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As a novel noninvasive tumor therapy, sonodynamic therapy (SDT) attracts booming concerns. However, the limited water solubility, inadequate biocompatibility, and low targeting ability of conventional sonosensitizers significantly hinder their potential for clinical application. Herein, novel zinc(II)-porphyrin nanotheranostics (HA@Zn-TCPP) were fabricated in which the zinc(II)-porphyrin (TCPP) metal-organic framework was first constructed by a simple thermal reaction, followed by the addition of hyaluronic acid (HA) for modification. The specific targeting ability of HA facilitated the internalization of HA@Zn-TCPP within tumor cells, resulting in its preferential accumulation in tumor tissues that exhibit CD44 receptor overexpression. The acidic tumor microenvironment induced the rapid decomposition of HA@Zn-TCPP, releasing free TCPP for activating SDT. This controllable generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) could effectively decrease damage to normal tissues. The HA@Zn-TCPP exhibited remarkable antitumor effects in experiments, achieving a tumor inhibition rate of up to 82.1% when under ultrasound. This finding provides an imperative strategy to develop novel sonosensitizers for enhanced SDT.

Bioflocs can efficiently achieve simultaneous nitrate and phosphate removal through a single-stage aerobic process, provided they are continuously supplemented with an organic carbon source. This study investigated the effects of different carbon sources on this process. Results revealed that phosphate removal rate in the glucose group was 0.61 ± 0.02 mg/L/h, significantly higher than those in the acetate (0.28 ± 0.01 mg/L/h) and propionate (0.29 ± 0.03 mg/L/h) groups (p < 0.05). However, the three groups observed no significant differences in nitrate removal rates (p > 0.05). The superior performance of the glucose group in simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal is likely due to the higher biomass synthesis. In contrast, nitrate removal in the acetate and propionate groups was primarily driven by denitrification, resulting in lower sludge production and reduced phosphate uptake. For practical application of bioflocs in simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal, glucose is recommended as the optimal carbon source., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Biofloc technology (BFT) is an eco-friendly aquaculture model that utilizes zero-exchange water. In this study, we investigated the integration of duckweed into BFT in an effort to enhance nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon utilization and to improve animal welfare for cultivating Megalobrama amblycephala. The experiment spanned 75 days, comparing a group of M. amblycephala supplemented with duckweed (DM) to a control group (CG) with no supplementation, where duckweed consumption relied solely on the feeding behavior of the fish. The concentrations of nitrate, total nitrogen, and phosphorus accumulation were lower in the DM than in the CG from day 45 onwards, with differences of 16.19, 26.90, and 1.45 mg/L, respectively, at the end of the experiment. The DM showed simultaneous increases of 5.77, 11.20, and 5.07 % in the absolute utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon, respectively. The abundance of TM7a (10.27 %), linked to nitrate absorption, became the dominant genus in the water of the DM. Additionally, the abundance of Cetobacterium, associated with carbohydrate digestion, was significantly higher in gut of the DM (23.83 %) than in the gut of CG (1.24 %, P < 0.05). Supplementing the diet of M. amblycephala with duckweed improved digestion and antioxidant enzyme activity. Transcriptome data showed that duckweed supplementation resulted in an increase in the expression of genes related to protein digestion and absorption and carbohydrate metabolism in M. amblycephala, and analysis of the significantly enriched pathways further supported improved antioxidant capacity. Based on the above results, we concluded that as M. amblycephala consumes more duckweed, the differences in nitrogen and phosphorus levels between the DM and CG would continue to increase, along with a simultaneous increase in fixed carbon. Thus, this study achieved the goal of recycling BFT resources and improving animal welfare by integrating duckweed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors report no declarations of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Over 944 thousand tonnes of shrimp carcasses are produced worldwide during the shrimp production cycle, and black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are a potential solution for this shrimp carcass accumulation. In this study, we evaluated the performance of BSFL feeding on shrimp carcasses. Six combinations of wheat bran and shrimp carcass powder (with replacement increments of 20 %) and one whole shrimp carcasses treatment were tested. The bioconversion rate (27.15 ± 3.66 %; p = 0.001), crude protein (55.34 ± 1.27 %; p < 0.001), and crude lipid (14.37 ± 1.86 %; p = 0.007) values of BSFL reared on whole shrimp carcasses were significantly higher than those of BSFL reared on wheat bran. Increasing the shrimp carcass amount in the feeding media resulted in significant increases in BSFL docosahexaenoic acid (with the highest value occurring for BSFL reared on whole shrimp carcasses; 1.46 ± 0.09 %; p < 0.001). Conversely, BSFL docosahexaenoic acid was not detected for BSFL reared on wheat bran. The detected heavy metal concentrations in BSFL were below the limits of the published international guidelines for animal feed. In the obtained BSFL, Salmonella was not detected, and the mould count was <10 CFU/g. The total bacterial count (Lg transformation) of obtained BSFL ranged from 7.88 to 8.07 CFU/g, and no significant differences among all treatments (p = 0.424). Overall, this study demonstrates that BSFL-based bioconversion presents a resource recovery technology for converting shrimp carcasses into high-value nutritional biomass., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) meal levels on the nutrient disappearance rate, rumen fermentation, and microflora of beef cattle in vitro. A total of 24 fermentation tanks were randomly divided into four treatments containing 0% COS (CON), 0.02% COS, 0.04% COS, and 0.08% COS for an 8-day experiment period, with each treatment comprising six replicates. The disappear rates of DM, CP, EE, and total gas production were quadratically increased with increasing COS levels. The disappear rates of DM, CP, EE, and ADF were greatest, whereas the total gas production was lowest in the 0.08% COS group. The pH, NH 3 -N, MCP, the content of propionate, isobutyrate, butyrate, valerate, and the A/P were quadratically increased with increasing COS levels, while the A/P were linearly decreased. The pH, MCP, and the content of propionate, and butyrate were highest, whereas the NH 3 -N and the content of acetate, isobutyrate, valerate, and the A/P were lowest in the 0.08% COS group. Microbiomics analysis showed that the rumen microbial diversity was not altered between the CON and the 0.08% COS group. However, the relative abundance of Methanosphaera , Ruminococcus , Endomicrobium , and Eubacterium groups was increased, and the relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria Dorea and Escherichia-Shigella showed a decrease in the 0.08% COS group. Overall, the 0.08% COS was the most effective among the three addition levels, resulting in an increase in the disappearance rate of in vitro fermented nutrients and improvements in rumen fermentation indexes and microbial communities. This, in turn, led to the maintenance of rumen health.

This paper presents a novel model-free fast integral terminal sliding-mode control (MFFITSMC) method based on an improved fast terminal sliding-mode observer (IFTSMO) for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive system, which can effectively eliminate the impact caused by unknown disturbances, such as parameter perturbations and external disturbances. The PMSM mathematical model with unknown disturbances is first established, and the ultra-local model (ULM) of the PMSM speed loop is constructed. Next, the model-free fast integral terminal sliding-mode controller is designed in the speed loop based on the ULM. Then, the IFTSMO is designed to precisely estimate the unknown term of the ULM, and the estimated unknown term is fed back to the MFFITSMC controller to perform compensation for unknown disturbances in real time. Finally, compared with the proportional-integral (PI) control method and the conventional model-free sliding-mode control (MFSMC) method, the results of simulations and experiments demonstrate that the presented MFFITSMC method reduces the dependence on the precise model and achieves the purpose of anti-disturbance control of the PMSM drive system., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The microsporidian Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) has become a critical threat to the global shrimp aquaculture industry, thus necessitating early detection by screening. Development of a rapid and accurate assay is crucial both for the active surveillance and for the assessment of shrimp with EHP infection. In the present study, a distinct strain of E . hepatopenaei (EHP Mr ) was found in Macrobrachium rosenbergii . The SWP1 gene analysis revealed it was a new genotype that differed with the common strain isolated from the Litopenaeus vannamei (EHP Lv ). A nested SWP-PCR method was modified to fix the bug that the original inner primers could not recognize the EHP Mr strain. The redesigned inner primers successfully amplified a product of 182 bp for both the EHP Mr strain and the EHP Lv strain. The new primers also had good specificity and high sensitivity, which may serve as an alternative for EHP genotyping. This study provided a method for detection of EHP in the biosecurity of Macrobrachium rosenbergii farming, and the developed protocol was proposed for the routine investigation and potential carrier screening, especially for molecular epidemiology., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wang, Zhou, Yin, Ying, Xiang, Liu, Ye, Li, Fang and Tan.)

The rubber molecular chain in waste vulcanized tire rubber will be crosslinked to form a network structure that would be difficult to degrade in asphalt. Crumb rubber treated by desulfurization activation could form active groups on the surface by interrupting the crosslinking bond to improve the compatibility between crumb rubber powder and asphalt. To explore the influence of activation modes on crumb rubber powder and the corresponding rubber-modified asphalt binder, crumb rubber powder was firstly activated through three commonly used activation methods and asphalt binder samples modified by activated crumb rubber powder were also prepared. The basic properties of activated crumb rubber powder were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, and conventional tests were used to study the conventional physical properties of the asphalt binder. The infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis showed that the crumb rubber powder was mainly composed of alkanes, alkenes, sulfonic acids, aromatics, and a little silica rubber and antioxidant zinc oxide, which is suitable for asphalt modification. The simple heat activation treatment method is not enough to greatly destroy the cross-linking structure of crumb rubber powder, but the "C=C" bond was destroyed more seriously. Under the action of adjuvants, the polysulfide cross-linking bond could be broken in crumb rubber powder. The heat treatment and chemical treatment could not achieve the purpose of reducing the viscosity and improving the compatibility of rubber asphalt binder through desulfurization activation. The mechanochemical treatment would help to improve the performance of crumb-rubber-powder-modified asphalt binder. The data correlation analysis based on the grey relational degree can provide a reference for the selection of activated crumb rubber powder for different application requirements in the asphalt modification procedure.

Cancer has become the leading cause of human death worldwide, and there is an urgent need to design and develop new oncology drugs. In this study, we report series of cationic amphiphilic dendrons with different hydrophobic alkyl chains (C n ) and different generations (G x ) and demonstrate their use for anticancer applications. The results revealed that lower-generation dendrons (G 1 ) with a longer hydrophobic alkyl chain (C 12 and C 18 ) have stronger antitumor activity. Among these dendrons, a lead candidate C 12 -G 1 was identified that demonstrated excellent broad-spectrum antitumor activity in 7 cancer cell lines including highly metastatic tumor cells, while simultaneously, hemolysis was negligible. Mechanistic studies showed that C 12 -G 1 could lead to cytoplasmic leakage and induce cancer cell necrosis through membrane disruption. In addition, C 12 -G 1 showed potent inhibition of tumor growth in a B16-F10 melanoma model. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the cationic amphiphilic dendron might be a promising agent for anticancer application.

A large number of waste tires are in urgent need of effective treatment, and breaking waste tires into crumb rubber powder for modifying asphalt has been proved as a good idea to solve waste tires. Crumb rubber modified asphalt not only has good high and low temperature performance, durability, and aging resistance but can also reduce pavement noise and diseases, which has wide application prospects. In this study, crumb rubber powder was desulfurized by mechanochemical method to prepare desulfurized crumb rubber modified asphalt. During the desulfurization process of crumb rubber, the effects of desulfurization process variables including desulfurizer type, desulfurizer content, and desulfurization mixing temperature and time were considered, and then the physical properties of modified asphalt were tested. The test results showed that after mixing crumb rubber powder with desulfurizer, the viscosity of crumb rubber powder modified asphalt can be reduced. Moreover, the storage stability of crumb rubber powder modified asphalt could also be improved by mixing crumb rubber with desulfurizer. Based on the physical properties of crumb rubber powder modified asphalt, the desulfurization process of selected organic disulfide (OD) desulfurizer was optimized as follows: the OD desulfurizer content was 3%, the desulfurization mixing temperature was 160 °C, and the mixing time was 30 min. In addition, Fourier infrared spectroscopy analysis was carried out to explore the modification mechanism of desulfurized crumb rubber powder modified asphalt. There is no fracture and formation of chemical bonds, and the modification of asphalt by crumb rubber powder is mainly physical modification.

To achieve high water-treatment efficiencies and simplify the setup of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), this study examined the use of suspended growth reactors (R1 and R2) based on biofloc technology (BFT) as water-treatment biofilters. Moreover, the conversion of the heterotrophic R1 biofilter to a nitrifying role was investigated. During RAS operation using heterotrophic BFT biofilters, R1 and R2 simultaneously controlled total ammonium nitrogen, nitrite (NO 2 - -N), nitrate (NO 3 - -N), soluble reactive phosphate (SRP), and alkalinity, with relevant functional microbes including denitrifying bacteria (DNB), phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs), denitrifying PAOs (DNPAOs), glycogen accumulating organisms, ammonia oxidizing bacteria, and nitrite oxidizing bacteria. To achieve low concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, and save carbon sources, we were able to quickly convert R1 into a nitrifying BFT biofilter by stopping carbohydrate addition. Although there were dominant relative abundances of DNB, PAOs, and DNPAOs in the converted R1, the lack of carbon sources resulted in continuous rise of NO 3 - -N in the effluent, stable NO 2 - -N removal efficiency, and absence of SRP removal after 40 h. However, R2 retained the previous NO 3 - -N and SRP removal efficiencies with carbohydrate addition. This indicated that this novel RAS using BFT biofilters achieved simultaneous nitrogen and phosphate removal, and that the convertible water-treatment efficiencies of BFT biofilters could be controlled by carbohydrate addition. This approach could simplify the RAS setup and meet real-time water quality demands., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The effectiveness of carbohydrate addition and the use of ultrasonication as a pretreatment for the mesophilic anaerobic digestion of saline aquacultural sludge was assessed. Analyses were conducted using an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR), which included stopped gas production attributed to the saline inhibition. After increasing the C : N ratio, gas production was observed, and the total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal efficiency increased from 75% to 80%. The TCOD removal efficiency of the sonication period was approximately 85%, compared to 75% for the untreated waste. Ultrasonication of aquaculture sludge was also found to enhance the gas production rate and the TCOD removal efficiency. The average volatile fatty acid (VFA) to alkalinity ratios ranged from 0.1 to 0.05, confirming the stability of the digesters. Furthermore, soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), VFA, and PO4 (3-) concentrations increased in the effluents. There was a 114% greater gas generation during the ultrasonication period, with an average production of 0.08 g COD/L · day(-1).