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Since there are a lot of sources of unconscious information in our mind, there is a possibility that multiple channels of unconscious information can affect a response at the same time. However, this question has been largely ignored by the researchers. In the present study, we presented two opposite pointing arrows as the masked primes followed by a target arrow. The results suggested that the two pointing directions of the two prime arrows influenced the response to the target simultaneously and independently, i.e. the overall priming effect caused by the two opposite pointing prime arrows was equal to the net effect of the individual congruent effect elicited by the same pointing prime arrow and the individual incongruent priming effect induced by the opposite pointing prime arrow. In addition, in Experiment 1, a biased delayed response to the target was observed when the target arrow and the opposite pointing prime arrow were closely positioned in space due to Gestalt proximity grouping.

Yb3+/Ho3+ codoped and Yb3+/Er3+/Ho3+ tridoped TeO2–BaF2–LaF3–La2O3 (TBLL) fluorotellurite glasses with low OH− absorption (0.026 cm-1), high glass transition temperature (434 °C) and low phonon energy (784 cm-1) were prepared. Their mid-infrared fluorescence properties and related energy transfer (ET) mechanism were studied under 980 nm excitation. A strong emission at 2.85 μm was realized in Yb3+/Ho3+ codoped tellurite glass, which was attributed to the high-efficiency ET from Yb3+ ions to Ho3+, and the ET efficiency was 91.1%. Further introduction of Er3+ ions induced stronger 2.85 μm emission, and the ET efficiency was improved to 96.2%, ascribed to the establishment of more ET channels and Er3+ ions playing the role of ET bridge between Yb3+ and Ho3+ ions. These results indicate that the Yb3+/Er3+/Ho3+ tridoped tellurite glass could be a hopeful gain medium material for the ∼3 μm fiber laser.

A colorimetric system based on FeMoO4peroxidase mimic was established for rapid, sensitive and selective detection of PPi, which verified the feasibility huge potential in bioanalysis of the designed sensing platform.

Ultra-broadband near-infrared emission mainly consisting of three bands around 940 nm, 1180 nm and 1500 nm was investigated under excitation at 460 nm in RO-Al2O3–B2O3-GeO2 (R = Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba) glasses with 0.005 mol% Bi2O3 doping. With the radius increasing of alkaline earth ion, the first and the third bands became stronger while the second one became weaker gradually, but their photoluminescence thermal stability and quantum yield declined gradually. The luminescence origination should be multi-type bismuth active centers (BACs). Furthermore, energy levels of the BAC assigning to the band around 1500 nm (BAC-1500) were analyzed through a contour plot of near-infrared emission intensity, excitation spectra and temperature dependent PL spectra. At last, the glass structure was studied by Raman and FT-IR spectra, molar volume and Vickers hardness. BAC-1500 should prefer the glass matrix with a looser framework, which indicates there was a competitive formation of different BACs in the glass.

Since there are a lot of sources of unconscious information in our mind, there is a possibility that multiple channels of unconscious information can affect a response at the same time. However, this question has been largely ignored by the researchers. In the present study, we presented two opposite pointing arrows as the masked primes followed by a target arrow. The results suggested that the two pointing directions of the two prime arrows influenced the response to the target simultaneously and independently, i.e. the overall priming effect caused by the two opposite pointing prime arrows was equal to the net effect of the individual congruent effect elicited by the same pointing prime arrow and the individual incongruent priming effect induced by the opposite pointing prime arrow. In addition, in Experiment 1, a biased delayed response to the target was observed when the target arrow and the opposite pointing prime arrow were closely positioned in space due to Gestalt proximity grouping.

The aim of the current study is to explore the number of classes of cumulative ecological risk with latent profile analysis. Furthermore, the relationships between the classes of cumulative ecological risk and problematic smartphone use (PSU) among 2050 Chinese college students were researched. The results showed that there are four latent classes of cumulative ecological risk among college students, namely, low risk — medium peer relationship risk group, medium risk — high belonging risk group, high identity risk — very high friend conflict risk group and high risk group, accounting for 11.71%, 30.54%, 9.75% and 48.00%, respectively. The number of the high risk group is the largest with the highest family risk, school risk, peer risk and social risk. The students in the medium risk — high belonging risk group have a particularly high risk of belonging, which should be paid attention to. The students in the low risk — medium peer relationship risk group are with a low level of ecological risk. The high identity risk — very high friend conflict risk group have the fewest students, indicating that only a few students have high school identity risk and very high risk of friend conflict. In addition, cumulative ecological risk is significantly positively correlated with PSU, and the PSU level of the high risk group is significantly higher than that of other groups. These findings indicate that there is considerable heterogeneity in cumulative ecological risk, and there is different correlation between cumulative ecological risk and PSU among college students. The current study not only enriches the biological ecological model, showing that the combined action of multiple ecological risks has a greater impact on PSU, but also provides a basis for classified intervention of college students of different classes.

Assays of pyrophosphate ion (PPi) are of remarkable biochemical significance due to their vital roles in the bioenergetic and metabolic processes or as disease indicators. Colorimetry is popular in the field of biosensing and detection because of its simplicity, speed and cost-effectiveness, but there is a lack of a suitable colorimetric probe. Herein, a novel colorimetric sensing platform has been established for the detection of pyrophosphate based on the FeMoO

Chalcogenide hollow-core anti-resonant fibers (HC-ARFs) are a promising propagation medium for high-power mid-infrared (3-5 µm) laser delivery, while their properties have not been well understood and their fabrications remain challenging. In this paper, we design a seven-hole chalcogenide HC-ARF with touching cladding capillaries, which was then fabricated from purified As40S60 glass by combining the “stack-and-draw” method with a dual gas path pressure control technique. In particular, we predict theoretically and confirm experimentally that such medium exhibits higher-order mode suppression properties and several low-loss transmission bands in the mid-infrared spectrum, with the measured fiber loss being as low as 1.29 dB/m at 4.79 µm. Our results pave the way for the fabrication and implication of various chalcogenide HC-ARFs in mid-infrared laser delivery systems.

This study proposes a novel, to the best of our knowledge, development of fluorotellurite glass fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). Shell-like morphology was achieved using a single femtosecond laser pulse illuminated through the fiber’s polymer coating. Different FBG fabrication methods and parameters were systematically studied to optimize performance. The fluorotellurite FBG exhibited a high sensitivity to writing laser power and reflectivity saturation effect in repetitive writing. A low-insertion-loss fluorotellurite FBG with a reflectivity of over 99% and bandwidth of less than 1 nm was successfully inscribed. The flexible inscription methods can write an FBG at any wavelength in the fluorotellurite glass transparent window, and are applicable to infrared fiber lasers or sensors.

Consumption of sufficiently high quantities of dietary fibers has been linked to a range of health benefits. Recent research, however, has shown that some dietary fibers interfere with lipid digestion, which may reduce the bioavailability of oil-soluble vitamins and nutraceuticals. For this reason, we examined the impact of a cationic polysaccharide (chitosan) on the bioaccessibility of vitamin D using the standardized INFOGEST in vitro digestion model. The vitamin D was encapsulated within an emulsion-based delivery system that contained whey protein-coated corn oil droplets. Our results showed that chitosan promoted severe droplet flocculation in the small intestine and reduced the amount of free fatty acids detected using a pH-stat method. However, a back-titration of the digested sample showed that the lipids were fully digested at all chitosan levels used (0.1-0.5%), suggesting that chitosan may have bound some of the free fatty acids released during lipid digestion. The presence of the chitosan decreased the bioaccessibility of vitamin D by about 37%, but this effect did not depend strongly on chitosan concentration (0.1-0.5%). It was hypothesized that chitosan bound to the vitamin-loaded mixed micelles and promoted their precipitation. The knowledge gained in this study might provide useful insights in designing emulsion-based delivery systems with high vitamin bioaccessibility.

Multilayer emulsions were formed by sequential electrostatic deposition of anionic (pectin) and cationic (chitosan) biopolymers onto anionic saponin-coated lipid droplets. These emulsions were then tested for their ability to encapsulate and protect a hydrophobic nutraceutical (astaxanthin). The impact of chitosan and pectin concentration, pH, and ionic strength on the formation and stability of the multilayer emulsions was examined. Multilayer emulsions containing small uniform particles were produced using 2.5% lipid droplets, 0.05% chitosan, and 0.0125% pectin. The physical stability of the astaxanthin-loaded emulsions after exposure to heating, pH, and NaCl was determined. The multilayer-coatings improved the chemical stability of the encapsulated astaxanthin, as well as the aggregation stability of the lipid droplets at elevated ionic strengths and temperatures. Astaxanthin degradation during storage was 3- to 4-fold slower in multilayer emulsions than conventional ones. The multilayer emulsions developed in this study may be useful for encapsulating, protecting, and delivering hydrophobic carotenoids, which may aid in the development of more efficacious functional foods, supplements, and medical foods.

Lutein is a hydrophobic carotenoid with various beneficial biological activities. Its use as a functional food, however, is currently limited by its low-water solubility, chemical instability, and poor bioavailability. The purpose of this work is to fabricate lutein-loaded nanoparticles to overcome these challenges. Lutein was encapsulated in zein nanoparticles coated with sophorolipid (ZSLNPs). The properties of ZSLNPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The results showed that the ZSLNPs were spheres with particle size around 200 nm and negative surface potentials (ζ = -54 mV). The encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of the lutein in the ZSLNPs was 90.04% and 0.82%, respectively. Infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated that the dominant driving forces of the ZSLNPs formation mainly included electrostatic, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding. X-ray analysis showed that the encapsulated lutein was in an amorphous form. Circular dichroism analysis suggested that the incorporation of lutein or sophorolipid led to the change in secondary structure of zein. In addition, the ZSLNPs had good stability, redispersibility, and increased the water solubility of lutein. Furthermore, in vitro studies showed that the ZSLNPs had great biocompatibility and bioaccessibility of lutein. Overall, these findings indicated that the core/shell nanoparticles developed in the work may be suitable for encapsulating this important nutrient in functional foods.

The present work aims to prepare and stabilize zein colloidal nanoparticles using soluble soybean polysaccharide (SSPS) as a stabilizer. A simple antisolvent precipitation method was used to fabricate the zein/SSPS composite nanoparticles at pH 4.0. The results showed that the SSPS-stabilized zein nanoparticles (size around 200 nm, PDI below 0.2) did not aggregate or precipitate at pH 2.0–8.0. And they were also relatively stable for elevated ionic strength and high temperature. Affected by the SSPS coating, the surface hydrophobicity of the zein nanoparticles decreased over a wide pH range. Conditions of forming zein/SSPS nanoparticles were successfully used to encapsulate hydrophobic quercetin (Q). The encapsulation efficiency was greatly improved to 82.5% after SSPS coating, compared to 59.2% for the zein without coating. Besides, the photochemical stability and ABTS+ scavenging ability of Q in zein/SSPS composite nanoparticles were significantly enhanced. This study demonstrates that these composite nanoparticles can be used as all-natural delivery systems for bioactive molecules in food and pharmaceutical formulations.

In the present work, a novel Sn-assisted synthetic protocol is developed to control the growth and the optical performance of all-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (NCs). We systematically elucidate the roles that the Sn4+ (i.e., SnBr4 and SnCl4) and Sn2+ (i.e., SnBr2, SnCl2 and Sn(OAc)2) species played in tuning the morphologies and optical properties of the resulting NCs in open air or under Ar atmosphere, respectively. Interestingly, the Sn4+ cations restrain the growth of the perovskite NCs along a specific plane and consequently lead to the generation of nanoplatelets (NPLs) with thicknesses of a few perovskite unit cell layers, exhibiting the quantum confinement effect. The co-existence of two populations of NCs with different thicknesses contributes to the formation of two well-defined optical absorption bands and photoluminescence (PL) emissions. The unusual disproportionation growth of the perovskite NCs was further confirmed by comparison of NCs grown in open air and under Ar atmosphere, respectively. Perovskite NCs fabricated under Ar atmosphere in the presence of either SnBr2 or SnCl2 showed a single PL emission. However, when the reactions were carried out in the open air, dual optical absorbance and PL emissions were observed. Moreover, by adjusting the input of Sn salts in the precursors, the band structure and PL properties can be precisely tuned. The present strategy can be extended to other tetravalent ions such as Ti4+. We finally employed freshly made dual-emissive CsPbBr3 perovskite NCs to fabricate a prototype white light-emitting diode (WLED) with a commercially available 365 nm GaN chip.

Astaxanthin (Ax), a type of carotenoid, has limited use as a result of its poor water solubility, low bioavailability, and decomposition under harsh conditions. This study reports a delivery system for Ax through a simple affinity binding with β-lactoglobulin and then coated with chitosan oligosaccharides. Ax-loaded β-lactoglobulin nanocomplexes and chitosan oligosaccharide-coated nanocomplexes were successfully prepared. The nanocomplexes exhibited a smooth spherical shape with diameters of about 40 and 60 nm measured by transmission electron microscopy. Spectroscopic techniques (ultraviolet-visible, fluorescence, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) combined with molecular docking were used to determine the binding mechanism of Ax and β-lactoglobulin. In comparison to native Ax, the nanocomplexes maintain the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of Ax under the treatment of acid, high temperature, and ultraviolet radiation. The release experiment of nanocomplexes revealed that the encapsulation could provide prolonged release of Ax in simulated gastrointestinal juices. This study aimed to fabricate and characterize Ax-β-lactoglobulin nanocomplexes, which can improve the Ax stability and slow release.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) on amylolytic enzyme activity and starch digestibility. For the first time, we investigated the interaction between α-amylase or glucoamylase and CNCs using ultraviolet visible (UV–Vis) absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence quenching method, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and circular dichroism (CD). The results of UV and fluorescence spectra suggested that CNCs interacted with α-amylase and glucoamylase. Increasing the concentration of CNCs caused a reduction of α-amylase and glucoamylase activities. The FTIR and CD results indicated that CNCs induced structural changes in the secondary structure of α-amylase and glucoamylase. By incorporating CNCs into maize, potato and pea starches, the contents of rapid digestible starch and slowly digestible starch of the cooked starches decreased while resistant starch content increased.

The purpose of this study was to establish an efficient modern strategy for the reduction and control of cadmium (Cd) content in the crab viscera homogenate. To this end, the coupling of an artificial neural network (ANN) technique with the genetic algorithm (GA) method and compared the performance of GA-ANN with response surface methodology (RSM) were demonstrated in the prediction and optimization of the ultrasonic-assisted adsorption of Cd using a aerogel adsorbent. On the basis of single factor test, the data sample was established by Box–Behnken Design, and the effects of ultrasonic time, temperature, the addition amount of aerogel, and pH on the removal rate of Cd were researched. The results revealed that the RSM and GA-ANN models had relative errors and coefficients of determination R2 values of 3.90%, 0.8440, and 1.79%, 0.9283, respectively, suggesting that GA-ANN is more accurate than RSM. The maximum percentage of Cd extracted (79.13%) was obtained using GA-ANN model as ultrasonic time of 87 min, temperature of 81 °C, adsorbent dosage of 0.07 g, pH of 3.20. In conclusion, the present results provide an effective method for optimizing multi-technology coupling to reduce the toxic heavy metal content in aquatic products.

Proanthocyanidins (PACs), a group of polyphenolic secondary metabolites in plants, have drawn great interest because of their enormous potential in reducing the incidence of myocardial infarction and death from cardiovascular disease. However, their activities are sensitive to pH, temperature, and light, which limit their applications. For the first time, we developed an easy method to fabricate protein-PAC hybrid nanoparticles via the simple affinity binding between casein or gliadin and PAC. The effects of variable processing parameters (such as ratios of protein and PAC, protein concentration, sodium chloride content, pH, and time) on the characterization of the nanocomplexes were probed. Under optimal conditions, the nanocomplexes were regular shapes approximately 30 nm in size, as observed by transmission electron microscopy. The antioxidant capacity of nanocomplexes improved 12%, 26%, and 14% over that of pure PAC with sodium chloride (0.8 M), ultraviolet radiation (10 w), and heating treatment (80 °C, 30 min), respectively. No cytotoxicity for normal liver cells was found in any of the nanocomplexes measured by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay. Conversely, protein-PAC hybrid nanoparticles exhibited clear cytotoxicity against liver hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2 cells). This simple approach to fabricating nanocomplexes by co-assembling natural protein with bioactive compounds may open a new avenue to encapsulating and delivering sensible pharmaceuticals and drugs, with potential applications in functional foods, drugs, and personal care products.

Active polysaccharides (APs) are known to have a wide variety of biological functions, such as anti-viral, anti-oxidant, hypoglycemic, and lipid-lowering effects. However, the extremely low bioavailability of APs restricts their bioactivity in vivo; therefore, the development of a biopolymer nanoparticle carrier is a promising solution. For the first time, we have successfully prepared maltodextrin nanoparticles (MNPs) with controllable particle sizes. The influence of different emulsifier types and volume ratios of a maltodextrin solution to absolute ethanol on the morphology and size of the MNPs was examined, and the smallest MNPs (30–90 nm) were obtained when the volume ratio was 1:10 and the emulsifier was Tween 80. Furthermore, tea, pumpkin, and balsam pear polysaccharides were loaded on the MNPs with loading efficiencies of 63.5, 68.7, and 72.1%, respectively. Compared with the MNPs, the AP-loaded MNPs were more stable in a high salt content, or under a gastric pH of 1.2 and physiological pH of 7.4 conditions. These MNPs may serve as effective nanocarriers by delivering APs to enhance their bioavailability.

Zein nanoparticles (ZNPs) have limited use as a result of its poor colloidal stability. The goal of this paper is to stabilize ZNPs using a sulfated anionic polysaccharide—dextran sulfate (DS). Zein/DS composite nanoparticles (ZDSNPs) were fabricated by antisolvent precipitation method at pH 4.0 with an optimal zein-to-DS ratio of 1:2 (w/w). ZDSNPs exhibited good stability to pH, heating and storage. Additionally, ZDSNPs showed spherical structures formed primarily by electrostatic attractions, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. The incorporation of DS led to the change in secondary structure of zein. The surface hydrophobicity of ZNPs reduced owing to the deposition of DS. And ZDSNPs were basically nontoxic to normal colonic epithelial cell lines—NCM460 cell lines. ZDSNPs were successfully used to encapsulate curcumin. The encapsulation efficiency of curcumin-loaded ZDSNPs (ZDSCNPs) was 85.37%, which was significantly higher than that of curcumin-loaded ZNPs. In addition, ZDSCNPs exhibited improved storage stability and bioaccessibility of curcumin.

Wheat gluten, a byproduct of the wheat starch industry, is widely used as a dough strengthener and gelling agent. In this research, we developed novel double-network hydrogels by gelation of gluten using in situ metal-catechol coordination. The first network consisted of physically associated gluten molecules, while the second network consisted of Fe3+-cross-linked proanthocyanidins (PACs). Dynamic shear rheology experiments suggested that coordination of Fe3+ and PACs greatly enhanced the mechanical properties of the gluten hydrogels. The double-network hydrogels exhibited a 3-fold higher shear modulus than pure gluten hydrogels. The formation of bis- and tris-catechol-Fe3+ complexes between Fe3+ and PACs in the hydrogels was confirmed by ultraviolet-visible spectrometry and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The ITC measurements of Fe3+ binding to PACs indicated a molar stoichiometry of 1:4 and a dissociation constant ( KD) of 24.9 × 10-9. When subject to repeated shear deformation-compression cycles, the hydrogels exhibited strong and rapid recovery of their rheological properties. The strong, self-healing characteristics of the double-network gluten hydrogels produced in this study may be useful for certain applications in the food, agriculture, biomedicine, and tissue-engineering industries.

In the present study, we showed evidence of an integration between two unconscious semantic representations. In experiment 1, two masked Chinese words of the same or different categories (“orange apple” or “grape hammer”) were simultaneously presented in the prime, followed by two Chinese words also of same or different categories in the target. We examined possible prime/target visual feature priming, semantic category priming and motor response priming effects. Moreover, two ISI intervals (53, 163 ms) between the prime and the target words were used to examine the positive and negative priming. The results revealed a negative motor response priming and a positive semantic category priming effect independent of the ISI when the target words were of the same category. Experiment 2 eliminated an alternative interpretation of the effect based on different number of category words changed across the prime and the target. Experiment 3 eliminated a potential confound of unequal numbers of trials for motor congruent and incongruent conditions in Experiment 1. Overall, these results indicated an integration between the meanings of the two subliminally perceived words in the prime. The difference between simultaneous and sequential presentations, and the reason why positive priming was not observed when the interval between the prime and the target was short were discussed in the context of unconscious semantic integration.

The purpose of this work is to stabilize zein nanoparticles with anionic polysaccharides-chondroitin sulfate (CS) to overcome the poor colloidal stability of zein nanoparticles. The average molecular weight of CS was 20.51 kDa and the disaccharide composition of CS was 70.71% monosulfated disaccharide Di2S and 29.29% disulfated disaccharide Di2,6 diS. Zein/CS composite nanoparticles were fabricated by antisolvent precipitation method at pH 4.0. The optimal mass ratio of zein to CS was 1:1 (w/w). Zein/CS composite nanoparticles showed mean size of 148 nm and PDI 0.2, maintaining great stability at pH 3.0 to 8.0. Meanwhile, these prepared nanoparticles were also stable to heat treatment and was stable to a range of ionic strength of 0-15 mM at pH 4.0 and 0-10 mM at pH 7.0. The composite nanoparticles exhibited regular spherical structures, and CS was deposited on the surface of zein mainly by electrostatic interactions. In the process, the addition of urea and sodium dodecyl sulfate indicated that it also involved both hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. In addition, cytotoxicity assay on human renal epithelial cells-293 cells indicated that zein/CS composite nanoparticles were essentially nontoxic.

Astaxanthin, a hydrophobic carotenoid found in marine plants and animals, is claimed to exhibit various beneficial biological activities. Its use as a nutraceutical in foods, however, is currently limited by its low water-solubility and poor bioavailability. The goal of this paper was to fabricate astaxanthin-loaded colloidal particles to overcome these challenges. Astaxanthin was encapsulated in poly(lactic- co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles coated with chitosan oligosaccharides (COS). The properties of the loaded nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. The influence of PLGA properties on the loading capacity, water solubility, stability, and release of the astaxanthin were determined. The nanoparticles were smooth spheres with mean particle diameters around 150 nm and positive surface potentials (ζ = +30 mV). The encapsulation efficiency (>85%) and loading capacity (>15%) of the astaxanthin in the nanoparticles was relatively high. X-ray analysis suggested that the encapsulated astaxanthin was in an amorphous form. The nanoparticles had good dispersibility and stability in aqueous solutions, as well as high cytocompatibility. In vitro studies showed that the astaxanthin was released from the nanoparticles under simulated gastric and small intestinal conditions. Overall, our results suggest the core-shell nanoparticles developed in this study may be suitable for encapsulating this important nutraceutical in functional foods and cosmetics.

In vitro digestions of starch nanocrystals (SNCs), prepared by acid hydrolysis of native starch and starch nanoparticles (SNPs) fabricated by self-assembly of short glucan chains, were investigated for kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis. Their thermal, morphological, and structural properties during amylolysis were also compared. The kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis indicated that the hydrolysis rate of SNPs was lowest in that of SNCs, cooked starch, and native starch. Onset, peak, conclusion temperatures, and enthalpy of gelatinization of SNPs and SNCs decreased during digestion. The A-type crystallization of SNCs contributed to their higher rate of hydrolysis than that of SNPs, which was B-type. The relative crystallinity of SNCs during hydrolysis decreased but that of SNPs increased. The results suggest that SNPs exhibit higher resistance to digestion than SNCs. This finding provides information for diverse potential applications of SNCs and SNPs.

Nanocomposites are being used as a new type of packaging that has good biodegradability and antibacterial ability and that has wide applicability in the preservation and storage field. Transmission electron microscopy results demonstrated that the AgNPs were spherical in shape with the diameter of 2–6 nm for 48 h reaction time. The mechanical properties of composite films increased after the incorporation of AgNPs. Differential scanning calorimetric and thermogravimetric analysis results showed that the thermal stability of silver–starch composite film was increased through incorporation with AgNPs. The composite films exhibited strong antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and the composite films were more effective against Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli).

Starch nanoparticles (SNPs) were prepared by nanoprecipitation using seven native starches, including waxy corn, normal corn, high amylose corn, potato, tapioca, sweet potato, and pea starches (amylose content 0.8%–69.0%). The structural, morphological and physicochemical properties of SNPs were systematically investigated using dynamic light scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, differential scanning calorimetry and electron microscopy. Compared to micro-scale native starch (mean size of 15–49 μm), the mean particle sizes of SNPs were mainly in the range of 30–75 nm, which is much smaller than those reported in previous published literatures. Interestingly, the smaller the starch granules were, the smaller the corresponding SNPs were obtained. All SNPs exhibited a typical V-type crystalline structure, which were independent of the crystal type of the native starch. Moreover, the relative crystallinity of SNPs increased with the increasing amylose content in native starch, and a high correlation (R 2 = 0.95) was observed. Compared with native starch, the gelatinization enthalpy of corresponding SNPs decreased, with the exception of high amylose corn starch.

To study the control effect of surfactants in the process of formation of starch nanoparticles by self-assembly, different surfactants (sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), polysorbate 80 (Tween 80), and sorbitan monooleate (Span 80) were added during the fabrication of waxy corn starch nanoparticles (WCSNPs) and potato starch nanoparticles (PSNPs), and their characteristics were determined and compared. The results showed that WCSNPs with SDS and Tween 80 had smaller particle size (28-35 nm and 15-24 nm, respectively) than that of WCSNPs (50-120 nm). The surfactants significantly increased the dispersion and thermal stability of nanoparticles. Short-chain amylose debranched from waxy corn starch had a lower degree of polymerization than that debranched from potato starch and were easier to retrograde, resulting in higher gelatinization enthalpy of WCSNPs. However, PSNPs were smaller in size and achieved better stability than WCSNPs due to stronger electrostatic repulsion caused by a higher absolute value of zeta potential.

Due to the shielding effect of the outermost electronic layer 5s and 5p of rare earth, the near-infrared photoluminescence (PL) of Er3+ can not be easily affected by the external environment. However, we have regulated the near-infrared PL of Er3+ by changing temperature, which is ascribed to the phase transition of BaTiO3 from tetragonal to cubic phase and the presence of impurity. It also found that the redshift of wavelength in samples containing tetragonal phase BaTiO3 can reach 13 nm, which is never observed in other materials. The center wavelength shifts from 1530 nm to 1543 nm as the temperature rises from 20 to 200 °C. Moreover, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of samples containing cubic phase has a growth of 6 nm (up to 85 nm) with increasing temperature. It indicated that temperature-induced phase transition can be an important method to modulate the PL of Er3+ in BaTiO3 with impurity.

In this study, cold-gelation whey protein isolate (WPI)-chitosan (CS) complex hydrogels were fabricated by crosslinking with genipin (GP), which was a naturally occurring crosslinking agent. The effect of variable CS concentrations on the structure and physical/chemical properties of the complex hydrogels was probed. Curcumin release rates from WPI-CS complex hydrogels were lower in simulated gastric and colon solution. DSC results indicated that the WPI-CS complex hydrogel showed higher stability (endothermic peak at 93.7 °C) than that of WPI (endothermic peak at 80.3 °C). These results demonstrated that cold-gelation WPI-CS complex hydrogel could be a new material to encapsulate and deliver bioactive substance or drugs, with potential applications in functional foods and drugs.

Many studies using masking paradigm have shown that stimuli can be processed unconsciously. However, different researchers put forward different ideas about the mechanisms of the unconscious information processing. For example, one idea is that the unconscious information might be derived from a partial awareness of the masked stimulus. Another idea is that it is derived from a perceptual interaction between a masked stimulus and the masking stimulus. We used a masking paradigm (with a briefly displayed target followed by a mask) and a subjective rating and an objective forced-choice test (with a word and picture version) given after the display to study the nature of partial awareness. The question we attempted to answer was whether people did perceive fragmentary features of a masked object picture correctly when they rated it as partially perceivable. The results showed that even when the masked stimuli only had simple features and when the subjects subjectively reported that they could perceive something of the masked stimuli, the objective forced-choice test performance was at chance level. The results were discussed in the context of interaction hypothesis and level of processing hypothesis.