Assessing methods for detecting Alexandrium catenella (Dinophyceae) and paralytic shellfish toxins in Southeast Alaska.

Blooms of Alexandrium catenella threaten to disrupt subsistence, recreational, and commercial shellfish harvest in Alaska, as the paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) produced pose a serious public health risk and can lead to costly shutdowns for shellfish farmers. Current methods of PST detection in the region range from monitoring programs utilizing net tows to detect A. catenella to direct shellfish tissue testing via mouse bioassay (MBA) for commercial aquaculture harvest, as well as various optional testing methods for subsistence and recreational harvesters.

A novel activated-zinc antiseptic solution effective against MRSA and a pig model.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial efficacy of a novel activated zinc solution against meticillin-resistant (MRSA) and after one hour, and to evaluate any untoward effect of the solution on local wound tissue at 24 hours after solution exposure in a pig wound model.

Method: A pathogen-free, commercially raised, Yorkshire-cross female pig was acquired 12 days prior to the procedure. Within one week prior to the procedure, a small loopful of test bacteria, (pig-isolate) and MRSA (ATCC-6538), were streaked and cultured on a non-selective agar.

Rapid measurement of total lipids in zooplankton using the sulfo-phospho-vanillin reaction.

Zooplankton provide a vital source of nutrition to a variety of fish and marine predators. Measuring the total lipid content of zooplankton provides important information about diet quality available to predators, revealing details about trophic dynamics and ecosystem status. We analyze the performance of a microplate assay, utilizing the sulfo-phospho-vanillin (SPV) reaction, to quantify the total lipid content of various large crustacean zooplankton in a rapid and high throughput manner.

A C-peptide complex with albumin and Zn increases measurable GLUT1 levels in membranes of human red blood cells.

People with type 1 diabetes (T1D) require exogenous administration of insulin, which stimulates the translocation of the GLUT4 glucose transporter to cell membranes. However, most bloodstream cells contain GLUT1 and are not directly affected by insulin. Here, we report that C-peptide, the 31-amino acid peptide secreted in equal amounts with insulin in vivo, is part of a 3-component complex that affects red blood cell (RBC) membranes.

Artificial Intelligence Analysis of Magnetic Particle Imaging for Islet Transplantation in a Mouse Model.

Purpose: Current approaches to quantification of magnetic particle imaging (MPI) for cell-based therapy are thwarted by the lack of reliable, standardized methods of segmenting the signal from background in images. This calls for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems for MPI analysis.

Procedures: We utilize a canonical algorithm in the domain of unsupervised machine learning, known as K-means++, to segment the regions of interest (ROI) of images and perform iron quantification analysis using a standard curve model.