The effects of small plastic particles on antibiotic resistance gene transfer revealed by single cell and community level analysis.

Small plastic particles with sizes comparable to bacterial cells, widely exist in environment. However, their effects on antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) dissemination remain unclear. Using polystyrene (PS) particles (0.

Variant load of mitochondrial DNA in single human mesenchymal stem cells.

Heteroplasmic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants accumulate as humans age, particularly in the stem-cell compartments, and are an important contributor to age-related disease. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been observed in osteoporosis and somatic mtDNA pathogenic variants have been observed in animal models of osteoporosis. However, this has never been assessed in the relevant human tissue.

Long-term results of per-operative knee arthroscopy in confirming suitability for unicompartmental arthroplasty.

Background: Patient selection is key to the success of medial unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA). Progression of arthritis is the most common indication for revision surgery. Per-operative arthroscopy is a means of directly assessing the integrity of the lateral compartment.

Detecting respiratory chain defects in osteoblasts from osteoarthritic patients using imaging mass cytometry.

Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease which is characterised by reduced bone mass and microarchitecture, with a subsequent loss of strength that predisposes to fragility and risk of fractures. The pathogenesis of falling bone mineral density, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of osteoporosis is incompletely understood but the disease is currently thought to be multifactorial. Humans are known to accumulate mitochondrial mutations and respiratory chain deficiency with age and mounting evidence suggests that this may indeed be the overarching cause intrinsic to the changing phenotype in advancing age and age-related disease.

Safety of prolonged outpatient courses of intravenous antibiotics: a prospective cohort study.

Objectives: The perceived need for prolonged intravenous antibiotic courses has become a major driver behind the growth of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) services. Several recent randomized controlled trials demonstrate noninferiority of an early switch to oral therapy and highlight the need to accurately quantify harms associated with OPAT.

Methods: We conducted a 10-year prospective cohort study in a tertiary hospital OPAT service.

Decarbonising energy: The developing international activity in hydrogen technologies and fuel cells.

Hydrogen technologies and fuel cells offer an alternative and improved solution for a decarbonised energy future. Fuel cells are electrochemical converters; transforming hydrogen (or energy sources containing hydrogen) and oxygen directly into electricity. The hydrogen fuel cell, invented in 1839, permits the generation of electrical energy with high efficiency through a non-combustion, electrochemical process and, importantly, without the emission of CO at its point of use.

Development of an in-line magnetometer for flow chemistry and its demonstration for magnetic nanoparticle synthesis.

Despite the wide usage of magnetic nanoparticles, it remains challenging to synthesise particles with properties that exploit each application's full potential. Time consuming experimental procedures and particle analysis hinder process development, which is commonly constrained to a handful of experiments without considering particle formation kinetics, reproducibility and scalability. Flow reactors are known for their potential of large-scale production and high-throughput screening of process parameters.

Dynamically Modulated Core-Shell Microfibers to Study the Effect of Depth Sensing of Matrix Stiffness on Stem Cell Fate.

It is well known that extracellular matrix stiffness can affect cell fate and change dynamically during many biological processes. Existing experimental means for in situ matrix stiffness modulation often alters its structure, which could induce additional undesirable effects on cells. Inspired by the phenomenon of depth sensing by cells, we introduce here core-shell microfibers with a thin collagen core for cell growth and an alginate shell that can be dynamically stiffened to deliver mechanical stimuli.

Self-Efficacy for Healthy Eating Moderates the Impact of Stress on Diet Quality Among Family Child Care Home Providers.

Objective: To examine associations of stress and sleep with diet quality of family child care home (FCCH) providers, and whether self-efficacy for healthy eating influences these associations.

Design: A cross-sectional analysis was performed using baseline data (2013-2015) from a randomized control trial with FCCH providers.

Participants: The study included 166 licensed FCCH providers, aged >18 years, from central North Carolina.

Transforming carbon dioxide into jet fuel using an organic combustion-synthesized Fe-Mn-K catalyst.

With mounting concerns over climate change, the utilisation or conversion of carbon dioxide into sustainable, synthetic hydrocarbons fuels, most notably for transportation purposes, continues to attract worldwide interest. This is particularly true in the search for sustainable or renewable aviation fuels. These offer considerable potential since, instead of consuming fossil crude oil, the fuels are produced from carbon dioxide using sustainable renewable hydrogen and energy.

Spin-enhanced nanodiamond biosensing for ultrasensitive diagnostics.

The quantum spin properties of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond enable diverse applications in quantum computing and communications. However, fluorescent nanodiamonds also have attractive properties for in vitro biosensing, including brightness, low cost and selective manipulation of their emission. Nanoparticle-based biosensors are essential for the early detection of disease, but they often lack the required sensitivity.

Prevention of infection in primary THA and TKA.

Rates of peri-prosthetic joint infection (PJI) in primary total hip and total knee arthroplasty range between 0.3% and 1.9%, and up to 10% in revision cases.

Barriers and Facilitators of Parent Engagement With Health Promotion in Child Care: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation.

Background: Early care and education providers cite lack of parent engagement as a central barrier to promoting healthy behaviors among young children. However, little research exists about factors influencing parent engagement with promoting healthy eating and activity behaviors in the this setting.

Aims: This study aimed to address this gap by examining low and high parent engagement with the campaign to identify barriers and facilitators of parent engagement with the intervention.

Mitochondrial dysfunction impairs osteogenesis, increases osteoclast activity, and accelerates age related bone loss.

The pathogenesis of declining bone mineral density, a universal feature of ageing, is not fully understood. Somatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations accumulate with age in human tissues and mounting evidence suggests that they may be integral to the ageing process. To explore the potential effects of mtDNA mutations on bone biology, we compared bone microarchitecture and turnover in an ageing series of wild type mice with that of the PolgA mitochondrial DNA 'mutator' mouse.

Cell function profiling to assess clone stability.

In cell line development the identification of stable Chinese hamster ovary cells for production is a critical but onerous task. The stability trial focus upon high-level attributes can mask profound underlying cellular changes, leading to unstable clones mistakenly being chosen for production. The challenge is to assay underlying cell pathways and subsystems without pushing up cell line development costs.

AMPK Activation of Apoptotic Markers in Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines with Different p53 Backgrounds: MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and T47D Cells.

Background: Downregulation of AMPK has been established as a major contributor to carcinogenesis in many types of human cancer. We sought to investigate the influence of activated AMPK on apoptotic markers in human breast cancer cells differing in their p53 status, as well as estrogen receptor status (MCF-7 (p53+ and ER+), MDA-MB-231 (p53 mutant and ER-) and T47D (p53 mutant and ER+)).

Methods: We examined the effect of AICAR-activated AMPK on PARP cleavage, Bax redistribution, the involvement of intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptosis using selective caspase inhibitors and cell cycle progression and p21 levels.

Data Management in Computational Systems Biology: Exploring Standards, Tools, Databases, and Packaging Best Practices.

Computational systems biology involves integrating heterogeneous datasets in order to generate models. These models can assist with understanding and prediction of biological phenomena. Generating datasets and integrating them into models involves a wide range of scientific expertise.

Quantification of atomic force microscopy tip and sample thermal contact.

A thermal conduction measurement device was fabricated, consisting of a silicon dioxide membrane with integrated thermal sensors (Pt resistance heater/thermometer and Pt-Au thermocouples) using MEMS technology. Heat transfer between the heated device and a number of unused atomic force microscope and scanning thermal microscope probes was measured. Changes in thermal conduction related to changes in the tip shape resulting from initial contact were observed.

Engineering Pathways in Central Carbon Metabolism Help to Increase Glycan Production and Improve -Type Glycosylation of Recombinant Proteins in .

strains have been modified in a variety of ways to enhance the production of different recombinant proteins, targeting membrane protein expression, proteins with disulphide bonds, and more recently, proteins which require -linked glycosylation. The addition of glycans to proteins remains a relatively inefficient process and here we aimed to combine genetic modifications within central carbon metabolic pathways in order to increase glycan precursor pools, prior to transfer onto polypeptide backbones. Using a lectin screen that detects cell surface representation of glycans, together with Western blot analyses using an -antigen ligase mutant strain, the enhanced uptake and phosphorylation of sugars () from the media combined with conservation of carbon through the glyoxylate shunt () improved glycosylation efficiency of a bacterial protein AcrA by 69% and over 100% in an engineered human protein IFN-α2b.

The pro-atherogenic response to disturbed blood flow is increased by a western diet, but not by old age.

Atherogenic remodeling often occurs at arterial locations with disturbed blood flow (i.e., low or oscillatory) and both aging and western diet (WD) increase the likelihood for pro-atherogenic remodeling.

Immunohistochemical staining of leptin is associated with grade, stage, lymph node involvement, recurrence, and hormone receptor phenotypes in breast cancer.

Background: Obesity is part of the established risk factors for breast cancer (BC) in postmenopausal females. Circulating leptin increases in parallel with the increase of body weight and fat reservoir.

Methods: This research investigated the link between leptin phenotype and the clinicopathological factors in BC.

Dimension- and shape-dependent thermal transport in nano-patterned thin films investigated by scanning thermal microscopy.

Scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) is a technique which is often used for the measurement of the thermal conductivity of materials at the nanometre scale. The impact of nano-scale feature size and shape on apparent thermal conductivity, as measured using SThM, has been investigated. To achieve this, our recently developed topography-free samples with 200 and 400 nm wide gold wires (50 nm thick) of length of 400-2500 nm were fabricated and their thermal resistance measured and analysed.