Lactobacillus acidophilus D2/CSL (CECT 4529) (LA) on productive performances, incidence of foot pad dermatitis and caecum microbioma in broiler chickens. A total of 1,100 one-day old male Ross 308 chicks were divided into 2 groups of 16 replicates with 25 birds each and reared from 1–41 d. One group was fed a basal diet (CON) and the other group the same diet supplemented with LA. Caecum contents were collected from 4 selected birds at day one and 5 selected birds at the end of the rearing period. Then, they were submitted to DNA extraction and whole DNA shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Overall, the LA supplementation produced a significant beneficial effect on body weight gain between 15–28 d and improved feed conversion rate in the overall period. On the contrary, litter moisture, pH and incidence of the foot pad lesions were not affected by LA. Birds treated with LA showed a lower occurrence of pasty vent at both 14 and 28 d. At the end of the rearing period, Lachanospiraceae were significantly higher in LA birds in comparison to CON . Moreover, Ruminococcus obeum, Clostridium clostridioforme, Roseburia intestinalis, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 14-2T and Coprococcus eutactus were significantly higher in LA birds in comparison to CON. The relative abundance of Lactobacillus acidophilus was comparable between LA and CON groups. However, a positive effect was observed in relation to the metabolic functions in the treated group, with particular reference to the higher abundance of β-glucosidase. In conclusion, the LA supplementation improved broiler productive performances and metabolic functions promoting animal health.This study examines the effects of the dietary supplementation with  Lactobacillus species, such as L. acidophilus, can be identified in the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract of broilers raised under commercial conditions. Lactobacilli become established in the chicken GI tract soon after hatching, and their metabolic activity lowers the digesta pH, which, in turn, inhibits the proliferation of enterobacteria and other unwanted bacteria [The intestinal microbiota of homoeothermic animals constitutes a complex ecosystem composed by a large variety of microorganisms. It plays an important role in maintaining the host normal gut functions and health, and its imbalance, or dysbiosis, can produce negative effects on gut physiology . Clinicabacteria , 4. Howebacteria –7. Furthbacteria .Lactobacillus strains have been described as beneficial additives because of their effects in promoting poultry production performance [Probiotics, or direct-fed microbials, have been defined as “live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host” . Modes oformance –14. Someformance , 15, 16.formance , dosage formance .In the past researchers investigated the impact of the administration of probiotics on broiler GI tract by testing those microorganisms that could be recovered on growth media. However, they represent less that 20% of bacterial taxa inhabiting the poultry GI tract . Within Lactobacillus acidophilus D2/CSL (CECT 4529) in broiler chicken diets on productive performances, foot pad dermatitis and caecum microbioma, in terms of bacteria population and metabolic functions, by whole DNA shotgun metagenomic sequencing.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the supplementation with 2 each) at the stocking density of 10 chicks/m2 (25 birds/pen), while maintaining the same class distribution of live-weight of the population. Pens were equipped with pan feeders, to assure at least 2 cm/bird of front space, and an independent drinking system with 1 nipple/5 birds. Feeders were of identical manufacture, type, size, color, and other notable physical features. Each pen was equipped with an individual bin, clearly labeled as reservoir for the experimental feeds. On a daily basis, the experimental feeds were manually transferred from the bin to the feeder. Any change in the diet was made uniformly for all animals. Feed and water were provided for ad libitum consumption. At each diet switch, feeders were emptied, orts were weighed back and the feeders were filled with the diets described below. Twice daily observations were recorded for general flock condition, temperature, lighting, water, feed, litter condition and mortality. The experiment lasted 41 days when birds reached the slaughter weight of about 2.8 kg of live weight. Photoperiod and temperature programs were set up according to the European welfare regulation 43/2007 [The experiment was approved by the Ethical Committee of the University of Bologna on 17/3/2014 (ID: 10/79/2014). A total of 1,100 one-day old male Ross 308 chicks, obtained from the same breeder flock and hatching session, were used. Birds were vaccinated against infectious bronchitis virus, Marek’s disease virus, Newcastle and Gumboro diseases and coccidiosis at the hatchery. Before housing, chicks were individually weighed and divided in the following 5 classes according to their live weight: <42 g, 42–44 g, 45–47 g, 48–50 g, >50 g. The first and the last groups were discarded, while the remaining were distributed in 32 pens  at the dosage of 20 g ton-1 feed (LA group). The probiotic strain L. acidophilus D2/CSL has been isolated from the GI tract of a healthy adult chicken [The chicks were divided into 2 groups of 16 replicates with 25 birds each, fed with the basal diet   or the b chicken  and suppThe experimental diets were weekly produced by adding the LA to the common basal diet. The feeding program included three feeding phases: Starter (0–14 d), Grower (15–28 d) and Finisher (29–41 d). The basal diet composition is given in At housing, chicks individually weighed as previously described, in order to maintain the same class distribution of live-weight of the population within each pen, were counted and weighed on a pen basis, representing the experimental unit for productive performance measurements. Chickens and feed were weighed pen wise at 14, 28 and 41 days. Daily weight gain (DWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated for each feeding phase. Mortality was recorded and the above mentioned measures were adjusted for mortality. Litter moisture and pH were determined at the end of the experiment on a representative sample collected in two different areas within each pen, away from feeders and drinkers . The incAll birds were processed at a commercial slaughterhouse and carcass yields were measured  according to the standard procedures. Prior slaughter, the birds were subjected to a total feed withdrawal of 12 h, including the holding time of 2 h at the processing plant and processed under commercial conditions using electrical stunning . Carcasses were obtained by removing head, neck, shanks and abdominal fat from bled, plucked and eviscerated birds. The incidence of foot pad dermatitis was assessed on all the birds, by collecting one foot/bird, and evaluated on a replicate basis. The feet were macroscopically examined and scored according to the available classification  in threeTo characterize the impact of the investigated diets on the caecum microbioma, representing both the microbial populations and the genes related to their metabolic functions, four chickens were randomly selected and humanely euthanized at day 1, before starting the dietary treatment. Moreover, five chickens were randomly selected from both CON and LA groups and humanely euthanized at 41 days. The entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract of the 14 individual selected birds was dissected out and a small sample  of cecum content was collected into 15-ml sterile plastic tubes. The samples collected were then stored at -80°C until further testing.® DNA Stool Mini Kit  according to manufacturer’s directions with some modifications. DNA quantity and quality were measured on a BioSpectrometer® .The DNA was extracted from each caecum content using a bead-beating procedure . Brieflywww.genome.jp/kegg/) [Total DNA from each of the 14 samples was fragmented and tagged with sequencing adapters using the Nextera XT DNA Library Preparation Kit . Whole genome sequencing was performed using the HiScanSQ sequencer (Illumina) at 100 bp in paired-end mode. Metagenomic sequencing yielded an average of 6.841 million mapped reads/sample, with a Phread quality score always higher than 30. Following sequencing, all reads were assessed for quality parameters and the paired end merged. The MG-RAST pipeline   procedure of SAS . One-wayProductive performances recorded during the trial  were conAt 28 days of age, birds receiving LA weighed 33 g more than CON . FCR resulted slightly, but not significantly, improved in LA birds . Mortality resulted similar in both groups and incidence of pasty vent was significantly lower in LA group  .At the end of trial (41 d), LA birds showed a slightly higher body weight than CON but the difference was not statistically significant . Daily feed intake from 29 to 41 days was significantly lower in LA birds  .Overall the productive performance from 0 to 41 days  showed tCarcass and cut up yields at slaughter were not affected by LA supplementation . Litter http://metagenomics.anl.gov/linkin.cgi?project=13081). The metagenome ID mgm 4624898.3, 4625263.3, 4625261.3 and 4625265.3 refer to samples collected at day one. The mgm 4625297.3, 4625262.3, 4625269.3, 4625304.3 and 4625316.3 refer to samples collected from the control group at 41 days. The mgm 4625288.3, 4625285.3, 4625287.3, 4625273.3 and 4625272.3 refer to samples collected from the treated group at 41 days.The metagenomes of the 14 samples included in this study are public available from MG RAST , followed by Bacilli, presenting a relative frequency of abundance of 20.7 and 18.9%, respectively. The mean relative abundances of Clostridia and Bacilli in the birds at the end of the rearing period were significantly higher (P = 0.0086) and lower (P = 0.0094) respectively, in comparison to those of one-day old chicks . In one-Chickens identified as 1 and 3 showed a percentage of abundance of Gammaproteobacteria lower in comparison to the other one-day old chicks  . The decClostridiaceae   and LA  at 41 d. Lachanospiraceae was the most represented family identified within the Clostridia class in one-day old chicks (13.25%). On the contrary, in CON and LA at 41 days Ruminococcaceae was the most represented family  and showed a relative frequency of abundance significantly higher than in one-day old chicks . At the end of the rearing period Lachanospiraceae was significantly higher in LA birds in comparison to CON  and the same trend was observed for = 0.074) .Lactobacillus johnsonii, Lactobacillus crispatus, Escherichia coli, Ruminococcus torques, Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus gasseri, Ruminococcus obeum, Ruminococcaceae bacterium D16, Clostrifium hylemonae and Eubacterium limosum  . On the Overall, in terms of mean relative frequency of abundance, the top 20 metabolic functions identified using the KEGG database are reported in Lactobacillus has been demonstrated to stimulate immune responses [Lactobacillus administration has also been shown to reduce colonization by Campylobacter [Clostridium [Salmonella [Lactobacillus species to adhere to epithelial tissues and colonize poultry gut has been reported [Lactobacillus GI persistence in poultry are not well characterized. The lack of a species-specific cell culture model prevented investigations of Lactobacillus adhesion and its contribution to GI colonization.The administration of probiotic esponses , 33 and esponses , as wellesponses –37 in polobacter , 39, Clostridium , and Sallmonella , 41, impreported –44. HoweL. acidophilus to growing chicken diet produced a significant beneficial effect, with particular regard to body weight gain up to 28 days of age  and feed efficiency for the overall experimental period . According to other authors [Lactobacillus improves body weight gain and feed efficiency. These results can be attributed to the improvement of the intestinal microbial balance of the host through a competitive exclusion mechanism and antagonism [Lactobacillus consists in competitive exclusion against harmful bacteria in the gut in favor of beneficial microbial populations, leading to improvement in nutrients utilization of feed [Lactobacillus species supplementation in chickens, Award et al. [ratio in both duodenum and ileum. In this study, treated birds showed a lower incidence of pasty vent, both at 14 and 28 days of age, probably due to both a better utilization of nutrients and prevalence of healthy conditions in the gut. In general, the reduction of pasty vent incidence is observed in birds with improvement nutrients digestibility, particularly crude fat and protein [In this study, the supplementation with  authors –47, the tagonism . Indeed  of feed , 46. Aftd et al.  attributLactobacillus, Clostridium, Blautia, Escherichia, Enterococcus, Eubacterium and Ruminococcus. This trend was partially observed also in the chickens at 41 days. However, at the end of the rearing period the most representative genera were Faecalibacterium, Subdonigranulum, Roseburia and Eubacterium. The presence of Clostridium-related species in the chicken caeca was observed by other authors [Clostridium clusters IV  and XIVa  produce primarily butyrate [Faecalibacterium prausnitzzi and Subdonigranulum variabile were not significantly different between LA and CON  at the recommended dietary dosage of 1x109 cfu/kg feed in broiler chickens significantly improved body weight at 28 days  and feed conversion rate from 0 to 41 days. In addition, the incidence of pasty vent was reduced in LA birds. The relative abundance of Lactobacillus acidophilus in the caeca of LA chickens was comparable with that of CON group. However, a positive effect of the supplementation with Lactobacillus acidophilus was observed in relation to the metabolic functions in the treated group, with particular reference to the higher abundance of β-glucosidase, improving animal performances and health.The supplementation with


Whereas the effects of maternal parenting quality during infants’ 2nd year on later executive function (EF) have been studied extensively, less is known about the impact of maternal parenting quality during the 1st year. The aim of this study was to examine whether maternal parenting during infants’ 1st year predicted EF performance at 2 and 3 years of age in a Chinese sample. Data were collected from 96 mother-infant dyads  when the infants were 6, 9, 25, and 38 months old. Cognitive development as a control variable was measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II at 6 months. At 9 months, three aspects of maternal parenting quality  were assessed with MBQS, mind-mindedness coding system, and encouragement of autonomy coding schema within a 15-min mother–infant interaction. Three aspects of EF  were measured at 25 and 38 months with age-appropriate tasks. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that maternal mind-mindedness had a more important effect than did the encouragement of autonomy and maternal sensitivity during infants’ preverbal period. More precisely, maternal mind-mindedness at 9 months predicted inhibitory control at 2 and 3 years, and maternal encouragement of autonomy predicted performance on delay EF tasks at 3 years, maternal sensitivity had no observed effect on children’s EF. This study suggests that maternal parenting quality during the 1st year  impacts later EF development. Executive function (EF) has been defined as a range of higher-order cognitive functions serving to control consciousness and behavior . It inclThe influences of parent-infant interaction experiences, such as the early care environment  and the Scaffolding behavior, which focuses on problem-solving, refers to how adults verbally and non-verbally guide and instruct children during challenging tasks  and sensitive responses to infants’ demands may be more important during mother-infant interaction . AdditioThe aim of the study reported here was to examine the effects of these three aspects of parenting  during infants’ preverbal stage (age < 1 year) on EF at 2 and 3 years of age in a Chinese sample. In this study, these aspects were operationalized with maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness, and encouragement of autonomy , which iN = 11) were not included in the final analysis.This study was part of a longitudinal research project that aimed to investigate the effects of early parenting environment on development outcomes, such as cognitive ability, social-emotional development, and language development. Dyads of mothers and infants aged 6 months were recruited by fliers or brought in by other participants in Beijing. Written parental informed consent was obtained. Data from dyads who did not participate in both assessments  = 6.46, standard deviation (SD) = 0.4, range = 5.6–7.4] months. Eleven dyads were excluded due to non-participation in both 25- and 38-month assessments. Excluded infants did not differ from those who participated (n = 85) with respect to sex , age , family income , or parental education level . In total, 76, 75, and 69 families participated in assessments when infants were aged 9 , 25 , and 38  months, respectively. Family income was recorded with a 5-point scale: (1) <18,000 ; (2) 18,001–36,000 ; (3) 36,001–72,000 ; (4) 72,001–120,000 ; and (5) >120,001 Chinese renminbi (RMB) per year. Fathers’ and mothers’ average income scores were 3.76 (SD = 1.07) and 3.08 (SD = 0.99), respectively. Median income for both of mothers and fathers was between 36,000 and 72,000 RMB per year, approximating the average yearly income  in Beijing at that time  aged 6 ; (3) emotions, such as shyness, solemnity, happiness, sadness, joy, and good/bad mood; (4) epistemic states, referring to teasing, playing games, and joking ; and (5) talking on the infant’s behalf, referring to any utterance that is obviously meant to be said/thought by the infant . According to the coding manual , mind-related comments were classified as appropriate or non-attuned, and only appropriate mind-related comments were used in this study to index mind-mindedness, expressed as the proportion of the total number of comments produced by a given caregiver during the interaction to control for differences in verbosity. Scores ranged from 0 to 1. The kappa value for the consistency of two research assistants’ coding of the same 21 videos was 0.817.Maternal encouragement of autonomy was assessed using a coding manual developed by The Spin the Pots task , a composite score was computed by averaging the standardized scores of both indexes.Working memory span-like task , supporting the use of missing data imputation. According to The percentages of missing data (12–30%) for these study variables are presented in e’s test  was applTable 1. The mean score of mind-mindedness was 0.04, suggests that there was just a small proportion of appropriate mental-related comments during the interaction. Bivariate correlations between all variables are presented in Table 2. Maternal parenting constructs at 9 months were unrelated to each other. Little coherence across EF tasks was exhibited at 25 months because the associations across these EF tasks were not significant . At 38 months, there was much more coherence across EF tasks, as working memory was related positively to inhibitory control , but no other variable; gift delay showed modest associations with inhibitory control  and self-imposed delay . Measures of EF constructs obtained across time points were not related, demonstrating low levels of stability of EF constructs from 25 to 38 months. Finally, maternal parenting aspects were associated positively with certain EF constructs. Mind-mindedness was related significantly to inhibitory control at 25 months  and 38 months  and to gift delay at 38 months . Encouragement of autonomy was associated positively with inhibitory control (r = 0.22), gift delay (r = 0.25), and self-imposed delay (r = 0.24) at 38 months .Descriptive statistics and missing data rates for all study variables are presented in Table 3 shows the extent to which mind-mindedness, encouragement of autonomy, and sensitivity in infancy predict working memory, inhibitory control, and delay EF at 25 months when controlling for covariates. The first model yielded no significant result, and accounted for 6–11% of the variance in the three EF constructs . Only gender was found to be negatively correlated with delay EF at 25 months .F = 2.13, p < 0.05], 17% of the variance in inhibitory control , and 5% of the variance in delay EF task scores  at 25 months. More specially, among the maternal parenting constructs, mind-mindedness was the only predictor of working memory  and inhibitory control  but not of delay EF  at 25 months. Neither encouragement of autonomy nor sensitivity were related to any aspect of EF at 25 months (ps > 0.07).In the last model, maternal parenting constructs uniquely explained 8% of the variance in working memory . Additionally, for the effects of covariates, only maternal education was related with working memory  and MDI was related with self-delay  at 38 months. In the second model, only the EF delay at 25 months were negatively related with self-delay at 38 months , while the other EF constructs at 25-months were not significantly accounted for the variance of the corresponding EF constructs at 38 months (ps > 0.14).F = 3.95, p < 0.05], 15% of the variance in gift delay , and 11% of the variance in self-delay . But only 2% of the variance in working memory . The performance of maternal parenting aspects in predicting EF constructs at 38 months varied. For working memory, none of the three maternal parenting constructs predicted working memory at 38 months (ps > 0.19). For inhibitory control, only mind-mindedness positively predicted inhibitory control , encouragement of autonomy and sensitivity were not predictive (ps > 0.13). For delay EF, mind-mindedness and encouragement of autonomy positively predicted gift delay , encouragement of autonomy positively predicted self-delay , sensitivity was not related with both of delay EF tasks (ps > 0.18). In sum, mind-mindedness were predictive of inhibitory control, encouragement of autonomy was predictive of delay EF, and sensitivity were not related with these EF constructs.In the third model, maternal parenting aspects explained an additional 12% of the variance in inhibitory control [ΔThe current study aimed to examine the contributions of maternal parenting environments in infants’ 1st year to EF at 2 and 3 years of age. We found that maternal mind-mindedness when infants are aged 9 months predicted inhibitory control when they reach 2 and 3 years. In addition, in line with our expectations, maternal encouragement of autonomous behavior predicted good performance on delay EF tasks at 3 years, whereas maternal sensitivity had no observable effect on children’s EF. These results contrast with those reported by r = 0.09, ns) or mind-mindedness  at 6 months. Second, this may be also due to the culture-based difference in parenting practice. For example, one study has shown that mothers in Hong Kong demonstrate less mind-mindedness than United Kingdom mothers . Third, these uncorrelated relations may be explained with the perspective of domain-specificity on children’s socialization. According to Before discussing the effects of maternal parenting aspects on later EF, it should be noted that – while validated measures were used – the three constructs of maternal parenting were not inter-correlated in the 1st year, and coherence across these EF constructs was not found at 25 months. For maternal parenting, the uncorrelated results are counter to findings from  mothers . We alsoConsidering the development of EF in this study, the results showed that the coherence at 25 months is very low, with higher consistency across those EF tasks at 38 months, consistent with the results found by In contrast with the moderate association of mind-mindedness with EF, we found no predictive effect of maternal sensitivity on EF development at 2 or 3 years of age, a pattern consistent with Moreover, maternal mind-mindedness refers to the tendency to view the child as a mental agent, particularly in the infant’s 1st years , 2012. MIn addition, with consideration of the evidence provided by Although we found that maternal mind-mindedness played a more important role in the development of EF, we also found that maternal encouragement of autonomy in infants’ 1st year had a predictive effect mainly on the delay of gratification ability at the age of 3 years. These findings are consistent with those of In addition, we found a discrepancy in the relation of maternal parenting to EF tasks related to working memory and inhibitory control. Unlike previous studies, which have examined two dimensions of EF (conflict and delay EF), we considered EF constructs separately and found that maternal parenting was not related positively to working memory at 2 or 3 years of age. Although we used only one task with proven validity e.g.,  to assesThe results of the present study, conducted with a Chinese sample, suggest that mind-mindedness and encouragement of autonomy at infants’ age of 9 months are predictive of EF development at 3 years, with the former being more predictive of inhibitory control and the latter being more predictive of delay EF ability. Although we report new evidence for the effect of maternal parenting during infants’ 1st year on later EF development, the results must be interpreted carefully.First, although this study has a conclusion that mind-mindedness is more important in the 1st years to the EF development at 2 and 3 years, with no intensive observation at multiple time points, we could not identify aspects of maternal parenting that are most important for EF development during the entire childhood period. As the correlation analysis in this study showed that parenting behavior was not as stable as expected, and its effects on outcomes in children vary across early childhood, future research should include more intensive measure time points and assess both maternal parenting aspects and EF at each time.Second, although the discrepancies between the results of this study and those of previous studies may be due to the differences in effects of maternal parenting in Western and Chinese cultures, they cannot be explained entirely by cultural factors. Differences in experimental materials and procedures may also have effects, and this study was not cross-cultural. Thus, future research should include cross-cultural and longitudinal elements to properly examine related effects of parenting on children’s EF development.In sum, despite its limitations, this study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine the predictive effect of maternal parenting quality at 9 months on EF task performance at 2 and 3 years of age in a Chinese sample. The results suggest that mind-mindedness is the strongest predictive factor for inhibitory control when children are 2 and 3 years of age and that encouragement of autonomy is the strongest predictor of delay of gratification ability when children were 3 years of age.This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of Ethics Committee of Capital Normal University with written informed consent from all subjects. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Capital Normal University.SL designed the experiment. ZW planned and supervised the process of this project. NC conducted the experiment and analyzed the data, drafted the manuscript. SL and MA have been involved the revision of this manuscript.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Pervaporation (PV) has been considered as one of the most active and promising areas in membrane technologies in separating close boiling or azeotropic liquid mixtures, heat sensitive biomaterials, water or organics from its mixtures that are indispensable constituents for various important chemical and bio-separations. In the PV process, the membrane plays the most pivotal role and is of paramount importance in governing the overall efficiency. This article evaluates and collaborates the current research towards the development of next generation nanomaterials (NMs) and embedded polymeric membranes with regard to its synthesis, fabrication and application strategies, challenges and future prospects. The development in current separation technologies has envisioned a green and invincible future that impelled the interest of energy preservation, along with waste minimization and zero discharge all over the world . The conA membrane is a permselective barrier that allows particular species to pass through it while posing a partition for non-selective species. The membrane technologies are fast-developing and cutting-edge separation technologies that could be extensively employed in environmental remediation, green energy, food, chemical and pharmaceutical sectors ,5,6,7,8.v/v)  intermediate layer and a polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) nonwoven fabrics substrate. The selective MMM layer was formed by incorporating KA zeolite in PVA matrix followed by crosslinking reaction of PVA with fumaric acid , NPs by solution casting and the solvent evaporation method exhibit a remarkable increase of SF of 35,991 from 96 base value for NCMs in comparison with unmodified membrane for the separation of ethanol-water mixtures [OAc] (IL), metallic Sn powder, layered titanosilicate AM-4 and layered stannosilicate UZAR-S3, by solution casting , featuring triangular pores of approximately 6 Å, as a thin supported membrane layer with high crystallographic orientation on ceramic α-Al2O3 for separation of H2 from different binary mixtures at room temperature having separation factors of H2/CO2 = 5.1, H2/N2 = 4.7, H2/CH4 = 12.9, H2/C2H6 = 22.4 and H2/C3H8 = 28.5. Again, Sun et al. TFSI) ([ABIM]TFSI-PSt-b-PDMS) by PV  incorporated polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate [Tween20], polyoxyethylene(4) lauryl ether [C12E4] membrane, respectively via the phase-inversion method.Solution casting method is frequently used to synthesize composite PV membranes. In this process, the polymer and all other necessary ingredients are dissolved in a common solvent to obtain a homogeneous solution, followed by the casting of this solution onto a flat glass plate or Petri dish, as shown in d Ca(II) . Additiod Ca(II) . In succd Ca(II) . On the d Ca(II) ,275. In d Ca(II)  utilizede et al.  preparedr et al.  and Solèr et al.  used theAnother frequently used technique for fabricating thin composite membranes is solution coating. This technique is normally used to synthesize composite membranes, via depositing a thin selective layer, on top of a microporous substrate or support, which may adopt flat-sheet, hollow fiber or tubular shape . In fact3O4 active layer fabricated via spin coating [Spin coating is another procedure used to fabricate uniform thin films. In this process, a small amount of polymer-NM dispersion is applied on the center of the substrate that is spinning at desirable speed. Several researchers utilized this spin coating technique to fabricate uniform improved NCMs. Ding et al. improved the permselectivity of PV membrane by constructing the active layer through alternative self-assembly and spin-coating . A high  coating . In this coating  prepared coating  prepared2 NCMs using 18 wt % PSF solution in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) with different amounts of ZrO2 NPs [2 weight fraction was increased. Wara et al. reported the fabrication of NCMs of cellulose-Al2O3 by using the solution blending [One of the easiest ways to fabricate nanocomposite hybrid membrane is the direct mixing of inorganic NPs into the previously prepared polymer matrix. Such mixing/blending can be carried out in two ways: (i) in solution blending, where both components  are dispersed in a common solvent and (ii) in melt blending, where both components are dispersed as melt at high temperature. Of these two, melt blending is more common owing to higher efficiency and environmental inhibition. Dispersion of NPs in a polymer matrix usually led to undesirable agglomeration. Surface modification techniques, such as irradiation grafting, have been used to modify the NPs and break down its agglomerates in producing nanostructural composites. In this context, Genne et al. prepared PS-ZrOZrO2 NPs . The memblending . Liquid-blending ,289.Blending polymerization is an easy method to operate and suitable for all kinds of inorganic materials. Also, the concentration proportions of the components, i.e., polymer and inorganic components are easy to handle and thus, used frequently. However, the inorganic ingredients are liable to aggregate in the membranes, resulting in an inapplicable membrane formation ,297,298.Different types of membranes, like flat sheet composite, polymeric hollow fibers and inorganic tubular membranes, are gaining high commercial interest, owing to their potential application in RO, micro-/nano-/ultra-filtration (MF/NF/UF), dialysis, GS and PV. Of these synthetic membranes, hollow fiber polymeric membranes, first invented by Mahon in 1966 , have shThe majority of innovations and modifications towards HFMs synthesis have been carried out through trial and error methods, aided by past experience, empirical data and qualitative scientific understanding. In fact, the design of such membrane technology has emerged to provide sustainable solutions of global demand for clean energy, water and health management. In order to fabricate novel HFMs, possessing high pervaporative separation potential, researchers have to investigate the intrinsic physicochemical properties of the membranes, manipulate phase inversion processes and control dope rheological responses during membrane formation.Synthesis of HFMs, comprising of both desirable morphology and separation performance, is highly challenging. Macrovoids and irregular shapes, often observed in hollow fibers, can deteriorate the mechanical properties of HFMs, when operated under high pressure/vibration for prolonged time. A typical HFS system is shown in The HFS process comprises a large number of process parameters throughout the entire chain of dope formulation, coagulation chemistry, spinneret design and spinning conditions such as air gap, temperature and take-up speed. During spinning, the membrane is formed through phase inversion when the nascent fiber contacts with the coagulant.Since the polymer dope is extruded simultaneously with the bore fluid in the lumen side of the nascent fiber, coagulation occurs right away at its internal surface after the nascent fiber is emerged from the spinneret. Meanwhile, partial coagulation starts at the outer surface when the nascent fiber goes through the air gap region by the presence of humid air. The whole phase inversion process is completed once the fiber is fully precipitated in the external coagulation bath. The thickness and morphology of the selective layer can be manipulated by varying compositions of the spinning dope, bore fluid and external coagulant as well as take up speed. The complexity of HFS increases as the spinning method advances from single-layer to dual-layer co-extrusion. The dual-layer hollow fibers possess the advantages of cost reduction as well as freedom in customization of materials and morphology for the selective and supporting layers ,302. LiuIP is one of the most recognized methods for synthesizing thin composite membranes, mostly used in RO  and NF ,307. In −2 h−1 and reasonable SF of 177, for the pervaporative dehydration of IPA-water mixture of 70 wt % of IPA in water. Again, Zuo et al. [IP has emerged as an important synthetic method for synthesizing PA ,325,326 o et al.  synthesio et al. ,325,326.o et al. .−2 h−1, respectively, during the dehydration of 90 wt % aqueous ethanol at 70 °C. Furthermore, the surface modification of silica with organosilane reduces the number of superficial silanol groups and enhances organophilicity via attachment of organic moieties. A couple of reactions generally take place: (i) hydrolysis of the silanol groups of the silica and the triethoxysilyl groups of the silane via loss of ethanol and (ii) condensation and crosslinking of the silane molecules. The modified silica NPs have exhibited stronger affinity and enhanced compatibility with poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO), in comparison with the unmodified silica NPs. This generates more restricted permeation through the PPO dense membrane matrix, reduces the diffusion of VOCs, like methanol and MTBE and, consequently, restricts the permeation flux in PV. It has been observed that the permeation flux of the filled PPO membranes, with silane modified silica, is lower than that of the silica filled PPO membranes, especially at high MeOH concentration in feed. As the overall solubilities of the filled PPO membranes are similar, the low permeation flux, observed for the filled PPO membranes with silane modified silica, has been attributed to the betterment of silane modified silica NPs to be dispersed in PPO matrix, introducing more tortuous passage through such membranes than the unmodified silica filled PPO membranes. Consequently, the diffusion of both MeOH and MTBE in the filled PPO membranes, with silane modified silica, has been found to be smaller than that in the unfilled PPO or silica filled PPO membranes. The effect of γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTEOS) content on the permeation flux and SF, in PV of 85 wt % ethanol solution, through the hybrid membranes was studied by Zhang et al. [−2 h−1, while that containing 6 wt % BTEE resulted in the highest SF, which also confirmed the reverse variation of permeation flux and SF. Silicalite-1, a hydrophobic inorganic material, has rarely been used as a filler to fabricate MMMs. Silicalite-1 has a high Si-to-Al ratio that makes it hydrophobic. It has an asymmetrical aperture with a 3D channel system. In this context, Adoor et al. [The biggest challenge in fabricating the NCMs is to increase the compatibility between the NMs and the polymer matrix that eventually helps the NMs to distribute uniformly into the polymer matrix. Physicochemical modification is one of the best methods that not only restricts the agglomeration tendency of the NMs, but also enhances its dispersibility into the polymer phase. Among different inorganic NFs, silica incorporated composite membranes have generally been found to exhibit significantly high organophilic properties. In fact, silica finds extensive applications owing to the prevalent better thermomechanical and hydrophobic properties. Again, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based membranes have been investigated by several workers for separation of organic-water mixtures. In this regard, for the betterment of compatibility between silica and PDMS, silica surface was hydrophobized with trimethylsilanol. Shirazi et al. showed that the trimethylsilanol hydrophobized silica (TMS-H-Silica) interacts better with the PDMS matrix, resulting in higher rigidity and better organoselectivity of PDMS membrane. Hence, the permeation flux of PDMS-silica NCMs has been found to be moderate, while the respective selectivity is significantly higher than those of the other composite PDMS membranes, since flux and selectivity follow the opposite trend . Again, g et al. . The SF g et al. , showed r et al.  fabricatAmong various inorganic NPs, zeolite has emerged as one of the best options for the betterment of both selectivity and permeability due to the prevalent unique molecular sieving property and selective adsorption ,334. Rec2 storage and CO2 adsorption applications. In another study, Amirilargani and Sadatnia [Another promising NF, used in the membrane matrix, is ZIF material, a subfamily of MOFs, composed of tetrahedral metal ions, such as Zn(II)/Co(II), and a variety of imidazolate linkers to form spatial frameworks. Phan et al.  developeSadatnia  preparedSadatnia , in whic2 separation/concentration that exhibited different behavior in the presence of an external magnetic field [The incorporation of ILs into the membrane system could potentially offer more flexibility in modification of the membranes. The tunable physical and chemical properties of the ILs, depending on the nature of the cation and anion present in their structure, make them appropriate as ‘designer solvents’ . The thiic field . Since tic field .Since the introduction of several nanocarbons (NCs), like CNTs, graphene and various other carbon nanostructures, researchers have been motivated to develop various physico-chemically modified advanced materials. In general, nanostructural carbons tend to agglomerate in nanocomposites, resulting in the deterioration of the properties of individual components. Thus, several methods have been employed for imparting the better dispersion of such materials in a polymer matrix, including the chemical modification of NCs. Chemical modification results in relatively enhanced dispersion in solvents and, thus, betterment of physicochemical and thermomechanical properties of nanocomposites . The relSeveral types of chemical modifications have been introduced for the covalent functionalization on CNTs by disruption of the conjugation . For exaPolyphosphazene nanotube (PZSNT) is a novel type of nanotube, which can be prepared by the reaction between hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCCP) and 4,4′-sulfonyldiphenol (BPS). As PZSNT content increased from 0 to 10 wt %, both permeation flux and SF were found to increase. However, the increase in PZSNT diameter leads to the increase in permeation flux and SF.In addition to such techniques, direct grafting of different nanoparticles into the polymer matrix is also highly attractive towards fabrication of composite membranes. In fact, Mauter et al.  developeBesides straightforward dehydration, separation and purification of organics, NCMs based PV has recently been employed in many other areas, including desalination, desulphurization, chemical reactions, etc. These membranes exhibit substantial improvement in terms of selectivity, permeability and long-term stability and shows high potential for real time applications.A membrane reactor is a device that combines shifting of a chemical equilibrium towards the forward direction with simultaneous separation through the involvement of a membrane during a reaction. In such a case, elimination of at least one end product is essential to drive the equilibrium into the product side for spontaneous enhancement of the final product.The role of a membrane in membrane reactors can be of the following three types: extractor (to remove the product(s) for enhancing the rate of the reaction via shifting the equilibrium in forward direction), distributor (to restrict the unwanted side reactions by the precise addition of reactant(s)) and active contactor . In the first two cases, membranes are devoid of catalytic properties, whereas in the active contactor mode, the membrane also plays the role of a catalyst through the prevalent diffusion barrier ability. Thus, the use of active contactor mode is extensive and can further be classified into two categories: forced flow contactor- and opposing reactant-mode, depending upon the activity of the membrane. In fact, the forced flow contactor mode is mainly applied for the total oxidation of VOCs. The distributor mode, on the other hand, finds immense application for limiting consecutive and parallel deep oxidation reactions for partial oxidation, oxidative dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons and oxidative coupling of methane. In fact, the extra cost, introduced due to the involvement of a membrane into the reactor, can be counterbalanced by the attainment of several advantages, like smoothness of operation, low-maintenance instrumentation, energy/cost-effectivity, use of the minimum amount of chemicals and high cost to performance ratio of the membrane . The memThough both inorganic and organic membranes can be used in membrane reactors, yet the use of inorganic membranes has been found to be more advantageous, owing to the superior thermal properties and pH resistance ability. Inorganic membranes can withstand high thermal stress and thus, restrict the structural deformation at much higher temperature than the organic membranes. Additionally, inorganic membranes are capable of enduring organic solvents, chlorine and other corrosive chemicals, better than organic membranes, allowing the use of more effective, and yet, corrosive chemicals and hazardous cleaning procedures.Polymeric membranes, on the other hand, can only survive in moderate conditions. Thus, membrane reactors, possessing polymeric membranes, can be operated for enzyme-catalyzed bio-reactions and low temperature reactions, including saccharification of celluloses and hydrolysis of proteins. However, several catalytic processes, used in different industries, include high temperature and harsh chemical conditions. These situations undoubtedly point out the rational applicability of inorganic membranes, like commercially available glass, ceramic and metal membranes, in the field of membrane reactor or membrane catalysis. Some auspicious applications of inorganic membranes in membrane reactor include dehydrogenation, hydrogenation and oxidation reactions, like oxidative coupling of methane, synthesis of butadiene, styrene and ethene from butane, ethyl benzene and ethane, respectively, and water-gas shift (WGS) reaction. In such membrane reactors, two basic mechanisms can be depicted: (i) reaction and separation are combined in one unit a and iib. The usm) was calculated using a microscopic model based on laminar flow and was found as high as 3.78 × 10−6 m s−1, which is about five times higher than that obtained in the macroscopic model [The presence of selective component in the membrane could also enhance the overall performances. Absorption properties and mass transfer of coal combustion flue gases in IL (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate) using a polypropylene HFM contactor  showed tic model . Norkobiic model .Most of the chemical reactions follow a multi-step reaction mechanism containing one or more step(s) as equilibrium. Catalysts are therefore employed to speed up the overall rate of the reaction. In fact, catalyst must be combined with the membrane system through different arrangements, as shown in 2 and CO mixture, is produced via steam reformation or partial oxidation of CH4 followed by further conversion into higher hydrocarbons by the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. Two types of membrane reactors have been under the utmost consideration for OCM since the recent past: (i) porous ceramic membrane reactors and (ii) dense ionic or mixed-conducting oxide membrane reactors. Porous membranes, such as alumina, zirconia and vycor glass, possess substantial stability during chemical reactions, yet exhibit poor O2 selectivity. Hollow-fiber ceramic membranes, possessing an asymmetric structure, i.e., a thin dense and separating layer integrated with a porous substrate of the same material, have recently been under consideration. As compared to the disk-shaped membranes, these hollow-fiber membranes possess considerably larger membrane area per unit volume for O2 permeation. Two different approaches have frequently been studied for improving the selectivity and yield of OCM. In the first methodology, the membrane is used as the O2 separator, containing air as the reactant, and distributor [2 semipermeable membrane is made catalytically active and selective towards OCM, such that O2 can permeate through the membrane and react, in the form of atomic oxygen, with the membrane on the other surface. Few studies involving both perovskite and fluorite type membranes have been devoted based on the second approach for OCM. Except the works reported by Nozaki and Fujimoto [0.8Gd0.2O3 membrane.With depletion in liquid petroleum, natural gas, containing primarily methane (>95 wt %), is reasonably expected to be one of the main resources for the production of chemicals and liquid fuels. The two most frequently used methods for converting methane into different chemicals and liquid fuels may proceed through direct and indirect routes. In the direct route, OCM occurs to produce different C2 products, like ethane and ethylene, whereas in the indirect route, production of syngas, i.e., Htributor ,377, wheFujimoto  and Guo Fujimoto , the memFujimoto  by using2O3 support has been synthesized to achieve the pore size ~10 Å [3H8-H2 mixture. However, the permeability and thermal stability was found very poor. Several membranes including Matrimid® polyimide flat-sheet membrane have been used for the separation of CO2 from OCM process application [2 content (~40%). Despite several disadvantages, PV membrane reactors are becoming highly attractive owing to the simplicity of overall process, ease of separation and low energy requirement [To date, the development of suitable polymer membrane reactor for OCM application is still a difficult task because of the high operating temperature, membrane fouling and the low mechanical strength. There are very few polymer-made membranes are commercially available that can sustain the harsh reaction conditions. Polymer membranes have been reported for ethane-ethylene separation consisting of silver polymer electrolyte membranes and silicate-1 membrane ,382. Polze ~10 Å . The hyblication ,388,389.uirement .2 as a carrier in the clean energy process has been under prime consideration. Meanwhile, some new technologies have promoted improvements in the H2 production cycle. As light hydrocarbons provide better and simple ways to produce H2, many studies based on the use of catalytic membrane reactors in integrated plants for H2 production with low CO content have been reported [2 produced by reforming and/or partial oxidation of light hydrocarbons, like natural gas, is found to contain CO, CO2, H2O and traces of CH4. Thus, in an integrated membrane plant for H2 production, it is important to upgrade the streams coming from the reformer, via the WGS reaction, to reduce the CO content and simultaneous generation of more H2. As water gas reaction is exothermic [2-separation membranes have been developed using various inorganic materials, such as palladium and its alloys, silica and alumina. One of the attractive alternatives for the high permselective membrane is a silica layer formed on mesoporous γ-alumina film, supported on a porous stainless steel. Brunetti and coworkers [2 based commercial catalyst in a temperature range of 220–290 °C up to 600 kPa. An excellent CO conversion of 95% was noted at 280 °C and 400 kPa.Since the past few decades, use of Hreported . Currentothermic ,392, useothermic . H2-sepaoworkers  investig2 by employing the direct water splitting requires an efficient H2 and O2 separation technique from its water vapor mixture. The availability and viability of polymeric membrane materials are limited due to the limited thermal stability of the organic polymers [2 production via WGS reaction, where the Pd NPs were embedded with the polyethylene glycol (PEG) [2/N2 and a H2 flux of 0.004–0.016 mol m−2 s−1. The membrane reactor performed 98.5% CO conversion with 16% H2 recovery at 450 °C. The membrane was found to be quite stable during WGS catalytic membrane reactors (CMR) tests.The production of Hpolymers . The devpolymers ,397. Thepolymers ,399. Invol (PEG) . DependiIn petrochemical industries, olefins, like ethylene and propylene, are the most frequently used raw ingredients for producing different polyolefins, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, styrene, ethyl benzene, ethylene dichloride, AN and isopropanol. However, one of the most important steps of such manufacture is the large-scale continuous separation of olefin from the corresponding paraffin. In addition, dehydrogenation, oxidative coupling and steam reformation of methane and water gas shift reaction are also important in petrochemical industries. The membrane based separation technique has been established as the most effective, low-cost and green technique. Petrochemical waste streams may contain phenolic compounds or aromatic amines. They are highly toxic and inhibitory to biological treatment at high concentrations. Membrane aromatic recovery system (MARS) is a relatively new process for recovery of aromatic acids and bases . WastewaRecent increasing demands for organic esters in biotechnology and in chemical industry, esterification reaction has received significant attention. The enzyme-catalyzed esterification, especially the lipase, is of great importance. The energy demand, cost and lower selectivity limit the reaction success in commercial scale production. In a conventional esterification reaction, presence of excess water plays a negative role on overall production rate and enzyme activity. Constant removal of water at low temperature by PV could help to achieve higher productivity . Inoue e60 (3 wt %) as a selective layer of composite membranes has been studied in PV coupling esterification reaction [Several researches have been carried out with NCMs for the dehydration of esters. The incorporation of NMs effectively removes the water from the system, generated during the reaction that eventually, helps enhanced conversion of the reactants into the desired product . Torabi reaction .Shortage of water resources is one of the biggest problems in the world. In fact, more than one-third of the world’s total population suffer from the scarcity of safe drinking water . Again, −2 h−1 and 99.9%, respectively, from the feed water of 35 g L−1 NaCl at 70 °C. The NCM also demonstrated excellent stability over a long testing period of 24 h [PV is equipped with non-porous, dense polymeric membranes and the separation mechanism is based on the differential rate of diffusion of constituents through these membranes. PV of an aqueous salt solution can be considered as the separation of a pseudo-liquid mixture containing free water molecules and bulkier hydrated ions formed in solution upon dissociation of the salt in water . One of  of 24 h .−2 h−1, with the high rejection for desalination (~99.8% at 90 °C). It is noteworthy that the composite membranes retain high performance in treating high salinity water even with a salt concentration up to 100,000 ppm. A new preparation route of silica-PVA membrane is reported by Chaudhari et al. [−2 h−1 than the other reported membranes in PV desalination of saline water of 2000 ppm NaCl. Feng et al. [−2 h−1 and a high ion rejection ~99.9% to envisage the excellent water permeability and salt rejection for seawater desalination at 90 °C. The desalination performances of GO-PI MMMs kept unchanged for 120 h at 75 °C. PV under various operating conditions was carried out by Xie et al. [−2 h−1 was achieved at a feed temperature of 65 °C and a vacuum of 6 torr. The salt rejection remained high, up to 99.9%, under all operating conditions.In fact, the chemical properties of membrane materials, used in PV, play the key role in designing a high-performance PV set-up. Currently, PV membranes for desalination have been fabricated by different polymeric materials/elastomers , inorganic materials  and polymer-inorganic hybrid materials -silica) . Althougi et al. , carriedg et al.  developee et al.  to evalux), in atmosphere [x [The sulfur derivatives, used in automobile fuel, are the main sources of various sulfur oxides  and non-HDS , HDS is rization .Pervaporative desulfurization involves the extraction of aromatics from aliphatic hydrocarbons, via solvent diffusion transport, through a non-porous membrane. In fact, partial vaporization, during pervaporative desulfurization, occurs due to the application of vacuum, while the membrane acts as a sulfur-selective barrier between the two phases: liquid phase retentate and vapor phase permeate . The nonPervaporative desulfurization is gaining increasing attention due to its distinct advantages, such as lower capital and operating expenses, higher selectivity as well as easier scale up ,431. The1/2 cm−3/2, closely resembling thiophene and hence, is perfectly suitable for the preferential transport from gasoline. In fact, recently developed PDMS-based membranes have been found to possess significantly high β of ~4.2–4.9 and flux of 1500–5370 g m−2 h−1 for the desulfurization of thiophene-n-octane gasoline, as reported by Cao et al. [2-NPs, present into the PDMS membrane matrix, for the pervaporative desulfurization of thiophene-n-octane binary mixture as model gasoline. Various membranes were prepared by the incorporation of a varying amount of SiO2, and the membrane performance, towards thiophene removal, was observed to be manifoldly enhanced with the increase in SiO2 of the composite membrane. The fabricated NCMs exhibited enhanced permeability and permselectivity in the pervaporative desulfurization. It was observed that under the condition of 500 ppm sulfur in feed (40 L h−1) at 30 °C, the β of 4.83–5.82 with a normalized permeation rate of 6.61–10.76 × 10−5 kg m m−2 h−1 was obtained. The enrichment of performance potential of PDMS membranes due to the incorporation of NPs encouraged Yang et al. [−2 h−1, which was ~66% higher than the mere PDMS membrane.PDMS possesses an SP of 15.5 kJo et al. . In ordeo et al.  investigg et al.  to fabriPV captures a special position as an impressive separation technique in chemical industry. Currently, more than hundreds of PV units are operating throughout the world, primarily to purify the chemicals. The development of enhanced PV technology has visualized a clean and invulnerable future that encourages the interest of energy conservation, accompanied by generation of minimum waste and zero emission around the ecosphere. The PV process is a pioneering and fast emerging separation technology that could be employed to a great extent in environmental protection, clean resources, food, chemical and pharmaceutical areas. Among all available technologies, PV is considered as the most energy-efficient and green technology for separation of azeotropic/close boiling mixtures, recovery of traces of impurities from aqueous solutions as well as treating the heat sensitive biomaterials. Although distillation is the most commonly used separation method to separate liquid mixtures, this method is not suitable to obtain high purity solvents from azeotropic mixtures. In fact, membrane based separation technologies have drawn utmost attention due to high selectivity, low energy consumption, moderate cost-to-performance ratio and compact modular design. However, in spite of the prevalent excellent separation potential, the availability of pure inorganic membranes is inadequate for cost-friendly commercial applications. Conversely, organic polymers constitute versatile barrier membranes owing to better film-forming ability, low cost and susceptible towards physicochemical modification. Nevertheless, the amount of material permFeates through such homogeneous dense membranes are usually very low and remains a critical issue obstructing the large scale industrial application of PV. Moreover, the technology is also suffering a ‘trade off’ relationship between flux and selectivity, which restricts its commercial acceptability.In fact, the primary function of fillers is to act as physical/chemical binders, within the polymeric chains of composite membranes, for optimizing the essential mechanical properties, like TS, EAB, modulus etc. Indeed, incorporation of fillers into the polymer matrix engenders covalent and/or van der Waals force of interactions with the polymer matrix that is the basic cause of reinforcement. However, the variation in particle size of fillers has been found to possess dominant effect of the reinforcement property. In fact, fillers, having particle sizes within 100 nm, i.e., nanoparticles, have been found to possess the strongest reinforcement strength. Therefore, recently, nanotechnology is being considered as one of the most prospective regions for resolving the technical and commercial challenges, coupled with the separation and purification technologies. The development of well-defined nanostructured materials with unique properties renewed the traditional opinion of separation methods, streaming new separation approaches that surpass the existing accomplishments. The utilization of these NMs in membrane separation techniques not only answers the ‘trade off’ issue associated with PV technologies, but also opens the path towards real time applications. The newly fabricated NCMs are found to be superior in terms of permeability, selectivity and long-term stability. These novel NCMs will continue to develop improved cost efficient systems and module design, help to construct an optimized alliance and integration with existent technologies, and to reduce the overall capital investment.


Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive, rod-shaped organism that can cause serious infections such as meningitis, invasive gastroenteritis, and endocarditis. Every year 1600 people in the United States are affected, with significant mortality of 260 people annually. Listeria gastroenteritis has the third highest mortality rate among all the food-borne infection. Invasive listeriosis most commonly affect pregnant women, those in extremes of ages, people with comorbid diseases, and people with weakened immune response. In this article, we present a rare case of invasive Listeria gastroenteritis in an 83-year-old female with multiple comorbid conditions and past medical history of type 2 diabetes mellitus and multiple risk factors who was brought to the hospital with altered mental status. She had history of fever, abdominal pain, and watery diarrhea up to 14 episodes in 24 hours for the last 7 days. Her stool culture grew Listeria monocytogenes sensitive to penicillin. She was started on penicillin for 2 weeks. She had subsequently complete resolution of fever, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. High index of suspicion is the key to ensure timely initiation of appropriate empirical treatment in the setting of invasive gastroenteritis, especially in people who have high risk factors for listeriosis. We recommend raising awareness in the health care profession about invasive listeriosis in the need of time. Intravenous ampicillin or penicillin G is the treatment of choice, with meropenem as an alternative. Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive, rod-shaped organism that can grow in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Invasive listeriosis is rare in the United States, with an annual incidence of 1600 cases, resulting in 260 deaths annually.1Listeria has the third highest mortality rate among all food- borne infections.1Listeria is present in soil, water, some animal sources, raw (unpasteurized) milk, ready-to-eat deli meats, hot dogs, and refrigerated smoked seafood.2 Unlike common food-borne diseases, the incubation period can be long. Median incubation period is 8 days (range = 1-67 days).3 Proper cooking and pasteurization can kill Listeria. Invasive Listeria most commonly affects pregnant women; those in extremes of ages, that is, new born and people above 65; and people with comorbid diseases such as diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression, HIV, and liver disease. Listerial gastroenteritis is self-limiting in healthy individuals without any serious complications.5Clostridium difficile, she was empirically started on intravenous metronidazole and oral vancomycin and stools were sent for Clostridium difficile toxin. Two days later her blood cultures grew Listeria monocytogenes, sensitive to penicillin, and stool came back negative for Clostridium difficile toxin. Intravenous metronidazole and oral vancomycin were stopped and subsequently penicillin was initiated. She responded well with complete resolution of diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever.An 83-year-old female with past medical history of type 2 diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and chronic back pain was brought to the hospital with altered mental status and nonbloody diarrhea. On physical examination, she was febrile with a temperature of 38.9°C, blood pressure of 95/60 mm Hg, and pulse of 134 per minute. She was stuporous, lethargic, and unable to follow any commands with withdrawal to painful stimuli only. She had up to 14 episodes of diarrhea in last 24 hours. Initial laboratory work up was remarkable for white blood cell count of 23 000/µL, sodium of 130 mmol/L, bicarbonate of 16 mEq/L, lactate of 4.2 mmol/L, creatinine of 2.8 mg/dL, and blood glucose of 394 mg/dL. Computed tomography scan of abdomen and pelvis without contrast was performed, which showed some nonspecific findings of enteritis. Given the very high suspicion for Listeria, although an uncommon microorganism to affect the general population, is capable of causing a broad range of illness in neonates, pregnant women, elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. Listeria monocytogenes is a motile, non–spore-forming, gram-positive rod that has aerobic and facultatively anaerobic characteristics. Our patient’s advance age, history of diabetes mellitus, and other multiple comorbid conditions with suggestive clinical presentation were the clues for early suspicion of invasive Listeria gastroenteritis.6Listeria monocytogenes are fever, diarrhea, arthromyalgia, and headache. In most cases, at least one gastrointestinal symptom such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain is present. Diarrhea is typically nonbloody and watery stool with an average of 10 to 12 stools in 24 hours. Bloody diarrhea is rare and noted in only 3% of cases. Fatigue and sleepiness are present in 63% and 83% of cases, respectively.8 A rare complication of Listeria gastroenteritis is an invasive disease with positive blood culture, which can lead to severe sepsis and death.The most common symptoms of invasive gastroenteritis due to Listeria monocytogenes are reported so far. Only serotypes 4b, 1/2a, and 1/2b are known to cause over 98% of the human listeriosis case reported.9 Serotype 4b is notorious for causing invasive listeriosis.10 Gastric acidity is protective against Listeria and people taking H2 antagonists have increased prevalence of asymptomatic Listeria monocytogenes in stool.11 Although Listeria does not produce any enterotoxin and the mechanism of pathogenesis is unknown, direct invasion of bacterial protein with E-cadherin on the host cell, leading to diarrhea, fever, and bacteremia, is proposed.13Thirteen serotypes of Listeria should be suspected based on high clinical suspicion. Stool culture is not recommended in systemic listeriosis; however, when investigating an outbreak of Listeria, special selective culture media should be used. The high titers of antibodies to listeriolysin O, the major virulence factor, can help in diagnosis, but blood culture is considered diagnostic for systemic listeriosis.14 In one study, antibodies to listeriolysin O was positive in 27 of 28 patients with invasive listeriosis, making it a useful study to discriminate between sporadic and invasive listeriosis. A new method of diagnosing amino-terminal residue of listeriolysin O may be more specific, but they are not commercially available yet.15The diagnosis of Listeria gastroenteritis is ampicillin 2 g intravenous every 4 to 6 hours for 2 weeks or penicillin G 4 million units intravenous every 4 hours, and the latter is considered the drug of choice.16 Patients allergic to penicillin should get skin test and desensitization if possible or use trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole 3 to 5 mg/kg intravenous every 6 hours for 2 weeks. Noninvasive Listeria gastroenteritis is typically self-limiting, specifically in healthy young people with complete recovery in 2 to 3 days.Treatment of invasive Listeria gastroenteritis, high degree of suspicion is the key to early diagnosis and initiation of proper treatment, especially in people in extreme of ages and multiple comorbid conditions wherein it presents with multiple episodes of diarrhea and altered mental status. We recommend raising awareness in the health care profession about invasive listeriosis in the need of time. Avoiding unpasteurized milk, thorough cooking of raw food from animal source, reheating hot dogs properly and deli meats, and hand hygiene can help in preventing transmission of infection from Listeria monocytogenes.Due to high mortality of invasive


Arthritis is positively associated with the decline of sex hormones, especially estrogen. Tamoxifen (TMX) is a selective estrogen receptor modulator, possessing agonist or antagonistic activity in different tissues. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of TMX on the zymosan-induced arthritis model. Female Swiss normal and ovariectomized (OVX) mice were divided into groups and treated for five days with TMX  or 17-β-estradiol . On the fifth day, arthritis was induced and 4 h later, leukocyte migration into joint cavities was evaluated. The neutrophil migration in OVX animals, but not in normal mice, treated with TMX  was significantly decreased compared with mice that received the vehicle (P≤0.05). Similarly, this effect was also demonstrated in the E2-treated group. Therefore, the present study demonstrates that TMX presented agonist effects in inhibiting neutrophil migration and preventing arthritis progression in OVX mice. Arthritis is characterized by persistent synovitis and systemic inflammation, being more prevalent among women than men, especially during the postmenopausal phase. It is associated positively with the decline of sex hormones, mainly estrogen .During menopause, the decrease in estrogen levels potentially increases the vulnerability to diseases such as cancer, arthritis and osteoporosis in hormone-responsive tissues . FurtherThe acute inflammation phase of arthritis has been well mimicked by the intra-articular injection of zymosan, which is accompanied by an increased profile of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and IL-6, prominent infiltration of neutrophils and joint swelling that are used to investigate the effects of a variety of drugs .Several studies have focused on the activity of the selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) in different tissues ,5. SERMsIn contrast, TMX presents estrogen agonist activity in several tissues, such as uterus, bone and liver . A previTherefore, it is important to know the effect of tamoxifen on experimental arthritis in order to develop new treatment strategies. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of tamoxifen on zymosan-induced arthritis model.Swiss female mice (25–30 g) were provided by the Animal House of the Federal University of Sergipe. The animals were housed at a controlled temperature (22±1°C) in a 12-h light-dark cycle with free access to food and water. All protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Experimentation of the Universidade Federal de Sergipe under protocol No. 10/2015 and were conducted in compliance with the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals . For the experiments, animals were randomly distributed in groups and the experimenter was unaware of the group's identification.ia) saline solution (0.9%); group 2, positive control treated with sesame oil , and injected ia with zymosan (100 μg/mice). Group 3, arthritic animals treated with 0.3 mg/kg/TMX; group 4, arthritic animals treated with 0.9 mg/kg/TMX; group 5, arthritic animals treated with 2.7 mg/kg//TMX; and group 6 received 17-β-estradiol  (sc).The mice were randomly divided into 6 experimental groups with 10 animals per group: group 1, negative control group received intra-articularly .Concomitantly, mice were submitted to ovariectomy and divided in 5 groups with 10 animals each as follows: group 1, positive control treated with SO; group 2, 3, and 4, arthritic animals treated with TMX at the doses described above, respectively, ia injection of zymosan at day 5, one hour after the last treatment with SO, TMX or E2.For arthritis induction, animals received ip) with a 10:1 mixture of ketamine (100 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg) under aseptic conditions and were subjected to ovariectomy performed with a small incision along the dorsal midline. Both ovaries were excised, the dorsal wall was sutured and the cutaneous incisions closed with 10 mm clamps. Before and after surgery, mice received an injection (ip) of sodium diclofenac (5 mg/kg). The animals were allowed to recover for 2 weeks before treatments.The mice were anesthetized intraperitoneally .For experimental induction of arthritis by zymosan, mice were anesthetized by inhalation of halothane (0.01%) and were injected with zymosan  in the right femoral tibial joint  and the ip) with 100 mg/kg of ketamine and 10 mg/kg of xylazine (10:1) and euthanized by cervical dislocation. The knee joint was exposed and washed twice with 5-μL phosphate buffered saline (PBS) containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) diluted to a final volume of 100 μL with PBS/EDTA. The total number of leukocytes, diluted in the Turk solution, was determined in a Neubauer  chamber under an optical microscope . Results are reported as the number of leukocytes per articular cavity. Differential cell counts were performed from articular exudate and smears obtained by cytocentrifuge . The cells were pelleted onto slides and then stained by hematoxylin-eosin dye for characterization of the leukocyte types according to their core-cytoplasm characteristics, using a 100× objective in immersion oil. In each slide, 100 cells were counted, differentiating three cell types: eosinophils, neutrophils and mononuclear cells. The quantification of each cell type was calculated from the percentage found in relation to the total number of cells.Four hours after arthritis induction, the animals were anesthetized  .post hoc test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Data are reported as means±SE. The results were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Tukey's Neutrophil migration into the articular cavity in OVX animals treated with TMX  was significantly decreased compared with animals that received only SO. This effect was also demonstrated in the E2-treated group .In contrast, neutrophil migration in joint of animals without ovariectomy that were treated with TMX or E2 were not altered compared with mice that received SO .Therefore, TMX in OVX mice played agonist activity to effects of the endogenous hormone promoting neutrophil recruitment inhibition in the articular cavity of arthritic mice.In OVX mice, treatment with TMX and E2 replacement promoted the increase of the uterus wet weight compared with SO-treated animals .However, in the presence of endogenous estrogen, TMX caused no change in the weight of the uterus of mice that received only SO compared with E2-treated animals . These rAs indicated in Some diseases accelerate in postmenopausal women. This relationship is very pronounced in arthritis, in which estrogen depletion increases the propensity for arthritis .Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is an intervention to relieve some symptoms of decreased hormone levels. A clinical study evaluating the effect of HRT with estrogen on arthritis indicated an anti-inflammatory effect, reducing joint damage and increasing bone density. However, the prolonged use of HRT increases the incidence of thromboembolism, heart attack and breast cancer. It has been reported that compounds with physiological activity and estrogen-like chemical structure can attenuate climacteric problems and guarantee a better quality of life for patients ,10.SERMs are drugs with a chemical structure similar to estrogen that can interact with the estrogen receptor and modulate agonist or antagonist responses . TMX, onInterestingly, in the present study, TMX treatment was found to significantly reduce zymosan-induced arthritis in OVX mice, promoting the inhibition of neutrophil recruitment in the absence of estrogen. In addition, it has been confirmed that treatment with 17β-estradiol suppressed the progression of inflammation in arthritis . TMX canTo understand the action of TMX in OVX mice some points must be mentioned. First, the most important features of all SERMs are that they have less agonistic effects on the reproductive system in the presence of E2 . Second,The results of uterine weight analysis corroborate previous evidence, in which the absence of estrogen caused by ovariectomy promotes reduction of uterine weight . In contIn addition, OVX animals treated with different doses of TMX were stable at the estrus phase of the estrous cycle. This is consistent with previous observations, which demonstrated that the E2 level is increased in this phase, similar to physiological conditions .In conclusion, this study demonstrated the TMX agonist effect in inhibiting the migration of inflammatory cells and preventing the arthritis progression in OVX mice. Therefore, these findings should be considered in future research with models of chronic arthritis, with the aim of evaluating TMX in the treatment of postmenopausal diseases.


Small cell lung cancer (SCLC), as a proportion, makes up only 15–17% of lung cancer cases. The development of treatments for SCLC has remained stagnant for decades, and SCLC is expected to persist as a threat to human health. To date, no publications based on large populations have been reported. We calculated survival changes in patients with SCLC during each decade between 1983 and 2012 to determine the roles of race, sex, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) on survival rates based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries. In total, 106,296 patients with SCLC were identified, with the overall incidence per 100,000 decreasing each decade from 9.6 to 7.8 to 5.8. The median survival for SCLC remained 7 months, and the 12-month relative survival rates (RSRs) remained relatively stable at 32.9%, 33.2% and 33.2% during each decade. The 5-year RSRs significantly improved from 4.9% to 5.9% to 6.4% during each decade, but remained extremely low. In addition, a narrowing of the survival gaps among SES groups and stable survival gaps between sexes were observed. Although the incidence of SCLC decreased during each decade, the overall survival remained relatively stable, highlighting the urgency of developing novel treatments and the importance of prevention and early detection. Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), accounting for approximately 15% to 17% of all diagnosed lung cancers, is characterized by a high invasiveness, short doubling time, high growth fraction and ease of metastasis upon diagnosis3. Classified as a neuroendocrine tumor despite its differences with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), SCLC is distinctly different from extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma in disease progression, prognosis and etiology4.Lung cancer is estimated to be the second most common cancer type and the leading cause of cancer-related death in both sexes, with an estimated 116,990 cases in males and 105,510 in females8. In addition and in sharp contrast to NSCLC, for which survival has improved remarkably in the past few decades due to the development of EGFR, ROS1, and ALK inhibitors among others, no major developments have been made in SCLC treatment, including targeted agents, such as EGFR-TKI, BCR-ABL TKIs, or mTOR inhibitors11. These factors have limited improvements of the currently dismal survival rates for SCLC. In addition, the average cost for SCLC treatment remains enormous, at 11,556 pounds, or 15,418 Euros, for limited disease and 12,482 Euros for extensive disease13. More radical chemotherapy or maintenance of chemotherapy did not significantly improve patients’ survival17. These trends have challenged healthcare legislators as the current treatment plateau has not been overcome by additional financial expenditures, especially given the already high financial burden of SCLC. In addition to the lack of treatment effectiveness, approximately 70% of SCLC diagnoses are already at the point of extensive disease, indicating that more emphasis should be placed on clinical awareness of screening and early detection18. Intuitively, SCLC survival is expected to remain constant, but no relevant large population-based publications have been reported. Previous publications on SCLC survival rates focused on specific patient populations at certain stages or patients receiving chemotherapy, prophylactic cranial irradiation and surgery23. This study, using period analyses, aimed to evaluate the survival changes in each decade from 1983 to 2012 on the basis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.Radiotherapy plus platinum-based chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for most SCLC cases for 30 years and has reached an efficiency plateau. Surgery is only an option for a small proportion of limited stage patients based on Veterans Administration Lung Study Group (VALSG) staging25. Preliminary data have shown that SES can also affect survival for extensive stages of SCLC, indicating the need for amelioration in healthcare policies to balance this survival disparity26. This study determined the survival changes over three decades and clarified the roles of sex, age, race and SES on the survival of patients with SCLC based on the SEER database.Additionally, racial and socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in the U.S. health care system are of great concern and have been shown to influence survival in many malignanciesTo guarantee the comparability of incidence data over three decades by extracting data from the same registry sites, we extracted incidence data from the nine original registry sites in the SEER database. A total of 56,220 cases diagnosed with SCLC between 1983 and 2012 were identified. The overall incidence of SCLC per 100,000 decreased each decade over time to 9.6, 7.8 and 5.8, as illustrated in Fig. Incidence differences were observed between sexes, with a higher incidence per 100,000 in males , whereas the incidence gaps between Whites and Blacks widened slightly each decade Fig. . The nump < 0.0001). However, the median survival remained 7 months in each decade.A total of 106,439 patients with SCLC between 1983 and 2012 at 18 registry sites were identified, with the five-year survival rate improving from 4.9% to 5.9% to 6.4% each decade (p < 0.0001). More importantly, the survival improvement over the three decades was age-dependent, with a greater survival improvement in younger patient groups. The improvement in RSR over the three decades was followed up for 5 years. Significantly improved survival times over the three decades in the total population and in the 35–49, 50–64 and 65–79 age groups were also confirmed by Kaplan-Meier curves  in patients with SCLC remained relatively stable in the total population and in almost all age groups over the three decades Table . The 12-p < 0.0001), and the survival gap between sexes remained relatively stable each decade   Fig. .Table 21p < 0.0001 for each). In addition, the age-dependent survival difference between sexes was also observed in the 35–49 and 65–79 age groups. A similar trend in RSR differences between the sexes was noted in the 24- and 36-month RSRs  ; more importantly, the survival disparities narrowed each decade . This narrowing trend may be attributed to the following reasons: first, the development of health care systems narrows the survival disparities among different SES groups by covering more patients, and second, the standard first-line chemotherapy regimen and the radiotherapy, which are applicable to most SCLC cases, were financially available to most patients. However, the cost of SCLC treatment is considerable as was the financial heterogeneity inside patient groups, which may have led to the aforementioned survival disparity12. Therefore, healthcare regulations to compensate financially disadvantaged patients may help fill the gaps among SES groups.There were differences in the incidence of SCLC among the various SES groups, with the highest incidence in the low- and medium-poverty groups. Lower incidence in the high-poverty group could be partly due to a lower consumption of cigarettes and living in less industrialized regions, keeping them away from air pollution. The survival differed among different SES groups, however, and the survival gaps among the various SES groups continued to narrow each decade  have changed over time. In addition, the patient data from selected SEER registry sites only reflect the tendencies of selected areas, and therefore, the results and conclusions should be interpreted with caution when being applied to other areas. Furthermore, this study may be affected by bias and errors if there is any under-registration or misclassification in the SEER databaseIn general, this study demonstrated the declining incidence and relatively stable survival rates of SCLC. However, the medical burden brought on by SCLC remains significant, indicating the urgency not only for early detection and prevention but also for developing novel therapies. In addition, the survival disparities demonstrated in this study imply that there is heterogeneity in SCLC. This study may help in the design of better clinical trials by balancing these disparities and ultimately improving the clinical treatment of SCLC. Furthermore, the trends shown here highlight the need for developing novel agents by clarifying genetic patterns and may assist politicians in passing legislation to rectify disparities among SES groups.52. In addition, incidence data and survival data were obtained from nine original registry sites and 18 registry sites, respectively. SEER*Stat version 8.3.2 software was used for all data collection.All cases of patients diagnosed with SCLC between 1983 and 2012 were accessed from the SEER database, a database maintained by the National Cancer Institute, covering approximately 28% of the U.S. populationin situ), 8041/3 , 8042/3 (Oat cell carcinoma), 8043/3 , 8044/3 , and 8045/3 . We excluded cases of SCLC that had been identified by an autopsy or a death certificate.Patients were included on the basis of the SEER site recode using the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, Third Edition (2008), Lung and Bronchus (C34.0–C34.9). We accessed only the cases diagnosed between 1983 and 2012. SCLC cases were histologically defined by the following International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, Third Edition, histology codes for malignant cases: 8041/2  was used for Cox regression analyses and Spearman rank correlation analyses. A two-tailed Supplementary file


Halomonas (79%). (2) 65 genera were core microbiota in all stages with 42% and 62% gut microbial genera of embryo were found in maternal hen and chick, respectively. There was a moderate correlation (0.40) between the embryo and maternal, and 0.52 between the embryo and chick at the family level. (3) Gut microbes that are involved in substance metabolism, infectious disease, and environmental adaptation are enriched in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens, respectively. (4) 94% genera of gut microbial composition were similar among three different chicken breeds which were maintained under similar conditions. Our findings provide evidence to support the hypothesis that part of the microbial colonizers harbored in early embryos were inherited from maternal hens, and the gut microbial abundance and diversity were influenced by environmental factors and host genetic variation during development.In mammals, the microbiota can be transmitted from the placenta, uterus, and vagina of the mother to the infant. Unlike mammals, development of the avian embryo is a process isolated from the mother and thus in the avian embryo the gut microbial developmental process remains elusive. To explore the establishment and inheritance of the gut microbiome in the avian embryo, we used the chicken as the model organism to investigate the gut microbial composition in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens. We observed: (1) 28 phyla and 162 genera of microbes in embryos where the dominated genus was  The gastrointestinal tracts of mammals are populated by a dynamic and enormous microbial community that can be viewed as complex, and polygenic traits interacting and coevolving with host genetic and environmental factors . The devin vivo, while development occurs in an extracorporeal egg without an umbilical cord, placenta, and amniotic fluid directly associated with the maternal body. The establishment and inheritance of a microbiome in an avian embryo is unknown. The chicken, domesticized from the red jungle fowl, bridges an evolutionary gap between reptiles and mammals, and is an important economical animal that provides humans with meat, eggs, and feathers. It was the first farm animal to have its genome sequenced , followed by Firmicutes (5%), Bacteroidetes (4%), and Actinobacteria (3%) in embryos  and Ochrobactrum (5%), which belong to the phylum of Proteobacteria . The correlation coefficient between the microbiota of the 4-day (E4) and the 19-day (E19) embryos was 0.80 (Table 1). Although there was similarity of microbial species in phylum between 4-day and the 19-day embryos, we observed a decreasing proportion of Proteobacteria, and remarkable increasing tendency of Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes . Accordingly, Halomonas was significantly different between the two groups, which were 88% and 55%, respectively. Microbial beta diversity of embryos with a Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling  plot and heatmap showed the characteristics of the 4-day and 19-day indicating a significant different of microbial communities . Signature genera at 4-day included bacteria found in 19-day, i.e., Halomonas, Bacteroidetes, and Ochrobactrum, in addition, alpha diversity analysis revealed more microbial diversity in the 19-day embryos than the 4-day embryos , which were consistent with previous studies (Proteobacteria was mainly present in embryos (86%) and maternal hens (22%). Firmicutes (76% and 44%) and Bacteroidetes (10% and 24%) were the two major phyla in chicks and maternal hens, respectively , and Lactobacillus (67%) and Bacteroides (10%) were the most abundant microbes in chicks . Fifty-nine genera of microbes with low abundance were detected only in embryos. The declining population of those microbes during embryonic development and an absence in chicks and maternal hens suggested that some microbes were temporarily harbored in embryos and they were influenced by genetic and environmental factors during host development . Among the 162 genera that were detected in embryos, 68 and 100 of them were detected in maternal hens and chicks, respectively. The correlation coefficients for microbiota in embryos and maternal hens were approximately 0.33 and 0.40 at the genus and family level, respectively, and for embryos and chicks, it decreased initially and subsequently increased during the development of host stages (Table 1) with the correlation coefficient of 0.52 at the family level. Of the132 genera detected in chicks 91 were also observed in the maternal hens . Correlation coefficients ranging from 0.58 to 0.72 between chicks and maternal hens were found at the family level (Table 1). Principle component analysis (PCA) indicated that the gut microbial composition in embryos was different from that in chicks and maternal hens, while similar between chicks and maternal hens , embryos (E) E4 and E19, and chicks (L) at 4 (L4), 21 (L21), and 42 days (L42) post hatch , such as Halomonas, Lactobacillus, Bacteroides, and Enterococcus . Halomonas had a high abundance in embryos and maternal hens, with a decreasing trend in chicks. This suggested that it may be an essential microbe and it may be susceptible to environmental effects. Lactobacillus and Enterococcus exhibited an increasing trend from embryo to chick and stabilized in maternal hens. Bacteroides remained steady in all stages . These results suggest that most of the microbial colonizers harbored in early embryos may originate from the maternal hens, and can be influenced by host genetic and environmental factors during developmental stages.Among 196 annotated genera, 65 were considered as core microbes which existed in embryos, chicks, and maternal hens . The microbiota in chicks have a high abundance of functional capacities involved in metabolic pathways such as infection diseases, energy metabolism, and the digestive system . Fewer differences in metabolism pathways between chicks and maternal hens indicated that, although they have a different gut microbial composition, their gut microbiome performs similar functions. Photosynthesis-antenna proteins usually exist in phycobilisomes of cyanobacteria and act as peripheral antenna systems enabling more efficient absorption of light energy. In our study, photosynthesis-antenna proteins, which fall into the category of energy metabolism, were enriched in embryos but not in chicks nor maternal hens  among Beijing Fatty, Shiqiza, and Xianju chickens . However, these three breeds were more dispersed and similar in chicks and maternal hens compared to embryos indicating the similar feeding conditions influence the construction of host microbiota . The microbiota were still influenced by breed, albeit with more similarities in chicks and maternal hens.In the above results, microbial community and functional capacity were analyzed in different host developmental stages including all breeds. To investigate the extent of the influence of host genetic factors on gut microbiota, we also studied microbial composition and abundance in three native Chinese breeds: Beijing Fatty (B), Shiqiza (C), and Xianju (X) chickens. 16S rRNA annotation results revealed that, under similar feeding conditions, the three breeds had similar dominant microorganism communities at the genus level: Studies of gut microbial establishment have been performed most in adult animals or newborn offspring, such as human neonates , insectsHalomonas, which belongs to Halomonadaceae family and Proteobacteria phylum, was the dominant genus in embryos and maternal hens but not chicks . Halomonadaceae are Gram-negative, chemoorganotrophic, aerobic, or facultative anaerobic, and moderately halophilic, haloalkaliphilic, halotolerant, or non-halophilic. Certain Halomonas species are also known to have a temperature-dependent salt requirement or tolerance and are able to utilize cellulose as carbon sources, although Halomonas venusta was identified as the abundant species in the embryos and maternal hens. H. venusta retained the capacity of sessile cells to adhere to polystyrene and form a biofilm. Ectoine, which is synthesized and released by H. venusta, can balance the cell’s osmotic pressure and protect the structures of enzymes, DNA, and the cytomembrane, implying that H. venusta may be involved in cell motility, amino acid, carbohydrate metabolism, and environmental adaptation in embryos and maternal hens  at reproduction and chicks (n = 113) aged 4, 21, and 42 days were collected  following the manufacturer’s instructions. Harvested DNA was quantified on a Nanodrop spectrophotometer  to assess the quantity and quality of the DNA. The V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified by PCR using sample-specific sequence barcoded fusion primers: forward 5′-AYTGGGYDTAAAGNG-3′, reverse 5′-TACNVGGGTATCTAATCC-3′. The PCR reaction conditions were: 94°C for 5 min; 94°C for 30 s, 50°C for 30 s, and 72°C for extension; repeated for 27 cycles; with a final 72°C for 7 min . The PCRp-values were adjusted by the Benjamini–Hochberg FDR procedure (Microbial OTUs were derived from the trimmed sequences of the PCR amplicon for the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene which were compared to the Greengene  databaserocedure . The phyrocedure . Correlarocedure .t-test (Microbial functional profile was predicted using PICRUSt . The OTUt-test  and BenjProtocols used for this experiment were approved by ethics committee for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.JD, YZ, and HM wrote the manuscript. JD and HM conceived and designed the experimental procedure, and supervised the study. JD performed statistical analysis, sample collection, DNA extraction, and data processing. RD, LY, and CH participated in sample collection, statistical analysis, and figure design. KX, LX, and LL coordinated sample collection. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.