Wheat bran-derived polysaccharides have attracted particular attention due to their immunomodulatory effects. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying their functions are poorly understood. The ...current study was designed to examine the effect of wheat bran polysaccharide (WBP) on RAW 264.7 cells and the underlying signaling pathways, which have not been explored. In addition, we also investigated the immuno-enhancement effects of WBP on cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced immunosuppression in mice. WBP significantly increased the concentrations of intracellular nitric oxide (NO) and cytokines such as prostaglandin E
2
(PGE
2
) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in RAW 264.7 cells. The result of RT-PCR analysis indicated that WBP also enhanced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and TNF-α expression. Further analyses demonstrated that WBP rapidly activated phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and the transcriptional activities of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB via toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Furthermore, in vivo experiments revealed that WBP increased the spleen and thymus indices significantly, and markedly promoted the production of the serum cytokines IL-2 and IFN-γ in CTX-induced immunosuppressed mice. Taken together, these results suggest that WBP can improve immunity by enhancing immune function, and could be explored as a potential immunomodulatory agent in functional food.
At first glance the operational performance of ballast appears trivial in its simplicity. However, various mechanisms affect the performance of the ballast both on a macroscopic scale and discrete ...(mesoscale) particle level. The importance of experimental studies to establish the influence of the granular fabric has been highlighted repeatedly by other researchers. This paper describes a method by which quantitative metrics and statistics can describe the probabilistic response of railway ballast. The measurements were obtained with the installation of a set of customised wireless inertial measurement unit (IMU), referred to as Kli-Pi, in the granular layers of a heavy-haul railway line located in South Africa. The results indicate a complex interaction of displacement and rotation, in all three spatial dimensions. The high-frequency measurements provided approximations of the particle's kinetic and potential energy (mechanical work) in addition to the indirect quantification of changes to the granular fabric. Finally, the descriptive statistics of the mechanical work provided an indirect measure of the confinement and coordination number of the particle, together with supporting evidence of the underlying probabilistic, instead of the expected deterministic response. These results strongly agree with the findings of existing literature that has, to date, been confined to theoretical study.
Obesity is a global epidemic associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes. Previous studies demonstrated that chronic feeding of steamed ...wheat bran (WB) decreases obesity. To clarify the underlying mechanism and the responsible component for the anti-obesity effects of steamed WB, we investigated the effects of dietary steamed WB and arabinoxylan on postprandial energy metabolism and blood variables. Overnight-fasted male C57BL/6J mice were fed an isocaloric diet with or without steamed WB (30%). Energy metabolism was evaluated using an indirect calorimeter, and plasma glucose, insulin, and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) levels were measured for 120 min after feeding. We similarly investigated the effect of arabinoxylan, a major component of steamed WB. Mice fed the WB diet had higher postprandial fat oxidation and a lower blood GIP response compared with mice fed the control diet. Mice fed the arabinoxylan diet exhibited a dose-dependent postprandial blood GIP response; increasing the arabinoxylan content in the diet led to a lower postprandial blood GIP response. The arabinoxylan-fed mice also had higher fat oxidation and energy expenditure compared with the control mice. In conclusion, the findings of the present study revealed that dietary steamed WB increases fat oxidation in mice. Increased fat oxidation may have a significant role in the anti-obesity effects of steamed WB. The postprandial effects of steamed WB are due to arabinoxylan, a major component of WB. The reduction of the postprandial blood GIP response may be responsible for the increase in postprandial fat utilization after feeding on a diet containing steamed WB and arabinoxylan.
Optical second harmonic (SH) intensities and dielectric constants of Li doped KTaO
3
are measured under an external electric field. Applying the Landau-Devonshire phenomenological theory to the ...temperature dependence of SH intensities, we find that the order of ferroelectric phase transition changes from 2nd to 1st with the increase of Li concentration. The dielectric measurement reveals that a critical behaviour similar to Pb(Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
-PbTiO
3
is observed. Additionally, we find that the critical electric field depends on the frequency of electric field and the effect becomes conspicuous in lower frequencies in Li doped KTaO
3
.
Kernel-like impurities (KLIs) have the similar colour, shape, texture and specific gravity with sound kernels. The amount of the KLIs is an important parameter for evaluating the quality of wheat. ...However, it is difficult to classify KLIs from sound kernels with normal methods because of these similar features. In this study, a machine vision system with a linear colour charged coupled device used to acquire images of kernels and a software package developed to extract various features from the images were used to classify 1169 sound kernels and 896 KLIs. Three methods-genetic algorithm (GA)/support vector machine (SVM), principal components analysis/SVM and linear discriminant analysis-were applied for the classification. The performance of GA/SVM for detecting KLIs was very outstanding, and the accuracy of testing sets could reach 99.34%. GA/SVM has the potential to improve the KLI classification accuracy in machine vision system. It is feasible to extract a small quantity of useful features without any extra image or data processing for online KLI classification.
Fault detection and identification (FDI) is essential for ensuring the safety of mechanical systems. Typically, FDI algorithms begin by establishing fault detection methods and subsequently ...identifying the faults. The fault detection process aims to detect abnormalities within the system. To initiate the fault detection process, a mathematical model is required for comparison. However, this mathematical model may not be fully known in advance. In this study, we propose the implementation of Gaussian process regression (GPR) to learn the current nominal model using sensor datasets. The learned model is then compared with newly acquired data to detect any occurrence of faults. GPR learns the model using a nonparametric Bayesian kernel defined in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space. Consequently, the kernel linear independence (KLI) test is employed to examine the new data set for fault detection. The simulation environment incorporates the NASA-developed generic fixed-wing aircraft transport model (GTM), specifically considering cases involving severed left-wing configurations for simulation purposes.
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