The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of essential oil mixture (EOM) supplementation on rumen fermentation characteristics and microbial changes in an in vitro. Three experimental treatments were used: control (CON, no additive), EOM 0.1 (supplementation of 1 g EOM/kg of substrate), and EOM 0.2 (supplementation of 2 g EOM/kg of substrate). An in vitro fermentation experiment was carried out using strained rumen fluid for 12 and 24 h incubation periods. At each time point, in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), neutral detergent fiber digestibility (IVNDFD), pH, ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations, and relative microbial diversity were estimated. After 24 h incubation, treatments involving EOM supplementation led to significantly higher IVDMD (treatments and quadratic effect; p = 0.019 and 0.008) and IVNDFD (linear effect; p = 0.068) than did the CON treatment. The EOM 0.2 supplementation group had the highest NH3-N concentration (treatments; p = 0.032). Both EOM supplementations did not affect total VFA concentration and the proportion of individual VFAs; however, total VFA tended to increase in EOM supplementation groups, after 12 h incubation (linear; p = 0.071). Relative protozoa abundance significantly increased following EOM supplementation (treatments, p<0.001). Selenomonas ruminantium and Ruminococcus albus (treatments; p<0.001 and p = 0.005), abundance was higher in the EOM 0.1 treatment group than in CON. The abundance of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, fungi and Ruminococcus flavefaciens (treatments; p< 0.001, p<0.001, and p = 0.005) was higher following EOM 0.2 treatment. The addition of newly developed EOM increased IVDMD, IVNDFD, and tended to increase total VFA indicating that it may be used as a feed additive to improve rumen fermentation by modulating rumen microbial communities. Further studies would be required to investigate the detailed metabolic mechanism underlying the effects of EOM supplementation.

The nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission of from arable soil following the application of manure is expected to vary by different animal manure types used. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between the type of animal manure used to amend soil and the amount of N₂O emitted during the cultivation of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). An additional objective was to study the characteristics of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) in different animal manures. Composted manures from chickens, cows, and pigs were applied to the soil at rates of 0, 10, and 20 Mg ha⁻¹, respectively. The availability and concentration of N and C varied by manure type. The concentration of NH₄⁺ was greater in pig manure (4638 mg kg⁻¹) than in chicken (551 mg kg⁻¹) and cow manure (147 mg kg⁻¹). The mean cumulative N₂O emission rate across soil application rates was also the highest with pig manure (11.9 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹), followed by chicken and cow manure, with emission rates of 10.8 and 10.1 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, respectively. The majority of N₂O measured during the sweet-potato-growing season was produced from aerobic nitrification. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in animal manures did not affect cumulative N₂O emission rates, and no significant relationship was observed throughout the growing season between the concentration of DOC in soil and daily N₂O emission. Cumulative N₂O emission rates depended on the type of animal manure and might be governed by NH₄⁺ concentration, rather than by total N concentration in animal manure type.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have received great attention as optical agents because of their low toxicity, stable photoluminescence (PL) in moderate pH solutions, and size-dependent optical properties. Although many synthetic routes have been proposed for producing GQD solutions, the broad size distribution in GQD solutions limits its use as an efficient optical agent. Here, we present a straightforward method for size fractionation of GQDs dispersed in water using a cross-flow filtration system and a track-etched membrane with cylindrical uniform nanopores. The GQD aqueous suspension, which primarily contained blue-emitting GQDs (B-GQDs) and green-emitting GQDs (G-GQDs), was introduced to the membrane in tangential flow and was fractionated with a constant permeate flow of about 800 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹. After filtration, we observed a clear blue PL spectrum from the permeate side, which can be attributed to selective permeation of relatively small B-GQDs. The process provided a separation factor (B-GQDs/G-GQDs) of 0.74. In the cross-flow filtration system, size-dependent permeation through cylindrical nanochannels was confirmed by simulation. Our results demonstrate a feasible method facilitating size fractionation of two-dimensional nanostructures using a cross-flow membrane filtration system. Since membrane filtration is simple, cost-effective, and scalable, our approach can be applied to prepare a large amount of size-controlled GQDs required for high performance opto-electronics and bio-imaging applications.

Background: Advances in genomics have greatly improved the survival rate in cancer patients. However, due to genetic heterogeneity, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is still difficult to diagnose early, and its survival rate is extremely low. Therefore, we identified biomarkers that predict the prognosis of PDAC patients using independent cohort data. Materials and methods: To develop a novel prognostic biomarker, we used the gene expression and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Kaplan–Meier survival curve using median values of genes as cutoff showed that EIF4G1 was the only statistically significant gene in the 3 cohorts. We analyzed the prognostic significance of EIF4G1 using the time-dependent area under the curve (AUC) of Uno’s C-index, the AUC value of the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) at 3 years, and multivariate Cox analysis. We also compared EIF4G1 levels between tumors and matched non-tumor tissues. Results: EIF4G1 is the only prognostic gene in patients with PDAC, which was selected by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. The survival curve showed that high expression of EIF4G1 was associated with poor prognosis of PDAC with a good discriminative ability in 3 independent cohorts. The risk stratifying ability of EIF4G1 was demonstrated by analyzing C-indices and AUC values. Multivariate Cox regression confirmed its prognostic significance. EIF4G1 expression was significantly higher in PDAC tissues than in the matched normal tissues. Conclusion: EIF4G1 could be used as a novel prognostic marker for PDAC and to determine suitable treatment options.

The effect of single (0.1, 1, and 10 mg L⁻¹) and binary mixtures (0.1 + 0.1, 1 + 1, and 10 + 10 mg L⁻¹) of metal-based nanoparticles (CdO and CuO) on the germination of Vigna radiata was studied under two humidity ranges (70% and 80%). Filter paper-based tests were conducted. The surface-sterilized seeds were exposed to CdO and CuO under controlled environmental conditions (70% and 80% humidity at 35 °C). Germination rates were scored after 24 h and 48 h. The accumulation of metals was tested in seedlings after 48 h using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Compared with 70% humidity, the germination rate was higher under 80% humidity in all tested conditions. The germination rate of the CdO + CuO treatment was less than that of the single metal exposure under both humidities (70% and 80%) at 48 h. By two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), we found that germination was greatly influenced by humidity. The accumulation of metal was higher in the CuO test than in the CdO test. Metal accumulation was concentration and humidity dependent, except for Cd accumulation in the CdO + CuO treatment. Here we show that the germination of seeds depends on the humidity and concentration of metal oxide nanoparticles. Understanding these strategies in seeds might help to avoid environmental and chemical stress and improve crop yield.