Guaiacol producing Alicyclobacillus spp. differentiation, detection, and control

Alicyclobacillus spp. are thermoacidophilic sporeformers that have significant impact on the pasteurized juice industry. Better detection and control methods are needed to minimize Alicyclobacillus related spoilage. The objective of this research is to improve existing detection and control methods by (1) the investigation of basic characteristics of guaiacol producing Alicyclobacillus and development of a novel detection method; and (2) the evaluation of Alicyclobacillus control method during storage and processing. Differences in growth characteristics were observed but not significant between guaiacol producing and non-guaiacol producing Alicyclobacillus. Enzyme and carbohydrate utilization profiles were variable depending on test isolates. Guaiacol formation was detectable within 12 h at 43 C and further accelerated under microaerophilic conditions. The newly developed SK2 agar provides selective identification of guaiacol producing Alicyclobacillus with a 95% correct identification rate. SK2 agar is the first known media providing selective isolation of guaiacol producing Alicyclobacillus. The effectiveness of aqueous and gas chlorine dioxide against Alicyclobacillus spores has been demonstrated. Greater than five log reductions were observed following 1 min and 1 h exposures to 120 ppm ClO2(aq) and 4.32 ppm ClO2(g), respectively

Identifying HER2 Inhibitors from Natural Products Database

The relationship between abnormal HER2 expression and cancer is important in cancer therapeutics. Formation and spread of cancer cells may be restricted by inhibiting HER2. We conducted ligand-based and structure-based studies to assess the potency of natural compounds as potential HER2 inhibitors. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and support vector machine (SVM) models were constructed to predict biological activities of natural compounds, and molecular dynamics (MD) was used to assess their stability with HER2 under a dynamic environment. Predicted bioactivities of the natural compounds ranged from 6.014–9.077 using MLR (r[superscript 2] = 0.7954) and 5.122–6.950 using SVM (r[superscript 2] = 0.8620). Both models were in agreement and suggest bioactivity based on candidate structure. Conformation changes caused by MD favored the formation of stabilizing H-bonds. All candidates had higher stability than Lapinatib, which may be due to the number and spatial distribution of additional H-bonds and hydrophobic interactions. Amino acids Lys724 and Lys736 are critical for binding in HER2, and Thr798, Cys805, and Asp808 are also important for increased stability. Candidates may block the entrance to the ATP binding site located within the inner regions and prevent downstream activation of HER2. Our multidirectional approach indicates that the natural compounds have good ligand efficacy in addition to stable binding affinities to HER2, and should be potent candidates of HER2 inhibitors. With regard to drug design, designing HER2 inhibitors with carboxyl or carbonyl groups available for H-bond formation with Lys724 and Lys736, and benzene groups for hydrophobic contact with Cys805 may improve protein-ligand stability.National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC 99-2221-E-039-013-)Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy (CCMP100-RD-030)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU98-TCM)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU99-TCM)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU99-S-02)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU99-ASIA-25)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU99-ASIA-26)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU99-ASIA-27)China Medical University and Asia University (CMU99-ASIA-28)Taiwan Department of Health. Clinical Trial and Research Center of Excellence (DOH100-TD-B-111-004)Taiwan Department of Health. Cancer Research Center of Excellence (DOH100-TD-C-111-005

A Fast and Robust Extrinsic Calibration for RGB-D Camera Networks

From object tracking to 3D reconstruction, RGB-Depth (RGB-D) camera networks play an increasingly important role in many vision and graphics applications. Practical applications often use sparsely-placed cameras to maximize visibility, while using as few cameras as possible to minimize cost. In general, it is challenging to calibrate sparse camera networks due to the lack of shared scene features across different camera views. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that can accurately and rapidly calibrate the geometric relationships across an arbitrary number of RGB-D cameras on a network. Our work has a number of novel features. First, to cope with the wide separation between different cameras, we establish view correspondences by using a spherical calibration object. We show that this approach outperforms other techniques based on planar calibration objects. Second, instead of modeling camera extrinsic calibration using rigid transformation, which is optimal only for pinhole cameras, we systematically test different view transformation functions including rigid transformation, polynomial transformation and manifold regression to determine the most robust mapping that generalizes well to unseen data. Third, we reformulate the celebrated bundle adjustment procedure to minimize the global 3D reprojection error so as to fine-tune the initial estimates. Finally, our scalable client-server architecture is computationally efficient: the calibration of a five-camera system, including data capture, can be done in minutes using only commodity PCs. Our proposed framework is compared with other state-of-the-arts systems using both quantitative measurements and visual alignment results of the merged point clouds

Extracorporeal liver assist device to exchange albumin and remove endotoxin in acute liver failure: Results of a pivotal pre-clinical study

Background & AimsIn acute liver failure, severity of liver injury and clinical progression of disease are in part consequent upon activation of the innate immune system. Endotoxaemia contributes to innate immune system activation and the detoxifying function of albumin, critical to recovery from liver injury, is irreversibly destroyed in acute liver failure. University College London-Liver Dialysis Device is a novel artificial extracorporeal liver assist device, which is used with albumin infusion, to achieve removal and replacement of dysfunctional albumin and reduction in endotoxaemia. We aimed to test the effect of this device on survival in a pig model of acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure.MethodsPigs were randomised to three groups: Acetaminophen plus University College London-Liver Dialysis Device (n=9); Acetaminophen plus Control Device (n=7); and Control plus Control Device (n=4). Device treatment was initiated two h after onset of irreversible acute liver failure.ResultsThe Liver Dialysis Device resulted in 67% reduced risk of death in acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure compared to Control Device (hazard ratio=0.33, p=0.0439). This was associated with 27% decrease in circulating irreversibly oxidised human non-mercaptalbumin-2 throughout treatment (p=0.046); 54% reduction in overall severity of endotoxaemia (p=0.024); delay in development of vasoplegia and acute lung injury; and delay in systemic activation of the TLR4 signalling pathway. Liver Dialysis Device-associated adverse clinical effects were not seen.ConclusionsThe survival benefit and lack of adverse effects would support clinical trials of University College London-Liver Dialysis Device in acute liver failure patients

The Outcome of HyperCVAD Combined with Alemtuzumab for the Treatment of Aggressive T-Cell and NK-Cell Neoplasms.

We report our experience in using six cycles of hyperCVAD in combination with alemtuzumab for the treatment of aggressive T-cell and NK/T-cell neoplasms. Seven females and six males with the median age of 41 (range 18–60) diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic lymphoma and peripheral T-cell and NK/T-cell neoplasms (nPTCL = 6, nT-cell ALL = 3, nNK/T-cell neoplasms = 4) from 2006 to 2008 were treated with alemtuzumab–hyperCVAD regimen. A total of nine patients (69%) responded to the regimen, with seven achieved complete remission and two achieved partial remission. The median progression free survival and overall survival duration among the responders with complete remission were 12.9 and 24.9 months respectively. The incidence of relapse among the responders was 44% and the overall survival rate was 23%. Only four (31%) patients completed the six cycles of alemtuzumab– hyperCVAD. Others were stopped earlier due to progressive disease (n = 2), cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation and/or disease (n = 3), death not due to disease (n = 2), and patient’s refusal to continue alemtuzumab (n = 2). The incidence of death not due to disease, CMV reactivation and recurrent CMV reactivation were 50, 50 and 17%, respectively. This study shows that alemtuzumab in combination with hyperCVAD regimen is a feasible regimen but with high toxicity. The toxicity might be reduced with the incorporation of filgrastim and use of valganciclovir as CMV prophylaxis

Reconstructing the properties of dark energy from recent observations

We explore the properties of dark energy from recent observational data, including the Gold Sne Ia, the baryonic acoustic oscillation peak from SDSS, the CMB shift parameter from WMAP3, the X-ray gas mass fraction in cluster and the Hubble parameter versus redshift. The $\Lambda CDM$ model with curvature and two parameterized dark energy models are studied. For the $\Lambda CDM$ model, we find that the flat universe is consistent with observations at the $1\sigma$ confidence level and a closed universe is slightly favored by these data. For two parameterized dark energy models, with the prior given on the present matter density, $\Omega_{m0}$, with $\Omega_{m0}=0.24$, $\Omega_{m0}=0.28$ and $\Omega_{m0}=0.32$, our result seems to suggest that the trend of $\Omega_{m0}$ dependence for an evolving dark energy from a combination of the observational data sets is model-dependent.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, To appear in JCA

Observational constraints on the dark energy and dark matter mutual coupling

We examine different phenomenological interaction models for Dark Energy and Dark Matter by performing statistical joint analysis with observational data arising from the 182 Gold type Ia supernova samples, the shift parameter of the Cosmic Microwave Background given by the three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observations, the baryon acoustic oscillation measurement from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and age estimates of 35 galaxies. Including the time-dependent observable, we add sensitivity of measurement and give complementary results for the fitting. The compatibility among three different data sets seem to imply that the coupling between dark energy and dark matter is a small positive value, which satisfies the requirement to solve the coincidence problem and the second law of thermodynamics, being compatible with previous estimates.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.