This experiment aimed to evaluate the effects of exogenous L. plantarum, fibrolytic enzymes, and their combination on fermentation quality, structural carbohydrate components, and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). The treatments included (i) no additives (control), (ii) L. plantarum (L), (iii) fibrolytic enzymes (E), and (iv) a combination of fibrolytic enzymes and L. plantarum (EL). After being fermented for 1, 3, 7, and 30 days, the silos were opened for subsequent analysis. L and EL increased the lactic acid content and decreased the pH value and NH3-N content compared to silages without the addition of L. plantarum (p < 0.05). Compared to the control, enzymes alone or combined with L. plantarum improved enzymatic hydrolysis with higher water-soluble carbohydrates being retained at the early stage of ensiling; lower contents of NDF, ADF, hemicellulose, and cellulose were observed at the end of ensiling (p < 0.05). The IVDMD was improved in E and EL silage, and the highest IVDMD was observed in E. The L silage showed no significant difference in terms of the structural carbohydrate components or IVDMD compared to the control (p > 0.05). A principal component analysis showed that L. plantarum addition did not contribute to an increase in IVDMD, whereas LA fermentation was further enhanced when EL was synergistically involved.

In this article, two graphene-based current-vector control methods are first proposed. The first method utilizes the resistive property of graphene to achieve directional absorption of electromagnetic energy, thereby controlling the current amplitude. The second method exploits the differences in absorption characteristics of multiple graphene sheets in various operational states to create potential differences and generate orthogonal radiation currents, thus controlling the current direction. Then two continuous polarization reconfigurable antennas are presented using the two current-vector control methods. The polarization mode of the antenna adopting the graphene-based current amplitude control method can be tuned between left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and linear polarization (LP) continuously with a radiation efficiency exceeding 55% at 3.2 GHz. The reconfigurable antenna utilizing the current direction control method can achieve continuously full polarization reconfigurability at 1.6 GHz. By incorporating the first proposed graphene-interlayer structure, the radiation efficiency of the antenna is enhanced by over 88% compared to the antenna loaded with graphene directly. The two graphene-based current-vector control methods proposed in this article offer new approaches for reconfigurable antenna design and expand the application scenarios of graphene.

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) were obtained from achiral molecules through stretching vibration of C 1 –C 2 bond coupled with molecular orientations. It caused molecular symmetry breaking, resulting in intense CPL with a larger g lum value.

The current work aimed to evaluate the effect of ensiling density on the fermentation quality and aerobic stability of Pennisetum giganteum silages. The silage was ensiled in laboratory silos (1 L), and three treatments were designed according to different ensiling densities: (1) low density (LD, 750 kg/m3); (2) medium density (MD, 900 kg/m3); and (3) high density (HD, 1050 kg/m3). During ensiling, the silage was sampled for a fermentation quality analysis. All silages were well preserved, as indicated by the high lactic acid (LA) content and low pH (<4.2). The MD treatment had the highest acetic acid content (24.9 g/kg dry matter) and the HD treatment had the lowest ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) content (68.2 g/kg total nitrogen, TN) among all silages after 45 days of ensiling. The aerobic stability of HD, MD, and LD persisted for 51 h, 54 h, and 48 h, respectively. The NH3-N contents of HD and MD were below 80 g/kg TN during aerobic exposure. These results show that the increase in ensiling density improved the fermentation quality and aerobic stability of Pennisetum giganteum silages.

Utilizing molecular vibrations to regulate the singlet/triplet-involved emissions in multiple states is a formidable challenge. Here, we have explored o-carborane-based molecules as model systems to gain insight into how molecular vibrations induce the coupling of singlet locally excited ((LE)-L-1) and charge-transfer ((CT)-C-1) states, as well as triplet locally excited ((LE)-L-3) and charge-transfer ((CT)-C-3) states. Their three-dimensional conformations allowed the molecules to generate appropriate C-1-C-2 bond stretching vibrations and modulated the orientations between the C-substituted unit and C-1-C-2 bond in the o-carborane moiety in the crystalline states, facilitating vibronic coupling between the (LE)-L-1 ((LE)-L-3) and (CT)-C-1 ((CT)-C-3) states to generate effective multiple emissions. More importantly, the energy barriers between the (LE)-L-1-(CT)-C-1/(LE)-L-3-(CT)-C-3 states were remarkably small to make these reverse states accessible, which is indicative of the potential occurrence of back charge transfer from electron-withdrawing to electron-donating units. Lastly, the environmental pressure inhibited molecular vibration to regulate the emission. This study provides a valuable model for delving into the fundamental nature of multiple emissions arising from molecular vibrations in o-carborane clusters.

Smart responsive organic emitters, which exhibit tunable emission properties in response to external stimuli, can serve as a new generation of intelligent optoelectronic materials because of their versatile applications, such as multicolor displays, information encryption, visual sensing, and matter detection. In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the development of smart responsive organic emitters. However, there is still a lack of a systematic review that provides a comprehensive insight into smart responsive organic emitters from the perspectives of intrinsic mechanisms and versatile applications. Hence, this review concentrates on analyzing the intrinsic mechanisms, which can clarify the relationships between material systems and tunable emission behaviors. This process can provide helpful design principles for smart responsive organic emitters. Furthermore, versatile smart applications have been highlighted to deepen the understanding of the practical values of such smart responsive emitters. This work summarizes the state-of-the-art progress of smart responsive emitters and highlights the existing challenges and future development directions. It aims to provide inspiration and guidelines for the construction of novel smart responsive organic emitters, thereby broadening and stimulating their prominent applications in various fields such as electronic information and flexible electronics. Smart responsive organic emitters have attracted great attention for versatile intelligent applications. This work aims to provide a comprehensive insight into smart organic emitters from views of intrinsic mechanisms and versatile applications, which can provide design guidelines for developing novel smart responsive organic emitters and expanding their intelligent applications. Challenges and future prospects of smart responsive organic emitters are put forward as well. image

Boroxine covalent organic frameworks (boroxine COFs) can be referred to as two-dimension (2D) polymer networks with cores of boroxine connected with rigid linker and extended in x or y dimensions, which might be good candidates for organic electronic and luminescence material. However, the engineering COFs with improved charge transfer and conduction properties based on pore size and linker structure still confront various challenges. Here, we investigate the geometrical structure and electronic properties with linkers from phenyl to biphenyl and the replacement of H with F atom in 2D scale with the CRYTSTAL17 software at the density functional theory (DFT) level with the global-hybrid PBE0 functional and POB-TZVP basis set, using a 5 × 5 k-point mesh. The increased pore diameter reduced their energy gap. Replacing the F atom with the H atom lowered their VBMs and conduction band minimums (CBMs). Computation results can assist the experimental scientist in producing highly conductive 2D boroxine COFs.

Achieving color-tunable emission in single-component organic emitters with multistage stimuli-responsiveness is of vital significance for intelligent optoelectronic applications, but remains enormously challenging. Herein, we present an unprecedented example of a color-tunable single-component smart organic emitter (DDOP) that simultaneously exhibits multistage stimuli-responsiveness and multimode emissions. DDOP based on a highly twisted amide-bridged donor-acceptor-donor structure has been found to facilitate intersystem crossing, form multimode emissions, and generate multiple emissive species with multistage stimuli-responsiveness. DDOP pristine crystalline powders exhibit abnormal excitation-dependent emissions from a monomer-dominated blue emission centered at 470 nm to a dimer-dominated yellow emission centered at 550 nm through decreasing the ultraviolet (UV) excitation wavelengths, whereas DDOP single crystals show a wide emission band with a main emission peak at 585 nm when excited at different wavelengths. The emission behaviors of pristine crystalline powders and single crystals are different, demonstrating emission features that are closely related to the aggregation states. The work has developed color-tunable single-component organic emitters with simultaneous multistage stimuli-responsiveness and multimode emissions, which is vital for expanding intelligent optoelectronic applications, including multilevel information encryption, multicolor emissive patterns, and visual monitoring of UV wavelengths.

The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculants and chemical additives on the fermentation quality, aerobic stability and in vitro gas production kinetics and digestibility of total mixed ration (TMR) silage. Total mixed ration (568 g/kg dry matter (DM)) was ensiled with six experimental treatments: (1) no additives (control); (2) Lactobacillus buchneri (LB; applied at 1 × 106 cfu/g fresh weight (FW)); (3) Lactobacillus casei (LC; applied at 1 × 106 cfu/g FW); (4) calcium propionate (CAP; applied at 0.5% FW); (5) sodium diacetate (SD; applied at 0.5% FW); (6) potassium sorbate (PS; applied at 0.1% FW). All silos (18 L) were opened for fermentation quality, in vitro gas production kinetics and digestibility analysis after 90 days of ensiling, and then subjected to aerobic stability test for 14 days. All the TMR silage was well-preserved with low pH (4.36 ∼ 4.66) and acceptable levels of butyric acid (1.02 ∼ 2.51 g/kg DM) and ammonia nitrogen (86.3 ∼ 107 g/kg total nitrogen). All the groups were steady during 14 days of aerobic exposure, while SD group was more stable with lower (p < 0.05) yeast (4.60 vs. 5.17 ∼ 5.77 log10 cfu/g FW) and mould (3.33 vs. 4.12 ∼ 4.64 log10 cfu/g FW) populations than other treated groups on day 14. Moreover, SD group had the highest (p < 0.05) in vitro digestibility of dry matter (67.8 vs. 56.6 ∼ 63.5%) and neutral detergent fibre (61.7 vs. 50.5 ∼ 57.4%) among all groups. Overall, SD is recommended as additive to improve fermentation quality, in vitro ruminal digestibility, and aerobic stability of TMR silage.HIGHLIGHTSAfter 14 days of aerobic exposure, the yeast and mould populations in TMR silage can be efficiently inhibited by sodium diacetate treatment.Sodium diacetate treatment evidently enhanced in vitro digestibility of dry matter and neutral detergent fibre compared to other treatments.Sodium diacetate is recommended as additive to improve fermentation quality, in vitro ruminal digestibility, and aerobic stability of TMR silage.

The phyllosphere microbiota consists of various and complex microbes, including bacteria with crucial relevance to the quality and safety of fermented food and feed. It initially derives from soil and becomes specific to its host after interaction with plants and climate.

BACKGROUND The influence of epiphytic microbiota and chemical composition on fermentation quality and microbial community of Italian ryegrass silage was evaluated. Italian ryegrass harvested at the filling stage (FS) and the dough stage (DS) was sterilized by gamma-ray irradiation and inoculated as follows: (I) FS epiphytic microbiota + irradiated FS (F-F); (II) FS epiphytic microbiota + irradiated DS (F-D); (III) DS epiphytic microbiota + irradiated DS (D-D); (IV) DS epiphytic microbiota + irradiated FS (D-F). RESULTS After 60 days of ensiling, silage made from irradiated FS had a lower pH and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) content and a higher lactic acid (LA) content than that made from irradiated DS. Similarly, silage inoculated with the epiphytic microbiota of DS had a lower pH and NH3-N content and a higher LA content than that inoculated with the epiphytic microbiota of FS. However, LA-type fermentation (lactic acid:acetic acid > 2:1) was presented at D-F and D-D. The principal coordinates analysis showed that the distance between F-F and D-F and F-D and D-D was closer than other treatments, suggesting that the microbial community of silages made from irradiated FS (or DS) was more similar. CONCLUSION The epiphytic microbiota played a more important role in the fermentation type, whereas the chemical composition had a great influence on the contents of fermentation end-products. However, chemical composition had a stronger effect on the microbial community of silage than the epiphytic microbiota. (c) 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Biomass microbiota and chemical constituent are closely associated with final anaerobic fermentation performance. But the limiting factors affecting anaerobic fermentation quality and bacterial community have been rarely explored. This study aimed to elucidate the relative contribution of initial microbiota and chemical constituent of sweet sorghum on its final anaerobic fermentation quality. Sweet sorghum at two developmental stages (heading-stage, G1; hard-dough-stage, G2) was treated as follows: G1 microbiota + sterilized G1 (M1C1), G2 microbiota + sterilized G1 (M2C1), G1 microbiota + sterilized G2 (M1C2), and G2 microbiota + sterilized G2 (M2C2). The results showed that chemical constituent rather than microbiota changes remarkably influenced the production of lactic acid, propionic acid and ammonia-N, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, Weissella, Lactococcus, Pediococcus, and Pantoea of sweet sorghum after anaerobic fermentation. The chemical constituent was the key limiting factor affecting the anaerobic fermentation quality of sweet sorghum. This study could provide a reference for clarifying the key limiting factors affecting anaerobic fermentation and making recommendations for production.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of epiphytic microbiota from alfalfa and red clover on the fermentative products, bacterial community compositions, and their predicted functional characteristics in Italian ryegrass silage. By microbiota transplantation and γ-ray irradiation sterilization, the irradiated Italian ryegrass was treated as follows: (1) sterile distilled water (STIR); (2) epiphytic microbiota on Italian ryegrass (IRIR); (3) epiphytic microbiota on alfalfa (IRAL); and (4) epiphytic microbiota on red clover (IRRC). The irradiated Italian ryegrass was ensiled for 1, 3, 7, 15, 30, and 60 days. STIR had similar chemical components with fresh Italian ryegrass. IRAL had higher lactic acid concentrations [64.0 g/kg dry matter (DM)] than IRIR (22.3 g/kg DM) and IRRC (49.4 g/kg DM) on day 3. IRRC had the lowest lactic acid concentrations (59.7 g/kg DM) and the highest pH (4.64), acetic acid (60.4 g/kg DM), ethanol (20.4 g/kg DM), and ammonia nitrogen (82.6 g/kg DM) concentrations and Enterobacteriaceae [9.51 log10 cfu/g fresh weight (FW)] populations among treatments on day 60. On days 3 and 60, Lactobacillus was dominant in both IRIR (42.2%; 72.7%) and IRAL (29.7%; 91.6%), while Hafnia-Obesumbacterium was predominant in IRRC (85.2%; 48.9%). IRIR and IRAL had lower abundances of “Membrane transport” than IRRC on day 3. IRIR and IRAL had lower abundances of phosphotransacetylase and putative ATP-binding cassette transporter and higher abundances of arginine deiminase on day 3. IRAL had the highest abundance of fructokinase on day 3. Overall, inoculating epiphytic microbiota from different legume forages changed the fermentative products, bacterial community compositions, and their predicted functional characteristics in Italian ryegrass silage. The microbial factors that result in the differences in fermentative profiles between legume forage and grass were revealed. Knowledge regarding the effect of epiphytic microbiota could provide more insights into the improvement of silage quality.

AIMS:This work evaluated the effects of epiphytic microbiota and chemical components on fermentation quality and microbial community of ensiled oat.METHODS AND RESULTS:Oat harvested at the heading stage (HS) and the milk stage (MS) was sterilized by gamma-ray irradiation and inoculated as the following: (1) HS epiphytic microbiota + sterilized HS (H-H); (2) MS epiphytic microbiota + sterilized HS (M-H); (3) MS epiphytic microbiota + sterilized MS (M-M); and (4) HS epiphytic microbiota + sterilized MS (H-M). After 60-day fermentation, silages inoculated with the epiphytic microbiota of HS had higher acetic acid content than those inoculated with MS. Silage made from sterilized MS had lower pH, ammonia nitrogen and butyric acid contents and higher dry matter, water-soluble carbohydrates and lactic acid contents than that made from sterilized HS. The microbial communities of oat silages were similar, and they were mainly Lactobacillus.CONCLUSIONS:The chemical component rather than the epiphytic microbiota at harvest exerted more effects on oat silages.SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY:This work reveals the different effects of chemical and microbial factors on the fermentation of silage, which is instructive for us to produce quality silage.

Aims To enrich lignocellulolytic microbial consortia and evaluate whether a combination of these consortia and Lactobacillus plantarum can facilitate degradation of structural carbohydrates and improve fermentation quality of high-moisture alfalfa silage. Methods and Results Two novel microbial consortia (CL and YL) with high lignocellulolytic potential were enriched, and had higher enzyme activities at slightly acidic conditions (pH 3.5-6.5). Two consortia were inoculated with and without combined L. plantarum (LP) to alfalfa for up to 120 days of ensiling. The two consortia alone or combined with LP significantly (p < 0.05) increased lactic-to-acetic acid ratios and decreased contents of volatile organic acids and NH3-N as compared to the control. Treatments that combining microbial consortia and LP further resulted in the higher contents of lactic acid (LA), water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and crude protein, dry matter (DM) recovery, and lower neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin and cellulose contents, with YLP silage showing the lowest pH (4.41) and highest LA content (76.72 g kg(-1) DM) and the conversion of WSC into LA (184.03%). Conclusions The addition of lignocellulolytic microbial consortia (CL or YL) to alfalfa silages as attractive silage inoculants could improve fermentation quality, and that their combination with L. plantarum appeared more effective on the degradation of structural carbohydrates and conversion of soluble carbohydrates into LA. Significance and Impact of the Study High-moisture alfalfa is difficult to ensile due to its high buffering capacity and low readily fermentable carbohydrate contents. Microbial consortia (CL and YL) can encode a broad selection of multi-functional CAZymes, and their combination with LP could be promising for the degradation of structural carbohydrates simultaneously with improvement fermentation quality, with high performance in LA production.

Molecular motions are closely associated with the behaviors and properties of organic materials. However, monitoring molecular motions is challenging. Herein, a chiral supramolecular system consisting of L-/D-phenylalanine (LPF/DPF) as a chiral inducer and an achiral tetraphenylethene derivative (TPEF) as a molecular rotor has been proposed and explored for real-time discriminating the supramolecular motions by the visualization of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signal variations. Derived from the ordered molecular motions of TPEF induced by LPF/DPF, highly organized aggregates have been progressively assembled in a controlled manner with differentiated morphologies, including spherical particles, one-dimensional fibers, and floor-shaped supercrystals. Notably, increasing level of ordered aggregates, in turn, led to quenching emissions, while the CPL signals have been dramatically amplified accompanying by a sharp enhancement of luminescence dissymmetry factors (glum ) from nearly 0 to -0.1. The significant amplification of CPL is attributed to the ordered aggregates of supramolecules, leading to the decrease of electric transition dipole moments in supramolecular system. As a result of the chiral supramolecular motions powered by supramolecular crystallization, the supramolecular motions are conveniently discriminated by visual CPL signal variation with an enhancement of glum value from 0 to -0.1 in real time.

This study aimed to separate the effects of chemical and microbial factors on the fermentation quality and bacterial community of ensiled Pennisetum giganteum.

To investigate the fermentation characteristics, bacterial community and predicted functional profiles during the ensiling of wilted alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.).

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of inoculants on the microbial community and mycotoxins contamination of corn silage during aerobic exposure. Whole-crop corn infected with or without mycotoxigenic fungi were ensiled with Lentilactobacillus buchneri (LB, 1.0 × 10 6 cfu/g fresh weight (FW)), Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (LP, 1.0 × 10 6 cfu/g FW), or LBLP at 1.0 × 10 6 cfu/g FW each. The concentration of acetic acid (AcA) ( P < 0.05) in LB and LBLP silages was higher than in control (C) and LP of non-fungal infection (NFI) silages. The fungal infection resulted in a larger increase of zearalenone (ZEN, P = 0.01), fumonisin B 1 (FUB 1 , P = 0.02), and fumonisin B 2 (FUB 2 , P = 0.02). The relative abundance (RA) of Issatchenkia in NFI was higher ( P < 0.001) than FI silages, whereas the RA of Kazachstania ( P < 0.001), Zygosaccharomyces ( P = 0.047), and Candida ( P = 0.025) in NFI were lower than these of FI silages. The aerobic stability was improved by the application of LB and LBLP as compared with the C of NFI silages. The LB and LBLP had the potential to improve aerobic stability and alleviate mycotoxins contamination of non-fungal infected corn silages. Graphical Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of fibrolytic enzymes, cellulolytic fungi and lactic acid bacteria on the fermentation quality, structural carbohydrate composition and in vitro digestibility of rice straw silage. This experiment followed a completely randomised block design; four treatments were designed: (1) distilled water (control, CON); (2) fibrolytic enzymes (2.0 g/kg fresh weight (FW), E); (3) Trichoderma reesei (4400 U/kg FW, F); (4) Enterococcus faecium Y83 (1 × 106 cfu/g FW, Y83). All additives were diluted with distilled water and sprayed onto the rice straw (20 mL/kg FW). The rice straw was placed into a laboratory silo (10 L) after uniformly mixing and stored at ambient temperature (17–22 °C) ensiling for 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days. The fermentation quality in treated silages was improved compared to the CON, as indicated by lower pH, propionic acid, acetic acid and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) contents. Furthermore, Y83 had the lowest (p < 0.05) pH and highest (p < 0.05) lactic acid content after 60 days of ensiling. Y83 significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the neutral detergent fibre content compared with CON, E and F. In addition, E and Y83 had significantly (p < 0.05) higher in vitro dry matter digestibility and in vitro neutral detergent fibre digestibility than CON and F. Overall, Y83 can be used as a promising inoculant for improving the fermentation quality of rice straw silage.