Search

To overcome the shortcomings of activated bleaching clay in the decolorization of edible oil industry, such as high operating temperature, large residual oil ratio, and difficulty in the disposal of waste bleaching clay, this work developed the super-strong adsorbent material, graphene, as a new type of adsorbent for the decolorization of rapeseed oil. Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and graphene oxide (GO) were characterized by scanning electron microscope. Fourier infrared spectrometer and Raman spectrometer, etc After clarifying the structural characteristics of graphene, they were used for the decolorization of rapeseed oil, and the effects of graphene species, addition amount, pressure, temperature, and reaction time on the decolorization of rapeseed oil were investigated. The results showed that GNP was more effective in rapeseed oil decolorization compared with GO and exhibited unique adsorption properties for chlorophyll in oil at low temperature (45 ℃). The one-factor results showed that GNP could remove 80.6% of chlorophyll in oil under the optimized conditions of GNP addition of 2.0%, temperature of 45 ℃ and adsorption time of 5 min. GNP as adsorbent for oil decolorization has the advantages of low reaction temperature and short adsorption time, which could have the potential application prospects in low temperature moderate processing of oils and fats.

Thermal cooking is one of the major application scenarios of edible oils in Chinese cooking. Cooking oil fume (COF), which is generated from edible oils during thermal cooking, is a complex mixture of solid particles, liquid droplets and gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and COF imposes adverse effects on both the indoor atmosphere and human health. In the present review, we first elucidate the compositional characteristics of the two major harmful substances in COF, particulate matter (PM) and VOCs and their emission status during the thermal cooking of edible oils, and then summarize the influences of COF exposure on human respiratory diseases and other related health risks. Next, the major factors that affect the composition and emission characteristics of COF are discussed from the perspectives of thermal cooking methods, types of cooking ingredients, and the quality and basic properties of edible oils. Finally, an outlook is given on the optimization of edible oil processing technologies based on the compositional characteristics of COF and the development of new processing technologies, raw materials and pathways for future edible oils in the future in order to achieve precise and moderate processing of edible oils that is green with low energy consumption and to produce high-quality, nutritious and healthy edible oils for use in Chinese cooking. This review could provide some references for the future development of edible oil and fat processing technologies, and may be of guiding significance to improving the nutritional quality and safety of edible oils and fats and even helping to achieve the national strategic goals of “Healthy China” and “Double Carbon”.

Edible oils and fats are the important dietary nutrients for human body, and play a vital roles in maintaining nutritional health for the hosts. Whereas, the unhealthy oils and fats intake would lead to the increase of the risks of chronic metabolic diseases, which has become a serious public health challenge for the present society. The oilomics, integrating genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipomics as the major analytical methods, have been becoming on important approach to elucidate the host nutritional and metabolic regulation mechanisms, and realize the personalized nutrition of human body based on the functional characteristics of dietary factors. The present review manuscript illustrated the basic concepts of oilomics, and the major research approaches of oilomics in the areas of edible oil nutrition and human health. Moreover, the research progress of oilomics in oil nutrition and host health research were also summarized, primarily, focusing on elaborating the nutrients metabolic regulation, the enteral nutrition and gut homeostasis, as well as the personalized nutrition of the humans. In view of the current research status, the future trends of the development of oilomics were further prospected, at the aim of which is to provide references for expanding the applications of oilomics in lipid nutrition and human health. The overall nutrition level of the nationwide residents will be improved, and the construction of healthy China will be promoted.

Oil is a significant source of fatty acids and various trace functional components, and plays a vital role in regulating human health. The macro- and micro-components in oils are closely related to nutritional health. This paper introduces the future development goals and strategies of healthy oils from two aspects of precise nutrition and moderate processing. Firstly, precise nutrition based on life cycle and physiological state is a priority research area of lipid science. On the other hand, moderate processing will retain nutrients such as vitamin E, phytosterols, and squalene to a greater extent, and avoid the formation of risk factors such as trans fatty acids, 3-chloropropanol esters, and glycidyl esters. Moderate processing not only ensures the safety of oil, but also reduces the loss of healthy and beneficial fat concomitants, which is the development direction of oil engineering research. Therefore, under the dual demands of nutrition and safety, accurate nutrition and moderate processing of oils will help the implementation of "Healthy China" and "Double- Carbon" strategies. Future healthy oils will not only provide basic nutrition and flavor, but also give specific health functions to people with different life cycles, such as infants, children, adolescents, adults and the elderly, and maintain the homeostasis of people with different physiological states including pregnant and lactating women.

Selecting training samples is crucial in remote sensing image classification. In this paper, we selected three images—Sentinel-2, GF-1, and Landsat 8—and employed three methods for selecting training samples: grouping selection, entropy-based selection, and direct selection. We then used the selected training samples to train three supervised classification models—random forest (RF), support-vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN)—and evaluated the classification results of the three images. According to the experimental results, the three classification models performed similarly. Compared with the entropy-based method, the grouping selection method achieved higher classification accuracy using fewer samples. In addition, the grouping selection method outperformed the direct selection method with the same number of samples. Therefore, the grouping selection method performed the best. When using the grouping selection method, the image classification accuracy increased with the increase in the number of samples within a certain sample size range.

Abstract Background The coral-Symbiodiniaceae symbiosis is fundamental for the coral reef ecosystem. Corals provide various inorganic nutrients to their algal symbionts in exchange for the photosynthates to meet their metabolic demands. When becoming symbionts, Symbiodiniaceae cells show a reduced proliferation rate and a different life history. While it is generally believed that the animal hosts play critical roles in regulating these processes, far less is known about the molecular underpinnings that allow the corals to induce the changes in their symbionts. Results We tested symbiont cell proliferation and life stage changes in vitro in response to different nutrient-limiting conditions to determine the key nutrients and to compare the respective symbiont transcriptomic profiles to cells in hospite. We then examined the effects of nutrient repletion on symbiont proliferation in coral hosts and quantified life stage transitions in vitro using time-lapse confocal imaging. Here, we show that symbionts in hospite share gene expression and pathway activation profiles with free-living cells under nitrogen-limited conditions, strongly suggesting that symbiont proliferation in symbiosis is limited by nitrogen availability. Conclusions We demonstrate that nitrogen limitation not only suppresses cell proliferation but also life stage transition to maintain symbionts in the immobile coccoid stage. Nutrient repletion experiments in corals further confirmed that nitrogen availability is the major factor limiting symbiont density in hospite. Our study emphasizes the importance of nitrogen in coral-algae interactions and, more importantly, sheds light on the crucial role of nitrogen in symbiont life history regulation.

Current preclinical imaging of intestine in animal models cannot reveal intestinal dynamics in awake condition. Here the authors report a Transillumination Intestine Projection (TIP) imaging system for free-moving mice, and showed the intestine dynamics in conscious animal in natural physiological states.

Abstract Background Hi-C is currently the most widely used assay to investigate the 3D organization of the genome and to study its role in gene regulation, DNA replication, and disease. However, Hi-C experiments are costly to perform and involve multiple complex experimental steps; thus, accurate methods for measuring the quality and reproducibility of Hi-C data are essential to determine whether the output should be used further in a study. Results Using real and simulated data, we profile the performance of several recently proposed methods for assessing reproducibility of population Hi-C data, including HiCRep, GenomeDISCO, HiC-Spector, and QuASAR-Rep. By explicitly controlling noise and sparsity through simulations, we demonstrate the deficiencies of performing simple correlation analysis on pairs of matrices, and we show that methods developed specifically for Hi-C data produce better measures of reproducibility. We also show how to use established measures, such as the ratio of intra- to interchromosomal interactions, and novel ones, such as QuASAR-QC, to identify low-quality experiments. Conclusions In this work, we assess reproducibility and quality measures by varying sequencing depth, resolution and noise levels in Hi-C data from 13 cell lines, with two biological replicates each, as well as 176 simulated matrices. Through this extensive validation and benchmarking of Hi-C data, we describe best practices for reproducibility and quality assessment of Hi-C experiments. We make all software publicly available at http://github.com/kundajelab/3DChromatin_ReplicateQC to facilitate adoption in the community.

The inactive X chromosome (Xi) has an atypical structure, with global loss of TADs, A/B compartments and formation of mega-domains. Here the authors show that the non-canonical SMC family protein, SmcHD1, important for developmental gene silencing on Xi, antagonises TAD formation and compartmentalization on the Xi in a transcription independent way.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an incurable disease that affects 1. 25 million Americans. Diabetic patients typically rely on subcutaneous insulin infusions to regulate their glucose levels. A major contributor to their blood glucose levels is the amount of sugar intake, which cannot be easily tracked. While ultrasound imaging has been used to investigate the relationship between food characteristics and tongue movement, the technique utilized a bulky transducer array that cannot be translated into daily monitoring. Capitalizing on advanced electronics and data processing technologies, we developed a portable system that utilizes only a single ceramic disk to quantify the tongue movement in response to various levels of sweetness. After acquiring 32 subject datasets, we found a significant correlation between food sweetness and tongue movement. Our system can potentially be miniaturized into a wearable device for monitoring sugar intake, which will ultimately help T1D patients to better monitor and control their blood glucose levels and balance their diets accordingly.

As a hybrid imaging modality that combines optical excitation with acoustic detection, photoacoustic tomography (PAT) has become one of the fastest growing biomedical imaging modalities. Among various types of transducer arrays used in a PAT system configuration, the linear array is the most commonly utilized due to its convenience and low-cost. Although linear array-based PAT has been quickly developed within the recent decade, there are still two major challenges that impair the overall performance of the PAT imaging system. The first challenge is that the three-dimensional (3D) imaging capability of a linear array is limited due to its poor elevational resolution. The other challenge is that the geometrical shape of the linear array constrains light illumination. To date, substantial efforts have been made to address the aforementioned challenges. This review will present current technologies for improving the elevation resolution and light delivery of linear array-based PAT systems.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has emerged as an important modality for cancer treatment. SDT utilizes ultrasound excitation, which overcomes the limitations of light penetration in deep tumors, as encountered by photodynamic therapy (PDT) which uses optical excitations. A comparative study of these modalities using the same sensitizer drug can provide an assessment of their effects. However, the efficiency of SDT and PDT is low in a hypoxic tumor environment, which limits their applications. In this study, we report a hierarchical nanoformulation which contains a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sensitizer chlorin, e6, and a uniquely stable high loading capacity oxygen carrier, perfluoropolyether. This oxygen carrier possesses no measurable cytotoxicity. It delivers oxygen to overcome hypoxia, and at the same time, boosts the efficiency of both SDT and PDT. Moreover, we comparatively analyzed the efficiency of SDT and PDT for tumor treatment throughout the depth of the tissue. Our study demonstrates that the strengths of PDT and SDT could be combined into a single multifunctional nanoplatform, which works well in the hypoxia environment and overcomes the limitations of each modality. The combination of deep tissue penetration by ultrasound and high spatial activation by light for selective treatment of single cells will significantly enhance the scope for therapeutic applications.

This paper proposes a segmentation-based global optimization method for depth estimation. Firstly, for obtaining accurate matching cost, the original local stereo matching approach based on self-adapting matching window is integrated with two matching cost optimization strategies aiming at handling both borders and occlusion regions. Secondly, we employ a comprehensive smooth term to satisfy diverse smoothness request in real scene. Thirdly, a selective segmentation term is used for enforcing the plane trend constraints selectively on the corresponding segments to further improve the accuracy of depth results from object level. Experiments on the Middlebury image pairs show that the proposed global optimization approach is considerably competitive with other state-of-the-art matching approaches.

Dysregulated lysophosphatidic acid receptor 1 (LPAR1) signaling is implicated in fibrotic diseases, including systemic sclerosis (SSc) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Fipaxalparant (HZN‐825) is a small molecule acting as a negative allosteric modulator of LPAR1 and is in phase 2 clinical evaluations for treating diffuse cutaneous SSc and IPF. This open‐label, phase 1 study examined the pharmacokinetics (PKs), food effect, and safety of fipaxalparant in healthy volunteers. Dose proportionality was evaluated for fipaxalparant single doses of 150, 300, and 450 mg under fasted conditions. Food effect was tested with a 450‐mg single dose under fasted conditions or with a high‐fat meal. Multiple‐dose PKs for twice‐daily dosing of either 300 or 450 mg with low‐ or high‐fat meals was also assessed. Fipaxalparant was safe and well tolerated in healthy volunteers (n = 36) under all conditions. Fipaxalparant exposure increased in a less than dose‐proportional manner from 150 to 450 mg. At 450 mg, a high‐fat meal increased the maximum observed concentration and area under the curve by approximately 1.9‐ and 2.1‐fold, respectively. These results, combined with prior preclinical and phase 2a data, informed dose selection of fipaxalparant 300 mg once and twice daily with a meal for phase 2b studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy of ritlecitinib, an oral JAK3/TEC family kinase inhibitor, on active and stable lesions was evaluated in patients with active non-segmental vitiligo in a phase 2b trial (NCT03715829). Patients were randomized to placebo or daily ritlecitinib 50 mg (with or without 4-week 100-mg or 200-mg loading dose), 30 mg, or 10 mg for 24 weeks. Active lesions showed greater baseline expression of inflammatory/immune markers IFNG and CCL5, levels of CD103, and T-cell infiltrates than stable lesions. Patients with more active than stable vitiligo lesions showed higher baseline serum levels of CXCL9 and PD-L1, while patients with more stable than active lesions showed higher baseline serum levels of HO-1. At Week 24, ritlecitinib 50 mg significantly stabilized mean percent change from baseline in depigmentation extent in both active lesions and stable lesions vs. placebo-response, with stable lesions showing greater repigmentation. After 24 weeks of treatment, ritlecitinib 50 mg increased expression of melanocyte markers in stable lesions, while Th1/Th2-related and co-stimulatory molecules decreased significantly in both stable and active lesions. Serum from patients with more active than stable lesions showed decreased levels of ICOS and NK cell activation markers. These data, confirmed at transcription/protein levels, indicate that stable lesion repigmentation occurs early with ritlecitinib, while active lesions require stabilization of inflammation first. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03715829. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoporosis, a skeletal ailment marked by bone metabolism imbalance and disruption of bone microarchitecture, Neferine, a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid with diverse pharmacological activities, has received limited attention in the context of osteoporosis treatment. We employed a bilateral ovariectomy (OVX) rat model to induce osteoporosis and subsequently administered Neferine treatment for four weeks following successful model establishment. Throughout the modeling and treatment phases, we closely monitored rat body weights. We assessed alterations in bone tissue microstructure through micro-CT, HE staining, and safranin O-fast green staining. Levels of bone formation and resorption markers in serum were evaluated using ELISA assay. Western blot analysis was employed to determine the expression levels of p38MAPK, p-p38MAPK, and bone formation-related genes in bone tissue. We isolated and cultured OVX rat BMSCs (OVX-BMSCs) and induced osteogenic differentiation while simultaneously introducing Neferine and the p38MAPK inhibitor SB203580 for intervention. Neferine treatment effectively curbed the rapid weight gain in OVX rats, ameliorated bone loss, and decreased serum levels of TRAP, CTX-I, PINP, and BALP. Most notably, Neferine promoted the expression of bone formation-related factors in bone tissue of OVX rats, while concurrently activating the p38MAPK signaling pathway. In in vitro experiments, Neferine facilitated the expression of bone formation-related factors in OVX-BMSCs, increased the osteogenic differentiation potential of OVX-BMSCs, and activated the p38MAPK signaling pathway. Nevertheless, SB203580 partially reversed Neferine's promotive effect. Neferine can boost the osteoblastic differentiation of BMSCs and alleviate OVX-induced osteoporosis in rats by activating the p38MAPK signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]