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The quality of Chinese herbal medicines is the key to the quality of traditional Chinese medicine. The processing of Chinese herbal medicines is an important part of the production and quality formation of medicinal materials. Traditional processing methods have low productivity and cannot guarantee the quality of Chinese herbal medicines. Among various non-thermal processing methods, ultrasonic technology has been proved to be a very valuable green processing technology. This paper will discuss the application of ultrasonic technology in the production and processing of Chinese herbal medicines in recent years, including the extraction, cleaning, drying and sterilization of effective components of Chinese herbal medicines. This review summarizes its principle, characteristics and application progress in recent years, and discusses its existing problems. The effects of ultrasound on the chemical structure and biological activity of bioactive compounds extracted from Chinese herbal medicines are mainly introduced. In addition, this paper discusses the effects of different ultrasonic conditions such as frequency, power, time and temperature on the chemical properties and processing of Chinese herbal medicines. In general, the use of ultrasound in the production and processing of Chinese herbal medicines has great application potential.

Methotrexate (MTX) is a therapeutic drug that is widely used in clinic for treatment of a variety of cancers. However, MTX has limited selectivity and serious cytotoxicity, at the same time, there are problems such as narrow therapeutic window and large individual variability in metabolism and excretion of MTX. Therefore, blood concentration monitoring is required for MTX administration in clinical practice. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has the advantages of strong specificity, good separation characteristics, high sensitivity and fast detection speed, which has become the internationally recognized “gold standard” for blood concentration monitoring of drugs. In this study, an isotope dilution mass spectrometry method was developed for accurate measurement of MTX in serum by the house-made QLIT-6610MD quadrupole-linear ion trap liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer. Unlike the traditional triple quadrupole QqQ tandem mass spectrometer, the quadrupole-linear ion trap (Q-LIT) mass spectrometer adopts the quadrupole-linear ion trap direct axial coupling design, i.e., a single linear ion trap is used to replace the QqQ tandem mass spectrometer’s back-end fragmentation cell and the quadrupole, and no other components are installed between the quadrupole and linear ion trap, which greatly streamlines the quality and efficiency of the mass spectrometer while ensuring the original performance of the instrument. With this unique configuration, the QLIT-6610MD instrument uses a simultaneous fragmentation and accumulation technique, which remarkedly reduces matrix-induced interferences and effectively reduces space charge effects. Serum samples were pretreated with methanol to precipitate proteins and the supernatants were measured by QLIT-6610MD spectrometer. The linear correlation coefficient (R2＞0.999 0) is obtained for MTX in the range of 10-5 000 μg/L. The limit of quantification is 10 μg/L. The precision of the quality control is better than 6.94%, and the recoveries of spiked serum samples are 86.39%-97.84% with a coefficient of variation less than 8.04%. We used the QLIT-6610MD and AB QTRAP 6500+ liquid chromatography-mass spectrometers to analyze 70 clinical serum samples for comparison of the performance of the house-made instrument by means of Pearson’s coefficient and BLand-ALtman method. The results showed that the QLIT-6610MD mass spectrometry achieves a similar level of performance to AB ATRAP 6500+ instrument, and provides a new domestic instrument option for clinical mass spectrometry. In addition, this study explores the possibility applying the multi-stage fragmentation technique (MSn) to determine MTX in serum, gaining fundamental data for future studies.

Abstract Background To develop a radiomics model based on chest computed tomography (CT) for the prediction of a pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant or conversion chemoimmunotherapy (CIT) in patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Patients with stage IB–III NSCLC who received neoadjuvant or conversion CIT between September 2019 and July 2021 at Hunan Cancer Hospital, Xiangya Hospital, and Union Hospital were retrospectively collected. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were used to screen features. Then, model 1 (five radiomics features before CIT), model 2 (four radiomics features after CIT and before surgery) and model 3 were constructed for the prediction of pCR. Model 3 included all nine features of model 1 and 2 and was later named the neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy‐related pathological response prediction model (NACIP). Results This study included 110 patients: 77 in the training set and 33 in the validation set. Thirty‐nine (35.5%) patients achieved a pCR. Model 1 showed area under the curve (AUC) = 0.65, 64% accuracy, 71% specificity, and 50% sensitivity, while model 2 displayed AUC = 0.81, 73% accuracy, 62% specificity, and 92% sensitivity. In comparison, NACIP yielded a good predictive value, with an AUC of 0.85, 81% accuracy, 81% specificity, and 83% sensitivity in the validation set. Conclusion NACIP may be a potential model for the early prediction of pCR in patients with NSCLC treated with neoadjuvant/conversion CIT.

Adding an appropriate amount of copper to feed can promote the growth and development of livestock; however, a large amount of heavy metal copper can accumulate in livestock through the enrichment effect, which poses a serious threat to human health. Traditional Cu2+ detection relies heavily on complex and expensive instruments, such as inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); thus, convenient and simple rapid detection technologies are urgently needed. In this paper, synthesized copper antigens were used to immunize mice and highly specific anticopper monoclonal antibodies were obtained, which were verified to exhibit high affinity and specificity. Based on the above antibodies, an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA) was established for the rapid detection of copper content in pork. The standard inhibition curve of the method was obtained by antigen–antibody working concentration screening, in which the half inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 11.888 ng/mL, the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.841 ng/mL and the correlation coefficient R2 of the curve was 0.998. In the additive recovery experiment, the recovery rate ranged from 90% to 110%, and the coefficient of variation (CV) was less than 10%, indicating that the method achieved high accuracy and precision. Finally, the results of ic-ELISA combined with Bland-Altman analysis showed a high correlation with ICP-MS, and the correlation coefficient (R2) reached 0.990 when the copper concentration was less than 200 ng/mL. Thus, the ic-ELISA method exhibits high reliability.

Death-associated protein-1 (DAP-1) plays a crucial role in cell growth, migration, autophagy, and apoptosis in mammals. However, its function in insects remains unclear. In the present study, we cloned and identified Nilaparvata lugens DAP-1 (NlDAP-1). NlDAP-1 was expressed during all developmental stages and in all tissues of N. lugens, being particularly higher in the ovaries of female adults. RNAi with double-stranded NlDAP-1 RNA significantly inhibited the expression of NlDAP-1, leading to premature death (dying seven days earlier), delayed ovarian development, and fewer offspring (76.7% reduction in eggs with 77.4% reduction in egg hatching rate). Additionally, an immunofluorescence experiment showed that NlDAP-1 was highly expressed when yeast-like symbionts (YLSs) entered N. lugens oocytes, and inhibiting the expression of NlDAP-1 disturbed the process; the RNAi of NlDAP-1 caused a 34.9% reduction in the YLSs that entered oocytes. These results indicate that NlDAP-1 plays a crucial role in the reproductive development of N. lugens and the transovarial transmission of its YLSs.

The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, is one of the most destructive pests of rice. Given the threats posed by insecticide resistance to its control, eco-friendly strategies based on microbial pathogens emerged as a promising biocontrol alternative. In the present study, we isolated a native fungal pathogen against BPH from infected BPH cadavers and preliminarily identified as a strain of Aspergillus fumigatus based on morphological and molecular methods. Laboratory bioassay revealed that this fungal strain was highly virulent to BPH both at nymphal and adult stages, with the median lethal times (LT50) of 7.5 and 5.8 days under high conidial concentration of 1 × 109 conidia mL–1. A genome-wide view of gene expressions in BPH against fungal attack was analyzed by transcriptomic sequencing and consequently a large number of differentially expressed genes that mainly involved in host immune defense and cell detoxification were found. RNAi-mediated knockdown of an upregulated gene encoding a serine protease (NlSPN) could cause a significant decrease in BPH survival. Combination of dsRNA injection and fungal infection showed an additive effect on BPH mortality, which provided clues to develop new pest management strategies against BPH.

Abstract Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) is a destructive virus that causes serious economic losses in many countries every year, highlighting the importance of its effective detection. In this study, we developed a fast reverse transcription-cross-priming amplification (RT-CPA) coupled with lateral flow dipstick (LFD) diagnostic method for BPMV detection. The RT-CPA-LFD assay that targets the coat protein gene of BPMV was highly specific against diagnosing four other common viruses transmitted by soybean seeds, i.e., Southern bean mosaic virus (SBMV), Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV), Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), and Tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV). The sensitivities of the real-time fluorescent RT-CPA and the RT-CPA-LFD assay were at least 50 pg/μl and 500 pg/μl, respectively. Despite a compromise in the limit of detection of the RT-CPA method compared with TaqMan-MGB real-time RT-PCR, our results demonstrated a notably better performance in the detection of field samples of BPMV-infested soybean seeds. With the advantages of efficiency and convenience by visual determination, the RT-CPA-LFD assay presents a potential application for the rapid and accurate detection of BPMV in routine tests.

Introduction The aim of our study is to explore the value of serum glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in disease severity and clinical outcomes of acute pancreatitis (AP).Research design and Methods Patients with AP were included from January 2013 to December 2020, retrospectively, dividing into normal serum HbA1c level (N-HbA1c) group and high serum HbA1c level (H-HbA1c) group according to the criteria HbA1c

Low-cost fish species are often used to adulterate or substitute for Atlantic salmon products, posing a serious threat to market order and public health. Hence, reliable techniques are urgently needed to detect Atlantic salmon adulteration. In this study, a precise method for identifying and quantifying adulterated Atlantic salmon with rainbow trout based on droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) testing was developed. Species-specific primers and probes were designed targeting the single-copy nuclear gene myoglobin of two salmonids. A quantitative formula for calculating the mass fraction of adulterated Atlantic salmon with rainbow trout was established based on a one-step conversion strategy, in which the DNA copy number ratios were directly transformed to meat mass fractions by introducing a fixed constant (the transfer coefficient). The dynamic range of the established ddPCR method was from 1% to 90%, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.2% and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.8% for rainbow trout in Atlantic salmon, respectively. The quantification method demonstrated an acceptable level of repeatability and reproducibility, as the values of the relative standard deviation (RSD) for the tested meat mixtures with the known fractions were all less than 5%. Thermal and freezing treatments, as well as adding food additives within the recommended dosage limits, had no significant effect on the quantification accuracy. The method was successfully applied to detect rainbow trout adulteration in commercial raw and processed Atlantic salmon products. In comparison to real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) testing, the established ddPCR method exhibited a higher level of stability and accuracy. Overall, the ddPCR-based quantitative method exhibited high levels of accuracy, stability, sensitivity, and practicability, suitable for applications in the routine surveillance and quality assurance of salmon products.

Following insect mating, females often exhibit a series of physiological, behavioral, and gene expression changes. These post-mating responses (PMRs) are induced by seminal fluid components other than sperm, which not only form network proteins to assist sperm localization, supplement female-specific protein requirements, and facilitate the formation of specialized functional structures, but also activate neuronal signaling pathways in insects. This review primarily discusses the roles of seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) and octopamine (OA) in various PMRs in insects. It explores the regulatory mechanisms and mediation conditions by which they trigger PMRs, along with the series of gene expression differences they induce. Insect PMRs involve a transition from protein signaling to neuronal signaling, ultimately manifested through neural regulation and gene expression. The intricate signaling network formed as a result significantly influences female behavior and organ function, contributing to both successful reproduction and the outcomes of sexual conflict.

The brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens, is a difficult-to-control insect pest affecting rice yields in Asia. As a structural component of the inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor (ITI), the inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain (ITIH) has been reported to be involved in various inflammatory or malignant disorders, ovarian development, and ovulation. To reveal the function of ITIH4 in N. lugens, the gene encoding N. lugens ITIH4 (NlITIH4) was cloned and characterized. NlITIH4 contains a signal peptide, a vault protein inter-alpha-trypsin domain, and a von Willebrand factor type A domain. qPCR analysis showed that NlITIH4 was expressed at all developmental stages and in all tissues (fat body, ovary, and gut), with the highest expression in the fat body. Double stranded NlITIH4 (dsNlITIH4) injection clearly led to an RNAi-mediated inhibition of the expression of NlITIH4 and resulted in reduced survival, delayed ovarian development, and reduced egg production and egg hatching. These results indicate that NlITIH4 plays an important role in the development and reproduction of N. lugens.

The complete mitochondrial genome of a nursery-web spider Dolomedes angustivirgatus is 14,783 bp in length and contains a standard set of 37 genes including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs and a putative control region. The A + T content of the major strand is 77.0%. All the protein-coding genes are initiated by typical ATN codons, except for COII and COIII, which use a special start codon TTG. The truncated stop codon (T) occurs in ND4L, whereas the rest 12 genes end with the canonical stop codon (TAA and TAG). 15 tRNAs cannot be folded into typical cloverleaf-shaped secondary structure. The control region is 1084 bp in length and contains a long tandem repeat region. The result of phylogenetic analysis show that D. angustivirgatus is nested within Lycosoidea and recovered as sister to the cluster of three wolf spiders (Lycosidae).

Tetraene macrolides remain one of the most reliable fungicidal agents as resistance of fungal pathogens to these antibiotics is relatively rare. The modes of action and biosynthesis of polyene macrolides had been the focus of research over the past few years. However, few studies have been carried out on the overproduction of polyene macrolides. In the present study, cumulative drug-resistance mutation was used to obtain a quintuple mutant G5-59 with huge tetraene macrolide overproduction from the starting strain Streptomyces diastatochromogenes 1628. Through DNA sequence analysis, the mutation points in the genes of rsmG, rpsL and rpoB were identified. Additionally, the growth characteristic and expression level of tetrRI gene (belonging to the large ATP binding regulator of LuxR family) involved in the biosynthesis of tetraene macrolides were analyzed. As examined with 5L fermentor, the quintuple mutant G5-59 grew very well and the maximum productivity of tetramycin A, tetramycin P and tetrin B was as high as 1735, 2811 and 1500 mg/L, which was 8.7-, 16- and 25-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain 1628, respectively. The quintuple mutant G5-59 could be useful for further improvement of tetraene macrolides production at industrial level.

This work presents a reliable approach to trace teas’ geographical origins despite changes in teas caused by different harvest years. A total of 1447 tea samples collected from various areas in 2014 (660 samples) and 2015 (787 samples) were detected by FT-NIR. Seven classifiers trained on the 2014 dataset all succeeded to trace origins of samples collected in 2014; however, they all failed to predict origins for the 2015 samples due to different data distributions and imbalanced dataset. Three outlier detection based undersampling approaches—one-class SVM (OC-SVM), isolation forest and elliptic envelope—were then proposed; as a result, the highest macro average recall (MAR) for the 2015 dataset was improved from 56.86% to 73.95% (by SVM). A model updating approach was also applied, and the prediction MAR was significantly improved with increase in the updating rate. The best MAR (90.31%) was first achieved by the OC-SVM combined SVM classifier at a 50% rate.

The silverleaf whitefly Bemisia tabaci is an important and invasive crop pest in many countries. Previous laboratory studies with Arabidopsis demonstrated that B. tabaci can suppress jasmonic acid (JA) defenses and thereby enhance B. tabaci performance. Whether B. tabaci can suppress JA-regulated host plant defenses in field is unknown. In the present study, we found that, relative to wild-type (WT) tomato plants, transgenic tomato mutants that activated JA defenses (35s::prosys) or impaired JA defenses (spr-2 and def-1) did not affect the survival or reproduction of B. tabaci adults in growth chamber experiments. In contrast, tomato mutants that activated JA defenses slowed B. tabaci nymphal development, while mutants that impaired JA defenses accelerated nymphal development. These effects of JA defenses on nymphal development were also documented under semi-field conditions. Changes in the expression of defense genes and in the production of phytohormones indicated that B. tabaci adults can suppress JA-dependent defenses after infestation for >72 h. The suppression of JA was correlated with the induction of salicylic acid (SA) in B. tabaci-infested leaves under laboratory and under semi-field conditions. If SA signaling was blocked, JA accumulation increased in infested leaves and B. tabaci nymphal development was delayed. These results indicate that, although JA signaling helps in mediating tomato responses against B. tabaci nymphs, B. tabaci can inhibit JA biosynthesis and its action in an SA-dependent manner.

Brown planthopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens Stål is a serious insect pest of rice in Asian countries. Active compounds have close relationship with rice resistance against BPH. In this study, HPLC, MS/MS, and NMR techniques were used to identify active compounds in total flavonoids of rice. As a result, a BPH resistance-associated compound, Peak 1 in HPLC chromatogram of rice flavonoids, was isolated and identified as schaftoside. Feeding experiment with artificial diet indicated that schaftoside played its role in a dose dependent manner, under the concentration of 0.10 and 0.15 mg mL-1, schaftoside showed a significant inhibitory effect on BPH survival (p < 0.05), in comparison with the control. The fluorescent spectra showed that schaftoside has a strong ability to bind with NlCDK1, a CDK1 kinase of BPH. The apparent association constant KA for NlCDK1 binding with schaftoside is 6.436 × 103 L/mol. Docking model suggested that binding of schaftoside might affect the activation of NlCDK1 as a protein kinase, mainly through interacting with amino acid residues Glu12, Thr14 and Val17 in the ATP binding element GXGXXGXV (Gly11 to Val18). Western blot using anti-phospho-CDK1 (pThr14) antibody confirmed that schaftoside treatment suppressed the phosphorylation on Thr-14 site of NlCDK1, thus inhibited its activation as a kinase. Therefore, this study revealed the schaftoside-NlCDK1 interaction mode, and unraveled a novel mechanism of rice resistance against BPH.

The complete mitochondrial genome of an orb-weaver spider Araneus angulatus is 14,205 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and a control region. The A + T content of the major strand is 75.4%. Nine of the protein-coding genes are initiated by typical ATN codons, one gene (COI) starts with TTA and other three genes (ND6, COII, and COIII) begin with TTG. The truncated stop codon (T) occurs in ND3, ND4L, and ND6, whereas the rest ten genes end with the canonical stop codon (TAA and TAG). Fifteen tRNAs lack the potential to form the typically cloverleaf-shaped secondary structure. The control region is 649 bp in length and contains a long tandem repeat region. The result of phylogenetic analysis shows that the relationship of A. angulatus was close to the species in the same family Araneidae.

Toyocamycin is a member of the nucleoside antibiotic family and has been recognized as a promising fungicide for the control of plant diseases. However, low productivity of toyocamycin remains an important bottleneck in its industrial production. Therefore, dramatic improvements of strains for overproduction of toyocamycin are of great interest in applied microbiology research. In this study, we sequentially selected for mutations for multiple drug resistance to promote the overproduction of toyocamycin by Streptomyces diastatochromogenes 1628. The triple mutant strain, SD3145 (str str par), was obtained through sequential screenings. This strain showed an enhanced capacity to produce toyocamycin (1500 mg/L), 24-fold higher than the wild type in GYM liquid medium. This dramatic overproduction was attributed at least partially to the acquisition of an rsmG mutation and increased gene expression of toyA, which encodes a LuxR-family transcriptional regulator for toyocamycin biosynthesis. The expression of toyF and toyG, probably directly involved in toyocamycin biosynthesis, was also enhanced, contributing to toyocamycin overproduction. By addition of a small amount of scandium (ScCl3·6H2O), the mutant strain, SD3145, produced more toyocamycin (2664 mg/L) in TPM medium, which was the highest toyocamycin level produced in shake-flask fermentation by a streptomycete so far. We demonstrated that introduction of combined drug resistance mutations into S. diastatochromogenes 1628 resulted in an obvious increase in the toyocamycin production. The triple mutant strain, SD3145, generated in our study could be useful for improvement of industrial production of toyocamycin.

Clip domain serine proteases play vital roles in various innate immune functions and in embryonic development. Nilaparvata lugens proclotting enzymes (NlPCEs) belong to this protease family. NlPCE1 was reported to be involved in innate immunity, whereas the role of other NlPCEs is unclear. In the present study, N. lugens proclotting enzyme-3 (NlPCE3) was cloned and characterized. NlPCE3 contains a signal peptide, a clip domain, and a trypsin-like serine protease domain. NlPCE3 was expressed in all tissues examined (gut, fat body, and ovary), and at all developmental stages. Immunofluorescence staining showed that NlPCE3 was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm and cytomembrane of follicular cells. Double stranded NlPCE3 RNA interference clearly inhibited the expression of NlPCE3, resulting in abnormal egg formation and obstruction of ovulation. These results indicate that NlPCE3 plays an important role in egg production in N. lugens.

This paper focused on an effective method to discriminate the geographical origin of Wuyi-Rock tea by the stable isotope ratio (SIR) and metallic element profiling (MEP) combined with support vector machine (SVM) analysis. Wuyi-Rock tea (n=99) collected from nine producing areas and non-Wuyi-Rock tea (n=33) from eleven nonproducing areas were analysed for SIR and MEP by established methods. The SVM model based on coupled data produced the best prediction accuracy (0.9773). This prediction shows that instrumental methods combined with a classification model can provide an effective and stable tool for provenance discrimination. Moreover, every feature variable in stable isotope and metallic element data was ranked by its contribution to the model. The results show that δ2H, δ18O, Cs, Cu, Ca, and Rb contents are significant indications for provenance discrimination and not all of the metallic elements improve the prediction accuracy of the SVM model.

In order to investigate the resistance of tea plant to tea aphid, the feeding behavior of tea aphids on six different tea cultivars was monitored by (EPG) technique. The result showed that the duration of E1, E2 as well as (E1+E2) which was feeding waveforms of Toxoptera aurantii (Boyer) in tea phloem was significantly different by variance analysis (P

BackgroundTrichoderma brevicompactum is the Trichoderma species producing simple trichothecenes-trichodermin, a potential antifungal antibiotic and a protein synthesis inhibitor. However, the biosynthetic pathway of trichodermin in Trichoderma is not completely clarified. Therefore, transcriptome and gene expression profiling data for this species are needed as an important resource to better understand the mechanism of the trichodermin biosynthesis and provide a blueprint for further study of T. brevicompactum.ResultsIn this study, de novo assembly of the T. brevicompactum transcriptome using the short-read sequencing technology (Illumina) was performed. In addition, two digital gene expression (DGE) libraries of T. brevicompactum under the trichodermin-producing and trichodermin-nonproducing culture conditions, respectively, were constructed to identify the differences in gene expression. A total of 23,351 unique transcripts with a mean length of 856 bp were obtained by a new Trinity de novo assembler. The variations of the gene expression under different culture conditions were also identified. The expression profiling data revealed that 3,282 unique transcripts had a significantly differential expression under the trichodermin-producing condition, as compared to the trichodermin-nonproducing condition. This study provides a large amount of transcript sequence data that will contribute to the study of the trichodermin biosynthesis in T. brevicompactum. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was found to be useful to confirm the differential expression of the unique transcripts.ConclusionOur study provides considerable gene expression information of T. brevicompactum at the transcriptional level,which will help accelerate the research on the trichodermin biosynthesis. Additionally, we have demonstrated the feasibility of using the Illumina sequencing based DGE system for gene expression profiling, and have shed new light on functional studies of the genes involved in T. brevicompactum biosynthesis.

This paper focuses on a rapid and nondestructive way to discriminate the geographical origin of Anxi-Tieguanyin tea by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and chemometrics. 450 representative samples were collected from Anxi County, the original producing area of Tieguanyin tea, and another 120 Tieguanyin samples with similar appearance were collected from unprotected producing areas in China. All these samples were measured by NIR. The Stahel-Donoho estimates (SDE) outlyingness diagnosis was used to remove the outliers. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) was performed to develop a classification model and predict the authenticity of unknown objects. To improve the sensitivity and specificity of classification, the raw data was preprocessed to reduce unwanted spectral variations by standard normal variate (SNV) transformation, taking second-order derivatives (D2) spectra, and smoothing. As the best model, the sensitivity and specificity reached 0.931 and 1.000 with SNV spectra. Combination of NIR spectrometry and statistical model selection can provide an effective and rapid method to discriminate the geographical producing area of Anxi-Tieguanyin.

A major safety concern with pidan (preserved eggs) has been the usage of lead (II) oxide (PbO) during its processing. This paper develops a rapid and nondestructive method for discrimination of lead (Pb) in preserved eggs with different processing methods by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and chemometrics. Ten batches of 331 unleaded eggs and six batches of 147 eggs processed with usage of PbO were collected and analyzed by NIR spectroscopy. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis was used as a reference method for Pb identification. The Pb contents of leaded eggs ranged from 1.2 to 12.8 ppm. Linear partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and nonlinear least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) were used to classify samples based on NIR spectra. Different preprocessing methods were studied to improve the classification performance. With second-order derivative spectra, PLSDA and LS-SVM obtained accurate and reliable classification of leaded and unleaded preserved eggs. The sensitivity and specificity of PLSDA were 0.975 and 1.000, respectively. Because the strictest safety standard of Pb content in traditional pidan is 2 ppm, the proposed method shows the feasibility for rapid and nondestructive discrimination of Pb in Chinese preserved eggs.

The feasibility of electronic tongue and multivariate analysis was investigated for discriminating the specific geographical origins of a Chinese green tea with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). 155 Longjing tea samples from three subareas were collected and analyzed by an electronic tongue array of 7 sensors. To remove the influence of abnormal measurements and samples, robust principal component analysis (ROBPCA) was used to detect outliers in each class. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) was then used to develop a classification model. The prediction sensitivity/specificity of PLSDA was 1.000/1.000, 1.000/0.967, and 0.950/1.000 for longjing from Xihu, Qiantang, and Yuezhou, respectively. Electronic tongue and chemometrics can provide a rapid and reliable tool for discriminating the specific producing areas of Longjing.

This paper aims at developing a rapid and nondestructive method for analyzing the shelf life of preserved eggs (pidan) by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and nonlinear multivariate calibration. A major concern with a nonlinear model is that the noncomposition-correlated spectral variations among pidan objects of different batches and production dates would unnecessarily increase model complexity and cause overfitting and degradation of prediction. To reduce the negative influence of unwanted spectral variations, stacked least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) with an ensemble of 62 commonly used preprocessing methods is proposed to automatically optimize data preprocessing and develop the nonlinear model. The analysis results indicate that stacked LS-SVM can obtain stable calibration model, and the prediction accuracy is improved compared with models with single-preprocessing methods. Since LS-SVM is much faster than its ordinary counterparts, stacked LS-SVM with ensemble preprocessing can be performed within an acceptable computational time. When the objects and spectral variations are very complex, the proposed method can provide a useful tool for data preprocessing and nonlinear multivariate calibration.

This paper develops a rapid method for discriminating the geographical origins and age of roasted Torreya grandis seeds by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic analysis and pattern recognition. 337 samples were collected from three main producing areas and produced in the last two years. The objective of geographical origins analysis is to discriminate the seeds from Fengqiao with a protected geographical indication (PGI) from those of another two provinces. Age classification is aimed to detect the old seeds produced in the last year from the freshly produced ones. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) was used to develop classification models, and the influence of data preprocessing methods on classification performance was also investigated. Taking second-order derivatives of the raw spectra proves to be the most proper and effective preprocessing method, which can remove baselines and backgrounds and reduce model complexity. With second derivative spectra, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.939 and 0.871 for age discrimination, respectively. Perfect classification was obtained, and both sensitivity and specificity were 1 for discrimination of geographical origins.

Untargeted detection of protein adulteration in Chinese yogurt was performed using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and chemometrics class modelling techniques. sixty yogurt samples were prepared with pure and fresh milk from local market, and 197 adulterated yogurt samples were prepared by blending the pure yogurt objects with different levels of edible gelatin, industrial gelatin, and soy protein powder, which have been frequently used for yogurt adulteration. A recently proposed one-class partial least squares (OCPLS) model was used to model the NIR spectra of pure yogurt objects and analyze those of future objects. To improve the raw spectra, orthogonal projection (OP) of raw spectra onto the spectrum of pure water and standard normal variate (SNV) transformation were used to remove unwanted spectral variations. The best model was obtained with OP preprocessing with sensitivity of 0.900 and specificity of 0.949. Moreover, adulterations of yogurt with 1% (w/w) edible gelatin, 2% (w/w) industrial gelatin, and 2% (w/w) soy protein powder can be safely detected by the proposed method. This study demonstrates the potential of combining NIR spectroscopy and OCPLS as an untargeted detection tool for protein adulteration in yogurt.

This paper reports a rapid identification method for a Chinese green tea with PGI, Anji-white tea, by class modeling techniques and NIR spectroscopy. 167 real and representative Anji-white tea samples were collected from 8 tea plantations in their original producing areas for model training. Another 81 non-Anji-white tea samples of similar appearance were collected from 7 important tea producing areas and used for validation of model specificity. Diffuse NIR spectra were measured with finely ground tea powders. OCPLS and SIMCA were used to describe the distribution of representative Anji-white tea objects and predict the authenticity of new objects. For data preprocessing, smoothing, derivatives, and SNV were applied to improve the raw spectra and classification performance. It is demonstrated that taking derivatives and SNV can improve classification accuracy and reduce the complexity of class models by removing spectral background and baseline. For the best models, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.886 and 0.951 for OCPLS, 0.886 and 0.938 for SIMCA with SNV spectra, respectively. Although it is difficult to perform an exhaustive analysis of all types of potential false objects, the proposed method can detect most of the important non-Anji-white teas in the Chinese market.

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and chemometric methods were applied to internal quality control of a Chinese green tea, Longjing, with Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). A total of 2745 authentic Longjing tea samples of three different grades were analyzed by NIR spectroscopy. To remove the influence of abnormal samples, The Stahel-Donoho estimate (SDE) of outlyingness was used for outlier analysis. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) was then used to classify the grades of tea based on NIR spectra. Different data preprocessing methods, including smoothing, taking second-order derivative (D2) spectra, and standard normal variate (SNV) transformation, were performed to reduce unwanted spectral variations in samples of the same grade before classification models were developed. The results demonstrate that smoothing, taking D2 spectra, and SNV can improve the performance of PLSDA models. With SNV spectra, the model sensitivity was 1.000, 0.955, and 0.924, and the model specificity was 0.979, 0.952, and 0.996 for samples of three grades, respectively. FT-NIR spectrometry and chemometrics can provide a robust and effective tool for rapid internal quality control of Longjing green tea.

The effects of six species of phytopathogenic fungi mycelia as elicitors on trichodermin yield by Trichoderma brevicompactum were investigated. Neither nonviable nor viable mycelia of Botrytis cinerea, Alternaria solani, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, and Thanatephorus cucumeris demonstrated any elicitation on the accumulation of trichodermin. However, the production of trichodermin was increased by the presence of viable/nonviable Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum mycelia. The strongest elicitation effect was found at the presence of nonviable R. solani. At the presence of nonviable R. solani, the maximum yield of trichodermin (144.55 mg/L) was significantly higher than the Control (67.8 mg/L), and the cultivation time to obtain the maximum yield of trichodermin decreased from 72 h to 60 h. No difference of trichodermin accumulation was observed by changing the concentration of nonviable R. solani from 0.1 to 1.6 g/L. It was observed that the optimum time for adding nonviable R. solani is immediately after inoculation. The diameter of T. brevicompactum mycelial globule after 72 h cultivation with nonviable R. solani elicitor was smaller than that of the Control.

This paper reports the application of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and pattern recognition methods to rapid and automatic discrimination of the genotypes (parent, transgenic, and parent-transgenic hybrid) of cotton plants. Diffuse reflectance NIR spectra of representative cotton seeds (n=120) and leaves (n=123) were measured in the range of 4000–12000 cm−1. A practical problem when developing classification models is the degradation and even breakdown of models caused by outliers. Considering the high-dimensional nature and uncertainty of potential spectral outliers, robust principal component analysis (rPCA) was applied to each separate sample group to detect and exclude outliers. The influence of different data preprocessing methods on model prediction performance was also investigated. The results demonstrate that rPCA can effectively detect outliers and maintain the efficiency of discriminant analysis. Moreover, the classification accuracy can be significantly improved by second-order derivative and standard normal variate (SNV). The best partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) models obtained total classification accuracy of 100% and 97.6% for seeds and leaves, respectively.

In the title compound, C14H4Cl4FNO2, the benzene ring and the phthalimide plane are nearly planar, the maximum deviations being 0.005 (2) and 0.010 (2) Å, respectively, but the molecule as a whole is not planar: the dihedral angle between the two planar ring systems is 68.06 (10)°. A short Cl...O contact of 2.914 (2) Å exists in the crystal structure.

In the title compound, C14H6F3NO2, the benzene ring and the phthalimide ring system make a dihedral angle of 60.12 (7)°. Weak intermolecular C—H...O and C—H...F hydrogen bonds are present in the crystal structure.

In the title compound, C10H2Cl4F3NO2, the isoindoline ring system is almostplanar, the maximum atomic deviation being 0.064 (2) Å. The C—C bond of the ethylene group is twisted with respect to the isoindoline plane by a dihedral angle of 59.58 (12)°. In the crystal, weak intermolecular C—H...F hydrogen bonding links the molecules into supramolecular chains running along the a axis. A short intermolecular Cl...O contact of 2.950 (3) Å is also observed.

In the title compound, C14H7F2NO2, the phthalimide ring system is nearly planar [maximum atomic deviation = 0.028 (1) Å] and it is twisted with respect to the attached benzene ring, making a dihedral angle of 55.70 (6)°. Weak intermolecular C—H...F hydrogen bonds are present in the crystal structure.

The title compound, C14H4Cl4FNO2, has crystallographic twofold symmetry with the N and F atoms and two C atoms of the benzene ring located on a twofold rotation axis. The isoindoledione ring system is almost planar [maximum atomic deviation = 0.036 (3) Å], and is twisted with respect to the florobenzene ring, making a dihedral angle of 58.56 (16)°. Weak intermolecular C—H...Cl hydrogen bonding is present in the crystal structure.

In the title compound, C10H6F3NO2, the isoindole ring system is planar, the maximum atomic deviation being 0.012 (2) Å. The C—C bond of the trifluoroethyl group is twisted with respect to the isoindole ring by a dihedral angle of 62.58 (17)°. Weak intermolecular C—H...O and C—H...F hydrogen bonding is present in the crystal structure.

Abstract Objective This meta-analysis aims to compare the clinical efficacy of mesh non-fixation and fixation in laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) inguinal hernia repair, systematically evaluating the application value of the mesh non-fixation technique in clinical settings. Methods A computerized search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing mesh non-fixation and fixation in TAPP inguinal hernia repair. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software, and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) evidence grading system was employed for outcome quality assessment. Publication bias analysis was performed using Begg’s test. A trial sequential analysis (TSA) was performed using TSA 0.9.5.10 Beta software. Results A total of nine RCTs involving 1,879 inguinal hernia patients were included. Meta-analysis results demonstrated that, compared to the fixation group, the non-fixation group exhibited significantly lower seroma occurrence rate [RR = 0.43, 95% CI (0.20, 0.89), P = 0.02, heterogeneity P = 0.28, I²=22%], Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain score at 6 months postoperatively [MD=-0.21, 95% CI (-0.29, -0.12), P