Research on rapid quality identification method of Panax notoginseng powder based on artificial intelligence sensory technology and multi-source information fusion technology.

Panax notoginseng powder (PNP) has high medicinal value and is widely used in the medical and health food industries. However, the adulteration of PNP in the market has dramatically reduced its efficacy. Therefore, this study intends to use artificial intelligence sensory (AIS) and multi-source information fusion (MIF) technology to try to establish a quality evaluation system for different grades of PNP and adulterated Panax notoginseng powder (AD-PNP). The highest accuracy rate reached 100% in identifying PNP grade and adulteration. In the prediction of adulteration ratio and total saponin content, the optimal determination coefficients of the test set were 0.9965 and 0.9948, respectively, and the root mean square errors were 0.0109 and 0.0123, respectively. Therefore, the grade identification method of PNP and the evaluation system of AD-PNP based on AIS and MIF technology can rapidly and accurately evaluate the quality of PNP.

Development of a variety and quality evaluation method for Amomi fructus using GC, electronic tongue, and electronic nose.

Amomi fructus is rich in volatile components and valuable as a medicine and edible spice. However, the quality of commercially available A. fructus varies, and issues with mixed sources and adulteration by similar products are common. In addition, due to incomplete identification methods, rapid detection of the purchased A. fructus quality is still an issue. In this study, we developed qualitative and quantitative evaluation models to assess the variety and quality of A. fructus using GC, electronic tongue, and electronic nose to provide a rapid and accurate variety and quality evaluation method of A. fructus. The models performed well; the qualitative authenticity model had an accuracy of 1.00 (n = 64), the accuracy of the qualitative origin model was 0.86 (n = 44), and the quantitative model was optimal on the sensory fusion data from the electronic tongue and electronic nose combined with borneol acetate content, with R 2 = 0.7944, RMSEF = 0.1050, and RMSEP = 0.1349. The electronic tongue and electronic nose combined with GC quickly and accurately evaluated the variety and quality of A. fructus, and the introduction of multi-source information fusion technology improved the model prediction accuracy. This study provides a useful tool for quality evaluation of medicine and food.

Authenticity and species identification of Fritillariae cirrhosae: a data fusion method combining electronic nose, electronic tongue, electronic eye and near infrared spectroscopy.

This paper focuses on determining the authenticity and identifying the species of Fritillariae cirrhosae using electronic nose, electronic tongue, and electronic eye sensors, near infrared and mid-level data fusion. 80 batches of Fritillariae cirrhosae and its counterfeits (including several batches of Fritillaria unibracteata Hsiao et K.C. Hsia, Fritillaria przewalskii Maxim, Fritillaria delavayi Franch and Fritillaria ussuriensis Maxim) were initially identified by Chinese medicine specialists and by criteria in the 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. After obtaining the information from several sensors we constructed single-source PLS-DA models for authenticity identification and single-source PCA-DA models for species identification. We selected variables of interest by VIP value and Wilk's lambda value, and we subsequently constructed the three-source fusion model of intelligent senses and the four-source fusion model of intelligent senses and near-infrared spectroscopy. We then explained and analyzed the four-source fusion models based on the sensitive substances detected by key sensors. The accuracies of single-source authenticity PLS-DA identification models based on electronic nose, electronic eye, electronic tongue sensors and near-infrared were respectively 96.25%, 91.25%, 97.50% and 97.50%. The accuracies of single-source PCA-DA species identification models were respectively 85%, 71.25%, 97.50% and 97.50%. After three-source data fusion, the accuracy of the authenticity identification of the PLS-DA identification model was 97.50% and the accuracy of the species identification of the PCA-DA model was 95%. After four-source data fusion, the accuracy of the authenticity of the PLS-DA identification model was 98.75% and the accuracy of the species identification of the PCA-DA model was 97.50%. In terms of authenticity identification, four-source data fusion can improve the performance of the model, while for the identification of the species the four-source data fusion failed to optimize the performance of the model. We conclude that electronic nose, electronic tongue, electronic eye data and near-infrared spectroscopy combined with data fusion and chemometrics methods can identify the authenticity and determine the species of Fritillariae cirrhosae. Our model explanation and analysis can help other researchers identify key quality factors for sample identification. This study aims to provide a reference method for the quality evaluation of Chinese herbs.

Study on the taste-masking effect and mechanism of Acesulfame K on berberine hydrochloride.

OBJECTIVE: In our previous taste-masking study, we found that Acesulfame K (AK) had a better taste-masking effect than other high-efficiency sweeteners for several representative bitter natural drugs in aqueous decoction. Furthermore, we performed a preliminary taste-masking study of AK for representative bitter API Berberine Hydrochloride (BH) and found that it had a good taste-masking effect. We also found that flocculent precipitation was generated in the BH solution, but it was not clear whether it was related to the good taste-masking effect. This study was conducted to explore the taste-masking effect and mechanism of AK on BH. METHODS: The taste-masking effect of AK on BH was evaluated based on the Traditional Human Taste Panel Method and the electronic tongue evaluation method. DSC, XRD, and molecular simulation techniques were used to explore the mechanism of AK on BH, from the macro level and molecular level, respectively. RESULTS: When evaluating the taste-masking effect, we found that 0.1% AK had the best taste-masking effect on BH, while higher concentrations had a worse taste-masking effect. DSC and XRD revealed that the flocculent precipitation was a complex AK-BH. Finally, by simulating the binding of AK, BH, and TAS2R46 receptors, we found the unique taste-masking mechanism of AK. CONCLUSION: The sweet taste stimulus of AK can mask the bitter taste stimulus of BH, and AK can generate AK-BH with BH to reduce the contact between BH and bitter taste receptors. Additionally, it could block the expression of the TAS2R46 receptors.

Environmental impacts of three Asian dust events in the northern China and the northwestern Pacific in spring 2021.

In March 2021, China experienced three dust events (Dust-1, 2, 3), especially the first of which was reported as the strongest one in recent ten years. Their environmental impacts have received great attention, demanding comprehensive study to assess such impacts quantitatively. Multiple advanced measurement methods, including satellite, ground-based lidar, online aerosol speciation instrument, and biogeochemical Argo float, were applied to examine and compare the transport paths, optical and chemical properties, and impacts of these three dust events on urban air quality and marine ecosystem. The results showed that Dust-1 exhibited the largest impacts on urban area, increasing PM10 concentration in Beijing, Shuozhou, and Shijiazhuang up to 7525, 3819, and 2992 µg m-3, respectively. However, due to fast movement of the Mongolian low-pressure cyclone, the duration of northwest wind over the land was quite short (e.g., only 10 h in Beijing), which prevented the transport of dust plume to the northwestern Pacific, resulting in limited impact on the ocean. Dust-2 and Dust-3, though weaker in intensity, were transported directly to the sea, and led to a substantial increase in chlorophyll-a concentration (up to near 3 times) in the northwestern Pacific, comparing to climatological value. This indicates that the impacts of dust events on ocean was not necessarily and positively correlated to their impacts on land. Based on the analyses of land-ocean-space integrated observational data and synoptic systems, this study examined how marine ecosystem responded to three significant Asian dust events in spring 2021 and quantitatively assessed the overall impacts of mega dust storms both on land and ocean, which could also provide an interdisciplinary research methodology for future research on strong aerosol emission events such as wildfire and volcanic eruption.

Identification of Bletilla striata and related decoction pieces: a data fusion method combining electronic nose, electronic tongue, electronic eye, and high-performance liquid chromatography data.

Introduction: We here describe a new method for distinguishing authentic Bletilla striata from similar decoctions (namely, Gastrodia elata, Polygonatum odoratum, and Bletilla ochracea schltr). Methods: Preliminary identification and analysis of four types of decoction pieces were conducted following the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and local standards. Intelligent sensory data were then collected using an electronic nose, an electronic tongue, and an electronic eye, and chromatography data were obtained via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), support vector machines (SVM), and back propagation neural network (BP-NN) models were built using each set of single-source data for authenticity identification (binary classification of B. striata vs. other samples) and for species determination (multi-class sample identification). Features were extracted from all datasets using an unsupervised approach [principal component analysis (PCA)] and a supervised approach (PLS-DA). Mid-level data fusion was then used to combine features from the four datasets and the effects of feature extraction methods on model performance were compared. Results and Discussion: Gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) showed significant differences in the types and abundances of volatile organic compounds between the four sample types. In authenticity determination, the PLS-DA and SVM models based on fused latent variables (LVs) performed the best, with 100% accuracy in both the calibration and validation sets. In species identification, the PLS-DA model built with fused principal components (PCs) or fused LVs had the best performance, with 100% accuracy in the calibration set and just one misclassification in the validation set. In the PLS-DA and SVM authenticity identification models, fused LVs performed better than fused PCs. Model analysis was used to identify PCs that strongly contributed to accurate sample classification, and a PC factor loading matrix was used to assess the correlation between PCs and the original variables. This study serves as a reference for future efforts to accurately evaluate the quality of Chinese medicine decoction pieces, promoting medicinal formulation safety.

Intra-annual variations of regional aerosol optical depth, vertical distribution, and particle types from multiple satellite and ground-based observational datasets.

The climatic and health effects of aerosols are strongly dependent on the intra-annual variations in their loading and properties. While the seasonal variations of regional aerosol optical depth (AOD) have been extensively studied, understanding the temporal variations in aerosol vertical distribution and particle types is also important for an accurate estimate of aerosol climatic effects. In this paper, we combine the observations from four satellite-borne sensors and several ground-based networks to investigate the seasonal variations of aerosol column loading, vertical distribution, and particle types over three populous regions: the Eastern United States (EUS), Western Europe (WEU), and Eastern and Central China (ECC). In all three regions, column AOD, as well as AOD at heights above 800 m, peaks in summer/spring, probably due to accelerated formation of secondary aerosols and hygroscopic growth. In contrast, AOD below 800m peaks in winter over WEU and ECC regions because more aerosols are confined to lower heights due to the weaker vertical mixing. In the EUS region, AOD below 800m shows two maximums, one in summer and the other in winter. The temporal trends in low-level AOD are consistent with those in surface fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations. AOD due to fine particles (< 0.7 µm diameter) is much larger in spring/summer than in winter over all three regions. However, the coarse mode AOD (> 1.4 µm diameter), generally shows small variability, except that a peak occurs in spring in the ECC region due to the prevalence of airborne dust during this season. When aerosols are classified according to sources, the dominant type is associated with anthropogenic air pollution, which has a similar seasonal pattern as total AOD. Dust and sea-spray aerosols in the WEU region peak in summer and winter, respectively, but do not show an obvious seasonal pattern in the EUS region. Smoke aerosols, as well as absorbing aerosols, present an obvious unimodal distribution with a maximum occurring in summer over the EUS and WEU regions, whereas they follow a bimodal distribution with peaks in August and March (due to crop residue burning) over the ECC region.

A novel method for rapid and reliable detection of complex vertebral malformation and bovine leukocyte adhesion deficiency in Holstein cattle.

BACKGROUND: Complex vertebral malformation (CVM) and bovine leukocyte adhesion deficiency (BLAD) are two autosomal recessive lethal genetic defects frequently occurring in Holstein cattle, identifiable by single nucleotide polymorphisms. The objective of this study is to develop a rapid and reliable genotyping assay to screen the active Holstein sires and determine the carrier frequency of CVM and BLAD in Chinese dairy cattle population. RESULTS: We developed real-time PCR-based assays for discrimination of wild-type and defective alleles, so that carriers can be detected. Only one step was required after the DNA extraction from the sample and time consumption was about 2 hours. A total of 587 Chinese Holstein bulls were assayed, and fifty-six CVM-carriers and eight BLAD-carriers were identified, corresponding to heterozygote carrier frequencies of 9.54% and 1.36%, respectively. The pedigree analysis showed that most of the carriers could be traced back to the common ancestry, Osborndale Ivanhoe for BLAD and Pennstate Ivanhoe Star for CVM. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that real-time PCR is a simple, rapid and reliable assay for BLAD and CVM defective allele detection. The high frequency of the CVM allele suggests that implementing a routine testing system is necessary to gradually eradicate the deleterious gene from the Chinese Holstein population.