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Butterfly pea flower contains many bioactive substances. To make more use of it, an approach of adding butterfly pea flower extract (BPFE) to Chinese steamed bread (CSB) as a natural colorant and functional ingredient was applied. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of BPFE levels (0–30%) on phytochemical, textural, and sensory properties of CSB. Total anthocyanins, free polyphenols, DPPH radical scavenging capacity, and reducing power of CSB were enhanced by increasing BPFE level. BPFE‐fortified CSB appeared blue in color. However, steaming process caused obvious decrease in anthocyanin content and blueness of CSB. Although addition of 30% BPFE significantly reduced the springiness, cohesiveness and elasticity of CSB, CSB with 0–30% BPFE had similar sensory scores in flavor, texture, and overall preferences. Blue healthy CSB having high phytochemicals and antioxidant activities as well as acceptable sensory attributes can be manufactured by the addition of 20–30% BPFE. Practical applications: Consumption of traditional staple foods fortified with natural functional ingredients having more bioactive components is a great benefit to the health of human beings and fits current clean‐label trend in food market. Since the flowers of butterfly pea are rich in bioactive anthocyanins, phenolic acids, and flavonols, they were extracted by hot water and prepared into BPFE in this study. The study demonstrated that butterfly pea flower or its extract as a natural functional ingredient can be utilized in steamed bread. Blue healthy CSB having good nutritional, antioxidantive, and sensory quality can be produced by using butterfly pea flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper studies the influencing factors of permeability in shales of the Longmaxi Formation, located in the southern Sichuan Basin, China. The methodologies used in the present study include overburden pore permeability experiments, whole rock analysis and geochemical tests, NMR measurements of fluid saturation, pore size distribution and specific surface area distribution, SEM and extraction of pore structure parameters, and core analysis. The results show the following: (1) high TOC and high maturity generate a large number of organic pores, which may improve the permeability of shale. (2) Mineral composition and rock relative permeability also have influence on permeability to a certain degree, since different minerals have different effects on shale permeability. Clay in the study area has an adverse effect on permeability. The results show that the organic-rich siliceous clay mixed shale facies in this area has the best permeability. (3) A large specific surface area and total pore volume are associated with good shale permeability, while average pore size does not correlate with permeability. A small fractal dimension of pore morphology and simple pore structure result in good permeability, and bedding is the key controlling factor for the anisotropy of shale permeability. (4) Water in shales can influence the permeability of microfractures by binding to clay minerals. Low permeability in shales with high bound water saturation suggests that water and clay mineral absorption may block flow channels, resulting in poor permeability. The purpose of this study is to clarify the influencing factors on shale permeability of the Longmaxi Formation in the study area and to provide a reference for the exploration and development of shale gas in this area of the Sichuan Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Pulmonary fibrosis is difficult to treat. Early diagnosis and finding potential drug therapy targets of pulmonary fibrosis are particularly important. There were still various problems with existing pulmonary fibrosis markers, so it is particularly important to find new biomarkers and drug treatment targets. m6A (N6,2′-O-dimethyladenosine) RNA methylation was the cause of many diseases, and it is regulated by m6A methylation regulators. So, whether RNA methylation regulators can be a diagnostic marker and potential drug therapy target of early pulmonary fibrosis needs to be explored. Materials and Methods. Using GSE110147 and GSE33566 in the GEO database to predict the m6A methylation regulators that may be related to the development of pulmonary fibrosis, we used 10 mg/ml bleomycin to induce mouse pulmonary fibrosis models and human pulmonary fibrosis samples, to confirm whether this indicator can be an early diagnostic marker of pulmonary fibrosis. Results. According to the database prediction results, METTL3 can predict the occurrence and development of pulmonary fibrosis, and the results of MASSON and HE staining show that the fibrosis model of mice is successful, and the fibrosis of human samples is obvious. The results of immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of METTL3 was significantly reduced in pulmonary fibrosis. Conclusions. The m6A methylation regulator METTL3 can be considered as an important biomarker for diagnosing pulmonary fibrosis occurrence, furthermore it could be considered as a drug target because of its low expression in pulmonary fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical images carry a lot of important information for making a medical diagnosis. Since the medical images need to be communicated frequently to allow timely and accurate diagnosis, it has become a target for malicious attacks. Hence, medical images are protected through encryption algorithms. Recently, reversible data hiding on the encrypted images (RDHEI) schemes are employed to embed private information into the medical images. This allows effective and secure communication, wherein the privately embedded information (e.g., medical records and personal information) is very useful to the medical diagnosis. However, existing RDHEI schemes still suffer from low embedding capacity, which limits their applicability. Besides, such solution still lacks a good mechanism to ensure its integrity and traceability. To resolve these issues, a novel approach based on image block-wise encryption and histogram shifting is proposed to provide more embedding capacity in the encrypted images. The embedding rate is over 0.8 bpp for typical medical images. On top of that, a blockchain-based system for RDHEI is proposed to resolve the traceability. The private information is stored on the blockchain together with the hash value of the original medical image. This allows traceability of all the medical images communicated over the proposed blockchain network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pitaya peel, a by‐product during processing, contains many phytochemicals. To make good use of it, an approach of adding pitaya peel powder (PPP) to noodle as a bioactive ingredient was applied. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of PPP level (0%‐9%) on phytochemical, textural, and sensory properties of noodle. With an increase in the PPP level, 2, 2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl radical radical scavenging capacity, free polyphenols, and total betacyanins of noodle were enhanced. PPP‐enriched noodle had a redder and darker color. The color of dried noodle was relatively stable during storage, while cooking led to an obvious decrease in betacyanin content and redness of noodle. A higher PPP level significantly reduced extensibility and elasticity of the noodle, but increased tensile strength, cutting force, and cooking loss. Noodle with 0%‐6% PPP had similar sensory scores in overall preference. Healthy and colorful noodle enriched with 3%‐6% PPP had acceptable sensory quality and higher bioactive components. Practical applications: Consumption of food products made with natural ingredients having more phytochemicals is beneficial to health and fits the current trend in food market. After juice processing, pitaya peels are generally discarded as a waste. Since the peels contain lots of phytochemicals including dietary fibers, betacyanins, and polyphenols, pitaya peels were utilized and prepared into pitaya peel powder (PPP) in this study. Increased consumption of PPP‐enriched noodle is proposed for health reasons. The study demonstrated PPP as a bioactive ingredient can be utilized in noodle products. Healthy noodle having good nutritional and sensory quality could be manufactured using PPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Researches on immunotherapy of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM, WHO grade IV) have increased exponentially in recent years. As a targeted therapy, a series of biomarkers have been identified in local tumor tissue, while circulating marker which could be detected in the body fluids is still lacking. ADAMTSL4, a secreted glycoprotein, was earlier found to play a critical role in a prognostic signature for primary GBM (pGBM). We aimed to investigate the role of ADAMTSL4 at transcriptome level and its relationship with clinical practice in pGBM. Methods. A cohort of 88 pGBM patients with RNA-seq data from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) was analyzed, and 168 pGBM patients from TCGA were included as validation. Several bioinformatic methods and predictive tools were applied to investigate the ADAMTSL4-associated immune microenvironment status. Results. We found that ADAMTSL4 was enriched in GBM (WHO grade IV), especially for those with IDH1/2 wild-type and MGMT unmethylated groups. According to the TCGA classification scheme, ADAMTSL4 can act as a potential marker for subtypes with poorer prognosis. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that ADAMTSL4 was significantly correlated to the immune-related processes in GBM (WHO grade IV), especially representing the infiltration of immune cells and complicated tumor microenvironment. Clinically, high expression of ADAMTSL4 was an independent indicator for poor prognosis. Conclusion. The expression of ADAMTSL4 is closely related to the clinicopathologic characteristics of pGBM. Meanwhile, it may play a critical role in immune-related processes. As a secreted glycoprotein, ADAMTSL4 is a promising circulating biomarker for pGBM, deserving further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate whether plant-bacteria interaction affects the secretion of organic acids by both organisms and to assess whether the production of IAA by the bacterium increases the secretion of organic acids by root exudates, and if the stress produced by low available phosphorus (P) affects the production of organic acids by bacteria, by roots, or by root exudates in presence of bacterial cultures. With this purpose, we used as a biological model poplar plants and one strain of Burkholderia multivorans able to solubilize P. High performance liquid chromatography was utilized to measure organic acids. The tests, the inductive effects of exogenous indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) on secretion of organic acids, the 2 × 4 × 2 factorial design experiment, and the ability of organic acids to solubilize tricalcium phosphate were performed to investigate the interactive effects. The results showed that, after B. multivorans WS-FJ9 interacted with the poplar root system, the key phosphate-solubilizing driving force was gluconic acid (GA) which was produced in three ways: (1) secreted by the root system in the presence of IAA produced by B. multivorans WS-FJ9; (2) secreted by B. multivorans WS-FJ9; and (3) secreted by the poplar root system in the presence of phosphorus stress. When phosphorus stress was absent, the GA was produced as outlined in (1) and (2) above. These results demonstrated that inoculating B. multivorans WS-FJ9 into the poplar root system could increase the amount of GA secretion and implied that the interaction between B. multivorans WS-FJ9 and the poplar root system could contribute to the increase of P available fraction for poplar plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diarrhea caused by viral and bacterial infections is a major health problem in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to develop a two-tube multiplex PCR assay using automatic electrophoresis for simultaneous detection of 13 diarrhea-causative viruses or bacteria, with an intended application in provincial Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, China. The assay was designed to detect rotavirus A, norovirus genogroups GI and GII, human astrovirus, enteric adenoviruses, and human bocavirus (tube 1), and Salmonella, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, diarrheagenic Escherichia coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Shigella, Yersinia, and Vibrio cholera (tube 2).The analytical specificity was examined with positive controls for each pathogen. The analytical sensitivity was evaluated by performing the assay on serial tenfold dilutions of in vitro transcribed RNA, recombinant plasmids, or bacterial culture. A total of 122 stool samples were tested by this two-tube assay and the results were compared with those obtained from reference methods. The two-tube assay achieved a sensitivity of 20-200 copies for a single virus and 102-103 CFU/mL for bacteria. The clinical performance demonstrated that the two-tube assay had comparable sensitivity and specificity to those of reference methods. In conclusion, the two-tube assay is a rapid, cost-effective, sensitive, specific, and high throughput method for the simultaneous detection of enteric bacteria and virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic factors, as well as environmental factors, play a role in development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been reported to be associated with NPC. To confirm these genetic associations with NPC, two independent case-control studies from Southern China comprising 1166 NPC cases and 2340 controls were conducted. Seven SNPs in ITGA9 at 3p21.3 and 9 SNPs within the 6p21.3 HLA region were genotyped. To explore the potential clinical application of these genetic markers in NPC, we further evaluate the predictive/diagnostic role of significant SNPs by calculating the area under the curve (AUC). Results. The reported associations between ITGA9 variants and NPC were not replicated. Multiple loci of GABBR1, HLA-F, HLA-A, and HCG9 were statistically significant in both cohorts (Pcombined range from 5.96 × 10-17 to 0.02). We show for the first time that these factors influence NPC development independent of environmental risk factors. This study also indicated that the SNP alone cannot serve as a predictive/diagnostic marker for NPC. Integrating the most significant SNP with IgA antibodies status to EBV, which is presently used as screening/diagnostic marker for NPC in Chinese populations, did not improve the AUC estimate for diagnosis of NPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was published whilst it was still in peer review due to a technical error at the publisher and has been temporarily removed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]