Effect of pulp pH on solid phase fermentation of fodder beets for fuel ethanol production

Summary The pH of fodder beet pulp was varied to see how this affected solid phase fermentation by yeast. The process is for fuel ethanol production. When pulp was adjusted to a pre-inoculation pH of 3.0–3.5, ethanol yields (78–85% of theoretical, averaging 8.9% v/v) and fermentation efficiencies (97–99%) were greatest, the fermentation time was the shortest (30–39 h) and no bacterial contamination occurred.     

Metabolism of various carbon sources by Azospirillum brasilense

Azospirillum brasilense Sp7 and two mutants were examined for 19 carbon metabolism enzymes. The results indicate that this nitrogen fixer uses the Entner-Doudoroff pathway for gluconate dissimilation, lacks a catabolic but has an anabolic Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas hexosephosphate pathway, has amphibolic triosephosphate enzymes, lacks a hexose monophosphate shunt, and has lactate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, and glycerokinase. The mutants are severely deficient in phosphoglycerate and pyruvate kinase and also have somewhat reduced levels of other carbon enzymes.     

A major difference between the divergence patterns within the lines-1 families in mice and voles

L1 retroposons are represented in mice by subfamilies of interspersed sequences of varied abundance. Previous analyses have indicated that subfamilies are generated by duplicative transposition of a small number of members of the L1 family, the progeny of which then become a major component of the murine L1 population, and are not due to any active processes generating homology within preexisting groups of elements in a particular species. In mice, more than a third of the L1 elements belong to a clade that became active approximately 5 Mya and whose elements are > or = 95% identical. We have collected sequence information from 13 L1 elements isolated from two species of voles (Rodentia: Microtinae: Microtus and Arvicola) and have found that divergence within the vole L1 population is quite different from that in mice, in that there is no abundant subfamily of homologous elements. Individual L1 elements from voles are very divergent from one another and belong to a clade that began a period of elevated duplicative transposition approximately 13 Mya. Sequence analyses of portions of these divergent L1 elements (approximately 250 bp each) gave no evidence for concerted evolution having acted on the vole L1 elements since the split of the two vole lineages approximately 3.5 Mya; that is, the observed interspecific divergence (6.7%-24.7%) is not larger than the intraspecific divergence (7.9%-27.2%), and phylogenetic analyses showed no clustering into Arvicola and Microtus clades.      

Farm-scale production of fuel ethanol and wet grain from corn in a batch process

The batch production of fuel grade ethanol and distillers' wet grain (wet solids) in a farm-scale process (1240-15,580 L/batch) is described. The employs yeast fermentation of amylase-treated corn mash and a two-stage distillation. Primary emphasis in this study was on the cooking, fermentation, and centrifugation steps. Without recycling, fermentation of the mash yield beers with 10.0-10.5% ethanol. Recycling of stillage supernatant at full, 75, or 50% strengths produced enriched mashes that after 48-h fermentation yielded beers with 5-;14% more ethanol. Recycling twice with full-strength supernatant at pH 7.0 increased the ethanol yield in the final beer 16.5%; however, the time to complete the final fermentation was extended form 48 to 72 h and salt buildup occurred. By recycling at pH 5.4, it was possible to avoid rapids salt buildup and obtain beers with 10.3-10.5% ethanol. Recycling resulted in increased levels of glucose, starch, crude protein, and fat in the beer and a reduced moisture content while the wet solids showed an increased starch content. Centrifugation after cooking or fermentation yield in the subsequently produced beer. Fermentation of a volume-resorted mash supernatant gave a beer with only 9.25% ethanol. Mash wet solids varied somewhat chemically from beer and stillage solids. An economic and energy balance analysis of various modes of plant operation are provided and plant considerations are suggested.     

Genetic tailoring of N-linked oligosaccharides: the role of glucose residues in glycoprotein processing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in vivo

In higher eukaryotes a quality control system monitoring the folding state of glycoproteins is located in the ER and is composed of the proteins calnexin, calreticulin, glucosidase II, and UDP-glucose: glycoprotein glucosyltransferase. It is believed that the innermost glucose residue of the N- linked oligosaccharide of a glycoprotein serves as a tag in this control system and therefore performs an important function in the protein folding pathway. To address this function, we constructed Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains which contain nonglucosylated (G0), monoglucosylated (G1), or diglucosylated (G2) glycoproteins in the ER and used these strains to study the role of glucose residues in the ER processing of glycoproteins. These alterations of the oligosaccharide structure did not result in a growth phenotype, but the induction of the unfolded protein response upon treatment with DTT was much higher in G0 and G2 strains as compared to wild-type and G1 strains. Our results provide in vivo evidence that the G1 oligosaccharide is an active oligosaccharide structure in the ER glycoprotein processing pathway of S.cerevisiae. Furthermore, by analyzing N- linked oligosaccharides of the constructed strains we can directly show that no general glycoprotein glucosyltransferase exists in S. cerevisiae.      

Ant versus bird exclusion effects on the arthropod assemblage of an organic citrus grove

1. Predation‐exclusion experiments have highlighted that top‐down control is pervasive in terrestrial communities, but most of these experiments are simplistic in that they only excluded a single group of predators and the effect of removal was evaluated on a few species from the community. The main goal of our study was to experimentally establish the relative effects of ants and birds on the same arthropod assemblage of canopy trees. 2. We conducted 1‐year long manipulative experiments in an organic citrus grove intended to quantify the independent effects of bird and ant predators on the abundance of arthropods. Birds were excluded with plastic nets whereas ants were excluded with sticky barriers on the trunks. The sticky barrier also excluded other ground dwelling insects, like the European earwig Forficula auricularia L. 3. Both the exclusion of ants and birds affected the arthropod community of the citrus canopies, but the exclusion of ants was far more important than the exclusion of birds. Indeed, almost all groups of arthropods had higher abundance in ant‐excluded than in control trees, whereas only dermapterans were more abundant in bird‐excluded than in control trees. A more detailed analysis conducted on spiders also showed that the effect of ant exclusion was limited to a few families rather than being widespread over the entire diverse spectrum of spiders. 4. Our results suggest that the relative importance of vertebrate and invertebrate predators in regulating arthropod populations largely depends on the nature of the predator–prey system.     

早期液体复苏对感染性休克患者血流动力学的影响

目的：早期液体复苏对感染性休克患者血流动力学的影响。方法：选取2012年2月-2013年2月我院ICU收治的26例感染性休克患者作为研究对象,随机分为对照组和试验组,各13例。两组患者均采用PICCO监测,并根据早期复苏目标导向（Earlygoaldirectedtherapy,EGDT）进行早期液体复苏治疗。对照组和试验组复苏液分别为林格液和6％羟乙基淀粉130／0．4氯化钠溶液。分别于复苏开始时（Oh）、8h和24h收集患者的血流动力学参数。结果：两组患者CO及PAWP水平均随着时间的延长下降,而CI、CVP及SVR水平均随着时间的增加上升。除对照组CI外,与开始复苏（oh）相比较试验组和对照组的C0、CI、CVP、SVR及PAWP与开始复苏（O小时）相比较均有显著差异（P值均〈0．05）。经重复测量资料的．方差分析进行比较发现,与对照组相比较,试验组CVP和SVR上升水平及PAWP下降水平明显,差异具有统计学意义（P值均〈0．05）。结论：感染性休克患者使用6％羟乙基淀粉130／0．4氯化钠溶液进行复苏,能更好的改善患者的血流动力学指标。