Angiostrongylus cantonensis causes a form of parasitic meningitis in humans. Albendazole (ABZ) kills nematode larvae in the brain. However, dead larvae can trigger a severe inflammatory response, resulting in brain damage. Accumulating evidence suggests that calycosin represents a potential anti-inflammatory therapeutic candidate. In this study, we investigated the combined effects of ABZ and calycosin in angiostrongyliasis caused by A. cantonensis in BALB/c mice. Inflammatory mediators (such as phospho-nuclear factor-κB, cyclooxygenase-2, matrix metalloproteinase-9, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β) are associated with the development of meningitis and immune inflammatory reactions. We found that A. cantonensis significantly induces inflammatory mediator production and increases the blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability. However, co-administration of both ABZ and calycosin markedly suppressed meningitis and inflammatory mediator production and decreased the BBB permeability compared to treatment with a single drug. Furthermore, calycosin and ABZ plus calycosin treatment facilitated production of the antioxidant haem oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Moreover, co-therapy with ABZ and calycosin failed to mitigate angiostrongyliasis in the presence of tin-protoporphyrin IX, an HO-1-specific inhibitor. This finding suggests that the beneficial effects of ABZ plus calycosin treatment on the regulation of inflammation are mediated by the modulation of HO-1 activation. The present results provide new insights into the treatment of human angiostrongyliasis using co-therapy with ABZ and calycosin.

This paper investigates what drives countries to legislate presumed consent – making citizens organ donors by default unless they opt out – instead of explicit consent. Results reveal the following: First, civil law predicts presumed consent, which uncovers a mechanism by which an institution that long pre-dates transplantation medicine has an impact on current health outcomes. This is in line with previous research that has found that civil law regimes tend to be more comfortable with a centralized and activist government than common law ones. Second, Catholicism predicts presumed consent. This is consistent with previous research that shows Catholicism generally relies on more hierarchical structures and is less likely to encourage social responsibility among its members. Last, higher pro-social behavior decreases the likelihood of presumed consent. This could be explained by policy-makers trying not to discourage donations where pro-social behavior is high by making it look a requirement rather than an altruistic act. The implications of the findings are discussed, with a particular focus on policy-switches in organ donations.

This paper discusses a detailed computational analysis that illustrated the influences of the magnetic field and external potential on the performance of a high-temperature Hall-effect electric thruster. Uniform and non-uniform magnetic field configurations were examined. The Lorentz force in the $x$ direction, acting on the plasma, was shown to substantially enhance the flow velocity in the non-uniform magnetic field, which indicated that the non-uniform magnetic field was more suitable for Hall-effect electromagnetic acceleration. The static temperature increased with the external potential, especially near the region of cathode. This increment in gas temperature, together with the effect of the Lorentz force, results in the enhancement of the velocity at the front and back of the cathode. However, the Mach number and gas density decreased due to static temperature increases caused by the conversion of more electric power into internal energy. The thrust increased eventually with the increase of the average exit velocity.

Heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation technology is currently a technology with the potential to solve environmental pollution and energy shortages. The key to this technology is to find and design efficient photocatalysts. Here, a series of inorganic coordination polymer quantum sheets (ICPQS)@graphene oxide (GO) composite photocatalysts are synthesized by adding GO to the synthesis process of ICPQS: {[CuII(H2O)4][CuI4(CN)6]}n. These composite photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Zeta potential, and N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue showed that the activity of ICPQS@GO composite photocatalysts is better than that of ICPQS. Among ICPQS@GO composite photocatalysts, the 10.6% ICPQS@GO composite photocatalyst has the best activity, which can reach 3.3 mg/(L min) at pH 3. This method of loading low–specific surface area photocatalysts onto GO to improve photocatalytic performance indicates the direction for the synthesis of highly efficient photocatalysts.

Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating disease that typically affects formula-fed premature infants, suggesting that dietary components may influence disease pathogenesis. TAG are the major fat components of infant formula, and their digestion requires pancreatic lipases, which may be naturally deficient in premature neonates. We hypothesise that NEC develops partly from the accumulation of incompletely digested long-chain TAG-containing unsaturated fatty acids within the intestinal epithelial cells, leading to oxidative stress and enterocyte damage. We further hypothesise that the administration of a formula that contains reduced TAG (‘pre-digested fat’) that do not require lipase action may reduce NEC severity. To test these hypotheses, we induced NEC in neonatal mice using three different fat formulations, namely ‘standard fat’, ‘pre-digested fat’ or ‘very low fat’, and determined that mice fed ‘standard fat’ developed severe NEC, which was significantly reduced in mice fed ‘pre-digested fat’ or ‘very low fat’. The expression level of the critical fat-digesting enzyme carboxyl ester lipase was significantly lower in the newborn compared with older pups, leading to impaired fat digestion. The accumulation of mal-digested fat resulted in the significant accumulation of fat droplets within the intestinal epithelium of the distal ileum, resulting in the generation of reactive oxygen species and intestinal inflammation. Strikingly, these changes were prevented in pups fed ‘pre-digested fat’ or ‘very low fat’ formulas. These findings suggest that nutritional formula containing a pre-digested fat system may overcome the natural lipase deficiency of the premature gut, and serve as a novel approach to prevent NEC.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Psoriasis is one of the most common inflammatory diseases of the skin, affecting about 2%–3% of the US population. Despite its high prevalence, its pathogenesis remains poorly understood. The ability of the microbiome to modify host immunity and metabolism suggests that it may contribute to the development of psoriasis and its cardiometabolic comorbidities. This study aims to characterize the psoriatic skin microbiome and understand the functional role that these bacteria may play. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: 16s rRNA sequencing of site-matched skin swabs from 8 psoriasis patients and 8 healthy controls was used to identify bacteria and determine their relative abundance and microbial community diversity in the sample. PICRUSt was used to infer the functional roles of the bacteria from 16s rRNA amplicon data. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Lesional psoriasis skin had lower α diversity (p=0.04), less Actinobacteria (p=0.0001), but higher Firmicutes (p=0.009) compared with controls. At the genus level, lesional skin had more Alloiococcus (p=0.01) and Aerococcus (p=0.01) and demonstrated a trend towards lower Propionibacterium (p=0.08) and higher Gallicola (p=0.09) compared to controls. Interestingly, Alloiococcus (p=0.003) and Gallicola (p=0.04) were also higher in nonlesional skin compared with controls. Furthermore, lesional and nonlesional skin shared an increased abundance of Acinetobacter sp., Staphylococcus pettenkoferi, and Streptococcus sp., relative to controls. Lesional and nonlesional psoriasis skin did not differ significantly in microbiome composition. Predictive functional analysis revealed that both the healthy and psoriatic skin microbiome were enriched with bacteria capable of amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism suggest these functions might have a general role in host-microbe interaction. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: These data reveal intriguing differences in the cutaneous microbiome of psoriatic individuals and healthy controls and suggest that bacterial metabolism may play an important role in host-microbe interaction.

A study of 7,388 consecutive patients after hepatic resection between 2011 and 2012 identified hepatolithiasis, cirrhosis, and intraoperative blood transfusion as the only independent risk factors of both incisional and organ/space surgical site infection (SSI). Patients with these conditions should be cared for with caution to lower SSI rates.

We studied physical properties of titanium hafnium oxide (TixHf1-xO2) alloy thin films deposited by pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering with AC substrate bias. Thin films of two end oxides, hafnium oxides (HfO2) and titanium oxides (TiO2), and their alloys TixHf1-xO2 with a range of compositions deposited with and without the substrate bias were compared to study the dependence of physical properties of the thin films on the substrate bias. Structural, chemical and optical properties of the thin films were analyzed to assess inter-relationship among these properties. Thin films deposited with the AC substrate bias consistently show much higher refractive index and significantly lower optical extinction coefficient than those of thin films deposited without the substrate bias suggesting that characteristic microstructures developed in these thin films are responsible for the differences in the optical properties.

With the advent of printed electronics and flexible devices, flexible energy storage has received so much attention in the past few years. In this work, a scalable process for manufacturing of a flexible supercapacitor device based on nanostructured PANI and MnO2 was demonstrated. In this process, nanostructured materials are transformed into form of a printable ink which is applied on a current collector using a simple screen printing method, which can be used in a roll to roll scheme. The flexible device was assembled using a solid polymer electrolyte and the electrochemical performance of the devices was evaluated. A specific capacitance of 120 F/g and 89 F/g for two symmetrical devices based on PANI and MnO2 were obtained respectively. The devices are showing relatively good cyclability and columbic efficiency.

We studied the polarization-dependent photoluminescence (PL) of a-plane GaN /AlGaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) grown on r-plane sapphire substrate with the various well width from 1.5 to 7.33 nm. To clarify the reasons of light emission polarization properties, we applied the 6×6 k‧p model to simulate the E-k dispersion relation and the wave functions to obtain the polarization optical transitions. According to the experimental result, the PL emission peak position exhibits a red-shifted with increasing well width, due to the reduction of the quantum confinement effect. The polarization ratio of a-plane GaN/AlGaN MQWs increased from 0.236 to 0.274 with increasing the quantum well width. This phenomenon is believed to be that y-polarized light emission gradually dominates the PL spectrum and thus enhances the polarization ratio.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are procarcinogens that can be commonly found in our food and environment. Upon biotransformation in our body system, they can cause DNA damage through the generation of genotoxic species and oxidative stress. Phase I and II enzymes are pivotal in the process of proximate carcinogen formation and elimination. Some dietary phytochemicals are strong inhibitors to the phase I enzymes. In the present study, we investigated the effect of the red wine compound resveratrol on DNA damage induced by PAH in a non-tumorigenic breast cell line MCF-10A. Resveratrol ranging from 1 to 5 μm could significantly suppress the expressions of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1, CYP1B1 and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A1 induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA). The comet assay indicated that DMBA introduced DNA damage to these cells, and co-treatment of resveratrol at 5 or 10 μm could alleviate the damage. Further investigation illustrated that resveratrol reduced the binding of DMBA metabolites to DNA with no effect on DMBA-induced oxidative DNA damage. Since the phase II enzyme UGT1A1 was suppressed, the elimination of DMBA metabolites would not have contributed to the reduction in the DMBA metabolite–DNA binding. In summary, resveratrol might protect breast cells against PAH-induced DNA damage. The underlying mechanism was mediated by phase I enzyme suppression rather than phase II enzyme induction or oxidative DNA repair.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are established cancer initiators that can be found in our food and environment. Some dietary phytochemicals are strong inhibitors of PAH-induced mutagenesis. The soya isoflavone genistein has been shown previously in our laboratory to be an inhibitor of PAH metabolite binding to DNA. In the present study, we investigated the effect of genistein on oxidative DNA damage induced by PAH in the non-tumorigenic breast cell line MCF10A. 7,12-Dimethyl-benz[a]anthracene (DMBA) can induce expressions of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 which are known to be responsive to PAH. These enzymes, in turn, will metabolise the PAH into their ultimate carcinogenic forms. Genistein can significantly suppress the expressions within 5 μm. The comet assay indicated that DMBA introduced DNA damage to these cells, and co-treatment with genistein at 5 or 10 μm could alleviate the damage. In addition to the chelation of DMBA metabolites to DNA, flow cytometry results revealed that oxidation was also a factor of DNA damage. The oxidative DNA damage could be removed by co-treating with 10 μm-genistein. Because no increased oxidative DNA repair was observed, suppression on the cytochrome enzymes appeared to be the underlying mechanism.

The highly conserved DNAs of Equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1), Equine arteritis virus (EAV), Equine influenza virus (EIV), Equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) and Eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus (EEEV) were acquired by molecular cloning, and spotted on the diagnostic gene chip. The cDNAs reverse-transcribed from RNAs of samples were labelled with Cy5-dUTP/Cy3-dUTP as fluorescent probes. Following specific hybridization of the deposited gene chip and labelled probes, fluorescence signals were scanned by laser scanner and the resulting image was analysed by QiamtArray software on a digital computer. The results showed that the prepared gene chip could detect and distinguish the five equine viruses. Its sensitivity was about 25 viral genome copies. The hybridization specificity was confirmed by the presence of red fluorescence signals on the corresponding sites with samples from the five relevant viruses in horses and by the absence of positive signals with the specimens from irrelevant viruses from other animals. Peripheral blood leucocytes (PBL) from some seropositive horses in post-arrival quarantine were negative according to virus isolation, but were positive for EHV-1 and EAV according to the gene chip technique. The overall results suggest that gene chips, which are quick, specific, sensitive and reliable, can provide a practical alternative for screening quarantined animals, and will be able to deal with a large number of animal samples within a very short period of time.

The microstructure of Ba[Mg1/3(NbxTa(4−x)/4)2/3]O3 ceramics (x = 1, 2, 3, and 4) was investigated. Ordered structure and domain boundary were observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The disordered structure of 0.41 nm lattice modulation and the 1:2 ordering structure of 0.71 nm lattice modulation in the [111] direction are both formed in Ba[Mg1/3(NbxTa(4−x)/4)2/3]O3 ceramics. Except for the incoherent interface between disordered and 1:2 ordering domain, the coherent interface between two 1:2 ordering domains can also be observed in the Ba[Mg1/3(NbxTa(4−x)/4)2/3]O3 ceramics. In the Ba[Mg1/3(Nb1/4Ta3/4)2/3]O3 ceramic, the formation of an extra ordering structure (lattice modulation of 1.24 nm in the [111] direction) on the antiphase domain boundary with proper Nb substitution contributes to lower dielectric loss due to the stabilization of the domain boundary.