Effects of Multi-Bacteria Solid-State Fermented Diets with Different Crude Fiber Levels on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, and Microbial Flora of Finishing Pigs

This study aimed to investigate the effects of multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diets with different crude fiber (CF) levels on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and microbial flora of finishing pigs. The multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diets were made up of Lactobacillus amylovorus, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, and Candida utilis. According to a 2 (factors) × 2 (levels) design, with the two factors being multi-bacteria solid-state fermentation (fed non-fermented diet or multi-bacteria fermentation) or CF levels (fed a basal diet containing 2.52% CF or 7.00% CF), a total of 36 finishing pigs (70.80 ± 5.75 kg) were divided into 4 treatments with 9 barrows per group: (1) pigs fed a diet containing 7.00% CF (HF), (2) pigs fed a multi-bacteria fermentation diet containing 7.00% CF (HFM), (3) pigs fed a diet containing 2.52% CF (LF), and (4) piglets fed a multi-bacteria fermentation diet containing 2.52% CF (LFM). This experiment lasted 28 days. The multi-bacteria solid-state fermented diet increased the backfat thickness (p p p Lactobacillus, Oscillospira, and Coprococcus (p p p p Streptococcaceae (p p p p Clostridiaceae_Clostridium and Coprococcus (p p p p p Akkermansia and Oscillospira (p p < 0.05). The 7.00% CF had a negative effect on the digestion of nutrients, but multi-bacteria solid-state fermentation diets could relieve this negative effect and increase backfat thickness. High-fiber diets and multi-bacteria solid-state fermentation improved the diversity and abundance of fecal microorganisms in finishing pigs

Interfacial engineering of nickel/vanadium based two-dimensional layered double hydroxide for solid-state hydrogen storage in MgH₂

As a high-density solid-state hydrogen storage material, magnesium hydride (MgH2) is promising for hydrogen transportation and storage. Yet, its stable thermodynamics and sluggish kinetics are unfavorable for that required for commercial application. Herein, nickel/vanadium trioxide (Ni/V2O3) nanoparticles with heterostructures were successfully prepared via hydrogenating the NiV-based two-dimensional layered double hydroxide (NiV-LDH). MgH2 + 7 wt% Ni/V2O3 presented more superior hydrogen absorption and desorption performances than pure MgH2 and MgH2 + 7 wt% NiV-LDH. The initial discharging temperature of MgH2 was significantly reduced to 190 °C after adding 7 wt% Ni/V2O3, which was 22 and 128 °C lower than that of 7 wt% NiV-LDH modified MgH2 and additive-free MgH2, respectively. The completely dehydrogenated MgH2 + 7 wt% Ni/V2O3 charged 5.25 wt% H2 in 20 min at 125 °C, while the hydrogen absorption capacity of pure MgH2 only amounted to 4.82 wt% H2 at a higher temperature of 200 °C for a longer time of 60 min. Moreover, compared with MgH2 + 7 wt% NiV-LDH, MgH2 + 7 wt% Ni/V2O3 shows better cycling performance. The microstructure analysis indicated the heterostructural Ni/V2O3 nanoparticles were uniformly distributed. Mg2Ni/Mg2NiH4 and metallic V were formed in-situ during cycling, which synergistically tuned the hydrogen storage process in MgH2. Our work presents a facile interfacial engineering method to enhance the catalytic activity by constructing a heterostructure, which may provide the mentality of designing efficient catalysts for hydrogen storage.The authors appreciatively acknowledge the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51801078)

Cross-layer transmission realized by light-emitting memristor for constructing ultra-deep neural network with transfer learning ability

Abstract Deep neural networks have revolutionized several domains, including autonomous driving, cancer detection, and drug design, and are the foundation for massive artificial intelligence models. However, hardware neural network reports still mainly focus on shallow networks (2 to 5 layers). Implementing deep neural networks in hardware is challenging due to the layer-by-layer structure, resulting in long training times, signal interference, and low accuracy due to gradient explosion/vanishing. Here, we utilize negative ultraviolet photoconductive light-emitting memristors with intrinsic parallelism and hardware-software co-design to achieve electrical information’s optical cross-layer transmission. We propose a hybrid ultra-deep photoelectric neural network and an ultra-deep super-resolution reconstruction neural network using light-emitting memristors and cross-layer block, expanding the networks to 54 and 135 layers, respectively. Further, two networks enable transfer learning, approaching or surpassing software-designed networks in multi-dataset recognition and high-resolution restoration tasks. These proposed strategies show great potential for high-precision multifunctional hardware neural networks and edge artificial intelligence

Effect of Dietary Supplementation of <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> on Growth Performance, Organ Weight, Digestive Enzyme Activities, and Serum Biochemical Indices in Broiler

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of supplementing Bacillus subtilis and an antibiotic (Zinc bacitracin) in the diet of broilers on growth performance, organ weight, blood metabolites, and digestive enzymes of broiler chickens. A total of 600 1-d Arbor Acres broilers were randomly allotted to five treatments. Each treatment consisted of six replicates with four pens, and each pen had five birds. The chicks were fed (1) the basal diet (control), (2) the basal diet with 500 mg/kg Zinc bacitracin (APZ), (3) the basal diet with B. subtilis at 1 × 108 CFU/g (B.Sut-1), (4) the basal diet with B. subtilis at 3 × 108 CFU/g (B.Sut-3), and (5) the basal diet with B. subtilis at 5 × 108 CFU/g (B.Sut-5). The experiment lasted for 42 days. In this study, the supplementation of diets with B. subtilis (B.Sut-3 and B.Sut-5 groups) increased body weight gain from 1 to 21 days compared with control (p B.Sut-3 group had a significantly heavier bursa of Fabricius than control at 21 days (p B.Sut-5 and APZ groups (p B.Sut-5 and APZ groups at 21 and 42 days (p B.Sut-5 and APZ groups had higher serum lipase, pepsin, and amylase activities (p Bacillus subtilis ATCC19659 at 5 × 108 CFU/g could be applied as an alternative to antibiotics in poultry diets

Circular Bivalent Aptamers Enable <i>in Vivo</i> Stability and Recognition

Aptamers are powerful candidates for molecular imaging and targeted therapy of cancer based on such appealing features as high binding affinity, high specificity, site-specific modification and rapid tumor penetration. However, aptamers are susceptible to plasma exonucleases <i>in vivo</i>. This seriously affects their <i>in vivo</i> applications. To overcome this key limitation, we herein report the design and development of circular bivalent aptamers. Systematic studies reveal that cyclization of aptamers can improve thermal stability, nuclease resistance and binding affinity. <i>In vivo</i> fluorescence imaging further validates the efficient accumulation and retention of circular bivalent aptamers in tumors compared to “mono-aptamers”. Therefore, this study provides a simple and efficient strategy to boost <i>in vivo</i> aptamer applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy

Bispecific Aptamer-Based Recognition-then-Conjugation Strategy for PD1/PDL1 Axis Blockade and Enhanced Immunotherapy

Cytotoxic T cells initiate antitumor effects mainly through direct interactions with tumor cells. As a counter to this, tumor cells can put the brakes on such T-cell activity via specific linkage between programmed death ligand 1 (PDL1) and its receptor programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1). Bispecific inhibitors that enabled synchronous blockade of PD1 and PDL1, thereby releasing the brakes on T-cell antitumor activity, should significantly improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. In this work, we identified a DNA aptamer, Ap3, that could specifically recognize PDL1 on tumor cells and competed with the binding of PD1. By integrating Ap3 with an anti-PD1 aptamer, the bispecific aptamer Ap3–7c was constructed, and it showed promise for improving the T-cell immune response. We further designed a dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO)-labeled bispecific aptamer, D-Ap3–7c, allowing covalent conjugation of aptamers onto PD1 and PDL1 after specific cell recognition. Our in vivo studies showed that this recognition-then-conjugation strategy could induce a potent immunological effect against tumors. This work is expected to provide clues for antitumor immunotherapy