Construction of Cyclodextrin-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks for Efficient Encapsulation of Menthol.

The application of flavoring ingredients like menthol in the food industry is hindered by their high volatility and poor thermal stability, which lead to significant losses during processing and storage. Encapsulation of flavors into porous materials to obtain inclusion complexes (ICs) has proved to be an efficient strategy. In the present study, we synthesized a series of relatively food-safe three-dimensional anionic cyclodextrin-based covalent organic frameworks (CD-COFs) with spiroborate linkages using a facile microwave-assisted method. The high surface area and newly formed cavitied of COFs significantly enhanced the encapsulation efficiency of menthol compared to native CD materials. Our findings revealed that γ-CD-COF-Li, with Li+ as the counterion, achieved superior encapsulation efficiency of 25.9%, outperforming γ-CD-COF-Na, γ-CD-COF-K and α-CD-COF-Li under the same conditions. Thermal stability measurements show that the menthol/γ-CD-COF-Li-ICs effectively stabilize menthol against heat evaporation at elevated temperatures due to the strengthened interaction between menthol and γ-CD-COF-Li. The promising results of this research suggest that rapid advancements in COF technology will provide new opportunities for enhancing the stability of flavoring ingredients in the food industry.

Analysis of public opinion on employment issues using a combined approach: a case study in China.

To analyze the public opinion related to the employment situation, a combined approach is proposed to study the valuable ideas from social media. Firstly, the popularity of public opinion was analyzed according to the time series from a statistical point of view. Secondly, the feature extraction was carried out on the public opinion information, and the thematic analysis of the employment environment was carried out based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model. Thirdly, the Bert model was used to analyze the sentiment classification and trend of the employment-related public opinion data. Finally, the employment public opinion texts in different regions were studied based on the spatial sequence popularity analysis, keyword difference analysis. A case study in China is conducted to verify the effectiveness of proposed combined approach. Results shown that the popularity of employment public opinion reached the highest level in March 2022. Public opinions towards employment situation are negative. There is a specific relationship between the popularity of employment public opinion in different provinces.

Adsorption of Ni2+ in aqueous solution by KMnO4 modified biomass: investigation on adsorption kinetics and modification mechanism.

In this study, KMnO4 modification was proved to effectively increase the Ni2+ adsorption capacity of biomass. In order to clarify the KMnO4 modification mechanism, the Ni2+ adsorption characteristics of KMnO4 modified corncob (PPCB) under adsorption time, pH and Ni2+ concentration were studied. The results showed that the adsorption was the pseudo second-order kinetic process, indicating that chemisorption was the dominated process, which followed the Langmuir isotherm model and the highest Ni2+ adsorption capacity of PPCB reached 35.6 mg/g. By KMnO4 modification, the corncob was oxidized to generate carboxylates, and the MnO2 (reduction product) was loaded on the modified corncob, both carboxylates and MnO2 increased the Ni2+ adsorption capacity of PPCB. The molecular dynamic results indicated the carboxylate structures had the strongest adsorption capacity. Moreover, the Ni2+ removal efficiency of KMnO4 modified biomass decreased linearly with the increase of lignin content in biomass, while KMnO4 modified lignin showed a good adsorption performance, indicating that the cross-linked structures between lignin and other components in the biomass could inhibit the adsorption capacity of PPCB.

The Soybean Peptide Vglycin Preserves the Diabetic ß-cells through Improvement of Proliferation and Inhibition of Apoptosis.

Replenishment of insulin-producing pancreatic ß-cells would be beneficial in diabetes. The number of ß-cells is maintained primarily by self-neogenesis to compensate for ß-cell failure, loss or dedifferentiation. We present here a polypeptide vglycin, which was isolated and purified from germinating pea seeds. Vglycin exhibited positive effects in our diabetic models by promoting the proliferation and suppressing the apoptosis and dedifferentiation of ß-cells. Vglycin promoted the restoration of ß-cells in both young streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetic SD rats and in aged high-fat diet with (or without) STZ-induced type 2 diabetic C57BL/6 mice. We demonstrated that vglycin triggers this positive signaling by activating the insulin receptor and corresponding transcription factors. Impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in aged T2DM mice were dramatically improved after long-term vglycin treatment, consistent with the altered level of inflammatory factor IL-1ß/6. In addition, energy expenditure and body weights were significantly decreased in the mouse models after vglycin therapy. These results provide insight into the protective effects of vglycin on ameliorating ß-cell function in standing glucolipotoxicity. Thus, vglycin may represent a new therapeutic agent for preventing and treating diabetes by replenishing endogenous insulin-positive cells.

[Biotransformation in vivo/vitro and bioactive properties of rare ginsenoside IH901].

Recent metabolomics research revealed a new ginseng ginsenoside IH901 that is synthesized by intestinal microbial transformation in oral administration of ginseng. IH901 shows various biological activities, including anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-aging. In recent years, great effort has been made to prepare IH901 by microbial and enzymatic transformation in a large scale. In this paper, we reviewed the biotransformation pathways both in vivo and in vitro and bioactive properties of rare ginsenoside IH901.