This study tested the proficiency of different concentrations of the antimicrobial sorbic acid to inhibit the probiotic Lactobacillus casei Shirota. It was hypothesized that sorbic acid’s use as a bacterial deterrent would also target this bacterial strain of Lactobacillus. The results supported the hypothesis, with the colony count of L. casei Shirota having significant decreases at all concentrations of sorbic acid. These results additionally suggest that even under the FDA sorbic acid restrictions of 0.03% concentration, damaging effects could be seen in L. casei Shirota.
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A comparative analysis of synthetic and natural fabrics
The authors test the durability of synthetic versus non-synthetic fabrics though loose thread counts, color fade over time, and shrinkage tests.
Read More...A novel in vitro blood-brain barrier model using 3D bioprinter: A pilot study
The authors looked at how a 3D bioprinter could be used to model the blood brain barrier.
Read More...Examination of the underlying chemical physics of the Mpemba effect in water and other liquids
Counterintuitive in nature, the Mpemba effect asserts that hot liquid freezes faster than cold liquid. While noted throughout history by scientific minds like Aristotle, the phenomenon remains in contention with varying hypotheses for the effect proposed alongside the effect’s rise in popularity. Contributing to the research efforts surrounding the Mpemba effect, the authors in this article explore the effect in different liquids ranging in physical properties and intermolecular forces to determine potential parameters attributable to producing the Mpemba effect.
Read More...Interleukin family (IL-2 and IL-1β) as predictive biomarkers in Indian cancer patients: A proof of concept study
Here, recognizing that the immune response to cancer results in biomarkers that can be used to assess the immune status of cancer patients, the authors investigated the concentrations of key cytokines (TH1 and TH2 cytokines) in healthy controls and cancer patients. They identified significant changes in resting and activated cytokine profiles, suggesting that data of biomarkers such as these could serve as a starting point for further treatment with regard to a patient's specific immune profile.
Read More...Protective effect of bromelain and pineapple extracts on UV-induced damage in human skin cells
In this study, the authors tested whether the compound bromelain extracted from pineapples could protect skin cells from UV damage.
Read More...Pediatric probiotic culture survival study in acidic pH using an in vitro model
In this study, the authors investigate the effects of acidity on the survival of commercial probiotic Lovebug bacterial strains.
Read More...Differential privacy in machine learning for traffic forecasting
In this paper, we measured the privacy budgets and utilities of different differentially private mechanisms combined with different machine learning models that forecast traffic congestion at future timestamps. We expected the ANNs combined with the Staircase mechanism to perform the best with every value in the privacy budget range, especially with the medium high values of the privacy budget. In this study, we used the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and neural network models to forecast and then added differentially private Laplacian, Gaussian, and Staircase noise to our datasets. We tested two real traffic congestion datasets, experimented with the different models, and examined their utility for different privacy budgets. We found that a favorable combination for this application was neural networks with the Staircase mechanism. Our findings identify the optimal models when dealing with tricky time series forecasting and can be used in non-traffic applications like disease tracking and population growth.
Read More...Deuterated solvent effects in the kinetics and thermodynamics of keto-enol tautomerization of ETFAA
In this study, the authors determined whether tautomerization dynamics in protic and aprotic solvents displayed differences in reaction rates and in the proportion of the keto and enol tautomers present.
Read More...siRNA-dependent KCNMB2 silencing inhibits lung cancer cell proliferation and promotes cell death
Here, seeking to better understand the genetic associations underlying non-small cell lung cancer, the authors screened hundreds of genes, identifying that KCNMB2 upregulation was significantly correlated with poor prognoses in lung cancer patients. Based on this, they used small interfering RNA to decrease the expression of KCNMB2 in A549 lung cancer cells, finding decreased cell proliferation and increased lung cancer cell death. They suggest this could lead to a new potential target for lung cancer therapies.
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