Characterization of Meat Metabolites and Lipids in Shanghai Local Pig Breeds Revealed by LC-MS-Based Method.

The meat of local livestock breeds often has unique qualities and flavors. In this study, three Shanghai native pig breeds (MSZ, SWT, and SHB) exhibited better meat quality traits than globalized commercial pig breeds (DLY). Subsequently, metabolomic and lipidomic differences in the longissimus dorsi (L) and gluteus (T) muscles of the Shanghai native pig breeds and DLY pig breed were compared using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The results demonstrated that the metabolites mainly consisted of (28.16%) lipids and lipid-like molecules, and (25.87%) organic acids and their derivatives were the two most dominant groups. Hundreds of differential expression metabolites were identified in every compared group, respectively. One-way ANOVA was applied to test the significance between multiple groups. Among the 20 most abundant differential metabolites, L-carnitine was significantly different in the muscles of the four pig breeds (p-value = 7.322 × 10-11). It was significantly higher in the L and T muscles of the two indigenous black pig breeds (MSZ and SWT) than in the DLY pigs (p-value < 0.001). Similarly, lipidomic analysis revealed the PA (18:0/18:2) was significantly more abundant in the muscle of these two black breeds than that in the DLY breed (p-value < 0.001). These specific metabolites and lipids might influence the meat quality and taste properties and lead to customer preferences. Therefore, this study provided insights into the characterization of meat metabolites and lipids in Shanghai native pig breeds.

Prunus persica leaves aqueous extract mediated biosynthesis of Ag nanoparticles and assessment of its anti-quorum sensing potential against Hafnia species.

Hafnia sp. was one of the specific spoilage bacteria in aquatic products, and the aim of the study was to investigate the inhibition ability of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) biosynthesis by an aqueous extract of Prunus persica leaves toward the spoilage-related virulence factors of Hafnia sp. The synthesized P-AgNPs were spherical, with a mean particle size of 36.3 nm and zeta potential of 21.8 ± 1.33 mV. In addition, the inhibition effects of P-AgNPs on the growth of two Hafnia sp. strains and their quorum sensing regulated virulence factors, such as the formation of biofilm, secretion of N-acetyl-homoserine lactone (AHLs), proteases, and exopolysaccharides, as well as their swarming and swimming motilities were evaluated. P-AgNPs had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 64 µg ml-1 against the two Hafnia sp. strains. When the concentration of P-AgNPs was below MIC, it could inhibit the formation of biofilms by Hafnia sp at 8-32 µg ml-1, but it promoted the formation of biofilms by Hafnia sp at 0.5-4 µg ml-1. P-AgNPs exhibited diverse inhibiting effects on AHLs and protease production, swimming, and swarming motilities at various concentrations.

Evaluation of Dry Ice for Short-Term Storage and Transportation of Frozen Boar Semen.

To address the safety problems posed by the transportation of boar semen using LN, this study was conducted on the short-term storage of frozen boar semen in dry ice (-79 °C). Boar semen frozen in LN was transferred to dry ice, kept for 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days, or 8 days, and then moved back to LN. The quality of frozen semen stored in LN or dry ice was determined to evaluate the feasibility of short-distance transportation with dry ice. The results showed that 60 °C for 8 s was the best condition for thawing frozen semen stored in dry ice. No significant differences in spermatozoa motility, plasma membrane integrity, or acrosome integrity were observed in semen after short-term storage in dry ice compared to LN (p > 0.05). There were no significant changes in antioxidant properties between storage groups either (p > 0.05). In conclusion, dry ice could be used as a cold source for the short-term transportation of frozen boar semen for at least 7 days, without affecting sperm motility, morphological integrity, or antioxidant indices.

Transcriptomic and metabolomic dissection of skeletal muscle of crossbred Chongming white goats with different meat production performance.

BACKGROUND: The transcriptome and metabolome dissection of the skeletal muscle of high- and low- growing individuals from a crossbred population of the indigenous Chongming white goat and the Boer goat were performed to discover the potential functional differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differential expression metabolites (DEMs). RESULTS: A total of 2812 DEGs were detected in 6 groups at three time stages (3,6,12 Month) in skeletal muscle using the RNA-seq method. A DEGs set containing seven muscle function related genes (TNNT1, TNNC1, TNNI1, MYBPC2, MYL2, MHY7, and CSRP3) was discovered, and their expression tended to increase as goat muscle development progressed. Seven DEGs (TNNT1, FABP3, TPM3, DES, PPP1R27, RCAN1, LMOD2) in the skeletal muscle of goats in the fast-growing and slow-growing groups was verified their expression difference by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Further, through the Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) approach, a total of 183 DEMs in various groups of the muscle samples and these DEMs such as Queuine and Keto-PGF1α, which demonstrated different abundance between the goat fast-growing group and slow-growing group. Through weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA), the study correlated the DEGs with the DEMs and identified 4 DEGs modules associated with 18 metabolites. CONCLUSION: This study benefits to dissection candidate genes and regulatory networks related to goat meat production performance, and the joint analysis of transcriptomic and metabolomic data provided insights into the study of goat muscle development.

Targeted phytogenic compounds against Vibrio parahaemolyticus biofilms.

As one of main culprit of seafood-associated human illness, Vibrio parahaemolyticus can readily accumulate on biotic or abiotic surfaces to form biofilms in the seafood processing environment. Biofilm formation on various surfaces can provide a protective barrier for viable bacterial cells that are resistant to most traditional bacteriostatic measures. This underscores the necessity and urgency of developing effective alternative strategies to control V. parahaemolyticus biofilms. Plants have always provided an extensive and infinite source of biologically active compounds for "green" antibiofilm agents. This review summarizes recent developments in promising multitargeted phytogenic compounds against V. parahaemolyticus biofilms. This review provides valuable insights into potential research targets that can be pursued further to identify potent natural antibiofilm agents in the food industry.

Genomic Dissection through Whole-Genome Resequencing of Five Local Pig Breeds from Shanghai, China.

China has rich genetic resources of local pig breeds. In this study, whole-genome resequencing was performed on five Shanghai local pig breeds, aiming to analyze their population genetic structure and unique genomic characteristics. Tens of millions of single nucleotide variants were obtained through the resequencing of a total of 150 individual pigs from five local pig breeds (Meishan, Fengjing, Shawutou, Pudong White, and Shanghai White) after mapping them with the pig reference genome of Sus scrofa 11.1. The results of admixture structure analysis also clearly demonstrated the genetic differences between the Shanghai local pig breeds and the three commercial pig breeds (Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire). The genetic infiltration of Landrace and Yorkshire pig breeds in the SHW breed was detected, which is consistent with the early history of crossbreeding in this breed. Selective sweep analysis between four indigenous Shanghai pig breed populations and three commercial pig breed populations identified 270 and 224 genes with selective signatures in the commercial and indigenous Shanghai pig populations, respectively. Six genes (TGS1, PLAG1, CHCHD7, LCORL, TMEM68, and TMEM8B) were found to be associated with animal growth in the commercial pig population through gene enrichment and protein-protein interaction analysis. In contrast, the MSRB3 gene in the indigenous Shanghai pig population was significantly under selection, which correlated with the long pendulous ear phenotype of the indigenous Shanghai pig population. In conclusion, this study is the first genomic profiling of five representative local pig breeds in Shanghai, which provides molecular genetic data and foundations for better conservation and utilization of local pig breed resources in Shanghai, China.

Research on the Design and Alignment Method of the Optic-Mechanical System of an Ultra-Compact Fully Freeform Space Camera.

As space resources become increasingly constrained, the major space-faring nations are establishing large space target monitoring systems. There is a demand for both the number and the detection capability of space-based optical monitoring equipment. The detection range (i.e., field of view) and parasitic capability (lightweight and small size) of a single optical payload will largely reduce the scale and cost of the monitoring system. Therefore, in this paper, the optic-mechanical system of an ultra-lightweight and ultra-compact space camera and the optical alignment method are investigated around a fully freeform off-axis triple-reversal large field of view (FOV) optical system. The optic-mechanical system optimisation design is completed by adopting the optic-mechanical integration analysis method, and the weight of the whole camera is less than 10 kg. In addition, to address the mounting problems caused by the special characteristics of the freeform surface optical system, a dual CGH coreference alignment method is innovatively proposed. The feasibility of the method is verified by the mounting and testing test, and the test results show that the system wavefront difference is better than 1/10 λ. The imaging test of the space camera and the magnitude test results meet the design requirements of the optical system. The optic-mechanical system design method and alignment method proposed in this paper are instructive for the design and engineering of large field of view full freeform optical loads.

Perampanel ameliorates nitroglycerin-induced migraine through inhibition of the cAMP/PKA/CREB signaling pathway in the trigeminal ganglion in rats.

Background: Perampanel, a highly selective glutamate AMPA receptor antagonist, is widely used to treat epilepsy. Since the existence of common pathophysiological features between epilepsy and migraine, the aim of this study was to investigate whether perampanel could exert an antimigraine effect. Methods: Nitroglycerin (NTG) was used to induce a migraine model in rats, and the model animals were pretreatment with 50 µg/kg and 100 µg/kg perampanel. The expression of pituitary adenylate-cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) was quantified by western blot and quantitative real-time PCR in the trigeminal ganglion, and rat-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in serum. Western blot was also conducted to explore the effects of perampanel treatment on the phospholipase C (PLC)/protein kinase C (PKC) and protein kinase A (PKA)/cAMP-responsive-element-binding protein (CREB) signaling pathways. Moreover, the cAMP/PKA/CREB-dependent mechanism was evaluated via in vitro stimulation of hippocampal neurons. The cells were treated with perampanel, antagonists and agonists for 24 hours and cell lysates were prepared for western blot analysis. Results: Perampanel treatment notably increased the mechanical withdrawal threshold and decreased head grooming and light-aversive behaviors in NTG-treated rats. It also decreased PACAP expression and affected cAMP/PKA/CREB signaling pathway. However, PLC/PKC signaling pathway may not be involved in this treatment. In in vitro studies, perampanel notably decreased PACAP expression by inhibiting cAMP/PKA/CREB signaling pathway. Conclusions: This study shows that perampanel inhibits the migraine-like pain response and that this beneficial effect might be attributable to regulation of the cAMP/PKA/CREB signaling pathway.

Effects of polyphenols on the gel and digestive properties of Penaeus vannamei myosin after freezing.

Polyphenols could inhibit the freezing-induced denaturation of myosin, and affect its nutritional and functional properties, which have rarely been studied to date. Therefore, the effects of interactions between polyphenols and myosin after freezing on myosin gel and digestive properties were investigated using low field NMR, a texture analyzer, a dynamic rheometer, ultraviolet-visible spectra, scanning electron microscopy, LC-MS/MS, an automatic amino acid analyzer, etc. Hesperetin (HE), dihydroquercetin (DI), salidroside (SA), and mangiferin (MA) increased the water-holding capacity, non-flowable water content, gel strength, texture, storage modulus, and fractal dimensions of the myosin gel, while modifying its leading force. The results of scanning electron microscopy revealed that the surfaces of polyphenol groups were relatively smoother than those of the control group. Meanwhile, the four types of polyphenols under study significantly improved the gastric and gastrointestinal digestibility of myosin. Furthermore, they significantly increased the contents of essential, flavor, and total free amino acids, as well as the unique peptide numbers in myosin digestion products. This work provides reliable guidance for polyphenols to improve protein function and nutritional properties.

Effect of Poria cocos Mushroom Polysaccharides (PCPs) on the Quality and DNA Methylation of Cryopreserved Shanghai White Pig Spermatozoa.

In this study, we explore the effects of Poria cocos mushroom polysaccharides (PCPs) on the quality and DNA methylation of the cryopreserved spermatozoa of Shanghai white pigs. A total of 24 ejaculates (three ejaculate samples per boar) from eight Shanghai white pigs were manually collected. The pooled semen was diluted with a based extender supplemented with different concentrations of PCPs (0, 300, 600, 900, 1200, and 1500 µg/mL). Once thawed, the quality of the spermatozoa and their antioxidant function were assessed. In the meantime, the effect of spermatozoa DNA methylation was also analyzed. The results show that compared with the control group, 600 µg/mL of PCPs significantly improves the spermatozoa viability (p < 0.05). The motility and plasma membrane integrity of the frozen-thawed spermatozoa are significantly higher after treatment with 600, 900, and 1200 µg/mL of PCPs compared with the control group (p < 0.05). In comparison with the control group, the percentages of acrosome integrity and mitochondrial activity are significantly enhanced after the application of 600 and 900 µg/mL PCPs (p < 0.05). The reactive oxygen species (ROS), the malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, and the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, in comparison with the control group, are significantly decreased in all groups with PCPs (all p < 0.05). The enzymatic activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in spermatozoa is significantly higher in the treatment with 600 µg/mL of PCPs than in the other groups (p < 0.05). As compared with the control group, a significant increase in the catalase (CAT) level is found in the groups with PCPs at 300, 600, 900, and 1200 µg/mL (all p < 0.05). In comparison with the control group, the 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) levels are significantly decreased in all groups with PCPs (all p < 0.05). As a result of these findings, a certain amount of PCPs (600-900 µg/mL) added to the cryodiluent can significantly improve the quality of Shanghai white pig spermatozoa and can also reduce the methylation of spermatozoa DNA caused by cryopreservation. This treatment strategy may establish a foundation for the cryopreservation of semen from pigs.

MuRCL: Multi-Instance Reinforcement Contrastive Learning for Whole Slide Image Classification.

Multi-instance learning (MIL) is widely adop- ted for automatic whole slide image (WSI) analysis and it usually consists of two stages, i.e., instance feature extraction and feature aggregation. However, due to the "weak supervision" of slide-level labels, the feature aggregation stage would suffer from severe over-fitting in training an effective MIL model. In this case, mining more information from limited slide-level data is pivotal to WSI analysis. Different from previous works on improving instance feature extraction, this paper investigates how to exploit the latent relationship of different instances (patches) to combat overfitting in MIL for more generalizable WSI classification. In particular, we propose a novel Multi-instance Rein- forcement Contrastive Learning framework (MuRCL) to deeply mine the inherent semantic relationships of different patches to advance WSI classification. Specifically, the proposed framework is first trained in a self-supervised manner and then finetuned with WSI slide-level labels. We formulate the first stage as a contrastive learning (CL) process, where positive/negative discriminative feature sets are constructed from the same patch-level feature bags of WSIs. To facilitate the CL training, we design a novel reinforcement learning-based agent to progressively update the selection of discriminative feature sets according to an online reward for slide-level feature aggregation. Then, we further update the model with labeled WSI data to regularize the learned features for the final WSI classification. Experimental results on three public WSI classification datasets (Camelyon16, TCGA-Lung and TCGA-Kidney) demonstrate that the proposed MuRCL outperforms state-of-the-art MIL models. In addition, MuRCL can achieve comparable performance to other state-of-the-art MIL models on TCGA-Esca dataset.

Prediction of Surgical Approach in Mitral Valve Disease by XGBoost Algorithm Based on Echocardiographic Features.

In this study, we aimed to develop a prediction model to assist surgeons in choosing an appropriate surgical approach for mitral valve disease patients. We retrospectively analyzed a total of 143 patients who underwent surgery for mitral valve disease. The XGBoost algorithm was used to establish a predictive model to decide a surgical approach (mitral valve repair or replacement) based on the echocardiographic features of the mitral valve apparatus, such as leaflets, the annulus, and sub-valvular structures. The results showed that the accuracy of the predictive model was 81.09% in predicting the appropriate surgical approach based on the patient's preoperative echocardiography. The result of the predictive model was superior to the traditional complexity score (81.09% vs. 75%). Additionally, the predictive model showed that the three main factors affecting the choice of surgical approach were leaflet restriction, calcification of the leaflet, and perforation or cleft of the leaflet. We developed a novel predictive model using the XGBoost algorithm based on echocardiographic features to assist surgeons in choosing an appropriate surgical approach for patients with mitral valve disease.

Screening Discriminating SNPs for Chinese Indigenous Pig Breeds Identification Using a Random Forests Algorithm.

Chinese indigenous pig breeds have unique genetic characteristics and a rich diversity; however, effective breed identification methods have not yet been well established. In this study, a genotype file of 62,822 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which were obtained from 1059 individuals of 18 Chinese indigenous pig breeds and 5 cosmopolitan breeds, were used to screen the discriminating SNPs for pig breed identification. After linkage disequilibrium (LD) pruning filtering, this study excluded 396 SNPs on non-constant chromosomes and retained 20.92~-27.84% of SNPs for each of the 18 autosomes, leaving a total of 14,823 SNPs. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed the largest differences between cosmopolitan and Chinese pig breeds (PC1 = 10.452%), while relatively small differences were found among the 18 indigenous pig breeds from the Yangtze River Delta region of China. Next, a random forest (RF) algorithm was used to filter these SNPs and obtain the optimal number of decision trees (ntree = 1000) using corresponding out-of-bag (OOB) error rates. By comparing two different SNP ranking methods in the RF analysis, the mean decreasing accuracy (MDA) and mean decreasing Gini index (MDG), the effects of panels with different numbers of SNPs on the assignment accuracy, and the statistics of SNP distribution on each chromosome in the panels, a panel of 1000 of the most breed-discriminative tagged SNPs were finally selected based on the MDA screening method. A high accuracy (>99.3%) was obtained by the breed prediction of 318 samples in the RF test set; thus, a machine learning classification method was established for the multi-breed identification of Chinese indigenous pigs based on a low-density panel of SNPs.

Weakly-supervised learning method for the recognition of potato leaf diseases.

As a crucial food crop, potatoes are highly consumed worldwide, while they are also susceptible to being infected by diverse diseases. Early detection and diagnosis can prevent the epidemic of plant diseases and raise crop yields. To this end, this study proposed a weakly-supervised learning approach for the identification of potato plant diseases. The foundation network was applied with the lightweight MobileNet V2, and to enhance the learning ability for minute lesion features, we modified the existing MobileNet-V2 architecture using the fine-tuning approach conducted by transfer learning. Then, the atrous convolution along with the SPP module was embedded into the pre-trained networks, which was followed by a hybrid attention mechanism containing channel attention and spatial attention submodules to efficiently extract high-dimensional features of plant disease images. The proposed approach outperformed other compared methods and achieved a superior performance gain. It realized an average recall rate of 91.99% for recognizing potato disease types on the publicly accessible dataset. In practical field scenarios, the proposed approach separately attained an average accuracy and specificity of 97.33% and 98.39% on the locally collected image dataset. Experimental results present a competitive performance and demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the proposed approach.

Does Antioxidant Mitoquinone (MitoQ) Ameliorate Oxidative Stress in Frozen-Thawed Rooster Sperm?

In this study, we aimed to determine the benefit of mitoquinone (MitoQ) in rooster semen extenders on sperm quality, motility parameters, antioxidant capacities, and apoptotic changes in post-thawed rooster semen. A total of 85 ejaculates from 18 roosters were collected and then divided into five equal aliquots and cryopreserved in extenders with 1.0% soy lecithin nanoparticles that contained various concentrations of MitoQ (0 nM (M0), 50 nM (M50), 100 nM (M100), 150 nM (M150), and 200 nM (M200)). By using a computer-assisted semen analyzer, sperm motility parameters were assessed after freeze thawing. The M150 group had significantly higher percentages of total motility, progressive motility, viability, acrosome membrane integrity, and mitochondrial activity than the other groups (p < 0.05). Compared to other groups, M100 and M150 groups produced a higher percentage of plasma membrane integrity and ATP contents (p < 0.05). Additionally, the lowest levels of ROS and MDA in spermatozoa were observed in M150 group (p < 0.05), whereas the highest levels of ROS and MDA were observed in sperm in the controls or the M200 group (p < 0.05). Significantly higher values of SOD, GPx, and Cas-3 were found in the M150 group compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Overall, these results demonstrate that MitoQ at 150 nM not only ameliorates post-thawed sperm quality and motility parameters by restoring ATP levels and preventing membrane damage, but also improves redox balance and antiapoptotic activities.

Resveratrol Protects against Zearalenone-Induced Mitochondrial Defects during Porcine Oocyte Maturation via PINK1/Parkin-Mediated Mitophagy.

Mitochondria hold redox homeostasis and energy metabolism as a crucial factor during oocyte maturation, while the exposure of estrogenic mycotoxin zearalenone causes developmental incapacity in porcine oocyte. This study aimed to reveal a potential resistance of phytoalexin resveratrol against zearalenone during porcine oocyte maturation and whether its mechanism was related with PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1)/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Porcine oocytes were exposed to 20 µM zearalenone with or without 2 µM resveratrol during in vitro maturation. As for the results, zearalenone impaired ultrastructure of mitochondria, causing mitochondrial depolarization, oxidative stress, apoptosis and embryonic developmental incapacity, in which mitophagy was induced in response to mitochondrial dysfunction. Phytoalexin resveratrol enhanced mitophagy through PINK1/Parkin in zearalenone-exposed oocytes, manifesting as enhanced mitophagy flux, upregulated PINK1, Parkin, microtubule-associated protein light-chain 3 beta-II (LC3B-II) and downregulated substrates mitofusin 2 (MFN2), voltage-dependent anion channels 1 (VDAC1) and p62 expressions. Resveratrol redressed zearalenone-induced mitochondrial depolarization, oxidative stress and apoptosis, and accelerated mitochondrial DNA copy during maturation, which improved embryonic development. This study offered an antitoxin solution during porcine oocyte maturation and revealed the involvement of PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy, in which resveratrol mitigated zearalenone-induced embryonic developmental incapacity.

chi-miR-99b-3p Regulates the Proliferation of Goat Skeletal Muscle Satellite Cells In Vitro by Targeting Caspase-3 and NCOR1.

We previously found that chi-miR-99b-3p was highly expressed in the skeletal muscle of 7-month-old (rapid growth period) goats and speculated that it may be associated with muscle development. To further investigate the role of chi-miR-99b-3p in goats, we found that chi-miR-99b-3p acted as a myogenic miRNA in the regulation of skeletal muscle development. Dual-luciferase reporter assays, qRT-PCR, and Western blot results confirmed that Caspase-3 and nuclear receptor corepressor 1 were direct targets for chi-miR-99b-3p as their expression was inhibited by this miR. Cell proliferation and qRT-PCR assays showed that chi-miR-99b-3p promoted proliferation through relevant targets and intrinsic apoptosis-related genes in goat skeletal muscle satellite cells (SMSCs), whereas inhibition of chi-miR-99b-3p had the opposite effect. Furthermore, integrative transcriptomic analysis revealed that overexpression of chi-miR-99b-3p induced various differentially expressed (DE) genes mainly associated with the cell cycle, relaxin signaling pathway, DNA replication, and protein digestion and absorption. Notably, most of the cell-cycle-related genes were downregulated in SMSCs after miR-99b-3p upregulation, including the pro-apoptosis-related gene BCL2. In addition, 47 DE miRNAs (16 upregulated and 31 downregulated) were determined by Small RNA-sequencing in SMSCs after chi-miR-99b-3p overexpression. Based on the KEGG enrichment analysis, we found that these DE miRNAs were involved in the biological pathways associated with the DE genes. Our study demonstrated that chi-miR-99b-3p was an effective facilitator of goat SMSCs and provided new insights into the mechanisms by which miRNAs regulate skeletal muscle growth in goats.

Study on the interactions between the screened polyphenols and Penaeus vannamei myosin after freezing treatment.

The denaturation of proteins (particularly myosin) due to freezing can lead to the deterioration of Penaeus vannamei. The purpose of this study was to verify the antifreeze protective effects of polyphenols screened by a molecular docking technique, and to explore their interactions with myosin after freezing treatment. It was found that the screened polyphenols could significantly increase the freezing rate and unfreezable water content of shrimp paste. The results of fluorescence spectra indicated that the hesperetin to myosin quenching process included both dynamic and static quenching, and it was primarily bound to myosin through hydrophobic interactions; The quenching of myosin by both dihydroquercetin and mangiferin was static quenching, and they were bound to myosin mainly by hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces; All three of these polyphenols had only one binding site on myosin. Surface hydrophobicity indicated that all four polyphenols were engaged in non-covalent binding (hydrophobic interactions) with myosin. Infrared spectra demonstrated that the addition of these four polyphenols significantly increased the α-helix content of myosin. They also reduced the myosin particle size, zeta potential, and protein degeneration degree. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the four polyphenols reduced the degree of aggregation, while more uniformly distributing the myosin particles. These observations provide a basis for the screening of polyphenols and further research into the protective mechanism of polyphenols on frozen myosin.

Comparative Cytotoxic Effects and Possible Mechanisms of Deoxynivalenol, Zearalenone and T-2 Toxin Exposure to Porcine Leydig Cells In Vitro.

Mycotoxins such as zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and T-2 toxin (T-2) are the most poisonous biological toxins in food pollution. Mycotoxin contaminations are a global health issue. The aim of the current study was to use porcine Leydig cells as a model to explore the toxic effects and underlying mechanisms of ZEN, DON and T-2. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of ZEN was 49.71 µM, and the IC50 values of DON and T-2 were 2.49 µM and 97.18 nM, respectively. Based on the values of IC50, ZEN, DON and T-2 exposure resulted in increased cell apoptosis, as well as disrupted mitochondria membrane potential and cell cycle distribution. The results also showed that ZEN and DON significantly reduced testosterone and progesterone secretion in Leydig cells, but T-2 only reduced testosterone secretion. Furthermore, the expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein and 3ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3ß-HSD) were significantly decreased by ZEN, DON and T-2; whereas the protein expression of cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (CYP11A1) was only significantly decreased by ZEN. Altogether, these data suggest that the ZEN, DON and T-2 toxins resulted in reproductive toxicity involving the inhibition of steroidogenesis and cell proliferation, which contributes to the cellular apoptosis induced by mitochondrial injury in porcine Leydig cells.

Neural Embedding Singular Value Decomposition for Collaborative Filtering.

Singular value decomposition (SVD) is one of the most effective algorithms in recommender systems (RSs). Due to the iterative nature of SVD algorithms, one big challenge is initialization that has a major impact on the convergence and performance of RSs. Unfortunately, existing SVD algorithms in the literature typically initialize the user and item features in a random manner; thus, data information is not fully utilized. This work addresses the challenge of developing an efficient initialization method for SVD algorithms. We propose a general neural embedding initialization framework, where a low-complexity probabilistic autoencoder neural network initializes the features of user and item. This framework supports explicit and implicit feedback data sets. The design details of our proposed framework are elaborated and discussed. Experimental results show that RSs based on our proposed initialization framework outperform the state-of-the-art methods in rating prediction. Moreover, regarding item ranking, our proposed framework shows an improvement of at least 2.20% ~5.74% than existing SVD algorithms and other matrix factorization methods in the literature.