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Extractives, important compounds from wood, provide abundant resources for woody medicine. In this study, the three extractives from Cunninghamia lanceolata wood were removed by method of three-stage extraction with alcohol, petroleum ether, and alcohol/petroleum ether and their chemical components were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Thirteen chemical components were discovered in the first-stage extractives, including: 4-((1e)-3-hydroxy-1-propenyl)-2-methoxyphenol (36.80%), α-(2-phenylethenyl)-1-piperidineacetonitrile (15.39%). One-hundred chemical components were discovered in the second-stage extractives, including: [1s-(1α,4aα,10aβ)]-1, 2,3,4,4a,9,10,10a-octahydro-1,4a- dimethyl-7-(1-methylethyl)-1- phenanthrenecar-boxylic acid (15.16%), 1,3-dimethoxy-5-[(1e)-2- phenylethenyl]-benzene (6.99%). Seven chemical components were discovered in the third-stage extractives, including: 1,3-dimethoxy -5-[(1E)-2-phenylethenyl]-benzene (32.88%), stigmasta-4,6,22-trien-3α-ol (17.83%). And both the main retention time of the first-stage and which of third-stage extractives are 20-30 minutes, and the main retention time of the second-stage extractives is <10 minutes. Besides, the three extractives contained many biomedical molecular, such as [1s-(1α,4aα,10aβ)]-1,2,3,4,4a,9,10,10a-octahydro-1,4a-dimethyl-7-(1-methylethyl)-1-phenanthrenecar-boxylic acid, squalene, stigmast-4-en-3-one and γ-sitosterol and so on, which means that the three extractives from Cunninghamia lanceolata wood have huge potential in biomedicine.

Consumer interest in food products, including fresh vegetables, with health promoting properties is rising. In fresh vegetables, these properties include vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and secondary compounds, which collectively impart a large portion of the dietary, nutritional or health value associated with vegetable intake. Many, including farmers, aim to increase the health-promoting properties of fresh vegetables on the whole but they face at least three obstacles. First, describing crop composition in terms of its nutrition-based impact on human health is complex and there are few, if any, accepted processes and associated metrics for assessing and managing vegetable composition on-farm, at the origin of supply. Second, data suggest that primary and secondary metabolism can be 'in conflict' when establishing the abundance versus composition of a crop. Third, fresh vegetable farmers are rarely compensated for the phytochemical composition of their product. The development and implementation of a fresh vegetable 'nutritional yield' index could be instrumental in overcoming these obstacles. Nutritional yield is a function of crop biomass and tissue levels of health-related metabolites, including bioavailable antioxidant potential. Data from a multi-factor study of leaf lettuce primary and secondary metabolism and the literature suggest that antioxidant yield is sensitive to genetic and environmental production factors, and that changes in crop production and valuation will be required for fresh vegetable production systems to become more focused and purposeful instruments of public health.

Abstract The growth and development of maize (Zea mays L.) largely depends on its nutrient uptake through the root. Hence, studying its growth, response, and associated metabolic reprogramming to stress conditions is becoming an important research direction. A genome-scale metabolic model (GSM) for the maize root was developed to study its metabolic reprogramming under nitrogen stress conditions. The model was reconstructed based on the available information from KEGG, UniProt, and MaizeCyc. Transcriptomics data derived from the roots of hydroponically grown maize plants were used to incorporate regulatory constraints in the model and simulate nitrogen-non-limiting (N+) and nitrogen-deficient (N−) condition. Model-predicted flux-sum variability analysis achieved 70% accuracy compared with the experimental change of metabolite levels. In addition to predicting important metabolic reprogramming in central carbon, fatty acid, amino acid, and other secondary metabolism, maize root GSM predicted several metabolites (l-methionine, l-asparagine, l-lysine, cholesterol, and l-pipecolate) playing a regulatory role in the root biomass growth. Furthermore, this study revealed eight phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol metabolites which, even though not coupled with biomass production, played a key role in the increased biomass production under N-deficient conditions. Overall, the omics-integrated GSM provides a promising tool to facilitate stress condition analysis for maize root and engineer better stress-tolerant maize genotypes.

A novel, disposable-bag bioreactor system that uses wave action for mixing and transferring oxygen was evaluated for BHK 21 C13 cell line growth and Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) production. Growth kinetics of BHK 21 C13 cells in the wave bioreactor during 3-day period were determined. At the end of the 3-day culture period and cell density of 1.82x10(6) cells ml-1, the reactor was inoculated with 9 ml of gE- Bartha K-61 strain ADV suspension (10(5.9) TCID50) with multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.01. After a 144 h incubation period, 400 ml of ADV harvest was obtained with titre of 10(7.0) TCID 50 ml-1, which corresponds to 40,000 doses of vaccine against AD. In conclusion, the results obtained with the wave bioreactor using BHK 21 C13 cells showed that this system can be considered as suitable for ADV or BHK 21 C13 cell biomass production.

To review the available evidence that examines the association between climatic and agricultural land use factors and the risks of enteric zoonoses in humans and consider information needs and possible pathways of intervention.The electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Embase and government websites were searched systematically for published literature that investigated the association of climatic and/or agricultural exposures with the incidence of the four most common enteric zoonotic diseases in New Zealand (campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis). Results The 16 studies in the review demonstrated significant associations between climate, agricultural land use and enteric disease occurrence. The evidence suggests that enteric disease risk from environmental reservoirs is pathogen specific. In some rural regions, environmental pathogen load is considerable, with multiple opportunities for zoonotic transmission.Enteric disease occurrence in NZ is associated with climate variability and agricultural land use. However, these relationships interact with demographic factors to influence disease patterns.Improved understanding of how environmental and social factors interact can inform effective public health interventions under scenarios of projected environmental change.

Abstract Background The African continent is known for high entrepreneurial activity, especially in the agricultural sector. Despite this, the continent's economic development is below expectations, due to numerous factors constraining the growth and sustainability of agricultural SMEs. These constraints have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to understand the pathways through which the pandemic affected agri-SMEs, with specific focus on assessing the differentiated effects arising from the size of the agri-SME and the gender of the owner-manager. Methods Data was collected from over 100 agri-SMEs, ranging in size from sole proprietorships with one employee to agri-SMEs employing up to 100 people, in six African countries. Mixed methods were used to analyse the data with changes in business operations arising from changing market access, regimented health and safety guidelines and constrained labour supply assessed using visualisations and descriptive statistics. Logistic regression modelling was employed to determine the set of variables contributing to agri-SME business downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results All surveyed agri-SMEs were negatively affected by COVID-19-associated restrictions with the size of the firm and gender of the owner-managers resulting in differentiated impacts. The smallest agri-SMEs, mainly owner-managed by women, were more likely to experience disruptions in marketing their goods and maintaining their labour supply. Larger agri-SMEs made changes to their business operations to comply with government guidelines during the pandemic and made investments to manage their labour supply, thus sustaining their business operations. In addition, logistic regression modelling results show that financing prior to the pandemic, engaging in primary agricultural production, and being further from urban centres significantly influenced the likelihood of a firm incurring business losses. Conclusions These findings necessitate engendered multi-faceted agri-SME support packages that are tailored for smaller-sized agri-SMEs. Any such support package should include support for agri-SMEs to develop sustainable marketing strategies and help them secure flexible financing that considers payment deferrals and debt moratorium during bona fide market shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most whole cell biocatalysts have some problems with yields and productivities because of various metabolites produced as byproducts and limitations of substrate uptake. We propose a psychrophile-based simple biocatalyst for efficient bio-production using mesophilic enzymes expressed in psychrophilic Shewanella livingstonensis Ac10 cells whose basic metabolism was inactivated by heat treatment. The 45°C heat-treated cells expressing lacZ showed maximum beta-galactosidase activity as well as chloroform/SDS-treated cells to increase membrane permeability. The fluorescent dye 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl-tetrazolium chloride staining indicated that most basic metabolism of Ac10 was lost by heat treatment at 45˚C for 10 min. The simple biocatalyst was applied for 3-HPA production by using Klebsiella pneumoniae dhaB genes. 3-HPA was stoichiometrically produced with the complete consumption of glycerol at a high production rate of 8.85 mmol 3-HPA/g dry cell/h. The amount of 3-HPA production increased by increasing the concentrations of biocatalyst and glycerol. Furthermore, it could convert biodiesel-derived crude glycerol to 3-HPA.