Winter food availability limits winter survival of Mongolian gerbils (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Meriones unguiculatus</Emphasis>)

Food availability is important to the dynamics of animal social organizations or populations. However, the role of winter food availability in animal population dynamics is still controversial. We carried out an experimental study to test Lack’s hypothesis that reduced food in winter limits survival and spring numbers of breeding individuals of social groups, using the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as model species. We established 24 gerbil social groups in 24, 10 × 10 m, pens in September 2008. We provided wheat seeds as supplemental food in 12 enclosures from September 2008 to March 2009; the other 12 enclosures, not provided with supplemental food, served as controls. We live-trapped gerbils at a 2-week interval from September to April. Supplemental food during winter increased biweekly survival by 10% relative to that in control groups. Only four control social groups survived to the end of our study whereas all 12 food-supplemented social groups survived through our study period. Supplemental food also increased cumulative numbers of recruits and group sizes of gerbils. We conclude that winter food availability limits winter survival and spring social groups or population sizes of Mongolian gerbils.     

Biorefining of wood: combined production of ethanol and xylanase from waste fiber sludge

The possibility to utilize fiber sludge, waste fibers from pulp mills and lignocellulose-based biorefineries, for combined production of liquid biofuel and biocatalysts was investigated. Without pretreatment, fiber sludge was hydrolyzed enzymatically to monosaccharides, mainly glucose and xylose. In the first of two sequential fermentation steps, the fiber sludge hydrolysate was fermented to cellulosic ethanol with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although the final ethanol yields were similar, the ethanol productivity after 9.5?h was 3.3?g/l/h for the fiber sludge hydrolysate compared with only 2.2?g/l/h for a reference fermentation with similar sugar content. In the second fermentation step, the spent fiber sludge hydrolysate (the stillage obtained after distillation) was used as growth medium for recombinant Aspergillus niger expressing the xylanase-encoding Trichoderma reesei (Hypocrea jecorina) xyn2 gene. The xylanase activity obtained with the spent fiber sludge hydrolysate (8,500?nkat/ml) was higher than that obtained in a standard medium with similar monosaccharide content (1,400?nkat/ml). Analyses based on deglycosylation with N-glycosidase?F suggest that the main part of the recombinant xylanase was unglycosylated and had molecular mass of 20.7?kDa, while a minor part had N-linked glycosylation and molecular mass of 23.6?kDa. Chemical analyses of the growth medium showed that important carbon sources in the spent fiber sludge hydrolysate included xylose, small aliphatic acids, and oligosaccharides. The results show the potential of converting waste fiber sludge to liquid biofuel and enzymes as coproducts in lignocellulose-based biorefineries.     

An interspecific somatic hybrid between Actinidia chinensis and Actinidia kolomikta and its chilling tolerance

Protoplasts isolated from cotyledon-derived callus of Actinidia chinensisPlanch. var. chinensis (2N=2x=58) were fused with mesophyll protoplasts of Actiniadia kolomikta(Maxim. et Rupr.) Maxim (2N=2x=58) using a PEG method. Plantlets were regenerated from the fusion product clone 11. RAPD analyses, chromosome numbers of root tip cells and fluorescence peak position of leaf nuclei confirmed that clone 11 was an interspecific somatic hybrid (2N=4x=116) between A. chinensis and A. kolomikta. The chilling tolerance of the somatic hybrid was tested with in vitro leaves at low temperatures. Based on data of leaf thickness, electroconductivity, proline levels, malondialdehyde content and activity of superoxide dismutase, dendrogram cluster analysis suggested that the interspecific somatic hybrid was similar to A. kolomikta, and might have a higher capacity of cold resistance than A. chinensis.     

Age, gender and circadian or circasemidian blood pressure and heart rate variation of children.

Systolic (S) and diastolic (D) blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) of clinically healthy children (24 boys and 15 girls) 3 to 7 years of age were measured with a standard mercury sphygmomanometer at 3-hour intervals for 24 hours in April 1991. The children slept and/or rested from 2100 to 0700 and napped from 1230 to 1530; they had meals at 0730, 1200 and 1800. A statistically significant circadian and about 12-hour (circasemidian) component of variation is documented for SBP and DBP of boys and girls and for HR of boys. No gender difference was found for the circadian and circasemidian components. A positive correlation with age is found for the MESOR and circadian amplitude of SBP and DBP (p < 0.05); a negative correlation with age is found for the MESOR of HR (p < 0.001).     

棉铃虫致病菌BT—931菌株的应用研究

１９９２－１９９３年,作者从菏泽、聊城棉田采集的自然罹病死亡棉铃虫幼虫体内,分离到２个较高毒效的Ｂｔ菌株,编号为ＢＴ—９３１和ＢＴ—０２１,经室内毒力测定和田间药效试验表明,防效及保蕾效果接近或超过化学农药,菌药混剂３—５天平均防治效果达８７．０－９１．６％,增效作用显著。经１９９４年大田防治示范表明,利用ＢＴ—９３１菌剂。配合化学农药防治棉铃虫,具有成本低、保护天敌、持效期长、增产效益高等优点。本研究对菌剂的田间应用技术进行了试验示范。     

Interpretation of gas residence time distributions in large airlift tower loop reactors

Gas-residence time distribution (RTD) response curves measured in a 23 m high pilot plant airlift tower loop reactor, which consisted of a riser, a special downcomer construction and at the top of the riser a large head. The measurements were evaluated by means of a deterministic dispersion model, which yielded the following particular parameters for the riser, downcomer and the head: Gas-Bo numbers, gas-mean residence times, gas holdups, liquid velocities, gas and liquid circulation times as well as a fraction of the large and small bubbles in a model medium (water) and during cultivation of baker's yeast.List of Symbols A cross section - Bo Bodenstein number - Bo _d (= l _d w _G,d /D _d ) - Bo _h (= l _h w _G,h /D _h ) - Bo _r (= l _r w _G,r /D _r ) - D longitudinal dispersion coefficient - E gas holdup - E(t) RTD-density function - L, l length parameter - q fraction of the gas throughput which is not recirculated (approximately equal to fraction of the large bubbles) - r fraction of the throughput which is recirculated (approximately equal to the fraction of the small bubbles) - t _c circulation time - t _cL liquid circulation time - t _c,L ^* liquid circulation time calculated from the measured w _Ld in the downcomer - V ^h hydrodynamical calculated gas-liquid volume - V _d ^h (=V _d+0.75/2 V _k ) - V _k ^h =(0.25V _k ) - V _r ^h = (V _r+0.75/2 V _k ) - V _L liquid volume - V _G dispersed gas volume - V _G ^* gas throughput at the gas distributor (given in m³/h) under standard conditions, 1 bar and 25°C) - V _G,d ^* gas throughput in downcomer (=V _G ^* ) - V _G,h ^* gas throughput in head (=V _G ^* ) - V _G,r ^* gas throughput in riser (V _G ^* (1+) - w _g gas velocity - w _G,rel relative gas velocity with respect to the liquid velocity w _L - w _G,d gas velocity in the downcomer (=w _G,rel –w _Ld ) - w _G,h gas velocity in the head (=w _G,rel ) (since wLh = o) - w _G,r gas velocity in the riser (=w _G,rel +w _Lr ) - w _L liquid velocity - w _L,d liquid velocity in the downcomer measured with mass flow meter - w _sg ·w _SL superficial gas and liquid velocities - first moment of the response curve - mean residence time Indices d downcomer - G gas phase - h head - L liquid phase - r riser - h hydrodynamic (upper position) Dedicated to the 65th birthday of Proffessor Fritz Wagner.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Krupp Industrietechnik, Grevenbroich and the support of Pleser Co, Darmstadt. H. M. Rüffer thanks the Verband der Chemischen Industrie for a Fond der Chemie scholarship, and W. Liwei thanks the government of Lower Saxony for a graduate scholarship.     

Differentiation of immortalized epithelial cells derived from cystic fibrosis airway submucosal glands

Summary Cystic fibrosis (CF) involves abnormalities in mucus production and secretion of the airway. Studies of the regulation of airway mucin production and secretion has been difficult due to the lack of in vitro models of the airway epithelial cells which express functional differentiation. Because the majority of the mucin in the airway is apparently produced by the submucosal glands, we have focused our attention on the development of cell culture models of human airway submucosal glands. This report describes the propagation of CF airway submucosal gland epithelial cells which continue to express mucin production. The CF bronchus was obtained from a 31-yr-old patient who received a double lung transplant. The glands were dissected out and primary cultures prepared by the explant/outgrowth procedure. The cells were immortalized by infection with Adl2-SV40 hybrid virus. The cultures are maintained in serum-free keratinocyte basal medium supplemented with insulin (5μg/ml), hydrocortisone (0.5μg/ml), epidermal growth factor (10 ng/ml), bovine pituitary extract (25μg/ml), and antibiotics. Cultures were passaged using 0.125% trypsin in Ca⁺² and Mg⁺²-free Hanks’, balanced salt solution. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis demonstrated that the cells were homozygous for the ΔF508 mutation. Morphologic observations showed that the cells were epithelial and were interconnected by sparsely distributed desmosomes. Their cytoplasm contained secretory-type structures including abundant Golgi, rough endoplasmic reticulum, and secretory vesicles. Immunofluorescent studies determined that all cells were positive for cytokeratins, mucin glycoconjugates, and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. The cultures secreted substantial amounts of mucin glycoproteins and expressed the MUC-2 mucin gene. Patch clamp experiments revealed that the cells expressed defective Cl⁻ channels which were not activated by Forskolin.     

Multikink quantile regression for longitudinal data with application to progesterone data analysis

Motivated by investigating the relationship between progesterone and the days in a menstrual cycle in a longitudinal study, we propose a multikink quantile regression model for longitudinal data analysis. It relaxes the linearity condition and assumes different regression forms in different regions of the domain of the threshold covariate. In this paper, we first propose a multikink quantile regression for longitudinal data. Two estimation procedures are proposed to estimate the regression coefficients and the kink points locations: one is a computationally efficient profile estimator under the working independence framework while the other one considers the within-subject correlations by using the unbiased generalized estimation equation approach. The selection consistency of the number of kink points and the asymptotic normality of two proposed estimators are established. Second, we construct a rank score test based on partial subgradients for the existence of the kink effect in longitudinal studies. Both the null distribution and the local alternative distribution of the test statistic have been derived. Simulation studies show that the proposed methods have excellent finite sample performance. In the application to the longitudinal progesterone data, we identify two kink points in the progesterone curves over different quantiles and observe that the progesterone level remains stable before the day of ovulation, then increases quickly in 5 to 6 days after ovulation and then changes to stable again or drops slightly.     

Assessment of Biological Activities and Genomic Changes on Microorganisms,Wheat, and Wilding Arise from Poly(pyrazole)

The rapidly growing human population has led to duplicate food production and also reduced product loss. Although the negative effects of synthetic chemicals were recorded, they are still used as agrochemical. The production of non-toxic synthetics makes their use particularly safe. The goal of our research is to evaluate antimicrobial activity of previously synthesized Poly(p-phenylene-1-(2,5-dimethylphenyl)-5-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-3,4-dicarboxy amide) (poly(PDPPD)) against selected Gram-negative, Gram-positive bacteria, and fungus. In addition, the possible genotoxic effects of the poly(PDPPD) were searched on Triticum vulgare and Amaranthus retroflexus seedlings using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker. The binding affinity and binding energies of the synthesized chemical to B-DNA were simulated with AutoDock Vina. It was observed that the poly(PDPPD) affected most of the organisms in a dose-dependent manner. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most affected species in tested bacteria at 500 ppm with 21.5 mm diameters. Similarly, a prominent activity was observed for tested fungi. The poly(PDPPD) decreased root and stem length of the Triticum vulgare and Amaranthus retroflexus seedlings and also reduced the genomic template stability (GTS) value of Triticum vulgare more than Amaranthus retroflexus. The binding energy of poly(PDPPD) was found in range of −9.1 and −8.3 kcal/mol for nine residues of B-DNA.     

Oxide-Based Solid-State Batteries: A Perspective on Composite Cathode Architecture

The garnet-type phase Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO) attracts significant attention as an oxide solid electrolyte to enable safe and robust solid-state batteries (SSBs) with potentially high energy density. However, while significant progress has been made in demonstrating compatibility with Li metal, integrating LLZO into composite cathodes remains a challenge. The current perspective focuses on the critical issues that need to be addressed to achieve the ultimate goal of an all-solid-state LLZO-based battery that delivers safety, durability, and pack-level performance characteristics that are unobtainable with state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries. This perspective complements existing reviews of solid/solid interfaces with more emphasis on understanding numerous homo- and heteroionic interfaces in a pure oxide-based SSB and the various phenomena that accompany the evolution of the chemical, electrochemical, structural, morphological, and mechanical properties of those interfaces during processing and operation. Finally, the insights gained from a comprehensive literature survey of LLZO–cathode interfaces are used to guide efforts for the development of LLZO-based SSBs.