Study of lung function tests in tea garden factory workers in relation to duration of exposure to tea dust

Background: Occupational hazard is a common health problem in the world today. The tea industry is also no exception. Tea dust inhalation leads to development of many respiratory symptoms: Acute as well as chronic. Workers in the tea factory often are not aware of the ill effects of inhalation of tea dust. There is therefore a need to make them aware of their working environment and take necessary precautions to keep themselves healthy to earn their livelihood. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the pulmonary function tests (PFT) in tea garden factory workers and assess the outcome of exposure duration to tea dust in them. Materials and Methods: The study had been carried out on 210 male tea garden factory workers (cases) and 70 male field workers (control) employed in various tea gardens of Dibrugarh, in Assam. Computerized spirometer was used to evaluate PFTs. The cases were categorized into three categories (70 numbers in every category) according to their exposure duration, namely – Category 1: Exposure duration <1 year; Category 2: Exposure duration of 1–2 years; and Category 3: Exposure duration of >2 years up to 5 years. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA. Results: On comparing with control group values, statistically significant decline of forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume (FEV)1 values were seen in Category 1 while highly significant decline were seen for Categories 2 and 3. Decline of FEV1% in Category 3 was highly significant. Decline of peaked expiratory flow rate values in Category 2 and Category 3 was significant. Conclusion: Increase in exposure duration to tea dust causes a significant decline in lung functions.

Current situation of job burnout and its influencing factors among workers in a chemical fiber factory in Xinxiang City, Henan Province / 环境与职业医学

Background Job burnout is prevalent among the occupational population, which may lead to individual physical and mental discomfort and affect the quality of life and productivity of suffered workers. Most current chemical fiber factory workers are engaged in hazardous tasks with high frequency and high repetition, which are highly associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and subsequently lead to job burnout. Objective To understand the current situation and influencing factors of job burnout in workers of a chemical fiber factory in Xinxiang City of Henan Province, and to provide empirical evidence for preventing and reducing the occurrence of job burnout in target workers. Methods In 2022, the workers of a chemical fiber factory in Xinxiang City were selected by cluster random sampling. The Chinese versions of the Burnout Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used to conduct a survey. SPSS 25.0 software was used for rank sum test, correlation analysis, and logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 1463 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective recovery rate of 90.0%. The positive rate of mild and moderate job burnout in the chemical fiber factory employees was 39.4%, and the positive rate of serious job burnout was 14.3%. There were statistical differences in the positive rates of job burnout among the workers by gender, age, education level, position, work shift system, anxiety symptom severity, and depressive symptom severity (P<0.05). The results of Spearman correlation analysis showed that the score of anxiety symptoms was positively correlated with the total score of job burnout, as well as the dimensional scores of exhaustion and cynicism, and negatively correlated with the dimensional score of professional efficacy (r=0.671, 0.764, 0.673, −0.097; P<0.01). The score of depressive symptoms was also positively correlated with the total score of job burnout, as well as the dimensional scores of exhaustion and cynicism, and negatively correlated with the dimensional score of professional efficacy (r=0.688, 0.791, 0.723, −0.087; P<0.01). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that men had a higher risk of serious job burnout than women (OR=1.698, 95%CI: 1.163-2.479); workers aged ≤ 40 years old had a higher probability of serious job burnout than those aged 51 to 60 years old (OR=2.587, 95%CI: 1.310-5.109); non-assembly line production workers and assembly line production workers were more prone to serious job burnout than administrative management and logistics personnel (OR=6.511, 9.707, 95%CI: 1.539-27.548, 2.260-41.700); compared with other shift systems (three shifts and night shifts), the probability of serious job burnout was lower (OR=0.375, 95%CI: 0.254-0.553) in regular day shift workers; compared with frequent overtime work, those reporting no overtime work and occasional overtime work showed a lower risk of serious job burnout, with OR (95%CI) values of 0.114 (0.068-0.192) and 0.331 (0.194-0.564), respectively. Conclusion The positive rate of job burnout among the employees of the chemical fiber factory is high, and the anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms are positively correlated with job burnout. Adjustment of work should be strengthened at multiple levels to improve anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms of employees, and reduce the occurrence of job burnout.

Preface for special issue on chemical bioproduction / 生物工程学报

Engineering efficient enzymes or microbial cell factories should help to establish green bio-manufacturing process for chemical overproduction. The rapid advances and development in synthetic biology, systems biology and enzymatic engineering accerleate the establishing feasbile bioprocess for chemical biosynthesis, including expanding the chemical kingdom and improving the productivity. To consolidate the latest advances in chemical biosynthesis and promote green bio-manufaturing, we organized a special issue on chemical bioproduction that including review or original research papers about enzymatic biosynthesis, cell factory, one-carbon based biorefinery and feasible strategies. These papers comprehensively discussed the latest advaces, the challenges as well as the possible solutions in chemical biomanufacturing.

Serum bilirubin in workers exposed to tobacco dust and noise / 环境与职业医学

Background Exposure to tobacco dust or noise is associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease in workers, but there are few studies on their effects on workers' serum bilirubin levels. Objective To analyze the effects of combined exposure to tobacco dust and noise on workers' serum bilirubin levels. Methods We selected 824 employees from a large cigarette factory in Wuhan. According to the status of occupational hazards on site, we divided the participants into a control group (n=149), a tobacco dust exposure group (n=198), a noise exposure group (n=299), and a tobacco dust and noise combined exposure group (n=178). We collected general information of the participants. We collected blood samples and measured serum bilirubin. We used chi-square test to compare between-group categorical indicators. We used analysis of variance to compare measurement data. Taking the control group as the reference category, we used generalized linear regression model to analyze serum bilirubin concentration across the three exposure groups and the control group. Results The abnormal rates of serum indirect bilirubin concentrations in the control group, the tobacco dust exposure group, the noise exposure group, and the tobacco dust and noise combined exposure group were 6.04% (9/149), 12.63% (25/198), 13.38% (40/299), and 17.42% (31/178), respectively, showing a clear increasing trend (P<0.05). The mean concentrations of indirect bilirubin in the tobacco dust and noise combined exposure group were significantly higher than that in the tobacco dust and the noise groups (P<0.05). The serum indirect bilirubin concentrations in the tobacco dust exposure group, the noise exposure group, and the tobacco dust and noise combined exposure group were 1.833, 1.774, and 1.634 times higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion Occupational exposure to tobacco dust or noise may associate with elevated serum total bilirubin concentration in cigarette factory workers, mainly indirect bilirubin concentration. Serum indirect bilirubin anomaly is higher among workers simultaneously exposed to tobacco dust and noise.

Engineering and application of Komagataella phaffii as a cell factory / 生物工程学报

Nowadays, engineered Komagataella phaffii plays an important role in the biosynthesis of small molecule metabolites and protein products, showing great potential and value in industrial productions. With the development and application of new editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9, it has become possible to engineer K. phaffii into a cell factory with high polygenic efficiency. Here, the genetic manipulation techniques and objectives for engineering K. phaffii are first summarized. Secondly, the applications of engineered K. phaffii as a cell factory are introduced. Meanwhile, the advantages as well as disadvantages of using engineered K. phaffii as a cell factory are discussed and future engineering directions are prospected. This review aims to provide a reference for further engineering K. phaffii cell factory, which is supposed to facilitate its application in bioindustry.

Study on occupational ventilatory defects among workers employed in cement factories of Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India

Introduction: Cement factory workers are at a high risk of exposure to crystalline silica-laden cement dusts and at a higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), like chronic bronchitis, emphysema and restrictive lung disease like silicosis. This study was done to measure the extent of occupational ventilatory defect among workers employed inside cement factories. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among cement factory workers using questionnaire on respiratory symptoms 1986 and spirometry was done after seeking permission from the concerned authority and Institutional Ethics Committee. Logistic regression analysis was done to test for statistical significance. Results: Ventilatory defect was present among one fourth of the factory workers. Obstructive type of lung disease was much higher (94.6%) than restrictive lung disease (5.4%). Almost half of the study subjects had presented with different types of respiratory symptoms. Breathlessness on exertion was commonest symptom, followed by cough day and night. Ventilatory defects were noted to be much higher (86.5%) among the workers working in the cement factories for more than 10 years and increasing trend was observed with increment in their age and years of working at the factory. Ventilatory defect were significantly high among smokers (29.5%), subjects who started smoking in early age (35.9%) and there is increasing trend of defects with a greater number of cigarettes intake. Conclusion: Periodically awareness generation and mandatory use of personal protective equipment should be practiced among workers in cement factories.

The Role of Olfactory System in the Etiogenesis of Parkinson’s Diseases: An Overview

Parkinson’s disease (PD) mainly affects the dopaminergic neuronal networks of the substantia nigra, which leads to both motor and nonmotor symptoms of the disease. Based on the reports from the previous studies, 95% of the cases are presented along with olfactory dysfunction. The relevant publications from 2002 to 2021 were searched and shortlisted using PubMed and Google Scholar. In this review, we have discussed the correlation between olfactory dysfunction and PD. Olfactory damage presents earlier than the motor symptoms. Because there are no current methodologies for the early detection of PD, olfactory dysfunction can be used as a potential marker for the early detection of PD and hence paving the way for better therapeutic approaches.

Tolerance engineering regulates stress resistance of microbial cell factory / 生物工程学报

The production efficiency of microbial cell factory is determined by the growth performance, product synthetic capacity, and stress resistance of the strain. Strengthening the stress resistance is the key point to improve the production efficiency of microbial cell factory. Tolerance engineering is based on the response mechanism of microbial cell factory to resist stress. Specifically, it consolidates the cell wall-cell membrane barrier to enhance the defense against stress, accelerates the stress response to improve the damage repair, and creates tolerance evolutionary tools to screen industrial microorganisms with enhanced robustness. We summarize the regulation strategies and forecast the prospects of tolerance engineering, which plays an important role in the microbial cell factories for sustainable production of natural products and bulk chemicals.

Engineering the glycogen metabolism in cyanobacterial photosynthetic cell factories: a review / 生物工程学报

Cyanobacteria are important photosynthetic autotrophic microorganisms and are considered as one of the most promising microbial chassises for photosynthetic cell factories. Glycogen is the most important natural carbon sink of cyanobacteria, playing important roles in regulating its intracellular carbon distributions. In order to optimize the performances of cyanobacterial photosynthetic cell factories and drive more photosynthetic carbon flow toward the synthesis of desired metabolites, many strategies and approaches have been developed to manipulate the glycogen metabolism in cyanobacteria. However, the disturbances on glycogen metabolism usually cause complex effects on the physiology and metabolism of cyanobacterial cells. Moreover, the effects on synthesis efficiencies of different photosynthetic cell factories usually differ. In this manuscript, we summarized the recent progress on engineering cyanobacterial glycogen metabolism, analyzed and compared the physiological and metabolism effects caused by engineering glycogen metabolism in different cyanobacteria species, and prospected the future trends of this strategy on optimizing cyanobacterial photosynthetic cell factories.

Effects of using hand-held vibration tool on work-related musculoskeletal disorders in automobile factory workers / 中国职业医学

@#Objective - To analyze the effect of using vibration tools on the prevalence of work related musculoskeletal disorders （ ） Methods ， - WMSDs in automobile factory workers. By judgment sampling method front line workers with more than one year of working experience in an automobile factory were selected as the research subjects. Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire was used for investigation. The workers were divided into the control group and the vibration tool group. The propensity score ∶ ， matching method was used to balance the confounding factors of the two groups of workers by 1 1 and 568 people were Results included in each group. The prevalence of WMSDs was compared between the two groups after matching. After ， ， ， ， ， ， matching the prevalence of WMSDs in the shoulder elbow hand/wrist upper back waist hip/buttock and knee of workers in ， （ P ） the vibration tool group was higher than that in the control group and the differences were statistically significant all <0.05 .， The prevalence of WMSDs in different body parts of workers in the vibration tool group ranking from high to low was waist ， ， ， ， ， ， ， ， ， ， neck shoulder hand/wrist upper back knee ankle/foot elbow and hip/buttock with the rate of 74.3% 61.3% 54.2% ， ， ， ， ， （P ） Conclusions 54.0% 50.9% 39.4% 35.2% 31.0% and 27.1% respectively <0.01 . The use of vibration tools can ， ， ， ， ， increase the risk of WMSDs in shoulder elbow hand/wrist upper back waist hip/buttock and knee of automobile factory workers. Corresponding measures should be taken to reduce vibration intensity and reduce contact time to protect workers'

Metabolic engineering of yeasts for green and sustainable production of bioactive ginsenosides F2 and 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM

Both natural ginsenoside F2 and unnatural ginsenoside 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM were reported to exhibit anti-tumor activity. Traditional approaches for producing them rely on direct extraction from Panax ginseng, enzymatic catalysis or chemical synthesis, all of which result in low yield and high cost. Metabolic engineering of microbes has been recognized as a green and sustainable biotechnology to produce natural and unnatural products. Hence we engineered the complete biosynthetic pathways of F2 and 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM in Saccharomyces cerevisiae via the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The titers of F2 and 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM were increased from 1.2 to 21.0 mg/L and from 82.0 to 346.1 mg/L at shake flask level, respectively, by multistep metabolic engineering strategies. Additionally, pharmacological evaluation showed that both F2 and 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM exhibited anti-pancreatic cancer activity and the activity of 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM was even better. Furthermore, the titer of 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM reached 2.6 g/L by fed-batch fermentation in a 3 L bioreactor. To our knowledge, this is the first report on demonstrating the anti-pancreatic cancer activity of F2 and 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM, and achieving their de novo biosynthesis by the engineered yeasts. Our work presents an alternative approach to produce F2 and 3β,20S-Di-O-Glc-DM from renewable biomass, which lays a foundation for drug research and development.

Prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal disorders among workers inheavy-duty automobile parts factories in Beijing Municipality / 预防医学

Objective@#To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of occupational musculoskeletal disorders among workers in heavy-duty automobile parts factories in Beijing Municipality, so as to provide insights into development of effective interventions for occupational musculoskeletal disorders.@*Methods@#The workers in three heavy-duty automobile truck parts factories in Beijing Municipality were recruited using the convenient sampling method during the period from May 2019 to October 2020. Subjects' demographic characteristics, type of job and prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal disorders at various sites were collected using self-designed electronic questionnaires, and the factors affecting the development of occupational musculoskeletal disorders were identified using a multivariable logistic regression model.@*Results@#A total of 264 workers were enrolled, including 260 males (98.48%) and 4 females (1.52%). The participants had a mean age of (31.71±6.13) years, and mean duration of (7.51±5.25) years at current position, and mechanical technician was the major type of work (129 workers, 48.86%). The prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal disorders was 70.08% among the participants, and high prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal disorders was found in the lower back/waist (41.28%), shoulder (40.15%), neck (39.02%) and upper back (33.33%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified females (OR=1.280, 95%CI: 1.021-1.602) and head-down posture at work (OR=2.644, 95%CI: 1.034-6.763) as risk factors for occupational musculoskeletal disorders at neck; females (OR=1.633, 95%CI: 1.624-2.117), sheet metal workers, mechanical technicians and painters (OR: 5.811-10.452, 95%CI: 1.205-54.027), working in an uncomfortable posture (OR：1.376-7.749, 95%CI: 1.034-27.270) and frequent working overtime (OR=2.081, 95%CI: 1.192-4.137) as risk factors for occupational musculoskeletal disorders at shoulder; and sheet metal workers, mechanical technicians and painters (OR: 8.760-11.948, 95%CI: 1.630-66.927), working in an uncomfortable posture (OR：4.067-12.185, 95%CI: 1.332-47.523) and frequent working overtime (OR=2.201, 95%CI: 1.142-4.244) as risk factors for occupational musculoskeletal disorders at waist/back.@*Conclusions@#The prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal disorders is high among workers in heavy-duty automobile parts factories, which mainly occur at shoulder, neck, waist and back. Type of work, working posture and working duration are main factors affecting the development of occupational musculoskeletal disorders.

Neck musculoskeletal disorders and their influence factors among welders in an automobile factory / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

Objective: To explore the prevalence and risk factors of neck musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs) of welders among an automobile factory. Methods: In June 2019, a cluster random sampling method was used to select 677 electric welders from an automobile manufacturing plant in Shiyan City as the survey objects, and a questionnaire survey was conducted using the "Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire" to analyze the prevalence and influencing factors of neck MSDs, and used logistic regression to analyze the relationship between the influencing factors and the prevalence of cervical MSDs. Results: The prevalence rate of MSDs in neck of welders was 54.8% (371/677) . The exposure rate of occupational factors, from high to low, were neckin a bent formord porsure was 71.6% (486/677) , repetitive head movements was 55.1% (373/677) , working in uncomfortable postures was 48.7% (330/677) and neck twisted was 46.8% (317/677) respectively. Sex, age, educational level, length of service, smoking, neck tilt, neck twist, working in uncomfortable posture and head repetitive movements were the risk factors of neck MSDs (P<0.05) . Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that, the main influencing factors of neck MSDs were sex, education level, age, length of service, smoking, neck tilt, working in uncomfortable posture (OR = 2.11, 2.03, 1.83, 1.21, 1.78, 1.90, 1.58, 95%CI: 1.28~3.48、1.47~2.81、1.33~2.52、1.03~1.41、1.22~2.60、1.28~2.83、1.11~2.27, P<0.05) , rest had protective effect on neck MSDs (OR= 0.38, 95%CI: 0.17~0.88, P<0.05) . Conclusion: Welders in automobile factory was highly exposed to occupational risk factors for neck MSDs. Occupational risk factors such as neck in a bent forward posture, working in an uncomfortable posture, prolonged siting, repetitive head movement should be the focus of intervention.

Advances of synthetic biology of flavonoids / 药学学报

Flavonoids is one of the biggest families of the plant-derived secondary metabolites with structural diversity. Until now, over 10 000 kinds of flavonoids with distinct structures have been purified and identified from plants, and some of them possess a range of important pharmacological effects, such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory and so on. So far, a number of genes and enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of flavonoids have been reported, especially, a great of progress has been achieved in the synthetic biology of flavonoids in the recent years. Herein, based upon a brief introduction on the biosynthesis of flavonoids, this review summarizes the research advances in synthetic biology of flavonoids in the past two decades (2001-2021), highlighting the cell factories construction of the representative flavonoids. And, a brief discussion and prospects of the relevant metabolic bottlenecks and optimizing strategies are proposed.

Entre os apitos do campo e da fábrica: o futebol à moda Bangu/Rio de Janeiro (1904-1929) / Between the fields of the field and the factory: football in style bangu / Rio de Janeiro (1904-1929 / Entre los campos del campo y la fábrica: fútbol al estilo Bangu / Rio de Janeiro (1904-192

Este trabalho tem como objetivo discutir as peculiaridades do processo de organização do Bangu Athletic Club e o seu progressivo e dependente relacionamento com a Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil, entre os anos de 1904 a 1929. Quanto ao recorte temporal (1904-1929), levamos em conta as transformações ocorridas em Bangu ao longo desse período, em 1904 a fundação do Bangu Athletic Club, e em 1929 a fábrica passou por um retalhamento de suas terras, em que, consequentemente, emergiu o bairro Bangu, agora sem ligação direta com a fábrica. Como fontes, foram utilizados revistas e jornais consultados na Hemeroteca Digital da Biblioteca Nacional, além de pedidos de licenciamento e estatutos (AU)

This paper aims to discuss the peculiarities about the organi-zation process of Bangu Athletic Club and its progressive and dependent relationship with Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil, between the years 1904 to 1929. Regarding the time frame (1904-1929 ), we take into account the transformations that took place in Bangu throughout that , in 1904, the foundation of the Bangu Athletic club, and 1929, the year in which the factory underwent a shredding of its lands, in which consequently the Bangu neighborhood, now emerged, without direct connection with the factory. As sources were used magazines and news-papers consulted in the Digital Library of the National Library, licensing requests and statutes (AU)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo discutir las peculiaridades del proceso de organización del Bangu Athletic Club y su relación pro-gresiva y dependiente con la Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil, entre los años 1904 a 1929. En cuanto al marco temporal (1904-1929 ), tenemos en cuenta las transformaciones que se produjeron en Bangu durante ese período, en 1904, fundación del club Bangu Athletic, y 1929, año en el que la fábrica sufrió un desmembramiento de sus tierras, en el que surgió como consecuencia el barrio de Bangu, ahora sin conexión directa con la fábrica. Como fuentes se utilizaron revistas y periódicos consultados en la Biblioteca Digital de la Biblioteca Nacional, solicitudes de licencias y estatutos (AU).

Entre os apitos do campo e da fábrica: o futebol à moda Bangu/Rio de Janeiro (1904-1929) / Between the fields of the field and the factory: football in style bangu / Rio de Janeiro (1904-1929) / Entre los campos del campo y la fábrica: fútbol al estilo Bangu / Rio de Janeiro (1904-1929)

Este trabalho tem como objetivo discutir as peculiaridades do processo de organização do Bangu Athletic Club e o seu progressivo e dependente relacionamento com a Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil, entre os anos de 1904 a 1929. Quanto ao recorte temporal (1904-1929), levamos em conta as transformações ocorridas em Bangu ao lon-go desse período, em 1904 a fundação do Bangu Athletic Club, e em 1929 a fábrica passou por um retalhamento de suas terras, em que, conse-quentemente, emergiu o bairro Bangu, agora sem ligação direta com a fábrica. Como fontes, foram utilizados revistas e jornais consultados na Hemeroteca Digital da Biblioteca Nacional, além de pedidos de licencia-mento e estatutos.

This paper aims to discuss the peculiarities about the organi-zation process of Bangu Athletic Club and its progressive and dependent relationship with Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil, between the years 1904 to 1929. Regarding the time frame (1904-1929 ), we take into account the transformations that took place in Bangu throughout that period, in 1904, the foundation of the Bangu Athletic club, and 1929, the year in which the factory underwent a shredding of its lands, in which consequently the Bangu neighborhood, now emerged, without direct connection with the factory. As sources were used magazines and news-papers consulted in the Digital Library of the National Library, licensing requests and statutes.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo discutir las peculiaridades del proceso de organización del Bangu Athletic Club y su relación pro-gresiva y dependiente con la Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil, entre los años 1904 a 1929. En cuanto al marco temporal (1904-1929 ), tenemos en cuenta las transformaciones que se produjeron en Bangu durante ese período, en 1904, fundación del club Bangu Athletic, y 1929, año en el que la fábrica sufrió un desmembramiento de sus tierras, en el que surgió como consecuencia el barrio de Bangu, ahora sin conexión directa con la fábrica. Como fuentes se utilizaron revistas y periódicos consultados en la Biblioteca Digital de la Biblioteca Nacional, solicitudes de licencias y estatutos.

Advances of high-throughput screening system in reengineering of biological entities / 生物工程学报

Enzymes and cell factories are the core of industrial biotechnology. They play important roles in various fields such as medicine, chemical industry, food, agriculture, and energy. Usually, natural enzymes and cells need to be engineered to improve the catalytic efficiency, stability and enantioselectivity. Directed evolution makes it possible to rapidly improve the properties of enzymes and cell factories. Sensitive and reliable high-throughput screening approaches are the key for successful and efficient engineering of enzymes and cell factories. In this review, we first summarize the advantages and disadvantages of different screening methods and signal generation strategies as well as their application scope; we then describe the latest advances of ultra-high throughput screening technology applied in the directed evolution of enzymes and cell factories in the past three years. On this basis, we discuss the limiting factors that need to be further improved for high-throughput screening systems and forecast the future development trends of high-throughput screening methods, hoping that researchers in various fields including biotechnology and instrument development can cooperate closely to enhance the reliability and applicability of the high-throughput screening techniques.

Research progress in biosynthesis of podophyllotoxin and its derivatives / 生物工程学报

Podophyllotoxin (PTOX) is an aryl-tetralin lignan of plant origin found in some species of Podophyllum such as Dysosma versipellis, Diphylleia sinensis, and Sinopodophyllum hexandrum. Etoposide and teniposide are produced semisynthetically from PTOX and used clinically to treat several forms of cancer. As a typical representative of new drug discovery from natural products, the production of PTOX solely depends on extraction from plants, resulting in severe contradiction between supply and demand. With the advantages of unconstrained resources and eco-friendly reaction conditions, biosynthesis method has become a trend in the production of PTOX and its derivatives. In this review, we summarize the research progress of PTOX biosynthesis in plants and expound the functions of the key enzymes as well as their subcellular location. The synthetic biology for production of PTOX intermediates in a tobacco chassis is also introduced. Finally, the heterologous expression and biotransformation of PTOX in microorganisms is summarized, which sets the foundation for the efficient microbial production of PTOX using cell factories.

Synthetic biology of plants-derived medicinal natural products / 生物工程学报

Medicinal natural products derived from plants are usually of low content and difficult to extract and isolate. Moreover, these compounds are structurally complex, making it difficult to obtain them by environmental unfriendly chemical synthesis. Biosynthesis of medicinal natural products through synthetic biology is a novel, environment-friendly and sustainable approach. Taking terpenoids (ginsenosides, paclitaxel, artemisinin, tanshinones), alkaloids (vincristine and morphine), and flavonoids (breviscapine) as examples, this review summarizes the advances of the biosynthetic pathways and synthetic biology strategies of plant-derived medicinal natural products. Moreover, we introduce the key technologies and methods of synthetic biology used in the research of medicinal natural products, and provide future prospects in this area.

Analysis of burnout indices and components of organizational climate among female factory workers

Introduction@#With the growing number of females employed as factory workers, it is important to look into the phenomenon of burnout and related organizational climate affecting these workers. @*Objectives@#The study's objectives were: 1) to come up with the indices of burnout among Filipino female factory workers and; 2) to come up with indices of organizational climate components of job autonomy, the content of the job, and nature of management through exploratory factor analysis. @*Methods@#The secondary data used for this study were from a cross-sectional study involving 344 female factory workers. The indicators of the organizational climate were derived through exploratory factor analysis of items in the dataset. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to reduce the variables into a fewer set of “Component Variables.” The technique explored the relationship of each indicator and then grouped them according to which component they were highly correlated. Using the factor loadings as weights, the index score was generated. The organizational climate indices were derived from the factor loading scores. Burnout Score was derived from respondents’ answers on nine items relating to burnout. The organizational climate indexes were also generated using factor analysis with these components- job autonomy, content of the job, and nature of management. Cronbach alpha was generated for all the items under each index to show the internal consistency and scale reliability. @*Results@#There were 344 female respondents with a mean age of 26 (SD=5.02), and the majority were single (69.21%). Nine items were measured with the lowest average response “work is boring” (0.259 ± .560) for burnout indices. The highest mean answer for the item “work requires new skills or upskilling regularly” at 1.619 ± .762, suggesting that most respondents were required to upskill regularly. “Salary is not enough to meet worker’s needs” also has a high average response, suggesting that most respondents felt that their salary was insufficient to sustain their daily needs. The total burnout score indicates that workers experienced moderate burnout. The indices for burnout have good internal consistency and scale reliability (Cronbach alpha= 0.712). The organizational climate was grouped into Indexes through factor analysis, namely, Autonomy on Quality Index, Autonomy on Rest Index, Skilled work content Index, Physical work content Index, Hazardous work content Index, Health, Safety, and Compensation Index, and Training Index. Autonomy on Quality Index has a mean of 66.877 ± 31.934, suggesting that the autonomy on quality for respondents was moderately high, while Autonomy on Rest Index was 24.159 ± 30.788, suggesting that respondents have low autonomy on rest. The skilled work content index was high at an average of 70.801 ± 22.87, while physical work content and hazardous work content index were low at 29.398 and 25.377, respectively. Health, Safety, and Compensation index average was very low at 8.891 ± 8.524. @*Conclusion@#This study came up with indices of burnout unique to female factory workers. The indexes were boredom/boring work, repetitious tasks, fast-paced work, work pressure, not sufficient compensation, work-home conflicts, upskilling, physically tiring, mentally tiring, and salary is not sufficient to meet basic needs. This study also came up with the indexes of organizational climate relating to job autonomy, content of job, and nature of management. The several items under each of these components were subjected to Factor Analysis to come up with indexes of organizational climate. Thus, the contribution of this study is coming up with a burnout index unique to the Filipino factory worker, not just based on subjective expert opinion, but data-driven and statistically derived.