Mercury cratering record viewed from MESSENGER's first flyby

Morphologies and size-frequency distributions of impact craters on Mercury imaged during MESSENGER's first flyby elucidate the planet's geological history. Plains interior to the Caloris basin displaying color and albedo contrasts have comparable crater densities and therefore similar ages. Smooth plains exterior to Caloris exhibit a crater density approximately 40% less than on interior plains and are thus volcanic and not Caloris impact ejecta. The size distribution of smooth-plains craters matches that of lunar craters postdating the Late Heavy Bombardment, implying that the plains formed no earlier than 3.8 billion years ago (Ga). At diameters less than or equal to 8 to 10 kilometers, secondary impact craters on Mercury are more abundant than primaries; this transition diameter is much larger than that on the Moon or Mars. A low density of craters on the peak-ring basin Raditladi implies that it may be younger than 1 Ga.     

Anti-biofilm compounds derived from marine sponges

Bacterial biofilms are surface-attached communities of microorganisms that are protected by an extracellular matrix of biomolecules. In the biofilm state, bacteria are significantly more resistant to external assault, including attack by antibiotics. In their native environment, bacterial biofilms underpin costly biofouling that wreaks havoc on shipping, utilities, and offshore industry. Within a host environment, they are insensitive to antiseptics and basic host immune responses. It is estimated that up to 80% of all microbial infections are biofilm-based. Biofilm infections of indwelling medical devices are of particular concern, since once the device is colonized, infection is almost impossible to eliminate. Given the prominence of biofilms in infectious diseases, there is a notable effort towards developing small, synthetically available molecules that will modulate bacterial biofilm development and maintenance. Here, we highlight the development of small molecules that inhibit and/or disperse bacterial biofilms specifically through non-microbicidal mechanisms. Importantly, we discuss several sets of compounds derived from marine sponges that we are developing in our labs to address the persistent biofilm problem. We will discuss: discovery/synthesis of natural products and their analogues-including our marine sponge-derived compounds and initial adjuvant activity and toxicological screening of our novel anti-biofilm compounds.     

Marine-Derived Quorum-Sensing Inhibitory Activities Enhance the Antibacterial Efficacy of Tobramycin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Bacterial epiphytes isolated from marine eukaryotes were screened for the production of quorum sensing inhibitory compounds (QSIs). Marine isolate KS8, identified as a Pseudoalteromonas sp., was found to display strong quorum sensing inhibitory (QSI) activity against acyl homoserine lactone (AHL)-based reporter strains Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472 and CV026. KS8 supernatant significantly reduced biofilm biomass during biofilm formation (−63%) and in pre-established, mature P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilms (−33%). KS8 supernatant also caused a 0.97-log reduction (−89%) and a 2-log reduction (−99%) in PAO1 biofilm viable counts in the biofilm formation assay and the biofilm eradication assay respectively. The crude organic extract of KS8 had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2 mg/mL against PAO1 but no minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) was observed over the concentration range tested (MBC > 16 mg/mL). Sub-MIC concentrations (1 mg/mL) of KS8 crude organic extract significantly reduced the quorum sensing (QS)-dependent production of both pyoverdin and pyocyanin in P. aeruginosa PAO1 without affecting growth. A combinatorial approach using tobramycin and the crude organic extract at 1 mg/mL against planktonic P. aeruginosa PAO1 was found to increase the efficacy of tobramycin ten-fold, decreasing the MIC from 0.75 to 0.075 µg/mL. These data support the validity of approaches combining conventional antibiotic therapy with non-antibiotic compounds to improve the efficacy of current treatments.     

Effects of nitrogen,phosphorus, and potassium on SPAD-502 and atLEAF sensor readings of Salvia

There are various optical sensors in the market for precision nitrogen (N) management, which estimate leaf N status from chlorophyll content of leaves. However, readings may also be affected by the amounts of other nutrients in the plant leaves like potassium (K) and phosphorus (P), as well as sampling location within a plant or leaf. SPAD-502 and atLEAF optical sensors were used on Salvia ‘Vista Red’ plants grown with 0N-7.9P-0K, 41N-0P-0K, 0N-0P-31.6K, 0N-7.9P-0K + 41N-0P-0K, 0N-7.9P-0K + 0N-0P-31.6K, 41N-0P-0K + 0N-0P-31.6K, or 0N-7.9P-0K + 41N-0P-0K + 0N-0P-31.6K fertilizer plus a control. Both sensors were correlated with leaf N and each other. However, both sensor readings were affected by the presence or absence of P and K in the leaves, and thus these nutrients should be analyzed and reported along with leaf N values. Sensor readings were found to vary within a leaf and within leaf canopy location, so sampling needs to be consistent.     

鲜切生菜供应链温度波动与微生物含量变化

选取北京某优质农产品种植公司的6月中旬、12月下旬2条具有代表性的鲜切生菜供应链为研究对象,对整个链条温度波动规律分别进行为期7d的实地考察测量;并根据调研的温度曲线,在实验室条件下模拟供应链温度,测定鲜切生菜的微生物含量变化.研究结果显示,2条供应链温度都呈现出较大波动性：6月中旬实际供应链温度波动范围为在1.2～24.1℃,12月下旬为-6.1～16.2℃;运输过程温度波动较小,装车卸货等环节温度波动较明显.实验室模拟条件下得到的鲜切生菜微生物含量变化规律与供应链温度波动曲线存在正相关性,相关系数6月中旬0.849 77,12月下旬为0.847 99.     

Owner experiences and complications with home use of a replacement low profile gastrostomy device for long-term enteral feeding in dogs

The purpose of this study was to evaluate complications and owner impressions of a low profile gastrostomy device (LPGD) for enteral feeding in dogs. Medical records of dogs that had placement of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube followed by a LPGD between 1995 and 2003 were reviewed. Fifteen dogs had 29 devices placed for a variety of disease states in which enteral nutritional support was indicated. The individual tubes were placed for a median duration of 212 d. Most complications occurred more than 15 d after placement and were of no health risk to the animals. The most common reason for LPGD replacement was leakage through the 1-way antireflux valve. Fourteen of 15 owners that were contacted were supportive of the device. Based on its durability, ease of placement, minor complications, and positive owner impressions, we conclude that the LPGD is a valuable device for long-term enteral nutritional support of dogs.     

Annualized diameter and height growth equations for Pacific Northwest plantation-grown Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and red alder

Simulating the influence of intensive management and annual weather fluctuations on tree growth requires a shorter time step than currently employed by most regional growth models. High-quality data sets are available for several plantation species in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, but the growth periods ranged from 2 to 12 years in length. Measurement periods of varying length complicate efforts to fit growth models because observed growth rates must be interpolated to a common length growth period or those growth periods longer or shorter than the desired model time step must be discarded. A variation of the iterative technique suggested by Cao [Cao, Q.V., 2000. Prediction of annual diameter growth and survival for individual trees from periodic measurements. Forest Sci. 46, 127–131] was applied to estimate annualized diameter and height growth equations for pure plantations of Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and red alder. Using this technique, fits were significantly improved for all three species by embedding a multi-level nonlinear mixed-effects framework (likelihood ratio test: p < 0.0001). The final models were consistent with expected biological behavior of diameter and height growth over tree, stand, and site variables. The random effects showed some correlation with key physiographic variables such as slope and aspect for Douglas-fir and red alder, but these relationships were not observed for western hemlock. Further, the random effects were more correlated with physiographic variables than actual climate or soils information. Long-term simulations (12–16 years) on an independent dataset using these annualized equations showed that the multi-level mixed effects models were more accurate and precise than those fitted without random effects as mean square error (MSE) was reduced by 13 and 21% for diameter and height growth prediction, respectively. The level of prediction error was also smaller than an existing similar growth model with a longer time step (ORGANON v8) as the annualized equations reduced MSE by 17 and 38% for diameter and height growth prediction, respectively. These models will prove to be quite useful for understanding the interaction of weather and silviculture in the Pacific Northwest and refining the precision of future growth model projections.     

Direct measurement of the reaction front in chemically amplified photoresists

The continuing drive by the semiconductor industry to fabricate smaller structures using photolithography will soon require dimensional control at length scales comparable to the size of the polymeric molecules in the materials used to pattern them. The current technology, chemically amplified photoresists, uses a complex reaction-diffusion process to delineate patterned areas with high spatial resolution. However, nanometer-level control of this critical process is limited by the lack of direct measurements of the reaction front. We demonstrate the use of x-ray and neutron reflectometry as a general method to measure the spatial evolution of the reaction-diffusion process with nanometer resolution. Measuring compositional profiles, provided by deuterium-labeled reactant groups for neutron scattering contrast, we show that the reaction front within the material is broad rather than sharply defined and the compositional profile is altered during development. Measuring the density profile, we directly correlate the developed film structure with that of the reaction front.