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ABSTRACTTo fully develop the medicinal and edible value of myrtle and improve the market visibility, myrtle berries and glutinous rice were used as raw materials and co-fermented using rice leaven. Uniform design method was used to determine the optimal fermentation conditions. The co-fermentation product was then underwent post-processing, including blending, grinding and homogenization, to produce a novel myrtle rice beverage, which was analyzed for product characteristics. Results showed that the optimal fermentation conditions were a myrtle berries of 24%, a rice leaven of 1%, a water addition amount of 100%, a fermentation temperature of 22°C, a fermentation time of 96 h. The co-fermented product was diluted 1:3 with water, ground, and homogenized with 0.1% agar and 0.2% xanthan gum to produce the final myrtle rice beverage. The beverage boasts a low sugar and alcohol content, along with a moderate level of acidity, making it a healthy beverage with antioxidant properties.

Summary: Background: Accurate staging of liver fibrosis (LF) is essential for clinical management in chronic liver disease. While non-contrast MRI (NC-MRI) yields valuable information for liver assessment, its effectiveness in predicting LF remains underexplored. This study aimed to develop and validate artificial intelligence (AI)-powered models utilizing NC-MRI for staging LF. Methods: A total of 1726 patients from Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, registered between October 2003 and October 2022, were retrospectively collected, and divided into development (n = 1208) and internal test (n = 518) cohorts. An external test cohort consisting of 337 individuals from six centers, registered between June 2015 and November 2022, were also included. All participants underwent NC-MRI (T1-weighted imaging, T1WI; and T2-fat-suppressed imaging, T2FS) and liver biopsies. Two classification models (CMs), named T1 and T2FS, were trained on respective image types using 3D contextual transformer networks and evaluated on both test cohorts. Additionally, three CMs—Clinic, Image, and Fusion—were developed using clinical features, T1 and T2FS scores, and their integration via logistic regression. Classification effectiveness of CMs was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). A comparison was conducted between the optimal models (OMs) with highest AUC and other methods (transient elastography, five serum biomarkers, and six radiologists). Findings: Fusion models (i.e., OM) yielded the highest AUC among the CMs, achieving AUCs of 0.810 for significant fibrosis, 0.881 for advanced fibrosis, and 0.918 for cirrhosis in the internal test cohort, and 0.808, 0.868, and 0.925, respectively, in the external test cohort. The OMs demonstrated superior performance in AUC, significantly surpassing transient elastography (only for staging ≥ F2 and ≥ F3 grades), serum biomarkers, and three junior radiologists for staging LF. Radiologists, with the aid of the OMs, can achieve a higher AUC in LF assessment. Interpretation: AI-powered models utilizing NC-MRI, including T1WI and T2FS, accurately stage LF. Funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82071885); General Program of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Education (LJKMZ20221160); Liaoning Province Science and Technology Joint Plan (2023JH2/101700127); the Leading Young Talent Program of Xingliao Yingcai in Liaoning Province (XLYC2203037).

ABSTRACTNatural pigments derived from microorganisms have many advantages and are widely studied in the food industry. A filamentous fungus, DBFL05, was identified as Aspergillus ustus, which produces a bright and abundant brown pigment. This extracellular, water-soluble pigment is highly polar and slightly soluble in alcohol but insoluble in other organic solvents. The pigment is stable under sunlight, at pH 2–10, and below 100°C. However, it is sensitive to Zn2+, Fe3+, Fe2+, and Cu2+. The pigment is mainly composed of two chemical components, pyrropyrazine diketone and dianthrone, and is classified as a polyketone pigment. Both components of the pigment exhibit inhibitory effects on bacteria and scavenging abilities for •OH and DPPH. The pigment showed no significant toxicity to plants and low toxicity to brine shrimp larvae. These findings indicate that the easily obtainable A. ustus pigment is a polyketone with attractive colour, stability, safety, and bioactivity.

Detecting heavy metals in edible oil is time-consuming and unfriendly to analysts and the environment due to the heavy fat content of oil. This work investigates a rapid and green method for extracting trace concentrations of copper, arsenic and lead in edible oils. To improve the method sensitivity and reduce detection interference, the method was optimized by studying the influence of several parameters, such as the extractant type, extraction time, temperature and mode, concentration of L-cysteine hydrochloride, sedimentation mode and ICP-MS detection conditions. The limits of detection (LOD) of copper, arsenic and lead in the oil samples were 0.027, 0.010 and 0.004 μg/kg, respectively. Recovery tests were performed to determine the method's accuracy, with recovery percentages in the 95.1–104.1% range. The relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 6) of three analyte elements was 1.74–2.05%. The proposed method does not need corrosive or highly toxic organic reagents and completes the extraction process of three heavy metals in edible oil in 5 minutes. The developed green method is suitable for rapid extraction and determination of heavy metals in oil samples from different sources.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to retrospectively investigate the use of oral contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (O-CEUS) in assessing the thickness of the gastric wall for gastric cancer (GC) screening and to establish screening strategies for GC with different risk stratifications based on the gastric wall thickness.MethodsFrom January 2015 to March 2020, people who underwent O-CEUS at the Physical Examination Center of our hospital with at least three years of follow-up were included in this study. The thickness of the gastric wall measured by O-CEUS was divided into three groups using 6 mm and 9 mm as cutoff values. The occurrence of GC in each group was observed. The imaging and clinical information of these populations were recorded and analyzed. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox’s proportional hazards regression were performed to calculate the risk of GC occurrence.ResultsA total of 4,047 people were finally included in this study. During the follow-up period, GC occurred in 7 individuals (incidence rate 0.17%). Among them, according to the thickness of the gastric wall, one case occurred in Group A (< 6 mm), two cases occurred in Group B (6-9 mm), and four cases occurred in Group C (>9mm). Based on Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, the curves of the three groups were significantly different (P < 0.01). The risk of GC occurrence in Group C and Group B were higher than that in Group A (4.76E+2-fold and 1.50E+2-fold).ConclusionO-CEUS is a convenient, economical, safe, and noninvasive screening method for GC. Measuring the thickness of the gastric wall is helpful to predict the risk of GC occurrence according to our stratification screening system.

How to quickly separate and detect cadmium (Cd2+) and lead (Pb2+) from solid samples is a difficult problem that needs to be solved. For this, Fe3O4@agarose@iminodiacetic acid (IDA) was synthesized and used for rapid purification of Cd2+ and Pb2+. This material can remove complex matrix interference completely within a short time of 15 min. The mechanism of the adsorption kinetics fit well to a pseudo-second-order model. A portable screen-printed electrodes (SPEs)-based electrochemical detection platform was established. After coupling with the pretreatment, the whole detection process only took within 30 min. The limits of detection (LOD) were ten times lower than those of the Codex general standard, with values of 0.02 and 0.01 mg/kg for Pb2+ and Cd2+, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 84.1% to 109.7% in naturally contaminated grain, in good agreement with the ICP-MS, demonstrating great prospects for the rapid screening and monitoring of Cd2+ and Pb2+ in grain.

Bacterial infection is a major challenge that could threaten the patient’s life in repairing bone defects with implant materials. Developing functional scaffolds with an intelligent antibacterial function that can be used for bone repair is very important. We constructed a drug delivery (HA@TA-CS/SA) scaffold with curcumin-loaded dendritic mesoporous organic silica nanoparticles (DMON@Cur) via 3D printing for antibacterial bone repair. Inspired by the adhesion mechanism of mussels, the HA@TA-CS/SA scaffold of hydroxyapatite (HA) and chitosan (CS) is bridged by tannic acid (TA), which in turn binds sodium alginate (SA) using electrostatic interactions. The results showed that the HA@TA-CS/SA composite scaffold had better mechanical properties compared with recent literature data, reaching 68.09 MPa. It displayed excellent degradation and mineralization capabilities with strong biocompatibility in vitro. Furthermore, the antibacterial test results indicated that the curcumin-loaded scaffold inhibited S.aureus and E.coli with 99.99% and 96.56% effectiveness, respectively. These findings show that 3D printed curcumin-loaded HA@TA-CS/SA scaffold has considerable promise for bone tissue engineering.

In this study, the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) alloys containing varying Cu contents (CCM-xCu, x = 0, 2, 3, 4 wt%) were fabricated via the selected laser melting (SLM) method. The influences of Cu content on tribological performance and corrosion resistance were investigated. The 2 and 3 wt% Cu contributed to inhibiting the generation of the HCP phase, whereas the inhibitory effect was quite limited at 4 wt% Cu. Notably, 4 wt% Cu led to the formation of Cr-enrich precipitates in the matrix, which was partially coherent with the Cu nanoparticle. The corrosion resistance of the CCM alloy was enhanced as the 2 and 3 wt% Cu added into the CCM alloy, contrarily, which deteriorated when Cu content reached 4 wt%. For the CCM-2Cu and CCM-3Cu, Cr-precipitates played a major role in enhancing the wear resistance, while the Cu lubrication effect working in coordination with Cr-precipitates determined that for the CCM-4Cu. This study was expected to achieve better tribology and corrosion properties of SLM-produced CCM alloys by tailoring microstructure through the Cu element.

Arsenic is a common toxic element, and has been widely found in nature environment. Arsenic and its compounds are also widely used in pesticides, coating materials, medicine and other fields. Food safety problems caused by arsenic are frequently taken place in the world. Among them, inorganic arsenic is the most toxic and has been recognized as the I class of carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In terms of food safety supervision, the rapid and accurate determination of inorganic arsenic in food will be the primary measure to control its harm to human health, and it also will be the basis technique for related researches. In recent years, the combination of Atomic fluorescence spectroscopy with chromatography and the combination of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with chromatography have been the main methods for the detection of inorganic arsenic. However, the conventional detection methods have some problems such as complicated pretreatment procedure and long detection time. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop rapid pretreatment and rapid detection technology for improving the ability of rapid screening and risk assessment of inorganic arsenic in food. At present, many of new research methods on the rapid extraction and detection of arsenic in food are studied by domestic and foreign scholars. In this paper, some extraction and rapid detection methods of inorganic arsenic in food are reviewed to provide reference for related research.

Ruptured dissecting aneurysms in posterior intracranial circulation present significant clinical challenges and often cause poor prognoses. Our cohort used overlapping stents as the primary treatment. We analyzed the medical records of 27 patients (18 men/nine women) with ruptured posterior circulation dissecting aneurysms (PCDAs). Their average age was 52 years. We selected 11 patients who used Enterprise (EP) and LVIS stents overlappingly and matched them 1:1 with counterparts who received either EP or LVIS stents individually. Overlapping stents was a feasible treatment in all 27 cases. We successfully followed up 26 patients for ≥6 months. Regrettably, one patient died from intracranial hypertension on Day 7 post-procedure. Immediate post-procedure angiographies indicated Raymond grade I, II, and III occlusions of PCDAs in 16 (59.3%), 7 (25.9%), and 4 (14.8%) cases, respectively. At an average follow-up duration of 16.2 months, 25 patients (96.2%) had modified Rankin Scale scores of 0–2, signifying positive outcomes. One patient (3.8%) had a score of 3–4. Recurrence rates for the EP and LVIS stent groups were higher than those of the overlapping stent group (45.45% vs. 9.09%, p = 0.15 and 27.27% vs. 9.09%, p = 0.59, respectively). No significant difference in recurrence rates existed between the overlapping and single-stent groups. Similarly, follow-up outcomes were consistent between the two groups. Overlapping stents could be an efficient method for treating ruptured PCDAs.

Reuterin can be produced from glycerol dehydration catalyzed by glycerol dehydratase (GDHt) in Lactobacillus reuteri and has broad application prospects in industry, agriculture, food, and other fields as it is active against prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and is resistant to proteases and lipases. However, high concentrations of glycerin inhibit reuterin production, and the mechanism behind this phenomenon is not clear. To elucidate the inhibitory mechanism of glycerol on reuterin synthesis in L. reuteri and provide reference data for constructing an L. reuteri culture system for highly effective 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde synthesis, we used transcriptome-sequencing technology to compare the morphologies and transcriptomes of L. reuteri cultured in a medium with or without 600 mM of glycerol. Our results showed that after the addition of 600 mM of glycerol to the culture medium and incubation for 10 h at 37 °C, the culture medium of L. reuteri LR301 exhibited the best bacteriostatic effect, and the morphology of L. reuteri cells had significantly changed. The addition of 600 mM of glycerol to the culture medium significantly altered the transcriptome and significantly downregulated the transcription of genes involved in glycol metabolism, such as gldA, dhaT, glpK, plsX, and plsY, but significantly upregulated the transcription of genes related to D-glucose synthesis.

Paeonia ostii, a widely cultivated tree peony species in China, is a resourceful plant with medicinal, ornamental and oil value. However, fleshy roots lead to a low tolerance to waterlogging in P. ostii. In this study, P. ostii roots were sequenced using a hybrid approach combining single-molecule real-time and next-generation sequencing platforms to understand the molecular mechanism underlying the response to this sequentially waterlogging stress, the normal growth, waterlogging treatment (WT), and waterlogging recovery treatment (WRT). Our results indicated that the strategy of P. ostii, in response to WT, was a hypoxic resting syndrome, wherein the glycolysis and fermentation processes were accelerated to maintain energy levels and the tricarboxylic acid cycle was inhibited. P. ostii enhanced waterlogging tolerance by reducing the uptake of nitrate and water from the soil. Moreover, transcription factors, such as AP2/EREBP, WRKY, MYB, and NAC, played essential roles in response to WT and WRT. They were all induced in response to the WT condition, while the decreasing expression levels were observed under the WRT condition. Our results contribute to understanding the defense mechanisms against waterlogging stress in P. ostii.

The WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) proteins are widely distributed in plants and play important regulatory roles in growth and development processes such as embryonic development and organ development. Here, series of bioinformatics methods were utilized to unravel the structural basis and genetic hierarchy of WOX genes, followed by regulation of the WOX genes in four Euphorbiaceae species. A genome-wide survey identified 59 WOX genes in Hevea brasiliensis (H. brasiliensis: 20 genes), Jatropha curcas (J. curcas: 10 genes), Manihot esculenta (M. esculenta: 18 genes), and Ricinus communis (R. communis: 11 genes). The phylogenetic analysis revealed that these WOX members could be clustered into three close proximal clades, such as namely ancient, intermediate and modern/WUS clades. In addition, gene structures and conserved motif analyses further validated that the WOX genes were conserved within each phylogenetic clade. These results suggested the relationships among WOX members in the four Euphorbiaceae species. We found that WOX genes in H. brasiliensis and M. esculenta exhibit close genetic relationship with J. curcas and R. communis. Additionally, the presence of various cis-acting regulatory elements in the promoter of J. curcas WOX genes (JcWOXs) reflected distinct functions. These speculations were further validated with the differential expression profiles of various JcWOXs in seeds, reflecting the importance of two JcWOX genes (JcWOX6 and JcWOX13) during plant growth and development. Our quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis demonstrated that the JcWOX11 gene plays an indispensable role in regulating plant callus. Taken together, the present study reports the comprehensive characteristics and relationships of WOX genes in four Euphorbiaceae species, providing new insights into their characterization.

Open-set signal recognition provides a new approach for verifying the robustness of models by introducing novel unknown signal classes into the model testing and breaking the conventional closed-set assumption, which has become very popular in real-world scenarios. In the present work, we propose an efficient open-set signal recognition algorithm, which contains three key sub-modules: the signal representation sub-module based on a vision transformer (ViT) structure, a set distance metric sub-module based on Wasserstein distance, and a class space compression sub-module based on reciprocal point separation and central loss. In this algorithm, the representing features of signals are established based on transformer-based neural networks, i.e., ViT, in order to extract global information about time series-related data. The employed reciprocal point is used in modeling the potential unknown space without using the corresponding samples, while the distance metric between different class spaces is mathematically modeled in terms of the Wasserstein distance instead of the classical Euclidean distance. Numerical experiments on different open-set signal recognition tasks show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the recognition efficiency in both known and unknown categories.

The carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) genes of Trametes contribute to polysaccharide degradation. However, the comprehensive analysis of the composition of CAZymes and the biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) of Trametes remain unclear. Here, we conducted comparative analysis, detected the CAZyme genes, and predicted the BGCs for nine Trametes strains. Among the 82,053 homologous clusters obtained for Trametes, we identified 8518 core genes, 60,441 accessory genes, and 13,094 specific genes. A large proportion of CAZyme genes were cataloged into glycoside hydrolases, glycosyltransferases, and carbohydrate esterases. The predicted BGCs of Trametes were divided into six strategies, and the nine Trametes strains harbored 47.78 BGCs on average. Our study revealed that Trametes exhibits an open pan-genome structure. These findings provide insights into the genetic diversity and explored the synthetic biology of secondary metabolite production for Trametes.

It is preliminary estimated that the proved geological reserves of original low-oil-saturation reservoirs (OLOSRs) of 54 blocks in China are more than 820 million tons. As same as the high water-cut stage of a reservoir after water flooding, the initial water cut of OLOSRS is higher than 80%. The industrial application of EOR technology could efficiently enhance oil recovery rate from 8.4% to 20.1% of reservoirs after water flooding. The suitable measurements of EOR to the OLOSRs probably have a profound impact on achieving higher oilfield reserves and production. In this paper, the main characteristics and reserves potential of OLOSRs have been studied by investigations and laboratory experiments. The relationship between initial oil saturation and displacement efficiency is also analyzed. The feasibility of EOR technologies for different OLOSRs is discussed. The results show that the OLOSRs could be divided into two categories (primary and secondary) by origin of low oil saturation. The two categories contain abundant reserves in China’s major oilfields, but their occurrence states of crude oil are quite different. If the average oil saturation of the OLOSR is defined at 40%, there are 13.1%–54.2% crude oil that could be recovered by using the existing EOR technology, especially in the primary OLOSRs with low permeability and the secondary OLOSRs with high permeability. Keywords: Low oil saturation, Transition zones, Occurrence state, Oil displacement efficiency, Gas flooding, Surfactant flooding

This study aimed to increase the solubility of glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) in water and enhance its liver-targeting ability using self-assembling nanomicelles (NMs) based on stearic acid-modified fenugreek gum (FG-C18). The GA/FG-C18 NMs were prepared by an ultrasonication dispersion method. The nanomicelles were spherical particles with a particle size of 198.61 ± 1.58 nm and a zeta potential of −30.12 ± 0.28 mV. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 13.34 ± 0.24% and 80.07 ± 1.44%, respectively. The results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) indicated that GA was successfully encapsulated into the nanomicelles in a molecularly dispersed state. An in vitro release test showed that GA/FG-C18 NMs possessed a slow drug release profile in PBS (pH 7.4) over 200 h. The cytotoxicity assay indicated that GA/FG-C18 NMs showed much higher inhibitory efficacy in HepG2 cells than in MCF-7 cells. Tissue section studies indicated that the accumulation of DiR-loaded FG-C18 nanomicelles in the liver of mice was higher than that of the DiR solution, and the fluorescence intensity decreased over time. GA/FG-C18 NMs showed a larger area under the curve (AUC) and mean residence time (MRT) compared with free GA after intravenous administration in mice. The in vivo studies showed that GA mainly accumulated in the liver after encapsulation by FG-C18 NMs, and the drug concentration was higher than that of free GA. These results suggested that FG-C18 NMs could serve as a potential drug delivery system for targeting GA to liver tissue.

Oil reservoirs are one of the most important deep subsurface biospheres. They are inhabited by diverse microorganisms including bacteria and archaea with diverse metabolic activities. Although recent studies have investigated the microbial communities in oil reservoirs at large geographic scales, it is still not clear how the microbial communities assemble, as the variation in the environment may be confounded with geographic distance. In this work, the microbial communities in oil reservoirs from the same oil field were identified at a localized geographic scale. We found that although the injected water contained diverse exogenous microorganisms, this had little effect on the microbial composition of the produced water. The Neutral Community Model analysis showed that both bacterial and archaeal communities are dispersal limited even at a localized scale. Further analysis showed that both pH and nitrate concentrations drive the assembly of bacterial communities, of which nitrate negatively correlated with bacterial alpha diversity and pH differences positively correlated with the dissimilarity of bacterial communities. In contrast, the physiochemical parameters had little effect on archaeal communities at the localized scale. Our results suggest that the assembly of microbial communities in oil reservoirs is scale- and taxonomy-dependent. Our work provides a comprehensive analysis of microbial communities in oil reservoirs at a localized geographic scale, which improves the understanding of the assembly of the microbial communities in oil reservoirs.

The objective of this study was to hydrophobically modify fenugreek gum (FG) and to further evaluate the potential application of the obtained derivative in liver-targeted drug delivery system. Stearic acid (C18) was conjugated with FG (FG-C18) by a simple esterification reaction. The obtained FG-C18 was then characterized on its chemical structure by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance. The self-assembled nanomicelles (NMs) of FG-C18 in water were prepared by an ultrasonication method. The average diameter and zeta potential of FG-C18 NMs were 196.70 ± 6.12 nm and −31.79 ± 1.58 mV, respectively. FG-C18 NMs appeared as spherical particles under transmission electron microscopy and possessed a critical micellar concentration of 0.042 mg/ml by pyrene fluorescence probe method. A low toxicity of FG-C18 was revealed on both HepG2 and MCF-7 cells at 0.1–100 mg/ml. Haemolysis of FG-C18 was less than 5%. Cellular uptake of coumarin-6 into HepG2 cells was enhanced by treating with C6-loaded FG-C18 NMs compared to free coumarin-6. These results suggest that FG-C18 have a potential application for a liver targeted drug delivery.

A rapid, accurate, and ecofriendly pretreatment plays an extremely important role prior to ICP-MS for heavy metal analysis. In order to improve the pretreatment efficiency, a high-throughput and automatic magnetic solid-phase extraction of five heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Mn, Cu, and Zn) was carried out by a magnet-controlled pretreatment system with an ecofriendly diluted acid as an extracting agent and carboxyl-functionalized magnetic beads as a pretreatment material. Key conditions, including the pH, adsorption time, and eluent solution, were optimized. The time for purification and enrichment was only 8 min. The adsorption capacities of the carboxyl-functionalized magnetic beads were in the range of 152~426 mg g−1. The preconcentration factor of Cu was 40, and others were 200. In the optimal conditions, the limits of detection for Mn, Zn, Cd, Cu, and Pb by ICP-MS were 3.84, 2.71, 0.16, 11.54, and 6.01 ng L−1, respectively. The percentage recoveries were in the range of 80~110%, and the relative standard deviations were less than 3%. The developed method was in good agreement with traditional standard microwave digestion. Additionally, the designed system could simultaneously process up to 24 samples within 22 min, reducing the time to less than 1 min/sample. Thus, the proposed auto-MSPE-ICP-MS method was successfully applied to analyze five heavy metals in cereals and feeds with a simple operation and high precision, safety, and reliability.

A simple, rapid, sensitive, accurate, and automatic graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) method for detecting Cd and Pb in cereals is presented. This method enables the simultaneous determination of Cd and Pb in cereals with a pre-treatment method of diluted acid extraction and a high-performance lead–cadmium composite hollow-cathode lamp (LCC-HCL), and it realizes automatic determination from sample weighing to result output through an automatic diluted acid extraction system. Under the optimization, Pb and Cd in cereals were simultaneously and automatically detected in up to 240 measurements in 8 h. The LOD and LOQ of this method were 0.012 and 0.040 mg·kg−1 for Pb, and 0.0014 and 0.0047 mg·kg−1 for Cd, respectively. The results of the four certified reference materials were satisfied; there was no significant difference compared with the ICP-MS method according to a t-test, and the RSDs were less than 5% for Cd and Pb. The recoveries of naturally contaminated samples compared with the ICP-MS method were favorable, with 80–110% in eight laboratories. The developed method is rapid, low-cost, and highly automated and may be a good choice for grain quality discrimination and rapid analysis of Cd and Pb in different institutions.

Biosurfactants are a group of surface-active compounds that can be produced by diverse microorganisms. They have been widely used in various industrial fields. Reducing production costs, improving efficiency, and collecting more diverse producing strains have become major challenges in the biosurfactant industry. These challenges could be overcome by screening for more diverse and efficient biosurfactant-producing strains. The conventional methods for the isolation and functional characterization of microorganisms are laborious and biased toward fast-growing or strongly competitive microorganisms. Here, we established a high-throughput approach of single-cell-based cultivation and functional characterization of biosurfactant-producing bacteria (SCCBB). This approach combines single-cell cultivation with the detection of optical distortions. Using this approach, we isolated 431 strains with biosurfactant production potential from petroleum-contaminated soil and oilfield-produced water. The surfactant production capabilities of the strains were subsequently validated using surface tension measurements, TLC, and CMC measurements. To investigate the industrial production potential, we optimized the production conditions of a representative glycolipids-producing strain, Pseudomonas sp. L01, using response surface methodology (RSM). Optimal conditions yielded a crude biosurfactant yield of 8.43 g/L in a flask. Our work provides a high-throughput approach to the isolation and screening of biosurfactant-producing bacteria, as well as other functional bacteria in a wide range of fields.

Radiomics based on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) has been used for breast estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status evaluation. However, the radiomic features of peritumoral regions were not thoroughly analyzed. This study aimed to establish and validate the multiregional radiomic signatures (RSs) for the preoperative identification of the ER and PR status in breast cancer. A total of 443 patients with breast cancer were divided into training (n = 356) and validation (n = 87) sets. Radiomic features were extracted from intra- and peritumoral regions on six functional parametric maps from DCE-MRI. A two-sample t-test, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, and stepwise were used for feature selections. Three RSs for predicting the ER and PR status were constructed using a logistic regression model based on selected intratumoral, peritumoral, and combined intra- and peritumoral radiomic features. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) was used to assess the discriminative performance of three RSs. The AUCs of intra- and peritumoral RSs for identifying the ER status were 0.828/0.791 and 0.755/0.733 in the training and validation sets, respectively. For predicting the PR status, intra- and peritumoral RSs resulted in AUCs of 0.816/0.749 and 0.806/0.708 in the training and validation sets, respectively. Multiregional RSs achieved the best AUCs among three RSs for evaluating the ER (0.851 and 0.833) and PR (0.848 and 0.763) status. In conclusion, multiregional RSs based on functional parametric maps from DCE-MRI showed promising results for preoperatively evaluating the ER and PR status in breast cancer patients. Further studies using a larger cohort from multiple centers are necessary to confirm the reliability of the established models before clinical application.

Hydromechanical continuously variable transmission (HMCVT) technology has been widely used due to its advantages of ride comfort and fuel economy. The relatively uniform efficiency expression of HMCVT is obtained by studying torque and transmission ratios to reveal steady-state characteristics and predict the output torque. Mathematical models of torque ratios are derived by analyzing the HMCVT system power flow and calculating the equivalent meshing power of epicyclic gear train and efficiency for the hydraulic system. The relationship between mechanical system transmission and hydraulic system parameters is established using the torque ratios, and a mechanical system demanding surface is proposed. Two numerical examples of the HMCVT system with single and dual variable units are demonstrated to establish an effective and convenient method. The method is validated through a physical prototype TA1-02 test.

The Next Generation Science Standards regard biological structures at both the micro and macro levels as a core idea of life sciences and expect students to understand animals have external structures that perform diverse functions. Using the common creature of bees as a case, this study aimed to ascertain teenage students' ideas of bees through their visual representations. A total of 73 seventh-grade students aged approximately 13 years from two classes took part in a draw-bee(s) test (DBT), which requests them to create a drawing of a bee or bees. Then their completed drawings were scored against a tentative rubric of bees' basic external structures. The results highlight that many students hold alternative ideas about bees. Notably, a high number of students fail to depict bees' external structures scientifically, with some morphological features being most often missing, inaccurately numbered, inappropriately shaped, or disproportionately sized in their drawings. Based on these results, some implications are elucidated for improving students' understanding of bees in biological teaching.

The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), renowned as a living fossil, is the largest and longest-lived amphibian species in the world. Its skin is rich in collagens, and has developed mucous gland which could secrete a large amount of mucus under the scraping and electric stimulation. The molting is the degraded skin stratum corneum. To establish the functional skin proteome of Chinese giant salamander, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and mass spectrometry (MS) were applied to detect the composition and relative abundance of the proteins in the skin, mucus and molting. The determination of the general proteome in the skin can potentially serve as a foundation for future studies characterizing the skin proteomes from diseased salamander to provide molecular and mechanistic insights into various disease states and potential therapeutic interventions. Data presented here are also related to the research article “Proteomic analysis of the skin of Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus)” in the Journal of Proteomics [1].

Based on well correlation, division of sedimentary facies and microfacies, core observation, and analysis of rock thin sections, the authors comparatively analyzed the sedimentation and diagenesis of the oolitic beaches in the Puguang and Yuanba areas of northeastern Sichuan Basin, and expounded their control on reservoirs. In the Puguang area the oolitic beach is thick and lateral migration distance is short, intervals overlaid one another, while in the Yuanba area the oolitic beach is thin and lateral migration distance is long. The two areas both experienced various types of diagenesis. There happened intense early dissolution and wide-spread dolomitization in the oolitic beach of the Puguang area, where type-I reservoirs of high porosity and permeability are developed. In the Yuanba area, strong compaction and pressure dissolution, and late burial cementation led to the development of type-III reservoirs of low porosity and permeability. The main factors that control the sedimentation and diagenesis are paleotopography and changes in sea level. Sedimentation controls the distribution and thickness of reservoir, and diagenesis determines the porosity formation and evolution and ultimately the reservoir quality. Key words: northeastern Sichuan, Feixianguan Formation, oolitic beach, sedimentation, diagenesis