Sensitive and efficient detection of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization in pregnant women is essential for prescription of prophylaxis at the time of delivery as GBS is an opportunistic pathogen known to cause infant mortality. In this report, two studies were conducted on the methods of GBS detection in Shaanxi province, China, a region lacking data for GBS detection and occurrence. For ...

Science alone cannot protect the oceans and their biological diversity. Whereas, scientists can identify problems and empirical steps toward their resolution, support for research, problem solving, and implementation of solutions must come from societal sources. Among the most promising are religious communities whose members are motivated by their faith to collaborate with marine scientists in...

Cytoskeletal proteins are axonally transported with slow components a and b (SCa and SCb). In peripheral nerves, the transport velocity of SCa, which includes neurofilaments and tubulin, is 1-2 mm/d, whereas SCb, which includes actin, tubulin, and numerous soluble proteins, moves as a heterogeneous wave at 2-4 mm/d. We have shown that two isoforms of microtubule-associated protein 1B (MAP1B), w...

PURPOSE To compare the inflammatory reaction caused by the injection of a sugarcane biopolymer (SCB) into the vocal fold of rabbits with that caused by calcium hydroxyapatite (CaH). METHODS CaH (Radiesse(r)) and SCB gel were injected respectively into the right and left vocal cords of thirty rabbits. The rabbits were distributed into two equal groups and sacrificed at three and twelve weeks a...

In the petroleum supply chain, oil refined products are often delivered to distribution centers by pipelines since they provide the most reliable and economical mode of transportation over large distances. This paper addresses the optimal scheduling of a complex pipeline network with multiple branching lines. The main challenge is to find the optimal sequence and time of product injections/deli...

Starch is a complex branched glucose polymer whose branch molecular weight distribution (the chain-length distribution, CLD) influences nutritionally important properties such as digestion rate. Chain-stopping in starch biosynthesis is by starch branching enzyme (SBE). Site-directed mutagenesis was used to modify SBEIIa from Zea mays (mSBEIIa) to produce mutants, each differing in a single cons...

A polarimetric coherent electromagnetic scattering model for short branching vegetation is developed in this paper. With the realistic structures that reasonably describe the relative positions of the particles, this model is able to consider the coherent effect due to the phase difference between the scattered fields from different particles, and account for the second-order, near-field intera...

It has been argued long ago that ηb could be observed through the ηb → J/ψ(→ μ+μ−)J/ψ(→ μ+μ−) decay chain. Recent calculations indicate that the width of ηb into two J/ψ is almost three order of magnitude smaller than the one into the DD. We study the effects of final state interactions due to the DD intermediate state on the J/ψ J/ψ final state. We find that the inclusion of this contribution ...