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Pouchitis is a common late complication in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) who undergo ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA). The heterogeneous nature of the clinical and endoscopic presentations could affect the evaluation of therapeutic interventions for pouchitis. Thus, identifying the risk factors and clinical outcomes of pouch inflammation at different sites and severity is becoming increasingly important for colorectal surgeons.Data on patients who underwent IPAA January from 2008 to June 2022 in our three pouch centers affiliated with the China UC Pouch Center Union were retrospectively collected. Pouchitis was categorized as a different phenotype according to the Chicago Classification. J pouches were classified into short (14 ± 2 cm) and long pouches (22 ± 2 cm) according to the distribution of ileal pouch length in our institute.Altogether, 143 patients with a median follow-up time of 5.0 years (interquartile range: 2.0-8.0) were enrolled. Among them, 41 patients (28.7%) developed pouchitis and 32 patients (78%) had diffuse inflammation of the pouch. Patients with diffuse pouchitis had a higher pouchitis disease activity index and more seriously impaired improvement of long-term quality of life than those with pouch phenotypes. A short J pouch, recurrent UC, and preoperative high white blood cell count were independent risk factors for diffuse pouchitis. Furthermore, a short J pouch could effectively predict the occurrence of diffuse pouchitis with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.614, a sensitivity of 62.5%, and a specificity of 60.4% (p = 0.049) and significantly decreased the overall diffuse pouchitis-free survival compared to a long J pouch (p = 0.0002).Diffuse pouchitis is a common phenotype of pouchitis that seriously impairs long-term prognosis. For colorectal surgeons, decision-making regarding pouch construction with an appropriate length should be considered to prevent the development of diffuse pouchitis.

In this paper, a model-free robust adaptive control scheme with finite-time convergence based on time-delay control is proposed for anti-sway and positioning control of two-dimensional underactuated overhead cranes. First, the whole overhead cranes system is simplified to an ultra-local model for time delay estimation (TDE). TDE brings a direct and effective model-free property but also an estimation error. Second, a sliding mode disturbance observer is designed to estimate and compensate for the TDE error. Third, sliding mode control (SMC) is used to enhance the robustness of the controller. An adaptive integral sliding surface is then designed to accelerate the sliding surface convergence rate and shorten the convergence time. To further optimize the selection of parameters, the parameter estimation is integrated to enhance the performance of model-free control. In the final analysis of the simulation, data yield that the introduction of parameter estimation increases the control performance by more than 20% on average, and the above facts verify the effectiveness of the scheme. Finally, the stability of the closed-loop control system is analyzed by using Lyapunov stability theory, and the effectiveness and robustness of the control scheme are verified through computer simulation results.

During the synchronous operation of the double-container, the double-lift overhead cranes suffer from the perturbation of system internal parameters, friction and external unknown disturbances. To address the impact of the above-mentioned negative factors, based on the mathematical model of induction motor and the coupled dynamics model of double-container, this paper proposes a synchronous control method combining variable gain extended state observer and nonlinear time-varying sliding mode surface for the synchronous coordination control of double-lift overhead cranes system. The load dynamics model of the double-container interlocking mode is established. Then, a nonlinear time-varying sliding mode surface is designed by means of nonlinear function and dynamic exponential term, which effectively speeds up the convergence of the system state and enhances the robustness of the system. Furthermore, the design adaptive reaching law is used to weaken the unwanted chattering and improve the performance of the controller. At the same time, the designed variable gain extended state observer estimates the aggregated disturbances in the system and then compensates them into the controller. The Lyapunov stability theory is used to prove the stability of the control system. The simulation experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization control scheme.

The 2013 MS7.0 Lushan earthquake, Sichuan, China, occurred on a blind thrust fault in the southern Longmenshan fault belt. The terrestrial hybrid repeated gravity observation enables us to investigate the redistribution of both surface and deep mass. Here, we find a transient increase in the gravity field about 2 years before the earthquake and a drop after the mainshock. A Bayesian inversion method with spatiotemporal smoothness is employed to extract the apparent density changes. The increase of apparent density on the south of the focal zone is assumed to be related to crustal mass transfer. We introduce a disc-shaped equivalent source model with a homogeneous density to address this hypothesis, and estimate the model parameters by Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations. As a fluid diffusion footprint is indicated by the seismicity migration in this region, with a fitted diffusion rate of 10 m2 s−1, we conclude that such deep crustal mass transfer may be caused by fluid diffusion.

Objective To evaluate the prognostic impact and describe suturing tools of mesenteric closure after laparoscopic right hemicolectomy (LRH). Methods PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, were searched and publications relating to mesenteric closure data and tools were extracted. Search terms: “Mesenteric Defects” and “Mesenteric Closure” were used, and manual searches of eligible articles from literature reference lists performed. Result A total of 7 publications were identified. 5 focused on prognostic impact and 4 referred to tools for mesenteric closure, two of which concerned both prognostic data and tools. All studies related to prognostic impact were single center with “low” modified GRADE quality. A high degree of heterogeneous was found. Conclusion The evidence from current research does not support routine closure of mesenteric defects. Use of a polymer ligation clip has produced favorable results in a small sample size trial and further investigation is merited. A large randomized controlled trial is still warranted.

A model-free control (MFC) method based on iterative learning law combined with adaptive super-twisting is proposed to realize the synchronous coordination control of multi-lift overhead cranes system for the problems of inaccurate modeling, system parameter variation and disturbance uncertainty that exist in multi-lift overhead cranes system. Firstly, a load coupling model of the double-container overhead crane considering the deformation tangential force in the interlocking mode is established. Secondly, a time-varying sliding mode surface designed by using nonlinear functions effectively improves the convergence speed of the system state. The method of iterative learning control (ILC) is introduced to compensate the system dynamics to achieve model-free control, and the dynamic learning rate is designed instead of the constant learning rate to improve the convergence speed of the error of the system and the steady-state performance. In order to suppress uncertainty disturbances and avoid control gain overestimation, an adaptive gain is added to the generalized super-twisting algorithm, which has the advantages of both finite-time convergence and chattering suppression, and improves the robustness and tracking performance of the multi-lift overhead cranes system. The stability of the controlled system is analyzed by using Lyapunov stability theory. The simulation experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization control scheme.

The physicochemical property, volatile flavor compounds, and microbial community structure of Jinhua fatty ham (FH) and lean ham (LH) were investigated and compared by high-throughput sequencing and HS-GC-IMS. Results showed that FH had higher pH and slightly lighter and yellower color than LH. Meanwhile, 33 volatile flavor compounds were identified from FH and LH, among which LH showed higher abundance of total alcohols and acids, but FH had generally richer aldehydes, ketones, esters, heterocyclic, and sulfur-containing compounds. Moreover, FH and LH did not have significant difference in α-diversity of bacterial community, but LH presented a much lower α-diversity of fungal community than FH. Besides, the dominant microorganisms (relative abundance >2%) in FH were Ruminococcaceae UCG-005, Staphylococcus, Ruminococcaceae UCG-014, Meyerozyma, and Aspergillus at the genus level, while in LH were Staphylococcus, Psychrobacter, Halomonas, Propionicicella, Ruminococcaceae UCG-005, Meyerozyma, Yamadazyma, and Aspergillus. Furthermore, the analysis of Pearson’s correlation and metabolic network confirmed that the discriminative flavor compounds of FH were mainly β-oxidation and degradation products of fatty acids, while those of LH were mostly derived from the Strecker reaction or microbial metabolism of amino acids. The present study could help understand the potential pathway of characteristic microorganisms affecting flavor formation of fat-deficient dry-cured hams and provide theoretical supports for developing healthier fermented meat products.

Objective. In digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), architectural distortion (AD) is a breast lesion that is difficult to detect. Compared with typical ADs, which have radial patterns, identifying a typical ADs is more difficult. Most existing computer-aided detection (CADe) models focus on the detection of typical ADs. This study focuses on atypical ADs and develops a deep learning-based CADe model with an adaptive receptive field in DBT. Approach. Our proposed model uses a Gabor filter and convergence measure to depict the distribution of fibroglandular tissues in DBT slices. Subsequently, two-dimensional (2D) detection is implemented using a deformable-convolution-based deep learning framework, in which an adaptive receptive field is introduced to extract global features in slices. Finally, 2D candidates are aggregated to form the three-dimensional AD detection results. The model is trained on 99 positive cases with ADs and evaluated on 120 AD-positive cases and 100 AD-negative cases. Main results. A convergence-measure-based model and deep-learning model without an adaptive receptive field are reproduced as controls. Their mean true positive fractions (MTPF) ranging from 0.05 to 4 false positives per volume are 0.3846 ± 0.0352 and 0.6501 ± 0.0380, respectively. Our proposed model achieves an MTPF of 0.7148 ± 0.0322, which is a significant improvement (p < 0.05) compared with the other two methods. In particular, our model detects more atypical ADs, primarily contributing to the performance improvement. Significance. The adaptive receptive field helps the model improve the atypical AD detection performance. It can help radiologists identify more ADs in breast cancer screening.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of S-ketamine (S-KET) against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) – induced liver damage and oxidative stress, as well as to elucidate the related underlying mechanisms. Blood was collected to measure biochemical parameters (alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TB) and γ-glutamyltransferase (γ-GT)) and the liver was harvested for histopathological analysis of enzymes related to the antioxidant response (malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX)). Liver cell apoptosis was evaluated using the TUNEL assay. In addition, the expression levels of apoptosis-related proteins and the nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) signaling pathway were detected by Western blot analysis to explore potential mechanisms. S-KET protected the liver from CCl4-induced damage. The changes to the liver biochemical parameters (increased ALT, AST, ALP, TB, and γ-GT) and oxidative stress-related indicators (increased MDA; depleted SOD, GSH, and GSH-PX) induced by CCl4 were inhibited by S-KET. S-Ket also inhibited CCl4-induced cell apoptosis, the changes in expression of related proteins, and blocked CCl4-induced liver injury and oxidative stress via activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway. S-KET effectively protected the liver by inhibition of CCl4-induced damage via upregulation the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway.

Novel and highly effective electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are desirable to attenuate unwanted electromagnetic radiation or interference produced by electrical communication devices. Here, functional Ti3C2Tx@Ni particles with a core@shell and sandwich like structure were fabricated using the facile electroless plating technique. The core@shell structured Ti3C2Tx@Ni consists of a Ti3C2Tx core and a Ni shell. In the core, thin Ni layers are sandwiched in between Ti3C2Tx flakes. EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) values of Ti3C2Tx@Ni/wax composites increased with increasing Ti3C2Tx@Ni content. The average EMI SE value of 60 wt% Ti3C2Tx@Ni/wax composite was 43.12 dB, increased by 73% as compared with 24.93 dB for the same content of pristine Ti3C2Tx in wax in the frequency range 2–18 GHz. An average EMI SE of 74.14 dB was achieved in the 80 wt% Ti3C2Tx@Ni/wax. The enhanced EMI shielding performance should be ascribed to the synergic effect of the absorption loss of the Ti3C2Tx core and the magnetic loss of the Ni shell and the inner Ni layers.

SUMMARY The scale factor of each relative gravimeter must be calibrated both before and after the fieldwork of a terrestrial gravity survey, to reduce uncertainties and ensure high precision. Conventionally, such calibration is a time-consuming process performed following well-established baselines. We propose a new Bayesian method to estimate the scale factor in a hybrid gravity network that includes several absolute gravity observation stations. In this approach, the scale factor is estimated as a hyperparameter using the Akaike Bayesian information criterion and using known absolute gravity stations in the network or/and calibrated instruments as constraints. Testing the sensitivity of the gravity values and the residuals of the gravity difference between two successive stations to the change of the scale factor demonstrates the robustness of this method. We also test the sensitivity of the estimated scale factor in the presence of Gaussian noise and the non-linear instrumental drift rate. Moreover, if the maximum absolute gravity interval is greater than 60 per cent of the range of gravity values in the network, or if the known scale factors of calibrated gravimeters are well calibrated, this approach can provide reasonable estimates of the daily drift rate and the unknown scale factors, where the latter has an error of

Ti3C2Tx has microwave absorption (MA) properties due to its dielectric loss, but the absence of magnetic loss capability of pure Ti3C2Tx causes unmatched impedance and unsatisfied MA performance. Modification of Ti3C2Tx with magnetic particles is an effective way to introduce the magnetic loss mechanism. However, these modified Ti3C2Tx particles have higher density and require complicated fabrication processes, restricting the industrial production and functional applications. Here, a low-temperature and simple method of radio-frequency N2 plasma treatment was adopted to modify Ti3C2Tx with N. More interestingly, the N-doped Ti3C2Tx flakes demonstrated magnetic properties and thus exhibited drastically enhanced MA properties. The minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of -59.20 dB at 10.56 GHz was achieved in N-doped Ti3C2Tx products after only 3 min of plasma treatment, remarkably higher than RLmin of -11.07 dB at 7.92 GHz for the pristine Ti3C2Tx. The main mechanism is due to the combination of dielectric loss, magnetic loss, and the good impedance matching in the N-doped Ti3C2Tx. Further prolonging the nitriding time induces much desorption of -F and the formation of TiO2, thus deteriorating the impedance matching and the MA properties.

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to investigate whether deep bone suppression imaging (BSI) could increase the diagnostic performance for solitary pulmonary nodule detection compared with digital tomosynthesis (DTS), dual-energy subtraction (DES) radiography, and conventional chest radiography (CCR). METHODS: A total of 256 patients (123 with a solitary pulmonary nodule, 133 with normal findings) were included in the study. The confidence score of 6 observers determined the presence or absence of pulmonary nodules in each patient. These were first analyzed using a CCR image, then with CCR plus deep BSI, then with CCR plus DES radiography, and finally with DTS images. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the performance of the 6 observers in the detection of pulmonary nodules. RESULTS: For the 6 observers, the average area under the curve improved significantly from 0.717 with CCR to 0.848 with CCR plus deep BSI (P

The 2013 MS7.0 Lushan earthquake, Sichuan, China, occurs on a blind thrust fault in the southern Longmenshan fault belt. The terrestrial hybrid gravity observations enable us to investigate how the deep mass changes before and after the earthquake. Based on the gravity measurement data, we find a transient increase in the gravity field about 2 years before the earthquake and a drop after the mainshock. To find out the cause, a Bayesian inversion method with spatiotemporal smoothness prior is employed to extract apparent density changes. We hypothesize that the significant increase of apparent density over the region on the south of the focal zone might be related to mass transfer in the deep crust. Therefore, we introduce a disc-shaped equivalent source model with a homogeneous density to address this hypothesis. Based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations, we also estimate that the disc-shaped model has a radius of about 96 km, with a thickness of about 1.2 km and a depth of about 14 km. As a fluid diffusion footprint is indicated by seismicity migration in this region, with a fitted diffusion rate of 10 m2/s, we conclude that such deep crustal mass transfer may be caused by fluid diffusion.

BackgroundEmergence agitation (EA) is common in patients after general anesthesia (GA) and is associated with poor outcomes. Patients with thoracic surgery have a higher incidence of EA compared with other surgery. This study aimed to investigate the impact of pre-anesthetic butorphanol infusion on the incidence of EA in patients undergoing thoracic surgery with GA.Materials and methodsThis prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in 20 tertiary hospitals in China. A total of 668 patients undergoing elective video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy/segmentectomy for lung cancer were assessed for eligibility, and 620 patients were enrolled. In total, 296 patients who received butorphanol and 306 control patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Patients in the intervention group received butorphanol 0.02 mg/kg 15 min before induction of anesthesia. Patients in the control group received volume-matched normal saline in the same schedule. The primary outcome was the incidence of EA after 5 min of extubation, and EA was evaluated using the Riker Sedation-Agitation Scale (RSAS). The incidence of EA was determined by the chi-square test, with a significance of P < 0.05.ResultsIn total, 296 patients who received butorphanol and 306 control patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. The incidence of EA 5 min after extubation was lower with butorphanol treatment: 9.8% (29 of 296) vs. 24.5% (75 of 306) in the control group (P = 0.0001). Patients who received butorphanol had a lower incidence of drug-related complications (including injecting propofol pain and coughing with sufentanil): 112 of 296 vs. 199 of 306 in the control group (P = 0.001) and 3 of 296 vs. 35 of 306 in the control group (P = 0.0001).ConclusionThe pre-anesthetic administration of butorphanol reduced the incidence of EA after thoracic surgery under GA.Clinical trial registration[http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=42684], identifier [ChiCTR1900025705].

In this work, nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) were synthesized by an efficient one-step hydrothermal using hydrated citric acid and urea as the carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The fluorescent quantum yield of the N-GQDs was up to 88.20 %, and the fluorescence lifetime was 12.29 ns. Based on the excellent fluorescence property, water-soluble and low cytotoxicity of N-GQDs, a novel fluorescent probe was fabricated and used for simultaneous detection of l-glutamic acid (l-Glu) and l-aspartic acid (l-Asp). Herein, Al

Intraosseous hemangiomas usually occur in the vertebrae and skull bones, whereas those arising within the nasal cavity are exceedingly rare. Here, we describe the case of a 40-year-old woman with nasal congestion who presented to our hospital with a tumor located in the left nasal cavity. Unenhanced paranasal computed tomography revealed an approximately 3 cm large mass originating from the anterior wall of the ethmoid sinus. Pre-operative imaging failed to reveal the etiology of the mass. The tumor was successfully resected using a trans-nasal endoscopic approach without pre-operative embolization. No complications occurred during the post-operative period, and there was no evidence of recurrence at the 3-month and 6-month follow-up. Histological examination of the resected specimen showed endothelium-lined blood-filled vascular spaces within the bony trabecule, suggesting a pattern typical of intraosseous cavernous hemangioma. Thus, although intraosseous hemangiomas of the nasal cavity are extremely rare, they must be considered when a bony mass is detected in the nasal cavity.

BackgroundThe simple endoscopic score for Crohn's disease (SES-CD) is a widely used index to evaluate clinical and endoscopic activity. However, the association and predictive value of SES-CD for intestinal obstruction in Crohn's disease (CD) remains unclear. We aimed to establish the best cut-off indicators of SES-CD for early clinical intervention and subsequent prevention of intestinal obstruction in CD.MethodsData on patients with CD evaluated at our institute from January 2016 to January 2022 were retrospectively collected. The SES-CD and Crohn's Disease Activity Index scores used in the analysis indicated the results of the first clinical and colonoscopy evaluations after hospitalization. The primary outcome was the occurrence of intestinal obstruction during admission and follow-up.ResultsA total of 248 patients with a median follow-up time of 2 years [interquartile range: 1.0–4.0] were enrolled, of which 28.2% developed intestinal obstruction. An SES-CD score of 8 was the most significant threshold evaluation, and SES-CD ≥8 had the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.705), with a sensitivity of 52.9% and specificity of 88.2% in predicting intestinal obstruction. Furthermore, SES-CD ≥8 had the greatest risk factor for intestinal obstruction (odds ratio: 7.731; 95% confidence interval: 3.901–15.322; p p ConclusionThe SES-CD endoscopic prediction model could be an effective predictor of intestinal obstruction in patients with CD. More frequent follow-up and colonoscopic surveillance should be considered in patients with SES-CD score ≥8 to prevent the development of intestinal obstruction.

Ti3C2Tx MXene with good thermal conductivity and microwave absorption (MA) properties is an attractive candidate used in 5G communication applications to dissipate the accumulated heat and absorb electromagnetic energy. Ti3C2Tx has good MA properties partially due to the contribution of the polarization loss induced by the surface terminations; however, these terminations, especially the −F, are easily removed under thermal environment. To investigate the influence of the annealing conditions on the MA properties, Ti3C2Tx was vacuum-annealed at 150, 350, and 550 °C, respectively, for 1 h. The 150 °C-annealed Ti3C2Tx demonstrated the best reflection loss (RL) value of − 15.10 dB at 9.92 GHz as compared with the pristine Ti3C2Tx (− 11.07 dB at 7.92 GHz) and resultant products annealed at 350 °C (− 3.60 dB at 13.68 GHz) and 550 °C (− 4.97 dB at 11.28 GHz). Annealing at 150 °C for 1 h removed part of −F, but tuned the impedance matching of Ti3C2Tx, thus improving the MA properties. Further prolonging the annealing time from 1 to 4 h at 150 °C induced a slight deterioration on the MA properties mainly due to −F desorption. This work confirms the application temperature of Ti3C2Tx as an attractive MA material used in 5G communication.

Al matrix composites reinforced with core@shell structured Ti3C2Tx@Ni particles have been prepared by pressureless-sintering and hot-extrusion technology. The as-prepared 1–3 wt% Ti3C2Tx@Ni/Al composites demonstrated improved mechanical properties and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE). The Vickers hardness and tensile strength of Ti3C2Tx@Ni/Al composites increased with increasing reinforcement content. A hardness of 0.36 GPa and a tensile strength of 163 MPa were achieved in the 3 wt% Ti3C2Tx@Ni/Al composite, increased by 33% and 66%, respectively, but the ductility did not compromise too much, as compared with pure Al. The main mechanisms for the enhanced tensile strength but the maintained plasticity of the composites are the homogeneous distribution of reinforcement Ti3C2Tx@Ni particles, the efficient transfer of the applied stress from the soft Al matrix to the reinforcing particles, and the multi-absorbing energy mechanisms: delamination, buckling and kinking of Ti3C2Tx particles, crack branching and crack deflection. The 3 wt% Ti3C2Tx@Ni/Al composite also exhibited an enhanced EMI SE performance due to the synergic effect of the absorption loss of the Ti3C2Tx core and the magnetic loss of the Ni shell.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to investigate the direct antioxidative effect of 90 Kda heat shock protein (Hsp90) obtained from duck muscle.Methods: The interaction of Hsp90 with phospholipids and oxidized phospholipids was studied with surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and their further oxidation in the presence of Hsp90 was evaluated with thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay. The scavenging effect on the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2’-azinobis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) was measured, and the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy in combination with 5-tert-Butoxycarbonyl-5-methyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide and 2-phenyl-4,4,5,5,-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide (PTIO) was utilized to determine the abilities of Hsp90 in scavenging hydroxyl and PTIO radicals.Results: SPR showed Hsp90 could bind with both phospholipids and oxidized phospholipids, and prevent their further oxidation by the TBARS assay. The DPPH and ABTS scavenging activity increased with Hsp90 concentration, and could reach 27% and 20% respectively at the protein concentration of 50 μM. The EPR spectra demonstrated Hsp90 could directly scavenge ·OH and PTIO· radicals.Conclusion: This suggests that Hsp90, a natural antioxidant in meat, may play an important role in cellular defense against oxidative stress, and may have potential use in meat products.

Background Livers, by-products from animal processing, serve as an excellent source of high-quality protein and bioactive enzymes. The need for animal protein resources encourages the search for and use of unconventional supplies. However, animal livers are commonly sold unprocessed at a low price since their unique properties and high-value utilization have not been fully explored. Fully use of animal livers provides an opportunity to utilize existing resources of food protein to the utmost and reduce the environmental pollution from the meat production when these raw materials not properly processed. Scope and application Efficient and environmentally-friendly extraction of liver protein and its hydrolysates, biological activities and potential applications are reviewed in this contribution. In addition, value-added utilization of liver protein and its hydrolysates are discussed. Furthermore, certain liver proteins, bioactive enzymatic hydrolysates and natural enzymes, as well as their potential utilization in agriculture, food, and medicine are evaluated. Key finding and conclusions: Innovative technologies guarantee effective conversion of animal processing by-products into biologically active protein hydrolysates and procurement of high activity proteases. Animal liver protein and its hydrolysates have attracted much interest due to their broad applications in food, healthcare, animal feed and veterinary products. However, there is a need for intensive research on biological activity of liver protein and its hydrolysates in organism as well as on the regulation in animal by-products. Therefore, liver protein and its hydrolysates produced at industrial level would offer a value-added product for meat processing industry, and helps achieving resource sustainability.

Isoflurane inhalation can cause nerve damage, and miR-191 is abnormally expressed in nerve crush injuries. This study aimed to explore the effect of miR-191 on isoflurane-induced cognition impairment and neurotoxicity in vivo and in vitro, as well as its potential mechanism.Sprague-Dawley male rats and primary hippocampal neurons were applied and exposed to 2% isoflurane. The level of miR-191 was regulated both in vitro and in vivo to investigate the role of miR-191 in isoflurane-induced neurotoxicity. Morris water maze assay was used to evaluate the neurological function of rats. The level of miR-191 was measured by qRT-PCR. CCK-8 assay and Flow cytometry were applied to detect the cell viability and apoptosis. Dual luciferase reporter gene detection was used for the target gene analysis.miR-191 was up-regulated in the hippocampal tissues of rats exposed to isoflurane. Downregulation of miR-191 ameliorated isoflurane-induced cognition impairment, including the increase of the neurological score and the escape latency, and the decrease of the time spent in the original quadrant for the rats exposed to isoflurane. Isoflurane exposure inhibited hippocampal neuron viability and promoted cell apoptosis, which was reversed by down-regulation of miR-191.Isoflurane causes some neurotoxic effect which is mediated through miR-191 abnormal expression targeting

Ti3C2Tx MXene prepared by the removal of Al from the Ti3AlC2 precursor is an attractive 2D material with attractive physical and chemical properties. However, the measured properties of Ti3C2Tx, especially the microwave absorption (MA) properties, vary greatly in the literature. To illustrate the influence of the dominant factors on the MA property differences of Ti3C2Tx, different sized Ti3AlC2 precursors and processing conditions were investigated. The Ti3AlC2 precursors were synthesized by pressureless sintering a Ti/Al/graphite mixture at 1450 °C for 30 min, 60 min and 120 min, respectively. Ti3C2Tx flakes having various lateral dimensions and thicknesses were obtained after etching the Ti3AlC2 precursors in 40% HF solution for 2 h. The MA test showed the largest Ti3C2Tx flakes by etching of the 120 min-prepared Ti3AlC2 demonstrated the minimum reflection loss (RL) value of − 28.11 dB at 10.24 GHz, indicating the larger Ti3C2Tx flakes, the richer in surface terminations which dissipate more microwave energy. The etching times from 0.5 h to 20 h was adopted to enrich the surface functional groups which contribute to the enhanced MA properties. However, the prolonged etching time up to 20 h caused the poor MA performance. Furthermore, surface chemistry of Ti3C2Tx affected the MA behavior. Annealing Ti3C2Tx at 750 °C removed some surface groups, thus deteriorating the MA property. This work is conductive to the practical applications of MXenes.

Acoustic motion tracking has been viewed as a promising user interaction technique in many scenarios such as Virtual Reality (VR), Smart Appliance, video gaming, etc. Existing acoustic motion tracking approaches, however, suffer from long window of accumulated signal and time-consuming signal processing. They are inherently difficult to achieve both high accuracy and low delay. In this paper, we present Vernier, an efficient and accurate acoustic tracking method based on commodity mobile devices. We design a new approach to efficiently and accurately derive phase change and thus moving distance. Vernier significantly reduces the tracking delay/overhead by removing the complicated frequency analysis and long window of signal accumulation, while keeping a high tracking accuracy. We implement Vernier on Android, and evaluate its performance with COTS mobile devices including Samsung Galaxy S7 and Sony L50t. Experimental results show that Vernier outperforms previous approaches with a tracking error less than 4 mm. The tracking speed achieves 3× improvement to the previous phase based approaches and 10× to Doppler Effect based approaches. Vernier is also validated in applications like controlling and drawing, and we believe it is generally applicable in many real applications.

Crohn's disease (CD) is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory bowel disease without a cure. Most of the CD patients are firstly diagnosed by invasive endoscopy, and clinical and pathological examinations are further required to confirm the diagnosis. Hence, the development of a non-invasive, rapid and accurate diagnosis method for CD patients is essential. In this study, urine samples from 95 CD patients (including 58 active CD (aCD) patients and 37 inactive CD (iCD) patients) and 48 healthy controls (HC) were investigated by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The statistical analysis of the three groups (i.e., CD/HC, aCD/HC and iCD/HC) was performed on the measured data. Principal component analysis (PCA)-support vector machine (SVM) and PCA-linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were then employed to establish classification models to distinguish between patients and HC. For the average SERS spectra of patients and HC, the Raman peaks belonging to lipids, proteins and nucleic acids were stronger in patients than those in HC. It showed that the classification accuracy of CD/HC based on PCA-SVM was higher than that of PCA-LDA (82.5% vs. 69.9%). And the classification accuracy of aCD/HC based on PCA-SVM was higher than that of iCD/HC (86.8% vs. 76.5%). The classification model we established distinguished between aCD and HC with 86.2% sensitivity and 87.5% specificity. It indicates that the metabolic change of patients could be identified by measuring urine with SERS, and aCD and HC could be distinguished more effectively. Our findings are helpful for clinicians to diagnose CD patients and monitor the progress and recurrence of the disease.

This paper aimed to evaluate the effects of ultrasound-assisted

In this work, ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS) was applied to compare the lipidomics profile of chicken breast meat heated to various temperatures. A total of 445 lipids including phospholipids, diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, glycoglycerolipids, and sphingolipids were detected in chicken muscle. Significant decreases in a list of characteristic unsaturated phospholipid species including phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol were identified after heating, suggesting the occurrence of lipid oxidation, while significant increases in characteristic lysophospholipid species were found with increasing heating temperature, which were mainly derived from hydrolysis of phospholipids. Moreover, ether phospholipid and neutral lipid species exhibited remarkable changes during the heating process, and monoalk(en)yl diacylglycerol was first identified in chicken meat. The findings could contribute to the improved understanding of key lipids and biochemical reactions engaged in the heating of meat products.

Background/Aims: The risk factors of colorectal stricture associated with ulcerative colitis (UC) carcinogenesis in the long-term disease duration remain unclear. Methods: This study included all UC patients registered from a prospectively maintained database between June 1986 to July 2018. The demographic data, clinical features, and outcomes in patients with dysplasia and stricture were assessed using univariable analysis and multivariate logistic regression models. Results: A total of 246 eligible patients were included in the analysis. The median follow-up time was 13.0 years (interquartile range [IQR], 9.0 to 16.0). There were 35 cases (14.2%) of colorectal stricture. Patients with stricture had worse clinical outcomes. Stricture formation (odds ratio [OR], 9.350; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.842 to 30.762), inflammatory polyps (OR, 5.464; 95% CI, 1.692 to 17.638), disease duration of more than 10 years (OR, 3.223; 95% CI, 1.040 to 9.985), and age >40 years at diagnosis (OR, 8.499; 95% CI, 1.903 to 37.956) were significantly associated with high-grade dysplasia or colorectal cancer. In addition, disease duration of more than 5 years (OR, 3.211; 95% CI, 1.168 to 8.881), moderated anemia (OR, 3.373; 95% CI, 1.472 to 7.731), and primary sclerosing cholangitis (OR, 5,842; 95% CI, 1.395 to 24.468) were contributing factors for the development of colorectal stricture. Conclusions: Colorectal stricture had the highest risk for malignant transformation. Earlier initiation of colonoscopic surveillance in UC patients with risk factors for stricture should be considered to prevent stricture formation and further malignant transformation. (Gut Liver 2020;14:601-610)

Defeathering with rosin results in rosin residue in duck skin, which may present as potential risk to human health. Dehydroabietic acid (DHAA) is a major component of rosin. An indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for determination of DHAA in duck skin. A set of parameters was optimized, including coating antigen concentration, dilution of antiserum, dilution of HRP-IgG antibody, incubation time, and temperature for antigen reaction with antiserum. The indirect competitive ELISA yielded an excellent specificity against DHAA with low cross-reactivity toward other resin acids. The limit of detection and the working concentration range of DHAA in duck skin were 16.4 ng/g and from 40 to 8,060 ng/g, respectively. The indirect competitive ELISA was applied to the determination of DHAA in duck skin samples spiked with DHAA at different contents, and recoveries were found between 78.2 and 97.2%. Finally, DHAA contents in 32 duck samples were quantified by the indirect competitive ELISA and high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) method. No significant difference was found between DHAA concentrations from indirect competitive ELISA and HPLC-FLD method for all samples, which indicated the indirect competitive ELISA established in this article was of the same accuracy as the HPLC-FLD method. The indirect competitive ELISA was simple, rapid, and reliable, which could be used to identify the duck carcasses defeathered with rosin in the market.

Background Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) can degrade mRNAs with a premature termination codon (PTC), and undegraded mRNAs with PTC mutations can induce a genetic compensation response (GCR) by upregulating its compensatory genes. UPF3a refers to up-frame shift 3A (UPF3a) participating in NMD pathway and GCR. It inhibits the NMD pathway while it stimulates GCR. Notably, the role of UPF3a in cancer remains unclear. Purpose The identification and discovery of prognostic markers for colorectal cancer (CRC) are of great clinical significance. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical significance of UPF3a expression in CRC. Materials and Methods UPF3a expression was examined in fresh CRC tissues and pared distant metastatic tissues using quantitative real-time PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry staining. Tissue microarray immunohistochemical staining was used to study the relationship of UPF3a with clinicopathological features in 158 CRC patient samples collected from January 2008 to December 2012, and prognosis of CRC was analyzed. Results The expression of UPF3a was higher in metastatic tissues than that in primary sites. Moreover, high expression of UPF3a was significantly associated with TNM stage (p=0.009), liver metastasis and recurrence (p