SUMMARY
Salicylic acid (SA) is known to enhance salt tolerance in plants. However, the mechanism of SA‐mediated response to high salinity in halophyte remains unclear. Using electrophysiological and ...molecular biological methods, we investigated the role of SA in response to high salinity in mangrove species, Kandelia obovata, a typical halophyte. Exposure of K. obovata roots to high salinity resulted in a rapid increase in endogenous SA produced by phenylalanine ammonia lyase pathway. The application of exogenous SA improved the salt tolerance of K. obovata, which depended on the NADPH oxidase‐mediated H2O2. Exogenous SA and H2O2 increased Na+ efflux and reduced K+ loss by regulating the transcription levels of Na+ and K+ transport‐related genes, thus reducing the Na+/K+ ratio in the salt‐treated K. obovata roots. In addition, exogenous SA‐enhanced antioxidant enzyme activity and its transcripts, and the expressions of four genes related to AsA‐GSH cycle as well, then alleviated oxidative damages in the salt‐treated K. obovata roots. However, the above effects of SA could be reversed by diphenyleneiodonium chloride (the NADPH oxidase inhibitor) and paclobutrazol (a SA biosynthesis inhibitor). Collectively, our results demonstrated that SA‐induced salt tolerance of K. obovata depends on NADPH oxidase‐generated H2O2 that affects Na+/K+ and redox homeostasis in response to high salinity.
Significance Statement
Our study further clarified the role of salicylic acid (SA) in the networks of salt tolerance in mangrove plants. The results are of great scientific significance in complementing the mechanism of SA in salt tolerance of halophyte.
Chlorophyll (Chl) f was recently identified in a few cyanobacteria as the fifth chlorophyll of oxygenic organisms. In this study, two Leptolyngbya‐like strains of CCNU0012 and CCNU0013 were isolated ...from a dry ditch in Chongqing city and a brick wall in Mount Emei Scenic Area in China, respectively. These two strains were described as new species: Elainella chongqingensis sp. nov. (Oculatellaceae, Synechococcales) and Pegethrix sichuanica sp. nov. (Oculatellaceae, Synechococcales) by the polyphasic approach based on morphological features, phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene and secondary structure comparison of 16S‐23S internal transcribed spacer domains. Both strains produced Chl a under white light (WL) but additionally induced Chl f synthesis under far‐red light (FRL). Unexpectedly, the content of Chl f in P. sichuanica was nearly half that in most Chl f‐producing cyanobacteria. Red‐shifted phycobiliproteins were also induced in both strains under FRL conditions. Subsequently, additional absorption peak beyond 700 nm in the FRL spectral region appeared in these two strains. This is the first report of Chl f production induced by FRL in the family Oculatellaceae. This study not only extended the diversity of Chl f‐producing cyanobacteria but also provided precious samples to elucidate the essential binding sites of Chl f within cyanobacterial photosystems.
Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) with thin film composite (TFC) membranes containing a thin selective layer on top of a porous substrate is key to lowering the energy costs of high-speed chemical ...separations. Conventional TFC membranes were often built on phase inversion induced asymmetrical substrates with high tortuosity that impedes rapid solvent transport. Nanofibers as ultrapermeable substrates have enhanced water transport in forward osmosis, nanofiltration and other aqueous separations. However, problems of solvent stability under harsh operating conditions prevent their exploitation in non-aqueous molecular separations. Here we show that by combining a simple solution-phase cross-linking process and electrospinning, the instability of nanofibrous polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in industrially important polar solvents can be overcome and harnessed to benefit the purification of polar solvents containing low molecular weight solutes. The low tortuosity of electrospun PAN nanofibrous substrates is key to uniform cross-linking, and hence they are more stable and mechanically stronger than cross-linked PAN asymmetrical substrates fabricated by the traditional approach of phase inversion. The low resistance offered by cross-linked nanofibrous substrates increased solvent permeation without sacrificing selectivity, for example, to 99.5% rejection of negatively charged Sudan 4 (MW: 380 Da) dye with a methanol permeance of 9.87 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and water permeance of 22.40 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 . The enhanced stability of TFC membranes in polar aprotic solvents such as dimethylsulfoxide highlights their potential application for molecular separations in pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
Social media sharing websites like Flickr allow users to annotate images with free tags, which significantly contribute to the development of the web image retrieval and organization. Tag-based image ...search is an important method to find images contributed by social users in such social websites. However, how to make the top ranked result relevant and, with diversity, is challenging. In this paper, we propose a social re-ranking system for tag-based image retrieval with the consideration of an image's relevance and diversity. We aim at re-ranking images according to their visual information, semantic information, and social clues. The initial results include images contributed by different social users. Usually each user contributes several images. First, we sort these images by inter-user re-ranking. Users that have higher contribution to the given query rank higher. Then we sequentially implement intra-user re-ranking on the ranked user's image set, and only the most relevant image from each user's image set is selected. These selected images compose the final retrieved results. We build an inverted index structure for the social image dataset to accelerate the searching process. Experimental results on a Flickr dataset show that our social re-ranking method is effective and efficient.
H2S is the third endogenously generated gaseous signaling compound and has also been known to involve a variety of physiological processes. To better understand its physiological and pathological ...functions, efficient methods for monitoring of H2S in living systems are desired. Although quite a few one photon fluorescence probes have been reported for H2S, two-photon (TP) probes are more favorable for intracellular imaging. In this work, by employing a donor-π-acceptor-structured naphthalene derivative as the two-photon fluorophore and an azide group as the recognition unit, we reported a new two-photon bioimaging probe 6-(benzodthiazol-2′-yl)-2-azidonaphthalene (NHS1) for H2S with improved sensitivity. The probe shows very low background fluorescence in the absence of H2S. In the presence of H2S, however, a significant enhancement for both one photon and TP excited fluorescence were observed, resulting in a high sensitivity to H2S in aqueous solutions with a detection limit of 20 nM observed, much lower than the previously reported TP probe. The probe also exhibits a wide linear response concentration range (0–5 μM) to H2S with high selectivity. All these features are favorable for direct monitoring of H2S in complex biological samples. It was then applied for direct TP imaging of H2S in living cells with satisfactory sensitivity, demonstrating its value of practical application in biological systems.
Streptococcus agalactiae is an important pathogen in fish, causing great losses of intensive tilapia farming. To develop a potential live attenuated vaccine, a re‐attenuated S. agalactiae (named ...TFJ‐ery) was developed from a natural low‐virulence S. agalactiae strain TFJ0901 through selection of resistance to erythromycin. The biological characteristics, virulence, stability and the immunization protective efficacy to tilapia of TFJ‐ery were determined. The results indicated that TFJ‐ery grew at a slower rate than TFJ0901. The capsule thickness of TFJ‐ery was significantly less (p < 0.05) than TFJ0901. When Nile tilapia were intraperitoneally (IP) injected with TFJ‐ery, the mortality of fish was decreased than that injected with TFJ0901. The RPS of fish immunized with TFJ‐ery at a dose of 5.0 × 107 CFU was 95.00%, 93.02% and 100.00% at 4, 8 and 16 weeks post‐vaccination, respectively. ELISA results showed that the vaccinated fish produced significantly higher (p < 0.05) antibody titres compared to those of control at 2 or 4 weeks post‐vaccination. Taken together, our results suggest that erythromycin could be used to attenuate S. agalactiae, and TFJ‐ery is a potent attenuated vaccine candidate to protect tilapia against S. agalactiae infections.
Aging and aging‐related CNS diseases are associated with inflammatory status. As an efficient amplifier of immune responses, inflammasome is activated and played detrimental role in aging and ...aging‐related CNS diseases. Macrophage and microglia display robust inflammasome activation in infectious and sterile inflammation. This review discussed the impact of inflammasome activation in microglia/macrophage on senescence “inflammaging” and aging‐related CNS diseases. The preventive or therapeutic effects of targeting inflammasome on retarding aging process or tackling aging‐related diseases are also discussed.
This study proposed an integrated process for biogas generation and biochar production from thermal hydrolysis pretreated sludge (THP sludge). In this study, the liquid and solids fractions of THP ...sludge were separately processed for the first time. The liquid fraction of THP sludge (THP-L) reached the biodegradability (262.6 ± 5.1 mL CH4/g tCODfeed) on the 15th day during anaerobic treatment, while the solids fraction of THP sludge (THP-S) only contributed 31.0% to the total methane production and required more than 30 days digestion time. We investigated the feasibility to convert THP-S into biochar to realize the higher value of the solids fraction. The results prove the produced biochar can be used as slow-release fertilizer. Preliminary energy analysis was performed to evaluate the energy efficiency of the integrated approach, namely, methane generation from THP-L coupled with biochar production from THP-S. The process realized energy surplus of 0.81 MWh/tonne dry sludge. In addition, THP-L digested sludge showed better dewaterability, lower yield stress and reduced viscosity during digestion. The proposed new sludge treatment process therefore has lower operating cost and higher value returns.
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•Liquid fraction of THP sludge contributed major biogas production.•Solids fraction of THP sludge can be converted to more valuable biochar.•The integrated process realizes energy surplus of 0.81 MWh/tonne DS.•The rheological behavior of THP-L was the best.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of soybean milk addition on the quality of frozen-cooked noodles. Results revealed that sensory and texture properties of frozen-cooked noodles ...were significantly (P < 0.05) improved after adding soybean milk. Compared with control ones, frozen-cooked noodles with soybean milk addition exhibited a more compact and smooth surfaces. Meanwhile, micro-structure observation revealed that frozen-cooked noodles showed more continuous protein network, accompanied with smaller ice crystal by soybean milk addition. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results indicated that soybean milk addition decreased the transverse relaxation time (T2) and restrained the ascent of free-water of frozen-cooked noodles. Besides, MRI images showed that soybean milk enhanced the water-holding capacity of frozen-cooked noodles and made water maintain a good crosswise gradient, resulting in better mouthfeel. Thus, soybean milk, as a natural and safe additive, could be used to improve the quality of frozen-cooked noodle.
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•Effect of soybean milk addition on quality of frozen-cooked noodles was examined.•Sensory and texture properties of frozen-cooked noodles were improved by adding soybean milk.•We revealed the changes in micro-structure, ice crystal formation and water status of noodles due to soybean milk addition.•Our results provide an insight into natural and safe additive to improve the quality of frozen-cooked noodles.
A capillary covered silica hollow core fiber (HCF) has been designed and tested for the measurement of displacement based on antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide. A section of the silica HCF was ...inserted into a silver coated capillary. A Fabry-Perot resonator can be formed in the silica cladding. The leaky mode of the guided light can be achieved at resonant wavelengths of the Fabry-Perot resonator, which results in lossy dips in the transmission spectrum. The transmission power of the dip is sensitive with the displacement of the capillary since the effective reflectivity of the Fabry-Perot resonator is affected by the location between the capillary and the silica HCF. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of up to 0.578 dB/μm is achieved, and the proposed sensor is insensitive with the temperature.
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