Characterization of NMCR-3, NMCR-4 and NMCR-5, three novel non-mobile colistin resistance determinants: Implications for MCR-3, MCR-7, and MCR-5 progenitors, respectively.

In this study, the progenitors of MCR-3, MCR-7 and MCR-5, namely NMCR-3, NMCR-4 and NMCR-5, were firstly discovered and indicating Aeromonas was a natural reservoir for MCR-3 and MCR-7. Furthermore, different evolutionary models for MCR-3, MCR-7 and MCR-5 were proposed.

Bio-inspired and assembled fungal hyphae/carbon nanotubes aerogel for water-oil separation.

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based materials have attracted tremendous interest for their high performance in oil separation. However, the preparation of CNT based materials always require harmful and expensive chemicals. Here, a biological assembly route was applied to assemble CNTs onto a fungal hyphae (FH) to produce FH/CNTs composites, followed by pyrolysis to obtain a hydrophobic CNT based aerogel for oil separation, which is a more environmentally friendly process. The as-prepared FH/CNTs-800 aerogel (pyrolyzed at 800 °C) showed hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 143° and high specific surface area (1041.2 m2 g-1). The oil absorption results showed that the as-prepared FH/CNTs aerogels could absorb a wide range of oils with high absorption capacities ranging from 48 to 138 times their own weight. Furthermore, the oil-loaded aerogel was recycled through burning with little reduction in the oil absorption capacity. In addition, FH/CNTs-800 provided a high specific capacitance of 232 F g-1 at 1 A g-1 and maintained a capacity retention of 70.62% at 20 A g-1. Therefore, this study offers a simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly bioassembly route for large-scale assembly of CNTs into macroscopic 3D hydrophobic aerogels for highly efficient water-oil separation.

Prevalence, quantification and isolation of pathogenic shiga toxin Escherichia coli O157:H7 along the production and supply chain of pork around Hubei Province of China.

Shiga toxin Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is an important zoonotic food borne pathogen causing gastroenteritis that may lead to life threatening hemorragic colitis (HC) and hemorrhagic uremic syndrome (HUS). 325 meat and tissue samples were tested for enumeration of O157:H7 strains using most probable number (MPN)-PCR targeting their specific genes flicH7 and rfbO157 followed by isolation, sereotyping and pathogenicity testing. The overall prevalence of O157:H7 was 41.3% (134/325) along the production and supply chain of pork (PSCP), being higher in supply chain (59%, 118/200) as compared to pig farms (12.8%, 16/125). Along the PSCP, the highest prevalence was found in slaughter houses (86.25%, 69/80) followed by wet- (53.3%, 32/60) and super-markets (28.3%, 17/60). The MPN values ranged from 3 to 1100 MPN/g in overall positive samples, being higher in slaughter houses followed by wet and super markets. Except from intestine and meat samples of slaughter house, the MPN was found higher in summer as compared to winter samples. Eight STEC O157:H7 isolated from meat and liver samples were tested in Balb/C mice for pathogenicity. After development of clinical signs and symptoms, 50-83.3% mortality was produced in the infected mice. Histopathological investigations revealed visible necrosis of intestinal epithelial cells, shedding of cellular debris in the intestine, while in the kidney, necrosis of renal cortical portion of tubular epithelial cells was observed. STEC O157:H7 is prevalent along PSCP around Hubei of China in different proportions being alarmingly higher in supply chain and markets which is a matter of concern for public health.

[Multiple headspace solid-phase microextraction after matrix modification for the determination of ethyl carbamate in alcoholic beverages using gas chromatography].

A method based on multiple headspace solid-phase microextraction (MHS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography for determining ethyl carbamate (EC) in various alcoholic beverages was established. A novel polyethylene glycol/hydroxy-terminated silicone oil fiber was used instead of commercial ones because of its high extraction ability. Anhydrous sodium sulphate was added to modify the matrix and the extraction efficiency of EC was greatly improved. The optimum conditions for MHS-SPME were as follows: extraction time, 10 min; extraction temperature, 35 degrees C; Na2SO4 addition, 4.0 mg Na2SO4 per microliter of sample; volume of sample, 20 microL. The proposed method was linear in the range of 0.04 to 100 mg/L with a correlation coefficient of 0.999 7. The limit of detection was 34 microg/L and the repeatability of six replicates was 2.19%. The method was used to determine EC in various alcoholic beverages. The concentrations obtained were compared with those obtained by standard addition method and no statistically significant differences were observed. The application of MHS-SPME avoids the matrix effect, which commonly appears in SPME-based analysis. The results indicate that MHS-SPME has a great potential for EC quantification of complex samples due to its simplicity, sensitivity, reliability, ease of operation and environmental protection, especially for the analysis of a large number of samples in different matrices.