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Nowadays, the enormously growing amount of kitchen waste and wasted sludge has greatly received global attention. Vermicomposting has been represented as an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative for organic waste management. This study utilized kitchen waste generated by the university canteen and excess sludge from municipal wastewater treatment to collaboratively realize waste to resource through vermicomposting with a composting control. The results indicated that the treatment utilizing an equal mass ratio of wasted sludge and kitchen waste (T3) exhibited the greatest reduction in total organic carbon and the highest increase in total nitrogen. Furthermore, the predominant phyla observed were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes. Functional prediction analysis demonstrated higher relative abundances of β-glucosidase (ascF) and 6-phospho-β-glucosidase (bglA, celF) in the vermicomposting, suggesting that the earthworms essentially enhanced the cellulose degradation. More importantly, the co-occurrence network analysis demonstrated that the vermicomposting showed a stronger interaction between Gordonia and other bacteria, thereby enhancing its ability to degrade macromolecular compounds. In general, the vermicomposting can smoothly and remarkably stabilize the kitchen waste, assisted by excess sludge and sawdust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a multilayer coating technology would be adopted to prepare a porous composite scaffold and the growth factor release and ultrasound techniques were introduced into bone tissue engineering to finally solve the problems of vascularization and bone formation in the scaffold whilst the designed multilayer composite with gradient degradation characteristics in the space was used to match the new bone growth process better. The results of animal experiments showed that the use of low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) combined with growth factors demonstrated excellent capabilities and advantages in both vascularization and new bone formation in bone tissue engineering. The degradation of the used scaffold materials could match new bone formation very well. The results also showed that only RGD-promoted cell adhesion was insufficient to satisfy the needs of new bone formation while growth factors and LIPUS stimulation were the key factors in new bone formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth factor-loaded fluorescent alginate microspheres, which can realise sustained growth factor release and fluorescence imaging, were synthesised by in situ formation of ZnO quantum dots (QDs) and covalent graft of 4-(1-pyrenyl) butyric acid (PBA). BSA was chosen as a growth factor model protein to study the release kinetic of growth factors from alginate microspheres. The microsphere size and fluorescent properties were also investigated. Investigations of cell culture were used for evaluating biocompatibility of BSA-loaded fluorescent microspheres and fluorescence imaging property of ZnO QDs and PBA-grafted sodium alginate from the microspheres. The results show that they have good fluorescent property either to microspheres or to cells and fluorescent microspheres have good biocompatibility and property in sustained release of growth factors. The obtained microspheres will be expected to realise the imaging of cells and materials and also the release of growth factor in tissue engineering or in cell culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]