For instance, after the Arab Spring in 2011, hundreds of ancient sites and antiquities in Egypt were left unprotected and open for pillage. Looking at satellite images, Parcak was able to identify some 800 places where looters were digging into unprotected tombs to bring out antiquities for sale. When they saw the satellite evidence of looting, the Egyptian government asked Parcak to excavate Intef's tomb at Lisht, to preserve and protect what remains.
This isn't a new development — looting, says Parcak, has been going on for thousands of years, at a cost to history that's priceless.
"The most important thing for archeological discovery is context," she tells 60 Minutes. "That's why for us, as archeologists, looting is such a huge problem. Because when an object is taken out of its original context, we don't know where it comes from. We can't tell you anything about it aside from, 'Well, it's a mummy, or, 'It's a statue.' But that's kind of it. The story doesn't get told."
Which is why Parcak is so excited about GlobalXplorer, which lets thousands of people help pore over satellite maps together to find potentially historic sites — which local governments can then help secure for future generations to learn from. Join her and thousands of other citizen scientists (now scouring Peru) in the fight to protect history and our global heritage.
[ted id=2673]
60 MinutesSarah ParcakTED FellowsTED Prize

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl