Search

Rhodamine B (RhB) in dyes is widely used in various industries, but it poses a great threat to the natural environment and human health. In this work, a series of thermosensitive polymer materials, PNxDy, with controllable morphology and particle size were prepared by free radical polymerization using N-isopropylacrylamide and N,N-dimethylacrylamide as monomers. Then, by using PNxDy as a template, bimetallic Mn- and Co-doped MCM-41 molecular sieves with good morphology and properties were prepared by the microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. The effects of a series of thermosensitive templates on the morphology and properties of the Mn-Co-MCM-41 molecular sieve were investigated. The results demonstrated that the Mn-Co-MCM-41 by PN100D4 as a templating agent showed the best mesoporous ordering and the most regular material morphology with 2 nm nanoparticles. In addition, the molecular sieve with the best structure was selected for the RhB degradation experiments. The Mn-Co-MCM-41 with PN100D4 as the template showed regular morphology and uniform pore channels. It was applied as a catalyst for the degradation of RhB by potassium monopersulfate (PMS). The degradation rate of RhB could reach 98% with a 20 min reaction by Mn-Co-MCM-41 (PN100D4). Meanwhile, the degradation rate could be maintained at 91% after being reused six times. The bimetallic-doped Mn-Co-MCM-41 molecular sieves prepared using the thermosensitive material PN100D4 as a template have good catalytic performance and can be effectively reused.

Estrus is crucial for cow fertility in modern dairy farms, but almost 50% of cows do not show the behavioral signs of estrus due to silent estrus and lack of suitable and high-accuracy methods to detect estrus. MiRNA and exosomes play essential roles in reproductive function and may be developed as novel biomarkers in estrus detection. Thus, we analyzed the miRNA expression patterns in milk exosomes during estrus and the effect of milk exosomes on hormone secretion in cultured bovine granulosa cells in vitro. We found that the number of exosomes and the exosome protein concentration in estrous cow milk were significantly lower than in non-estrous cow milk. Moreover, 133 differentially expressed exosomal miRNAs were identified in estrous cow milk vs. non-estrous cow milk. Functional enrichment analyses indicated that exosomal miRNAs were involved in reproduction and hormone-synthesis-related pathways, such as cholesterol metabolism, FoxO signaling pathway, Hippo signaling pathway, mTOR signaling pathway, steroid hormone biosynthesis, Wnt signaling pathway and GnRH signaling pathway. Consistent with the enrichment signaling pathways, exosomes derived from estrous and non-estrous cow milk both could promote the secretion of estradiol and progesterone in cultured bovine granulosa cells. Furthermore, genes related to hormonal synthesis (CYP19A1, CYP11A1, HSD3B1 and RUNX2) were up-regulated after exosome treatment, while exosomes inhibited the expression of StAR. Moreover, estrous and non-estrous cow-milk-derived exosomes both could increase the expression of bcl2 and decrease the expression of p53, and did not influence the expression of caspase-3. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate exosomal miRNA expression patterns during dairy cow estrus and the role of exosomes in hormone secretion by bovine granulosa cells. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for further investigating milk-derived exosomes and exosomal miRNA effects on ovary function and reproduction. Moreover, bovine milk exosomes may have effects on the ovaries of human consumers of pasteurized cow milk. These differential miRNAs might provide candidate biomarkers for the diagnosis of dairy cow estrus and will assist in developing new therapeutic targets for cow infertility.

Soil microbial biomass and extracellular enzymes are involved in the decomposition of soil organic matter, a temporary nutrient pool for plants. This study was conducted to evaluate the mineralization potentials of carbon (CMP) and nitrogen (NMP), and the relationship of CMP and NMP with microbial biomass and extracellular enzymes in soil fertilized with mineral and manure amendments for 3 decades. A long-term experiment (37 years) consisted of seven fertilizer treatments, including unfertilized control (CK); nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK); manure (M); manure plus phosphorus and potassium (PKM); nitrogen and potassium plus manure (NKM); nitrogen and phosphorus plus manure (NPM); and NPK plus manure (NPKM), was selected. Compared to the CK treatment, the long-term mineral fertilizer (NPK) and combined manure plus mineral fertilization (e.g., M, PKM, NKM, NPM, and NPKM) significantly increased soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) by 58% and 131% and nitrogen (SMBN) by 66% and 161%, respectively. Similarly, soil microbial biomass phosphorus (SMBP) also significantly increased by 67–156% in combined manure and mineral fertilizer treatments than the CK and NPK treatment. Higher values of β-glucosidase and cellobiohydrolase activities were observed with the application of PKM. In comparison with CK, the application of combined manure and mineral fertilization significantly increased the leucine aminopeptidase and N-acetyl-glucosaminidase enzyme by 129% and 175%, respectively. Soil CMP and NMP significantly increased by 231–307% and 176–289% in combined treatments than the CK. A significant positive correlation was also observed between the microbial biomass, extracellular enzymes, and the CMP and NMP (R2 = 0.66–0.84, 0.44–0.76, P

This research explores the effect of financial literacy and risk tolerance on decisions making for investment by men andwomen in the textile sector of Pakistan. It examines the role of risk tolerance as mediator in relation between financialliteracy and individual’s investment decision making. It also examines the moderating effect of gender differencebetween financial literacy and risk tolerance. Collection of research data was done from the 300 respondents in thetextile sector of Faisalabad through the self-administered questionnaire by using convenient sampling. This researchwork represented the facts that financial literacy has a positive and significant relationship with risk tolerance, andinvestment decisions are significantly influenced by it. Risk tolerance has a positive and insignificant impact oninvestment decisions.In contrast, the mediation role of risk tolerance is insignificant between the financial literacy level of individuals anddecisions made by them for investment. The purpose of a moderator as gender differences is significant. This studyempowers managers to provide basics financial services to employees. Management might be guided that what shouldbe highlighted and what has to be improved to enhance the financial literacy level of textile workers. Employers can playa vital role in building awareness and to educate their employees on fiscal wellness, investment planning, andretirement. Financial literacy can also help employees to achieve commercial success, and it is fruitful in providingbenefit plans at work and in their financial affairs

Land use change stemming from human activities, particularly cropland expansion, heavily threatens the survival of crop wild relatives that usually occur nearby or scatter in farming systems. Understanding the impacts of land use change on wild populations is critical in forming the conservation decision-making of wild relatives. Based on the investigations on the population survival of three wild rice species (Oryza rufipogon, O. officinalis, and O. granulata) in China over the past 40 years (1978–2019), the effect of land use change during the past 20 years (2001–2019) on the natural populations of the three species was examined using the land use type data of satellite-based Earth observations (data from GlobCover). From 1978 to 2019, the number of populations (distribution sites) of the three wild rice species had decreased by 65–87%, mainly because of the habitat destruction or disappearance caused by human-induced land use change. The three wild rice species display different habitat preferences, resulting in specific land use types surrounding their populations. In the recent 20 years, although the surrounding community composition of the wild rice population has been relatively stable, the surrounding vegetation cover area of the survived populations was significantly more extensive than that of the extinct ones (p

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from yaks on weaning diarrhea, fecal microbiota composition, microbial network structure and functional pathways in Chinese Holstein Calves. In this study, 50 calves were randomly divided into five groups of 10 each: NC group (no supplementation), Control group (normal saline), low concentration FMT group (LFMT, 1 × 108 CFU/ml), high concentration FMT group (HMFT, 1 × 109 CFU/ml), and sterilized FMT group (SMFT, sterilized bacterial solution). The test lasted for 30 days. We found that FMT reduced the incidence of diarrhea in weaned calves, and the anti-diarrhea effect of LFMT was stronger than those of HFMT and SFMT. Calf feces were collected by rectal palpation on days 5, 10, 15, and 20 post-weaning, and high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal internal transcribed spacer region of fecal microbiota was performed. We observed that the richness and diversity of bacterial microbiota in the LFMT, HFMT, and SFMT groups were higher than those in the NC and Control groups at day 20 after weaning. The treatment had a significant effect on bacterial richness (p < 0.05), but not on fungal diversity or richness. The analysis of gut microbiome showed that Firmicutes and Bacteroides were the main bacterial phyla in the feces of weaned calves, and norank_ f Muribaculaceae, UCG-005, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, Bacteroides, and Blautia were the main genera. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the main fungal phyla. Compared to abundance parameters in the Control and NC groups, relative abundances of Firmicutes in the FMT groups increased at different time points after weaning. The relative abundance of Blautia and Lactobacillus in the LFMT group increased significantly after weaning. In addition, abundances of Ruminococcus and Romboutsia, which produce short-chain fatty acids, were also increased in different FMT groups. FMT significantly increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria, enhanced the complexity of the fecal microbial network, and promoted important metabolic and cellular processes in weaned calves. In conclusion, our study provides a reference and theoretical basis for FMT to prevent calf weaning diarrhea and other intestinal diseases in ruminants.

Scientific evaluation of the competitiveness of China’s dairy industry is of great significance to the development of regional dairy industry. In view of the fact that the existing evaluation model cannot solve the dynamic nonlinear optimization problem, this paper established a projection pursuit model based on accelerating genetic algorithm and carried on the comprehensive evaluation and dynamic analysis on the competitiveness of dairy industry in China’s 31 provinces and cities (not including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from five dimensions, namely, basic factors of production, the industry demand conditions, the enterprise competitiveness and growth force, related and supporting industries, and the natural environmental elements. It was found that firstly, from the perspective of time, the development trend of China’s dairy industry basically shows a positive trend. With the improvement of national living standards, the competitiveness of the dairy industry is also constantly improved. Secondly, from the perspective of space, regional differences in the competitiveness of the dairy industry are significant. Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Shandong, and Hebei are at the forefront of the development of the industry, while the development of the dairy industry in the rest of the region has a big gap with those areas. From the perspective of regional layout, the advantageous region of China’s dairy industry has been preliminarily formed, and the competitive advantage is mainly concentrated in the northern region. Accordingly, the countermeasures and suggestions to enhance the competitiveness of China’s dairy industry were put forward.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. The plastid genome map of holoparasitic C. kwangtungensis. Genes labelled outside the outer circle are transcribed clockwise, while those inside are transcribed counterclockwise. Dashed area in the inner circle indicates the GC content of plastid genome. Figure S2. Comparison of plastid genome structure among non-parasite (L. philippehsis), hemi-parasite (S. asistica), and holoparasite (C. kwangtungensis). Green lines connect homologous plastid coding genes. Green dotted lines indicate pseudogenized regions. Regions without connecting lines indicate gene loss. Figure S3. The mitochondrial gene map of holoparasitic C. kwangtungensis. Genes labelled outside the outer circle are transcribed clockwise, while those inside are transcribed counterclockwise. Dashed area in the inner circle indicates the GC content of mitochondrial genome. Figure S4. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of rpl20 in the mitochondrial genome of C. kwangtungensis. The phylogenetic tree shows evidence of intracellular gene transfer. The clade length of trees represents the base substitution rate. Figure S5. Gene expression in the photosynthesis pathway observed in transcriptomes of ten species. Detected expressed genes are marked as green. Species in the same clade of C. kwangtungensis are in the red box. With courtesy of © www.genome.jp/kegg/kegg1.html. Figure S6. Gene expression in porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism pathway observed in the transcriptome of C. kwangtungensis. Genes with detected expression are in the red boxes. The name and number of gene expression products were marked at each node. With courtesy of © www.genome.jp/kegg/kegg1.html. Figure S7. Mitochondrial gene content (core genes in blue and variable genes in yellow) of 21 species including C. kwangtungensis and A. indica. Retained genes are marked in white and lost genes are marked in black. Figure S8. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of Orobanchaceae based on concatenated sequences of all coding genes present in the plastid genome of Lindenbergia philippensis. Table S1. Statistics of putative plastid transferred genes in mitochondrial genome of C. kwangtungensis. Potential donors, transfer types, fragment lengths, and bootstrap of all the putative plastid transferred genes on mitochondrial gnome of C. kwangtungensis. Table S2. Comparison of informative characters of the horizontally transferred fragment rpl20 of C. kwangtungensis and its related species. Table S3. Mitochondrial genome sequence of Lamiales used in this study. Table S4. Plastid genome sequence for plastid phylogeny used in this study.

Nuclear norm maximization has shown the power to enhance the transferability of unsupervised domain adaptation model (UDA) in an empirical scheme. In this paper, we identify a new property termed equity, which indicates the balance degree of predicted classes, to demystify the efficacy of nuclear norm maximization for UDA theoretically. With this in mind, we offer a new discriminability-and-equity maximization paradigm built on squares loss, such that predictions are equalized explicitly. To verify its feasibility and flexibility, two new losses termed Class Weighted Squares Maximization (CWSM) and Normalized Squares Maximization (NSM), are proposed to maximize both predictive discriminability and equity, from the class level and the sample level, respectively. Importantly, we theoretically relate these two novel losses (i.e., CWSM and NSM) to the equity maximization under mild conditions, and empirically suggest the importance of the predictive equity in UDA. Moreover, it is very efficient to realize the equity constraints in both losses. Experiments of cross-domain image classification on three popular benchmark datasets show that both CWSM and NSM contribute to outperforming the corresponding counterparts.

The soil microbial biomass, atmospheric carbon dioxide and abundance of decomposer are influenced by rate and addition pattern of glucose carbon. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of single and repeated additions of glucose-C on soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) and CO2 response in black soil of China. The incubator study comprising of 116-days was conducted in different fertility levels of black soil of Jilin province of China, to determine the effects of glucose addition patterns viz single addition (2% glucose-C once application) and repeated addition (2% glucose-C in five splits) on soil microbial biomass carbon and CO2 accumulation. Fortygram air dried soil was filled into 250 ml Schott bottle and bottles were arranged in CRD-factorial design with 5 repeats. Factor (A), included glucose addition patterns (single & repeated additions). Factor (B), consisted of soil fertility levels: low, medium and high on the basis of soil organic carbon. Thereafter glucose-C (2%) solution was added drop wise to soil. The addition patterns showed positive response on SMBC, CO2 evolved and CO2 accumulation. Over all mean (low, medium and high fertility soils) of repeated addition depicted 32% and 0.92% higher values of SMBC than control and single additions, respectively. The CO2 emission of repeated addition was 21.3% higher in low fertility soil. The mean CO2 accumulation showed higher values in low fertility soil by single addition than repeated and control in all soils. Single glucose-C addition in combination with different soil fertility levels augmented the microbial biomass and triggered carbon mineralization for shorter period (up to 3 weeks). The repeated addition of glucose in combination with different soil fertility levels also enhanced soil microbial biomass carbon and CO2 in longer incubation period. It is concluded from this study that microbial starvation for organic carbon was very high hence; repeated addition may be suggested to meet C demand of microbes

A validated high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed to analyze the (±)-gossypol in the selection of strains of Candida tropicalis culture. Since gossypol was easily degraded and oxidized, the addition of antioxidant NADPH-Na4 and acetone extraction was chosen to prevent gossypol degradation and gradient elution assay was applied to obtain gossypol resolution. Concentrations of gossypol in C. tropicalis ZD-3 culture 20 μg/mL were determined, and concentration–time profiles were observed. Linearity of the gossypol standard curve by HPLC area method was ranged from 0.1 to 20 μg/mL with Y = 26.954 × X − 29.547, R2 = 0.9991, and n = 3, with limit of detection (LOD) of 50 ng/mL and lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 500 ng/mL. The recovery rate is dose-dependent and ranged from 85.3% to 103.5%. It is a rapid and reliable HPLC method for gossypol quantization in microorganism culture which could be applied in solid fermentation in the feed industry.

Here, we report the development of a real-time PCR assay using a TaqMan minor groove binder (MGB, Genecore, NCBI: AF249896.1, 806-820) probe and primer sets designed to recognize the α-lactalbumin gene from the cow (Bos taurus). We evaluated the efficacy of this assay for detecting and quantifying cow α-lactalbumin in commercial foods. Our results demonstrated that the developed method was highly sensitive and showed high specificity for cow milk, with consistent detection of 0.05 ng of bovine DNA. We tested 42 commercial food samples with or without cow milk listed as an ingredient by using the developed assay. Among the 42 samples, 26 products that listed milk as an ingredient and 3 products might contain milk showed positive signals, whereas the other 9 products that did not contain milk and 4 products that might contain milk tested negative. Therefore, this method could be widely used for the detection of cow milk allergens in food.

The effects of supplementing broilers' diets with fermented cottonseed meal (FCSM) on the broilers' performance, apparent digestibility, carcass traits, and meat composition were studied. A total of 180 yellow-feathered chickens of 21 days old were randomly divided into three groups (six replicates of 10 broilers each): 1) a control group (Con), 2) a treatment group of FCSM by Candida tropicalis (Ct), and 3) a treatment group of FCSM by C. Tropicalis plus Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Ct-Sc). Results showed that FCSM supplementation improved the average daily gain and gain-to-feed ratio from the 43rd to 64th and the 21st to 64th day, respectively (P < 0.05). The dietary nutrient digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, and crude ash significantly increased (P < 0.05) with FCSM supplementation. The abdominal fat content was lower (P < 0.05) in Ct and Ct-Sc than in Con (21st to 42nd day). The crude protein content was higher in the thigh muscles of treatment groups and breast muscles of Ct, and the crude fat (ether extract) in the breast muscles of Ct-Sc was higher than in Con throughout the entire duration (P < 0.05). In conclusion, FCSM is beneficial for broilers as it positively affects their growth and digestibility in addition to altering their meat compositions.

• Premise of the study: Microsatellite loci are described for Rhodiola, a medicinal herb genus widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. • Methods and Results: A total of 17 polymorphic microsatellite primer pairs were developed using the combined biotin capture method. The number of alleles per locus ranged from one to 12 across 192 individuals from R. bupleuroides, R. crenulata, R. fastigiata, and R. sacra, and the mean observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.177 to 0.412 and from 0.363 to 0.578, respectively. • Conclusions: The results demonstrate the potential use of this new set of microsatellite markers for genotyping individuals and estimating genetic diversity in Rhodiola.

Tilapias (Oreochromis niloticus) juveniles (total length 4.9 +/- 0.2 cm and weight 1.8 +/- 0.2 g) were exposed to several nitrite concentrations (0, 10, 18, 32, 56 and 100 mg l(-1)) for 96 h, using a semi-static renewal method at chloride levels of 35.0 and 70.0 mg l(-1). At the end of the 96-h period, the median lethal concentration (LC(50)) of nitrite was 28.18 mg l(-1) in water with low chloride content (35.0 mg l(-1)) and 44.67 mg l(-1) with high chloride content (70.0 mg l(-1), respectively). It indicated that high concentrations of chloride ions could reduce the toxicity of nitrite. During the toxicity experiments, the behaviour and clinical signs of tilapias were also observed. Furthermore, the test of toxic mechanism was designed taking five test concentrations, viz., 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg l(-1) and a nitrite-free control. Nitrite exposure produced high levels of methaemoglobin (MHb) but did not seem to cause mortality, as surviving tilapias showed high levels (85.37 +/- 2.23 and 53.82 +/- 3.44 at 35.0 and 70.0 mg l(-1) chloride, respectively). The percentage of MHb exposed to nitrite was significantly higher (P0.05) than the control (0 mg l(-1) nitrite) and increased with the increasing nitrite concentration. However, the percentage of MHb decreased with the increasing chloride concentration.