1-Kestose Blocks UVB-Induced Skin Inflammation and Promotes Type I Procollagen Synthesis via Regulating MAPK/AP-1, NF-κB and TGF-ß/Smad Pathway.

Solar UVB irradiation cause skin photoaging by inducing the high expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) to inhibit the expression of Type1 procollagen synthesis. 1-Kestose, a natural trisaccharide, has been indicated to show a cytoprotective role in UVB radiation-induced-HaCaT cells. However, few studies have confirmed the anti-aging effects. In the present study, we evaluated the anti-photoaging and pathological mechanism of 1-kestose using Human keratinocytes (HaCaT) cells. The results found that 1-kestose pretreatment remarkably reduced UVB-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in HaCaT cells. 1-Kestose suppressed UVB radiation-induced MMPs expressions by blocking MAPK/AP-1 and NF-κB p65 translocation. 1-Kestose pretreatment increased Type 1 procollagen gene expression levels by activating TGF-ß/Smad signaling pathway. Taken together, our results demonstrate that 1-kestose may serve as a potent natural trisaccharide for inflammation and photoaging prevention.

Multiparametric ultrasound imaging for early-stage steatosis: Comparison with magnetic resonance imaging-based proton density fat fraction.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of liver diseases, especially steatosis, requires a more convenient and noninvasive tool for liver diagnosis, which can be a surrogate for the gold standard biopsy. Magnetic resonance (MR) measurement offers potential, however ultrasound (US) has better accessibility than MR. PURPOSE: This study aims to suggest a multiparametric US approach which demonstrates better quantification and imaging performance than MR imaging-based proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) for hepatic steatosis assessment. METHODS: We investigated early-stage steatosis to evaluate our approach. An in vivo (within the living) animal study was performed. Fat inclusions were accumulated in the animal livers by feeding a methionine and choline deficient (MCD) diet for 2 weeks. The animals (n = 19) underwent US and MR imaging, and then their livers were excised for histological staining. From the US, MR, and histology images, fat accumulation levels were measured and compared: multiple US parameters; MRI-PDFF; histology fat percentages. Seven individual US parameters were extracted using B-mode measurement, Burr distribution estimation, attenuation estimation, H-scan analysis, and shear wave elastography. Feature selection was performed, and the selected US features were combined, providing quantification of fat accumulation. The combined parameter was used for visualizing the localized probability of fat accumulation level in the liver; This procedure is known as disease-specific imaging (DSI). RESULTS: The combined US parameter can sensitively assess fat accumulation levels, which is highly correlated with histology fat percentage (R = 0.93, p-value < 0.05) and outperforms the correlation between MRI-PDFF and histology (R = 0.89, p-value < 0.05). Although the seven individual US parameters showed lower correlation with histology compared to MRI-PDFF, the multiparametric analysis enabled US to outperform MR. Furthermore, this approach allowed DSI to detect and display gradual increases in fat accumulation. From the imaging output, we measured the color-highlighted area representing fatty tissues, and the fat fraction obtained from DSI and histology showed strong agreement (R = 0.93, p-value < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that fat quantification utilizing a combination of multiple US parameters achieved higher performance than MRI-PDFF; therefore, our multiparametric analysis successfully combined selected features for hepatic steatosis characterization. We anticipate clinical use of our proposed multiparametric US analysis, which could be beneficial in assessing steatosis in humans.

Loneliness Among Low-Income Older Immigrants Living in Subsidized Senior Housing: Does Perceived Social Cohesion Matter?

This study compared the level of loneliness among older immigrants residing in subsidized senior housing with that of non-immigrant residents. The study also sought to examine the differential influence of perceived social cohesion on loneliness among these groups. 231 study participants were recruited from subsidized senior housing in St. Louis and the Chicago area. Multiple regression analyses showed that there was a significant difference in loneliness between immigrants and non-immigrants (b = .3, SE = 0.150, p < .05). Also, perceived social cohesion was negatively associated with loneliness (b=-.102, SE = .022, p < .001). Furthermore, immigration status moderated the relationship (b=-.147, SE = .043, p < .01), showing immigrants may benefit more from higher perceived social cohesion in terms of loneliness. The results suggest that perceived social cohesion may act as an important community-level protective factor against loneliness, particularly for older immigrants residing in subsidized senior housing. Creating socially cohesive environments, particularly for this subgroup, could be a crucial strategy for mitigating loneliness. .

Subsidized Senior Housing in the US: A Scoping Review.

Subsidized senior housing (SSH) is important to support healthy aging among vulnerable subgroups of older adults, yet progress in developing and expanding SSH has been limited. This scoping review had two research questions: (1) What are the trends in SSH empirical studies? (2) What are the main topics in the existing literature on SSH in the US? We reviewed a total of 61 articles and found several notable trends, including a focus on racial and ethnic minorities, cognitive impairment among SSH residents, and collaborative partnerships between housing operators and healthcare providers. More than half of the studies were quantitative, while the rest were qualitative or mixed-methods. The lack of longitudinal or causal design research reflects the limited empirical knowledge of SSH. Four themes emerged: health and well-being, healthcare use and health behaviors, social relations, and housing relocation. We discussed implications for future research and program development efforts in SSH.

H-Scan Discrimination for Tumor Microenvironmental Heterogeneity in Melanoma.

OBJECTIVE: Melanoma is a form of malignant skin cancer that exhibits significant inter-tumoral differences in the tumor microenvironment (TME) secondary to genetic mutations. The heterogeneity may be subtle but can complicate the treatment of metastatic melanoma, contributing to a high mortality rate. Therefore, developing an accurate and non-invasive procedure to discriminate microenvironmental heterogeneity to facilitate therapy selection is an important goal. METHODS: In vivo murine melanoma models that recapitulate human disease using synchronous implanted YUMM 1.7 (Yale University Mouse Melanoma) and YUMMER 1.7 (Yale University Mouse Melanoma Exposed to Radiation) murine melanoma lines were investigated. Mice were treated with antibodies to modulate the immune response and longitudinally scanned with ultrasound (US). US radiofrequency data were processed using the H-scan analysis, attenuation estimation and B-mode processing to extract five US features. The measures were used to compare different TMEs (YUMMER vs. YUMM) and responses to immunomodulatory therapies with CD8 depletion or programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibition. RESULTS: Multiparametric analysis produced a combined H-scan parameter, resolving significant differences (i) between untreated YUMMER and YUMM and (ii) between untreated, PD-1-treated and CD8-treated YUMMER. However, more importantly, the B-mode and attenuation measures failed to differentiate YUMMER and YUMM and to monitor treatment responses, indicating that H-scan is required to differentiate subtle differences within the TME. CONCLUSION: We anticipate that the H-scan analysis could discriminate heterogeneous melanoma metastases and guide diagnosis and treatment selection, potentially reducing the need for invasive biopsies or immunologic procedures.

Potential Anti-Allergy and Immunomodulatory Properties of Lactococcus lactis LB 1022 Observed In Vitro and in an Atopic Dermatitis Mouse Model.

Lactococcus lactis is a lactic acid bacterium and used in the dairy food industry. The ameliorating effects of Lactobacillus species on atopic dermatitis (AD) have been extensively studied, but the specific effect of L. lactis strains has not yet been investigated. In this study, the efficacy of L. lactis LB 1022, isolated from natural cheese, was evaluated using RAW 264.7, HMC-1 and HaCaT cell lines and an ovalbumin-sensitized AD mouse model. L. lactis LB 1022 exhibited nitric oxide suppression and anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. Oral administration of L. lactis LB 1022 to AD mice significantly reduced the levels of IgE, mast cells, and eosinophils, and a range of T cell-mediated T helper Th1, Th2, and Th17-type cytokines under interleukin (IL)-10, transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß), thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC), and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). In addition, L. lactis LB 1022 treatment increased the concentration of short-chain fatty acids. Overall, L. lactis LB 1022 significantly modulated AD-like symptoms by altering metabolites and the immune response, illustrating its potential as candidate for use in functional food supplements to alleviate AD.

Comparison of programmed intermittent epidural bolus injection and continuous epidural injection in controlling nighttime pain and improving sleep quality after thoracotomy.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pain after open thoracotomy is known to be very severe and affects sleep quality. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a programmed intermittent epidural bolus injection versus continuous epidural injection for controlling nighttime pain and improving sleep quality after thoracotomy. METHODS: Seventy-six patients scheduled for open thoracotomy for lung cancer or other lung diseases were enrolled. The participants were divided into 2 groups. Group A was continuously injected with 0.2% levobupivacaine at 1.1 mL/h, and group B was injected intermittently with 3 mL 0.2% levobupivacaine at 3 hours intervals through a thoracic epidural catheter via a programmed infusion pump. Within 48 hours after surgery, the degree of pain control using visual analog scale and the patients' sleep conditions on postoperative day (POD) 0 and 1 were evaluated, and other adverse events were investigated. RESULTS: On POD 1 night, the visual analog scale in group B showed lower than group A (P = .009). Comparison of time to fall asleep showed no differences between 2 groups. Total sleep time was no difference on POD 0 but was longer in group B than that in group A on POD 1 (P = .042). Awakening from sleep on POD 0 was lower in group B than that in group A (P = .033), and satisfaction with sleep quality on POD 0 was superior in group B compared to group A (P = .005). Postoperative nausea and vomiting occurred more frequently in group B than in group A (P = .018). CONCLUSION: The programmed intermittent epidural bolus technique of patient-controlled epidural analgesia reduces postoperative nighttime pain and improves sleep quality in patients undergoing thoracotomy for lung cancer or other lung diseases.

Thauera sedimentorum sp. nov., Isolated from Coastal Sediment.

A Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium, designated CAU 1555T, was isolated from a sediment sample collected on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. Growth of the isolate was observed at 20-37 °C (optimum at 30 °C) and pH 5.5-10.0 (optimum at 8.0). Phylogenetic analysis based on the result of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain CAU 1555T belonged to the genus Thauera and was closely related to Thauera hydrothermalis GD-2T (98.4% sequence similarity), Thauera lacus D20T (96.6%), and Thauera linaloolentis 47LolT (95.5%). Strain CAU 1555T possessed phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, and one aminophospholipid as the major polar lipids; Q-8 as the predominant respiratory quinone; and C16:0, summed feature 3 (comprising C16:1ω6c and/or C16:1ω7c), and summed feature 8 (comprising C18:1 ω7c/ C18:1 ω6c) as the major fatty acids. The average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI), and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between the new isolate and T. hydrothermalis GD-2T were 84.5%, 86.4%, and 28.0%, respectively. Whole-genome sequencing of strain CAU 1555T revealed 3,955,289 bp with a DNA G + C content of 68.0 mol%. Based on the results of its polyphasic properties and genomic analysis, the isolate represents a novel species within the genus Thauera, for which the name Thauera sedimentorum sp. nov. is proposed, with CAU 1555T (= KCTC 72546T = MCCC 1K04065T) as the type strain.

Molecular electronics sensors on a scalable semiconductor chip: A platform for single-molecule measurement of binding kinetics and enzyme activity.

For nearly 50 years, the vision of using single molecules in circuits has been seen as providing the ultimate miniaturization of electronic chips. An advanced example of such a molecular electronics chip is presented here, with the important distinction that the molecular circuit elements play the role of general-purpose single-molecule sensors. The device consists of a semiconductor chip with a scalable array architecture. Each array element contains a synthetic molecular wire assembled to span nanoelectrodes in a current monitoring circuit. A central conjugation site is used to attach a single probe molecule that defines the target of the sensor. The chip digitizes the resulting picoamp-scale current-versus-time readout from each sensor element of the array at a rate of 1,000 frames per second. This provides detailed electrical signatures of the single-molecule interactions between the probe and targets present in a solution-phase test sample. This platform is used to measure the interaction kinetics of single molecules, without the use of labels, in a massively parallel fashion. To demonstrate broad applicability, examples are shown for probe molecule binding, including DNA oligos, aptamers, antibodies, and antigens, and the activity of enzymes relevant to diagnostics and sequencing, including a CRISPR/Cas enzyme binding a target DNA, and a DNA polymerase enzyme incorporating nucleotides as it copies a DNA template. All of these applications are accomplished with high sensitivity and resolution, on a manufacturable, scalable, all-electronic semiconductor chip device, thereby bringing the power of modern chips to these diverse areas of biosensing.

Collagen fibrous scaffolds for sustained delivery of growth factors for meniscal tissue engineering.

Aim: To mimic the ultrastructural morphology of the meniscus with nanofiber scaffolds coupled with controlled growth factor delivery to modulate cellular performance for tissue engineering of menisci. Methods: The authors functionalized collagen nanofibers by conjugating heparin to the following growth factors for sustained release: PDGF-BB, TGF-ß1 and CTGF. Results: Incorporating growth factors increased human meniscal and synovial cell viability, proliferation and infiltration in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo; upregulated key genes involved in meniscal extracellular matrix synthesis and enhanced generation of meniscus-like tissue. Conclusion: The authors' results indicate that functionalizing collagen nanofibers can create a cell-favorable micro- and nanoenvironment and can serve as a system for sustained release of bioactive factors.

Lay abstract Meniscal tears are a common injury to the part of the knee called the meniscus. Loss of meniscal tissue can lead to arthritis. In this study, the authors aimed to recreate the structure of the human meniscus using very thin (nanometers in diameter) fibers made of collagen. The authors also attached proteins called growth factors to the fibers. The addition of these proteins increased the growth rate of cells collected from human knee tissue. The levels of important genes involved in meniscal tissue formation were increased in these cells. These results show that adding proteins such as growth factors to collagen nanofibers can create an environment beneficial to growing meniscal tissue. Successful development of this technology could help in repairing meniscal damage in people.

Paenibacillus arenosi sp. nov., a siderophore-producing bacterium isolated from coastal sediment.

In this study, strain CAU 1523T, a novel Gram-positive-positive bacterium isolated from marine sediment collected from the coast of Busan, Republic of Korea, was characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. This strain showed growth at a temperature range of 20-37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), a pH range of 6.5-9.5 (optimum, 7.5), and in the presence of 0-3% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and 92 concatenated core genes indicated that CAU 1523T belonged to the genus Paenibacillus, sharing the highest sequence similarity with P. assamensis JCM 13186T (98.0%). CAU 1523T was differentiated from other Paenibacillus species by average nucleotide identity, average amino acid identity, and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values, using cut-off values of 95-96%, 90%, and 70%, respectively, for closely related strains. The genome of CAU 1523T possessed various biosynthetic gene clusters, one of which encoded a putative siderophore-interacting protein. Siderophore production by the isolate was confirmed using the qualitative chrome azurol sulfonate (CAS) agar assay. Based on its phylogenetic and physiological characteristics, strain CAU 1523T represents a novel, siderophore-producing species within the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus arenosi sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain CAU 1523T (= KCTC 43108T = MCCC 1K04063T).

Diagnostic Performance of an Artificial Intelligence System in Breast Ultrasound.

OBJECTIVES: We study the performance of an artificial intelligence (AI) program designed to assist radiologists in the diagnosis of breast cancer, relative to measures obtained from conventional readings by radiologists. METHODS: A total of 10 radiologists read a curated, anonymized group of 299 breast ultrasound images that contained at least one suspicious lesion and for which a final diagnosis was independently determined. Separately, the AI program was initialized by a lead radiologist and the computed results compared against those of the radiologists. RESULTS: The AI program's diagnoses of breast lesions had concordance with the 10 radiologists' readings across a number of BI-RADS descriptors. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the AI program's diagnosis of benign versus malignant was above 0.8, in agreement with the highest performing radiologists and commensurate with recent studies. CONCLUSION: The trained AI program can contribute to accuracy of breast cancer diagnoses with ultrasound.

Disease-Specific Imaging Utilizing Support Vector Machine Classification of H-Scan Parameters: Assessment of Steatosis in a Rat Model.

In medical imaging, quantitative measurements have shown promise in identifying diseases by classifying normal versus pathological parameters from tissues. The support vector machine (SVM) has shown promise as a supervised classification algorithm and has been widely used. However, the classification results typically identify a category of abnormal tissues but do not necessarily differentiate progressive stages of a disease. Moreover, the classification result is typically provided independently as a supplement to medical images, which contributes to an overload of information sources in the clinic. Hence, we propose a new imaging method utilizing the SVM to integrate classification results into medical images. This framework is called disease-specific imaging (DSI) that produces a color overlaid highlight on B-mode ultrasound images indicating the type, location, and severity of pathology from different conditions. In this article, the SVM training was performed to construct hyperplanes that can differentiate normal, fibrosis, steatosis, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) metastases in livers based on ultrasound echoes. Also, cluster centroids for specific diseases define unique disease axes, and the inner product between measured features and any disease axis selected by the SVM quantifies the disease progression. The features were measured from 2794 ultrasound frames using the H-scan analysis, attenuation estimation, and B-mode image analysis. The performance of our proposed DSI method was evaluated for a preclinical model of steatosis ( n = 400 frames). The contribution of each feature was assessed, and the results were compared with ground truth from histology. Moreover, the images generated by our DSI were compared with earlier imaging methods of B-mode, H-scan, and histology. The comparisons demonstrate that DSI images yield higher sensitivity to monitor progressive steatosis than B-mode and H-scan and provide a comparable performance with the histology. For the parameter comparison, DSI and H-scan resulted in similar correlation with histology ( rs = 0.83 ) but higher than attenuation ( rs = 0.73 ) and B-mode ( rs = 0.47 ). Therefore, we conclude that DSI utilizing the SVM applied to steatosis can visually represent the classification results with color highlighting, which can simplify the interpretation of classification compared to the traditional SVM result. We expect that the proposed DSI can be used for any medical imaging modality that can estimate multiple quantitative parameters at high resolution.

Heat-Killed Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LRCC5314 Mitigates the Effects of Stress-Related Type 2 Diabetes in Mice via Gut Microbiome Modulation.

The incidence of stress-related type 2 diabetes (stress-T2D), which is aggravated by physiological stress, is increasing annually. The effects of Lactobacillus, a key component of probiotics, have been widely studied in diabetes; however, studies on the effects of postbiotics are still limited. Here, we aimed to examine the mechanism through which heat-killed Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LRCC5314 (HK-LRCC5314) alleviates stress-T2D in a cold-induced stress-T2D C57BL/6 mouse model. HK-LRCC5314 markedly decreased body weight gain, adipose tissue (neck, subcutaneous, and epididymal) weight, and fasting glucose levels. In the adipose tissue, mRNA expression levels of stress-T2D associated factors (NPY, Y2R, GLUT4, adiponectin, and leptin) and pro-inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-6, and CCL-2) were also altered. Furthermore, HK-LRCC5314 increased the abundance of Barnesiella, Alistipes, and butyrate-producing bacteria, including Akkermansia, in feces and decreased the abundance of Ruminococcus, Dorea, and Clostridium. Thus, these findings suggest that HK-LRCC5314 exerts protective effects against stress-T2D via gut microbiome modulation, suggesting its potential as a supplement for managing stress-T2D.

Improving breast cancer diagnosis by incorporating raw ultrasound parameters into machine learning.

The improved diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound breast examinations remains an important goal. In this study, we propose a biophysical feature-based machine learning method for breast cancer detection to improve the performance beyond a benchmark deep learning algorithm and to furthermore provide a color overlay visual map of the probability of malignancy within a lesion. This overall framework is termed disease-specific imaging. Previously, 150 breast lesions were segmented and classified utilizing a modified fully convolutional network and a modified GoogLeNet, respectively. In this study multiparametric analysis was performed within the contoured lesions. Features were extracted from ultrasound radiofrequency, envelope, and log-compressed data based on biophysical and morphological models. The support vector machine with a Gaussian kernel constructed a nonlinear hyperplane, and we calculated the distance between the hyperplane and each feature's data point in multiparametric space. The distance can quantitatively assess a lesion and suggest the probability of malignancy that is color-coded and overlaid onto B-mode images. Training and evaluation were performed on in vivo patient data. The overall accuracy for the most common types and sizes of breast lesions in our study exceeded 98.0% for classification and 0.98 for an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, which is more precise than the performance of radiologists and a deep learning system. Further, the correlation between the probability and Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System enables a quantitative guideline to predict breast cancer. Therefore, we anticipate that the proposed framework can help radiologists achieve more accurate and convenient breast cancer classification and detection.

Comparison of Continuous and Programmed Intermittent Bolus Infusion of 0.2% Ropivacaine after Ultrasound-Guided Continuous Interscalene Brachial Plexus Block in Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgery.

Background: Despite the clinical effectiveness of the programmed intermittent bolus (PIB) method for epidural analgesia, evidence for this method in continuous interscalene brachial plexus block (CIBPB) is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the pain relief effect after arthroscopic shoulder surgery according to the administration method by comparing the PIB and continuous infusion methods among the administration methods of local anesthetics. Methods: Sixty-four patients aged >19 years scheduled for elective arthroscopic shoulder surgery were enrolled and divided into two groups. Ultrasound-guided CIBPB was performed to control postoperative pain. The infusion pump was programmed so that 0.2% ropivacaine was continuously injected at 1.1 mL/h in group A, whereas in group B, 0.1 mL/h was continuously injected and 4 mL was periodically injected at 4 h intervals. In both groups, a further infusion of 4 mL of 0.2% ropivacaine was administered if the patient requested additional analgesia, and the lockout time was set at 30 min. Postoperative pain quality was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS), and the incidence of patients requiring additional analgesics, motor blockade using a modified Bromage scale (MBS), and consumed doses of local anesthetic were assessed. Results: The VAS and incidence of rescue analgesics were performed when the patient could communicate voluntarily after admission to the post-anesthetic care unit, and at 24 and 48 h after surgery showed no significant difference between the two groups. The MBS at 24 h after surgery was significantly higher in group B (p = 0.038). In the comparison of consumed doses of local anesthetic, group B had a significantly higher bolus injection dose (p = 0.047) and frequency of bolus use in the 24 h after surgery (p = 0.034). Conclusion: The PIB method in CIBPB after arthroscopic shoulder surgery provided a similar analgesic effect, with a higher bolus injection dose of local anesthetic and increased motor blockade than the continuous infusion method.

Echinicola arenosa sp. nov., isolated from marine sand.

A novel bacterium, designated CAU 1574T, was isolated from marine sand. Cells were Gram stain negative, aerobic, gliding and rod shaped. Growth was observed at 20-37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), a pH of 5.5-10.0 (optimum, 8.0), and 0-3.0% (w/v) NaCl concentrations (optimum, 1%). Based on the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses, strain CAU 1574T belonged to the genus Echinicola, and showed the highest similarity to Echinicola shivajiensis JCM 17847T (97.5%). Phylogenomic analysis based on consisting of 92 core genes extracted from the genome sequences showed that strain CAU 1574T was affiliated with species in the genus Echinicola. The average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI), and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain CAU 1574T and the closely related species were below the cut-off values of 95-96, 90, and 70%, respectively used for species demarcation. The chemotaxonomic data of CAU 1574T were as follows: major isoprenoid quinone, MK-7; predominant polar lipids, phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminophospholipids and two unidentified lipids; major fatty acids, iso-C15:0, summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω6c/C16:1 ω7c). The 5.4 Mb genome included 20 contigs and 4237 protein-coding genes with a 39.8 mol% G + C content. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic, and physiological result, strain CAU 1574T represents a novel species of this genus Echinicola, for which the name Echinicola arenosa sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CAU 1574T (= KCTC 82410T = MCCC 1K05669T).

Improvement of Cutaneous Wound Healing via Topical Application of Heat-Killed Lactococcus chungangensis CAU 1447 on Diabetic Mice.

Cutaneous wound healing comprises a complex systemic network. Probiotics, naturally extracted substances, medicine, and chemical compounds have been used for wound healing, but the application of postbiotics as therapeutic agents has yet to be explored. Our study shows potential beneficial effects of heat-killed Lactococcus chungangensis CAU 1447 on type 1 diabetic mice. The postbiotic strain significantly decreased the skin wound size. The activity of myeloperoxidase secreted from neutrophils also decreased. The molecular mechanism of wound healing was adjusted by important mediators, growth factors, chemokines, and cytokines. These elements regulated the anti-inflammatory activity and accelerated wound healing. To determine the role of the postbiotic in wound repair, we showed a similar taxonomic pattern as compared to the diabetic mice using skin microbiome analysis. These findings demonstrated that heat-killed Lactococcus chungangensis CAU 1447 had beneficial effects on wound healing and can be utilized as postbiotic therapeutic agents.

H-scan trajectories indicate the progression of specific diseases.

PURPOSE: The ability of ultrasound to assess pathology is increasing with the development of quantitative parameters. Among these are a set of parameters derived from the recent H-scan analysis of subresolvable scattering. The emergence of these quantitative measures of tissue/ultrasound interactions now enables a study of the unique trajectories of multiparametric features in multidimensional space, representing the progression of specific diseases over time. We develop the mathematical and visual tools that are effective for classifying, quantifying, and visualizing the steady progression of several diseases from independent studies, all within a uniform framework. METHODS: After applying the H-scan analysis of ultrasound echoes, we trained a support vector machine (SVM) to classify the unique trajectories of progressive liver disease from fibrosis, steatosis, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) metastasis. Our approaches include the development of trajectory maps and disease-specific color imaging stains. RESULTS: The multidimensional SVM image classification reached 100% accuracy across the three different studies. CONCLUSION: H-scan trajectories can be useful to track the progression of multiple classes of diseases, improving diagnosis, staging, and assessing the response to therapy.

Chachezhania sediminis sp. nov., isolated from marine sediment.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain (CAU 1508T) was isolated from marine sediment collected in the Republic of Korea. Growth was observed at 10-45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 4.0-11.0 (optimum, pH 6.0-8.0) and with 0-8.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2-4 %). The isolate formed a monophyletic clade in the phylogenetic analyses using 16S rRNA gene and whole-genome sequences, exhibiting the highest similarity to Chachezhania antarctica SM1703T (96.5 %), and representing a distinct branch within the genus Chachezhania (family Rhodobacteraceae). Its whole genome sequence was 5.59 Mb long, with a G+C content of 65.7 mol% and 2183 predicted genes belonging to six functional categories. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between CAU 1508T and C. antarctica SM1703T were 79.1 and 22.2 %, respectively. The predominant cellular fatty acids were C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω7c/C18 : 1 ω6c). The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids and one unidentified aminophospholipid. The sole isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone 10. Phenotypic phylogenetic properties supported the classification of CAU 1508T as representing a novel species of the genus Chachezhania, with the proposed name Chachezhania sediminis sp. nov. The type strain is CAU 1508T (=KCTC 62999T=NBRC 113697T).