The correlation between family food handling behaviors and foodborne acute gastroenteritis: a community-oriented, population-based survey in Anhui, China

Abstract Background Foodborne acute gastroenteritis is a significant public health concern. Food handling plays a key role in the risk of foodborne acute gastroenteritis. However, research focused on the correlation between foodborne acute gastroenteritis and food handling in the family environment is limited. The purpose of the current study was to determinate the association between food handling behaviors in the family environment and foodborne acute gastroenteritis. Methods A cross-sectional investigation was conducted from September 1, 2015 to August 30, 2016 in Anhui Province, China. A multistage stratified cluster sampling method was designed to select subjects. Data on foodborne acute gastroenteritis and food handling were collected via questionnaire survey. Results Of the 1516 subjects included in the study, 165 (10.9%) reported having experienced symptoms of foodborne acute gastroenteritis in the past 4 weeks. The following behaviors were more prevalent in those that experienced acute gastroenteritis: (1) infrequently thoroughly heating milk (75.6%); (2) infrequently thoroughly heating cooked food purchased from outside (71.3%); (3) infrequently thoroughly heating leftovers stored in the refrigerator (32.5%), and (4) infrequently storing leftovers in the refrigerator (41.6%). A multivariate logistic regression analysis found that foodborne acute gastroenteritis was associated with the following behaviors: (1) often eating raw seafood (P < 0.001, OR = 3.250, 95% CI = 2.136–4.946); (2) often storing raw meat and cooked meat in the same container (P < 0.001, OR = 4.291, 95% CI = 2.722–6.765); (3) infrequently thoroughly heating milk (P < 0.001, OR = 4.665, 95% CI = 2.526–8.617); (4) infrequently thoroughly heating leftovers stored in the refrigerator (P < 0.001, OR = 3.416, 95% CI = 2.139–5.454); (5) infrequently storing leftovers in the refrigerator (P < 0.05, OR = 1.775, 95% CI = 1.169–2.696); and (6) infrequently thoroughly cooking green beans (P < 0.001, OR = 2.859, 95% CI = 1.798–4.545). Conclusions Poor food handling behaviors in the family environment are associated with foodborne acute gastroenteritis. Infrequent thorough heating and improper food storage are the most critical risk factors in foodborne acute gastroenteritis

Wettability Switching of Electrode for Signal Amplification: Conversion of Conformational Change of Stimuli-Responsive Polymer into Enhanced Electrochemical Chiral Analysis

Signal amplification of chiral interaction is a much needed task for sensing of enantiomers due to nearly identical chemical and physical properties of the chiral isomers. In this article, we established an electrochemical chiral sensing method with high sensitivity and selectivity for monosacharrides based on the stimuli-responsive copolymer/graphene hybrid-modified screen-printed carbon electrodes. The hybrid synthesized by the “grafting from” atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) process not only acted as a chiral recognition element but also provided a chiral signal amplification strategy. This occurs due to high sensitivity of conformational transition of copolymer on graphene to the weak chiral interactions that greatly facilitating the diffusion of electroactive probes and monosaccharides to the electrode surface. The described method can quantify monosaccharides, even the concentration of one enantiomer is as low as 1 nM. Apart from the demonstrated chiral distinguish ability, good selectivity toward monosaccharides in comparison to potential interference molecules was also observed. The electrodes with significant analytical performance were successfully applied for discriminating glucose enantiomers in live cells and studying their different transport mechanism. Together, the results show that the coupling of amplification-by-wettability switching concept with electrochemical method offers great promises in providing a sensitive, facile, and cost-effective solution for chiral recognition of molecules in biological process

Biomimetic Mineralization of Gold Nanoclusters as Multifunctional Thin Films for Glass Nanopore Modification, Characterization, and Sensing

Hurdles of nanopore modification and characterization restrain the development of glass capillary-based nanopore sensing platforms. In this article, a simple but effective biomimetic mineralization method was developed to decorate glass nanopore with a thin film of bovine serum albumin-protected Au nanocluster (BSA-Au NC). The BSA-Au NC film emitted a strong red fluorescence whereby nondestructive characterization of Au film decorated at the inner surface of glass nanopore can be facilely achieved by a fluorescence microscopy. Besides, the BSA molecules played dual roles in the fabrication of functionalized Au thin film in glass nanopore: they not only directed the synthesis of fluorescent Au thin film but also provided binding sites for recognition, thus achieving synthesis-modification integration. This occurred due to the ionized carboxyl groups (-COO^–) of a BSA coating layer on Au NCs which can interacted with arginine (Arg) via guanidinium groups. The added Arg selectively led to the change in the charge and ionic current of BSA-Au NC film-decorated glass nanopore. Such ionic current responses can be used for quantifying Arg with a detection limit down to 1 fM, which was more sensitive than that of previous sensing systems. Together, the designed method exhibited great promise in providing a facile and controllable solution for glass nanopore modification, characterization, and sensing

Rational Design of a Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Electrode Interface Coupled with in Vivo Microdialysis for Measurement of Sialic Acid in Live Mouse Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease

Sensitive and selective monitoring of sialic acid (SA) in cerebral nervous system is of great importance for studying the role that SA plays in the pathological process of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this work, we first reported an electrochemical biosensor based on a novel stimuli-responsive copolymer for selective and sensitive detection of SA in mouse brain. Notably, through synergetic hydrogen-bonding interactions, the copolymer could translate the recognition of SA into their conformational transition and wettability switch, which facilitated the access and enrichment of redox labels and targets to the electrode surface, thus significantly improving the detection sensitivity with the detection limit down to 0.4 pM. Besides amplified sensing signals, the proposed method exhibited good selectivity toward SA in comparison to potential interference molecules coexisting in the complex brain system due to the combination of high affinity between phenylboronic acid (PBA) and SA and the directional hydrogen-bonding interactions in the copolymer. The electrochemical biosensor with remarkable analytical performance was successfully applied to evaluate the dynamic change of SA level in live mouse brain with AD combined with in vivo midrodialysis. The accurate concentration of SA in different brain regions of live mouse with AD has been reported for the first time, which is beneficial for progressing our understanding of the role that SA plays in physiological and pathological events in the brain