Exploration of green preparation strategy for Lycium barbarum polysaccharide targeting Bacteroides proliferative and immune-enhancing activities and its potential use in geriatric foods.

Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) is beneficial for elderly people, but its use is limited in geriatric foods due to the lack of comprehensive information on its preparation strategy and physical property. In this study, the low-ester rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I) type pectic polysaccharide-protein complexes with varying physicochemical properties, structural characteristics, proliferative activities on Bacteroides, and immune-enhancing activities on RAW 264.7 cells, were obtained by moderate-temperature acid extraction within adjustment of enzymatic and physical pretreatments. LBP prepared by moderate-temperature acid extraction, namely S1-A, showed the strongest immune-enhancing activity via increasing the phagocytosis capacity and NO release of RAW 264.7 cells by 23 % and 76 %, respectively. S1-A exhibited relatively high viscosity and calcium ion response characteristic with the application potential for thickened liquid foods for the elderly with dysphagia. LBP prepared by composite cellulase and pectinase pretreatment combined with moderate-temperature acid extraction, namely S1-M1, showed the strongest Bacteroides proliferative activity that was equivalent to 0.60-0.97 times of that of inulin. S1-M1 exhibited extremely low viscosity and strong tolerance to food nutrients with high processing applicability for fluid foods. This study provided crucial data for the preparation and application of LBP targeting gut microbiota disorders and immunosenescence for the development of geriatric foods.

Discourse Task Type-Specific Linguistic Characteristics in Anomic Aphasia and Healthy Controls: Evidence From Mandarin-Chinese AphasiaBank.

PURPOSE: This study was designed to examine the hypothesis that discourse task types influence language performance in Mandarin Chinese-speaking people and to reveal the discourse task-specific linguistic properties of persons with anomic aphasia compared to neurotypical controls. METHOD: Language samples from persons with aphasia (n = 31) and age- and education-matched controls (n = 31) across four discourse tasks (sequential-picture description, single-picture description, story narrative, and procedural discourse) were collected from Mandarin AphasiaBank. Task-specific distributions of parts of speech were analyzed using mosaic plots. The main effects of tasks in each group and the between-group differences within each task for several typical linguistic variables were evaluated, including the mean length of utterance, tokens, moving-average type-token ratio, words per minute, propositional density, noun-verb ratio, noun percentage, and verb percentage. RESULTS: The results revealed an impact of discourse tasks on most language variables in both groups. In the healthy controls, story narratives yielded the highest total words and lowest verb percentage. In the aphasia group, procedural discourse elicited the fewest total words and densest expressions, whereas their single-picture descriptions had the highest noun-verb ratio. For all tasks, the aphasia group performed worse than the control group in the mean length of utterance, tokens, moving-average type-token ratio, and words per minute. For noun-verb ratio, noun percentage, and verb percentage, only one task (i.e., single-picture description) showed significant between-group differences. CONCLUSION: The selection of discourse tasks should be addressed in assessments and interventions for Mandarin Chinese-speaking individuals with aphasia to obtain more accurate and feasible outcomes.

Correct Information Unit Analysis in Different Discourse Tasks Among Persons With Anomic Aphasia Based on Mandarin AphasiaBank.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore how well persons with anomic aphasia communicate information during discourse regarding quantity, quality, and efficiency compared to neurotypical controls, to investigate the influence of discourse tasks on informativeness and efficiency and to examine impact factors like aphasia severity and cognitive ability. METHOD: Language samples of four discourse tasks from 31 persons with anomic aphasia and 31 neurotypical controls were collected from Mandarin AphasiaBank. Correct information unit (CIU) analysis measures including the total number of CIUs, percentage of CIUs, CIUs per minute, and words per minute were calculated. Group differences and the effects of discourse tasks on informativeness and efficiency were investigated. Correlations of CIU analysis measures with aphasia severity and cognitive ability were examined. RESULTS: Persons with anomic aphasia showed lower efficiency in conveying information than controls. They underperformed controls on all CIU analysis measures when executing story narrative tasks. Discourse tasks influenced the informativeness and efficiency of both groups. Neurotypical controls delivered the greatest quantity of information most efficiently when narrating stories. Persons with anomic aphasia exhibited reduced quantity of information during procedural discourse and displayed superior information quality in sequential-picture descriptions. Discourse information may be impacted by aphasia severity and cognitive ability, with varying effects depending on the task. CONCLUSIONS: Persons with anomic aphasia are inefficient in communicating discourse messages and perform poorly on all measures in story narratives. When measuring discourse information, the effects of discourse tasks and factors like aphasia severity and cognitive ability should be considered.

How humour travels in the new and dynamic mediascape: a case study of a short video platform, Little Red Book, and an online teaching platform, Rain Classroom.

As a vital part of translation studies, humour has drawn scholarly attention for decades, with classifications that range from Zabalbeascoa's (The Translator 2(2):235-257, 1996) six types of jokes to Chiaro and Piferi's (It's green! It's cool! It's Shrek! Italian children, laughter and subtitles. In: Di Giovanni E, Elefante C, Pederzoli R (eds) Écrire Et Traduire Pour Les Enfants-writing and translating for children. Peter Lang, Brussels, 2010, p. 285) "Verbally Expressed Humour". However, they are mainly related to printed pages, theatre, and film. Little research touches on the new media, which significantly impacts how information is produced and disseminated and how consumers react to and engage with these trendy platforms (Díaz-Cintas, Remael. Audiovisual translation: subtitling. Routledge, London and New York, 2021, p. 1). This significant gap in the video-sharing platforms on humour translation is the focus of this paper which intends to fill. This paper explores how humour is created and reconstructed in the dominant and constantly evolving new media era. Driven by the niche of an interdisciplinary study concerning humour and creative subtitles, the present research conducts a linguistic and semiotic analysis of humorous discourses and emojis in the Chinese contexts of the short video platform Little Red Book and the online teaching platform Rain Classroom. As the study implies, humour can be strengthened through diverse semiotic possibilities to provide better viewing experiences that bring about entertaining and educational outcomes.

Optimization design of the sound absorbing structure of double-layer porous metal material with air layer based on genetic algorithm.

An acoustic absorption structure of a double-layer porous metal material with air layers is proposed. The Johnson-Champoux-Allard (JCA) model combined with the transfer matrix method (TMM) was used to establish the theoretical calculation model of the sound absorption coefficient (SAC). Meanwhile, the SAC between 500 and 6300 Hz were measured with an impedance tube. The errors between the theoretical and experimental values were compared to illustrate the good predictability of the theoretical model within the inverse estimations of the transport properties. The effects of the material placement order, material thickness, and cavity depth on the sound absorption performance from 200 to 5000 Hz were analyzed using the theoretical model. Further, a multi-objective function genetic algorithm was used to optimize the porous material's thickness and SAC to obtain an acoustic structure with a smaller thickness and higher sound absorption. A series of optimal solutions were obtained for acoustic structures with a total thickness of less than 70 mm. When the total thickness of the foam metal was 33.57 mm, the average SAC reached 0.853, which was significantly lower than the total thickness of the previous experiments. The multi-objective function genetic algorithm can provide a reliable solution for the optimal design of most sound-absorbing structures.

Prediction of the Sound Absorption Coefficient of Three-Layer Aluminum Foam by Hybrid Neural Network Optimization Algorithm.

The combination of multilayer aluminum foam can have high sound absorption coefficients (SAC) at low and medium frequencies, and predicting its absorption coefficient can help the optimal structural design. In this study, a hybrid EO-GRNN model was proposed for predicting the sound absorption coefficient of the three-layer composite structure of the aluminum foam. The generalized regression neural network (GRNN) model was used to predict the sound absorption coefficient of three-layer composite structural aluminum foam due to its outstanding nonlinear problem-handling capability. An equilibrium optimization (EO) algorithm was used to determine the parameters in the neuronal network. The prediction results show that this method has good accuracy and high precision. The calculation result shows that this proposed hybrid model outperforms the single GRNN model, the GRNN model optimized by PSO (PSO-GRNN), and the GRNN model optimized by FOA(FOA-GRNN). The prediction results are expressed in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), absolute error, and relative error, and this method performs well with an average RMSE of only 0.011.

Illuminating humanist nature in teaching translation and interpreting studies: Devising an online customisable AI-driven subtitling course.

The paper sets out to devise an online subtitling course emphasising the human nature of translation. To gain a deeper understanding of audience behaviours and attitudes towards the consumption of subtitles, the article utilises questionnaires and case studies. Results are used to devise a learner-customised and technology-assisted online course about subtitling. The case studies that inspire the course content and design include the short-video platform Douyin (the Chinese equivalent of TikTok) and the comparison of two MOOCs, Working with Translation: Theories and Practice and Consecutive Interpreting. In summary, the course design for teaching subtitling will be based on the findings of the research questions and elastically adapted to the syllabus. We put forward our course with an emphasis on the practicality of producing subtitles in light of the technological acceleration in the marketplace and, more importantly, the humanistic nature of translation.

Mesoporous adsorbent for competitive adsorption of fluoride ions in zinc sulfate solution.

Al-La hybrid gel was constructed using an innovative acid-catalyzed and calcination free sol-gel formation process which only included a sol-gel process lasting for 30 min and a drying procedure at 150 °C. This novel material was used as an adsorbent for competitive adsorption of fluoride ions in zinc sulfate solution. The properties, optimal adsorption conditions, synthetic principle and adsorption mechanism of the material were systemically investigated. The results showed that γ-AlO(OH) composed the skeleton of the Al-La hybrid gel and La(CH3COO)3 was embedded in the framework, which formed large amounts of ink-bottle type mesopores. A high fluoride ion adsorption rate with the removal rate reaching 50.88% within 1 min at 50 °C, 3 g L-1 was obtained. Analysis of the adsorption data has demonstrated that the adsorption of fluoride ions by the Al-La hybrid gel followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. Moreover, both Langmuir and Freundlich models can describe the adsorption process well. The maximum adsorption capacity of the Al-La hybrid adsorbent was 28.383 mg g-1. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis results indicated that the fluoride ions were mainly removed by the electrostatic adsorption on the AlO(OH), and a small amount of fluoride ions was also adsorbed by the complexation of lanthanum and fluoride ions. Since both AlO(OH) and La(CH3COO)3 had a large number of fluoride ion adsorption sites, the Al-La hybrid gel obtained an ideal adsorption capacity. In addition, the adsorption rate was greatly enhanced by the capillary action existing from the initial to the final stage of adsorption.

Pathogenic variants identified by whole-exome sequencing in 43 patients with epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is a group of neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epilepsy is affected by many factors, approximately 20-30% of cases are caused by acquired conditions, but in the remaining cases, genetic factors play an important role. Early establishment of a specific diagnosis is important to treat and manage this disease. METHODS: In this study, we have recruited 43 epileptic encephalopathy patients and the molecular genetic analysis of those children was performed by whole-exome sequencing (WES). RESULTS: Fourteen patients (32.6%, 14/43) had positive genetic diagnoses, including fifteen mutations in fourteen genes. The overall diagnostic yield was 32.6%. A total of 9 patients were diagnosed as pathogenic mutations, including 4 variants had been reported as pathogenic previously and 6 novel variants that had not been reported previously. Therefore, WES heralds promise as a tool for clinical diagnosis of patients with genetic disease. CONCLUSION: Early establishment of a specific diagnosis, on the one hand, is necessary for providing an accurate prognosis and recurrence risk as well as optimizing management and treatment options. On the other hand, to unveil the genetic architecture of epilepsy, it is of vital importance to investigate the phenotypic and genetic complexity of epilepsy.

Different Dimensions of g-C3N4 Nanomaterials on Sulphur Cathode for Lithium Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium sulfur batteries (Li-S) have been deemed to be the promising energy-storage systems. Nevertheless, the shuttle effect caused by diffusion of polysulfides limit their application. In this work, the different dimensions of g-C3N4 nanomaterials (2D g-C3N4 nanosheets and 3D g-C3N4 nanomesh) were doped in S electrode. Because of the large specific surface area of 3D g-C3N4 nanomesh and strong chemical adsorption of polysulfides can provide better effect for inhibition of shuttling effect and its proper electron passage make electrochemical kinetics of lithium-sulfur battery enhanced. The discharge specific capacity of the 3D g-C3N4 battery is up to 731 mAh/g and longer cycling performance with 540 mAh/g after 180 cycles. This experiment paves the way forward for the application of g-C3N4 on Li-S batteries.

Preparation and Optimization of New High-Power Nanoscale Li4Ti5O12 Full-Cell System.

Lithium ion batteries with graphite negative electrodes have been developed to date due to their low power density, which limits their application in many cases, however. Nanoscale Li4Ti5O12 has higher power density than conventional graphite anode materials. In order to ensure that the full-cell system has high power and high energy, cathode materials are very important. In this paper, three different cathode materials, LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 (NCA), LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 (NCM622), and LiCoO2 (LCO), were used to conduct a comprehensive study, and optimal NCA-Li4Ti5O12(LTO) full battery system was selected under high power conditions. On the basis, in order to further increase battery power density, and in combination with the mechanism of the supercapacitor non-Faradic energy storage, polyaniline activated carbon material (PANI-AC) with excellent capacitance characteristics was prepared. In the end, we proposed a new type of hybrid battery capacitor system with high power and high energy.

Effects of external stimuli on the pacemaker function of the sinoatrial node in sodium channel gene mutations models.

Loss of function and gain of function mutations of the sodium channel were investigated using an intact two-dimensional rabbit sinoatrial node (SAN) and atrial cell model. The effects of three external stimuli (acetylcholine secretion by the vagal nerve, acid-base concentration, and tissue temperature) on cardiac pacemaker function and conduction were studied. Our results show that these two groups of mutations have different effects on pacemaker function and conduction. Furthermore, we found that the negative effects of these mutations could be altered by external stimuli. The bradycardic effects of mutations were magnified by an increase in acetylcholine level. Changes in acid-base concentration and tissue temperature increased the ability of the SAN to recover its pacemaker function. The results of this study increase our understanding of sodium channel disorders, and help to advance research on the treatment of these conditions.