Promotion of ganoderic acid production in Ganoderma sinense by the addtion of an ether extract from Eupolyphaga sinensis, a medicinal insect

To screen stimulators from Chinese medicinal insects for mycelial growth and ganoderic acid (GA) production by Ganoderma sinense, the fungus was inoculated into the media with and without supplementation of a medicinal insect extract. The results show that all the water and ether extracts from the medicinal insects had no significant stimulatory effect on the biomass production (P > 0.05), and the extracts of Hydrotrechus remigator and Mylabris phalerata significantly inhibited the mycelial growth. However, the ether extract of Eupolyphaga sinensis at a concentration of 60 mgL-1 led to a significant increase in GA concentration from 187.6 ± 8.32 to 251.3 ± 11.27 mgL-1 (P < 0.01). Analysis of fermentation kinetics of G. sinense suggests that glucose concentration in the E. sinensis extract treatment group decreased more quickly as compared to the control group in the last 4 days of fermentation process, while the GA biosynthesis was promoted at the same period. However, the culture pH profile was not affected by the addition of the ether extract of E. sinensis.Key words: Medicinal fungus, Ganoderma sinense, submerged fermentation, Eupolyphaga sinensis, ganoderic acid

Health effects in fish of long-term exposure to effluents from wastewater treatment works

The effects of simple mixtures of chemicals, with similar mechanisms of action, can be predicted using the concentration addition model (CA). The ability of this model to predict the estrogenic effects of more complex mixtures such as effluent discharges, however, has yet to be established. Effluents from 43 U.K. wastewater treatment works were analyzed for the presence of the principal estrogenic chemical contaminants, estradiol, estrone, ethinylestradiol, and nonylphenol. The measured concentrations were used to predict the estrogenic activity of each effluent, employing the model of CA, based on the relative potencies of the individual chemicals in an in vitro recombinant yeast estrogen screen (rYES) and a short-term (14-day) in vivo rainbow trout vitellogenin induction assay. Based on the measured concentrations of the four chemicals in the effluents and their relative potencies in each assay, the calculated in vitro and in vivo responses compared well and ranged between 3.5 and 87 ng/L of estradiol equivalents (E2 EQ) for the different effluents. In the rYES, however, the measured E2 EQ concentrations in the effluents ranged between 0.65 and 43 ng E2 EQ/L, and they varied against those predicted by the CA model. Deviations in the estimation of the estrogenic potency of the effluents by the CA model, compared with the measured responses in the rYES, are likely to have resulted from inaccuracies associated with the measurement of the chemicals in the extracts derived from the complex effluents. Such deviations could also result as a consequence of interactions between chemicals present in the extracts that disrupted the activation of the estrogen response elements in the rYES. E2 EQ concentrations derived from the vitellogenic response in fathead minnows exposed to a series of effluent dilutions were highly comparable with the E2 EQ concentrations derived from assessments of the estrogenic potency of these dilutions in the rYES. Together these data support the use of bioassays for determining the estrogenic potency of WwTW effluents, and they highlight the associated problems for modeling approaches that are reliant on measured concentrations of estrogenic chemicals

Abnormal variation of band gap in Zn doped Bi0.9La0.1FeO3 nanoparticles: Role of Fe-O-Fe bond angle and Fe-O bond anisotropy

published_or_final_versio

Facile Synthesis of High Quality Graphene Nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons have attracted attention for their novel electronic and spin transport properties1-6, and because nanoribbons less than 10 nm wide have a band gap that can be used to make field effect transistors. However, producing nanoribbons of very high quality, or in high volumes, remains a challenge. Here, we show that pristine few-layer nanoribbons can be produced by unzipping mildly gas-phase oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotube using mechanical sonication in an organic solvent. The nanoribbons exhibit very high quality, with smooth edges (as seen by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy), low ratios of disorder to graphitic Raman bands, and the highest electrical conductance and mobility reported to date (up to 5e2/h and 1500 cm2/Vs for ribbons 10-20 nm in width). Further, at low temperature, the nanoribbons exhibit phase coherent transport and Fabry-Perot interference, suggesting minimal defects and edge roughness. The yield of nanoribbons was ~2% of the starting raw nanotube soot material, which was significantly higher than previous methods capable of producing high quality narrow nanoribbons1. The relatively high yield synthesis of pristine graphene nanoribbons will make these materials easily accessible for a wide range of fundamental and practical applications.Comment: Nature Nanotechnology in pres

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Selection of a core set of RILs from Forrest × Williams 82 to develop a framework map in soybean

Soybean BAC-based physical maps provide a useful platform for gene and QTL map-based cloning, EST mapping, marker development, genome sequencing, and comparative genomic research. Soybean physical maps for “Forrest” and “Williams 82” representing the southern and northern US soybean germplasm base, respectively, have been constructed with different fingerprinting methods. These physical maps are complementary for coverage of gaps on the 20 soybean linkage groups. More than 5,000 genetic markers have been anchored onto the Williams 82 physical map, but only a limited number of markers have been anchored to the Forrest physical map. A mapping population of Forrest × Williams 82 made up of 1,025 F8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was used to construct a reference genetic map. A framework map with almost 1,000 genetic markers was constructed using a core set of these RILs. The core set of the population was evaluated with the theoretical population using equality, symmetry and representativeness tests. A high-resolution genetic map will allow integration and utilization of the physical maps to target QTL regions of interest, and to place a larger number of markers into a map in a more efficient way using a core set of RILs

Stress effects on stability and diffusion behavior of sulfur impurity in nickel: A first-principles study

A systematic investigation regarding the effect of stress on the stability and diffusion behavior of S impurity in Ni was carried out via first-principles methods. A comparison of the formation energy of S in Ni indicated that S more easily forms as a solution atom with increasing S concentration in Ni supercells, but the binding energy showed that as the concentration of S that dissolved into Ni increased, the structure became less stable. The diffusion barrier via the octahedral-tetrahedral-octahedral site path was always lower than that via the octahedral-octahedral site path. The diffusion barrier of single S decreased with increase in tensile stress. S diffusion accelerated under applied tensile stress, which was disadvantageous in suppressing S retention in Ni. These results implied that even at a low concentration, dissolved S still had a tendency of precipitating from the Ni matrix, to further increase the stability of the system. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved