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•Edible coating fabricated with SA and menthol-CD-g-CS extended fruit storage time.•Guest–host interaction endowed the coating with releasable performance.•A coating with self-healing ...property can prolong shelf life.•Addition of l-menthol improves the mechanical properties of the coating.
Edible self-healing coatings based on sodium alginate (SA) and l- menthol-beta-cyclodextrin-graft-chitosan were developed to improve the post-harvest quality and prolong the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. These coatings, which were developed based on a layer-by-layer self-assembly technique, were characterized. Their mechanical properties and morphological studies indicated that the addition of l-menthol resulted in a transparent, smooth, and dense coating with better mechanical features and self-healing properties. The self-healing efficiency of coatings containing l-menthol was 59.49%, which was approximately 13.18 % higher than the control ones. In addition, the coatings realized a controlled liberation property owing to the liberation of l-menthol incorporated in β-cyclodextrin. The coatings effectively retained fruit firmness and reduced the weight loss of coated apples throughout a 30 d storage. These results demonstrate that the coatings can be used as a large-scale commercial wrapping for prolonging the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) is a newly discovered non-coding RNA that can be used as biomarkers in clinical blood samples. This study aims to screen differentially expressed circular RNAs in PBMCs of ...patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to determine new biomarkers for the diagnosis of RA.
The differentially expressed circRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 4 RA patients and 4 healthy participants were screened and analyzed by gene microarray technology. We then validated some of the differentially expressed circRNAs in PBMCs of 20 RA patients, 10 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and 20 healthy participants using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction amplification (RT-qPCR). Spearman correlation test was performed to analyze the correlation between differentially expressed circRNAs and clinical variables in RA patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated to evaluate the diagnostic value of circRNAs.
Differential analysis obtained 149 circRNAs with significant up-regulated expression and 250 circRNAs with significant down-regulated expression, which predicted the miRNA targets and binding sites. Compared with SLE and health control group, hsa_circ_101328 was found to be a common gene with differential expression of RA. Besides, correlation analysis revealed significant correlation between hsa_circ_101328 and positive CRP. ROC curve analysis showed that hsa_circ_101328 has the potential of RA diagnosis.
We identified some dysregulated circRNAs in PBMCs from RA patients, and hsa_circ_101328 may be a novel and effective biomarker for early diagnosis of RA.
We aimed to determine the effect of consuming pure isolated micellar casein or pure whey protein isolate on rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) at rest and after resistance exercise in ...elderly men. Healthy elderly men (72 (sem 1) years; BMI 26·4 (sem 0·7) kg/m²) were divided into two groups (n 7 each) who received a primed, constant infusion of l-ring-¹³C₆phenylalanine to measure MPS at rest and during 4 h of exercise recovery. Participants performed unilateral leg resistance exercise followed by the consumption of isonitrogenous quantities (20 g) of casein or whey. Blood essential amino acids and leucine concentration peaked 60 min post-drink and were greater in amplitude after whey protein ingestion (both, P < 0·05). MPS in the rested leg was 65 % higher (P = 0·002) after ingestion of whey (0·040 (sem 0·003) %/h) when compared with micellar casein (0·024 (sem 0·002) %/h). Similarly, resistance exercise-stimulated rates of MPS were greater (P < 0·001) after whey ingestion (0·059 (sem 0·005) %/h) v. micellar casein (0·035 (sem 0·002) %/h). We conclude that ingestion of isolated whey protein supports greater rates of MPS than micellar casein both at rest and after resistance exercise in healthy elderly men. This result is probably related to a greater hyperaminoacidaemia or leucinaemia with whey ingestion.
Deep learning has become a popular tool for computer-aided diagnosis using medical images, sometimes matching or exceeding the performance of clinicians. However, these models can also reflect and ...amplify human bias, potentially resulting inaccurate missed diagnoses. Despite this concern, the problem of improving model fairness in medical image classification by deep learning has yet to be fully studied. To address this issue, we propose an algorithm that leverages the marginal pairwise equal opportunity to reduce bias in medical image classification. Our evaluations across four tasks using four independent large-scale cohorts demonstrate that our proposed algorithm not only improves fairness in individual and intersectional subgroups but also maintains overall performance. Specifically, the relative change in pairwise fairness difference between our proposed model and the baseline model was reduced by over 35%, while the relative change in AUC value was typically within 1%. By reducing the bias generated by deep learning models, our proposed approach can potentially alleviate concerns about the fairness and reliability of image-based computer-aided diagnosis.
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•An ink formulation of Zeolite/Al2O3 with great stability was tested.•Structured catalysts for xylene isomerization fabricated by direct ink writing.•Catalysts with combined structure ...exhibit high diffusivity and mechanical strength.•A 21.68% increase in ethylbenzene conversion was achieved by structured catalyst.
Para-xylene (PX) is an important material for the production of polyester fibers and resins; it is widely used in fuel and medical fields. To alleviate the low strength and unsatisfactory mass-transfer performance of conventional catalysts during xylene isomerization, a combined-structure catalyst is fabricated using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. In this study, a catalyst ink formulation and preparation method suitable for 3D printing is designed, and a wet ball-milling process is adopted to improve the stability of the ink during 3D printing. The mass-transfer performance of the structured catalysts are investigated via computational fluid dynamics simulation; thus, combined-structure catalysts with high diffusivity and high specific surface area are realized. Compressive strength tests and xylene isomerization reaction experiments are conducted on the three-dimensionally printed catalysts and extrudates. Compared with the extrudates, the three-dimensionally printed catalyst exhibits higher mechanical strength and better catalytic performance. Among the structured catalysts, the combined linear-staggered/wave-vertical (LS/WV) catalyst demonstrates the best overall performance with a PX concentration in xylene of 22.89% and a high ethylbenzene conversion of 36.70%, which is approximately 21.68% higher than the extrudates.
In recent years, image segmentation techniques based on deep learning have achieved many applications in remote sensing, medical, and autonomous driving fields. In space exploration, the segmentation ...of spacecraft objects by monocular images can support space station on-orbit assembly tasks and space target position and attitude estimation tasks, which has essential research value and broad application prospects. However, there is no segmentation network designed for spacecraft targets. This paper proposes an end-to-end spacecraft image segmentation network using the semantic segmentation network DeepLabv3+ as the basic framework. We develop a multi-scale neural network based on sparse convolution. First, the feature extraction capability is improved by the dilated convolutional network. Second, we introduce the channel attention mechanism into the network to recalibrate the feature responses. Finally, we design a parallel atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) structure that enhances the contextual information of the network. To verify the effectiveness of the method, we built a spacecraft segmentation dataset on which we conduct experiments on the segmentation algorithm. The experimental results show that the encoder+ attention+ decoder structure proposed in this paper, which focuses on high-level and low-level features, can obtain clear and complete masks of spacecraft targets with high segmentation accuracy. Compared with DeepLabv3+, our method is a significant improvement. We also conduct an ablation study to research the effectiveness of our network framework.
Increased amino acid availability stimulates muscle protein synthesis, however, aged muscle appears less responsive to the anabolic effects of amino acids when compared to the young. We aimed to ...compare changes in myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) in elderly men at rest and after resistance exercise following ingestion of different doses of soy protein and compare the responses to those we previously observed with ingestion of whey protein isolate.
Thirty elderly men (age 71 ± 5 y) completed a bout of unilateral knee-extensor resistance exercise prior to ingesting no protein (0 g), or either 20 g or 40 g of soy protein isolate (0, S20, and S40 respectively). We compared these responses to previous responses from similar aged men who had ingested 20 g and 40 g of whey protein isolate (W20 and W40). A primed constant infusion of L-1-13 Cleucine and L-ring-13 C6phenylalanine and skeletal muscle biopsies were used to measure whole-body leucine oxidation and MPS over 4 h post-protein consumption in both exercised and non-exercised legs.
Whole-body leucine oxidation increased with protein ingestion and was significantly greater for S20 vs. W20 (P = 0.003). Rates of MPS for S20 were less than W20 (P = 0.02) and not different from 0 g (P = 0.41) in both exercised and non-exercised leg muscles. For S40, MPS was also reduced compared with W40 under both rested and post-exercise conditions (both P < 0.005); however S40 increased MPS greater than 0 g under post-exercise conditions (P = 0.04).
The relationship between protein intake and MPS is both dose and protein source-dependent, with isolated soy showing a reduced ability, as compared to isolated whey protein, to stimulate MPS under both rested and post-exercise conditions. These differences may relate to the lower postprandial leucinemia and greater rates of amino acid oxidation following ingestion of soy versus whey protein.
Surface roughness and slope gradient are two important factors influencing soil erosion. The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction of surface roughness and slope gradient in ...controlling soil loss from sloping farmland due to water erosion on the Loess Plateau, China. Following the surface features of sloping farmland in the plateau region, we manually prepared rough surfaces using four tillage practices (contour drilling, artificial digging, manual hoeing, and contour plowing), with a smooth surface as the control measure. Five slope gradients (3°, 5°, 10°, 15°, and 20°) and two rainfall intensities (60 and 90 mm/hr) were considered in the artificial rainfall simulation experiment. The results showed that the runoff volume and sediment yield increased with increasing slope gradient under the same tillage treatment. At gentle slope gradients (e.g., 3° and 5°), the increase in surface roughness prevented the runoff and sediment production, that is, the surface roughness reduced the positive effect of slope gradient on the runoff volume and sediment yield to a certain extent. At steep slope gradients, however, the enhancing effect of slope gradient on soil erosion gradually increased and surpassed the reduction effect of surface roughness. This study reveals the existence of a critical slope gradient that influences the interaction of surface roughness and slope gradient in controlling soil erosion on sloping farmland. If the slope gradient is equal to or less than the critical value, an increase in surface roughness would decrease soil erosion. Otherwise, the increase in surface roughness would be ineffective for preventing soil erosion. The critical slope gradient would be smaller under higher rainfall intensity. These findings are helpful for us to understand the process of soil erosion and relevant for supporting soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau region of China.
• We got that there existed a critical slope gradient for the effect of surface roughness on soil erosion.
• The erosion effect of surface roughness was to increase the erosion when slope gradient was greater than the critical slope.
• We have calculated the critical slopes which were approximately 10° slope.
Abstract
Enterococci are important pathogens of nosocomial infections and are increasingly difficult to treat due to their intrinsic and acquired resistance to a range of antibiotics. Therefore, ...there is an urgent need to develop novel antibacterial agents, while drug repurposing is a promising approach to address this issue. Our study aimed to determine the antimicrobial efficacy of halicin against enterococci and found that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of halicin against different strains of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium ranged from 4 to 8 μg/ml. In addition, the synergistic antibacterial effect between halicin and doxycycline (DOX) against Enterococcus was observed through the checkerboard method, and it was observed that halicin and DOX could significantly synergistically inhibit biofilm formation and eradicate preformed biofilms at sub-MICs. Moreover, the electron microscope results revealed that halicin could also disrupt the bacterial cell membrane at high concentrations. Furthermore, it is also confirmed that the combination of halicin and DOX has no significant cytotoxic effect on erythrocytes and other human-derived cells. In addition, the mouse subcutaneous model and H&E staining showed that the combination of halicin and DOX could effectively reduce the bacterial load and inflammatory infiltration without obvious side effects. In nutshell, these results demonstrate the potential of halicin in combination with DOX as a novel therapy against infections by Enterococcus.
This study demonstrates the potential of halicin in combination with DOX as a novel therapy against infections by Enterococcus.
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