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Rice bran protein (RBP) hydrolysis was conducted after high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) pretreatment. The structural and functional properties of HHP-pretreated rice bran protein hydrolysates (RBPH) were investigated. HHP pretreatments were conducted at 100, 200, and 300 MPa; then, enzymatic hydrolysis at atmospheric pressure was performed using trypsin. An RBPH sample that had not been pretreated by HHP was used as a control. Free sulfhydryl (SH) content, SDS-PAGE profiles, high-performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), intrinsic fluorescence spectrum, solubility, and emulsifying and foaming properties were evaluated. Changes in particle size and ζ-potential were monitored. Compared with the control, the results of solubility, the emulsifying activity index (EAI) and the emulsifying stability index (ESI) increased significantly (p < 0.05) at 200 MPa. The content of free SH increased significantly (p < 0.05) at 100 MPa. FTIR spectrum and fluorescence analysis confirmed the changes in the secondary and tertiary structures. The experimental results indicated that the structural and functional properties of HHP-pretreated RBPH improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perchiorate is widely known as an inorganic endocrine disruptor. In this study, MgAI-C03 layered double hydroxides with different Mg/Al molar ratios were prepared using a coprecipitation method and followed by a calcination process at a temperature range of 300 to 700°C. Results showed that the best synthesis conditions were a calcination temperature of 550°C and Mg/Al molar ratio of 3. Further, the adsorbent and its adsorption product were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Fourier transforminfrared spectroscopy, and thermogravi-metric-differential thermal analysis. The layered double hydroxides structures in the adsorbent were lost during calcination at 550°C but were reconstructed subsequent to adsorption of perchlorate, indicating that the "memory effect" appeared to play an important role in perchlorate adsorption. The perchlorate adsorption pattern was best described by the pseudo-second-order kinetics model, while the Freundlich isotherms appropriately explained perchlorate adsorption data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is associated with cognitive decline in early Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the underlyling basis for this association remains unclear. Methods: Parkinson's Progression Marker's Initiative (PPMI) subjects underwent baseline RBD testing with RBD sleep questionnaire (RBDSQ). Serial assessments included measures of motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms (NMS), neuropsychological assessment, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers. Up to three years follow-up data were included. We stratified early PD subjects into PD with RBD (RBDSQ score > 5) and PD without RBD groups. Then, we evaluated baseline biomarkers in each group as a predictor of cognitive decline using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score changes over three years in regression models. Results: Four hundred twenty-three PD subjects were enrolled at baseline, and a total of 350 PD subjects had completed 3 years of study follow-up with completely serial assessments. We found that at baseline, only CSF β-amyloid 1–42 (Aβ1–42) was significantly lower in PD subjects with RBD. On three years follow-up analysis, PD subjects with RBD were more likely to develop incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and presented greater cognitive decline in MoCA score. Lower baseline CSF Aβ1–42 predicted cognitive decline over 3 years only in PD subjects with RBD (β = − 0.03, P = 0.003). A significant interaction between Aβ1–42 and the 2 groups confirmed that this effect was indeed higher in PD with RBD than the other individual (β = − 2.85, P = 0.014). Conclusion: These findings indicate that CSF Aβ1–42 level is associated with global cognitive decline in early PD with RBD. The addition of CSF Aβ1–42 to RBD testing increase the likelihood of identifying those at high risk for cognitive decline in early PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat soaking is an essential factor deciding the final quality of hard-to-cook grains. In this study, the morphological structures, visualization features, and physicochemical characteristics of adlay seeds soaked at 30–70 °C were investigated compared with waxy rice (easy to cook). The morphology of macromolecules and section cracks were observed by scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy as these are the crucial factors for penetrate water penetration, which showed that starch granules were slightly eroded when adlay seeds were soaked at 70 °C. The MRI images showed that at higher soaking temperatures, the moisture of soaked adlay seeds was distributed more evenly across a gradient. Meanwhile, heat soaking has a minor effect on starch and protein content of adlay seeds, and the proportion of bound water of adlay seeds slightly declined after heat soaking. Moreover, hardness analysis and pasting measurements exhibited structural changes and viscosity transition in the grains. However, the contribution of heat soaking to the infrared spectrogram and relative crystallinity of adlay seeds was insignificant. This study provides effective methods to evaluate changes in adlay seeds during heat soaking and explains why it is hard to cook. Does heat soaking of adlay seeds (Coix lacryma-jobi L.) decide its morphological structures, visualization features, and physicochemical characteristics? Image 1 • Soaking temperature had no great influence on the micro-morphology of adlay seeds. • The hardness of adlay seeds changed significantly but exhibited a non-linear trend. • Moisture distribution change in a grain during soaking was visualized by MRI. • The peak viscosity of adlay seed flour was increased with soaking temperature. • The contribution of soaking temperatures to RC of adlay seeds is insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity is closely associated with lipid accumulation, inflammation and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis. Short- and long-chain type structured lipids (SLCTs) are kinds of low-calorie structured lipids and demonstrate anti-obesity and hypolipidemia bioactivity. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential effects of dietary supplementation of SLCTs rich in short-chain fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids on high-fat-diet-induced obesity and gut microbiota modulation in C57BL/6J mice., Results: Results showed that SLCTs supplementation ameliorated body weight, dyslipidemia, liver lipid accumulation, liver injury and systemic inflammation in obese mice. As expected, immunohistochemical analysis showed that SLCTs significantly increased the expression of proliferator-activated receptor alpha and decreased the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 in liver tissue. Furthermore, SLCTs supplementation significantly downregulated the expression level of liver inflammation-related genes while upregulating the expression level of liver lipid metabolism-related genes. Additionally, SLCTs supplementation markedly enhanced the diversity of gut microbiota, reduced the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and increased the diversity and richness of beneficial intestinal microorganisms, such as Bacteroides, Lactobacillus, Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group, Alloprevotella and Ruminococcaceae UCG-014., Conclusion: Our work suggested that SLCTs may have the potential to reduce obesity associated with a high-fat diet by regulating liver metabolism, inflammation and gut microbiota. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Converting plastics into organic matter by photoreforming is an emerging way to deal with plastic pollution and produce valuable organic matter. Water shortage can be alleviated by using seawater resources. To solve these problems, we synthesize a ternary heterostructure composite g-C 3 N 4 /CdS/NiS. Heterojunctions are formed between graphitized carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ), cadmium sulfide (CdS) and nickel sulfide (NiS), which effectively improve the problem of fast charge recombination of pure g-C 3 N 4 and CdS. The results of the g-C 3 N 4 /CdS/NiS photocatalytic tests show that the hydrogen production rates in seawater and pure water for 5 h are 30.44 and 25.79 mmol/g/h, respectively. In stability test, the hydrogen production rate of the g-C 3 N 4 /CdS/NiS in seawater and pure water is similar. This suggests that seawater can replace pure water as a source of hydrogen. While H 2 is generated, the lactate obtained by polylactic acid (PLA) hydrolysis is oxidized to form small organic compounds such as formate, acetate and pyruvate. Our study shows that g-C 3 N 4 /CdS/NiS can not only use seawater as a hydrogen source to produce H 2 , but also photoreformate plastics dissolved in seawater into valuable small organic molecules. This has a positive impact on the production and use of clean energy, as well as on plastic pollution and water scarcity., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

High power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have always been awe-inspiring, but perovskite films scalability is an exacting precondition for PSCs commercial deployment, generally unachievable through the antisolvent technique. On the contrary, in the two-step sequential method, the perovskite's uncontrolled crystallization and unnecessary PbI 2 residue impede the device's performance. These two issues motivated to empower the PbI 2 substrate with orthorhombic RbPbI 3 crystal seeds, which act as grown nuclei and develop orientated perovskites lattice stacks, improving the perovskite films morphologically and reducing the PbI 2 content in eventual perovskite films. Thence, achieving a PCE of 24.17% with suppressed voltage losses and an impressive life span of 1140 h in the open air., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Armillaria mellea polysaccharides (AMPs) were obtained by ultrasonic assisted extraction (U), enzyme assisted extraction (E) and ultrasonic-enzyme assisted extraction (UE), respectively. The yield of UE-AMPs (6.32 ± 0.14%) was 1.64 times higher than that of U-AMPs (3.86 ± 0.11%) and 1.21 times higher than that of E-AMPs (5.21 ± 0.09%); meanwhile, the highest total sugar content and the lowest protein content were found in UE-AMPs. AMPs obtained from the three extraction methods had the same monosaccharide composition but in different proportions, allowing UE-AMPs to have the most potent antioxidant activity. The antidiabetic activity of UE-AMPs was investigated in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. UE-AMPs, when given by gavage, greatly prevented weight loss, increased water intake, and considerably decreased blood glucose levels in diabetic mice, which were dose-dependent (P < 0.05). In addition, UE-AMPs also had a positive effect on the reduction of lipid levels in the blood, oxidative damage and liver function impairment. The pathological observation by hematoxylin-eosin staining (HE) revealed that UE-AMPs protected the organs of mice from diabetic complications (liver disease and nephropathy). Hence, our findings demonstrate that UE-AMPs are a suitable choice for improving diabetes and its complications and have great application prospects in the fields of natural medicine and functional food., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

WHIRLY (WHY) family proteins, a small family of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding proteins, are widely found in plants and have multiple functions to regulate plant growth and development. However, WHY in rice has received less attention. In this study, we continued our previous study on OsTRX z that is important for chloroplast development. OsTRX z was discovered to interact with OsWHY1, which was confirmed using yeast two-hybrid, pull-down, and BiFC assays. Subsequently, the oswhy1 mutants were obtained by CRISPR/Cas9, which exhibited an albino phenotype and died after the three-leaf stage. Consistent with this albino phenotype, low amounts of Chl a, Chl b, and Car were detected in the oswhy1-1 mutant. Moreover, the oswhy1-1 mutant had chloroplasts with disrupted architecture and no stacked grana and thylakoid membranes. Subcellular localization showed that the OsWHY1-GFP fusion protein was targeted to the chloroplast. What's more, OsWHY1 was found to be preferentially expressed in young leaves and was involved in chloroplast RNA editing and splicing. Mutation of OsWHY1 significantly affected the expression of chloroplast and ribosome development-related and chlorophyll synthesis-related genes. In conclusion, OsWHY1 contributes to early chloroplast development and normal seedling survival in rice. These results will further elucidate the molecular mechanism of chloroplast development and expand our understanding of WHY1 functions., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The aim of the paper was to investigate the effect of ultrasonic emulsification treatment on the fabrication mechanism and stability of the emulsion. The covalent conjugate made with rice bran protein hydrolysate (RBPH) and ferulic acid (FA) was used as the emulsifier. The effects of high intensity ultrasound (HIU) power with different level (0 W, 150 W, 300 W, 450 W and 600 W) on the stability of emulsion were evaluated. The results showed that ultrasonic emulsification can significantly improve the stability of the emulsions (p < 0.05). The emulsion gained better stability and emulsifying property at 300 W. It was able to fabricate emulsion with smaller particle size, more uniform distribution and higher interfacial protein content. It was confirmed by fluorescent microscopy and cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) furtherly. And it was also proved that the emulsion treated by proper HIU treatment at 300 W had better storage stability. Excessive HIU treatment (450 W, 600 W) had negative effects on the stability of emulsion. The stability of emulsion (300 W) against different environmental stresses was further explored, which established a theoretical basis for the industrial application of emulsion in food industry., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, daidzein microparticles (DMP) were prepared using an improved ultrasound-assisted antisolvent precipitation method. Preliminary experiments were conducted using six single-factor experiments, and principal component analysis (PCA) was adopted to obtain the three staple elements of the ultrasonic power, solution concentration, and nozzle diameter. The response surface Box-Behnken (BBD) design was used to optimize the level of the above factors. The optimal preparation conditions of the DMP were obtained as follows: the flow rate was 4 mL/min, the concentration of the daidzein solution was 16 mg/mL, the ratio of antisolvent to solvent (liquid-to-liquid ratio) was 9, the nozzle diameter was 300 μm, the ultrasonic power was 180 W (665 W/L), and the system speed was 760 r/min. The minimum average particle size of DMP was 181 ± 2 nm. The properties of daidzein particles before and after preparation were analyzed via scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, Differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, no obvious change in its chemical structure was observed, but crystallinity was reduced. Compared with daidzein powder, DMP has a higher solubility and stronger antioxidant capacity. The above results indicate that the improved method of ultrasonication combined with antisolvent can reduce the size of daidzein particles and has a great potential in practical production., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In Li-ion batteries, the phase transition usually determines the electrochemical kinetics of some two-phase electrode materials, and it can be adopted to excellently interpret the memory effect of Li-ion batteries, therefore the size dependence of phase transition was expected to affect the memory effect significantly. In this work, we investigated the memory effect and phase transition of olivine LiFePO 4 in Li-ion batteries. Through electrochemical measurements, we found that the memory effect of LiFePO 4 was dependent on the particle size, especially after a long-time relaxation. By using the in situ X-ray diffraction, we found that the phase transition of nano-LiFePO 4 was ahead of the charging and discharging processes, while it took place concurrently or later for micro-LiFePO 4 , which might be attributed to the high-specific two-phase boundary of nano-LiFePO 4 . Furthermore, the phase-transition diagram was adopted to interpret the size-dependent memory effect schematically. Notably, it is the first time to report the phase transition ahead of (dis)charging for nano-LiFePO 4 , which is significant to understand the phase transition of two-phase electrode materials, as well as the relevant phenomena, such as the memory effect.

Objective: To analyze the clinical feature of early newborn infants with congenital heart disease., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features of 477 newborn infants with congenital heart disease born within seven days out of 28 050 live births in Shaoxing women and children hospital from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2012. Infants with congenital heart disease were divided into single malformation group (240 cases), composite deformity group (199 cases) and multiple malformations group (38 cases). Differences of clinical feature were compared between the three groups., Results: Atrial septal defect was the most malformation 91.6% (437/477) .Incidence of preterm birth was higher in newborn inants with congenital heart disease [512.23/10 000(134/2 616)] than infants without without congenital heart disease [134.86/10 000 (343/25 434) , P < 0.01]. Proportion of preterm birth among the three congenital heart disease groups was similar (P > 0.05) . The incidence of small for gestational age in congenital heart disease group (10.90%, 52/477) was also significantly higher than those without congenital heart disease group (5.91%, 1 630/27 573, P < 0.01).Small for gestational age with congenital heart disease of complex malformations, multiple malformations groups was higher than that in the single malformation group (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05)., Conclusions: Early newborn with atrial septal defect is the most common neonatal congenital heart disease. The incidence of preterm is higher in newborn infants with congenital heart disease. Complex and multiple malformations are linked with small for gestational age birth weight.

Perchlorate is widely known as an inorganic endocrine disruptor. In this study, MgAl-CO3 layered double hydroxides with different Mg/Al molar ratios were prepared using a coprecipitation method and followed by a calcination process at a temperature range of 300 to 700 degrees C. Results showed that the best synthesis conditions were a calcination temperature of 550 degrees C and Mg/Al molar ratio of 3. Further, the adsorbent and its adsorption product were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis. The layered double hydroxides structures in the adsorbent were lost during calcination at 550 degrees C but were reconstructed subsequent to adsorption of perchlorate, indicating that the "memory effect" appeared to play an important role in perchlorate adsorption. The perchlorate adsorption pattern was best described by the pseudo-second-order kinetics model, while the Freundlich isotherms appropriately explained perchlorate adsorption data.