Additional file 1 of Valorization of cheese whey to lactobionic acid by a novel strain Pseudomonas fragi and identification of enzyme involved in lactose oxidation

Additional file 1: Figure S1. A Chromatogram of commercial lactose. B Chromatogram of commercial lactobionic acid. C Chromatogram of lactose and lactobionic acid in the sample. Figure S2 Lactobionic acid production from whey powder in 3 L bioreactor. Reaction conditions: whey powder containing 200 g/L lactose added at the beginning, initial inoculation of 1 at OD600nm, 30 °C. Figure S3. Phylogenetic tree derived from 16S rDNA sequence of different strains based on the Neighbor-Joining method. Bootstrap values are given on each branch. Strain NL20W clearly clusters with other strains in the so-called P. fragi lineage. Table S1 BLAST results of GDHs and MQOs from P. fragi NL20W with reported lactose-oxidizing enzymes. Table S2 Strains and plasmids used in this study. Table S3 Oligonucleotide primers used in this study

Biomimetic Viruslike and Charge Reversible Nanoparticles to Sequentially Overcome Mucus and Epithelial Barriers for Oral Insulin Delivery

Nanoparticles (NPs) for oral delivery of peptide/protein drugs are largely limited due to the coexistence of intestinal mucus and epithelial barriers. Sequentially overcoming these two barriers is intractable for a single nanovehicle due to the requirements of different or even contradictory surface properties of NPs. To solve this dilemma, a mucus-penetrating virus-inspired biomimetic NP with charge reversal ability (P-R8-Pho NPs) was developed by densely coating poly­(lactic-<i>co</i>-glycolic acid) NPs with cationic octa-arginine (R8) peptide and specific anionic phosphoserine (Pho). The small size (81.81 nm) and viruslike neutral charged surface (−2.39 mV) of the biomimetic NPs achieved rapid mucus penetration, which was almost equal to that of the conventional PEGylated mucus-penetrating nanoparticles. The hydrolysis of surface-anchored anionic Pho was achieved by intestinal alkaline phosphatase, which led to the turnover of ζ potential to positive (+7.37 mV). This timely charge reversal behavior also exposed cationic R8 peptide and induced efficient cell-penetrating peptide (CPP)-mediated cellular uptake and transepithelial transport on Caco-2/E12 cocultured cell model. What’s more, P-R8-Pho NPs showed excellent stability in simulated gastrointestinal conditions and enhanced absorption in intestine in vivo. Finally, oral administration of insulin-loaded P-R8-Pho NPs enabled to induce a preferable hypoglycemic effect and a 1.9-fold higher oral bioavailability was achieved compared with single CPP-modified P-R8 NPs on diabetic rats. The combinative application of biomimetic mucus-penetrating strategy and enzyme-responsive charge reversal strategy in a single nanovehicle could sequentially overcome mucus and epithelial barriers, thus showing great potential for the oral peptide/protein delivery

Data Publication and Dissemination with the Structural Biology Data Grid

<p>Access to experimental X-ray diffraction image data is fundamental for validation and reproduction of macromolecular models and indispensable for development of structural biology processing methods. In response to evolving needs of the structural biology community, we established a diffraction data publication and dissemination system, Structural Biology Data Grid (SBDG, url: data.sbgrid.org), to preserve primary experimental datasets that support journal publications. Datasets archived with the SBDG are freely available to the research community under a public domain dedication license and the metadata for all datasets is published under the DataCite schema. Datasets are accessible to researchers through the Data Access Alliance infrastructure, which facilitates global and institutional data access. Our analysis of a pilot collection of crystallographic datasets demonstrates that the information archived by SBDG is sufficient to reprocess data to statistics that meet or exceed the quality of the original published structures. It is anticipated that access to the experimental datasets will enable paradigm shift in the community from the static archive towards a much more dynamic body of continuously improving refined models. Following the success of this pilot study, the SBDG has extended its services to the entire community and will be used to develop support for other types of biomedical datasets, such as MicroED, Molecular Dynamics trajectories and LaPice Light-Sheet Microscopy.</p

Selective Recovery of Li and Fe from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries by an Environmentally Friendly Mechanochemical Approach

Recycling of spent LiFePO₄ batteries has drawn recent attention relating to recovering their high contents of rare elements and negating potential negative environmental effects of their disposal. However, the stable crystal structure of LiFePO₄ materials has prevented the development of a recycling process with high selectivity and extraction efficiency. We report the selective extraction of Fe and Li from spent LiFePO₄ batteries via an environmentally friendly mechanochemical process with oxalic acid. With the use of a mechanochemical treatment and water leaching, the Li extraction efficiency can be improved to 99%. Furthermore, 94% of Fe can be simultaneously recovered as FeC₂O₄·2H₂O. To understand the reaction mechanism and determine the optimum reaction conditions, we investigated various parameters, including the LiFePO₄ to oxalic acid mass ratio, rotation speed, milling time, and ball-to-powder mass ratio. Moreover, metal ions from the water leaching process were recovered by chemical precipitation. This study provides an efficient and selective process for recovery of valuable metals from spent LiFePO₄ materials

Buried Jurassic rift system in the middle segment of the northern Qaidam Basin: Implications for Mesozoic landforms of the northern Tibetan Plateau

The Jurassic is one of the most important periods generating hydrocarbon source rocks and coals in Northwest China, and the Qaidam Basin is an important petroliferous and coal-forming basin. However, a series of explorations in the Qaidam Basin targeting Jurassic source rocks have failed over the past several years. These failures were mainly caused by missing the targeted Jurassic strata, suggesting that the current understanding of the Jurassic distribution in the Qaidam Basin is still limited. Therefore, this study conducts detailed analyses of the drilling wells and seismic data in the middle segment of the northern Qaidam Basin. The seismic profiles and borehole data indicate a rifting tectonic setting with discontinuous deposition and rapid facies transition during the Jurassic. A well-preserved buried rift valley proved in the Hongnan region reveals that the Jurassic deposits are mainly restricted in the narrow rift system. Therefore, further exploration targeting the Jurassic source rocks should focus on delineating the distribution of the Jurassic rift system in the Qaidam Basin, combined with the recovery of the complex Cenozoic tectonic overprinting.</p

Unveiling the Synergy of Architecture and Anion Vacancy on Bi₂Te_3–<i>x</i>@NPCNFs for Fast and Stable Potassium Ion Storage

Large volume strain and slow kinetics are the main obstacles to the application of high-specific-capacity alloy-type metal tellurides in potassium-ion storage systems. Herein, Bi2Te3–x nanocrystals with abundant Te-vacancies embedded in nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers (Bi2Te3–x@NPCNFs) are proposed to address these challenges. In particular, a hierarchical porous fiber structure can be achieved by the polyvinylpyrrolidone-etching method and is conducive to increasing the Te-vacancy concentration. The unique porous structure together with defect engineering modulates the potassium storage mechanism of Bi2Te3, suppresses structural distortion, and accelerates K+ diffusion capacity. The meticulously designed Bi2Te3–x@NPCNFs electrode exhibits ultrastable cycling stability (over 3500 stable cycles at 1.0 A g–1 with a capacity degradation of only 0.01% per cycle) and outstanding rate capability (109.5 mAh g–1 at 2.0 A g–1). Furthermore, the systematic ex situ characterization confirms that the Bi2Te3–x@NPCNFs electrode undergoes an “intercalation-conversion-step alloying” mechanism for potassium storage. Kinetic analysis and density functional theory calculations reveal the excellent pseudocapacitive performance, attractive K+ adsorption, and fast K+ diffusion ability of the Bi2Te3–x@NPCNFs electrode, which is essential for fast potassium-ion storage. Impressively, the assembled Bi2Te3–x@NPCNFs//activated-carbon potassium-ion hybrid capacitors achieve considerable energy/power density (energy density up to 112 Wh kg–1 at a power density of 1000 W kg–1) and excellent cycling stability (1600 cycles at 10.0 A g–1), indicating their potential practical applications

Additional file 1 of Biomedical association analysis between G2/M checkpoint genes and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression from a northern chinese MSM population

Supplementary Material 1: Table S1. Distribution of genotypes of tSNPs in cases and control

Additional file 3 of Biomedical association analysis between G2/M checkpoint genes and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression from a northern chinese MSM population

Supplementary Material 3: Table S3. Association between the 40 tSNPs in 4 genes and AIDS clinical stage

Additional file 4 of Biomedical association analysis between G2/M checkpoint genes and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression from a northern chinese MSM population

Supplementary Material 4: Table S4. Association between the tSNPs and HIV-1 infection susceptibility in different subgroups divided by CD4+ T cell count

Additional file 2 of Biomedical association analysis between G2/M checkpoint genes and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression from a northern chinese MSM population

Supplementary Material 2: Table S2. Distribution of haplotypes of Chk1 and Cdc25C gene in cases and control