A Novel Polysaccharide Isolated From Fresh Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) Activates Macrophage via TLR2/4-Mediated PI3/AKT and MyD88/TRAF6 Pathways

A novel immunomodulatory polysaccharide (LP4) with a molecular weight 6.31 × 104 g/mol was purified from fresh longan pulp. It was composed of mannose, glucose, glucuronic acid, galactose, xylose, arabinose, galacturonic acid, fucose, and rhamnose in a molar percentage of 36:31:10:7:4:4:3:2:2, and mainly linked by (1→6)-β-Man, (1→4)-β-Glc and (1→6)-α-Glc. LP4 can obviously enhance the phagocytosis of macrophages and promote the proliferation of lymphocytes. After treating macrophages with LP4 (12.5–50 μg/ml), the production of IL-1β and TNF-α was significantly increased. These increases of cytokines were suppressed when the TLR2/TLR4 receptors were inhibited by anti-TLR2 and/or anti-TLR4 antibodies. Moreover, the mRNA expression of INOS, AKT, PI3K, TRAF6 and MyD88 was significantly suppressed by TLR2/TLR4 antibodies. These results indicated that LP4 induced macrophage activation mainly via the TLR2 and TLR4-induced PI3K/AKT and MyD88/TRAF6 pathways.

Effects of Starch Content on Hydrogen and Methane Productions, Rumen Fermentation and Microbial Protein Synthesis During in Vitro Ruminal Culture

Background: Starch has faster rate of rumen fermentation than fiber, and always causes a rapid increase in ruminal molecular hydrogen (H2) partial pressure and microbial protein synthesis, which may promote other H2 sinks to compete H2 from methanogenesis. The study was designed to investigate the effects of increasing starch content on methane (CH4), hydrogen gas (gH2) production, rumen fermentation, metabolic hydrogen ([H]) production, microbial protein (MCP) synthesis through in vitro ruminal batch incubation. Methods: Seven different treatments was prepared by replacing corn straw with corn grain, and starch content were 72, 185, 297, 410, 525, 634 and 747 g/kg DM.Results: Elevating starch content increased DM degradation (Plinear < 0.001), and decreased the CH4 (Plinear and Pquadratic < 0.001) and gH2 (Plinear < 0.001) productions relative to DM degraded. Elevating starch content increased VFA concentration (Plinear < 0.001), propionate molar percentage (Plinear < 0.001; Pquadratic = 0.001) and MCP concentration (Plinear and Pquadratic < 0.001), and decreased acetate molar percentage (Plinear < 0.001), acetate to propionate ratio (Plinear < 0.001) and estimated net [H] production relative to DM degraded (Plinear < 0.001). Elevating starch content decreased molar percentage of [H] utilized for CH4 (Pquadratic = 0.003) and gH2 (Plinear < 0.001) production. Conclusion: Increasing starch content alters rumen fermentation pathway from acetate to propionate production with reduction in efficiency of [H] production, promotes H2 utilization with enhanced MCP synthesis and leads to the reduction in efficiency of CH4 and gH2 production.

Gossypol Exhibited Higher Detrimental Effect on Ruminal Fermentation Characteristics of Low-Forage in Comparison with High-Forage Mixed Feeds

Gossypol is a key anti-nutritional factor which limits the feeding application of cottonseed by-products in animal production. A 2 × 4 factorial in vitro experiment was conducted to determine the effect of gossypol addition levels of 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 mg/g on ruminal fermentation of a high-forage feed (HF, Chinese wildrye hay/corn meal = 3:2) in comparison with a low-forage feed (LF, Chinese wildrye hay/corn meal = 2:3). After 48 h of incubation, in vitro dry matter disappearance was greater in the LF than the HF group, while the cumulative gas production and asymptotic gas production were greater in the HF than the LF group (p < 0.05). Regardless of whatever ration type was incubated, the increasing gossypol addition did not alter in vitro dry matter disappearance. The asymptotic gas production, cumulative gas production, molar percentage of CO2 and H2 in fermentation gases, and microbial protein in cultural fluids decreased with the increase in the gossypol addition. Conversely, the gossypol addition increased the molar percentage of CH4, ammonia N, and total volatile fatty acid production. More than 95% of the gossypol addition disappeared after 48 h of in vitro incubation. Regardless of whatever ration type was incubated, the real-time PCR analysis showed that the gossypol addition decreased the populations of Fibrobactersuccinogenes, Ruminococcus albus, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, Prevotella ruminicola, Selenomonas ruminantium, and fungi but increased Ruminococcus flavefaciens, protozoa, and total bacteria in culture fluids in comparison with the control (p < 0.01). Additionally, the tendency of a smaller population was observed for R. albus, B. fibrisolvens, and fungi with greater inclusion of gossypol, but a greater population was observed for F. succinogenes, R. flavefaciens, S. ruminantium, protozoa, and total bacteria. In summary, the present results suggest that rumen microorganisms indeed presented a high ability to degrade gossypol, but there was an obvious detrimental effect of the gossypol addition on rumen fermentation by decreasing microbial activity when the gossypol inclusion exceeded 0.5 mg/g, and such inhibitory effect was more pronounced in the low-forage than the high-forage group.

Effects of riboflavin supplementation on performance, nutrient digestion, rumen microbiota composition and activities of Holstein bulls

To investigate the influences of dietary riboflavin (RF) addition on nutrient digestion and rumen fermentation, eight rumen cannulated Holstein bulls were randomly allocated into four treatments in a repeated 4 × 4 Latin square design. Daily addition level of RF for each bull in control, low-RF, medium-RF and high-RF was 0, 300, 600 and 900 mg, respectively. Increasing the addition level of RF, dry matter (DM) intake was not affected, average daily gain tended to be increased linearly and feed conversion ratio decreased linearly. Total-tract digestibilities of DM, organic matter, crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) increased linearly. Rumen pH decreased quadratically and total volatile fatty acids (VFA) increased quadratically. Acetate molar percentage and acetate to propionate ratio increased linearly, but propionate molar percentage and ammonia-N content decreased linearly. Rumen effective degradability of DM increased linearly, NDF increased quadratically but CP was unaltered. Activity of cellulase and populations of total bacteria, protozoa, fungi, dominant cellulolytic bacteria, Prevotella ruminicola and Ruminobacter amylophilus increased linearly. Linear increase was observed for urinary total purine derivatives excretion. The data suggested that dietary RF addition was essential for rumen microbial growth, and no further increase in performance and rumen total VFA concentration were observed when increasing RF level from 600 to 900 mg/d in dairy bulls.

Experimental investigation of AC two-channel gliding arcs discharge plasma driven kerosene cracking

To improve the ignition and combustion performance of aviation kerosene, two-channel gliding arcs plasma was adopted to crack kerosene into active components, such as gaseous light hydrocarbons and H2. The influence of carrier gas flow rate on discharge characteristics and cracking effects were investigated. Experimental results indicate that, compared to single channel discharge, the power of two-channel gliding arcs discharge is greater while the arcs cover twice as much area as that of single channel discharge. The cracking rate of two-channel discharge plasma is greater than that of single channel discharge while it shows an upward trend with greater carrier gas flow rate. Among the main components of cracking gas, the molar percentage of hydrogen is the highest and exceeds 50%. Greater carrier gas flow rate would result in lower molar percentage of hydrogen. Interestingly, the ethyl group prefers to form C2H2 as the carrier gas flow rate increases in the two-channel gliding arcs discharge while the molar percentage of C2H2 and C2H4 changes inconspicuously in the single channel discharge.

The effects of β-Si3N4 on the formation and oxidation of β-SiAlON

The influence of the additive β-Si3N4 on the formation and oxidation of Si4Al2O2N6 during the sintering of Al, Si, and Al2O3 powders under flowing nitrogen atmosphere was examined. An increasing molar percentage of β-Si3N4 was shown to alter the morphology of Si4Al2O2N6 from a fiber-like to a rod-like structure and also shortened the time needed to form a dense, continuous oxide layer, which served as a barrier to the diffusion of O2. An optimal molar percentage of β-Si3N4 of 29.9 mol% was discovered, at which the grain growth was enhanced, and the surface area was, in turn, reduced, yielding superior resistance to oxidation. Our results provided a theoretical basis for the formation of β-SiAlON and demonstrated the potential of its use in high-temperature oxidizing environments.

Air Gasification of Banana (Musa spp.) Residues to Produce Biofuels

Thermochemical conversion of biomass is a technique used in recovering its energetic content and for the production useful biofuels. A lot of wastes/residues are generated from the harvesting and consumption of banana fruits. This study developed an ASPEN Plus model for the gasification of banana (Musa Spp.) residues pseudo-stem, the peels and the leaves. The model will be used to study the effect of gasification temperature, gasification pressure and air-fuel ratio (AFR) on the selectivity of the chemical species in the product stream. For all three residues, the selectivity of hydrogen increases with temperature with temperature. At the optimum temperature, the hydrogen molar selectivity in the product stream is 56% (900oC), 55% (900oC) and 53% (700oC) for pseudo-stem, peels and leaves respectively. At the optimum atmospheric pressure, the hydrogen molar percentage in the product stream was 48%, 49% and 50% for pseudo-stem, peels and leaves respectively. At the optimum AFR, the hydrogen selectivity in the product stream is 55%, 52% and 46% for pseudo-stem, peels and leaves respectively. All three residues are reasonably good feedstock for the gasification process but the pseudo-stem possesses a marginal advantage over the others.

The Impact of Mutations in the HvCPD and HvBRI1 Genes on the Physicochemical Properties of the Membranes from Barley Acclimated to Low/High Temperatures

(1) Background: The study characterized barley mutants with brassinosteroid (BR) biosynthesis and signaling disturbances in terms of the physicochemical/structural properties of membranes to enrich the knowledge about the role of brassinosteroids for lipid metabolism and membrane functioning. (2) Methods: The Langmuir method was used to investigate the properties of the physicochemical membranes. Langmuir monolayers were formed from the lipid fractions isolated from the plants growing at 20 °C and then acclimated at 5 °C or 27 °C. The fatty acid composition of the lipids was estimated using gas chromatography. (3) Results: The BR-biosynthesis and BR-signaling mutants of barley were characterized by a temperature-dependent altered molar percentage of fatty acids (from 14:0 to 20:1) in their galactolipid and phospholipid fractions in comparison to wild-type (WT). For example, the mutants had a lower molar percentage of 18:3 in the phospholipid (PL) fraction. The same regularity was observed at 5 °C. It resulted in altered physicochemical parameters of the membranes (Alim, πcoll, Cs−1). (4) Conclusions: BR may be involved in regulating fatty acid biosynthesis or their transport/incorporation into the cell membranes. Mutants had altered physicochemical parameters of their membranes, compared to the WT, which suggests that BR may have a multidirectional impact on the membrane-dependent physiological processes.

Variability of caecal parameters in rabbits

Three groups of rabbits of different origin (29, 27 and 28 animals; 3 or 4–6 months of age) were slaughtered, their caecal contents analyzed and used for inoculation of in vitro cultures. Whereas the caecal pH, dry matter percentages and acetate molar proportions in caecal volatile fatty acids (VFA) were relatively stable, molar proportions of other VFA varied considerably. In in vitro incubations, caecal parameters varied somewhat less than in vivo. Methane production varied much more than total VFA production. No non-methanogenic rabbit, however, was found. The hydrogen recovery correlated Significantly with the methane production and, in two out of three groups of rabbits, also with the propionate molar percentage. The caecal pH was inversely related to VFA concentration.

Synthesis and Characterization of cryogel microcarriers for sustained local delivery of anticancer therapeutics to Glioblastoma multiforme

Poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA)-based cryogel microcarriers incorporated with variable proportion of 3-Sulpho-propyl acrylate (SPA) were synthesized to deliver the broad-spectrum anticancer drug, doxorubicin, in a controlled and sustained method across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Combination of these two polymeric materials was intended to allow the delivery of doxorubicin molecules through the brain parenchyma without prompting multidrug resistance mechanism by the BBB. Due to it its binding affinity to protonated doxorubicin molecules, molar percentage of incorporated SPA into the cryogel microcarriers was hypothesized to be proportional to the level of doxorubicin uptake. To enable droplet formation, fluorinated oil with perfluoropolyether surfactant served as the continuous phase. The prepolymer droplets were fabricated using a T-junction microfluidic device and were crosslinked via photopolymerization. Light microscopy was used for characterization of the microcarriers before and after cryogelation, with regards to size and shape. Doxorubicin loading and release studies were performed to evaluate drug elution rates for each type of microcarrier suspension. Loading of cryogel microcarriers was done at room temperature for a period of 7 days whereas the release study was carried out at 37°C in an incubator for 28 days. Significant differences (p &lt; 0.0001) in uptake and release of doxorubicin, compared to the control, were seen in all SPA incorporated cryogels while those cryogels without any proportion of SPA incorporation had no significant difference ( p &gt; 0.05). Cryogel suspensions with a SPA to PEGDA molar percentage of 60% or less were coherent with the proposed hypothesis, however, microcarriers that had a higher proportion of SPA did not seem to follow this trend. In conclusion, doxorubicin loading and release in cryogel microcarriers is not entirely dependent on its binding affinity with available SPA functional groups, but also on other physiological and mechanical parameters as well.