A Numerical Simulation of Moisture Reduction in Fine Soil Subgrade with Wicking Geotextiles.

A new wicking geotextile is proposed to control the water content of fine-grained soil subgrade. By comparing the spatial distribution of volumetric water content and matric suction before and after the installation of the wicking geotextile, the effectiveness of the geotextile in controlling the subgrade humidity is evaluated. Firstly, the hydraulic parameters of the wicking geotextile are obtained through laboratory tests using a pressure plate apparatus. Then, a numerical model for water flow in the subgrade is established using COMSOL to obtain the spatial distribution characteristics of humidity in the subgrade under different groundwater levels (2~8 m). The results show the wicking geotextile exhibits strong hydrophilicity, low water retention, and high horizontal permeability. Compared to the subgrade without geotextile, the water content of the soil above the geotextile decreases significantly by 7.6~9.6% at groundwater levels of 4~8m, while the saturation decreases by 18.3~23.0%, and the matric suction increases by 2~2.3 times. The wicking fabric functions as an effective drainage material to serve as a capillary barrier in the cross-plane direction and an effective drainage tunnel to transport water in the in-plane direction. The dynamic resilient modulus of the subgrade increases by 23.2~43.6%. The wicking geotextile effectively absorbs and drains weakly bound water in unsaturated soil due to the matric suction difference and its horizontal drainage capacity to improve the bearing capacity of the subgrade. It suggests that using wicking geotextile for drainage and reinforcement in fine-grained soil subgrades with groundwater levels ranging from 4 to 8 m is beneficial.

Ringlike late gadolinium enhancement provides incremental prognostic value in non-classical arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND: The 2019 arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) risk model has proved insufficient in the capability of predicting ventricular arrhythmia (VA) risk in non-classical arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM). Furthermore, the prognostic value of ringlike late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) of the left ventricle in non-classical ACM remains unknown. We aimed to assess the incremental value of ringlike LGE over the 2019 ARVC risk model in predicting sustained VA in patients with non-classical ACM. METHODS: In this retrospective study, consecutive patients with non-classical ACM who underwent CMR from January 2011 to January 2022 were included. The pattern of LGE was categorized as no, non-ringlike, and ringlike LGE. The primary outcome was defined as the occurrence of sustained VA. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the impact of LGE patterns on sustained VA and area under curve (AUC) was calculated for the incremental value of ringlike LGE. RESULTS: A total of 73 patients were collected in the final cohort (mean age, 39.3 ± 14.4 years, 51 male), of whom 10 (13.7%) had no LGE, 33 (45.2%) had non-ringlike LGE, and 30 (41.1%) had ringlike LGE. There was no statistically significant difference in the 5-year risk score among the three groups (P = 0.190). During a median follow-up of 34 (13-56) months, 34 (46.6%) patients experienced sustained VA, including 1 (10.0%), 13 (39.4%) and 20 (66.7%) of patients with no, non-ringlike and ringlike LGE, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, ringlike LGE remained independently associated with the presence of sustained VA (adjusted hazard ratio: 6.91, 95% confidence intervals: 1.89-54.60; P = 0.036). Adding ringlike LGE to the 2019 ARVC risk model showed significantly incremental prognostic value for sustained VA (AUC: 0.80 vs. 0.67; P = 0.024). CONCLUSION: Ringlike LGE provides independent and incremental prognostic value over the 2019 ARVC risk model in patients with non-classical ACM.

Sleep disturbances and the risk of lung cancer: a meta-epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between sleep disturbances and lung cancer is complex and bidirectional. This meta-epidemiological study aimed to explore the potential association between sleep disruption and the risk of pulmonary cancer. METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive literature search of the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases to retrieve relevant studies. We employed the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale to assess the quality of the observational studies. Stata 17.0 was used to synthesize and conduct a meta-analysis of odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used funnel plot analysis and Egger's regression test to evaluate potential publication bias. RESULTS: A total of 11 studies were included with 469,691 participants. The methodological quality of the included studies ranged from moderate to high. Compared with 7-8 h of sleep time, short sleep duration was associated with a 13% higher lung cancer risk [OR, 1.13; 95%CI: 1.02-1.25; I2 = 67.6%; P = 0.018] and long sleep duration with a 22% higher risk [OR, 1.22; 95%CI: 1.12-1.33; I2 = 6.9%; P < 0.001]. Insomnia symptoms [OR, 1.11; 95%CI: 1.07-1.16; I2 = 0%; P < 0.001] and evening chronotype [OR, 1.15; 95%CI: 1.05-1.26; P = 0.002] were all related to a higher risk of lung cancer. Egger's test revealed no publication bias for sleep duration (P = 0.13). DISCUSSION: This systematic review is the first one which observes positive correction between sleep disturbances and the incidence of lung cancer. While the plausible mechanism is not clear, it is hypothesized that the association of short sleep duration and lung cancer mainly mediated by melatonin secretion and the immune-inflammatory balance. Further studies are needed to examine whether other risk factors, such as age, occupation, cumulative effect of sleep disturbances might mediate the relationship between sleep disturbances and lung cancer risk. CONCLUSION: The present study revealed that insufficient and excessive sleep duration, insomnia symptoms, and evening chronotype were significantly predictive of an increased risk of lung cancer. This finding underscores the need to account for sleep disturbances as an independent risk factor for evaluating susceptibility to lung cancer. TRIAL REGISTRATION: CRD42023405351.

Ultrahigh Piezocatalytic Performance of Perovskite Ferroelectric Powder via Oxygen Vacancy Engineering.

Piezocatalysis has increasingly gained prominence due to its enormous potential for addressing energy shortages and environmental pollution issues. Nonetheless, the low piezocatalytic activity of state-of-the-art materials seriously inhibits the practical applications of piezocatalysis. Here, it is proposed to greatly enhance the piezocatalytic activity for a perovskite ferroelectric, i.e., Sm-doped 0.68Pb(Mg1/3 Nb2/3 )-0.32PbTiO3 (Sm-PMN-PT, a solid solution with ultrahigh piezoelectricity), by introducing oxygen vacancies (OVs). The results show that the presence of OVs promotes the production of reactive oxygen species while enhancing the adsorption and activation of organic pollutants to improve piezocatalytic performance. The OV-Sm-PMN-PT is found to possess a superior piezocatalytic degradation rate constant of 0.073 min-1 under ultrasonic vibration, which is ≈4.9 times higher than that of pristine Sm-PMN-PT. Furthermore, the OV-Sm-PMN-PT can efficiently remove RhB under 400 rpm stirring, making it a promising candidate for water purification using low-frequency mechanical energy from nature. This research sheds light on the design of piezocatalytic materials via defect engineering.

Lead zirconate titanate ceramics with aligned crystallite grains.

The piezoelectric properties of lead zirconate titanate [Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 or PZT] ceramics could be enhanced by fabricating textured ceramics that would align the crystal grains along specific orientations. We present a seed-passivated texturing process to fabricate textured PZT ceramics by using newly developed Ba(Zr,Ti)O3 microplatelet templates. This process not only ensures the template-induced grain growth in titanium-rich PZT layers but also facilitates desired composition through interlayer diffusion of zirconium and titanium. We successfully prepared textured PZT ceramics with outstanding properties, including Curie temperatures of 360°C, piezoelectric coefficients d33 of 760 picocoulombs per newton and g33 of 100 millivolt meters per newton, and electromechanical couplings k33 of 0.85. This study addresses the challenge of fabricating textured rhombohedral PZT ceramics by suppressing the otherwise severe chemical reaction between PZT powder and titanate templates.

Protective effects of oridonin against osteoporosis by regulating immunity and activating the Wnt3a/ß-catenin/VEGF pathway in ovariectomized mice.

This study was performed with the aim of investigating the effect of oridonin (ORI) on estrogen deprivation-induced osteoporosis in mice and its mechanism. Animal experiments were used in this work to validate the anti-osteoporotic efficacy of ORI. Morphometric analysis was performed by micro-CT. A special protein meter was used to detect the content of immunoglobulin lgM, immunoglobulin lgG, complement C3 and C4 in the serum of mice. The expression of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Treg cell and CD4+/CD8+ lymphocyte subsets in mice was detected by flow cytometry. ELISA was used to detect the content of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). In addition, key signaling molecules in the Wnt3a/ß-catenin signaling pathway were detected by Western blotting. The results showed that compared with the model group, the contents of calcium and phosphorus in the femurs of mice in the ORI groups were increased, and the spleen coefficient was decreased. The ALP activity in the serum of mice in the high and medium dose ORI groups was decreased, and the uterine coefficient was increased. ORI significantly increased the maximum bending load and the maximum bending stress of the femurs of mice, increased the number of trabeculae, and repaired the bone microstructure. At the same time, ORI could significantly increase the levels of immunoglobulin (lgG and lgM) and complement (C3 and C4), increase the activity of peritoneal macrophages in mice, increase the expression of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs and CD4+/CD8+ in the spleen, increase the content of IGF-1, reduce the content of TNF-α, IL-1 and IL-6 and increase the expression levels of VEGF, Wnt3a, p-GSK3ß/GSK3ß and ß-catenin/Lamin in the femoral tissue. These results indicated that ORI might regulate the expression of VEGF through the Wnt3a/ß-catenin signaling pathway, improve the immunity of mice, maintain the balance of the immune system, and promote angiogenesis, thereby improving the bone mineral density and bone tissue morphology of mice and playing an anti-osteoporotic role.

VE-822 upregulates the deubiquitinase OTUD1 to stabilize FHL1 to inhibit the progression of lung adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The deubiquitinase ovarian tumor domain-containing 1 (OTUD1) has been considered as a tumor suppressor in many tumors, but there is minimal research on the role of OTUD1 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) pathogenesis. METHODS: Bioinformatics analyses and western blot were applied for investigating OTUD1 expression in lung cancer and the drug that upregulated OTUD1. Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank test was used for survival analyses. IP-MS and co-IP were performed for identifying potential protein interactions with OTUD1. In vitro and in vivo assays were used for exploring the function of OTUD1 during the progression of LUAD. RESULTS: OTUD1 was dramatically downregulated in tumors and cell lines of human lung cancer. OTUD1 inhibited proliferation and migration of lung cancer cells in vitro. Moreover, OTUD1 inhibited growth of xenografts in nude mice and formation of primary lung tumors in urethane-induced lung cancer model. Mechanistically, we showed that OTUD1 deubiquitinated and stabilized FHL1. Furthermore, we listed and identified VE-822 as a candidate agonist for OTUD1. VE-822 inhibited proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma both in vitro and in vivo. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that the deubiquitinase OTUD1, which was upregulated by VE-822, inhibited the progression of LUAD in vitro and in vivo by deubiquitinating and stabilizing FHL1.

Digestion profile, antioxidant, and antidiabetic capacity of Morchella esculenta exopolysaccharide: in vitro, in vivo and microbiota analysis.

BACKGROUND: Novel functional polysaccharides from fungi are important nutraceuticals. An exopolysaccharide, Morchella esculenta exopolysaccharide (MEP 2), was extracted and purified from the fermentation liquor of M. esculenta. The aim of this study was to investigate its digestion profile, antioxidant capacity, and effect on the microbiota composition in diabetic mice. RESULTS: The study found that MEP 2 was stable during in vitro saliva digestion but was partially degraded during gastric digestion. The digest enzymes exerted a negligible effect on the chemical structure of MEP 2. Molecular weight and atomic force microscope (AFM) images suggest that both smaller chains and larger aggregations were produced. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images reveal that the surface morphology was much altered after intestinal digestion. After digestion, the antioxidant ability increased as revealed by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assays. Both MEP 2 and its digested components showed strong α-amylase and moderate α-glucosidase inhibition activity, leading us to further investigate its ability to modulate the diabetic symptoms. The MEP 2 treatment ameliorated the inflammatory cell infiltration and increased the size of pancreas inlets. Serum concentration of HbA1c was significantly reduced. Blood glucose level during the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was also slightly lower. The MEP 2 increased the diversity of the gut microbiota and modulated the abundance of several important bacteria including Alcaligenaceae, Caulobacteraceae, Prevotella, Brevundimonas, Demequina, and several Lachnospiraceae species. CONCLUSION: It was found that MEP 2 was partially degraded during in vitro digestion. Its potential antidiabetic bioactivity may be associated with its α-amylase inhibition and gut microbiome modulation ability. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Study on the evolution of the pore structure of low rank coal during spontaneous combustion.

Studying the evolution of the pore structure of coal during spontaneous combustion is of great value in further understanding the mechanism of coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) and its prevention. In this study, we selected three low-rank coals and used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to visualize the macroscopic evolution of the pore structure of coal after heat treatment and to analyze the effect of temperature (25-500 °C) on the pore structure of coal, including porosity, permeability, and fractal dimensions. The obtained results show that the overall NMR signal in coal increases with increasing temperature, indicating that heat treatment can induce the enlargement, opening, and interconnection of pores and fractures in coal. The equivalent average pore radius (rm) of coal shows a positive correlation with temperature, with a substantial increase in rm, especially after temperatures above 200 °C. During heating, the porosity and permeability of all three coals tended to increase with temperature. At temperatures above 300 °C, the permeability of coal dramatically increases, predicting a higher fluid transport capacity. Furthermore, NMR multifractal theory was proposed for quantitative pore space dimensional characterization. The obtained results show that the fractal dimensions of the adsorption space of coal pores increase and then decrease with temperature during heating, while the fractal dimensions of percolation space are negatively correlated with temperature. In addition, the dimensions of adsorption space vary more strongly than those of percolation space, meaning that the adsorption capacity of low-rank coals is more significantly influenced by temperature.

Insulin-loaded liposomes packaged in alginate hydrogels promote the oral bioavailability of insulin.

Compared to subcutaneous injections, oral administration of insulin would be a preferred route of drug administration for diabetic patients. For oral delivery, both liposomes and alginate hydrogels face many challenges, including early burst release of the encapsulated drug and poor intestinal drug absorption. Also, adhesion to the intestinal mucosa remains weak, which all result in a low bioavailability of the payload. This study reports on an alginate hydrogel loaded with liposomes for oral insulin administration. Liposomes (Lip) loaded with arginine-insulin complexes (AINS) were incorporated into a hydrogel prepared from cysteine modified alginate (Cys-Alg) to form liposome-in-alginate hydrogels (AINS-Lip-Gel). An ex vivo study proves that intestinal permeation of AINS and AINS-Lip is approximately 2.0 and 6.0-fold, respectively, higher than that of free insulin. The hydrogel retarded early release of insulin (∼30%) from the liposomes and enhanced the intestinal mucosal retention. In vivo experiments revealed that the AINS-Lip-Gel released insulin in a controlled manner and possessed strong hypoglycemic effects. We conclude that liposome-in-alginate hydrogels loaded with AINS represent an attractive strategy for the oral delivery of insulin.

Predictive performance of the perivascular fat attenuation index for interventional antegrade percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the association between the perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) and the success of the antegrade percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for chronic total occlusion (CTO). METHODS: This study evaluated patients with only one CTO lesion observed on conventional coronary angiography (CAG) who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) < 1 month before CAG, from 2018 to 2019. The clinical data, CCTA-based CTO lesion morphologic characteristics, and perivascular FAI of CTO lesions were recorded and analysed. RESULTS: In total, 156 patients with CTOs were enrolled in this study. Successful antegrade PCI (A-PCI) was achieved in 105 CTO lesions (67.3%). The perivascular FAI of the failed A-PCI group was significantly lower than the successful A-PCI group (-84.76 ± 10.44 Hounsfield unit (HU) vs. -67.54 ± 9.94 HU; p < 0.001), and the cut-off value determined by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was -77.50 HU. Multivariable analysis revealed no statistical significance in the clinical data, FAI ≤ -77.50 HU (odds ratio (OR): 33.96), negative remodeling (OR: 4.36), severe calcification degree (OR: 4.43) and occlusion length ≥ 20.25 mm (OR: 3.89) were independent predictors of A-PCI failure. The prediction performance of combining the three morphologic characteristics (severe calcification, occlusion length ≥ 20.25 mm, and negative remodeling) with FAI ≤ -77.50 HU was better than that of the three morphologic characteristics alone (0.93 versus 0.77, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: As a non-invasive index for detecting coronary inflammation, FAI complements indicators based on coronary CTA well and may be helpful for choosing appropriate interventional strategies. KEY POINTS: • Perivascular FAI of CTO was significantly higher in the failed A-PCI group. • The combination of FAI with other morphological predictors showed higher predictive performance of failed A-PCI for CTOs. • FAI is a good complement to indicators based on coronary CTA.

Dynamic characteristics of near-surface spontaneous combustion gas flux and its response to meteorological and soil factors in coal fire area.

Accurate identification of the early stages of coal-fire combustion is important for effectively controlling the spread of coal fires. CO2 and CO, as characteristic gases in the early stage of coal fire combustion, can be effectively monitored by in-situ monitoring near the surface. However, in the previous in-situ monitoring methods, the influence of surface meteorological and soil factors on the release law of characteristic gases is often ignored. Therefore, this paper considers the complexity of the geological conditions in the coal fire area, a system, and equipment for obtaining the near-surface CO2 and CO variation laws in the early stage of coal fire combustion proposed by the concentration gradient method (CGM). The system and equipment realize the simultaneous online coupling of multi-area and multi-parameter data and conduct field investigations on the Wuda coal fire area. The results show that in the early stage of coal combustion, the change patterns of CO2 and CO concentrations in different regions are anomalous, and the CO2 concentration was higher than the CO concentration. The CO2 and CO concentrations in shallow soil increased with the increase of soil depth, and compared with other areas, the CO2 and CO concentration was the highest. The shallow soil and CO2 were identified as the key areas and characteristic gases for identifying the early stage of coal-fire combustion. The CO2 flux (CF) of different shallow soil depths decreased with increased soil layer depth. Variation of soil-surface CO2 flux (S-SCF) estimated by flux extrapolation method (FLEM). The change of S-SCF is controlled by meteorological and soil factors, and there is a certain connection between it and the "respiration phenomenon" in the fissure area. Thus, this study provides a theoretical basis for effectively identifying the early stages of coal-fire combustion.

Development and analysis of machine-learning guided flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) for continuous chitosan nanoparticles production.

Chitosan-based nanoparticles (CNPs) are widely used in drug delivery, cosmetics formulation and food applications. To accelerate the manufacturing of CNPs, the present study develops a workflow to prepare CNPs in a continuous model. Based on machine learning, the workflow precisely predicts size and polymer dispersity index (PDI) value of CNPs, which impacts on the colloidal stability and applications. Multi-inlet vortex mixer (MIVM) device was fabricated by 3D printing as the reactor. Peristaltic pump was applied to deliver the reaction streams into the MIVM device and produce CNPs by flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) in a continuous way. The developed MIVM device produces CNPs in a controlled manner at a higher output which is promising for upscale applications. Twelve machine learning algorithms were employed to investigate the potential relationship between the reaction independent variables and hydrodynamic characteristics of CNPs. Random Forest, Decision Tree, Extra Tree and Bagging algorithms performed better than other algorithms with the average prediction accuracy around 90 %. The current study demonstrated that supervised machine learning guided FNP using the developed MIVM device is an effective strategy for accurate and intelligent production of CNPs and other similar nanoparticles.

Zinc insulin hexamer loaded alginate zinc hydrogel: Preparation, characterization and in vivo hypoglycemic ability.

Alginate zinc hydrogel loaded with zinc insulin hexamer was prepared and characterized for oral insulin administration. The hydrogel was fabricated by dripping zinc insulin hexamer into sodium alginate solution and followed by crosslinking by zinc chloride. SEM image reveals the zinc insulin hexamer was integrated into the matrix of hydrogel. Zinc insulin hexamer loaded hydrogel shows no obvious cytotoxicity to both HT29 and Caco-2 cells. The developed hydrogel retards the burst release of insulin in simulated gastric fluid but promotes the release when in simulated intestinal fluid. In the diabetic mice, zinc insulin hexamer loaded alginate hydrogel demonstrates significant and prolonged hypoglycemic effect.

[Overview of systematic reviews and Meta-analysis of Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy in treatment of non-small cell lung cancer].

At present, many systematic reviews(SRs)/Meta-analysis of Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) have been published, and the effectiveness has been proved.However, the methodological quality and evidence quality of these SRs/Meta-analysis have not been evaluated, and their guiding role in the clinical practice needs to be further verified.In this study, SRs/Meta-analysis of Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC were assessed to provide evidence overview and basis for the application and decision-making of this drug in clinical practice.PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, and SinoMed databases were searched for research articles on SRs/Meta-analysis of Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC.The methodological quality and evidence quality of included 15 articles on SRs/Meta-analysis were evaluated by using the AMSTAR-2 and GRADE system.The results of SRs/Meta-analysis suggested that Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy had certain advantages over chemotherapy alone in improving short-term efficacy, improving quality of life, and reducing leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and the incidence of gastrointestinal adverse events.The results of the AMSTAR-2 checklist showed low quality for 11 SRs/Meta-analysis and extremely low quality for another four SRs/Meta-analysis.The top problems included failure to provide the preliminary protocol or guide, unreported funding sources, and non-assessed risk of bias in the included articles on the results.According to the results of the GRADE assessment, 32 of the 148 outcome indicators were of intermediate quality, 40 were of low quality, and 76 were of extremely low quality.The critical factor leading to the downgrade was the risk of bias, followed by imprecision and publication bias.Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC can enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity.However, due to the low methodological quality and evidence quality of the included research articles, the efficacy and safety of Aidi Injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC still need to be further confirmed by high-quality studies.In the follow-up original research and SRs/Meta-analysis, the corresponding quality evaluation standards should be strictly followed to improve the quality of evidence.

Analysis on the Cognitive Impact of Social Mobile Games on Left-Behind Children in the Era of Big Data.

The popularity of mobile gaming has become a common sight in rural areas, and the problem of left-behind children's mobile gaming has become the biggest challenge faced by rural education, and has become a hot topic in the education sector and society. The stage of left-behind children is the golden period of learning and growth. However, this stage is also the period when they have the greatest fluctuations in their ideology due to various factors such as guardians and youths. With the development of big data, it has been applied to various aspects of people's life. This article is mainly based on qualitative research, with the interview and observation as the main methods, supplemented by a questionnaire survey method. In the empirical analysis part, this article has a certain degree of expansion in data selection and research methods. Compared with previous studies, we increased the scale of the research data, making the research results more meaningful. In the research method, the ordinary least squares method (OLS), the propensity score matching method (PSM) and the two-stage least square method (2SLS) are used, and multiple control variables are selected. The factor analysis of the original scores of the historical knowledge test and the original scores of the two-dimensional cultural value evaluation are carried out to obtain the factor scores of cognitive ability. The emotion of the child is expressed by the depression score, and factor analysis is also performed on the depression score. Cognitive abilities refer to reasoning or thinking, processing speeds, and one's ability to solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge. OLS regression results show that left-behind children are inferior to non-left-behind ones in cognitive ability. Moreover, left-behind children are more likely to be emotionally depressed. And whether the children are accompanied by migrant or rural parents, there is no significant difference in their cognitive ability and emotions. Because there are unobservable factors that affect whether children are left-behind and children's cognitive abilities and emotions, the sample may have a self-selection bias. This research focuses on the phenomenon of left-behind children's mobile gaming, revealing the compromised cognitive abilities of these marginalized children groups. Our study might put a wake-up for authorities on the education in rural areas.

Pre-gelatinization and cellulase addition improve fermentation performance and antioxidant activity of black rice wine.

BACKGROUND: Black rice contains a variety of bioactive substances that contribute to the high nutritional value of black rice wine (BRW). However, the dense bran layer of black rice retards the fermentation rate and reduces the dissolution of active components. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effects of pre-gelatinization (PG) before cooking and cellulase (CE) addition during fermentation on the fermentation performance of BRW and its antioxidant activity. RESULTS: PG combined with CE treatments (PGCE) increases the alcohol content, free amino acid content, volatile flavor content and total antioxidant activity of BRW by 90.81%, 15.36%, 38.05% and 19.56%, respectively, compared with the control group. Scanning electron microscopy, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and texture properties analysis indicate that PG treatment increases gelatinization degree of starch during cooking, decreases bound water content in cooked black rice and promotes unbound water release. CE destroys the aleurone layer structure, facilitates the release of unbound water and the exposure of rice starch, thus increasing the reaction area and extravasation content significantly, which is beneficial to microbial growth and fermentation. Incomplete aleurone layer also promotes the dissolution of anthocyanins, phenols and other active substances, increasing the antioxidant activities of BRW. CONCLUSION: PG and CE treatments reduce the fermentation time and improve the quality of BRW by destroying the black rice structure. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Middle purity soy lecithin is appropriate for food grade nanoliposome: Preparation, characterization, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ability.

The purity of soy lecithin exerts significant impact on nanoliposome (NL) properties for food applications. In this study, three soy lecithin of different purity were used to prepare NL. LC-MS analysis confirmed soy lecithin of relatively low purify (50% and 70%) contains multiple natural phospholipids. NL produced by soy lecithin of middle purity (70%) is smaller and more stable than other counterparts. Ultimately, soy lecithin of 70% purity was selected to develop NL encapsulated crocetin (CR) as model payload and further coated by chitosan (CS). The structure characteristic, physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity of crocetin nanoliposome (CR-NL) and chitosan coated crocetin nanoliposome (CS-CR-NL) were evaluated. NL encapsulation and CS coating significantly improve antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ability of CR, and prolong storage period of CR (p < 0.05). For food applications, soy lecithin of middle purity (70%) is cheaper and more appropriate than soy lecithin of high purity.

Treatment of Lung Cancer with Orally Administered Chinese Herbal Medicine: An Evidence Map between 1970-2020.

OBJECTIVE: Through showing the full picture of double-arm controlled clinical research and systematic review evidence in the field of orally administrated Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for treatment of lung cancer, to provide a reference for future clinical research and to indicate a direction for future systematic reviews. METHODS: A comprehensive search of clinical controlled studies was performed regarding orally administered CHM treatment for lung cancer published from January 1970 to September 2020. The language was restricted to Chinese and English. Relevant data were extracted, the quality of systematic reviews was evaluated, and the research evidence was visually displayed. RESULTS: Randomized controlled trials were the most common type of research design. The research sample sizes were typically small. Oral CHM showed certain curative advantages in treating lung cancer. The key stages in oral CHM intervention for lung cancer are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and late palliative treatment. The advantageous outcomes of oral CHM treatment of lung cancer are the short-term efficacy, quality of life, and adverse reactions. The perioperative stage, overall survival, pharmacoeconomic evaluation, and Chinese medicine decoctions are weak research areas. CONCLUSIONS: CHM has staged and therapeutic advantages in treating lung cancer. The overall methodological quality is poor, and the level of evidence requires improvement. It is necessary to carry out large-scale, standardized, and higher-quality research in the superior and weak areas of CHM treatment of lung cancer.