Rice false smut pathogen: implications for mycotoxin contamination, current status, and future perspectives.

Rice serves as a staple food across various continents worldwide. The rice plant faces significant threats from a range of fungal, bacterial, and viral pathogens. Among these, rice false smut disease (RFS) caused by Villosiclava virens is one of the devastating diseases in rice fields. This disease is widespread in major rice-growing regions such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and others, leading to significant losses in rice plantations. Various toxins are produced during the infection of this disease in rice plants, impacting the fertilization process as well. This review paper lightens the disease cycle, plant immunity, and infection process during RFS. Mycotoxin production in RFS affects rice plants in multiple ways, although the exact phenomena are still unknown.

Integrated multi-omic data and analyses reveal the response pathways of to high-temperature stress.

With the intensification of the greenhouse effect and the continuous rise of global temperature, high temperatures in summer seriously affect the growth of green onion (Allium fistulosum L.var.caespitosum Makino) and reduce its yield and quality. It is important to study the mechanism of heat tolerance in green onion for selecting and breeding new varieties with high-temperature tolerance. In this study, we used the heat-tolerant green onion variety AF60 and heat-sensitive green onion variety AF35 and measured their physiological indexes under different durations of heat stress. The results showed that high-temperature stress adversely affected the water content, protein composition and antioxidant system of green onion. In addition, a comprehensive analysis using transcriptomics and metabolomics showed that heat-tolerant green onions responded positively to heat stress by up-regulating the expression of heat shock proteins, whereas heat-sensitive green onions responded to heat stress by activating the galactose metabolic pathway and maintained normal physiological activities. This study revealed the physiological performance and high-temperature response pathways of different heat-tolerant green onion cultivars under heat stress. The results further deepen the understanding of the molecular mechanism of green onion's heat stress response.

Anti-biofilm investigation of graphene/chitosan nanocomposites against biofilm producing P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae.

In this study graphene/chitosan nanoparticles (GR/CS NCs) were developed. The homogenous combination of GR and CS was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. The combination of CS with GR sheets reduced the XRD intensity of the GR peak in GR/CS NCs, while TEM images revealed the immobile CS coating of GR sheets. Further, the anti-biofilm activity of GR/CS NCs was tested. The tests showed that the formation of biofilm by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae was inhibited at 40□g/mL GR/CS NCs up to 94 and 92 %, respectively. The intracellular and cell surface damage of the bacteria was observed by CLSM and SEM. Also, GR/CS NCs produced a toxic effect of 90 % on Artemia franciscana at 70□g/mL upon 24 h incubation. The recorded properties of the synthesized GR/CS NCs qualify them as potential agents against multi-drug resistant bacteria.

Valuable biochemical production in mixed culture fermentation: fundamentals and process coupling.

The mixed culture fermentation is an important environmental biotechnology that converts biodegradable organic wastes to valuable chemicals such as hydrogen, methane, acetate, ethanol, propionate, and so on. For the multistep process of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis/homoacetogensis, and methanogenesis, the typical metabolic reactions are firstly summarized. And then, since the final metabolites are always a mixture, the separation and purification processes are necessary to couple with anaerobic fermentation. Therefore, several typical coupling technologies including biogas upgrading, two-stage fermentation, gas stripping, membrane technology of pervaporation, membrane distillation, electrodialysis, bipolar membrane electrodialysis, and microbial fuel cells are summarized to separate the metabolites and recover energy. At last, the novel technologies such as the controlled metabolite production, medium chain carboxylic acid production, and high temperature ethanol recovery in thermophilic mixed culture fermentation are also reviewed. However, the novel concepts are still needed to meet the demands of better overall performances and lower total costs.

Electricity production and microbial characterization of thermophilic microbial fuel cells.

Thermophilic microbial fuel cell (TMFC) offers many benefits, but the investigations on the diversity of exoelectrogenic bacteria are scarce. In this study, a two-chamber TMFC was constructed using ethanol as an electron donor, and the microbial dynamics were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing and 16S rRNA clone-library sequencing. The open-circuit potential of TMFC was approximately 650mV, while the maximum voltage was around 550mV. The maximum power density was 437mW/m2, and the columbic efficiency in this work was 20.5±6.0%. The Firmicutes bacteria, related to the uncultured bacterium clone A55_D21_H_B_C01 with a similarity of 99%, accounted for 90.9% of all bacteria in the TMFC biofilm. This unknown bacterium has the potential to become a new thermophilic exoelectrogenic bacterium that is yet to be cultured. The development of TMFC-involved biotechnologies will be beneficial for the production of valuable chemicals and generation of energy in the future.

[Walking Ability Assessment System for Parkinson's Patients Based on Inertial Sensor].

In order to evaluate the ability of Parkinson's patients to walk comprehensively, a system based on MEMS to aid clinical quantification of ability in Parkinson's is established. The inertial units are respectively fixed on the back and the waist of subject to be measured. The Kalman fusion algorithm is used to extract the characteristic parameters of accelerometer and gyroscope data. SVM classifier is designed to train and test the classifier by the feature. The results show that the system possesses a high recognition rate for Parkinson's patients and normal subjects and for the classification of the walking ability of patients with Parkinson's disease. So, this system can aid doctors to give more object diagnostic conclusion.

[Digital System for the Geriatric Somatic Function Assessment].

At present, the somatic function assessment of the elderly mostly depends on the doctor's observation and the scale evaluation, and there isn't the objective and quantitative assessment criteria. In this paper, we design and construct a digital system for the geriatric somatic function assessment, which is based on digital ground, inertial unit, mobile terminal and PC terminal. The gait and balance parameters of the elderly were obtained by the Time Up and Go test and five postures test. Based on the linear regression model of gait and balance parameters, the system was used to evaluate the somatic function of the elderly. The experimental results show that the system not only can accurately distinguish elderly between fall and non-fall, but also has a high correlation between the score of the system and the score of clinical geriatric physical function scale.