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In order to study the effect of fermentation with a mixed starter culture of lactic acid bacteria on the quality of multigrain dough and steamed bread, yellow pea flour, naked oat flour, gluten flour and oat β-glucan (OBG) were mixed together to prepare dough and steamed bread with a direct vat set (DVS) mixed starter?culture of lactic acid bacteria. The acidifying capacity of lactic acid bacteria in dough was investigated, and the contents of OBG, resistant starch (RS) and free amino acids and the microstructure of dough were analyzed. Also, the quality and nutritional characteristics of steamed multigrain bread and steamed wheat bread before and after fermentation were compared. The results showed that lactic acid bacteria had strong acidifying capacity in fermented multigrain dough, and the contents of lactic acid and acetic acid were 24.85 and 8.98 mg/mL, respectively, after 24 hours of fermentation. Compared with unfermented multigrain dough, the OBG content in lactic acid bacteria fermented multigrain dough decreased by 32.56%, the RS content increased by 32.88%, the total amount of free amino acids increased by 1.46 times, the amino acid composition pattern was better, proteins and cellulose were partially degraded, and the gluten network was more compact and continuous. In terms of nutrition, the dietary fiber content of steamed multigrain bread was higher than 6% both before and after lactic acid bacteria fermentation, and the protein content was 40.35% and 38.38% in steamed unfermented and fermented multigrain bread, respectively, indicating that steamed multigrain bread is rich in dietary fiber and protein. Its dietary fiber and protein contents were higher than those of steamed wheat bread. Lactic acid bacteria fermented multigrain steamed bread had higher in vitro protein digestibility and specific volume, and the overall sensory score of steamed lactic acid bacteria fermented multigrain bread was significantly higher than that of steamed unfermented multigrain bread, and the overall acceptability was higher.

The short message function of the BeiDou satellite system, due to its strong concurrent processing capabilities, can quickly and accurately send information to the target location in emergency situations. However, because of data redundancy and limitations on message length, a single piece of information often requires multiple transmissions through BeiDou short messages to be completed, resulting in limited transmission capacity. To improve the transmission capacity of information, it is necessary to compress the information during transmission using BeiDou's short message communication function for maritime safety information. This paper proposes a Byte Encoding-enhanced Prediction by Partial Matching, variant D (BPPMd) algorithm that is particularly suitable for transmitting maritime safety information. Combined with a maritime safety information encoding algorithm (ME), it further improves compression efficiency, optimizes byte space, reduces information redundancy, and ensures the accuracy of the information. In this study, we constructed a maritime safety information dataset that includes three categories of information: meteorological warnings, navigation warnings, and disaster warnings. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is particularly suitable for compressing the maritime safety information dataset and outperforms other benchmark algorithms. Therefore, this study indicates that the proposed lossless compression method can be a feasible and effective solution for BeiDou short message communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the prevalence, risk factors and prognosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in patients with anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 positive dermatomyositis (anti-MDA5+ DM). Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted in anti-MDA5+ DM patients diagnosed between January 2016 and March 2023. Patients with lower respiratory tract specimens were categorized into IPA+ and IPA- groups based on the presence of IPA and their clinical characteristics and prognoses then compared. Results: Of the 415 patients diagnosed with anti-MDA5+ DM, 28 cases had IPA (prevalence rate of 6.7%) with Aspergillus fumigatus being the most common species. The patients were categorized into IPA+ (n=28) and IPA- (n=98) groups, with no significant age or gender-related differences (P 0.05). The IPA+ group had a lower lymphocyte count, particularly the CD4+ T-cell count, and reduced serum albumin and higher serum ferritin levels (P all< 0.05). An elevated bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) galactomannan level was found to be the sole independent risk factor for the occurrence of IPA (adjusted OR=2.191, P=0.029) with a cut-off value of 0.585 and area under the curve of 0.779. The mortality rate in the IPA+ group was 25%. Compared to survivors, non-survivors in this group exhibited a higher incidence of rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease, lower lymphocyte counts, and increased co-infection with Pneumocystis jirovecii (P all< 0.05). Conclusion: IPA was not rare in patients with anti-MDA5+ DM, with elevated BALF galactomannan levels being an independent risk factor for IPA occurrence. Clinicians must exercise vigilance to identify patients exhibiting the aforementioned risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the utilization of dual-arm robots has gained substantial prominence across various industries owing to their collaborative operational capabilities. In order to achieve collision avoidance and facilitate cooperative task completion, efficient path planning plays a pivotal role. The high dimensionality associated with collaborative task execution in dual-arm robots renders existing path planning methods ineffective for conducting efficient exploration. This paper introduces a multi-agent path planning reinforcement learning algorithm that integrates an experience replay strategy, a shortest-path constraint, and the policy gradient method. To foster collaboration and avoid competition between the robot arms, the proposed approach incorporates a mechanism known as "reward cooperation, punishment competition" during the training process. Our algorithm demonstrates strong performance in the control of dual-arm robots and exhibits the potential to mitigate the challenge of reward sparsity encountered during the training process. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated through simulations and experiments, comparing the results with existing methods and showcasing its superiority in dual-arm robot path planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We aimed to explore a new and readily available practical marker for rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD) and poor short-term outcomes in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM)., Methods: A total of 1822 consecutive patients with IIM between 2009 and 2021 were evaluated retrospectively. All proven cases of naïve ILD with complete medical records were included. Red cell distribution width (RDW) values at the initial stage, 3 months and last follow-up were collected. The clinical characteristics and outcomes of the patients were recorded., Results: We identified 532 patients with IIM with an average follow-up of 4 years. ILD prevalence was higher in patients of elevated RDW (p<0.001). The patients with ILD and elevated RDW had lower levels of PaO 2 /FiO 2 , FVC% and DLco% and a higher prevalence of RP-ILD than those with normal RDW (p<0.001). Prognostic analysis revealed that RDW was an independent risk factor for prognosis in patients with IIM-ILD (HR=2.9, p=0.03). Patients with dermatomyositis (DM) with RP-ILD with a change in RDW within 3 months (∆RDW-3) greater than 0 were more likely to die within 3 months. Moreover, the prevalence of ∆RDW-3>0 was higher in patients with RP-ILD and positive for anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 antibody who died within 3 months (87.5%) compared with those alive at 3 months (24.6%) (p<0.001)., Conclusion: These findings suggest that repeated RDW assays could assist physicians in identifying patients with DM-ILD who were at a high risk of RP-ILD and death., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)