Search

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have excellent electrochemical properties. However, they are commonly associated with short cycle lives, agglomeration, and lower electrical conductivity. To ameliorate these drawbacks, porous rod-shaped CuO@Co3O4 has been synthesized through calcination with optimized oxidation temperature by using CuCo-MOF-74 as a template. Due to the porous structure, the CuO@Co3O4 electrode significantly increases the contact area with the electrolyte and greatly improves the reaction kinetics. As a result, the CuO@Co3O4 electrode exhibits excellent electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 545.5 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1. The capacitance retention at 10 A g−1 was 88.7% after 10 000 cycles. Furthermore, an asymmetric supercapacitor (SC) has been assembled with CuO@Co3O4 as the positive electrode and commercial reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as the negative electrode, and the device has exhibited an energy density of 38.2 W h kg−1 at a power density of 1268.3 W kg−1. Impressively, the capacitance retention remained 83.2% even after 10 000 cycles at a high current density of 10 A g−1. This performance has demonstrated the potential of CuO@Co3O4 as an anode material for SCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degumming is the most important step to obtain ramie fibers, and Dickeya dadantii strain DCE-01 is a highly efficient degumming strain that can degum ramie bast completely in 8 h. In order to reveal the reason why D. dadantii DCE-01 owned the excellent performance on ramie degumming, the intrinsic factors were investigated by exploring key enzymes and corresponding genes for degumming with whole-genome scanning and extracellular proteomic analysis. In this study, the whole-genome sequencing of D. dadantii DCE-01 was performed with the PacBio sequencing technology based on the third generation of data. The extracellular proteins of D. dadantii DCE-01 after degumming for 0 h and 8 h were collected and analyzed by Tandem Mass Tags (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics, to reveal the abundance of enzymes induced by ramie bast. As a result, the genome of D. dadantii DCE-01 was 5.1 Mb in size with 56.64% GC content. A total of 4361 gene models were predicted with an average sequence length of 1005 bp. The overall length of coding genes was about 4.4 Mb. In the genome of D. dadantii DCE-01, 21 encoding genes of key functional enzymes for ramie degumming were identified, including 18 pectinase genes, 1 mannase genes, and 2 xylanase genes. And 16 enzymes participated in ramie degumming were scanned by proteomic analysis, and 13 of them were significantly up-regulated in ramie degumming system. In addition, 4 pectinase genes (pel207, pel225, pelG32, and pel027) were firstly found in this strain and had been heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 to explore their potential application in textile industry. This study highlighted the benefit of D. dadantii DCE-01 in the application of ramie degumming process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Natural Fibers is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Natural Fibers is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Data on the microbial community and functional proteins associated with degumming in kenaf remains scant. Here, we analyzed the microbial communities associated with kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) bast fibers during retting to identify potential candidate degumming bacteria. Retting liquids were collected and analyzed at 0 days, 10 days, and 34 days and then evaluated the yield and quality of kenaf fiber at the different retting times. Besides, the microbial communities were characterized using metagenomic and proteomic analysis by LC–MS/MS technology. Results: The data showed that increase in the retting time significantly improves the softness, dispersion, and fiber whiteness of the kenaf fiber. The relative abundance of Acinetobacter increased from 2.88% at the baseline to 6.64% at the 34th retting. On the other hand, some members of Clostridium were reduced from 3% at the baseline to 2% at the 34th retting. Analysis of carbohydrate active enzymes showed constant changes in the utilization of carbohydrates. Besides, benzoquinone reductase, cellobiose dehydrogenase, glucose 1-oxidase, aryl alcohol oxidase and alcohol oxidase were the top five most abundant enzymes in the retting liquids. This present results demonstrated that the expressions of B7GYR8, Q6RYW5 and Q6FFK2 proteins were suppressed in Acinetobacter with the retting time. On the contrary, P05149 was upregulated with the retting time. In Clostridium, P37698, P52040 and P54937 proteins were upregulated with the retting time. Conclusion: In addition, bacteria Acinetobacter and Clostridium might be playing important roles in the kenaf degumming process. Similarly, up-regulation of P37698, P52040 and P54937 proteins is an important manifestation and mediates important roles in the degumming process. Highlights: The growth of Prevotella was initially inhibited with the kenaf retting. Acinetobacter can promote the degumming process of kenaf. The upregulation of P37698, P52040 and P54937 proteins is a sign in the degumming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to obtain a thermostable pectate lyase for ramie degumming, a rational design based on structural analysis was carried out on a novel pectate lyase (Pel419) derived from the Dickeya Dadantii DCE-01 for high-efficiency ramie degumming. A total of five potential amino acid sites were chosen to replace residues. Then, the mutant enzymes were subjected to the heterologous expressions in Escherichia coli and their enzymatic characteristics were determined. The optimal reaction temperature for the five mutants kept consistent with that for the wild type. The enzyme activity and thermal stability of mutant V52A were significantly improved. Meanwhile, the weight loss rate obtained by V52A with the best enzymatic characteristics in the ramie degumming process at 50 °C is comparable with that obtained by commercial cotton-ramie processing pectinases, indicating that V52A was a potential industrial enzyme that could be applied to large-scale ramie degumming. In this study, the biological functions of conservative residues of Pel419 were preliminarily explored. The mutant V52A with both enzymatic activity and improved heat resistance was acquired, providing a superior material for developing enzyme preparations of ramie degumming, and rendering an effective method for the rational design aiming to improve the thermostability of pectate lyase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial treatment of natural fibers is a preferred alternatives in ramie degumming process as compared to conventional chemical degumming technology with alkaline treatment at high temperature. Usually, it is difficult to degrade the noncellulosic components of ramie bast completely with a single strain in the mono-culturing degumming system. Microbial coculture strategy has been widely used in biotechnology, especially in the degradation of biological materials. In the present study, five strains for ramie degumming were identified as Dickeya dadantii strain DCE-01, Bacillus subtilis strain 1101, Bacillus sp. B6, Bacillus cereus strain B7, and Bacillus cereus strain B8 by sequencing of 16 S rRNA genes. Enzymatic activities characterization, ramie degumming experiments with mono-culturing systems, and the evaluation of strain compatibility showed that group DCE-01/B7 were the most suitable pairs for the construction of bacterial coculturing system. After preliminary optimization of coculturing fermentation condition, the weight loss weight ratio of ramie fibers was 27%, which was increased 13.6% and 8.9% while compared to mono-culturing systems of strain B7 and DCE-01 respectively. These data highlighted the benefit of microbial coculture strategy in the application of ramie degumming process, and indicated a higher-efficiency alternative for the microbial degumming in the textile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atypical meningioma is a specific type of meningioma that is relatively rare in clinical practice. The clinical manifestations of atypical meningioma are non-specific and the imaging findings are similar to those for other intraspinal space-occupying lesions. It is usually misdiagnosed as schwannoma or metastases, and it is necessary to rely on intraoperative findings and pathological examination to confirm the diagnosis. Atypical meningioma invading the intervertebral foramen and causing bone destruction is rare. The present study describes the case of a patient with cervical intraspinal atypical meningioma combined with cervical bone destruction. A 50-year-old female patient presented with numbness of the extremities with unstable walking, and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the cervical spine. MRI showed a space-occupying lesion in the spinal canal at the C2-4 level. The patient underwent cervical intraspinal lesion resection, and postoperative pathology confirmed atypical meningioma (World Health Organization grade II). The patient received dehydration and hormone therapy, and was discharged after the symptoms improved. Radiotherapy was performed 2 months after discharge. Cervical MRI 3 months after the operation showed that the tumor resection was satisfactory. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to report on this specific type of meningioma. The present case report may provide useful information for clinicians to diagnose and treat the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research and development of bio-degumming technology is under a slow progress due to the shortage of proper efficient bacterial strains and processes. A degumming bacterial strain—Pectobacterium wasabiae (PW)—with broad-spectrum degumming abilities was screened out in this study. After the fermentation for 12 h, the residual gum contents of kenaf bast, ramie bast, hemp bast, flax bast, and Apocynum venetum bast were all lower than 15%. This bacterial strain could realize the simultaneous extracellular secretion of pectinase, mannase, and xylanase with the maximum enzyme activity levels of 130.25, 157.58, and 115.24 U/mL, respectively. The optimal degumming conditions of this bacterial strain were as follows: degumming time of 12 h, bath ratio of 1:10, temperature of 33 °C, and inoculum size of 2%. After the bio-degumming through this bacterial strain, the COD in wastewater was below 4000 mg/L, which was over 60% lower than that in boiling-off wastewater generated by chemical degumming. This technology achieves higher efficiency, higher quality, and lower pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Natural Fibers is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To explore high-quality microbial resources with the capability of ramie degumming, we collected soil samples from rotten ramie and straw heaps. After enrichment culture by ramie raw materials, bacterial strains with the potential ramie-degumming function were screened using a pectin-hydrolysis plate. Dominant bacteria were identified by combining colonial morphological characteristics with the molecular biology method, and their ramie-degumming effects were verified through comprehensive biological degumming indices. Results demonstrated that Bacillus aryabhattai, Bacillus thuringiensis, Lysinibacillus fusiformis, and Acidovorax temperans were successfully obtained. The highest pectinase activity, 98.2 U/mg, was found by A. temperans. B. thuringiensis showed the best ramie-degumming effect. The residual gum content, single-fiber linear density, and bundle-breaking strength of the degummed ramie fiber treated with B. thuringiensis were 8.32%, 6.80 dtex, and 7.84 cN/dtex, respectively. The residual gum content of the ramie fiber treated with B. thuringiensis met the textile requirement (<10%), and the values of all other indicators were also satisfactory. Therefore, B. thuringiensis was an excellent strain for ramie degumming, indicating potential industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ramie (Boehmeria nivea L.), a perennial herb, is an important bast fiber plant. Its fiber with the advantages of attractive luster, high tenacity, enhanced strength, and good microbial resistivity is well known as the queen of natural fibers. The abundant cellulose fibers in ramie raw materials are stuck tightly by gums consisting of pectic substances, hemicelluloses, and little lignin. The gum should remove from the ramie raw material through degumming process to separate fibers, unveil unique fiber properties, and improve fiber-spinning ability to fulfill textile requirements. Low degumming efficiency and high environmental pollution are the major problems hindering the utilization of ramie fibers. Ramie degumming involves the degradation of pectin and hemicelluloses, which requires chemical, physical, biological treatment, or a combination of several treatments. No stereotyped parameters of the given degumming method have been yet established for the extraction of textile-grade ramie fibers. This review evaluated integrated methodology involving chemical, physical, biological and biochemical methods to degum raw ramie and obtain textile-grade refined fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their high transmission ratio, high load carrying capacity and small size, planetary gears are widely used in the transmission systems of wind turbines. The planetary gearbox is the core of the transmission system of a wind turbine, but because of its special structure and complex internal and external excitation, the vibration signal spectrum shows strong nonlinearity, asymmetry and time variation, which brings great trouble to planetary gear fault diagnosis. The traditional time-frequency analysis technology is insufficient in the condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of wind turbines. For this reason, we propose a new method of planetary gearbox fault diagnosis based on Compressive sensing, Two-dimensional variational mode decomposition (2D-VMD) and full-vector spectrum technology. Firstly, the nonlinear reconstruction and noise reduction of the signal is carried out by using compressed sensing, and then the signal with multiple degrees of freedom is adaptively decomposed into multiple sets of characteristic scale components by using 2D-VMD. Then, Rényi entropy is used as the optimization index of 2D-VMD analysis performance to extract the effective target intrinsic mode function (IMF) component, reconstruct the dynamics signal in the planetary gearbox, and improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Then, using the full-vector spectrum technique, the homologous information collected by numerous sensors is data layer fused in the spatial domain and the time domain to increase the comprehensiveness and certainty of the fault information. Finally, the Teager–Kaiser energy operator is used to demodulate the potential low-frequency dynamics frequency characteristics from the high-frequency domain and detect the fault characteristic frequency. Furthermore, the correctness and validity of the method are verified by the fault test signal of the planetary gearbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pectinase plays a crucial role in ramie bio-degumming. A pectate lyase gene (pel 4J4) from the high-efficiency degumming bacteria Dickeya dadantii DCE-01 of bast fibers was cloned and connected to pET28a, and then the recombinant plasmid was successfully transformed into Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The pectate lyase (Pel4J4) induced was purified by ultrafiltration and Sephadex G-100 gel chromatography. The enzymatic properties of Pel4J4 were studied in detail. pel 4J4 (GenBank accession number: KC900167) had a sequence length of 1179 bp, encoding 392 amino acids. The extracellular pectate lyase activity of pET28a- pel -BL was up to 204.4 IU/mL. The optimal temperature and pH of the purified Pel4J4 were 55℃ and 8.5, respectively. The stable temperature and pH of Pel4J4 activity were 45℃ and 8.5–10.0, respectively. The catalytic activity is Ca2+ dependent and promoted by 1 mmol/L Zn2+, Fe3+, Ca2+, and NH4+, but seriously inhibited by Cu2+ and Pb2+. The optimal substrate is citrus pectin with more than 85% esterification. The heat-resistant alkaline Pel4J4 could strongly degrade natural ramie pectin, indicating a promising application prospect in ramie bio-degumming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xylanase plays an important role in the hydrolysis of hemicellulose and has gained much attention in the field of biological degumming. The research for xylanases with cellulase-free and high activity for biological degumming has intensified in recent years. In the present research, heterologous expression of a novel endo-β-1,4-xylanase (GH30) from Dickeya dadantii DCE-01 in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) was reported. Biochemical characterization of the enzyme and a potential application in ramie biological degumming was discussed. The results showed that the xylanase gene consists of 1251 nucleotides, belonging to glycoside hydrolase family 30 (GH30). The optimal activity of the xylanase was observed at 50℃ and a pH value of 6.4. The Km and Vmax values for beechwood xylan were 14.25 mg/mL and 296.6 μmol/mg, respectively. The catalytic activity was enhanced by addition of 1 mM Cu2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+. The recombinant enzyme was specific for xylan substrates. The enzyme exhibited hydrolytic activity toward ramie hemicellulose. The recombinant xylanase could be effectively applied to ramie degumming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degumming is the most important step before ramie fibers are used in textile industry. Conventional chemical degumming technology with alkaline treatment at high temperature causes critical problems in environment. In addition to multiple degumming enzymes (e.g. pectinases and xylanases), Bacillus subtilis strain 168 can also produce cellulase which brings irreversible damage to ramie fibers. In this study, a strain deficient in cellulase was constructed by insertional inactivation of gene eglS to make it suitable for microbial degumming. Results showed that the cellulase activity was not detected in strain ΔeglS, after 25 h of incubation with strain ΔeglS, the weight loss of the ramie fibers was 20.20 %. Though the residual gum content of ramie fibers obtained in microbial degumming process was 19.67 %, microbial intervention followed by diluted alkaline solution treatment showed lower residual gum content (2.73 %) than chemical degumming (2.96 %). The single fiber breaking strength value of ramie fibers from bio-chemical degumming process reached 27.19 cN, which was the highest of three samples. Moreover, bio-chemical degumming process resulted in a 75 % decrease of alkali dosage as compared with chemical degumming process. This study provides a suggestion to genetically modify wild-type strain in order to protect ramie fibers from cellulase damage, and indicates a sustainable alternative for the traditional chemical degumming in the textile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kenaf is one of the most important natural fiber crops. Traditional degumming with water retting causes serious environmental pollution and reduces the quality of fiber products. The development of kenaf industry is hindered by high production cost. Microbial degumming is suitable for kenaf bast degumming because of its high efficiency, energy conservation, low pollution, and high quality, among others. Through enrichment and screening from water sample, soil sample, and humus sample, we concentrated and identified 92 bacterial strains that could degrade kenaf bast colloid. The strains belonged to 11 genera and 16 species. Five of these strains did not produce cellulase and the weight loss rate of the kenaf bast fiber raw material was more than 20%. These strains belonged to Bacillus subtilis, Paenibacillus polymyxa, Clostridium acetobutylicum, Bacillus alcalophilus, and Erwinia chrysanthemi and were assigned with serial numbers from K1-K5, respectively. This study is the first to report the function of Bacillus pumilus, B. alcalophilus, Clostridium tertium, Brevibacillus brevis, Pectobacterium carotovora, E. chrysanthemi, and Tyromyces subcaesius in kenaf bast degumming. Pectinase and mannanase were the key enzymes in the degumming of kenaf bast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apocynum venetum fiber is known as the “king of wild fibers”. The traditional chemical degumming method for A. venetum limits the development of the industry due to serious pollution and fiber damage. By machine rolling preprocessing, bacteria culture, soaking fermentation, inactivation, water scrubbing, and drying under fermentation conditions of bath ratio 1:15, inoculum size 2%, temperature 33℃, and fermentation time 16 h, A. venetum fiber could be extracted from A. venetum bast. Strain Pectobacterium sp. DCE-01 simultaneously secreted pectinase, mannanase, and xylanase, which can decompose the main components of A. venetum non-cellulose. The catalytic activities of pectase, mannanase, xylanase, and cellulase at 16 h were 12.47, 7.56, 6.02, and 2.82 U/ml respectively. Compared with chemical degumming, bio-degumming exhibited 22.56% higher residual gum content, 18.14% higher breaking strength, and 44.33% lower chemical oxygen demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blade aerodynamic asymmetry fault must be detected early due to its important effect on wind turbines. This paper develops a fault diagnosis approach based on the current and power characteristics of a Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). First, the blade aerodynamic characteristics and the influence on the nacelle and tower vibration under an aerodynamic asymmetry fault are analysed and an improved Blade element moment (BEM) method considering the blade, nacelle and tower vibration is proposed to calculate the aerodynamic torque. Then, the electrical characteristics of the DFIG are analysed. The output power is shown to decrease with oscillation when aerodynamic asymmetry occurs. In addition, the same modulation harmonic frequency as the blade rotating frequency exists in the stator and the rotor current. Finally, simulations under constant and stochastic wind conditions via MATLAB/Simulink show the effectiveness of the proposed method in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is intended to describe the design aspects and to characterize the functionality of a novel flip-chip (FC) structure applicable for THz camera assembling. The proposed FC structure consists of a thin-film ceramic layer sandwiched between a GaAs substrate and PCB board. There is an air chamber underneath the antenna to protect the air bridge of Schottky Diode located on GaAs substrate and improve antenna performance. In particular, we have used the novel FC structure simulation result as the excitation source for THz camera lens simulation. Even if the FC structure cause antenna performance to deteriorate, the high gain can be obtained at 0.34 THz and 0.22 THz (λ = 880 and 1360 μm) from the FEKO simulation results. The FC structure mode and the without FC structure (wire bonding structure) mode were characterized using same test system, they show good match in proposed frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of wind shear and the tower shadow contribute to periodic fluctuations in the wind speed and aerodynamic torque, which cause several problems. This study develops an equivalent wind speed model for large-scale, n-bladed wind turbines that includes the wind shear and the tower shadow effects. The comprehensive model is used to derive the disturbance components of wind speed caused by wind shear, the tower shadow, their synthesis, and the equivalent wind speed and to delineate their spatial distributions in the rotor disk area. Simulation results reveal that the effects of wind shear, the tower shadow, and the equivalent wind speed on the disturbance components fluctuate periodically and are closely related to the wind turbine correlation parameters, such as the rotor radius, hub center height, tower radius, distance from the tower midline to the blade, wind shear exponent, and blade number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To research the inherent properties of the co-expression of three types degumming-related enzymes and breed more powerful degumming strains. Results: Six tandem multimers of the pectate lyase gene, the xylanase gene, and the endo-1,4-β-mannanase gene, which are essential for degumming process, were co-expressed and evaluated in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The xyl91 gene had a synergistic effect with endo-1,4-β-mannanase and pectate lyase from DCE-01, when xyl gene was replaced with xyl91 in the multimer. The recombinant pET- pxm(91 x) was selected and transformed into the original degumming strain DCE-01, which led to an enzymatic activity improvement. Furthermore, the weight loss, reducing sugar and COD value of the sample treated with the new engineered strain pET- pxm(91 x)/DCE-01 increased to 22.5 %, 460 mg ml and 4.9, respectively. Conclusions: The co-expression of degumming-related enzyme genes may be applied in industrial tests and represents a novel direction for bio-degumming research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-mannanase has shown compelling biological functions because of its regulatory roles in metabolism, inflammation, and oxidation. This study separated and purified the β-mannanase from Bacillus subtilis BE-91, which is a powerful hemicellulose-degrading bacterium using a “two-step” method comprising ultrafiltration and gel chromatography. The purified β-mannanase (about 28.2 kDa) showed high specific activity (79, 859.2 IU/mg). The optimum temperature and pH were 65°C and 6.0, respectively. Moreover, the enzyme was highly stable at temperatures up to 70°C and pH 4.5–7.0. The β-mannanase activity was significantly enhanced in the presence of Mn2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Al3+ and strongly inhibited by Ba2+ and Pb2+. Km and Vmax values for locust bean gum were 7.14 mg/mL and 107.5 μmol/min/mL versus 1.749 mg/mL and 33.45 µmol/min/mL for Konjac glucomannan, respectively. Therefore, β-mannanase purified by this work shows stability at high temperatures and in weakly acidic or neutral environments. Based on such data, the β-mannanase will have potential applications as a dietary supplement in treatment of inflammatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among industrial fiber crops, jute is ranked second to cotton in terms of yield and planting area worldwide. The traditional water retting and chemical semi-degumming methods restrict the development of the jute industry. Jute fiber can be extracted from jute bast through mechanical rolling (preprocessing), culture of bacteria, soaking fermentation (liquor ratio = 10, inoculum size = 1 %, temperature = 35 °C, and time = 15 h), inactivation, washing, and drying. Pectobacterium sp. DCE-01 secretes key degumming enzymes: pectinase, mannase, and xylanase, which match well the main non-cellulosic components of jute bast. Compared with the traditional water retting degumming, the bio-degumming cycle is shortened from more than 10 days to 15 h. The proposed bio-degumming achieved higher efficiency and lower pollution than water retting and chemical semi-degumming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expression of modified xynA gene fragments in Escherichia coli BL21 was studied, using the complete xynA gene from Bacillus subtilis BE-91 as the positive control. The technical workflow consisted of the following steps: (1) predicting protein structures relative to the xynA gene; (2) designing primers for modifiers; (3) amplifying the modifiers; (4) integrating the modifiers with the pET-28a(+) vector; (5) transferring the recombinant plasmids into E. coli BL21; (6) evaluating and analyzing the expression of modified cells. The results were: (1) the xynA gene from BE-91 with the untranslated region deleted on both ends was able to promote XynA activity by 28.9 %; (2) deletion of the 1- to 16-amino acid (AA) coding sequence in the open reading frame on the 5′-end, deletion of the 209- to 213-AA fragment on the 3′-end and deletion of the 20 AA on both ends could promote XynA activity by 27.2, 27.7 and 24.0 %,respectively; (3) deletion of the 1- to 29-AA fragment on the 5′-end and deletion of the 197- to 213-AA fragment on the 3′-end could reduce XynA activity dramatically by 95.6 and 74.8 %, respectively; (4) inactivation factors of XynA would be either the first β-fold and the hydrophilic structure domain or the last two α-screws and the seventeenth turn region. The results mean that any deletion in the catalytic domain would lead to a decline or inactivation in XynA activity while the deletion of any sequence outside the catalytic domain could effectively promote XynA activity, as such sequences are unnecessary for XynA function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the thermal stability of pectate lyase for ramie degumming, we modified the novel pectate lyase gene (pelG403) derived from the Dickeya dadantii DCE-01 high-efficiency ramie degumming strain by site-directed mutagenesis. Twelve mutants were acquired, wherein a prospective mutant (A129V) showed better enzyme activity and thermal stability. Compared with the wild type (PelG403), the specific enzyme activity and the optimal reaction temperature of A129V in the fermentation broth increased by 20.1%, and 5 °C, respectively. Under the conditions of 55 °C and pH 9.0, the weightlessness rate of ramie raw materials of A129V increased by 6.26%. Therefore, this study successfully improved the enzyme activity and heat resistance of PelG403 in an alkaline environment, which may contribute to the development of enzyme preparations and the elucidation of the mechanism for ramie bio-degumming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel and simple design of an air-slot mode-gap photonic crystal (PC) nanocavity by introducing a linear air slot to the center of a line-defect waveguide in a two dimensional triangular-lattice silicon PC slab. A high quality factor ( Q factor) of 8.42×10 and an ultrasmall mode volume of 0.998 cubic wavelength are achieved in an optimized air-slot nanocavity which is a suitable choice for the strong matter-field interaction in free space. The high Q cavities with ultrasmall mode volume are important for applications such as quantum computation and nonlinear optics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xylanases catalyze the hydrolysis of xylan, a major hemicellulose component of cell wall besides cellulose in most plant species. To extract cellulose fibers, it will be invaluable to screen for more effective xylanase-producing microorganisms. In this paper a new strategy for easy screening of xylanase-producing strains from the degumming line was presented. Using this strategy, a weak-acidic, cellulase-free xylanase from Bacillus subtilis has been isolated, purified and characterized. The xylanase showed high specific activity (36,633.4 U/mg), presented stable characteristics and can be separated and purified simply, with molecular weight 23.3 kD, pI 9.63. It reached its optimal activity at pH 5.8 and 60 °C, and retained over 80% of its maximal activity after pre-incubation at temperature 60 °C or pH 4.6 ∼ 6.4. Also, a two-step purification procedure based on the combination of ultrafiltration and gel filtration chromatography was introduced and described, achieving 17-fold purification with 68.11% yield. (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, the xylanase high-producing strain of BE-91 ( Bacillus subtilis) was selected. The enzyme activity in the fermentation liquor of BE-91 at 8 h reached 408 U/mL, which was 3.4 times higher than that of strain ACCC 10243. The xylanase was purified from BE-91 fermentation liquor with the ultrafiltration and gel chromatography, and its enzyme activity was up to 28,454 U/mg. Its recovery was above 69%, and the purification multiple of the enzyme activity was up to 18 times. The molecular weight of the purified xylanase was 22.54 kDa assayed with SDS-PAGE. The K and V were 0.5 mg/mL and 533 μmol/(min mL), respectively. The stabilizing pH and optimal pH of the xylanase were 4.6~6.4 and 5.8, respectively. And when the pH was 5.8, the stabilizing temperature and optimal temperature of the xylanase were 0°C~65°C and 60°C, respectively. Therefore it was considered that the strain BE-91 could be applied to the industrial production of xylanase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Gram-negative, non-motile, non-spore-forming bacterial strain designated IBFC2009T was isolated from soil of a bamboo plantation. The strain could grow at 11°C∼39°C, pH 6.0–9.0, and in the presence of 0∼5% NaCl. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, Strain IBFC2009T belonged to the genus Sphingobacterium and showed the highest sequence similarity of 94.6% ( S. composti T5-12T) with the type strains within the genus. The major fatty acids were summed feature 3 (iso-C15:0 2-OH and/or C16:1 ω7 c, 34.4%), iso-C15:0 (22.4%), C16:0 3-OH (15.2%), and iso-C17:0 3-OH (12.8%). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 41.0 mol%. According to the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, Strain IBFC2009T should represent a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium bambusae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is IBFC2009T (=CCTCC AB 209162T =KCTC 22814T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a difficult task to analyze the coupling characteristics of rotating machinery fault signals under the influence of complex and nonlinear interference signals. This difficulty is due to the strong noise background of rotating machinery fault feature extraction and weaknesses, such as modal mixing problems, in the existing Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) time–frequency analysis methods. To quantitatively study the nonlinear synchronous coupling characteristics and information transfer characteristics of rotating machinery fault signals between different frequency scales under the influence of complex and nonlinear interference signals, a new nonlinear signal processing method—the harmonic assisted multivariate empirical mode decomposition method (HA-MEMD)—is proposed in this paper. By adding additional high-frequency harmonic-assisted channels and reducing them, the decomposing precision of the Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF) can be effectively improved, and the phenomenon of mode aliasing can be mitigated. Analysis results of the simulated signals prove the effectiveness of this method. By combining HA-MEMD with the transfer entropy algorithm and introducing signal processing of the rotating machinery, a fault detection method of rotating machinery based on high-frequency harmonic-assisted multivariate empirical mode decomposition-transfer entropy (HA-MEMD-TE) was established. The main features of the mechanical transmission system were extracted by the high-frequency harmonic-assisted multivariate empirical mode decomposition method, and the signal, after noise reduction, was used for the transfer entropy calculation. The evaluation index of the rotating machinery state based on HA-MEMD-TE was established to quantitatively describe the degree of nonlinear coupling between signals to effectively evaluate and diagnose the operating state of the mechanical system. By adding noise to different signal-to-noise ratios, the fault detection ability of HA-MEMD-TE method in the background of strong noise is investigated, which proves that the method has strong reliability and robustness. In this paper, transfer entropy is applied to the fault diagnosis field of rotating machinery, which provides a new effective method for early fault diagnosis and performance degradation-state recognition of rotating machinery, and leads to relevant research conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]