Individual Samples and the Bootstrap

It is argued that bootstrap estimates are more efficient if obtained from the distinct units in each of the repeated samples than are those obtained from all the units.     

Efficient production of ectoine using ectoine-excreting strain

Halophilic bacteria strain Halomonas salina DSM 5928 was found to excrete ectoine, suggesting its potential in the development of a new method of ectoine production. We performed HPLC and LC–MS analyses that showed that Halomonas salina DSM 5928 excreted ectoine under constant extracellular osmolarity. Medium adopting monosodium glutamate as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen was beneficial for ectoine synthesis. The total concentration of ectoine was not affected by NaCl concentration in the range 0.5–2 mol l⁻¹. The total concentration of ectoine and productivity in a 10-l fermentor with 0.5 mol l⁻¹ NaCl were 6.9 g l⁻¹ and 7.9 g l⁻¹ d⁻¹, respectively. These findings show that Halomonas salina DSM 5928 efficiently produces ectoine at relatively low NaCl concentration. This research also indicates the potential application of free or immobilized cells for continuous culture to produce ectoine.     

麻类脱胶高效菌株果胶裂解酶基因克隆与表达

【目的】克隆麻类脱胶高效菌株Dickeya sp.DCE-01的果胶裂解酶基因并进行原核表达,对表达产物进行纯化和酶学性质研究。【方法】根据该菌株全基因组序列预测的果胶裂解酶基因Q59419设计引物,PCR扩增后将该基因连接到pEASY-E1和pACYCDuet-1载体上,导入E.coli BL21(DE3)进行表达。选择酶活力高的阳性克隆子进行大量诱导表达后,采用超滤和Sephadex G-100凝胶层析两步法纯化出果胶裂解酶,研究其酶学性质。【结果】克隆到果胶裂解酶基因pel(GenBank登录号:JX964997),其序列全长1 128 bp,编码375个氨基酸。pACYCDuet-1-pel-BL表达胞外果胶裂解酶活力最高,发酵液粗酶活达298.8 IU/mL。其最适反应温度为50°C,最适pH为9.0;保温1 h,酶活稳定温度≤45°C,稳定pH为9.0?10.0。酶催化作用依赖于Ca2+,其最适作用浓度为2 mmol/L;Zn2+、Ca2+和NH4+促进酶活力,Fe3+和Pb2+严重抑制酶活力;聚半乳糖醛酸钠为该酶的最适底物。【结论】从麻类脱胶高效菌株中发掘到碱性果胶裂解酶基因,其表达产物在生物质加工过程中具有重要工业化应用前景。     

基于好氧反硝化及反硝化聚磷菌强化的低温低碳氮比生活污水生物处理中试研究

【背景】低碳氮比生活污水很难达标处理,多级A/O工艺、生物强化技术及生物膜技术的有机结合可有效解决这一问题。【目的】开发出一种泥膜共生多级A/O工艺并进行中试研究,驯化出高效脱氮除磷菌剂并对系统进行生物强化。【方法】通过测定中试设备出水及污水处理厂出水化学需氧量(Chemical oxygen demand,COD)、氨氮(NH_4~+-N)、硝氮(NO_3~--N)、总氮(Total nitrogen,TN)、总磷(Total phosphorus,TP)对比分析两种工艺的污染物去除效能,利用高通量测序技术对比生物强化技术对系统微生物群落结构的影响。【结果】中试设备对COD、NH_4~+-N、NO_3~--N、TN、TP的去除效果均优于污水处理厂的处理工艺;驯化的低温好氧反硝化菌TN去除率最大值可达84.21%,驯化的低温反硝化聚磷菌群对磷的去除率最高可达85.75%;利用驯化菌群对中试设备进行生物强化后较好地改善了系统NH_4~+-N、NO_3~--N、TN、TP的去除效果;经生物强化后,具有好氧反硝化和反硝化聚磷功能的Pseudomonas菌群明显增多。【结论】泥膜共生多级A/O工艺对于低碳氮比生活污水的处理具有很好的效果,利用生物强化技术可有效提高低温条件下系统污染物去除效能。     

Efficient purification protocol for bioengineering allophycocyanin trimer with N-terminus Histag

Allophycocyanin plays a key role for the photon energy transfer from the phycobilisome to reaction center chlorophylls with high efficiency in cyanobacteria. Previously, the high soluble self-assembled bioengineering allophycocyanin trimer with N-terminus polyhistidine from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 had been successfully recombined and expressed in Escherichia coli strain. The standard protocol with immobilized metal-ion affinity chromatography with chelating transition metal ion (Ni²⁺) was used to purify the recombinant protein. Extensive optimization works were performed to obtain the desired protocol for high efficiency, low disassociation, simplicity and fitting for large-scale purification. In this study, a 3³ full factorial response surface methodology was employed to optimize the varied factors such as pH of potassium phosphate (X₁), NaCl concentration (X₂), and imidazole concentration (X₃). A maximum trimerization ratio (Y₁) of approximate A_{650 nm}/A_{620 nm} at 1.024 was obtained at these optimum parameters. Further examinations, with absorbance spectra, fluorescence spectra and SDS-PAGE, confirmed the presence of bioengineering allophycocyanin trimer with highly trimeric form. All these results demonstrate that optimized protocol is efficient in purification of bioengineering allophycocyanin trimer with Histag.     

A Space–Time Scan Statistic for Detecting Emerging Outbreaks

Summary As a major analytical method for outbreak detection, Kulldorff's space–time scan statistic (2001, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A 164, 61–72) has been implemented in many syndromic surveillance systems. Since, however, it is based on circular windows in space, it has difficulty correctly detecting actual noncircular clusters. Takahashi et al. (2008, International Journal of Health Geographics 7 , 14) proposed a flexible space–time scan statistic with the capability of detecting noncircular areas. It seems to us, however, that the detection of the most likely cluster defined in these space–time scan statistics is not the same as the detection of localized emerging disease outbreaks because the former compares the observed number of cases with the conditional expected number of cases. In this article, we propose a new space–time scan statistic which compares the observed number of cases with the unconditional expected number of cases, takes a time‐to‐time variation of Poisson mean into account, and implements an outbreak model to capture localized emerging disease outbreaks more timely and correctly. The proposed models are illustrated with data from weekly surveillance of the number of absentees in primary schools in Kitakyushu‐shi, Japan, 2006.     

Efficient Estimators for the verianoe of a Finite Population

For the estimation of finite population variance of a character, DAS and TRIPATHI (1978) proposed some efficient estimators when population mean of variance of some other character (associated with main character) is known. We propose here some estimators for population variance using same information and compare with those given by DAS and TRIPATHI (1978). Some examples are given for illustration.