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Meconopsis integrifolia is an endangered Tibetan medicinal plant with significant medicinal and ornamental value. Understanding its genetic diversity and structure is crucial for its sustainable utilization and effective conservation. Here, we develop a set of SSR markers based on transcriptome data to analyze the genetic diversity and structure of 185 individuals from 16 populations of M. integrifolia. The results indicate that M. integrifolia exhibits relatively high genetic diversity at the species level (the percentage of polymorphic bands PPB = 91.67%, Nei’s genetic diversity index He = 0.2989, Shannon’s information index I = 0.4514) but limited genetic variation within populations (PPB = 12.08%, He = 0.0399, I = 0.0610). The genetic differentiation among populations is relatively high (the coefficient of gene differentiation GST = 0.6902), and AMOVA analysis indicates that 63.39% of the total variation occurs among populations. This suggests that maintaining a limited number of populations is insufficient to preserve the overall diversity of M. integrifolia. Different populations are categorized into four representative subclusters, but they do not cluster strictly according to geographical distribution. Limited gene flow (Nm = 0.2244) is likely the main reason for the high differentiation among these populations. Limited seed and pollen dispersal abilities, along with habitat fragmentation, may explain the restricted gene flow among populations, highlighting the necessity of conserving as many populations in the wild as possible.

This study investigated the efficacy of a composite probiotics composed of lactobacillus plantarum, lactobacillus reuteri, and bifidobacterium longum in alleviating oxidative stress in weaned piglets and pregnant sows. Evaluations of growth, oxidative stress, inflammation, intestinal barrier, and fecal microbiota were conducted. Results showed that the composite probiotic significantly promoted average daily gain in piglets (p < 0.05). It effectively attenuated inflammatory responses (p < 0.05) and oxidative stress (p < 0.05) while enhancing intestinal barrier function in piglets (p < 0.01). Fecal microbiota analysis revealed an increase in the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as faecalibacterium, parabacteroides, clostridium, blautia, and phascolarctobacterium in piglet feces and lactobacillus, parabacteroides, fibrobacter, and phascolarctobacterium in sow feces, with a decrease in harmful bacteria such as bacteroides and desulfovibrio in sow feces upon probiotic supplementation. Correlation analysis indicated significant negative associations of blautia with inflammation and oxidative stress in piglet feces, while treponema and coprococcus showed significant positive associations. In sow feces, lactobacillus, prevotella, treponema, and CF231 exhibited significant negative associations, while turicibacter showed a significant positive association. Therefore, the composite probiotic alleviated oxidative stress in weaned piglets and pregnant sows by modulating fecal microbiota composition.

In this experiment, mung bean protein was enzymolyzed by alkaline protease, neutral protease, pepsin and trypsin, and the antioxidant capacity of the enzymolysis product was determined. The correlation between the enzymolysis product and the structural changes was investigated by combining Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, SDS-PAGE, circular dichromatography and amino acid analyzer, amino acid composition of the hydrolysates and the correlation between antioxidant activity and structure change were analyzed. The results showed that the 4 h neutral protease hydrolysates of mung bean protein had the strongest antioxidant capacity, with DPPH free radical scavenging rate and hydroxyl free radical scavenging rate reaching 71.03% and 51.94%, TBARS value reaching 0.4045 mg/L and Fe2+ chelating rate reaching 52.31%. Combined with SDS-PAGE, FTIR and CD, it could be concluded that: The antioxidant capacity of mung bean protease hydrolysates was closely related to its molecular weight, secondary structure conformation and amino acid composition. Compared with mung bean protein, the α-helix structure content of mung bean protease hydrolysates increased by 4.12% and the β-fold structure content decreased by 19.99%. The antioxidant activity was closely related to the increase of α-helix content and the decrease of β-folding content. The hydrophobic amino acids and aromatic amino acids that affected antioxidant activity increased by 0.208 g/100 g and 0.207 g/100 g, respectively. The hydrophobic hydrolysates with lower molecular weight less than 10 kDa had better antioxidant activity. Based on the above results, it was confirmed that the activity of mung bean protease hydrolysate had high relation with α-spiral and β-fold.

Polylactic acid (PLA), a homopolymer of lactic acid (LA), is a bio-derived, biocompatible, and biodegradable polyester. The evolved class II PHA synthase (PhaC1Ps6-19) was commonly utilized in the de novo biosynthesis of PLA from biomass. This study tested alternative class I PHA synthase (PhaCCs) from Chromobacterium sp. USM2 in engineered Escherichia coli for the de novo biosynthesis of PLA from glucose. The results indicated that PhaCCs had better performance in PLA production than that of class II synthase PhaC1Ps6-19. In addition, the sulA gene was engineered in PLA-producing strains for morphological engineering. The morphologically engineered strains present increased PLA production. This study also tested fused propionyl-CoA transferase and lactate dehydrogenase A (fused PctCp/LdhA) in engineered E. coli and found that fused PctCp/LdhA did not apparently improve the PLA production. After systematic engineering, the highest PLA production was achieved by E. coli MS6 (with PhaCCs and sulA), which could produce up to 955.0 mg/L of PLA in fed-batch fermentation with the cell dry weights of 2.23%, and the average molecular weight of produced PLA could reach 21,000 Da.

Amide bond is often seen in value-added nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds, which can present promising chemical, biological, and pharmaceutical significance. However, current synthesis methods in the preparation of amide-containing N-heterocyclic compounds have low specificity (large amount of by-products) and efficiency. In this study, we focused on reviewing the feasible enzymes (nitrogen acetyltransferase, carboxylic acid reductase, lipase, and cutinase) for the amidation of N-heterocyclic compounds; summarizing their advantages and weakness in the specific applications; and further predicting candidate enzymes through in silico structure-functional analysis. For future prospects, current enzymes demand further engineering and improving for practical industrial applications and more enzymatic tools need to be explored and developed for a broader range of N-heterocyclic substrates.

The massive amount of data involved in the operation of numerical nuclear reactor (numerical reactor) can be used to optimize existing numerical reactor models, obtain scientific discoveries in the field of nuclear energy, and promote numerical reactor research.Based on the review of the existing data-driven modeling and the prediction of microscopic phenomena in reactors, the concept of the big data of numerical nuclear reactor was put forward, and its important characteristics as industrial and simulation big data were analyzed according to the characteristics of the field of nuclear energy.Taking China virtual reactor 1.0 (CVR 1.0) as an example, starting from the variety, dependency and inaccuracy of the big data of numerical nuclear reactor, the research work of modeling optimization and scientific discovery was carried out by using the multidisciplinary techniques such as neural network, mathematical statistics and numerical analysis, which illustrates the guiding role of the characteristics of the big data of numerical nuclear reactors in numerical reactor research.

To solve the problem of inefficient transmission using multiple interfaces of multihome terminal in the tradition network,an end-to-end multipath transport layer architecture—E2EMP oriented the next generation network was presented.Through distributing data adaptively following characters of the end-to-end paths,adopting dual sequence space,implementing smart path management policies,the performance of the multihome terminal using E2EMP has significant improvement.The simulation results show that E2EMP aggregates bandwidth of the multihome terminal interfaces efficiently,and meanwhile promotes the security and reliability of end-to-end multipath transport.

Background: Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the standard treatment for intermediate‐stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Given the lack of specific recommendations for conventional TACE (cTACE) and drug‐eluting bead TACE (DEB‐TACE) in patients having unresectable HCC with tumor infiltrating the common hepatic duct or the first‐order branch of the bile ducts (B1‐type bile duct invasion; B1‐BDI) after biliary drainage, we retrospectively compared the safety and efficacy of DEB‐TACE with cTACE in this patient population. Materials and Methods: Using data from five tertiary medical centers (January 2017–December 2021), we compared complications, overall survival (OS), time to progression (TTP), and tumor response rate between patients having unresectable HCC with B1‐BDI who underwent DEB‐TACE or cTACE after successful biliary drainage. X‐tile software calculated the pre‐TACE total bilirubin (TBil) cutoff value, indicating optimal timing for sequential TACE after drainage. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed. Results: The study included 108 patients with unresectable HCC (B1‐BDI) who underwent DEB‐TACE and 114 who received cTACE as initial treatment. After PSM (n = 53 for each group), the DEB‐TACE group had a longer TTP (8.9 vs. 6.7 months, p = 0.038) and higher objective response rate (64.2% vs. 39.6%, p = 0.011) than did the cTACE group, although OS was comparable (16.7 vs. 15.3 months, p = 0.115). The DEB‐TACE group exhibited fewer post‐procedural increments in the mean albumin‐bilirubin score, TBil, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), along with a significantly lower incidence of serious adverse events within 30 days (hepatic failure, ALT increase, and TBil increase) than the cTACE group (all p < 0.05). The pre‐TACE TBil cutoff value was 99 μmol/L; patients with higher values (>99 μmol/L) had poorer OS in both groups (p < 0.05). Conclusion: DEB‐TACE is safe and effective after successful biliary drainage in unresectable HCC with B1‐BDI, potentially better than cTACE in terms of liver toxicity, TTP, and ORR. Lowering TBil below 99 μmol/L through successful drainage may create ideal conditions for sequential TACE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]