Combined inhibitory effect of nisin with EDTA against Listeria monocytogenes in soy-protein edible coating on turkey frankfurters stored at 4°C and 10°C

Several food contamination outbreaks are linked to Listeria monocytogenes. More effective methods are needed to prevent the growth and recontamination of L. monocytogenes on ready-to-eat (RTE) food products. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the inhibitory activities of nisin (10,000 IU/mL), EDTA (sodium Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid: 1.6 mg/mL), and the combination of nisin (10,000 IU/mL) with EDTA 1.6 mg/mL either in brain-heart-infusion (BHI) media at 37°C for 72 h or in soy-protein edible coating on the surface of full-fat commercial turkey frankfurters against the cell populations of approximately 106 colony forming units (CFU/mL) of L. monocytogenes. The surface-inoculated frankfurters were dipped into soy-protein film forming solutions with and without the addition of antimicrobial agents [(nisin (10,000 IU) or EDTA (0.16%) or the combination)] and stored at either 4°C or 10°C. The inhibitory effects of edible coatings were evaluated on a weekly basis for 45 d. The greatest inhibitory activities of 6 log cycle reductions of L. monocytogenes were found when nisin was combined with EDTA and eliminated 6 log cycles of L. monocytogenes in both systems. In the combined nisin (10,000 IU) with EDTA (0.16%) treatment, the L. monocytogenes population was reduced to undetectable levels after 15 h or 7 d incubation in BHI at 37°C or on turkey frankfurters stored at 4°C and 10°C, respectively. This research has demonstrated that the use of an edible film coating containing nisin with EDTA is a promising means of controlling the growth and recontamination of L. monocytogenes on RTE meat products

Concert recording 2016-10-30a

[Tracks 1-3]. Sonata in E♭ major / J.S. Bach -- [Track 4]. Andante et scherzo / Louis Ganne -- [Track 5]. Lookout / Robert Dick -- [Track 6]. \u27maya\u27 / Ian Clarke -- [Tracks 7-10]. Sonatina, opus 100 / Antonín Dvořák

Women in higher education: A brief report on stress during COVID-19

Higher education institutions have evolved into a more stressful environment. Women have been experiencing higher levels of stress than their male counterparts. With higher education adopting to the onset of the pandemic, this brief report studied women’s perceived stress in relation to perceived organizational and supervisory support, and age during times of crisis. In an era of social distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns, the findings suggest that women’s perceived stress is negatively related to age, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisory support. Society as we once knew it pre-pandemic will never be the same. Higher education is inevitably going to have to manage the aftermath, a new normal that can only be as effective as the employees that help keep the organization running

Developing Online Learning Materials for Higher Education: An Overview of Current Issues

The changing roles and challenges for higher education and the increased productivity required of faculty are driving forces for the development of more diverse and efficient teaching methods. Educational trends are toward more learner-centered materials. In response to these trends, colleges and universities are now offering courses at a distance and in forms other than traditional delivery. Online courseware materials may be a viable means of fulfilling these numerous requirements but are very resource-intensive to develop. Multiple approaches to developing online learning have been tried, with limited success. The primary approach has been for faculty to enter their own course materials into the computer. To maximize university resources, the most effective approach for developing online learning materials must be determined and institutionalized. While faculty are the most logical persons to provide course content and design, faculty should not be expected to complete the technical tasks associated with developing online learning materials

hnRNP A1 and secondary structure coordinate alternative splicing of Mag

Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) is a major component of myelin in the vertebrate central nervous system. MAG is present in the periaxonal region of the myelin structure, where it interacts with neuronal proteins to inhibit axon outgrowth and protect neurons from degeneration. Two alternatively spliced isoforms of Mag mRNA have been identified. The mRNA encoding the shorter isoform, known as S-MAG, contains a termination codon in exon 12, while the mRNA encoding the longer isoform, known as L-MAG, skips exon 12 and produces a protein with a longer C-terminal region. L-MAG is required in the central nervous system. How inclusion of Mag exon 12 is regulated is not clear. In a previous study, we showed that heteronuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 (hnRNP A1) contributes to Mag exon 12 skipping. Here, we show that hnRNP A1 interacts with an element that overlaps the 5\u27 splice site of Mag exon 12. The element has a reduced ability to interact with the U1 snRNP compared with a mutant that improves the splice site consensus. An evolutionarily conserved secondary structure is present surrounding the element. The structure modulates interaction with both hnRNP A1 and U1. Analysis of splice isoforms produced from a series of reporter constructs demonstrates that the hnRNP A1-binding site and the secondary structure both contribute to exclusion of Mag exon 12

Assessment of the Mankato Area\u27s young Adult Population\u27s Knowledge of Mall Video Mining for Marketing Research

The most modern form of gathering marketing information is not as new as many people believe. The trepidation of Big Brother’s cameras watching down on us puts a chill down most peoples’ backs. In numerous mall stores, cameras are located in each store and are examining you. Most believe that the cameras are positioned for the purpose of shoplifting and crime, but the truth is many are also used for the purpose of marketing. Video mining as it is known has emerged as the latest method of conducting market research. The stores that are participating in this study are diligently watching an assortment of things. Marketing analysts watch what a customer has picked up, what they have looked at, the amount purchased, colors that attract them, their facial expressions, and many other forms of movement. This information is gathered and recorded, then shot across the nation via computer to a company such as Shopper Trak that views and analyzes clips of customers shopping. Shopper Trak presently has 40,000 cameras in various stores across the nation. Most customers have little knowledge of this marketing tactic or that there are no laws prohibiting this action. Do stores and business’s have an ethical duty to reveal their practices to their customers? Is it legal for them to use the personal information or preferences of their customers to exploit them without their knowledge or consent? Finally, where is the line drawn on what is considered personal, private information

Anaerobic Bacteria Grow within Candida albicans Biofilms and Induce Biofilm Formation in Suspension Cultures

The human microbiome contains diverse microorganisms, which share and compete for the same environmental niches. A major microbial growth form in the human body is the biofilm state, where tightly packed bacterial, archaeal, and fungal cells must cooperate and/or compete for resources in order to survive. We examined mixed biofilms composed of the major fungal species of the gut microbiome, Candida albicans, and each of five prevalent bacterial gastrointestinal inhabitants: Bacteroides fragilis, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis. We observed that biofilms formed by C. albicans provide a hypoxic microenvironment that supports the growth of two anaerobic bacteria, even when cultured in ambient oxic conditions that are normally toxic to the bacteria. We also found that coculture with bacteria in biofilms induces massive gene expression changes in C. albicans, including upregulation of WOR1, which encodes a transcription regulator that controls a phenotypic switch in C. albicans, from the “white” cell type to the “opaque” cell type. Finally, we observed that in suspension cultures, C. perfringens induces aggregation of C. albicans into “mini-biofilms,” which allow C. perfringens cells to survive in a normally toxic environment. This work indicates that bacteria and C. albicans interactions modulate the local chemistry of their environment in multiple ways to create niches favorable to their growth and survival

The concluding chapter: Recircumscription of Goodenia (Goodeniaceae) to include four allied genera with an updated infrageneric classification

© 2020. Close scrutiny of Goodenia (Goodeniaceae) and allied genera in the \u27Core Goodeniaceae\u27 over recent years has clarified our understanding of this captivating group. While expanded sampling, sequencing of multiple regions, and a genome skimming reinforced backbone clearly supported Goodenia s.l. as monophyletic and distinct from Scaevola and Coopernookia, there appears to be no synapomorphic characters that uniquely characterise this morphologically diverse clade. Within Goodenia s.l., there is strong support from nuclear, chloroplast and mitochondrial data for three major clades (Goodenia Clades A, B and C) and various subclades, which lead to earlier suggestions for the possible recognition of these as distinct genera. Through ongoing work, it has become evident that this is impractical, as conflict remains within the most recently diverged Clade C, likely due to recent radiation and incomplete lineage sorting. In light of this, it is proposed that a combination of morphological characters is used to circumscribe an expanded Goodenia that now includes Velleia, Verreauxia, Selliera and Pentaptilon, and an updated infrageneric classification is proposed to accommodate monophyletic subclades. A total of twenty-five new combinations, three reinstatements, and seven new names are published herein including Goodenia subg. Monochila sect. Monochila subsect. Infracta K.A. Sheph. subsect. nov. Also, a type is designated for Goodenia subg. Porphyranthus sect. Ebracteolatae (K. Krause) K.A. Sheph. comb. et stat. nov., and lectotypes or secondstep lectotypes are designated for a further three names

Making sense of multivariate community responses in global change experiments

Ecological communities are being impacted by global change worldwide. Experiments are a powerful tool to understand how global change will impact communities by comparing control and treatment replicates. Communities consist of multiple species, and their associated abundances make multivariate methods an effective approach to study community compositional differences between control and treated replicates. Dissimilarity metrics are a commonly employed multivariate measure of compositional differences; however, while highly informative, dissimilarity metrics do not elucidate the specific ways in which communities differ. Integrating two multivariate methods, dissimilarity metrics and rank abundance curves (RACs), have the potential to detect complex differences based on dissimilarity metrics and detail the how these differences came about through differences in richness, evenness, species ranks, or species identity. Here we use a database of 106 global change experiments located in herbaceous ecosystems and explore how patterns of ordinations based on dissimilarity metrics relate to RAC-based differences. We find that combining dissimilarity metrics alongside RAC-based measures clarifies how global change treatments are altering communities. We find that when there is no difference in community composition (no distance between centroids of control and treated replicates), there are rarely differences in species ranks or species identities and more often differences in richness or evenness alone. In contrast, when there are differences between centroids of control and treated replicates, this is most often associated with differences in ranks either alone or co-occurring with differences in richness, evenness, or species identities. We suggest that integrating these two multivariate measures of community composition results in a deeper understanding of how global change impacts communities

ChemInform Abstract: Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of α-Keto Esters via Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation.

The dynamic kinetic resolution of β-aryl α-keto esters has been accomplished using a newly designed (arene)RuCl(monosulfonamide) transfer hydrogenation catalyst. This dynamic process generates three contiguous stereocenters with remarkable diastereoselectivity through a reduction/lactonization sequence. The resulting enantioenriched, densely functionalized γ-butyrolactones are of high synthetic utility, as highlighted by several secondary derivatizations