Temporal framing and the decision to take part in type 2 diabetes screening: Effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on persuasion.

Reliable individual differences in the extent to which people consider the long- and short-term consequences of their own behaviors are hypothesized to influence the impact of a persuasive communication. In a field experiment, the time frame of occurrence of positive and negative consequences of taking part in a proposed Type 2 diabetes screening program was manipulated in a sample of 210 adults with a mean age of 53 years. Individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC; A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994) moderated (a) the generation of positive and negative thoughts and (b) the persuasive impact of the different communications. Low-CFC individuals were more persuaded when positive consequences were short term and negative consequences were long term. The opposite was true of high-CFC individuals. Path analyses show that net positive thoughts generated mediated the effect of the CFC × Time Frame manipulations on behavioral intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gap detection deficits in rats with tinnitus: A potential novel screening tool.

The study describes a novel method for tinnitus screening in rats by use of gap detection reflex procedures. The authors hypothesized that if a background acoustic signal was qualitatively similar to the rat's tinnitus, poorer detection of a silent gap in the background would be expected. Rats with prior evidence of tinnitus at 10 kHz (n = 14) exhibited significantly worse gap detection than controls (n = 13) when the gap was embedded in a background similar to their tinnitus. No differences between tinnitus and control rats were found with 16 kHz or broadband noise backgrounds, which helped to rule out explanations related to hearing loss or general performance deficits. The results suggest that gap detection reflex procedures might be effective for rapid tinnitus screening in rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fast screening of municipal wastewater components by reversed-phase chromatography coupled to ultraviolet-diode array detection

The screening of ingredients in municipal wastewater samples was studied, by reverse‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography (RP‐HPLC) implemented with a ultraviolet (UV)‐diode array detector, in an effort to establish a quick screening method for finding the main UV‐absorbing components of the wastewater that enters the biological treatment plant. For the purposes of direct comparison of the chromatograms obtained, a single sample taken from the inlet of municipal biological treatment plant was used for all experimental tests and the optimal elution conditions were established by detailed investigation through isocratic and gradient elution techniques. The optimal column resolution was reached by testing a broad range of capacity and selectivity factor values. The criterion used for validating the complete separation of solutes was based on the spectral purity of eluted chromatogram peaks and on the stability of retention time of a peak in real‐time chromatograms taken at different wavelengths during the elution process. From this research work, it was found that the overall chromatogram peak pattern was sensitive to the mobile phase composition and solvent system but under fixed elution conditions, the pattern of the major peaks was stable and depended on the composition of the wastewater sample. By testing different types of elution modes, it was found that the best column resolution was obtained under programmed isocratic‐gradient elution using a binary mobile phase. Finally, a relatively high column resolution method is reported for fragmentation of municipal wastewater samples.     

Screening for marital and relationship discord.

Based on recent findings suggesting that marital discord is taxonic (i.e., that couples in discordant relationships differ qualitatively, and not just quantitatively, from couples in nondiscordant relationships), this study was designed to develop a brief screening measure for detecting the relationship discord taxon. A national, representative sample of 1,020 married couples completed the Marital Satisfaction Inventory—Revised. Data from this sample were used to create a 10-item screening measure. Using the cut scores from the original study that found evidence of taxonicity as a point of reference, the 10-item screen demonstrated good diagnostic performance in assessing the relationship discord taxon. Taxon classification based on the brief scale demonstrated good short-term stability. The scale is easily administered and scored, making it appropriate for use in clinical and research settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toxicity profile of commercially produced indigenous banana beer

Mycotoxins, together with endotoxins, represent important classes of naturally occurring contaminants in food products, posing significant health risks to consumers. The aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence of both Fusarium mycotoxins and endotoxins in commercially produced traditional banana beer. Two brands of commercially produced traditional banana beer were collected from a local retail market in Kigali, Rwanda. Beer samples were analysed for the presence of deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisin B₁ and zearalenone (ZEA), using an enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) method. The quantification of bacterial endotoxin using Limulus amoeboecyte lysate (LAL) assay was also conducted. The contamination levels were 20 and 6.7?µg?kg^?1 for DON; 34 and 31.3?µg?kg^?1 for FB₁; 0.66 and 2.2?µg?kg^?1 for ZEA in brands A and B of the beers, respectively. Results indicate that the levels of Fusarium toxins and bacterial endotoxin reported in this study did not pose adverse human health effects as a result of drinking/consuming banana beer. However, exposure to low/sub-threshold doses or non-toxic levels of endotoxins magnifies the toxic effect of xenobiotic agents (e.g. fungal toxins) on liver and other target organs. Considering Fusarium toxins and/or endotoxin contamination levels in other agricultural commodities intended for human consumption, health risks might be high and the condition is aggravated when beer is contaminated by mixtures of the mycotoxins, as indicated in this study.     

高产γ-氨基丁酸乳酸菌菌株的诱变选育与鉴定

本文以从内蒙古传统发酵食品中分离的80株乳酸菌为研究对象,在GYP培养基中进行高产γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）菌株的筛选后,利用紫外线进行诱变处理,得到GABA突变菌株,并对其进行了菌种鉴定。结果表明,从80株供试乳酸菌中筛选出4株高产γ-氨基丁酸的菌株,再经紫外诱变后得到1株高产突变菌株US3-3。该菌株紫外诱变后,其γ-氨基丁酸含量为2.482 g/L,是诱变前提高1.9倍,并对其多次传代稳定性较好,经16S r DNA序列分析,鉴定为乳酸片球菌（Pediococcus acidilactici）。      

白酒窖泥中蛋白酶产生菌的筛选及复配

从优质白酒窖泥中分离筛选出8 株高产蛋白酶的兼性厌氧细菌,通过测定内肽酶、氨肽酶、羧肽酶酶活力,最终筛选出3 株3 种蛋白酶活力相对较高的菌株HDS4、HDS6、HDS8,并对其进行形态观察、生理生化和16S rDNA鉴定,确定3 株菌分别为枯草芽孢杆菌（Baci l lus subt i l i s）、解淀粉芽孢杆菌（Baci l lusamyloliquefaciens）、苏云金芽孢杆菌（Bacillus thuringiensis）。以接种量为基础,对3 株目的菌株进行复配,得到的复配菌系3 种蛋白酶活力均比单一菌株高,3 种酶活力分别提高了8.907%、6.181%、8.781%。     

BonMOLière: Small-Sized Libraries of Readily Purchasable Compounds,Optimized to Produce Genuine Hits in Biological Screens across the Protein Space

Experimental screening of large sets of compounds against macromolecular targets is a key strategy to identify novel bioactivities. However, large-scale screening requires substantial experimental resources and is time-consuming and challenging. Therefore, small to medium-sized compound libraries with a high chance of producing genuine hits on an arbitrary protein of interest would be of great value to fields related to early drug discovery, in particular biochemical and cell research. Here, we present a computational approach that incorporates drug-likeness, predicted bioactivities, biological space coverage, and target novelty, to generate optimized compound libraries with maximized chances of producing genuine hits for a wide range of proteins. The computational approach evaluates drug-likeness with a set of established rules, predicts bioactivities with a validated, similarity-based approach, and optimizes the composition of small sets of compounds towards maximum target coverage and novelty. We found that, in comparison to the random selection of compounds for a library, our approach generates substantially improved compound sets. Quantified as the “fitness” of compound libraries, the calculated improvements ranged from +60% (for a library of 15,000 compounds) to +184% (for a library of 1000 compounds). The best of the optimized compound libraries prepared in this work are available for download as a dataset bundle (“BonMOLière”).     

传统泡菜中高产酸乳酸菌的筛选与鉴定

以湖南地区家庭自制50余年泡菜液为样品,采用纯培养方法分离纯化得到乳酸菌。对分离得到的乳酸菌进行溶血活性检验,产酸性能测定,并研究高产酸菌株的耐酸耐胆盐、自聚集疏水性、抗氧化、降解亚硝酸盐、生长特性及生物安全性研究。结果表明,从泡菜样品中分离出来70株乳酸菌,检验出完全无溶血活性乳酸菌42株;筛选出高产酸性能乳酸菌9株,编号为JT1-31、JT1-21、JT1-12、JT1-25、JT1-6、JT1-16、JT1-34、JT3-23、JT3-10,通过16S rDNA鉴定,均为植物乳植杆菌（Lactiplantibacillus plantarum）,菌株JT1-12耐酸性最好,pH值3.0时存活率为156.85%;菌株JT3-10耐胆盐能力最好,0.3%胆盐浓度存活率为145.04%;菌株JT1-16自聚集和疏水性最高,分别为66.13%和44.19%;菌株JT1-21的DPPH清除率最高,为51.93%;菌株JT1-25的α-葡萄糖苷酶抑制率最高,为20.36%;9株菌株亚硝酸盐降解率都较高,在90%以上,清除率最高的菌株是JT1-12,清除率为94.98%,通过产生物胺鉴定,9株菌株均不产生物胺。该研究表明,从传统泡菜中分离的9株植物乳植杆菌具有良好的益生潜能,为发掘食品源乳酸菌提供参考和依据。