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Dairy cows are often fed high grain diets to meet the energy demand for high milk production or simply due to a lack of forages at times. As a result, ruminal acidosis, especially subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA), occurs frequently in practical dairy production. When SARA occurs, bacterial endotoxin (or lipopolysaccharide, LPS) is released in the rumen and the large intestine in a large amount. Many other bacterial immunogens may also be released in the digestive tract following feeding dairy cows diets containing high proportions of grain. LPS can be translocated into the bloodstream across the epithelium of the digestive tract, especially the lower tract, due to possible alterations of permeability and injuries of the epithelial tissue. As a result, the concentration of blood LPS increases. Immune responses are subsequently caused by circulating LPS, and the systemic effects include increases in concentrations of neutrophils and the acute phase proteins such as serum amyloid-A (SAA), haptoglobin (Hp), LPS binding protein (LBP), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in blood. Entry of LPS into blood can also result in metabolic alterations. Blood glucose and nonesterified fatty acid concentrations are enhanced accompanying an increase of blood LPS after increasing the amount of grain in the diet, which adversely affects feed intake of dairy cows. As the proportions of grain in the diet increase, patterns of plasma β-hydoxybutyric acid, cholesterol, and minerals (Ca, Fe, and Zn) are also perturbed. The bacterial immunogens can also lead to reduced supply of nutrients for synthesis of milk components and depressed functions of the epithelial cells in the mammary gland. The immune responses and metabolic alterations caused by circulating bacterial immunogens will exert an effect on milk production. It has been demonstrated that increases in concentrations of ruminal LPS and plasma acute phase proteins (CRP, SAA, and LBP) are associated with declines in milk fat content, milk fat yield, 3.5% fat-corrected milk yield, as well as milk energy efficiency.

In recent years, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of a molecule/metal-semiconductor hybrid system has attracted considerable interest and regarded as the synergetic contribution of the electromagnetic and chemical enhancements from the incorporation of noble metal into semiconductor nanomaterials. However, the underlying mechanism is still to be revealed in detail. Herein, we report an irreversible accumulated SERS behavior induced by near-infrared (NIR) light irradiating on a 4-mercaptobenzoic acid linked with silver and silver-doped titanium dioxide (4MBA/Ag/Ag-doped TiO 2) hybrid system. With increasing irradiation time, the SERS intensity of 4MBA shows an irreversible exponential increase, and the Raman signal of the Ag/Ag-doped TiO 2 substrate displays an exponential decrease. A microscopic understanding of the time-dependent SERS behavior is derived based on the microanalysis of the Ag/Ag-doped TiO 2 nanostructure and the molecular dynamics, which is attributed to three factors: (1) higher crystallinity of Ag/Ag-doped TiO 2 substrate; (2) photo-induced charge transfer; (3) chargeinduced molecular reorientation.

Differences in the anti-hyperuricemic and anti-inflammation effects between two sea cucumber hydrolysates in diet induced hyperuricemic mice.

No abstract

Hexagonal Ag nanoplates with long and ultranarrow gaps (about 90 nm in length, 2 nm in width) are synthesized via seed-mediated growth method. By growing around the polymer shell on the seed, the Ag domain cannot merge at the meet-up point, leaving a long narrow gap in the resulting plate. These gapped nanoplates exhibit high sensitivity in SERS detection, with limitation of 10 −9 M for 2-naphthalenethiol.

No abstract

Pesticides, extensively used in agriculture production, have received enormous attention because of their potential threats to the environment and human health. Hence, in this study, a kind of highly sensitive and stable hybrid surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active substrates constructed with flower-like two-dimensional molybdenum sulfide and Ag (MoS2@Ag) has been developed, and then the above substrate was sequentially utilized in the recyclable detection of pesticide residues on several kinds of fruits and vegetables. In the first place, the excellent photocatalytic performance of the MoS2@Ag hybrid substrate was demonstrated, which was attributed to the inhibition of electron–hole combination after the formation of Schottky barrier between the Ag NPs and MoS2 matrix. Thereafter, two calibration curves with ultra-low limits of detection (LOD) as 6.4 × 10–7 and 9.8 × 10–7 mg/mL were established for the standard solutions of thiram (tetramethylthiuram disulfide, TMTD) and methyl parathion (MP), and then the recyclable assay of their single and mixed residues on eggplant, Chinese cabbage, grape, and strawberry was successfully realized. It is interesting to note that the detection recoveries from 95.5 to 63.1% for TMTD and 92.3 to 62.6% for MP are greatly dependent on the size and surface roughness of these foods. In a word, the MoS2@Ag composite matrix shows attractive SERS and photocatalysis performance, and it is expected to have the potential application on food safety monitoring.