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Coffee beans, a popular commodity in the world, are processed into coffee, which generates a considerable quantity of spent coffee grounds (SCGs). However, SCGs, a byproduct rich in hemicellulose, poses a challenge due to fermentable sugar loss during conventional pretreatment. This study investigates the efficient production of bioethanol from SCG using an optimized liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment combined with separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) process. LHW pretreatment at 180 °C for 20 min with a high solid-to-liquid ratio (SLR) of 1:6 (w/v) was optimized to disrupt the lignocellulosic structure and retain high levels of fermentable sugars, which included mannose and glucose. This approach achieved a bioethanol concentration of 15.02 ± 0.05 g/L and a productivity rate of 1.252 g/(L·h), demonstrating the efficiency of this integrated process. Interestingly, the high SLR LHW pretreatment significantly reduces water usage and enhances product concentration, offering a promising, environmentally friendly, and economically viable method for industrial bioethanol production from SCGs without the necessity of detoxification.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disorder characterized by an enhanced accumulation of lipids, which affects around 40% of the world’s population. The T. fuciformis fungus possesses immunomodulatory activity and other beneficial properties that may alleviate steatosis through a different mechanism. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect T. fuciformis crude polysaccharides (TFCP) on inflammatory and lipid metabolism gene expression, oxidative stress, and lipid profile. Mice were divided into groups receiving (a) a normal chow diet (NCD), (b) a methionine–choline-deficient (MCD) diet, and (c) a MCD diet with TFCP. Liver histopathology was performed, and the hepatic gene expression levels were estimated using qRT-PCR. The lipid profiles, ALT, AST, and efficient oxidative enzymes were analyzed using ELISA. The TFCP administration in the MCD-fed mice suppressed hepatic lipid accumulation, lipid metabolism-associated genes (HMGCR, FABP, SREBP, ACC, and FAS), and inflammation-associated genes (IL-1β, TLR4, TNF-α, and IL-6) whilst enhancing the expression of HNF4α genes. TFCP mitigated against oxidative stress and normalized healthy lipid profiles. These results highlighted that TFCP prevents NAFLD through the inhibition of oxidative stress and inflammation, suggesting TFCP would potentially be an effective therapeutic agent against NAFLD progression.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) with a hydrophobic aromatic ring structure offer a promising pretreatment method for the selective delignification of lignocellulosic biomass, thereby enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis. Further investigation is needed to determine whether the increased presence of aromatic rings in hydrogen bond receptors leads to a more pronounced enhancement of lignin removal. In this study, six DES systems were prepared using lactic acid (LA)/acetic acid (AA)/levulinic acid (LEA) as hydrogen bond donors (HBD), along with two independent hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA) (benzyl triethyl ammonium chloride (TEBAC)/benzyl triphenyl phosphonium chloride (BPP)) to evaluate their ability to break down sugarcane bagasse (SCB). The pretreatment of the SCB (raw material) was carried out with the above DESs at 120 °C for 90 min with a solid–liquid ratio of 1:15. The results indicated that an increase in the number of aromatic rings may result in steric hindrance during DES pretreatment, potentially diminishing the efficacy of delignification. Notably, the use of the TEBAC:LA-based DES under mild operating conditions proved highly efficient in lignin removal, achieving 85.33 ± 0.52% for lignin removal and 98.67 ± 2.84% for cellulose recovery, respectively. The maximum digestibilities of glucan (56.85 ± 0.73%) and xylan (66.41 ± 3.06%) were attained after TEBAC:LA pretreatment. Furthermore, the maximum ethanol concentration and productivity attained from TEBAC:LA-based DES-pretreated SCB were 24.50 g/L and 0.68 g/(L·h), respectively. Finally, the comprehensive structural analyses of SCB, employing X-rays, FT-IR, and SEM techniques, provided valuable insights into the deconstruction process facilitated by different combinations of HBDs and HBAs within the DES pretreatment.

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole output neurons conveying visual stimuli from the retina to the brain, and dysfunction or loss of RGCs is the primary determinant of visual loss in traumatic and degenerative ocular conditions. Currently, there is a lack of RGC-specific Cre mouse lines that serve as invaluable tools for manipulating genes in RGCs and studying the genetic basis of RGC diseases. The RNA-binding protein with multiple splicing (RBPMS) is identified as the specific marker of all RGCs. Here, we report the generation and characterization of a knock-in mouse line in which a P2A-CreERT2 coding sequence is fused in-frame to the C-terminus of endogenous RBPMS, allowing for the co-expression of RBPMS and CreERT2. The inducible Rbpms-CreERT2 mice exhibited a high recombination efficiency in activating the expression of the tdTomato reporter gene in nearly all adult RGCs as well as in differentiated RGCs starting at E13.5. Additionally, both heterozygous and homozygous Rbpms-CreERT2 knock-in mice showed no detectable defect in the retinal structure, visual function, and transcriptome. Together, these results demonstrated that the Rbpms-CreERT2 knock-in mouse can serve as a powerful and highly desired genetic tool for lineage tracing, genetic manipulation, retinal physiology study, and ocular disease modeling in RGCs.

In recent years, the study of urban flood resistance has included the perspectives of spatial environment and multiple elements of urban space, which break through the limitation of only focusing on engineering measures in traditional disaster prevention. The article constructs a flood prevention and mitigation index system under the perspective of resistance based on the basic work of urban physical examination and ignoring the variability of population size affected by floods in different regions. It also takes 6 districts and 6 counties under the jurisdiction of Zhengzhou City as the research object, combines the relevant data of 12 cities, uses the entropy weight method and the coefficient of variation method to determine the index weights comprehensively and introduces the barrier degree diagnosis model. This article carries out urban flood control and disaster reduction special physical examination, considers resistance obstacle factors and promotes strategy analysis and research. The results show that from the perspective of spatial distribution, the flood control and flood mitigation resistance of Zhengzhou City is in a “differential” distribution state and the high resistance areas are Erqi District, Jinshui District and Gongyi City. In general, the resistance index in the southwest region was higher than that in the northeast region and there was a significant difference between urban areas and counties, showing a medium-high and medium-low resistance status. From the results of the study, to improve the level of resistance to flood mitigation in each city, it is necessary to focus on the main obstacle factors that hinder the development of the city and to fundamentally improve the level of resistance to create a more livable and healthier city according to local conditions.

The global express market has expanded significantly in recent years. High-speed rail express freight transportation has been implemented between multiple cities in China, significantly improving transportation efficiency and effectively meeting demand. In this paper, an optimization model for HSR (high-speed railway) express transport plan is constructed using a space-time-state network, and an improved adaptive genetic algorithm is designed to solve the model. Reasonable transport schemes could be arranged for each cargo flow with the objective of maximizing operational revenue. The numerical experiment based on the Harbin–Dalian high-speed railway in China verifies the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed model. The results show that for HSR operators, appropriate transport strategies can be planned in terms of delivery priorities and transportation mode selection to make full use of the remaining capacity of HSR trains and increase operational revenue.

Refined and deodorized camellia oil has been reported to contain a high amount of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol esters (3-MCPDE) due to the high-temperature deodorization step. To reduce 3-MCPDE in camellia oil, the physical refining process of camellia oil was simulated on a laboratory scale. Response surface methodology (RSM) was designed to modify and optimize the refining process with five processing parameters (water degumming dosage, degumming temperature, activated clay dosage, deodorization temperature and deodorization time). The optimized new refining approach achieved a 76.9% reduction in 3-MCPDE contents, in which the degumming moisture was 2.97%, the degumming temperature was 50.5 °C, the activated clay dosage was 2.69%, the deodorizing temperature was 230 °C, and the deodorizing time was 90 min. A significance test and analysis of variance results demonstrated that the deodorization temperature and deodorization time contributed significantly to the reduction of 3-MCPD ester. The joint interaction effects of activated clay dosage and deodorization temperature were significant for 3-MCPD ester formation.

As a consequence of changing global rainfall patterns, frequent extreme droughts will significantly affect plant growth and ecosystem functions. Fine roots and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) both facilitate Chinese fir nutrient uptake. However, how the growth of fine roots and AMF is regulated for the Chinese fir under drought conditions is unclear. This study used a precipitation reduction treatment (−50% throughfall) to study the seasonal effects of drought on a subtropical Chinese fir plantation. The effects measured included the fine root production, root diameter, specific root length, specific surface area, root tissue density, mycorrhizal hyphal density, spore number, mycorrhizal infection rate and total glomalin. Drought had no significant effect on Chinese fir fine root production but decreased the diameter and tissue density of primary and secondary roots while increasing the specific surface area of secondary roots. Additionally, drought significantly decreased the arbuscular mycorrhizal infection rate and significantly increased hyphal density. The results showed that drought caused the decrease in root diameter, which decreased the surface area available for AMF infection and led to the increase in mycorrhizal hyphal density. Redundancy analyses showed that soil-dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen were the key factors affecting AMF. Our results show that drought could enhance the cooperative strategy of nutrient and moisture absorption by roots and mycorrhizae of the Chinese fir, improving the resistance of Chinese fir growth to drought.

Because images are vulnerable to external attacks in the process of network transmission and traditional image encryption algorithms have limitations such as long encryption time, insufficient entropy or poor diffusion of cipher image information when encrypting color images, a fast image encryption algorithm based on logistics-sine-cosine mapping is proposed. The algorithm first generates five sets of encrypted sequences from the logistics-sine-cosine mapping, then uses the order of the encryption sequence to scramble the image pixels and designs a new pixel diffusion network to further improve the key sensitivity and plain-image sensitivity of the encryption algorithm. Finally, in a series of security analysis experiments, the experimental image Lena was tested 100 times, and the average encryption time was 0.479 s. The average value of the information entropy, pixel change rate and uniform average change intensity of the cipher image reached 7.9994, 99.62% and 33.48%, respectively. The experimental results show that the fast image encryption algorithm based on logistics-sine-cosine mapping takes less time to encrypt, and the cipher image has good information entropy and diffusivity. It is a safe and effective fast image encryption algorithm.

Changes in soil abiotic and biotic properties can be powerful drivers of feedback between plants and soil microbial communities. However, the specific mechanisms by which seasonal changes in environmental factors shape soil microbial communities are not well understood. Here, we collected soil samples from three sites along an elevational gradient (200–1200 m) in subtropical forests with unvarying canopy vegetation. We used an elevation gradient with similar annual precipitation but a clear temperature gradient, and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) were measured to determine the seasonal variations in the composition of soil microbial communities in response to rising temperatures. Our results showed that the abundance of Gram-negative bacteria and total PLFAs were the lowest at low elevations in winter, and the ratio of Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria decreased with increasing elevation. However, the biomass of other microbial groups was the highest at medium elevations in summer, with the exception of actinomycetes species and fungi. Regardless of seasonal changes, soil fungal biomass tended to increase with increasing elevation. Moreover, in summer, microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) increased with increasing elevation, whereas an opposite trend was observed in winter. Redundancy analysis and structural equation modeling showed that the dissolved organic carbon in soil was the main factor affecting the microbial communities along the elevation gradient in winter, whereas in summer, the microbial community structure was driven by shifting nitrogen availability, with both being associated with changing microbial CUE. As such, this study demonstrates distinct seasonal changes in the soil microbial community composition across an elevation gradient that are driven by carbon and nitrogen resource availability and shifts in microbial CUE. Furthermore, our results suggest that the interaction of underground plant roots and microbes drives changes in resource availability, thereby resulting in seasonal variation in soil microbial community composition across an elevation gradient.

Background: The lack of a stable source of hepatocytes is one of major limitations in hepatocyte transplantation and clinical applications of a bioartificial liver. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) with a high degree of self-renewal and totipotency are a potentially limitless source of a variety of cell lineages, including hepatocytes. Many techniques have been developed for effective differentiation of hESCs into functional hepatocyte-like cells. However, the application of hESC-derived hepatocyte-like cells (hESC-Heps) in the clinic has been constrained by the low yield of fully differentiated cells, small-scale culture, difficulties in harvesting, and immunologic graft rejection. To resolve these shortcomings, we developed a novel 3D differentiation system involving alginate-microencapsulated spheres to improve current hepatic differentiation, providing ready-to-use hESC-Heps. Methods: In this study, we used alginate microencapsulation technology to differentiate human embryonic stem cells into hepatocyte-like cells (hESC-Heps). Hepatic markers of hESC-Heps were examined by qPCR and Western blotting, and hepatic functions of hESC-Heps were evaluated by indocyanine-green uptake and release, and ammonia removal. Results: The maturity and hepatic functions of the hESC-Heps derived from this 3D system were better than those derived from 2D culture. Hepatocyte-enriched genes, such as HNF4α, AFP, and ALB, were expressed at higher levels in 3D hESC-Heps than in 2D hESC-Heps. 3D hESC-Heps could metabolize indocyanine green and had better capacity to scavenge ammonia. In addition, the 3D sodium alginate hydrogel microspheres could block viral entry into the microspheres, and thus protect hESC-Heps in 3D microspheres from viral infection. Conclusion: We developed a novel 3D differentiation system for differentiating hESCs into hepatocyte-like cells by using alginate microcapsules.

Wheat straw (WS) is an excellent raw material for biofuel ethanol production. However, the recalcitrance of WS prevents its efficient utilization. In this study, a novel ternary deep eutectic solvent (DES) was developed for enhancing component separation and enzymatic saccharification of WS. Without any detoxification and sterilization, the DES-treated WS hydrolysate was successfully used to produce ethanol. Overall, this research evaluated the effect of ternary DES pretreatment on WS at various temperatures and adjusted the enzyme load, substrate concentration, and fermentation method of treated WS. The results suggested that the cellulose recovery of treated WS after DES pretreatment (120 °C, 1 h) was 94.73 ± 0.22%, while the removal of xylan and lignin reached 89.53 ± 0.36% and 80.05 ± 0.62%, respectively. Importantly, at enzyme loading of 11.4 filter paper unit (FPU)/g WS with 16% fermentation substrate concentration, 91.15 ± 1.07% of cellulose was hydrolyzed, and the glucose yield was 71.58 ± 1.34%. The maximum ethanol yield of DES-treated WS was 81.40 ± 0.01%.

The electrode based on cerium oxide (CeO2) nanorods embedded in nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)2) matrix were prepared and used for detecting glucose non-enzymatically. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and so on. The results indicate that the response of CeO2/Ni(OH)2 nanocomposite are significantly improved due to the synergetic effect between CeO2 and Ni(OH)2. The optimum CeO2/Ni(OH)2 nanocomposite electrode exhibits a detection range from 2 μM to 6.62 mM, a sensitivity of 594 μA mM−1 cm−2, an estimated detection limit of 1.13 μM, and a response time less than 5 s. In addition, this biosensor also shows good selectivity, long term stability, and accurate measurement in juice on sale.