Controlled oxidation-reduction potential on dark fermentative hydrogen production from glycerol: Impacts on metabolic pathways and microbial diversity of an acidogenic sludge

The oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) is an important factor in H₂ production via dark fermentation however its effect over microbial diversity in an acidogenic sludge has not, been well studied. This work studies the effect of ORP controlled by hydrogen peroxide and potassium ferricyanide on continuous hydrogen production and microbial diversity in an acidogenic sludge fed (HRT 12 h and pH 5.5) with glycerol. Results show that the more oxidizing ORP control environment (?540 mV) improves H₂ yield by 50–70% (0.31–0.51 molH₂/mol glycerol) over non-ORP control conditions. Oxidizing ORP values were shown to enrich microorganisms of the genus Clostridium, which have been linked to high H₂ yields. Therefore, controlling ORP in an acidogenic sludge was shown to directly modify microbial diversity at the genus level, and could likely to indirectly regulate metabolic function. Additionally, metabolic pathways were regulated by the kind of agent used.     

Enhancement effect on apparent viscosity of aqueous tragacanth gum dispersions promoted by sugars

Flow curves of aqueous dispersions of tragacanth gum (T) with sucrose and glucose at different temperatures were determined using a controlled‐stress rheometer. The effect of sodium chloride without or with sucrose (at the highest content) on the rheology of T dispersions was evaluated. The presence of sucrose and glucose promoted a noticeable enhancement impact on the apparent viscosity of aqueous T dispersions, which depended on sugar type/content, shear rate and temperature. In all cases, the glucose addition led to the largest enhanced viscosities at low shear rates (<10 s^?1) and temperature. The joint action of sugar and salt exhibited a notable effect on apparent viscosity at low shear rates, softening the strong shear‐thinning behaviour of T samples. Flow curves of T in the presence of sugars were satisfactorily described by the Cross‐Williamson model, being semi‐empirical correlations of the model parameters with ingredients content and temperature stablished.     

Propagating and evanescent waves associated with inhibited reflection in uniaxial crystals: Extraordinary incidence

Abstract

When an extraordinary wave under inhibited reflection conditions is incident on an interface between a uniaxial crystal and an isotropic medium, the reflected extraordinary wave is evanescent and the polarization of the refracted wave changes from linear to elliptical. In the present paper it is shown that the refracted ray undergoes a shift which is not only longitudinal (as the Goos—Hänchen effect in total reflection in isotropic interfaces) but also transversal. The structure of the evanescent reflected wave is studied and the polarization of the transmitted wave is analysed.     

On Demand Solid Texture Synthesis Using Deep 3D Networks

This paper describes a novel approach for on demand volumetric texture synthesis based on a deep learning framework that allows for the generation of high-quality three-dimensional (3D) data at interactive rates. Based on a few example images of textures, a generative network is trained to synthesize coherent portions of solid textures of arbitrary sizes that reproduce the visual characteristics of the examples along some directions. To cope with memory limitations and computation complexity that are inherent to both high resolution and 3D processing on the GPU, only 2D textures referred to as ‘slices’ are generated during the training stage. These synthetic textures are compared to exemplar images via a perceptual loss function based on a pre-trained deep network. The proposed network is very light (less than 100k parameters), therefore it only requires sustainable training (i.e. few hours) and is capable of very fast generation (around a second for 256³ voxels) on a single GPU. Integrated with a spatially seeded pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) the proposed generator network directly returns a color value given a set of 3D coordinates. The synthesized volumes have good visual results that are at least equivalent to the state-of-the-art patch-based approaches. They are naturally seamlessly tileable and can be fully generated in parallel.     

The Bark Beetle Dendroctonus rhizophagus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) Has Digestive Capacity to Degrade Complex Substrates: Functional Characterization and Heterologous Expression of an α-Amylase

Dendroctonus-bark beetles are natural agents contributing to vital processes in coniferous forests, such as regeneration, succession, and material recycling, as they colonize and kill damaged, stressed, or old pine trees. These beetles spend most of their life cycle under stem and roots bark where they breed, develop, and feed on phloem. This tissue is rich in essential nutrients and complex molecules such as starch, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, which apparently are not available for these beetles. We evaluated the digestive capacity of Dendroctonus rhizophagus to hydrolyze starch. Our aim was to identify α-amylases and characterize them both molecularly and biochemically. The findings showed that D. rhizophagus has an α-amylase gene (AmyDr) with a single isoform, and ORF of 1452 bp encoding a 483-amino acid protein (53.15 kDa) with a predicted signal peptide of 16 amino acids. AmyDr has a mutation in the chlorine-binding site, present in other phytophagous insects and in a marine bacterium. Docking analysis showed that AmyDr presents a higher binding affinity to amylopectin compared to amylose, and an affinity binding equally stable to calcium, chlorine, and nitrate ions. AmyDr native protein showed amylolytic activity in the head-pronotum and gut, and its recombinant protein, a polypeptide of ~53 kDa, showed conformational stability, and its activity is maintained both in the presence and absence of chlorine and nitrate ions. The AmyDr gene showed a differential expression significantly higher in the gut than the head-pronotum, indicating that starch hydrolysis occurs mainly in the midgut. An overview of the AmyDr gene expression suggests that the amylolytic activity is regulated through the developmental stages of this bark beetle and associated with starch availability in the host tree.     

An Organoid for Woven Bone

Bone formation (osteogenesis) is a complex process in which cellular differentiation and the generation of a mineralized organic matrix are synchronized to produce a hybrid hierarchical architecture. To study the mechanisms of osteogenesis in health and disease, there is a great need for functional model systems that capture in parallel, both cellular and matrix formation processes. Stem cell-based organoids are promising as functional, self-organizing 3D in vitro models for studying the physiology and pathology of various tissues. However, for human bone, no such functional model system is yet available. This study reports the in vitro differentiation of human bone marrow stromal cells into a functional 3D self-organizing co-culture of osteoblasts and osteocytes, creating an organoid for early stage bone (woven bone) formation. It demonstrates the formation of an organoid where osteocytes are embedded within the collagen matrix that is produced by the osteoblasts and mineralized under biological control. Alike in in vivo osteocytes, the embedded osteocytes show network formation and communication via expression of sclerostin. The current system forms the most complete 3D living in vitro model system to investigate osteogenesis, both in physiological and pathological situations, as well as under the influence of external triggers (mechanical stimulation, drug administration).     

Plasmin-Induced Activation of Human Platelets Is Modulated by Thrombospondin-1, Bona Fide Misfolded Proteins and Thiol Isomerases

Inflammatory processes are triggered by the fibrinolytic enzyme plasmin. Tissue-type plasminogen activator, which cleaves plasminogen to plasmin, can be activated by the cross-β-structure of misfolded proteins. Misfolded protein aggregates also represent substrates for plasmin, promoting their degradation, and are potent platelet agonists. However, the regulation of plasmin-mediated platelet activation by misfolded proteins and vice versa is incompletely understood. In this study, we hypothesize that plasmin acts as potent agonist of human platelets in vitro after short-term incubation at room temperature, and that the response to thrombospondin-1 and the bona fide misfolded proteins Eap and SCN⁻-denatured IgG interfere with plasmin, thereby modulating platelet activation. Plasmin dose-dependently induced CD62P surface expression on, and binding of fibrinogen to, human platelets in the absence/presence of plasma and in citrated whole blood, as analyzed by flow cytometry. Thrombospondin-1 pre-incubated with plasmin enhanced these plasmin-induced platelet responses at low concentration and diminished them at higher dose. Platelet fibrinogen binding was dose-dependently induced by the C-terminal thrombospondin-1 peptide RFYVVMWK, Eap or NaSCN-treated IgG, but diminished in the presence of plasmin. Blocking enzymatically catalyzed thiol-isomerization decreased plasmin-induced platelet responses, suggesting that plasmin activates platelets in a thiol-dependent manner. Thrombospondin-1, depending on the concentration, may act as cofactor or inhibitor of plasmin-induced platelet activation, and plasmin blocks platelet activation induced by misfolded proteins and vice versa, which might be of clinical relevance.