关键词： Biogas   Food waste   Pruning residues   Sewage   Bioelectricity   Waste-to-energy  

摘要： Decentralized power plants fueled with biogas from organic waste are a keystone for large waste producers responsible for their waste management to reduce the impact of waste generation and poor management, especially in the urban centers, alongside bioenergy and other value-added products generation. This work presents an assessment framework for the characterization quantification and assessment of the biogas potential using theoretical and lab-scale methodologies to evaluate the technical and economic bioelectricity potential from biogas using the organic residues and effluents produced in the main USP campus. The yearly costs to transport and dispose of these residues are around US$ 3,253,716.25, and the electricity consumption is about 8.6 million US$/y. As a large generator, USP is responsible for its residue management, and reduce its generation by the local use to produce bioelectricity is a feasible option. The results show a biogas potential up to 2,363,405.15 m(3), allowing for a bioelectricity generation of up to 4454 MWh/y. A potential to produce 3081.131 tones of dry biofertilizer was also estimated. The wasted resource could currently supply up to 5.6% of the Campus's electricity demand, with an investment of around US$ 1.5 million and a payback range between 3.64 and 7.5 years. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

关键词： Co-combustion of coal and biomass   Ilmenite   Fluidised bed combustion   Agglomeration   Combustion performance  

摘要： Co -firing coal and biomass has the potential to reduce GHG emissions. However, high levels of alkali and alkaline metals in biomass ash can bring additional issues to the operation of coal-fired boilers. This study investigates the effects of ilmenite as the bed material on CO and NOx emissions and combustion efficiency of a coal and biomass blend, and the agglomeration tendency of the bed material with a pilot scale (30 kWth) bubbling fluidised bed combustor. The experiments were carried out at 900 degrees C using a bituminous coal blended with wheat straw pellets at 40 wt% as the fuel and silica sand as the baseline bed material. Samples of agglomerates collected from the combustor and cyclone ash were characterised by SEM-EDS, XRD, and XRF. The results revealed that ilmenite could reduce the level of excess air required to achieve complete combustion due to lower CO emissions and less efficiency loss compared to silica sand. However, ilmenite increased NOx emissions. Furthermore, the characterisation of the obtained agglomerates and cyclone ash showed that ilmenite could hinder the K-rich molten substance attachment to the bed material, leading to significantly smaller agglomerates and hence less tendency towards defluidisation in comparison to silica sand. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

关键词： Moisture  

摘要： Biomass energy accounts for more than 92 percent of overall energy consumption in Ethiopia. As a result, Ethiopia is one of the world's most biomass-dependent countries. The high reliance on wood fuels and agricultural residues for fuel harms society's social, economic, and environmental well-being. This study aims to create and test the quality of fuel briquettes made from the coffee husk. Also built and produced are a carboniser/charcoal kiln, a manually operated molder system, and a briquette stove for burning the manufactured briquette. The carboniser converts 15 kg of raw coffee husk into 6 kg of carbonised char in 25 minutes, and the manually operated briquette molder can press 30 kg per hour. The efficiency of converting raw coffee husk into carbonised char content was 40.12%. In the geological survey of Ethiopia, the geochemical laboratory directorate received triplicate samples of the fuel briquette charcoal for analysis. Moisture content, fixed carbon content, ash content, sulfur content, and calorific value were determined using a bomb calorimeter and a ceramic lining furnace. Physical properties of fuel briquettes ranged from 10.03% moisture content, 970 kg/m(3) density, 81% fixed carbon, 5.15% ash content, 0% sulfur, and 30.54 Kcal/kg higher heating value, according to laboratory results. The results of the study revealed that the coffee husk fuel briquettes produced have more positive characteristics. Fuel briquettes were cost-effective and environmentally friendly and reduced deforestation compared to firewood. This study clearly shows that briquettes made from coffee husk could be used as an alternative energy source when this kind of waste is well managed.

关键词： cancer   alternative splicing   rna splicing   neoplasms   the cancer genome atlas project  

摘要： Alternative splicing (AS) represents a crucial method in mRNA level to regulate gene expression and contributes to the protein complexity. Abnormal splicing has been reported to play roles in several diseases, including cancers. We developed the OncoSplicing database for visualization of survival-associated and differential alternative splicing in 2019. Here, we provide an updated version of OncoSplicing for an integrative view of clinically relevant alternative splicing based on 122 423 AS events across 33 cancers in the TCGA SpliceSeq project and 238 558 AS events across 32 cancers in the TCGA SplAdder project. The new version of the database contains several useful features, such as annotation of alternative splicing-associated transcripts, survival analysis based on median and optimal cut-offs, differential analysis between TCGA tumour samples and adjacent normal samples or GTEx normal samples, pan-cancer views of alternative splicing, splicing differences and results of Cox'PH regression, identification of clinical indicator-relevant and cancer-specific splicing events, and downloadable splicing data in the SplAdder project. Overall, the substantially updated version of OncoSplicing (***) is a user-friendly and registration-free database for browsing and searching clinically relevant alternative splicing in human cancers.

关键词： gene expression   alternative splicing   genes   rna-seq  

摘要： RNA-seq has been widely used in experimental studies and produced a massive amount of data deposited in public databases. New biological insights can be obtained by retrospective analyses of previously published data. However, the barrier to efficiently utilize these data remains high, especially for those who lack bioinformatics skills and computational resources. We present MetazExp (https://***/metazExp), a database for gene expression and alternative splicing profiles based on 53 615 uniformly processed publicly available RNAseq samples from 72 metazoan species. The gene expression and alternative splicing profiles can be conveniently queried by gene IDs, symbols, functional terms and sequence similarity. Users can flexibly customize experimental groups to perform differential and specific expression and alternative splicing analyses. A suite of data visualization tools and comprehensive links with external databases allow users to efficiently explore the results and gain insights. In conclusion, MetazExp is a valuable resource for the research community to efficiently utilize the vast public RNA-seq datasets.

关键词： gene expression   heterogeneity   eukaryotic cells   gene expression regulation   genes   plants   polyadenylation   protein isoforms   rna   small cytoplasmic   mice   rna-seq  

摘要： Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a widespread regulatory mechanism of transcript diversification in eukaryotes, which is increasingly recognized as an important layer for eukaryotic gene expression. Recent studies based on single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) have revealed cell-to-cell heterogeneity in APA usage and APA dynamics across different cell types in various tissues, biological processes and diseases. However, currently available APA databases were all collected from bulk 3'-seq and/or RNA-seq data, and no existing database has provided APA information at single-cell resolution. Here, we present a user-friendly database called scAPAdb (http://***/scAPAdb), which provides a comprehensive and manually curated atlas of poly(A) sites, APA events and poly(A) signals at the single-cell level. Currently, scAPAdb collects APA information from > 360 scRNA-seq experiments, covering six species including human, mouse and several other plant species. scAPAdb also provides batch download of data, and users can query the database through a variety of keywords such as gene identifier, gene function and accession number. scAPAdb would be a valuable and extendable resource for the study of cell-to-cell heterogeneity in APA isoform usages and APA-mediated gene regulation at the single-cell level under diverse cell types, tissues and species.

关键词： gene expression   transcription   genetic   cells   genes   polyadenylation   rna   small cytoplasmic   rna-binding proteins   mice   micrornas   rna-seq  

摘要： Alternative polyadenylation (APA) has been widely recognized as a crucial step during the posttranscriptional regulation of eukaryotic genes. Recent studies have demonstrated that APA exerts key regulatory roles in many biological processes and often occurs in a tissue- and cell-type-specific manner. However, to our knowledge, there is no database incorporating information about APA at the celltype level. Single-cell RNA-seq is a rapidly evolving and powerful tool that enable APA analysis at the cell-type level. Here, we present a comprehensive resource, scAPAatlas (http://***: 3838/scAPAatlas), for exploring APA across different cell types, and interpreting potential biological functions. Based on the curated scRNA-seq data from 24 human and 25 mouse normal tissues, we systematically identified cell-type-specific APA events for different cell types and examined the correlations between APA and gene expression level. We also estimated the crosstalk between cell-type-specific APA events and microRNAs or RNA-binding proteins. A user-friendly web interface has been constructed to support browsing, searching and visualizing multilayer information of cell-type-specific APA events. Overall, scAPAatlas, incorporating a rich resource for exploration of APA at the cell-type level, will greatly help researchers chart cell type with APA and elucidate the biological functions of APA.

关键词： actins   alternative splicing   human embryonic stem cells   sarcomeres   transcriptome  

摘要： Background: Mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric proteins lead to failures in sarcomere assembly, the building blocks of contracting muscles, resulting in cardiomyopathies that are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Splicing variants of sarcomeric proteins are crucial at different stages of myofibrillogenesis, accounting for sarcomeric structural integrity. RBM24 (RNA-binding motif protein 24) is known as a tissue-specific splicing regulator that plays an essential role in cardiogenesis. However, it had been unclear if the developmental stage-specific alternative splicing facilitated by RBM24 contributes to sarcomere assembly and cardiogenesis. Our aim is to study the molecular mechanism by which RBM24 regulates cardiogenesis and sarcomere assembly in a temporal-dependent manner. Methods: We ablated RBM24 from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) using CRISPR/Cas9 techniques. Results: Although RBM24(-/-) hESCs still differentiated into sarcomere-hosting cardiomyocytes, they exhibited disrupted sarcomeric structures with punctate Z-lines due to impaired myosin replacement during early myofibrillogenesis. Transcriptomics revealed >4000 genes regulated by RBM24. Among them, core myofibrillogenesis proteins (eg, ACTN2 [alpha-actinin 2], TTN [titin], and MYH10 [non-muscle myosin IIB]) were misspliced. Consequently, MYH6 (muscle myosin II) cannot replace nonmuscle myosin MYH10, leading to myofibrillogenesis arrest at the early premyofibril stage and causing disrupted sarcomeres. Intriguingly, we found that the ABD (actin-binding domain;encoded by exon 6) of the Z-line anchor protein ACTN2 is predominantly excluded from early cardiac differentiation, whereas it is consistently included in human adult heart. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of exon 6 from ACTN2 in hESCs, as well as forced expression of full-length ACTN2 in RBM24(-/-) hESCs, further corroborated that inclusion of exon 6 is critical for sarcomere assembly. Overall, we have demonstrated that RB

关键词： Candida albicans   Innate immune evasion   Factor H   hormone sensing   Gpd2   oestrogen   VVC   complement  

摘要： Candida albicans is a commensal of the urogenital tract and the predominant cause of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). Factors that increase circulatory estrogen levels such as pregnancy, the use of oral contraceptives, and hormone replacement therapy predispose women to VVC, but the reasons for this are largely unknown. Here, we investigate how adaptation of C. albicans to estrogen impacts the fungal host-pathogen interaction. Estrogen promotes fungal virulence by enabling C. albicans to avoid the actions of the innate immune system. Estrogen-induced innate immune evasion is mediated via inhibition of opsonophagocytosis through enhanced acquisition of the human complement regulatory protein, Factor H, on the fungal cell surface. Estrogen-induced accumulation of Factor H is dependent on the fungal cell surface protein Gpd2. The discovery of this hormone-sensing pathway might pave the way in explaining gender biases associated with fungal infections and may provide an alternative approach to improving women's health.

关键词： Bacteria nanocarrier   cell nanocarrier   drug-delivery systems   nanomedicine  

摘要： Introduction Nano-based systems have received a lot of attention owing to their particular properties and, hence, have been proposed for a wide variety of biomedical applications. These nanosystems could be potentially employed for diagnosis and therapy of different medical issues. Although these nanomaterials are designed for specific tasks, interactions, and transformations when administered to the human body affect their performance and behavior. In this regard, bacteria and other cells have been presented as alternative nanocarriers. These microorganisms can be genetically modified and customized for a more specific therapeutic action and, in combination with nanomaterials, can lead to bio-hybrids with a unique potential for biomedical purposes. Areas covered Literature regarding bacteria and cells employed in combination with nanomaterials for biomedical applications is revised and discussed in this review. The potential as well as the limitations of these novel bio-hybrid systems are evaluated. Several examples are presented to show the performance of these alternative nanocarriers. Expert opinion Bio-hybrid systems have shown their potential as alternative nanocarriers as they contribute to better performance than traditional nano-based systems. Nevertheless, their limitations must be studied, and advantages and drawbacks assessed before their application to medicine.