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Microbial metabolism of specific dietary components, such as fiber, contributes to the sophisticated inter-kingdom dialogue in the gut that maintains a stable environment with important beneficial physiological, metabolic, and immunological effects on the host. Historical changes in fiber intake may be contributing to the increase of allergic and hypersensitivity disorders as fiber-derived metabolites are evolutionarily hardwired into the molecular circuitry governing immune cell decision-making processes. In this review, we highlight the importance of fiber as a dietary ingredient, its effects on the microbiome, its effects on immune regulation, the importance of appropriate timing of intervention to target any potential window of opportunity, and potential mechanisms for dietary fibers in the prevention and management of allergic diseases. In addition, we review the human studies examining fiber or prebiotic interventions on asthma and respiratory outcomes, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and overall risk of atopic disorders. While exposures, interventions, and outcomes were too heterogeneous for meta-analysis, there is significant potential for using fiber in targeted manipulations of the gut microbiome and its metabolic functions in promoting immune health.

Recently, pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the water environment exhibited potential risks to both human and aquatic organisms. In order to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of pharmaceutical detection, the polyimidazolyl acetate ionic liquid was synthesized by Radziszewski reaction and coated on cellulose filter papers as a thin-film extraction phase for extraction of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs from water. The attenuated total reflection-infrared spectrometry, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscope analyses demonstrated that the polyimidazolyl acetate ionic liquid was successfully prepared and attached to the surface of the cellulose filter paper through chemical bonding. The adsorption capacity of the homemade thin-film extraction material for the four non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was greater than 8898 ng/cm

In this study, α-glucosidase was successfully immobilized on cellulose filter paper and further applied to screening inhibitors from traditional Chinese medicines combined with capillary electrophoresis analysis. For α-glucosidase immobilization, a cellulose filter paper was used as the carrier and grafted with amino groups by coating chitosan, then α-glucosidase was covalently bonded on the amino-modified carrier via epoxy ring-opening reaction using polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether as the crosslinker. Several parameters influencing the enzyme immobilization were optimized and the optimal values were enzyme concentration of 4 U/mL, polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether concentration of 1.25%, chitosan concentration of 7.5 mg/mL, immobilization pH 7.0, crosslinking time of 4 h and immobilization time of 2 h. The immobilized α-glucosidase exhibited good batch-to-batch reproducibility (RSD = 2.1%, n = 5), excellent storage stability (73.5% of its initial activity after being stored at 4°C for 15 days), and reusability (75% of its initial activity after 10 repeated cycles). The Michaelis constant of immobilized α-glucosidase and half-maximal inhibitory concentration of acarbose were calculated to be 1.12 mM and 0.38 μM, respectively. Finally, the immobilized α-glucosidase was used for screening inhibitors from 14 kinds of Traditional Chinese Medicine extracts, and Sanguisorbae Radix showed the strongest inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase.

International audience; In 2014 leading publishers withdrew more than 120 nonsensical publications automatically generated with the SCIgen program. Casual observations suggested that similar problematic papers are still published and sold, without follow-up retractions. No systematic screening has been performed and the prevalence of such nonsensical publications in the scientific literature is unknown. Our contribution is 2-fold. First, we designed a detector that combs the scientific literature for grammar-based computer-generated papers. Applied to SCIgen, it has a 83.6% precision. Second, we performed a scientometric study of the 243 detected SCIgen-papers from 19 publishers. We estimate the prevalence of SCIgen-papers to be 75 per million papers in Information and Computing Sciences. Only 19% of the 243 problematic papers were dealt with: formal retraction (12) or silent removal (34). Publishers still serve and sometimes sell the remaining 197 papers without any caveat. We found evidence of citation manipulation via edited SCIgen bibliographies. This work reveals metric gaming up to the point of absurdity: fraudsters publish nonsensical algorithmically generated papers featuring genuine references. It stresses the need to screen papers for nonsense before peer-review and chase citation manipulation in published papers. Overall, this is yet another illustration of the harmful effects of the pressure to publish or perish.

Aims The epidemiologic Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) includes urinary incontinence (UI) questionnaire items. We introduced an independently self-administered paper towel test (PTT-ISA; invention disclosure #2021-347) to objectively demonstrate UI. Aims were to determine: (1) PTT-ISA compliance and (2) relationship to questionnaire results. Methods 276 community women were invited to complete both SWAN questionnaire and PTT-ISA. For PTT-ISA, a woman holds a trifold brown paper towel against her perineum while coughing hard three times. She checks the towel for wetness and compares it with pictorial showing wetted area gradations (dry towel through >6 ml/saturated). She then selects the best photo match for her towel. A newly conceptualized variable constructed as PTT-ISA plus questionnaire results was formed. Results Of 276 women, noncompliance with PTT-ISA was 2.2% (6 women). Four others (1.5%) were missing questionnaires. For the remaining 266 women, conceptual cohesiveness between questionnaire-only and PTT-ISA + questionnaire was demonstrated in 165 (62.0%). Lack of cohesiveness occurred in 101 (38.9%), including 41 women who said "no" to the questionnaire item indicative of stress UI and had leakage on PTT-ISA; leakage degree varied across the full pictorial spectrum from drops to saturated. Conclusion PTT-ISA demonstrates high compliance, with rate comparable to survey compliance. It is a novel measure for objective sign of urine loss when independently self-administered by community women outside of a clinic environment. Further research comparing PTT-ISA with clinician-observed cough test is warranted. As independently self-administered, PTT-ISA is simple, noninvasive, inexpensive, and an acceptable test that adds value to otherwise survey-dependent research.

One of the most cited limitations of biochemical detection is its poor sensitivity, owing to the relatively high complexity of micro-samples. Moreover, some samples cannot be easily self-replicated and their abundance cannot be increased through traditional technologies. Therefore, the preconcentration of low-abundance samples is a key requirement for microfluidic biological analysis. In recent years, the ion-concentration polarization phenomenon has aroused widespread interest in the application of microfluidic technology. In addition, paper-based materials are readily available, easy to modify, and exhibit good hydrophilicity. The study of the ion-concentration polarization preconcentration of micro-samples in paper-based microfluidic chips is of considerable significance. In this review, we discuss the development and applications of ion-concentration polarization paper-based preconcentrator in the past 5 years, with emphasis on key progresses in chip fabrication and performance optimization under different conditions. The current needs and development prospects in this field have also been discussed.

10 Pág. Instituto de Ciencias Forestales (ICIFOR), The high humidity produced by the ripening of fruit and vegetables during refrigerated storage and transport leads to a noticeable loss of strength of corrugated board packaging. Increasing use of recycled fibres in the manufacture of corrugated board further reduces box compression strength. Adding virgin fibres to the furnish composition of liner paper could solve this problem. Various proportions of unbleached virgin eucalyptus and pine fibres were added to a recycled furnish used to manufacture liner paper for corrugated board. Laboratory sheets of each fibre blend were characterised by tensile, bursting and compressive strength. The change in the strength properties and moisture content of the sheets during refrigerated storage at 6°C and high relative humidity (90% RH) was also studied. The results showed that paper strength improved with the proportion of virgin fibres added. Pine fibres yielded higher increments than eucalyptus fibres in tensile and burst indices, whereas both fibres improved compression strength at a similar rate. After 4 h of exposure at refrigerated storage, the paper strength properties decreased considerably, in particular compression strength, which showed a loss of about 70% compared to the reference value. The percentage of strength lost compared to the value in standard conditions was influenced only by exposure time at low temperature and high RH. However, an increase in the amount of pine fibres added enhanced the remaining tensile and burst indices., The authors wish to thank the Madrid Regional Government for funding through project RETO PROSOST P2013-MAE2907 and theIPT support foundation (FIPT) for subsidising the training project of the researcher Renato Fioritti in Spain (INIA-CIFOR). They are also grateful to Purificación Pereira for her contribution to the experimental work