Inhibitory Effects of Jiuzao Polysaccharides on Alcoholic Fatty Liver Formation in Zebrafish Larvae and Their Regulatory Impact on Intestinal Microbiota.

The liver is critical in alcohol metabolism, and excessive consumption heightens the risk of hepatic damage, potentially escalating to hepatitis and cirrhosis. Jiuzao, a by-product of Baijiu production, contains a rich concentration of naturally active polysaccharides known for their antioxidative properties. This study investigated the influence of Laowuzeng Jiuzao polysaccharide (LJP) on the development of ethanol-induced alcoholic fatty liver. Zebrafish larvae served as the model organisms for examining the LJPs hepatic impact via liver phenotypic and biochemical assays. Additionally, this study evaluated the LJPs effects on gene expression associated with alcoholic fatty liver and the composition of the intestinal microbiota through transcriptomic and 16 S rRNA gene sequencing analyses, respectively. Our findings revealed that LJP markedly mitigated morphological liver damage and reduced oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in larvae. Transcriptome data indicated that LJP ameliorated hepatic fat accumulation and liver injury by enhancing gene expression involved in alcohol and lipid metabolism. Furthermore, LJP modulated the development of alcoholic fatty liver by altering the prevalence of intestinal Actinobacteriota and Firmicutes, specifically augmenting Acinetobacter while diminishing Chryseobacterium levels. Ultimately, LJP mitigated alcohol-induced hepatic injury by modulating gene expression related to ethanol metabolism, lipid metabolism, and inflammation and by orchestrating alterations in the intestinal microbiota.

Photoinduced Three-Component Difluoroamidosulfonylation/Bicyclization: A Route to Dihydrobenzofuran Derivatives.

A visible-light-induced photocatalyst-free three-component radical cascade bicyclization has been achieved to obtain diverse difluoroamidosulfonylated dihydrobenzofurans in moderate to good yields. This protocol avoids potential toxicity and the tedious removal procedure for photocatalysts and also features mild reaction conditions and a good functional group tolerance. Moreover, mechanistic investigations reveal the formation of a charge-transfer complex and the involvement of an intramolecular 1,5-hydrogen atom transfer process in this transformation.

Rh(III)-catalyzed C-H annulation of sulfoxonium ylides with iodonium ylides towards isocoumarins.

The direct synthesis of isocoumarin skeletons has been realized through the Rh(III)-catalyzed [3 + 3] annulation of sulfoxonium ylides with iodonium carbenes. The synthetic protocol was constructed efficiently with broad functional group tolerance and mild reaction conditions. This reaction can be formally viewed as the result of C-H activation, carbene insertion and nucleophilic addition processes. Furthermore, the further conversions of the product and gram-scale reactions were also demonstrate to support the effectiveness of the synthesis protocol.

A flavoromics strategy for the differentiation of different types of Baijiu according to the non-volatile organic acids.

Non-volatile organic acids (NVOAs) in 12 main flavor types of Baijiu were analyzed by a derivatization method combined with GC-MS and 38 NVOAs were quantified. Meanwhile, a flavoromics strategy based on the contents of NVOAs in the 12 flavor types of Baijiu was successfully used to the differentiation of Baijiu. PLS-DA models (explained variation, predictive capability) were used to consider different categories: fermentation process (0.931, 0.870), starter (0.921, 0.834), fermentation container (0.899, 0.810) and raw material (0.951, 0.909). Based on the selected categories, suitable separations were achieved, and the classification ability of these models were nearly 100%. As a result, the model demonstrated its ability to perfectly distinguish different types of Baijiu. Seventeen potential markers were identified by variable importance in projection method and were further processed using heatmap and hierarchical cluster analysis, indicating that the NVOAs had great discrimination power to differentiate Baijiu.

Direct synthesis of indazole derivatives via Rh(III)-catalyzed C-H activation of phthalazinones and allenes.

A novel Rh(III)-catalyzed annulation of phthalazinones or pyridazinones with various allenes was developed, leading to the formation of indazole derivatives bearing a quaternary carbon in moderate to good yields. The targeted products were synthesized via sequential C-H activation and olefin insertion, followed by ß-hydride elimination and intramolecular cyclization. The synthetic protocol proceeded efficiently with broad functional group tolerance, high atom efficiency and high Z-selectivity. The practicability of this method was proved by synthetic transformation.

Manifold Learning-Inspired Mating Restriction for Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization With Complicated Pareto Sets.

Under certain smoothness assumptions, the Pareto set of a continuous multiobjective optimization problem is a piecewise continuous manifold in the decision space, which can be derived from the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition. Despite that a number of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) have been proposed, their performance on multiobjective optimization problems with complicated Pareto sets (MOP-cPS) is still unsatisfying. In this article, we adopt the concept of manifold and propose a manifold learning-inspired mating strategy to enhance the diversity maintenance in MOEAs for solving MOP-cPS efficiently. In the proposed strategy, all of the individuals are first clustered into different manifolds according to their distribution in the objective space, and then the mating reproduction is restricted among individuals in the same manifold. Moreover, we embed the proposed mating strategy in three representative MOEAs and compare the embedded MOEAs with their original versions using the assortative genetic operators on a variety of MOP-cPS. The experimental results demonstrate the significant performance improvements benefitting from the proposed mating restriction strategy.

A Subregion Division-Based Evolutionary Algorithm With Effective Mating Selection for Many-Objective Optimization.

A variety of evolutionary algorithms have been proposed for many-objective optimization in recent years. However, the difficulties in balancing the convergence and diversity of the population and selecting promising parents for offspring reproduction remain. In this paper, we propose a subregion division-based evolutionary algorithm with an effective mating selection strategy, termed SdEA, for many-objective optimization. In SdEA, a subregion division approach is proposed to divide the objective space into different subregions for balancing the diversity and convergence of the population. Besides, an effective mating selection strategy is proposed to enhance the diversity of the mating pool solutions, aimed at enhancing the selection probability of solutions in the sparse subregions. The proposed SdEA is compared with five state-of-the-art many-objective evolutionary algorithms on 23 test problems from DTLZ, WFG, and MaF test suites. Experimental results on these problems demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is competitive in solving many-objective problems. Furthermore, the proposed mating selection strategy is embedded in several evolutionary algorithms and experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness on improving the performance of the embedded algorithms.

Effect of calcination temperature on the properties of Ti/SnO2-Sb anode and its performance in Ni-EDTA electrochemical degradation.

Pd-doped Ti/SnO2-Sb anode was prepared at different calcination temperatures by a wet-impregnation method and employed in simultaneous electrochemical catalytic degradation of Ni-EDTA and recovery of nickel. The results showed that Ti/SnO2-Sb-Pd-500 could achieve the highest electrochemical activity (87.5% of Ni-EDTA removal efficiency), superior durability (50.7 h of accelerated lifetime), and higher Ni recovery (19.8%) on cathode. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) analysis suggested that Ni-EDTA degradation on anode was mainly indirect oxidation-controlled reaction, attributing to the high oxide state of MOX + 1 and MOX(·OH), rather than direct oxidation. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses indicated that calcination temperature could modify the morphology of electrode surface and affect the incorporation and valence state transformation of metal species (Sb and Pd) in SnO2 lattice. Ti/SnO2-Sb-Pd-500 achieved the highest electrochemical capacity with the highest levels of adsorbed oxygen Oads/ET (27.11%) and lattice oxygen Olat/ET (29.69%). Moreover, the operation conditions for Ni-EDTA electrochemical degradation were optimized. These findings were valuable for developing a high-performance electrode for Ni-EDTA electrochemical degradation.

In-situ synthesis of 3D GA on titanium wire as a binder- free electrode for electro-Fenton removing of EDTA-Ni.

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) could form stable complexes with toxic metals such as nickel due to its strong chelation. The three-dimensional (3D) macroporous graphene aerogels (GA), which was in-situ assembled by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets on titanium wire as binder-free electrode, was presented as cathode for the degradation of EDTA-Ni in Electro-Fenton process. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) results indicated 3D GA formed three dimensional architecture with large and homogenous macropore structure and surface area. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) and Rotating Ring-disk Electrode (RRDE) results showed that the 3D GA cathode at pH 3 displayed the highest current density and electrochemical active surface area (ECSA), and better two-electron selectivity for ORR than other pH value, confirming the 3D-GA cathode at pH 3 has the highest electrocatalytic activity and generates more H2O2. The factors such as pH, applied current density, concentration of Fe2+, Na2SO4, and aeration rates of air were also investigated. Under the optimum conditions, 73.5% of EDTA-Ni was degraded after reaction for 2h. Mechanism analysis indicated that the production of OH on the 3D GA cathode played an important role in the removal of EDTA-Ni in the 3D GA-EF process, where the direct regeneration of Fe2+ on the cathode would greatly reduce the consumption of H2O2. Therefore, it is of great promise for 3D-GA catalyst to be developed as highly efficient, cost-effective and durable cathode for the removal of EDTA-Ni.

Treatment of Ni-EDTA containing wastewater by electrocoagulation using iron scraps packed-bed anode.

The unique electrocoagulator proposed in this study is highly efficient at removing Ni-EDTA, providing a potential remediation option for wastewater containing lower concentrations of Ni-EDTA (Ni ≤ 10 mg L-1). In the electrocoagulation (EC) system, cylindrical graphite was used as a cathode, and a packed-bed formed from iron scraps was used as an anode. The results showed that the removal of Ni-EDTA increased with the application of current and favoured acidic conditions. We also found that the iron scrap packed-bed anode was superior in its treatment ability and specific energy consumption (SECS) compared with the iron rod anode. In addition, the packed density and temperature had a large influence on the energy consumption (ECS). Over 94.3% of Ni and 95.8% of TOC were removed when conducting the EC treatment at an applied current of 0.5 A, initial pH of 3, air-purged rate 0.2 L min-1, anode packed density of 400 kg m-3 temperature of 313 K and time of 30 min. SEM analysis of the iron scraps indicated that the specific area of the anode increased after the EC. The XRD analysis of flocs produced during EC revealed that hematite (α-Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4) were the main by-products under aerobic and anoxic conditions, respectively. A kinetic study demonstrated that the removal of Ni-EDTA followed a first-order model with the current parameters. Moreover, the removal efficiency of real wastewater was essentially consistent with that of synthetic wastewater.

Effects of plant polyphenols and α-tocopherol on lipid oxidation, microbiological characteristics, and biogenic amines formation in dry-cured bacons.

Effects of plant polyphenols (tea polyphenol [TP], grape seed extract [GSE], and gingerol) and α-tocopherol on physicochemical parameters, microbiological counts, and biogenic amines were determined in dry-cured bacons at the end of ripening. Results showed that plant polyphenols and α-tocopherol significantly decreased pH, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances content, and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) compared with the control (P < 0.05). Microbial counts and biogenic amine contents in dry-cured bacons were affected by plant polyphenols or α-tocopherol, with TP being the most effective (P < 0.05) in reducing aerobic plate counts, Enterobacteriaceae, Micrococcaceae, yeast, and molds, as well as in inhibiting formation of putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, and spermine. Principal component analysis indicated that the first 2 principal components (PC) explained about 85.5% of the total variation. PC1 was related with physicochemical factors, parts of biogenic amines, and spoilage microorganisms, whereas PC2 grouped the TVBN, tyramine, 2-phenylethylamine, yeast, and molds. These findings suggest that plant polyphenols, especially TP, could be used to process dry-cured bacons to improve the quality and safety of finished products.