Dual light-responsive shape transformations of a nanocomposite hydrogel sheet enabled by etching shaped plasmonic nanoparticles.

We report here on dual shape transformations of the same thermo-responsive hybrid hydrogel sheet under irradiation of a laser with two different wavelengths (808 nm and 450 nm). By etching the silver nanoprisms in the sheet to silver nanodiscs by using chloride ions (Cl), two areas with distinct light extinction properties are integrated in a single sheet. The conversion of photon energy to thermal energy in local areas by the silver nanoprisms or nanodiscs under laser irradiation with an appropriate wavelength heats up the sheet locally and causes a local volumetric shrinkage, and hence a volumetric mismatch in different areas in the sheet.

Rain splash-mediated dispersal of from fecal deposits to field-grown lettuce in the mid- and south Atlantic U.S. regions is affected by mulch type.

Introduction: Wildlife feces can contaminate vegetables when enteric bacteria are released by rain and splashed onto crops. Regulations require growers to identify and not harvest produce that is likely contaminated, but U.S.

Differential microbiota shift on whole romaine lettuce subjected to source or forward processing and on fresh-cut products during cold storage.

Romaine lettuce in the U.S. is primarily grown in California or Arizona and either processed near the growing regions (source processing) or transported long distance for processing in facilities serving distant markets (forward processing).

Cultivar was more influential than bacterial strain and other experimental factors in recovery of O157:H7 populations from inoculated live Romaine lettuce plants.

The varied choice of bacterial strain, plant cultivar, and method used to inoculate, retrieve, and enumerate O157:H7 from live plants could affect comparability among studies evaluating lettuce-enterobacterial interactions. Cultivar, bacterial strain, incubation time, leaf side inoculated, and sample processing method were assessed for their influence in recovering and quantifying O157:H7 from live Romaine lettuce. Cultivar exerted the strongest effect on O157:H7 counts, which held up even when cultivar was considered in interactions with other factors.

Liposomes encapsulation by pH driven improves the stability, bioaccessibility and bioavailability of urolithin A: A comparative study.

Urolithin A (UroA) is gut metabolites of ellagitannins possessing a vast range of biological activities, but its poor water solubility and low bioavailability hinder its potential applications. This study utilized the pH dependent dissolution characteristics of UroA and employed a simple pH-driven method to load UroA into liposomes. The characterization and stability of obtained liposomes under different conditions were evaluated, and their oral bioavailability was tested by pharmacokinetics, and compared with UroA liposomes prepared using traditional thin film dispersion (TFM-ULs).

Photoactive conjugated microporous polymer@C with quencher on tailed Y-triangular DNA structure for high-performance signal-off photoelectrochemical biosensing.

Herein, we synthesized a conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) decorated C (CMP@C) with high photoelectric conversion efficiency, in which continuously repeated donor-acceptor (D-A) π electron unit within one molecule of CMP on C could not only effectively increase the mobility of photogenerated carriers with improved electron transmission, but also constitute the cascade energy band matching with reduced electron-hole recombination. Based on the high-performance of CMP@C for producing exciting initial photoelectrochemical (PEC) signal, a sensitive signal-off sensing platform was designed for lead ion (Pb) assay by coupling with quencher methylene blue (MB) interacting on efficient long tailed Y-triangular DNA structure (LYTD). The proposed LYTD with a tripod structure could generate six long tails in situ on its side at the same time via a simple hybridization chain reaction (HCR), providing notably grooves on electrode to accommodate quencher MB to significantly depress the signal for sensitive detection of Pb.

Genetic response of Salmonella Typhimurium to trans-cinnamaldehyde assisted heat treatment and its correlation with bacterial resistance in different low moisture food components.

Our previous study found that water activity (a)- and matrix-dependent bacterial resistance wasdeveloped in Salmonella Typhimurium during antimicrobial-assisted heat treatment in low moisture foods (LMFs) matrices. To better understand the molecular mechanism behind the observed bacterial resistance, gene expression analysis was conducted on S. Typhimurium adapted to different conditions with or without the trans-cinnamaldehyde (CA)-assisted heat treatment via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

Mitigation of Alba extracts on HO-induced oxidative damage in HepG2 cells and hyperglycemia in zebrafish, and identification of phytochemical constituents.

Alba (PRA), as a Traditional Chinese Medicine, is widely used in Chinese cuisine due to high health-benefits and nutrition, but the effect of different polarity of solvents on the extraction of antioxidant and hypoglycemic constituents, as well as the major active compounds remain unclear. In this research, 40, 70, and 95% ethanol were firstly applied to extract the polyphenols from PRA, the extraction yields, total phenolics, and total flavonoids content, free radical scavenging ability, α-glucosidase inhibition ability, and anti-glycation ability of extracts were evaluated spectroscopically. The oxidative damage protection, hypoglycemic activity, and alleviation on peripheral nerve damage were evaluated by HO-induced HepG2 cells and hyperglycemic zebrafish models.

Assessment of trans-cinnamaldehyde and eugenol assisted heat treatment against Salmonella Typhimurium in low moisture food components.

Increased thermal resistance of Salmonella at low water activity (a) is a significant food safety concern in low-moisture foods (LMFs). We evaluated whether trans-cinnamaldehyde (CA, 1000 ppm) and eugenol (EG, 1000 ppm), which can accelerate thermal inactivation of Salmonella Typhimurium in water, can show similar effect in bacteria adapted to low a in different LMF components. Although CA and EG significantly accelerated thermal inactivation (55 °C) of S.

Metal Porphyrin Complex Combined with Polymerization and Isomerization Cyclic Amplification for a Sensitive Photoelectrochemical Assay.

5,10,15,20-Tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)-21H,23H-porphine (TPAPP) possesses good light-harvesting ability and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cathode response signal; however, the disadvantages of easy stacking and weak hydrophilicity limit its application as a signal probe in PEC biosensors. Based on these, we prepared a Fe and Cu co-coordinating photoactive material (TPAPP-Fe/Cu) with horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-like activity. The metal ions in the porphyrin center not only enabled the directional flow of photogenerated electrons between electron-rich porphyrin and positive metal ions within inner-/intermolecular layers but also accelerated electron transfer through a synergistic redox reaction of Fe(III)/Fe(II) and Cu(II)/Cu(I) as well as rapid generation of superoxide anion radicals (O) by mimicking catalytically produced and dissolved oxygen, thereby providing the desired cathode photoactive material with extremely high photoelectric conversion efficiency.

Research on improved intestinal image classification for LARS based on ResNet.

Low anterior rectal resection is an effective way to treat rectal cancer at present, but it is easy to cause low anterior resection syndrome after surgery; so, a comprehensive diagnosis of defecation and pelvic floor function must be carried out. There are few studies on the classification of diagnoses in the field of intestinal diseases. In response to these outstanding problems, this research will focus on the design of the intestinal function diagnosis system and the image processing and classification algorithm of the intestinal wall to verify an efficient fusion method, which can be used to diagnose the intestinal diseases in clinical medicine.

Au nano-flower/organic polymer heterojunction-based cathode photochemical biosensor with reduction-accelerated quenching effect of porphyrin manganese.

In this work, a novel reduction-accelerated quenching of manganese porphyrin (MnPP) based signal-off cathode photochemical (PEC) biosensor by using Au nano-flower/organic polymer (PTB7-Th) heterojunction as platform was proposed for ultrasensitive detection of Hg. Firstly, the photoactive PTB7-Th with Au nano-flower on electrode could form a typical Mott-Schottky heterojunction for acquiring an extremely high cathode signal. Meanwhile, the presence of target Hg could bring in the formation of T-Hg-T based scissor-like DNA walker, which thus activated efficient Mg-specific DNAzyme based cleavage recycling to shear hairpin H2 on electrode to exposure abundant trigger sites of hybridization chain reaction (HCR) for in-situ decoration of quencher MnPP.

Electrochemical biosensor based on efficient target-trigger T-structure recycling with dual strand displacement amplification for sensing miRNA-155.

In this work, a novel label-free and signal-off electrochemical biosensor based on efficient target-trigger T-structure recycling with dual strand displacement amplification (T-DSDA) was constructed for sensitive detection of miRNA-155 that related to cardiovascular diseases. Compared with traditional SDA, the proposed strategy not only accomplished simple polymerization and shearing of dsDNA without continuous consumption of temple DNA, but also ingeniously designed two analogous sequences that produced double cleavage sites, thereby obtaining extensive output DNA for further cleaving Y-structure assembled on electrode with significantly improved target conversion efficiency. Since the redox probe methylene blue (MB) attach to Y-structure via electrostatic interaction and tessellation, an obviously decreased current with a typical signal-off mode could be acquired for sensing miRNA-155 in the assistant of DNAzyme cleavage recycling.

AuNPs/CdS QDs/CeO ternary nanocomposite coupled with scrollable three-dimensional DNA walker mediated cycling amplification for sensitive photoelectrochemical miRNA assay.

Herein, a novel ternary nanocomposite (AuNPs/CdS QDs/CeO) with excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance was synthesized as signal probe to construct a near-zero background biosensor for sensitive miRNA-182-5p detection, by integrating with a scrollable three-dimensional (3D) DNA walker mediated cleavage cycling amplification. Impressively, the formation and rolling of scrollable 3D DNA walker triggered by target could realize dynamic, rapid and specific digestion of hairpin DNA on electrode with the aid of Exonuclease III (Exo III), which thus exposed abundant binding sites for assembling stable DNA labeled AuNPs/CdS QDs/CeO nanoprobes. Thanks to the formation of type-II heterojunction (between CeO and CdS QDs) and Schottky junction (generated by CeO and AuNPs), an ideal photoelectric conversion efficiency accompanied with stunningly improved photocurrent was thus acquired for significantly improving the detection sensitivity.

Support Vector Machine versus Multiple Logistic Regression for Prediction of Postherpetic Neuralgia in Outpatients with Herpes Zoster.

Background: Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), as the most common complication of herpes zoster (HZ), is very refractory to current therapies. Studies of HZ have indicated that early aggressive pain interventions can effectively prevent PHN; therefore, accurately predicting PHN in outpatients with HZ and treating HZ promptly, would be of great benefit to patients. Multiple logistic regression (MLR) has often been used to predict PHN.

Impaired signaling for neuromuscular synaptic maintenance is a feature of Motor Neuron Disease.

A central event in the pathogenesis of motor neuron disease (MND) is the loss of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), yet the mechanisms that lead to this event in MND remain to be fully elucidated. Maintenance of the NMJ relies upon neural agrin (n-agrin) which, when released from the nerve terminal, activates the postsynaptic Muscle Specific Kinase (MuSK) signaling complex to stabilize clusters of acetylcholine receptors. Here, we report that muscle from MND patients has an increased proportion of slow fibers and muscle fibers with smaller diameter.

Diagnosis analysis of rectal function through using ensemble empirical mode decomposition-deep belief networks algorithm.

The rectal motility function can reflect a person's rectal health status. To diagnose the rectal motility function after artificial anal sphincter implantation, this paper proposes a rectal function diagnosis model based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition-deep belief networks (EEMD-DBNs). Because of the rectal pressure signals that are unstable and subjected to noise interferences, an EEMD framework based on EMD, which can reduce the effect of signal modal mixing, is proposed.

TDP-43 Mutation Affects Stress Granule Dynamics in Differentiated NSC-34 Motoneuron-Like Cells.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Cytoplasmic inclusions of TDP-43 are frequently reported in motor neurons of ALS patients. TDP-43 has also been shown to associate with stress granules (SGs), a complex of proteins and mRNAs formed in response to stress stimuli that temporarily sequester mRNA translation.

Assessment of butylparaben (4-hydroxybenzoic acid butyl ester)-assisted heat treatment against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium in meat and bone meal.

Heat-resistant foodborne pathogens have been a concern in low-moisture foods and ingredients (LMFs). Due to low thermal conductivity of low moisture materials, thermal treatment is not efficient and may cause nutritional loss. This study investigated the enhancement of thermal treatment of meat and bone meal (MBM) at low water activity (a ) by inclusion of butylparaben (BP) as a model antimicrobial compound.

A novel self-enhanced carbon nitride platform coupled with highly effective dual-recycle strand displacement amplifying strategy for sensitive photoelectrochemical assay.

In this work, a novel self-enhanced photoelectric active material, Na, K-codoped carbon nitride (NaKCN), was synthesized for constructing sensitive photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor to detect target miRNA-182-5p. Ingeniously, the NaKCN displayed glucose oxidase (GOx)-mimicking photocatalytic property, which catalyzed glucose to in situ generate high levels of HO as its own electron donor for enhancing photocurrent. Moreover, the Na, K co-doping could reduce energy gap of carbon nitride material, effectively improving the optical absorptivity and photocatalytic efficiency.

Inactivation of foodborne pathogens by the synergistic combinations of food processing technologies and food-grade compounds.

There is a need to develop food processing technologies with enhanced antimicrobial capacity against foodborne pathogens. While considering the challenges of adequate inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms in different food matrices, the emerging technologies are also expected to be sustainable and have a minimum impact on food quality and nutrients. Synergistic combinations of food processing technologies and food-grade compounds have a great potential to address these needs.

Synergistic Effects of Butyl Para-Hydroxybenzoate and Mild Heating on Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria.

Abstract: Although high-temperature heat treatments can efficiently reduce pathogen levels, they also affect the quality and nutritional profile of foods and increase the cost of processing. The food additive butyl para-hydroxybenzoate (BPB) was investigated for its potential to synergistically enhance thermal microbial inactivation at mild heating temperatures (54 to 58°C). Four foodborne pathogenic bacteria, Cronobacter sakazakii, Salmonella enterica Typhimurium, attenuated Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes, were cultured to early stationary phase and then subjected to mild heating at 58, 55, 57, and 54°C, respectively, in a model food matrix (brain heart infusion [BHI]) containing low concentrations of BPB (≤125 ppm).

Antimicrobial action of octanoic acid against Escherichia coli O157:H7 during washing of baby spinach and grape tomatoes.

We investigated the antimicrobial efficacy of octanoic acid (OA) against Escherichia coli O157:H7 inoculated on the surface of baby spinach and grape tomatoes during simulated washing processes. 3 mM OA at 45 °C achieved >6 log CFU/g reduction from the surface of tomatoes within 2 min. However, washing baby spinach with 6 mM OA at 5 °C resulted in <1 log CFU/g reduction, highlighting the role of surface properties in inactivation efficacy.

Magnetic ion exchange resin for effective removal of perfluorooctanoate from water: study of a response surface methodology and adsorption performances.

This research exhibited the use of magnetic ion exchange (MIEX) resin as an effective adsorbent for the removal of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in aqueous solution. The adsorption performance of PFOA was investigated by a batch experiment. All kinds of factors affecting the adsorption of PFOA, including adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, adsorption time, temperature, stirring intensity, coexistent anions, initial solution pH, natural organic matter, ion strength, and bed volume were studied.