Enhancement of astaxanthin production from food waste by Phaffia rhodozyma screened by flow cytometry and feed application potential.

Astaxanthin is widely used in food, aquaculture, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals due to its strong antioxidant activity and coloring ability, but its production from Phaffia rhodozyma remains the main challenge due to the high fermentation cost and low content of carotenoid. In this study, the production of carotenoids from food waste (FW) by a P. rhodozyma mutant was investigated. P. rhodozyma mutant screened by UV mutagenesis and flow cytometry could stably produce high carotenoids at 25°C, with carotenoid production (32.9 mg/L) and content (6.7 mg/g), respectively, increasing by 31.6% and 32.3% compared with 25 mg/L and 5.1 mg/g of wild strain. Interestingly, the carotenoid production reached 192.6 mg/L by feeding wet FW, which was 21% higher than batch culture. The 373 g vacuum freeze-dried products were obtained from the fermentation of 1 kg FW by P. rhodozyma, which contained 784 mg carotenoids and 111 mg astaxanthin. The protein, total amino acids, and essential amino acids content of the fermentation products were 36.6%, 40.5%, and 18.2% (w/w), respectively, and lysine-added fermentation products had the potential of high-quality protein feed source. This study provides insights for the high-throughput screening of mutants, astaxanthin production, and the development of the feed potential of FW.

DisEHPPC: Enabling Heterogeneous Privacy-Preserving Consensus-Based Scheme for Economic Dispatch in Smart Grids.

These days, the increasing incremental cost consensus-based algorithms are designed to tackle the economic dispatch (ED) problem in smart grids (SGs). However, one principal obstruction lies in privacy disclosure for generators and consumers in electricity activities between supply and demand sides, which may bring great losses to them. Hence, it is extraordinarily essential to design effective privacy-preserving approaches for ED problems. In this article, we propose a two-phase distributed and effective heterogeneous privacy-preserving consensus-based (DisEHPPC) ED scheme, where a demand response (DR)-based framework is constructed, including a DR server, data manager, and a set of local controllers. The first phase is that Kullback-Leibler (KL) privacy is guaranteed for the privacy of consumers' demand by the differential privacy method. The second phase is that (ε,δ) -privacy is, respectively, achieved for the generation energy of generators and the sensitivity of electricity consumption to electricity price by designing the privacy-preserving incremental cost consensus-based (PPICC) algorithm. Meanwhile, the proposed PPICC algorithm tackles the formulated ED problem. Subsequently, we further carry out the detailed theoretical analysis on its convergence, optimality of final solution, and privacy degree. It is found that the optimal solution for the ED problem and the privacy preservation of both supply and demand sides can be guaranteed simultaneously. By evaluation of a numerical experiment, the correctness and effectiveness of the DisEHPPC scheme are confirmed.

The specific glycerolipid composition is responsible for maintaining the membrane stability of Physcomitrella patens under dehydration stress.

Land colonization is a major event in plant evolution. Little is known about the evolutionary characteristics of lipids during this process. Here, we proved that Physcomitrella patens, a bryophyte that appeared in the early evolution of terrestrial plants, has short-term desiccation resistance. The maintenance of membrane integrity is related to its specific glycerolipid composition and key genes for lipid metabolism. We analyzed 414 types of lipid molecules, and found that phospholipids accounted for 61.7%, mainly PC and PI; glycolipids accounted for only 26.5%, with a special MGDG molecular map. The most abundant MDGD, that is, MGDG34:6, contained rare 15- and 19-carbon acyl chains; the level of neutral lipids was higher. This was consistent with the results observed by TEM, with fewer lamellae and obvious lipid droplets. Slight dehydration accumulated a large number of TAG molecules, and severe dehydration degraded phospholipids and caused membrane leakage, but PA and MGDG fluctuated less. The key genes of lipid metabolism, DGAT and PAP, were actively transcribed, suggesting that PA was one of the main DAG sources for TAG synthesis. This work proves that Physcomitrella patens adopts high-constitutive PC and PI similar to plant seeds, abundant TAG, and its own specific MGDG to resist extreme dehydration. This result provides a new insight into the lipid evolution of early terrestrial plants against unfavorable terrestrial environments.

Simulation study on the mining conditions of dissolution of low grade solid potash ore in Qarhan Salt Lake.

The output and grade of liquid potash minerals in Qarhan Salt Lake are decreasing year by year, which has become the main problem restricting the sustainable production of potassium fertilizer. The exploitation and utilization of low-grade solid potash ore, which is in the strata of the Qarhan Salt Lake, represents the fundamental framework for the sustainable development of Qarhan Salt Lake's potash fertilizer. PHREEQC is a simulation software for hydrogeochemistry. In this paper, PHREEQC was applied to simulate temperature, pH value and solvent chemical characteristics which affect the dissolution process of low-grade solid potash minerals. The simulation results indicate that the optimum temperature for ore dissolution is around 25 °C, because, around this temperature, the dissolving ability of solvents to low-grade solid potash minerals is enhanced, while the dissolving ability to halite remains basically unchanged, which is conducive to selective dissolution of low-grade solid potash. It is recommended the temperature is between 20 and 30 â„ƒ. The simulation results show that, when the pH value of solvents is more than 9, although it is advantageous to selective dissolution of low-grade solid potash minerals, the solvent becomes strong alkali solution, which will cause environmental pollution and seriously corrode materials and equipment in actual production, so it is recommended the pH value of the solvent is adjusted between 6 and 8. The simulation results show that, when the values of K+, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl- and SO42- in the solvent are 0.1%, 2.9%, 3.77%, 0.05%, 15.72% and 0.13% respectively, the solubility of low-grade solid potash ores is stronger, which is more conducive to selective ore dissolution. It is suggested that in actual production, the chemical composition of solvents prepared with old brine and fresh water should be as close as possible to the above chemical composition characteristics.

Mitigating the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on emergency stroke care: an original study and meta-analysis.

The coronavirus disease 2019 is still continuing and may affect stroke emergency care. We aim to investigate the impact of pandemic on stroke treatment in tertiary stroke centers in western China, and to quantitatively evaluate the worldwide influence with a meta-analysis. The original part was conducted in three tertiary stroke centers in Sichuan province. We compared emergency visits and efficiency of stroke treatment pre-, early, peak and late pandemic. Single-center analysis was further conducted in the largest local hospital and one hospital located close to the epicenter respectively. Relevant studies were searched in PubMed, Ovid Embase and Cochrane Library for English publications from December 2019 to July 2020 for systematic review. Fixed-and random-effect meta-analysis was performed to calculate the overall rates. Totally current original study showed fewer time of hospital admission and significantly higher rates of mechanical thrombectomy during the early and peak epidemic periods, compared with pre-epidemic time. The largest local hospital had significantly higher mechanical thrombectomy rates during the whole crisis and less daily admission during early and peak epidemic periods. The hospital located close to the epicenter presented higher proportions of intravenous thrombolysis since outbreak, and more favorable outcomes after reperfusion therapies than later (all P values <0.05). In meta-analysis, studies reported differences in reperfusion therapies and stroke severity but pooled results were non-significant. Overall, comprehensive measures should be implemented to keep hospital's capacity to deliver high-quality stroke emergency care during the global pandemic. Some key messages were provided for medical practice in the crisis.

Web malware spread modelling and optimal control strategies.

The popularity of the Web improves the growth of web threats. Formulating mathematical models for accurate prediction of malicious propagation over networks is of great importance. The aim of this paper is to understand the propagation mechanisms of web malware and the impact of human intervention on the spread of malicious hyperlinks. Considering the characteristics of web malware, a new differential epidemic model which extends the traditional SIR model by adding another delitescent compartment is proposed to address the spreading behavior of malicious links over networks. The spreading threshold of the model system is calculated, and the dynamics of the model is theoretically analyzed. Moreover, the optimal control theory is employed to study malware immunization strategies, aiming to keep the total economic loss of security investment and infection loss as low as possible. The existence and uniqueness of the results concerning the optimality system are confirmed. Finally, numerical simulations show that the spread of malware links can be controlled effectively with proper control strategy of specific parameter choice.

[In situ immobilization of Pb and Cd in orchard soil using soil ameliorants].

In situ immobilization of Pb and Cd in soil of two gardens in Golden Orchard of Chongqing was studied using soil ameliorants, which included eight treatments: control, quicklime, superphosphate, organic manure, quicklime + superphosphate, quicklime + organic manure, superphosphate + organic manure, and quicklime + superphosphate + organic manure. The results showed that all ameliorant treatments could decrease soil acidity in both the loquat garden and peach garden except the superphosphate treatment. Compared with the control, the soil pH in the two gardens increased by 0. 93 and 0. 79 with quicklime treatment for 120 d, respectively. Ameliorant treatments could decrease the bioavailability of Pb and Cd in the soil, and thus reduce the contents of Pb and Cd in the fruits. The available Pb contents in the soil of loquat garden and peach garden significantly decreased after the 150 d treatment with quicklime and superphosphate, by 3.46% and 3.56%, respectively, and the Pb contents in loquat and peach decreased by 18.3% and 14.44%, respectively. The available Cd content in the soil of loquat garden decreased by 10. 95% after the 150 d treatment with quicklime. The available Cd content in the soil of peach garden decreased by 7.09% after the 150 d treatment with quicklime, superphosphate and organic manure. Ameliorant treatments could further decrease the Cd content in loquat, and the Cd contents in loquat and peach decreased by 30.91% and 24.62% with quicklime treatment, respectively.