Interrelations of α- and β-amylase activity with starch, sugars, and culinary and nutritional quality attributes in sweetpotato storage roots.

Background: Little information is available on α- and β-amylase activity and their associations with starch, sugars and other culinary qualities in sweetpotato. The present study aimed to assess sweetpotato storage root α- and β-amylase activity in relation to starch, sugars, β-carotene content and storage root flesh color.

Results: α- and β-amylase activity (α-AA and β-AA) were assayed from a Tanzania (T) × Beauregard (B) genetic mapping population in their uncured (raw), cured and stored (approximately 11 weeks) forms during 2016 and 2017.

Development of NIRS calibration curves for sugars in baked sweetpotato.

Background: Variability in sugar content between raw and cooked sweetpotato storage roots impact nutritional and dietary importance with implications for consumer preference. High-throughput phenotyping is required to breed varieties that satisfy consumer preferences.

Results: Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) calibration curves were developed for analysing sugars in baked storage roots using 147 genotypes from a population segregating for sugar content and other traits.

Antimicrobial stewardship in a community hospital: attacking the more difficult problems.

Background: Antibiotic stewardship has been proposed as an important way to reduce or prevent antibiotic resistance. In 2001, a community hospital implemented an antimicrobial management program. It was successful in reducing antimicrobial utilization and expenditure.

Therapeutic drug monitoring of prednisolone after lung transplantation.

Background: Despite well-known and serious potential side-effects of corticosteroid therapy, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of prednisolone is rarely performed after lung transplantation (LTx).

Methods: We measured prednisolone exposure using a 6-hour area-under-the-curve (AUC) analysis in 52 LTx recipients (41 bilateral, 9 single and 2 heart-lung), who were 99 +/- 13 (mean +/- SEM) weeks (range 4 to 380) post-LTx. Fourteen of 52 had cystic fibrosis (CF), and 36 of 52 were on cyclosporine and 16 of 52 on tacrolimus.

Controlling use of antimicrobials in a community teaching hospital.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that antibiotic use could be controlled or improved in a community teaching hospital, with improvement defined as reductions in overall use, overall cost, and antimicrobial resistance.

Design: Interventional study with historical comparison.

Setting: A not-for-profit, 900-bed community general hospital with residents in medicine, surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, and psychiatry.

CD161 (human NKR-P1A) signaling in NK cells involves the activation of acid sphingomyelinase.

NK and NKT cells play a major role in both innate immunity and in influencing the development of adaptive immune responses. CD161 (human NKR-P1A), a protein encoded in the NK gene complex, is a major phenotypic marker of both these cell types and is thought to be involved in the regulation of NK and NKT cell function. However, the mechanisms of action and signaling pathways of CD161 are poorly understood.