Physicochemical, digestive and rheological properties of protein from tuna by subcritical dimethyl ether: Focus on process-related indexes.

The process-related physicochemical, digestive and rheological properties of protein prepared by subcritical dimethyl ether extraction (SDEE) were comprehensively investigated and compared with those obtained by pH-shift, to study the industrial potential of SDEE. Two different materials from tuna (meat and liver) were studied in parallel, and SDEE had similar effects on the proteins in them. The protein component was almost unchanged before and after SDEE, while the content of water-soluble protein and alkali-soluble protein was substantially reduced and increased after pH-shift, respectively. We also found that SDEE had superior ability to pH-shift to conserve light metals, remove lipids and heavy metals, and maintain protein structure. Furthermore, SDEE-produced protein powders were easier for humans to digest, and their gelation and emulsification were also superior to those prepared by pH-shift. The aforementioned results suggest that SDEE can remove more impurities, and the obtained protein has outstanding potential in industrial applications.

Ganoderma lucidum promotes sleep through a gut microbiota-dependent and serotonin-involved pathway in mice.

Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine with putative tranquilizing effects. However, the component of G. lucidum that promotes sleep has not been clearly identified. Here, the effect and mechanism of the acidic part of the alcohol extract of G. lucidum mycelia (GLAA) on sleep were studied in mice. Administration of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg GLAA for 28 days promoted sleep in pentobarbital-treated mice by shortening sleep latency and prolonging sleeping time. GLAA administration increased the levels of the sleep-promoting neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine and the Tph2, Iptr3 and Gng13 transcripts in the sleep-regulating serotonergic synapse pathway in the hypothalamus during this process. Moreover, GLAA administration reduced lipopolysaccharide and raised peptidoglycan levels in serum. GLAA-enriched gut bacteria and metabolites, including Bifidobacterium, Bifidobacterium animalis, indole-3-carboxylic acid and acetylphosphate were negatively correlated with sleep latency and positively correlated with sleeping time and the hypothalamus 5-hydroxytryptamine concentration. Both the GLAA sleep promotion effect and the altered faecal metabolites correlated with sleep behaviours disappeared after gut microbiota depletion with antibiotics. Our results showed that GLAA promotes sleep through a gut microbiota-dependent and serotonin-associated pathway in mice.

Giant Piezoresistive Effect of CdS@C Hybrid Nanobelts for Volatile Real-Time Sensor and Erasable Nonvolatile Memory to Stress.

Here, CdS@C nanohybrid composites, where CdS quantum dots (QDs) are uniformly embedded in carbon micro-/nanobelt matrixes, are synthesized via a combustion synthesis followed by a postvulcanization. In the nanohybrids, trap centers are effectively created by the introduction of QDs and moreover their barrier height and filling level can be effectively modulated through a coupling of externally loaded strain and bias. Thus, a single CdS@C micro-/nanobelt-based two-terminal device can exhibit an ultrahigh real-time response to compressive and tensile strains with a tremendous gauge factor of above 104, high sensitivity, and fast response and recovery. More importantly, the trapped charges can be mechanically excited by stress, and furthermore, the stress-triggered high-resistance state can be well-maintained at room temperature and a relatively low operation bias. However, it can be back to its initial low resistance state by loading a relatively large bias, showing a superior erasable stress memory function with a window of about 103. By an effective construction of trap centers in hybrid composites, not only can an ultrahigh performance of volatile real-time stress sensor be obtained under the synergism of external stress and electric field but also can an outstanding erasable nonvolatile stress memory be successfully realized.

6mA-Pred: identifying DNA N6-methyladenine sites based on deep learning.

With the accumulation of data on 6mA modification sites, an increasing number of scholars have begun to focus on the identification of 6mA sites. Despite the recognized importance of 6mA sites, methods for their identification remain lacking, with most existing methods being aimed at their identification in individual species. In the present study, we aimed to develop an identification method suitable for multiple species. Based on previous research, we propose a method for 6mA site recognition. Our experiments prove that the proposed 6mA-Pred method is effective for identifying 6mA sites in genes from taxa such as rice, Mus musculus, and human. A series of experimental results show that 6mA-Pred is an excellent method. We provide the source code used in the study, which can be obtained from http://39.100.246.211:5004/6mA_Pred/.

CuMoxW(1-x)O4 Solid Solution Display Visible Light Photoreduction of CO2 to CH3OH Coupling with Oxidation of Amine to Imine.

The photoreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to valuable fuels is a promising strategy for the prevention of rising atmospheric levels of CO2 and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves. However, most reported photocatalysts are only active in the ultraviolet region, which necessitates co-catalysts and sacrificial agents in the reaction systems, leading to an unsatisfied economy of the process in energy and atoms. In this research, a CuMoxW(1-x)O4 solid solution was synthesized, characterized, and tested for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 in the presence of amines. The results revealed that the yield of CH3OH from CO2 was 1017.7 µmol/g under 24 h visible light irradiation using CuW0.7Mo0.3O4 (x = 0.7) as the catalyst. This was associated with the maximum conversion (82.1%) of benzylamine to N-benzylidene benzylamine with high selectivity (>99%). These results give new insight into the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 for valuable chemical products in an economic way.

6mA-RicePred: A Method for Identifying DNA N 6-Methyladenine Sites in the Rice Genome Based on Feature Fusion.

MOTIVATION: The biological function of N 6-methyladenine DNA (6mA) in plants is largely unknown. Rice is one of the most important crops worldwide and is a model species for molecular and genetic studies. There are few methods for 6mA site recognition in the rice genome, and an effective computational method is needed. RESULTS: In this paper, we propose a new computational method called 6mA-Pred to identify 6mA sites in the rice genome. 6mA-Pred employs a feature fusion method to combine advantageous features from other methods and thus obtain a new feature to identify 6mA sites. This method achieved an accuracy of 87.27% in the identification of 6mA sites with 10-fold cross-validation and achieved an accuracy of 85.6% in independent test sets.

Chemical characterization and bioactivity of phenolics from Tieguanyin oolong tea.

Phenolics are the main bioactive components in tea and greatly contribute to human health. Three phenolic-enriched extracts, the ethyl acetate fraction (TEF), n-butanol fraction (TBF), and water fraction (TWF), were obtained from Tieguanyin oolong tea, which is considered a typical type of semi-fermented tea. The chemicals in the extracts and their antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity against 4T1 breast cancer cells were investigated in the present work. TEF was found to have the highest contents of phenolics, flavonoids, procyanidins, sugars, and catechin monomers. Meanwhile, TEF exhibited the strongest antioxidant capacity, which may be due to its abundant bioactive compounds, as validated by Pearson correlation and hierarchical clustering analysis. Furthermore, TEF showed greater inhibition of the growth of 4T1 murine breast cancer cells than TBF and TWF. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Fermentation during the processing of oolong tea causes many alterations in polyphenols, leading to different bioactivities. In the present work, three phenolic-enriched extracts, the ethyl acetate fraction (TEF), n-butanol fraction (TBF), and water fraction (TWF), were obtained from Tieguanyin oolong tea. Further tests showed that TEF and TBF from Tieguanyin oolong tea possessed remarkable antioxidant activity and inhibitory potential inhibition of the growth of 4T1 murine breast cancer cells in vitro due to their main bioactive compounds, including phenolics and flavonoids. Thus, the phenolic-enriched extracts from Tieguanyin tea are expected to have a potential application in the food and pharmaceutical industries after further study.

Enhanced visible light catalysis activity of CdS-sheathed SrAl2O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ nanocomposites.

SrAl2O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ long afterglow phosphors with one-dimensional nanostructures were synthesized by a hydrothermal method followed by post-annealing, and subsequently CdS was uniformly coated on their surfaces by a sol-gel approach. The nanocomposite system can significantly enhance the photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange and hexavalent chromium under ultraviolet and visible light irradiation. After the modification treatment with a 1 : 2 molar ratio of CdS to SrAl2O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ nanophosphors, the degradation rate of methyl orange can increase by 2.5 times and reach a maximum of 96.3% under visible light illumination for 30 min. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity originates from the improvement of light usage efficiency due to the hole migration from SrAl2O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ phosphors to the CdS semiconductor and the reutilization of SrAl2O4:Eu2+,Dy3+ luminescence.

Production and Functionality of Food-derived Bioactive Peptides: A Review.

Proteins are present in a wide range of our everyday foods and complex macromolecules made up of one or more polypeptide chains. From these common foods, a large number of bioactive peptides can be produced. An array of biological health effects has been attributed to these peptides, including antioxidative, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anticoagulant, antithrombotic, antiinflammatory, hypocholesterolemic and immunomodulating. The chemical structure of biologically active peptides is closely related to its specific biological activity. Furthermore, the amino acid composition and sequence information of peptide molecular chain have an important influence on its physiological activity. Food-derived bioactive peptides are typically released from animal and plant proteins via enzymatic hydrolysis under in vitro or in vivo conditions using different kinds of protease. However, the production, separation and purification of bioactive peptides with desired specific functions have become a focus and challenge. In addition, further studies are needed on the mechanism of action and multiple biological functionalities. Theresent review focuses on the recent biotechnological advances in the production, purification and identification of bioactive peptides were. Structure-activity relationship and methods to evaluate several common food-derived bioactive peptides were reviewed as well.

Studies on the bioactivity of aqueous extract of pu-erh tea and its fractions: in vitro antioxidant activity and α-glycosidase inhibitory property, and their effect on postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic mice.

Despite abundant research that has been carried out on the potential health benefits of pu-erh tea, no consensus till now, has been reached on which constituent is mainly responsible for its bioactivity. In this work, the aqueous extract (AE) and its fraction enriched with active constituents were prepared from pu-erh tea, and their bioactivities were investigated. It was found that tea polyphenols (TP), tea polysaccharides (TPS), caffeine (Caf), protein (Pro), amino acids (AA) were accumulated in several fractions after solvent extraction despite not being separated completely. Meanwhile, 95% ethanol precipitate (EP) and ethyl acetate fraction (EF) possessed remarkable antioxidant activity and potent inhibitory effects against α-glycosidase in vitro. Furthermore, all the extracts (50 mg/kg BW) showed a significant (p<0.05) effect on postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic mice as compared with a model group, and the suppression of EP was not significantly (p>0.05) different from that of acarbose at the same dosage (50 mg/kg BW), which indicate that these fractions could be developed as potential anti-diabetic agents.