<i>In vitro</i> inhibitory effects of farnesol and interactions between farnesol and antifungals against biofilms of <i>Candida albicans</i> resistant strains

<p>Antifungal resistance is a serious problem in clinical infections. Farnesol, which is a potential antifungal agent against biofilms formed by <i>Candida albicans</i> resistant strains (a fluconazole-resistant isolate derived from SC5314 and two clinical Candida resistant isolates), was investigated in this study. The inhibitory effects of farnesol on biofilms were examined by XTT assay. The morphological changes and biofilm thicknesses were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy, respectively. Additionally, the checkerboard microdilution method was used to investigate the interactions between farnesol and antifungals (fluconazole, amphotericin B, caspofungin, itraconazole, terbinafine and 5-flurocytosine) against biofilms. The results showed decreased SMICs of farnesol and thinner biofilms in the farnesol-treated groups, indicating that farnesol inhibited the development of biofilms formed by the resistant strain. Furthermore, there were synergistic effects between farnesol and fluconazole/5-flurocytosine, while there were antagonistic effects between farnesol and terbinafine/itraconazole, respectively, on the biofilms formed by the resistant strains.</p

Photoenhanced Electrochemical Interaction between <i>Shewanella</i> and a Hematite Nanowire Photoanode

Here we report the investigation of interplay between light, a hematite nanowire-arrayed photoelectrode, and <i>Shewanella oneidensis</i> MR-1 in a solar-assisted microbial photoelectrochemical system (solar MPS). Whole cell electrochemistry and microbial fuel cell (MFC) characterization of <i>Shewanella oneidensis</i> strain MR-1 showed that these cells cultured under (semi)­anaerobic conditions expressed substantial <i>c</i>-type cytochrome outer membrane proteins, exhibited well-defined redox peaks, and generated bioelectricity in a MFC device. Cyclic voltammogram studies of hematite nanowire electrodes revealed active electron transfer at the hematite/cell interface. Notably, under a positive bias and light illumination, the hematite electrode immersed in a live cell culture was able to produce 150% more photocurrent than that in the abiotic control of medium or dead culture, suggesting a photoenhanced electrochemical interaction between hematite and <i>Shewanella</i>. The enhanced photocurrent was attributed to the additional redox species associated with MR-1 cells that are more thermodynamically favorable to be oxidized than water. Long-term operation of the hematite solar MPS with light on/off cycles showed stable current generation up to 2 weeks. Fluorescent optical microscope and scanning electron microscope imaging revealed that the top of the hematite nanowire arrays were covered by a biofilm, and iron determination colorimetric assay revealed 11% iron loss after a 10-day operation. To our knowledge, this is the first report on interfacing a photoanode directly with electricigens in a MFC system. Such a system could open up new possibilities in solar-microbial device that can harvest solar energy and recycle biomass simultaneously to treat wastewater, produce electricity, and chemical fuels in a self-sustained manner

Additional file 1: of Huge fetal hepatic Hemangioma: prenatal diagnosis on ultrasound and prognosis

Description of the data and materials of 6 cases with huge hepatic hemangiomas. (XLSX 21 kb

Computational and Photoelectrochemical Study of Hydrogenated Bismuth Vanadate

We demonstrate hydrogenation as a facile method to significantly enhance the performance of BiVO₄ films for photoelectrochemical water oxidation. Hydrogenation was performed for BiVO₄ films by annealing them in hydrogen atmosphere at elevated temperatures between 200 and 400 °C. Hydrogen gas can reduce BiVO₄ to form oxygen vacancies as well as hydrogen impurities. DFT calculation predicted that both oxygen vacancies and hydrogen impurities are shallow donors for BiVO₄ with low formation energies. These defects could increase the donor densities of BiVO₄ without introducing deep trap states. Electrochemical impedance measurements showed that the donor densities of BiVO₄ films were significantly enhanced upon hydrogenation. Hydrogen-treated BiVO₄ (H-BiVO₄) photoanodes achieved a maximum photocurrent density of 3.5 mA/cm² at 1.0 V vs Ag/AgCl, which is 1 order of magnitude higher than that of air-annealed BiVO₄ obtained at the same potential. The enhanced photoactivities were attributed to increased donor densities of H-BiVO₄, which facilitates the charge transport and collection

Supercapacitors Based on Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Graphene Aerogels with Periodic Macropores

Graphene is an atomically thin, two-dimensional (2D) carbon material that offers a unique combination of low density, exceptional mechanical properties, thermal stability, large surface area, and excellent electrical conductivity. Recent progress has resulted in macro-assemblies of graphene, such as bulk graphene aerogels for a variety of applications. However, these three-dimensional (3D) graphenes exhibit physicochemical property attenuation compared to their 2D building blocks because of one-fold composition and tortuous, stochastic porous networks. These limitations can be offset by developing a graphene composite material with an engineered porous architecture. Here, we report the fabrication of 3D periodic graphene composite aerogel microlattices for supercapacitor applications, via a 3D printing technique known as direct-ink writing. The key factor in developing these novel aerogels is creating an extrudable graphene oxide-based composite ink and modifying the 3D printing method to accommodate aerogel processing. The 3D-printed graphene composite aerogel (3D-GCA) electrodes are lightweight, highly conductive, and exhibit excellent electrochemical properties. In particular, the supercapacitors using these 3D-GCA electrodes with thicknesses on the order of millimeters display exceptional capacitive retention (ca. 90% from 0.5 to 10 A·g^–1) and power densities (>4 kW·kg^–1) that equal or exceed those of reported devices made with electrodes 10–100 times thinner. This work provides an example of how 3D-printed materials, such as graphene aerogels, can significantly expand the design space for fabricating high-performance and fully integrable energy storage devices optimized for a broad range of applications

Additional file 1: of Genomics of NSCLC patients both affirm PD-L1 expression and predict their clinical responses to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy

Table S1. Molecules with immunosuppressive functions used in simulation models to predict PD-1 drug responder status. (DOCX 55 kb

Additional file 6: of Genomics of NSCLC patients both affirm PD-L1 expression and predict their clinical responses to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy

Table S5. Analysis of the Discovery and Validation datasets was performed using Weka 3. The first number in each column represented the number of patient treatment responses correctly classified by the model. The second number represented the number of incorrectly classified patient treatment responses. The GOAL row at the bottom of each column described the number of correctly and incorrectly classified patients in the simulation models. The Test Set columns described the output from applying the model trained on the Discovery set to the Validation set. The “Test and Train” columns described test set accuracy (test set column) plus the training error (results obtained by applying the model to the training set, i.e. training error). (DOCX 19 kb

Additional file 7: of Genomics of NSCLC patients both affirm PD-L1 expression and predict their clinical responses to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy

Figure S2. An example of the relationship between PD-L1 expression and predicted TGFB1 expression using Weka 3 algorithms for all patients in the dataset. Similar trends were seen when comparing the PD-L1 expression level to the other 13 predicted molecules. For this, the number of gene mutations identified for each patient ranged from 2 to 36 with a total of 264 unique genes between all patients. This categorical data was preprocessed and expanded into a gene vector of length 264 to represent each of the unique genes. For each gene in the vector, the data was represented in binary; a 1 was assigned if the patient had a mutation in this gene, a 0 otherwise. Two datasets, one including gene mutations (Molecules and Gene Mutations) and one without (Molecules), were both used to learn prediction models. The Discovery and Validation datasets were determined based on the split provided to allow for comparable results. The performance of a subset of these models on the testing and training sets for both Molecules and Molecules and Gene Mutations datasets are shown. The SMO support vector machine with a normalized polynomial kernel had the best performance when applied to the molecule dataset. This model correctly identified 24 out of 29 patients whereas the simulation models correctly identified 25 of 29. This was only a difference of one match between the two prediction methods. Still, several other methods, while not performing as well overall, were able to identify 9 patients in the test dataset accurately. This was near the computational simulation model prediction capability in which 10 patients were successfully identified in the test dataset. In general, adding the gene mutation data to the molecule data either maintained or decreased the performance of a model. (DOCX 4114 kb

Controlled Synthesis of AlN/GaN Multiple Quantum Well Nanowire Structures and Their Optical Properties

We report the controlled synthesis of AlN/GaN multi-quantum well (MQW) radial nanowire heterostructures by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The structure consists of a single-crystal GaN nanowire core and an epitaxially grown (AlN/GaN)_<i>m</i> (<i>m</i> = 3, 13) MQW shell. Optical excitation of individual MQW nanowires yielded strong, blue-shifted photoluminescence in the range 340–360 nm, with respect to the GaN near band-edge emission at 368.8 nm. Cathodoluminescence analysis on the cross-sectional MQW nanowire samples showed that the blue-shifted ultraviolet luminescence originated from the GaN quantum wells, while the defect-associated yellow luminescence was emitted from the GaN core. Computational simulation provided a quantitative analysis of the mini-band energies in the AlN/GaN superlattices and suggested the observed blue-shifted emission corresponds to the interband transitions between the second subbands of GaN, as a result of quantum confinement and strain effect in these AlN/GaN MQW nanowire structures

Additional file 2: of Genomics of NSCLC patients both affirm PD-L1 expression and predict their clinical responses to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy

Table S2. Individual mutational profiles of patient drug responders (n = 11) and nonresponders (n = 18). (DOCX 19 kb