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Early neuroinflammatory injury plays a crucial role in initiating and progressing multiple sclerosis (MS). Neutrophils are forerunners to neural lesions in MS, yet the temporal alterations of their functions in MS remains unclear. This study demonstrated a positive correlation between circulatory neutrophil counts and disease activity and severity in treatment-naïve MS patients. In experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), we documented the recruitment of neutrophils to spinal cord during the preclinical phase, with these cells contributing to the disruption of the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) during the onset of the disease. Furthermore, during the peak phase, infiltrated neutrophils promoted demyelination through formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), cytokine secretion and antigen presentation. Notably, the inhibition of neutrophil infiltration using a CXCR2 inhibitor effectively mitigated white matter damage and physical disability, underscoring their potential as therapeutic targets. In conclusion, neutrophils represent promising candidates for both disease treatment and prognosis evaluation in MS. By elucidating their temporal roles and mechanisms of action, we can potentially harness their modulation to improve patient outcomes and disease management.

The extraction and decolorization conditions for Spirulina platensis polysaccharides using hot alkali and hydrogen peroxide were investigated, and the process was optimized. Based on the results of a single-factor test, the yield and decolorization rate of polysaccharides were taken as indices to optimize the technological conditions for extracting polysaccharides from Spirulina platensis using the hot alkali method and decolorizing them with hydrogen peroxide using the response surface methodology. The optimal conditions for hot alkali extraction of polysaccharides from Spirulina platensis were determined as follows: NaOH concentration of 1.5%, extraction temperature of 90 ℃, extraction time of 4 hours, and material-to-liquid ratio of 1:20 g/mL. Under these conditions, the yield of polysaccharides from Spirulina platensis was 5.18%±0.23%. The optimal conditions for decolorization using hydrogen peroxide were found to be: 17% hydrogen peroxide solution, decolorization time of 55 minutes, and decolorization temperature of 50 ℃. Under these conditions, the actual decolorization rate was 82.54%±0.03%, and the retention rate of polysaccharides was 83.45%±0.13%. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for the development and utilization of Spirulina platensis polysaccharides.

Electric field measurement holds immense significance in various domains. The power supply and signal acquisition units of the sensor may be coupled with ground wire interference, which could result in reduced measurement accuracy. Moreover, this problem is often ignored by researchers. This paper investigated the origin of ground coupling interference in electric field sensors and its impact on measurement accuracy. A miniature undistorted electric field sensor with wireless transmission was compared with existing D-dot, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and optical sensors. The results indicate that MEMS and D-dot exhibit diminished accuracy in measuring electric fields under uniform conditions, owing to interference from ground wires. In the case of transmission lines with non-uniform conditions, the wireless sensor exhibited a measurement error of 5%, whereas the optical sensor showed an error rate of approximately 8%. However, the D-dot sensor displayed a measurement error exceeding 50%, whereas the MEMS sensor yielded an error as high as 150%. This means that the wireless sensor isolates the ground-coupled interference signal and realizes the distortion-free measurement of the electric field. The wireless sensors will find extensive applications in new power systems for intelligent equipment status perception, fault warning, and other scenarios.

Background: The objective of the study was to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of semaglutide in overweight or obese adults with or without type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: The study, registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023450979), was designed as a systematic review and meta-analysis. Using a combination of subject matter and free words, a comprehensive search of Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases was performed to identify randomized controlled trials of semaglutide in overweight or obese adults with or without Type 2 diabetes mellitus from January 1, 2020, to July 14, 2023. The primary outcomes were the changes in body weight and adverse drug reaction (ADR). Random or fixed effects models were used in meta-analysis, pooling data as relative risks (RRs) or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Cochrane Collaboration’s Risk of Bias tool was used to assess quality. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3. Results: A total of 2490 publications were retrieved. Fifteen publications were finally included, totaling 6984 overweight or obese adult patients. Meta-analysis showed that compared with the control group, the semaglutide group was reduced more significantly in body weight (MD = −7.49, 95% CI [−9.92, −5.07], P < 0.001), body mass index (MD = −3.35, 95% CI [−4.79, −1.92], P < 0.001), waist circumference (MD = −7.26, 95% CI [−9.94, −4.58], P < 0.001), as well as glycosylated hemoglobin (RR = −0.66, 95% CI [−1.07, −0.25], P = 0.002), fasting blood glucose values (RR = −4.81, 95% CI [−7.03, −2.60], P < 0.001), and systolic blood pressure (RR = −3.37, 95% CI [−5.32, −1.42], P < 0.001), and the proportion of patients who lost > 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of their overall body weight, respectively (RR = 3.19, 95% CI [1.89, 5.36], P < 0.001), (RR = 4.74, 95% CI [2.78, 8.11], P < 0.001), (RR = 6.17, 95% CI [3.88, 9.82], P < 0.001), and (RR = 9.14, 95% CI [6.05, 13.80], P < 0.001) were also superior to the control group. Regarding safety, the incidence of total ADR in the semaglutide group was close to the placebo group. Still, gastrointestinal adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea were higher than those in the control group. Conclusion: Semaglutide can effectively lose weight in overweight or obese adults with or without diabetes, potentially providing cardiovascular benefits; however, gastrointestinal adverse should be closely monitored.

Abstract Background Necrotic enteritis (NE) is an infectious intestinal disease caused by Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) that is now re-emerging and causing concern within the poultry industry. Previously, the supplementation of antibiotics in feed was the most popular control strategy against C. perfringens. However, with the ban on supplementing growth-promoting antibiotics in livestock feed, alternatives to antibiotics will be essential in order to control necrotic enteritis. A possible alternative to antibiotics could be the medium or long chain fatty acids (MCFA or LCFA) as these are able to destroy cell membranes which in turn results in the death of bacteria. In this study, the in vitro antimicrobial activity of different combinations with microencapsulated caprylic acid (C8: 0), capric acid (C10: 0), lauric acid (C12: 0) and myristic acid (C14: 0) against C. perfringens and in vivo control the NE-inducing C. perfringens in broiler chicken were analyzed. Results The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assay results revealed that three different combinations of medium/long chain fatty acids varied in antimicrobial activities against C. perfringens type A strain (CVCC52, quality control), C. perfringens type A strain (C8-1), C. perfringens type G strain (D25) and C. perfringens type G strain (MZ1). Specifically, combination of C12: 0 and C14: 0 (C12–14) showed the highest antimicrobial activity against the four strains of C. perfringens (MIC ≤ 12.5 μg/mL, MBC = 50 μg/mL), followed by the combination of C10: 0 and C12: 0 (C10–12) (MIC, MBC ≤ 50 μg/mL). The in vivo study, 189 of 818-crossbred chickens that were fed a wheat-based diet and randomly divided into nine groups, with six treatment groups supplemented with either a high dose (1 g/kg) or low dose (0.5 g/kg) of three combinations respectively. The remaining three groups comsisted of a positive group supplement with avilamycin (0.01 g/kg), an infected control and an uninfected control. All chickens were challenged with C. perfringens from day 14 to day 17, except those in the uninfected control group. On day 20, the duodenum and jejunum necrotic lesions scores were calculated and the results showed that there was significant decrease in the C12–C14 high dose group (1.43 ± 0.23, 0.48 ± 0.13) and the C10–12 high dose group (1.52 ± 0.19, 0.48 ± 0.11) compared to the infected group (2.86 ± 0.21, 1.20 ± 0.28). Conclusions This finding indicated that dietary microencapsulated C12–C14 and C10–C12 could inhibit the growth of C. perfringens in chickens, which proves is viability to serve as an alternative to antibiotics used for necrotic enteritis caused by C. perfringens.

Natural antioxidants are more attractive than synthetic chemical oxidants because of their non-toxic and non-harmful properties. Microalgal bioactive components such as carotenoids, polysaccharides, and phenolic compounds are gaining popularity as very effective and long-lasting natural antioxidants. Few articles currently exist that analyze microalgae from a bibliometric and visualization point of view. This study used a bibliometric method based on the Web of Science Core Collection database to analyze antioxidant research on bioactive compounds in microalgae from 1996 to 2022. According to cluster analysis, the most studied areas are the effectiveness, the antioxidant mechanism, and use of bioactive substances in microalgae, such as carotene, astaxanthin, and tocopherols, in the fields of food, cosmetics, and medicine. Using keyword co-occurrence and keyword mutation analysis, future trends are predicted to improve extraction rates and stability by altering the environment of microalgae cultures or mixing extracts with chemicals such as nanoparticles for commercial and industrial applications. These findings can help researchers identify trends and resources to build impactful investigations and expand scientific frontiers.

β-carotene is known to have pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-tumor properties. However, its main mechanism and related signaling pathways in the treatment of inflammation are still unclear. In this study, component target prediction was performed by using literature retrieval and the SwissTargetPrediction database. Disease targets were collected from various databases, including DisGeNET, OMIM, Drug Bank, and GeneCards. A protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed, and enrichment analysis of gene ontology and biological pathways was carried out for important targets. The analysis showed that there were 191 unique targets of β-carotene after removing repeat sites. A total of 2067 targets from the three databases were integrated, 58 duplicate targets were removed, and 2009 potential disease action targets were obtained. Biological function enrichment analysis revealed 284 biological process (BP) entries, 31 cellular component (CC) entries, 55 molecular function (MF) entries, and 84 cellular pathways. The biological processes were mostly associated with various pathways and their regulation, whereas the cell components were mainly membrane components. The main molecular functions included RNA polymerase II transcription factor activity, DNA binding specific to the ligand activation sequence, DNA binding, steroid binding sequence-specific DNA binding, enzyme binding, and steroid hormone receptors. The pathways involved in the process included the TNF signaling pathway, sphingomyelin signaling pathway, and some disease pathways. Lastly, the anti-inflammatory signaling pathway of β-carotene was systematically analyzed using network pharmacology, while the molecular mechanism of β-carotene was further explored by molecular docking. In this study, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of β-carotene was preliminarily explored and predicted by bioinformatics methods, and further experiments will be designed to verify and confirm the predicted results, in order to finally reveal the anti-inflammatory mechanism of β-carotene.

ABSTRACT: This experiment was conducted to investigate the antibacterial effects of essential oils (EO) in vitro and the influence of EO on growth performance, intestinal morphology and oxidation resistance and cecal microflora of yellow-feathered broilers. A total of 720 one-day-old male yellow feather broilers were randomly assigned into 4 treatments with 6 replicate cages of 30 broilers each. The groups were as follows: CON group (basal diet), EO200 group (basal diet + 200 mg/kg EO), EO400 group (basal diet + 400 mg/kg EO), and EO600 group (basal diet + 600 mg/kg EO). The experiment lasted for 48 d. Results showed that the growth and biofilm formation of avian pathogenic E. coli O78 and Salmonella pullorum were limited by adding EO to the diet (P < 0.05). Besides, birds fed with EO had greater (P < 0.05) average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG), and body weight (BW) during d 1 to 21, 22 to 42, and 1 to 48 and lower (P < 0.05) feed: gain (F:G) than those fed with basal diet during d 22 to 42 and 1 to 48. Moreover, the activity of antioxidant enzyme and the intestinal permeability were improved in the EO400 and EO600 groups rather than the CON group on d 21 (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in cecal microbial composition and enrichment of metabolic pathways of birds among all groups by 16S-based sequencing. In summary, some dose of EO improved bacteriostatic ability, antioxidant ability, and intestinal health of broilers which contributed to the growth performance improvement of yellow-feathered broilers, which can be a promising antibiotic alternative for improving poultry production.

In the biomedical field, polyurethane (PU) is widely used in interventional catheters, artificial hearts, artificial blood vessels, orthopedic materials, medical adhesives, and other medical devices. In this paper, a method based on machine vision was proposed to control the drafting and winding accuracy of PU filament in order to solve the problem of centrifugal runout when the mold rotates. The centrifugal runout of the mold directly affected the preparation efficiency and quality of long artificial blood vessel by wet spinning. Through non-contact real-time detection of the filament diameter and the angle between the axis of filament and the axis of mold, the motion parameters of the two motors driving the moving platform and the drafting roller could be adjusted in real time to achieve the purpose of online real-time control of filament drafting and winding accuracy. The vision control method proposed in this paper was used to carry out the PU tube preparation experiment. The visual measurement results of the filament diameter and the included angle were compared with the manual measurement results. The average value of the diameter error is 0.0096mm, and the average value of winding angle is 0.4777°. The results proved the accuracy of the visual measuring method and testified it feasible to using machine vision instead of manual method to detect filament diameter and winding angle. Properties of the prepared PU tube were tested and analyzed. The filament diameter measured by the 3D microscope was about 0.87 mm and significantly smaller than the filament diameter before winding. This indicated that the winding was uniform, the extrusion was tight, and the adhesion was good.

In the process of developing the industrial control SAMA logic diagram commonly used in the industrial process control system, there are some problems, that is, the size of logic diagram elements is small, the shape is various, similar element recognition is easily confused, and the detection accuracy is low. In this study, the faster R-CNN network has been improved. The original VGG16 network has been replaced by the ResNet101 network, and the residual value module was introduced to ensure the detailed features of the deep network. Then the industrial control logic diagram dataset was analyzed to improve the anchor size ratio through the K-means clustering algorithm. The candidate box screening problem was optimized by improving the non-maximum suppression algorithm. The elements were distinguished via the combination of the candidate box location and the inherent text, which improved the recognition accuracy of similar elements. An experimental platform was built using the TensorFlow framework based on the Windows system, and the improved method was compared with the original one by the control variable. The results showed that the performance of similar element recognition has been greatly enhanced through an improved faster R-CNN network.

In view of the core process data such as temperature and humidity of the tea product packaging process and the automatic control operation parameters of the production line, this paper designs a smart tea product packaging 5G Internet of Things gateway system, which realizes the 5G Internet of Things onsite monitoring and remote monitoring of the tea product packaging production line equipment. The design and implementation of the 5G Internet of Things gateway system are divided into three aspects, namely, 5G Internet of Things gateway configuration design, data communication protocol conversion. First, the 5G Internet of Things gateway configuration is to design the relevant control information of the tea processing production line equipment and complete the configuration storage of the PLC controller; secondly, the data communication protocol conversion is to pass the Modbus/TCP OPC standard to transfer the collected 5G Internet of Things. The sensor data undergoes unified standardized conversion, and then the standardized converted data is sent to the database and server using the MQTT protocol; the data processing of the 5G Internet of Things gateway system is the design of the internal data of the 5G Internet of Things gateway. Finally, the test was carried out and the results were obtained, which proved that the designed 5G Internet of Things gateway system is useable, reliable, has good stability and scalability, and provides an important solution for the construction of smart tea product packaging in the industry. The tea product packaging system based on 5G Internet of Things technology compiles electronic production management files for tea garden production, tea picking, tea processing, tea packaging and other links in accordance with the requirements of the national agricultural product quality and safety related systems and industry standards, and has become the traceability of tea quality The recorded important production management information provides important information support for the traceability of the whole process of tea.

The proposed non-conventional induction heating, which combines an MSCP and VDC structure, was proved to have excellent thermal effect. Different from other electric field sterilization, this electrotechnology operates with no electrodes, and it is a continuous-flow process with short-duration (about 20 s). In current study, the parameters related to temperature rise were investigated, including applied voltage, frequency, the diameter of the secondary coil and heating tube, as well as their length, etc. It was demonstrated that a smaller diameter of the heating tube, parallel connection sample coils, and higher frequency were beneficial for the inactivation of microorganisms. At 500 Hz, the optimal condition is 800 V, d1 = 2 mm, and L1 = 10 cm. Notably, the system could inactivate all microorganisms and maintained the physicochemical properties of apple juice at 40 kHz. It suggests that this structural design has the potential for industrial applications and the proposed induction heating can realize the rapid sterilization of liquid food without applying electrodes.

As an emerging electrotechnology, induced electric field has attracted extensive attention in the development of innovative heat treatment equipment. In this study, a resistance heating unit based on induced electric field was built for inner heating of aqueous electrolyte solutions as well as liquid foods, such as vinegar. NaCl solutions and liquid foods with different conductivity were used to investigate the thermal effect and temperature rise of samples. Saline gel composed of 3% agar powder and 20% NaCl acted as a coil of conductor for inducing high-level output voltage. The utilization of the saline gel coil significantly improved the power conversion efficiency of the heating unit as well as the heating rate. The results revealed that duty cycle and applied frequency had immediate impact on the efficiency of inner heating. Additionally, the rate of temperature rise was proportional to the conductivity of the sample. The temperature of 200 mL NaCl solution (0.6%) increased from 25 °C to 100 °C in 3 min at 40% duty cycle and 60 kHz of applied frequency, and it was a circulating-flow process. The maximum temperature rise of black vinegar was 39.6 °C in 15 s at 60 kHz and 60% duty cycle, while that of white vinegar was 32.2 °C in 30 s under same conditions, whereas it was a continuous-flow process. This novel heating system has realized the inner heating of liquid samples.

Space charge injected into a liquid dielectric by an electrode under an impulse voltage causes the electric field to be distorted, which affects the dielectric's insulation performance. In this study, the authors study the surface modification of three-electrode materials, namely aluminium, copper, and stainless steel, by sputtering of titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) based on magnetron sputtering. The breakdown voltage of propylene carbonate and the surface morphology of the electrodes before and after modification were examined. Furthermore, the distribution of the space charge injected into the propylene carbonate from the different electrode materials was also measured based on the Kerr electro-optic effect. These results indicate that the breakdown voltage of propylene carbonate increased by 7, 4, and 9% after surface modification of aluminium, copper, and stainless steel, respectively. After sputtering of TiO(2), micro-grooves on the surface of the three-electrode materials became smooth, and the surface roughness decreased, which changed the barrier height of the solid–liquid interface. The space charge injection mode of the three-electrode materials before and after surface modification was bipolar injection; however, the space charge injection amounts were markedly lower for the modified electrodes.

Electrodes are damaged by external forces, mechanical wear, and electrochemical corrosion during long-term operation in power systems, resulting in rough electrode surfaces. Space charge injected into the liquid by a rough electrode under a strong electric field causes electric field distortion and leads to breakdown. Moreover, the charge injection is associated with the energy barrier at the electrode-liquid interface. The combined effect mechanism of nanoparticles and electrode surface condition on the insulating characteristics of transformer oil was investigated using various surface condition aluminum plate electrodes. The breakdown voltages and space charge patterns in pure transformer oil and Al2O3 nano-modified transformer oil under impulse voltage were measured in this study through Kerr electro-optic field mapping measurement. The test results indicate that the breakdown voltage of nano-modified transformer oil depends on voltage polarity and electrode surface conditions and the charge injection shows the same mode in pure transformer oil using different surface condition electrodes, but the magnitude of charge injection differs considerably. Due to nanoparticle’s ability of shielding space charges of different polarities and the charge injection of different surface condition electrodes, they have different effects on the breakdown process of transformer oil between different surface condition electrodes. An interfacial model was formed to explore the mechanism of the effect of nanoparticles and electrode surface conditions on the insulation performance of liquid dielectrics and analyze the breakdown process using the space charge injection behaviors.

Inspired by the dynamic gait adopted by gecko, we had put forward GPL (Gecko-inspired mechanism with a Pendular waist and Linear legs) model with one passive waist and four active linear legs. To further develop dynamic gait and reduce energy consumption of climbing robot based on the GPL model, the gait design and trajectory planning are addressed in this paper. According to kinematics and dynamics of GPL, the trot gait and continuity analysis are executed. The effects of structural parameters on the supporting forces are analyzed. Moreover, the trajectory of the waist is optimized based on system energy consumption. Finally, a bioinspired robot is developed and the prototype experiment results show that the larger body length ratio, a certain elasticity of the waist joint, and the optimized trajectory contribute to a decrease in the supporting forces and reduction in system energy consumption, especially negative forces on supporting feet. Further, the results in our experiments partly explain the reasonability of quadruped reptile’s kinesiology during dynamic gait.