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We investigated the differences in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) levels and clinical symptoms with first-episode depression at different ages.Ninety patients (15-60 years old) diagnosed with first-episode depression were enrolled as the study group, and they were divided into early-onset, adult and late-onset groups. The age-matched control groups were healthy volunteers. Serum BDNF and GDNF concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). GraphPad Prism 9 was used for t tests, one-way ANOVAs, chi-square tests, and correlation analyses.Serum BDNF and GDNF levels were lower in the whole study group and the three subgroups than in the healthy groups. Illness severity, anxiety and education were higher in the early-onset than late-onset patients. Serum BDNF levels were lower in the adult than late-onset patients. Serum BDNF levels were negatively correlated with patient CGI-SI scores. After the LSD test for multiple comparisons, the results were also significant.Low serum BDNF and GDNF levels may be involved in the pathophysiology of first-episode depression, and there were differences in serum BDNF levels at different ages, verifying that serum BDNF and GDNF could serve as potential biomarkers of depression. KEY POINTSDepression is often conceptualised as a systemic illness with different biological mechanisms, but satisfactory explanations have not been provided thus far.The aim of our study was to investigate differences in serum BDNF and GDNF levels and their relationships with clinical symptoms in patients with first-episode depression at different ages.The potential of the neurotrophic factor hypothesis to advance the diagnosis and treatment of depression will be a very exciting new strategy for future research.

This paper is a record of the creation process based on the cross-over study of visual, animation, and interaction design of ancientEgyptian totemic elements with the use of digital media technology. Through an in-depth analysis of the creation process of theanimation interaction work from an art design perspective, this paper points out the importance of theme setting as well as thepotential problems during the process of visual, animation, and interaction design, and puts forward the corresponding solutions.In addition, a systematic summary of the design concept in the animation interaction as well as other additional concepts is madethrough the work Tutan, which is presented in the paper.Tutan consists of 22 groups of single-module elements derived from ancient Egyptian totems, which were dismantled and reorganizedto reconstruct the main picture. Through the use of animation and interaction design, the designer aspires to build a connectionbetween people and the work Tutan, in an attempt to promote the ancient Egyptian culture among the general public, entertain theviewers, and establish a connection between culture, technology, viewers, and the work itself.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a highly heterogeneous disease, especially in the clinical characteristics and prognosis. The PD is divided into two subgroups: tremor-dominant phenotype and non-tremor-dominant phenotype. Previous studies reported abnormal changes between the two PD phenotypes by using the static functional connectivity analysis. However, the dynamic properties of brain networks between the two PD phenotypes are not yet clear. Therefore, we aimed to uncover the dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) between the two PD phenotypes at the subnetwork level, focusing on the temporal properties of dFNC and the variability of network efficiency.Methods: We investigated the resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) data from 29 tremor-dominant PD patients (PDTD), 25 non-tremor-dominant PD patients (PDNTD), and 20 healthy controls (HCs). Sliding window approach, k-means clustering, independent component analysis (ICA), and graph theory analysis were applied to analyze the dFNC. Furthermore, the relationship between alterations in the dynamic properties and clinical features was assessed.Results: The dFNC analyses identified four reoccurring states, one of them showing sparse connections (state I). PDTD patients stayed longer time in state I and showed increased FNC between BG and vSMN in state IV. Both PD phenotypes exhibited higher FNC between dSMN and FPN in state II and state III compared with the controls. PDNTD patients showed decreased FNC between BG and FPN but increased FNC in the bilateral FPN compared with both PDTD patients and controls. In addition, PDNTD patients exhibited greater variability in global network efficiency. Tremor scores were positively correlated with dwell time in state I along with increased FNC between BG and vSMN in state IV.Conclusions: This study explores the dFNC between the PDTD and PDNTD patients, which offers new evidence on the abnormal time-varying brain functional connectivity and their network destruction of the two PD phenotypes, and may help better understand the neural substrates underlying different types of PD.

Aims Cognitive impairment is a common symptom in the trajectory of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the pathological underpinning is not fully known. We aimed to explore the critical structural alterations in the process of cognitive decline and its relationships with the dopaminergic deficit and the level of related cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins. Methods Ninety‐four patients with PD and 32 controls were included in this study. Neuropsychological tests were performed at baseline and after 28 months to identify which patients had normal cognition and which ones developed PD‐MCI after follow‐up (“converters”). Gray matter atrophy was assessed in cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses, respectively. The associations between altered GMV with dopamine transporter (DAT) results and the level of CSF proteins were assessed. Results Among the 94 patients with normal cognition at baseline, 24 (mean age, 63.1 years) developed PD‐MCI after 28 months of follow‐up, and 70 (mean age, 62.3 years) remained nonconverters. The converters showed significant right temporal atrophy at baseline and extensive atrophy in temporal lobe at follow‐up. Progressive bilateral frontal lobe atrophy was found in the converters. Baseline right temporal atrophy was correlated with the striatal dopaminergic degeneration in the converters. No correlation was found between the right temporal atrophy and the alterations of CSF proteins. Conclusion Early atrophy in temporal lobes and progressive atrophy in frontal lobes might be a biomarker for developing multidomain impairment of cognition and converting to PD‐MCI. Furthermore, cognition‐related temporal atrophy might be associated with dopaminergic deficit reflected by DAT scan but independent of CSF proteins in patients with PD who convert to PD‐MCI.

Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized with reduced dopamine level in the brain, resulting from the nigral degeneration. It is commonly accepted that the function of default mode network (DMN) is disturbed in PD, even in those who have no significant cognitive impairment. However, the relationship between the depletion of dopamine and DMN dysconnectivity is not fully clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the seed-based DMN connectivity and the influence of dopaminergic therapy on the DMN integrity in non-demented PD by using resting-state fMRI. Material and methods Resting-state fMRI data was collected from 24 non-demented PD patients before and after taking levodopa and 36 healthy controls (HCs). Functional connectivity (FC) was examined by a seed-based correlation approach. Results Compared with HCs, decreased DMN connectivity in PD patients was observed, a number of which were significantly improved after taking levodopa therapy. Moreover, by directly comparing the DMN connectivity between ON- and OFF-medication conditions, we found significantly enhanced FC in a set of regions of DMN in the ON- medication condition. Conversely, we also found that the PCC revealed decreased FC with left inferior temporal. Conclusion DMN connectivity was found to be impaired in no-demented PD patients, and levodopa has the ability to impart a normalizing effect on DMN connectivity.

Background and Objective: Parkinson disease (PD) with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (PD-RBD) tend to be a distinct phenotype with more severe clinical characteristics and pathological lesion when compared with PD without RBD (PD-nRBD). However, the pathological mechanism underlying PD-RBD remains unclear. We aim to use the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to explore the mechanism of PD-RBD from the perspective of internal connectivity networks. Materials and Methods: A total of 92 PD patients and 20 age and sex matched normal controls (NC) were included. All participants underwent rs-fMRI scan and clinical assessment. According to the RBD screening questionnaire (RBDSQ), PD patients were divided into two groups: PD with probable RBD (PD-pRBD) and PD without probable RBD (PD-npRBD). The whole brain was divided into 90 regions using automated anatomic labeling atlas. Functional network of each subject was constructed according to the correlation of rs-fMRI blood oxygenation level dependent signals in any two brain regions and network metrics were analyzed using graph theory approaches. Network properties among three groups were compared and correlation analysis was made using distinguishing network metrics and RBDSQ scores. Results: We found both PD-pRBD and PD-npRBD patients existed small-world characteristics. PD-pRBD showed a wider range of nodal property changes in neocortex and limbic system than PD-npRBD patients when compared with NC. Besides, PD-pRBD showed significant enhanced nodal efficiency in the bilateral thalamus and betweenness centrality in the left insula, but, reduced betweenness centrality in the right dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus when compared with PD-npRBD. Moreover, nodal efficiency in the bilateral thalamus were positively correlated with RBDSQ scores. Conclusions: Both NC and PD patients displayed small-world properties and indiscriminate global measure but PD-pRBD showed more extensive changes of nodal properties than PD-npRBD. The increased centrality role in the bilateral thalamus and the left insula, and disruption in the right dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus may play as a key role in underlying pathogenesis of PD-RBD.

Background: Depression is a common occurrence in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Our previous studies suggest that depressed PD patients had altered insula structures. Though, it is still unknown whether the altered structures could cause disruption of insula functional networks and further contributes to depression in PD. Methods: In the present study, seventeen depressed PD patients, 17 non-depressed PD patients and 17 normal controls were enrolled. All subjects went through neurological and psychiatric clinical assessments. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and seed-based insula functional analyses were performed to examine the insula functional connectivity alterations in PD patients. Results: We found that compared with normal controls, PD patients exhibited significantly decreased insula functional connectivity widely across the whole brain. Compared with non-depressed PD patients, depressed patients showed further decreased functional connectivity in middle frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobe. Besides, connectivity between left anterior insula and middle frontal gyrus was positively correlated with the cognitive scale score. Conclusion: These results suggest that insula networks had been severely damaged in PD patients, and that the disrupted connection between salience network and executive control network might contribute to depression in PD.

Myelinated white matter showing diamagnetic susceptibility is important for information transfer in the brain. In Parkinson's disease (PD), the white matter is also suffering degenerative alterations. Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is a novel technique for noninvasive assessment of regional white matter ultrastructure, and provides different information of white matter in addition to standard diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In this study, we used QSM to detect spatial white matter alterations in PD patients (n = 65) and age- and sex-matched normal controls (n = 46). Voxel-wise tract-based spatial statistics were performed to analyze QSM and DTI data. QSM showed extensive white matter involvement-including regions adjacent to the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes-in PD patients, which was more widespread than that observed using DTI. Both QSM and DTI showed similar alterations in the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus and right cerebellar hemisphere. Further, alterations in the white matter were correlated with motor impairment and global disease severity in PD patients. We suggest that QSM may provide a novel approach for detecting white matter alterations and underlying network disruptions in PD. Further, the combination of QSM and DTI would provide a more complete evaluation of the diseased brain by analyzing different biological tissue properties.

Background Different oscillations of brain networks could carry different dimensions of brain integration. We aimed to investigate oscillation-specific nodal alterations in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) across early stage to middle stage by using graph theory-based analysis. Methods Eighty-eight PD patients including 39 PD patients in the early stage (EPD) and 49 patients in the middle stage (MPD) and 36 controls were recruited in the present study. Graph theory-based network analyses from three oscillation frequencies (slow-5: 0.01–0.027 Hz; slow-4: 0.027–0.073 Hz; slow-3: 0.073–0.198 Hz) were analyzed. Nodal metrics (e.g. nodal degree centrality, betweenness centrality and nodal efficiency) were calculated. Results Our results showed that (1) a divergent effect of oscillation frequencies on nodal metrics, especially on nodal degree centrality and nodal efficiency, that the anteroventral neocortex and subcortex had high nodal metrics within low oscillation frequencies while the posterolateral neocortex had high values within the relative high oscillation frequency was observed, which visually showed that network was perturbed in PD; (2) PD patients in early stage relatively preserved nodal properties while MPD patients showed widespread abnormalities, which was consistently detected within all three oscillation frequencies; (3) the involvement of basal ganglia could be specifically observed within slow-5 oscillation frequency in MPD patients; (4) logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated that some of those oscillation-specific nodal alterations had the ability to well discriminate PD patients from controls or MPD from EPD patients at the individual level; (5) occipital disruption within high frequency (slow-3) made a significant influence on motor impairment which was dominated by akinesia and rigidity. Conclusions Coupling various oscillations could provide potentially useful information for large-scale network and progressive oscillation-specific nodal alterations were observed in PD patients across early to middle stages.

Background: Posture instability gait difficulty-dominant (PIGD) and tremor-dominant (TD) are two subtypes of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The thalamus is involved in the neural circuits of both subtypes. However, which subregion of the thalamus has an influence on the PD subtypes remains unclear.Objective: To explore the core subregion of the thalamus showing a significant influence on the PD subtypes and its directional interaction between the PD subtypes.Methods: A total of 79 PD patients (43 TD and 36 PIGD) and 31 normal controls (NC) were enrolled, and the gray matter volume and perfusion characteristics in the thalamus were compared between the three groups. The subregion of the thalamus with significantly different perfusion and volume among three groups was used as the seed of a Granger causality analysis (GCA) to compare the causal connectivity between different subtypes.Results: Perfusion with an increased gradient among the three groups (TD > PIGD > NC) in the bilateral ventral intermediate nucleus (Vim) was observed, which was positively correlated with the clinical tremor scores. The GCA revealed that TD patients had enhanced causal connectivity from the bilateral Vim to the bilateral paracentral gyrus, M1 and the cerebellum compared with the NC group, while the PIGD subtype revealed an increased causal connectivity from the bilateral Vim to the bilateral premotor cortex (preM) and putamen. Additionally, there were positive correlations between the tremor scores and a causal connectivity from the Vim to the cerebellum. The connectivity from the right Vim to the right preM and the right putamen was positively correlated with the PIGD scores.Conclusion: This multilevel analysis showed that the Vim had a significant influence on the PD subtypes and that it differentially mediated the TD and PIGD-related causal connectivity pattern in PD.

Additional file 3. Oscillation-specific alterations of degree centrality between/among groups in the network constructed from the commonly used frequency (0.01–0.1 Hz).

In Parkinson's disease (PD), iron accumulation in the substantia nigra (SN) exacerbates oxidative stress and α-synuclein aggregation, leading to neuronal death. However, the influence of iron-related nigral degeneration on the subcortical function and global network configuration in PD remains unknown. Ninety PD patients and 38 normal controls underwent clinical assessments and multimodality magnetic resonance imaging scans. Iron accumulation in the inferior SN and disrupted functional connectivity between the bilateral striatums were observed in PD, and negative correlation between them was found in the whole population. The binarized functional network exhibited enhanced global efficiency and reduced local efficiency while the weighted functional network exhibited reduction in both, and both changes were correlated with nigral iron accumulation in PD. Mediation analysis demonstrated that the functional connectivity between bilateral striatums was a mediator between the nigral iron accumulation and weighted functional network alterations. In conclusion, our findings reveal that iron-related nigral degeneration possibly influences the functional topology mediated by striatal dysfunction, which extends the scientific understanding of PD pathogenesis.

Background and Objective: Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) has a strong association with alpha synucleinpathies such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), and PD patients with RBD tend to have a poorer prognosis. However, we still know little about the pathogenesis of RBD in PD. Therefore, we aim to detect the alterations of structural correlation network in PD patients with and without RBD. Materials and methods: A total of 191 PD patients, including 51 with possible RBD and 140 non-possible RBD, and 76 normal controls were included in the present study. Structural brain networks were constructed by thresholding gray matter volume correlation matrices of 116 regions and analyzed using graph theoretical approaches. Results: There was no difference in global properties among the three groups. Significant enhanced regional nodal measures in limbic system, frontal-temporal regions and occipital regions and decreased nodal measures in cerebellum were found in PD patients with possible RBD compared with PD patients without possible RBD. Besides, nodes in frontal lobe, temporal lobe and limbic system were served as hubs in both two PD groups, and PD patients with possible RBD exhibited additionally recruited hubs in limbic regions. Conclusion: Based on the structural correlation network analysis, we found PD patients with possible RBD exhibited a reorganization of nodal properties as well as the remapping of the hub distribution in whole brain especially in limbic system, which may shed light to the pathophysiology of PD with RBD.

Hemiparkinsonism duration in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is a key time window to study early pathology of PD. We aimed to comprehensively explore the alterations of deformation and structural network in PD patients with hemiparkinsonism, which could potentially disclose the early biomarker for PD. Thirty-one PD patients with hemiparkinsonism and 37 age- and gender- matched normal controls were included in the present study. First of all, we normalized the left hemisphere of structural images as the contralateral side to the affected limbs. Deformation-based morphometry (DBM) was conducted to evaluate the brain atrophy and/or enlargement. structural networks were constructed by thresholding gray matter volume correlation matrices of 116 regions and analyzed using graph theoretical approaches (e.g., small-worldness, global, and nodal measures). Significantly decreased deformation values were observed in the temporoparietal regions like bilateral middle temporal gyri, ipsilateral precuneus and contralateral Rolandic operculum extending to supramarginal and postcentral gyri. Lower deformation values in contralateral middle temporal gyrus were negatively correlated with higher motor impairment which was dominated by akinesia/rigidity. Moreover, nodal reorganization of structural network mainly located in frontal, temporal, subcortex and cerebellum was bilaterally explored in PD patients with hemiparkinsonism. Increased nodal properties could be commonly observed in frontal lobes. Disruption of subcortex including basal ganglia and amygdala was detected by nodal local efficiency and nodal clustering coefficient. Twelve hubs, mainly from paralimbic-limbic and heteromodal networks, were disrupted and, alternatively, 14 hubs, most of which were located in frontal lobes, were additionally detected in PD patients with hemiparkinsonism. In conclusion, during hemiparkinsonism period, mild brain atrophy in the temporoparietal regions and widespread reorganization of structural network, e.g., enhanced frontal function and disruption of basal ganglia nodes, occurred in both hemispheres. With our data, we can also argue that MTG contralateral to the affected limbs (expressing clinically verified brain atrophy) might be a potential living biomarker to monitor disease progression. Therefore, the combination of DBM and structural network analyses can provide a comprehensive and sensitive evaluation for potential pathogenesis of early PD patients with hemiparkinsonism.

Composite materials were synthesized by encapsulating Au and Ag nanoparticles in an agar gel matrix. These metallic nano-particles were found to be separately stored, so their optical, catalytic, and antibacterial properties were retained both in the composite gel and a composite membrane. The composite gels were stable under hard external conditions. Based on this, a sensor for the detection of Hg2+ was developed using the Au nanoparticle/agar composite gel. Antibacterial materials were achieved using the Ag nanoparticle/agar composite gel and composite membrane. These two Ag nanoparticle-based materials showed good antibacterial activity against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus.

The relationship between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins and brain function in Parkinson's disease (PD) is not explained clearly. We investigated the correlations between CSF proteins and spontaneous neuronal activity in PD patients via fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) using the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative database. Twenty-eight PD patients underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in "off" status and lumbar puncture within a month. Correlation analyses between CSF proteins and fALFF value in whole brain as well as clinical assessment scores were performed. We found CSF total tau (t-tau) level was negatively correlated with fALFF in posterior cingulate gyrus. And fALFF in posterior cingulate gyrus was positively correlated with Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised recognition discrimination index. Besides, alpha-synuclein (α-syn) level was correlated with fALFF in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus. This study provides evidence that CSF proteins may have a relationship with brain function related to cognitive status in PD patients.

We used resting-state fMRI to evaluate longitudinal alterations in local spontaneous brain activity in Parkinson’s disease (PD) over a 2-year period. Data were acquired from 23 PD patients at baseline and follow-up, and 27 age- and sex-matched normal controls. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) were used to identify differences in local spontaneous brain activity and grey matter volume. With disease progression, we observed a progressive decrease in ReHo in the sensorimotor cortex, default-mode network, and left cerebellum, but increased ReHo in the supplementary motor area, bilateral temporal gyrus, and hippocampus. Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between the rates of ReHo change in the left cerebellum and the rates of change in the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale-III scores. VBM revealed no significant differences in the grey matter volume among the three sets of acquisitions. We conclude that ReHo may be a suitable non-invasive marker of progression in PD.

Phosphospecific enrichment techniques and mass spectrometry (MS) are primary tools for comprehending the cellular phosphoproteome. In this work, a rational and extremely facile route to synthesize the magnetic metal-organic frameworks (mMOFs) was employed and the prepared composite was first utilized as a “bait” for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. Typically, the mMOFs was synthesized via electrostatic self-assembly between the negatively charged Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and positively charged MIL-101(Fe). The obtained Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) composite possessed well-defined structures, rough surface, highly specific surface area and excellent magnetic property. To demonstrate their ability for enrichment of phosphopeptides, we applied Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) as a “bait” to capture the phosphopeptides from standard protein digestion and practical samples. The enriched phosphopeptides were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). The MS results show that the Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) exhibits superior enrichment performance for phosphopeptides with low detectable concentration assessed to be 8 fmol, selectivity investigated to be 1:1000 using β-casein/bovine serum albumin mixture and enrichment recovery evaluated to be 89.8%. Based on these excellent properties, the prepared composite was used to enrich the phosphopeptides from tilapia eggs biological samples for the first time. A total number of 51 phosphorylation sites were identified from the digest of tilapia eggs proteins, suggesting the excellent potential of Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) composite in the practical application.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) has been proven as a useful and advanced technique in the identification of polymers and proteins. However, MALDI-TOF-MS still has the unavoidable drawback of self-signal interference with traditional organic matrices, which could suppress and overlap with the analyte signals in the low-mass region. In this work, MIL-101(Cr), a kind of metal-organic frameworks which possess high molecular weight, π-conjugated 3-D structure, coordinately unsaturated chromium sites (CUS) and strong absorption in the UV range, was employed to replace traditional organic matrices, and it was found that MIL-101(Cr) can dramatically eliminate the background peaks, showing high signal-to-noise level in the analysis of small molecules. As proof-of-concept, quercetin, daidzein, genistein and naringenin, members of flavonol family which widely exists in food and natural products, were successfully determined by utilizing MIL-101(Cr) as the surface-assisted matrix, and the detection of quercetin was sensitive with good salt tolerance and reproducibility. Under optimal conditions, the mass peak intensity exhibited good linear relationships in the range from 0.25µg/mL-7.00µg/mL for quercetin (R2=0.996) with detection limit 2.11ng/mL (3σ/k), making the identification of quercetin in sophora japonica successfully. With this strategy we have demonstrated the potentiality of MIL-101(Cr) nanomaterials as MALDI-MS matrix for the detection of small molecules.

Aiming at the problem how to express relevant relationship between multiple targets, we propose an approach based on the tracking-by-detection (TBD) strategy, where detections from the HOG classifier are regarded as image evidence. Focusing on the issue of localization uncertainty, data association based on greedy heuristics is executed iteratively to retrieve from the erroneous candidate locations. Additionally, in order to compensate for the deficiencies of greedy heuristics, we put forward a long-interval linking method to correct the per-frame evidence by the aid of Bayesian estimation.

Most of the sodium Americans consume comes from processed and restaurant foods. An upstream global strategy to promote health is to work with local restaurants to reduce sodium content in their food offerings, while accounting for food taste and economic considerations. In urban communities, Chinese take-out restaurants serve meals with large amounts of sodium and are clustered in low-income, racial/ethnic minority communities with a high prevalence of hypertension. The objective of this study is to assess baseline knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to sodium use/consumption among Chinese take-out owners and chefs recruited to participate in the Philadelphia Healthy Chinese Take-Out Initiative. A cross-sectional study of 221 Chinese take-out restaurants was conducted from August 2012 to February 2013. Items measured knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to salt use, salt consumption, and health. Most owners/chefs knew that excess sodium consumption contributes to high blood pressure but were less aware of other health effects and of major sources of sodium in the U.S. diet. The majority were willing and able to reduce sodium content in meals if customer demand could be maintained, and they desired training in food preparation, procurement, and marketing. Findings show a need to provide education, strategies, and support to Chinese take-out owners/chefs in preparing low-salt dishes. The results of this and future studies to reduce sodium content in meals by working with restaurant owners and chefs have global health promotion implications.

Contrary to a published report, allyl isothiocyanate was confirmed as a major volatile sulfur compound along with 1-cyano-2,3-epithiopropane in dichloromethane extracts of freshly disrupted cabbage tissues resulting from thioglucosidase hydrolysis of allyl glucosinolate (sinigrin). Compared to authentic allyl isothiocyanate which had characteristic sharp, black mustard-like aroma notes, authentic 1-cyano-2,3-epithiopropane had weak, musty, sulfurous, and mustard-like aromas. Based on calculations of odor units (Uo) using data from the analysis of disrupted cabbage tissues, allyl isothiocyanate would contribute appreciably (to 245 Uo) while 1-cyano-2,3-epithiopropane would not likely contribute notably (

Various approaches have been proposed for robust visual tracking, among which compressive tracking (CT) yields promising performance. In CT, Haar-like features are efficiently extracted with a very sparse measurement matrix and modeled as an online updated naive Bayes classifier to account for target appearance change. The naive Bayes classifier ignores overlap between Haar-like features and assumes that Haar-like features are independently distributed, which leads to drift in complex scenario. To address this problem, we present an extended CT algorithm, which assumes that all Haar-like features are correlated with each other and have multivariate Gaussian distribution. The mean vector and covariance matrix of multivariate normal distribution are incrementally updated with constant computational complexity to adapt to target appearance change. Each frame is associated with a temporal weight to expend less modeling power on old observation. Based on temporal weight, an update scheme with changing but convergent learning rate is derived with strict mathematic proof. Compared with CT, our extended algorithm achieves a richer representation of target appearance. The incremental multivariate Gaussian distribution is integrated into the particle filter framework to achieve better tracking performance. Extensive experiments on the CVPR2013 tracking benchmark demonstrate that our proposed tracker achieves superior performance both qualitatively and quantitatively over several state-of-the-art trackers.