Diagnosis of infection: serology vs. urea breath test.

Unlabelled: The objective of the study was to ascertain an optimal diagnostic strategy using population-level laboratory data comparing the performance of serology against urea breath test (UBT). diagnostic test results for serology and UBT from two laboratories over a 12-year period (2006-20017) were extracted, linked, and analyzed. A subset of this population underwent both methods of testing within days of each other, enabling a direct comparison of the two methods.

Effect of Grafting Density on the Crystallization Behavior of Molecular Bottlebrushes.

A unique case of sterically constrained crystallization arises in bottlebrush polymers bearing semicrystalline side chains. Bottlebrushes with grafted side chains can form crystalline structures governed by the complex interplay between side chain packing and backbone confinement. The confinement effect can be readily tuned by varying the side chain grafting density, thus affording control over the crystallization behavior of these systems.

Worm-globule transition of amphiphilic pH-responsive heterografted bottlebrushes at air-water interface.

Heterografted molecular bottlebrushes (MBBs) with side chains composed of poly(-butyl acrylate) (PBA) and pH-responsive poly(2-(,-diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA, p = 7.4) have been shown to be efficient, robust, and responsive emulsifiers. However, it remains unknown how they respond to external stimuli at interfaces.

Amphiphilic Heterografted Molecular Bottlebrushes with Tertiary Amine-Containing Side Chains as Efficient and Robust pH-Responsive Emulsifiers.

By combining the unique characteristics of molecular bottlebrushes (MBBs) and the properties of stimuli-responsive polymers, we show that MBBs with randomly grafted poly(n-butyl acrylate) and pH-responsive poly(2-(N,N-diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) side chains are efficient and robust pH-responsive emulsifiers. Water-in-toluene emulsions were formed at pH 4.0 and disrupted by increasing the pH to 10.

Adaptable Multivalent Hairy Inorganic Nanoparticles.

We report a polymer brush-based approach for fabricating multivalent patchy nanoparticles (NPs) with the number of nanodomains (valency) from 6 to 10, potentially from 1 to 10, by exploiting the lateral microphase separation of binary mixed homopolymer brushes grafted on NPs with a radius comparable to the polymer sizes. Well-defined mixed brushes were grown on 20.4 nm silica NPs by two-step surface-initiated reversible deactivation radical polymerizations and microphase separated laterally upon casting from a good solvent, producing multivalent NPs on 2D surfaces.

Effects of temperature on chaotropic anion-induced shape transitions of star molecular bottlebrushes with heterografted poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(,-dialkylaminoethyl methacrylate) side chains in acidic water.

This article reports a study of the effects of temperature on chaotropic anion (CA)-induced star-globule shape transitions in acidic water of three-arm star bottlebrushes composed of heterografted poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and either poly(2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) or poly(2-(N,N-diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) (the brushes denoted as SMB-11 and -22, respectively). The brush polymers were synthesized by grafting alkyne-end-functionalized PEO and PDMAEMA or PDEAEMA onto an azide-bearing three-arm star backbone polymer using the copper(i)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction. Six anions were studied for their effects on the conformations of SMB-11 and -22 in acidic water: super CAs [Fe(CN)6]3- and [Fe(CN)6]4-, moderate CAs PF6- and ClO4-, weak CA I-, and for comparison, kosmotropic anion SO42-.

Elevated troponin and jarisch-herxheimer reaction in tick-borne relapsing Fever: a case report.

We describe a patient with fever and borreliosis in the Northwestern Washington State, USA. The patient exhibited a classic Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction of tachycardia, hypotension, and thrombocytopenia following antimicrobial therapy, and she also developed an elevated serum cardiac troponin during therapy.

The Bogorol family of antibiotics: template-based structure elucidation and a new approach to positioning enantiomeric pairs of amino acids.

The sequence positions of d and l Leu and Lys residues in bogorol A (1) have been defined by a simple and novel approach that utilizes small amounts of sample and focuses on detecting the order in which amino acids are liberated from the parent peptide during acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. This technique builds on a previously established relationship between the steric and electronic features of amino acids and their predilection for acidic liberation from polypeptides via dipeptides. The results, which complete the structure of bogorol A, have been confirmed by traditional degradation experiments.

Tupuseleiamides and basiliskamides, new acyldipeptides and antifungal polyketides produced in culture by a Bacillus laterosporus isolate obtained from a tropical marine habitat.

Laboratory cultures of PNG 276, a Bacillus laterosporus isolate obtained from coastal waters off Papua New Guinea, have been shown to produce the novel metabolites basiliskamide A (1), basiliskamide B (2), tupuseleiamide A (3), and tupusleiamide B (4). The structures of 1 to 4 were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data and chemical degradation. Basiliskamides A (1) and B (2) show potent in vitro anti-Candida activity.