Low concentrations of tetrabromobisphenol A promote the biofilm formation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The effect and underlying mechanism of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), a plastic additive, on biofilm formation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA USA300) remain unknown. This study first investigated the impact of different concentrations of TBBPA on the growth and biofilm formation of USA300. The results indicated that a low concentration (0.5 mg/L) of TBBPA promoted the growth and biofilm formation of USA300, whereas high concentrations (5 mg/L and 10 mg/L) of TBBPA had inhibitory effects. Further exploration revealed that the low concentration of TBBPA enhance biofilm formation by promoting the synthesis of extracellular proteins, release of extracellular DNA (eDNA), and production of staphyloxanthin. RTqPCR analysis demonstrated that the low concentration of TBBPA upregulated genes associated with extracellular protein synthesis (sarA, fnbA, fnbB, aur) and eDNA formation (atlA) and increased the expression of genes involved in staphyloxanthin biosynthesis (crtM), suggesting a potential mechanism for enhanced resistance of USA300 to adverse conditions. These findings shed light on how low concentrations of TBBPA facilitate biofilm formation in USA300 and highlight the indirect impact of plastic additives on pathogenic bacteria in terms of human health. In the future, in-depth studies about effects of plastic additives on pathogenicity of pathogenic bacteria should be conducted. CAPSULE: The protein and eDNA contents in biofilms of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus are increased by low concentrations of TBBPA.

Application of the hospital-family holistic care model in caregivers of patients with permanent enterostomy: A randomized controlled trial.

AIMS: To evaluate the effectiveness of the hospital-family holistic care model based on the theory of 'Timing It Right' in caregivers of patients with permanent enterostomy. DESIGN: A prospective randomized controlled trial. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-five caregivers of patients with permanent enterostomy were recruited from 1 May 2017-31 August 2019. They were randomized into either intervention group (N = 62) or control group (N = 63). The control group received routine care and follow-up, while the intervention group received routine care, follow-up, and hospital-family holistic care intervention based on 'Timing It Right'. The care ability, psychological distress, and life quality of the caregivers were evaluated between the groups before the intervention, at discharge, and 3 and 6 months after discharge. RESULTS: One hundred and eleven caregivers completed the study (88.8%). At 3 and 6 months after discharge, the care ability and life quality in the intervention group were significantly better than those in the control group (t = 8.506/9.783, t = 22.652/26.179, p < 0.05) based on the t tests, and the psychological distress was lower than that in the control group. The ostomy adaptability of the control group was significantly lower than that in the intervention group (p < 0.001) based on the t tests, and the χ2 test showed that ostomy complication was more than that in the intervention group (23.81% vs. 12.90% and 34.92% vs. 19.35%; p < 0.05) at 3 and 6 months after discharge. The interaction between time and group showed that the effect of time factor varied with the group and the four evaluation indexes in the intervention group gradually improved with the extension of the observation time and were better than those in the control group based on generalized estimating equation model. CONCLUSION: The hospital-family holistic care model based on 'Timing It Right' can effectively improve the care ability of caregivers of patients with permanent enterostomy, reduce psychological distress, and improve the quality of life. IMPACT: The caregivers of patients with permanent enterostomy showed dynamic changes in their care experience and needs at different stages of the disease. The hospital-family holistic care intervention strategy based on 'Timing It Right' can effectively improve the caregiver's care ability, alleviate psychological distress, and improve the quality of life. Additionally, improving the patients' stoma adaptability and reducing the incidence of complications related to ostomy.

A Vision-Based Driver Assistance System with Forward Collision and Overtaking Detection.

One major concern in the development of intelligent vehicles is to improve the driving safety. It is also an essential issue for future autonomous driving and intelligent transportation. In this paper, we present a vision-based system for driving assistance. A front and a rear on-board camera are adopted for visual sensing and environment perception. The purpose is to avoid potential traffic accidents due to forward collision and vehicle overtaking, and assist the drivers or self-driving cars to perform safe lane change operations. The proposed techniques consist of lane change detection, forward collision warning, and overtaking vehicle identification. A new cumulative density function (CDF)-based symmetry verification method is proposed for the detection of front vehicles. The motion cue obtained from optical flow is used for overtaking detection. It is further combined with a convolutional neural network to remove repetitive patterns for more accurate overtaking vehicle identification. Our approach is able to adapt to a variety of highway and urban scenarios under different illumination conditions. The experiments and performance evaluation carried out on real scene images have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.

Improving Discrimination in Color Vision Deficiency by Image Re-Coloring.

People with color vision deficiency (CVD) cannot observe the colorful world due to the damage of color reception nerves. In this work, we present an image enhancement approach to assist colorblind people to identify the colors they are not able to distinguish naturally. An image re-coloring algorithm based on eigenvector processing is proposed for robust color separation under color deficiency transformation. It is shown that the eigenvector of color vision deficiency is distorted by an angle in the λ , Y-B, R-G color space. The experimental results show that our approach is useful for the recognition and separation of the CVD confusing colors in natural scene images. Compared to the existing techniques, our results of natural images with CVD simulation work very well in terms of RMS, HDR-VDP-2 and an IRB-approved human test. Both the objective comparison with previous works and the subjective evaluation on human tests validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

[Marine Aerosol Using On-board Aerosol Mass Spectrometry].

Marine aerosols were measured in real-time by an on-board signal particle aerosol mass spectrometer(SPAMS) over the Southeast China Sea. The chemical compositions and size distribution characteristics of aerosol particles were obtained, and the sources and ion spectra were analyzed. The results showed that particle number concentration decreased with the distance apart from the coastal area. In the coastal area, the aerosol compositions were mainly determined by the emissions of industry, such as vessel, traffic and coal combustion etc. When it was far from the continent, aerosols were mainly affected by the sea sources. Aerosol particles during the observation period disturbed singly with a peak diameter value of 0.5 µm. Most of the particles were in the size range of 0.2 µm to 0.8 µm. High signal intensity of EC with high K+ intensity in the positive spectrum and HSO4- intensity in negative spectrum was present in the marine aerosol over the coastal area. However, the signals of NO3- and NO2- were absent in the negative spectrum. The signal intensity of EC was weak in the marine aerosol over the sea area far from the coastal area. High signal intensity of Na+ and weak Mg+,Ca+ and NaCl+ signals were present in the positive spectrum, while high signal intensity of MSA-,CN-,O- and HSO4- were present in negative spectrum which was considered to be the special ions spectrum of marine biological sources. It indicated that ambient aerosols over the observation area were influenced not only by the anthropogenic emission sources but also affected by the marine aerosol formation.