Longitudinal analysis of influenza vaccination implicates regulation of RIG-I signaling by DNA methylation.

Influenza virus infection alters the promoter DNA methylation of key immune response-related genes, including type-1 interferons and proinflammatory cytokines. However, less is known about the effect of the influenza vaccine on the epigenome. We utilized a targeted DNA methylation approach to study the longitudinal effects (day 0 pre-vaccination and day 28 post-vaccination) on influenza vaccination responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. We found that baseline, pre-vaccination methylation profiles are associated with pre-existing, protective serological immunity. Additionally, we identified 481 sites that were differentially methylated between baseline and day 28 post-vaccination. These were enriched for genes involved in the regulation of the RIG-I signaling pathway, an important regulator of viral responses. Our results suggest that DNA methylation changes to components of the RIG-I pathway are associated with vaccine effectiveness. Therefore, immunization strategies that target this pathway may improve serological responses to influenza vaccination.

A comparative study of ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy combined with histopathology and Xpert MTB/RIF in the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis.

Background: Cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTBL) is a disease often ignored in clinical work, and pathology and Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) are the commonly used methods for tuberculosis diagnosis. This study aimed to compare ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy combined with histopathology and Xpert in the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis. Methods: A total of 217 patients highly suspected for CTBL were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent ultrasound-guided puncture sampling. All samples were subjected to pathological examination and Xpert test. The sensitivity and specificity of the two methods were compared for all samples. The kappa value was calculated to assess the consistency of the pathological examination and Xpert test using comprehensive diagnosis as the gold standard. Receiver operating characteristic curves of the pathological examination, Xpert test, and their combination were generated, and the areas under the curve (AUCs) were calculated to compare the diagnostic value of the three methods. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the pathological diagnosis of CTBL were 70.1 and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of Xpert for CTBL diagnosis were 82.5 and 97.5%, respectively. The results of the pathological examination and Xpert test showed poor consistency in the diagnosis of CTBL, with a kappa value of 0.388. The AUC of the pathological diagnosis of CTBL was 0.850 (95% CI: 0.796-0.895), whereas that of Xpert was 0.900 (95% CI: 0.852-0.936), and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0483). The AUC of pathological examination combined with Xpert for the diagnosis of CTBL was 0.956 (95% CI: 0.920-0.979), and the difference between pathological examination combined with Xpert for the diagnosis of CTBL was statistically significant compared with pathological examination and Xpert alone, respectively (both P < 0.001). Conclusion: The diagnostic efficiency of Xpert test is higher than that of pathological examination, but its sensitivity is still not ideal for clinical diagnosis. According to this study, the consistency of Xpert test and pathological diagnosis is poor, and the combination of Xpert test and pathological diagnosis can significantly increase the diagnostic efficiency.

Deep Learning-Based Holographic Polarization Microscopy.

Polarized light microscopy provides high contrast to birefringent specimen and is widely used as a diagnostic tool in pathology. However, polarization microscopy systems typically operate by analyzing images collected from two or more light paths in different states of polarization, which lead to relatively complex optical designs, high system costs, or experienced technicians being required. Here, we present a deep learning-based holographic polarization microscope that is capable of obtaining quantitative birefringence retardance and orientation information of specimen from a phase-recovered hologram, while only requiring the addition of one polarizer/analyzer pair to an inline lensfree holographic imaging system. Using a deep neural network, the reconstructed holographic images from a single state of polarization can be transformed into images equivalent to those captured using a single-shot computational polarized light microscope (SCPLM). Our analysis shows that a trained deep neural network can extract the birefringence information using both the sample specific morphological features as well as the holographic amplitude and phase distribution. To demonstrate the efficacy of this method, we tested it by imaging various birefringent samples including, for example, monosodium urate and triamcinolone acetonide crystals. Our method achieves similar results to SCPLM both qualitatively and quantitatively, and due to its simpler optical design and significantly larger field-of-view this method has the potential to expand the access to polarization microscopy and its use for medical diagnosis in resource limited settings.

The far-upstream regulatory region of RFL is required for its precise spatial-temporal expression for floral development in rice.

KEY MESSAGE: A rice mutant aberrant floral organ 1 (afo1) was identified, showing increased floral organ number, aberrant floral organ identity and loss of floral meristem determinacy. A disruption of sequence integrity at 6292-bp upstream of RFL by a T-DNA insertion led to varied RFL expression patterns in floral meristem and floret in afo1 and caused the mutant phenotype. The LEAFY (LFY) transcription factor and its homologs affect many aspects of plant development, especially floral development. RICE FLORICAULA/LEAFY (RFL), the rice ortholog of LFY, has complicated expression patterns and different functions in floral development. However, the mechanisms regulating the spatial-temporal expression of RFL remain largely unknown. Here, we describe a rice aberrant floral organ 1 (afo1) mutant that was produced by a T-DNA insertion at 6292-bp upstream of the start codon of RFL. This insertion altered the expression of RFL in floral meristem (FM) and floret. The in situ hybridization result showed that, when florets appear, RFL was expressed almost exclusively at the palea/lemma adaxial base adjacent to lodicules in the wild-type panicle. However, in afo1 florets, RFL mRNA signals were detected in the region between lodicule and stamen, and strong signals persisted in FM. The altered pattern of RFL expression in afo1 resulted in enlarged FMs, more floral organs, aberrant floral organ identity, and loss of FM determinacy. Transformation of rice with an RFL construct driven by the 6292-bp upstream genomic sequence re-built the mutant phenotype similar to afo1. The results suggest that the far-upstream region of RFL may contain potential cis element(s) that are critical to define the precise spatial-temporal expression pattern of RFL for its function in floral development.

Free synthetic and natural estrogen hormones in influent and effluent of three municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Three municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in southeastern Pennsylvania were sampled to determine the presence and concentrations of 12 natural and synthetic estrogen hormones in the wastewater influent and effluent. The target estrogens were 17alpha-estradiol, estrone, estriol, equilin, 17alpha-dihydroequilin, 17beta-estradiol, 17alpha-ethinyl estradiol, gestodene, norgestrel, levonorgestrel, medrogestone, and trimegestone. One WWTP uses a biofilm reactor (packed-bed trickling filter),and the other two use suspended-growth media (continuously stirred activated sludge reactor and sequential batch reactor). Estrone was detected in all the three plants; estriol and estradiol were detected at two WWTPs; and 17 alpha-dihydroequilin and 17 alpha-ethinyl estradiol were detected at one WWTP. The concentration of estrogens in the influent and effluent of the three treatment plants ranged from 1.2 to 259 ng/L and 0.5 to 49 ng/L, respectively. The percentage removal of estrogens from the aqueous phase ranged from 41 to 99%, except in the case of 17alpha-dihydroequilin; the removal of 17alpha-dihydroequilin was negligible. The suspended-growth media systems showed higher removal efficiencies for estrogens than the biofilm system. The analytical method uses a Varian C-18 solid-phase extraction (Varian Inc., Palo Alto, California), followed by a derivatization with bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide. The detection limits for the estrogen compounds ranged from 0.1 to 10 ng/L using a sample size of 1 L. The method recoveries ranged from 71 to 120%, and the relative standard deviation ranged from 6 to 14% for all the hormones.

Ultrasound-induced destruction of low levels of estrogen hormones in aqueous solutions.

The removal of estrogen hormones from water and wastewater is of importance due to their adverse effects toward ecosystems and potential risks to human health. The ultrasound-induced destruction of estrogen compounds in aqueous solutions is studied in a batch reactor using a 1.1 W/mL sonication unit and in a continuous flow reactor using a 2.1 W/mL sonication unit. The estrogen compounds of interest are 17alpha-estradiol, 17beta-estradiol, ethinyl estradiol, estrone, equilin, gestodene, levonorgestrel, and norgestrel. Effects of process variables such as temperature, pH, and pressure are examined. The degradation of estrogens follows pseudo first-order kinetics. The reaction likely takes place in the interfacial region where supercritical environment is produced upon cavity implosion and in the bulk solution with radical species. Low solution pH is more favorable for destruction of estrogens. A kinetic degradation model is developed to predict the destruction of estrogen compounds. Low solution temperature shows favorable destruction of estrogens. Increasing the fluid pressure is detrimental to reaction efficiency.

Use of adsorption process to remove organic mercury thimerosal from industrial process wastewater.

Carbon adsorption process is tested for removal of high concentration of organic mercury (thimerosal) from industrial process wastewater, in batch and continuously flow through column systems. The organic mercury concentration in the process wastewater is about 1123 mg/L due to the thimerosal compound. Four commercially available adsorbents are tested for mercury removal and they are: Calgon F-400 granular activated carbon (GAC), CB II GAC, Mersorb GAC and an ion-exchange resin Amberlite GT73. The adsorption capacity of each adsorbent is described by the Freundlich isotherm model at pH 3.0, 9.5 and 11.0 in batch isotherm experiments. Acidic pH was favorable for thimerosal adsorption onto the GACs. Columns-in-series experiments are conducted with 30-180 min empty bed contact times (EBCTs). Mercury breakthrough of 30 mg/L occurred after about 47 h (96 Bed Volume Fed (BVF)) of operation, and 97 h (197 BVF) with 120 min EBCT and 180 min EBCT, respectively. Most of the mercury removal is attributed to the 1st adsorbent column. Increase in contact time by additional adsorbent columns did not lower the effluent mercury concentration below 30 mg/L. However, at a lower influent wastewater pH 3, the mercury effluent concentration decreased to less than 7 mg/L for up to 90 h of column operation (183 BVF).

[The catalytic wet air oxidation reaction of acetic acid with Ti-Ce series catalyst].

The influence factors and reaction mechanism during the catalytic wet air oxidation of acetic acid with Ti-Ce series catalyst was investigated in this paper. The results show that the reaction was influenced by the catalyst load, the reaction temperature, the pH of the reaction system and the partial pressure of oxygen. More than 90% removal efficiency of acetic acid (as COD) can be obtained at the reaction conditions as follow: temperature 230 degrees C, oxygen partial pressure 2-2.5 MPa, catalyst amount 5 g/L, initial pH of the system 3.0 and reaction time 1 h. With Ion Chromatography, the formic acid formed during the reaction process was detected. The formic was found during the wet air oxidation of acetic acid in the absence of catalyst, but can not be detected during the catalytic wet air oxidation process with Ti-Ce catalyst. It means that the presence of catalyst in the system not only improve the removal efficiency, but also change the oxidation pathway.