Bioethanol Production from Dilute-acid Pre-treated Wheat Straw Liquor Hydrolysate by Genetically Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Sustainable recycling of lignocellulosic biomass includes utilization of all carbohydrates present in its hydrolysates. Since wheat straw is a xylose-rich raw material, utilization of xylose from obtained liquid part (liquor) of hydrolysates improves overall bioprocess efficiency. In this work, dilute acid pre-treatment of wheat straw was performed in high-pressure reactor at different temperatures (160 °C – 200 °C), residence times (1 min – 10 min), and acids (H2SO4 and H3PO4) concentrations. During dilute acid pre-treatment, hemicellulose is degraded to pentose sugars that cannot be used by industrial ethanol-producing yeasts. Therefore, genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that can utilize xylose was used. Fermentations were performed on different xylose-rich liquor wheat straw hydrolysates in shake-flasks and in horizontal rotating tubular bioreactor. The efficiency of fermentations carried out in shake flasks using xylose-rich liquor wheat straw hydrolysates were in the range of 19.61 – 74.51 %. However, the maximum bioprocess efficiency (88.24 %) was observed during fermentation in the HRTB on the liquor wheat straw hydrolysate obtained by pre-treatment with 2 % w/w phosphoric acid

Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder in a study of 54 datasets

Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been reported. However, findings have been inconsistent, likely due to limited sample sizes. Here we investigated 1,774 individuals with ASD and 1,809 controls, from 54 independent data sets of the ENIGMA consortium. ASD was significantly associated with alterations of cortical thickness asymmetry in mostly medial frontal, orbitofrontal, cingulate and inferior temporal areas, and also with asymmetry of orbitofrontal surface area. These differences generally involved reduced asymmetry in individuals with ASD compared to controls. Furthermore, putamen volume asymmetry was significantly increased in ASD. The largest case-control effect size was Cohen’s d = −0.13, for asymmetry of superior frontal cortical thickness. Most effects did not depend on age, sex, IQ, severity or medication use. Altered lateralized neurodevelopment may therefore be a feature of ASD, affecting widespread brain regions with diverse functions. Large-scale analysis was necessary to quantify subtle alterations of brain structural asymmetry in ASD

Fusiform Correlates of Facial Memory in Autism

behavioral sciences ISSN 2076-328X www.mdpi.com/journal/behavsci