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Coprophagy prevention (CP) affects the growth performance, hepatic lipid synthesis, and gut microbiota in rabbits. Supplementation with Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum, Strain number: CCTCC M 2019962) has been found to improve growth performance in rabbits. However, it remains unknown whether C. butyricum can ameliorate the effects of CP on hepatic lipid synthesis and the underlying mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of CP on hepatic lipid synthesis and the underlying mechanism based on the gut–liver axis. The findings revealed that supplementation with C. butyricum could reverse CP-related growth performance, lipid accumulation, bile acid synthesis, and inflammation. Furthermore, C. butyricum exerted protective effects on the gut by preserving intestinal barrier integrity and modulating gut microbiota composition; these factors may represent potential mechanisms through which C. butyricum improves CP-related outcomes. Specifically, C. butyricum reshaped the microbiota by increasing butyric acid levels, thereby maintaining secondary bile acid (deoxycholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid) balance and attenuating the inhibitory effects of the FXR/SHP pathway on lipid synthesis (SREBP1c/ApoA1). Moreover, the activation of butyrate/GPR43pathway by C. butyricum reduced damage to the intestinal barrier (ZO-1/Occludin/Claudin1) and restored the gut immune microenvironment in CP rabbits. In summary, supplementation with C. butyricum can alleviate the adverse effects of CP on growth performance and hepatic lipid synthesis by modulating the gut–liver axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) plays a key factor in biofilm formation. However, the research on the importance of each EPS fraction is mainly concentrated in the activated sludge field. In this study, biofilms were cultivated under different hydrodynamic conditions in indoor flumes, and the important regulatory effects of dissolved EPS (SB-EPS), loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS), and tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) on biofilm formation were investigated. The results indicated that the ratios of soluble EPS (S-EPS), loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS), and tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) were 27:74:108 in the turbulent flow, 38:48:71 in the transitional flow, and 89:51:51 in the laminar flow. Regarding proportion, TB-EPS and LB-EPS were secreted more in the turbulent flow, while S-EPS was secreted slightly more in the laminar flow. S-EPS lacks the structural strength provided by bound EPS. Under the special bonding effects of LB-EPS and TB-EPS, many microcolonies join to form biofilms. The polysaccharide content in the EPS of biofilms remained dominant under all conditions. Polysaccharides are the core of biofilm formation, which enhance bacterial aggregation and make biofilm dense. Through the mutual verification of the results in the microscopic and macroscopic fields, the mechanism of biofilm formation was further elucidated, especially, in Stage IV, due to the special bonding effects of LB-EPS and TB-EPS, many colonies adhere to the mature biofilm. Further studies are required to investigate the extracellular polysaccharides and proteins in EPS along with their properties in biofilms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanosized spinel ferrites MFe2O4 (M = Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn)-coated flaky FeSiAl alloy composites were synthesized successfully. Nano-ferrites preferentially grow into nanoplatelets due to induced or restricted growth on the flaky surface of FeSiAl. With annealing temperature increasing, the ferrites' nanosheets thicken gradually and then grow into irregular particles. The annealing temperature not only affects the nanosized morphology and coating but also the magnetic properties of flaky FeSiAl composites. The saturation magnetization of CuFe2O4- or NiFe2O4-coated FeSiAl is approximate 69 emu/g, where the value of MnFe2O4-, CoFe2O4- and ZnFe2O4-coated FeSiAl show a decreasing trend generally from 64 emu/g to 55.7 emu/g annealing at 800 °C, respectively. The saturation magnetization of flaky FeSiAl composites was improved with the increased annealing temperature, except for those coated with ZnFe2O4 and NiFe2O4. These results are useful for improving the comprehensive properties of ferrite-coated flaky FeSiAl alloy composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthocyanins have great health benefits, especially malvidin. Vitis amurensis Rupr are rich in malvidin, and malvidin-3-O-glucoside (Mv3G) monomer is the most abundant. However, natural anthocyanins are unstable, which limits their wide application in the food field. Soybean insoluble dietary fiber (SIDF) has high stability, and it can be used as an inert substrate to construct a stable system, which may improve the stability of anthocyanins. The optimal condition to construct a stable system of SIDF and Mv3G at pH 3.0 was determined by an orthogonal experiment. The results indicated that SIDF effectively improved the stability of Mv3G under different pH values (1.0~7.0), high temperature (100 °C for 100 min), and sunlight (20 ± 2 °C for 30 d) conditions. The absorption peak intensity of the UV–VIS spectrum of SIDF-Mv3G was enhanced, which indicated that there was interaction between SIDF and Mv3G. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses revealed that the -OH stretching vibration peak of SIDF-Mv3G was changed, which indicated that the interaction between SIDF and Mv3G was due to hydrogen bonding. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the crystalline morphology of SIDF was opened, which was combined with Mv3G, and SIDF made Mv3G change to a more stable state. Scanning electron microscope analysis showed that SIDF and Mv3G were closely combined to form an inclusion complex. Overall, this study provides valuable information for enhancing the color stability of anthocyanins, which will further expand the application of anthocyanins in the food field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endpoint carbon content is an important target of converters. The precise prediction of carbon content is the key to endpoint control in converter steelmaking. In this study, a real-time dynamic prediction of the carbon content model for the second-blowing stage of the converter steelmaking process was proposed. First, a case-based reasoning (CBR) algorithm was used to retrieve similar historical cases and their corresponding process parameters in the second blowing stage, based on the process parameters of the new case in the main blowing stage. Next, a long short-term memory (LSTM) model was trained by using process parameters of similar cases from the previous moment as the input and the carbon content for the next moment as the output. Finally, the process parameters of the new case were input into the trained LSTM model to produce a real-time dynamic prediction of the carbon content in the second blowing stage. Actual production data were used for the verification, and the results showed that the prediction errors of the proposed model within the ranges of (−0.005, 0.005), (−0.010, 0.010), (−0.015, 0.015) and (−0.020, 0.020) were 25%, 54%, 71%, and 91% respectively, which were higher than the prediction accuracies of the traditional carbon integral model, cubic model, and exponential model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]