Differences and Commonalities in Responses of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii to High Salt and High Temperature Stress

Complete synthetic minimal media for Zygosaccharomyces rouxii growth were designed for high temperature (40 ℃, HTS) and high salt stress (18% NaCl, HSS) in this study, and the difference in the nutritional requirements of Z. rouxii cells under long-term adverse environmental conditions was analyzed. The differences in the metabolism and gene expression of organic acids, amino acids and sugars during the period from the growth adaptation stage to the early logarithmic stage were highlighted between HSS and HTS conditions. The results showed that Z. rouxii cells exposed to HSS needed more exogenous amino acids, vitamin and amino acid supplementation alleviated HTS-induced damage in yeast cells. The adversity transcription gene MSN4 and the hypertonic regulatory protein gene HOG1 responded to high salt, while the heat shock regulatory protein gene HSF1 and the superoxide dismutase gene SOD1 responded to high temperature. In summary, different strategies for organic acid, amino acid and sugar metabolism were adopted by Z. rouxii in response to HSS and HTS. This study deepens the understanding of the mechanism of temperature tolerance in salt-tolerant Z. rouxii, which will contribute to the development of new brewing yeast cells with tolerance to both high salt and temperature

Foodborne Pathogens of Enterobacteriaceae, Their Detection and Control

Foodborne pathogens of Enterobacteriaceae including Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, etc., causes a great number of diseases and has a significant impact on human health. Here, we reviewed the prevalence, virulence, and antimicrobial susceptibility of Enterobacteriaceae belonging to 4 genera: E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, and Yersinia. The routes of the pathogens’ transmission in the food chain; the antimicrobial resistance, genetic diversity, and molecular epidemiology of the Enterobacteriaceae strains; novel technologies for detection of the bacterial communities (such as the molecular marker-based methods, Immunoaffinity based detection, etc.); and the controlling of the foodborne pathogens using chemical/natural compounds or physical methods (such as UV-C and pulsed-light treatment, etc.), is also summarized

A Machine Learning Aided Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Relative Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Meta-analysis is a widely used tool in which weighted information from multiple similar studies is aggregated to increase statistical power. However, the exponential growth of publications in key areas of medical science has rendered manual identification of relevant studies increasingly time-consuming. The aim of this work was to develop a machine learning technique capable of robust automatic study selection for meta-analysis. We have validated this approach with an up-to-date meta-analysis to investigate the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF).Methods: The PubMed online database was searched from 1960 to September 2017 where 4,177 publications that mentioned both DM and AF were identified. Relevant studies were selected as follows. First, publications were clustered based on common text features using an unsupervised K-means algorithm. Clusters that best matched the selected set of potentially relevant studies (a “training” set of 139 articles) were then identified by using maximum entropy classification. The 139 articles selected automatically on this basis were screened manually to identify potentially relevant studies. To determine the validity of the automated process, a parallel set of studies was also assembled by manually screening all initially searched publications. Finally, detailed manual selection was performed on the full texts of the studies in both sets using standard criteria. Quality assessment, meta-regression random-effects models, sensitivity analysis and publication bias assessment were then conducted.Results: Machine learning-assisted screening identified the same 29 studies for meta-analysis as those identified by using manual screening alone. Machine learning enabled more robust and efficient study selection, reducing the number of studies needed for manual screening from 4,177 to 556 articles. A pooled analysis using the most conservative estimates indicated that patients with DM had ~49% greater risk of developing AF compared with individuals without DM. After adjusting for three additional risk factors i.e., hypertension, obesity and heart disease, the relative risk was 23%. Using multivariate adjusted models, the risk for developing AF in patients with DM was similar for all DM subtypes. Women with DM were 24% more likely to develop AF than men with DM. The risk for new-onset AF in patients with DM has also increased over the years.Conclusions: We have developed a novel machine learning method to identify publications suitable for inclusion in meta-analysis.This approach has the capacity to provide for a more efficient and more objective study selection process for future such studies. We have used it to demonstrate that DM is a strong, independent risk factor for AF, particularly for women

General synthesis of 2D rare-earth oxide single crystals with tailorable facets

Two-dimensional (2D) rare-earth oxides (REOs) are a large family of materials with various intriguing applications and precise facet control is essential for investigating new properties in the 2D limit. However, a bottleneck remains with regard to obtaining their 2D single crystals with specific facets because of the intrinsic non-layered structure and disparate thermodynamic stability of different facets. Herein, for the first time, we achieve the synthesis of a wide variety of high-quality 2D REO single crystals with tailorable facets via designing a hard-soft-acid-base couple for controlling the 2D nucleation of the predetermined facets and adjusting the growth mode and direction of crystals. Also, the facet-related magnetic properties of 2D REO single crystals were revealed. Our approach provides a foundation for further exploring other facet-dependent properties and various applications of 2D REO, as well as inspiration for the precise growth of other non-layered 2D materials

Land Use and Climate Impact on Sediment and Nutrient Loads Into Lake Ashtabula, North Dakota, USA

Lake Ashtabula continues to be listed as impaired water body by the USEPA due to excessive nutrients. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was developed for the Lake Ashtabula watershed to estimate the sediment and nutrient loads entering the lake under different land use and climate scenarios. Impacts of flows from the Devils Lake outlets flowing into the lake Ashtabula via Sheyenne River were also included. The study showed that biofuel cropland expansion and increases in precipitation would generate higher streamflow, sediment, and nutrient loads into Lake Ashtabula. However, decreases in precipitation would decrease sediment and total phosphorus loads, but not necessarily total nitrogen loads. Flow from Devils Lake had the most significant impacts on both streamflow and nutrient loads. This well-calibrated and validated watershed model can be used for developing nutrients and sediment Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program for the Lake Ashtabula.North Dakota Water Resource Research Institute (NDWRRI), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineerin

Comparative Analysis of Heavy Metals in Sediments of China's Bays

With the development of industry, aquaculture and shipping in coastal city, large amounts of heavy metals had been released to the bay and transferred to sediment, the heavy metal pollution of sediment in bay had become a prominent environmental question. The heavy metal pollution would not only cause serious damage to the marine sedimentary environment, but also endanger human health because of the enrichment along the food chain. In this paper, the concentration, spatial and temporal distribution characteristics, occurrence forms, sources and pollution assessment of heavy metals in sediment of China's bays were compared, and the development of heavy metal research in sediments from the bays of China was prospected, which would provide research direction for the comprehensive understanding of the pollution status, development trend, pollution control and ecological restoration of heavy metal pollution of sediment in the bay