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The incidence of silent cerebral emboli (SCE) associated with atrial fibrillation catheter ablation (AFCA) is much higher than that of stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA). Interventional electrophysiologists have been increasingly alerted to asymptomatic cerebral infarction over the years. Plentiful studies revealed that diagnostic definitions, detection modalities, energy sources, ablation strategies, perioperative anticoagulation regimens, and patient‐related factors were associated with the risk of AFCA‐associated SCE. Studies related to non‐interventional procedures found that SCE may prompt stroke, cognitive decline, and dementia later in life, suggesting a possible role of AFCA‐associated SCE in the cognitive function of patients with AF. However, there is no consistent evidence for this view to date. Given that the majority of patients with AF being elderly and the increased risk of cognitive impairment in AF itself, efforts should be made to minimize the occurrence of AFCA‐associated SCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starch is a readily available and abundant source of biological raw materials and is widely used in the food, medical, and textile industries. However, native starch with insufficient functionality limits its utilization in the above applications; therefore, it is modified through various physical, chemical, enzymatic, genetic and multiple modifications. This review summarized the relationship between structural changes and functional properties of starch subjected to different modified methods, including hydrothermal treatment, microwave, pre-gelatinization, ball milling, ultrasonication, radiation, high hydrostatic pressure, supercritical CO2, oxidation, etherification, esterification, acid hydrolysis, enzymatic modification, genetic modification, and their combined modifications. A better understanding of these features has the potential to lead to starch-based products with targeted structures and optimized properties for specific applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Plant‐based foods are frequently heterogenous systems, containing multiple starch fractions with distinct digestion rate constants. An unbiased determination of the number and digestion pattern of these fractions is a prerequisite for understanding the digestive characteristics of food. RESULTS: A non‐linear least‐squares procedure based on a conditional selection of simple first‐order kinetics or a combination of parallel and sequential kinetics models was developed. The procedure gave robust results fitting manually generated data, and was applied to in vitro experimental digestion data of retrograded rice starches. By correlating fitting parameters with starch structural parameters, it showed that rice starches with a lower amylose content, longer amylose chains, and amylopectin intermediate chains had more digestible starch fractions after long‐term retrogradation. CONCLUSION: This procedure enables the structural basis of starch digestibility and the development of food products with slow starch digestibility to be better understood. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrospinning is a simple, versatile method that employs an electrostatic force to produce fibers in the micro-to nanometer range using a wide variety of materials ranging from natural biopolymers to synthetics. Variations on the basic electrospinning set-up can be used to produce fibers demonstrating various morphological and functional properties advantageous for specific applications. Moreover, electrospun fibers created using naturally occurring polysaccharides have attracted much attention due to, but not limited to, their biological properties and sustainable sourcing. In this review, common variations on the basic electrospinning set-up are briefly discussed for their benefits in fiber morphology and upscaling capabilities. In depth, electrospun fibers made from polysaccharides; specifically alginate, cellulose, chitin and chitosan, starch, pullulan, hyaluronic acid, dextran, and levan; are discussed with an emphasis on the current research direction being taken for each of these materials. Moreover, current methods to increase electrospinnability for these polysaccharides are presented as well. Electrospun fibers can be specifically tailored for their function by the optimization of the electrospinning process and spinning dope. However, before the electrospinning process can be successfully upscaled on an industrial or commercial level, it is important to determine an effective method for increasing the rate of fiber production and, generally in the case of polysaccharides, increasing electrospinnability. Biopolymer fibers, specifically, demonstrate high potential in the biomedical field due to their biodegradability and compatibility properties. • Electrospinning technique is simple, versatile, and scalable. • Nanofibers successfully electrospun from various bio-based carbohydrate polymers. • Biopolymer nanofibers show many advantages for food and related applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the fine structure of starch and its gelatinization properties is not well studied, particularly in relation to the influence of sugar or sugar alcohol. In this study, seven starches with distinct molecular structures were investigated to determine how different sugars and sugar alcohols affect their gelatinization properties. The inclusion of sugars and sugar alcohols resulted in a significant elevation of starch gelatinization temperatures (∼ 8 °C), especially with sucrose, isomaltose and isomalt. Nevertheless, the influence of these sugars/ sugar alcohols on the gelatinization temperature range and enthalpy change varied depending on the particular starch varieties. According to the correlation analysis, sugars and sugar alcohols mainly exert their impact on the starch gelatinization temperature range and enthalpy change by possibly interacting with amylose chains possessing a degree of polymerization ranging from 100 to 1000 (p < 0.05) and inhibiting the amylose leaching during gelatinization. These findings help a better understanding of the complex relationship between starch fine structure and gelatinization properties under the influence of sugars and sugar alcohols. Possible mechanism how sugars and sugar alcohols affect starch gelatinization property. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lutein is essential for infant visual and cognitive development but has low stability and solubility. This study aimed to enhance the stability and bioaccessibility of lutein using oil-in-water emulsions stabilized with biopolymers. Commercially available octenylsuccinylated (OS) starches, including capsule TA® (CTA), HI-CAP®100 (HC), and Purity Gum® 2000 (PG), along with gum Arabic (GA) variants Ticaloid acacia Max® (TAM), TICAmulsion® 3020 (TM), and pre-hydrate gum Arabic (PHGA), were chosen as emulsifiers. By screening the effect of biopolymer concentration and oil volume fraction (Φ), emulsions stabilized with CTA, HC, or TM at 20% and 30% (w / v) concentration and 70% Φ exhibited a gel-like structure and were selected for further assessments. After a week at 25 °C, emulsions stabilized by CTA and HC showed no significant change in droplet size, while TM emulsion exhibited a 1.58-fold increase. At 45 °C, all emulsions exhibited increase in droplet size. Lutein retention is higher in CTA emulsions at both storage temperatures than free lutein. In vitro bioaccessibility of all lutein emulsions was higher than that of free lutein. These findings highlight the superior stability and bioaccessibility of the lutein emulsion stabilized by OS starch, positioning it as a promising carrier to broaden lutein applications in infant foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper, iron–chloride ionic liquids (ILs) were immobilized on SBA-15 via N-methylimidazole grafting with C–Cl in chloropropylsilane pre-anchored on SBA-15, followed by FeCl3 and CuCl2 coordination to imidazolium chloride to generate a double metal IL-supported mesoporous composite (SIL-CuFe). The prepared composite exhibited an effective catalytic performance for the solvent-free oxidation of styrene to benzaldehdye (BzH) with H2O2 oxidant, offering 51% conversion, a turnover number (TON) of 330.5 mol molFe+Cu−1, and a selectivity of 71% at a reaction temperature of 70 °C. The composite catalyst can be easily recovered and effectively reused without a significant loss in activity and selectivity. The quenching experiments by adding tert-butanol (TBA), 1,4-benzoquinone (p-BQ) and L -histidine (L -HIS) in the reaction system were conducted to identify the type of reactive O species, specifically ˙OH, ˙O2−, and 1O2, produced by catalyst activation with H2O2 and played a main role in the oxidation. The reaction mechanism of the oxidation process is also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Myocardial strain assessed with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) feature tracking can detect early left ventricular (LV) myocardial deformation quantitatively in patients with a variety of cardiovascular diseases, but this method has not yet been applied to quantify myocardial strain in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and no coexistent cardiovascular disease, i.e., the early stage of AF. This study sought to compare LV myocardial strain and T1 mapping indices in AF patients and healthy subjects, and to investigate the associations of a portfolio of inflammation, cardiac remodeling and fibrosis biomarkers with LV myocardial strain and T1 mapping indices in AF patients with no coexistent cardiovascular disease. Methods: The study consisted of 80 patients with paroxysmal AF patients and no coexistent cardiovascular disease and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Left atrial volume (LAV), LV myocardial strain and native T1 were assessed with CMR, and compared between the AF patients and healthy subjects. Biomarkers of C-reactive protein (CRP), transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1), collagen III N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP), and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) were obtained with blood tests, and compared between the AF patients and healthy controls. Associations of these biomarkers with those CMR-measured parameters were analyzed for the AF patients. Results: For the CMR-measured parameters, the AF patients showed significantly larger LAV and LV end-systolic volume, and higher native T1 than the healthy controls (max P = 0.027). The absolute values of the LV peak systolic circumferential strain and its rate as well as the LV diastolic circumferential strain rate were all significantly reduced in the AF patients (all P < 0.001). For the biomarkers, the AF patients showed significantly larger CRP (an inflammation biomarker) and sST2 (a myocardium stiffness biomarker) than the controls (max P = 0.007). In the AF patients, the five CMR-measured parameters of LAV, three LV strain indices and native T1 were all significantly associated with these two biomarkers of CRP and sST2 (max P = 0.020). Conclusions: In patients with paroxysmal AF and no coexistent cardiovascular disease, LAV enlargement and LV myocardium abnormalities were detected by CMR, and these abnormalities were associated with biomarkers that reflect inflammation and myocardial stiffness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, caffeine (CA) was encapsulated into food-grade starch matrices, including swelled starch (SS), porous starch (PS), and V-type starch (VS). The bitterness of the microcapsules and suppression mechanisms were investigated using an electronic tongue, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the in vitro release kinetics of CA. All the CA-loaded microcapsules showed a lower bitterness intensity than the control. The MD results proved that the weak interactions between starch and CA resulted in a moderate CA release rate for SS-CA microcapsules. The PS-CA microcapsule presented the longest CA release, up to 40 min, whereas the VS-CA microcapsule completely released CA in 9 min. The CA release rate was found to be related to the microcapsule structure and rehydration properties. A low CA bitterness intensity could be attributed to a delay in the CA release rate and resistance to erosion of the microcapsules. The results of this work are valuable for improving starch-based microcapsules (oral-targeted drug-delivery systems) by suppressing the bitterness of alkaloid compounds. Unlabelled Image • Caffeine (CA) loaded in starch microcapsules could delay its release rate. • Porous starch loaded CA showed the slowest release rate. • The diffusion path and swelling ratio affect CA bitterness suppression. • CA bitterness suppression was influenced by intermolecular interactions and release rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterostructures have potential to blend the advantages of each material, even exhibiting the evolutionary performance due to synergistic effects. Herein, covalent organic polymers (NUF) are integrated with a TiO2/Ti3C2Tx nanocomposite (TiO2/TiCT) to form TiO2/TiCT-NUF heterojunctions as an enlarged nonenzymatic biosensor for dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA). Detection is performed by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The TiO2/TiCT/NUF exhibits high sensing activity with low detection limits of 0.2 and 0.18 nM (S/N = 3) in the concentration ranges from 0.002 to 100 μM and 0.001 to 60 μM for simultaneous determination of DA and UA, respectively. In addition, the TiO2/TiCT/NUF provides good selectivity and reproducibility for DA and UA detection in urine and serum samples with recoveries of 98.4 to 100.9%. The proposed heterojunctions manifest an intriguing potential as a candidate of an electrochemical sensor for sole and simultaneous detection of DA and UA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil structuring from porous starch is a potential alternative for the industrial production of powdered oil, but their relationship between starch multi-scale structure and oil adsorption characteristics was not clear. This study compared the role of multi-scale structure of porous starch (PS) prepared by normal and waxy maize starch in the oil adsorption. Waxy maize porous starch exhibited higher oil adsorption capacity (32.43 %–98.71 %) and more oil distributed on the surface of granules than normal maize porous starch, resulting from the more pores, larger specific surface area (1.01–1.53 m2/g), and pore size (8.45–9.32 nm). The enzymolysis time of native starch dominated oil distribution, leading to different granule adhesion and aggregation state. Pearson correlation analysis further showed oil adsorption capacity was negatively correlated with particle size, but positively correlated with enzymolysis rate and specific surface area of PS. The formation of powdered oil was mainly through the physical adsorption, including surface adsorption and pore adsorption. These findings could provide a promising route for the preparation of powdered oil with controlled multi-scale structure of PS. • Porous starch (PS) was used as oil structuring agents to produce powdered oil. • High enzymolysis rate enhanced oil adsorption capacity, leading to granule aggregation. • The granule structure determined oil adsorption capacity and oil distribution of PS. • The formation of powdered oil was mainly attributed to the physical adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, anthocyanin-loaded water 1 -in-oil-in-water 2 (W 1 /O/W 2) double Pickering emulsions stabilized by octenylsuccinate quinoa starch (OSQS) were optimized, and their storage stability and in vitro gastrointestinal digestion were evaluated. Novel starch-based double emulsions as anthocyanin cargos were achieved at 2% (w/v of oil) of polyglycerol polyricinoleate concentration, the W 1 /O volume proportion of 3:7, 6% (w/v of total volume) of OSQS concentration, and the volume proportion of (W 1 /O): W 2 = 6:4 and 5:5. CLSM results evidenced the formation of double Pickering emulsions, and the significant decreases in the encapsulation stability of anthocyanins were closely related to the increases in the droplet size induced by osmotic pressure. Less than 15% of anthocyanins in the double Pickering emulsions was released after incubated for 60 min under simulated stomach conditions; controlled-release of anthocyanins was observed during the 120 min of simulated intestinal digestion, consistent with starch hydrolysis data. These findings will be useful for designing starch-based double Pickering emulsion with intestinal-targeted delivery as a novel carrier of sensitive hydrophilic bioactive compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel 3D face reconstruction framework which is robust to expression and pose changes. • A high level feature, which has robustness to lighting variations. • we provide 3DMM parameters and 3D meshes for a 3D face database. This paper proposes a novel model fitting algorithm for 3D facial expression reconstruction from a single image. Face expression reconstruction from a single image is a challenging task in computer vision. Most state-of-the-art methods fit the input image to a 3D Morphable Model (3DMM). These methods need to solve a stochastic problem and cannot deal with expression and pose variations. To solve this problem, we adopt a 3D face expression model and use a combined feature which is robust to scale, rotation and different lighting conditions. The proposed method applies a cascaded regression framework to estimate parameters for the 3DMM. 2D landmarks are detected and used to initialize the 3D shape and mapping matrices. In each iteration, residues between the current 3DMM parameters and the ground truth are estimated and then used to update the 3D shapes. The mapping matrices are also calculated based on the updated shapes and 2D landmarks. HOG features of the local patches and displacements between 3D landmark projections and 2D landmarks are exploited. Compared with existing methods, the proposed method is robust to expression and pose changes and can reconstruct higher fidelity 3D face shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • OS-starch granules with different sizes for Pickering emulsifiers were prepared. • Octenylsuccinylation significantly improved the emulsifying capacity of starch granules. • Smaller particles of OS-starch granules exhibit better emulsifying capacity and storage stability. Abstract The present study aimed at investigating the effects of octenylsuccinylation and particle size on the emulsifying properties of starch granules as Pickering emulsifiers. Starch spherulites (1–5 μm), native rice starch (5–10 μm), waxy maize starch (10–20 μm) and waxy potato starch (20–30 μm) were modified with octenylsuccinic anhydride. Results showed that octenylsuccinylation caused a significant increase in the contact angle, and there was a weak positive linear correlation with the emulsifying capacity of the starch granules. After octenylsuccinylation, smaller particles of octenylsuccinate-starch granules exhibited better emulsifying properties with smaller droplet size and lower creaming index. Overall, both octenylsuccinylation and particle size have important effects on the emulsifying properties of starch granules as Pickering stabilizers. This study could be useful in the design and development of starch-based Pickering emulsifiers, and provide potential applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The development of emulsion gels has attracted increasing interests due to their potential applications as oil structuring templates and release-controlled carriers for sensitive lipid-soluble bioactive compounds. This work aimed to elucidate the importance of changing the degree of substitution (DS, 0.0072–0.0286) and oil volume fraction (Φ, 10–90%) to achieve octenylsuccinate (OS) quinoa starch granule-based Pickering emulsion gels. The gelation process, droplet size distribution, rheological properties and microstructure of Pickering emulsion gels formed at various DS and Φ values were evaluated. Octenylsuccinylation did not change the morphology or the granule size of quinoa starch but significantly increased the contact angle from 36.2° to 68.7°. OS quinoa starch granule-stabilized Pickering emulsion gels were formed at a DS of 0.0286 with Φ values ranging from 50 to 70%. At the Φ value of 70%, increasing DS progressively increased the apparent viscosity (η) and storage modulus (G′) of the emulsions as a result of the adsorption of more OS quinoa starch granules at the oil/water interface. Both η and G′ showed an increasing trend as a function of Φ (50–70%) at a DS value of 0.0286, and this was closely related to the microstructure of the formed emulsion gels. The network of OS quinoa starch-based Pickering emulsion gels at high Φ values (e.g., 60% and 70%) was mainly composed of compact "aggregated" oil droplets, which was largely attributed to the inter-droplet interactions. These results are of great help in understanding the gelling mechanism and the development of starch granule-based Pickering emulsion gels. Graphical abstract Image 1054545 Highlights • OSA modification enabled the efficient adsorption of quinoa starch at the oil/water interface. • Increasing oil volume fraction enhanced the extent of aggregation of oil droplets. • Inter-droplet interaction was responsible for the formation of Pickering emulsion gels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swelled cornstarch granules incubated at different incubation temperatures was prepared as a complexation matrix to encapsulate lutein. Increasing incubation temperature (55–70 °C) induced the gelatinization of cornstarch, resulting in enhancement of swelling power (1.67–6.26 g/g) and lutein content (0.78–4.86 mg/g). A decreased (double helix of amylopectin) and an increased (single helix of V-amylose) enthalpy change were associated with the increased incubation temperature. The retention index of lutein in the composites incubated at 65 °C and 70 °C could achieve 76% after 21 days of storage. Less than 30% of lutein in the composites was released after incubating for 120 min under stomach conditions. Fast lutein release was observed during the first 20 min intestinal digestion, consistent with starch hydrolysis data. This study opens a promising pathway for swelled cornstarch granules as delivery carriers of bioactive ingredients, which are of vital importance for their potential use in the sensitive food supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an economical approach for the production of calcium titanate using a simple hydrothermal reaction of calcined eggshells and TiO2. The characterization of the product is carried out by using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption. The result shows that as-prepared calcium titanate has a cuboid-like structure with a size of 0.2 μm, as determined by SEM. The formation mechanism of the cuboid-like morphology of calcium titanate is suggested. The BET surface area was calculated to be 20.9 m2/g. The prepared calcium titanate was investigated for the adsorption of Congo Red and its adsorption capacity was found to be 30 mg/g. The optimum adsorption conditions were found to be initial Congo Red concentration = 50 mg/L−1, pH = 7, adsorbent dose = 0.1 g and contact time = 120 min. The adsorption process was found to be spontaneous and endothermic in nature and follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. This research furthers understanding of the ability of calcium titanate to adsorb Congo Red and opens up a new method for recycling eggshells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a real-time method to accurately track the human head pose in the 3-dimensional (3D) world. Using a RGB-Depth camera, a face template is reconstructed by fitting a 3D morphable face model, and the head pose is determined by registering this user-specific face template to the input depth video. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemical composition and starch characteristics of acorn ( Quercus glandulifera Bl. ) were studied. The moisture content of acorn seeds was 7.55%. The crude fat, crude protein, dietary fiber, total ash, and nitrogen-free extract contents of acorn seed were 4.20%, 10.16%, 2.95%, 0.03%, and 82.66%, respectively, on a dry weight basis. Linoleic, oleic, and palmitic were the most predominant fatty acids. UFA:SFA and SFA:MUFA:PUFA ratios were 2.6:1 and 1.25:1.34:1, respectively. The essential amino acid content from acorn seeds was low based on FAO reference values. Acorn seeds were a good source of Fe, Zn, and Mn. The contents of vitamins A and E were 1.40 mg RE/100 g and 10.78 mg/100 g, respectively. Starch extracted from acorn seeds had round, triangle, and elliptical morphology with granule size of 3.3–126.2 μm. The ratio between amylose and amylopectin contents was 25.39:72.94. Acorn starch had a typical A-type crystal pattern with 23.53% relative crystallinity. The gelatinization temperature was 66.53 °C and the transition enthalpy was 4.33 J/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, a novel reduced-reference (RR) image quality assessment (IQA) is proposed by depicting the subband statistical characteristics in the reorganized discrete cosine transform (RDCT) domain. First, the block-based DCT coefficients are reorganized into a three-level coefficient tree, resulting in ten RDCT subbands. For the intra RDCT subband characteristic, the coefficient distribution of each RDCT subband is modeled by the generalized Gaussian density (GGD) function. The city-block distance (CBD) is employed to measure the modeling error between the actual distribution and the fitted GGD curve. For the inter RDCT subband characteristic, the mutual information (MI) is utilized to depict the dependencies between coefficient pairs in related RDCT subbands. Moreover, a frequency ratio descriptor (FRD) calculated in the RDCT domain is proposed to depict how the image energy distributes among different frequency components. The FRD values computed from both the reference and distorted images are jointly considered to derive a novel mutual masking strategy for simulating the texture masking property of the human visual system (HVS). By considering the GGD modeling of intra RDCT subband, MI of inter RDCT subbands, and FRD of the image, the proposed RR IQA is developed. Experimental results demonstrate that a small number of RR features is sufficient to represent the reference image for the perceptual quality analysis. The proposed method can outperform the state-of-the-art RR IQAs, and even the full-reference (FR) PSNR and SSIM. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Anaglyph is an inexpensive three-dimensional (3D) displaying technique. It has deficiencies like color distortions, retinal rivalry, ghosting effect, etc. In this paper, a new method is proposed for anaglyph image generation. In contrast to most existing studies which focus on solving part of the problems, the proposed method tries to minimize the color distortions, retinal rivalry, and ghosting effect simultaneously. It works in the CIELAB color space which is perceptually uniform. Rather than matching the values of the stereo image pair and the perceived anaglyph image as in an existing method (McAllister et al., 2010 [1]), the proposed algorithm is aimed at matching perceptual color appearance attributes which can accurately define the color perception of the human visual system (HVS). Rather than evaluating the performance based on typically 3–5 images as in most prior studies, subjective tests have been conducted, involving 25 stereo image pairs and 20 subjects, to compare four anaglyph generation methods. The proposed method demonstrates a very good performance for most of the images in the subjective test. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Visual quality consistency is one of the most important issues in video quality assessment. When people view a sequential video, they may have an unpleasant perceptual experience if the video has an inconsistent visual quality even though the average visual quality of the video is not compromised. Thus, consistent visual quality control is mostly expected in general video encoding with limited channel bandwidth and buffer resources. However, there still has not been enough study on such an issue. In this paper, a new objective visual quality metric (VQM) is proposed first, which can easily be incorporated into video coding for guiding video coding. Second, a VQM-based window model is proposed to handle the tradeoff between visual quality consistency and buffer constraint in video coding. Third, a window-level rate control algorithm is developed to accomplish visual quality control based on the above two proposals. Finally, experimental results prove that consistent visual quality, high rate-distortion efficiency, accurate bit control, and compliant buffer constraint can be achieved by the proposed rate control algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a novel reduced-reference (RR) video quality assessment (VQA) is proposed by exploiting the spatial information loss and the temporal statistical characteristics of the interframe histogram. From the spatial perspective, an energy variation descriptor (EVD) is proposed to measure the energy change of each individual encoded frame, which results from the quantization process. Besides depicting the energy change, EVD can further simulate the texture masking property of the human visual system (HVS). From the temporal perspective, the generalized Gaussian density (GGD) function is employed to capture the natural statistics of the interframe histogram distribution. The city-block distance (CBD) is used to calculate the histogram distance between the original video sequence and the encoded one. For simplicity, the difference image between adjacent frames is employed to characterize the temporal interframe relationship. By combining the spatial EVD together with the temporal CBD, an efficient RR VQA is developed. Evaluation on the subjective quality video database demonstrates that the proposed method outperforms the representative RR video quality metric and the full-reference VQAs, such as peak signal-to-noise ratio and structure similarity index in matching subjective ratings. This means that the proposed metric is more consistent with the HVS perception. Furthermore, as only a small number of RR features are extracted for representing the original video sequence (each frame requires only one parameter for describing EVD and three parameters for recording GGD), the RR features can be embedded into the video sequences or transmitted through the ancillary data channel, which can be used in the video quality monitoring system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Visual saliency prediction plays an important role in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) video analysis tasks. In this paper, an efficient saliency prediction model for UAV video is proposed based on spatial–temporal features, prior information and the relationship of frames. It can achieve high efficiency by designing a simplified network model. Since UAV videos usually cover a wide range of scenes containing various background disturbances, a cascading architecture module is proposed for feature extraction from coarse to fine, in which a saliency related feature sub-network is utilized to obtain useful clues from each frame, then a new convolution block is designed to capture spatial–temporal features. This structure can achieve advanced performance and high speed based on a 2D CNN framework. Moreover, a multi-stream prior module is proposed to model the bias phenomenon in viewing behavior for UAV video scenes. It can automatically learn prior information based on the video context, and can also combine other priors. Finally, based on the spatial–temporal features and learned priors, a temporal weighted average module is proposed to model the inter-frame relationship and generate the final saliency map, which can make the generated saliency maps look smoother in the temporal dimension. The proposed method is compared with 17 state-of-the-art models on two public UAV video saliency prediction datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that our model outperforms other competitors. Source code is available at: https://github.com/zhangkao/IIP_UAVSal_Saliency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video quality assessment plays a fundamental role in video processing and communication applications. In this paper, we study the use of motion information and temporal human visual system (HVS) characteristics for objective video quality assessment. In our previous work, two types of spatial distortions, i.e., detail losses and additive impairments, are decoupled and evaluated separately for spatial quality assessment. The detail losses refer to the loss of useful visual information that will affect the content visibility, and the additive impairments represent the redundant visual information in the test image, such as the blocking or ringing artifacts caused by data compression and so on. In this paper, a novel full-reference video quality metric is developed, which conceptually comprises the following processing steps: 1) decoupling detail losses and additive impairments within each frame for spatial distortion measure; 2) analyzing the video motion and using the HVS characteristics to simulate the human perception of the spatial distortions; and 3) taking into account cognitive human behaviors to integrate frame-level quality scores into sequence-level quality score. Distinguished from most studies in the literature, the proposed method comprehensively investigates the use of motion information in the simulation of HVS processing, e.g., to model the eye movement, to predict the spatio-temporal HVS contrast sensitivity, to implement the temporal masking effect, and so on. Furthermore, we also prove the effectiveness of decoupling detail losses and additive impairments for video quality assessment. The proposed method is tested on two subjective quality video databases, LIVE and IVP, and demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance in matching subjective ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper report on the efficient removal of uranium ions from aqueous solution with a novel magnetic composite adsorbent, calcined magnetic layered double hydroxide/hydroxyapatite (CMLH). This adsorbent was obtained via in situ grown of nano-hydroxyapatite on magnetic CaAl-layered double hydroxides and followed with calcining. The morphology and microstructure of the as-prepared adsorbents were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The influences of conditions for uranium removal, including dosage of LDHs, pH of aqueous solution, and temperature on anion-exchange have been investigated, respectively. The thermodynamic parameters including Gibbs free energy (ΔG 0), standard enthalpy change (ΔH 0) and standard entropy change (ΔS 0) for the process were calculated using the Langmuir constants. It was found from kinetics test that the pseudo-second order kinetics model could be used to well describe the uptake process. Furthermore, the CMLH could be regenerated through the desorption of the uranium using 0.5M NaHCO3 solution and could be reused to adsorb after calcination. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ca–Al and Ca–Fe layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were successfully synthesized from chicken eggshells by an ultrasonic wave assistant method. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques. XRD and TEM analyses showed that the 4Ca–Al LDHs were of high purity but other samples were not. The present study provides a simple, efficient and environmental friendly method to obtain LDHs from biowaste eggshells, in which additional alkaline solution is not required for synthesis. Moreover, eggshells provide all the requisite bivalent metal ions, which are needed to form layered double hydroxides. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: AVS1-P2 is the newest video standard of Audio Video coding Standard (AVS) workgroup of China, which provides close performance to H.264/AVC main profile with lower complexity. In this paper, a platform-independent software package with macroblock-based (MB-based) architecture is proposed to facilitate AVS video standard implementation on embedded system. Compared with the frame-based architecture, which is commonly utilized for PC platform oriented video applications, the MB-based decoder performs all of the decoding processes, except the high-level syntax parsing, in a set of MB-based buffers with adequate size for saving the information of the current MB and the neighboring reference MBs to minimize the on-chip memory and to save the time consumed in on-chip/off-chip data transfer. By modifying the data flow and decoding hierarchy, simulating the data transfer between the on-chip memory and the off-chip memory, and modularizing the buffer definition and management for low-level decoding kernels, the MB-based system architecture provides over 80% reduction in on-chip memory compared to the frame-based architecture when decoding 720p sequences. The storage complexity is also analyzed by referencing the performance evaluation of the MB-based decoder. The MB-based decoder implementation provides an efficient reference to facilitate development of AVS applications on embedded system. The complexity analysis provides rough storage complexity requirements for AVS video standard implementation and optimization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Lauric acid was introduced into "Empty" V-type starch using a solid encapsulation method. The structural characteristics and emulsifying properties of the starch-fatty acid complex (SFAC) were explored as a function of the complexing temperature. X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry confirmed that SFAC was mainly composed of type-I amylose inclusion complexes. Contact angle measurements revealed that the hydrophobic properties of SFAC were closely related to the temperature-regulated complex index. The particle size range of SFAC gradually increased as the complexing temperature increased. The SFAC-stabilized Pickering emulsion at c of 5% and Φ of 40–60% possessed a small droplet size and long-term storage stability for up to 30 days, resulting from the formation of a gel-like network. This study provides new insight into the design of hydrophobic modified starch as a novel and multifunctional emulsifier and is of great help in the development of starch-based Pickering emulsion gels. • Lauric acid was complexed with "Empty" V-type starch using a solid encapsulation method. • Complexing temperature dictated the structure and emulsifying properties of starch-fatty acid complex (SFAC). • SFAC stabilized Pickering emulsion stored up to 30 days and emulsion gel formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is still unclear whether small left ventricle (LV) is an adverse structural prognostic feature in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between small LV and risk of cardiovascular events in AF population. From the China-AF registry, 7,764 patients with AF were enrolled and divided into groups with normal, small, and large LV size based on left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDD) measurement per the American Society of Echocardiography references. Cox models were used to assess the association between LV size or LVEDD with composite cardiovascular events (cardiovascular death, ischemic stroke or systemic embolism, or major bleeding). There were 308 (4.0%) participants assessed with small LV who were older, with lower body mass and blood pressure, and fewer comorbidities, and 429 (5.5%) were identified with large LV. Compared with the normal LV group, small LV and large LV were significantly associated with higher incidence of composite cardiovascular events (adjusted HR [aHR]: 1.54 [95% CI: 1.07-2.20] for small LV; aHR: 1.36 [95% CI: 1.02-1.81] for large LV) and cardiovascular death (aHR: 1.94 [95% CI: 1.14-3.28] for small LV; aHR: 1.83 [95% CI: 1.24-2.69] for large LV). Small LV was also associated with increased risk of major bleeding [aHR: 2.21 [95% CI: 1.01-4.86]). A U-shaped relationship between LVEDD and composite cardiovascular events was identified (P nonlinear < 0.001). In a prospective AF cohort, small LV was independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, which needed consideration in risk stratification and management for patients with AF. (ChiCTR-OCH-13003729) [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Starch-based nanofibers successfully electrospun from aqueous dispersions • Addition of pullulan aided in electrospinning of octenylsuccinylated (OS) starch • Electrospinnability of OS starches dictated mainly by rheological properties • Spinnability map of OS starch and pullulan established We aimed to develop a greener process for dry-electrospinning food-grade modified starch through the elimination of organic solvents. The rheological properties and electrospinnability of aqueous dispersions of commercial octenylsuccinylated (OS) starches with various molecular weight (Mw) were investigated, yet only nanofibers with beads or defects could be obtained from OS starch with the highest Mw, i.e., Purity Gum@ Ultra (PGU). Further improvement in the fiber morphology was achieved by adding pullulan (PUL) as a minor component in the spinning dope. Smooth, continuous, and bead-free nanofibers (147-250 nm) were obtained from the PGU-PUL dispersions. Shown on an electrospinnability map, the successful electrospinning of 12%, 15%, and 20% (w/v) aqueous PGU dispersions required a minimum addition of 6%, 5%, and 3% (w/v) of PUL, respectively. The addition of PUL contributed to establishing sufficient molecular entanglement for electrospinning. This study provides a promising green process to produce starch-based nanofibers for use in various applications, e.g., drug delivery, wound dressing, and tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrophobic modified starch nanoparticles were fabricated through combined starch nanoprecipitation and complexation with zein, and their emulsifying behaviors were further evaluated as a Pickering emulsion stabilizer. Novel starch/zein nanocomposites with a unimodal particle distribution, mean diameter of 147.9 nm and contact angle of 83.0° were achieved. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated that the zein was successfully complexed with the starch molecules. Dissociation test confirmed that electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding were the main driving forces for the formation and maintenance of the starch/zein nanocomposites. Complexing with zein endowed the starch nanoparticles with emulsion pH-responsive behavior, which could provide a simple and green pathway to pH-responsive materials that afford controlled release of bioactive ingredients with emulsion delivery and recyclable catalysis of enzymatic reactions. Image 1 • Novel starch/zein nanocomposites were successfully fabricated. • Complexation with zein achieved hydrophobic modification of starch. • Starch/zein ratio and reverse method dominated the formation of nanocomposites. • Starch/zein nanocomposites exhibited emulsion pH-responsive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Food-acceptable MOFs based on CDs were prepared to encapsulate menthol. • Differences of structure and characteristics among various CD-MOFs were compared. • β-CD-MOF showed apparently higher thermal stability than α-CD-MOF or γ-CD-MOF. • The menthol content in β-CD-MOF was 3–4 times greater than for other reported materials. Cyclodextrin (CD)-metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are developed as a new type of food-acceptable multi-porous material, which shows a great potential for controlled volatile compound release. This study aimed to synthesize CD-MOFs from potassium nitrate, crystallized with α-cyclodextrin (α-CD), β-CD or γ-CD, and their complex capacities were further evaluated using menthol encapsulation. Compared with CD, all the CD-MOFs had highly ordered crystal structures and more regular shapes. β-CD-MOF showed better thermal stability, with an initial thermal degradation temperature of 253 °C, higher than the other two CD-MOFs. The CD-MOFs were used for menthol encapsulation and the resulting menthol concentration within the inclusion complexes (ICs) was determined. The menthol concentration in ICs followed the order: β-CD-MOF > β-CD > γ-CD-MOF > γ-CD > α-CD ≥ α-CD-MOF. The menthol content and encapsulation efficiency of β-CD-MOF were 21.76% (w/w) and 22.54% (w/w) respectively, significantly higher than those of other reported solid materials, such as amylose, CD and V-type starch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to describe the mid-term outcomes of different treatments in patients with atrial fibrillation caused tricuspid regurgitation.Methods: A retrospective study of patients diagnosed as atrial fibrillation caused moderate-severe tricuspid regurgitation undergoing ablation (n = 411) were reviewed. The surgical cohort (n = 114) underwent surgical ablation and tricuspid valve repair; the catheter cohort (n = 279) was selected from those patients who had catheter ablation.Results: The estimated actuarial 5-year survival rates were 96.8% (95% CI: 92.95-97.78) and 92.0% (95% CI: 85.26-95.78) in the catheter and surgical cohort, respectively. Tethering height was showed as independent risk factors for recurrent atrial fibrillation and tricuspid regurgitation in both cohorts. A matched group analysis using propensity-matched was conducted after categorizing total patients by tethering height < 6 mm and ≥ 6 mm. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed in patients with tethering height < 6 mm, there were no differences in survival from mortality, stroke, recurrent atrial fibrillation and tricuspid regurgitation between two groups. In patients with tethering height ≥ 6 mm, there were significantly higher cumulative incidence of stroke (95% CI, 0.047-0.849; P = 0.029), recurrent atrial fibrillation (95% CI, 0.357-09738; P = 0.039) and tricuspid regurgitation (95% CI, 0.359-0.981; P = 0.042) in catheter group.Conclusions: Atrial fibrillation caused tricuspid regurgitation resulted in less leaflets coaptation, which risk the recurrence of atrial fibrillation and tricuspid regurgitation. Patients whose tethering height was less than 6 mm showed satisfying improvement in tricuspid regurgitation with the restoration of sinus rhythm after catheter ablation. However, in patients with severe leaflets tethering, the results favored surgical over catheter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flower-like hydroxyapatite ( HA) was prepared by a solvothermal method using calcined eggshells as calcium source and hydrogen peroxide/ N, N-dimethylformamide ( DMF) as solvent. The products are characterized by X-ray diffraction ( XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy ( FTIR), and Scanning electron microscopy ( SEM). All the above-mentioned instrumental analysis such as XRD and FT-IR showed the purity of HA. The SEM indicates that the as-obtained flower-like HA are composed of microsheets. These nanosheets interleaved each other to form the uniform flower-like morphology. The influence of precipitation temperature and ratio of hydrogen peroxide to DMF were systematically investigated by SEM analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Octenylsuccinate quinoa starch (OSQS) granule that stabilized Pickering emulsion gel with different gel networks by modulating the oil volume fraction (Φ) was developed as a carrier for lutein. Pickering emulsion gels stabilized by OSQS were achieved at Φ values ranging from 30% to 60%. Increasing Φ progressively increased the droplet size, storage modulus, and apparent viscosity, resulting in the formation of gel-like structure. Confocal laser scanning microscopy showed that OSQS formed a densely packed layer at the oil/water interface, the degree of aggregation between droplets increased, and the gel network enhanced through droplet flocculation with increasing Φ. After 31 days of storage, the retention index of lutein in the emulsion gel could reach 55.38%, and the corresponding half-life times increased from 12 to 41 days. This study will be useful for designing starch-based Pickering emulsion gel with tunable gel network and desirable characteristics as delivery carrier of sensitive bioactive compounds. • Oil volume fraction modulated the gel network of starch-based emulsion gel. • Bridged droplets should be responsible for the formation of emulsion gel. • Compact gel network conferred superior storage stability to lutein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to investigate whether left ventricular (LV) fibrosis quantified by T1 mapping can be used as a biomarker to predict outcome in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF). 108 patients with AF and HF were included in this study. They underwent cardiac magnetic resonance, including T1 mapping sequence to assess LV fibrosis between May 2014 to May 2016. Patients received catheter ablation for AF and pharmacological treatment for HF. The primary endpoint was a composite adverse outcome of cardiac death, subsequent HF or stroke, subsequent HF was the secondary endpoint. During follow up (median: 23 months, Q1-Q3: 11 to 28 months), 1 cardiac death, 12 strokes, and 42 HF episodes occurred. LV extracellular volume fraction (ECV) was predictive of composite adverse outcome and subsequent HF (all p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, LV ECV was an independent predictor of composite adverse outcome (hazard ratio (HR): 1.258, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.140–1.388, p < 0.001) and subsequent HF (HR: 1.223, 95% CI: 1.098–1.363, p < 0.001). LV fibrosis measured by T1 mapping indices significantly predicts composite adverse outcomes and subsequent HF in patients with AF and HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effects of intensive blood pressure (BP) control on cognitive outcomes in patients with excess orthostatic BP changes are unclear. We aimed to evaluate whether orthostatic BP changes modified the effects of BP intervention on cognitive impairment. Methods: We analyzed 8547 participants from the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial Memory and cognition IN Decreased Hypertension. Associations between orthostatic BP changes and incident cognitive outcomes were evaluated by restricted cubic spline curves based on Cox models. The interactions between orthostatic BP changes and intensive BP intervention were assessed. Results: The U‐shaped associations were observed between baseline orthostatic systolic BP changes and cognitive outcomes. However, there were insignificant interactions between either change in orthostatic systolic BP (P for interaction = 0.81) or diastolic BP (P for interaction = 0.32) and intensive BP intervention for the composite outcome of probable dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The hazard ratio of intensive versus standard target for the composite cognitive outcome was 0.82 (95% CI 0.50–1.35) in those with an orthostatic systolic BP reduction of >20 mmHg and 0.41 (95% CI 0.21–0.80) in those with an orthostatic systolic BP increase of >20 mmHg. Results were similar for probable dementia and MCI. The annual changes in global cerebral blood flow (P for interaction = 0.86) consistently favored intensive BP treatment across orthostatic systolic BP changes. Conclusion: Intensive BP control did not have a deteriorating effect on cognitive outcomes among hypertensive patients experiencing significant postural BP changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Wearable devices based on the PPG algorithm can detect atrial fibrillation (AF) effectively. However, further investigation of its application on long‐term, continuous monitoring of AF burden is warranted. Method: The performance of a smartwatch with continuous photoplethysmography (PPG) and PPG‐based algorithms for AF burden estimation was evaluated in a prospective study enrolling AF patients admitted to Beijing Anzhen Hospital for catheter ablation from September to November 2022. A continuous Electrocardiograph patch (ECG) was used as the reference device to validate algorithm performance for AF detection in 30‐s intervals. Results: A total of 578669 non‐overlapping 30‐s intervals for PPG and ECG each from 245 eligible patients were generated. An interval‐level sensitivity of PPG was 96.3% (95% CI 96.2%–96.4%), and specificity was 99.5% (95% CI 99.5%–99.6%) for the estimation of AF burden. AF burden estimation by PPG was highly correlated with AF burden calculated by ECG via Pearson correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.996) with a mean difference of ‐0.59 (95% limits of agreement, ‐7.9% to 6.7%). The subgroup study showed the robust performance of the algorithm in different subgroups, including heart rate and different hours of the day. Conclusion: Our results showed the smartwatch with an algorithm‐based PPG monitor has good accuracy and stability in continuously monitoring AF burden compared with ECG patch monitors, indicating its potential for diagnosing and managing AF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer has become significant comorbidity in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, little is known about the efficacy and safety of AF ablation, the first‐line rhythm control strategy, in patients with cancer. This study aims to evaluate the incidence and risk of AF recurrence and safety endpoints in patients with cancer compared to the non‐cancer group after ablation. Methods: From August 2011 to December 2020, we consecutively enrolled cancer patients in the China‐AF cohort. We used propensity score matching (1:3) to select the control group and assessed the risk of AF recurrence and adverse events after ablation in cancer patients using a multivariable Fine and Gray competing risk model. Results: A total of 203 patients with cancer were enrolled and 21 of them were active cancer, with a median follow‐up of 12.3 months. The cumulative incidence of AF recurrence was comparable between patients with and without cancer (43.8% vs. 51.1%; p =.88). No difference in the risk of AF recurrence, thromboembolism, major bleeding, and mortality was observed after adjusting confounders. Active cancer was not associated with an increased risk of AF recurrence compared to the stable disease (SHR = 1.32; 95% CI 0.72–2.43; p =.46). Cancer was associated with a low risk of cardiovascular hospitalization (SHR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.36–0.81; p =.01). Subgroup analysis found that hematological malignancy was associated with a high risk of AF recurrence (SHR, 5.68; 95% CI, 3.00–10.8; p <.001). Conclusions: This study suggests that catheter ablation could be feasible for rhythm control of AF patients with concomitant cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Alginate‐based encapsulation is an effective probiotics delivery system in the intestine. However, due to calcium ions and gastric juice damaging cell wall/membrane integrity during freeze‐drying and gastrointestinal ingestion, lots of cell lose their viability. This study, taking Lactiplantibacillus plantarum grx16 as an example, indicated that co‐encapsulation of cryoprotectants and porous starch within calcium alginate capsules (CAC) could combinedly improve the viability of probiotics encapsulated. Compared with calcium alginate‐protectant capsule (CAC‐Pro) (50.67%), the combination of porous starch increased the encapsulation rate of PS0.8‐CAC‐Pro to 82.68%. Meanwhile, the death rate constants of PS0.8‐CAC‐Pro decreased by 31.3% (−20 °C), 13.5% (4 °C) and 7.5% (25 °C), respectively. The survival rate of PS0.8‐CAC‐Pro was 81.94% after continuous simulated gastrointestinal digestion, which was significantly higher than that of CACs (69.46%) and CAC‐Pro (76.92%). This study provided an effective approach for modifying alginate capsule to reduce the loss of probiotics viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of interactive object segmentation with an input rectangle. We present a coarse-to-fine method from region-level segmentation to pixel-level segmentation. In the region-level segmentation, the best combination of adjacent refined superpixels is selected as the coarse segmentation result by measuring its global contrast and tightness degree. Subsequently, we use the coarse segmentation result to aid the construction of the energy function in the pixel-level segmentation. The result can be further refined due to the fusion of region-level and pixel-level segmentation. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can achieve better segmentation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the degradation rule of anthocyanin subjected with different environmental factors and food matrices, the effects of different temperatures (4~100 °C), illumination conditions (avoiding light, sunlight, and ultraviolet), freeze-thaw cycles (5 times), sucrose additions (0 ~ 20%) and NaCl additions (0 ~ 5. 0%) on the anthocyanin retention were investigated, and their degradation kinetic models were further established. Results showed that, with the temperature increasing from 4 °C to 100 °C, anthocyanin retention of 10 h decreased significantly from 88. 19% to 28. 10%, and their half-life time (t1/ 2) decreased from 55. 0 h to 5. 9 h(P<0. 05). Com- pared with avoiding light, both anthocyanin retention of 10 h and t1/ 2 under ultraviolet were the lowest (84. 41% and 43. 0 h). After five freeze-thaw cycles, anthocyanin retention of 120 h was reduced to 85. 21% with the corresponding t1/ 2 of 612. 6 h. During 80 °C of stability acceleration experiment, both anthocyanin retention of 10 h and their t1/ 2 reached the highest value (60. 17% and 13. 7 h) with sucrose addition of 10%, and the above values also reached the highest value (54. 63% and 11. 3 h) with NaCl addition of 5%. The storage and processing of anthocyanins should avoid high temperature, ultraviolet and freeze-thaw cycles as much as possible, and appropriate amount of sucrose and NaCl could be added to enhance the stability of antholyanins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To perform a meta‐analysis to assess the effects of glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists (GLP‐1RAs) on major coronary events, including myocardial infarction (MI), unstable angina and coronary revascularization, in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials and methods: We systematically searched the PubMed, CENTRAL, EMBASE and clinicaltrial.gov databases to seek eligible studies with a cardiovascular endpoint comparing GLP‐1RAs with a placebo in T2DM patients. Odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for the outcomes. Results: Nine studies, with a total of 64 236 patients, were included. GLP‐1RA treatment reduced fatal and nonfatal MI by 8% (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.86–0.99; P = 0.02, I2 = 39%). The reduction reached 15% in human‐based GLP‐1RA‐treated patients. Similarly, once‐weekly GLP‐1RA treatment reduced the risk of MI by 13%. In contrast, GLP‐1RA treatment did not reduce the risk of hospitalization for unstable angina (OR 1.11, 95% CI 0.97–1.28; P = 0.13, I2 = 21%). GLP‐1RAs exhibited a tendency to lower the risk of coronary revascularization (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.89–1.02; P = 0.15, I2 = 22%), but without statistical significance. Human‐based GLP‐1RAs decreased the risk by 11%. Conclusions: In high‐risk patients with T2DM, GLP‐1RAs were associated with a decrease in MI, especially the human‐based and once‐weekly GLP‐1RAs. No benefit was seen for hospitalization for unstable angina or coronary revascularization. Further research is urgently needed to ascertain improvements in coronary events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rheological, thermal and textural properties of batter are critical for the eating and processing quality of soft cake products. Wheat starch molecular structures play an important role on these properties. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis and size-exclusion chromatography were used to measure amylopectin and amylose chain-length distribution. The obtained data were fitted with two different biosynthesis-based models, resulting in few biologically-meaningful parameters. For cake batter, the rheological, thermal and textural properties were measured by rheometer, differential scanning calorimetry and texture analyser. The length of amylose intermediate to long chains and amylopectin long chains was significantly positively correlated with the viscoelasticity of cake batter. The length of long amylose chains showed a negative correlation with the frequency value of crossover point between G′ and G″ curves. Moreover, different combinations of long amylopectin and intermediate-long amylose chains contributed to the formation of multi-endothermic gelatinization peaks. From flour-water system to flour-lipid-protein system, the main factors determining rheological and thermal properties changed from short amylopectin to long amylopectin and intermediate-long amylose chains. This study provides the first associations between starch molecular fine structure and functional properties of cake batter, which could help food industry breed and select suitable wheat varieties for improved batter quality. [Display omitted] • The functional properties of flour-lipid cake batter were investigated in this study. • Long AP & medium and long AM chains are positively correlated with viscoelasticity. • Decrease of long AM chain length increases crossover point x value of rheology curves. • Cake batter shows two endothermic peaks in gelatinization curves. • Chain length distribution of AM is the determining factor for flour-lipid batter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs), the compounds resulting from the non-enzymatic glycosylation between reducing sugars and proteins, are derived from food or produced de novo. Over time, more and more endogenous and exogenous AGEs accumulate in various organs such as the liver, kidneys, muscle, and bone, threatening human health. Among these organs, bone is most widely reported. AGEs accumulating in bone reduce bone strength by participating in bone structure formation and breaking bone homeostasis by binding their receptors to alter the proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of cells involved in bone remodeling. In this review, we summarize the research about the effects of AGEs on bone health and highlight their associations with bone health in diabetes patients to provide some clues toward the discovery of new treatment and prevention strategies for bone-related diseases caused by AGEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lambl's excrescences (LEs) are excrescences with an extremely low incidence, mainly ultrasound diagnosed. Increasingly, LEs are detected by transesophageal echocardiography before catheter ablation, which raises safety concerns on whether LEs were associated with an embolism event during or after ablation, but clinical data are still lacking. Methods and Results: We consecutively recruited 8081 patients with atrial fibrillation who underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from Jan 1, 2017 to Dec 31, 2019. Total 21 patients (0.3%) were diagnosed as LEs with an average age of 70.8 ± 8.9 years, and 38.1% were male. Persistent atrial fibrillation (PeAF) and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) accounted for 57.1% (12 cases) and 42.9% (nine cases), respectively. LEs were mostly frequently observed on the aortic valve (18 cases, 75%) and mitral valve (six cases, 25%). Precisely, the noncoronary cusp is ranked first in terms of the LEs presence (seven cases, 29.2%), followed by the right coronary cusp (six cases, 25.0%), the left coronary cusp (five cases, 20.8%), the anterior mitral valve (four cases, 16.7%), and the posterior mitral valve (two cases, 8.3%). During the ablation for LEs patients, the average procedure time was 96.0 ± 22.4 min; the average fluoroscopy time was 4.2 ± 0.8 min; the average total ablation time was 20.6 ± 5.6 min; and the mean hospital stay was 3.3 ± 0.6 days. No patients suffered from serious complications during the procedure. Furthermore, no cardiovascular event was observed during a follow‐up of 19.1 ± 11.8 months. Conclusions: There was no clear association between LEs with intraoperative embolism events or cardiovascular events during the follow‐up period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through graded salting out with ammonium sulfate and dialysis, esterases were extracted and purified from goose liver, chicken liver and pig liver respectively, then their structures were characterized, and their inhibition responses to carbaryl as a pesticide model were further investigated. Results showed that the yield of goose liver esterase was the highest (14.58%), and that of chicken liver esterase was the lowest (8.82%) with the best thermal stability, while the protein mass concentration of pig liver esterase was the highest (12.47mg/mL); the protein molecular weights of all three kinds of animal liver esterases were 30 ~ 110 kDa with the leading one of 55 kDa, and that in chicken liver esterase was the highest (16.74%) while the lowest was in that of pig liver esterase (14.31%); these three kinds of animal liver esterases showed different sizes of protein particles with flake structures and smooth surfaces; in the carbaryl concentration range of 0.5~10.0 mg/L, the linear range (0.5~5.0 mg/L), the detection limit (0.29 mg/L) and IC50 (7.74 mg/L) of chicken liver esterase were the lowest, which could be used as a potential sensitive enzyme source for rapid detection of carbaryl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron and vanadate modified phosphotungstate fabricated by Fe salt and vanadate incorporating into H 3 PW 12 O 40 exhibited high activity and selectivity for selective oxidation of methanol to dimethoxymethane using molecular oxygen oxidant, giving ca. 70% conversion of methanol and > 96% selectivity to DMM. A detail study on influence of various components composed of the catalyst was investigated by in situ DRIFTS technique to identify the active sites. [Display omitted] • Iron and vanadate modified phosphotungstate. • With mixed crystallines. • Efficient catalyst for methanol oxidation. • Synergic effect of the mixed crystallines. • High conversion and selectivity. Iron and vanadate modified phosphotungstate was fabricated by Fe salt and vanadate incorporating into H 3 PW 12 O 40. Its morphology, composition and structure were determined by XRD, SEM, TEM, FT-IR and XPS. The catalytic performance of the prepared composite for selective oxidation of methanol to dimethoxymethane using molecular oxygen as oxidant was evaluated. A detail study on influence of key reaction parameters, involving the calcination temperature of the catalyst during the preparation, reaction time, temperature and pressure, and flow rate of O 2 , methanol and N 2 on the reactivity and selectivity was optimized. The results showed that the composite was active and highly selective for methanol oxidation, giving ca. 70% conversion of methanol and > 96% selectivity to DMM. The adsorption behaviour of methanol on surface of the catalyst or various components composed of the catalyst was investigated by in situ DRIFTS technique to identify the active sites and further considering reaction mechanism. Moreover, the operating lifetime and stability of the catalyst was also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Synthesis of the HKUST-1 with mesoporous structure. [•] Exploration of the new application of MOFs materials in uranium removal. [•] Development of a high-efficiency adsorbent for uranium. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]