Ethanol production of semi-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation from mixture of cotton gin waste and recycled paper sludge

Ethanol production from the steam-exploded mixture of 75% cotton gin waste and 25% recycled paper sludge in various conditions was investigated by semi-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSSF) consisting of a pre-hydrolysis and a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). Four cases were studied: 24-h pre-hydrolysis + 48-h SSF (SSSF 24), 12-h pre-hydrolysis + 60-h SSF (SSSF 12), 72-h SSF, and 48-h hydrolysis + 24-h fermentation (SHF). The ethanol concentration, yield, and productivity of SSSF 24 were higher than those of the other operations. A model of SSF was used to simulate the data for four components in SSF. The analysis of the reaction rates of cellobiose, glucose, cell, and ethanol using the model and the parameters from the experiments showed that there was a transition point of the rate-controlling step at which the cell growth control in the initial 2 h was changed to the cellobiose reaction control in later period during ethanol production of SSF from the mixture

VASCo: computation and visualization of annotated protein surface contacts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Structural data from crystallographic analyses contain a vast amount of information on protein-protein contacts. Knowledge on protein-protein interactions is essential for understanding many processes in living cells. The methods to investigate these interactions range from genetics to biophysics, crystallography, bioinformatics and computer modeling. Also crystal contact information can be useful to understand biologically relevant protein oligomerisation as they rely in principle on the same physico-chemical interaction forces. Visualization of crystal and biological contact data including different surface properties can help to analyse protein-protein interactions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>VASCo is a program package for the calculation of protein surface properties and the visualization of annotated surfaces. Special emphasis is laid on protein-protein interactions, which are calculated based on surface point distances. The same approach is used to compare surfaces of two aligned molecules. Molecular properties such as electrostatic potential or hydrophobicity are mapped onto these surface points. Molecular surfaces and the corresponding properties are calculated using well established programs integrated into the package, as well as using custom developed programs. The modular package can easily be extended to include new properties for annotation. The output of the program is most conveniently displayed in PyMOL using a custom-made plug-in.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>VASCo supplements other available protein contact visualisation tools and provides additional information on biological interactions as well as on crystal contacts. The tool provides a unique feature to compare surfaces of two aligned molecules based on point distances and thereby facilitates the visualization and analysis of surface differences.</p

Does the aldosterone: renin ratio predict the efficacy of spironolactone over bendroflumethiazide in hypertension? A clinical trial protocol for RENALDO (RENin-ALDOsterone) study

&lt;p&gt;Background: High blood pressure is an important determinant of cardiovascular disease risk. Treated hypertensives do not attain a risk level equivalent to normotensives. This may be a consequence of suboptimal blood pressure control to which indiscriminate use of antihypertensive drugs may contribute. Indeed the recent ALLHAT[1]study suggests that thiazides should be given first to virtually all hypertensives. Whether this is correct or whether different antihypertensive therapies should be targeted towards different patients is a major unresolved issue, which we address in this study.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The measurement of the ratio of aldosterone: renin is used to identify hypertensive subjects who may respond well to treatment with the aldosterone antagonist spironolactone. It is not known if subjects with a high ratio have aldosteronism or aldosterone-sensitive hypertension is debated but it is important to know whether spironolactone is superior to other diuretics such as bendroflumethiazide in this setting.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods/design: The study is a double-blind, randomised, crossover, controlled trial that will randomise 120 hypertensive subjects to 12 weeks treatment with spironolactone 50 mg once daily and 12 weeks treatment with bendroflumethiazide 2.5 mg once daily. The 2 treatment periods are separated by a 2-week washout period. Randomisation is stratified by aldosterone: renin ratio to include equal numbers of subjects with high and low aldosterone: renin ratios.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Primary Objective – To test the hypothesis that the aldosterone: renin ratio predicts the antihypertensive response to spironolactone, specifically that the effect of spironolactone 50 mg is greater than that of bendroflumethiazide 2.5 mg in hypertensive subjects with high aldosterone: renin ratios.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Secondary Objectives – To determine whether bendroflumethiazide induces adverse metabolic abnormalities, especially in subjects with high aldosterone: renin ratios and if baseline renin measurement predicts the antihypertensive response to spironolactone and/or bendrofluazide.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Discussion: The numerous deleterious effects of hypertension dictate the need for a systematic approach for its treatment. In spite of various therapies, resistant hypertension is widely prevalent. Among various factors, primary aldosteronism is an important cause of resistant hypertension and is now more commonly recognised. More significantly, hypertensives with primary aldosteronism are also exposed to various other deleterious effects of excess aldosterone. Hence treating hypertension with specific aldosterone antagonists may be a better approach in this group of patients. It may lead on to better blood pressures with fewer medications.&lt;/p&gt

Gut Bacterial Communities in the Giant Land Snail Achatina fulica and Their Modification by Sugarcane-Based Diet

The invasive land snail Achatina fulica is one of the most damaging agricultural pests worldwide representing a potentially serious threat to natural ecosystems and human health. This species is known to carry parasites and harbors a dense and metabolically active microbial community; however, little is known about its diversity and composition. Here, we assessed for the first time the complexity of bacterial communities occurring in the digestive tracts of field-collected snails (FC) by using culture-independent molecular analysis. Crop and intestinal bacteria in FC were then compared to those from groups of snails that were reared in the laboratory (RL) on a sugarcane-based diet. Most of the sequences recovered were novel and related to those reported for herbivorous gut. Changes in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were observed when the snails were fed a high-sugar diet, suggesting that the snail gut microbiota can influence the energy balance equation. Furthermore, this study represents a first step in gaining a better understanding of land snail gut microbiota and shows that this is a complex holobiont system containing diverse, abundant and active microbial communities

Enzymatic hydrolysis of sorghum straw using native cellulase produced by T. reesei NCIM 992 under solid state fermentation using rice straw

Cellulose is a major constituent of renewable lignocellulosic waste available in large quantities and is considered the most important reservoir of carbon for the production of glucose, for alternative fuel and as a chemical feedstock. Over the past decade, the emphasis has been on the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose and the efficiency of which depends on source of cellulosic substrate, its composition, structure, pretreatment process, and reactor design. In the present study, efforts were made to produce cellulase enzyme using rice straw. The produced enzyme was used for the hydrolysis of selected lignocellulosic substrate, i.e., sorghum straw. When rice straw was used as a substrate for cellulase production under solid state fermentation, the highest enzyme activity obtained was 30.7 FPU/gds, using T. reesei NCIM 992. 25 FPU/g of cellulase was added to differently treated (native, alkali treated, alkali treated followed by 3% acid treated and alkali treated followed by 3 and 5% acid treated) sorghum straw and hydrolysis was carried out at 50 °C for 60 h. 42.5% hydrolysis was obtained after 36 h of incubation. Optimization of enzyme loading, substrate concentration, temperature, time and buffer yielded a maximum of 546.00 ± 0.55 mg/g sugars (54.60 ± 0.44 g/l) with an improved hydrolysis efficiency of 70 ± 0.45%. The enzymatic hydrolyzate can be used for fermentation of ethanol by yeasts

Off-Target Effects of Psychoactive Drugs Revealed by Genome-Wide Assays in Yeast

To better understand off-target effects of widely prescribed psychoactive drugs, we performed a comprehensive series of chemogenomic screens using the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system. Because the known human targets of these drugs do not exist in yeast, we could employ the yeast gene deletion collections and parallel fitness profiling to explore potential off-target effects in a genome-wide manner. Among 214 tested, documented psychoactive drugs, we identified 81 compounds that inhibited wild-type yeast growth and were thus selected for genome-wide fitness profiling. Many of these drugs had a propensity to affect multiple cellular functions. The sensitivity profiles of half of the analyzed drugs were enriched for core cellular processes such as secretion, protein folding, RNA processing, and chromatin structure. Interestingly, fluoxetine (Prozac) interfered with establishment of cell polarity, cyproheptadine (Periactin) targeted essential genes with chromatin-remodeling roles, while paroxetine (Paxil) interfered with essential RNA metabolism genes, suggesting potential secondary drug targets. We also found that the more recently developed atypical antipsychotic clozapine (Clozaril) had no fewer off-target effects in yeast than the typical antipsychotics haloperidol (Haldol) and pimozide (Orap). Our results suggest that model organism pharmacogenetic studies provide a rational foundation for understanding the off-target effects of clinically important psychoactive agents and suggest a rational means both for devising compound derivatives with fewer side effects and for tailoring drug treatment to individual patient genotypes

Interaction between Attention and Bottom-Up Saliency Mediates the Representation of Foreground and Background in an Auditory Scene

Bottom-up (stimulus-driven) and top-down (attentional) processes interact when a complex acoustic scene is parsed. Both modulate the neural representation of the target in a manner strongly correlated with behavioral performance

Serotonergic Contribution to Boys' Behavioral Regulation

Animal and human adult studies reveal a contribution of serotonin to behavior regulation. Whether these findings apply to children is unclear. The present study investigated serotonergic functioning in boys with a history of behavior regulation difficulties through a double-blind, acute tryptophan supplementation procedure.Participants were 23 boys (age 10 years) with a history of elevated physical aggression, recruited from a community sample. Eleven were given a chocolate milkshake supplemented with 500 mg tryptophan, and 12 received a chocolate milkshake without tryptophan. Boys engaged in a competitive reaction time game against a fictitious opponent, which assessed response to provocation, impulsivity, perspective taking, and sharing. Impulsivity was further assessed through a Go/No-Go paradigm. A computerized emotion recognition task and a staged instrumental help incident were also administered.Boys, regardless of group, responded similarly to high provocation by the fictitious opponent. However, boys in the tryptophan group adjusted their level of responding optimally as a function of the level of provocation, whereas boys in the control group significantly decreased their level of responding towards the end of the competition. Boys in the tryptophan group tended to show greater perspective taking, tended to better distinguish facial expressions of fear and happiness, and tended to provide greater instrumental help to the experimenter.The present study provides initial evidence for the feasibility of acute tryptophan supplementation in children and some effect of tryptophan supplementation on children's behaviors. Further studies are warranted to explore the potential impact of increased serotonergic functioning on boys' dominant and affiliative behaviors

Chemogenomic Analysis of G-Protein Coupled Receptors and Their Ligands Deciphers Locks and Keys Governing Diverse Aspects of Signalling

Understanding the molecular mechanism of signalling in the important super-family of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is causally related to questions of how and where these receptors can be activated or inhibited. In this context, it is of great interest to unravel the common molecular features of GPCRs as well as those related to an active or inactive state or to subtype specific G-protein coupling. In our underlying chemogenomics study, we analyse for the first time the statistical link between the properties of G-protein-coupled receptors and GPCR ligands. The technique of mutual information (MI) is able to reveal statistical inter-dependence between variations in amino acid residues on the one hand and variations in ligand molecular descriptors on the other. Although this MI analysis uses novel information that differs from the results of known site-directed mutagenesis studies or published GPCR crystal structures, the method is capable of identifying the well-known common ligand binding region of GPCRs between the upper part of the seven transmembrane helices and the second extracellular loop. The analysis shows amino acid positions that are sensitive to either stimulating (agonistic) or inhibitory (antagonistic) ligand effects or both. It appears that amino acid positions for antagonistic and agonistic effects are both concentrated around the extracellular region, but selective agonistic effects are cumulated between transmembrane helices (TMHs) 2, 3, and ECL2, while selective residues for antagonistic effects are located at the top of helices 5 and 6. Above all, the MI analysis provides detailed indications about amino acids located in the transmembrane region of these receptors that determine G-protein signalling pathway preferences