A Fiber-Rich Diet and Radiation-Induced Injury in the Murine Intestinal Mucosa

Dietary fiber is considered a strong intestinal protector, but we do not know whether dietary fiber protects against the long-lasting mucosal damage caused by ionizing radiation. To evaluate whether a fiber-rich diet can ameliorate the long-lasting pathophysiological hallmarks of the irradiated mucosa, C57BL/6J mice on a fiber-rich bioprocessed oat bran diet or a fiber-free diet received 32 Gray in four fractions to the distal colorectum using a linear accelerator and continued on the diets for one, six or 18 weeks. We quantified degenerating crypts, crypt fission, cell proliferation, crypt survival, macrophage density and bacterial infiltration. Crypt loss through crypt degeneration only occurred in the irradiated mice. Initially, it was most frequent in the fiber-deprived group but declined to levels similar to the fiber-consuming group by 18 weeks. The fiber-consuming group had a fast response to irradiation, with crypt fission for growth or healing peaking already at one week post-irradiation, while crypt fission in the fiber-deprived group peaked at six weeks. A fiber-rich diet allowed for a more intense crypt cell proliferation, but the recovery of crypts was eventually lost by 18 weeks. Bacterial infiltration was a late phenomenon, evident in the fiber-deprived animals and intensified manyfold after irradiation. Bacterial infiltration also coincided with a specific pro-inflammatory serum cytokine profile. In contrast, mice on a fiber-rich diet were completely protected from irradiation-induced bacterial infiltration and exhibited a similar serum cytokine profile as sham-irradiated mice on a fiber-rich diet. Our findings provide ample evidence that dietary fiber consumption modifies the onset, timing and intensity of radiation-induced pathophysiological processes in the intestinal mucosa. However, we need more knowledge, not least from clinical studies, before this finding can be introduced to a new and refined clinical practice.     

Tara gum–bovine sodium caseinate acid gels: Stabilisation of W/W emulsions

Microstructural, rheological, and textural behaviour of tara gum–bovine sodium caseinate aqueous mixtures and their acid gels were evaluated. Acid gels with different microstructures and texture were obtained. These results can be related to a competition between the protein acid gelation process and the segregative phase separation. Depending on the concentration ratio of both biopolymers, a continuous protein gel network or a water‐in‐water emulsion stabilised by acid gelation was observed. These findings may be used to address the development of new food‐grade gels with different textures and also for the obtention of protein microgels to encapsulate hydrophilic compounds.     

An Elevator Button Recognition Method Combining YOLOv5 and OCR

Fast recognition of elevator buttons is a key step for service robots to ride elevators automatically. Although there are some studies in this field, none of them can achieve real-time application due to problems such as recognition speed and algorithm complexity. Elevator button recognition is a comprehensive problem. Not only does it need to detect the position of multiple buttons at the same time, but also needs to accurately identify the characters on each button. The latest version 5 of you only look once algorithm (YOLOv5) has the fastest reasoning speed and can be used for detecting multiple objects in real-time. The advantages of YOLOv5 make it an ideal choice for detecting the position of multiple buttons in an elevator, but it’s not good at specific word recognition. Optical character recognition (OCR) is a well-known technique for character recognition. This paper innovatively improved the YOLOv5 network, integrated OCR technology, and applied them to the elevator button recognition process. First, we changed the detection scale in the YOLOv5 network and only maintained the detection scales of 40 * 40 and 80 * 80, thus improving the overall object detection speed. Then, we put a modified OCR branch after the YOLOv5 network to identify the numbers on the buttons. Finally, we verified this method on different datasets and compared it with other typical methods. The results show that the average recall and precision of this method are 81.2% and 92.4%. Compared with others, the accuracy of this method has reached a very high level, but the recognition speed has reached 0.056 s, which is far higher than other methods.     

Screw press extraction of almond (Prunus dulcis (Miller) D.A. Webb): Oil recovery and oxidative stability

The objectives of this work were to study the combined effects of seed moisture content and pressing temperature on oil recovery and quality parameters of almond oil (AO) and to evaluate the effectiveness of natural (rosemary extract and ascorbyl palmitate) and synthetic antioxidants (TBHQ) on the oxidative stability of AO analyzing chemical changes during an accelerated thermo-oxidation assay. A factorial arrangement was conducted, in pressing experiments, in order to study the combined effects of seed moisture content (4, 6, 8, 10 and 12% (w/w)) and pressing temperature (20, 40 and 60 °C) on oil recovery and quality parameters. Oil recovery increased significantly as moisture content raised. The highest oil recovery (79.3%) was obtained at 8% (w/w) seed moisture content and 40 °C pressing temperature. All extraction conditions employed were compatible with an acceptable chemical oil quality.     

Mobile learning for hearing-impaired children: Review and analysis

Universal Access in the Information Society - Currently, a common objective for most countries is including people with disabilities in the various aspects of everyday life. As part of this...     

Evaluation of authoring tools under ATAG and WCAG recommendations

Universal Access in the Information Society - Authoring tools are software programs that allow users to create learning content, lessons, and courses, usually to be used in virtual learning...     

Selective Disruption of Survivin's Protein-Protein Interactions: A Supramolecular Approach Based on Guanidiniocarbonylpyrrole

Targeting specific protein binding sites to interfere with protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is crucial for the rational modulation of biologically relevant processes. Survivin, which is highly overexpressed in most cancer cells and considered to be a key player of carcinogenesis, features two functionally relevant binding sites. Here, we demonstrate selective disruption of the Survivin/Histone H3 or the Survivin/Crm1 interaction using a supramolecular approach. By rational design we identified two structurally related ligands ( L_NES and L_HIS ), capable of selectively inhibiting these PPIs, leading to a reduction in cancer cell proliferation.     

Occurrence of enteric viruses and faecal indicators in submarine groundwater discharges in the coastal environment of the Mexican Caribbean

The occurrence of faecal microorganisms such as total coliforms (TCs), Escherichia coli (E. coli), coliphages (somatic and F+ specific) and the genomes of faecal viruses: human adenovirus (HAdV), norovirus (NoV) genogroup I (GI) and II (GII), enterovirus (EV), aichi virus (AiV) and Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), was explored in submarine groundwater discharges (SGDs) in the Mexican Caribbean. Ultra-filtrated water samples were subjected to nucleic acid extraction and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results showed the presence of TC bacteria at all sites, whereas the detection of E. coli occurred only during the dry season. Coliphages occurred during the rainy and dry seasons, with concentrations ranging from 10 to 2560 plaque forming units (PFU/100 ml). HAdV and AiV were detected in 50% and 41% of the samples, at concentrations ranging from 10² to 10⁴ genome copies per litre (GC/L) and from 10² to 10⁶ GC/L, respectively. NoV GI and II were detected in 25% and 16% of the samples, at concentrations of 10¹ GC/L and 10²–10³ GC/L, respectively. PMMoV was detected in 50% of the samples at concentrations ranging from 10¹ to 10³ GC/L. The EV genomes were not detected. These findings demonstrate that faecal microorganisms can be transported through SGDs in the Mexican Caribbean, potentially contributing to human health risks for recreation.