Traditional pasteurization method usually has negative impacts on color, flavor, and bioactive compounds of fresh fruit juice. Therefore, it is critically important to develop novel non-thermal ...sterilization technologies to overcome these problems. In this study, high pressure processing (HPP) (500 MPa/10 min) and thermal processing (TP) (95 °C/3 min) treatments on pineapple fruit juice were comparatively evaluated by monitoring their influences on microbial counts, physicochemical parameters, bioactive components, antioxidant capacity, and volatile compounds during storage of 28 days at 4 °C. The microbial safety was ensured in both HPP-treated and TP-treated pineapple fruit juice, and further cold storage result showed at least a shelf life of 21 days at 4 °C. Both HPP and TP treatments have significant effects on the turbidity and sedimentation index of pineapple juice. During the shelf life, the sugars, pH, titratable acidity, total soluble solids, and sedimentation index of HPP-treated groups exhibited no significant change, while the color, bioactive components, antioxidant capacity, and relative content of volatile compounds in both TP- and HPP-treated groups were remarkably changed. Moreover, the pineapple fruit juice with HPP treatment showed a greater retention of original color, bioactive components, antioxidant activity, and volatile compounds in comparison with TP-treated group. In summary, HPP treatment could not only control the microbes in pineapple fruit juice, but also better retain the qualities of pineapple fruit juice, which provided an effective alternative to conventional thermal processing for production of high quality pineapple fruit juice.
•HPP treatment had no significant influence on physicochemical properties of pineapple fruit juice.•HPP-treated pineapple fruit juice retained higher levels of bioactive ingredients and antioxidant capacity.•The aroma composition of HPP-treated pineapple fruit juice was closer to fresh pineapple fruit juice.
•A simple and accurate HPLC method was developed for simultaneously determination six flavonoids.•Bioactive flavonoids and antioxidant activity in PCR ‘Chachi’ during three years were ...evaluated.•Polymethoxylated flavones could be used as indexes for the quality change of ‘Chachi’ PCR during storage.
A simple and accurate method using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with dual wavelength detection was developed to simultaneously determine the contents of one flavanone glycoside (hesperidin) and five polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs: sinensetin, 4′,5,7,8-tetramethoxyflavone, nobiletin, tangeretin and 5-O-desmethyl nobiletin) in Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae (Citrus reticulata ‘Chachi’) (‘Chachi’ PCR). By modifying the mobile phase compositions and detection wavelengths, an optimal HPLC condition was obtained, under which the calibration curves of all six compounds exhibited good linearity (R2>0.99). For all the tested compounds, the relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 4%, and the accuracy ranged from 97.58 to 103.2%. The developed method was successfully applied to monitor the changes in the contents of six flavonoids in ‘Chachi’ PCR during storage at 25°C, over a three year period. Color parameters and antioxidant capacity were also determined to evaluate the sample quality. The contents of hesperidin decreased while all the polymethoxylated flavones and antioxidant activities increased throughout the storage period, demonstrating that polymethoxylated flavones could be used as indices for the quality change of Chachi’ PCR during storage. The results from this study suggest that the longer storage periods increased the quality of PCR.
•Molecular sensory science was applied to clarify the key cooked off-flavor odorants.•Five sulfides and 3-methylbutanal were identified as the main off-flavor contributors.•The main cooked off-flavor ...odorants were further verified in other lychee varieties.•Identification of the off-flavor odorants in lychee juice is the key to control of it.
The main contributors to the cooked off-flavor in heat-sterilized lychee juice (HLJ) were studied by means of molecular sensory science. The HLJ which elicited cooked cabbage/potato and onion/garlic off-flavor was compared with fresh lychee juice (FLJ) having desired sensory attributes via chemical analysis and sensory evaluation. Aroma extract dilution analysis, quantitative analysis and calculation of odor activity values (OAVs) were conducted on both FLJ and HLJ. The results showed that compared with FLJ, 15 compounds had increased OAVs in HLJ, among which, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), methional, dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS) and 2,4-dithiapentane presented cooked cabbage/potato, garlic/onion and sulfurous impression. The omission experiment proved that DMS, methional, DMTS, DMDS, 3-methylbutanal and 2,4-dithiapentane had significantly negative effects on the overall aroma of HLJ. Further studies on HLJs from other varieties of lychee confirmed that DMS, methional, DMTS, DMDS and 3-methylbutanal were responsible for the cooked off-flavor of HLJ in general.
Ti-bearing blast-furnace slag is a metallurgical waste but a promising Ti resource. In this study, Ti and Al–Si alloys can be prepared directly by separating a Ti–Si–Al alloy that was prepared by ...reducing Ti and Si from Ti-bearing blast-furnace slag with Al. The technology of directional solidification with electromagnetic force was employed to carry out the separation of the Ti–Si–Al alloy. When additions of CaO and Al were 24 wt% and 40 wt%, respectively, the composition of the obtained Ti–Si–Al alloy was 31.8 wt% Ti, 22.7 wt% Si, 28.5 wt% Al, and 10.2 wt% Fe. Ti5Si4, TiSi, Al–Si–Ti (τ2), Al–Si–Fe (τ4), and Al–Si alloys were prepared in sequence after separating the Ti–Si–Al alloy using directional solidification with electromagnetic force. However, when the composition of the Ti–Si–Al alloy was changed to 21.2 wt% Ti, 48.5 wt% Si, 19 wt% Al, and 6.8 wt% Fe, the TiSi2, Si, Al–Si–Fe and Al–Si alloys were prepared in sequence. This study will propose an approach to employ the metallurgical waste, titanium-bearing blast-furnace slag, to prepare Ti and Al–Si alloys.
•An approach to employ Ti-bearing blast-furnace slag to prepare Ti and Al–Si alloys.•Ti and Al–Si alloys were prepared directly by separating a Ti–Si–Al alloy.•Electromagnetic directional solidification was employed to separate Ti–Si–Al alloy.
To explore the chain-mediated role of sense of career benefit and sense of career mission in the mechanism of psychological flexibility's effect on nurses' work engagement.
Adopting the convenience ...sampling method, 1032 nurses in 10 general hospitals in Sichuan Province were surveyed by questionnaires using the General Information Questionnaire, Sense of Occupational Benefit Scale, Sense of Occupational Mission Scale, Psychological Flexibility Scale, and work engagement Scale in August-October 2022, and the model of the chained-mediated effect was constructed and validated.
The total psychological resilience score of nurses in 10 general hospitals in Sichuan Province was (91.29 ± 17.38), the total score of sense of occupational benefit was (137.85 ± 21.02), the total score of sense of occupational mission was (40.27 ± 7.37), and the total score of work engagement was (34.99 ± 9.80). The total score of nurses' work engagement was positively correlated with the total scores of psychological elasticity, sense of professional benefit, and sense of professional mission (all
< 0.05). The direct effect of psychological elasticity on nurses' work engagement was significant, with an effect value of 0.321; the chain mediation effects of occupational benefit and occupational mission as separate mediators and the chain mediation effects of the two were 0.039, 0.032, and 0.062, respectively.
Nurses' work engagement in 10 general hospitals in Sichuan province is at a medium level, and occupational benefit and occupational mission play a significant role in the mechanism of the psychological elasticity's effects on nurses' work commitment, and the chain mediation effect of occupational mission in the mechanism of psychological elasticity is established. The chain mediation effect in the mechanism was established. Managers should pay attention to nurses with low psychological elasticity, improve their sense of occupational benefit, and enhance their sense of occupational mission in order to further promote the enhancement of work engagement.
A new approach was proposed to prepare multi-products, high-purity Si powders, bulk Si, and Si/TiSi2 materials (eutectic Si-Ti), simultaneously using inexpensive low-purity Si (99.3%) and ...metallurgical waste—Ti-bearing blast furnace slag. TiO2 in Ti-bearing blast furnace slag was first reduced by Si to form a Si-Ti alloy which was then separated into high-purity bulk Si (99.97%) and Si/TiSi2 materials (99.4%) using directional solidification. The bulk Si could be repeatedly recycled as a reductant, or further upgraded to prepare super-pure Si powders (99.995%) after acid leaching. The new approach shows many sustainable and economic benefits, such as no carbon gas emission, low acid consumption and Si loss, recyclable Si reductant, widely-used multi-products employing one approach, and rapid consumption of accumulated Ti-bearing blast furnace slag.
•A new approach was proposed to clean up the Ti-bearing blast furnace slag.•Multi-products could be prepared simultaneously throughout one approach.•Most of Si could be recycled as reductant repeatedly.•Most of impurities could be removed to obtain high-purity Si and Ti materials.•Si-Ti alloy could be separated into bulk Si and eutectic Si-Ti alloy.
Background Meaning in life is a crucial aspect of psychological well-being, often overlooked despite its clinical significance. This warrants further investigation, especially regarding its ...relationship with frailty and psychological resilience. Objective This study aims to assess the status and relevance of frailty, psychological resilience, and meaning in life among older adults in Chinese nursing homes. Additionally, it explores the mediating role of psychological resilience between frailty and meaning in life, providing insights to improve the meaning in life for older adults in nursing homes. Methods Between August 2022 and November 2022, 302 older adults in Chinese nursing homes were selected using convenience sampling. The study utilized the Socio-demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, Tilburg Frailty Indicator, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Source of Meaning Scale for Older Adults. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted, and SPSS 27.0 was employed for analyzing correlations between frailty, psychological resilience, and meaning in life. The mediating effect of psychological resilience was assessed using Model 4 in the Process plug-in. Results Older adults in nursing homes exhibited a frailty total score of 4.00 (2.00, 5.00), with a prevalence of 28.5%. Psychological resilience scored 66.00 (51.75, 76.00), and meaning in life scored 149.00 (132.00, 158.25). Frailty showed a negative correlation with both meaning in life and psychological resilience, while meaning in life demonstrated a positive correlation with psychological resilience. Psychological resilience exhibited a partial mediating effect, accounting for 51.04% of the total effect between frailty and meaning in life. Conclusion Frailty incidence is high among older adults in nursing homes, with psychological resilience at a general level and meaning in life in the upper middle level. Psychological resilience plays a crucial role as a partial mediator between frailty and meaning in life. Timely assessment of frailty, targeted interventions, and improvements in psychological resilience are essential for enhancing the meaning in life and promoting successful aging.
To construct a prediction model of olfactory dysfunction after transnasal sellar pituitary tumor resection based on machine learning algorithms. A cross-sectional study was conducted. From January to ...December 2022, 158 patients underwent transnasal sellar pituitary tumor resection in three tertiary hospitals in Sichuan Province were selected as the research objects. The olfactory status was evaluated one week after surgery. They were randomly divided into a training set and a test set according to the ratio of 8:2. The training set was used to construct the prediction model, and the test set was used to evaluate the effect of the model. Based on different machine learning algorithms, BP neural network, logistic regression, decision tree, support vector machine, random forest, LightGBM, XGBoost, and AdaBoost were established to construct olfactory dysfunction risk prediction models. The accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the model's prediction performance, the optimal prediction model algorithm was selected, and the model was verified in the test set of patients. Of the 158 patients, 116 (73.42%) had postoperative olfactory dysfunction. After missing value processing and feature screening, an essential order of influencing factors of olfactory dysfunction was obtained. Among them, the duration of operation, gender, type of pituitary tumor, pituitary tumor apoplexy, nasal adhesion, age, cerebrospinal fluid leakage, blood scar formation, and smoking history became the risk factors of olfactory dysfunction, which were the key indicators of the construction of the model. Among them, the random forest model had the highest AUC of 0.846, and the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score were 0.750, 0.870, 0.947, and 0.833, respectively. Compared with the BP neural network, logistic regression, decision tree, support vector machine, LightGBM, XGBoost, and AdaBoost, the random forest model has more advantages in predicting olfactory dysfunction in patients after transnasal sellar pituitary tumor resection, which is helpful for early identification and intervention of high-risk clinical population, and has good clinical application prospects.
•Phenolic compounds and ORAC value declined during UHPH processing of mulberry juice.•Ascorbic acid can inhibit reduction of phenolic compounds during UHPH processing.•Ascorbic acid can inhibit ...reduction of ORAC value during UHPH processing.•α-Glucosidase inhibitory activity showed no reduction during UHPH processing.
In this study, the effects of ultra-high pressure homogenisation (UHPH) processing at 200MPa for 1–3 successive passes (inlet temperatures at 4°C) were compared with pasteurisation (95°C, 1min) processing on phenolic compounds, antioxidant capacity (ORAC value) and anti-glucosidase of mulberry juice. Compared with thermal pasteurisation processing, the more reductions in the anthocyanins, phenolic acids (gallic, protocatechuic, caffeic and p-coumaric acids, and a unknown hydroxycinnamic acid) and quercetin aglycone contents, as well as ORAC value were observed during UHPH processing of mulberry juice, whereas all reductions above during UHPH processing could be inhibited by adding ascorbic acid to mulberry juice. Besides, no significant change (p>0.05) in the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity was observed during UHPH processing of mulberry juice, but showed a 14% reduction in mulberry juice processed by thermal pasteurisation.
•A new boron separation technique by united slag treatment and gas blowing.•Intermediate product SiO2 combining into silicate with CaO for boron separation.•Boron separation in the form of both ...borides HBO, BOCl and borate CaO·B2O3.•Total separation efficiency of boron reaches 94.5% after acid leaching treatment.
Boron separation from metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) is still a puzzle for metallurgical route. A purification method to MG-Si using a synthetic CaO-CaCl2 slag (no SiO2 addition) treatment combined with an Ar-O2-H2O gas blowing technique was studied. The mechanism of boron separation from silicon using the synthetic CaO-CaCl2 slag treatment and the Ar-O2-H2O gas blowing was analyzed and elaborated. The results showed that the intermediate product SiO2, generated by the O2 gas blowing, was combined into silicate with CaO slag reagent. Boron in silicon can be separated by both gaseous borides HBO, BOCl and borate CaO·B2O3. It was found that the boron separation can be further improved by separating soluble boron in the refined silicon using the acid leaching treatment. The total separation efficiency of boron in MG-Si reached 94.5% using the combined slag treatment and gas blowing refining technique followed an acid leaching treatment to the refined silicon.
