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Adsorption method is an effective approach to treat wastewater containing methylene blue. Herein, a cost-effective and eco-friendly lignin-based network composite hydrogel adsorbent (PAA@SML) was constructed by using polyacrylic acid (PAA) to crosslink with sulfomethylated lignin (SML) via free radical polymerization for adsorption of methylene blue (MB) from wastewater. The constructed PAA@SML-0.2 exhibited remarkable adsorption performance towards removal of MB, with a maximum theoretical adsorption capacity of 777.1 mg·g -1 . The improved efficiency can be attributed to the well-established network structure and abundant hydrophilic functional groups present in the adsorbent, promoting the interaction between methylene blue (MB) molecules and the adsorption sites of the adsorbent. The adsorption process of the adsorbent for MB followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir isotherm models, which illustrated the adsorption process attributed to monolayer chemisorption. Mechanism investigation confirmed that the adsorption of MB by PAA@SML-0.2 primarily relied on hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. Moreover, the recyclability test demonstrated excellent regeneration usability and stability of PAA@SML-0.2, and the adsorption capacity maintained above 74.0 % after five cycles. This constructed lignin-based network composite hydrogel is considered to have great potential in the treatment of organic dye in wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The Dmrt (Doublesex and Mab-3 related transcription factor) gene family is a class of crucial transcription factors characterized by a conserved DM (Doublesex/Mab-3) domain. Previous researches indicate this gene family is involved in various physiological processes, especially in sex determination/differentiation and gonad development. Despite the vital roles of the Dmrt gene family in physiological processes, the comprehensive characterization and analysis of the dmrt genes in large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea), one of the most commercially important marine fish in China, have not been described. In this study, we performed the first genome-wide systematic analysis of L. crocea dmrt genes through the bioinformatics method. A total of seven members of the Dmrt gene family including Lcdmrt1, Lcdmrt2a, Lcdmrt2b, Lcdmrt3, Lcdmrt4, Lcdmrt5, and Lcdmrt6 were excavated based on the genome data of L. crocea. Further analysis revealed that the dmrt genes of L. crocea were distributed unevenly across four chromosomes. There were three dmrt genes (Lcdmrt1, Lcdmrt2a, and Lcdmrt3) on 3rd chromosome, one (Lcdmrt6) on 13th chromosome, one (Lcdmrt4) on 14th chromosome, two on (Lcdmrt5 and Lcdmrt2b) 17th chromosome. The gene structure analysis indicated that the number of introns of different dmrt genes of L. crocea had some differences: Lcdmrt1 had four introns, Lcdmrt2a, Lcdmrt2b, and Lcdmrt6 had two introns, Lcdmrt3, Lcdmrt4, and Lcdmrt5 had only one intron. The expression pattern analysis with published gonad transcriptome datasets and further confirmed by qRT-PCR revealed that these members of the Dmrt gene family except for Lcdmrt4 were all sexually dimorphic and preferred expressing in testis. Furthermore, the expression pattern analysis also revealed that the expression level of Lcdmrt1 and Lcdmrt6 was significantly higher than that of other members, suggesting that these two genes may play a more important role in testis. Overall, our studies provide a comprehensive insight into the Dmrt gene family members and a basis for the further study of their biological functions in L. crocea., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: Phosphatidylinositol-3 kinases (PI3K)-Protein kinase B (Akt)-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway plays an important role in the synthesis and secretion of triacylglycerol. However, the mechanism of PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway in regulating lipid metabolism of goose liver was poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to determine how PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway regulating lipid metabolic homeostasis in goose hepatocytes. Goose primary hepatocytes were treated with different PI3K-Akt-mTOR signal inhibitors (LY294002, rapamycin and NVP-BEZ235) for 24 h. The results showed that these inhibitors evidently inhibited PI3K-Akt-mTOR downstream signaling. Meanwhile, these PI3K-Akt-mTOR inhibitors reduced intracellular lipid accumulation, decreased the mRNA expression and protein content of genes involved in the de novo fatty acid synthesis, while increased the transcriptional and protein level of key factors involved in fatty acid oxidation and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) assembly and secretion., Conclusion: These findings suggested that the reduction of lipids accumulation induced-by inhibiting PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway was closely linked to the decrease of lipogenesis, the increase of fatty acids oxidation, and the increase of VLDL assembly and secretion in goose hepatocytes.

High levels of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) such as hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) have been found in soil of the Pearl River Delta (PRD), attributable to high pesticide application in this area. Consequently, the occurrence and environmental effect of HCHs and DDTs in the PRD have attracted considerable attention. However, study focusing on the influence of potential factors such as soil property on the environmental fate of HCHs and DDTs in the PRD has been rare. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of soil physiochemical properties on the distribution patterns and fate of soil HCHs and DDTs on a large spatial scale. Levels of HCHs (sum of α-, β-, γ- and δ-HCH) and DDTs (sum of 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis-(p-chlorophenyl)ethane (p,p'-DDT), 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis-(p-chlorophenyl)ethane (p,p'-DDD), and 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis-(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene (p,p'-DDE)) in 151 soil samples covering all areas of the PRD and physiochemical parameters related to soil properties including pH, total organic carbon (TOC), total Fe (TFe), DCB-Fe (DFe), amorphous-Fe (AFe), complexed-Fe (CFe), total Mn (TMn), DCB-Mn (DMn), amorphous-Mn (AMn), complexed-Mn (CMn) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were determined. The residual levels of HCHs and DDTs in soils of the present study, which are mainly controlled by soil TOC and CFe content and varying spatially with land use types, may potentially pose ecological risk to plants and animals. On the other hand, transformation of soil HCHs may be affected by pH and DDT transformation correlated significantly with AFe and CFe. Currently, soil has become an important secondary source of OCPs and the re-emission potential of OCPs in soil was mainly affected by soil OCP concentrations and land use types., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The iron-pillared bentonite (Fe-Ben) was prepared by ion-exchange using the natural bentonite (GZ-Ben) from Gaozhou, China, at room temperature without calcination. Both Fe-Ben and GZ-Ben were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N(2) adsorption and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show that the d(001) value and surface area of the bentonite material increased after iron pillaring. Fe-Ben adsorbed much more Rhodamine B (RhB) than GZ-Ben, which can be ascribed to the special surface properties and large surface area of Fe-Ben. The optimum pH value for the adsorption of RhB on Fe-Ben is 5.0. The adsorption of RhB onto Fe-Ben can be well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the intraparticle diffusion kinetic model. The adsorption isotherm of RhB onto Fe-Ben matches well with the Langmuir model., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of chemical composition of wheat by-products on the TME value to ducks and to establish the prediction models estimating TME. Seven representative samples were selected from 23 wheat by-products millings samples based on the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content. According to the Sibbald method, male Cherry Valley ducks were chosen to assay the TME of 7 representative samples. Stepwise regression analysis was performed to establish the prediction equations of TME using CP, ether extract (EE), NDF, acid detergent fiber, crude fiber, and gross energy (GE) as independent variables. The NDF, CP, and DM of 23 samples of wheat by-product averaged to be 33.39 +/- 11.04%, 19.2 +/- 3.25%, 87.17 +/- 0.95%, respectively. The TME values of 7 representative samples averaged 12.02 MJ/kg, with much larger CV than GE (17.72 vs. 2.82%). The crude fiber, NDF, acid detergent fiber were highly but negatively correlated with TME (P < 0.01), in which the greatest correlation coefficient (r = -0.969) was observed between NDF and TME. No significant correlation of CP, EE, ash, and GE to TME was found among the 7 representative samples. The optimal equation in terms of R(2) from using a single chemical analysis was obtained in the total group: TME = -0.1564NDF + 17.4696 (R(2) = 0.94, P = 0.0003), and the TME prediction equation was improved by the addition of the EE and CP content to sequential analysis: TME = -0.17NDF + 0.98EE - 0.27CP + 19.31 (R(2) = 0.99, residual SD = 0.35, P < 0.01). The results of present study suggest that NDF could be used as an effective indicator for the prediction of the TME value of wheat by-products for ducks.