Tong Tang

Green, newly felled bamboo stems are prone to cracking during the drying process due to the growth stress and moisture gradient. To improve the drying quality and dimensional stability of bamboo stems, this study applied hygrothermal treatment under atmospheric pressure to newly felled bamboo stems. The temperature, relative humidity, and duration of the treatment were optimized using an orthogonal L₉ (3⁴) experimental design. The results show that the surface color of round bamboo became more uniform after hygrothermal treatment. Furthermore, hygrothermal treatment could reduce the cuticular wax and silicon layer detachment on the surface of round bamboo after drying. According to the range and variance analysis, the relative humidity had the greatest impact on dimensional stability, followed by treatment duration, whereas the temperature had a limited effect. The swelling rate of round bamboo under a hygrothermal treatment at a relative humidity of 95%, a temperature of 95 °C, and a duration of 3 h was decreased 53.72% and 62.76% compared with untreated round bamboo after moisture or water absorption for 7 d, respectively. However, no significant difference was observed in the color of the round bamboo under different hygrothermal treatment conditions. Overall, this study suggests that hygrothermal treatment could be a highly promising technology for improving the dimensional stability of newly felled bamboo stems.

Drug resistance, undesirable toxicity and lack of selectivity are the major challenges of conventional cancer therapies, which cause poor clinical outcomes and high mortality in many cancer patients. Development of alternative cancer therapeutics are highly required for the patients who are resistant to the conventional cancer therapies, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The success of a new cancer therapy depends on its high specificity to cancer cells and low toxicity to normal cells. Utilization of bacteria has emerged as a promising strategy for cancer treatment. Attenuated or genetically modified bacteria were used to inhibit tumor growth, modulate host immunity, or deliver anti-tumor agents. The bacteria-derived immunotoxins were capable of destructing tumors with high specificity. These bacteria-based strategies for cancer treatment have shown potent anti-tumor effects both in vivo and in vitro, and some of them have proceeded to clinical trials. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen, is one of the common bacteria used in development of bacteria-based cancer therapy, particularly known for the Pseudomonas exotoxin A-based immunotoxins, which have shown remarkable anti-tumor efficacy and specificity. This review concisely summarizes the current knowledge regarding the utilization of P. aeruginosa in cancer treatment, and discusses the challenges and future perspectives of the P. aeruginosa-based therapeutic strategies.

Color is one of the most important characteristics of a material’s appearance, which affects the additional value of bamboo and psychological feelings of users. Previous studies have shown that the dimensional stability, mildew resistance and durability of bamboo were improved after tung oil thermal treatment. In this study, the effects of tung oil thermal treatment on bamboo color at different temperatures and durations of time were investigated. The results show that the lightness (L*) of bamboo decreased as the tung oil temperature or duration of time increased. The red–green coordinates (a*) and color saturation (C*) of bamboo were gradually increased as the tung oil temperature rose from 23 °C to 160 °C, while the a* and C* were gradually decreased when the temperature continued to rise from 160 °C to 200 °C. There was no significant difference in the yellow–blue coordinates (b*) of bamboo when the duration was prolonged from 0.5 h to 3 h with tung oil thermal treatment at 140 °C. Eye movement data show that the popularity of bamboo furniture was significantly improved at 23–100 °C and slightly improved at 160–180 °C with tung oil treatment. Therefore, tung oil thermal treatment plays a positive role in improving visual effects and additional value of bamboo.