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BACKGROUND This study investigated the in vivo prophylactic effect of probiotic chocolate on constipation. Rats were administered chocolate containing 2.5 × 1010 CFU g-1 of probiotics daily for 4 weeks and treated with loperamide (5 mg kg-1 ) daily at the fourth week of treatment. RESULTS Probiotic chocolate treatment significantly (P

This study involves an investigation of the probiotic properties of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Kimchi, and their potential applications in chocolate. Lactobacillus plantarum-LRCC5193 (LP-LRCC5193) demonstrated a significantly higher degree of heat, acid, and bile acid tolerance compared to other Kimchi isolates. The intestinal adhesion assay also revealed that 84.2 log percentage of LP-LRCC5193 adhered to the Caco-2 cells after 2 h of incubation. Furthermore, the lyophilized LP-LRCC5193 maintained 92.9 log percentage and 97.2 log percentage survival rate within artificial stomach juice (pH 2.5, pepsin 0.04%) and artificial intestinal juice (oxgall 0.5%, trypsin 0.04%, and pancreatin 0.04%), respectively. Meanwhile, we also found that lyophilized LP-LRCC5193 incorporated in chocolate exhibited significantly higher survivability than lyophilized LP-LRCC5193 in both artificial gastric and intestinal juice under 1 to 3 hr incubation, where the survivability was within the range of 96.3 to 98.5 log percentage, and 98.8 to 98.9 log percentage, respectively. A 6-month storage test further revealed that LP-LRCC5193 demonstrated higher stability than the lyophilized LP-LRCC5103 in 3 different temperature ranges, where the final survival rates were 97.2 log percentage (20 °C), 89.2 log percentage (33 °C), and 94.4 log percentage (15 to 30 °C/wk). Altogether, our data suggest that chocolate can be used as a tasty delivery vehicle for delivering putative probiotic strain, LP-LRCC5193 to the gastrointestinal tract. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Lactobacillus plantarum LRCC5193 (LP-LRCC5193) isolated from Kimchi demonstrated high stability under gastrointestinal environmental stresses and good adhesion to the intestinal epithelial cells in vitro. In addition, LP-LRCC5193 containing chocolates remained highly stable after storage at room temperature for 6 months. Chocolate containing LP-LRCC5193 can thus be considered a promising probiotic delivery system.; © 2018 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Summary Among all 3D 8-node hexahedral solid elements in current finite element library, the ‘best’ one can produce good results for bending problems using coarse regular meshes. However, once the mesh is distorted, the accuracy will drop dramatically. And how to solve this problem is still a challenge that remains outstanding. This paper develops an 8-node, 24-DOF (three conventional DOFs per node) hexahedral element based on the virtual work principle, in which two different sets of displacement fields are employed simultaneously to formulate an unsymmetric element stiffness matrix. The first set simply utilizes the formulations of the traditional 8-node trilinear isoparametric element, while the second set mainly employs the analytical trial functions in terms of 3D oblique coordinates (R, S, T). The resulting element, denoted by US-ATFH8, contains no adjustable factor and can be used for both isotropic and anisotropic cases. Numerical examples show it can strictly pass both the first-order (constant stress/strain) patch test and the second-order patch test for pure bending, remove the volume locking, and provide the invariance for coordinate rotation. Especially, it is insensitive to various severe mesh distortions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Summary Among numerous finite element techniques, few models can perfectly (without any numerical problems) break through MacNeal's theorem: any 4-node, 8-DOF membrane element will either lock in in-plane bending or fail to pass a C0 patch test when the element's shape is an isosceles trapezoid. In this paper, a 4-node plane quadrilateral membrane element is developed following the unsymmetric formulation concept, which means two different sets of interpolation functions for displacement fields are simultaneously used. The first set employs the shape functions of the traditional 4-node bilinear isoparametric element, while the second set adopts a novel composite coordinate interpolation scheme with analytical trail function method, in which the Cartesian coordinates (x,y) and the second form of quadrilateral area coordinates (QACM-II) (S,T) are applied together. The resulting element US-ATFQ4 exhibits amazing performance in rigorous numerical tests. It is insensitive to various serious mesh distortions, free of trapezoidal locking, and can satisfy both the classical first-order patch test and the second-order patch test for pure bending. Furthermore, because of usage of the second form of quadrilateral area coordinates (QACM-II), the new element provides the invariance for the coordinate rotation. It seems that the behaviors of the present model are beyond the well-known contradiction defined by MacNeal's theorem. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Kekekete mafic-ultramafic rocks are exposed in the Kekesha-Kekekete-Dawate area, which are in the eastern part of the East Kunlun Orogenic Belt It outcrops as tectonic slices intruding tectonically in the Paleoproterozoic Baishahe Group and the Paleozoic Nachitai Group. The Kekekete mafic and ultramafic rocks is located near the central fault in East Kunlun and lithologically mainly consists of serpentinite, augite peridotite, and gabbro. The LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb age of the gabbro is 501 ± 7 Ma, indicating that Kekekete mafic-ultramafic rocks formed in the Middle Cambrian. This rock assemblage is relatively poor in SiO2 and (Na2O+K2O) but rich in MgO and SFeO. The chondrite-normalized REE patterns of the gabbro dip slightly to the right; the primitive mantle and MORB-normalized spidergrams of trace elements show enrichment of large-ion lithophile elements (Cs, Rb, Ba, etc.) and no differentiation of high field strength elements. The general dominance of E-MORB features and the geochemical characteristics of OIB suggest that the Kekekete mafic-ultramafic rocks formed in an initial oceanic basin with slightly enriched mantle being featured by varying degrees of mixing of N-MORB depleted mantle and a similar-OIB-type source. From a comprehensive study of the previous data, the author believes that the tectonic history of the East Kunlun region was controlled by a geodynamic system of rifting and extension in the late stages of the Neoproterozoic to early stages of the Early Paleozoic and this formed the paleo-oceanic basin or rift system now represented by the ophiolites along the central fault in East Kunlun, the Kekekete mafic-ultramafic rocks and Delisitan ophiolite.

The Helegangnaren feldspar granite exposed in the eastern part of East Kunlun, is characterized by high concentrations of SiO2 and alkaline, low abundances of Fe, Mg and Ca, metaluminous-weak peraluminous. Trace elements analysis shows that the granite is depleted extremely in Ba, Sr and Eu, and rich in some large-ion lithophile elements and high field strength elements. Besides, the granite has high Ga contents, the values of 104(Ga/Al) vary from 2.50 to 2.77, which is mainly greater than the lower limit of A-type granites (2.6), and is higher than the I- and S-type granites’ average (2.1 and 2.28, respectively). Rare earth element (REE) is characterized by relatively high fractionations of light REE (LREE) and heavy REE (HREE) (LREE/HREE=9.3–13.60, (La/Yb)N=10.92–18.02), pronounced negative Eu anomalies (δEu=0.08–0.13), and exhibits right-dipping gull pattern. Major elements, rare elements and trace elements features show the granite is ascribed to A-type granite and A2 subtype in tectonic genetic type. They are plotted into post-collision or within-plate area in a variety of tectonic discriminations. Geological and geochemical data comprehensively suggest that the granite is formed in a post-collision extensive tectonic setting. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) zircon U-Pb dating yields a weighted mean age of 425 Ma, belonging to Middle Silurian, which is similar to the age of the post-collision geological events in the region. The differences of magmatic rocks in formation age, rocks assemblage and rocks series systematically indicate that the regional tectonic stress regime in the East Kunlun orogenic belt experienced a major transformation from compress to extension in Middle Silurianin, and the Helegangnaren feldspar granite intruded in the early stage of tectonic transformation.

Rubia austrozhejiangensis Z. P. Lei, Y. Y. Zhou & R. W. Wang, a new species of Rubiaceae from China, is described and illustrated. The new species is similar to R. ovatifolia Z. Ying Zhang and R. argyi (H. Lev. & Vaniot) H. Hara ex Lauener, but differs from the former in having stems and branches cylindrical, not quadrate-angled, long-ovate to ovate-lanceolate leaf blades, many-flowered inflorescence, and smaller mericarps, 3–4 mm in diameter. In R. ovatifolia, stems and branches are quadrate-angled, leaf blades ovate, ovate-cordate to rounded cordate, and the inflorescences are sparsely flowered. Compared to R. argyi, the new species has cylindrical, not quadrate-angled stems and branches, leaf blades that are long-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3–5-veined, and slightly reflexed corolla lobes. In R. argyi, stems and branches are quadrate-angled or winged, the corolla lobes are spreading, and the mericarps are 5–7 mm in diameter.

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cv. Xintaimici (a chilling-resistant cultivar) and cv. Jinyan no. 4 (a chilling-sensitive cultivar) were subjected to two temperatures (15/15 and 25/18 degrees C) under low light (100 mumol m(-2) s(-1)) to understand the relationship between ultrastructural changes and the antioxidant abilities caused by low temperature (15/15 degrees C). We also aimed to find indicators for chilling resistance that could be used on a routine basis in breeding programs of greenhouse crops. At the 15/15 degrees C treatment, the membranes of chloroplast, mitochondrion, ER and plasma were not significantly changed in Xintaimici, whereas they were seriously affected in Jinyan no. 4. This result was consistent with the changes of malonaldehyde in chilling-stressed cucumber leaves. The antioxidant activities were changed under low temperature according to cultivar-expected resistance, relating in part to the described ultrastructural changes. The activities of superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) and guaiacol peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7) increased in chilling-stressed leaves of both cultivars, but the two enzymes were not responsible for the difference between cucumber cultivars. At 15/15 degrees C, contents of GSH and activities of glutathione reductase (GR, EC 1.6.4.2) increased more in leaves of Xintaimici than in those of Jinyan no. 4, while catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6) activities decreased less. GSH, GR and CAT were affected by low temperature and cultivars and correlated with the difference in ultrastructure between chilling-stressed cucumber cultivars. We propose that the three antioxidants might be therefore used as biochemical indicators to screen chilling-resistant cucumber cultivars.

Poly(tert-butylcarbonyloxystyrene) by itself or as a component in a copolymer decomposes at elevated temperatures (about 130–150°C) to give the free phenolic group, isobutylene, and carbon dioxide. It has been found that the isothermal conversion of the ester (the protected phenol) to the free phenol proceeds slowly at first but accelerates with time so that the rate of reaction increases until more than half the reaction is over. Thus, the pattern of conversion with time is typical of an autocatalytic process. Although the classical model of autocatalysis which we reported earlier gave a qualitative representation of the process, two modifications to the model result in a much better approximation to the actual experimental data. These two experimentally rational modifications take into account the very real decrease in the volume of the reacting system as conversion (deprotection) proceeds and the possibility that the catalyzed (fast) reaction is second order in free phenol. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.