Common clinical features associated with spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsioses include fever, headache, arthralgia, arthritis, gastro-intestinal disturbances, lymphadenopathy, hepato-splenomegaly and a discrete maculo-papular rash [1]. However, diverse clinical manifestations associated with SFG rickettsioses have been reported, some presenting with a continued febrile illness with no definit...

Point-scanning sum-frequency generation (SFG) microscopy enables the generation of images of collagen I fibers in tissues by tuning into specific vibrational resonances of the polypeptide. It is shown that when collagen-rich tissues are visualized near the 2954 cm(-1) stretching vibration of methylene groups, the SFG image contrast is higher compared to the contrast seen in nonresonant second-h...

We review the recent development of chiral sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy and its applications to study chiral vibrational structures at interfaces. This review summarizes observations of chiral SFG signals from various molecular systems and describes the molecular origins of chiral SFG response. It focuses on the chiral vibrational structures of proteins and presents the chiral SF...

We examine the temperature dependence of the interfacial molecular structure at the water-air interface by combining experimental and simulated sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy. The experimental SFG spectra of the OH-stretching mode show a decrease in the amplitude at ∼3300 cm(-1) with increasing temperature, while the 3700 cm(-1) 'free OH' SFG feature is insensitive to temperature c...

Samples of green lipped mussels (Perna viridis) were collected from three sites (Huoshao, I'Maluan and Tong'an) around Xiamen coastal waters, where levels of various trace organic pollutants have been studied. Samples were also collected at a "cleaner" reference site near Dongshan Island for comparison. Clearance rate, absorption efficiency and oxygen consumption of the mussels were measured un...

Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be a powerful technique to study the molecular structures of surfaces and interfaces in different chemical environments. This review summarizes recent SFG studies on hybrid bilayer membranes and substrate-supported lipid monolayers and bilayers, the interaction between peptides/proteins and lipid monolayers/bilayer...

The superior frontal gyrus (SFG) is located at the superior part of the prefrontal cortex and is involved in a variety of functions, suggesting the existence of functional subregions. However, parcellation schemes of the human SFG and the connection patterns of each subregion remain unclear. We firstly parcellated the human SFG into the anteromedial (SFGam), dorsolateral (SFGdl), and posterior ...

Spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiosis is caused by obligatory intracellular Gram-negative bacteria that belong to the genus Rickettsia. Ticks belonging to the family Ixodidae can act as vectors, reservoirs or amplifiers of SFG rickettsiae. This study was conducted to estimate the seroprevalence of SFG rickettsioses in cattle, sheep and goats from Khartoum State, Sudan. Blood samples were coll...

Broadband phase-sensitive vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy was utilized to study the molecular orientation of molecules adsorbed on dielectric solid substrates. A gold thin film was employed to generate a SFG signal as a local oscillator (LO). To simplify the phase measurement, a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) was used as a standard sampl...

Soluble flaxseed gum (SFG) was extracted from flax (Linum usitatissimum) hulls using hot water, and its functional groups and antioxidant properties were investigated using infrared spectroscopy and different antioxidant assays (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS), reducing power capacity, and β-carotene bleaching inhibition assay)...