Proizvodnja polinezasićenih masnih kiselina s pomoću plijesni Mucor recurvus sp. upotrebom melase šećerne trske kao izvora ugljika

Sugarcane molasses is rich in nutriments and vitamins. It may be used as the carbon source for the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) by Mucor recurvus sp. Using sugarcane molasses, the effects of fermentation parameters and media components on polyunsaturated fatty acid production through both linear and orthogonal array experiments were investigated. The best fermentation conditions for PUFA production were found as follows: 15 % sugarcane molasses, pH=6.0, 28 °C, 5 days, 160 rpm. It was also found that molasses and urea enhanced PUFA production with the optimal carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 35. Under the most favourable conditions, the total lipid content at 7.13 g/L and PUFA up to 5.74 g/L including (0.82±0.05) g/L of linolenic acid (LA), (1.35±0.02) g/L of γ-linolenic acid (GLA), (0.17±0.06) g/L of α-linolenic acid (ALA), (0.57±0.06) g/L of arachidonic acid (ARA), (0.46±0.07) g/L of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and (0.34±0.08) g/L of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were obtained. Our study suggests that sugarcane molasses is a superior alternative carbon source for industrial PUFA production.Melasa šećerne trske je bogata hranjivim tvarima i vitaminima. Upotrebljava se kao izvor ugljika za proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina s pomoću plijesni Mucor recurvus sp. Linearnom i ortogonalnom metodom istražen je utjecaj uvjeta fermentacije i sastojaka podloge, uz dodatak melase šećerne trske, na proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina. Najbolji uvjeti fermentacije za proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina bili su: 15 % melase šećerne trske; pH=6,0; 28 °C; 5 dana i 160 rpm. Također je utvrđeno da dodatak melase i uree povećava proizvodnju pri optimalnom omjeru ugljika i dušika C/N=35. Pri optimalnim uvjetima proizvedeno je ukupno 7,13 g/L lipida i 5,74 g/L polinezasićenih masnih kiselina, od toga (0,82±0,05) g/L linolenske kiseline, (1,35±0,02) g/L γ-linolenske kiseline, (0,17±0,06) g/L α-linolenske kiseline, (0,57±0,06) g/L arahidonske kiseline, (0,46±0,07) g/L eikosapentenoične kiseline i (0,34±0,08) g/L dokosaheksaenoične kiseline. Ovo je istraživanje pokazalo da je melasa šećerne trske najbolji alternativni izvor ugljika za industrijsku proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina

Proizvodnja polinezasićenih masnih kiselina s pomoću plijesni Mucor recurvus sp. upotrebom melase šećerne trske kao izvora ugljika

Sugarcane molasses is rich in nutriments and vitamins. It may be used as the carbon source for the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) by Mucor recurvus sp. Using sugarcane molasses, the effects of fermentation parameters and media components on polyunsaturated fatty acid production through both linear and orthogonal array experiments were investigated. The best fermentation conditions for PUFA production were found as follows: 15 % sugarcane molasses, pH=6.0, 28 °C, 5 days, 160 rpm. It was also found that molasses and urea enhanced PUFA production with the optimal carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 35. Under the most favourable conditions, the total lipid content at 7.13 g/L and PUFA up to 5.74 g/L including (0.82±0.05) g/L of linolenic acid (LA), (1.35±0.02) g/L of γ-linolenic acid (GLA), (0.17±0.06) g/L of α-linolenic acid (ALA), (0.57±0.06) g/L of arachidonic acid (ARA), (0.46±0.07) g/L of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and (0.34±0.08) g/L of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were obtained. Our study suggests that sugarcane molasses is a superior alternative carbon source for industrial PUFA production.Melasa šećerne trske je bogata hranjivim tvarima i vitaminima. Upotrebljava se kao izvor ugljika za proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina s pomoću plijesni Mucor recurvus sp. Linearnom i ortogonalnom metodom istražen je utjecaj uvjeta fermentacije i sastojaka podloge, uz dodatak melase šećerne trske, na proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina. Najbolji uvjeti fermentacije za proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina bili su: 15 % melase šećerne trske; pH=6,0; 28 °C; 5 dana i 160 rpm. Također je utvrđeno da dodatak melase i uree povećava proizvodnju pri optimalnom omjeru ugljika i dušika C/N=35. Pri optimalnim uvjetima proizvedeno je ukupno 7,13 g/L lipida i 5,74 g/L polinezasićenih masnih kiselina, od toga (0,82±0,05) g/L linolenske kiseline, (1,35±0,02) g/L γ-linolenske kiseline, (0,17±0,06) g/L α-linolenske kiseline, (0,57±0,06) g/L arahidonske kiseline, (0,46±0,07) g/L eikosapentenoične kiseline i (0,34±0,08) g/L dokosaheksaenoične kiseline. Ovo je istraživanje pokazalo da je melasa šećerne trske najbolji alternativni izvor ugljika za industrijsku proizvodnju polinezasićenih masnih kiselina

SocAoG: Incremental Graph Parsing for Social Relation Inference in Dialogues

Inferring social relations from dialogues is vital for building emotionally intelligent robots to interpret human language better and act accordingly. We model the social network as an And-or Graph, named SocAoG, for the consistency of relations among a group and leveraging attributes as inference cues. Moreover, we formulate a sequential structure prediction task, and propose an $\alpha$-$\beta$-$\gamma$ strategy to incrementally parse SocAoG for the dynamic inference upon any incoming utterance: (i) an $\alpha$ process predicting attributes and relations conditioned on the semantics of dialogues, (ii) a $\beta$ process updating the social relations based on related attributes, and (iii) a $\gamma$ process updating individual's attributes based on interpersonal social relations. Empirical results on DialogRE and MovieGraph show that our model infers social relations more accurately than the state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, the ablation study shows the three processes complement each other, and the case study demonstrates the dynamic relational inference.Comment: Long paper (oral) accepted by ACL-IJCNLP 202

Neural-Symbolic Recursive Machine for Systematic Generalization

Despite the tremendous success, existing machine learning models still fall short of human-like systematic generalization -- learning compositional rules from limited data and applying them to unseen combinations in various domains. We propose Neural-Symbolic Recursive Machine (NSR) to tackle this deficiency. The core representation of NSR is a Grounded Symbol System (GSS) with combinatorial syntax and semantics, which entirely emerges from training data. Akin to the neuroscience studies suggesting separate brain systems for perceptual, syntactic, and semantic processing, NSR implements analogous separate modules of neural perception, syntactic parsing, and semantic reasoning, which are jointly learned by a deduction-abduction algorithm. We prove that NSR is expressive enough to model various sequence-to-sequence tasks. Superior systematic generalization is achieved via the inductive biases of equivariance and recursiveness embedded in NSR. In experiments, NSR achieves state-of-the-art performance in three benchmarks from different domains: SCAN for semantic parsing, PCFG for string manipulation, and HINT for arithmetic reasoning. Specifically, NSR achieves 100% generalization accuracy on SCAN and PCFG and outperforms state-of-the-art models on HINT by about 23%. Our NSR demonstrates stronger generalization than pure neural networks due to its symbolic representation and inductive biases. NSR also demonstrates better transferability than existing neural-symbolic approaches due to less domain-specific knowledge required

Hopf Bifurcation Control in a FAST TCP and RED Model via Multiple Control Schemes

We focus on the Hopf bifurcation control problem of a FAST TCP model with RED gateway. The system gain parameter is chosen as the bifurcation parameter, and the stable region and stability condition of the congestion control model are given by use of the linear stability analysis. When the system gain passes through a critical value, the system loses the stability and Hopf bifurcation occurs. Considering the negative influence caused by Hopf bifurcation, we apply state feedback controller, hybrid controller, and time-delay feedback controller to postpone the onset of undesirable Hopf bifurcation. Numerical simulations show that the hybrid controller is the most sensitive method to delay the Hopf bifurcation with identical parameter conditions. However, nonlinear state feedback control and time-delay feedback control schemes have larger control parameter range in the Internet congestion control system with FAST TCP and RED gateway. Therefore, we can choose proper control method based on practical situation including unknown conditions or parameter requirements. This paper plays an important role in setting guiding system parameters for controlling the FAST TCP and RED model

A case-control study on risk factors of breast cancer in China

Introduction: To screen the risk factors associated with breast cancer among Chinese women in order to evaluate the individual risk of developing breast cancer among women in China. Material and methods: A case-control study on 416 breast cancer patients and 1156 matched controls was conducted in 14 hospitals in 8 provinces of China in 2008. Controls were age- and region-matched to the cases. Clinicians conducted in-person interviews with the subjects to collect information on demographics and suspected risk factors for breast cancer that are known worldwide. Conditional logistic regression was used to derive odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the associations between risk factors and breast cancer. Results: Compared with matched controls, women with breast cancer were significantly more likely to have higher body mass index (BMI, OR = 4.07, 95% CI; 2.98-5.55), history of benign breast disease (BBD) biopsy (OR = 1.68, 95% CI; 1.19-2.38), older age of menarche (AOM) (OR = 1.41, 95% CI: 107-187), stress anticipation (SA), for grade 1-4, OR = 2.15, 95% CI; 1.26-3.66; for grade 5-9, OR = 3.48, 95% CI; 2.03-5.95) and menopause (OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.50-3.282) at the level of p < 0.05. Family history of breast cancer (FHBC) in first-degree relatives (OR = 1.66, 95% CI; 0.77-3.59) and use of oral contraceptives (OC) (OR = 1.59, 95% CI; 0.83-3.05) were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer at the level of p < 0.20. Conclusions: Our results showed that BMI, history of BBD biopsy, older AOM, SA and menopause were associated with increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese women. The findings derived from the study provided some suggestions for population-based prevention and control of breast cancer in China.Medicine, General & InternalSCI(E)15ARTICLE2303-309

New Perspectives on Host-Parasite Interplay by Comparative Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses of Schistosoma japonicum

Schistosomiasis remains a serious public health problem with an estimated 200 million people infected in 76 countries. Here we isolated ~ 8,400 potential protein-encoding cDNA contigs from Schistosoma japonicum after sequencing circa 84,000 expressed sequence tags. In tandem, we undertook a high-throughput proteomics approach to characterize the protein expression profiles of a number of developmental stages (cercariae, hepatic schistosomula, female and male adults, eggs, and miracidia) and tissues at the host-parasite interface (eggshell and tegument) by interrogating the protein database deduced from the contigs. Comparative analysis of these transcriptomic and proteomic data, the latter including 3,260 proteins with putative identities, revealed differential expression of genes among the various developmental stages and sexes of S. japonicum and localization of putative secretory and membrane antigens, enzymes, and other gene products on the adult tegument and eggshell, many of which displayed genetic polymorphisms. Numerous S. japonicum genes exhibited high levels of identity with those of their mammalian hosts, whereas many others appeared to be conserved only across the genus Schistosoma or Phylum Platyhelminthes. These findings are expected to provide new insights into the pathophysiology of schistosomiasis and for the development of improved interventions for disease control and will facilitate a more fundamental understanding of schistosome biology, evolution, and the host-parasite interplay

Cutaneous immunoprofiles of three spotted fever group Rickettsia cases

Spotted fever group rickettsia (SFGR) can cause mild to fatal illness. The early interaction between the host and rickettsia in skin is largely unknown, and the pathogenesis of severe rickettsiosis remains an important topic. A surveillance of SFGR infection by PCR of blood and skin biopsy specimens followed by sequencing and immunohistochemical (IHC) detection was performed on patients with a recent tick bite between 2013 and 2016. Humoral and cutaneous immunoprofiles were evaluated in different SFGR cases by serum cytokine and chemokine detection, skin IHC staining, and transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq). A total of 111 SFGR cases were identified, including 79 “Candidatus Rickettsia tarasevichiae,” 22 Rickettsia raoultii, 8 Rickettsia sibirica, and 2 Rickettsia heilongjiangensis cases. The sensitivity to detect SFGR in skin biopsy specimens (9/24, 37.5%) was significantly higher than that in blood samples (105/2,671, 3.9%) (P 0.05). As early as 1 day after the tick bite, rickettsiae could be detected in the skin. R. sibirica infection was more severe than “Ca. Rickettsia” and R. raoultii infections. Increased levels of serum interleukin-18 (IL- 18), IP10, and monokine induced by gamma interferon (MIG) and decreased levels of IL-2 were observed in febrile patients infected with R. sibirica compared to those infected with “Ca. Rickettsia.” RNA-seq and IHC staining could not discriminate between SFGR-infected and uninfected tick bite skin lesions. However, the type I interferon (IFN) response was differently expressed between R. sibirica and R. raoultii infections at the cutaneous interface. It is concluded that skin biopsy specimens were more reliable for the detection of SFGR infection in human patients although the immunoprofile may be complicated by immunomodulators induced by the tick bite.The Natural Science Foundation of China (81621005 and 81773492) and the State Key Research Development Program of China (2016YFC 1200301).https://iai.asm.orgam2020Veterinary Tropical Disease