Diagnostic value and role of serum miR-15a-5p in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: More and more studies have confirmed that the heredity plays an important role in mental disorders, especially microRNA. The objective of this research was to explore the level of miR-15a-5p in patients with schizophrenia (SZ), and to evaluate the feasibility of this miRNA as a diagnostic marker of SZ. METHODS: The serum level of miR-15a-5p in patients with SZ and healthy people was detected by RT-qPCR. ROC curve was established to evaluate the clinical diagnostic significance of miR-15a-5p in SZ. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between miR-15a-5p level and PANSS score. Logistic regression was used to assess the risk factors of SZ. A rat model of SZ was established, and the effects of miR-15a-5p on the behavior of SZ rats were observed through water maze test and open field test. RESULTS: The serum level of miR-15a-5p in patients with SZ was significantly increased, and ROC analysis revealed that miR-15a-5p had clinical diagnostic value in SZ. High level of miR-15a-5p was positively correlated with the positive symptom, negative symptom and general psychopathology subscore of patients. Logistic regression results showed that miR-15a-5p was a risk factor affecting the occurrence of SZ. Animal studies showed that the serum level of miR-15a-5p was elevated in the SZ rats, and inhibiting the expression of miR-15a-5p has a positive effect on improving the cognitive function and anxiety behavior of SZ rats. CONCLUSIONS: Serum miR-15a-5p is a risk factor for SZ, which is of great significance for the diagnosis of SZ.

Antibodies from dengue patients with prior exposure to Japanese encephalitis virus are broadly neutralizing against Zika virus.

Exposure to multiple mosquito-borne flaviviruses within a lifetime is not uncommon; however, how sequential exposures to different flaviviruses shape the cross-reactive humoral response against an antigen from a different serocomplex has yet to be explored. Here, we report that dengue-infected individuals initially primed with the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) showed broad, highly neutralizing potencies against Zika virus (ZIKV). We also identified a rare class of ZIKV-cross-reactive human monoclonal antibodies with increased somatic hypermutation and broad neutralization against multiple flaviviruses. One huMAb, K8b, binds quaternary epitopes with heavy and light chains separately interacting with overlapping envelope protein dimer units spanning domains I, II, and III through cryo-electron microscopy and structure-based mutagenesis. JEV virus-like particle immunization in mice further confirmed that such cross-reactive antibodies, mainly IgG3 isotype, can be induced and proliferate through heterologous dengue virus (DENV) serotype 2 virus-like particle stimulation. Our findings highlight the role of prior immunity in JEV and DENV in shaping the breadth of humoral response and provide insights for future vaccination strategies in flavivirus-endemic countries.

Investigation of LncRNA PVT1 and MiR-21-5p Expression as Promising Novel Biomarkers for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The characteristics of ncRNA in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were observed to disclose a theoretical basis for further research on molecular markers for early warning of ASD. Children with ASD and normal control children were recruited to collect peripheral blood RNA samples. The concentration of PVT1 and miR-21-5p was quantitatively analyzed by qRT-PCR. Pearson correlation coefficient method was used to evaluate the link between PVT1 level and miR-21-5p level of the children. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to reckon the predictive value of PVT1, miR-21-5p, and their combination in ASD. The interconnection of PVT1 with miR-21-5p was represented by luciferase reporter assay. The targeted genes of miR-21-5p were predicted. The enrichment and protein interaction analysis of these genes was carried out to find the important core genes and analyze their value in ASD. In the disease group, the level of PVT1 was downregulated, while the content of miR-21-5p was upregulated. The expression level of serum miR-21-5p was negatively correlated with the level of PVT1. Luciferase reporter gene assay documented that PVT1 directly targeted miR-21-5p. ROC curve showed that PVT1, miR-21-5p, and their combination showed clinical value for disease diagnosis. The functional enrichment analysis showed that the targets of miR-21-5p participated in ASD by regulating related functions and pathways. Reduced expression of PVT1 and raised miR-21-5p were good diagnostic markers for ASD, which would provide a basis for effective prevention, early diagnosis, and early intervention of ASD.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Pile Foundation Underpinning Structure System in Urban Overpass.

In view of the complexity of the pile foundation underpinning structure system and the stringent requirements of the construction process, this paper briefly describes the necessity of introducing epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive of planting rebar in the design of pile foundation underpinning beam structure to improve the mechanical properties of the reinforced beam new and old concrete joint surfaces and proposes a new type of pile foundation replacement beam system construction method by "chiseling + prestressed reinforcement + epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive". This paper uses an actual pile foundation underpinning project of an urban overpass as a prototype, designs and creates a model structure with a similarity ratio of 1/6, and performs repeated progressive static loading tests to study the load carrying capacity, displacement change, and other properties of the strengthened replacement structure, as well as analyses and distorts the overall working performance and failure mode of them. On this basis, the prototype structure's finite element analysis model was built, and the finite element analysis results were compared with the test results to obtain the mechanical properties and deformation characters of the actual pile foundation underpinning structure system corresponding to the actual underpinning beam load. This paper's study can lay the theoretical and experimental foundation for the smooth development of similar projects.

Comparison of Physicochemical Properties of Noodles Fortified with Commercial Calcium Salts versus Calcium Citrate from Oyster Shells.

This study examined the physicochemical effects of the fortification of noodles with 0.25-1.00% (w/w) calcium salts, viz. calcium acetate, calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, and calcium lactate. Fortification with calcium citrate, calcium acetate, and calcium carbonate increased the pH and breaking force of the dried noodles. However, the fortification of noodles with any concentration of calcium did not increase the extent of elongation of the control raw noodles. The L* and b* values of the raw and dried noodle color increased with increasing concentrations of calcium salts, except for noodles with added calcium citrate. Fortification with calcium citrate yielded no significant influence on color, texture, adhesiveness, springiness, flavor, and overall scores for cooked noodles. Noodles fortified with 0.5% calcium citrate made from oyster shells were compared with a control sample of noodles and noodles fortified with commercially available calcium citrate. The particle size of the calcium citrate made from oyster shells (258 nm) was smaller than that of the purchased calcium citrate (2631 nm). Noodles fortified with calcium citrate made from oyster shells showed no significantly difference compared to noodles fortified with commercially available calcium citrate. These results suggest that calcium citrate made from oyster shells may be used as the additive of choice for the manufacture of calcium-fortified noodles.

Collagen-binding peptides for the enhanced imaging, lubrication and regeneration of osteoarthritic articular cartilage.

Treatments for osteoarthritis would benefit from the enhanced visualization of injured articular cartilage and from the targeted delivery of disease-modifying drugs to it. Here, by using ex vivo human osteoarthritic cartilage and live rats and minipigs with induced osteoarthritis, we report the application of collagen-binding peptides, identified via phage display, that are home to osteoarthritic cartilage and that can be detected via magnetic resonance imaging when conjugated with a superparamagnetic iron oxide. Compared with the use of peptides with a scrambled sequence, hyaluronic acid conjugated with the collagen-binding peptides displayed enhanced retention in osteoarthritic cartilage and better lubricated human osteoarthritic tissue ex vivo. Mesenchymal stromal cells encapsulated in the modified hyaluronic acid and injected intra-articularly in rats showed enhanced homing to osteoarthritic tissue and improved its regeneration. Molecular docking revealed WXPXW as the consensus motif that binds to the α1 chain of collagen type XII. Peptides that specifically bind to osteoarthritic tissue may aid the diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritic joints.

State-of-Charge Estimation for Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Residual Convolutional Neural Networks.

State-of-charge (SOC) is a relative quantity that describes the ratio of the remaining capacity to the present maximum available capacity. Accurate SOC estimation is essential for a battery-management system. In addition to informing the user of the expected usage until the next recharge, it is crucial for improving the utilization efficiency and service life of the battery. This study focuses on applying deep-learning techniques, and specifically convolutional residual networks, to estimate the SOC of lithium-ion batteries. By stacking the values of multiple measurable variables taken at many time instants as the model inputs, the process information for the voltage or current generation, and their interrelations, can be effectively extracted using the proposed convolutional residual blocks, and can simultaneously be exploited to regress for accurate SOCs. The performance of the proposed network model was evaluated using the data obtained from a lithium-ion battery (Panasonic NCR18650PF) under nine different driving schedules at five ambient temperatures. The experimental results demonstrated an average mean absolute error of 1.260%, and an average root-mean-square error of 0.998%. The number of floating-point operations required to complete one SOC estimation was 2.24 × 106. These results indicate the efficacy and performance of the proposed approach.

Differential Proteomic Analysis of Listeria monocytogenes during High-Pressure Processing.

High-pressure processing (HPP) is a prevailing non-thermal food preservation technology. The inactivation mechanisms of Listeria monocytogenes under HPP at 200 and 400 MPa for 3 min were investigated by label-free quantitative proteomic analysis and functional enrichment analysis in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. HPP treatment at 400 MPa exhibited significant effects on proteins involved in translation, carbon, carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism, and peptidoglycan biosynthesis. HPP increased most ribosomal subunits and initiation factors, suggesting it might shift ribosomal biogenesis to translation initiation. However, protein synthesis was impaired by the shortage of proteins responsible for elongation, termination and recycling. HPP stimulated several ATP-dependent Clp proteases, and the global transcriptional regulator Spx, associating with activation of the stress-activated sigma factor Sigma B (σB) and the transcriptional activator positive regulatory factor A (PrfA) regulons. The quantitative proteomics approaches provide fundamental information on L. monocytogenes under different HPP pressures, and provide theoretical support for HPP against Listeriosis illness and for promotion of safer ready-to-eat foods.

Differential effect of herbal tea extracts on free fatty acids-, ethanol- and acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in FL83B hepatocytes.

In recent years, herbal tea consumption becomes popular because of the potential health benefits and attractive flavors. However, there is also a growing concern that herbal supplements contribute to the drug-drug/drug-herb interactions and hepatotoxicity. In this study, FL83B mouse hepatocytes were used as an in vitro mode of hepatotoxicity induced by free fatty acids, including palmitic acid (PA) and oleic acid (OA), ethanol, and acetaminophen. Herbal tea extracts were obtained from eight common herbal plants, including Verbena officinalis L., Hyssopus officinalis L., Salvia officinalis L., Urtica dioica L., Hemerocallis fulva (L.) L., Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr., Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck, and Ficus formosana Maxim. MTT assay was used to evaluate the impact of these herbal tea extracts on hepatoxocitity. We found that these herbal tea extracts per se did not exhibit hepatotoxicity, and had no effect on OA-induced hepatotoxicity. However, extracts from Verbena officinalis L., Hyssopus officinalis L., Salvia officinalis L., and Hemerocallis fulva (L.) L. exhibited protective effect against PA-induced hepatotoxicity. In addition, herbal tea extracts from Verbena officinalis L., Hyssopus officinalis L., Salvia officinalis L., Urtica dioica L., Hemerocallis fulva (L.) L., and Ficus formosana Maxim. exhibited protective effect against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity. Interestingly, all these herbal tea extracts enhanced ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity. Our results suggest that herbal tea extracts have differential effects on different modes of hepatotoxicity.

Combined impact of high-pressure processing and slightly acidic electrolysed water on Listeria monocytogenes proteomes.

Slightly acidic electrolysed water (SAEW) and high-pressure processing (HPP) are well-established non-thermal preservation technologies. This study investigated the deactivation mechanisms of Listeria monocytogenes by label-free quantitative proteomics analysis. Samples were treated through HPP (300 MPa for 3 min), SAEW (20 ppm available chlorine concentration), and their combinations. The KEGG pathway analysis found SAEW + HPP induced differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) associated to biofunctions of ribosomes, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, microbial metabolism in diverse environments, carbon metabolism, and biosynthesis of amino acid and aminoacyl-transfer RNA. The results showed these non-thermal treatments were able to induce the shifting of ribosome biogenesis to initiate translation in L. monocytogenes. During protein translation, the initiation stage was upregulated. However, subsequent elongation, termination, and recycling of used ribosomes were retarded. Comparing various treatments, the combination of hurdles showed greater deactivation of L. monocytogenes than any single one. The approaches developed in this study provided crucial information for minimally processing in the food industries on the application of foodborne listeriosis prevention.

Anti-Fatigue Effect of a Dietary Supplement from the Fermented By-Products of Taiwan Tilapia Aquatic Waste and Monostroma nitidum Oligosaccharide Complex.

The Taiwan Tilapia is an important aquaculture product in Taiwan. The aquatic by-products generated during Tilapia processing, such as fish bones and skin, are rich in minerals and protein. We aimed to explore the effect of a dietary supplement, comprising a mixture of fermented Tilapia by-products and Monostroma nitidum oligosaccharides as the raw materials, combined with physical training on exercise performance and fatigue. We used a mouse model that displays a phenotype of accelerated aging. Male senescence-accelerated mouse prone-8 (SAMP8) mice were divided into two control groups-with or without physical training-and supplemented with different doses (0.5 times: 412 mg/kg body weight (BW)/day; 1 time: 824 mg/kg BW/day; 2 times: 1648 mg/kg BW/day) of fermented Tilapia by-products and Monostroma nitidum oligosaccharide-containing mixture and combined with exercise training groups. Exercise performance was determined by testing forelimb grip strength and with a weight-bearing exhaustive swimming test. Animals were sacrificed to collect physical fatigue-related biomarkers. Mice dosed at 824 or 1648 mg/kg BW/day showed improvement in their exercise performance (p < 0.05). In terms of biochemical fatigue indicators, supplementation of 824 or 1648 mg/kg BW/day doses of test substances could effectively reduce blood urea nitrogen concentration and lactate concentration and increase the lactate ratio (p < 0.05) and liver glycogen content post-exercise (p < 0.05). Based on the above results, the combination of physical training and consumption of a dietary supplementation mixture of fermented Tilapia by-products and Monostroma nitidum oligosaccharides could improve the exercise performance of mice and help achieve an anti-fatigue effect.

Purification and Identification of Cholesterol Micelle Formation Inhibitory Peptides of Hydrolysate from High Hydrostatic Pressure-Assisted Protease Hydrolysis of Fermented Seabass Byproduct.

This research focuses on the proteolytic capacity of sea bass byproduct (SB) and their hypocholesterolemic activity via the cholesterol micelle formation (CMF) inhibition. SB was fermented with seven mixed lactic acid bacteria for 5 h at 42 °C. The lactic fermented SB was hydrolyzed with Protease N for 6 h under HHP to obtain the SB hydrolysates (HHP-assisted Protease N hydrolysis after fermentation, F-HHP-PN6). The supernatant was separated from the SB hydrolysate and freeze-dried. As the hydrolysis time extended to 6 h, soluble protein content increased from 187.1 to 565.8 mg/g, and peptide content increased from 112.8 to 421.9 mg/g, while inhibition of CMF increased from 75.0% to 88.4%. Decreasing the CMF inhibitory activity from 88.4% to 42.1% by simulated gastrointestinal digestion (FHHP-PN6 was further hydrolyzed by gastrointestinal enzymes, F-HHP-PN6-PP) reduced the CMF inhibitory activity of F-HHP-PN6. Using gel filtration chromatography, the F-HHP-PN6-PP was fractioned into six fractions. The molecular weight of the fifth fraction from F-HHP-PN6-PP was between 340 and 290 Da, and the highest inhibitory efficiency ratio (IER) on CMF was 238.9%/mg/mL. Further purification and identification of new peptides with CMF inhibitory activity presented the peptide sequences in Ser-Ala-Gln, Pro-Trp, and Val-Gly-Gly-Thr; the IERs were 361.7, 3230.0, and 302.9%/mg/mL, respectively.

Fabrication of novel Ag4Bi2O5-x towards excellent photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous toluene under visible light irradiation.

In this work, a novel oxide combined with bismuth (Bi) and silver (Ag) was prepared via simple ball milling. This substance was optimized by adjusting the amount of pre-source. Preliminary characterization results confirmed the successful synthesis of Ag4Bi2O5. Subsequently, gaseous toluene was selected as model compound to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of Ag4Bi2O5 photocatalyst. According to the degradation results, Ag4Bi2O5 performed excellent visible light-driven photocatalytic activity with high stability. For the oxidation process of gaseous compound, reactive oxygen species (ROS) were responsible for the achievement, and the formation of oxygen vacancies on Ag4Bi2O5 were involved in the generation of ROS to promote the transfer of photogenerated electrons, and improving photocatalytic activity. DFT calculations revealed the theoretical band gap of Ag4Bi2O5 bulk is 1.758 eV. And the work function of Ag4Bi2O5 (112)ov was ca. at 4.447 eV. The material was easily fabricated and a reliable path was provided for the synthesis of new and efficient photocatalyst for the remediation of polluted indoor air.

The influence of solar natural heating and NOx-O3 photochemistry on flow and reactive pollutant exposure in 2D street canyons.

This study incorporates solar radiation model and NOx-O3 photochemistry into computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with the standard k-ε model to quantify the integrated impacts of turbulent mixing, solar heating and chemical processes on vehicular passive (CO) and reactive (NOx, O3) pollutant dispersion within two-dimensional (2D) street canyons. Various street aspect ratios (H/W = 1, 3, 5) and solar-radiative scenarios (LST 0900, 1200, 1500) are considered. The initial source ratio of NO2 to NO is 1:10 and the background O3 concentration is 100 ppb (mole fraction). The reference Reynolds numbers are ~106-107 and Froude number ranges from 0.23 to 1.14. Personal intake fraction (P_IF) and its spatially-averaged values at the leeward-side (⟨P_IF⟩lee), windward-side (⟨P_IF⟩wind) and both street sides (⟨P_IF⟩) are adopted to evaluate pollutant exposure in near-road buildings. As H/W = 1 and 3, the clockwise single vortex is formed under neutral condition. Leeward/ground solar heating at LST 0900/1200 slightly enhance such vortex and reduce ⟨P_IF⟩. However, as H/W = 3, the single dominant vortex is separated into two counter-rotating vortices by windward solar heating at LST 1500, thus this ⟨P_IF⟩wind is significantly larger than the neutral case. As H/W = 5, the lower-level secondary anticlockwise vortex appears under neutral condition inducing much weaker wind and extremely higher pedestrian-level concentration. This two-main-vortex structure is destroyed by leeward/ground heating into single-main-vortex pattern, but dissociates into three counter-rotating vortices by windward heating. These three radiative scenarios raise pedestrian-level velocity in neutral case by about two orders, and reduce overall ⟨P_IF⟩ by two times to one order. For all cases, NO2 exposure is generally about 40%-380% larger than passive CO exposure, which indicates the conversion of NO into NO2 by depleting O3 is dominant in present NOx-O3 titration interactions. Finally, solar heating only raises air temperature by up to 2-3 K and influences chemical rate slightly, thus this impact on reactive pollutant dispersion is less significant than its effect by the enhanced turbulent mixing.

Integrated impacts of tree planting and aspect ratios on thermal environment in street canyons by scaled outdoor experiments.

Urban tree planting has the potential to reduce urban heat island intensity and building energy consumption. However, the heterogeneity of cities makes it difficult to quantitatively assess the integrated impacts of tree planting and street layouts. Scaled outdoor experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of tree plantings on wind and thermal environments in two-dimensional (2D) north-south oriented street canyons with various aspect ratios (building height/street width, AR = H/W = 1, 2, 3; H = 1.2 m). The effects of tree species with similar leaf area index (C. kotoense, big crown; C. macrocarpa, small crown), tree planting densities (ρ = 1, 0.5), and arrangements (double-row, single-row) were considered. Vegetation reduces pedestrian-level wind speed by 29%-70%. For ρ = 1 and single-row arrangement, C. kotoense (big crown) has a better shading effect and decreases wall and air temperature during the daytime by up to 9.4 °C and 1.2 °C, respectively. In contrast, C. macrocarpa (small crown) leads to a temperature increase at the pedestrian level. Moreover, C. kotoense raises the air and wall temperature of the upper urban canopy layer and increases the street albedo during the daytime because of the solar radiation reflected by trees. C. kotoense/C. macrocarpa produces the maximum daytime cooling/warming and nighttime warming of air temperature when H/W = 2 owing to its weaker convective heat transfer. When H/W = 3, the building shade dominates the shading cooling and tree cooling is less significant. When ρ = 1, double-row trees (C. kotoense) reduce wall and air temperatures by up to 10.0 °C and 1.0 °C during the daytime. However, reducing ρ from 1 to 0.5 weakens the capacity of daytime cooling by C. kotoense and the warming effect by C. macrocarpa. Our study quantifies the influence of tree planting and aspect ratios on the thermal environment, which can provide meaningful references for urban tree planting and produce high-quality validation data for numerical modeling.

Scaled outdoor experimental studies of urban thermal environment in street canyon models with various aspect ratios and thermal storage.

Street aspect ratios and urban thermal storage largely determine the thermal environment in cities. By performing scaled outdoor measurements in summer of 2017 in Guangzhou, China, we investigate these impacts on spatial/temporal characteristics of urban thermal environment which are still unclear so far. Two types of street canyon models are investigated, i.e. the 'hollow' model resembling hollow concrete buildings and the 'sand' model consisting of buildings filled with sand attaining much greater thermal storage. For each model, three street aspect ratios (building height/street width, H/W = 1, 2, 3; H = 1.2 m) are considered. The diurnal variations of air-wall surface temperatures are observed and their characteristics are quantified for various cases. The daily average temperature and daily temperature range (DTR) of wall temperature vary significantly with different aspect ratios and thermal storage. During the daytime, wider street canyon (H/W = 1) with less shading area experiences higher temperature than narrower ones (H/W = 2, 3) as more solar radiation received by wall surfaces. At night, wider street canyon cools down quicker due to stronger upward longwave radiation and night ventilation. For hollow models, H/W = 1 attains DTR of 12.1 °C, which is 1.2 and 2.1 °C larger than that of H/W = 2, 3. Moreover, the sand models experience smaller DTR and a less changing rate of wall temperature than hollow models because larger thermal storage absorbs more heat in the daytime and releases more at night. DTR of hollow models with H/W = 1, 2, 3 is 4.5, 4.6 and 3.8 °C greater than sand models respectively. For both hollow and sand models, wider streets experience a little higher daily average temperature (0.3-0.6 °C) than narrower ones. Our study provides direct evidence in how man-made urban structures influence urban climate and also suggests the possibility to control outdoor thermal environment by optimize urban morphology and thermal storage.

Integrated impacts of turbulent mixing and NOX-O3 photochemistry on reactive pollutant dispersion and intake fraction in shallow and deep street canyons.

We employ computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with NO-NO2-O3 chemistry to investigate the impacts of aspect ratios (H/W = 1,3,5), elevated-building design, wind catchers and two background ozone concentrations ([O3]b = 100/20 ppb) on reactive pollutant dispersion in two-dimensional (2D) street canyons. Personal intake fraction of NO2 (P_IFNO2) and its spatial mean value in entire street (i.e. street intake fraction ) are calculated to quantify pollutant exposure in near-road buildings. Chemical reaction contribution of NO2 exposure (CRC), O3 depletion rate (dozone) and photostationary state defect (δps) are used to analyze the interplay of turbulent and chemical processes. As H/W increases from 1, 3 to 5 with [O3]b = 100 ppb, the flow pattern turns from single-main-vortex structure to two-counter-rotating-vortex structure, and pedestrian-level velocity becomes 1-2 orders smaller. The high-dozone regions and low-|δps| regions get larger with more complete chemical reactions. Consequently, passive  rises 1 order (4.09-5.71 ppm to 41.76 ppm), but reactive only increases several times (17.80-21.28 ppm to 58.50 ppm) and the contribution of chemistry (CRC) decreases with higher H/W. Thus, chemistry raises  more effectively in shallow street canyons (H/W = 1-3). In deep street canyons (H/W = 5), elevated-building design and wind catchers destroy two-counter-rotating-vortex structure, improve street ventilation and reduce passive by 2 and 1 orders (41.76 ppm to 0.38-5.16 ppm), however they only reduce reactive by about 97.5% and 75% (58.50 ppm to 1.61-14.48 ppm). Such building techniques induce lower O3 depletion rate but greater chemical contribution. Finally, raising [O3]b from 20 to 100 ppb causes greater O3 depletion rate and chemical contribution and produces larger . For deep street canyons, the impact of higher [O3]b on is weaker than that in shallow street canyons, while it becomes stronger when fixing elevated-building design and wind catchers. This study provides some innovative findings on reactive pollutant exposure in 2D street canyons and offers effective CFD methodologies to evaluate pollutant exposure with more complicated chemistry and urban configurations.

Preparation and Identification of Novel Antihypertensive Peptides from the In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion of Marine Cobia Skin Hydrolysates.

This research focuses on cobia skin hydrolysates and their antihypertensive effects via the inhibitory activities of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE). Marine fish Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) skin was hydrolysed for 5 h using Protamex and Protease N to obtain the cobia skin protein hydrolysates PX-5 and PN-5, respectively. The soluble protein and peptide contents of the PX-5 were 612 and 270 mg/g, respectively, and for the PN-5, 531 and 400 mg/g, respectively. The IC50 of PX-5 and PN-5 on ACE was 0.221 and 0.291 mg/mL, respectively. Increasing the IC50 from 0.221 to 0.044 mg/mL by simulated gastrointestinal digestion (PX-5G) reduced the ACE-inhibitory capacity of PX-5. Using gel filtration chromatography, the PX-5G was fractioned into eight fractions. The molecular weight of the fifth fraction from PX-5G was between 630 and 450 Da, and the highest inhibitory efficiency ratio on ACE was 1552.4%/mg/mL. We identified four peptide sequences: Trp-Ala-Ala, Ala-Trp-Trp, Ile-Trp-Trp, and Trp-Leu, with IC50 values for ACE of 118.50, 9.40, 0.51, and 26.80 µM, respectively. At a dose of 600 mg PX-5 powder/kg body weight, in spontaneously hypertensive rats PX-5's antihypertensive effect significantly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 21.9 and 15.5 mm Hg, respectively, after 4 h of oral gavage.

Effect of Chitosan and Fish Gelatin Coatings on Preventing the Deterioration and Preserving the Quality of Fresh-Cut Apples.

The effect of fish gelatin and chitosan coatings on the physicochemical characteristics of fresh-cut apples (Malus pumila Mill.), stored at 5 °C and 22 °C, was investigated. Chitosan provided an effective control for microbial growth, maintained firmness during 4 days of storage at room temperature (22 °C), and 12 days at refrigerator (5 °C). The results indicated that chitosan coating caused a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the L* value of cube color of cut apples. Fish gelatin-chitosan coatings mitigated the L* value and decrease in hue angle of the cut apple samples, at cold storage. Experimental results showed that fish gelatin-chitosan and chitosan coatings, can be used to mitigate the formation of vitamin C, due to respiration, microbial growth, and weight loss at cold storage. Fish gelatin-chitosan coating might be a better combination for maintaining appearance and extending shelf-life of cut apples, compared to only chitosan coatings.