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Pine pollen has been widely recognized for its comprehensive nutritional properties and health benefits, but it has also been the target of fraudulent practices. Accurate authentication of pine pollen throughout the production chain is thus of great importance to quality and safety control of pine pollen food products. Aiming at the adverse effects of excipients and DNA degradation during processes, a pretreatment method including dissolution and centrifugation steps was incorporated in DNA extraction, and the chloroplast trnL-F region was used to establish a multiplex species-specific PCR assay. The developed assay could detect 1% of intentional adulteration of cattail pollen or corn flour into pine pollen down to 0.01 ng level of template DNA and was proved to be effective for botanical origin authentication of commercial pine pollen food products. Therefore, the present study provides a simple and sensitive approach for quality control and safety monitoring of commercial pine pollen food products, and the methodology can be applied in botanical origin authenticity control of other pollen products.

To observe the clinical efficacy of long-snake moxibustion plus Western medicine for chronic heart failure due to heart-kidney yang deficiency. A total of 80 patients were randomized into a control group and an observation group, with 40 cases in each group. The control group was treated with routine Western medicine, and the observation group was treated with long-snake moxibustion therapy on the basis of routine Western medicine. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), stroke volume (SV) and left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd) were measured before and after treatment, and the heart function was assessed. The serum brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level was measured, the 6 min walking distance was recorded, and the Minnesota living with heart failure questionnaire (MLHFQ) was assessed and scored. The serum galectin-3 (Gal-3) and soluble growth stimulation expressed gene 2 (sST2) protein levels were measured. Clinical efficacy was evaluated after treatment. The total effective rate of the observation group was higher than that of the control group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P

Heterogeneity in either chemically or microbiologically induced carbonate-based ground improvement methods is a major obstacle in engineering application. Spectral induced polarization (SIP), an innovative and nondestructive method, which has demonstrated promise in monitoring microbial activity, was used in this study to monitor enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP). The complex conductivities, together with the shear wave velocities (Vs), of an EICP modified sand were monitored using a self-developed spectral induced polarization–bender element column. The mean precipitate size was calculated by relaxation time (τ) and the Schwarz equation. The precipitate contents were calculated by cumulative gamma distribution function on the global polarization magnitude (mn) with R2 = 0.989. The stiffness of the enhanced geomaterial, in terms of Vs, correlates to mn with a cumulative lognormal distribution function with R2 = 0.967. Contact cementation was postulated as the dominant association pattern. The possible mechanism for this may be the formation of eddies and the nucleation of CaCO3 crystals during precipitation. The results suggest that SIP can be used as an effective nondestructive monitoring tool to assess the stiffness of geomaterials.

In this paper, we put forward a new secret sharing scheme. First, we give the mutually unbiased bases on the p2-dimensional quantum system where p is an odd prime number, and then we construct the corresponding unitary transformation based on the properties of these mutually unbiased bases. Second, we construct a (N, N) threshold secret sharing scheme by using unitary transformation between these mutually unbiased bases. At last, we analyze the scheme’s security by several ways, for example, intercept-and-resend attack, entangle-and-measure attack, trojan horse attack, and so on. Using our method, we construct a single-particle quantum protocol involving only one qudit, and the method shows much more scalability than other schemes.

Squid is an important seafood resource in Asian and European countries. Due to the different nutritional and market values of various squid species, substitutions between species often occur for higher profits. In this study, a species-specific PCR assay was developed for genetic discrimination of eight commercially important squid species from each other, based on the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites exploited from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences. The introduction of additional mismatches both in the forward and reverse primers ensured absolute allele specificity despite a moderate annealing temperature. The eight squid species can be clearly discriminated from each other by simplex PCR, and the developed multiplex species-specific PCR assay can detect 1% of intentional adulteration of non-target squid species into target species down to the 0.1 ng level of template DNA without PCR optimization. Therefore, the present study provides a simple and reliable genetic assay for identification of squid origin either in single or mixed species, and the developed assay will be useful in correct labeling and quality control of squid products.

Background In this study, we investigated the association of time-varying serum albumin levels with mortality over a 5-year period in one cohort of patients undergoing long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy. Methods The participants in this study enrolled 302 patients who underwent long-term PD at a single PD center in Taiwan. We reviewed medical records from 2011 to 2015 retrospectively. Time-averaged albumin level and serum albumin reach rate (defined as the percentage of serum albumin measurements that reached ≥3.5 g/dL) were applied as the predictor variables in the first 2 years (2011–2012). All-cause mortality was used as the outcome variable in the subsequent 3 years (2013–2015). Hazard function of all-cause mortality in the study participants was examined by using Cox proportional hazard regression models . Results Patients with different albumin reach rates (75–

We demonstrate a simple and efficient biosynthesis method to prepare easily harvested biocompatible cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) with tunable fluorescence emission using yeast cells. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirm that the CdTe QDs are formed via an extracellular growth and subsequent endocytosis pathway and have size-tunable optical properties with fluorescence emission from 490 to 560 nm and a cubic zinc blende structure with good crystallinity. In particular, the CdTe QDs with uniform size (2-3.6 nm) are protein-capped, which makes them highly soluble in water, and in situ bio-imaging in yeast cells indicates that the biosynthesized QDs have good biocompatibility. This work provides an economic and environmentally friendly approach to synthesize highly fluorescent biocompatible CdTe QDs for bio-imaging and bio-labeling applications. Open image in new window

The paper investigates the choice of government to offer a grant to a potential entrant aimed at reducing its fixed cost of entry when a monopoly firm provides the needed pharmaceutical drug given the prevalence path of the disease in a dynamic economic framework. The results of present study suggest that government can use a grant to credibly threaten the entry of a new firm into the industry and to promote limit-output pricing by the incumbent firm. The paper therefore suggests that the government policy set includes subsidizing the potential entry of a new firm into an industry manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs for the treatment of a communicable disease. Clearly, foreign aid could also be used as a source of this credible threat. The study also extends the paper by Mechoulan (2007) through the introduction of the government’s choice into the model.