Non-volatile organic acids and amino acids are important flavor compounds in Pixian broad-bean paste, which is a traditional Chinese seasoning product. In this study, non-volatile organic acids, ...formed in the broad-bean paste due to the metabolism of large molecular compounds, are qualitatively and quantitatively determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Amino acids, mainly produced by hydrolysis of soybean proteins, were determined by the amino acid automatic analyzer. Results indicated that seven common organic acids and eighteen common amino acids were found in six Pixian broad-bean paste samples. The content of citric acid was found to be the highest in each sample, between 4.1 mg/g to 6.3 mg/g, and malic acid were between 2.1 mg/g to 3.6 mg/g ranked as the second. Moreover, fumaric acid was first detected in fermented bean pastes albeit with a low content. For amino acids, savory with lower sour taste including glutamine (Gln), glutamic acid (Glu), aspartic acid (Asp) and asparagines (Asn) were the most abundant, noted to be 6.5 mg/g, 4.0 mg/g, 6.4 mg/g, 4.9 mg/g, 6.2 mg/g and 10.2 mg/g, and bitter taste amino acids followed. More importantly, as important flavor materials in Pixian broad-bean paste, these two groups of substances are expected to be used to evaluate and represent the flavor quality of Pixian broad-bean paste. Moreover, the results revealed that citric acid, glutamic acid, methionine and proline were the most important flavor compounds. These findings are agreat contribution for evaluating the quality and further assessment of Pixian broad-bean paste.
The magnetic domain of a Co/Pt thin film that was grown on a crystal (011) Pb(Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
–PbTiO
3
(PMN–PT) substrate was regulated by an electric field at room temperature (RT). The magnetic ...hysteresis loops and magnetic domain state were recorded by means of the magnetic optical Kerr effect (MOKE). In the unpoled state, magnetic domain wall propagation was observed directly under a fixed perpendicular magnetic field. In addition, the change of the coercive field under various electric fields was consistent with the change of strain curve—attributed to the piezostrain effect in (Co/Pt)/PMN–PT heterostructure. Moreover, the magnetic domain that was driven by the electric field exhibited a similar behavior. Electric-field control of magnetic domain was demonstrated by exploiting piezostrain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling in ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which is promising for designing of future spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory devices.
RNA interference (RNAi) technology is a promising approach used in pest control. The efficiency of RNAi varies considerably among different insect species, and growing evidence suggests that ...degradation of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) prior to uptake is an important factor that limits RNAi efficiency in insects. Our recent work on fall webworm (
), an important invasive pest in China, showed a relatively low silencing efficiency of RNAi through dsRNA injection, which is considered the most feasible dsRNA delivery method for inducing RNAi, and the factors involved in the mechanism remain unknown. Herein, we first detected the dsRNA-degrading activity in the hemolymph and gut content of
in ex vivo assays and observed rapid degradation of dsRNA, especially in the hemolymph, which was complete within only 10 min. To determine whether dsRNA degradation could contribute to the low effectiveness of RNAi in
, four dsRNA nuclease (
) genes,
, and
were identified by homology searching against the
transcriptome database, and their transcript levels were subsequently investigated in different tissues, developmental stages, and after dsRNA injection. Our results show that
are highly expressed mainly in gut tissues and hemolymph, and the expression of
and
were significantly upregulated by dsGFP induction. RNAi-of-RNAi studies, using
as a reporter gene, demonstrated that silencing
and
significantly increases RNAi efficacy via dsHcCht5 injection, and co-silencing these two
genes results in a more significant improvement in efficacy. These results confirm that the RNAi efficacy in
through dsRNA injection is certainly impaired by dsRNase activity, and that blocking
could potentially improve RNAi, providing a reference for related studies on insects where RNAi has low efficiency.
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•The species richness and diversity of biofilm communities correlates with pipe age.•Richness and diversity of premise plumbing biofilm were higher than service line.•For pipe ...material, S-PE harbored a significantly more diverse biofilm than S-Zn.•Not core ASVs, but five rare ASVs, were identified as keystone members.
Although simulated studies have provided valuable knowledge regarding the communities of planktonic bacteria and biofilms, the lack of systematic field studies have hampered the understanding of microbiology in real-world service lines and premise plumbing. In this study, the bacterial communities of water and biofilm were explored, with a special focus on the lifetime development of biofilm communities and their key influencing factors. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed that both the planktonic bacteria and biofilm were dominated by Proteobacteria. Among the 15,084 observed amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), the 33 core ASVs covered 72.8 %, while the 12 shared core ASVs accounted for 62.2 % of the total sequences. Remarkably, it was found that the species richness and diversity of biofilm communities correlated with pipe age. The relative abundance of ASV2 (f_Sphingomonadaceae) was lower for pipe ages 40–50 years (7.9 %) than for pipe ages 10–20 years (59.3 %), while the relative abundance of ASV10 (f_Hyphomonadaceae) was higher for pipe ages 40–50 years (19.5 %) than its presence at pipe ages 20–30 years (1.9 %). The community of the premise plumbing biofilm had significantly higher species richness and diversity than that of the service line, while the steel-plastics composite pipe interior lined with polyethylene (S-PE) harbored significantly more diverse biofilm than the galvanized steel pipes (S-Zn). Interestingly, S-PE was enriched with ASV27 (g_Mycobacterium), while S-Zn pipes were enriched with ASV13 (g_Pseudomonas). Moreover, the network analysis showed that five rare ASVs, not core ASVs, were keystone members in biofilm communities, indicating the importance of rare members in the function and stability of biofilm communities. This manuscript provides novel insights into real-world service lines and premise plumbing microbiology, regarding lifetime dynamics (pipe age 10–50 years), and the influences of pipe types (premise plumbing vs. service line) and pipe materials (S-Zn vs. S-PE).
When
bark beetles invade and colonize the host plants, their associated pathogenic fungal partners are carried into the phloem of the host trees. Host trees are lethally attacked by the beetle-fungus ...complex and the collective damage severely limits forestry production worldwide. It is of great importance to verify whether bark beetles and their associated fungi show concordant performance in terms of biology, physiology, and biochemistry on host trees. In this study, the two
bark beetles
and
s (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae), their respective associated pathogenic fungi
and
, and their respective host plants
and
were selected as test material. Cross-inoculation experiments were conducted indoors and outdoors to investigate the differences in reproduction and development of two beetles and infectivity of two fungi on two plants, as well as the differences in physiological responses of two plants to two fungal infections. The results showed that
and
had excellent host performance on
; however, neither successfully colonized and infected
. In contrast,
and
showed strong host suitability on
and some degree of suitability on
, although the host suitability of
for
was significantly higher than that for
In addition, we found that the absolute amount of ergosterol accumulated on the lesion was positively correlated with lesion area. The ergosterol amount and lesion area were both strongly correlated with the release of host monoterpenes, but had no obvious correlation with the concentration of fungi-induced phenols on the lesion area and the side-chain oxidation of lignin in the xylem of the infected sites. Based on these results, we confirmed that
-
" and "
" complexes both showed the most suitable consistent performances on their own traditional hosts, establishing a stable species-specific association relationship in these two beetle-fungus complexes, with the "
-
complex showing broader host suitability. From the perspective of physiological responses of plants to fungal infections, monoterpenes are an important indicator of host suitability.
The role of several virulent tree pathogens in host death has been overlooked because of the aggressiveness of their associated bark beetles. The great spruce bark beetle (
Dendroctonus micans
) is a ...widely distributed beetle that infests coniferous plants in Eurasia; however, its associated fungi have been poorly studied. Therefore, in this study, we elucidated the diversity of ophiostomatoid fungi associated with
D. micans
in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau through field investigation, laboratory isolation, and culture analyses. A total of 220 strains of ophiostomatoid fungi were isolated from adults and tunnel galleries of
D. micans
infesting
Picea crassifolia.
We identified that the isolated strains belonged to eight ophiostomatoid species, including five new species (
Ophiostoma huangnanense
sp. nov.,
Ophiostoma maixiuense
sp. nov.,
Ophiostoma sanum
sp. nov.,
Leptographium sanjiangyuanense
sp. nov., and
Leptographium zekuense
sp. nov.), one undefined species (
Ophiostoma
sp. 1), and two known species (
Ophiostoma bicolor
and
Endoconidiophora laricicola
), using phylogenetic analysis of multigene DNA sequences and morphological characteristics. This is the first time that
E. laricicola
, a pioneer invader and virulent pathogen, has been reported in China. We found that
E. laricicola
was the dominant species, accounting for 40.91% of the total number of ophiostomatoid communities. This study enriched the knowledge of the fungal associates of
D. micans
and elucidated that it carried the virulent pathogen
E. laricicola
at a surprisingly high frequency. Our findings show increased species association between
D. micans
and ophiostomatoid fungi and provide a basis for understanding the occurrence of forest diseases and pests.
Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common and severe postoperative complication in elderly patients undergoing major surgery linked to increased morbidity and mortality. It is reported that ...transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effectively enhances cognitive function and improves impaired consciousness.
This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of tDCS on POD in elderly patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty, including total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
Patients aged ≥65 years scheduled for THA or TKA were randomly assigned to receive 2 mA tDCS for 20 min active-tDCS (n = 61) or sham-tDCS (n = 61). The primary outcome was the incidence of POD during the first 3 postoperative days.
All 122 patients (median age, 70 years; 80 women 65.6%) completed the trial. The incident delirium risk was 4.9% (n = 3) vs. 19.7% (n = 12) in active-tDCS and sham-tDCS groups, respectively (relative risk, 0.250; 95% CI, 0.074 to 0.842; P = 0.013). Compared to the sham-tDCS group, the anxiety and depression scores of patients in the active-tDCS group were lower at 2 h and one day after surgery (P < 0.001 for each), and pain scores of patients in the active-tDCS group were lower during the first three days after surgery (P < 0.05).
One session of anodal tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may decrease the incidence of POD in elderly patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty.
•POD is a common perioperative complication in older patients after major surgery.•tDCS over the DLPFC decreases the incidence of POD in elderly patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty.•Our results show a possible prophylactic effect of tDCS on POD in elderly patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty.
Previous studies have demonstrated improvements in motor, behavioral, and emotional areas following transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), but no published studies have reported the efficacy ...of tDCS on postoperative recovery quality in patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty. We hypothesized that tDCS might improve postoperative recovery quality in elderly patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty.
Ninety-six patients (≥65 years) undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) were randomized to receive 2 mA tDCS for 20 min active-tDCS or sham-tDCS. The primary outcome was the 15-item quality of recovery (QoR-15) score on postoperative day one (Т2). Secondary outcomes included the QoR-15 scores at the 2nd hour (T1), the 1st month (Т3), and the 3rd month (Т4) postoperatively, numeric rating scale scores, and fatigue severity scale scores.
Ninety-six elderly patients (mean age, 71 years; 68.7% woman) were analyzed. Higher QoR-15 scores were found in the active-tDCS group at T2 (123.0 114.3, 127.0 vs. 109.0 99.3, 115.3; median difference, 13.0; 95% CI, 8.0 to 17.0;
< 0.001). QoR-15 scores in the active-tDCS group were higher at T1 (
< 0.001), T3 (
= 0.001), and T4 (
= 0.001). The pain scores in the active-tDCS group were lower (
< 0.001 at motion;
< 0.001 at rest). The fatigue degree scores were lower in the active-tDCS group at T1 and T2 (
< 0.001 for each).
tDCS may help improve the quality of early recovery in elderly patients undergoing lower limb major arthroplasty.
The trial was registered at the China Clinical Trial Center (ChiCTR2200057777, https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=162744).
Broad bean fermentation is of vital importance in PixianDouban (PXDB) production, as well as a key process for microorganisms to degrade protein, which lays the foundation for the formation of PXDB ...flavor. In this study, two fungi and bacteria were screened, and their morphology, molecular biology, growth, and enzyme production characteristics were analyzed, and then they were applied to the broad bean fermentation simulation system. The protein, peptide, amino acid, amino nitrogen, and sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) in the system were evaluated. The results showed that the four microorganisms were Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus jensenii, Staphylococcus gallinarum, and Enterobacter hormaeche. Aspergillus oryzae had the highest protease activity at pH 7.0, while the other three strains had better enzyme activity stability under neutral acidic conditions. And the total protein (F1 and F2 were 18.32 g/100 g, 19.15 g/100 g, respectively), peptides (11.79 ± 0.04 mg/g and 12.06 ± 0.04 mg/g), and amino acids (55.12 ± 2.78 mg/g and 54.11 ± 1.97 mg/g) of the fungus experimental groups (F) were higher than the bacterial experimental groups (B). In addition, the enzyme system produced by fungi exhibited a stronger ability for albumin (20 kDa) and glutenin (<30 kDa) deterioration in neutral conditions, while the bacterial enzyme system was more efficient in degrading albumin (<30 kDa) and glutenin (20–30 kDa) in acidic conditions, as indicated by SDS‐PAGE. These findings showed that both bacteria and fungi played an important role in the degradation of protein in different fermentation stages of broad bean fermentation.
Practical applications
There is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the protein composition and protein degradation mechanism of broad beans in the fermentation stage of PXDB. This research work explored the differences in the degradation of PXDB fermented protein by different microorganisms, and provided a theoretical basis for optimizing the production of PXDB and improving the quality of PXDB.
In this study, two fungi and bacteria were screened, and their morphology, molecular biology, growth, and enzyme production characteristics were analyzed, and then they were applied to the broad bean fermentation simulation system. The protein, peptide, amino acid, amino nitrogen, and sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) in the system were evaluated. We discovered and showed that both bacteria and fungi played an important role in the degradation of protein in different fermentation stages of broad bean fermentation.
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