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BACKGROUND: One of the greatest challenges in using Lactobacillus acidophilus as a probiotic is acid stress. The current research aimed to identify substances that help L. acidophilus resist acid stress; this was achieved through assessing its nutrient consumption patterns under various pH conditions. RESULTS: The consumption rates of alanine, uracil, adenine, guanine, niacin, and manganese were consistently higher than 60% for L. acidophilus LA‐5 cultured at pH 5.8, 4.9, and 4.4. The consumption rates of glutamic acid + glutamine and thiamine increased with decreasing pH and were higher than 60% at pH 4.9 and 4.4. The viable counts of L. acidophilus LA‐5 were significantly increased under the corresponding acidic stress conditions (pH 4.9 and 4.4) through the appropriate addition of either alanine (3.37 and 2.81 mmol L−1), glutamic acid + glutamine (4.77 mmol L−1), guanine (0.13 and 0.17 mmol L−1), niacin (0.02 mmol L−1), thiamine (0.009 mmol L−1), or manganese (0.73 and 0.64 mmol L−1) (P < 0.05). The viable counts of L. acidophilus LA‐5 cultured in a medium supplemented with combined nutritional factors was 1.02–1.03‐fold of the counts observed in control medium under all acid conditions (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Alanine, glutamic acid + glutamine, guanine, niacin, thiamine, and manganese can improve the growth of L. acidophilus LA‐5 in an acidic environment in the present study. The results will contribute to optimizing strategies to enhance the acid resistance of L. acidophilus and expand its application in the fermentation industry. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The FAR1-RELATED SEQUENCE1 (FAR1) and FAR-RED ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL3 (FHY3) gene family plays a crucial role in various physiological and developmental processes, including seed germination, photomorphogenesis, flowering and stress responses. However, genome analysis of FAR1/FHY3 in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) has not been systemically investigated. In this study, 20 FAR1/FHY3 genes in cucumber were identified. The 20 FAR1/FHY3 members are randomly distributed on six chromosomes. The examination of subcellular localization indicated that the nucleus is the primary site where the 20 FAR1/FHY3 members are predominantly found. The analysis of the phylogenetic tree further revealed that the FAR1/FHY3 genes in cucumber are grouped into three distinct categories, exhibiting remarkable resemblance to the corresponding genes in other plant species. The analysis of cis-acting elements showed that most FAR1/FHY3 genes contain a variety of hormones as well as stress-related and light response elements. Through scrutinizing the expression patterns in various tissues, it was discerned that these genes are prominently expressed in roots, stems and leaves, with roots exhibiting the highest level of expression. Additionally, the 20 cucumber FAR1/FHY3 genes are all responsive to jasmonic acid methyl ester (Me-JA) and abscisic acid (ABA). CsFAR6 and CsFAR12 are significantly induced by Me-JA and ABA, respectively. CsFAR13 positively responds to NaCl and PEG6000 stresses. CsFAR11, CsFAR15 and CsFAR13 are significantly induced by the dark. The findings presented in this study establish compelling support for the potential involvement of FAR1/FHY3 genes in the growth, development and stress response of cucumbers. Moreover, these results serve as a solid basis for future investigations into the functional analysis of FAR1/FHY3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiro compounds with unique structural and electronic properties are beneficial for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. Herein, a series of spiro boron‐nitrogen (B‐N) compounds are reported with donor–acceptor (D‐A) interaction through homoconjugation. Three phenyl acridine‐containing spiro B‐N compounds exhibit highly efficient photoluminescence (PL) in degassed toluene and solid‐state with obvious TADF character. The separation of HOMO and LUMO for these compounds is confirmed by theoretical calculations, as is the small ΔEST of phenyl acridine‐containing compounds. These three compounds are used as emitting layers in solution‐processed organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), resulting in deep‐blue to green emission colors with different acceptor moieties. Impressively, an excellent external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 22.1% is recorded for the TPA‐s‐FMesBF‐based OLED device, which is comparable with the highest value from solution‐processed OLEDs based on spiro D‐A emitting materials. This work presents a facile synthetic route to novel B, N‐substituted spiro compounds, as well as the structure‐property relationship of spiro D‐A compounds for highly efficient TADF emitters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology opportunity analysis (TOA) is of great help to technology innovation and R&D strategy of enterprises. Most previous studies of TOA only focused on scientific research or technology development phases, seldom linking technology opportunities to business applications. Using both patent and trademark data, we focused on the linkage of technology and business areas and discovered technology opportunities based on firms' existing technology base. First, we extracted common product keywords from two data sources to construct document-keyword matrices. Then, we matched patents and trademarks with common keywords to build the relevancy network between technology and the business areas. Finally, we discovered technology opportunities from potential undeveloped business areas, taking into account technology-business relevancy and firms' technology base. We conducted a case study on 3D printing to test our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) makes them one of the most promising candidates for terawatt‐scale green energy production with low cost. However, the high boiling point solvents during the solution‐processed film deposition cause anisotropic crystal growth and toxic solvent vapor during high‐throughput manufacturing. Here, a dual‐component green solvent consisting of isopropyl acetate and acetonitrile is proposed to form a volatile perovskite precursor, which can realize the high‐quality perovskite thin film deposition by intermediate phase regulation. A room‐temperature stable perovskite intermediate phase is constructed with the engagement of isopropyl acetate as co‐solvent, which suppresses the exploding nucleation rate in volatile perovskite precursor, providing a fine grain growth rate and wide processing window in scalable film deposition. The corresponding PSCs fabricated by blade coating without anti‐solvents or gas quenching achieve power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.37 % and 15.29 % for the areas of 14.08 cm2 and 37.83 cm2, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]