Clinical gait analysis in older children with autism spectrum disorder.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit motor deficits that increase their risk of falls. There is a lack of understanding regarding gait biomechanics demonstrated by older children with ASD. The purpose of the study was to determine differences in gait patterns between older children with ASD and typically developing children. Eleven children with ASD and 11 age- and gender-matched typically developing children were recruited for the study. Participants walked on a force-instrumented treadmill at a constant speed (1.1 â€‹m/s â€‹- â€‹1.2 â€‹m/s) for five minutes (min). Participants performed maximal voluntary contractions to assess their knee muscular strength. Differences between individuals with ASD and matched control participants were examined through paired t-tests with a significance level of p â€‹≤ â€‹0.05. Individuals with ASD demonstrated a smaller knee extensor torque compared to controls (p â€‹= â€‹0.002). Participants with ASD exhibited a shorter stride length (p â€‹= â€‹0.04), a greater cadence (p â€‹= â€‹0.03), and a higher variation in stride width (p â€‹= â€‹0.04) compared to control participants. The individuals with ASD experienced a greater braking ground reaction force (p â€‹= â€‹0.03) during loading response. The results indicate older children with ASD develop a unique gait pattern signified by a reduced stride length, increased cadence, and an increase of variation in stride width. This unique gait pattern may represent a movement strategy used by the individuals with ASD to compensate for the weakness associated with their knee extensor muscles. Individuals with ASD who demonstrate these unique gait deviations may face reduced postural stability and an increased risk of fall-related injuries.

Effect of osmotic dehydration combined with vacuum freeze-drying treatment on characteristic aroma components of peach slices.

Hot air drying (HD), vacuum freeze drying (FD), and pilot-scale freeze drying (PSFD) are extensively used to prepare peach slices. However, the aroma of hot air drying and vacuum freeze-drying is yet to be addressed. In this study, HS-SPME-GC-MS was used to characterize and quantify the volatile compounds in peach slices. First, 33, 36, and 46 volatile compounds were identified and quantified in the HD, FD, and PSFD groups, respectively. PSFD is preferable to HD and FD in terms of the volatile compound types, content, and aroma profiles. PSFD was selected for subsequent permeation and dehydration experiments. The key aroma compounds with an OAV ≥ 1 were found in the PSFD30 group. GC-O analysis was conducted on the PSFD30 group, leading to the preliminary identification of 2-methylbutanal, pentanal, hexanal, 2-hexenal, phenylacetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, 2-methylbutyl acetate, ethyl lactate, linalool, methyl heptenone, and γ-octalactone as distinctive aromas in dried peach slices.

New insight into pectic fractions of cell wall: Impact of extraction on pectin structure and in vitro gut fermentation.

Pectic polysaccharides modulate gut fermentation ability, which is determined by structural characteristics. In this work, apple pectins were extracted by HCl (HAEP), NaOH (AEP), cellulase (EAEP), and in parallel cell wall pectic fractions were sequentially extracted by water (WEP), chelator (CEP) and NaOH (NEP). The aim is to comprehensively compare the impact of extraction on pectin structure and gut fermentation behavior. Results showed that high content of galacturonic acid (90.65 mol%) and large molecular weight (675 kg/mol) were detected in the HAEP. Molecular morphology of the HAEP presented high linearity, while AEP, EAEP and WEP exhibited compact filamentous structures with highly branched patterns. The AEP was characterized by high yield (33.1 g/100 g d.b.), moderate molecular weight (304 kg/mol) and large extent of rhamnogalacturonan-I region (24.88 %) with low degree of branching (1.77). After in vitro simulated gut fermentation for 24 h, total content of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) generated with the AEP supplement increased to 36.8 mmol/L, followed by EAEP, HAEP and WEP (25.2, 24.2 and 20.3 mmol/L, respectively). Meanwhile, WEP simultaneously produced the highest ammonia content (22.4 mmol/L). This investigation suggests that the fermentation of AEP produces more beneficial SCFA and less ammonia, thus indicating a better gut fermentation property.

Influence of different pre-treatments on flavor quality of freeze-dried carrots mediated by carotenoids and metabolites during 120-day storage.

Changes in carotenoids and volatiles (including ß-carotene-metabolites) of freeze-dried carrots (FDC) treated by thermal/nonthermal-ultrasound (40 KHz, 10 min) and ascorbic (2%, w/v)-CaCl2 (1%, w/v) solution ((H)UAA-CaCl2) during a 120-day storage period were investigated. The results of HS-SPME/GC-MS showed that caryophyllene was the dominant volatile compound (70.80-275.74 µg/g, d.b) in FDC, and 144 volatile compounds were detected in 6 samples. Besides, 23 volatile compounds were significantly correlated with ß-carotene content (p < 0.05), and ß-carotene degraded to off-flavor compounds (ß-ionone: 22.85-117.26 µg/g, ß-cyclocitral: 0-113.84 µg/g and dihydroactindiolide: 4.04-128.37 µg/g) that had adverse effects on FDC flavor. However, UAA-CaCl2 effectively preserved the total carotenoid content (793.37 µg/g), and HUAA-CaCl2 reduced the off-odors (such as ß-cyclocitral and isothymol) formation at the end of storage. These results indicated that (H)UAA-CaCl2 treatments were conducive to the maintenance of carotenoids and the flavor quality of FDC.

Effects of cell morphology on the textural attributes of fruit cubes in freeze-drying: Apples, strawberries, and mangoes as examples.

The influence of cell morphology on the textural characteristic of freeze-dried apple, strawberry, and mango cubes was evaluated. Corresponding restructured cube samples without intact cell morphology were prepared as controls. Results indicated that the presence of cell morphology strengthened the shrinkage and collapse of samples during freeze-drying, especially in mangoes due to the high content of sugar. Intact cell morphology was found in natural fruit cubes after freeze-drying by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation, making them exhibit a more regular microporous structure, further resulting in higher hardness than the restructured cubes. However, the intact cell morphology negatively affected the crispness of freeze-dried cubes since it enhanced structural collapse. The freeze-dried samples without cell morphology would destroy the cellulose structure and form a continuous open-pore structure under the concentration effect of ice crystals during freezing, which accelerates the escape of water molecules, increases the drying rate, and avoid collapse. Sensory experiments found that restructured cubes without intact cell morphology exhibited greater comprehensive acceptance, suggesting the potential application of cell morphology disruption in the future freeze-drying industry.

Understanding the impact of pectin on browning of polyphenol oxidation system in thermal and storage processing.

Browning of some processed fruit products was affected not only by polyphenol oxidation but also by cell wall polysaccharides (pectin). The study was performed to understand the mechanism of browning in the pectin system. The catechin/chlorogenic acid oxidation system in three pectins significantly enhanced their browning during thermal storage with pectin structure- and concentration-dependent. Particularly, the structural and physicochemical properties of pectin were examined to determine its effects on the kinetics of polyphenol oxidation and the stability of free polyphenols. Moreover, pectin impacted the fluorescence characteristics of polyphenols by cross-linking with the aromatic ring of polyphenols. In turn, the interaction between polyphenols and pectin impacted the chemical bond vibration of pectin, thereby affecting its optical features and browning. The correlation analysis revealed that the monosaccharide composition, Ratio 1, Ratio 2, Ratio 3, methyl esterification, ζ-potential, and polydispersity index of pectin were significantly correlated with the browning of the pectin-polyphenol oxidation system.

Novel insight into the evolution of volatile compounds during dynamic freeze-drying of Ziziphus jujuba cv. Huizao based on GC-MS combined with multivariate data analysis.

To understand the evolution of aroma in jujubes during dynamic freeze drying (FD), the relationship between aroma compounds, precursors, and related enzyme activities were analyzed. Fifty-three volatiles were identified during FD processing. After FD, the total aroma contents were increased from 11,004 to 14,603 µg/kg, ketones content was significantly decreased by 54.11 %, resulted in the loss of creamy note in freeze-dried jujube (FDJ). Through the network analysis, serine, glycine, proline, valine, cysteine, arginine, glutamic acid, lysine and leucine had the significant correlation with pyrazines, dominated the roasty note of FDJ. Linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid and oleic acid with lipoxygenase had important effects on the increase of esters (from 412 to 9,486 µg/kg), contributed fruity and sweet notes of FDJ. Besides, through the Mantel test, the influence degree of factors on the formation of FDJ aroma was ranked as temperature > enzyme activity > fatty acids > amino acids.

Effect of osmotic dehydration with different osmosis agents on water status, texture properties, sugars, and total carotenoid of dehydrated yellow peach slices.

The water status, texture properties, sugars, and total carotenoid of dehydrated yellow peach slices pretreated with or without osmotic dehydration (OD) combined with heat pump drying were studied. In this study, different osmotic agents were used, namely, sucrose and isomaltooligosaccharide (IMO) with 30 °Brix for 1, 3, and 5 h. Results showed that the dehydrated samples pretreated by sucrose-OD with the best shape and cell structure showed lower hardness compared to the dehydrated yellow peach slices with IMO-OD pretreatment and without OD pretreatment. Notably, the highest total carotenoid content was found in dehydrated yellow peach slices pretreated by IMO-OD, followed by samples without OD, and samples with sucrose-OD pretreatment. In addition, the lowest aW (0.517) was obtained in samples with IMO-OD for 5 h, which was beneficial for storage. The assessment of water status and total carotenoid content of dehydrated yellow peach slices showed that IMO-OD pretreatment could better improve the quality of dehydrated fruits. Moreover, the use of IMO in OD treatment was a good alternative to sucrose.

Characterization and Discrimination of Apples by Flash GC E-Nose: Geographical Regions and Botanical Origins Studies in China.

Forty-one apple samples from 7 geographical regions and 3 botanical origins in China were investigated. A total of 29 volatile compounds have been identified by flash GC E-nose. They are 17 esters, 5 alcohols, 3 aldehydes, 1 ketone, and 3 others. A principal component analysis was employed to study the relationship between varieties and volatiles. A partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), stepwise linear discriminant analysis (SLDA), and decision tree (DT) are used to discriminate apples from 4 geographical regions (34 apple samples) and 3 botanical origins (36 apple samples). The most influential markers identified by PLS-DA are 2-hexadecanone, methyl decanoate, tetradecanal, 1,8-cineole, hexyl 2-butenoate, (Z)-2-octenal, methyl 2-methylbutanoate, ethyl butyrate, dimethyl trisulfide, methyl formate, ethanol, S(-)2-methyl-1-butanol, ethyl acetate, pentyl acetate, butyl butanoate, butyl acetate, and ethyl octanoate. From the present work, SLDA reveals the best discrimination results in geographical regions and botanical origins, which are 88.2% and 88.9%, respectively. Although machine learning DT is attempted to classify apple samples, the results are not satisfactory.

Combination of calcium lactate impregnation with UV-C irradiation maintains quality and improves antioxidant capacity of fresh-cut kiwifruit slices.

This study investigated the combined effects of calcium lactate (CA-L, 3 g L-1) and shortwave ultraviolet (UV-C, 4.0 kJ m-2) irradiation on quality attributes and antioxidant defense capacity of fresh-cut kiwifruits at refrigerated storage for 7 d. The results indicated that CA-L and UV-C joint treatment, compared to either treatment alone, alleviated microbial load, showed higher quality on ascorbic acid (AsA), green color, total chlorophyll, flesh hardness, total sugar, total acid and malonaldehyde (MDA) content. Besides, it inhibited O 2 · - and •OH generation, induced H2O2 production, improved the activity of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT and APX), activated critical enzymes (PAL, C4H and 4CL) in phenylpropanoid metabolism pathway and further enhanced total phenolic and proanthocyanidin content. Above results demonstrated that UV-C together with CA-L treatment could synergistically maintain overall quality and improve antioxidant capacity of kiwifruit slices. Therefore, the combination of CA-L and UV-C treatment showed a potential practical application in fresh-cut kiwifruits.

Knowledge-Based Discovery of the Role and Mechanism of Resveratrol in Improving Glomerular Tether Cell Proliferation and Apoptosis in Diabetic Nephropathy.

To investigate the effects and mechanisms of resveratrol on glucolipid metabolism in diabetic humans. In this paper, we introduced the knowledge discovery theory into the data processing of the factors related to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes for the first time, and identified valid, potentially useful, and understandable pathogenesis patterns from a large amount of measured data. A data mining C4.5 algorithm was used to classify 17072 validated cross-sectional health survey data from the whole population according to the characteristics of type ρ diabetes data. A human model of diabetes mellitus was prepared by high sugar and high fat diet plus low dose streptozotocin (STZ, 35 mg/kg) and randomly grouped into four groups: the normal control group, the model group, the resveratrol group, and the pioglitazone group. 8 animals in each group were treated with the corresponding drugs for 8 weeks. Hepatic steatosis and damage were significantly reduced compared with the model group as observed by HE staining. Resveratrol has obvious effects on regulating glucolipid metabolism, and its mechanism of action is associated with its ability to increase the antioxidant activity of the body, activate the Akt signaling pathway, and improve liver pathological damage.

Characteristic Volatiles and Cultivar Classification in 35 Apple Varieties: A Case Study of Two Harvest Years.

A large number of apple varieties (35) from the same germplasm were investigated over two consecutive harvest years. A total of 39 volatile compounds were identified by HS-SPME-GC-MS, and quantified by external standards. Principal component analysis was applied to study the relationship between varieties and volatiles. To obtain better discrimination, 23 of 35 apple varieties were classified into four cultivars and good classification could be observed by partial least squares discriminant analysis. Ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, 2-methyl-1-butanol, Z-3-hexenyl acetate, E-2-hexen-1-ol, linalool and dodecanol were the most important variables to discriminate apple cultivars. Based on the volatile concentration and thresholds, ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, hexanal, 1-hexanol, E-2-nonenal and linalool were the critical characterized odor-active compounds among 35 apple varieties over two harvest years. From the present work, seasonal effects greatly influenced the formation of volatiles.

Second Language Proficiency Modulates the Dependency of Bilingual Language Control on Domain-General Cognitive Control.

The relationship between bilingual language control and domain-general cognitive control has been a hot topic in the research field of bilingualism. Previous studies mostly examined the correlation between performances of bilinguals in language control tasks and that in domain-general cognitive control tasks and came to the conclusions that they overlap, partially overlap, or are qualitatively different. These contradictory conclusions are possibly due to the neglect of the moderating effect of second language (L2) proficiency, that is, the relationship between bilingual language control and domain-general cognitive control might vary with the L2 proficiency of bilinguals. To examine this hypothesis, we recruited 36 unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals to perform the Simon task (to assess domain-general cognitive control), Oxford Placement Test (to assess L2 proficiency), and picture naming tasks in single-and dual-language contexts (to evoke local and global language control). We find that Simon scores positively predicted switching costs in bilinguals with low L2 proficiency, but not in bilinguals with high L2 proficiency. Furthermore, Simon scores positively predicted mixing costs in bilinguals with high L2 proficiency, but not in bilinguals with low L2 proficiency. These results verify the moderating effect of L2 proficiency on the relationship between bilingual language control and domain-general cognitive control, that is, bilinguals with more proficient L2 rely on domain-general cognitive control less for local language control and more for global language control. This may imply a shift from local to global for the dependency of bilingual language control on domain-general cognitive control during the L2 development of bilinguals.

Investigation on the rehydration mechanism of freeze-dried and hot-air dried shiitake mushrooms from pores and cell wall fibrous material.

Shiitake mushrooms are unique in their porous structure, which could be affected by various chemical/physical changes during freeze-drying process. In this work, rehydration characteristics of freeze-dried products which were pre-frozen at -20 ℃, -40 ℃, -80 ℃, and -196 ℃ (by liquid nitrogen) were explored from aspects of pores and cell wall fibrous material. Although the appearance and rehydration rate of freeze-dried samples was better than hot-air dried samples with drying temperature ranging from 30 ℃ to 90 ℃, the final rehydration ratio was still less than hot-air dried samples dried at low temperature (30 ℃ and 40 ℃) due to the more serious structural damage by freeze-drying. Hydration capacity of the cell wall fiber was increased by freeze-drying, which might be ascribed to the loosen structure of cell wall instead of composition changes. Thus, hot-air drying at low temperature is still recommend and freeze-drying should be further optimized.

Color enhancement mechanisms analysis of freeze-dried carrots treated by ultrasound-assisted osmosis (ascorbic acid-CaCl2) dehydration.

Color enhancement mechanisms of freeze-dried carrot sample (FDS) treated by ultrasound-assisted osmotic (ascorbic acid-CaCl2) dehydration (UAA) were comprehensively investigated from physical microstructures and color-related carotenoid compounds. Results of scanning electron microscope and confocal laser scanning microscopy showed that cells in samples treated by UAA were intact, had less porosity and showed stronger carotenoid autofluorescence. As for color-related compounds, UAA not only increased the retention ratios of total carotenoid content (36.38%) and ß-carotene (51.73%) of FDS, but also preserved the high raman intensity of CC in-plane expansion (9986 A.U) and induced the formation of coloring-carotenoid-derivatives. Additionally, correlation and PCA-X model analysis showed that fresh carrot had higher extractable color value (78.46), which was positively linearly related to 2-n-pentylfuran (p < 0.01), whereas FDS mainly affected the surface color that was dominated by ß-carotene. This work provided the practical analysis and theoretical basis of color enhancement of freeze-dried carrot foods.

Investigation of the Volatile Profile of Red Jujube by Using GC-IMS, Multivariate Data Analysis, and Descriptive Sensory Analysis.

The aroma characteristics of six red jujube cultivars (Jinchang-'JC', Junzao-'JZ', Huizao-'HZ', Qiyuexian-'QYX', Hetiandazao-'HTDZ', and Yuanzao-'YZ'), cultivated in Xinjiang Province, China, were studied by E-nose and GC-IMS. The presence of acetoin, E-2-hexanol, hexanal, acetic acid, and ethyl acetate played an important role in the classification results. JC, JZ, HZ, and YZ were different from others, while QYX and HTDZ were similar to each other. HZ had the most abundant specific VOCs, including linalool, nonanoic acid, methyl myristoleate, 2-acetylfuran, 1-octen-3-one, E-2-heptenal, 2-heptenone, 7-octenoic acid, and 2-pentanone. HZ had higher intensity in jujube ID, floral, sweet, and fruity attributes. Correlation analysis showed that jujube ID (identity) might be related to phenylacetaldehyde and isobutanoic acid that formed by the transamination or dehydrogenation of amino acids; meanwhile, the sweet attribute was correlated with amino acids, including threonine, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, lysine, histidine, and arginine.

Effect of high pressure homogenization on water-soluble pectin characteristics and bioaccessibility of carotenoids in mixed juice.

The effect of high pressure homogenization (HPH) compared with simple blending and milling on mixed juice properties, including water-soluble pectin (WSP) characteristics and total carotenoid bioaccessibility (TCB) was investigated. Overall, HPH treatments, which comprised of varied pressures, passes and inlet temperature (IT) affected WSP characteristics. Increased pressure showed decreased molecular weight (Mw), galacturonic acid (GalA) content and branching, and enhanced degree of methylesterification (DM) and chain linearity, suggesting degradation of RG-I fragments. Two passes at 140 MPa enhanced GalA content, nevertheless it reduced DM, implying rearrangement of depolymerized fractions. Besides, elevated IT combined with high pressure increased GalA content and DM signifying thermo-solubilization of certain HG-rich pectin. Notably, the TCB was enhanced by higher pressure and elevated temperature, which had positive relationship with DM and chain linearity of WSP and negative correlations with GalA content and Mw. Results highlighted the potential of HPH to improve WSP characteristics to enhance TCB.

Modelling and optimization of high-pressure homogenization of not-from-concentrate juice: Achieving better juice quality using sustainable production.

The present work optimized high-pressure homogenization (HPH) parameters for not-from-concentrate combined peach and carrot juices, based on a two-step comprehensive model using factor analysis and analytic hierarchy process methods. Treating combined juice with pressures over 200 MPa retained more amounts of the bioactive compounds (carotenoids and polyphenols) than non-homogenization. Nutrition-oriented optimization, with higher judgement weight on nutritional properties, and sense-oriented optimization, with higher weight on sensory properties, were set up. Combined juice (250 MPa, 1 pass and 25 °C) had the best quality, based on the nutrition- and sense-oriented models. Back propagation neural network (BPNN) models could predict antioxidant capacities of the combined juice with greater accuracy compared with stepwise linear regression. The relative errors of BPNN prediction model were ≤ 5%.

Effects of ultrasound, heat, ascorbic acid and CaCl2 treatments on color enhancement and flavor changes of freeze-dried carrots during the storage period.

Discoloration and unpleasant flavor were observed in freeze-dried carrots (FDC) during shelf life. This study aimed to investigate the effects of thermal/non-thermal pre-treatments and storage temperatures on the color and flavor of FDC during the 120-day storage. Results showed that terpenes and sulfur-containing organics were the main volatiles sensitive to the 60 °C treatment (p < 0.05). Nonenzymatic browning of FDC happened during storage, which was significantly positively related to moisture content (r = 0.63) and water activity (r = 0.84), while negatively correlated with total carotenoid content (TCC, r = -0.62). However, redness (29.66%), chroma (16.59%) and TCC (3.40%) of FDC at 120-day (25 °C) was effectively improved after the combination treatment of ultrasound (40 kHz, 100 W, 10 min) and ascorbic acid (2%, w/v)-CaCl2 (1%, w/v) solution (UAA-CaCl2), showing that carrots pre-treated with UAA-CaCl2 and preserved at 25 °C facilitated the FDC storage.

Pectin and homogalacturonan with small molecular mass modulate microbial community and generate high SCFAs via in vitro gut fermentation.

The intestinal fermentability of pectic polysaccharides is largely determined by its molecular size. In this study, fermentation properties of enzymatic-modified apple pectin (AP) and homogalacturonans (HG) with high, medium and low molecular weight (Mw) were evaluated by in vitro fermentation model, and their structural changes were also investigated. Results showed that Mw, monosaccharide contents and molecular linearity of the AP hydrolysates were reduced after microbial degradation. On the other hand, culture media supplemented with low-Mw AP (60,300 g/mol) and low-Mw HG (861 g/mol) exhibited lower pH (5.1 and 5.7, respectively) and produced higher total short-chain fatty acid contents (SCFA, 230.40 mmol/L and 187.19 mmol/L, respectively). However, reduced trends in abundance of the pectinolytic microorganisms Faecalibacterium and Eubacterium were showed as Mw of the HG decreased, whereas growth of the SCFA-producer genera Bifidobaacterium, Megasphaera and Allisonella were improved. This work confirmed that low-Mw pectin and homogalacturonan generated more beneficial metabolites, developing structure-microbiota-gut health relationship.