Rapid Identification of Mixed Enteropathogenic Bacteria by Means of Au Nanoparticles@Bacteria Using Portable Raman Spectrometer.

Rapid detection of food-borne pathogens is the most critical and urgent issue among all the current food safety problems. As enhanced substrate, nanoparticles are widely used in surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) because of unique optical and physicochemical properties. In this study, Au nanoparticles with monodisperse and good reproducibility were synthesized by using sodium citrate reduction method. Applying Au nanoparticles sol as enhanced substrate, a portable Raman spectrometer had been applied for rapid detection of single and mixture pathogenic bacterial contamination by SERS. The results indicated that Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimirium, Shigella flexner and Staphylococcus aureus showed specific Raman phenotypes at 600∼1700 cm-1. Generally, different bacteria could be easily and instantly recognized by its Raman phenotypes. The PC-LDA classification model was set up by combined bacterial Raman phenotypes with the multivariate statistical analysis. With the short-time inoculation, four enteropathogenic bacteria could be rapidly, precisely, sensitively and specifically identified. Furthermore, the model also had a good ability to predict the mixed contamination. This research provides the possibility of rapid detection in the food and biomedical fields.

Frequency and associated factors of accommodation and non-strabismic binocular vision dysfunction among medical university students.

AIM: To investigate the frequency and associated factors of accommodation and non-strabismic binocular vision dysfunction among medical university students. METHODS: Totally 158 student volunteers underwent routine vision examination in the optometry clinic of Guangxi Medical University. Their data were used to identify the different types of accommodation and non-strabismic binocular vision dysfunction and to determine their frequency. Correlation analysis and logistic regression were used to examine the factors associated with these abnormalities. RESULTS: The results showed that 36.71% of the subjects had accommodation and non-strabismic binocular vision issues, with 8.86% being attributed to accommodation dysfunction and 27.85% to binocular abnormalities. Convergence insufficiency (CI) was the most common abnormality, accounting for 13.29%. Those with these abnormalities experienced higher levels of eyestrain (χ2=69.518, P<0.001). The linear correlations were observed between the difference of binocular spherical equivalent (SE) and the index of horizontal esotropia at a distance (r=0.231, P=0.004) and the asthenopia survey scale (ASS) score (r=0.346, P<0.001). Furthermore, the right eye's SE was inversely correlated with the convergence of positive and negative fusion images at close range (r=-0.321, P<0.001), the convergence of negative fusion images at close range (r=-0.294, P<0.001), the vergence facility (VF; r=-0.234, P=0.003), and the set of negative fusion images at far range (r=-0.237, P=0.003). Logistic regression analysis indicated that gender, age, and the difference in right and binocular SE did not influence the emergence of these abnormalities. CONCLUSION: Binocular vision abnormalities are more prevalent than accommodation dysfunction, with CI being the most frequent type. Greater binocular refractive disparity leads to more severe eyestrain symptoms.

SPOP negatively regulates mTORC1 activity by ubiquitinating Sec13.

The mammalian target of rapamycin complex1 (mTORC1) can response to amino acid to regulate metabolism and cell growth. GATOR2 act as important role in amino acid mediated mTORC1 signaling pathway by repressing GTPase activity (GAP) of GATOR1. However, it is still unclear how GATOR2 regulates mTORC1 signaling pathway. Here, we found that K63-ubiquitination of Sce13, one component of GATOR2, suppresses the mTORC1 activity by lessening the inter-interaction of GATOR2. Mechanistically, the ubiquitination of Sec13 was mediated by SPOP. Subsequently, the ubiquitination of Sec13 attenuated its interaction with the other component of GATOR2, thus suppressing the activity of mTORC1. Importantly, the deficiency of SPOP promoted the faster proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells, which was attenuated by knocking down of Sec13. Therefore, SPOP can act as a tumor suppressor gene by negatively regulating mTORC1 signaling pathway.

An unusual case of hyperthyroidism with recurrent vomiting and hypercalcemia as the main manifestations.

Complicated vomiting and hypercalcemia are clinically rare in patients with hyperthyroidism. We describe a case of a woman whose main symptoms were palpitations, sweating, and vomiting. She was diagnosed with Graves' disease by an analysis of thyroid function, thyroid-related antibodies, and color Doppler ultrasound. Biochemical tests showed that her serum calcium levels were greatly elevated. Her symptoms were relieved following the administration of antithyroid drugs, propranolol for heart rate control, fluid replacement, diuresis and calcium reduction, antiemesis, and liver protection. This case suggests that the thyroid function should be screened when hypercalcemia is seen in the clinic.

The possibility of coexistence and co-development in language competition: ecology-society computational model and simulation.

Language is characterized by both ecological properties and social properties, and competition is the basic form of language evolution. The rise and decline of one language is a result of competition between languages. Moreover, this rise and decline directly influences the diversity of human culture. Mathematics and computer modeling for language competition has been a popular topic in the fields of linguistics, mathematics, computer science, ecology, and other disciplines. Currently, there are several problems in the research on language competition modeling. First, comprehensive mathematical analysis is absent in most studies of language competition models. Next, most language competition models are based on the assumption that one language in the model is stronger than the other. These studies tend to ignore cases where there is a balance of power in the competition. The competition between two well-matched languages is more practical, because it can facilitate the co-development of two languages. A third issue with current studies is that many studies have an evolution result where the weaker language inevitably goes extinct. From the integrated point of view of ecology and sociology, this paper improves the Lotka-Volterra model and basic reaction-diffusion model to propose an "ecology-society" computational model for describing language competition. Furthermore, a strict and comprehensive mathematical analysis was made for the stability of the equilibria. Two languages in competition may be either well-matched or greatly different in strength, which was reflected in the experimental design. The results revealed that language coexistence, and even co-development, are likely to occur during language competition.