A flaxseed oil carboxymethyl chitosan‐decorated proliposome system was fabricated in this research. The physicochemical characteristics, stability, and in vitro release behaviors of flaxseed oil were ...studied and compared with that of flaxseed oil‐loaded liposomes. The results of dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and oxidation stability indicated that the storage stability of proliposomes was better. After 28 days of storage, the peroxide value of flaxseed oil‐loaded liposomes (20.1 meq/kg) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of flaxseed oil‐loaded proliposomes (9.0 meq/kg); the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in the former (0.53 mmol/kg) was also higher than that in the latter (0.27 mmol/kg). The in vitro release behavior of flaxseed oil indicated the proliposomes were more stable in the simulated gastrointestinal fluids. Therefore, the flaxseed oil‐loaded proliposome system could be a promising vehicle for delivery flaxseed oil in food industry.
Practical Application
A flaxseed oil‐loaded proliposome delivery system was fabricated in this research. Their physical and oxidation stability of flaxseed oil were improved, and the in vitro cumulative release of flaxseed oil was delayed compared with flaxseed oil liposomes. This system may provide an effective strategy for the flaxseed oil encapsulation in the food industry.
•A novel photofunctional g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 bulk heterojunction has been reported.•Suitable band gap allowed efficient charge transfer.•The bulk heterojunction enhanced photocatalytic activity and quantum ...yield.
A novel photofunctional graphitic carbon nitride/silver phosphate (g-C3N4/Ag3PO4) bulk heterojunction has been reported for photodecolorization of Rhodamine B (Rh.B), which was synthesized step-by-step by the ion-impregnating method. The UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra showed that the g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 bulk heterojunction has two intense optical absorption edges corresponding to g-C3N4 and Ag3PO4 in the visible light region. Photoluminescence spectra confirmed that the separation efficiency of photogenerated charges in the heterojunction was more intensive than pristine g-C3N4. Furthermore, the vectorial charge transfer at the g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 interface could be confirmed by photocurrent response. The g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 heterojunction with 5:1 weight ratio exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for decolorization of Rh.B which was higher than that of pristine g-C3N4 and Ag3PO4.
Tea is the world＇s oldest and most popular caffeine-containing beverage with immense economic, medicinal, and cultural importance. Here, we present the first high-quality nucleotide sequence of the ...repeat-rich （80.9%）, 3.02-Gb genome of the cultivated tea tree Camellia sinensis. We show that an extraordinarily large genome size of tea tree is resulted from the slow, steady, and long-term amplification of a few LTR retrotransposon families. In addition to a recent whole-genome duplication event, lineage-specific expansions of genes associated with flavonoid metabolic biosynthesis were discovered, which enhance catechin production, terpene enzyme activation, and stress tolerance, important features for tea flavor and adaptation. We demonstrate an independent and rapid evolution of the tea caffeine synthesis pathway relative to cacao and coffee. A comparative study among 25 Camellia species revealed that higher expression levels of most flavonoid- and caffeinebut not theanine-related genes contribute to the increased production of catechins and caffeine and thus enhance tea-processing suitability and tea quality. These novel findings pave the way for further metabolomic and functional genomic refinement of characteristic biosynthesis pathways and will help develop a more diversified set of tea flavors that would eventually satisfy and attract more tea drinkers worldwide.
•Ultrasound accuracy in the classification of thyroid nodules depends heavily on examiner experience.•Machine-learning algorithms may improve the medical prediction process.•Random forest ...outperformed other machine-learning algorithms for evaluating thyroid nodules.
A key challenge in thyroid carcinoma is preoperatively diagnosing malignant thyroid nodules. The purpose of this study was to compare the classification performance of linear and nonlinear machine-learning algorithms for the evaluation of thyroid nodules using pathological reports as reference standard.
Ethical approval was obtained for this retrospective analysis, and the informed consent requirement was waived. A total of 1179 thyroid nodules (training cohort, n = 700; validation cohort, n = 479) were confirmed by pathological reports or fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy. The following ultrasonography (US) featu res were measured for each nodule: size (maximum diameter), margins, shape, aspect ratio, capsule, hypoechoic halo, composition, echogenicity, calcification pattern, vascularity, and cervical lymph node status. We analyzed five nonlinear and three linear machine-learning algorithms. The diagnostic performance of each algorithm was compared by using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve. We repeated this process 1000 times to obtain the mean AUC and 95% confidence interval (CI).
Overall, nonlinear machine-learning algorithms demonstrated similar AUCs compared with linear algorithms. The Random Forest and Kernel Support Vector Machines algorithms achieved slightly greater AUCs in the validation cohort (0.954, 95% CI: 0.939–0.969; 0.954 95%CI: 0.939–0.969, respectively) than other algorithms.
Overall, nonlinear machine-learning algorithms share similar performance compared with linear algorithms for the evaluation the malignancy risk of thyroid nodules.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to develop an ultrasound-based nomogram to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the identification of malignant thyroid nodules.
Methods
A total of 1675 ...histologically proven thyroid nodules (1169 benign, 506 malignant) were included in this study. The nodules were grouped into the training dataset (n = 700), internal validation dataset (n = 479), or external validation dataset (n = 496). The grayscale ultrasound features included the nodule size, shape, aspect ratio, echogenicity, margins, and calcification pattern. We applied least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso) regression to select the strongest features for the nomogram. Nomogram discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, AUC) and calibration were assessed. The nomogram was subjected to bootstrapping validation (1000 bootstrap resamples) to calculate a mean AUC and 95% confidence interval (CI).
Results
The nomogram showed good discrimination in the training dataset, with an AUC of 0.936 (95% CI: 0.918–0.953) and good calibration. Application of the nomogram to the internal validation dataset also resulted in good discrimination (AUC: 0.935; 95% CI, 0.915–0.954) and good calibration. The model tested in an external validation dataset demonstrated a lower AUC of 0.782 (95% CI: 0.776–0.789).
Conclusions
This ultrasound-based nomogram can be used to quantify the probability of malignant thyroid nodules.
Key Points
• Ultrasound examination is helpful in the differential diagnosis of malignant and benign thyroid nodules.
• However, ultrasound accuracy relies heavily on examiner experience.
• A less subjective diagnostic model is desired, and the developed nomogram for thyroid nodules showed good discrimination and good calibration.
High efficiency and stable blue phosphors have been a persistent pursuit in the field of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Bis-tridentate Ir(
iii
) complexes are considered as promising ...alternatives because of their excellent emission efficiency and good photostability. However, the emission colors of photostable bis-tridentate Ir(
iii
) emitters reported so far do not reach the deep blue region. Herein, fluorene is introduced in the design of blue bis-tridentate Ir(
iii
) complexes. By modifying a fluorene-based dianionic chelate with
tert
-butyl, methoxy, pyrrolidinyl and triazolyl appendages, five blue emitting bis-tridentate Ir(
iii
) phosphors were successfully designed and prepared. Emissions of the new phosphors exhibited a gradual blue shift from the sky blue to the deep blue region according to the electron donating abilities of the added substituents. A deep blue OLED was successfully fabricated based on
Flu-4
and presented an excellent maximum external quantum efficiency of 22.3% with CIE coordinates of (0.17, 0.19), which are comparable to the state-of-the-art deep blue phosphors.
Novel fluorene-based bis-tridentate Ir(
iii
) phosphors are capable of exhibiting both improved stability and efficient deep-blue emission in solution.
The growing contamination of arsenic and plastics has severely effects on the soil fauna health, including shifts of gut microbiota community. A few studies have focused on effects of microplastics ...and metal(loid) in soil and fauna gut microbiome. However, the environmental effect of nanoplastics and arsenic on the earthworm gut microbiota, especially on arsenic biotransformation in the gut, remain largely unknown. Here, a microcosm study was performed to explore the effects of nanoplastics and arsenic on the microbiota characteristics in earthworm Metaphire vulgaris gut using Illumina high throughput sequencing, and to investigate changes in the gut microbiota-mediated arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs) by using high-throughput quantitative PCR. Our results demonstrated that the concentration of arsenic in the earthworm body tissues after exposure to arsenic and nanoplastics was significantly lower from that with arsenic alone exposure. Moreover, the clearly different bacterial community was observed in the soil compared with the earthworm gut, which was dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes at phylum level. Arsenic exposure significantly disturbed bacterial community structure in the earthworm gut, but exposure to nanoplastics did not induce gut microbiota changes. More interestingly, nanoplastics can relieve adverse effect of arsenic on the gut microbiota possibly by adsorbing arsenic. In addition, a total of 16 ABGs were detected, and predominant genes involved in arsenic reduction and transport process were observed in the earthworm guts. In short, this study provides a new picture of the effects of nanoplastics and arsenic on the gut microbiota and arsenic biotransformation in soil fauna gut.
Display omitted
•Bioaccumulation of arsenic in the earthworm body was reduced in the presence of NPs.•Compared with the soil, gut microbiota appeared more susceptible to contamination.•Exposure to arsenic and nanoplastics caused shifts of ABG profiles in earthworm gut.
Hepatic injury is one of the most common digestive system diseases worldwide in clinic. Guanylic acid or guanosine monophosphate (GMP) was an important component of nucleotides, which is mainly in ...the form of sodium salt (disodium guanylate, GMP‐Na2). However, its effect on hepatic injury has not yet been investigated. This study is to investigate the protective effects of GMP‐Na2 on acute hepatic injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), and to explore its mechanism. The hepatic injury models of mice and HL‐7702 cells were induced by CCl4. The alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px), malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (T‐AOC) were determined by biochemical method. Hematoxylin–eosin staining were used to determine the morphological changes on liver tissue in mice. The mRNA and protein expressions of caspase‐3, Bax, and Bcl‐2 were detected by RT‐PCR and Western blot analysis. Our results show that GMP‐Na2 treatment significantly decreased the activities of ALT and AST, and the levels of MDA as well as increased the levels of SOD, GSH‐Px, and T‐AOC. Importantly, GMP‐Na2 effectively enhanced the antiapoptosis function by upregulating Bcl‐2 expression and downregulating caspase‐3 and Bax expressions in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, the histopathological changes of liver tissue were obviously improved after GMP‐Na2 treatment. These findings suggest that GMP‐Na2 has protective effects on hepatic injury, and its mechanisms may be associated with antioxidative stress and antiapoptosis.
Active reset of qubits is a crucial step in achieving quantum algorithms, particularly in fault-tolerant quantum computing, as it allows qubits to be quickly initialized to the ground state. In this ...paper, we demonstrate active reset of superconducting qubits using the feedback electronics based on RF switches. We are able to reset the qubit to the ground state in 11.412 µs with a success rate of 99.82%, which is better than the natural relaxation method in terms of both time consumption (180 µs) and success rate (99.61%). The demonstrated method facilitates fast and high-fidelity qubit initialization, holding practical significance for large-scale quantum computation.
Power management integrated circuits (PMICs) with on-chip compensation are widely used to power multiple loads in mobile devices with increased power density. However, there are two issues for ...on-chip compensated PMICs. First, on-chip compensation reconfigurability is required to obtain the appropriate response in various passive components. Second, a converter for a processor requires adaptive voltage positioning (AVP) to reduce the output capacitor size. In this paper, a novel reconfigurable on-chip compensated current-mode buck converter with AVP is proposed to solve the aforementioned issues without requiring high-speed and high-resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC). A reconfigurable accurate load line control scheme and on-chip compensation are proposed to achieve an accurate load line and AVP in various load lines and passive components. The control scheme, small-signal model, and circuit implementation are illustrated in this paper. The proposed buck converter was implemented into an integrated circuit to verify the analysis.
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