Research Publications (Food Safety)

In this study, topsoil and soil profiles were collected from typical karst areas in central Guizhou to investigate the accumulation and bioavailability of As in cultivated soils. The parent material of the investigated soil is carbonate rock, but there is strong heterogeneity in the As concentrations of soils developed in the Permian and Triassic, with average concentrations of 18.31 and 40.35 mg/kg, respectively.

Non-uniform heating of RF energy is the main obstacle for its large-scale application in blanching. In this study, we proposed a new blanching method: steam (ST)-assisted radio frequency (RF) blanching of fresh-cut stem lettuce cuboids.

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous and severe psychotic disorder. Epidemiological findings have suggested that the exposure to infectious agents such as Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia. On the other hand, there is evidence involving the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val105/158Met polymorphism in the aetiology of schizophrenia since it alters the dopamine metabolism.

Human health is threatened by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their related infections, which cause thousands of human deaths every year worldwide. Surface waters are vulnerable to human activities and natural processes that facilitate the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. This study evaluated the pathways and drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AR) in surface waters.

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Accepted Article. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection can be acute and benign or evolve to chronic hepatitis with rapid progression toward cirrhosis or liver failure in humans. Hence, Hepatitis E (HE) disease is a major public health concern. In countries where pig populations are highly contaminated with HEV, human cases of HE are mainly foodborne, occurring frequently after consumption of raw or undercooked pork products or liver.

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Accepted Article. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen in Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, wild boar (Sus scrofa) is considered the main wildlife reservoir of HEV. This wild ungulate shares habitat and resources with other potential HEV carriers in Iberian Mediterranean ecosystems, although information about the role of such sympatric species in the HEV epidemiological cycle is still very limited.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Ten bacteriophages with lytic activity against Shigella flexneri were tested for their resistance to physicochemical conditions found in food matrices. Phage viability and activity were evaluated at different temperatures, pH values and NaCl concentrations. In addition, challenge tests with each individual phage against ATCC12022 were conducted to evaluate their use as biocontrol agents.

Staphylococcus aureus can cause a plethora of life-threatening infections. Antibiotics have been extensively used to treat S. aureus infections. However, when antibiotics are used at sub-inhibitory concentrations, especially for β-lactam antibiotics, they may enhance staphylococcal pathogenicity and exacerbate the infection. The combination of antivirulence agents and antibiotics may be a novel approach to controlling antibiotic-induced S. aureus pathogenicity.

Developments of portable biosensors for field-deployable detections have been increasingly important to control foodborne pathogens in regulatory environment and in early stage of outbreaks.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, EarlyView. Staphylococcus aureus is a pathobiont capable of colonizing and infecting most tissues within the human body, resulting in a multitude of different clinical outcomes. Adhesion of S. aureus to the host is crucial for both host colonization and the establishment of infections. Underlying the pathogen's success is a complex and diverse arsenal of adhesins.

by Jiandong Chen, Hyuntae Byun, Qianxuan She, Zhi Liu, Karl-Gustav Ruggeberg, Qinqin Pu, I-Ji Jung, Dehao Zhu, Mary R. Brockett, Ansel Hsiao, Jun Zhu Vibrio cholerae is the etiologic agent of the severe human diarrheal disease cholera. To colonize mammalian hosts, this pathogen must defend against host-derived toxic compounds, such as nitric oxide (NO) and NO-derived reactive nitrogen species (RNS).

by Xupeng Hong, Yuka Imamura Kawasawa, Stephan Menne, Jianming Hu Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has a highly restricted host range and cell tropism. Other than the human sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (huNTCP), the HBV entry receptor, host determinants of HBV susceptibility are poorly understood. Woodchucks are naturally infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV), closely related to HBV, but not with HBV.

Arsenobetaine (AsB) is a primary arsenic (As) compound found in marine organisms. However, in mammals, the metabolic mechanism of AsB remains indistinct.

Sumoylation is a posttranslational modification (PTM) in which SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) is covalently conjugated to protein substrates via a range of enzymes. SUMO E3 ligase SIZ1 is involved in mediating several essential or nonessential element-responsive SUMO conjugations in Arabidopsis. However, whether SIZ1 is involved in the cadmium (Cd) response remains to be identified. In this study, we found that SIZ1 positively regulates plant Cd tolerance.

The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service implemented Salmonella performance standards for establishments producing chicken parts in 2016. The standards were chosen based on the assumption that a 30 % reduction in the occurrence of Salmonella-contaminated chicken parts samples (i.e., legs, breasts or wings) would result following implementation of the performance standard program.

Escherichia coli O157 belongs to a diverse serogroup including different H serotypes. E. coli O157: H7 is the most common serotype that can cause acute gastroenteritis, hemorrhagic colitis (HC), and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) in humans. In recent years, some E. coli O157:non-H7 strains have been reported to cause sporadic cases and outbreaks of diarrheal diseases. However, the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of E.

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive pathogen with low GC content.

Acute Toxoplasma gondii infections can influence the liver as well as other organs.

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Heidelberg has been associated with a broad host range, such as poultry, dairy calves, swine, wild birds, environment, and humans. The continuous evolution of S. Heidelberg raises a public health concern since there is a global dispersal of lineages harboring a wide resistome and virulome on a global scale.

Effects of the combined task-oriented trainings with botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) injection on improving motor functions and reducing spasticity remains unclear. This study aims to investigate effects of 3 task-oriented trainings (robot-assisted therapy (RT), mirror therapy (MT), and active control treatment (AC)) in patients with stroke after BoNT-A injection.

Pistachio nuts can become colonized by mycotoxigenic fungi, especially Aspergillus flavus, resulting in contamination with aflatoxins (AFs). We examined the effect of gaseous O3 (50–200 ppm; 30 min; 6 L/min) on (a) in vitro germination, (b) mycelial growth, and (c) aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production on a milled pistachio nut-based medium at different water activity (aw) levels and at 30 °C.

Incobotulinum toxin A (IncoBoNT-A) is effective in preventing ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced hyperpigmentation. This prospective, randomized, controlled study aimed to evaluate the effect of IncoBoNT-A on the treatment of UVB-induced hyperpigmentation in 15 volunteers. Five hyperpigmentation squares (2 × 2 cm) were induced by local UVB on the abdomen at baseline.

by Risa Pesapane, Andrea Chaves, Janet Foley, Nadia Javeed, Samantha Barnum, Katherine Greenwald, Erin Dodd, Christine Fontaine, Padraig Duignan, Michael Murray, Melissa Miller Nasopulmonary mites (NPMs) of the family Halarachnidae are obligate endoparasites that colonize the respiratory tracts of mammals.

The kelch motif-containing proteins are widely present in organisms and known to be involved in various biological processes, but their roles in immunity remain unclear.

Vibrio alginolyticus is a globally distributed opportunistic pathogen that causes different degrees of disease in various marine organisms, such as fish, shrimp and shellfish. At present, vibriosis caused by V. alginolyticus has a wide epidemic range and causes frequent outbreaks, resulting in substantial losses in aquaculture.