Notes

A great interlaboratory study evaluating the actual model regarding forensic glass evidence employing indicative list measurements as well as much needed make up.
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of fructose and urea containing solutions was conducted at 180 °C to study the influence of nitrogen-containing compounds on conversion and product properties. The concentration of fructose was fixed, while the concentration of urea was gradually increased to study its influence on the formation of nitrogen-containing hydrochar (N-HC). The degradation of urea has an important influence on the HTC of fructose. The Maillard reaction (MR) promotes the formation of N-HC in acidic conditions. However, in alkaline conditions, MR promotes the formation of bio-oil at the expense of N-HC. Alkaline conditions reduce N-HC yield by catalyzing fragmentation reactions of fructose and by promoting the isomerization of fructose to glucose. The results showed that adjusting the concentration of nitrogen-containing compounds or the pH value of the reaction environment is important to force the reaction toward the formation of N-HC or N-bio-oil.[This corrects the article DOI 10.1007/s12553-020-00467-w.].The paper reviews briefly notable examples of e-learning, specifically the pioneering projects in medical physics and engineering. The needs for implementation of e-learning and the challenges to be resolved are underlined with a view of potential quick application of e-learning. The role of e-learning during times of crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic is discussed and the need of adequate pre-preparedness is highlighted. Examples are shown from the recent book "e-Learning in Medical Physics and Engineering Building Educational Modules with Moodle". Ways of reaching the target audience and the problems in some Lower-and-Middle Income countries are presented, together with some examples of quick adoption of e-Learning. The way forward has been argued, emphasizing that realistically the place of e-Learning is to complement traditional teaching and learning activities, enhancing their value and quality.Epsilon toxin (Etx) belongs to family of pore-forming toxin and is produced by Clostridium perfringens type D. The Etx toxin is responsible for the pathogenesis of enterotoxaemia in sheep and goats, and occasionally in other livestock animals. The present study aimed to develop a Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin-based chimeric epitope construct having immunodominant B-cell epitope and universal T-cell epitope and its immunogenicity was evaluated in mice and rabbit. An artificial chimeric epitope construct (CEC) was prepared by joining tandem repeats of a peptide containing amino acids (aa) 134-145 of epsilon toxin B-cell epitope and universal T-cell epitopes. The CEC was expressed in the Escherichia coli following codon optimization for efficient translational efficiency and purified by affinity chromatography. The antigenic reactivity of r-CEC proteins was confirmed by western blot with rabbit anti-r-Etox hyperimmune sera. The immunogenicity of the recombinant single CEC was examined in mice and rabbit by indirect ELISA. It was found that r-CEC yielded high titers of neutralizing antibodies (≥ 1.035 IU/ml) in immunized mice and rabbit. The potency of chimeric protein immunized serum was observed to be higher than the recommended level (0.1-0.3 IU/ml) for protection in sheep and goats. This indicated the potential ability of the chimeric protein as a vaccine candidate. This further requires studying the immune response in targeted host species (sheep and goat).In the present study, a total of 35 S. aureus isolates collected from two different geographical locations viz., Germany and Hungary were tested for their methicillin-resistant phenotype which revealed a high incidence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus. The quantitative test for biofilm production revealed that 73.3% of isolates were biofilm producers. The isolates were further characterized using a set of biochemical and genotypic methods such as amplification and analysis of S. aureus species-specific sequence and mecA gene. The 33 mecA positive isolates were then characterized by the amplification of SCCmec and pvl toxin genes. Further, based on the biofilm-forming phenotype, 15 isolates were selected and characterized through PCR-RFLP of coa gene, polymorphism of spa gene and amplification of biofilm-associated genes. The dendrogram prepared from the results of both biochemical and genotypic analyses of the 15 isolates showed that except for the isolates SA G5 and SA H29, the rest of the isolates grouped themselves according to their locations. Thus, the two isolates were selected for further characterization through whole-genome sequencing. Comparative genome analysis revealed that SA G5 and SA H29 have 97.20% ANI values with 2344 gene clusters (core-genome) of which 16 genes were related to antibiotic resistance genes and 57 genes encode virulence factors. The highest numbers of singleton genes were found in SA H29 that encodes proteins for virulence, resistance, mobile elements, and lanthionine biosynthesis. The high-resolution phylogenetic trees generated based on shared proteins and SNPs revealed a clear difference between the two strains and can be useful in distinguishing closely related genomes. The present study demonstrated that the whole-genome sequence analysis technique is required to get a better insight into the MRSA strains which would be helpful in improving diagnostic investigations in real-time to improve patient care.Drought stress is primarily responsible for heavy yield losses and productivity in major crops and possesses the greatest threat to the global food security. While conventional and molecular breeding approaches along with genetic engineering techniques have been instrumental in developing drought-tolerant crop varieties, these methods are cumbersome, time consuming and the genetically modified varieties are not widely accepted due to regulatory concerns. 1-Methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine Plant breeders are now increasingly centring towards the recently available genome-editing tools for improvement of agriculturally important traits. The advent of multiple sequence-specific nucleases has facilitated precise gene modification towards development of novel climate ready crop variants. Amongst the available genome-editing platforms, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-Cas (CRISPR/Cas) system has emerged as a revolutionary tool for its simplicity, adaptability, flexibility and wide applicability. In this review, we focus on understanding the molecular mechanism of drought response in plants and the application of CRISPR/Cas genome-editing system towards improved tolerance to drought stress.Rhizoremediation processes are based on plant-bacteria interactions and can be effectively used for cleaning many pollutants from the environment to overcome the constraints of individual phytoremediation. Here, 1 mM and 1.5 mM concentrations of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) degrading Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) strain KT.DNT and various growth stages of Nicotiana tabacum (N. tabacum) were initially assayed in in vitro tissue culture system and the best conditions for the association of plant-rhizobacterium were ascertained to remediation of the soil contaminated with 2,4-DNT. 5-days old N. tabacum plants inoculated with 2 × 106 cfu/mL bacterial inoculum for 3 weeks were preferred for rhizoremediation experiments as they showed a nearly threefold increase in the fresh and dry biomass in comparison to noninoculated ones. When these seedlings were planted either alone or together with P. putida KT2440 or P. putida KT.DNT in soils contaminated with 1 mM and 1.5 mM of 2,4-DNT, the maximum degradation rate of 98% and ~ 93% were determined at the end of 14 days by KT.DNT inoculated tobacco plants. Our results indicate that it would be advantageous to use the 2,4-DNT-degrading bacterium inoculated with N. tabacum plants to accelerate and enhance the cleanup of soil contaminated with 2,4-DNT.Membrane technology is an advanced approach to making a healthier and cleaner environment. Using such catalytic membrane technology to get clean, usable water by removal of dye impurities as well as pathogenic microbes is the main goal behind the research work. Here, we present the synthesis and efficacy study of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)-based Ag/ZnO/TiO2 trimetallic bifunctional nanofibers with antibacterial and photocatalytic activity. The nanofibers have been proven to be effective for the degradation of methylene blue (MB 93.4%), rhodamine B (Rh 34.6%), auramine-O (Au 65.0%) and fuchsin basic (FB 69.8%) dyes individually within 90 min in daylight. The study is further extended in abating a mixture of these dyes from contaminated water using composite nanofibers. Also, in the case of a mixture of these dyes (3 ppm each), nanofibers show dye degradation efficiency (DDE) of 90.9% (MB), 62.4% (Au) and 90.3% (FB and Rh) in 60 min. The role of Ag nanoparticles with a synergic photocatalytic effect on ZnO and TiO2 is also demonstrated. Also, PMMA/ZnO/TiO2 composite fiber membrane in synergy with silver particles shows better antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria E. coli, making PMMA/Ag/ZnO/TiO2 fibers a promising candidate in water purification.
An increasing number of children are socially transitioning to live as their identified genders rather than their assigned sexes, yet little empirical work has examined the decision-making process surrounding social transitions. We aimed to understand (1) why parents and their gender nonconforming children do and do not consider social transitions and (2) whether families discuss social transitions both before and after initial social transitions.

Studies 1 and 2 involved telephone interviews of parents of socially transitioned transgender children (N=60) and gender nonconforming children who were not socially transitioned (N=60), respectively. Study 3 involved an online survey of 266 parents of socially transitioned transgender children.

Parents of socially transitioned transgender children (Study 1) and parents of gender nonconforming children who are not socially transitioned (Study 2) often reported that their children had led the decision to transition or not. Most parents of gender nonconforming children who had not transitioned had discussed transitioning (Study 2) and most parents of socially-transitioned transgender children reported discussing the option of future re-transitions (Study 3).

Parents often report that they and their children are discussing social transitions, a process that children are leading. In contrast to possible concerns about discussing transitions, our results suggest that many families openly discuss the possibility of their children transitioning (or re-transitioning), yet these discussion do not inevitably lead to an imminent transition.
Parents often report that they and their children are discussing social transitions, a process that children are leading. In contrast to possible concerns about discussing transitions, our results suggest that many families openly discuss the possibility of their children transitioning (or re-transitioning), yet these discussion do not inevitably lead to an imminent transition.Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, rapid and fatal human prion disease that causes neurodegeneration. Rapidly progressive dementia, quick involuntary muscle jerking and specific radiographic and laboratory findings are characteristic of the disease. CJD should not be ruled even if the clinical presentation is outside the common age range. Herein we present a case of an 80-year-old man with probable diagnosis of CJD. The absolute diagnosis of CJD can only be confirmed post-mortem with a brain biopsy.
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