The stress model of neuroticism and anxiety symptoms in fishermen

Background: Marine fishermen experience high levels of environmental and relationship stress and anxiety.The current study explored the role of stress in the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety symptomsamong marine fishermen. Materials and methods: Participants (fishermen from Tanmen in Qionghai city, Hainan Province) completedthree questionnaires: the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory-Neuroticism Subscale (NEO-FFI-N); the Mental StressorInvestigation Questionnaire (MSIQ); and the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire-30-item-AnxiousArousal Subscale (MASQ-D30-AA) within 1 week before embarking on a fishing trip and then again within1 week after their return to port. The data were subjected to correlational analyses and structural equationmodelling. Results: Positive correlations were found between NEO-FF-N (neuroticism) score, MSIQ score (total stress),MSIQ work-relationship score, ship environmental stress score, and MASQ score (anxiety symptoms). Regressionanalyses showed environmental stress had a significant moderating effect on the relationshipbetween neuroticism and anxiety symptoms, and further analysis showed a mediating effect of work-relationshipstress on the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: Marine fishermen with high environmental stress had greater anxiety symptoms than thosewith low environmental stress. Neuroticism in marine fishermen further affects anxiety symptoms by affectingthe level of work-relationship stress

Integrated bioprocess for conversion of gaseous substrates to liquids

In the quest for inexpensive feedstocks for the cost-effective production of liquid fuels, we have examined gaseous substrates that could be made available at low cost and sufficiently large scale for industrial fuel production. Here we introduce a new bioconversion scheme that effectively converts syngas, generated from gasification of coal, natural gas, or biomass, into lipids that can be used for biodiesel production. We present an integrated conversion method comprising a two-stage system. In the first stage, an anaerobic bioreactor converts mixtures of gases of CO₂ and CO or H₂ to acetic acid, using the anaerobic acetogen Moorella thermoacetica. The acetic acid product is fed as a substrate to a second bioreactor, where it is converted aerobically into lipids by an engineered oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica. We first describe the process carried out in each reactor and then present an integrated system that produces microbial oil, using synthesis gas as input. The integrated continuous bench-scale reactor system produced 18 g/L of C16-C18 triacylglycerides directly from synthesis gas, with an overall productivity of 0.19 g⋅L⁻¹⋅h⁻¹ and a lipid content of 36%. Although suboptimal relative to the performance of the individual reactor components, the presented integrated system demonstrates the feasibility of substantial net fixation of carbon dioxide and conversion of gaseous feedstocks to lipids for biodiesel production. The system can be further optimized to approach the performance of its individual units so that it can be used for the economical conversion of waste gases from steel mills to valuable liquid fuels for transportation.United States. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (DE-AR0000059)United States. Department of Energy (DE-SC0008744

Multi-Stage Tuberculosis Subunit Vaccine Candidate LT69 Provides High Protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Mice

Effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine should target tubercle bacilli with various metabolic states and confer long-term protective immunity. In this study, we constructed a novel multi-stage TB subunit vaccine based on fusion protein ESAT6-Ag85B-MPT64(190-198)-Mtb8.4-HspX (LT69 for short) which combined early expressed antigens and latency-associated antigen. The fusion protein was mixed with an adjuvant being composed of N, N’-dimethyl-N, N’-dioctadecylammonium bromide (DDA) and polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid (PolyI:C) to construct subunit vaccine, whose immunogenicity and protective ability were evaluated in C57BL/6 mice. The results showed that LT69 had strong immunogenicity and high protective effect against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) H37Rv aerosol challenge. Low-dose (2 μg) of LT69 generated long-term immune memory responses and provided effective protection, which was even higher than traditional vaccine BCG did at 30 weeks post the last vaccination. In conclusion, multistage subunit vaccine LT69 showed high and long-term protection against M. tuberculosis infection in mice, whose effect could be enhanced by using a relative low dosage of antigen.National Major Science and Technology Projects (China) (2012ZX10003-008-006)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (31470895)National Natural Science Foundation (China) (81072499)China. Ministry of Education (Doctoral Fund 20120211110038

Berberine Influences Blood Glucose via Modulating the Gut Microbiome in Grass Carp

Berberine (BBR), an isoquinoline alkaloid, is a major pharmacological component of the Chinese herb Coptis chinensis, which has been listed in the Chinese Fisheries Pharmacopeia as a common drug for the control of bacterial fish diseases. However, BBR is poorly absorbed into the systemic circulation but is significantly accumulated in the intestine. It is difficult to explain the mechanism of clinical effects of BBR based on systemic genes and pathways; it has been proved that the function of BBR in mammals is associated with the host metabolic phenotypes mediated by the structural modulation of gut microbiota. The mechanism of pharmacological effects of BBR in fish remains unclear. Here, we fed grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) a diet supplemented with BBR at a dose of 30 mg/Kg body weight daily and compared them with grass carp fed a regular fish feed diet. Biochemical analysis revealed that fish fed BBR had significantly reduced serum glucose, total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride (TG) levels, and increased TC (p < 0.05) and TG (p < 0.01) levels in the liver. Deep amplicon sequencing of the V4 region of 16S rRNA genes of the gut microbiota revealed: (i) the composition of gut microbiota after BBR feeding was more diverse than that in the control group; (ii)before fish were fed BBR, the enriched operational taxonomic units (OTUs) mainly belonged to Firmicutes while most enriched OTUs came from Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes during BBR feeding and after BBR feeding stopped; (iii) the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes was significantly decreased in fish fed BBR. Spearman’s rank correlation showed that 32 berberine-OTUs were significantly negative correlated with glucose (p < 0.05). It indicates that BBR may affect the levels of serum glucose by the structural modulation of gut microbiota. Our results provide insight into the effect of BBR on fish metabolism and gut microbiomes, which would be beneficial for the fish welfare

Nearly a decade-long repeatable seasonal diversity patterns of bacterioplankton communities in the eutrophic Lake Donghu (Wuhan, China).

Uncovering which environmental factors govern community diversity patterns and how ecological processes drive community turnover are key questions related to understand the community assembly. However, the ecological mechanisms regulating long-term variations of bacterioplankton communities in lake ecosystems remain poorly understood. Here we present nearly a decade-long study of bacterioplankton communities from the eutrophic Lake Donghu (Wuhan, China) using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing with MiSeq platform. We found strong repeatable seasonal diversity patterns in terms of both common (detected in more than 50% samples) and dominant (relative abundance >1%) bacterial taxa turnover. Moreover, community composition tracked the seasonal temperature gradient, indicating that temperature is a key environmental factor controlling observed diversity patterns. Total phosphorus also contributed significantly to the seasonal shifts in bacterioplankton composition. However, any spatial pattern of bacterioplankton communities across the main lake areas within season was overwhelmed by their temporal variabilities. Phylogenetic analysis further indicated that 75%-82% of community turnover was governed by homogeneous selection due to consistent environmental conditions within seasons, suggesting that the microbial communities in Lake Donghu are mainly controlled by niche-based processes. Therefore, dominant niches available within seasons might be occupied by similar combinations of bacterial taxa with modest dispersal rates throughout different lake areas

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure