North Lufkin Neighborhood Master Plan & Community Center

In 2018, Texas Target Communities worked with Impact Lufkin to rethink a 170-acres former Lufkin Country Club to create a master-planned community. Building on the appreciative inquiry conducted by Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) School of Social Work, the plan includes a neighborhood center with parks, athletic fields, trails, housing, commercial development, and various neighborhood services.Texas Target Communitie

Influence of Lactobacillus plantarum P-8 on Fermented Milk Flavor and Storage Stability

Previously, we demonstrated that the flavor of milk fermented with Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (IMAU20401) and Streptococcus thermophilus (IMAU40133) at a 1:1000 ratio was superior to that of other ratios of the two strains. In this study, Lactobacillus plantarum P-8 was used as the probiotic bacterium. Six ratios (1:1, 1:5, 1:10, 1:50, 1:100, and 1:1000) of L. plantarum P-8 to yogurt starter were evaluated. A total of 66 volatile compounds including aldehydes, ketones, acids, alcohols, esters, alcohols, and aromatic compounds were identified in milk fermented with the six different L. plantarum P-8 to yogurt starter ratios at 0 d of storage. In particular, key flavor compounds, such as 3-methylbutanal, hexanal, (E)-2-octenal, nonanal, 2-heptanone, 2-nonanone, and acetoin, were identified in the 1:100 ratio treatment. Furthermore, the viable cell count, pH, titratable acidity, viscosity, and syneresis of the milk samples were analyzed during fermentation over 14 d of storage at 4°C. The results indicated that milk can be fermented with L. plantarum P-8 in combination with S. thermophilus and L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, and the physicochemical characteristics of the milk were not affected by the probiotic bacteria

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

The Existence, Uniqueness, and Carathéodory’s Successive Approximation of Fractional Neutral Stochastic Differential Equation

The existence, uniqueness, and Carathe´odory’s successive approximation of the fractional neutral stochastic differential equation (FNSDE) in Hilbert space are considered in this paper. First, we give the Carathe´odory’s approximation solution for the FNSDE with variable time delays. We then establish the boundedness and continuity of the mild solution and Carathe´odory’s approximation solution, respectively. We prove that the mean-square error between the exact solution and the approximation solution depends on the supremum of time delay. Next, we give the Carathe´odory’s approximation solution for the general FNSDE without delay. Under uniform Lipschitz condition and linear growth condition, we show that the proof of the convergence of the Carathe´odory approximation represents an alternative to the procedure for establishing the existence and uniqueness of the solution. Furthermore, under the non-Lipschitz condition, which is weaker than Lipschitz one, we establish the existence and uniqueness theorem of the solution for the FNSDE based on the Carathe´odory’s successive approximation. Finally, a simulation is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods

Preparation of amphoteric modified bentonite from calcium-based bentonite for adsorption of anionic dye. The importance of sodium-modification pretreatment

To understand the influence of sodium-modification pretreatment on the adsorption of anionic dye by amphoteric modified bentonite, three kinds of adsorbent materials, including sodium-modified bentonite, amphoteric modified calcium-based bentonite and amphoteric modified bentonite pretreated by sodium modification, were firstly synthesized and characterized, and afterwards their adsorption performance and mechanism for a form of anionic dye, Acid Yellow 11, were investigated comparatively. The crystalline phases, hydration property, surface charge characteristic and functional groups of prepared modified bentonite were characterized and evaluated by X-ray diffraction swelling volume, Zeta potential and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The sodium modification expanded the interlayer space of montmorillonite, released the internal surface area and improved the hydration performance of bentonite. Due to the replacement of Na+ for Ca2+, the probability of interlayer cations overflowing from the interlayer space and exchanging with the amphoteric modifier increases. Therefore, the content of interlaminar organic material in amphoteric modified bentonite pretreated with sodium-modification pretreatment was higher than that in unpretreated amphoteric modified bentonite. The hydration and dispersibility were significantly stronger, and the adsorption capacity of acid dye was also better. The findings of this investigation suggest that sodium modification pretreatment is very positive and necessary in the process from sodium–amphoteric modification