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Brown adipose tissue (BAT) improves the metabolic level of the body by promoting energy expenditure, which can contribute to the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, and BAT has become a new target for the treatment of metabolic diseases. BAT activity enhancement in the body is a hot topic but also a challenge for researchers, and research and analysis of functionally active factors in foods that regulate BAT can help to develop new nutritional activators. In this paper, we summarize the development and thermogenesis of BAT and thermogenesis-related factors, and review active ingredients in foods that regulate brown fat and their mechanisms of action, and briefly introduce the effects of white adipose tissue (WAT) and BAT on the body’s health. We also discuss recent developments in understanding the role of BAT in regulating energy metabolic balance and various diseases in the body. We hope that the present review will provide a theoretical basis for future development of brown adipose nutritional activators and improvement of individualized healthy dietary management programs in order to prevent and treat various diseases.

为了提高牦牛酥油的品质，以青藏高原牦牛乳为原料制得牦牛酥油后，采用水化脱胶和碱炼脱酸法对其进行精炼处理。通过单因素试验研究50%柠檬酸添加量、脱胶温度和脱胶时间对脱胶率的影响，并通过正交试验优化脱胶工艺；通过单因素试验研究脱酸温度、超碱量、碱液质量分数和脱酸时间对脱酸率的影响，同时通过响应面试验优化脱酸工艺。采用气质联用技术（GC-MS）分析精炼前后牦牛酥油的脂肪酸组成和挥发性成分。结果表明：最佳的脱胶工艺条件为50%柠檬酸添加量0.6%、脱胶温度60 ℃、脱胶时间30 min，在此条件下脱胶率可达94.12%；最佳的脱酸工艺条件为超碱量0.4%、碱液质量分数10%、脱酸温度60 ℃、脱酸时间30 min，在此条件下脱酸率达91.85%；经脱胶和脱酸处理后牦牛酥油磷脂含量、过氧化值和酸值均显著降低，色泽呈黄色且透明，不饱和脂肪酸含量显著增加，挥发性成分中醛类、酮类化合物含量均显著增加，酸类化合物含量显著减少。综上，经脱胶和脱酸精炼处理后，牦牛酥油色泽和风味明显改善，品质得到提高。 In order to improve the quality of yak ghee, the yak ghee was prepared from the yak milk from Qinghai Tibet plateau, and then was refined by hydration degumming and alkali deacidification. The effects of 50% citric acid addition, degumming temperature and degumming time on degumming rate were investigated by single factor experiment, and the degumming process was optimized by orthogonal experiment. The effects of deacidification temperature, excess alkali quantity, alkali mass fraction and deacidification time on deacidification rate were investigated by single factor experiment, and the deacidification process was optimized by response surface methodology. The fatty acid composition and volatile components of yak ghee were analyzed by GC-MS. The results showed that the optimal degumming process conditions were 50% citric acid addition 0.6%, degumming temperature 60 ℃ and degumming time 30 min, and the degumming rate could reach 94.12%. The optimal deacidification process conditions were excess alkali quantity 0.4%, alkali mass fraction 10%, deacidification temperature 60 ℃ and deacidification time 30 min, and the deacidification rate could reach 91.85%. After degumming and deacidification, the content of phospholipid, peroxide value and acid value of yak ghee decreased significantly, the color was yellow and transparent, the content of unsaturated fatty acids increased significantly, the content of volatile components aldehydes and ketones increased significantly, while the content of acid compounds decreased significantly. In conclusion, after degumming and deacidification, the color and flavor of yak ghee improved obviously, and the quality of yak ghee improved.

The rapid development of new energy makes the distribution network project face higher management requirements, the traditional distribution network project mainly focuses on transmission and transformer unidirectional circulation, to today's optical storage and charging, source network and load storage, micro-grid, virtual power plant and other "multi-terminal active module" together to form a multidirectional concurrency of the new distribution network. If the distribution stage is not well coordinated, the existing distribution network may be impacted. In order to improve the management pain points, this paper first discusses the status quo and pain points of traditional distribution network project management, and then takes a self-developed new energy project management system as a typical case, which is expected to explore a management system paradigm applicable to the new integrated distribution network project, and how to integrate the old and new energy sources from the perspective of project management, which will indirectly have a positive effect on the growth of the investment benefits.

植物甾醇作为一种食物来源中的功能性成分，对人体产生有益的影响。近年来，植物甾醇由于其安全性和有效的抗炎活性而受到广泛关注。为系统介绍植物甾醇的抗炎作用，综述了植物甾醇对多种炎症抑制作用的分子机制，包括对细胞因子和其他炎症相关因子、NF-KB信号通路及免疫系统的影响，介绍了植物甾醇对结肠炎、前列腺炎、肝炎及其他炎症的作用。植物甾醇是一种有效抗炎的活性物质，未来仍需系统研究其抗炎分子机制及进行临床研究。As a functional ingredient in food sources, phytosterols have a beneficial effect on the human body. In recent years, phytosterols have received widespread attention due to their safety and effective anti-inflammatory activity. In order to systematically summarize the function in anti-inflammation of phytosterols, the molecular mechanism of the inhibitory effects of phytosterols on various inflammations, including the effects on cytokines and other inflammation related factors, NF-KB signal pathway and immune system, and the effects of phytosterols on colitis, prostatitis, hepatitis and other inflammation were introduced. Phytosterol is an effective anti-inflammatory active substance. In the future, its anti-inflammatory molecular mechanism needs to be studied systematically and the clinical research needs to be carried out.

In this paper, a rail-to-rail transconductance stable and enhanced ultra-low-voltage operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is proposed for electrocardiogram (ECG) signal processing. The variation regularity of the bulk transconductance of pMOS and nMOS transistors and the cancellation mechanism of two types of transconductance variations are revealed. On this basis, a transconductance stabilization and enhancement technique is proposed. By using the "current-reused and transconductance-boosted complementary bulk-driven pseudo-differential pairs" structure, the bulk-driven pseudo-differential pair during the input common-mode range (ICMR) is stabilized and enhanced. The proposed OTA based on this technology is simulated using the TSMC 0.18 μm process in a Cadence environment. The proposed OTA consumes a power below 30 nW at a 0.4 V voltage supply with a DC gain of 54.9 dB and a gain-bandwidth product (GBW) of 14.4 kHz under a 15 pF capacitance load. The OTA has a high small signal figure-of-merit (FoM) of 7410 and excellent common-mode voltage (VCM) stability, with a transconductance variation of about 1.35%. Based on a current-scaling version of the proposed OTA, an OTA-C low-pass filter (LPF) for ECG signal processing with VCM stability is built and simulated. With a −3 dB bandwidth of 250 Hz and a power consumption of 20.23 nW, the filter achieves a FoM of 3.41 × 10−13, demonstrating good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomaterials with dual functions of osteoimmunomodulation and bone repair are very promising in the field of orthopedic materials. For this purpose, we prepared copper-based carbon dots (CuCDs) and doped them into oxychondroitin sulfate/poly-acrylamide hydrogel (OPAM) to obtain a hybrid hydrogel (CuCDs/OPAM). We evaluated its osteoimmunomodulatory and bone repair properties in vitro and in vivo. The obtained CuCDs/OPAM exhibited good rBMSCs-cytocompatibility and anti-inflammatory properties in vitro. It also could effectively promote rBMSCs differentiation and the expression of osteogenic differentiation factors from rBMSCs under an inflammatory environment. Moreover, CuCDs/OPAM could induce macrophage phenotype switching (from M1-type macrophages to M2-type macrophages) in vivo, which is beneficial for anti-inflammatory action and presents good osteoimmunomodulation capability to induce a bone immune microenvironment to promote the differentiation of rBMSCs. In conclusion, CuCDs/OPAM hydrogel has dual functions of osteoimmunomodulatory and bone repair and is a promising bone filling and repair material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting objects, particularly naval mines, on the seafloor is a complex task. In naval mine countermeasures (MCM) operations, sidescan or synthetic aperture sonars have been used to search large areas. However, a single sensor cannot meet the requirements of high-precision autonomous navigation. Based on the ORB-SLAM3-VI framework, we propose ORB-SLAM3-VIP, which integrates a depth sensor, an IMU sensor and an optical sensor. This method integrates the measurements of depth sensors and an IMU sensor into the visual SLAM algorithm through tight coupling, and establishes a multi-sensor fusion SLAM model. Depth constraints are introduced into the process of initialization, scale fine-tuning, tracking and mapping to constrain the position of the sensor in the z-axis and improve the accuracy of pose estimation and map scale estimate. The test on seven sets of underwater multi-sensor sequence data in the AQUALOC dataset shows that, compared with ORB-SLAM3-VI, the ORB-SLAM3-VIP system proposed in this paper reduces the scale error in all sequences by up to 41.2%, and reduces the trajectory error by up to 41.2%. The square root has also been reduced by up to 41.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repairing articular cartilage defects is a great challenge due to the poor self-regenerative capability of cartilage. Inspired by active substances found in the natural cartilage extracellular matrix, we used methacrylated carboxymethyl chitosan (MA-CMCS) and oxidized locust bean gum (OLBG) as the hydrogel backbone, and prepared a photocrosslinked dual network hydrogel containing allicin and decellularized cartilage powder (DCP). The rheological, swelling and water retention capacities of MA-CMCS@OLBG-Allicin/DCP (MCOAC) hydrogels were investigated to confirm the successful preparation of hydrogels suitable for cartilage repair. The MCOAC hydrogels showed good antibacterial ability to kill S. aureus and E. coli and anti-inflammatory properties due to the introduction of allicin. Furthermore, MA-CMCS@OLBG-Allicin/DCP hydrogels presented good cytocompatibility due to the addition of DCP, which could promote chondrocyte proliferation and promote the differentiation of BMSCs to chondrocytes. Further studies in vivo demonstrated that the DCP-contained MCOAC hydrogel exhibited superior performance in promoting cartilage tissue growth and wound healing in articular cartilage defects. Thus, the MCOAC hydrogel is a promising cartilage repair hydrogel with potential for clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs) are natural components with a variety of biological activities. However, the regulation of lipid metabolism by BCFAs is unknown. It was dedicated to examining the impacts of BCFAs inferred from yak ghee on the expression of qualities related to lipid metabolism, natural pathways, and intestinal microbiota in mice. The treatment group (purified BCFAs from yak ghee) exhibited a decrease in cholesterol levels; a decrease in HMGCR levels; downregulation of FADS1, FADS2, ACC-α, FAS, GAPT4, GPAM, ACSL1, THRSP, A-FABP, and PPARα gene expression; and upregulation of SCD1, ACSS1, FABP1, CPT1, and DGAT-1 gene expression. Gut microbiota 16S rDNA sequencing analysis showed that the treatment group improved the gut microbiota by increasing the relative abundances and increasing the short-chain fatty acid levels produced by the genera Akkermansia, Clostridium, Lachnospiraceae, Lactobacillus, Anaerotaenia, and Prevotella. After adding BCFAs to cultured breast cancer cells, pathways that were downregulated were found to be related to fatty acid degradation and fatty acid metabolism, while 20 other pathways were upregulated. Our results suggest that BCFAs reduce body fat in mice by modulating intestinal flora and lipid metabolism and modulating fatty acid metabolism in breast cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the active ingredients of barley lees on the physiological indexes, intestinal flora, and liver transcriptome of mice fed a high‐fat diet. Twenty‐four male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into 4 groups and fed the experimental diets for 5 weeks. The results showed that the fat‐soluble components of distillers' grains significantly reduced body weight, abdominal fat, perirenal fat, blood glucose, low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and total cholesterol in the high‐fat diet‐fed mice (p <.05), significantly decreased alanine aminotransferase and malondialdehyde levels, and significantly increased total superoxide dismutase, catalase, reduced glutathione and glutathione peroxidase levels (p <.05). At the phylum level, lipid‐soluble components significantly increased the abundance of Bacteroidetes and decreased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio. At the genus level, the relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Clostridium were increased. Transcriptomic analysis showed that lipid‐soluble components of spent grains reduced the mRNA expression of ANGPTL8, CD36, PLTP, and SOAT1 and increased the mRNA expression of CYP7A1 and ABCA1 in the cholesterol metabolism pathway, promoted the transport of cholesterol, and inhibited the absorption of cholesterol, which can decrease cholesterol levels by speeding up the conversion of cholesterol into bile acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was aimed to assess the distribution of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium within the casein micelles of yak milk. To this aim, nine bulk yak milk samples (Y-milk), collected in three yak farms located in the Chinese province of Qinghai, were compared to nine bulk cow milk samples used as a reference. A quite similar content of colloidal calcium (0.80 vs. 0.77 mmol/g of casein; p > 0.05), a higher content of magnesium (0.05 vs. 0.04 mmol/g of casein; p ≤ 0.01) and a lower content of colloidal phosphorus (0.48 vs. 0.56 mmol/g of casein; p ≤ 0.01) between yak and cow casein micelles were found. Moreover, the yak casein micelles showed a lower value of prosthetic phosphorus (0.20 vs. 0.26 mmol/g of casein; p ≤ 0.05) compared to the cow micelles. The lower values of colloidal and prosthetic phosphorus in yak casein micelles suggest that the yak casein is less phosphorylated than the cow one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naringin (Nar), a natural flavanone glycoside, has been shown to possess a variety of biological activities, including anti‐inflammatory, anti‐apoptotic, bone formation, and so forth. In this study, Nar was oxidized by sodium periodate and the oxidized naringin (ONar) was used as a novel biological crosslinking agent. In addition, ONar‐fixed porcine decellularized Achilles tendon (DAT) was developed to substitute anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) for researching a novel ACL replacement material. The ONar with a 24 h oxidation time had appropriate aldehyde group content, almost no cytotoxicity, and a good crosslinking effect. The critical characteristics and cytocompatibility of ONar‐fixed DAT were also investigated. The results demonstrated that 1% ONar‐fixed DAT exhibited good resistance to enzymatic degradation and thermal stability as well as suitable mechanical strength. Moreover, 1% ONar‐fixed specimens exhibited excellent L929 fibroblasts‐cytocompatibility and MC3T3‐E1‐cytocompatibility. They also promoted the secretion of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) from fibroblasts and bone morphogenetic protein‐2 (BMP‐2) from osteoblasts. And they also showed the good anti‐inflammatory properties in vivo experiments. Our data provided an experimental basis for ONar as a new cross‐linking reagent in chemical modification of DAT and ONar‐fixed DAT for ACL repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensor completion has gained considerable research interest in recent years and has been frequently applied to image restoration. This type of method basically employs the low‐rank nature of images, implicitly requiring that the whole picture is of globally consistent features. As a result, existing tensor completion algorithms often give reasonably good performance if the target image has only random pixel‐level missing. Unfortunately, pixel‐level missing is very rare in practice and it is often wanted to restore an image with irregular hole‐shaped missing, such as removing electricity poles from landscape photos or irrelevant people from tourist photos. This task is extremely difficult for traditional low‐rank based tensor completion methods. To overcome this drawback, a Contour Information regularized Tensor RIng Completion (CITRIC) method is proposed for practical image restoration. Meanwhile, the contour information regularization is used to capture significant local features, whereas the low‐rank tensor ring structure is utilized to capture as much global information as possible. The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is adopted to optimize the cost function. Extensive experimental results using real‐world images show that CITRIC is more practical than existing methods and can restore real‐world images with irregular hole‐shaped missing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocardiograms (ECG) analysis is one of the most important ways to diagnose heart disease. This paper proposes an efficient ECG classification method based on Wasserstein scalar curvature to comprehend the connection between heart disease and the mathematical characteristics of ECG. The newly proposed method converts an ECG into a point cloud on the family of Gaussian distribution, where the pathological characteristics of ECG will be extracted by the Wasserstein geometric structure of the statistical manifold. Technically, this paper defines the histogram dispersion of Wasserstein scalar curvature, which can accurately describe the divergence between different heart diseases. By combining medical experience with mathematical ideas from geometry and data science, this paper provides a feasible algorithm for the new method, and the theoretical analysis of the algorithm is carried out. Digital experiments on the classical database with large samples show the new algorithm's accuracy and efficiency when dealing with the classification of heart disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemic stroke is the most common stroke and the leading cause of disability and death in the world. Computed tomography (CT) is a popular and economical diagnostic device for the stroke, However the ischemic stroke lesions are not evident on CT images and the diagnostic result relies on the visual observation of neurologists, which may vary from doctor to doctor. To facilitate the treatment, a computer‐aided detection algorithm on CT images is proposed to help clinician for the ischemic stroke screening. In order to obtain accurate lesion annotation on CT images, novel automatic algorithms are developed to achieve image pairing, calibration, and registration. Then, a new framework with the symmetric feature extraction and comparison is proposed to identify and locate the ischemic stroke lesion. Experimental results show that this method achieves 75% of DICE in the detection of ischemic stroke lesions, which is higher than other methods by 4%. Its competitive results compared with seven latest methods is shown in terms of extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation. This method can accurately detect the lesion in the CT images through the comparison of symmetric regional features, which has contributed to the clinical diagnosis of ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Yak milk, a staple food in high altitude central Asia, is uniquely rich in branched chain fatty acids. • Yak half lactation stage milkfat is richer in branched fats, reaching 5.3% of fatty acids. • Intake of branched fat in high yak milk consumers can be multiple grams per day, the highest in the world. Branched chain fatty acids (BCFA) are bioactive food compounds and are well known to be essential components of human, cow and caprine milk. In Qinghai-Tibet plateau, yaks are domesticated in large numbers and their milk in addition to meat are commercially important to millions of Tibetans and Chinese. We tested the hypotheses that concentrations of BCFA in yak milk and manure differ between lactation periods and evaluated gene expression levels of certain genes involved in the biosynthesis and elongation of fatty acids. Fresh milk and manure were collected from each yak and their fatty acid compositions compared with emphasis on BCFA. Yak milk and manure samples from the full lactation (October, 2015) and half lactation periods (March, 2016) were collected and BCFA levels were analyzed in detail by GC-FID and structures verified by GC-EI-MS/MS. Gene expression studies were carried out by semi-quantitative real time PCR method. The difference between full lactation and half lactation was tested using student's t -test. Linear regression model was modelled in Excel and its significance was tested by ANOVA. Statistical significance was determined by performing student's t -test for gene expression studies. BCFA ranged from 3–6% of total fatty acids in yak milk samples. The half-lactation yak milk contained higher levels of BCFA (5.29 ± 0.53) than the full-lactation milk (4.00 ± 0.46). The total BCFA in yak manure was found to be 14.67 ± 1.21, high in anteiso- 15:0 and anteiso- 17:0. ELOVL1 enzyme involved in the elongation of saturated C18 to C26 acyl-CoA substrates and MCAT enzyme involved in the transfer of a malonyl group to the mitochondrial acyl carrier protein are significantly upregulated in full-lactation milk. BCFA in yak manure especially anteiso BCFA are positively correlated with yak milk from the same animal, indicating that these BCFA come from dietary sources. Yak milk delivers 777 mg BCFA compared to 158 mg per cup of whole U.S. dairy milk. QTP herders known to consume up to 2 kg of yak yogurt take in an estimated 3,500–5,000 mg BCFA per day. We conclude that BCFA intake for yak milk consumers is among the highest known in the world, higher when drawn from half lactating yaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve elements were analyzed by the ICPAES method for macro (calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, magnesium, potassium, sodium) and micro (cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, zinc, manganese) elements. The macro and micro elements of yak (Qilian) milk were analyzed among different farms and a significant difference was found in phosphorus and sulphur concentrations (P<0.05). Potassium) and sulphur concentrations in yak milk were higher while calcium concentrations were similar to cow milk but lower than milk of other species. Sodium, magnesium and phosphorus concentrations found in this study were in the midrange of those in milk of different animal species. The higher concentrations of potassium and lower concentrations of sodium found in yak milk should be of benefit to patients with hyperpiesia. The composition of yak milk was particularly rich in cobalt, manganese and chromium, while it was deficient in zinc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Wasserstein distance, especially among symmetric positive-definite matrices, has broad and deep influences on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and other branches of computer science. In this paper, by involving the Wasserstein metric on S P D (n) , we obtain computationally feasible expressions for some geometric quantities, including geodesics, exponential maps, the Riemannian connection, Jacobi fields and curvatures, particularly the scalar curvature. Furthermore, we discuss the behavior of geodesics and prove that the manifold is globally geodesic convex. Finally, we design algorithms for point cloud denoising and edge detecting of a polluted image based on the Wasserstein curvature on S P D (n) . The experimental results show the efficiency and robustness of our curvature-based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]