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Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is the most expensive spice in the world and is highly susceptible to economically motivated adulteration. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy are recently popular techniques for rapid, non-destructive detection of saffron adulteration. However, the high cost and measurement complexity of these techniques make them less suitable for consumer-level applications. In this work, a smartphone video-based system combined with chemometrics is used to detect saffron adulteration. A smartphone is utilised to capture short videos of pure and adulterated saffron powder samples illuminated by its colour-changing screen. The video frames are decomposed into RGB colour images and converted into spectral-like data. Partial least squares regression is used to model the relationship between data and saffron purity. The smartphone video-based system obtains a coefficient of determination of 0.9774 for prediction, which is comparable to reference techniques such as NIR spectroscopy and HSI. Moreover, it is efficient in presenting distribution maps related to saffron purity. In addition, when used in conjunction with the smartphone video-based system, HSI and NIR spectroscopy achieve higher performance without significantly increasing measurement cost and complexity. Such results suggest that the smartphone video-based system has the potential to be a viable primary screening and auxiliary tool for detecting saffron adulteration. [Display omitted] • Smartphone videos were used for the low-cost detection of saffron adulteration. • The purity of saffron powder was spatially present using smartphone and PLSR. • Analytical performance was improved by the fusion of smartphone and spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research, the impacts of high-pressure homogenization (HPH) (20, 60, 90, 120 and 150 MPa) on the physicochemical, rheological and sensory properties of soybean oil body (SOB) fermented milks were explored. Experimental results showed that with the increase of HPH pressure, acidity and water-holding capacity (WHC) of SOB fermented milk significantly increased, while its pH, peroxide value (PV) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) significantly decreased. The SOB fermented milk was found to be pseudoplastic fluids and the SOB fermented milk at 150 MPa had the highest apparent viscosity. Meanwhile, the SOB fermented milk of 150 MPa possessed the highest sensory score. Finally, principal component analysis (PCA) and heatmap showed that SOB fermented milk had the best characteristics after HPH treatment at 150 MPa. Therefore, HPH pressure could observably improve sensory, textural and rheological properties of SOB fermented milk. These results provide theoretical reference for HPH treatment to develop high-quality fermented dairy products. • SOB fermented milk was treated by high-pressure homogenization (HPH). • The increase of HPH pressure improves the physicochemical properties of SOB fermented milk. • HPH treatment reduced PV and TBARS values in SOB fermented milk. • SOB fermented milk of 150 MPa possessed attractive organoleptic acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although traditional research on human capital shows that it enhances employment success, its role in the job search process is unclear. To explain its weak effects in previous studies, this study draws on goal system theory to propose that human capital may act as a double-edged sword: On one hand it facilitates the ease of gaining employment, on the other hand it may compromise the frequency of job search behaviors. We conducted a bi-weekly repeated survey study on new labor market entrants and measured human capital using academic achievement scores. Results confirmed that human capital, though instrumental for proximal job search success, interferes with self-regulatory behaviors in job search. That is, human capital negatively predicted within-person job search intensity, and negatively moderated the within-person relationship between employment efficacy and job search intensity. On the positive side, human capital positively predicted within-person number of interview invitations. Overall, these results provide a more nuanced picture of the role of human capital in the job search process. • Human capital affects job search self-regulation and outcomes for new labor market entrants. • Human capital operationalized as GPA score. • High human capital diminishes job search intensity. • Human capital negatively moderates relationship between employment efficacy and job search intensity. • High human capital facilitates more interview invitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People detection is commonly used in computer vision systems, particularly for video surveillance and passenger flow statistics. Unlike standard cameras, fisheye cameras offer a large field of view and reduce occlusions when mounted overhead. However, due to the orientation variation of people in fisheye images, head detection models suffer from severe distortion when applied to fisheye images captured by top-view fisheye cameras. This work develops an end-to-end head detection method named HD-YOLO against complex situations in top-view fisheye images. The radius-aware loss function is designed to make HD-YOLO adapt to the impact of fisheye distortion, and the channel attention module is added to the model. We have also created new fisheye-image datasets for evaluation. Experiments showed that HD-YOLO outperforms other baseline methods on public and self-built datasets. • The distortion of fisheye images decreases the detection performance of CNNs seriously. • The radius-aware loss makes detection models robust to the distortion of fisheye images. • The channel attention is effective for YOLO to detect in fisheye images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hydrothermal fabrication of ZnO nanorod-based grating patterns on Si substrates is reported. The arrays of optical fiber cores were manually assembled as templates with nominal pitches of 250 μm and 375 μm. The profiles of the templates and the grating patterns were extracted and quantitatively characterized based on micrographs of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Image Processing Toolbox of MATLAB. The errors of the actual pitches and the parallelism demonstrate that the process capability of manually assembling the optical fiber cores can meet the quality requirement of the templates. The critical dimensions (CDs) show that the size of the trough formed by the template and the Si substrate determines the location of the grating pattern. The characteristic parameters, including line edge roughness (LER), line width roughness (LWR), skewness (Sk), kurtosis (Ku), and correlation length ( ζ ), exhibit that the three-phase contact lines among the trapped air bubble, ZnO seed solution, and Si substrate (or the optical fiber core) decide the form of the grating pattern. The research found that larger nominal pitch of the template resulted in larger size of the trough which further led to less CD, and higher hydrophilicity of the Si surfaces resulted in smoother profiles whilst lower hydrophilicity of the optical fiber core surfaces led to rougher ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most serious and major renal complications of diabetes. Previously, Six-transmembrane Protein of Prostate 2 (STAMP2) was reported to contribute to nutritional stress. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether overexpression of STAMP2 attenuates diabetic renal injuries in DN rats. We induced the DN rat model by high-fat diet and low-dose streptozotocin and evaluated the metabolite and urine albumin/creatinine. Recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors were injected for overexpression of STAMP2. Pathophysiologic and ultrastructure features of DN by histochemical stain and transmission electron microscope, autophagy-related proteins and signaling pathway by western blotting were assessed. We found the expression of STAMP2 was decreased and autophagy was blunted in DN rat kidneys. Overexpressing STAMP2 significantly ameliorated metabolic disturbance, insulin resistance, and specifically restoring diabetic renal injury. Furthermore, overexpressing STAMP2 improved the autophagy deficiency in DN rats, as revealed by changes in the expressions of Beclin1, p62, and LC3. Furthermore, STAMP2 overexpressing promoted autophagy by inhibiting the mTOR and activating the AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway. Our results suggested that STAMP2 overexpression attenuated renal injuries via upregulating autophagy in DN rats. STAMP2 overexpressing promoted autophagy may been involved with inhibition of the mTOR/ULK1 and activation of the AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway. • Overexpressing STAMP2 attenuates metabolic disorders and renal injuries in diabetic rats. • Overexpressing STAMP2 restored suppression of autophagy in diabetic kidneys. • STAMP2 upregulating autophagy may involved with inhibition the mTOR/ULK1 and activation the AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xing 9 Ling tablet candy (X9LTC) effectively treats alcoholic liver disease (ALD), but its potential mechanism and molecular targets remain unstudied. We aimed to address this gap using network pharmacology. Furthermore, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and database analysis revealed a total of 35 active ingredients and 311 corresponding potential targets of X9LTC. Protein interaction analysis revealed PTGS2, JUN, and FOS as its core targets. Enrichment analysis indicated that chemical carcinogenesis-receptor activation, IL-17 and TNF signaling pathway were enriched by multiple core targets, which might be the main pathway of action. Further molecular docking validation showed that the core targets had good binding activities with the identified compounds. Animal experiments showed that X9LTC could reduce the high expression of ALT, AST and TG in the serum of ALD mice, alleviate the lesions in liver tissues, and reverse the high expression of PTGS2, JUN, and FOS proteins in the liver tissues. In this study, we established a method for the determination of X9LTC content for the first time, and predicted its active ingredient and mechanism of action in treating ALD, providing theoretical basis for further research. [Display omitted] • Xing 9 ling tablet candy has a potential effect on alcoholic liver disease but its active ingredients and mechanism of action are still unclear. • The active components of Xing 9 ling tablet candy were identified by high performance liquid chromatography combined with network pharmacology database. • Finding disease targets for alcoholic liver disease using GEO differentially expressed microarray data combined with disease databases. • Molecular docking of the active ingredients identified using high performance liquid chromatography with the core target. • Liver indices, serum indices and western blot analysis were used to validate the therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of action of Xing 9 ling tablet candy anti-alcoholic liver disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goat milk yogurt is gaining scientific attention worldwide due to its nutritional quality and potential health benefits to consumers. Understanding the impact of evaporative concentration and high-pressure homogenization (HPH) on goat milk yogurt quality is of high importance for dairy industry. This study aimed to investigate the influences of vacuum-assisted evaporative concentration combined with HPH (20–150 MPa) on the physicochemical, sensory characteristics and in vitro digestion of fermented goat milk (FGM). Concentrated FGM (CFGM) exhibited longer fermentation times, smaller particle size, increased viscosity, firmness and cohesiveness compared with pristine FGM, whereas HPH treatments induced shorter acidification processes. Meanwhile, the CFGM produced by HPH treatment at 150 MPa showed enhanced stability by decreasing the average particle size, and exhibited the highest overall acceptability among all FGM and CFGM samples assessed. Furthermore, CFGM treated with higher HPH pressure showed an improved degree of hydrolysis, protein digestibility and antioxidant activity during digestion compared with CFGM treated at HPH pressure of 20 MPa. Therefore, the results demonstrated the feasibility of the combination of evaporative concentration and HPH in the development of goat milk yogurt with enhanced quality attributes and functionality. These results are crucial to enhance the processing and handling of the goat milk. • FGM was treated by concentration combined with high-pressure homogenization. • Evaporation concentration enhanced the quality of fermented goat milk (FGM). • Concentrated FGM (CFGM) at 150 MPa exhibited the highest acceptance score. • The bioaccessibility and antioxidant capacity of CFGM was enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, high-protein nutrition bars (HPNBs) were prepared using sodium caseinate and either fructose or maltitol as raw materials. The effects of the incorporation of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) on the hardness and physicochemical changes of HPNBs during storage were evaluated. Both HPNB systems containing HPMC exhibited significantly lower hardness than the control HPNBs (no HPMC) during storage, and the change in hardness was dependent on the concentration of HPMC added. The incorporation of 2% HPMC reduced the hardness of the fructose-containing and maltitol-contianing HPNBs by 44.83% and 27.89%, respectively, after 35 days of storage. The addition of HPMC inhibited Maillard reactions within the fructose-containing HPNBs, which exhibited little changes in the total color and composition of free amines. HPMC also significantly mitigated the increase in the insoluble protein content and the transformation of β-turn to β-sheet in proteins that were observed in both HPNB systems during storage. Scanning electron microscopy also confirmed that the texture of the HPNB containing HPMC changed less during storage compared to the controls. These results indicated that HPMC could be used as an inhibitor to reduce the extent of Maillard reactions and protein aggregation during food storage. • Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose can be used as a functional ingredient to inhibit bar hardening. • Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose inhibited the Maillard reaction of fructose-containing HPNBs. • HPNBs containing maltitol have lower hardness during storage. • Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose mitigated the loss of free amino groups in HPNBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The optimized extraction conditions of red pigments (RP) from bayberry (Myrica rubra) pomace obtained with response surface methodology were extraction pH, time, temperature, liquid/solid ratio as 1.4, 4.2 h, 56.1 °C and 12.6/1 ml/g, respectively. The RP were then purified by the macroporous resin, which indicated the resin LX-68 showed the maximum refined efficiency among the tested resins. Further solvent partition of the RP yielded ethyl acetate, n-butanol and water layers, in which the first fraction showed the strongest DPPH and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities with IC50 values of 2.13 μg/ml and 0.57 mg/ml, respectively, which were higher than those of BHA and mannitol used as a positive control. Following activity-oriented separation, (−)-epicatechin and procyanidin B2 were isolated from the ethyl acetate layer and were found to have excellent DPPH free radical scavenging activities with IC50 values of 2.87 and 2.06 μg/ml, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]