Aggerconley5611

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small molecules which serve as essential components of the innate immune system in various organisms. AMPs possess a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities. However, the scaled production of such peptides in Escherichia coli faces many difficulties because of their small size and toxicity to the host. Here, we described a new fusion strategy to extracellularly produce significant amounts of these antimicrobial peptides in recombinant E. coli at significant amount. Employing the catalytic domain of a cellulase (Cel-CD) from Bacillus subtilis KSM-64 as the fusion partner, five recombinant antimicrobial peptides were confirmed to accumulate in the culture medium at concentrations ranging from 184 mg/L to 297 mg/L. The radical diffusion experiment demonstrated that the released model antimicrobial peptide, bombinin, had antibacterial activities against both E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This strategy will be suitable for the production of antimicrobial peptides and other toxicity proteins.Materials with interacting magnetic degrees of freedom display a rich variety of magnetic behaviour that can lead to novel collective equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium phenomena. In equilibrium, thermodynamic phases appear with the associated phase transitions providing a characteristic signature of the underlying collective behaviour. Here we create a thermally active artificial kagome spin ice that is made up of a large array of dipolar interacting nanomagnets and undergoes phase transitions predicted by microscopic theory. We use low energy muon spectroscopy to probe the dynamic behaviour of the interacting nanomagnets and observe peaks in the muon relaxation rate that can be identified with the critical temperatures of the predicted phase transitions. This provides experimental evidence that a frustrated magnetic metamaterial can be engineered to admit thermodynamic phases.Prophages of Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium known to co-evolve in the stomach of its human host, were recently identified. However, their role in the diversity of H. pylori strains is unknown. We demonstrate here and for the first time that the diversity of the prophage genes offers the ability to distinguish between European populations, and that H. pylori prophages and their host bacteria share a complex evolutionary history. By comparing the phylogenetic trees of two prophage genes (integrase and holin) and the multilocus sequence typing (MLST)-based data obtained for seven housekeeping genes, we observed that the majority of the strains belong to the same phylogeographic group in both trees. Furthermore, we found that the Bayesian analysis of the population structure of the prophage genes identified two H. pylori European populations, hpNEurope and hpSWEurope, while the MLST sequences identified one European population, hpEurope. The population structure analysis of H. pylori prophages was even more discriminative than the traditional MLST-based method for the European population. Prophages are new players to be considered not only to show the diversity of H. pylori strains but also to more sharply define human populations.Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schoot (taro) is one of the most common crops in the world. Its rhizome was a tonic medicine and accustomed to treat some gastrointestinal disorders in traditional Chinese medicine. Today, the taro was further developed as anticancer prescription in herbal therapy. However, the mucilage of the fresh taro has irritation, and causes itchy feeling. The components in the mucilage were not evident up to now. Two active compounds, uracil and glycol-protein taro lectin (Accession number A5HMM7), were purified and identified from the fresh taro. The glycol-protein taro lectin showed nerve stimulation activity on dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons from GCaMP transgenic mice at the concentration of 1mg/mL.Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) have been widely used in various consumer products, especially food and personal care products. Compared to the well-characterized adverse cardiovascular effect of inhaled ambient ultrafine particles, research on the health response to orally administrated TiO2 NPs is still limited. In our study, we performed an in vivo study in Sprague-Dawley rats to understand the cardiovascular effect of TiO2 NPs after oral intake. After daily gastrointestinal administration of TiO2 NPs at 0, 2, 10, 50 mg/kg for 30 and 90 days, heart rate (HR), blood pressure, blood biochemical parameters and histopathology of cardiac tissues was assessed to quantify cardiovascular damage. Mild and temporary reduction of HR and systolic blood pressure as well as an increase of diastolic blood pressure was observed after daily oral administration of TiO2 NPs for 30 days. Injury of cardiac function was observed after daily oral administration of TiO2 NPs for 90 days as reflected in decreased activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alpha-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HBDH) and creatine kinase (CK). Increased white blood cells count (WBC) and granulocytes (GRN) in blood as well as increased concentrations of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) in the serum indicated inflammatory response initiated by TiO2 NPs exposure. It was hypothesize that cardiac damage and inflammatory response are the possible mechanisms of the adverse cardiovascular effects induced by orally administrated TiO2 NPs. Data from our study suggested that even at low dose of TiO2 NPs can induce adverse cardiovascular effects after 30 days or 90 days of oral exposure, thus warranting concern for the dietary intake of TiO2 NPs for consumers.

To determine the psychometric properties of the Sympathy-Acceptance-Understanding-Caring Competence (SAUC) model questionnaire for foreign-born parents evaluating nursing encounters in the Swedish Primary Child Health Care (PCHC) services.

Multicultural encounters in child health care from the nursing perspective are challenging and problematic worldwide. A suitable theory-based and validated questionnaire is needed for foreign-born parents to assess the quality of their encounters with nurses.

The SAUC questionnaire, modified for use by new, foreign-born parents using the Swedish PCHC services, was evaluated for its congruence with the theory of Confirming Encounter. The study was ethically approved and data were collected between March and August 2009 from 83 new, foreign-born parents seen at 50 clinics. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify related factors, and goodness-of-fit tests were used to estimate theoretical consistency. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to verify the results.

irmatory factor analysis - person support, self-support, and self-perspective support - indicated internal consistency and validated the three factors implicit in the theory Confirming Encounter. In addition, a new factor, concordance, was identified that is compatible with the theory. Veliparib To conclude, despite the fact that a modified questionnaire have its limitations results demonstrate that the SAUC-model questionnaire seems to be a reliable and valid nursing quality-control measure with which foreign-born parents can evaluate the qualities of a confirming encounter with nurses. However, we suggest the need for testing the questionnaire in a larger population.Somatostatin regulates stress-related behavior and its expression is altered in mood disorders. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms, especially about the importance of its receptors (sst1-sst5) in anxiety and depression-like behavior. Here we analyzed the potential role of sst4 receptor in these processes, since sst4 is present in stress-related brain regions, but there are no data about its functional relevance. Genetic deletion of sst4 (Sstr4(-/-)) and its pharmacological activation with the newly developed selective non-peptide agonist J-2156 were used. Anxiety was examined in the elevated plus maze (EPM) and depression-like behavior in the forced swim (FST) and tail suspension tests (TST). Neuronal activation during the TST was monitored by Fos immunohistochemistry, receptor expression was identified by sst4(LacZ) immunostaining in several brain regions. Sstr4(-/-) mice showed increased anxiety in the EPM and enhanced depression-like behavior in the FST. J-2156 (100 μg/kg i.p.) exhibited anxiolytic effect in the EPM and decreased immobility in the TST. J-2156 alone did not influence Fos immunoreactivity in intact mice, but significantly increased the stress-induced Fos response in the dorsal raphe nucleus, central projecting Edinger-Westphal nucleus, periaqueductal gray matter, the magnocellular, but not the parvocellular part of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, lateral septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the amygdala. Notably, sst4(LacZ) immunoreactivity occurred in the central and basolateral amygdala. Together, these studies reveal that sst4 mediates anxiolytic and antidepressant-like effects by enhancing the stress-responsiveness of several brain regions with special emphasis on the amygdala.Single crystals of NaCa4B3O9, NaCaBO3, NaSrBO3 and Li4CaB2O6 have been successfully synthesized through conventional high-temperature solid-state reactions. They are structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and exhibit three-dimensional crystal structures consisting of isolated planar BO3 as fundamental building blocks. Interestingly, for the centrosymmetric crystal structure of NaCaBO3 (Na3Ca3B3O9), as 2/3 of the Na(+) ions are substituted by Ca(2+) ions, NaCa4B3O9 is obtained and crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group Ama2 (crystal class mm2). A second harmonic generation (SHG) test of the title compound by the Kurtz-Perry method shows that NaCa4B3O9 can be phase matchable with an effective SHG coefficient approximately one-half that of KH2PO4 (KDP). Studies of their optical properties as well as band structure calculations based on density functional theory methods have been also performed. NaCa4B3O9 possesses a moderate birefringence of about 0.05 at 1064 nm. To explain the difference in optical nonlinearity we compared the electronic structures of NaCa4B3O9, KCa4B3O9 and KSr4B3O9 crystals, in particular at the bottom of the conduction band (CB) and the top of the valence band (VB), since they are known to play a primary role in SHG. These electronic structures are responsible for the optical-nonlinearity of NaCa4B3O9, KCa4B3O9 and KSr4B3O9 crystals.Virus-like particles are an established class of commercial vaccine possessing excellent function and proven stability. Exciting developments made possible by modern tools of synthetic biology has stimulated emergence of modular VLPs, whereby parts of one pathogen are by design integrated into a less harmful VLP which has preferential physical and manufacturing character. This strategy allows the immunologically protective parts of a pathogen to be displayed on the most-suitable VLP. However, the field of modular VLP design is immature, and robust design principles are yet to emerge, particularly for larger antigenic structures. Here we use a combination of molecular dynamic simulation and experiment to reveal two key design principles for VLPs. First, the linkers connecting the integrated antigenic module with the VLP-forming protein must be well designed to ensure structural separation and independence. Second, the number of antigenic domains on the VLP surface must be sufficiently below the maximum such that a "steric barrier" to VLP formation cannot exist.