Various agricultural residues, such as corn fiber, corn stover, wheat straw, rice straw, and sugarcane bagasse, contain about 20–40% hemicellulose, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature. The conversion of hemicellulose to fuels and chemicals is problematic. In this paper, various pretreatment options as well as enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars is reviewed. Our research dealing with the pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification of corn fiber and development of novel and improved enzymes such as endo-xylanase, β-xylosidase, and α-l-arabinofuranosidase for hemicellulose bioconversion is described. The barriers, progress, and prospects of developing an environmentally benign bioprocess for large-scale conversion of hemicellulose to fuel ethanol, xylitol, 2,3-butanediol, and other value-added fermentation products are highlighted.

Hemicellulose bioconversion

A review on cognitive impairments in depressive and anxiety disorders with a focus on young adults.

Bacteria and fungi can form a range of physical associations that depend on various modes of molecular communication for their development and functioning. These bacterial-fungal interactions often result in changes to the pathogenicity or the nutritional influence of one or both partners toward plants or animals (including humans). They can also result in unique contributions to biogeochemical cycles and biotechnological processes. Thus, the interactions between bacteria and fungi are of central importance to numerous biological questions in agriculture, forestry, environmental science, food production, and medicine. Here we present a structured review of bacterial-fungal interactions, illustrated by examples sourced from many diverse scientific fields. We consider the general and specific properties of these interactions, providing a global perspective across this emerging multidisciplinary research area. We show that in many cases, parallels can be drawn between different scenarios in which bacterial-fungal interactions are important. Finally, we discuss how new avenues of investigation may enhance our ability to combat, manipulate, or exploit bacterial-fungal complexes for the economic and practical benefit of humanity as well as reshape our current understanding of bacterial and fungal ecology.

Bacterial-Fungal Interactions: Hyphens between Agricultural, Clinical, Environmental, and Food Microbiologists

The Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF), which was developed by Rey in 1941 and standardized by Osterrieth in 1944, is a widely used neuropsychological test for the evaluation of visuospatial constructional ability and visual memory. Recently, the ROCF has been a useful tool for measuring executive function that is mediated by the prefrontal lobe. The ROCF consists of three test conditions: Copy, Immediate Recall and Delayed Recall. At the first step, subjects are given the ROCF stimulus card, and then asked to draw the same figure. Subsequently, they are instructed to draw what they remembered. Then, after a delay of 30 min, they are required to draw the same figure once again. The anticipated results vary according to the scoring system used, but commonly include scores related to location, accuracy and organization. Each condition of the ROCF takes 10 min to complete and the overall time of completion is about 30 min.

/pdf/clinical-and-empirical-applications-of-the-rey-osterrieth-45j6v3a8v9.pdf

Clinical and empirical applications of the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test

http://www.neuropsychopathology.com/uploads/4/6/0/4/46045287/abramovitch_et_al_2013_adult_ocd_meta_analysis.pdf

The neuropsychology of adult obsessive–compulsive disorder: A meta-analysis

This study was conducted to investigate the deficits of organizational strategy and visual memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Thirty OCD patients and 30 healthy controls aged 20-35 years participated. The Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) test were administered to participants. The authors scored ROCF performances using the Boston Qualitative Scoring System. The OCD patients showed poorer planning ability and higher fragmentation than did healthy controls when copying the ROCF, and they showed even poorer performances in the immediate and delayed recall conditions. The authors found that the Organization score in the copy condition mediated the difference between the OCD group and the healthy group in immediate recall. The direct effect of diagnosis (OCD or healthy) on the immediate recall condition of the ROCF was also significant. This study indicates that people with OCD have poor memory function and organizational deficits.

http://www.tok2.com/home/pancy/ocd/organization.pdf

Deficits of organizational strategy and visual memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In this study, a combined system consisting of a heat pump and a PTC heater was developed as a heating unit in electric vehicles. The system consists of a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator, an expansion device and a PTC heater. Experiments were conducted to examine the steady-state performance and dynamic characteristics of this system. The compressor speed, outdoor air inlet temperature, and indoor air inlet temperature were varied, and the performance of the system was experimentally investigated. The heating capacity, compressor power consumption and COP were obtained. Warm-up experiments were performed to investigate the dynamic characteristics of the system with a heat load of 1.5 kW in the indoor chamber. For the heat pump system, the PTC heater and the combined system, the heating performance and efficiency were investigated to determine an optimal control method. The results of this study agree well with the experimental results available in literature. This study provides experimental data of good quality for heating system design and the development of electric vehicles.

Experimental studies on the heating performance of the PTC heater and heat pump combined system in fuel cells and electric vehicles

Coexpression of BiP increased antithrombotic hirudin production in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Stable expression of xylose reductase gene enhances xylitol production in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have synthesized the volatile, liquid, nickel precursor Ni(dmamb) 2 , nickel bis(1-dimethylamino-2-methyl-2-butanolate), Ni[OC(CH 3 )(C 2 H 5 )CH 2 N(CH 3 ) 2 ] 2 , and employed it in the MOCVD of nickel oxide (NiO). A stainless steel, cold-wall, low-pressure reactor was employed to grow the NiO films on Si and Pt/SiO 2 /Si substrates. In addition, the resistance switching property of the Pt/NiO/Pt capacitor structure was investigated. The substrate temperature was varied in the range 230–410 °C. The films deposited were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and I – V measurements. They were polycrystalline showing dominantly the NiO(111) peak in their X-ray diffraction patterns. The films were found to be almost stoichiometric with the Ni:O ratio of 1.1:0.9 and no appreciable amount of carbon incorporation was detected by XPS. The I – V measurements revealed an interesting switching property of the NiO films showing low and high resistance states thereby suggesting their application as ReRAM devices.

Myoung-Dong Kim

Papers

Deficits of organizational strategy and visual memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Experimental studies on the heating performance of the PTC heater and heat pump combined system in fuel cells and electric vehicles

Coexpression of BiP increased antithrombotic hirudin production in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Stable expression of xylose reductase gene enhances xylitol production in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae

NiO thin films by MOCVD of Ni(dmamb)2 and their resistance switching phenomena