Pollution characteristics, sources, and health risks of phthalate esters in ambient air: A daily continuous monitoring study in the central Chinese city of Nanchang.

In recent years, the atmospheric pollution caused by phthalate esters (PAEs) has been increasing due to the widespread use of PAE-containing materials. Existing research on atmospheric PAEs lacks long-term continuous observation and samples from cities in central China. To investigate the pollution characteristics, sources, and health risks of PAEs in the ambient air of a typical city in central China, daily PM2.5 samples were collected in Nanchang from November 2020 to October 2021. In this study, the detection and quantification of six significant PAE contaminants, namely diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP), and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), were accomplished using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The results revealed that the concentrations of DEP, DnBP, DEHP, and DnOP were relatively high. Higher temperatures promote the volatilization of PAEs, leading to an increase in the gaseous and particulate PAE concentrations in warm seasons and winter pollution scenarios. The results of principal component analysis show that PAEs mainly come from volatile products and polyvinylchloride plastics. Using positive matrix factorization analysis, it is shown that these two sources contribute 67.0% and 33.0% in atmosphere PAEs, respectively. Seasonally, the contribution of volatile products to both gaseous and particulate PAEs substantially increases during warm seasons. The residents in Nanchang exposed to PAEs have a negligible non-cancer risk and a potential low cancer risk. During the warm seasons, more PAEs are emitted into the air, which will increase the toxicity of PAEs and their impact on human health.

ANKRD2 expression combined with TNFRSF19 expression for evaluating the prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Objective: As an important chemotherapy drug, cisplatin has been widely used in the treatment of many cancers. However, many patients, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients, experience unacceptable outcomes from cisplatin treatment. Thus, we devised a risk model for predicting the sensitivity of OSCC patients to cisplatin treatment, to provide a reference for clinical practice. Methods: CAL-27 and SCC-9 cell lines treated or not with cisplatin and data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were screened for simultaneously and significantly differentially expressed genes. Next, we built a risk model for predicting cisplatin sensitivity in OSCC patients. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), pathological samples and clinical data were used to examine the reliability of the model. Results: ANKRD2 and TNFRSF19 were differentially expressed between the OSCC metastasis cell line HSC-3 treated and not treated with cisplatin, as well as between the OSCC cell line SCC-25 and the cell line SCC25-DDP, which has cisplatin chemoresistance. We found that the expression of ANKRD2 and TNFRSF19 had a significant influence on the prognosis of OSCC patients. The risk model that combined ANKRD2 and TNFRSF19 to predict sensitivity to cisplatin in OSCC patients was confirmed by analysing the pathological samples and follow-up information of clinical patients. Conclusions: The expression of ANKRD2 and TNFRSF19 is associated with cisplatin sensitivity and prognosis in patients with OSCC. The survival outcome of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) was found to be significantly worse in those with high expression of ANKRD2 combined with low expression of TNFRSF19. ANKRD2 and TNFRSF19 may be targets for cisplatin sensitivity prediction in OSCC patients. These findings may provide novel strategies for overcoming cisplatin resistance.

An automatic texture feature analysis framework of renal tumor: surgical, pathological, and molecular evaluation based on multi-phase abdominal CT.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the texture feature analysis of multi-phase abdominal CT can provide a robust prediction of benign and malignant, histological subtype, pathological stage, nephrectomy risk, pathological grade, and Ki67 index in renal tumor. METHODS: A total of 1051 participants with renal tumor were split into the internal cohort (850 patients from four different hospitals) and the external testing cohort (201 patients from another local hospital). The proposed framework comprised a 3D-kidney and tumor segmentation model by 3D-UNet, a feature extractor for the regions of interest based on radiomics and image dimension reduction, and the six classifiers by XGBoost. A quantitative model interpretation method called SHAP was used to explore the contribution of each feature. RESULTS: The proposed multi-phase abdominal CT model provides robust prediction for benign and malignant, histological subtype, pathological stage, nephrectomy risk, pathological grade, and Ki67 index in the internal validation set, with the AUROC values of 0.88 ± 0.1, 0.90 ± 0.1, 0.91 ± 0.1, 0.89 ± 0.1, 0.84 ± 0.1, and 0.88 ± 0.1, respectively. The external testing set also showed impressive results, with AUROC values of 0.83 ± 0.1, 0.83 ± 0.1, 0.85 ± 0.1, 0.81 ± 0.1, 0.79 ± 0.1, and 0.81 ± 0.1, respectively. The radiomics feature including the first-order statistics, the tumor size-related morphology, and the shape-related tumor features contributed most to the model predictions. CONCLUSIONS: Automatic texture feature analysis of abdominal multi-phase CT provides reliable predictions for multi-tasks, suggesting the potential usage of clinical application. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: The automatic texture feature analysis framework, based on multi-phase abdominal CT, provides robust and reliable predictions for multi-tasks. These valuable insights can serve as a guiding tool for clinical diagnosis and treatment, making medical imaging an essential component in the process. KEY POINTS: • The automatic texture feature analysis framework based on multi-phase abdominal CT can provide more accurate prediction of benign and malignant, histological subtype, pathological stage, nephrectomy risk, pathological grade, and Ki67 index in renal tumor. • The quantitative decomposition of the prediction model was conducted to explore the contribution of the extracted feature. • The study involving 1051 patients from 5 medical centers, along with a heterogeneous external data testing strategy, can be seamlessly transferred to various tasks involving new datasets.

Changes in the Physical Properties and Volatile Odor Characteristics of Shiitake Mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) in Far Infrared Radiation Drying.

The effects of far infrared radiation drying (FID) on physical properties (drying kinetics, color, shrinkage ratio, rehydration ratio, and microstructural characterization) and volatile odor characteristics (volatile odor profile distinction and volatile compounds) of shiitake mushrooms were evaluated in this study. During the FID, the drying time decreased with the increase in drying temperature, and it had a less significant effect in the lower temperature range. The increase in drying temperature led to increasing shrinkage and collapse in the microstructure, resulting in a decreased rehydration rate and highlighting the influence of microstructure characteristics on macroscopic properties. Higher drying temperatures employed in the FID process were found to be associated with a decreasing L* value and an increasing ΔE value. The application of principal component analysis can effectively distinguish the significant effect of FID on the volatile odor profiles of shiitake mushrooms. Compared to raw shiitake mushrooms, FID treatment has endowed samples with a greater variety of volatile compounds. After processing with FID, there have been increases in volatile components such as sulfur compounds, acids, nitrogen compounds, and aldehydes, while volatile components like alcohols, ketones, and hydrocarbons have shown decreases.

Exosomal circKIAA1797 Regulates Cell Progression and Glycolysis by Targeting miR-4429/PBX3 Pathway in Gastric Cancer.

In recent years, circular RNAs (circRNAs) are extensively studied in the progression of various types of cancer, while the mechanism of circKIAA1797 is rarely studied in gastric cancer (GC). Hence, this research aimed to investigate the expression of exosomal circKIAA1797 and its biological function in GC cells. Exosomes were extracted from the serum of GC patients and identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanoparticle tracking analyzer (NTA). CD81, CD63, Bcl-2, Bax, and pre-leukemia transcription factor 3 (PBX3) protein levels were detected using western blot assay. circKIAA1797, microRNA-4429 (miR-4429), and PBX3 mRNA were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis were assessed using colony formation assay, 5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay, transwell assay, and flow cytometry assay. Glucose consumption and lactate production levels were examined using glycolysis detection kits. The interaction between miR-4429 and circKIAA1797 or PBX3 was identified using dual-luciferase reporter assay, RNA pull-down assay, and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. Xenograft mouse model assay was used to investigate the effect of exosomal circKIAA1797 in vivo. It was found that circKIAA1797 was up-regulated in GC tissues and cells, as well as in the exosomes derived from the serum of GC patients. Silencing of exosomal circKIAA1797 could hamper cell progression and glycolytic metabolism of GC. Mechanically, circKIAA1797 acted as a sponge of miR-4429 to regulate PBX3 expression. Moreover, the knockdown of exosomal circKIAA1797 repressed tumor growth in vivo. Our data demonstrated that knockdown of exosomal circKIAA1797 suppressed GC malignant phenotypes by regulating miR-4429/PBX3 axis, which might offer a promising therapeutic strategy for GC treatment.

SDC2 Stabilization by USP14 Promotes Gastric Cancer Progression through Co-option of PDK1.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a common malignancy and remains the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Oncogenic potential of SDC2 has been implicated in multiple types of cancers, yet its role and underlying molecular mechanisms in GC remain unknown. Here, we found that SDC2 was highly expressed in GC and its upregulation correlated with poor prognosis in GC patients. Depletion of SDC2 significantly suppressed the growth and invasive capability of GC cells, while overexpressing SDC2 exerts opposite effects. Combined bioinformatics and experimental analyses substantiated that overexpression of SDC2 activated the AKT signaling pathway in GC, mechanistically through the interaction between SDC2 and PDK1-PH domain, thereby facilitating PDK1 membrane translocation to promote AKT activation. Moreover, SDC2 could also function as a co-receptor for FGF2 and was profoundly involved in the FGF2-AKT signaling axis in GC. Lastly, we revealed a mechanism on the USP14-mediated stabilization of SDC2 that is likely to contribute to SDC2 upregulation in GC tissues. Furthermore, we showed that IU1, a potent USP14 inhibitor, decreased the abundance of SDC2 in GC cells. Our findings indicate that SDC2 functions as a novel GC oncogene and has potential utility as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for GC.

Post-harvest ripening affects drying behavior, antioxidant capacity and flavor release of peach via alteration of cell wall polysaccharides content and nanostructures, water distribution and status.

Effect of post-harvest ripening on cell wall polysaccharides nanostructures, water status, physiochemical properties of peaches and drying behavior under hot air-infrared drying was evaluated. Results showed that the content of water soluble pectins (WSP) increased by 94 %, while the contents of chelate-soluble pectins (CSP), Na2CO3-soluble pectins (NSP) and hemicelluloses (HE) decreased during post-harvest ripening by 60 %, 43 %, and 61 %, respectively. The drying time increased from 3.5 to 5.5 h when the post-harvest time increased from 0 to 6 days. Atomic force microscope analysis showed that depolymerization of hemicelluloses and pectin occurred during post-harvest ripening. Time Domain -NMR observations indicated that reorganization of cell wall polysaccharides nanostructure changed water spatial distribution and cell internal structure, facilitated moisture migration, and affected antioxidant capacity of peaches during drying. This leads to the redistribution of flavor substances (heptanal, n-nonanal dimer and n-nonanal monomer). The current work elucidates the effect of post-harvest ripening on the physiochemical properties and drying behavior of peaches.

CD79A work as a potential target for the prognosis of patients with OSCC: analysis of immune cell infiltration in oral squamous cell carcinoma based on the CIBERSORTx deconvolution algorithm.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the abundance of infiltrating tumor immune cells in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to search for potential targets that can predict patient prognosis. METHODS: A total of 400 samples from 210 patients with OSCC were collected using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. CIBERSORTx was used to evaluate the infiltration abundance of tumor immune cells. Potential target genes were searched to predict patient prognosis through case grouping, differential analysis, and enrichment analysis. Surgical excisional tissue sections of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma admitted to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, from 2015 to 2018 were collected and followed up. RESULTS: The CIBERSORTx deconvolution algorithm was used to analyze the infiltration abundance of immune cells in the samples. Cases with a high infiltration abundance of naive and memory B lymphocytes improved the prognosis of OSCC patients. The prognosis of patients with low CD79A expression was significantly better than that of patients with high CD79A expression. CONCLUSION: CD79A can predict the infiltration abundance of B lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment of patients with OSCC. CD79A is a potential target for predicting the prognosis of patients with OSCC. This study provides novel ideas for the treatment of OSCC and for predicting patient prognosis.

Dietary intake of one-carbon metabolism-related nutrients and hepatocellular carcinoma survival in the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort.

Dietary intake of one-carbon metabolism-related nutrients has been linked to cancer-related outcomes, but their effects on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mortality are still unknown. The objective was to assess whether pre-diagnostic dietary intakes of methionine, folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, riboflavin and niacin are associated with HCC survival in this prospective cohort study. In total, 905 newly diagnosed HCC patients were recruited in the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort study between September 2013 and April 2017. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated 79-item food frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazard regression models were utilized to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the overall and HCC-specific mortality. During a median of 791 days of follow-up, we documented 395 deaths, 353 (89%) of which resulted from HCC. The multivariate-adjusted HRs in the highest vs. the lowest quartile of methionine intake were 0.59 (95% CI: 0.42-0.80; P for trend = 0.001) for overall mortality and 0.68 (95% CI: 0.49-0.93; P for trend = 0.027) for HCC-specific mortality. However, no significant association of other micronutrients involved in one-carbon metabolism with HCC survival was observed. Our research suggests that a high level of methionine intake, but no other one-carbon metabolism-related nutrients, may improve survival in patients with newly diagnosed HCC.

Quercetin encapsulated in folic acid-modified liposomes is therapeutic against osteosarcoma by non-covalent binding to the JH2 domain of JAK2 Via the JAK2-STAT3-PDL1.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant solid tumor prone to lung metastasis that occurs in adolescents aged 15-19 years. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgical treatment aimed at curing OS have gained limited progress over the last 30 years. Exploring new effective second-line therapies for OS patients is a serious challenge for researchers. Quercetin, a multiple biologically active polyphenolic flavonoid, has been used in tumor therapy. However, the exact mechanism of quercetin is still unknown, which limits the application of quercetin. In the current study, we found that quercetin could inhibit JAK2 through the JH2 domain in a non-covalent manner, resulting in the inhibition of OS proliferation and immune escape via the JAK2-STAT3-PD-L1 signaling axis. More importantly, to overcome the shortcomings of quercetin, including low water solubility and low oral availability, we encapsulated it with folic acid-modified liposomes. The transportation of quercetin by folic acid-modified liposomes may provide a feasible strategy to cure OS.

The effect of high humidity hot air impingement blanching on the changes in cell wall polysaccharides and phytochemicals of okra pods.

BACKGROUND: Okra pods contain heat-sensitive substances, such as phenolic compounds and other phytochemicals that can be degraded when okra pods are subjected to heat treatment. The understanding of the impact of high humidity hot air impingement blanching (HHAIB) on the changes in physicochemical properties of polysaccharides and phytochemicals of okra pods is of great importance because over-blanching may result in cell membrane disruption and changes in biologically active compounds under prolonged exposure to the thermal treatment. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of HHAIB on the changes in physicochemical properties of pectins and phytochemicals extracted from okra pods. RESULTS: Both the HHAIB time and method of extraction influenced their physicochemical characteristics and biological activity. Pectin fractions subjected to HHAIB were composed of polygalacturonic acid, rhamnogalacturonan, glucomannan, galactan, mannose, arabinose, rhamnose, calcium pectate and arabinogalactan. The contents of total phenolics, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity of extracts mostly increased during HHAIB (i.e. up to 19.0%, 13.2% and 35.3%, respectively). However, HHAIB reduced the chlorophyll-a (up to 55.7%) and lycopene (up to 52.6%) contents of okra pods. CONCLUSION: The acquired knowledge may be useful for better understanding and optimization of technologies based on HHAIB treatment. The HHAIB treated okra can be a promising natural alternative in different applications, including its use as a replacement of some ingredients in food or non-food systems as a result of richness in polysaccharides and polyphenols, as well as high antioxidant properties. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Pulsed Vacuum Drying of Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.): Effect of High-Humidity Hot Air Impingement Blanching Pretreatment on Drying Kinetics and Quality Attributes.

With a high moisture content, fresh peppers are perishable and rot easily. Drying is essential for shelf-life extension. The natural thin wax layer on the pepper surface hinders moisture transfer. Traditionally, chemical dipping or mechanical pricking is used to remove this wax layer. However, in chemical dipping, chemical residues can trigger food-safety issues, while the low efficiency of mechanical pricking hinders its industrial application. Feasible pretreatment methods are advantageous for industrial use. Here, an emerging pretreatment technique (high-humidity hot-air impingement blanching, HHAIB) was used for peppers before drying and its effects on drying characteristics, microstructure, and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity were explored. The impact of drying temperature on color parameters and red pigment content of pulsed-vacuum-dried peppers was also evaluated. PPO activity was reduced to less than 20% after blanching at 110 °C for 60 s. HHAIB reduced drying time and PPO activity and promoted chemical-substance release. Effective water diffusivity was highest (5.01 × 10-10 m2/s) after blanching at 110 °C for 90 s, and the brightness value and red pigment content were highest (9.94 g/kg) at 70 °C. HHAIB and pulsed vacuum drying are promising pretreatment and drying methods for enhancing the drying rate and quality of red peppers.

Effects of vacuum-steam pulsed blanching on drying kinetics, colour, phytochemical contents, antioxidant capacity of carrot and the mechanism of carrot quality changes revealed by texture, microstructure and ultrastructure.

An emerging blanching technology, namely vacuum-steam pulsed blanching (VSPB) was employed to blanch the carrots and its effects on blanching efficiency, microstructure and ultrastructure, drying kinetics, colour, texture, phytochemicals (phenolics and ß-carotene) and antioxidant capacity of carrot slices were explored and compared with the traditional hot water blanching. Results showed that both blanching treatments enhanced the drying velocity and shortened the drying time by 25.9% compared with untreated samples. VSPB yielded higher blanching efficiency, better colour (more red and yellow), greater antioxidant capacity and higher preservation of phytochemicals compared with hot water blanched samples. Especially, compared to hot water blanched carrots, the p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid, and caffeic acid content of VSPB samples increased of 106.6%, 42.0%, and 19.0%, respectively. Interestingly, the chlorogenic acid content in the blanched carrot increased more than 220 times compared to fresh samples. Ultrastructure and microstructure observation clarify the mechanism of quality enhancement of VSPB.

Methylmercury biomagnification in aquatic food webs of Poyang Lake, China: Insights from amino acid signatures.

As the dominant mercury species in fish, methylmercury (MeHg) biomagnifies during its trophic transfer through aquatic food webs. MeHg is known to bind to cysteine, forming the complex of MeHg-cysteine. However, relationship between MeHg and cysteine in large-scale food webs has not been explored and contrasted with MeHg biomagnification models. Here, we quantified the compound-specific nitrogen isotopic analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA), MeHg, and amino acid composition in aquatic organisms of Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China. The trophic positions (TPAA) of organisms ranged from 1.0 ± 0.1-3.7 ± 0.2 based on CSIA-AA approach. The trophic magnification factor (TMF) of MeHg, derived from the regression slope of Log-transformed MeHg in organisms upon their TPAA for the entire food web was 9.5 ± 0.5. Significantly positive regression between MeHg and cysteine (R2 = 0.64, p < 0.01) was documented, suggesting MeHg-cysteine complex may potentially play a critical role in the bioaccumulation of MeHg. Furthermore, TMFs of MeHg calculated with and without cysteine normalization compared well (7.7-8.7) when excluding primary producers. Our results implied that MeHg may biomagnify as the complex of MeHg-cysteine and contribute to our understanding of MeHg trophic transfer at the molecular level.

EGFR promotes the proliferation of quail follicular granulosa cells through the MAPK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway.

Follicles develop into preovulatory follicles during folliculogenesis and the majority of small yellow follicles become atretic and gets reabsorbed. In this study, based the RNA-seq results of duck ovary, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was selected as a candidate gene in follicular development and the role was explored. The results demonstrated that EGFR-P8 was the quail EGFR core promoter. It had an E2F4 binding site within EGFR core promoter. E2F4 overexpression significantly increased EGFR expression in quail granulosa cells (GCs). However, the effect was abolished when the GCs were treated with corynoxeine, an inhibitor of the mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular regulated protein kinase (MAPK/ERK) signaling pathway. Moreover, luciferase reporter assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments showed that E2F4 upregulated the expression of EGFR expression, which increased E2 and P4 production. In addition, EGFR regulated GCs proliferation and affected follicular development. Taken together, our findings suggested that EGFR, which was regulated by E2F4, enhanced the expression of MAPK/ERK pathway components and follicular development. These results provided an important basis for an improved understanding of the MAPK/ERK pathway and new insight into the development of quail follicles.

Association of the TNF-α-308, TNF-α-238 gene polymorphisms with risk of bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis: a meta-analysis.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of TNF-α-308 and TNF-α-238 gene polymorphisms with the risk of bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis (TB) by meta-analysis. By searching PubMed, Web of Science, Wanfang databases, CNKI, Medline, and Cochrane Library, the published articles about studies of the association of the TNF-α-308, TNF-α-238 gene polymorphisms with risk of bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis were collected by two reviewers. Begg's and Egger's tests were performed to assess publication bias. Stata 12.0 software was used for data analysis. The symmetry of the funnel plot indicated no significant publication bias in the Begg's test (A: P=1.00, B: P=0.764), and the results of the Egger's test showed no evidence of publication bias (A: P=0.954, B: P=0.626). Seven studies assessed the relationship between TNF-α-308 gene polymorphisms and risk of bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis risk. The heterogeneity (I2 ) of GG vs. AA or AG was 0% and there was no heterogeneity (χ2 = 0.06 and P=0.944) in a fixed-effects model. There was also a lack of association between TNF-α-308 polymorphism and bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis risk under the recessive model. The remaining models of the TNF-α-308 genotype and further studies of TNF-α-238 did not show a noteworthy association. Overall, there was no significant association between TNF-α-308, TNF-α-238 gene polymorphisms and bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis risk. Our study suggests that tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) gene polymorphisms may not contribute to bone-joint and spinal tuberculosis based on the current evidence.

Effects of high-humidity hot air impingement blanching (HHAIB) pretreatment on the change of antioxidant capacity, the degradation kinetics of red pigment, ascorbic acid in dehydrated red peppers during storage.

Effect of high-humidity hot air impingement blanching on photochemical degradation kinetics (red pigments and ascorbic acid) and antioxidant capacity changes (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydracyl, DPPH and total antioxidant capacity) of red pepper during 6-month storage at ambient temperature in dark was investigated. Ultrastructure of raw and blanched samples was also observed using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Blanching followed by drying resulted in 63-85% and 33-59% reduction in red pigment and ascorbic acid content, respectively. The antioxidant capacity of samples was found to increase after drying. After 6-month storage, further breakdown of red pigment and ascorbic acid was observed. The red pigment degradation followed the first-order reaction kinetics; untreated samples displayed the most red pigment loss, while the Weibull model described well the ascorbic acid degradation kinetics. Ultrastructure observations explained why over-blanching can cause serious phytochemical degradation. The current findings indicate proper blanching pretreatment prevents phytochemicals degradation of dried pepper during storage.

Effect of high-humidity hot air impingement blanching (HHAIB) on drying and quality of red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.).

Effects of high-humidity hot air impingement blanching (HHAIB) under different times (30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, and 240s) on drying characteristics and quality attributes of red peppers in terms of surface colour, red pigment content, microstructure and texture were investigated. Results showed that polyphenol oxidase (PPO) residual activity of the samples decreased with increasing blanching time; it was decreased to 7% after 120s. A first-order fraction model described PPO inactivation well. Suitable HHAIB time can reduce drying time extensively. Pepper surface colour was influenced by different treatments. In terms of red pigment content, there was no significant difference for blanching time under 120s, whereas over blanching (blanching time ⩾150s) can significantly reduce the red pigment content. Microstructure observations indicate that superficial micro-cracks occur, which explain, why HHAIB enhances drying rate. The firmness, hardness, and gumminess of the samples decreased with increase of HHAIB time.

Identification of adipose differentiation-related protein gene in Peking duck and its expression profile in various duck tissues.

Adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP) is a protein which induced during the early onset of the adipose differentiation program and is expressed at high level in mature adipocytes. In the present study, 1311 bp of ADRP in Peking duck (Anas platyrhynchos) was cloned by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. The cloned sequence of ADRP was highly conserved, although relevant changes with respect to human, mouse and chicken were identified. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to determine if the ADRP was expressed in different tissues of male and female Peking ducks. The expression of ADRP was widely distributed in all examined tissues. The expression level of it was highest in abdominal fat and lowest (only few) in lung of male and female Peking ducks.