Emotional Intelligence and Burnout among Adolescent Basketball Players: The Mediating Effect of Emotional Labor.

Burnout, characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, poses a significant challenge to adolescent athletes, particularly in high-intensity sports like basketball. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to manage emotions, which is negatively associated with burnout. Emotional labor, including strategies of surface acting (SA), deep acting (DA), and genuine expression (GE), plays a potentially key role in emotion management between EI and burnout for athletes. This study aims to investigate the relationship between EI and burnout, as well as the mediating role of emotional labor strategies among adolescent basketball players. Our cross-sectional study, conducted in youth sports schools in four different places in China, involved 260 basketball players. Results indicate a negative association between EI and burnout, with SA and GE emerging as significant mediators. SA was positively linked to burnout, while GE showed a negative association. These findings suggest that enhancing EI and managing emotional labor strategies are crucial for mitigating burnout and improving the well-being and performance of young athletes.

Engineering extracellular vesicles for diagnosis and therapy.

Extracellular vesicle (EV)-based therapeutics have gained substantial interest in the areas of drug delivery, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine. However, the clinical translation of EVs has been slowed due to limited yields and functional heterogeneity, as well as inadequate targeting. Engineering EVs to modify their inherent function and endow them with additional functions has the potential to advance the clinical translation of EV applications. Bio-orthogonal click chemistry is an engineering approach that modifies EVs in a controlled, specific, and targeted way without compromising their intrinsic structure. Here, we provide an overview of bio-orthogonal labeling approaches involved in EV engineering. We also present the isolation methods of bio-orthogonally labeled vesicles using magnetic beads, microfluidics, and microarray chip technologies. We highlight the in vivo applications of bio-orthogonal labeling EVs for diagnosis and therapy, especially the exciting potential of bio-orthogonal glycometabolic engineered EVs for targeted therapies.

Labeling selectivity of lipid droplets fluorescent probes: Twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) vs intramolecular charge transfer (ICT).

Fluorescence imaging technology is a versatile and essential tool in the field of biomedical research. To obtain excellent imaging results, the precise labeling of fluorescent probes is an important prerequisite. Nevertheless, the labeling selectivity of most fluorescent probes is not satisfactory, new design concepts are desperately needed. In this context, two isomeric lipid droplets (LDs) fluorescent probes Lipi-Cz-1 and Lipi-Cz-2 have been sophisticatedly developed with TICT and ICT-emitting characteristic, respectively. The more environmentally sensitive TICT-emitting Lipi-Cz-1 exhibits a significantly enhanced labeling selectivity in LDs imaging compared to the ICT-emitting Lipi-Cz-2, sufficiently illustrating the effectiveness of TICT-emitting characteristic in improving labeling selectivity. Additionally, Lipi-Cz-1 displays high photostability and biocompatibility. These advantages enable Lipi-Cz-1 to be finely applied in multimode fluorescence imaging, e.g. time-lapse 3D confocal imaging to monitor changes of the number and size of LDs during starvation, two-photon 3D imaging to compare the variations of LDs in various liver tissues, and STED super-resolution imaging to visualize the nanoscale LDs with the resolution of 65 nm. Overall, these imaging findings validate the effectiveness of the new strategy for improving the labeling selectivity.

MBNL2 promotes aging-related cardiac fibrosis via inhibited SUMOylation of Krüppel-like factor4.

Aging-related cardiac fibrosis represents the principal pathological progression in cardiovascular aging. The Muscleblind-like splicing regulator 2 (MBNL2) has been unequivocally established as being associated with cardiovascular diseases. Nevertheless, its role in aging-related cardiac fibrosis remains unexplored. This investigation revealed an elevation of MBNL2 levels in the aged heart and senescent cardiac fibroblasts. Notably, the inhibition of MBNL2 demonstrated a capacity to mitigate H2O2-induced myofibroblast transformation and aging-related cardiac fibrosis. Further mechanistic exploration unveiled that aging heightened the expression of SENP1 and impeded the SUMO1 binding with KLF4, and SUMOylation of KLF4 effectively increased by the inhibition of MBNL2. Additionally, the inhibition of TGF-ß1/SMAD3 signaling attenuated the impact of over-expression of MBNL2 in inducing senescence and cardiac fibrosis. MBNL2, by orchestrating SUMOylation of KLF4, upregulating the TGF-ß1/SMAD3 signaling pathway, emerges as a significant promoter of aging-related cardiac fibrosis. This discovery identifies a novel regulatory target for managing aging-related cardiac fibrosis.

Synergistic enhancement of anthocyanin stability and techno-functionality of colored wheat during the steamed bread processing by selectively hydrolyzed soy protein.

To improve the stability of anthocyanins and techno-functionality of purple and blue wheat, the selectively hydrolyzed soy protein (reduced glycinin, RG) and ß-conglycinin (7S) were prepared and their enhanced effects were comparatively investigated. The anthocyanins in purple wheat showed higher stability compared to that of the blue wheat during breadmaking. The cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and cyanidin-3-O-rutincoside in purple wheat and delphinidin-3-O-rutinoside and delphinidin-3-O-glucoside in blue wheat were better preserved by RG. Addition of RG and 7S enhanced the quality of steamed bread made from colored and common wheat, with RG exhibited a more prominent effect. RG and 7S suppressed the gelatinization of starch and improved the thermal stability. Both RG and 7S promoted the unfolding process of gluten proteins and facilitated the subsequent crosslinking of glutenins and gliadins by disulfide bonds. Polymerization of α- and γ-gliadin into glutenin were more evidently promoted by RG, which contributed to the improved steamed bread quality.

The bioproduction of astaxanthin: A comprehensive review on the microbial synthesis and downstream extraction.

Astaxanthin is a valuable orange-red carotenoid with wide applications in agriculture, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals areas. At present, the biological synthesis of astaxanthin mainly relies on Haematococcus pluvialis and Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous. With the rapid development of synthetic biology, more recombinant microbial hosts have been genetically constructed for astaxanthin production including Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica. As multiple genes (15) were involved in the astaxanthin synthesis, it is particularly important to adopt different strategies to balance the metabolic flow towards the astaxanthin synthesis. Furthermore, astaxanthin is a fat-soluble compound stored intracellularly, hence efficient extraction methods are also essential for the economical production of astaxanthin. Several efficient and green extraction methods of astaxanthin have been reported in recent years, including the superfluid extraction, ionic liquid extraction and microwave-assisted extraction. Accordingly, this review will comprehensively introduce the advances on the astaxanthin production and extraction by using different microbial hosts and strategies to improve the astaxanthin synthesis and extraction efficiency.

Protective effect of phospholipids in lipoproteins against diabetic kidney disease: A Mendelian randomization analysis.

BACKGROUND: The etiology of diabetic kidney disease is complex, and the role of lipoproteins and their lipid components in the development of the disease cannot be ignored. However, phospholipids are an essential component, and no Mendelian randomization studies have yet been conducted to examine potential causal associations between phospholipids and diabetic kidney disease. METHODS: Relevant exposure and outcome datasets were obtained through the GWAS public database. The exposure datasets included various phospholipids, including those in LDL, IDL, VLDL, and HDL. IVW methods were the primary analytical approach. The accuracy of the results was validated by conducting heterogeneity, MR pleiotropy, and F-statistic tests. MR-PRESSO analysis was utilized to identify and exclude outliers. RESULTS: Phospholipids in intermediate-density lipoprotein (OR: 0.8439; 95% CI: 0.7268-0.9798), phospholipids in large low- density lipoprotein (OR: 0.7913; 95% CI: 0.6703-0.9341), phospholipids in low- density lipoprotein (after removing outliers, OR: 0.788; 95% CI: 0.6698-0.9271), phospholipids in medium low- density lipoprotein (OR: 0.7682; 95% CI: 0.634-0.931), and phospholipids in small low-density lipoprotein (after removing outliers, OR: 0.8044; 95% CI: 0.6952-0.9309) were found to be protective factors. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that a higher proportion of phospholipids in intermediate-density lipoprotein and the various subfractions of low-density lipoprotein, including large LDL, medium LDL, and small LDL, is associated with a lower risk of developing diabetic kidney disease.

Novel strategy to raise the content of aglycone isoflavones in soymilk and gel: Effect of germination on the physicochemical properties.

Germination holds the key to nutritional equilibrium in plant grains. In this study, the effect of soybean germination on the processing of soymilk (SM) and glucono-δ-lactone (GDL) induced soymilk gel (SG) was investigated. Germination promoted soybean sprout (SS) growth by activating the energy metabolism system. The energy metabolism was high during the three-day germination and was the most vigorous on the second day of germination. After germination, protein dissolution was improved in SM, and endogenous enzymes produced small molecule proteins. Small molecule proteins were more likely to aggregate to produce SM protein particles. Germination increased the water-holding capacity of SG induced by GDL but weakened the strength. Furthermore, the dynamic fluctuations in isoflavone content were closely monitored throughout the processing of soybean products, including SS, SM, and SG. Although the total amount of isoflavones in SM and SG processed from germinated soybeans decreased, a significant enrichment in the content of aglycone isoflavones was observed. The content of aglycone isoflavones in SG processed from germinated soybeans on the second day of germination was 736.17 ± 28.49 µg/g DW, which was 83.19 % higher than that of the control group. This study demonstrates that germination can enhance the nutritional value of soybean products, providing innovative opportunities for the development of health-promoting soybean-based products.

Metabolomics Analysis of Different Quinoa Cultivars Based on UPLC-ZenoTOF-MS/MS and Investigation into Their Antioxidant Characteristics.

In recent years, quinoa, as a nutritious and sustainable food material, has gained increasing popularity worldwide. To investigate the diversity of nutritional characteristics among different quinoa cultivars and explore their potential health benefits, metabolites of five quinoa cultivars (QL-1, SJ-1, SJ-2, KL-1 and KL-2) were compared by non-targeted metabolomics analysis based on UPLC-ZenoTOF-MS/MS in this study. A total of 248 metabolites across 13 categories were identified. Although the metabolite compositions were generally similar among the different quinoa cultivars, significant variations existed in their respective metabolite contents. Among the identified metabolites, amino acids/peptides, nucleosides, saponins and phenolic acids were the most abundant. Notably, SJ-1 exhibited the most distinct metabolite profile when compared to the other cultivars. Amino acids/peptides and nucleosides were found to be crucial factors contributing to the unique metabolite profile of SJ-1. Collectively, these aforementioned metabolites accounted for a substantial 60% of the total metabolites observed in each quinoa variety. Additionally, a correlation between the DPPH radical scavenging activity and the free phenolic content of quinoa was observed. Variations in phenolic content resulted in different antioxidant capacities among the quinoa cultivars, and SJ-1 exhibited lower phenolic levels and weaker antioxidant activity than the others. These results can provide important information for the development of quinoa resources.

Ultrabright organic fluorescent probe for quantifying the dynamics of cytosolic/nuclear lipid droplets.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are extremely active organelles that play a crucial role in energy metabolism, membrane formation, and the production of lipid-derived signaling molecules by regulating lipid storage and release. Nevertheless, directly limited by the lack of superior fluorescent probes, studies of LDs dynamic motion velocity have been rarely reported, especially for nuclear LDs. Herein, a novel organic fluorescent probe Lipi-Bright has been rationally developed based on bridged cyclization of distyrylbenzene. The fully ring-fused molecule structure endows the probe with high photostability. Moreover, this new fluorescent probe displays the features of excellent LDs staining specificity as well as ultrahigh fluorescence brightness. Lipi-Bright labeled LDs was dozens of times brighter than representative probes BODIPY 493/503 or Nile Red. Consequently, by in-situ time-lapse fluorescence imaging, the dynamics of LDs have been quantitatively studied. For instance, the velocities of cytosolic LDs (37 ± 15 nm/s) are found to be obviously faster than those of nuclear LDs (24 ± 4 nm/s), and both the cytosolic LDs and the nuclear LDs would be moved faster or slower depend on the various stimulations. Overall, this work providing plentiful information on LDs dynamics will greatly facilitate the in-depth investigation of lipid metabolism.

Size-dependent deformation behavior in nanosized amorphous metals suggesting transition from collective to individual atomic transport.

The underlying atomistic mechanism of deformation is a central problem in mechanics and materials science. Whereas deformation of crystalline metals is fundamentally understood, the understanding of deformation of amorphous metals lacks behind, particularly identifying the involved temporal and spatial scales. Here, we reveal that at small scales the size-dependent deformation behavior of amorphous metals significantly deviates from homogeneous flow, exhibiting increasing deformation rate with reducing size and gradually shifted composition. This transition suggests the deformation mechanism changes from collective atomic transport by viscous flow to individual atomic transport through interface diffusion. The critical length scale of the transition is temperature dependent, exhibiting a maximum at the glass transition. While viscous flow does not discriminate among alloy constituents, diffusion does and the constituent element with higher diffusivity deforms faster. Our findings yield insights into nano-mechanics and glass physics and may suggest alternative processing methods to epitaxially grow metallic glasses.

Identification of KASP markers and candidate genes for drought tolerance in wheat using 90K SNP array genotyping of near-isogenic lines targeting a 4BS quantitative trait locus.

KEY MESSAGE: This study identified a novel SNP and developed a highly efficient KASP marker for drought tolerance in wheat by genotyping NILs targeting a major QTL for drought tolerance using an SNP array and validation with commercial varieties. Common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important winter crop worldwide and a typical allopolyploid with a large and complex genome. With global warming, the environmental volatility and incidence of drought in wheat-producing areas will increase. Molecular markers for drought tolerance are urgently needed to enhance drought tolerance breeding. Here, we genotyped four near-isogenic line (NIL) pairs targeting a major QTL qDSI.4B.1 on wheat chromosome arm 4BS for drought tolerance using the 90K SNP Illumina iSelect array and discovered a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (Excalibur_c100336_106) with consistent genotype-phenotype associations among all four NIL pairs and their parents. Then, we converted the SNP into a Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) marker, with an accuracy of 100% for the four NIL pairs and their parents and as high as 81.8% for the 44 tested wheat lines with known phenotypes collected from Australia and China. Two genes near this SNP were suggested as candidate genes for drought tolerance in wheat after checking the Chinese Spring reference genome annotation version 1.1. One gene, TraesCS4B02G085300, encodes an F-box protein reportedly related to the ABA network, a main pathway for drought tolerance, and another gene, TraesCS4B02G085400, encodes a calcineurin-like metallophos-phoesterase transmembrane protein, which participates in Ca2+-dependent phosphorylation regulatory system. Based on this work and previous research on pre-harvest sprouting, we established a quick and efficient general SQV-based approach for KASP marker development, integrating genotyping by SNP arrays (S) using NILs targeting major QTL for a specific trait (Q) and validating them with commercial varieties (V). The identified SNP and developed KASP marker could be applied to marker-assisted selection in drought breeding, and further study of the candidate genes may improve our understanding of drought tolerance in wheat.

UV-B radiation enhances isoflavone accumulation and antioxidant capacity of soybean calluses.

Isoflavones are a class of flavonoids that belong to a large family of polyphenols and synthesized predominantly in legume, and they play important roles including acting as antioxidant, preventing osteoporosis, reducing the risk of atherosclerosis, and protecting against cardiovascular disease. This study focused on the accumulation and synthetic metabolism of isoflavone in soybean hypocotyl and cotyledon calluses under UV-B radiation. The results showed that UV-B radiation significantly up-regulated the gene expression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), cinnamate-4-hydroxylase (C4H), 4-coumarate-CoA ligase (4CL), chalcone ketone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), and isoflavone synthase (IFS), and enhanced their activity in soybean hypocotyl and cotyledon calluses. As a result, isoflavones content increased by 21.23 and 21.75% in soybean hypocotyl and cotyledon calluses, respectively. Among the isoflavones produced, malonyldaidzin was the dominant one in hypocotyl callus, while malonylglycitin and daidzein were the main isoflavones in cotyledon calluses. This study revealed that UV-B radiation induced isoflavone accumulation in soybean calluses, which could be an efficient strategy to improve the nutritional value of food and produce high levels of bioactive secondary metabolites.

The synergistic effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate and quercetin co-loaded hydrogel beads on inflammatory bowel disease.

The synergistic effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (E) and quercetin (Q) enhances the therapeutic efficacy on related diseases; however, the instability and lower bioavailability of E and Q limited their application. Therefore, E and Q were co-encapsulated in hydrogel beads (H) with sodium alginate (SA) and soybean protein isolate (SPI) to improve their stability and bioavailability. The anti-inflammatory effect and molecular mechanism of action of E and Q co-loaded H in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were also investigated. The results showed that EQH-treated macrophages produced the lowest NO and TNF-α at 18.64 µmol L-1 and 5855.25 ng mL-1, respectively. The protein expression of p-NF κB-p65 was the lowest in EQH, indicating that EQH inhibits the activation of the pro-inflammatory NF-κB signaling pathway. The colon length of IBD model rats fed EH, QH, and EQH increased; histological analysis revealed intact layers of colonic epithelial cells with no observable tissue damage. The TNF-α and IL-1ß levels in the plasma of the EQH-treated rats decreased, indicating the inhibition of the TLR4 and NF-κB signaling pathways, and Q's level in the colon was the highest at 0.04 mg mL-1. This study provides a theoretical basis for the application of E and Q in IBD.

Super-resolution dynamic tracking of cellular lipid droplets employing with a photostable deep red fluorogenic probe.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are critical organelles involved in many physiological processes in eukaryotic cells. To visualize and study LDs, particular the small/nascent LDs, the emerging super-resolution fluorescence imaging techniques with nanoscale resolution would be much more powerful in comparison to the conventional confocal/wide-field imaging techniques. However, directly limited by the availability of advanced LDs probes, super-resolution fluorescence imaging of LDs is a practically challenging task. In this context, a superior LDs fluorescent probe named Lipi-Deep Red is newly developed for structured illumination microscopy (SIM) super-resolution imaging. This fluorescent probe features with the advantages of strong deep red/NIR emission, fluorogenic character, high LDs specificity, and outstanding photostability. These advantages enable the fluorescent probe to be finely applied in SIM super-resolution imaging, e.g. time-lapse imaging (up to 1000 frames) to monitor the LDs dynamics at nanoscale (159 nm), two-color time-lapse imaging to discover the nearby contact/interaction between LDs and mitochondria. Consequently, the fusion processes of LDs are impressively visualized at a high spatial and temporal resolution. Two kinds of contact models between LDs and mitochondria (dynamic contact and stable contact) newly proposed in the recent literatures are successfully revealed.

Spatially resolved measurement of the distribution of solid and liquid Si nanoparticles in plasma synthesis through line-of-sight extinction spectroscopy.

In many high-temperature gas-phase nanoparticle synthesis processes, freshly nucleated particles are liquid and solidify during growth and cooling. This study presents an approach to determine the location of the liquid-to-solid phase transition and the volume fraction and number density of particles of both phases within a gas phase reactor. Spectrally-resolved line-of-sight attenuation (LOSA) measurements are applied to a silicon nanoparticle aerosol generated from monosilane in a microwave plasma reactor. A phantom-based analysis using particle number density, particle size, and temperature distribution from direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the reacting flow indicates that the contributions from the two particle phases can be decoupled under practical conditions, even with noisy data. The approach was applied to analyze spatially and spectrally resolved LOSA measurements from the hot gas flow downstream of the plasma zone where both solid and liquid silicon particles coexist. Extinction spectra were recorded along a line perpendicular to the flow direction by a spectrometer with an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) camera, and two-dimensional projections were deconvolved to obtain radial extinction coefficient distributions of solid and liquid particles across the cross-section of the flow. Particle number densities of both particle phases were retrieved simultaneously based on the size-dependent extinction cross-sections of the nanoparticles. The particle-size distribution was determined via thermophoretic sampling at the same location with subsequent transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The particle temperature distribution was determined from the particle's thermal radiation based on line-of-sight emission (LOSE) measurements. The approach for phase-selective data analysis can be transferred to other materials aerosol systems as long as significant differences exist in extinction spectra for the related different particle classes.

Complexation of ß-conglycinin or glycinin with sodium alginate blocks: Complexation mechanism and structural and functional properties.

Sodium alginate (SA), α1 â†’ 4 linked copolymer of ß-d-mannuronic acid (M) and α-L guluronic acid (G) forms two homopolymeric fractions (MM and GG) and a heteropolymeric fraction (MG). The main components of soybean protein isolate are ß-conglycinin (7S) and glycinin (11S). However, accurate structural analyses of the 7S/11S and MM/MG/GG complexes are lacking. The complexation mechanism, structure, and functional properties of the complexes of 7S/11S with SA blocks was investigated at pH 4. The number of intermolecular hydrogen bonds exceeded that of the intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Secondary and tertiary structures and molecular weights of the complexes were significantly different from those of 7S/11S. The crystalline structure transformed to an amorphous structure, and the complexes underwent fluorescence quenching. Complexes 11S-MM and 11S-MG exhibited good emulsifying properties of 37.88 % and 38.13 %, respectively; 7S-GG and 7S-MM exhibited excellent surface hydrophobicity and emulsifying properties; and 11S-MM, 11S-GG, and 11S-MG exhibited excellent thermal stability.

Edge Effects on Simultaneous Reconstructions of Flame Temperature and Soot Volume Fraction Profiles by a CCD Camera.

In this paper, the influence of the edge effect on the simultaneous reconstruction of axisymmetric flame temperature and soot volume fraction profiles by a single CCD camera was investigated in detail. The reconstruction accuracy of the flame temperature profile and soot volume fraction was insensitive to the measurement error of the coefficient matrix. When the signal to ratio (SNR) of the measurement system for both the radiation intensity and coefficient matrix was as low as 46 dB, the reconstruction accuracy for both temperature and soot volume fraction was acceptable and was more influenced by the radiation intensity measurement error. The reconstruction of the flame temperature and soot volume fraction was greatly influenced by the edge effect. When the flame edge with weak radiation signals was ignored during the reconstruction, the relative reconstruction error for the temperature and soot volume fraction increased from the flame center to the edge, and reached an unacceptable value at the reconstruction boundary, especially for the soot volume fraction. The flame image boundary could be chosen as the unified reconstruction boundary to reconstruct the two-dimensional distribution of the temperature and soot volume fraction with satisfactory accuracy. The low soot volume fraction could influence the reconstruction accuracy for both the temperature and soot concentration in non-sooting regions. Moreover, there was no obvious regularity between the reconstruction accuracy of the temperature and soot volume fraction and the extension of the reconstruction boundary.

Highly Efficient Red/NIR-Emissive Fluorescent Probe with Polarity-Sensitive Character for Visualizing Cellular Lipid Droplets and Determining Their Polarity.

Lipid droplets (LDs), which are ubiquitous organelles existing in almost all eukaryotic cells, have attracted a lot of attention in the field of cell biology over the last decade. For the biological study of LDs via fluorescence imaging, the superior LD fluorescent probes with environmental polarity-sensitive character are highly desired and powerful but are very scarce. Herein, we have newly developed such a kind of fluorescent probe named LDs-Red which enables us to visualize LDs and to further reveal their polarity information. This fluorescent probe displays the advantages of intense red/near-infrared emission, high LD staining specificity, and good photostability; thus, it would be very useful for LD fluorescence imaging application. As a result, the three-dimensional confocal imaging to visualize spatial distribution of LDs and the multicolor confocal imaging to simultaneously observe LDs and other cellular organelles have been realized using this new LD fluorescent probe. Furthermore, the polarity-sensitive emission character of this probe enables us to quantitatively determine the LD polarity via spectral scan imaging. Consequently, the cancer cells (HepG2, HeLa, and Panc02) displaying lower polarity of LDs than the normal cells (L929, U251, and HT22) have been systematically demonstrated. In addition, this polarity-sensitive probe displaying shorter fluorescence wavelengths in cancer cells than in normal cells has an important and potential ability to distinguish them.