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Obesity is a critical health issue worldwide. For a long time, the concept of drinking tea for health and pleasure is widely accepted. The strain of Andraca theae lives on the tea leaf and the bioactivity of its metabolites in the feces is unknown yet. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate whether the extract of tea (Taiwan Tea Experiment Station No.12 (TE)) and its metabolites from Andraca theae (TME) could prevent obesity in the high fat diet-induced obese rats. Our results showed that TE had higher concentrations of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and caffeine than that from TME. TE significantly decreased abdominal adipose tissue, especially epididymal fat via increasing preadipocyte factor 1 (Pref-1), SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 9 (SOX-9) and decreasing peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP)β, C/EBPα and C/EBPγ protein expression. Taken together, these results suggest that the content of tea polyphenols in TE play an important role for alleviating abdominal fat. Keywords: Tea, Andraca theae, High fat diet, Obesity

This paper analyzes the unique nonlinear characteristics of a high-speed drive circuit for proportional solenoid, i.e., the inverse discharging drive circuit (IDDC), which has a faster discharging speed than a traditional drive circuit. The experimental results clearly show the piecewise nonlinear relationship between the current and the pulse-width modulation (PWM) duty ratio of the control signal of the IDDC. The mathematical model of the IDDC working processes in one PWM period is constructed in detail to analyze the IDDC nonlinear characteristics. The computational equations of the significant nonlinear features, including the critical PWM duty ratio, the steady-state current, the amplitude of the current oscillation, and the response time of the circuit, are deduced through algebraic analyses, which are verified by a comparison between the experimental and calculated results. These analyses aid the design and control of a solenoid drive circuit for a hydraulic proportional valve. Finally, a modified PI controller that considers the nonlinear characteristics of the IDDC is designed, and the experimental results show that the designed controller significantly improves the response speed of the solenoid current.

A kind of green solvent, ionic liquid, was introduced as an extracting agent, and a new method of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on ultrasonic-assisted in situ ionic liquid formation (DLLM-UAISLF) was established for the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) determination of atrazine in water. Five mL of water was treated using 80 μL of [HMim]Cl as the extracting agent, 400 μL of LiNTf2 as the ion-exchange material, ultrasound time of 10 minutes and centrifuge time of 8 minutes at 4000 r/min. During this process, the droplets of ionic liquid [HMim]NTf2 were formed in water and the precipitates were then separated for determination of atrazine by HPLC. The detection limit of atrazine is 0.01 mg/L and the detection values range from 0.01 to 0.5 mg/L. The proposed method yielded recoveries of 100.4%-106.7%, which are obviously better than those ( < 67%) of direct liquid-liquid microextraction. This method has potential in the determination of organic pollutants.

Data-Independent Acquisition (DIA) is a mass spectrometry-based method to reliably identify and reproducibly quantify large fractions of a target proteome. The peptide-centric data analysis strategy employed in DIA requires a priori generated spectral assay libraries. Such assay libraries allow to extract quantitative data in a targeted approach and have been generated for human, mouse, zebrafish, E. coli and few other organisms. However, a spectral assay library for the extreme halophilic archaeon Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1, a model organism that contributed to several notable discoveries, is not publicly available yet. Here, we report a comprehensive spectral assay library to measure 2,563 of 2,646 annotated H. salinarum NRC-1 proteins. We demonstrate the utility of this library by measuring global protein abundances over time under standard growth conditions. The H. salinarum NRC-1 library includes 21,074 distinct peptides representing 97% of the predicted proteome and provides a new, valuable resource to confidently measure and quantify any protein of this archaeon. Data and spectral assay libraries are available via ProteomeXchange (PXD042770, PXD042774) and SWATHAtlas (SAL00312-SAL00319).

The spatial distribution of rockhead profile has a significant impact on the design and construction of geotechnical engineering structures. Limited by the economic and technical conditions, the borehole data of specific sites are often sparse, which brings great challenges to the accurate prediction of rockhead profile. In this study, a Gaussian process regression (GPR) method is used to predict the rockhead profile. Borehole data from a construction site in Hong Kong are used to evaluate the ability of the GPR method to predict rockhead profile. Besides, the influences of the amount of borehole data on the accuracy of the GPR model and the spatial prediction results of rockhead are investigated. The results indicate that the GPR model based on the square exponential and the Matern covariance function can obtain more accurate prediction results, and the GPR model with limited borehole data can provide a reasonable prediction interval for rockhead depth. With the increase of borehole data, the generalization ability and prediction accuracy of the GPR model gradually improves. In engineering practice, the prediction accuracy and uncertainty degree of the GPR model can be used to judge whether it is necessary to continue to increase borehole data. Key words: rockhead profile, borehole data, site investigation, Gaussian process regression, spatial prediction, 1. Introduction In the planning, designing and construction of geotechnical structures, obtaining accurate spatial distribution information of rockhead with quantified uncertainty is essential (e.g., Zhang and Dasaka 2010; Fan et [...]