Bis[N-benzyl-2-(quinolin-8-yl­oxy)acetamide]dichloridocopper(II) acetonitrile solvate monohydrate

In the title complex, [CuCl2(C18H16N2O2)2]·CH3CN·H2O, the six-coordinated Cu atom is in a distorted octa­hedral geometry with the donor centers of two O atoms and two N atom from two bidentate ligands, and two chloride ions. In the crystal, pairs of inter­molecular N—H⋯ Cl hydrogen bonds form centrosymmetric dimers and inter­molecular O—H⋯ O hydrogen bonds between the ligand and the uncoordinated water mol­ecules link the dimers into chains parallel to the c axis

Diagnosis and microecological characteristics of aerobic vaginitis in outpatients based on preformed enzymes

AbstractObjectiveAerobic vaginitis (AV) is a recently proposed term for genital tract infection in women. The diagnosis of AV is mainly based on descriptive diagnostic criteria proposed by Donders and co-workers. The objective of this study is to report AV prevalence in southwest China using an objective assay kit based on preformed enzymes and also to determine its characteristics.Materials and methodsA total of 1948 outpatients were enrolled and tested by a commercial diagnostic kit to investigate the AV prevalence and characteristics in southwestern China. The study mainly examined the vaginal ecosystem, age distribution, Lactobacillus amount, and changes in pH. Differences within groups were analyzed by Wilcoxon two-sample test.ResultsThe AV detection rate is 15.40%. The AV patients were usually seen in the sexually active age group of 20–30 years, followed by those in the age group of 30–40 years. The vaginal ecosystems of all the patients studied were absolutely abnormal, and diagnosed to have a combined infection [aerobic vaginitis (AV) + bacterial vaginitis (BV) 61.33%; 184/300]. Aerobic bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, were predominantly found in the vaginal samples of these women.ConclusionAV is a common type of genital infection in southwestern China and is characterized by sexually active age and combined infection predominated by the AV and BV type

Antioxidant activities of protein hydrolysates obtained from the housefly larvae

The housefly is an important resource insect and the housefly larvae are ideal source of food additives. The housefly larvae protein hydrolysates were obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis by alcalase and neutral proteinase. Their antioxidant activities were investigated, including the superoxide and hydroxyl radicalscavenging activity, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, reducing power and metal chelating activity. The antioxidant activities of both hydrolysates increased with their increasing concentrations. The alcalase hydrolysate (AH) showed higher scavenging activities against hydroxyl radical and superoxide anion radical at low concentrations and higher metal-chelating activity than the neutral proteinase hydrolysate (NPH). The NPH exhibited higher scavenging activity against DPPH free radical and higher reducing power than the AH. Both hydrolysates showed more than 50% superoxide anion radical-scavenging activity at 10 μg/mL. These results indicate that both housefly larvae protein hydrolysates display high antioxidant activities and they could serve as potential natural antioxidant food additives

Utjecaj lantana na mikrostrukturu i svojstva čelika ASTM A216

In order to satisfy the rudder horn casting standards of the International Association of Classification Societies, the properties of ASTM A216 steel should be improved. Therefore, in this article the rudder horn casting and accompanying specimens were cast moulded by arc furnace smelting, external refining, and modification treatment of the molten steel by lanthanum. The samples were first underwent normalizing treatment at 900 °C for 10 hours, then air cooled, followed by tempering treatment at 600 °C for 7 hours and samples were air cooled again. The mechanical properties and microstructures of the samples were measured. The crystallography relationships between lanthanum compounds formed in the molten steel and primary δ-Fe were analysed. The nucleation effect of lanthanum compounds as a heterogeneous nucleation core of primary δ-Fe were calculated and discussed based on two-dimensional mismatch theory. The results indicated that the strip MnS inclusions in ASTM A216 steel became granular rare earth compound inclusions due to La. The refined microstructures were obtained by a synergistic effect of the enhanced condensate depression and the nucleation rate of melt and La compounds as the heterogeneous nucleation caused by La.Da bi se zadovoljili standardi Međunarodnog udruženja klasifikacijskih zavoda (IACS) za lijevanje krmenog roga, potrebno je poboljšati svojstva čelika ASTM A216. Odljevci krmenog roda i prateći uzorci, nakon taljenja čelika u elektrolučnoj peći, rafiniranja i dodatka lantana, izrađeni su lijevanjem čelika u kalupe. Uzorci su prvo normalizirani zagrijavanjem 10 sati na 900 °C, ohlađeni na zraku, potom podvrgnuti popuštanju 7 sati na 600 °C i ponovno ohlađeni na zraku. Određena su mehanička svojstva uzoraka i proučena mikrostruktura. Analizirana je sličnost kristalne građe spojeva lantana nastalih u rastaljenom čeliku i δ-željeza. Izračunata je učinkovitost lantanovih spojeva kao podloge za heterogenu nukleaciju δ-željeza na temelju dvodimenzijskog nepodudaranja struktura. Dodatkom lantana vrpčasti uklopci MnS postaju zrnasti uklopci spoja rijetke zemlje. Finija mikrostruktura dobivena je sinergijskim djelovanjem povećane depresije kondenzata i brže nukleacije uz lantan

Two DsbA Proteins Are Important for Vibrio parahaemolyticus Pathogenesis

Bacterial pathogens maintain disulfide bonds for protein stability and functions that are required for pathogenesis. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative pathogen that causes food-borne gastroenteritis and is also an important opportunistic pathogen of aquatic animals. Two genes encoding the disulfide bond formation protein A, DsbA, are predicted to be encoded in the V. parahaemolyticus genome. DsbA plays an important role in Vibrio cholerae virulence but its role in V. parahaemolyticus is largely unknown. In this study, the activities and functions of the two V. parahaemolyticus DsbA proteins were characterized. The DsbAs affected virulence factor expression at the post-translational level. The protein levels of adhesion factor VpadF (VP1767) and the thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) were significantly reduced in the dsbA deletion mutants. V. parahaemolyticus lacking dsbA also showed reduced attachment to Caco-2 cells, decreased β-hemolytic activity, and less toxicity to both zebrafish and HeLa cells. Our findings demonstrate that DsbAs contribute to V. parahaemolyticus pathogenesis

Fermentation quality, aerobic stability, and microbiome structure and function of Caragana korshinskii silage inoculated with/without Lactobacillus rhamnosus or Lactobacillus buchneri

Caragana korshinskii is a forage shrub species with high-protein content that has been extensively used to alleviate feed shortages for ruminants in northern China. Herein, we investigated the effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus buchneri on the fermentation quality, aerobic stability, and microbiome composition and the predicted functional characteristics of C. korshinskii silage. C. korshinskii silages were inoculated with and without L. rhamnosus or L. buchneri. After 14 and 56 days of ensiling, the aerobic stability was determined. The results revealed that after 14 and 56 days of ensiling, L. rhamnosus- and L. buchneri-inoculated silage exhibited increased acetic acid and lactic acid contents, whereas the pH and 2,3-butanediol and butyric acid contents were decreased compared with those of the control silage. The control silages that were opened at 14 and 56 d, deteriorated during the aerobic stability test, whereas silages inoculated with L. rhamnosus and L. buchneri did not exhibit any aerobic deterioration. The control silage showed an increased Clostridium and Bacillus abundance, whereas Lactobacillus abundance decreased compared with L. rhamnosus- and L. buchneri-inoculated silages, following the 7 days of aerobic exposure. The fermentation parameters were associated with microbial communities, including Lactobacillus, Pedicoccus, Weissella, Clostridium, and Bacillus. Carbohydrate and amino acid metabolisms in the control silage decreased after 7 days of aerobic exposure compared with lactic acid bacteria-inoculated silages. To conclude, next-generation sequencing combined with 16S ribosomal RNA gene-predicted functional analyses might provide new information about the silage quality during fermentation and the aerobic stability

Association of smoking, alcohol drinking and dietary factors with esophageal cancer in high- and low-risk areas of Jiangsu Province, China

To study the main environmental and lifestyle factors that account for the regional differences in esophageal cancer (EC) risk in low- and high-risk areas of Jiangsu Province, China. Since 2003, a population-based casecontrol study has been conducted simultaneously in lowrisk (Ganyu County) and high-risk (Dafeng County) areas of Jiangsu Province, China. Using identical protocols and pre-tested standardized questionnaire, following written informed consent, eligible subjects were inquired about their detail information on potential determinants of EC, including demographic information, socio-economic status, living conditions, disease history, family cancer history, smoking, alcohol drinking, dietary habits, frequency, amount of food intake, etc. Conditional logistic regression with maximum likelihood estimation was used to obtain Odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confi dence interval (95% CI), after adjustment for potential confounders In the preliminary analysis of the ongoing study, we recruited 291 pairs of cases and controls in Dafeng and 240 pairs of cases and controls in Ganyu, respectively. In both low-risk and high-risk areas, EC was inversely associated with socio-economic status, such as level of education, past economic status and body mass index. However, this disease was more frequent among those who had a family history of cancer or encountered misfortune in the past 10 years. EC was also more frequent among smokers, alcohol drinkers and fast eaters. Furthermore, there was a geographic variation of the associations between smoking, alcohol drinking and EC risk despite the similar prevalence of these risk factors in both low-risk and high-risk areas. The dose-response relationship of smoking and smoking related variables, such as age of the fi rst smoking, duration and amount were apparent only in high-risk areas. On the contrary, a dose-response relationship on the effect of alcohol drinking on EC was observed only in low-risk area

The Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Quasar Survey: Quasar Properties from Data Release Six to Nine

We report the fourth installment in the series of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Quasar Survey, which includes quasars observed between September, 2017 and June, 2021. There are in total 13,066 quasars reliably identified, of which 6,685 are newly discovered that are not reported in the SDSS DR14 quasar catalog or Million Quasars catalog. Because LAMOST does not provide accurate absolute flux calibration, we re-calibrate the spectra with the SDSS/Pan-STARRS1 multi-band photometric data. The emission line properties of H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, Mg\,{\sc ii} and C\,{\sc iv}, and the continuum luminosities are measured by fitting the re-calibrated spectra. We also estimate the single-epoch virial black hole masses ($\rm M_{BH}$) using the derived emission line and continuum parameters. This is the first time that the emission line and continuum fluxes were estimated based on LAMOST re-calibrated quasar spectra. The catalog and spectra for these quasars are available online. After the nine-year LAMOST quasar survey, there are in total 56,175 identified quasars, of which 24,127 are newly discovered. The LAMOST quasar survey not only discovers a great number of new quasars, but also provides a database for investigating the spectral variability of the quasars observed by both LAMOST and SDSS, and finding rare quasars including changing-look quasars and broad absorption line quasars.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1811.01570, Accepted by ApJ

Knowledge and attitudes of healthcare workers in Chinese intensive care units regarding 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To describe the knowledge and attitudes of critical care clinicians during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A survey conducted in 21 intensive care units in 17 provinces in China.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 733 questionnaires distributed, 695 were completed. Three hundred and fifty-six respondents (51.2%) reported their experience of caring for H1N1 patients. Despite the fact that 88.5% of all respondents ultimately finished an H1N1 training program, only 41.9% admitted that they had the knowledge of 2009 H1N1 influenza. A total of 572 respondents (82.3%) expressed willingness to care for H1N1 patients. Independent variables associated with increasing likelihood to care for patients in the logistic regression analysis were physicians or nurses rather than other professionals (odds ratio 4.056 and 3.235, p = 0.002 and 0.007, respectively), knowledge training prior to patient care (odds ratio 1.531, p = 0.044), and the confidence to know how to protect themselves and their patients (odds ratio 2.109, p = 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Critical care clinicians reported poor knowledge of H1N1 influenza, even though most finished a relevant knowledge training program. Implementation of appropriate education program might improve compliance to infection control measures, and willingness to work in a pandemic.</p