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Minimally processed fruits are increasingly demanded in modern society, but the management of perishable waste pomaces (WPs) and the products' short shelf-life are still big issues. Here, a facile approach of reconstruing apple pomace (AP) into edible bio-nanocomposite coatings of fresh-cutting apple slices was successfully developed through alkaline demethylation followed by high-pressure homogenization. The fibrillation of AP fibers is largely improved by -COO - at a concentration of 1.23 mmol g -1 , which is released through alkaline demethylation of pectin, instead of relying on intricated or costly cellulose modifications. The average width of AP nanofibers (AP-NFs) downsizes to 18 nm. By casting, AP-NFs fabricate homogeneous films with comparable transparency (56 % at 600 nm), superior mechanical strength (6.4 GPa of Young modulus and 81.7 MPa of strength) and oxygen barrier properties (79 mL μm m -2  day -1  bar -1 ), and non-toxicity. Moreover, the AP-NF coatings effectively extend shelf life of apple slices by inhibiting browning and respiration, and retain firmness. This research demonstrates a way to valorize WPs as edible coatings for fruit packaging., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Fermenting edible filamentous fungi with food industry by-products, such as young apples, shows promise for producing mycoproteins and functional peptides. This study aimed to evaluate the production of mycoprotein by fermenting different edible-grade filamentous fungi using young apples as a substrate. Schizophyllum commune DS1 (DS1) demonstrated significant potential for generating mycoprotein, yielding 33.56 ± 0.82 %. From the hydrolysis of DS1 mycoprotein, three polypeptides were identified with the capacity of inhibiting nitric oxide synthase (iNOS): DNIQGITKPAIR (DR12), SDNAFGGR (SR8), and ASDPSGF (AF7). Computational analysis, including bioinformatics and molecular docking, indicated their high affinity for inhibiting iNOS, with binding energies of -452.8157 kcal/mol, -388.0222 kcal/mol, and -323.8843 kcal/mol, respectively. This binding was facilitated through various interactions such as electrostatic forces, π-π interactions, hydrogen bonds, and non-covalent interactions, resulting in potential anti-inflammatory properties. Furthermore, cell experiments using RAW264.7 macrophages demonstrated that these peptides effectively suppressed nitric oxide production in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, they reduced the production of inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), inducible iNOS, and cell apoptosis. In conclusion, this study presents a novel approach for developing plant-based mycoproteins and a new source for discovering food-derived bioactive peptides., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors assert that they have no identifiable conflicting financial interests or personal relationships that might have influenced the findings reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Protein emulsions' poor physical and oxidative stabilities restrict their use in functional foods. Soy protein isolate (SPI) emulsions' physical stability was enhanced by adding young apple polyphenols (YAP) in this study, but decreased when YAP was 0.12%. YAP binding prefolded SPI's structure, which promotes efficient SPI stacking at the interface. YAP also improved SPI emulsions' oxidation resistance in a dose-dependent manner. SPI-YAP interaction promoted more YAP adsorption (>80%) at the interface, which increased emulsions' antioxidant capacities twofold. Furthermore, over 90% of unsaturated fatty acids were preserved, and the oxidation of lipid-SPI-β-carotene appeared to be reduced as YAP increased. In addition, SPI-YAP emulsions were effective in encapsulating and safeguarding β-carotene during emulsion storage and in vitro digestion, leading to a delayed and maximum release of β-carotene. This study improves the understanding of polyphenols inhibition on lipid-protein oxidation through interface strengthening and broadens the potential applications of YAP and SPI in functional foods., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, we report for the first time that thiophenol-substituted naphthalimide can achieve thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) simultaneously through non-conjugated flexible connection. Herein, we explain that the enhancement of intersystem crossing (ISC) between the singlet excited state and triplet excited states in NISPh is mainly caused by the non-adiabatic conformation distortion charge transfer (CDCT) of the excited states. More precisely, CDCT results in the conformation matching and energy barrier decrease between the excited states. In addition, the electronic and vibration coupling is further enhanced in NISPh. Our work substantiates a rational design strategy for the development of simple purely organic materials to achieve dual emission of TADF and RTP., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In the present study, a pectin-like apple polysaccharide (AP) obtained by metal precipitation technique was demonstrated to show strong gelling capacity in the presence of K + ion upon cooling. Increasing amount of K + addition monotonically promoted the gelation of AP, as characterized by the increased gelation temperature (T gel ), gel melting temperature (T melt ) and the gel strength. Compared with K + ion, Na + was unable to induce AP gelation even at high ionic concentrations, but other monovalent cations (Rb + , Cs + ) can induce the gelation as in the case of K + addition. At room temperature, the minimum cationic concentration as required to induce AP gelation followed the order of K +  ≈ Cr + (8 mM) > Rb + (3.5 mM), indicating that cationic radius (Na +  < K +  < Rb +  < Cs + ) played a dominant role in inducing AP gelation, but other factors may also be involved. Finally, the gelation behavior of AP in the presence of K + was explained as the suppressed intermolecular electrostatic repulsion between AP chains due to the strong electrostatic shielding effect of K + , which led to the formation of a gel network mediated by intermolecular hydrogen bonding. This reported gelation property may allow AP to find application as a new gelling polysaccharide., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lead halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) are promising candidates for future optoelectronic devices due to their excellent photonic and electronic properties. However, poor stability and toxicity problems limit their further development. This work demonstrates the doping tactics to boost the optical properties of lead-free colloidal MA 3 Bi 2 Br 9 QDs, the indium ion (In 3+ ) doping presented herein is found to be effective in improving the photoluminescence (PL) properties of MA 3 Bi 2 Br 9 (CH 3 NH 2  = MA) QDs without alerting their favorable electronic structure. It has been elucidated by microscopy and diffraction results that the In 3+ doping optimizes the QDs solution octahedron structure, and the PL red-shifted phenomenon coincides well with the analogous red-shifted obtained in the ultraviolet/visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectroscopy, which is due to the quantum confinement effect. And the nanosecond transient absorption (ns-TA) spectroscopy elucidates that the enhanced radiative recombination process contributes to enhanced stability and luminescence. The photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of MA 3 Bi 2 Br 9 QDs is increased by 60.7%. This work offers a valid strategy for improving the quality of the lead-free perovskite QDs., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In this work, we investigated the potential UV protection mechanism of the natural compounds hydroxy resveratrol and pterostilbene by combining theoretical calculations and femtosecond transient absorption spectra (FTAS). The UV absorption spectra showed that the two compounds exhibited strong absorption properties and high photostability. We found two molecules will reach the S 1 state or an even higher excited state after UV exposure and molecules in S 1 will cross a lower energy barrier to reach the conical intersection. The adiabatic trans-cis isomerization process happened and finally return to the ground. Meanwhile, FTAS clarified the time scale of trans-cis isomerization of two molecules was ∼ 10 ps, which also met the requirement of fast energy relaxation. This work also provides theoretical guidance for developing new sunscreen molecules from natural stilbene., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The lenticulostriate artery (LSA) is a vital perforating cerebral artery, whose occlusion often leads to lacunar infarction. Currently, digital subtraction angiography is mainly used to visualize the LSA in the clinical setting; however, its invasiveness is an important limiting factor. Studies have shown that time-of-flight (TOF) sequencing using a high-field magnetic resonance system (7 T) can better image the LSA. However, the diameter of the LSA is extremely small (approximately 0.3-0.7 mm) with relatively slow blood flow velocity; therefore, imaging the LSA with a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner remains challenging. This study aimed to visualize the LSA using 3-dimensional-TOF magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with compressed sensing using a 3-T system and compare the length and number of the LSAs between patients with infarction and normal controls. The scan times of 3D-TOF MRA with and without compressed sensing were 7 min, and 8 min 44 s, respectively. VR displayed the LSA clearly under both conditions. The total number (p > 0.05) and length (p > 0.05) of the LSAs did not differ significantly between 3D-TOF MRA with and without compressed sensing. However, the total length and number of visualized LSAs was significantly lower (p < 0.05) in the infarction group compared to the control group for both TOF MRA and TOF MRA with compressed sensing. TOF MRA combined with compressed sensing is clinically valuable for analyzing the morphological characteristics of the LSA, and shortens the imaging time to 7 min. This combined technique can meet the requirements of shorter scanning times in clinical settings., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, we reported a pectic polysaccharide industrially obtained from apple pomace by metal ion precipitation technique showing an unexpected gelation behavior. Structurally, this apple pectin (AP) is a macromolecular polymer with a weight-average molecular weight (Mw) of 361.7 kDa, and DM (degree of methoxylation) of 12.5 %, comprising 60.38 % glucose, 19.41 % mannose, 17.60 % galactose and 1.00 % rhamnose and 1.61 % glucuronic acid. The low acidic sugar percentage relative to the total monosaccharide amount indicated a high branching structure of AP. On addition of Ca 2+ ions, AP exhibited a remarkable gelling ability upon cooling its heat solution to low temperature (e.g., 4 °C). However, at room temperature (e.g., 25 °C) or in the absence of Ca 2+ , no gel was formed. At a fixed pectin concentration (0.5 %, w/v), AP showed increasing gel hardness and gelation temperature (T gel ) with CaCl 2 concentration increasing to 0.05 % (w/v); however, further addition of CaCl 2 weakened AP gels and even abolished the gelation. On reheating, all gels melted below 35 °C, which suggests the potential use of AP as a gelatin substitute. The gelation mechanism was explained as an intricate balance of the synchronous formation of hydrogen bond and Ca 2+ crosslinks between AP molecules during cooling., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The demand for obtaining pectin from new sources has been continuously increasing. The abundant but underutilized thinned-young apple is a potential source of pectin. In this study, an organic acid (i.e., citric acid) and two inorganic acids (i.e., hydrochloric acid and nitric acid) commonly used in commercial pectin production were applied to extract pectin from three varieties of thinned-young apples. The physicochemical and functional properties of the thinned-young apple pectin were comprehensively characterized. The highest pectin yield (8.88 %) was obtained from Fuji apple using citric acid extraction. All pectin was high methoxy pectin (HMP) and rich in RG-I regions (>56 %). The citric acid extracted pectin had the highest molecular weight (Mw) and lowest degree of esterification (DE) values, and exhibited great thermal stability and shear-thinning property. Furthermore, Fuji-apple pectin possessed significantly better emulsifying properties compared to pectin obtained from the other two varieties of apples. Thus, pectin extracted with citric acid from Fuji thinned-young apples has great potential to be applied in the food industry as a natural thickener and emulsifier., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DP) has the potential function to prevent diabetes-induced neuronal apoptosis, whereas the mechanism is not completely clear. Ten eleven translocation dioxygenase 2 (TET2) is one of the most important therapeutic target for repairing neuronal damage in diabetic mice. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether DP could prevent neuronal apoptosis by regulating TET2 in the brain of HFD-induced diabetic mice. C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into four groups (n = 12), control group (CON), high-fat diet group (HFD, negative control), metformin group (MET, positive control), and DP group (DP). Compared with HFD group, the neuronal apoptosis of brain was significantly lower in the DP group. The levels of TET2 protein, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and 5-formylcytosine (5fC) were significantly lower in the HFD group than in both the DP and CON groups in the cerebral cortex of mice. The ratio of p-AMPK/AMPK and α-KG/(fumaric acid + succinic acid) were significantly lower in the HFD group than in the other groups. The present study suggests that DP has a preventive effect on diabetes-induced neuronal apoptosis by regulating TET2 function through improving phosphorylate AMPK and mitochondrial function, thus remodeling DNA epigenetics profile of mice brain., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Lei Chen reports financial support was provided by Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province. Run Liu reports financial support was provided by Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Endogenous peroxynitrite plays a very important role in the regulation of life activities. However, validated tools for ONOO - tests are currently insufficient. We designed a fluorescent probe TPA-F-NO 2 with a low fluorescence background in water based on the D-π-A structure for the imaging of endogenous ONOO - in living cells. TPA-F-NO 2 can realize the naked eye detection of ONOO - due to the obvious color change. TPA-F-NO 2 has the advantages of large stokes shift, high signal-to-noise ratio, high selectivity and sensitivity. The quantitative detection can be achieved in the range of 0-14 μM ONOO - . Due to its solvatochromic characteristics, TPA-F-NO 2 has the potential to be used in OLEDs and other fields. In addition, 4-methylumbelliferone has a wide range of anticancer effects as an inhibitor of hyaluronic acid. We prepared TPA-MU-NPs by assembling TPA-F-NO 2 and 4-methylumbelliferone. It also endows TPA-MU-NPs with ONOO - imaging function and anti-proliferation effect on breast cancer cells and other cells. This 'probe-drug' assembly strategy provides ideas for the design and optimization of dual-functional probes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Traditional bioactive substances are often limited in practical application due to their poor stability and low solubility. Therefore, it is imperative to develop biocompatible high loading microgel carriers. In this study, a novel type of casein-porous starch microgel was prepared under ultra-high-pressure homogenization, by using porous starch with the honeycomb three-dimensional network porous structure. Molecular interaction force analysis and thermodynamic analysis showed that electrostatic interaction played a major role in the formation of microgels. Circular dichroism and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that homogenization and pH were the main factors, which affected the formation and structural stability of microgels. Compared with casein-glutinous rice starch microgels, the encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of phycocyanin in casein-porous starch microgels were increased by 77.27% and 135.10%, respectively. Thus, casein-porous starch microgels could not only achieve a sustained release effect, but also effectively transport phycocyanin to the gastrointestinal tract of zebrafish, while achieving good fluorescence imaging in vivo. Ultimately, the prepared casein-porous starch microgels could enrich the nanocarriers material, and contribute to the research of safe and effective fluorescent imaging materials., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, the nonadiabatic energy relaxation mechanism of hemicyanines for UV photoprotection were investigated by using the density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) method for the first time. The absorption spectra and potential energy surfaces (PESs) of four hemicyanines with different positions of substituents were presented. The maximum absorption peaks of the four hemicyanines are located in the UVA region. In addition, all these hemicyanine molecules also have light absorption in both the UVB and UVC regions. At the same time, we found that the trans-cis photoisomerization PESs of all these hemicyanines have a significant conical intersection (CI) point between the first excited state and the ground state. Herein, it was first demonstrated that the UV energy absorbed by the hemicyanines could be dissipated nonadiabatically through the CI point by using the trans-cis photoisomerization dynamics mechanism. This work proves that hemicyanines have the possibility to be applied for UV photoabsorbers, and provides important basis for designing new type of hemicyanines for UV photoprotection., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this present work, we have successfully designed and investigated three flavonoid sunscreen compounds. Based on steady-state spectroscopy and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), the mechanism of excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) of sunscreen compounds was studied. The calculated UV-vis absorption spectra and fluorescence emission spectra are in good agreement with the experimental results in methanol solution. The potential energy curve demonstrates that the ESIPT process can easily occur in the three sunscreen compounds without energy barrier. Therefore, the absorbed excitation energy can get back to the ground state through a non-radiative relaxation process. Light stability tests ensure that the three flavonoids have the potential as sunscreens. This work provides not only an application of the ESIPT process in sunscreen mechanisms, but also a theory basis for the development of novel sunscreen molecules., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The molecular structures of 2,2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), were calculated by using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) model with M062X method with 6-311G (d, p) basis set. In this work, the ABTS were theoretically investigated from the geometric structure, the energy levels of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), the energy level gap ΔE HOMO-LUMO of the molecular ground state, excited stated properties and the electronic absorption spectra of different oxidation states. We studied the energy levels of LUMO and HOMO of ABTS in different oxidation states. Frontier molecular orbital analysis can provide insight into the nature of excited states. ABTS was synthesized from N-ethylamine by total synthesis. Then, we measured the UV-Vis spectra of ABTS before and after being oxidized by K 2 S 2 O 8 . The calculated electronic structures and photochemical properties of different oxidation state of ABTS were in accordance with the experimental result. This work demonstrates the relationship between the electronic structures and photochemistry of different oxidation states ABTS hence paves the way for the rationally synthesis and deepen understanding of the photophysical properties of ABTS materials., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cardiac tissue ischemia/hypoxia increases glycolysis and lactic acid accumulation in cardiomyocytes, leading to intracellular metabolic acidosis. Sodium bicarbonate cotransporters (NBCs) play a vital role in modulating intracellular pH and maintaining sodium ion concentrations in cardiomyocytes. Cardiomyocytes mainly express electrogenic sodium bicarbonate cotransporter (NBCe1), which has been demonstrated to participate in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. This review outlines the structural and functional properties of NBCe1, summarizes the signaling pathways and factors that may regulate the activity of NBCe1, and reviews the roles of NBCe1 in the pathogenesis of I/R-induced cardiac diseases. Further studies revealing the regulatory mechanisms of NBCe1 activity should provide novel therapeutic targets for preventing I/R-induced cardiac diseases., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

In this study, we investigated the gellan gelation mechanism induced by Glucono-δ-lactone (GDL) addition, and subsequently we further fabricated a series of thermally irreversible emulsion gels with the GDL-induced gel matrix as the continuous phase and the methyl cellulose (MC) stabilized emulsion as the dispersed phase. The results showed that GDL- induced gellan gelation was both a time- and temperature-dependent process, which was similar to the gelation process of NaCl-induced gellan gels, but with a higher temperature-dependence. Moreover, GDL-induced gel had a significantly higher rupture strength and the resulting gel did not melt on heating, meaning that the GDL-induced gellan gel can be deemed thermally irreversible. This is because decreasing pH is commonly more effective in promoting gellan gelation. Besides, by mixing the MC-stabilized emulsion with a hot gellan sol, followed by adding GDL, we fabricated the emulsion gels with a wide range of oil phase fraction (0-30%). The emulsion gels exhibited good thermal stability, without melting and oil droplet coalescence observed when heating the gels in a boiling water bath for 30 min. Conclusively, our results may deepen the understanding on gellan gelation induced by GDL and also broaden the utilization of gellan in building gel-related food structures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a class of interpenetrating network (IPN) gels were successfully fabricated based on glucono-δ-lactone (GDL) induced gelation of mixed alginate (Alg) and deacylated gellan (gellan) systems. The IPN gels were prepared by co-hydrating a mixed Alg and gellan powder, followed by adding GDL and calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) in sequence to initiate the gelation. It was found that Alg and gellan can form independently a gel network, with no significant interaction between the two types of gel networks observed, as indicated by the results of gel strength determination, scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations and thermogravimetry (TG) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) analyses. Moreover, the mixing ratio of Alg to gellan significantly affected the physical properties of the fabricated gels. With increasing Alg to gellan ratio, the gels tended to become more elastic, and to show a higher rehydration rate and rehydration extent. Overall, these tunable properties may allow the fabricated gels to find potential applications in designing or optimizing the structures of gel-related food products., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Essential oils are natural antimicrobils and have been frequently incorporated into edible films aimed at extending shelf-life of food products. In this study, thymol nanoemulsions co-emulsified by natural emulsifiers (i.e., blend of gelatin and soy lecithin) were prepared and incorporated into gelatin films. The physical and antimicrobial properties of gelatin films were characterized. Thymol nanoemulsions incorporation increased the water vapor permeability and elongation at break of gelatin film, but decreased the moisture content and tensile strength. With nano-scale and uniform particles, the surface of films containing thymol nanoemulsions was smooth and continuous. Due to the hydrophobic property of lecithin and thymol, the water contact angle of gelatin film increased to above 90°. Moreover, sustained release of thymol from gelatin films was also observed, and these films exhibited effective inhibition activities against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, gelatin films containing thymol nanoemulsions co-emulsified by gelatin and lecithin may have great potentials to be applied as novel and GRAS biodegradable packaging materials to achieve the goal of extending the shelf life of food products., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Overconsumption of fat-rich foods has caused increasing incidences of human chronic diseases. Thus, it is promising to fabricate reduced-fat foods, but the reduction in fat content often causes undesired textural changes in foods. In this study, we showed a facile method to structure oil-in-water emulsions via the electrostatic complexation between alginate (Alg) and egg yolk proteins at acid pHs (lower than pH 5.0), and the resulting emulsion gels displayed significant viscoelasticity, thixotropy and plasticity, which are comparable to a full-fat mayonnaise product with 75% oil content. Besides, the textural attributes of the structured emulsion gels can be tailored by simply altering the addition amount of vinegar, a commonly used ingredient in fabricating mayonnaise-like products to confer good sensory profile. After lyophilization, we obtained dry emulsion gels with a high oil content (~75%), and it was found that the dried gel prepared at pH 5.8 showed better dispersibility than at other pHs, highlighting the potential application prospect of the gels to be developed as a carrier for loading functional oil soluble compounds., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare no conflicts of interests in this work., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a series of emulsion gels were prepared by dispersing emulsified oil droplets into alginate (Alg) gel matrix, and the final emulsion gels contained 2% Alg (w/v), 0.5% Tween 80 (v/v) and gradient concentrations of oil phase fractions (5-30%, v/v). Subsequently, the effects of Ca 2+ addition, heating, and freeze thawing treatments on the emulsion gels were also investigated by a combination of rheological tests, confocal and scanning electron microscopy techniques. It was found that within the range of 0-30% of oil phase fraction, 0-0.15% of CaCl 2 addition (w/v), all the emulsion gels could achieve significant thixotropy and good emulsion stability, without discernible oil droplet coalescence observed after heating and/or freeze thawing treatments. The yield stress value and gel stiffness increased with increasing oil phase fraction and Ca 2+ addition, which is attributed to the strengthened gel network cross-links in the emulsion gels, as confirmed by SEM results. Interestingly, after freeze thawing treatment, the gel stiffness was slightly improved, which may be due to the intermolecular self-association of Alg during freezing stage. Overall, these results show the potential application of Alg-stabilized emulsion gels in preparation of low-fat mayonnaise products and other similar emulsion foods., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no interest conflicts in this work., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, the inhibitory activity of young apple polyphenols (YAP) on α-glucosidase was investigated. Composition and inhibition analyses suggested that tannic acid (TA), (-)-epicatechin (EC) and phlorizin (PH) were the main active constituents in YAP showing α-glucosidase inhibition. PH was a competitive inhibitor, while YAP, TA and EC were the mixed-type ones. YAP, TA, PH and EC quenched the fluorescence spectrum of α-glucosidase significantly. Interestingly, the constants that indicate binding interaction between α-glucosidase and TA, PH, EC, including reciprocal of competitive inhibition constant (1/K ic ), fluorescence quenching constant (K FQ ) and binding energy (E b ), were shown similar orders as TA > PH > EC, contrary to IC 50 values. This indicates that binding interactions between polyphenols and α-glucosidase caused the enzyme inhibition. Additionally, potential enzyme unfolding by polyphenols interactions indicated by red-shift of maximum emission wavelength is supported by the decrease in α-helix and β-sheet contents of the enzyme. Conclusively, the α-glucosidase inhibition indicates that YAP may have potentials in alleviation of type 2 diabetes symptom., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Polysaccharides and flavan-3-ols from Cabernet Sauvignon wine were isolated and then characterized by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) and HPLC-MS. The influence of purified polysaccharides on the aggregation of flavan-3-ols-proteins were investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) to evaluate the co-effect of polysaccharides on wine astringency. The results indicated that mannoproteins (MPs) and rhamnogalacturonans II (RG II) were the major polysaccharides to significantly alter the interaction of flavan-3-ols with bovine serum albumin (BSA). The interaction of polysaccharides-flavan-3-ols-BSA was enhanced with the concentration (from 0.2 to 0.6 g/L) of the studied polysaccharides. Furthermore, the reaction of BSA-flavan-3-ols was strengthened in the absence of polysaccharides when percentage of galloylation (%G) was higher (11.29). When mean degree of polymerization (mDP) of flavan-3-ols was from 5.14 to 6.88, the secondary structure of proteins was changed from mainly α-helix to random curl and the formation of protein precipitation increased. This work pointed out that the important property of polysaccharides and different structural characteristic flavan-3-ols are able to modulate wine astringency perception., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The thinned-young apple polysaccharides from three varieties were obtained by hot water extraction at 88 ̊C for 120 min. The compositional monosaccharides of the three polysaccharides were shown to be the same (xylose, mannose, galactose and glucose) and the molecular weights of the polysaccharides were in the range of 200-300 kDa. Compared with "Qinyang" and "Pinklady", the polysaccharide from "Jinshiji" had the highest emulsifying capacity. Moreover, the variations in pH and cation ion concentrations had also a significant effect on the emulsifying properties of the extracted polysaccharides. At pH 2.0-4.0, the prepared emulsion had smaller droplet sizes than at higher pH values. Although the emulsion was stable at low concentrations of Na + and Ca 2+ ions, high concentrations of Na + and Ca 2+ led to significant destabilization of the emulsion. Conclusively, our results demonstrated the potential application of thinned-young apple polysaccharide as a natural polysaccharide emulsifying agent., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a series of hydrogels based on the physical adsorption between hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) and colloidal silica nanoparticles (SNPs) were developed, and the effects of SNPs addition on the prepared gels were also investigated. The addition of SNPs into the HEC solution (1.0 wt%) induced gelation, and the gel strength was enhanced by increasing the SNPs concentration from 5 to 20 wt%, which was due to the formation of a denser gel network, as evidenced by SEM observations. Rheological tests suggested that the gelation temperature (T g ) was decreased with the increasing SNPs addition, and the gels exhibited slightly thermal hysteresis, with a temperature lag of 6-7 °C. However, when the SNPs concentration was above 21 wt%, a phase separation was observed. Furthermore, it was found that the addition of SNPs led to the intensified hydrogen bonds between the HEC molecules and the added SNPs, which may be the predominant factor governing the adsorption process. Overall, a facile method for hydrogel preparation was proposed in this study, and the gel properties were also systematically investigated. These results may provide useful information to the field of material science., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In this study, the rheological properties and gelation mechanism of high acyl gellan (HAG) were investigated. The critical overlap concentration (C ⁎ ) of HAG was determined to be 0.045%, and the specific viscosity (η sp ) of HAG solutions linearly varied as the concentration of C 1.42 and C 3.51 before and after the concentration, respectively. The transition concentration was found to shift toward a lower value (0.045% vs. 0.08%) when compared with the generality of random coil polysaccharide solutions, indicating the occurrence of intermolecular associations. At sufficiently high concentrations (i.e., above 0.125%), HAG molecules associated with each other to form a heterogeneous three-dimensional network, thus leading to gelation. The gelling temperature depended on HAG concentration, and there was no significant thermal hysteresis observed when heating the formed gels. Furthermore, it was found that acyl substituents allowed HAG molecules to form hydrophobic regions during the gelation process, which was attributed to the intermolecular aggregations driven by hydrophobic interactions. Our findings may deepen the understanding on HAG gelation and thus broaden the application of HAG in the food and biomaterial fields., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The effectiveness of pectin coatings enriched with clove essential oil (CEO), as new edible coatings were investigated to preserve bream (Megalobrama ambycephala) fillets during refrigeration over a period of 15 days. All samples were analyzed for physicochemical (pH, PV, TBA and TVB-N), microbiological (Total viable count, Psychrophilic bacteria, Lactic acid bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp., H 2 S producing bacteria) and organoleptic attributes. The results revealed that the CEO incorporation reduced the extent of lipid oxidation, as judged by PV, TBA and TVB-N, thus extending the shelf life of bream fillets by at least 15 days. Moreover, the application of pectin coatings with CEO improved the weight loss, water holding capacity, textural and color attributes of the bream samples significantly compared to untreated sample. Pectin coating along with CEO was effective in inhibiting bacterial growth especially in gram-negative bacteria, while the growth of lactic acid bacteria remained constant for most of the storage period. The effect on the microorganisms during storage was in accordance with biochemical indexes of the quality, representing the viability of these coatings for bream preservation. Thus, the coatings developed in present study could inhibit the development of lipid oxidation during cold storage, representing an option as a seafood preservative., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Nitric oxide (NO) has been recognized as pivotal for color and color stability of meat products and has an evident effect on inhibiting microbial growth in processed meat. The use of indirect NO (nitrate/nitrite) in industrial meat curing has potential deleterious effects and great concerns have been expressed over residual nitrite in meat after curing. To find a succedaneum, we have demonstrated the influence of direct NO (saturated NO solution) through euthanasia before slaughter on the fillets color of tilapia and the results suggested that direct NO treatment prior to slaughter is a good procedure to improve the color of tilapia fillets., Objective: To further investigate the effect of direct NO on the muscle color and shelf-life of fillets from tilapia, this study was conducted to investigate the muscle color and color stability of tilapia fillets postmortem treated with saturated NO solution and their shelf-life during refrigerated storage., Methods: Tilapia fillets were immersed in a saturated NO solution for 13 min, vacuum-packed and stored at refrigerated temperature for 15 days. Visual observations, color values and absorption maxima were used to evaluate the muscle color and color stability of tilapia fillets. Total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) values were used to evaluate the shelf-life of tilapia fillets during refrigerated storage., Results: By visual observation, NO treated tilapia fillets showed a brighter red color as compered to control samples after NO-treatment and during the whole storage. The redness (a*) values of NO treated tilapia fillets were significantly increased (P < 0.05) after NO-treatment, continuously increased (P < 0.05) during the earlier 9 days of the storage and remained roughly unchanged during the rest days of the storage. While the a* values of control samples decreased progressively during the storage. NO-treatment effectively improved the muscle color and color stability of tilapia fillets. The peak wavelengths of extract from the muscles of NO treated tilapia fillets increased from 418 nm to 421 nm at 15 d of the storage, while that of control decreased from 418 nm to 410 nm, indicated that color improvement in NO-treated tilapia fillets is mainly due to the formation of MbNO. Moreover, NO-treatment resulted in less TVB-N values than control (16.06 and 21.93 mg of N/100 g at the end of the storage, respectively), prolonging the shelf-life of tilapia fillets., Conclusion: The results suggested that postmortem treatment with NO is a good procedure not only for improving the muscle color and color stability but also for prolonging the shelf-life of tilapia fillets during the storage, which is valuable for industrial manufacturing of tilapia and possibly for other fish species., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The increasing demand for bio-based materials to be used in food packaging has stimulated the development of novel, environmentally-friendly edible films. Antimicrobial films were developed by incorporating different levels of clove bud essential oil (0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%) into the citrus pectin in order to modify the functional properties of the films. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry analysis (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were performed, together with the determination of physical, optical, mechanical, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of pectin emulsified films. The inclusion of oil significantly enhanced the water barrier properties of the films. Addition of oil leads to more opaque films with relatively heterogeneous microstructure, resulting in an increase in film opacity. The composite films were more resistant to breakage and more flexible than the control films. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) demonstrated that films incorporating CEO exhibited improved heat stability with slightly higher degradation temperature, compared with control films. The inhibitory effect of pectin films with CEO was also evaluated on three common foodborne bacteria. These results revealed that clove oil has a good potential to be incorporated into citrus pectin to make antimicrobial edible films or coatings for various food applications., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purification, characterization and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides from thinned-young apple (TYA) were investigated in the study. A water-soluble polysaccharide (TYAP) was obtained with hot water extraction, which was further purified by chromatography of Cellulose DEAE-52 and Sephadex G-150 to get three purified fractions of TYAP-1, TYAP-2 and TYAP-3. HPLC analysis showed that the three fractions were mainly composed of galactose and arabinose with the average molecular weights of 115 kDa, 479 kDa and 403 kDa, respectively and the monosaccharide compositions of TYAP-2 and TYAP-3 were more complicated than that of TYAP-1. Moreover, TYAP fractions of three had no absorptions at 260 nm and 280 nm in the UV spectrum, indicating the absence of protein and nucleic acid. Their structure properties were further confirmed by FT-IR. In vitro antioxidant activities of three fractions were characterized by DPPH(•), HO(•), O2(•-) and ferric-reducing antioxidant power systems. The results indicated that TYAP-1, TYAP-2 and TYAP-3 possessed significant antioxidant effects in a concentration-dependant manner in the tested concentration range of 0.25-5.0mg/mL. Among the fractions tested, TYAP-3 showed significantly higher antioxidant activity than that of TYAP-1 and TYAP-2. All of these findings provide a scientific basis for the further use of polysaccharides from thinned-young apple., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The catalytic (C) subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase [protein kinase A (PKA)] is a major target of cAMP signaling, and its regulation is of fundamental importance to biological processes. One mode of regulation is N-myristylation, which has eluded structural and functional characterization so far because most crystal structures are of the non-myristylated enzyme, are phosphorylated on Ser10, and generally lack electron density for the first 13 residues. We crystallized myristylated wild-type (WT) PKA and a K7C mutant as binary (bound to a substrate peptide) and ternary [bound to a substrate peptide and adenosine-5'-(β,γ-imido)triphosphate] complexes. There was clear electron density for the entire N-terminus in the binary complexes, both refined to 2.0 Å, and K7C ternary complex, refined to 1.35 Å. The N-termini in these three structures display a novel conformation with a previously unseen helix from residues 1 to 7. The K7C mutant appears to have a more stable N-terminus, and this correlated with a significant decrease in the B-factors for the N-terminus in the myr-K7C complexes compared to the WT binary complex. The N-terminus of the myristylated WT ternary complex, refined to 2.0 Å, was disordered as in previous structures. In addition to a more ordered N-terminus, the myristylated K7C mutant exhibited a 53% increase in k(cat). The effect of nucleotide binding on the structure of the N-terminus in the WT protein and the kinetic changes in the K7C protein suggest that myristylation or occupancy of the myristyl binding pocket may serve as a site for allosteric regulation in the C-subunit., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)