•Aquatic proteins (FCWP and LJWP) were encapsulated in microgels composed of pectin and chitosan cross-linked by zinc acetate using a microfluidic device.•The microgels could control the release of ...aquatic proteins in the gastrointestinal tract.•The interaction between polysaccharides and proteins in the microgels improved the thermal stability of aquatic proteins.•Microgels encapsulation did not affect aquatic proteins’ antioxidant and immunoenhancing activities.
Aquatic products are considered a potential source of novel bioactive proteins, which are used as therapeutic drugs for the treatment of different diseases (such as oxidative stress, immunocompromised, and inflammation), as well as nutraceuticals and cosmetics. However, the physical and chemical properties of proteins are unstable, and they are easily denatured by the influence of external high temperature and polar pH during processing, resulting in the loss of their functional activity. Herein, Fenneropenaeus chinensis water-soluble protein (FCWP) and Lateolabrax japonicus water-soluble protein (LJWP) were encapsulated within spherical biopolymer microgels composed of pectin and chitosan produced by the microfluidic device. The encapsulated samples remained inside the microgels when they were exposed to upper gastrointestinal but were released when they were exposed to simulated colonic fluid due to the hydrolysis effect by enzymes secreted by the colonic microflora. The results showed that microgels improve the thermal stability of FCWP and LJWP due to the interaction between polysaccharides and proteins in the microgels. In addition, microgels encapsulation did not affect the antioxidant and immunoenhancing activities of FCWP and LJWP. In summary, these microgels are suitable for oral colon-specific delivery in functional foods and supplements.
This paper presents a conformal spiral antenna that is miniaturized and with dual-resonant for the wireless implantable capsule system. The spiral antenna conforms to a swallowable capsule with a ...radius of 3 mm and a length of 26 mm without occupying the internal space of the capsule. The compact antenna adopts two spiral arms to extend the effective current path for miniaturization. Biocompatible flexible polyimide was used as the dielectric substrate and capsule shell, achieving conformal properties of the antenna as well as compatibility with human tissue. The antenna has been simulated in different environmental models. The bandwidth of the antenna can reach 39.16 % (1.82 GHz-2.76 GHz) and 12.06 % (5.36 GHz-6.06 GHz) at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. The maximum gains of -35.2 dBi and -28.1 dBi can be achieved at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively. In addition, the transmission characteristics of the antenna were experimentally verified in the minced pork and pig intestine. By analyzing the communication link, the communication distance between transceivers at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz can meet 14 m and 5 m. These results show that the proposed antenna is suitable for wireless implantable capsule systems.
Changes in glycosylation, most notably fucosylation, have been associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this report, the levels of fucosylated kininogen (Fc-Kin) and ...fucosylated alpha-1-antitrypsin were analyzed individually and in combination with the currently used marker, alpha-fetoprotein, and a previously identified biomarker, Golgi protein 73 (GP73), for the ability to distinguish between a diagnosis of cirrhosis and HCC. This analysis was done on serum from 113 patients with cirrhosis and 164 serum samples from patients with cirrhosis plus HCC. The levels of Fc-Kin and fucosylated alpha-1-antitrypsin were significantly higher in patients with HCC compared with those with cirrhosis (P < 0.0001). Greatest performance was achieved through the combination of Fc-Kin, alpha-fetoprotein, and GP73, giving an optimal sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 70%, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.94. In conclusion, the altered glycosylation of serum glycoproteins can act as potential biomarkers of primary HCC when used independently or in combination with other markers of HCC.
We previously reported increased levels of protein-linked fucosylation with the development of liver cancer and identified many of the proteins containing the altered glycan structures. One such ...protein is alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT). To advance these studies, we performed N-linked glycan analysis on the five major isoforms of A1AT and completed a comprehensive study of the glycosylation of A1AT found in healthy controls, patients with hepatitis C- (HCV) induced liver cirrhosis, and in patients infected with HCV with a diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Patients with liver cirrhosis and liver cancer had increased levels of triantennary glycan-containing outer arm (alpha-1,3) fucosylation. Increases in core (alpha-1,6) fucosylation were observed only on A1AT from patients with cancer. We performed a lectin fluorophore-linked immunosorbent assay using Aleuria Aurantia lectin (AAL), specific for core and outer arm fucosylation in over 400 patients with liver disease. AAL-reactive A1AT was able to detect HCC with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 86%, which was greater than that observed with the current marker of HCC, alpha-fetoprotein. Glycosylation analysis of the false positives was performed; results indicated that these patients had increases in outer arm fucosylation but not in core fucosylation, suggesting that core fucosylation is cancer specific.
This report details the stepwise change in the glycosylation of A1AT with the progression from liver cirrhosis to cancer and identifies core fucosylation on A1AT as an HCC specific modification.
The adsorption process of ethanol molecules on Al slabs was investigated by molecular dynamic simulations with a ReaxFF force field. The force field used in this paper has been validated by comparing ...adsorption energy results with quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. All simulations were performed under the canonical (NVT) ensemble. The single-molecule adsorption simulation shows that the hydroxyl group plays a more important role in the whole progress than the ethyl group. Besides, decomposition of hydroxyl groups was also observed during multimolecule adsorption processes. Simulations of adsorption processes of Al slab by ethanol molecules at different temperatures and pressures (controlled by the number of ethanol molecules) was also performed. System energy and radial distribution function (RDF) plots were invoked to describe adsorption processes and centro-symmetry parameter (CSP) analysis was adopted to study the surface properties with coating layers. Our results indicate that the whole adsorption process can be divided into two periods and the greater the pressure, the more ethanol molecules diffuse into the Al slab. How raising the temperature helps the adsorption processes is related to the initial number of molecules. The crystal structure of the Al surface will become amorphous under the constant impact of ethanol molecules.
Sex-determining region-Y-related high-mobility-group box 4 (SOX4) is associated with the metastasis and prognosis of many cancer types. However, studies on the role of SOX4 in laryngeal squamous cell ...carcinoma (LSCC) are few, and hence the mechanism is unclear. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) allows neoplastic cells to gain the plasticity and motility required for tumor progression and metastasis. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between SOX4 and EMT, and their relationship with clinicopathological factors and related prognosis.
Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the positive expression of SOX4 protein, EMT-related transcription factor protein, and related marker protein in 127 LSCC tissue samples. At the same time, data on various parameters of clinical pathology and postoperative survival were collected.
The positive expression rate of SOX4 and Slug in LSCC was related to pathological differentiation, Lymph node metastasis (LNM), and pathological TNM of a tumor. The expression rates of ZEB1, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and β-catenin in LSCC correlated with LNM and pTNM. The expression of SOX4, combined expression of SOX4 and ZEB1, and LNM were independent prognostic factors for the total survival time of patients with LSCC.
In summary, SOX4 was vital in the LSCC EMT process, which might be mediated by transcription factor ZEB1. SOX4 and ZEB1 might serve as potential biomarkers of metastasis and prognosis, as well as promising therapeutic targets of LSCC.
Our group has recently developed the GlycoTyper assay which is a streamlined antibody capture slide array approach to directly profile N-glycans of captured serum glycoproteins including ...immunoglobulin G (IgG). This method needs only a few microliters of serum and utilizes a simplified processing protocol that requires no purification or sugar modifications prior to analysis. In this method, antibody captured glycoproteins are treated with peptide N-glycosidase F (PNGase F) to release N-glycans for detection by MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (IMS). As alterations in N-linked glycans have been reported for IgG from large patient cohorts with fibrosis and cirrhosis, we utilized this novel method to examine the glycosylation of total IgG, as well as IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4, which have never been examined before, in a cohort of 106 patients with biopsy confirmed liver fibrosis. Patients were classified as either having no evidence of fibrosis (41 patients with no liver disease or stage 0 fibrosis), early stage fibrosis (10 METAVIR stage 1 and 18 METAVIR stage 2) or late stage fibrosis (6 patients with METAVIR stage 3 fibrosis and 37 patients with METAVIR stage 4 fibrosis (cirrhosis)). Several major alterations in glycosylation were observed that classify patients as having no fibrosis (sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 90%), early fibrosis (sensitivity of 84% with 90% specificity) or significant fibrosis (sensitivity of 94% with 90% specificity).
To study the discrepancy of the insulin sensitivity alteration pattern, circulating fibroblast growth factor (FGF21) levels and FGF21 signaling in visceral white adipose tissue (vWAT) of gestational ...diabetes mellitus (GDM) subtypes.
26 GDM women with either a predominant of insulin-secretion defect (GDM-dysfunction, n = 9) or insulin-sensitivity defect (GDM-resistance, n = 17) and 13 normal glucose tolerance (NGT) women scheduled for caesarean-section at term were studied. Blood and vWAT samples were collected at delivery.
The insulin sensitivity was improved from the 2
trimester to delivery in the GDM-resistance group. Elevated circulating FGF21 concentration at delivery, increased FGF receptor 1c and decreased klotho beta gene expression, enhanced ERK1/2 phosphorylation, and increased GLUT1, IR-B, PPAR-γ gene expression in vWAT were found in the GDM-resistance group as compared with the NGT group. The circulating FGF21 concentration was negatively correlated with fasting blood glucose (r = -0.574,
< 0.001), and associated with the GDM-resistance group (r = 0.574,
< 0.001) in pregnant women at delivery. However, we observed no insulin sensitivity alteration in GDM-dysfunction and NGT groups during pregnancy. No differences of plasma FGF21 level and FGF21 signaling in vWAT at delivery were found between women in the GDM-dysfunction and the NGT group.
Women with GDM heterogeneity exhibited different insulin sensitivity alteration patterns. The improvement of insulin sensitivity may relate to the elevated circulating FGF21 concentration and activated FGF21 signaling in vWAT at delivery in the GDM-resistance group.
Indoor maps lay the foundation for most indoor location-based services (LBS). Building Information Modeling (BIM) data contains multiple dimensional computer-aided design information. Some studies ...have utilized BIM data to automatically extract 3D indoor maps. A complete 3D indoor map consists of both floor-level maps and cross-floor paths. Currently, the floor-level indoor maps are mainly either grid-based maps or topological maps, and the cross-floor path generation schemes are not adaptive to building elements with irregular 3D shapes. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel scheme to extract an accurate 3D indoor map with any shape using BIM data. Firstly, this study extracts grid-based maps from BIM data and generates the topological maps directly through the grid-based maps using image thinning. A novel hybrid indoor map, termed Grid-Topological map, is then formed by the grid-based maps and topological maps jointly. Secondly, this study obtains the cross-floor paths from cross-floor building elements by a four-step process, namely X-Z projection, boundary extraction, X-Z topological path generation, and path-BIM intersection. Finally, experiments on eight typical types of cross-floor building elements and three multi-floor real-world buildings were conducted to prove the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, the average accuracy rates of the evaluated paths are higher than 88%. This study will advance the 3D indoor maps generation and inspire the application of indoor maps in indoor LBS, indoor robots, and 3D geographic information systems.
► Flow stress of Al6061 is sensitive to deformation strain rate and temperature. ►
α is 0.01
MPa
−1, whereas
n, ln
A and
Q are found to be functions of strain. ► The mean percentage error was 3.69% ...and the correlation coefficient was 0.9901
Isothermal compression tests were carried out on Al6061 using a Gleeble-1500 thermal simulator at temperatures ranging from 573 to 723
K and strain rates from 0.5 to 30
s
−1. The flow stress of Al6061 was characterized based on an analysis of the true stress–true strain curves. A mathematical mode coupling flow stress with strain, strain rate and temperature for Al6061 has been proposed by using a hyperbolic sinusoidal type equation. The material constant
α is 0.01
MPa
−1 in the model, whereas other material constants
n, ln
A and
Q are found to be functions of strain. The predicted results from this proposed model are found to be in good agreement with the experimental flow stress curves which can be used to predict the required deformation forces in hot deformation processes.
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