Structural profiling of healthy human gut microbiota across heterogeneous populations is necessary for benchmarking and characterizing the potential ecosystem services provided by particular gut ...symbionts for maintaining the health of their hosts. Here we performed a large structural survey of fecal microbiota in 314 healthy young adults, covering 20 rural and urban cohorts from 7 ethnic groups living in 9 provinces throughout China. Canonical analysis of unweighted UniFrac principal coordinates clustered the subjects mainly by their ethnicities/geography and less so by lifestyles. Nine predominant genera, all of which are known to contain short-chain fatty acid producers, co-occurred in all individuals and collectively represented nearly half of the total sequences. Interestingly, species-level compositional profiles within these nine genera still discriminated the subjects according to their ethnicities/geography and lifestyles. Therefore, a phylogenetically diverse core of gut microbiota at the genus level may be commonly shared by distinctive healthy populations as functionally indispensable ecosystem service providers for the hosts.
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•E-nose could distinguish between milk from different areas of China.•Build up a database of flavor for the main milk-producing regions of China.•Provide seven volatile compounds as ...potential geo-characteristic markers of Chinese milk.
To distinguish Chinese milks from different regions, 13 milk samples were gathered from 13 regions of China in this study: Inner Mongolia (IM), Xinjiang (XJ), Hebei (HB), Shanghai (SH), Beijing (BJ), Sichuan (SC), Ningxia (NX), Henan (HN), Tianjin (TJ), Qinghai (QH), Yunnan (YN), Guangxi (GX), and Tibet (XZ). Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) combined with the electronic nose (E-nose) technology, was used to detect and analyze the volatile compounds in these milk samples. The qualitative and quantitative results identified 29 volatile chemicals, and we established a database of flavor profiles for the main milk-producing regions in China. E-nose analysis revealed variations in the odor of milk across different areas. Furthermore, results from partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and odor activity values (OAVs) suggested that seven volatile compounds: decane, 2-heptanone, 2-undecanone, 2-nonanone, 1-hexadecanol, 1-octen-3-ol, and (E)-2-nonenal, could be considered as key flavor compounds in Chinese milk products.
Lactoferrin (LTF) has diverse biological activities and is widely used in functional foods and active additives. Nevertheless, evaluating the proteoform heterogeneity, conformational stability, and ...activity of LTF remains challenging during its production and storage processes. In this study, we describe the implementation of native mass spectrometry (nMS), glycoproteomics, and an antimicrobial activity assay to assess the quality of LTF. We systematically characterize the purity, glycosylation heterogeneity, conformation, and thermal stability of LTF samples from different sources and transient high-temperature treatments by using nMS and glycoproteomics. Meanwhile, the nMS peak intensity and antimicrobial activity of LTF samples after heat treatment decreased significantly, and the two values were positively correlated. The nMS results provide essential molecular insights into the conformational stability and glycosylation heterogeneity of different LTF samples. Our results underscore the great potential of nMS for LTF quality control and activity evaluation in industrial production.
•First identified ceRNA of circRNA-miRNA in lactating mammary gland.•CeRNA of circRNA-mRNA may be involved in lactation process.•A novel approach for analysis the gene functionality in the biological ...process during lactation.
The main function of the mammary gland is to produce milk which contains the crucial active components for infant development. The process of milk production is tightly controlled at a local level by hormones, growth factors, noncoding RNAs and other factors. Circular RNAs (CircRNAs) are specifically expressed across tissues or developmental stages where they have potential regulatory functions. Competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs), sharing miRNA recognition elements (MREs), emerge to compete for miRNA binding and, in turn, regulate each other. Although circRNAs have been determined in rat and bovine mammary glands during lactation, these studies simply investigated the expression of circRNAs in the mammary gland with no exploration of ceRNAs of circRNA-mRNA. In the current study, mRNA, miRNA and circRNA were sequenced in goat mammary tissue at 2 stages during lactation (early and mature). All data (mRNA, miRNA, and circRNA) were co-expressed together from the same samples. ceRNAs (mRNA-miRNA-circRNA) were found to be involved in goat lactation. Therefore the findings of the current investigation suggest a novel approach through the application of a ceRNA network (mRNA-miRNA-circRNA) for the analysis of gene functionality in biological processes such as lactation.
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•MiR-221 regulates lipid metabolism in mammary epithelial cells (MECs).•MiR-221 is expressed differentially at various stages of mouse.•Estradiol and/or progesterone interact with ...miR-221.
Milk lipids, important for infant growth and development, are produced and secreted by mammary gland under the regulation of steroid hormones, growth factors, and microRNAs (miRNAs). miR-221 has been identified in milk and adipocytes and it plays important roles in regulating normal mammary epithelial hierarchy and breast cancer stem cells; however, its roles in lipid metabolism in mammary epithelial cells (MECs), the cells of lipid synthesis and secretion, are as yet unknown. Through overexpression or inhibition of miR-221 expression, we found that it regulated lipid metabolism in MECs and was expressed differentially at various stages during murine mammary gland development. Inhibition of miR-221 expression increased lipid content in MECs through elevation of the lipid synthesis enzyme FASN, while overexpression of miR-221 reduced MEC lipid content. Moreover, the steroid hormones estradiol and progesterone decreased miR-221 expression with a subsequent increase in lipid formation in MECs. The expression of miR-221 was lower during lactation, which suggests that it may be involved in milk production. Therefore, miR-221 might be a useful target for influencing milk lipid production.
Foggy weather reduces the visibility of photographed objects, causing image distortion and decreasing overall image quality. Many approaches (e.g., image restoration, image enhancement, and ...fusion-based methods) have been proposed to work out the problem. However, most of these defogging algorithms are facing challenges such as algorithm complexity or real-time processing requirements. To simplify the defogging process, we propose a fusional defogging algorithm on the linear transmission of gray single-channel. This method combines gray single-channel linear transform with high-boost filtering according to different proportions. To enhance the visibility of the defogging image more effectively, we convert the RGB channel into a gray-scale single channel without decreasing the defogging results. After gray-scale fusion, the data in the gray-scale domain should be linearly transmitted. With the increasing real-time requirements for clear images, we also propose an efficient real-time FPGA defogging architecture. The architecture optimizes the data path of the guided filtering to speed up the defogging speed and save area and resources. Because the pixel reading order of mean and square value calculations are identical, the shift register in the box filter after the average and the computation of the square values is separated from the box filter and put on the input terminal for sharing, saving the storage area. What’s more, using LUTs instead of the multiplier can decrease the time delays of the square value calculation module and increase efficiency. Experimental results show that the linear transmission can save 66.7% of the total time. The architecture we proposed can defog efficiently and accurately, meeting the real-time defogging requirements on 1920 × 1080 image size.
Lipids are a major component of milk and are important for infant growth and development. MicroRNA-126 (miR-126) has previously been observed in mammary glands and adipocytes and is known to be ...involved in lipid metabolism during the process of atherosclerosis. However, it remains unknown whether miR-126 also participates in lipid metabolism in mammary luminal epithelial cells (MECs). In the current investigation, miR-126-3p inhibition stimulated lipid synthesis in MECs in part through increasing levels of the lipid synthesis enzymes FASN, ACSL1, and Insig1. Overexpression of miR-126-3p decreased lipid content in MECs with a reduction in FASN and Insig1. Furthermore, the expression of miR-126-3p was diminished by the steroid hormones estradiol and progesterone with a subsequent elevation of lipid formation in MECs. We also noted that miR-126-3p was expressed differentially at various stages of murine mammary gland development, exhibiting a negative correlation with FASN. Together these findings suggest that miR-126-3 might be involved in lipid metabolism in mammary gland.
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•miR-126 is involved in lipid metabolism in mammary epithelial cells.•miR-126 is expressed differentially at various stages of mouse negatively correlated with FASN.•Estradiol and/or progesterone counteract with miR-126.
Anisotropic Pd nanoparticles with highly branched morphologies are urgently needed as building blocks for nanoscale devices, catalysts, and sensing materials owing to their novel structures and ...unique physicochemical properties. However, realizing size control and branch manipulation for these materials is very challenging. In this study, we develop a facile ultrafine Cu seed-mediated approach in the aqueous phase to produce novel Pd-Cu trigonal hierarchical nanoframes （THNFs）. The main branch of most of the obtained nanocrystals is tripod-like, with advanced branches along the arms as frame units having self-similarity. In this method, the size of the Pd-Cu THNFs can be flexibly controlled by manipulating the nucleation involving the sub-3 nm Cu seeds. These Pd-Cu THNFs outperform Pd black with regard to their ethanol-oxidation performance, having a specific activity and mass activity 9.7 and 6.6 times higher, respectively. This research provides a versatile ultrafine seed-mediated approach for producing size-controlled anisotropic bimetallic nanoframes.
A new compact branch-line directional coupler is proposed combined the T-model branch line coupler with defected ground structure (DGS). Using transmission theory, the parameter selection limit about ...the T-Model equivalent structure is discussed firstly. Then a T-model branch line coupler with DGS is proposed and optimum designed with simulation software. The measurement results show that the proposed coupler has the advantages as compact and well passband flatness.
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