Systematic evaluation of the physicochemical properties and the volatile flavors of yak meat during chilled and controlled freezing-point storage.

In this study, the physicochemical properties (total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), pH, and peroxide value) and the volatile flavors of yak meat were systematically evaluated during chilled (0 °C) and controlled freezing-point (- 2 °C) storage. The TVB-N reached 15.21 mg/100 g after 18 days of storage at 0 °C, which exceeded the secondary freshness value according to the Chinese national standard. For storage at - 2 °C, the TVB-N did not exceed 15 mg/100 g until 24 days. Compared with storage at 0 °C, the samples stored at - 2 °C had a slower rate of increase in TVB-N, pH, and peroxide values. The changes in volatile compounds in yak meat during storage at - 2 °C and 0 °C for 24 days were investigated using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The correlations between the changes in the volatile compound contents and meat quality deterioration revealed significant negative correlations (r min = 0.902, p < 0.05) between some aldehyde flavor components (nonanal, heptanal, benzaldehyde, decanal, and myristal) and TVB-N in the samples stored at controlled freezing-point and chilled temperatures. The decreases in nonanal, benzaldehyde, and myristal contents in yak meat followed zero order reaction kinetics. This result indicated, because of the highly selective and sensitive colorimetric detection method, that volatile compounds can effectively predict the decay in quality of yak meat stored at low temperature in advance. Thus, based on physicochemical and volatile flavor analyses, a new method is proposed to investigate the storage and preservation of yak meat.

Fruit development and ripening orchestrating the biosynthesis and regulation of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides in goji berry.

Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs) are the primary bioactive components in fruits of L. barbarum, commonly known as goji berry. Despite significant progress in understanding the chemical structures and health benefits of LBPs, the biosynthesis and regulation of LBPs in goji berry remains largely unknown. In this study, physiological indicators, including LBPs, were monitored in goji berry during fruit development and ripening (FDR), suggesting that pectin might be the major component of LBPs with increased content reaching 235.8 mg/g DW. Proteomic and transcriptomic analysis show that 6410 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 2052 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified with overrepresentation of flavonoids and polysaccharides-related gene ontology (GO) terms and KEGG pathways. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) showed that LBPs coexpress with genes involved in pectin biosynthesis (LbGALS3, LbGATL5, LbQUA1, LbGAUT1/4/7, LbRGGAT1, LbRRT1/7, and LbRHM2), modification (LbSBT1.7), and regulation (LbAP2, LbGL2 LbTLP2, LbERF4, and LbTTG2), as well as with novel transcription factors (LbSPL9 and LbRIN homologs) and glycosyltransferases. Transgenic hairy roots overexpressing LbRIN validated that LbRIN modulate the expression of WGCNA-predicted regulators, including LbERF4, LbTTG2, and LbSPL9. These findings suggest that the biosynthesis and regulation of LBPs is conserved partially to those in Arabidopsis pectin. Taken together, this study provides valuable insights into the biosynthesis and regulation of LBPs, which can facilitate future studies on synthetic biology applications and genetic improvement of LBPs.

Hybrid Pressure Sensor Based on Carbon Nano-Onions and Hierarchical Microstructures with Synergistic Enhancement Mechanism for Multi-Parameter Sleep Monitoring.

With the existing pressure sensors, it is difficult to achieve the unification of wide pressure response range and high sensitivity. Furthermore, the preparation of pressure sensors with excellent performance for sleep health monitoring has become a research difficulty. In this paper, based on material and microstructure synergistic enhancement mechanism, a hybrid pressure sensor (HPS) integrating triboelectric pressure sensor (TPS) and piezoelectric pressure sensor (PPS) is proposed. For the TPS, a simple, low-cost, and structurally controllable microstructure preparation method is proposed in order to investigate the effect of carbon nano-onions (CNOs) and hierarchical composite microstructures on the electrical properties of CNOs@Ecoflex. The PPS is used to broaden the pressure response range and reduce the pressure detection limit of HPS. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the HPS has a high sensitivity of 2.46 V/104 Pa (50-600 kPa) and a wide response range of up to 1200 kPa. Moreover, the HPS has a low detection limit (10 kPa), a high stability (over 100,000 cycles), and a fast response time. The sleep monitoring system constructed based on HPS shows remarkable performance in breathing state recognition and sleeping posture supervisory control, which will exhibit enormous potential in areas such as sleep health monitoring and potential disease prediction.

Synergistic Enhancement Properties of a Flexible Integrated PAN/PVDF Piezoelectric Sensor for Human Posture Recognition.

The flexible pressure sensor has attracted much attention due to its wearable and conformal advantage. All the same, enhancing its electrical and structural properties is still a huge challenge. Herein, a flexible integrated pressure sensor (FIPS) composed of a solid silicone rubber matrix, composited with piezoelectric powers of polyacrylonitrile/Polyvinylidene fluoride (PAN/PVDF) and conductive silver-coated glass microspheres is first proposed. Specifically, the mass ratio of the PAN/PVDF and the rubber is up to 4:5 after mechanical mixing. The output voltage of the sensor with composite PAN/PVDF reaches 49 V, which is 2.57 and 3.06 times that with the single components, PAN and PVDF, respectively. In the range from 0 to 800 kPa, its linearity of voltage and current are all close to 0.986. Meanwhile, the sensor retains high voltage and current sensitivities of 42 mV/kPa and 0.174 nA/kPa, respectively. Furthermore, the minimum response time is 43 ms at a frequency range of 1-2.5 Hz in different postures, and the stability is verified over 10,000 cycles. In practical measurements, the designed FIPS showed excellent recognition abilities for various gaits and different bending degrees of fingers. This work provides a novel strategy to improve the flexible pressure sensor, and demonstrates an attractive potential in terms of human health and motion monitoring.

EGR1 promotes stemness and predicts a poor outcome of uterine cervical cancer by inducing SOX9 expression.

BACKGROUND: Early growth response-1 (EGR1) is a transcription factor involved in the progression of several cancer types. However, the expression and clinical significance of EGR1 in uterine cervical cancer (CC) have not been elucidated. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression, clinical significance and prognostic value of EGR1 in CC. METHODS: The expression of EGR1 was detected in 13 CCs and paired adjacent tissues with qRT-PCR and in 144 CC tissues with immunohistochemistry (IHC). The IHC scores were used to divide the patients into subsets with low and high EGR1 expression. The correlations between the EGR1 expression and clinicopathological factors were analyzed with the chi-square test, and the prognostic significance of EGR1 expression was evaluated with univariate and multivariate analyses. The functions of EGR1 in the proliferation, invasion and stemness of CC cells were investigated, and the molecular mechanism was assessed by in vitro experiments. RESULTS: High expression of EGR1 was significantly associated with low survival rates of CC. EGR1 is an independent prognostic biomarker of CC, and its high expression predicted a poor outcome. EGR1 facilitated stemness and thus promoted proliferation and invasion of CC cells. SOX9 played an essential role in the EGR1-induced progression of CC cells. CONCLUSIONS: EGR1 is an independent prognostic biomarker of CC. High EGR1 expression promoted proliferation, invasion and stemness by increasing SOX9 expression in CC cells. Our results suggested that the EGR1-SOX9 axis may be a potential drug target and that blocking the EGR1-SOX9 axis may be a possible approach to treating CC.

GPBAR1 Promotes Proliferation of Serous Ovarian Cancer by Inducing Smad4 Ubiquitination.

BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal malignancy of all female cancers and lacks an effective prognostic biomarker. Serous ovarian cancer (SOC) is the most common OC histologic type. The expression and function of bile acid receptor, G-protein-coupled bile acid receptor-1 (GPBAR1), in tumor progression remains controversial, and its clinical significance in SOC is unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In our study, we detected the expression of GPBAR1 in SOCs and normal ovarian tissues with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry to detect its expression pattern. Moreover, the prognostic significance of GPBAR1 was investigated with univariate and multivariate analyses. The function of GPBAR1 in regulating SOC proliferation was studied and the underlying mechanism was investigated with experiments in vitro. RESULTS: GPBAR1 was overexpressed in SOCs compared with the normal ovarian tissues. In the 166 SOCs, subsets with low and high GPBAR1 accounted for 57.23% and 42.77%, respectively. Moreover, our results suggested that GPBAR1 expression was significantly associated with poor prognosis and can be considered as an independent prognostic biomarker. With experiments in vitro, we suggested that GPBAR1 promoted SOC proliferation by increasing Smad4 ubiquitination, which required the involvement of GPBAR1-induced ERK phosphorylation. CONCLUSIONS: GPBAR1 was overexpressed in SOC and predicted the poor prognosis of SOC. We showed that GPBAR1 promoted SOC proliferation by activating ERK and ubiquitining Smad4. Our results suggested that GPBAR1 was a supplement to better classify SOC on the basis of the molecular profile and that GPBAR1 may be a potential drug target of SOC.

Cul4B promotes the progression of ovarian cancer by upregulating the expression of CDK2 and CyclinD1.

BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the female reproductive system with the highest mortality rate. Cul4B participates in the oncogenesis and progression of several malignant tumors. However, the role of Cul4B in ovarian cancer has not been studied. RESULTS: High expression of intratumor Cul4B was associated with poor patient survival. Cul4B expression was associated with FIGO stage and Cul4B was independent risk factor of ovarian cancer disease-free survival and overall survival. In vitro studies revealed that overexpression of Cul4B promoted tumor proliferation while knockdown of Cul4B significantly inhibited the proliferation capacity of ovarian cancer cells. Mechanistically, Cul4B was found to promotes cell entering S phase from G0/G1 phase by regulating the expression of CDK2 and CyclinD1. Cul4B regulates the expression of CDK2 and CyclinD1 by repressing miR-372. CONCLUSIONS: The results revealed that high expression of Cul4B is associated with poor ovarian cancer prognosis and Cul4B may serve as a potential treating target for an adjuvant therapy.