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Gut dysbiosis contributes to deterioration of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Probiotics are a potential approach to modulate gut microbiota and gut-derived metabolites to alleviate CKD progression. We aim to provide a comprehensive view of CKD-related gut dysbiosis and a critical perspective on probiotic function in CKD. First, this review addresses gut microbial alterations during CKD progression and the adverse effects associated with the changes in gut-derived metabolites. Second, we conduct a thorough examination of the latest clinical trials involving probiotic intervention to unravel critical pathways via the gut–kidney axis. Finally, we propose our viewpoints on limitations, further considerations, and future research prospects of probiotic adjuvant therapy in alleviating CKD progression. Enhancing our understanding of host–microbe interactions is crucial for gaining precise insights into the mechanisms through which probiotics exert their effects and identifying factors that influence the effectiveness of probiotics in developing strategies to optimize their use and enhance clinical outcomes.

The rapid emergence of Pseudomonas aeruginosaresistance made selecting antibiotics more challenge. Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are urging to implant to control the P. aeruginosaresistance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between antimicrobial consumption and P. aeruginosaresistance, the impact of ASPs implemented during the 14-year study period.

This study investigated the inactivation mechanism of Aspergillus flavusconidia by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP). Activity counts, scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis, and sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) were used to study the effects of the HHP treatment on the morphology and protein composition of A. flavusspores. The results showed that that a 3-min-lasting 600 MPa treatment could completely abolish 107colony-forming units/mL of live fungi. Furthermore, we also observed that lower spore viability corresponded to a higher Propidium Iodide absorption rate. The SEM images revealed that HHP disrupted the spore morphology and resulted in pore formation that led to the release of intracellular molecules, such as nucleic acids and proteins. The nucleic acid and protein concentration in the spore suspension increased in parallel with the increasing treatment pressure. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed that there were differences in the protein bands between the HHP-treated and untreated A. flavusspores, as the HHP treatment caused partial protein degradation and extracellular release. Therefore, the results of this study proved that high pressure could induce a morphological disruption in the internal and external cellular structures and degrade intracellular and extracellular proteins leading to an inactive state in A. flavus.

High hydrostatic pressure processing (HPP) is a non-thermal pasteurization technology which has already been applied in the food industries. Besides maintaining the food safety and quality, HPP also has potential applications in the enhancement of the health benefits of food products. This study examines the current progress of research on the use of HPP in the development of health foods. Through HPP, the nutritional value of food products can be enhanced or retained, including promotes the biosynthesis of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the food materials, retains immunoglobulin components in dairy products, increases resistant starch content in cereals, and reduces the glycemic index of fruit and vegetable products, which facilitates better control of blood glucose levels and decreases calorie intake. HPP can also be utilized as a hurdle technology in combination with existing processing technologies for the development of low-sodium food products and the maintenance of microbial safety, thereby lowering the risk of triggering cardiovascular disease. Additionally, HPP can be used to enhance the diversity of probiotic food products. Appropriate sporogenous probiotics can be screened and added to various high-pressure processed food products as a certain bacterial count is still retained in the products after HPP. As HPP causes physical damage to the structures of food products, it can also be used as a synergistic extraction technology to enhance the extraction efficiency of functional components, thereby reducing extraction time. By applying HPP in the extraction of functional components from food waste, the production costs of such components can be effectively reduced. This study provides a summary of the mechanisms by which HPP enhances the health benefits of food products and the current progress of relevant research. HPP possesses huge potential in the development of novel health foods and may provide an abundance of benefits to human health in the future.

In the present study, we investigated the effects of Probiotic mix 1 (Pm1) with Lactobacillus plantarumsubsp. plantarum, Lactobacillusparacaseisubsp. paracasei, and Streptococcus salivariussubsp. thermophiluson preventing renal injury using a chronic kidney disease (CKD) minipig model previously developed in our lab using cisplatin-induced CKD in Lanyu pigs. The results indicated that the high dosage Pm1 (H.Pm1) group demonstrated lower incidence of lesions, including atrophy, mononuclear inflammation, cell infiltration, and interstitial fibrosis in renal tubules in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson’s trichrome stain. We further systematically investigated the preventing effect of Pm1. The H.Pm1 group decreased inflammatory cytokines production and increased the level of superoxide dismutase activity in plasma. The pigs fed with high dosage of Pm1 group also showed reduced both creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) when compared with the cisplatin group. Microbiota results indicated that Pm1-intervention not only reduced the abundance of Gram-negative bacteria but also affected the abundance of specific genera biomarkers, Anaerovibrio, possible_genus_SK018, Holdemanella, and Lachnospiraceae_UCG_010 in gut microbiota, leading to decreased inflammation and apoptosis in the kidney and further prevention/alleviation of the symptoms of CKD.

Zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF67) derivatives are intensively applied as the active material of battery supercapacitor hybrids (BSH) as clean renewable energy. Binder-free electrodes without insulated binders possessing high electrical conductivity can be fabricated with less time and money. In this work, carbonized ZIF67 (C-ZIF67) is fabricated on Ni foam using in-situ binder-free technique. The C-ZIF67 electrode is applied as battery-type electrode of BSH for the first time. Using Ni foam as a conductive substrate of binder-free electrodes is beneficial for generating nickel compounds with multiple redox states. The electrocapacitive nitrogen-doped carbon can be generated from ZIF67 after thermal treatments. Carbonization temperature for synthesizing C-ZIF67 electrodes is optimized regarding morphology and defect to graphitic intensity ratios of C-ZIF67. The C-ZIF67 electrode prepared using 600 °C presents the highest specific capacitance (CF) of 914.0 F/g along with capacity of 126.9 mAh/g at 20 mV/s, due to tightly attached active material with favorable vertical grown sheet array on Ni form and suitable defect to graphitic intensity ratio. A BSH composed of reduce graphene oxide negative electrode and carbonized ZIF67 positive electrode presents a maximum energy density of 15.15 Wh/kg at 600 W/kg, and the CFretention of 71% and Coulombic efficiency higher than 85% after 6000 charge/discharge cycles.

Metal organic framework derivatives are intensively applied as the active material of battery supercapacitor hybrids (BSH) as clean energy technology because of their high surface area and tunable pore sizes. Cobalt and nickel sulfides are promising battery-type materials with multiple redox states for conducting abundant redox reactions and with conductive sulfur for transferring electricity efficiently for energy development. Binder-free electrodes fabricated without insulated binders in the facile synthesis are widely investigated for reducing time and money costs. In this work, it is the first time to fabricate binder-free electrodes with sulfurized zeolitic imidazolate framework 67 (ZIF67) on nickel foam (S-ZIF67/NF) as the battery-type electrode of BSH. The temperature and duration of the hydrothermal process for synthesizing S-ZIF67/NF electrodes are investigated. Based on 100 °C and 4 h, the S-ZIF67/NF electrode shows the largest specific capacitance (CF) of 2744.6 F/g along with the capacity of 533.7 mAh/g at 10 A/g, due to the formation of cobalt and nickel sulfides respectively from the cobalt precursor and the NF as well as the favorable sheet-assembled flower-like structures with large surface area and regular assembly. A BSH composed of the reduced graphene oxide negative electrode and the S-ZIF67/NF positive electrode shows a maximum energy density of 38.5 Wh/kg at 750 W/kg, and CFretention of 71% and Coulombic efficiency higher than 85% after 8000 cycles.

AbstractThe aim of this work was to investigate the mechanisms underlying the inactivation of Listeria monocytogenesin raw milk under high hydrostatic pressure (HHP). The results showed that a 450-MPa treatment for 5 min could completely eliminate 108colony-forming units/mL of viable bacteria, as indicted by increased uptake of propidium iodide. Morphological damage to the cell wall, cell membrane, and cytoplasmic components by HHP treatments was observed on scanning and transmission electron micrographs. The protein bands on sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gels differed between HHP-treated and untreated L. monocytogenes, in that HHP decreased the protein content and caused partial protein degradation. Therefore, our results indicate that HHP inactivates L. monocytogenesby causing morphological changes in the internal and external cellular structures, as well as through membrane damage, cell wall rupture, and membrane protein degradation.

We studied the effects of natural ceramide and a series of ceramide analogs with different acyl chain lengths on the activity of rat brain protein kinase C (PKC) and on the structure of bovine liver phosphatidylcholine (BLPC)/dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC)/dipalmitoylphosphatidylserine (DPPS) (3:1:1 molar ratio) bilayers using 2H-NMR and specific enzymatic assays in the absence or presence of 7.5mol % diolein (DO). Only a slight activation of PKC was observed upon addition of the short-chain ceramide analogs (C2-, C6-, or C8-ceramide); natural ceramide or C16-ceramide had no effect. In the presence of 7.5mol % DO, natural ceramide and C16-ceramide analog slightly attenuated DO-enhanced PKC activity. 2H-NMR results demonstrated that natural ceramide and C16-ceramide induced lateral phase separation of gel-like and liquid crystalline domains in the bilayers; however, this type of membrane perturbation has no direct effect on PKC activity. The addition of both short-chain ceramide analogs and DO had a synergistic effect in activating PKC, with maximum activity observed with 20mol % C6-ceramide and 15mol % DO. Further increases in C6-ceramide and/or DO concentrations led to decreased PKC activity. A detailed 2H-NMR investigation of the combined effects of C6-ceramide and DO on lipid bilayer structure showed a synergistic effect of these two reagents to increase membrane tendency to adopt nonbilayer structures, resulting in the actual presence of such structures in samples exceeding 20mol % ceramide and 15mol % DO. Thus, the increased tendency to form nonbilayer lipid phases correlates with increased PKC activity, whereas the actual presence of such phases reduced the activity of the enzyme. Moreover, the results show that short-chain ceramide analogs, widely used to study cellular effects of ceramide, have biological effects that are not exhibited by natural ceramide.

The results of survival analyses are reported as indicators of a supported employment program for persons with mental illnesses. Separate sets of analyses were conducted to assess three critical dimensions of survival. First, length of time between program registration and placement into employment was used to assess the program's rapidity in job placement. Second, length of time employed was used to assess the program's durability in job placement. Third, the duration of program enrollment was used to assess the program's longevity in support provision. Post-hoc analyses were conducted to identify consumer characteristics. These results are discussed with regard to their implications for future research as well as programmatic considerations in providing supported employment services to individuals with long-term mental illnesses.