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Enhancing production of methane from cellulose is of utmost importance to improve the fermentation efficiency of lignocellulosic biomass. Antibiotics have demonstrated their ability to stimulate anaerobic digestion (AD) by influencing micro-organism activity. However, there has been limited research on the specific effect of antibiotics on cellulose AD. In this study, we investigated the impact of three antibiotics—tetracycline (TC), cephalexin (CLX), and azithromycin (AZM)—on cellulose AD when inoculated with waste sewage sludge. The results revealed that the presence of AZM and TC led to significantly higher methane yields, with increases of 51.94% and 34.96%, respectively, during a 20-day AD period. In contrast, the presence of CLX resulted in a 23.95% lower methane yield compared to the control. Furthermore, detailed analyses indicated that AZM had a positive influence on cellulose AD at all stages, including methanogenesis, acidogenesis/acetogenesis, and hydrolysis. On the other hand, TC primarily promoted AD during the methanogenesis stage. These findings collectively offer valuable guidance for efficiently transforming the energy potential of lignocellulosic wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the measurement invariance of Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and compared its factorial variance/covariance and latent means among Chinese and Italian children. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the original five factors identified by Kovacs revealed that full measurement invariance did not hold. Further analysis showed that 4 of 21 factor loadings, 14 of 26 intercepts, and 12 of 26 item errors were noninvariant. Factor variance and covariance invariant tests revealed significant differences between Chinese and Italian samples. The latent factor mean comparison suggested no significant difference across the two groups. Nevertheless, the finding of partial metric and scalar invariance suggested that observed mean differences on the CDI items cannot be fully explained by the mean differences in the latent factor. These results suggest that researchers and practitioners exercise caution when gauging the size of the true national population differences in depressive symptoms among Italian and Chinese children when assessed via CDI. In addition to providing needed evidence on the use of the CDI in Italian and Chinese children specifically, the methods used in this research can serve more generally as an example for other cross-cultural assessment research to test structural equivalence and measurement invariance of scales and to determine why it is important to do so. (Contains 3 tables.)

To better understand the comparative effects between pretreatment and bioaugmentation methods on the promotion of corn straw biogasification efficiency, we analysed the cellulase activity, cellulose degradation rate, surface structure characteristics, and biogas production of corn straw that had been pretreated with aerobic microbial consortium (AMC). In addition, we also studied the effect of bioaugmentation using anaerobic microbial consortium (ANMC) on corn straw biogasification efficiency. The results from our study demonstrated that the cumulative methane generated from AMC and ANMC were 233.09 mL·g-1 VS and 242.56 mL·g-1 VS, which was increased compared to the control by 6.89% and 11.23%, respectively. We also observed that ANMC could also function to dramatically promote methane content during the anaerobic digestion of corn straw. This study demonstrated that AMC and ANMC were both able to promote the biogasification efficiency of corn straw, however, ANMC was found to perform better compared to AMC.

Abstract Background Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the causative agent of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), and porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS). It has caused heavy losses in global agriculture in recent decades. Rapid detection of PCV2 is very important for the effective prophylaxis and treatment of PMWS. Results A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was used to detect PCV2 in this study. Three pairs of primers were specially designed for recognizing eight distinct sequences of the ORF2 gene. This gene lies in the PCV2 virus genome sequence, and encodes the Rep protein that is involved in virus replication. Time and temperature conditions for amplification of PCV2 genes were optimized to be 55 min at 59°C. The analysis of clinical samples indicated that the LAMP method was highly sensitive. The detection limit for PCV2 by the LAMP assay was 10 copies, whereas the limit by conventional PCR was 1000 copies. The assay did not cross-react with PCV1, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, transmissible gastroenteritis of pigs virus or rotavirus. When 110 samples were tested using the established LAMP system, 95 were detected as positive. Conclusion The newly developed LAMP detection method for PCV2 was more specific, sensitive, rapid and simple than before. It complements and extends previous methods for PCV2 detection and provides an alternative approach for detection of PCV2.