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The aim of this study was to expose anti-obesity effect of Gnaphalium affine (GA) and its underlying mechanism by combining biochemical analysis, 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics. The results showed GA alleviated high-fat diet (HFD)-mediated oxidative stress, fat accumulation and inflammation. Moreover, GA improved gut barrier and immunity in HFD-fed mice through up-regulating tight junction protein, decreasing Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level and inhibiting pro-inflammatory makers production in LPS/ toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) / Myd88 / NF-κB pathway. Additionally, GA and its extracts altered composition and metabolism of gut microbiota. GA promoted abundances of Dubosiella and decreased abundance of Alistipes in HFD-fed mice, which were closely linked to 5-Hydroxy-6,7-dimethoxylflavone from GA and levels of weight, inflammatory markers, gut microbial metabolites of mice. Collectively, GA offers its anti-obesity properties through regulating gut microbiota by mucosal barrier functions, indicating that GA and its natural compounds hold great potential as a functional food ingredient.

Abstract The side‐chain has a significant influence on the optical properties and aggregation behaviors of the organic small molecule acceptors, which becomes an important strategy to optimize the photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells. In this work, we designed and synthesized three brand‐new nonfused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) OC4‐4Cl‐Ph, OC4‐4Cl‐Th, and OC4‐4Cl‐C8 with hexylbenzene, hexylthiophene, and octyl side chains on the π‐bridge units. Compared with OC4‐4Cl‐Ph and OC4‐4Cl‐Th, OC4‐4Cl‐C8 with linear alkyl side chain has more red‐shift absorption, which is conducive to obtaining higher short‐circuit current density. Additionally, the OC4‐4Cl‐C8 film exhibits a longer exciton diffusion distance, and the D18:OC4‐4Cl‐C8 blend film displays faster hole transfer, weaker bimolecular recombination, and more efficient exciton transport. Furthermore, The D18:OC4‐4Cl‐C8 blend films may effectively form interpenetrating networks that resemble nanofibrils, which can facilitate exciton dissociation and charge transport. Finally, OC4‐4Cl‐C8‐based devices can be created a marvellously power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.56%, which is much higher than OC4‐4Cl‐Ph (12.29%)‐ and OC4‐4Cl‐Th‐based (11.00%) ones, being the highest PCE among the NFREA based binary devices. All in all, we have validated that side‐chain engineering is an efficient way to achieve high‐performance NFREAs.

In order to effectively solve the problems of the complex growth state of dragon fruit and how the picking process is mostly manual, this study designed a picking and selecting integrated remote-operation-type dragon-fruit-picking device. Based on SOLIDWORKS 2020 software for the three-dimensional digital design and overall assembly of key components, the structure and working theory of the machine are introduced. By improving the high-recognition-rate dragon fruit target detection algorithm based on YOLOv5, better recognition and locating effects were achieved for targets with a small size and high density, as well as those in bright-light scenes. Serial communication, information acquisition, and the precise control of each picking action were realized by building the software and hardware platforms of the picking device control system. By analyzing the working principle of the mechanical system and the mechanics of the machine picking process, the critical factors affecting the net picking rate and damage rate of the dragon-fruit-picking device were confirmed. Based on the force and parameter analysis of the test results, it was confirmed that the machine had an optimal picking influence when the flexible claw closing speed was 0.029 m/s, the electric cylinder extending speed was 0.085 m/s, and the mechanical arm moving speed was 0.15 m/s. The net picking rate of the device reached 90.5%, and the damage rate reached 2.9%. The picking device can complete the picking of a single dragon fruit, as well as a plurality of fruits grown at a growing point, and integrates the integration of picking fruits, removing bad fruits, and sorting fruits, which can improve the efficiency of dragon fruit harvesting and replace manual work.

Abstract Probiotics are defined as live microbial food elements that are beneficial to human health. Lacticaseibacillus casei T1 was considered to have potential as a bioactive ingredient in functional foods, which was isolated from kurut. Previous research by our group proved that L. casei T1 could prevent inflammatory responses caused by Helicobacter pylori. This study aimed to investigate whether treatment with L. casei T1 resulted in a suppressive effect on H. pylori-induced oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. The results showed that treatment with L. casei T1 could relieve H. pylori-induced overexpression of inflammatory cytokines in GES-1 cells. Experiments in animals suggested that taking long-term L. casei T1 could reduce oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines and improve H. pylori-induced gastric mucosal damage. Furthermore, taking L. casei T1 could increase the relative abundance of beneficial intestinal bacterium (Lachnospiraceae and Odoribacter) of H. pylori-infected mice and help in maintaining the balance of intestinal microflora. Collectively, L. casei T1 had certain degrees of therapeutic effect against H. pylori. In the future, it combined with antibiotics for H. pylori eradication deserves further study.

To explore the influences of gravel characteristics on hydraulic fracture propagation in conglomerate formations, the real rock fracture process analysis software was used under specific stress conditions: including gravel particle size, gravel volume content, and gravel strength. Based on the numerical simulation results, the fracture propagation process under different conditions was investigated and the type and evolution of fractures were described. The results showed that larger gravel particle sizes led to stronger shielding and induction effects on the fractures. With the increasing gravel particle size, the propagation model of the fractures changes gradually from by passing gravel to passing through gravel or embedding in gravel particles. When the gravel particle sizes are constant, with increasing gravel volume content, the conglomerate reservoir becomes more heterogeneous and the fractures become more easily shielded and inducted by the gravel particles. Therefore, the fractures become more dispersed and the fracture propagation laws become more complex, which allows the formation of a hydraulic fracture network. The greater the difference in the ratio of the strength parameters of the gravel to the strength parameters of the matrix, the more strongly the fractures are blocked by the gravels and the propagation model of fractures changes from passing through gravel to by passing gravel.

This study was conducted to increase the enzymatic activity of Bacillus licheniformis XS-4, which was isolated from the traditional fermented mash of Xianshi soy sauce. The mutation was induced by atmospheric and room-temperature plasma (ARTP), and a mutant strain, mut80, was obtained. mut80 exhibited significant increases in protease and amylase activity by 90.54% and 143.10%, respectively, and the enhanced enzymatic activities were stably maintained after 20 consecutive incubations. Re-sequencing analysis of mut80 revealed that the mutation sites were located in 1518447(AT-T) and 4253106(G-A) in its genome, which was involved in the metabolic pathways of amino acids. The expression of the protease synthetic gene (aprX) increased 1.54 times, while that of the amylase gene (amyA) increased 11.26 times, as confirmed via RT-qPCR. Using ARTP mutagenesis, the present study proposes a highly efficient microbial resource with enhanced protease and amylase activity provided by B. licheniformis, which can potentially be used to improve the efficiency of traditional soy sauce fermentation.

Probiotics have the functions of inhibiting pathogen infection and maintaining gastrointestinal homeostasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the preventive effect of Lactobacillus casei T1 (L. casei T1) isolated from kurut against the gastric inflammation and gut microbiota alteration induced by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. The results showed that L. casei T1 and its supernatant had a potent inhibitory effect on H. pylori growth in vitro. L. casei T1 adhered to GES-1 cells, down-regulated the expression of MUC5AC, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α in GES-1 cells induced by H. pylori. This followed by in vivo studies demonstrated that L. casei T1 pretreatment alleviated gastric inflammation and prevent gut microbiota alteration caused by H. pylori infection. These results demonstrated that L. casei T1 have a preventive effect against H. pylori infection and it can be served as a further development and utilization of probiotic.

The ankle is a crucial joint that supports the human body weight. An ankle sprain will adversely affect the patient’s daily life, so it is of great significance to ensure its strength. To help patients with ankle dysfunction to carry out effective rehabilitation training, the bone structure and motion mechanism of the ankle were analyzed in this paper. Referring to the configuration of the lower-mobility parallel mechanism, a 3-RRS (R and S denote revolute and spherical joint respectively) parallel ankle rehabilitation robot (PARR) was proposed. The robot can realize both single and compound ankle rehabilitation training. The structure of the robot was introduced, and the kinematics model was established. The freedom of movement of the robot was analyzed using the screw theory, and the robot kinematics were analyzed using spherical analytics theory. A circular composite rehabilitation trajectory was planned, and the accuracy of the kinematics model was verified by virtual prototype simulation. The Multibody simulation results show that the trajectory of the target point is basically the same as the expected trajectory. The maximum trajectory error is about 2.5 mm in the simulation process, which is within the controllable range. The experimental results of the virtual prototype simulation show that the maximum angular deflection error of the three motors is 2° when running a circular trajectory, which meets the experimental requirements. Finally, a control strategy for passive rehabilitation training was designed, and the effectiveness of this control strategy was verified by a prototype experiment.

This paper studies the stiffness of the parallel cable-driven upper limb rehabilitation robot (PCUR). Firstly, it was derived that the static stiffness expression of the PCUR was composed of platform pose stiffness KT and cable pose stiffness KS. It indicated that the static stiffness of the PCUR was related to the cable tension, the arrangement of the cable, and the cable stiffness. Secondly, a simulation model in MATLAB/Simscape Multibody was built. Cable tension was applied to make the moving platform in a static equilibrium state. The stiffness of the PCUR and the external force on the moving platform were changed, and the motion characteristics of the moving platform were obtained. Finally, the position changes of the moving platform under different external forces were analyzed, and the motion laws of the moving platform under different stiffnesses were summarized.

Corn stover can be converted into a high market value product via catalytic fast pyrolysis. Specifically, through thermochemical conversion, corn stover can be converted into biocrude oil with a high content of unstable phenols, most notably active phenols, which can readily react with aldehydes to form phenolic resins. Therefore, the higher the content of active phenols, the greater the economic value of biocrude oil. This is due to the potential for active phenols to serve as value-added compounds in the form of phenolic resins. Catalysts can be incorporated to improve the reaction rate and product quality during fast pyrolysis. In this study, the effects of three solid catalysts, dolomite, red mud and HZSM-5(25), on the production of active phenols were investigated. The Folin-ciocalteu (FC) method and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were utilized to quantify and classify the types of phenolic derivatives present within the bio-oil. The results showed that active phenols with a content exceeding 70% constituted the largest fraction of the phenol derivatives. The formation of active phenols, especially B-phenols, was enhanced by the incorporation of the catalysts HZSM-5, red mud and dolomite. HZSM-5 and dolomite exhibited the best catalytic effect on the production of A-phenols and B-phenols, respectively. The highest content of C-phenols (47.16%) was achieved when red mud was utilized as a catalyst. With regard to the total content of active phenol derivatives, the catalytic effect of dolomite was better than that of HZSM-5 and red mud. The content of total phenols and active phenols increased as the reaction temperature increased from 450 to 600°C.

Three dimensional (3D) printing materials were manufactured with polylactic acid (PLA) and poplar powder using the twin screw extruder and 3D printing consumables extruder. Lubricant (TPW604) and toughening agent polyolefin elastomer (POE) were utilized to improve the fluidity and toughness of the materials. 3D printing materials were tested by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, melt flow rate, rheology behavior, impact and scanning electron microscope. The results show that the poplar powder could decrease impact strength of PLA, the same as TPW604. Unlike poplar powder, TPW604 can improve the fluidity of 3D printing materials. And POE can fill the voids formed by poplar powder in PLA, enhance interface compatibility between poplar powder and PLA, and effectively improve the fluidity and impact strength of 3D printing materials.