The haloacid operon of Burkholderia sp. MBA4 is catabolically repressed

Session: Biofilms - Keynotepublished_or_final_versio

Polysaccharides from wolfberry antagonizes glutamate excitotoxicity in rat cortical neurons

Glutamate excitotoxicity is involved in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Attenuation of glutamate toxicity is one of the therapeutic strategies for AD. Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) is a common ingredient in oriental cuisines. A number of studies suggest that wolfberry has anti-aging properties. In recent years, there is a trend of using dried Wolfberry as food supplement and health product in UK and North America. Previously, we have demonstrated that a fraction of polysaccharide from Wolfberry (LBA) provided remarkable neuroprotective effects against beta-amyloid peptide-induced cytotoxicity in primary cultures of rat cortical neurons. To investigate whether LBA can protect neurons from other pathological factors such as glutamate found in Alzheimer brain, we examined whether it can prevent neurotoxicity elicited by glutamate in primary cultured neurons. The glutamate-induced cell death as detected by lactate dehydrogenase assay and caspase-3-like activity assay was significantly reduced by LBA at concentrations ranging from 10 to 500 μg/ml. Protective effects of LBA were comparable to memantine, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist. LBA provided neuroprotection even 1 h after exposure to glutamate. In addition to glutamate, LBA attenuated N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA)-induced neuronal damage. To further explore whether LBA might function as antioxidant, we used hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as oxidative stress inducer in this study. LBA could not attenuate the toxicity of H2O2. Furthermore, LBA did not attenuate glutamate-induced oxidation by using NBT assay. Western blot analysis indicated that glutamate-induced phosphorylation of c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) was reduced by treatment with LBA. Taken together, LBA exerted significant neuroprotective effects on cultured cortical neurons exposed to glutamate. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.postprin

First discovery of two polyketide synthase genes for mitorubrinic acid and mitorubrinol yellow pigment biosynthesis and implications in virulence of Penicillium marneffei.

published_or_final_versio

A randomized controlled trial of qigong exercise on fatigue symptoms, functioning, and telomerase activity in persons with chronic fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue is common in the general population. Complementary therapies are often used by patients with chronic fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome to manage their symptoms. PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the effect of a 4-month qigong intervention program among patients with chronic fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome. METHODS: Sixty-four participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a wait list control group. Outcome measures included fatigue symptoms, physical functioning, mental functioning, and telomerase activity. RESULTS: Fatigue symptoms and mental functioning were significantly improved in the qigong group compared to controls. Telomerase activity increased in the qigong group from 0.102 to 0.178 arbitrary units (p < 0.05). The change was statistically significant when compared to the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Qigong exercise may be used as an alternative and complementary therapy or rehabilitative program for chronic fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome.published_or_final_versio

Sustainable management for Fresh Food E-Commerce Logistics Services

This article determines the quality factors that improve the satisfaction of logistics services and the specific evaluation items that customers value. Moreover, this study verifies the moderating effect of consumers on the perceived importance of last-mile logistics services and its impact on logistics service satisfaction. Through literature review, the conceptual model is determined, and measurement scales are developed. Furthermore, we collect data through online surveys and employed structural equation modeling, hierarchical regression analysis, and importance–performance analysis methods to analyze the collected data and test research hypotheses. The findings of this study are as follows. First, the qualities of personal contact, timeliness, and empathy in the fresh food e-commerce logistics service quality evaluation system have a significant positive impact on the fresh food e-commerce logistics service consumer satisfaction, but the delivery quality and information quality are not significant. Second, consumers' perceived importance of last-mile logistics services has a positive and significant impact on consumer satisfaction of fresh food e-commerce logistics services. Moreover, as a moderating variable, its moderating effect has limitations: it only affects the relationship between information quality, timeliness quality, empathy quality, and consumer satisfaction. Finally, in the three evaluation dimensions of information quality, timeliness quality, and empathy quality, specific items that need to be further improved are identified. This study enriches and supplement the empirical research in the field of fresh food e-commerce logistics and provides academic literature with a reference value for fresh food e-commerce logistics enterprises

The association between pro-inflammatory marker, interleukin (IL)-1b and psychosocial status among persons with insomnia and depressive disorders

Parallel session II: IIa. Interdisciplinary approaches to improve mental health - no. O5cpublished_or_final_versio

Broad Clade 2 Cross-Reactive Immunity Induced by an Adjuvanted Clade 1 rH5N1 Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

The availability of H5N1 vaccines that can elicit a broad cross-protective immunity against different currently circulating clade 2 H5N1 viruses is a pre-requisite for the development of a successful pre-pandemic vaccination strategy. In this regard, it has recently been shown that adjuvantation of a recombinant clade 1 H5N1 inactivated split-virion vaccine with an oil-in-water emulsion-based adjuvant system also promoted cross-immunity against a recent clade 2 H5N1 isolate (A/Indonesia/5/2005, subclade 2.1). Here we further analyse the cross-protective potential of the vaccine against two other recent clade 2 isolates (A/turkey/Turkey/1/2005 and A/Anhui/1/2005 which are, as defined by WHO, representatives of subclades 2.2 and 2.3 respectively).Two doses of the recombinant A/Vietnam/1194/2004 (H5N1, clade 1) vaccine were administered 21 days apart to volunteers aged 18-60 years. We studied the cross-clade immunogenicity of the lowest antigen dose (3.8 microg haemagglutinin) given with (N = 20) or without adjuvant (N = 20). Immune responses were assessed at 21 days following the first and second vaccine doses and at 6 months following first vaccination. Vaccination with two doses of 3.8 microg of the adjuvanted vaccine induced four-fold neutralising seroconversion rates in 85% of subjects against A/turkey/Turkey/1/2005 (subclade 2.2) and 75% of subjects against A/Anhui/1/2005 (subclade 2.3) recombinant strains. There was no response induced against these strains in the non-adjuvanted group. At 6 months following vaccination, 70% and 60% of subjects retained neutralising antibodies against the recombinant subclade 2.2 and 2.3 strains, respectively and 40% of subjects retained antibodies against the recombinant subclade 2.1 A/Indonesia/5/2005 strain.In addition to antigen dose-sparing, adjuvantation of inactivated split H5N1 vaccine promotes broad and persistent cross-clade immunity which is a pre-requisite for a pre-pandemic vaccine.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00309634

Toll-like receptor pre-stimulation protects mice against lethal infection with highly pathogenic influenza viruses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Since the beginning of the 20th century, humans have experienced four influenza pandemics, including the devastating 1918 'Spanish influenza'. Moreover, H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses are currently spreading worldwide, although they are not yet efficiently transmitted among humans. While the threat of a global pandemic involving a highly pathogenic influenza virus strain looms large, our mechanisms to address such a catastrophe remain limited. Here, we show that pre-stimulation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 2 and 4 increased resistance against influenza viruses known to induce high pathogenicity in animal models. Our data emphasize the complexity of the host response against different influenza viruses, and suggest that TLR agonists might be utilized to protect against lethality associated with highly pathogenic influenza virus infection in humans.</p