Separate Treatment of Long Fibres and Fines of Spruce CTMP in Laccase Mediator System Treatment

Spruce chemithermomechanical pulp was treated with a laccase mediator system (LMS) and alkaline H2O2, and the whiteness and dye removal index of the long fibres fraction and fines fraction were compared. The long fibres fraction and fines fraction were treated separately with a LMS, and their whitenesses and strengths were tested. The results indicated that the lignin and extractives contents of the fines fraction were higher than that of the long fibres. Because of the strong adsorption capacity and higher reactive efficiency, the optimal laccase dosage of the fines fraction was lower than that of the long fibres. In the process of treatment using a LMS and alkaline H2O2, at the same laccase dosage, separate treatment of the long fibres fraction and fines fraction could improve pulp whiteness and pulp strength

A tip-gap mesh-like bilayer SERS substrate for highly sensitive detection

Tips of noble metal nanostructures and the gaps between closely packed noble metal nanostructures are widely claimed as hot-spots for SERS sensing. A significant amount of effort and expertise has been devoted to the reformation and maximum utilization of the "tips" and "gaps". However, most studies focus on the "tips" or the "gaps" separately. Here we report a novel SERS substrate that contains a particular mesh structure of curved-edge gold nanocubes (CENCs) and Au nanospheres (Au NSs), one of the tips of CENCs inserted into the gaps between three closely packed Au NSs. Meanwhile, a facile and time-saving novel protocol has been proposed to fabricate this mesh structure in the form of a bilayer SERS substrate. The as-fabricated substrate exhibited extraordinary SERS sensitivity for malachite green (MG) and melamine, which could be attributed to the tip-gap mesh structure. The detection limit is as low as 10 M and 10 M, respectively

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of PEGylated MWO4 Nanoparticles as Sonodynamic AID Inhibitors in Treating Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) triggered by ultrasound (US) has attracted increasing attention owing to its ability to overcome critical limitations, including low tissue-penetration depth and phototoxicity in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Biogenic metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have been used as anti-cancer drugs due to their biocompatibility properties with most biological systems. Here, sonosensitizer MWO4-PEG NPs (M = Fe Mn Co Ni) were synthesized as inhibitors to activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), thus neutralizing the extensive carcinogenesis of AID in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The physiological properties of these nanomaterials were examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The inhibition of NPs to AID was primarily identified by the affinity interaction prediction between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and AID through molecular dynamics and molecular docking technology. The cell apoptosis and ROS generation in US-triggered NPs treated DLBCL cells (with high levels of AID) were also detected to indicate the sonosensitivity and toxicity of MWO4-PEG NPs to DLBCL cells. The anti-lymphoma studies using DLBCL and AID-deficient DLBCL cell lines indicated a concentration-dependent profile. The synthesized MWO4-PEG NPs in this study manifested good sonodynamic inhibitory effects to AID and well treatment for AID-positive hematopoietic cancers

Rare case of bacteremia due to Lysinibacillus sphaericus in a person living with HIV

Lysinibacillus sphaericus, as an insect pathogen, is a ubiquitous Gram-positive bacterium present in the environment. It is often considered to be contaminating bacteria. L. sphaericus has been reported to cause infectious diseases in humans relatively rarely. We report a rare case of bacteremia due to L. sphaericus in a person living with HIV, which is also the first reported case of bacteremia caused by L. sphaericus in China. L. sphaericus easily causes infection in immunocompromised individuals. We found that L. sphaericus and Lysinibacillus fusiformis could not be distinguished by their 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence. We performed a genome-wide analysis of the isolated strains of this case and predicted the virulence factors. Finally, L. sphaericus was confirmed. According to antimicrobial susceptibility test, the strain was found to be sensitive to levofloxacin and vancomycin but resistant to penicillin. Greater attention to L. sphaericus infection should be paid and immunocompromised populations should be protected from L. sphaericus infection

Mechanism study on a plague outbreak driven by the construction of a large reservoir in southwest china (surveillance from 2000-2015)

<div><p>Background</p><p>Plague, a <i>Yersinia pestis</i> infection, is a fatal disease with tremendous transmission capacity. However, the mechanism of how the pathogen stays in a reservoir, circulates and then re-emerges is an enigma.</p><p>Methodology/Principal findings</p><p>We studied a plague outbreak caused by the construction of a large reservoir in southwest China followed 16-years’ surveillance.</p><p>Conclusions/Significance</p><p>The results show the prevalence of plague within the natural plague focus is closely related to the stability of local ecology. Before and during the decade of construction the reservoir on the Nanpan River, no confirmed plague has ever emerged. With the impoundment of reservoir and destruction of drowned farmland and vegetation, the infected rodent population previously dispersed was concentrated together in a flood-free area and turned a rest focus alive. Human plague broke out after the enzootic plague via the flea bite. With the construction completed and ecology gradually of human residential environment, animal population and type of vegetation settling down to a new balance, the natural plague foci returned to a rest period. With the rodent density decreased as some of them died, the flea density increased as the rodents lived near or in local farm houses where had more domestic animals, and human has a more concentrated population. In contrast, in the <i>Himalayan marmot</i> foci of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the Qilian Mountains. There are few human inhabitants and the local ecology is relatively stable; plague is prevalence, showing no rest period. Thus the plague can be significantly affected by ecological shifts.</p></div

Active surveillance and epidemic record in the plague natural focus of <i>Himalayan marmot</i> in Gansu Province from 2001 to 2014.

<p>The y axis "No. of positive animals" on the left side correspond to the histogram and "positive rate" on the right side correspond to the line chart. The histogram means the number of the patients, with a total of 7 human cases were confirmed. The green line means the percentage of IHA positive rate of rodents, a total of 19,838 rodent serum samples were collected and 601 were positive; the purple line means the percentage of RIHA positive rate of rodents, a total of 2,047 rodent liver and spleen samples were collected and 89 were positive; the blue line means the percentage of <i>Y</i>. <i>pestis</i> isolation rate from rodents, 458 of <i>Y</i>. <i>pestis</i> were isolated from 25,005 rodents; the red line means the percentage of the percentage of <i>Y</i>. <i>pestis</i> isolation rate from vectors, 166 of <i>Y</i>. <i>pestis</i> were isolated from 1,5195 vectors.</p

<i>Y</i>. <i>pestis</i> isolated from rodents ^*.

<p><i>Y</i>. <i>pestis</i> isolated from rodents ^{<a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005425#t002fn001" target="_blank">*</a>}.</p