Use of quaternary ammonium compounds to remove salmonella contamination from meat products

A composition and method for removing and preventing Salmonella contamination of meat products, in particular poultry, is disclosed. The composition comprises an effective amount of a quaternary ammonium compound in an aqueous solution. The quaternary ammonium compound are selected from the group consisting of alkylpyridinium, tetra-alkylammonium, and alkylalicyclic ammonium salts. Preferably, the quaternary ammonium compounds are cetylpyridinium chloride and cetylpyridinium bromide. Mutagenicity studies are also disclosed

Mix 'n Match: Integrating Text Matching and Product Substitutability within Product Search

Two products are substitutes if both can satisfy the same consumer need. Intrinsic incorporation of product substitutability - where substitutability is integrated within latent vector space models - is in contrast to the extrinsic re-ranking of result lists. The fusion of text matching and product substitutability objectives allows latent vector space models to mix and match regularities contained within text descriptions and substitution relations. We introduce a method for intrinsically incorporating product substitutability within latent vector space models for product search that are estimated using gradient descent; it integrates flawlessly with state-of-the-art vector space models. We compare our method to existing methods for incorporating structural entity relations, where product substitutability is incorporated extrinsically by re-ranking. Our method outperforms the best extrinsic method on four benchmarks. We investigate the effect of different levels of text matching and product similarity objectives, and provide an analysis of the effect of incorporating product substitutability on product search ranking diversity. Incorporating product substitutability information improves search relevance at the cost of diversity

Resilient employees are creative employees, when the workplace forces them to be

With a basis in conservation of resources theory, this article considers the connection between employees' resilience and disruptive creative behaviour-conceptualized herein as the extent to which they generate radically new ideas for organizational improvement-as well as how this connection might be invigorated by resource-draining work conditions that stem from excessive workloads and unfavourable decision-making processes. Data collected through a survey administered to employees in an organization that operates in the distribution sector reveal that employees' resilience levels spur their disruptive creative behaviour, and this process is more prominent among employees who believe they have insufficient time to complete their work tasks (i.e., suffer from high work overload) and operate in organizational climates marked by high rigidity or dysfunctional politics. The findings accordingly inform organizational practitioners that the allocation of employees' personal resource bases to disruptive creative behaviours might be particularly useful among employees who face substantial adversity in their organizational functioning.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Broad spectrum prevention and removal of microbial contamination of food by quaternary ammonium compounds

A method of using quaternary ammonium compounds for inhibiting attachment of and removing a broad spectrum of foodborne microbial contamination from food products is described. The method uses quaternary ammonium compounds for inhibiting attachment of and removing microorganisms such as, Staphylococcus, Campylobacter, Arcobacter, Listeria, Aeromonas, Bacillus, Salmonella, non-toxin producing Escherichia, and pathogenic toxin-producing Escherichia such as O157:H7, fungi such as Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium chrysogenum, and parasites such as Entameba histolytica from a broad range of food. The foods that can be treated by this method are meat, seafood, vegetables, and fruit

OA06.06 Impact of Systemic Anti-cancer Treatments on Outcomes of COVID-19 in Patients with Thoracic Cancers: CCC19 Registry Analysis

Introduction: Patients with thoracic cancers (TC) have one of the highest rates of mortality among patients with cancer and COVID-19. Data evaluating the impact of recent anti-cancer therapies on COVID-19 outcomes in patients with TC are confined to small heterogenous retrospective studies, with limited follow-up data. We analyzed data from the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) (NCT04354701) to examine the impact of recent systemic therapies on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with TC. Methods: The CCC19 registry was queried for adult patients with TC and lab-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Only patients with data quality scores of 0-4 were included in the analysis. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were need for oxygen supplementation, hospitalization, ICU admission, and mechanical ventilation. The outcomes were further stratified by demographics, smoking history, ECOG PS (0, 1, \u3e2), cancer status (remission, responding/stable, progressing) and type of systemic treatment \u3c3 months prior to COVID-19 (chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy, chemotherapy plus radiation, immunotherapy alone or targeted therapy). Results: From January 2020 to December 2021, 900 patients with thoracic cancer met the inclusion criteria. The median age was 70 years (IQR 62-77), 53% were female, 79% were former or current tobacco users, 56% of patients had ECOG PS of 0 or 1, and 34% of patients had active but stable or responding cancer. Fifty-three percent (N=477) of patients received at least one anti-cancer systemic therapy \u3c3 months prior to COVID-19 diagnosis. Chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy was the most prevalent treatment exposure (51%; N=242). After a median follow-up of 70 days (IQR 28-180), 30-day all-cause mortality was similar in patients who received any systemic cancer treatment versus no cancer treatment (23% and 22% respectively). Patients treated with immunotherapy and targeted therapy had the lowest mortality (15% and 18% respectively), the majority of whom were treated with palliative intent. Similar trends were also noted with secondary outcomes (Table 1). Conclusions: We report one of the largest studies evaluating the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in the context of recent systemic anti-cancer treatments for TC. While continued caution is required when utilizing systemic treatments, delays in treatment may not be justified. The study provides reassuring data that patients receiving immunotherapy or targeted therapy even in the context of palliative treatment appear to have a lower risk for all-cause COVID-19 mortality. Further analysis exploring the prognostic factors associated with poor outcomes in patients with chemoradiation is planned

Coordinated Expression Domains in Mammalian Genomes

Gene order in eukaryotic genomes is not random. Genes showing similar expression (coexpression) patterns are often clustered along the genome. The goal of this study is to characterize coexpression clustering in mammalian genomes and to investigate the underlying mechanisms.We detect clustering of coexpressed genes across multiple scales, from neighboring genes to chromosomal domains that span tens of megabases and, in some cases, entire chromosomes. Coexpression domains may be positively or negatively correlated with other domains, within and between chromosomes. We find that long-range expression domains are associated with gene density, which in turn is related to physical organization of the chromosomes within the nucleus. We show that gene expression changes between healthy and diseased tissue samples occur in a gene density-dependent manner.We demonstrate that coexpression domains exist across multiple scales. We identify potential mechanisms for short-range as well as long-range coexpression domains. We provide evidence that the three-dimensional architecture of the chromosomes may underlie long-range coexpression domains. Chromosome territory reorganization may play a role in common human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and psoriasis

From Africa to Europe and back: refugia and range shifts cause high genetic differentiation in the Marbled White butterfly Melanargia galathea

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The glacial-interglacial oscillations caused severe range modifications of biota. Thermophilic species became extinct in the North and survived in southern retreats, e.g. the Mediterranean Basin. These repeated extinction and (re)colonisation events led to long-term isolation and intermixing of populations and thus resulted in strong genetic imprints in many European species therefore being composed of several genetic lineages. To better understand these cycles of repeated expansion and retraction, we selected the Marbled White butterfly <it>Melanargia galathea</it>. Fourty-one populations scattered over Europe and the Maghreb and one population of the sibling taxon <it>M. lachesis </it>were analysed using allozyme electrophoresis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We obtained seven distinct lineages applying neighbour joining and STRUCTURE analyses: (i) Morocco, (ii) Tunisia, (iii) Sicily, (iv) Italy and southern France, (v) eastern Balkans extending to Central Europe, (vi) western Balkans with western Carpathian Basin as well as (vii) south-western Alps. The hierarchy of these splits is well matching the chronology of glacial and interglacial cycles since the Günz ice age starting with an initial split between the <it>galathea </it>group in North Africa and the <it>lachesis </it>group in Iberia. These genetic structures were compared with past distribution patterns during the last glacial stage calculated with distribution models.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Both methods suggest climatically suitable areas in the Maghreb and the southern European peninsulas with distinct refugia during the last glacial period and underpin strong range expansions to the North during the Postglacial. However, the allozyme patterns reveal biogeographical structures not detected by distribution modelling as two distinct refugia in the Maghreb, two or more distinct refugia at the Balkans and a close link between the eastern Maghreb and Sicily. Furthermore, the genetically highly diverse western Maghreb might have acted as source or speciation centre of this taxon, while the eastern, genetically impoverished Maghreb population might result from a relatively recent recolonisation from Europe via Sicily.</p