DMFGAN: a multifeature data augmentation method for grape leaf disease identification.

The use of deep learning techniques to identify grape leaf diseases relies on large, high-quality datasets. However, a large number of images occupy more computing resources and are prone to pattern collapse during training. In this paper, a depth-separable multifeature generative adversarial network (DMFGAN) was proposed to enhance grape leaf disease data. First, a multifeature extraction block (MFEB) based on the four-channel feature fusion strategy is designed to improve the quality of the generated image and avoid the problem of poor feature learning ability of the adversarial generation network caused by the single-channel feature extraction method. Second, a depth-based D-discriminator is designed to improve the discriminator capability and reduce the number of model parameters. Third, SeLU activation function was substituted for DCGAN activation function to overcome the problem that DCGAN activation function was not enough to fit grape leaf disease image data. Finally, an MFLoss function with a gradient penalty term is proposed to reduce the mode collapse during the training of generative adversarial networks. By comparing the visual indicators and evaluation indicators of the images generated by different models, and using the recognition network to verify the enhanced grape disease data, the results show that the method is effective in enhancing grape leaf disease data. Under the same experimental conditions, DMFGAN generates higher quality and more diverse images with fewer parameters than other generative adversarial networks. The mode breakdown times of generative adversarial networks in training process are reduced, which is more effective in practical application.

Conjunctive processing of spatial border and locomotion in retrosplenial cortex during spatial navigation.

Spatial information and dynamic locomotor behaviours are equally important for achieving locomotor goals during spatial navigation. However, it remains unclear how spatial and locomotor information is integrated during the processing of self-initiated spatial navigation. Anatomically, the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) has reciprocal connections with brain regions related to spatial processing, including the hippocampus and para-hippocampus, and also receives inputs from the secondary motor cortex. In addition, RSC is functionally associated with allocentric and egocentric spatial targets and head-turning. So, RSC may be a critical region for integrating spatial and locomotor information. In this study, we first examined the role of RSC in spatial navigation using the Morris water maze and found that mice with inactivated RSC took a longer time and distance to reach their destination. Then, by imaging neuronal activity in freely behaving mice within two open fields of different sizes, we identified a large proportion of border cells, head-turning cells and locomotor speed cells in the superficial layer of RSC. Interestingly, some RSC neurons exhibited conjunctive coding for both spatial and locomotor signals. Furthermore, these conjunctive neurons showed higher prediction accuracy compared with simple spatial or locomotor neurons in special navigator scenes using the border, turning and positive-speed conjunctive cells. Our study reveals that the RSC is an important conjunctive brain region that processes spatial and locomotor information during spatial navigation. KEY POINTS: Retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is indispensable during spatial navigation, which was displayed by the longer time and distance of mice to reach their destination after the inactivation of RSC in a water maze. The superficial layer of RSC has a larger population of spatial-related border cells, and locomotion-related head orientation and speed cells; however, it has few place cells in two-dimensional spatial arenas. Some RSC neurons exhibited conjunctive coding for both spatial and locomotor signals, and the conjunctive neurons showed higher prediction accuracy compared with simple spatial or locomotor neurons in special navigation scenes. Our study reveals that the RSC is an important conjunctive brain region that processes both spatial and locomotor information during spatial navigation.

Structure and Phylogenetic Relationships of Scolopacidae Mitogenomes (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae).

The family Scolopacidae presents a valuable subject for evolutionary research; however, molecular studies of Scolopacidae are still relatively understudied, and the phylogenetic relationships of certain species remain unclear. In this study, we sequenced and obtained complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from Actitis hypoleucos and partial mtDNA from Numenius arquata, Limosa limosa, and Limnodromus semipalmatus. The complete mtDNA contained 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region. Scolopacidae contained three types of start codons and five types of stop codons (including one incomplete stop codon, T--). In 13 protein-coding genes, average uncorrected pairwise distances (Aupd) revealed that ATP8 was the least conserved while COX3 had the lowest evolutionary rate. The ratio of Ka/Ks suggested that all PCGs were under purifying selection. Using two methods (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) to analyze the phylogenetic relationships of the family Scolopacidae, it was found that the genera Xenus and Actitis were clustered into another sister group, while the genus Phalaropus is more closely related to the genus Tringa. The genera Limnodromus, Gallinago, and Scolopax form a monophyletic group. This study improves our understanding of the evolutionary patterns and phylogenetic relationships of the family Scolopacidae.

Allelochemicals: A source for developing economically and environmentally friendly plant growth regulators.

Allelochemicals are specific secondary metabolites that can exhibit autotoxicity by inhibiting the growth of the same plant species that produced them. These metabolites have been found to affect various physical processes during plant growth and development, including inhibition of seed germination, photosynthesis, respiration, root growth, and nutrient uptake, with diverse mechanisms involving cell destruction, oxidative homeostasis and photoinhibition. In some cases, allelochemicals can also have positive effects on plant growth and development. In addition to their ecological significance, allelochemicals also possess potential as plant growth regulators (PGRs) due to their extensive physiological effects. However, a comprehensive summary of the development and applications of allelochemicals as PGRs is currently lacking. In this review, we present an overview of the sources and categories of allelochemicals, discuss their effects and the underlying mechanisms on plant growth and development. We showcase numerous instances of key phytohormonal allelochemicals and non-phytohormonal allelochemicals, highlighting their potential as candidates for the development of PGRs. This review aims to provide a theoretical basis for the development of economical, safe and effective PGRs utilizing allelochemicals, and emphasizes the need for further research in this area.

NWD1 influences the extension of neuronal axons by regulating microtubule stability.

Proteins belonging to the STAND (signal transduction ATPases with numerous domains) family have been implicated in crucial functions across various signal transduction pathways, encompassing both apoptosis and innate immune responses. In this study, we have identified NWD1, a member of the STAND superfamily, as a gene that regulates neurite outgrowth. This was confirmed by siRNA knockdown assay in E18 neurons. A zebrafish model was utilized to create NWD1 knockdown using the NgAgo-gDNA system, revealing the significant role of NWD1 in neurogenesis. We further revealed that NWD1 siRNA reduced the acetylated tubulin protein, and changed the ratio of soluble and polymerized tubulin. Moreover, we investigated the mechanism underlying the regulation of NWD1-mediated microtubule dynamics, and MAP1B may be a target gene. This research unveiled, for the first time, the potential role of NWD1 in regulating axon outgrowth through modulating the ratio of acetylated tubulin.

Coagulation-centered three-step approach for removing by-product organic pollutants from tetrabromobisphenol A industrial wastewater: Experimental and theoretic investigations.

The challenge of meeting discharge standards for tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) production wastewater, characterized by high concentrations of organic by-products, necessitates effective treatment methods. This study identifies 2,4-dibromophenol, 2,6-dibromophenol, 2,4,6-tribromophenol, chlorobenzene, and toluene as the primary organic by-product pollutants. A coagulation-centered three-step approach was established for TBBPA industrial wastewater treatment. The initial step involves acidification treatment to exploit the reduced solubility of 2,4-dibromophenol, 2,6-dibromophenol, and 2,4,6-tribromophenol under acidic conditions, with the optimal pH determined as 2.7-3.1. An acid-activated montmorillonite coagulant (AMC), prepared through roasting and high-pressure acid leaching, exhibits a distinctive "Core-shell" structure, contributing significantly to the combined coagulation and adsorption mechanism. The acid-soluble aluminum salts in AMC form positively charged flocs, electrostatically attracting negatively charged organic compounds in the wastewater. Simultaneously, the porous insoluble silicon framework displays strong adsorption capacity for pollutants. The removal efficiencies for toluene, chlorobenzene, 2,4-dibromophenol, 2,6-dibromophenol, and 2,4,6-tribromophenol reached 88.2%, 89.1%, 88.8%, 87.1%, and 89.4%, respectively. Elemental analysis reveals that the coloration of the wastewater stems from complexation reactions between phenolic compounds and Fe3+, originating from the corrosion of iron or steel reaction vessel. Post-treatment with cation exchange resin resulted in removal efficiencies of 5.2%, 59.1%, 80.2%, 77.9%, and 88.3% for the five substances, respectively. This study outlines a crucial pathway for the effective purification of TBBPA wastewater.

Prognostic nutritional index during hospitalization correlates with adverse outcomes in elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction: a single-center retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most prevalent illnesses endangering the elderly's health. The predictive nutritional index (PNI) has been shown in several studies to be a good predictor of nutritional prognosis. In this study, we explored the correlation between PNI during hospitalization and the outcome of elderly AMI patients. METHODS: Elderly AMI patients in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of Huadong Hospital from September 2017 to April 2020 were recruited for analysis. The clinical and laboratory examination data of subjects were retrieved. All enrolled patients were monitored following discharge. The primary clinical endpoints encompass major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and Composite endpoint (MACEs and all-cause mortality). Survival analyses were conducted via the Kaplan-Meier and the log-rank analyses, and the Cox, proportional hazards model, was employed for hazard rate (HR) calculation. RESULTS: 307 subjects were recruited for analysis. The optimal PNI threshold is 40.923. Based on the Kaplan-Meier analysis, the elevated PNI group experienced better prognosis (P < 0.001). Cox analysis demonstrated that the PNI group was a stand-alone predictor for elderly AMI patient prognosis (HR = 1.674, 95% CI 1.076-2.604, P = 0.022). Subgroup analysis showed that the HR of the PNI group was the highest in the ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) subgroup (HR = 3.345, 95% CI 1.889-5.923, P = 0.05), but no discernible difference was observed in the non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) subgroup. CONCLUSION: Based on our analyses, the PNI during hospitalization can accurately predict the prognosis of elderly STEMI patients but not that of elderly NSTEMI patients.

α-Mangostin Attenuates Blood Pressure and Reverses Vascular Remodeling by Balancing ACE/AT1R and ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR Axes in Ang II-Infused Hypertensive Mice.

Hyperuricemia is a common comorbidity of hypertension and probably has a causal relationship with hypertension. Alpha-mangostin (α-MG) has been reported to have uric acid lowering effect. This study aimed to investigate the dual effects of α-MG on blood pressure (BP) and uric acid levels in angiotensin II (Ang II)-infused hypertensive mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were randomized into five groups: control, Ang II infusion (500 ng/kg/min for 2 weeks), Ang II infusion with gavage administration of α-MG 4.0 and 8.0 mg/kg and benzbromarone (25 mg/kg) respectively. BP, uric acid levels, vascular structure and function, and renin-Ang II system expressions in the aorta were assessed. Treatment with α-MG reduced BP, improved endothelial relaxation, and reversed aortic wall thickening and collagen deposition in Ang II-induced hypertensive mice. It also downregulated Ang II receptor 1 (AT1R) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) expression, while upregulating ACE2, Mas receptor (MasR), and angiotensin (1-7) in the aorta. Moreover, α-MG demonstrated a significant enhancement in uric acid clearance and reduction in serum uric acid levels. Conversely, benzbromarone did not result in a decrease in BP, indicating that the hypotensive effect of α-MG may not be necessarily dependent on its urate-lowering properties. α-MG can attenuate Ang II-induced hypertension and reverse vascular remodeling, potentially by balancing the ACE/Ang II/AT1R axis and the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR axis. Our findings provide insights into α-MG as a novel anti-hypertensive drug especially in patients with hyperuricemia.

Fast, Zero-Reference Low-Light Image Enhancement with Camera Response Model.

Low-light images are prevalent in intelligent monitoring and many other applications, with low brightness hindering further processing. Although low-light image enhancement can reduce the influence of such problems, current methods often involve a complex network structure or many iterations, which are not conducive to their efficiency. This paper proposes a Zero-Reference Camera Response Network using a camera response model to achieve efficient enhancement for arbitrary low-light images. A double-layer parameter-generating network with a streamlined structure is established to extract the exposure ratio K from the radiation map, which is obtained by inverting the input through a camera response function. Then, K is used as the parameter of a brightness transformation function for one transformation on the low-light image to realize enhancement. In addition, a contrast-preserving brightness loss and an edge-preserving smoothness loss are designed without the requirement for references from the dataset. Both can further retain some key information in the inputs to improve precision. The enhancement is simplified and can reach more than twice the speed of similar methods. Extensive experiments on several LLIE datasets and the DARK FACE face detection dataset fully demonstrate our method's advantages, both subjectively and objectively.

Substrate-embedded metal meshes for ITO-free organic light emitting diodes.

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have great potential for use in large-area display and lighting applications, but their widespread adoption for large areas is hindered by the high cost and insufficient performance of indium tin oxide (ITO) anodes. In this study, we introduce an alternative anode material - a silver mesh embedded in glass - to facilitate production of large-area OLEDs. We present a facile, scalable manufacturing technique to create high aspect ratio micromeshes embedded in glass to provide the planar geometry needed for OLED layers. Our phosphorescent green OLEDs achieve a current efficiency of 51.4 cd/A at 1000 cd/m2 and reach a slightly higher external quantum efficiency compared to a standard ITO/glass reference sample. Notably, these advancements are achieved without any impact on the viewing angle of the OLEDs. These findings represent a promising advancement towards ITO-free, high-efficiency OLEDs for various high performance, large-area applications, such as lighting and displays.

Rapid evaluation of Radix Paeoniae Alba and its processed products by near-infrared spectroscopy combined with multivariate algorithms.

It is well known that the processing method of herbal medicine has a complex impact on the active components and clinical efficacy, which is difficult to measure. As a representative herb medicine with diverse processing methods, Radix Paeoniae Alba (RPA) and its processed products differ greatly in clinical efficacy. However, in some cases, different processed products are confused for use in clinical practice. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly control the quality of RPA and its processed products. Giving that the time-consuming and laborious operation of traditional quality control methods, a comprehensive strategy of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate algorithms was proposed. This strategy has the advantages of being rapid and non-destructive, not only qualitatively distinguishing RPA and various processed products but also enabling quantitative prediction of five bioactive components. Qualitatively, the subspace clustering algorithm successfully differentiated RPA and three processed products, with an accuracy rate of 97.1%; quantitatively, interval combination optimization (ICO), competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling combined with successive projections algorithm (CARS-SPA) were used to optimize the PLS model, and satisfactory results were obtained in terms of wavelength selection. In conclusion, it is feasible to use NIR spectroscopy to rapidly evaluate the effect of processing methods on the quality of RPA, which provides a meaningful reference for quality control of other herbal medicines with numerous processing methods.

Study on the quality difference of Cyperus rotundus before and after vinegar processing based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight-mass spectrometry and molecular network combined with color parameters.

Cyperus rotundus is the dry rhizome of the Cyperaceae plant Cyperus. Although there are two types of processed products in clinics, their quality differences are not clear, and the identification methods are more complex. In this study, the chemical composition of different processed products of Cyperus rotundus was characterized using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight-mass spectrometry and molecular network analysis, to identify the potential chemical markers and to establish a quick and simple color-based discrimination method. Among the 65 compounds analyzed, 12 showed significant differences. Observing the color, the surface brightness (L*) of Cyperus rotundus decreased after vinegar processing, while red (a*) and yellow (b*) values increased. These color values correlated significantly with chemical compositions. Finally, a color discriminant function was established and verified for raw Cyperus rotundus and vinegar-processing Cyperus rotundus. Based on this study, Cyperus rotundus' quality can be effectively controlled and provides a method for the comprehensive characterization of chemical components and chemical markers of other traditional Chinese medicine and processed products, as well as new ideas and methods in identification and quality evaluation.

Gold nanoparticles-decorated peptide hydrogel for antifouling electrochemical dopamine determination.

A reliable and brief ultralow fouling electrochemical sensing system capable of monitoring targets in complex biological media was constructed and validated based on gold nanoparticles-peptide hydrogel-modified screen-printed electrode. The self-assembled zwitterionic peptide hydrogel was prepared by a newly designed peptide sequence of Phe-Phe-Cys-Cys-(Glu-Lys)3 with the N-terminal modified with a fluorene methoxycarbonyl group. The thiol groups on cysteine of the designed peptide are able to self-assemble with AuNPs to form a three-dimensional nanonetwork structure, which showed satisfactory antifouling capability in complex biological media (human serum). The developed gold nanoparticles-peptide hydrogel-based electrochemical sensing platform displayed notably sensing properties for dopamine determination, with a wide linear range (from 0.2 nM to 1.9 µM), a low limit of detection (0.12 nM), and an excellent selectivity. This highly sensitive and ultralow fouling electrochemical sensor was fabricated via simple preparation with concise components that avoid the accumulation of layers with single functional material and complex activation processes. This ultralow fouling and highly sensitive strategy based on the gold nanoparticles-peptide hydrogel with a three-dimensional nanonetwork offers a solution to the current situation of various low-fouling sensing systems facing impaired sensitivity and provides a potential path for the practical application of electrochemical sensors.

A High-Density EEG Study Investigating the Neural Correlates of Continuity Editing Theory in VR Films.

This paper presents a cognitive psychology experiment to explore the differences between 2D and virtual reality (VR) film editing techniques. We recruited sixteen volunteers to view a range of different display modes and edit types of experimental material. An electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded simultaneously while the participants watched. Subjective results showed that the VR mode reflects higher load scores, particularly in the effort dimension. Different editing types have no effect on subjective immersion scores. The VR mode elicited stronger EEG energy, with differences concentrated in the occipital, parietal, and central regions. On the basis of this, visual evoked potential (VEP) analyses were conducted, and the results indicated that VR mode triggered greater spatial attention, while editing in 2D mode induced stronger semantic updating and active understanding. Furthermore, we found that while the effect of different edit types in both display modes is similar, cross-axis editing triggered greater cognitive violations than continuity editing, which could serve as scientific theoretical support for the development of future VR film editing techniques.

An Innovative Approach for Removing Stripe Noise in Infrared Images.

The non-uniformity of infrared detectors' readout circuits can lead to stripe noise in infrared images, which affects their effective information and poses challenges for subsequent applications. Traditional denoising algorithms have limited effectiveness in maintaining effective information. This paper proposes a multi-level image decomposition method based on an improved LatLRR (MIDILatLRR). By utilizing the global low-rank structural characteristics of stripe noise, the noise and smooth information are decomposed into low-rank part images, and texture information is adaptively decomposed into several salient part images, thereby better preserving texture edge information in the image. Sparse terms are constructed according to the smoothness of the effective information in the final low-rank part of the image and the sparsity of the stripe noise direction. The modeling of stripe noise is achieved using multi-sparse constraint representation (MSCR), and the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is used for calculation. Extensive experiments demonstrated the proposed algorithm's effectiveness and compared it with state-of-the-art algorithms in subjective judgments and objective indicators. The experimental results fully demonstrate the proposed algorithm's superiority and efficacy.

Image Restoration via Low-Illumination to Normal-Illumination Networks Based on Retinex Theory.

Under low-illumination conditions, the quality of the images collected by the sensor is significantly impacted, and the images have visual problems such as noise, artifacts, and brightness reduction. Therefore, this paper proposes an effective network based on Retinex for low-illumination image enhancement. Inspired by Retinex theory, images are decomposed into two parts in the decomposition network, and sent to the sub-network for processing. The reconstruction network constructs global and local residual convolution blocks to denoize the reflection component. The enhancement network uses frequency information, combined with attention mechanism and residual density network to enhance contrast and improve the details of the illumination component. A large number of experiments on public datasets show that our method is superior to existing methods in both quantitative and visual aspects.

Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses of Celery Cytoplasmic Male Sterile Line and Its Maintainer Line.

Male sterility is a common phenomenon in the plant kingdom and based on the organelles harboring the male-sterility genes, it can be classified into the genic male sterility (GMS) and the cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). In every generation, CMS can generate 100% male-sterile population, which is very important for the breeders to take advantage of the heterosis and for the seed producers to guarantee the seed purity. Celery is a cross-pollinated plant with the compound umbel type of inflorescence which carries hundreds of small flowers. These characteristics make CMS the only option to produce the commercial hybrid celery seeds. In this study, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses were performed to identify genes and proteins that are associated with celery CMS. A total of 1255 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 89 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified between the CMS and its maintainer line, then 25 genes were found to differentially expressed at both the transcript and protein levels. Ten DEGs involved in the fleece layer and outer pollen wall development were identified by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses, most of which were down-regulated in the sterile line W99A. These DEGs and DEPs were mainly enriched in the pathways of "phenylpropanoid/sporopollenin synthesis/metabolism", "energy metabolism", "redox enzyme activity" and "redox processes". Results obtained in this study laid a foundation for the future investigation of mechanisms of pollen development as well as the reasons for the CMS in celery.

Characterization of the Molecular Events Underlying the Establishment of Axillary Meristem Region in Pepper.

Plant architecture is a major motif of plant diversity, and shoot branching patterns primarily determine the aerial architecture of plants. In this study, we identified an inbred pepper line with fewer lateral branches, 20C1734, which was free of lateral branches at the middle and upper nodes of the main stem with smooth and flat leaf axils. Successive leaf axil sections confirmed that in normal pepper plants, for either node n, Pn (Primordium n) < 1 cm and Pn+1 < 1 cm were the critical periods between the identification of axillary meristems and the establishment of the region, whereas Pn+3 < 1 cm was fully developed and formed a completely new organ. In 20C1734, the normal axillary meristematic tissue region establishment and meristematic cell identity confirmation could not be performed on the axils without axillary buds. Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that "auxin-activated signaling pathway", "response to auxin", "response to abscisic acid", "auxin biosynthetic process", and the biosynthesis of the terms/pathways, such as "secondary metabolites", were differentially enriched in different types of leaf axils at critical periods of axillary meristem development. The accuracy of RNA-seq was verified using RT-PCR for some genes in the pathway. Several differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to endogenous phytohormones were targeted, including several genes of the PINs family. The endogenous hormone assay showed extremely high levels of IAA and ABA in leaf axils without axillary buds. ABA content in particular was unusually high. At the same time, there is no regular change in IAA level in this type of leaf axils (normal leaf axils will be accompanied by AM formation and IAA content will be low). Based on this, we speculated that the contents of endogenous hormones IAA and ABA in 20C1734 plant increased sharply, which led to the abnormal expression of genes in related pathways, which affected the formation of Ams in leaf axils in the middle and late vegetative growth period, and finally, nodes without axillary buds and side branches appeared.

[Discrimination of different processing degrees and quantitative study of processing end point of vinegar-processing Cyperi Rhizoma pieces based on electronic sensory technology].

In this study, CM-5 spectrophotometer and Heracles NEO ultra-fast gas-phase electronic nose were used to analyze the changes in color and odor of vinegar-processed Cyperi Rhizoma(VPCR) pieces. Various analysis methods such as DFA and partial least squares discriminant analysis(PLS-DA) were combined to identify different processing degrees and quantify the end point of processing. The results showed that with the increase in vinegar processing, the brightness parameter L~* of VPCR pieces decreased gradua-lly, while the red-green value a~* and yellow-blue value b~* initially increased and reached their maximum at 8 min of processing, followed by a gradual decrease. A discriminant model based on the color parameters L~*, a~*, and b~* was established(with a discrimination accuracy of 98.5%), which effectively differentiated different degrees of VPCR pieces. Using the electronic nose, 26 odor components were identified from VPCR samples at different degrees of vinegar processing. DFA and PLS-DA models were established for different degrees of VPCR pieces. The results showed that the 8-min processed samples were significantly distinct from other samples. Based on variable importance in projection(VIP) value greater than 1, 10 odor components, including 3-methylfuran, 2-methylbuty-raldehyde, 2-methylpropionic acid, furfural, and α-pinene, were selected as odor markers for differentiating the degrees of vinegar processing in VPCR. By combining the changes in color and the characteristic odor components, the optimal processing time for VPCR was determined to be 8 min. This study provided a scientific basis for the standardization of vinegar processing techniques for VPCR and the improvement of its quality standards and also offered new methods and ideas for the rapid identification and quality control of the end point of processing for other traditional Chinese medicine.

[Rapid identification and differential markers of Curcumae Radix decoction pieces of different sources based on Heracles Neo ultra-fast gas phase electronic nose].

Since Curcumae Radix decoction pieces have multiple sources, it is difficult to distinguish depending on traditional cha-racters, and the mixed use of multi-source Curcumae Radix will affect its clinical efficacy. Heracles Neo ultra-fast gas phase electronic nose was used in this study to quickly identify and analyze the odor components of 40 batches of Curcumae Radix samples from Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Guangxi. Based on the odor fingerprints established for Curcumae Radix decoction pieces of multiple sources, the odor components was identified and analyzed, and the chromatographic peaks were processed and analyzed to establish a rapid identification method. Principal component analysis(PCA), discriminant factor analysis(DFA), and soft independent modeling cluster analysis(SIMCA) were constructed for verification. At the same time, one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) combined with variable importance in projection(VIP) was employed to screen out the odor components with P<0.05 and VIP>1, and 13 odor components such as ß-caryophyllene and limonene were hypothesized as the odor differential markers of Curcumae Radix decoction pieces of diffe-rent sources. The results showed that Heracles Neo ultra-fast gas phase electronic nose can well analyze the odor characteristics and rapidly and accurately discriminate Curcumae Radix decoction pieces of different sources. It can be applied to the quality control(e.g., online detection) in the production of Curcumae Radix decoction pieces. This study provides a new method and idea for the rapid identification and quality control of Curcumae Radix decoction pieces.