Cytomegalovirus Shedding in Healthy Seropositive Female College Students: A 6-Month Longitudinal Study.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) establishes a lifelong latent infection after primary infection and may reactivate periodically, with the shedding of infectious virus in body fluids. To better understand the prevalence and shedding model of CMV in immunocompetent seropositive women of childbearing age, a 6-month longitudinal study was conducted in healthy female college students. Methods: A total of 102 nonpregnant female college students aged 18-30 years were enrolled and followed up every 2 weeks for 6 months. Saliva and urine samples were collected at each visit. Serum samples were collected at the first and last visits. Results: All participants were positive for anti-CMV immunoglobulin G (IgG) at entry. During the 6-month period, 29.4% of participants (30 of 102) shed CMV intermittently in saliva or urine. At each visit, the CMV shedding prevalence varied from 2.0% to 10.4% and presented only in 1 bodily fluid. The viral load was low and did not induce marked antibody increases. The baseline anti-CMV IgG level was not found to be associated with viral shedding. Conclusions: CMV shedding in saliva and urine is common and intermittent and does not stimulate an anamnestic antibody response in seropositive immunocompetent women of childbearing age with a low risk of exposure to exogenous infectious sources.

Activation of corn cellulose with alcohols to improve its dissolvability in fabricating ultrafine fibers via electrospinning.

Water and four small molecular alcohols are respectively used to activate corn cellulose (CN cellulose) with the aim to improve the dissolvability in DMAc/LiCl. Among all these activated agents, monohydric alcohols are found to produce the optimal effect of activation in the whole process including of activating, dissolving, and electrospinning of CN cellulose. Meanwhile, well distributed fibers with the diameter of 500nm-2µm are fabricated in electrospinning. Understanding the activation effect of monohydric alcohols with water and polyhydric alcohols, the most effective activated agent is ascertained with the characteristics of small molecular size, low viscosity, and single functionality. This work is definitely initiated to understand the critical principle of CN cellulose in dissolving. Accordingly, a feasible methodology is also established to prepare ultrafine cellulose fibers with good morphology in electrospinning.

Responsive behavior of regenerated cellulose in hydrolysis under microwave radiation.

This work studied the responsive behavior of regenerated cellulose (RC) in hydrolysis under microwave radiation. Four types of RC with different crystallinity (Cr) and degree of polymerization (DP) are produced to evaluate the reactivity of RC by step-by-step hydrolysis. Results show Cr is the key factor to affect the reactivity of RCs. With hydrolysis of amorphous region and the formation of recrystallization, the Cr of RC reaches a high value and thus weakens the reactivity. As a result, the increment of cellulose conversion and sugar yield gradually reduces. Decrease of the DP of RC is helpful to increase the speed at the onset of hydrolysis and produce high sugar yield. But, there is no direct influence with the reactivity of RC to prolong the time of pretreatment. This research provides an accurate understanding to guide the RC preparation for sugar formation with relative high efficiency under mild reaction conditions.