An Assessment of Food Safety Handling Practices at Farmers\u27 Markets in Rhode Island Using a Smartphone Application

The number of foodborne illness outbreaks increased in the US from 2001 to 2010, and 17% of them were associated with produce. Higher risk, whole produce sold at farmers\u27 markets presents unique challenges to food safety practices in regard to temperature controls, potable water, and exposure to contaminants. The purpose of this study is to use direct observations to identify unsafe food handling practices among vendors selling higher risk produce at Rhode Island farmers\u27 markets. This study used, as a tool for data acquisition, a Smartphone application developed to allow concealed direct observations of actual vendors\u27 practices at farmers\u27 markets. Observations were made at fourteen (7 state and 7 private) farmers\u27 markets to collect data on food handling practices of 26 vendors selling higher-risk produce. The results of this study will be used as guidance for education programs targeting farmers\u27 market managers and vendors that promote best practices in regard to whole produce

Dual inhibition of histone deacetylases and phosphoinositide 3-kinase enhances therapeutic activity against B cell lymphoma

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and Myc are known to cooperate in promoting the survival and growth of a variety of B-cell lymphomas. While currently there are no small molecule inhibitors of Myc protein, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have been shown to reduce levels of Myc protein by suppressing its transcription. We assessed the efficacy of CUDC-907, a new rationally designed dual inhibitor of PI3K and HDACs, in a panel of lymphoma cell lines. CUDC-907 treatment resulted in a dose- and time-dependent growth inhibition and cell death of DLBCL cell lines, irrespective of the cell of origin. CUDC-907 treatment down-regulated the phosphorylation of PI3K downstream targets, including AKT, PRAS40, S6, and 4EBP1, increased histone 3 acetylation, and decreased Myc protein levels. SILAC-based quantitative mass spectrometry demonstrated that CUDC-907 treatment decreased the protein levels of several components of the B cell receptor (BCR) and Toll like receptor (TLR) pathways, including BTK, SYK, and MyD88 proteins. These cellular changes were associated with an inhibition of NF-kB activation. CUDC-907 demonstrated in vivo efficacy with no significant toxicity in a human DLBCL xenograft mouse model. Collectively, these data provide a mechanistic rationale for evaluating CUDC-907 for the treatment of patients with Myc and PI3K-dependent lymphomas

ORB5: a global electromagnetic gyrokinetic code using the PIC approach in toroidal geometry

This paper presents the current state of the global gyrokinetic code ORB5 as an update of the previous reference [Jolliet et al., Comp. Phys. Commun. 177 409 (2007)]. The ORB5 code solves the electromagnetic Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations using a PIC scheme and also includes collisions and strong flows. The code assumes multiple gyrokinetic ion species at all wavelengths for the polarization density and drift-kinetic electrons. Variants of the physical model can be selected for electrons such as assuming an adiabatic response or a ``hybrid'' model in which passing electrons are assumed adiabatic and trapped electrons are drift-kinetic. A Fourier filter as well as various control variates and noise reduction techniques enable simulations with good signal-to-noise ratios at a limited numerical cost. They are completed with different momentum and zonal flow-conserving heat sources allowing for temperature-gradient and flux-driven simulations. The code, which runs on both CPUs and GPUs, is well benchmarked against other similar codes and analytical predictions, and shows good scalability up to thousands of nodes

Amenability of algebras of approximable operators

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for amenability of the Banach algebra of approximable operators on a Banach space. We further investigate the relationship between amenability of this algebra and factorization of operators, strengthening known results and developing new techniques to determine whether or not a given Banach space carries an amenable algebra of approximable operators. Using these techniques, we are able to show, among other things, the non-amenability of the algebra of approximable operators on Tsirelson's space.Comment: 20 pages, to appear in Israel Journal of Mathematic

Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells are a major determinant of nascent tumor neovascularization

Tumors build vessels by cooption of pre-existing vasculature and de novo recruitment of bone marrow (BM)-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). However, the contribution and the functional role of EPCs in tumor neoangiogenesis are controversial. Therefore, by using genetically marked BM progenitor cells, we demonstrate the precise spatial and temporal contribution of EPCs to the neovascularization of three transplanted and one spontaneous breast tumor in vivo using high-resolution microscopy and flow cytometry. We show that early tumors recruit BM-derived EPCs that differentiate into mature BM-derived endothelial cells (ECs) and luminally incorporate into a subset of sprouting tumor neovessels. Notably, in later tumors, these BM-derived vessels are diluted with non-BM-derived vessels from the periphery, which accounts for purported differences in previously published reports. Furthermore, we show that specific ablation of BM-derived EPCs with alpha-particle-emitting anti-VE-cadherin antibody markedly impaired tumor growth associated with reduced vascularization. Our results demonstrate that BM-derived EPCs are critical components of the earliest phases of tumor neoangiogenesis

Truncating mutations in the Wilson disease gene ATP7B are associated with very low serum ceruloplasmin oxidase activity and an early onset of Wilson disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mutations in the gene ATP7B cause Wilson disease, a copper storage disorder with a high phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. We aimed to evaluate whether 'severe' protein-truncating ATP7B mutations (SMs) are associated with low serum ceruloplasmin oxidase activities and an early age of onset when compared to missense mutations (MMs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The clinical phenotype of 59 genetically confirmed WD patients was analyzed retrospectively. Serum ceruloplasmin was measured by its oxidase activity with <it>o</it>-dianisidine dihydrochloride as substrate and immunologically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty-nine patients had two MMs, 15 had the genotype SM/MM, and 5 patients had two SMs on their ATP7B alleles. Enzymatic and immunologic serum ceruloplasmin levels differed significantly between the three groups (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). The lowest levels were measured in patients with two SMs (0.0 U/L; IQR, 0.0-0.0 U/L and 0.02 g/L; IQR, 0.01-0.02 g/L, respectively) and the highest in patients with two MMs (17.8 U/L; IQR, 5.8-35.1 U/L and 0.11 g/L; IQR,0.10-0.17 g/L, respectively). The age of onset was also significantly different between the three patient groups (P < 0.05), with SM/SM patients showing the earliest onset (13 years; IQR, 9-13 years) and patients with two MMs showing the latest onset (22 years; IQR, 14-27 years). By ROC curve analysis a ceruloplasmin oxidase level ≤ 5 U/L can predict the presence of at least one SM with a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 79.5%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In our German study cohort truncating ATP7B mutations were associated with lower ceruloplasmin serum oxidase levels and an earlier age of onset when compared to MMs. Measurement of serum ceruloplasmin oxidase might help to predict presence of truncating ATP7B mutations and might facilitate the mutation analysis.</p