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Stone columns (SCs) can reduce the seismic response of pile-supported wharves in liquefiable sites. A series of parametric studies were conducted to investigate the influence of SC diameter, SC space ratio, SC permeability, and typical earthquake characteristics on the seismic response of pile-support wharves and to assess the SC retrofit effect. The ratio of the SC space and diameter is found to play an important role in reducing the deck displacement. Based on the experimental results, the damage state of a pile support can be restricted to a potentially tolerable level using SCs in different liquefiable sites. Preliminary design suggestions are proposed for improving the seismic response of pile-supported wharves in earthquake-prone regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Culture degeneration usually results in great commercial losses in the economically important filamentous fungi, but the genetic causes of the degeneration remain elusive. In the fungus Metarhizium robertsii, we found that deletion of the vacuolar arginine exporter gene Vae caused culture degeneration. Compared to the WT strain, the mutant showed increased apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and mitochondrial membrane potential collapse, reduced conidial yield and abnormal lipid droplet formation. The extent of the degeneration in the mutant gradually increased over the successive subculturing, which eventually became irreversible; compared to the third subculture of the mutant, the seventh subculture showed a lower conidial yield and pathogenicity to insects, stronger apoptosis, higher ROS level and a smaller number of conidial lipid droplets. Incorporation of the genomic clone of Vae could not restore the WT phenotypes in the seventh subculture, but could in the third one. Loss‐of‐function in Vae resulted in vacuolar arginine accumulation and reduction in the cytosolic arginine. This downregulated the expression of the regulator CAG9 of G protein signalling pathway, which accounted for most of the phenotypic changes associated with the degeneration of the mutant. We identified a deleterious mutation that causes culture degeneration in a filamentous fugus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to make full use of nonlocal and local similarity and improve the efficiency and adaptability of the NPB-DL algorithm, this paper proposes a signal reconstruction algorithm based on dictionary learning algorithm combined with structure similarity clustering. Nonparametric Bayesian for Dirichlet process is firstly introduced into the prior probability modeling of clustering labels, and then, Dirichlet prior distribution is applied to the prior probability of cluster labels so as to ensure the analyticity and conjugation of the probability model. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is not only superior to other comparison algorithms in numerical evaluation indicators but also closer to the original image in terms of visual effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of separation and purification on structural characteristics of polysaccharide from quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd) was investigated. Using quinoa as raw material, the quinoa polysaccharide (QP) was extracted by ultrasonic-assisted method and isolated and purified to obtain three sub-fractions (QPI, QPI-I, QPI-I-I) by resin adsorption, anion-exchange and gel filtration chromatography, respectively. After separation and purification, the polysaccharide content of quinoa polysaccharide increased from 83.29% to 90.12%. XRD and Congo red experiments showed that this process contributed to the formation of crystal structure and triple helix structure. Moreover, the intensity of fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), 1H and 13C Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), particle size, dispersion index gradually decreased according to separation and purification, which indicated that a more uniform and stable polysaccharide structure was formed. In addition, FT-IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR analysis showed that QP, QPI, QPI-I, QPI-I-I were all neutral polysaccharides. The above results suggested that the separation and purification process significantly enhanced the stability of polysaccharide structure. In this process, the aggregation state changed with the polarity change, and the final structure changed, which led to the change of its solubility, viscosity and other physical and chemical properties. • Separation and purification were conducive to the formation of crystal structure. • Separation and purification contributed to the formation of triple helix structure. • The particle size and dispersion index of polysaccharides decreased gradually. • After purification, the structure of quinoa polysaccharide was more stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equivocality of dose-response relationships has, in practice, hampered the application of biomarkers as a means to evaluate environmental risk, yet this important issue has not yet been fully recognized or explored. This paper evaluates the potential of antioxidant enzymes in the ciliated protozoan Euplotes vannus for use as biomarkers. Dose-response dynamics, together with both the enzyme activity and the gene expression of the antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase, were investigated when E. vannus were exposed to graded doses of nitrofurazone for several discrete durations. Mathematical models were explored to characterize the dose-response profiles and, specifically, to identify any equivocality in terms of endpoint. Significant differences were found in both enzyme activity and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in the E. vannus treated with nitrofurazone, and the interactions between exposure dosage and duration were significant. Correlations between enzyme activity, mRNA expression, and nitrofurazone dose varied with exposure duration. Particularly, the dose-responses showed different dynamics depending on either endpoint or exposure duration. Our findings suggest that both the enzyme activity and the gene expression of the tested antioxidant enzymes can be used as biomarkers for ecotoxicological assessment on the premise of ascertaining appropriate dosage scope, exposure duration, endpoint, etc., which can be achieved by using dose-response dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curcumin (Cur) exhibits low water solubility and insufficient dispersibility in food systems, and cannot exert its excellent antioxidant properties. In this work, Chitosan (CS) nanoparticles were prepared by ionic crosslinking method using chitosan as carrier and sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as crosslinking agent, then Cur was loaded to obtain curcumin nanoparticles (CNPs). CNPs presented a spherical morphology with average size of 278.9 nm. Compared with the solubility of native Cur (0.017 μg/mL) at 25 °C, the water solubility of CNPs increased to 35.92 μg/mL of more than 2100 times. In addition, the antioxidant capacity of Cur was also studied based on DPPH free radical scavenging, the results showed that with the increase of the concentration, the antioxidant capacity of CNPs was significantly increased (p < 0.05), which was higher than that of Cur at the same concentration. The edible coating was prepared by adding CNPs into sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to study the effects of CMC-CNPs coatings in improving the quality and shelf life of fresh pork stored at 4 ± 1 °C for 15 days. The results showed that CMC-CNPs edible coating could significantly inhibit lipid oxidation of fresh pork (p < 0.05) and could be further applied in lipid rich food packaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honeycomb-like granules, with 2–4 μm pores on the surface, were prepared by heating potato starch suspensions in water at the pasting temperature. These granules with a yield of 84% were most amorphous (relative crystallinity 1.9%). Their total pore area was 0.668 m2/g, porosity was 73.4%, and mean particle size (D 50) was 154.3 μm. The molecular weights (M W) of honeycomb-like granules were: amylopectin, 8.7 × 107 g/mol; amylose, 3.1 × 105 g/mol, close to those of native starch. The chain length distribution profiles of honeycomb-like granules were similar to those of native starch, while the proportions of B2 and B3 chains were higher. The water and oil adsorption of honeycomb-like granules were about 1.5 and 2.4 times those of native starch, respectively; and the cold water solubility of honeycomb-like granules was 88.5%, while native starch showed no solubility in cold water. Thus honeycomb-like starch granules have the potential to be applied as adsorbents, thickeners and adhesives for their dispersibility, adsorption capacity and cold water solubility. [ 1–54 ] Unlabelled Image • A method to prepare honeycomb-like starch granules was established. • The pore size of the honeycomb-like potato starch granules was about 2–4 μm. • The honeycomb-like potato starch granules had better adsorption capacities. • The cold water solubility of honeycomb-like potato starch granules was 88.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of potato flour/wheat flour (PF/WF) ratio on the mixing properties of dough and the quality of noodles were investigated. Substitution of wheat flour with potato flour caused the increases in the water absorption and the protein weakening value (C1-C2) of formulated flours, as well as the decrease in the corresponding dough mixing parameters including dough development time (DDT), dough stable time (DST), initial mixing time (C2), maximum torque during heating (C3), minimum torque of hot paste (C4) and the amount of retrogradation (C5-C4), indicating that the addition of PF weakened dough strength but improved degradation resistance. The textural, cooking, sensory characteristics and microstructure of noodle samples were evaluated. The results indicate that adhesiveness, springiness, broken ratio and cooking lose increased progressively with increasing PF content while the score of sensory evaluation continued to decrease. However, hardness, cooking yield and optimum cooked time for the samples of PF content range from 10% to 20% showed a distinctive variation. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) confirmed changes in noodle microstructure as PF addition affected gluten network development. In general, noodles with PF content below 40% were acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After combined hydrolysis by α -amylase and β -amylase at room temperature, spherical blocklets in diameters of 27–60 nm were observed on the surface of tapioca starch granules by scanning electron micrography (SEM). Tapioca starch (1%, w/w, db, distilled water) was heated by using a rapid visco analyzer (RVA) in four different programs, then the samples were settled and freeze dried, respectively. The SEM images showed that the blocklets swelled at 52 °C; the swollen blocklets deformed to olive shape, and linked by molecular chains, formed bead-like structure at 62 °C; they started to merge at 72 °C (pasting temperature); then the blocklets fused together and their shapes disappeared completely, and the gel network formed at 95 °C. Furthermore, the morphological changes of the blocklets were not simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The toxic chemical element cadmium (Cd) in paddy fields triggered increasing problems of growth inhibition and food security in rice consistently. In this study, we found Metarhizium robertsii , which is widely used as a bioinsecticide and biofertilizer in agriculture and recently found to be resistant to Cd, developed intraradical and extraradical symbiotic hyphae in rice seedlings, and successfully colonized in the rice rhizosphere soil to more than 103 CFUs g−1 soil at harvesting. M. robertsii colonization significantly reduced Cd accumulations in both hydroponically cultured seedlings and the matured rice cultured in Cd contaminated potting soil (2 ppm). Notably, Cd accumulation reduction of the roots, stems, leaves, husks and grains of the matured rice induced by the fungus were 44.3%, 32.1%, 35.3%, 31.9% and 24.7%, respectively. It was caused by the M. robertsii -induced suppression of Cd intake transporter gene osNramp5 in the rice roots, and the chemical stabilizing of Cd to the residual fraction in the rhizosphere soil. In addition, the colonization of M. robertsii significantly promoted the growth characters and the photosynthesis of the rice plants. This is achieved by the increase of endogenous hormone levels of indole-3-acetic, gibberellin A 3 and brassinolide induced by M. robertsii. Furthermore, the fungus enhanced the antioxidative capacities via increasing enzyme activities of catalase, peroxidase and the production of glutathione, ascorbic acid, proline in the rice plants. Our work provides theoretical basis for expanding the use of M. robertsii as in situ Cd accumulation reduction and detoxification agents for rice in contaminated paddy fields. [Display omitted] • M. robertsii colonized well in the rice roots and the rhizosphere soil. • M. robertsii reduced Cd accumulation and promoted plant growth of rice. • Rice osNramp5 was suppressed and soil Cd ions were stabilized by the fungus. • Endogenous phytohormones IAA, GA 3 and BL were elevated by the fungus. • M. robertsii stimulated antioxidative capacities of rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative stress is encountered by fungi in almost all niches, resulting in fungal degeneration or even death. Fungal tolerance to oxidative stress has been extensively studied, but the current understanding of the mechanisms regulating oxidative stress tolerance in fungi remains limited. The entomopathogenic and endophytic fungus Metarhizium robertsii encounters oxidative stress when it infects insects and develops a symbiotic relationship with plants, and we found that host reactive oxygen species (ROSs) greatly limited fungal growth in both insects and plants. We identified a histone H3 deacetylase (HDAC3) that catalyzed the deacetylation of lysine 56 of histone H3. Deleting Hdac3 significantly reduced the tolerance of M. robertsii to oxidative stress from insects and plants, thereby decreasing fungal ability to colonize the insect hemocoel and plant roots. HDAC3 achieved this by regulating the expression of three genes in the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway, which includes the lanosterol synthase gene Las1 . The deletion of Hdac3 or Las1 reduced the ergosterol content and impaired cell membrane integrity. This resulted in an increase in ROS accumulation in fungal cells that were thus more sensitive to oxidative stress. We further showed that HDAC3 regulated the expression of the three ergosterol biosynthesis genes in an indirect manner. Our work significantly advances insights into the epigenetic regulation of oxidative stress tolerance and the interactions between M. robertsii and its plant and insect hosts.IMPORTANCEOxidative stress is a common challenge encountered by fungi that have evolved sophisticated mechanisms underlying tolerance to this stress. Although fungal tolerance to oxidative stress has been extensively investigated, the current understanding of the mechanisms for fungi to regulate oxidative stress tolerance remains limited. In the model entomopathogenic and plant symbiotic fungus Metarhizium robertsii , we found that the histone H3 deacetylase HDAC3 regulates the production of ergosterol, an essential cell membrane component. This maintains the cell membrane integrity to resist the oxidative stress derived from the insect and plant hosts for successful infection of insects and development of symbiotic associates with plants. Our work provides significant insights into the regulation of oxidative stress tolerance in M. robertsii and its interactions with insects and plants., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.