Prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility, and molecular characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from dairy herds in northern China.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main pathogens involved in dairy cow mastitis. Monitoring of antibiotic use would prove useful to assess the risk of Staph. aureus in raw milk.

Microscopic Examination of Polymeric Monoguanidine, Hydrochloride-Induced Cell Membrane Damage in Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Advances in antimicrobial activities of molecule-containing, multiple guanidinium groups against antibiotics-resistant bacteria should be noted. The synthesized polyoctamethylene monoguanidine hydrochloride (POGH), carrying cationic amphiphilic moieties, display excellent activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR-PA) and other antibiotics-resistant bacteria. The membrane damage effects of POGH on MDR-PA were clarified using beta-lactamase activity assay, confocal fluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy.

Factors Associated With Pain Frequency Among Adults With Chronic Conditions.

Context: Chronic pain affects approximately 100 million Americans, but little is known about the factors associated with pain frequency.

Objectives: This article examines participants' sociodemographics, medical history, health care access and utilization, self-management barriers, and social support associated with pain frequency among a sample of middle-aged and older adults with one or more chronic condition.

Methods: Data were from the National Council on Aging Chronic Care Survey.

Health-related quality of life in type-2 diabetes patients: a cross-sectional study in East China.

Background: Used the EuroQoL-5 dimension (EQ-5D) to evaluate the health status of 5310 residents who live in East China, and compared the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with 311 patients with type 2 diabetes as well as to explore the main influence factors to HRQoL in East China.

Methods: The cohort includes 5310 participants aged 18-89 years old lived in East China. EuroQoL-5 dimension (EQ-5D) scale was used for the assessment of health-related quality of life.

Synthesis of asymmetrical multiantennary human milk oligosaccharides.

Despite mammalian glycans typically having highly complex asymmetrical multiantennary architectures, chemical and chemoenzymatic synthesis has almost exclusively focused on the preparation of simpler symmetrical structures. This deficiency hampers investigations into the biology of glycan-binding proteins, which in turn complicates the biomedical use of this class of biomolecules. Herein, we describe an enzymatic strategy, using a limited number of human glycosyltransferases, to access a collection of 60 asymmetric, multiantennary human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which were used to develop a glycan microarray.

Factors Associated With Interest in Worksite Health-Related Discussions/Events Among Employed Adults With Chronic Conditions.

Objective: Worksite health promotion interventions have the potential to reach half of Americans nationally, but low participation rates hinder optimal intervention effectiveness. This study examines factors associated with employee interest in worksite health-related discussions/events.

Method: We analyzed cross-sectional survey data from a representative sample of employed adults in California with one or more chronic conditions.

Strategies for Worksite Health Interventions to Employees with Elevated Risk of Chronic Diseases.

Chronic disease rates have become more prevalent in the modern American workforce, which has negative implications for workplace productivity and healthcare costs. Offering workplace health interventions is recognized as an effective strategy to reduce chronic disease progression, absenteeism, and healthcare costs as well as improve population health. This review documents intervention and evaluation strategies used for health promotion programs delivered in workplaces.

Serum Uric Acid Is Associated with Erectile Dysfunction: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study in Chinese Men.

The role that serum uric acid (UA) plays in the pathophysiological development of erectile dysfunction (ED) is controversial. We aimed to screen the factors related with ED, and to examine the association between serum UA and ED. Our data were derived from a cross-sectional Survey on Prevalence in East China for Metabolic Diseases and Risk Factors study in 2014-2015.

Exacerbation of liver steatosis following exposure to famine and overnutrition.

Scope: People suffering from famine in early life and overnutrition in adulthood may have an increased risk for liver steatosis. We aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of early nutrition restriction and overnutrition on de novo lipogenesis in the liver.

Methods And Results: Three-wk-old male rats were food restricted for 4 wk and refed a high-fat or normal fat diet individually in metabolic cages for 9 wk.

Effect of Imidazole Arrangements on Proton-Conductivity in Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Imidazole molecules were frequently incorporated into porous materials to improve their proton conductivity. To investigate how different arrangements of imidazoles in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) affect the overall proton conduction, we designed and prepared a MOF-based model system. It includes an Fe-MOF as the blank, an imidazole@Fe-MOF (Im@Fe-MOF) with physically adsorbed imidazole, and an imidazole-Fe-MOF (Im-Fe-MOF), which contains chemically coordinated imidazole molecules.

Investigation of vitamin D status and its correlation with insulin resistance in a Chinese population.

Objective: Although many studies worldwide have focused on the relationship between vitamin D and insulin resistance, results remain controversial. Furthermore, concentrations of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in the Chinese population are unclear. We aimed to investigate vitamin D status and its correlation with insulin resistance among a Chinese adult population.

PPE38 Protein of Inhibits Macrophage MHC Class I Expression and Dampens CD8 T Cell Responses.

Suppression of CD8 T cell activation is a critical mechanism used by (MTB) to escape protective host immune responses. PPE38 belongs to the unique PPE family of MTB and in our previous study, PPE38 protein was speculated to participate in manipulating macrophage MHC class I pathway. To test this hypothesis, the function of mycobacterial PPE38 protein was assessed here using macrophage and mouse infection models.

Correction: Nanoparticle-based photoacoustic analysis for highly sensitive lateral flow assays.

Correction for 'Nanoparticle-based photoacoustic analysis for highly sensitive lateral flow assays' by Yunfei Zhao et al., Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 19204-19210.

Inhibition of Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion by Knockdown of Pyruvate Kinase-M2 (PKM2) in Ovarian Cancer SKOV3 and OVCAR3 Cells.

Pyruvate kinase (PK) is a key enzyme in the process of glycolysis, catalyzing phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) into pyruvate. Currently, PK isozyme type M2 (PKM2), one subtype of PK, has been proposed as a new tumor marker with high expression in various tumor tissues. Here we aimed to explore the effects of siRNA-PKM2 on ovarian carcinoma (OC) cell lines SKOV3 and OVCAR3, in which PKM2 was notably expressed.

Effects of chemical cleaning on RO membrane inorganic, organic and microbial foulant removal in a full-scale plant for municipal wastewater reclamation.

Of all of the strategies for controlling reverse osmosis (RO) membrane fouling, chemical cleaning is indispensable. To study the effects of chemical cleaning on membrane foulant removal, a comparative analysis of RO membranes before and after common alkaline and acid cleaning was conducted by dissecting lead and terminal RO membranes in a full-scale municipal wastewater reclamation plant. Most foulants on the membranes were removed by chemical cleaning processes.

Investigation on occupant injury severity in rear-end crashes involving trucks as the front vehicle in Beijing area, China.

Purpose: Rear-end crashes attribute to a large portion of total crashes in China, which lead to many casualties and property damage, especially when involving commercial vehicles. This paper aims to investigate the critical factors for occupant injury severity in the specific rear-end crash type involving trucks as the front vehicle (FV).

Methods: This paper investigated crashes occurred from 2011 to 2013 in Beijing area, China and selected 100 qualified cases i.

Reciprocal regulation of miR-1254 and c-Myc in oral squamous cell carcinoma suppresses EMT-mediated metastasis and tumor-initiating properties through MAPK signaling.

Aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of miR-1254 on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) metastasis and the specific mechanism involved.

Methods: The metastatic properties of OSCC cells were analyzed by transwell assays. The tumor-initiating properties of OSCC cells were analyzed by tumor sphere formation assays.

Diverse effects of mycobacterial proline-proline-glutamic acid proteins upon interaction with host macrophages.

The proline-proline-glutamic acid (PPE) family proteins are abundant only in pathogenic Mycobacteria, but their general functions are far from unveiled. To investigate their roles in how Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) resists killing by the host, 25 PPE recombinant Mycobacterium smegmatis strains that overexpress Mtb PPE proteins were constructed. During phagocytosis, a similar amount of intracellular bacteria was observed at 2 h post-infection (hpi) for 24 PPE recombinants, while a 50% reduction of entrance was observed for the PPE29 recombinant.

Lead Exposure Induces Weight Gain in Adult Rats, Accompanied by DNA Hypermethylation.

Objective: Previous studies have revealed the association of lead (Pb) exposure with obesity. DNA methylation alteration has been suggested to be one of the regulatory mechanisms of obesity. We aimed to explore whether Pb exposure is related with weight gain and DNA methylation alteration.

Fluorescence Self-Quenching from Reporter Dyes Informs on the Structural Properties of Amyloid Clusters Formed in Vitro and in Cells.

The characterization of the aggregation kinetics of protein amyloids and the structural properties of the ensuing aggregates are vital in the study of the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative diseases and the discovery of therapeutic targets. In this article, we show that the fluorescence lifetime of synthetic dyes covalently attached to amyloid proteins informs on the structural properties of amyloid clusters formed both in vitro and in cells. We demonstrate that the mechanism behind such a "lifetime sensor" of protein aggregation is based on fluorescence self-quenching and that it offers a good dynamic range to report on various stages of aggregation without significantly perturbing the process under investigation.

Sparse Exponential Family Principal Component Analysis.

We propose a Sparse exponential family Principal Component Analysis (SePCA) method suitable for any type of data following exponential family distributions, to achieve simultaneous dimension reduction and variable selection for better interpretation of the results. Because of the generality of exponential family distributions, the method can be applied to a wide range of applications, in particular when analyzing high dimensional next-generation sequencing data and genetic mutation data in genomics. The use of sparsity-inducing penalty helps produce sparse principal component loading vectors such that the principal components can focus on informative variables.

Nanoparticle-based photoacoustic analysis for highly sensitive lateral flow assays.

This paper demonstrates a photoacoustics-based lateral flow test that takes advantage of the strong interaction of light and gold nanoparticles to quantitatively detect a disease biomarker. For a commercially available lateral flow test strip, the photoacoustic analysis improved the detection limit by two orders of magnitude compared to colorimetric measurements.

ITM2A Expands Evidence for Genetic and Environmental Interaction in Graves Disease Pathogenesis.

Context: Graves disease (GD) is a common autoimmune disease triggered by genetic predisposition and environmental factors. However, the mechanisms of interaction between genetic and environmental factors contributing to the development of GD remain unknown.

Objective: We aimed to identify GD susceptibility variants and genes on Xq21.

Clinical Utility of Multimarker Genetic Risk Scores for Prediction of Incident Coronary Heart Disease: A Cohort Study Among Over 51 000 Individuals of European Ancestry.

Background: We evaluated whether including multilocus genetic risk scores (GRSs) into the Framingham Risk Equation improves the predictive capacity, discrimination, and reclassification of asymptomatic individuals with respect to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk.

Methods And Results: We performed a cohort study among 51 954 European-ancestry members of a Northern California integrated healthcare system (67% female; mean age 59) free of CHD at baseline (2007-2008). Four GRSs were constructed using between 8 and 51 previously identified genetic variants.