Search

The protein and fat contents are important indicators for the quality evaluation of brewing sorghum, and a rapid and non-destructive testing method is urgently required to accurately detect them. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology has been widely used in the assessment of the composition of various foods. In this study, different preprocessing methods were used to process the spectral data and determine the optimal preprocessing method. The characteristic spectra were extracted by three combination algorithms, namely, uninformative variable elimination-successive projections algorithm (UVE-SPA), competitive adaptive reweighted sampling-successive projections algorithm (CARS-SPA), and principal component analysis-successive projections algorithm (PCA-SPA). Four models (cascade forest (CF), the backpropagation-genetic algorithm (BP-GA), support vector regression (SVR), and partial least square regression (PLSR)) were established to predict the protein and fat contents based on the full spectrum, the feature spectrum, and fusion data (the integration of the feature spectrum with its corresponding texture features). A comparative analysis revealed that the BP-GA and CF models based on the visible light characteristic spectra extracted by PCA-SPA and UVE-SPA were the best models for predicting the protein and fat contents, respectively; they had respective RPD values of 5.1716 and 12.9724 and respective AB_RMSE values of 0.0916 and 0.0243 g/100 g. The overall results show that HSI combined with machine learning algorithms can rapidly and non-destructively predict the protein and fat contents of sorghum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that combining alginate with graphene oxide (GO) is an effective method in improving the properties of alginate fiber. However, how the lateral size of GO influences the properties of the composite fiber is still unclear. In this work, GO was separated into four kinds of different lateral sizes with the assistance of centrifugation and high-power ultrasound. The tensile strength of calcium alginate/graphene oxide (CaAlg/GO) composite fiber increased with the lateral size of GO. Surprisingly, the combination of large and small GO performed the superior reinforcement effect. The tensile strength and Young's modulus increased from 407.66 MPa and 13.87 GPa to 556.97 MPa and 20.57 GPa, respectively. In addition, the water absorption ability of CaAlg/GO composite fiber reduced with the decreasing of the lateral size of GO. With significantly improved mechanical properties and fine biocompatibility, the CaAlg/GO composite fibers may have potential applications in the biotechnological, biomedical, and tissue engineering areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pumpkin is a popular vegetable crop and exhibits a broad diversity in fruit shape and size. Fruit-related traits are the decisive factors determining consumer acceptance and market value of pumpkin cultivar. As a result, deciphering the genetic basis of fruit-related traits is of great importance for pumpkin breeding. To address this problem, a F2 population was generated by two Cucurbita moschata inbred lines with contrasting fruit shapes, and genotyping by sequencing approach was used to construct a genetic map and localize the QTLs underlying the fruit-related traits in this study. The results showed that a high-quality genetic map was constructed for pumpkin, which comprised of 2413 bins and spanned a total length of 2252.10 cM with an average genetic distance of 0.94 cM. Thirty significant QTLs with moderate or small effects were identified for seven fruit-related traits, including fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit shape index, fruit weight, fruit flesh thickness, seed cavity size, and total soluble solids content. Co-locations were observed between the QTLs underlying different traits, demonstrating that pleiotropic effect plays an important role in genetic control of fruit-related traits. The identified QTLs provide valuable information for further fine mapping of the related genes and pumpkin breeding programs with the aim of improving fruit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, micron-sized two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) was combined with chitosan fibres, followed by immersion into dopamine lye (DA lye) through a solution complex to increase the tensile strength of fibre from 252.22 to 411.62 MPa and Young's modulus from 18.95 to 25.67 GPa. GO sheets endue an effective stress transmission mechanism to chitosan fibre when such composite fibres are subjected to external forces. Self-polymerised poly-dopamine (PDA) formed a coating on the chitosan fibre surface, crosslinking the chitosan molecular, and thereby effectively offsetting the influence of intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Furthermore, the composite fibre exhibited an excellent antibacterial rate of > 99.9% and negligible toxicity to human fibroblasts, indicating its superior biocompatibility. The multiple van der Waals forces enhanced interfacial interactions between the GO surface and chitosan matrix, and the crosslinking and adhesion effect of the PDA coating to the chitosan fibre considerably improved the mechanical properties of the composite fibre. The results of this study can provide a guideline for bulk preparation and replication for synthesising high mechanical performance and multiple functional GO/natural polymer composite fibres, which can be used in many applications, such as biomedical and medical materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver cirrhosis occurs as a consequence of many chronic liver diseases that are prevalent worldwide. Here we characterize the gut microbiome in liver cirrhosis by comparing 98 patients and 83 healthy control individuals. We build a reference gene set for the cohort containing 2.69 million genes, 36.1% of which are novel. Quantitative metagenomics reveals 75,245 genes that differ in abundance between the patients and healthy individuals (false discovery rate < 0.0001) and can be grouped into 66 clusters representing cognate bacterial species; 28 are enriched in patients and 38 in control individuals. Most (54%) of the patient-enriched, taxonomically assigned species are of buccal origin, suggesting an invasion of the gut from the mouth in liver cirrhosis. Biomarkers specific to liver cirrhosis at gene and function levels are revealed by a comparison with those for type 2 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease. On the basis of only 15 biomarkers, a highly accurate patient discrimination index is created and validated on an independent cohort. Thus microbiota-targeted biomarkers may be a powerful tool for diagnosis of different diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By adding different amount of zinc into the artificial medium of the insect larvae, the zinc-induced apoptosis of the larvae haemocytes of the herbivorous insect Spodoptera litura Fabricius was investigated with flow cytometer. The results showed that the increase of zinc dose in the artificial feed led to the accumulations of zinc in the larval hemolymph and fat body, and more zinc was accumulated in fat body than in hemolymph. The apoptosis of hemocytes was significantly induced at high zinc concentration (1000 mg·kg-1) in the insect diet, and the apoptosis rate was 63.63%, which was remarkably higher than that at control and lower concentrations (50–500 mg·kg-1). This suggests that the high dose of zinc in the artificial diet of S. litura larvae could induce the apoptosis of the larval hemocytes of S. litura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduced graphene oxide/SiO2 (RGO/SiO2) serving as a novel spherical support for Ziegler-Natta (Z-N) catalyst is reported. The surface and interior of the support has a porous architecture formed by RGO/SiO2 sandwich structure. The sandwich structure is like a brick wall coated with a graphene layer of concreted as skeleton which could withstand external pressures and endow the structure with higher support stabilities. After loading the Z-N catalyst, the active components anchor on the surface and internal pores of the supports. When the ethylene molecules meet the active centers, the molecular chains grow from the surface and internal catalytic sites in a regular and well-organized way. And the process of the nascent molecular chains filled in the sandwich structure polymerization could ensure the graphene disperse uniformly in the polymer matrix. Compared with traditional methods, the porous spherical graphene support of this strategy has far more advantages and could maintain an intrinsic graphene performance in the nanocomposites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial translocation (BT) is thought to play an important role in the development of liver cirrhosis, but the mechanisms have not been fully explored. This study aims to investigate the distribution of Treg (CD3+CD4+CD25+Foxp3+), Th17 (CD3+CD4+IL-17+), and Th1 (CD3+CD4+IFN-γ+) cells in the intestinal lamina propria, liver and blood and to explore their relationships with BT. Cirrhotic rats with ascites were induced by CCl4. We found that there were lower levels of total protein and albumin, lower albumin/globulin ratio, lower body weight and higher spleen weight and ascites volume in cirrhotic rats with than without BT. We found that BT may cause increase of Treg cells in the proximal small intestine and decrease of Th17 cells in the whole intestine and blood in cirrhotic rats. It may also aggravate the CCl4-induced decrease in Th1 cells in the whole intestine, liver, caecum, and blood and the CCl4-induced increase in Th17 cells in the liver and Tregs in the distal small intestine, colon, and liver. Our data suggest that BT may aggravate liver injury and decrease liver function via an interaction with CD4+ T Cells. The results of this study may be helpful for the development of new treatments for liver cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]