The biological mechanisms of butanol tolerance and the application of solvent-tolerant bacteria for environmental protection

Toxicity caused by the accumulation of butanol in fermentation media is an important factor limiting the concentration of butanol. There is currently no systematic research in place investigating the butanol tolerance mechanism of bacteria such as Clostridium acetobutylicum, which adapts to butanol stress and regulates its growth and metabolism. Here, research results related to the butanol tolerance of C. acetobutylicum are reviewed to understand the molecular basis of changes in butanol-tolerant strains. Organic solvent-tolerant bacteria play an important role in the fields of biofuel production, enzyme preparation and bioremediation. An analysis of limitations of the application of organic solvent-tolerant bacteria has revealed that future research should focus on combining the microbial tolerance phenotype with specific utilization to achieve an optimal balance between organic solvent tolerance and production. This review serves as a reference for the improvement and engineering of strains that tolerate organic solvents. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

X射线干涉光刻光束线关键光学元件热-结构耦合分析

为了保证上海光源X射线干涉光刻光束线的稳定性,减小热变形对实验结果的影响,对X射线干涉光刻光束线的3个关键光学元件——偏转镜、聚焦镜和精密四刀狭缝进行热-结构耦合分析。首先,计算偏转镜、聚焦镜和精密四刀狭缝所承载的功率密度;然后,建立其有限元模型;最后,获得光学元件的温度场和热变形的结果。结果表明,偏转镜和聚焦镜采用间接水冷方式可有效抑制热变形,冷却后的最大面形误差分别为7.2μrad和9.2μrad。精密四刀狭缝未冷却时,刀片组件温度介于271.56~273.27℃,刀口热变形为0.19 mm,直线导轨热变形为0.08 mm;经过铜辫子冷却后,刀片组件温度降至22.24~23.94℃,刀口热变形降至0.2μm,直线导轨热变形降至0.1μm;采用影像法和接触探头法测试后,刀口直线度、平行度和重复精度均满足技术要求。偏转镜、聚焦镜和精密四刀狭缝的热变形通过间接水冷和铜辫子的冷却方式可以得到很大程度的抑制,进而保证光斑质量。     

Effect of Temperature and Strain Rate on the Hot Deformation Behaviour of Ferritic Stainless Steel

Metals and Materials International - The flow behaviour and microstructure characteristics of a ferritic stainless steel were investigated using plain strain compression test on a Gleeble 3500...     

Ferroelastic domain structure and phase transition in single-crystalline [PbZn1/3Nb2/3O3]1-x[PbTiO3]x observed via in situ x-ray microbeam

(1-x)Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-xPbTiO₃ ((1-x)PZN-xPT in short) is one of the most important piezoelectric materials. In this work, we extensively investigated (1-x)PZN-xPT (x = 0.07–0.11) ferroelectric single crystals using in-situ synchrotron μXRD, complemented by TEM and PFM, to correlate microstructures with phase transitions. The results reveal that (i) at 25 °C, the equilibrium state of (1-x)PZN-xPT is a metastable orthorhombic phase for x = 0.07 and 0.08, while it shows coexistence of orthorhombic and tetragonal phases for x = 0.09 and x = 0.11, with all ferroelectric phases accompanied by ferroelastic domains; (ii) upon heating, the phase transformation in x = 0.07 is Orthorhombic → Monoclinic → Tetragonal → Cubic. The coexistence of ferroelectric tetragonal and paraelectric cubic phases was in-situ observed in x = 0.08 above Curie temperature (T_C), and (iii) phase transition can be explained by the evolution of the ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains. These results disclose that (1-x)PZN-xPT are in an unstable regime, which is possible factor for its anomalous dielectric response and high piezoelectric coefficient.     

Regulation of sensory nerve conduction velocity of human bodies responding to annual temperature variations in natural environments

The extensive research interests in environmental temperature can be linked to human productivity / performance as well as comfort and health; while the mechanisms of physiological indices responding to temperature variations remain incompletely understood. This study adopted a physiological sensory nerve conduction velocity (SCV) as a temperature‐sensitive biomarker to explore the thermoregulatory mechanisms of human responding to annual temperatures. The measurements of subjects’ SCV (over 600 samples) were conducted in a naturally ventilated environment over all four seasons. The results showed a positive correlation between SCV and annual temperatures and a Boltzmann model was adopted to depict the S‐shaped trend of SCV with operative temperatures from 5°C to 40°C. The SCV increased linearly with operative temperatures from 14.28°C to 20.5°C and responded sensitively for 10.19°C‐24.59°C, while tended to be stable beyond that. The subjects’ thermal sensations were linearly related to SCV, elaborating the relation between human physiological regulations and subjective thermal perception variations. The findings reveal the body SCV regulatory characteristics in different operative temperature intervals, thereby giving a deeper insight into human autonomic thermoregulation and benefiting for built environment designs, meantime minimizing the temperature‐invoked risks to human health and well‐being.     

Histone Methylation Marks on Circulating Nucleosomes as Novel Blood-Based Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer

Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) are under investigation as a liquid biopsy in cancer as potential non-invasive biomarkers, as stable structure in circulation nucleosomes could be valuable sources for detection of cancer-specific alterations in histone modifications. Our interest is in histone methylation marks with a focus on colorectal cancer, one of the leading cancers respective the incidence and mortality. Our previous work included the analysis of trimethylations of lysine 9 on histone 3 (H3K9me3) and of lysine 20 on histone 4 (H4K20me3) by chromatin immuno- precipitation-related PCR in circulating nucleosomes. Here we asked whether global immunologic measurement of histone marks in circulation could be a suitable approach to show their potential as biomarkers. In addition to H3K9me3 and H4K20me3 we also measured H3K27me3 in plasma samples from CRC patients (n = 63) and cancer free individuals (n = 40) by ELISA-based methylation assays. Our results show that of three marks, the amounts of H3K27me3 (p = 0.04) and H4K20me3 (p < 0.001) were significantly lower in CRC patients than in healthy controls. For H3K9me3 similar amounts were measured in both groups. Areas under the curve (AUC) in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicating the power of CRC detection were 0.620 for H3K27me3, 0.715 for H4K20me3 and 0.769 for the combination of both markers. In conclusion, findings of this preliminary study reveal the potential of blood-based detection of CRC by quantification of histone methylation marks and the additive effect of the marker combination.