Search Results (17,458)

Pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibition is a promising dietary strategy for obesity management. In this study, the inhibitory mechanisms and structural basis of polyphenols extracted from different sugarcane fractions were investigated using in vitro enzyme assays, spectroscopy, and molecular docking analyses. PL inhibitory activity was evaluated using p-nitrophenyl laurate (pNPL) as the substrate, with all assays performed in triplicate and results statistically analyzed. Among the extracts, sugarcane peel polyphenols (SP) exhibited the strongest inhibition, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of 31.56 mg/mL, significantly lower than that of sugarcane juice polyphenols (SJ, 55.86 mg/mL) and sugarcane bagasse polyphenols (SB, 65.31 mg/mL). Enzyme kinetic analyses revealed a reversible mixed-type inhibition mechanism. In contrast to crude extracts, individual phenolic monomers showed substantially lower IC₅₀ values (0.13–1.33 mg/mL), highlighting the intrinsic dilution. Compositional analysis identified ferulic acid, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, and schaftoside as key contributors to PL inhibition. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and fluorescence spectroscopy demonstrated that polyphenols altered PL secondary structure by modulating α-helix and β-sheet contents and perturbed the microenvironment of tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Tyr) residues. Molecular docking further indicated that these compounds bind within or near the substrate-binding channel via hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions, engaging critical residues including Ser152, His263, and Phe77, and potentially influencing conformational elements involved in active-site accessibility. Collectively, these results suggest that sugarcane, particularly its peel, represents a valuable natural source of PL inhibitors. Despite the relatively high IC₅₀ values of crude extracts, their inhibitory activity arises from multicomponent contributions and supports their potential application as dietary modulators of fat digestion rather than as pharmaceutical lipase inhibitors. Full article

Substituted p-phenylenediamines (PPDs) and their quinone derivatives (PPD-Qs) are emerging contaminants associated with tire-related antioxidants and antiozonants and have raised increasing concern because of their potential environmental effects. However, information on their occurrence in estuarine systems, particularly their combined distribution in water and sediment, remains limited in the Pearl River Estuary. In this study, 30 water samples and five sediment samples collected from the Pearl River Estuary were analyzed for selected PPDs and PPD-Qs. Four target compounds were detected in water, whereas nine were found in sediments, indicating broader occurrence in the sediment phase. The total concentration of PPDs ranged from below the detection limit to 17.6 ng/L in water and from 0.140 to 1.37 ng/g in sediments. In water, 6PPD and 6PPD-Q showed relatively high detection frequencies, while elevated IPPD concentrations were observed at several sites near urbanized coastal areas. In sediments, the highest ΣPPDs level was recorded in Shenzhen Bay. The observed spatial patterns suggest that mixed anthropogenic inputs may influence the occurrence of these compounds in the estuary, although direct source attribution requires further investigation. Overall, this study provides preliminary baseline information on the occurrence and phase-specific distribution of PPDs and PPD-Qs in the Pearl River Estuary and supports future investigations into their environmental fate and ecological relevance. Full article

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a widely used nucleic acid detection method, but its application is often limited by the suboptimal performance of wild-type Bacillus stearothermophilus (Bst) DNA polymerase. This study employed a combined deep learning and semi-rational design strategy to engineer Bst DNA polymerase. High-throughput screening identified the A0A150MFP3 sequence and the L105M mutation, which increased enzymatic activity by 32.92%. Fusion with the CL7 protein generated a CL7-Bst mutant with enhanced thermal stability and tolerance to common inhibitors, including 7% (v/v) ethanol, 0.18‰ (w/v) SDS, 80 mmol/L NaCl, and 0.8 mmol/L EDTA. Systematic optimization of the LAMP reaction system determined the optimal pH (9.0), enzyme concentration (0.20 U/μL), and temperature (64 °C). When applied to Escherichia coli O157:H7 detection, the CL7-Bst mutant achieved Tt values of 15.13 and 12.78 for crude and purified DNA, respectively, with a limit of detection of 1 × 10³ CFU/mL. In summary, integrating deep learning with semi-rational design and fusion protein engineering yielded a high-performance DNA polymerase that facilitates rapid, sensitive, and field-deployable LAMP-based pathogen detection. Full article

Climate change and population growth are intensifying water scarcity in arid regions, yet previous analyses focusing on a single driver may not fully capture the compounded effects of climatic and anthropogenic factors. This study integrates water-balance analysis, trend analysis, and correlation-based statistical analysis to examine the combined effects of hydroclimatic anomalies and socioeconomic activities on water resource dynamics in ecologically vulnerable Northwest China. Our results show that despite increasing precipitation, warming-associated increases in evapotranspiration, together with irrigation-based water use accounting for 89.8% of total consumption, have offset the potential runoff gains, suggesting that agricultural water use is a major anthropogenic contributor to regional water stress. Based on these findings and a comparative review of representative arid-region practices in Israel, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, we propose a technology-market-institution tripartite governance framework for Northwest China. This framework is intended to support more proactive adaptation in regional water management and to provide a context-specific reference for advancing SDG 6 and SDG 13 in dryland regions. Full article

The first female flower node (FFFN) is a crucial trait affecting earliness and yield in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.). To identify the genetic locus and candidate gene controlling FFFN, we performed phenotypic and genetic analyses using two parental lines, ‘M144’ (average FFFN: 6.3 ± 2.0) and ‘K55’ (average FFFN: 22.0 ± 4.5), along with their F₁ hybrid and an F₂ population consisting of 317 individuals. The results show that the low FFFN trait was incompletely dominant over the high FFFN trait. Using BSA-seq, we mapped a FFFN locus to an interval of 18.8–22.5 Mb on chromosome 4. Fine mapping with KASP markers narrowed the McFFFN4.1 to a 73.05 kb interval between markers 25QP334 and 26QP20, which contained seven predicted genes. Transcriptome analysis revealed that only Moc04g29650, which is annotated as cytochrome b-c1 complex subunit Rieske, was differentially expressed between the parents within this mapping interval. Sequence comparison identified a single SNP (C > A) in the promoter region of Moc04g29650, which was located within a putative YAB1/FIL-binding motif. Given the known role of FILAMENTOUS FLOWER (FIL) in regulating floral transition in Arabidopsis thaliana, Moc04g29650 is proposed as the most likely candidate gene for McFFFN4.1. The KASP marker 26QP20, located near Moc04g29650, showed the strongest association with FFFN in the F₂ population, with a maximum LOD score of 5.45, and thus represents a valuable tool for marker-assisted selection (MAS) breeding in bitter gourd. This study lays a foundation for cloning McFFFN4.1 and genetically improving early maturity in bitter gourd. Full article

The primary processing shapes the taste characteristics of coffee beans, while the regulation pathways remain unclear. Coffee beans processed by five methods—dry processing (DP), wet processing (WP), red honey (RH), black honey (BH) and anaerobic fermentation (AF)—were evaluated using electronic tongue analysis, sensory evaluation, and untargeted metabolomics. Sensory evaluation scores for mouthfeel, balance, and overall were higher in BH and AF. Conversely, the WP and DP exhibited heightened bitterness and astringency responses on the electronic tongue sensors, particularly for the former. The multigroup metabolomic comparison identified 808 DMs, and WGCNA revealed eight sensory-related modules containing 467 hub metabolites, mainly amino acids and derivatives, organic acids, alkaloids, and phenolic acids. KEGG analysis demonstrated that pathways such as caffeine metabolism and glycerophospholipid metabolism were the main pathways responsible for the metabolic differences. Further correlation analysis revealed potential flavor components closely associated with key taste characteristics. 1,3,4,5-tetrahydroxycyclohexanecarboxylic acid and Tyr demonstrated positive associations with bitterness, while TPC, TFC, Gly, and Met exhibited negative correlations with bitterness and astringency. Glu demonstrated a positive correlation with umami. These findings elucidate the material basis by which the primary processing modulates non-volatile compounds and taste perception, offering new insights into enhancing coffee quality. Full article

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), a major inhibitory neurotransmitter, is known for its physiological functions in alleviating anxiety and improving sleep. Currently, high-yielding GABA food products are mainly obtained through screening wild-type high-producing strains (e.g., Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from Sichuan pickles yielding 0.67 g/L) or employing co-culture systems (e.g., Enterococcus faecium and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum reaching 6.35 g/L). While effective, these methods often rely on natural screening strains or multi-microbial interactions. This study employed CRISPR-Cas9 technology to knockout the UGA1 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a key gene responsible for GABA degradation. Starting from the low higher alcohol Saccharomyces cerevisiae SY-LH, we successfully constructed the recombinant strain SY-LHU. Remarkably, this study discovered a significant upregulation of GAD1 gene expression following UGA1 knockout, which further enhanced GABA synthesis capacity. Under optimal fermentation conditions (inoculum size 4 × 10⁷ cells/mL, wort concentration 10 °P, sugar addition 60 g/L, 30 °C for 10 days, and mixing the malt broth every 48 h), the validation fermentation was performed and the GABA content in the wort beverage reached 280.36 mg/L, representing a 385.4% increase compared to the pre-optimization level. Furthermore, sensory evaluation by a trained panel yielded a mean score of 88, with no significant off-flavors detected, demonstrating the product’s high consumer acceptance. This pioneering work provides a novel and feasible technical pathway for developing functional alcoholic beverages with sleep-aiding properties. Full article

The first golden mussel, Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker, 1857), specimens in North America were discovered on 17 October 2024 at the Port of Stockton on the lower San Joaquin River in California (United States). The golden mussel is native to southern China and is one of the highest-risk aquatic invasive species worldwide. Golden mussels colonize hard surfaces and cause significant biofouling, affecting vital infrastructure such as hydroelectric plants and water delivery systems. It spreads rapidly through hydrological connectivity and human-mediated transport, with water conveyance systems functioning as invasion highways. The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta is vital to endangered species and provides water to 30 million people and 790,000 ha of farmland in central and southern California, but faces severe ecological and economic threats from this invasion. The detection of golden mussels was received with concern due to their impact on ecosystems and infrastructure. One year after detection, the invasion front moved 545 km south of the initial detection site (in a straight line) into Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County near Los Angeles. By April 2026, the invasion front had already advanced 707 km south to the Sweetwater Reservoir in San Diego County (detection date: 15 January 2026). The invasion path coincides with California’s major water delivery systems. Ballast water was the most likely introduction vector, further underscoring the inefficiency of well-intentioned ballast water management policies and the need to implement better ones. This article addresses five objectives: (1) document the introduction and current distribution; (2) highlight key invasive traits to guide management; (3) assess putative impacts in California; (4) review tested management strategies; and (5) propose an innovation-driven framework for golden mussel management. Full article

In this paper, a hidden ring beam (HRB) joint suitable for steel-tube-reinforced concrete (ST-RC) composite columns is proposed. The seismic performance was evaluated experimentally by hysteresis loading tests on reinforcement anchorage construction and reinforced concrete (RC) slabs, which was evaluated by several indices to assess the strength, ductility, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity. The results showed that the HRB joints have reliable seismic safety performance. The ultimate failure of all the specimens occurred in the plastic hinge regions of the RC beams. The specimens with different reinforcement anchorage construction methods exhibited excellent anchorage performance, maintaining effective anchorage between beam longitudinal bars and ring bars under cyclic loading. The RC slab increased the joint strength and the initial stiffness, with only a reduction in the ductility coefficient, and the average equivalent viscous damping coefficient reached 0.155. In addition, a joint numerical model was established, and the accuracy was validated against the test results, with the predicted strength differing from the test results by no more than 6%. A parametric analysis using numerical simulations revealed that the ring–longitudinal ratio, bearing stirrup diameter, RC slab constraints and axial load ratio were critical factors influencing the seismic performance of the joints. On the basis of the results of the parametric analysis, a moment capacity calculation method is proposed for HRB joints, providing a practical reference for seismic design in engineering applications. Full article

Ti-6Al-4V parts fabricated via selective laser melting (SLM) often exhibit severe surface irregularities that limit their direct engineering application. This study proposes a top-hat beam laser polishing method to improve surface quality. The results show that surface roughness (Sa) is reduced to 0.48 μm, a 95.3% decrease from the as-built condition. The uniform energy distribution of the top-hat beam stabilizes melt pool behavior, enabling effective surface leveling through valley filling and lateral melt flow. In contrast, Gaussian beam polishing induces strong Marangoni convection and wake effects, resulting in higher residual roughness. Microstructural analysis indicates an increased fraction of equiaxed α grains and a β-phase content of ~6% after top-hat polishing. The heat-affected zone likely exhibits a subcritical heat-treatment-like effect, promoting fine secondary α precipitation. Additionally, localized stresses induced by steep thermal gradients during SLM are effectively relieved. Overall, top-hat laser polishing is a promising post-processing technique for enhancing the surface quality of Ti-6Al-4V components. Full article

Background: Although pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has demonstrated strong clinical efficacy in preventing HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM), real-world utilization remains suboptimal. In South Korea, MSM constitute a major population within the domestic HIV epidemic; however, PrEP uptake has not increased pro-portionally to awareness. This discrepancy has been conceptualized as the “awareness–uptake gap,” reflecting multi-level barriers beyond individual knowledge. Purpose: This integrative review aimed to compare PrEP awareness, acceptance, and utilization among MSM populations in South Korea and international settings, and to identify structural, institutional, and psychosocial determinants contributing to the awaness, uptake gap. The study further sought to derive practical implications for nursing practice and health policy. Methods: An integrative literature review was conducted following Whittemore and Knafl’s five-step methodology and reported in line with PRISMA guidance. Electronic searches were performed in PubMed, Google Scholar, RISS, ScienceON, and DBpia for peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025 in English or Korean. The final search was completed on 31 January 2026. A total of 5952 records were identified, and 187 studies met the inclusion criteria after screening and duplicate removal. Quality appraisal was conducted using AXIS, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, RoB 2.0, CASP, and MMAT according to study design, and the findings were synthesized within an environmental–structural–individual framework. Results: The included studies consistently showed that awareness of PrEP exceeded actual uptake. Across settings, the awareness–uptake gap was shaped by policy environment, service accessibility, stigma, privacy concerns, economic burden, institutional complexity, and provider preparedness. Comparative evidence from China, Thailand, Belgium and France, Brazil, and West Africa further suggested that awareness alone did not ensure uptake when service pathways were fragmented, culturally unsafe, or poorly understood. Conclusions: Closing the awareness–uptake gap requires integrated policy and practice strategies that extend beyond cost reduction. Strengthening confidentiality systems, simplifying service pathways, and enhancing provider competency—particularly through nurse-centered PrEP navigation and counseling models—may support more sustainable PrEP expansion among MSM populations in global settings. Full article

The Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSP) is central to smart manufacturing, yet standard algorithms often prioritize productivity (makespan) at the expense of cost and reliability. This paper introduces t-MOHHO, a collaborative optimization framework designed to equilibrate machine load, processing costs, and delivery timeliness alongside throughput. By incorporating an adaptive Student’s t-distribution mutation operator and a non-linear energy escape mechanism, t-MOHHO effectively navigates high-dimensional search spaces. Extensive validation on 10 MK benchmark instances reveals that t-MOHHO demonstrates significant advantages over classic HHO, MOPSO, and MOEA/D across most metrics. Notably, in comparison to the state-of-the-art NSGA-III, t-MOHHO executes a clear trade-off: it trades marginal makespan efficiency for substantial reductions in cost and tardiness. Specifically, on the large-scale MK10 instance, t-MOHHO reduces total tardiness by 56.2% and lowers processing costs by 3.4% compared to NSGA-III. These results demonstrate that t-MOHHO can strategically sacrifice maximum speed to secure superior punctuality and cost-efficiency, making it a robust decision-support tool for Just-in-Time (JIT) production environments. Full article

Qinghai Province shoulders the heavy responsibility of serving as China’s ecological security barrier. In the process of implementing the “ecological priority” strategy, the green development of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province plays an especially important driving role. To systematically reveal the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics and core driving mechanism of Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) and provide a decision-making basis for the green transformation and high-quality development of regional animal husbandry, this paper, based on relevant data from 2010 to 2024 in Qinghai Province, constructs a measurement and influencing factor index system for the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry. Then, it conducts a systematic analysis of the temporal evolution and spatial differentiation characteristics of the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province using methods such as trend surface analysis and standard deviation ellipse. Subsequently, the influencing factors are discussed through the geographic detector model. The research findings are as follows: (1) During the study period, the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province shows an overall upward trend. Spatially, it presents a regional pattern of “strong in the north and stable in the south,” with the migration center moving towards the northeast and the distribution becoming more concentrated. (2) The level of fiscal support for agriculture, accessibility of transportation, the degree of environmental governance and the degree of digitalization play core driving roles in the process of GTFP climbing in grassland animal husbandry. (3) Interaction analysis shows that the explanatory power of any two influencing factors in the study area is higher than that of a single factor, and the interaction between the level of fiscal support for agriculture and the degree of environmental governance is the most significant. Therefore, the key to improving the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province lies in the coordinated allocation and linkage of financial support for agriculture and environmental governance. At the same time, this study can provide reference value for the green transformation and high-quality development of plateau grassland animal husbandry. Full article

Plant disease diagnosis in real-world agricultural environments is challenged by data scarcity, domain shift, privacy constraints, and limited edge-device resources. This paper proposes FMEL-FSDA, a Federated Multimodal Edge Learning framework with Few-Shot Domain Adaptation for robust field-based plant disease recognition. The framework integrates attention-based RGB–text feature fusion, privacy-preserving federated learning, rapid few-shot personalization, and uncertainty-aware inference within an edge-efficient architecture. Federated training enables collaborative learning across distributed farms without sharing raw data, while few-shot adaptation allows fast deployment to new regions using only 1–10 labeled samples per class. Experiments on the PlantWild in-the-wild dataset show that FMEL-FSDA outperforms centralized, federated, and few-shot baselines, achieving 93.78% accuracy, 93.33% F1-score, and 0.97 AUC. The model maintains strong performance under privacy mechanisms such as gradient perturbation and secure aggregation, reduces communication overhead by up to 4×, and supports low-latency edge inference. Uncertainty estimation and Grad-CAM-based explainability further enhance reliability by identifying low-confidence cases and highlighting disease-relevant regions. Overall, FMEL-FSDA offers a scalable, privacy-aware, and field-ready solution for intelligent plant disease diagnosis in precision agriculture. Full article

Traditional power and energy balance methods suffer from several limitations, such as inadequate coordination across long-term and short-term temporal scales, confinement to single-region spatial boundaries, and insufficient exploitation of multi-energy complementarity. This paper proposes a multi-temporal, multi-spatial power, and energy balance framework that integrates cross-regional energy sharing and leverages the complementarity among diverse power sources. A two-level feedback optimization model is formulated, coupling the medium- to- long-term energy balance with short-term power balance. The model comprehensively incorporates constraints, including the characteristics of various power sources, unit operating status, dynamic power flow on cross-regional tie-lines, as well as renewable energy curtailment minimization and power supply reliability requirements. This hierarchical structure enables coordination optimization across both the long-term and short-term temporal dimension and cross-regional mutual aid in the spatial dimension. A hierarchical solution strategy is employed, which integrates an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm with the Gurobi solver. Case studies on realistic power systems demonstrate that the proposed method effectively exploits the potential of multi-energy coordination and cross-regional mutual aid, achieving improved renewable energy accommodation, enhanced cross-regional resource utilization efficiency, and robust power and energy balance across multi-temporal and spatial scales. Full article