Green Synthesis of Polyurethane Sponge-Grafted Calcium Alginate with Carbon Ink Aerogel with High Water Vapor Harvesting Capacity for Solar-Driven All-Weather Atmospheric Water Harvesting.

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology is a new strategy for alleviating freshwater scarcity. Adsorbent materials with high hygroscopicity and high photothermal conversion efficiency are the key to AWH technology. Hence, in this study, a simple and large-scale preparation for a hygroscopic compound of polyurethane (PU) sponge-grafted calcium alginate (CA) with carbon ink (SCAC) was developed. The PU sponge in the SCAC aerogel acts as a substrate, CA as a moisture adsorber, and carbon ink as a light adsorber. The SCAC aerogel exhibits excellent water absorption of 0.555-1.40 g·g-1 within a wide range of relative humidity (40-80%) at 25 °C. The SCAC aerogel could release adsorbed water driven by solar energy, and more than 92.17% of the adsorbed water could be rapidly released over a wide solar intensity range of 1.0-2.0 sun. In an outdoor experiment, 57.517 g of SCAC was able to collect 32.8 g of clean water in 6 h, and the water quality meets the drinking water standards set by the World Health Organization. This study suggests a new approach to design promising AWH materials and infers the potential practical application of SCAC aerogel-based adsorbents.

Anesthetic management of gigantic pheochromocytoma resection with inferior vena cava and right atrium tumor thrombosis: a case report.

BACKGROUND: This report describes one case of anesthetic management about surgical resection of a malignant phaeochromocytoma with tumor extension into vena cava and right atrium in a patient. Report for anesthetic management is limited in these patients under surgical resection until now. CASE PRESENTATION: In September 2015, a 24-year-old male presented to the department of cardiology with right flank pain and hypertensive urgency in our hospital. Contrast-enhanced CT abdomen and MRI abdomen revealed a mass phaeochromocytoma in right adrenal, which invaded the right inferior vena cava(IVC)wall along with IVC thrombus. Echocardiography shown no abnormal detection. Finally, this patient gave up the surgical resection of phaeochromocytoma and chose the expectant treatment. In April 2018, this patient once again presented to the emergence department in our hospital, he had experienced persistent cough and intermittent wheezing for 5 h. Contrast-enhanced CT and echocardiography shown existing IVC thrombus had extended into the right atrium. After the careful preoperative preparation, adrenalectomy with complete thrombus excision by inferior vena cava exploration and right atriotomy were performed successfully by a multidisciplinary team. After one month post-operation care, this patient healthily left our hospital. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, the occurrence of pheochromocytoma with IVC and right atrium thrombosis has not been reported in mainland China so far. This clinical case may supply a rare reference experience for surgical treatment and anesthetic management in the group of phaeochromocytoma patient with distance vascular extension.

Recovery of soy whey protein from soy whey wastewater at various cavitation jet pretreatment time and their structural and emulsifying properties.

Protein-polysaccharide composite is of great significance for the development of soluble protein recovery process. This study investigated the effects of cavitation jet (CJ) pretreatment at different time (0, 60, 120, 180, 240, 300 s) intervals on the recovery of soy whey protein (SWP) from soy whey wastewater using chitosan (CH). In addition, the structure and properties of the SWP/CH complexes were examined. The results showed that the recovery yield of SWP reached 84.44 % when the CJ pretreatment time was 180 s, and the EAI and ESI values of the SWP/CH complex increased from 32.39 m2/g and 21 min to 48.47 m2/g and 32 min, respectively. In the CJ pretreatment process, SWP promotes the recombination with chitosan through electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bond, while hydrophobic interaction is also involved. This study has guiding significance for CJ technology in the recovery and utilization of protein in industrial wastewater.

Cross-domain attention-guided generative data augmentation for medical image analysis with limited data.

Data augmentation is widely applied to medical image analysis tasks in limited datasets with imbalanced classes and insufficient annotations. However, traditional augmentation techniques cannot supply extra information, making the performance of diagnosis unsatisfactory. GAN-based generative methods have thus been proposed to obtain additional useful information to realize more effective data augmentation; but existing generative data augmentation techniques mainly encounter two problems: (i) Current generative data augmentation lacks of the capability in using cross-domain differential information to extend limited datasets. (ii) The existing generative methods cannot provide effective supervised information in medical image segmentation tasks. To solve these problems, we propose an attention-guided cross-domain tumor image generation model (CDA-GAN) with an information enhancement strategy. The CDA-GAN can generate diverse samples to expand the scale of datasets, improving the performance of medical image diagnosis and treatment tasks. In particular, we incorporate channel attention into a CycleGAN-based cross-domain generation network that captures inter-domain information and generates positive or negative samples of brain tumors. In addition, we propose a semi-supervised spatial attention strategy to guide spatial information of features at the pixel level in tumor generation. Furthermore, we add spectral normalization to prevent the discriminator from mode collapse and stabilize the training procedure. Finally, to resolve an inapplicability problem in the segmentation task, we further propose an application strategy of using this data augmentation model to achieve more accurate medical image segmentation with limited data. Experimental studies on two public brain tumor datasets (BraTS and TCIA) show that the proposed CDA-GAN model greatly outperforms the state-of-the-art generative data augmentation in both practical medical image classification tasks and segmentation tasks; e.g. CDA-GAN is 0.50%, 1.72%, 2.05%, and 0.21% better than the best SOTA baseline in terms of ACC, AUC, Recall, and F1, respectively, in the classification task of BraTS, while its improvements w.r.t. the best SOTA baseline in terms of Dice, Sens, HD95, and mIOU, in the segmentation task of TCIA are 2.50%, 0.90%, 14.96%, and 4.18%, respectively.

Effect of xanthan gum (XG) and carrageenan (CG) ratio on casein (CA)-XG-CG ternary complex: Used to improve the stability of liquid diabetes formula food for special medical purposes.

Poor storage stability limits the application of liquid diabetes formula food for special medical purposes (L-D-FSMP) in maintaining blood sugar stability in diabetic patients. This work aims to improve the stability of L-D-FSMP by adjusting the ratio of xanthan gum (XG) and carrageenan (CG) in casein (CA)-XG-CG ternary complex. The centrifugal sedimentation rate results showed that the compound ratio of XG and CG had a greater impact on L-D-FSMP storage stability. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results showed that the combination of CA, XG and CG occurred. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that CA, XG and CG were mainly combined through hydrogen bonds and ionic bonds to form a CA-XG-CG ternary complex. When the ratio of XG and CG was 1:1, the number of disulfide bonds was the largest. The results of three-phase contact angle and emulsifying ability confirmed that when the ratio of XG and CG was 1:1, CA-XG-CG had the strongest emulsifying ability. The particle size distribution and zeta-potential results showed that when the ratio of XG and CG was 1:1, L-D-FSMP had the narrowest particle size distribution range and the strongest stability. These results may provide valuable information for the production of stable L-D-FSMP.

Structural characteristics and emulsifying properties of linear dextrin/eicosapentaenoic acid composites: Effect of the degree of polymerization.

This work aimed at building functional emulsions based on the linear dextrins (LDs) emulsion system. The gradient polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitaion method was used to fractionate LDs into fractions with different degrees of polymerization (DP). A package, and co-precipitation procedure of LDs, and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was used to fabricate LDs-EPA composites. The gas chromatograph, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry analyses affirmed the formation of the LDs-EPA composites. The sizes of these composites were 38.55 nm, 59.14 nm to 80.62 nm, respectively, and they had good amphiphilicity. Compared with LDs, these LDs-EPA composites stabilized Pickering emulsion had higher stability and antioxidant capacity. Their emulsifying ability was positively correlated with the DP values of LDs. Furthermore, the oxidation stability results showed that LDsF10-EPA emulsion had the lowest lipid hydroperoxide (LHs) content, malondioxide (MDA) content and hexal concentration, which were 138.75 mmol kg-1 oil, 15.50 mmol kg-1 oil and 3.83 µmol kg-1 oil, respectively. The study provided a new idea and application values for the application of LDs in emulsion.

Pickering Emulsion Stabilized by ß-Cyclodextrin and Cinnamaldehyde/ß-Cyclodextrin Composite.

A Pickering emulsion was prepared using ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) and a cinnamaldehyde (CA)/ß-CD composite as emulsifiers and corn oil, camellia oil, lard oil, and fish oil as oil phases. It was confirmed that Pickering emulsions prepared with ß-CD and CA/ß-CD had good storage stability. The rheological experiments showed that all emulsions had G' values higher than G″, thus confirming their gel properties. The results of temperature scanning rheology experiments revealed that the Pickering emulsion prepared with ß-CD and CA/ß-CD composites had high stability, in the range of 20-65 °C. The chewing properties of Pickering emulsions prepared by ß-CD and corn oil, camellia oil, lard, and herring oil were 8.02 ± 0.24 N, 7.94 ± 0.16 N, 36.41 ± 1.25 N, and 5.17 ± 0.13 N, respectively. The chewing properties of Pickering emulsions made with the CA/ß-CD composite and corn oil, camellia oil, lard, and herring oil were 2.51 ± 0.05 N, 2.56 ± 0.05 N, 22.67 ± 1.70 N, 3.83 ± 0.29 N, respectively. The texture properties confirmed that the CA/ß-CD-composite-stabilized-emulsion had superior palatability. After 28 days at 50 °C, malondialdehyde (MDA) was detected in the emulsion. Compared with the ß-CD and CA + ß-CD emulsion, the CA/ß-CD composite emulsion had the lowest content of MDA (182.23 ± 8.93 nmol/kg). The in vitro digestion results showed that the free fatty acid (FFA) release rates of the CA/ß-CD composite emulsion (87.49 ± 3.40%) were higher than those of the ß-CD emulsion (74.32 ± 2.11%). This strategy provides ideas for expanding the application range of emulsifier particles and developing food-grade Pickering emulsions with antioxidant capacity.

Effects of Heat Treatment on the Structural and Functional Properties of Phaseolus vulgaris L. Protein.

The paper presents the effect of heat treatment at 80 °C at different times (3, 5, 7, and 9 min) on the structural and functional properties of Phaseolus vulgaris L. protein (PVP, bean protein powder). Surface and structure properties of PVP after heat treatment were analyzed using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), a fluorescence spectrophotometer, a visible light spectrophotometer, a laser particle size analyzer, and other equipment. The secondary structure and surface hydrophobicity (H0) of PVP changed significantly after heat treatment: the ß-sheet content decreased from 25.32 ± 0.09% to 24.66 ± 0.09%, the random coil content increased from 23.91 ± 0.11% to 25.68 ± 0.08%, and the H0 rose by 28.96-64.99%. In addition, the functional properties of PVP after heat treatment were analyzed. After heat treatment, the emulsifying activity index (EAI) of PVP increased from 78.52 ± 2.01 m2/g to 98.21 ± 1.33 m2/g, the foaming ability (FA) improved from 87.31 ± 2.56% to 95.82 ± 2.96%, and the foam stability (FS) rose from 53.23 ± 1.72% to 58.71 ± 2.18%. Finally, the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of PVP after gastrointestinal simulated digestion in vitro was detected by the Ortho-Phthal (OPA) method. Heat treatment enhanced the DH of PVP from 62.34 ± 0.31% to 73.64 ± 0.53%. It was confirmed that heat treatment changed the structural properties of PVP and improved its foamability, emulsification, and digestibility. It provides ideas for improving PVP's potential and producing new foods with rich nutrition, multiple functions, and easy absorption.

Effect of cavitation jet technology on instant solubility characteristics of soymilk flour: Based on the change of protein conformation in soymilk.

The protein conformation of soymilk is the key to affecting the instant solubility of soymilk flour. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of cavitation jet treatment time (0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 min) on the instant solubility of soymilk flour based on the conformational changes of protein in soymilk. The results showed that the cavitation jet treatment for 0-4 min significantly unfolded the protein structure of soymilk and increased the content of soluble protein, which reduced the particle size and increased the electrostaticrepulsion and the viscosity of soymilk. This was beneficial for soymilk droplets fully atomized and repolymerized in the spray drying tower, forming soymilk flour particles with large size, smooth surface, and uniform distribution. When the cavitation jet treatment time was 4 min, the wettability (from 127.3 ± 2.5 s to 84.7 ± 2.1 s), dispersibility (from 70.0 ± 2.0 s to 55.7 ± 2.1 s), and solubility (from 56.54% to 78.10%) of soymilk flour were significantly improved. However, when the time of the cavitation jet treatment was extended to 8 min, the protein of soymilk aggregated and the stability of soymilk decreased, which reduced the particle size and hurt the surfacecharacteristics of soymilk flour after spraydrying. It resulted in a decrease in the instant solubility of soymilk flour. Therefore, the cavitationjet treatment with proper time increases the instant solubility of soymilk flour by improving the protein conformation of soymilk.

Impact of Cavitation Jet on the Structural, Emulsifying Features and Interfacial Features of Soluble Soybean Protein Oxidized Aggregates.

A cavitation jet can enhance food proteins' functionalities by regulating solvable oxidized soybean protein accumulates (SOSPI). We investigated the impacts of cavitation jet treatment on the emulsifying, structural and interfacial features of soluble soybean protein oxidation accumulate. Findings have shown that radicals in an oxidative environment not only induce proteins to form insoluble oxidative aggregates with a large particle size and high molecular weight, but also attack the protein side chains to form soluble small molecular weight protein aggregates. Emulsion prepared by SOSPI shows worse interface properties than OSPI. A cavitation jet at a short treating time (<6 min) has been shown to break the core aggregation skeleton of soybean protein insoluble aggregates, and insoluble aggregates into soluble aggregates resulting in an increase of emulsion activity (EAI) and constancy (ESI), and a decrease of interfacial tension from 25.15 to 20.19 mN/m. However, a cavitation jet at a long treating time (>6 min) would cause soluble oxidized aggregates to reaggregate through an anti-parallel intermolecular ß-sheet, which resulted in lower EAI and ESI, and a higher interfacial tension (22.44 mN/m). The results showed that suitable cavitation jet treatment could adjust the structural and functional features of SOSPI by targeted regulated transformation between the soluble and insoluble components.

Study on the Structure, Function, and Interface Characteristics of Soybean Protein Isolate by Industrial Phosphorylation.

The impacts of industrial phosphorylation on the structural changes, microstructure, functional, and rheological features of soybean protein isolate (SPI) were spotlighted. The findings implied that the spatial structure and functional features of the SPI changed significantly after treatment with the two phosphates. Sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) promoted aggregation of SPI with a larger particle size; sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) modified SPI with smaller particle size. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) results showed insignificant alterations in the structure of SPI subunits. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and endogenous fluorescence noted a decline in α-helix quantity, an amplification in ß-fold quantity, and an increase in protein stretching and disorder, indicating that phosphorylation treatment fluctuated the spatial structure of the SPI. Functional characterization studies showed that the solubility and emulsion properties of the SPI increased to varying degrees after phosphorylation, with a maximum solubility of 94.64% for SHMP-SPI and 97.09% for STP-SPI. Emulsifying activity index (EAI) and emulsifying steadiness index (ESI) results for STP-SPI were better than those for SHMP-SPI. Rheological results showed that the modulus of G' and G″ increased and the emulsion exhibited significant elastic behavior. This affords a theoretical core for expanding the industrial production applications of soybean isolates in the food and various industries.

Effects of microwave on the structural and emulsifying properties and interfacial properties of oxidized soybean protein aggregates.

This research explored microwave treatment impact on the structuro-functional aspects of oxidized soy protein aggregates (OSPI). Data showed that oxidative treatment promoted the formation of high molecular weight aggregates through hydrophobic interactions, thereby disrupting the structure of natural soy protein isolates (SPI). Microwave treatment for an appropriate time (≤30 s) caused the molecular structure of OSPI to open up and reduction in molecular weight and disulfide bond content, while absolute zeta potential increased. These modifications increased emulsifying capacity of OSPI, as well as the interfacial adsorption of protein. Longer microwave treatment times (>30 s) caused OSPI to exhibit a tendency to aggregate in TEM and CLSM images. It indicated the appropriate microwave electromagnetic field effect and microwave heating effect could coordinatively regulate soy protein functional properties by modifying their aggregation behavior. The results provided new ideas for reducing resource waste, and further expanding soy protein application in the food industry.

Effects of γ-Irradiation on Structure and Functional Properties of Pea Fiber.

In this study, pea residue reserve insoluble diet fiber (hereinafter referred to as pea fiber) was used as a raw material. The effects of γ-irradiation doses (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 5 kGy) on the structural properties (main composition, particle size and specific surface area, scanning electron microscope (SEM) microstructure, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction) and functional properties (oil-holding capacity, swelling and water-holding capacity, and adsorption properties) of pea fiber were explored. The results show that, when the γ-irradiation dose was 2 kGy, compared with the untreated sample, the contents of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in pea fiber decreased by 1.34 ± 0.42%, 2.56 ± 0.03% and 2.02 ± 0.05%, respectively, and the volume particle size of pea fiber decreased by 17.43 ± 2.35 µm. The specific surface area increased by 23.70 ± 2.24 m2/kg and the crystallinity decreased by 7.65%. Pore and irregular particles appeared on the microstructure surface of the pea fiber treated with γ-irradiation. The results of the infrared spectrum showed that the hemicellulose and lignin in pea fiber were destroyed by γ-irradiation. These results indicate that γ-irradiation can significantly affect the structural properties of pea fiber. When the γ-irradiation dose was 2 kGy, the highest oil-holding capacity, swelling capacity and water-holding capacity of pea fiber were 8.12 ± 0.12 g/g, 19.75 ± 0.37 mL/g and 8.35 ± 0.18 g/g, respectively, and the adsorption capacities of sodium nitre, cholesterol and glucose were also the strongest. These results indicate that the functional properties of pea fiber are improved by γ-irradiation. In this study, γ-irradiation technology was used as pretreatment to provide a theoretical basis for the application of pea fiber in food processing.

Effects of ultrasound on the structural and emulsifying properties and interfacial properties of oxidized soybean protein aggregates.

Oxidative attack leads to the oxidative aggregation and structural and functional feature weakening of soybean protein. We aimed to investigate the impact of ultrasonic treatment (UT) with different intensities on the structure, emulsifying features and interfacial features of oxidized soybean protein aggregates (OSPI). The results showed that oxidative treatment could disrupt the native soy protein (SPI) structure by promoting the formation of oxidized aggregates with ß1-sheet structures through hydrophobic interactions. These changes led to a decrease in the solubility, emulsification ability and interfacial activity of soybean protein. After low-power ultrasound (100 W, 200 W) treatment, the relative contents of ß1-sheets, ß2-sheets, random coils, and disulfide bonds of the OSPI increased while the surface hydrophobicity, absolute ζ-potential value and free sulfhydryl content decreased. Moreover, protein aggregates with larger particle sizes and poor solubility were formed. The emulsions prepared using the OSPI showed bridging flocculation and decreased protein adsorption and interfacial tension. After applying medium-power ultrasound (300 W, 400 W, and 500 W) treatments, the OSPI solubility increased and particle size decreased. The α-helix and ß-turn contents, surface hydrophobicity and absolute ζ-potential value increased, the structure unfolded, and the disulfide bond content decreased. These changes improved the emulsification activity and emulsion state of the OSPI and increased the protein adsorption capacity and interfacial tension of the emulsion. However, after a high-power ultrasound (600 W) treatment, the OSPI showed a tendency to reaggregate, which had a certain negative effect on the emulsification activity and interfacial activity. The results showed that UT at an appropriate power could depolymerize OSPI and improve the emulsification and interfacial activity of soybean protein.

In vivo evidence of the prevents DSS-induced colitis of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum L15.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is challenging to treat and severely impacts patients and families. A previous study reported immunomodulatory and reduction of pro-inflammatory properties for the Lactiplantibacillus plantarum L15. This study aimed to analyze the preventive properties and mechanistic actions in an in vivo colitis model. The histopathological alteration, inflammation cytokines, and intestinal barrier function were analyzed. Subsequently, the cecal gut microbiota contents and products from different groups were detected. Finally, gene expressions related to the NF-κB signaling process were evaluated. L. plantarum L15 significantly decreased disease activity index (DAI), myeloperoxidase activity (MPO), pro-inflammatory cytokine (TNF-α, IL-1ß, and IL-6) level, and increased weight change, colon length, and production of inflammation-suppressing cytokines. Furthermore, this strain supplementation substantially increased ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-1, and MUC2 mRNA expression levels with a corresponding decrease in serum lipopolysaccharide and D-lactic acid contents. In addition, L. plantarum L15 improved gut microbiota composition and increased short-chain fatty acid (SCFAs) in the colon content, which significantly reduced the transfer of NF-κB p65 to the nucleus. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for L. plantarum L15 as a preventive candidate for UC.

3-(Pyridin-4-yl-thio)-pentane-2,4-dione.

In the title compound, C(10)H(11)NO(2)S, the acetyl-acetone group crystallizes in the keto form with all the non-hydrogen atoms in the acetyl-acetone group approximately co-planar with a maximum atomic deviation 0.055 (2) Å; the dihedral angle between the acetyl-acetone group and the pyridine ring is 85.90 (6)°. An intra-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bond involving the acetyl-acetone group forms a six-membered ring.

MiR-135-5p Alleviates Bone Cancer Pain by Regulating Astrocyte-Mediated Neuroinflammation in Spinal Cord through JAK2/STAT3 Signaling Pathway.

Bone cancer pain (BCP) was associated with microRNA dysregulation. In this study, we intended to clarify the potential role of miR-135-5p in a BCP mouse model, which was established by tumor cell implantation (TCI) in the medullary cavity of the mouse femur. The BCP-related behaviors were tested, including the paw withdrawal mechanical threshold (PWMT) and number of spontaneous flinches (NSF). The miRNA expression profiles in astrocytes of the sham and tumor groups were compared, and miRNA microarray and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays confirmed that the amount of expression of miR-135-5p was significantly decreased in astrocytes of the tumor group. Gain- and loss-of-function studies showed that miR-135-5p could inhibit astrocyte activation and inflammation cytokine (TNF-α and IL-1ß) expression. The relation between miR-135-5p and JAK2 was detected by bioinformatic analysis and dual luciferase reporter gene assay. By conducting in vitro experiments, it was shown that the miR-135-5P mimics lowered the level of JAK2/STAT3 proteins and inflammatory factors in astrocytes. Moreover, in vivo analysis on BCP mice model indicated that the miR-135-5p agonist could sufficiently increase PWMT and decrease NSF. Meanwhile, reduced activation of astrocytes in the spinal cord, as well as decreased expression of JAK2/STAT3 and inflammatory mediators, were found after miR-135-5p agonist treatment. Collectively, the results showed that miR-135-5p could potentially reduce BCP in mice through inhibiting astrocyte-mediated neuroinflammation and blocking of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway, indicating that the upregulation of miR-135-5P could be a therapeutic focus in BCP treatment.

Fabrication of graphitic carbon nitride functionalized P-CoFe2O4 for the removal of tetracycline under visible light: Optimization, degradation pathways and mechanism evaluation.

In this study, nano-sized CoFe2O4 composites were prepared through co-precipitation process. Then the phosphorus-doped strong magnetic graphitic carbon nitride hybrids composites (P-CoFe2O4@GCN) was stemmed from the CoFe2O4 composites via the thermal polymerization method. The TEM results show that the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles have been successfully embedded into the graphitic carbon nitride (GCN). The BET specific surface area of P-CoFe2O4@GCN-1 could reach 36.91 m2/g, which was 5.38 times higher than that of GCN. Thus, it provided sufficient reaction active sites to enhance the photocatalytic activity for tetracycline (TC) decomposition. The results from the photocatalytic experiments showed that the degradation efficiency of TC by P-CoFe2O4@GCN-1 could reach 96.2% within 60 min, which is 3.19 times higher than that of GCN. The h+, O2•- and •OH radicals detected by the electron spin resonance (ESR) were responsible for the TC decomposition in the photocatalytic reaction system. Persulfate (PS) can further activate the hybrid mixture system, and the fitting model predicted by the response surface methodology (RSM) indicated that the maximum tetracycline removal could reach 99.6% within 30 min. In addition, the degradation intermediates of TC were detected by HPLC-MS and the photodegradation mechanism was discussed.

Effects of dietary supplementation of nucleotides from late gestation to lactation on the performance and oxidative stress status of sows and their offspring.

Increased metabolic burdens in breeding sows, which are induced by elevated systemic oxidative stress, could increase the need for nucleotides to repair lymphocyte DNA damage; however, de novo synthesis of nucleotides may be insufficient to cover this increased need. This study investigated the effects of dietary nucleotides on milk composition, oxidative stress status, and the reproductive and lactational performance of sows. Forty multiparous sows were assigned to 2 dietary treatments (Control group, and 1 g/kg Nucleotides group) based on a randomized complete block design using their BW at 85 d of gestation as a block. Sows from 2 groups were fed a restricted diet during gestation and ad libitum during lactation. The experiment lasted from 85 d of gestation to 21 d of lactation. The reproductive performance of sows and the growth performance of suckling piglets were measured. Oxidative stress parameters and milk components were also analysed. Data were analyzed using contrasts in the MIXED procedure of SAS. Sows in the Nucleotides group consumed more feed during the first week (P < 0.01) and from 1 to 21 d (P < 0.05) of lactation than those in Control group. Correspondingly, the litter weight gain of piglets showed a tendency to increase from cross-fostering to 9 d (P = 0.09) and from cross-fostering to 20 d (P = 0.10) in the Nucleotides group relative to the Control group. Additionally, the Nucleotides group was higher (P < 0.01) than the Control group in the concentrations of uridine 5'monophosphate, guanosine 5'monophosphate, inosine 5'monophosphate, adenosine 5'monophosphate and total nucleotides in milk. Furthermore, the Nucleotides group was higher (P < 0.01) than the Control group in the serum levels of total antioxidant capacity (P < 0.01) for sows at 109 d of gestation and glutathione peroxidase for weaning piglets, but lower at the levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (P < 0.05) in serum of weaning piglets. This study indicated that maternal dietary nucleotides could promote piglet growth, probably due to the higher lactational feed intake and higher concentration of nucleotides in the milk of sows, and lower oxidative stress for both sows and piglets.

Enhancement of skin optical clearing efficacy using photo-irradiation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Tissue optical clearing technique based on immersion of tissues into optical clearing agents (OCAs) can reduce the scattering and enhance the penetration of light in tissue. However, the barrier function of epidermis limits the penetration of OCAs, and hence is responsible for the poor optical clearing efficacy of skin by topical action. In this study, a variety of light irradiation was applied to increase permeability of agents in skin and improve the optical clearing efficacy. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Different light sources with different dose, i.e, CO(2) laser, Nd:YAG laser (532 and 1,064 nm) with different pulse modes and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) (400-700 and 560-950 nm) were used to irradiate rat skin in vivo, and then glycerol was applied onto the irradiated zone. VIS-NIR spectrometer was utilized to monitor the changes of reflectance. In vitro skin samples were also irradiated by Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1,064 nm) and then treated by glycerol for 10-60 minutes. Based on the measurement of the reflectance and transmittance of the samples, the optical properties of skin and penetration depth of light were calculated. RESULTS: Results show that photo-irradiation with appropriate dose combining with the following glycerol treatment is able to reduce in vivo skin reflectance. Compared with the control group, the maximal changes in reflectance are ninefold at 575 nm and eightfold at 615 nm, respectively, which were caused by Q-switched 1,064-nm Nd:YAG laser irradiation and following glycerol treatment. The results for in vitro skin demonstrate that the joint action can significantly increase the optical penetration depth in samples. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of Q-switched Nd:YAG (1,064 nm) laser and glycerol could enhance optical skin clearing efficacy significantly. This study provides a non-invasive way to improve the optical clearing of skin, which will benefit the skin optical therapy.