Cyanobacterial blooms can impair drinking water quality due to the concomitant extracellular organic matter (EOM). As copper is often applied as an algicide, cyanobacteria may experience copper stress. However, it remains uncertain whether algal growth compensation occurs and how EOM characteristics change in response to copper stress. This study investigated the changes in growth conditions, photosynthetic capacity, and EOM characteristics of M. aeruginosa under copper stress. In all copper treatments, M. aeruginosa experienced a growth inhibition stage followed by a growth compensation stage. Notably, although chlorophyll-a fluorescence parameters dropped to zero immediately following high-intensity copper stress (0.2 and 0.5 mg/L), they later recovered to levels exceeding those of the control, indicating that photosystem II was not destroyed by copper stress. Copper stress influenced the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content, polysaccharides, proteins, excitation-emission matrix spectra, hydrophobicity, and molecular weight (MW) distribution of EOM, with the effects varying based on stress intensity and growth stage. Principal component analysis revealed a correlation between the chlorophyll-a fluorescence parameters and EOM characteristics. These results imply that copper may not be an ideal algicide. Further research is needed to explore the dynamic response of EOM characteristics to environmental stress.

INTRODUCTION =: Bacteriuria during pregnancy is a frequent and important cause of morbidity and complications. Data on its occurrence in pregnant adolescents are still scarce. METHODS =: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary teaching hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. All adolescents (≤ 18 years) who came for prenatal care between January 2010 and January 2016 were included. Sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, obstetric history, and the results of laboratory tests were selected. A urine sample was aseptically collected from each patient to undergo microscopic and culture analysis. RESULTS =: A total of 388 pregnant adolescents averaging 15.30 ± 1.24 years of age were included. The frequency of bacteriuria in this group was 17.01% (66/388). The lack of sports practice (OR=8.65, 95% CI=1.09-68.39), the fact that pregnancy was desired (OR=2.17, 95% CI=1.08-4.34), and the use of hormonal methods of contraception (OR=2.46, 95% CI=1.04-5.84) turned out to be independent risk factors for bacteriuria. Protective factors were identified as late coitarche (OR = 0.75, 95% CI=0.57-0.98) and a urine culture analysis at a later gestational age (OR = 0.94, 95% CI=0.90-0.98). The most often isolated pathogens were Escherichia coli (49%) and Streptococcus agalactiae (18%). CONCLUSION =: Bacteriuria among pregnant adolescents is a relatively common condition. The infection risk of the urinary tract was increased by physical inactivity and seemingly by the influence of behavioral and sexual factors. Such results can help to identify patients at risk, favoring the early diagnosis of the urinary tract infections and optimizing prenatal care.

Light-scattering measurements have been made on a series of linear polyethylene fractions and a linear polyethylene standard reference material (SRM 1475). All measurements were made in 1-chloronaphthalene at 135 °C. and over an angular range from 45° to 135°. The data were analyzed to obtain the weight average molecular weights, second virial coefficients and root-mean square end-to-end distances.

OBJECTIVE: Annually, over 200,000 people are diagnosed with leprosy, also called Hansen\'s disease. This number has been relatively stable over the past years. Progress has been made in the fields of chemoprophylaxis and immunoprophylaxis to prevent leprosy, with a primary focus on close contacts of patients. In this descriptive meta-analysis, we summarize the evidence and identify knowledge gaps regarding post-exposure prophylaxis against leprosy.
METHODS: A systematic literature search according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology was conducted by searching the medical scientific databases Cochrane, Embase, Pubmed/MEDLINE, Research Gate, Scopus and Web of Science on Jan. 22, 2020, using a combination of synonyms for index terms in four languages: \"leprosy\" and \"population\" or \"contacts\" and \"prevention\" or \"prophylaxis.\" Subsequently, Infolep.org and Google Scholar were searched and the \"snowball method\" was used to retrieve other potentially relevant literature. The found articles were screened for eligibility using predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria.
RESULTS: After deduplication, 1,515 articles were screened, and 125 articles were included in this descriptive meta-analysis. Immunoprophylaxis by bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination is known to provide protection against leprosy. The protection it offers is higher in household contacts of leprosy patients compared with the general population and is seen to decline over time. Contact follow-up screening is important in the first period after BCG administration, as a substantial number of new leprosy patients presents three months post-vaccination. Evidence for the benefit of re-vaccination is conflicting. The World Health Organization (WHO) included BCG in its Guidelines for the Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy by stating that BCG at birth should be maintained in at least all leprosy high-burden regions. Literature shows that several vaccination interventions with other immunoprophylactic agents demonstrate similar or slightly less efficacy in leprosy risk reduction compared with BCG. However, most of these studies do not exclusively focus on post-exposure prophylaxis. Two vaccines are considered future candidates for leprosy prophylaxis: Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MiP) and LepVax. For chemoprophylaxis, trials were performed with dapsone/acedapsone, rifampicin, and ROM, a combination of rifampicin, ofloxacin, and minocycline. Single-dose rifampicin is favored as post-exposure prophylaxis, abbreviated as SDR-PEP. It demonstrated a protective effect of 57% in the first two years after administration to contacts of leprosy patients. It is inexpensive, and adverse events are rare. The risk of SDR-PEP inducing rifampicin resistance is considered negligible, but continuous monitoring in accordance with WHO policies should be encouraged. The integration of contact screening and SDR-PEP administration into different leprosy control programs was found to be feasible and well accepted. Since 2018, SDR-PEP is included in the WHO Guidelines for the Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy.
CONCLUSIONS: Progress has been made in the areas of chemoprophylaxis and immunoprophylaxis to prevent leprosy in contacts of patients. Investing in vaccine studies, like LepVax and MiP, and increasing harmonization between tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy research groups is important. SDR-PEP is promising as a chemoprophylactic agent, and further implementation should be promoted. More chemoprophylaxis research is needed on: enhanced medication regimens; interventions in varying (epidemiological) settings, including focal mass drug administration (fMDA); specific approaches per contact type; combinations with screening variations and field-friendly rapid tests, if available in the future; community and health staff education; ongoing antibiotic resistance surveillance; and administering chemoprophylaxis with SDR-PEP prior to BCG administration. Additionally, both leprosy prophylactic drug registration nationally and prophylactic drug availability globally at low or no cost are important for the implementation and further upscaling of preventive measures against leprosy, such as SDR-PEP and new vaccines.

Differentially driven devices represent a highly promising research field for radio frequency (RF), microwave (MW), and millimeter-wave (mmWave) designers and engineers. Designs employing differential signals are essential elements in low-noise fourth-generation (4G) and fifth-generation (5G) communications. Apart from the conventional planar MW components, differential-fed balanced microstrip filters, as promising alternatives, have several advantages, including high common-mode rejection, low unwanted radiation levels, high noise immunity, and wideband harmonic suppression. In this paper, a comprehensive and in-depth review of the existing research on differential-fed microstrip filter designs are presented and discussed with a focus on recent advances in this research and the challenges facing the researchers. A comparison between different design techniques is presented and discussed in detail to provide the researchers with the advantages and disadvantages of each technique that could be of interest to a specific application. Challenges and future developments of balanced microstrip bandpass filters (BPFs) are also presented in this paper. Balanced filters surveyed include recent single-, dual-, tri-, and wide-band BPFs, which employ different design techniques and accomplish different performances for current and future wireless applications.

BACKGROUND: Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), a highly contagious pathogen, is responsible for causing lifelong oral to genital infection in human. Boswellia serrata oleo-gum-resin possesses a strong traditional background of treating diverse skin ailments including infection but its effect on HSV-1 has not been examined yet.
OBJECTIVE: To exploit its potential, we aimed to explore the antiviral activity of methanol extract of B. serrata oleo-gum-resin (BSE) and one of its major constituent β-boswellic acid (BA) against HSV-1 along with the underlying mechanism of action involved.
METHODS: BSE was subjected to RP-HPLC analysis to quantify the active constituent. Cytotoxicity (CC50) and antiviral activity were evaluated by MTT and plaque reduction assay, followed by the determination of median effective concentration (EC50). The mode of antiviral activity was assessed by time-of-addition assay and confirmed by reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR). Further, the expressions of various cytokines were measured by RT-PCR, while the proteins by Western blot.
RESULTS: BSE and BA potently inhibited wild-type and a clinical isolate of HSV-1 (EC50 5.2-6.2 and 12.1-14.63 μg/ml), with nearly-complete inhibition (EC99) at 10 and 30 μg/ml, respectively. The inhibitory effect was significant at 1 h post-infection and effective up to 4 h. Based on target analysis we examined the inhibition of NF-κB, essential for virus replication, and observed significant down-regulation of NF-κB, and p38 MAP-kinase activation, with reduced expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, Interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6, involved in scheming NF-κB signaling.
CONCLUSIONS: Thus, our results support the ethnomedicinal use of BSE in skin infection by inhibiting HSV-1 through the modulation of NF-κB and p38 MAPK pathway.

Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP) already established as an immune-modulator in mycobacterial infections generates immune response by acting on CXC chemokines. In the present study, the immunomodulatory effect of MIP in conjunction with chemotherapy against M.tb infection was evaluated by colony forming units (CFUs) following aerosol infection to guinea pig and by measuring CXCL12 chemokine expression using q-PCR and in situ RT-PCR. Different experimental groups included, infection (Rv), immunoprophylaxis (RvMw), chemotherapy (RvCh) and combination of immunoprophylaxis+chemotherapy (RvChMw) group and normal healthy (NH) group. In the combination of immunoprophylaxis+chemotherapy (RvChMw) group, the CFU counts reduced significantly (p<0.001) at 4th week of infection as compared to other treated groups (RvMw and RvCh group). The expression of CXCL12 was recorded in all the treated groups of animals. The study demonstrated suppressed expression of CXCL 12 in both immunoprophylaxis as well as chemotherapy groups (6th and 8th week) that become elevated in immunoprophylaxis plus chemotherapy group (10th week), at which time point no CFUs were detected in RvCh and RvChMw group. The findings indicate that the expression of CXCL12 is associated with good response to anti - tubercular treatment. Thus, prior immunization with MIP appears to show good immunomodulatory effect to release CXCL12 chemokine during infection and also correlates with enhanced effect to chemotherapy.

Technique of high-speed digital imaging (HSDI) is unique technology, allowing assessment of real vocal fold vibrations.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to present the usefulness of HSDI in the diagnosis of premenstrual dysphonia as a parameter of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
METHODS: In study conducted by Department of Clinical Phonoaudiology and Logopedics at the Medical University of Białystok participated 21 women aged between 20-31 years old. HSDI technique with a digital High Speed HS camera was used for visualization of the larynx. The rigid endoscope with 90° optics was used for visualizing the vocal folds vibrations during phonation of \"e\" vowel, at the rate of 4000 frames per second. Playback of recorded sequence set at 15 frames per second, allowed to assess vocal folds vibrations in slow motion mode. Mucosal wave (MW), glottal closure (GTs), symmetry, regularity and synchrony of vocal fold vibration were analyzed. Kymography of the larynx was made for analyzing the value of the Open Quotient (OQ) in the assessment of degree of glottal insufficiency. Study was conducted in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle and then repeated 2-3 days before menstruation.
RESULTS: In the analyzed group of patients studied before menstruation only 19% of women complained of hoarseness and fatigue of voice, and 81% reported no problems with his voice but the edematous changes in the larynx was recorded by HSDI technique. No women had premenstrual dysphonia in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle.
CONCLUSIONS: HSDI allows objective assessment of the degree of severity of insufficiency of glottal closure and edematous changes in the vocal folds in premenstrual dysphonia, what is confirmed by the objective values of the OQ.

Food contaminated with fungal pathogens can cause extremely harmful effects to human even when present in low concentrations. Researchers now pay more attention towards rapid DNA extraction for the quick screening, which is highly demanded in diverse research field. Molecular description of many fungal species is identified by different molecular characteristics. Hence, the efficient isolation of genomic DNA and amplification using PCR is a prerequisite for molecular characterization. Here, we used an improved Sodium dodecyl sulfate-Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide-Chloroform-isoamyl alcohol method by combining Sodium dodecyl sulfate with cetyl methylammonium bromide without addition of proteinase K, RNase K, and β-mercaptoethanol. To analyze the quality of recovered DNA, this method was compared with the other four routine methods. The present method has been chosen in the study as a preferred method because of easy adaptation to routine laboratories/food industries considering its rapid, sensitivit,y and cost effectiveness involved in the method.

We documented earlier that Mw (heat-killed suspension of Mycobacterium indicus pranii) adjuvant when used with conserved antigens, nucleoprotein (NP), and ectodomain of matrix (M2) protein (M2e) provided complete protection against homologous (clade 2.2) virus challenge in mice. The present study extends these observations to inter-clade challenge (clade 2.3.2.1) H5N1 virus and attempts to understand preliminary immunologic basis for the observed protection. Female BALB/c mice immunized with a single or two doses of vaccine formulations (clade 2.2 antigens) were challenged with 100LD50 homologous or heterologous (clade 2.3.2.1) virus. To understand the preliminary immunologic mechanism, we studied proportions of selected immune cell types, immune response gene expression, and Th1/Th2 cytokines induced by antigen-stimulated splenocytes from immunized mice, at different time points. Complete protection was conferred by Mw-HA, Mw-HA + NP, and Mw-HA + NP + M2e against homologous challenge. The protection correlated with IgG2a antibody titers indicating important role of Th1 response. Despite high inter-cladal antigenic differences, complete protection against the heterologous strain was achieved with Mw-HA + NP + M2e. Of note, a single dose with higher antigen concentrations (50 µg HA + 50 μg NP + 50 μg M2e) led to 80% protection against clade 2.3.2.1 strain. The protection conferred by Mw-HNM correlated with induction of IFN-γ, CD8+ T cytotoxic cells, and CD4+ T helper cells. Mw-adjuvanted HA + NP + M2e combination represents a promising vaccine candidate deserving further evaluation.