The impact of overnight lairage on meat quality and storage stability of pork loin.

Lairage, a part of the animal welfare practices, has been known to mitigate pre-slaughter stress in animals. However, research investigating the relationship between lairage and pork meat quality remains scarce. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the physicochemical quality and storage stability of pork from pigs subjected to immediate slaughter (CON) and those provided with a 24 h lairage before slaughter (LRG) over a 7-day storage period. The loins from 20 castrated pigs in each group, respectively, were collected at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days and used for analysis of meat quality and storage stability, including pH, meat color, moisture, water holding capacity, drip loss, cooking loss, shear force, fatty acid composition, lipid oxidation, antioxidant activity, and electrical resistance. Overall, there were no significant differences in physicochemical meat quality parameters between CON and LRG groups. Similarly, no differences were observed in the storage stability of pork including 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity and electrical resistance. However, the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids was significantly higher in LRG compared to CON. In conclusion, 24 h lairage for castrated pigs had limited impact on meat quality and storage stability but led to an increase in the unsaturated fatty acid proportion.

Radotinib Decreases Prion Propagation and Prolongs Survival Times in Models of Prion Disease.

The conversion of cellular prion protein (PrPC) into pathogenic prion isoforms (PrPSc) and the mutation of PRNP are definite causes of prion diseases. Unfortunately, without exception, prion diseases are untreatable and fatal neurodegenerative disorders; therefore, one area of research focuses on identifying medicines that can delay the progression of these diseases. According to the concept of drug repositioning, we investigated the efficacy of the c-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor radotinib, which is a drug that is approved for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, in the treatment of disease progression in prion models, including prion-infected cell models, Tga20 and hamster cerebellar slice culture models, and 263K scrapie-infected hamster models. Radotinib inhibited PrPSc deposition in neuronal ZW13-2 cells that were infected with the 22L or 139A scrapie strains and in cerebellar slice cultures that were infected with the 22L or 263K scrapie strains. Interestingly, hamsters that were intraperitoneally injected with the 263K scrapie strain and intragastrically treated with radotinib (100 mg/kg) exhibited prolonged survival times (159 ± 28.6 days) compared to nontreated hamsters (135 ± 9.9 days) as well as reduced PrPSc deposition and ameliorated pathology. However, intraperitoneal injection of radotinib exerted a smaller effect on the survival rate of the hamsters. Additionally, we found that different concentrations of radotinib (60, 100, and 200 mg/kg) had similar effects on survival time, but this effect was not observed after treatment with a low dose (30 mg/kg) of radotinib. Interestingly, when radotinib was administered 4 or 8 weeks after prion inoculation, the treated hamsters survived longer than the vehicle-treated hamsters. Additionally, a pharmacokinetic assay revealed that radotinib effectively crossed the blood-brain barrier. Based on our findings, we suggest that radotinib is a new candidate anti-prion drug that could possibly be used to treat prion diseases and promote the remission of symptoms.

Day-Ahead Hourly Solar Irradiance Forecasting Based on Multi-Attributed Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network.

Solar irradiance forecasting is fundamental and essential for commercializing solar energy generation by overcoming output variability. Accurate forecasting depends on historical solar irradiance data, correlations between various meteorological variables (e.g., wind speed, humidity, and cloudiness), and influences between the weather contexts of spatially adjacent regions. However, existing studies have been limited to spatiotemporal analysis of a few variables, which have clear correlations with solar irradiance (e.g., sunshine duration), and do not attempt to establish atmospheric contextual information from a variety of meteorological variables. Therefore, this study proposes a novel solar irradiance forecasting model that represents atmospheric parameters observed from multiple stations as an attributed dynamic network and analyzes temporal changes in the network by extending existing spatio-temporal graph convolutional network (ST-GCN) models. By comparing the proposed model with existing models, we also investigated the contributions of (i) the spatial adjacency of the stations, (ii) temporal changes in the meteorological variables, and (iii) the variety of variables to the forecasting performance. We evaluated the performance of the proposed and existing models by predicting the hourly solar irradiance at observation stations in the Korean Peninsula. The experimental results showed that the three features are synergistic and have correlations that are difficult to establish using single-aspect analysis.

Immediate complete revascularization showed better outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors with left main or triple-vessel coronary diseases.

This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of left main or triple vessel coronary artery disease (CAD) in comatose out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survivors and assessed their outcome based on the revascularization strategy. This multicenter, retrospective, observational registry-based study was conducted at 9 Korean tertiary care hospitals. Adult comatose OHCA survivors with left main or triple vessel CAD documented by immediate (≤ 2 h) coronary angiography after return of spontaneous circulation between 2011 and 2019 were included. The primary outcome was neurologically intact survival at 1-month. Among 727 OHCA patients, 150 (25%) had left main or triple vessel CAD and underwent complete (N = 32), incomplete (N = 78), and no immediate (N = 40) revascularization, respectively. The rate of neurologically intact survival at 1 month was significantly different among the groups (53%, 32%, and 23% for complete, incomplete, and no immediate revascularization groups, respectively; P = 0.02). After adjustment using the inverse probability of treatment weighting, complete revascularization was associated with neurologically intact survival at 1 month (odds ratio, 2.635; P = 0.01). Left main or triple vessel CAD is not uncommon in OHCA patients. The complete revascularization was associated with better outcome. Further clinical trials to confirm the best revascularization strategy are needed.

Evaluation of Dose-Dependent Obesity and Diabetes-Related Complications of Water Chestnut (Fruit of Trapa japonica) Extracts in Type II Obese Diabetic Mice Induced by 45% Kcal High-Fat Diet.

Background and Objectives: The currently used pharmacological agents for metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes have several limitations and adverse effects; thus, there is a need for alternative therapeutic drugs and health functional foods. Materials and Methods: This study investigated the pharmacological effects of water chestnut (fruit of Trapa japonica) extracts (WC: 50-200 mg/kg) for type II diabetes using a 45% Kcal high-fat diet (HFD)-fed type II obese diabetic mice model for a period of 84 days, and the effects were compared to those of metformin (250 mg/kg). Results: Increases in body weight, serum biochemical indices such as triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, and blood urea nitrogen, increases in antioxidant defense system enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione, and mRNA expressions (such as AMPKα1 and AMPKα2) in the liver tissue and mRNA expressions (such as AMPKα2 mRNA, leptin, and C/EBPα) in the adipose tissue were observed in the HFD control group. The WC (50 mg/kg)-administered group showed no significant improvements in diabetic complications. However, HFD-induced obesity and diabetes-related complications such as hyperlipidemia, diabetic nephropathy, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), oxidative stress, activity of antioxidant defense systems, and gene expressions were significantly and dose-dependently inhibited and/or normalized by oral administration of WC (100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg), particularly at a dose of 100 mg/kg. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that WC at an appropriate dose could be used to develop an effective therapeutic drug or functional food for type II diabetes and various associated complications, including NAFLD.

Designing Nonfullerene Acceptors with Oligo(Ethylene Glycol) Side Chains: Unraveling the Origin of Increased Open-Circuit Voltage and Balanced Charge Carrier Mobilities.

Despite the recent rapid development of organic solar cells (OSCs), the low dielectric constant (ϵr =3-4) of organic semiconducting materials limits their performance lower than inorganic and perovskite solar cells. In this work, we introduce oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) side chains into the dicyanodistyrylbenzene-based non-fullerene acceptors (NIDCS) to increase its ϵr up to 5.4. In particular, a NIDCS acceptor bearing two triethylene glycol chains (NIDCS-EO3) shows VOC as high as 1.12 V in an OSC device with a polymer donor PTB7, which is attributed to reduced exciton binding energy of the blend film. Also, the larger size grain formation with well-ordered stacking structure of the NIDCS-EO3 blend film leads to the increased charge mobility and thus to the improved charge mobility balance, resulting in higher JSC , FF, and PCE in the OSC device compared to those of a device using the hexyl chain-based NIDCS acceptor (NIDCS-HO). Finally, we fabricate NIDCS-EO3 devices with various commercial donors including P3HT, DTS-F, and PCE11 to show higher photovoltaic performance than the NIDCS-HO devices, suggesting versatility of NIDCS-EO3.

Full-color active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display on human skin based on a large-area MoS2 backplane.

Electronic applications are continuously developing and taking new forms. Foldable, rollable, and wearable displays are applicable for human health care monitoring or robotics, and their operation relies on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Yet, the development of semiconducting materials with high mechanical flexibility has remained a challenge and restricted their use in unusual format electronics. This study presents a wearable full-color OLED display using a two-dimensional (2D) material-based backplane transistor. The 18-by-18 thin-film transistor array was fabricated on a thin MoS2 film that was transferred to Al2O3 (30 nm)/polyethylene terephthalate (6 µm). Red, green, and blue OLED pixels were deposited on the device surface. This 2D material offered excellent mechanical and electrical properties and proved to be capable of driving circuits for the control of OLED pixels. The ultrathin device substrate allowed for integration of the display on an unusual substrate, namely, a human hand.

Stretchable Electroluminescent Display Enabled by Graphene-Based Hybrid Electrode.

Stretchable alternating-current electroluminescent (ACEL) devices are required due to their potential in wearable, biomedical, e-skin, robotic, lighting, and display applications; however, one of the main hurdles is to achieve uniform electroluminescence with an optimal combination of transparency, conductivity, and stretchability in electrodes. We therefore propose a fabrication scheme involving strategically combining two-dimensional graphene layers with a silver nanowire (Ag NW)-embedded PEDOT:PSS film. The developed hybrid electrode overcomes the limitations of commonly known metallic NWs and ionic conductor-based electrodes for ACEL applications. Furthermore, the potential of the hybrid electrode is realized in demonstrating large-area stretchable ACEL devices composed of an 8 × 8 passive array. The prototype ACEL passive array demonstrates efficient and uniform electroluminescence under high levels of mechanical deformation such as bending, rolling, twisting, and stretching.

Structural and Electronic Origin of Bis-Lactam-Based High-Performance Organic Thin-Film Transistors.

We describe herein the comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies on the transistor mobility of organic semiconductors by correlating a two-dimensional (2D) intermolecular interaction with thin-film morphology and the electronic coupling structure. We developed a novel bis-lactam-based small molecule, 1,5-dioctyl-3,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1,5-naphthyridine-2,6-dione (C8-NTDT), with a 2D-type C-H···O═C intermolecular interaction along the in-plane directions of the crystal packing structure, which is characteristically different from the one-dimensional-type intermolecular interaction shown in the typical bis-lactam molecule of 2,5-dioctyl-3,6-di(thiophen-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4- c]pyrrole-1,4-dione (C8-DPPT). Experimentally and theoretically, C8-NTDT exhibited more favorable thin-film morphology and an electronic coupling structure for charge transport because of its unique 2D intermolecular interactions compared with C8-DPPT. In fact, C8-NTDT exhibited a hole mobility of up to 1.29 cm2 V-1 s-1 and an on/off ratio of 107 in a vacuum-processed device. Moreover, the high solubility with the 2D electronic coupling structure of C8-NTDT enables versatile solution processing for device fabrication without performance degradation compared to the vacuum-processed device. As an example, we could demonstrate a hole mobility of up to 1.10 cm2 V-1 s-1 for the spin-coated devices, which is one of the best performances among the solution-processed organic field-effect transistors based on bis-lactam-containing small molecules.

Flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display enabled by MoS2 thin-film transistor.

Atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been extensively investigated in semiconductor electronics but has not been applied in a backplane circuitry of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. Its applicability as an active drive element is hampered by the large contact resistance at the metal/MoS2 interface, which hinders the transport of carriers at the dielectric surface, which in turn considerably deteriorates the mobility. Modified switching device architecture is proposed for efficiently exploiting the high-k dielectric Al2O3 layer, which, when integrated in an active matrix, can drive the ultrathin OLED display even in dynamic folding states. The proposed architecture exhibits 28 times increase in mobility compared to a normal back-gated thin-film transistor, and its potential as a wearable display attached to a human wrist is demonstrated.

Sargaquinoic Acid Inhibits TNF-α-Induced NF-κB Signaling, Thereby Contributing to Decreased Monocyte Adhesion to Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs).

Sargaquinoic acid (SQA) has been known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study investigated the effects of SQA isolated from Sargassum serratifolium on the inhibition of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced monocyte adhesion to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). SQA decreased the expression of cell adhesion molecules such as intracellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 as well as chemotactic cytokines such as interleukin-8 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in TNF-α-treated HUVECs. As a result, SQA prevented monocyte adhesion to TNF-α-induced adhesion. SQA also inhibited TNF-α-induced nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) translocation into the nucleus by preventing proteolytic degradation of inhibitor κB-α. Overall, SQA protects against TNF-α-induced vascular inflammation through inhibition of the NF-κB pathway in HUVECs. These data suggest that SQA may be used as a therapeutic agent for vascular inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis.