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Plant-based beverages have become a hot spot in the development of functional foods with the increasing demand for nutrition and health food in recent years. However, common plant-based beverages have been plagued with poor sensory, flavor and stability. To solve these problems, fermentation of beneficial active strains (lactobacillus and yeasts) and non-thermal processing techniques were studied. Fermentation and non-thermal processing technologies had significant advantages in improving the flavor and quality of plant-based beverages and in retaining their nutritional properties, respectively. Therefore, this paper provided an overview of plant-based fermented beverages and emerging non-thermal processing technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean isoflavones are secondary metabolites of bisphenol with various biological activities that are formed during the growth of legumes. Improving the bioaccessibility of soybean isoflavones is of great significance for their optimal bioactivity in humans. On the basis of soybean isoflavones' chemical composition and metabolic pathways, this review analyzes the effects of food components, especially processing methods, on the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of soybean isoflavones. The application progress of soybean isoflavones in food is summarized. This will provide some reference value for developing functional foods high in aglycone isoflavones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specialty coffee is increasingly produced and consumed as part of routine life in many cities in modern China, but the social and cultural shifts it has engendered yet to be systematically examined. By examining the intersections between social media and the operations of independent Chinese coffeehouses in the field of taste, this paper puts forward the idea of new taste among Chinese millennials, which comprises individual subjectivity, heterogeneous social relationships, and forms of class distinction. Using taste-oriented keyword searches on WeChat official accounts, 20 articles were returned and analyzed in terms of their textural and visual orientations to examine the processes underlying how taste is influenced in the consumption of specialty coffee in China. Findings suggest the importance of taste makers in this process, from routine creation of aesthetic ambience in the coffeehouses to the construction of affective taste spaces online, and the establishment of taste cycles from online to offline, which all underpin class privilege. Moreover, the emergence of an 'urban café community' appears to be characterized by specific forms of belonging resulting from a productive effect of the interplay between independent coffeehouses and consumers in everyday urban life in which a set of aesthetic boundaries reside. Second, these digital consumers distinguish themselves socially by positioning themselves as having a cosmopolitan taste grounded in coffee appreciation instead of merely consuming coffee for physiological benefits. These findings extend taste propositions through engagement of Chinese digital millennial consumers to uncover the underlying cultural classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beans are a rich source of high quality protein and oil, and have attracted increasing interest from both nutrition researchers and health-conscious consumers. This review aims to provide a foundation for the future research and development of bean polysaccharides, by summarizing the sources, structure, and functions of bioactive bean polysaccharides. Structure/function relationships are described, for biological activities, such as immunological, antioxidant and anti-diabetes. This will provide useful guidance for further optimization of polysaccharide structure and the development of bean polysaccharides as a novel functional material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycobacterium abscessus (M. abscessus) can exist either as planktonic bacteria or as a biofilm. Biofilm formation is one of the important causes of conversion to resistance to antibiotics of bacteria that were previously sensitive when in their planktonic form, resulting in infections difficult to manage. Panax quinquefolius and its active ingredient ginsenosides have the potential ability in fighting pathogenic infections. In this study, the P. quinquefolius extract (PQE) showed good antibacterial/bactericidal activity against the M. abscessus planktonic cells. The extract reduced the biomass, thickness, and number of M. abscessus in the biofilm and altered its morphological characteristics as well as the spatial distribution of dead/alive bacteria. Moreover, the ginsenoside CK monomer had a similar inhibitory effect on M. abscessus planktonic bacteria and biofilm formation. Therefore, PQE and its monomer CK might be potential novel antimicrobial agents for the clinical prevention and treatment of M. abscessus, including biofilms in chronic infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through describing the confusing misdiagnosis process of Liddle syndrome, we try to reveal the importance of accurate aldosterone-renin detection and a genetic test for Liddle syndrome. We found a family of hypertension and hypokalaemia with the proband of a 21-year-old female who had been misdiagnosed as primary aldosteronism (PA). She presented with high aldosterone and low renin levels. Aldosterone is not suppressed in the saline infusion test and captopril challenge test. However, treatment with a standard dose of spironolactone has no blood pressure improvement effect. A heterozygous variant of SCNN1G was found with whole exome sequencing and Liddle syndrome is indicated. Treatment with amiloride was effective. We rechecked aldosterone-renin levels with two different aldosterone and renin test kits. Clinical features and the mutant gene SCNN1G of each family member were determined by the Sanger method. The two kits had nearly opposite results. Among those Liddle syndrome patients confirmed by a genetic test, for Test kit A all ARR were screened positive while for test kit B negative. It seems Test kit B is consistent with the diagnosis while test kit A misleads the diagnosis. A novel SCNN1G mutation, c.1729 C > T, was found in this family, which introduce a premature stop codon in the γ subunit in the epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) and resulted in a deletion of 72 amino acids at the carboxyl end. inaccurate ARR detection might misdiagnose Liddle syndrome. A Gene test is an important method for the diagnosis of Liddle syndrome. A novel SCNN1G missense mutation, c.1729 C > T, is found in a Chinese family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calculation and analysis of subway network capacity is one of the core issues of network operation. This paper focuses on this topic and proposes a passenger-oriented network capacity calculation method. First, subway network capacity is defined as maximum passenger demand that the network can serve under certain level of service requirement. Next, a method to calculate network capacity based on pressure test and simulation experiment is proposed. The key steps of this method such as level of service estimation and passenger demand loading in this method are studied. And then a mesoscopic model and simulation system of subway system are built as method implementation platform. Finally, Beijing subway network is taken as the case study to calculate and analyze network capacity in different level of service requirement during peak hours. It is found out that transfer stations are the bottlenecks that constrain network capacity, and congestion usually performs clustering characteristics taking transfer stations as centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of passenger flow control in a multi-line subway network during peak hours. A new multi-station coordinated passenger flow control model is proposed to simultaneously adjust the number of inbound and transfer passengers entering multiple stations or lines. The implementation of passenger flow control governs the redundant passengers to queue at given facilities, which is similar to ramp metering that regulates the number of vehicles entering a highway segment. The proposed model is a bi-level programming, whose upper level aims to optimize the system performance with different passenger flow control strategies, while the lower level is a logit-based stochastic user equilibrium assignment problem under a given strategy, considering passenger flow evolution, dynamic path cost, and route choice. An algorithm, integrating the method of successive averages with genetic algorithm, is developed to solve the model. A real-world case study is conducted to examine the validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]