Value chain

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) is an emerging antibiotic resistant bacterium responsible for various infections in human. Resistance to methicillin and vancomycin are of prime concern in S. aureus. The study aims to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Vancomycin and evaluate the existence of mecA and vanA genes, associated with antibiotic resistance. METHODS: Clinical specimens from three Kathmandu hospitals were processed and S...

Food and nutrition insecurity disproportionately impact low-income households in the United States, contributing to higher rates of chronic diseases among this population. Addressing this challenge is complex because of various factors affecting the availability and accessibility of nutritious food. Short value chain (SVC) models, informally known as local food systems, offer a systemic approach that aims to optimize resources and align values throughout and beyond the food supply chain. Although specific SVC interventions, such as farmers markets, have been studied individually, a comprehensive review of SVC models was pursued to evaluate their relative impact on food security, fruit and vegetable intake, diet quality, health-related markers, and barriers and facilitators to participation among low-income households...

Indirect mechanisms of cancer immunotherapies result in delayed treatment effects that vary among patients. Consequently, the use of the log-rank test in trial design and analysis can lead to significant power loss and pose additional challenges for interim decisions in adaptive designs. In this paper, we describe patients' survival using a piecewise proportional hazard model with random lag time and propose an adaptive promising zone design for cancer immunotherapy with heterogeneous delayed effects. We provide solutions for calculating conditional power and adjusting the critical value for the log-rank test with interim data...

In this study, we purified a lectin isolated from the seeds of Dioclea bicolor (DBL) via affinity purification. Electrophoresis analysis revealed that DBL had three bands, α, β, and γ chains, with molecular masses of approximately 29, 14, and 12 kDa, respectively. Gel filtration chromatography revealed that the native form of DBL had a molecular mass of approximately 100 kDa, indicating that it is a tetramer. Interestingly, DBL-induced hemagglutination was inhibited by several glucosides, mannosides, ampicillin, and tetracycline with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 1...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers in the world. Two risk factors that cause 80-90% of HCC cases globally are chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). The diagnostic value of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in numerous tumors has been described. Our research assessed microRNA-16 (miR-16) as a novel biomarker in patients with HCV-induced HCC. The study included three groups. Group 1 included 55 individuals with cirrhosis caused by liver HCV infection in addition to HCC...

Urinary bladder cancer (BC) is the ninth most common cancer worldwide. At present, the clinical diagnosis of BC depends on self-reported symptoms, tissue biopsy specimens by cystoscopy and from voided urine cytology. However, cystoscopy is an invasive examination and voided urine cytology has low sensitivity, which might provoke misdiagnosis. The search for cancer biomarkers in blood is worthy of intense attention due to patients' comfort and ease of sampling. This work aimed to study expression of mRNA metadherin (MTDH) in plasma, serum BC specific antigen 1 (BLCA-1) and cystatin C as biomarkers of BC and their relation to different disease stages...

Disordered proteins are conformationally flexible proteins that are biologically important and have been implicated in devastating diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer. Unlike stably-folded structured proteins, disordered proteins sample a range of different conformations that needs to be accounted for. Here, we treat disordered proteins as polymer chains, and compute a dimensionless quantity called instantaneous shape ratio (Rs ), as Rs = Ree 2 /Rg 2 , where Ree is end-to-end distance and Rg is radius of gyration...

Facile construction of a fully biodegradable spherical nucleic acid (SNA) nanoplatform is highly desirable for clinical translations but remains rarely explored. We developed herein the first polycarbonate-based biodegradable SNA nanoplatform for self-codelivery of a chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin (DOX), and a human liver-specific miR122 for synergistic chemo-gene therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of a carbonate monomer leads to a well-defined polycarbonate backbone for subsequent DOX conjugation to the pendant side chains via acidic pH-cleavage Schiff base links and miR122 incorporation to the chain termini via click coupling, affording an amphiphilic polycarbonate-DOX-miR122 conjugate, PBis-Mpa30 -DOX-miR122 that can self-assemble into stabilized SNA...

The day-old male chick culling remains a welfare issue in the poultry industry. Several governments have prohibited this practice, pushing hatcheries to seek alternatives. Although different solutions exist for solving this problem, sex determination during the embryo's incubation ( in ovo sexing) is considered the most suitable one among the consumers and industry. However, to be industrialized, in ovo sexing technologies must meet several requirements: compatibility with all egg colors and early developmental stages while maintaining a high hatchability rate and accuracy at low cost and high throughput...

BACKGROUND: Cuproptosis is a novel type of mediated cell death strongly associated with the progression of several cancers and has been implicated as a potential therapeutic target. However, the role of cuproptosis in cholangiocarcinoma for prognostic prediction, subgroup classification, and therapeutic strategies remains largely unknown. METHODS: A systematic analysis was conducted among 146 cuproptosis-related genes and clinical information based on independent mRNA and protein datasets to elucidate the potential mechanisms and prognostic prediction value of cuproptosis-related genes...

The evolution of regulatory perspectives regarding the health and nutritional properties of industrial hemp-based products ( Cannabis sativa L.) has pushed research to focus on the development of new methods for both the extraction and formulation of the bioactive compounds present in hemp extracts. While the psychoactive and medicinal properties of hemp-derived cannabinoid extracts are well known, much less has been investigated on the functional and antimicrobial properties of hemp extracts. Within the hemp value chain, various agricultural wastes and by-products are generated...

Peripheral and autonomic neuropathy are common disease manifestations in systemic amyloidosis. The neurofilament light chain (NfL), a neuron-specific biomarker, is released into the blood and cerebrospinal fluid after neuronal damage. There is a need for an early and sensitive blood biomarker for polyneuropathy, and this systematic review provides an overview on the value of NfL in the early detection of neuropathy, central nervous system involvement, the monitoring of neuropathy progression, and treatment effects in systemic amyloidosis...

Poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF)-based nanocomposites were fabricated with silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) nanoparticles by the in-situ polymerization method. The importance of this research work is to extend the usage of PEF-based nanocomposites with improved material properties. The PEF-Ag and PEF-TiO2 nanocomposites showed a significant improvement in color concentration, as determined by the color colorimeter. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) photographs revealed the appearance of small aggregates on the surface of nanocomposites...

Oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) steels have long been viewed as a prime solution for harsh environments. However, conventional manufacturing of ODS steels limits the final product geometry, is difficult to scale up to large components, and is expensive due to multiple highly involved, solid-state processing steps required. Additive manufacturing (AM) can directly incorporate dispersion elements (e.g., Y, Ti and O) during component fabrication, thus bypassing the need for an ODS steel supply chain, the scale-up challenges of powder processing routes, the buoyancy challenges associated with casting ODS steels, and the joining issues for net-shape component fabrication...

The injudicious usage of antibiotics during infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria leads to the emergence of β-lactamases. Among them, the NDM-1 enzyme poses a serious threat to human health. Developing new antibiotics or inhibiting β-lactamases might become essential to reduce and prevent bacterial infections. Nanobodies (Nbs), the smallest antigen-binding single-domain fragments derived from Camelidae heavy-chain-only antibodies, targeting enzymes, are innovative alternatives to develop effective inhibitors...

Amphiphilic fluorocarbon substances are a trending topic of research due to their wide range of applications accompanied by an alarming environmental and health impact. In order to predict their fate in the environment, use them more economically, develop new water treatment methods, etc., a better understanding of their physicochemical behavior is required. Their hydrophobicity in water/oil systems is particularly sensitive to one key thermodynamic parameter: the free energy of transfer of a perfluoromethylene group from oil to water...

The hard-shelled seed industry plays an important role in the global agricultural economy. In fact, only considering hazelnut and walnut, the global nut supply is over 5.6 tons. As a result considerable amounts are produced year by year, burnt or discarded as waste, bypassing a potential source of valuable compounds or features. This review deals with the recent scientific literature on their chemical composition as well as functional applications as an approach to sustain the utilization of the main byproduct derived from industry...

The increasing population, food demand, waste management concerns, and the search for sustainable alternatives to plastic polymers have led researchers to explore the potential of waste materials. This study focused on a waste of pine nut processing referred to in this paper as pine nut skin. For the first time, its nutritional profile, potential bioactive peptide, contaminants, and morphological structure were assessed. Pine nut skin was composed mainly of carbohydrates (56.2%) and fiber (27.5%). The fat (9...

Microbial conversion of agri-food waste to valuable compounds offers a sustainable route to develop the bioeconomy and contribute to sustainable biorefinery. Clostridium tyrobutyricum displays a series of native traits suitable for high productivity conversion of agri-food waste, which make it a promising host for the production of various compounds, such as the short-chain fatty acids and their derivative esters products. In this study, a butanol synthetic pathway was constructed in C. tyrobutyricum , and then efficient butyl butyrate production through in situ esterification was achieved by the supplementation of lipase into the fermentation...

There is a scarcity of data on how the lipid composition of oily seeds changes in response to biotic stress. Yellow peach moth ( Conogethes punctiferalis ) has caused massive economic losses on the pecan ( Carya illinoinensis ) industry. Lipidomics is used in this study to determine the lipid composition of pecan and how it changes in response to insect attack. Pecan had 167 lipids, including 34 glycerolipids (GL), 62 glycerophospholipids (GP), 17 fatty acyls (FA), 41 sphingolipids (SP), and 13 saccharolipids (SL)...