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Study on the formation mechanism of color and flavor during the processing of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua (PCH)

This study elucidated the formation mechanism of color and flavor in Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua (PCH) processing, corrected the traditional view that the Maillard reaction dominated, and verified the effects of processing on PCH’s pharmacological activity and safety. Key parameters were monitored through colorimetric reactions and HPLC analysis during processing. Metabolic variations were analyzed by LC-MS, and volatile flavor compounds were examined via HS-SPME-GCMS. Antioxidant activity was assessed using DPPH and ABTS methods, and anti – aging efficacy was evaluated with a UVB-induced senescence model of HaCaT cells. The relationship between components and color/flavor profiles was explored through correlation analysis. The correlation coefficient between caramelization marker 5 – HMF and browning degree reached 0.96, much higher than that of Maillard marker CML (0.50). 5 – HMF accumulated significantly in the later processing stages (fourth and fifth drying cycles) up to 5.13 ± 0.39 mg/L, while CML increased only in the earlier phases. LC-MS analysis showed that fructose content significantly accumulated during processing, suggesting PCH’s sweetness mainly comes from fructose. Fructose, a ketose, undergoes less enolization than aldose sugars like glucose, making it hard to bind with amino compounds for Maillard reaction. After the fourth and fifth drying cycles, amino acid content decreased by 30.70%, favoring caramelization over Maillard reaction in later stages. HS-SPME-GCMS revealed that PCH’s primary aromatic compounds are oxygen – containing heterocyclics, which form during drying stages with content changes consistent with 5 – HMF accumulation. Maillard – related nitrogen – containing heterocyclic compounds have low content and minimal flavor contribution. Moreover, PCH antioxidant activity increased after processing, and its anti-aging effect was retained. In conclusion, contrary to traditional assumptions, the caramelization reaction in PCH processing is the primary process for color formation and contributes significantly to flavor development along with the Maillard reaction. This study analyzed the color and flavor formation mechanism and provided a theoretical basis for subsequent food development quality optimization.

Corneal allogenic intrastromal ring segments improve visual and topographic outcomes in advanced keratoconus

Dosimetric benefits of 1.5 T MR-guided radiotherapy in partial breast treatment

This study aimed to evaluate the dosimetric benefits of magnetic resonance (MR)-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) compared to computed tomography (CT)-guided RT for partial breast treatment. First, treatment plan quality was compared between MRgRT with step-and-shoot (S&S) IMRT and CT-guided RT with volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Second, the dosimetric benefit of online adaptation in MRgRT was assessed by comparing the initial planned doses with daily MR-defined target geometry to those with planning CT-defined target geometry. Plan quality for MRgRT was comparable to, or slightly lower than, CT-guided RT. The V 95% of the planning target volume (PTV) was lower by 1.72% and 1.94%, respectively, with a lower minimum dose and a higher maximum dose. For the OARs, the dosimetric parameters were generally similar, but for the skin, the D max , D 0.5mL , and D 1mL were slightly higher in MRgRT. Evaluation of the initial planned doses with the daily MR-based target definition resulted in a maximum deviation of 46% for the PTV V 95% , demonstrating uncertainty in CT-based target definition. Although the MRgRT planning quality may be slightly compromised due to the S&S IMRT technique, the dosimetric benefits from online adaptation can be substantial when CT-based target definitions need to be modified based on daily MR imaging guidance.

Electric-vehicle batteries toughen up to beat the heat

Machine learning-based Bayesian optimization of tuned inerter dampers for enhanced seismic response control in high-rise base-isolated structures

Cure rate estimation with insufficient follow-up: A median-based bootstrap correction approach

The cure rate in clinical trials can be estimated using the Kaplan–Meier (KM) estimator. However, when the clinical trial follow-up period is insufficient and short, the KM estimator may overestimate the proportion of cured patients. Although a correction method was proposed by Escobar-Bach and Keilegom based on bootstrap sampling, this can also lead to bias when the bootstrap distribution is skewed. We propose a median-based approach for bootstrap samples to address these issues. Simulation results showed that the effect of the variation of the proposed method due to many outliers was smaller than that of the other method and enabled stable estimation. The method was successfully applied to real clinical trial data from a D-penicillamine study on primary biliary cirrhosis.

A collaborative multi-party encryption for mitigating man-in-the-middle attacks in smart grid and energy IoT systems

Asian-White racial disparities in postpartum hemorrhage and severe postpartum hemorrhage in Ontario, Canada: A population-based cohort study

Background Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading preventable cause of maternal morbidity and mortality globally, occurring in 4–6% of Canadian deliveries with evidence suggesting higher rates among Asian individuals. We compared rates of PPH and severe PPH in Ontario, Canada, among Asian and White individuals, focusing on the intersectional relationships between race, language, and immigration status. Methods We performed a population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada (2013–2021). PPH was identified by diagnosis codes used to indicate blood loss of ≥500 mL (vaginal delivery) or ≥1000 mL (cesarean delivery). Severe PPH was defined as PPH with an intervention to control bleeding. Rates were examined by maternal self-reported race, immigration category, duration in Canada, and language at immigration. Modified Poisson regression models were fit to determine the relationships between race, PPH and severe PPH. Models were adjusted for maternal sociodemographic, clinical and obstetric practice factors. Results The study included 637,311 deliveries (30.9% Asian, 69.1% White). PPH and severe PPH occurred in 5.5% and 6.8%, respectively, of primipara, and 3.8% and 4.3%, of multipara. Asian race was associated with marginally increased PPH rates among multipara after adjusting for confounding (adjusted rate ratio (aRR) 1.06, 95% CI 1.01–1.10). Asian and White individuals experienced similar rates of severe PPH in an adjusted model (aRR 1.00, 95% CI 0.91–1.09). Overall, immigrants experienced lower rates of PPH than non-immigrants (4.4% vs. 5.5%, p-value <0.01); however, differences were observed after layering primary language, with Southeast Asian language speakers having the highest rates (6.3% vs. 5.5%; aRR of 1.40 (95% CI 1.18–1.54) compared with White individuals. Discussion Variation in PPH and severe PPH risk was observed across racial, immigration, and language groups in Ontario, with modest differences overall but meaningful heterogeneity across subgroups. More granular consideration of immigration characteristics may improve understanding of maternal health inequities.

Celebrate women in research and the networks that sustain them

Human and bacterial genetic variation shape oral microbiomes and health

Abstract Human genetic variation influences all aspects of our biology, including the oral cavity 1–3 , through which nutrients and microbes enter the body. Yet it is largely unknown which human genetic variants shape a person’s oral microbiome and potentially promote its dysbiosis 3–5 . We characterized the oral microbiomes of 12,519 people by re-analysing whole-genome sequencing reads from previously sequenced saliva-derived DNA. Human genetic variation at 11 loci (10 new) associated with variation in oral microbiome composition. Several of these related to carbohydrate availability; the strongest association ( P  = 3.0 × 10 −188 ) involved the common FUT2  W154X loss-of-function variant, which associated with the abundances of 58 bacterial species. Human host genetics also seemed to powerfully shape genetic variation in oral bacterial species: these 11 host genetic variants also associated with variation of gene dosages in 68 regions of bacterial genomes. Common, multi-allelic copy number variation of AMY1 , which encodes salivary amylase, associated with oral microbiome composition ( P  = 1.5 × 10 −53 ) and with dentures use in UK Biobank ( P  = 5.9 × 10 −35 , n  = 418,039) but not with body mass index ( P  = 0.85), suggesting that salivary amylase abundance impacts health by influencing the oral microbiome. Two other microbiome composition-associated loci, FUT2 and PITX1 , also significantly associated with dentures risk, collectively nominating numerous host–microbial interactions that contribute to tooth decay.

Field-based evaluation of trunk strength using a novel in-chair assessment system in elite wheelchair athletes

Abstract Trunk strength is essential for performance in wheelchair-based sports, yet assessment under sport-specific conditions is challenging. The athlete and their sport wheelchair act as a unit, so meaningful assessment should occur in the wheelchair itself. We developed a mobile device that measures isometric trunk flexion, extension, and lateral flexion directly in the athlete’s own sport wheelchair. We first examined test-retest reliability in both able-bodied participants and elite wheelchair basketball (WB) players. Both cohorts showed high day-to-day consistency (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.85–0.97; coefficient of variation, < 10%). We then demonstrated that trunk forces measured distinguish between established WB functional classes 1.0 (high impairment) – 4,5 (low impairment). Higher classified groups produced significantly greater forces, with a strong positive correlation between classification and force ( r  = 0.76–0.87). Next, classification-specific reference values were generated and compared with measures from able-bodied participants. Lower classified athletes (1.0-3.5) produced approximately 56% less trunk force than able-bodied participants, whereas players in the highest classification (4.0-4.5) demonstrated comparable or up to 31% higher force in trunk flexion. These findings support the device as a reliable, field-based method to quantify trunk strength in athletes’ own wheelchairs and show that it can differentiate functional classes, enabling its application in performance testing.

DS-Mamba: Depthwise separable mamba for hyperspectral image classification

Transformers experience quadratic computational complexity in hyperspectral image (HSI) classification tasks, which can result in error propagation and memory usage issues. Recently, Mamba architectures built upon the State Space Models have supplanted Transformers across various domains to accomplish long-range sequence modeling capability while demonstrating the advantages of linear computational efficiency. However, employing the basic Mamba model for HSI classification has problems associated with the extraction of spatial and spectral features. Motivated by this, we propose the DS-Mamba, a novel depthwise separable Mamba for HSI classification. Specifically, to extract the spatial and spectral features more efficiently, we design a depth spatial Mamba block (DSpaM), a depth spectral Mamba block (DSpeM) and a feature enhancement module. These blocks use depthwise separable convolution in conjunction with the basic Mamba block to improve classification accuracy while maintaining a low computational cost. Subsequently, to enhance the classification performance, feature weights are adjusted and spatial as well as spectral information are integrated through the feature fusion module. Finally, the feature information is enhanced and categorized by a classification module with Efficient Channel Attention (ECA). Through comparative experiments, DS-Mamba achieved overall accuracies of 96.54%, 91.52%, and 94.89% on the Pavia University, Hanchuan, and Houston datasets, respectively. Its classification performance surpassed that of several advanced transformer-based methods. Furthermore, DS-Mamba has lower model parameters and floating point operations (FLOPs), with only 137.74K parameters and 12.52G FLOPs recorded on the Pavia University dataset.

Hybrid knowledge- and data-driven modelling for robust spike detection and sorting in human C-fiber microneurography

Abstract Analyzing temporal spike patterns in C-fibers recorded via microneurography is challenging due to the use of a single recording electrode, waveform variability, and high similarity of spike shapes across neurons, limiting the interpretation of sensory coding, such as pain and itch. We present a computational pipeline combining peak detection and supervised classification for spike sorting to improve the analysis of discharges, identified through activity-dependent conduction velocity changes. In the knowledge-driven step, we extract spike templates from electrically evoked spikes obtained during low-frequency stimulation and focus on the “best” template as the fiber of interest. Spike detection is further restricted to intervals showing activity-dependent latency shifts, substantially reducing the search space compared to unsupervised clustering. In the data-driven steps, we systematically evaluate three feature sets and machine learning models: One-class SVM, SVM, and XGBoost. For the evaluation, we created a specialized stimulation protocol, providing reliable ground truth labels for all electrically evoked spikes, allowing precise spike time-locking. Compared to Spike2 software, our approach achieved higher F1-scores and reduced false positives, indicating improved spike sorting. Although XGBoost achieved the highest median F1-scores, optimal performance was dependent on individual combinations of feature sets and models for each recording. In some recordings with many nerve fibers and a low signal-to-noise ratio, reliable sorting was not feasible. This highlights the necessity to determine sortability and optimal configurations for individual recordings. To illustrate the potential of our approach to sensory spike train analysis, we present a proof-of-concept application of the pipeline to chemically induced C-fiber activity. These findings represent an important step toward reliable analysis of activity associated with pain and itch signaling.

Time restricted EAting for Type 2 diabetes and MEtabolic health: The TEA TIME trial study protocol

Background Recent findings have suggested that implementing the emerging weight-loss strategy of time-restricted eating (TRE) for 6 weeks can have beneficial effects on the key pathophysiologic determinants of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) – namely, pancreatic beta-cell function and insulin resistance. Given the chronic nature of T2DM and the general challenge of long-term adherence to dietary interventions, a critical question is the durability of such effects. Specifically, we seek to determine whether TRE can improve the metabolic health of patients with T2DM over 1 year. Methods In this open-label, parallel-arm, randomized controlled trial, individuals with overweight/obesity and T2DM of <10 years duration will be randomized to either standard lifestyle recommendations or TRE. The TRE protocol will consist of 18 hours of fasting and a 6 hour window of eating (between 2–8 PM) each day. The duration of the intervention will be 52-weeks and participants will undergo metabolic characterization at baseline, 12–24-, 36- and 52-weeks. The primary outcome of pancreatic beta-cell function will be assessed by Insulin Secretion-Sensitivity Index-2 (ISSI-2). Additional metabolic measures will include insulin resistance and glucose homeostasis. Discussion TRE may represent an adjunct therapeutic approach for improving the metabolic profile of overweight/obese individuals with T2DM while also providing the capacity for modification of its underlying pathophysiology. This evaluation of the durability of the metabolic effects of TRE on beta-cell function and insulin resistance could thus identify a role for this dietary strategy as a disease-modifying intervention early in the course of T2DM. Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov NCT07272460 .

Automated production cutting optimization for minimizing material waste of pipelines in prefabricated MEP systems based on integer programming

External-knowledge enhanced dual encoder and contrastive learning for aspect sentiment triplet extraction

Aspect Sentiment Triplet Extraction (ASTE) is an emerging subtask of Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA), aiming to extract aspect terms, opinion terms, and the corresponding sentiment polarity from sentences. Many existing ASTE methods neglect to mine the deeper semantics of the sentence as well as ignore the intrinsic meanings of individual words. In order to address these limitations, this paper proposes a novel approach for ASTE. Firstly, dual encoders are used to extract the semantic and syntactic information of the sentence, the semantic encoder uses BERT and Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) to extract the semantic information, and the syntactic encoder employs a Bi-directional Long and Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) network and GCNs to extract the syntactic information. Secondly, a feature fusion module is designed to fuse the information from the dual encoders. Finally, to enhance the ability of the model to recognize boundary tags, we design a boundary-aware contrastive learning module. Experimental results on ASTE-Data-V1 and ASTE-Data-V2 demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.

SCB-YOLO: a lightweight adaptive attention-enhanced network for student behavior detection in complex classroom settings

Exendin-4 enhances GLP-1 signaling and reduces anxiety-like behaviors in male heroin withdrawal mice

Anxiety and depression significantly contribute to heroin relapse, and addressing these issues could lower relapse rates. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) are involved in regulating these emotions, but the molecular mechanisms during heroin withdrawal are not yet understood. Subcutaneous injection of heroin into C57BL/6J mice to simulate chronic dependence, withdrawal, and Exendin-4 treatment. Assess anxiety and depression-like behaviors using open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM), forced swimming test (FST), and tail suspension test (TST). Analyze neuronal and protein expression changes in the BLA brain area with Western blotting (WB) and immunofluorescence staining. Heroin dependence reduces glutamatergic neurons in BLA without affecting anxiety and depression-like behaviors, due to the inhibitory effect of heroin reward. During withdrawal, GLP-1 secretion by the NTS rises, increasing c-Fos and GLP-1 receptor expression in glutamatergic neurons of BLA, linked to heightened anxiety but not depression. A 7-day treatment with Exendin-4 (2 µg/kg) alleviates anxiety in withdrawal mice by downregulating GLP-1 signaling in the NTS-BLA circuit, indicating GLP-1’s role in regulating anxiety during heroin withdrawal. GLP-1 receptors within BLA may serve as molecular targets for modulating emotional states, thereby offering empirical support for strategies aimed at preventing heroin relapse.

Cancer pain awareness and communication practices among physicians in China: a nationwide mixed-methods study

Abstract Effective cancer pain management remains a global challenge, often hindered by gaps in physician knowledge, attitudes, and institutional awareness. This study aimed to assess Chinese physicians’ understanding, perceptions, and practices related to cancer pain management through a national mixed-methods survey and interview study. A nationwide mixed-methods study was conducted between September 2019 and September 2024 to assess cancer pain management practices. The quantitative component involved a large-scale online survey distributed across 29 provinces to capture broad trends in physician knowledge and clinical behavior. To ensure a comprehensive evaluation, the study integrated a qualitative component through semi-structured interviews with frontline clinicians, aiming to gain deeper insights into unmet clinical needs and systemic barriers. A multi-step analytical approach was used to examine the relationship between physician demographics—such as education and specialized training—and their pain management awareness. Among 2,188 respondents, the majority were early-career physicians at tertiary hospitals. While a high percentage recognized the multi-dimensional nature of cancer pain, including sensory and social factors, practical assessment relied heavily on rapid subjective scales. Quantitative analysis demonstrated that higher educational levels and specific clinical exposure, such as oncology department rotations, were significant predictors of stronger pain management awareness. Conversely, a reliance on non-opioid medications was associated with lower awareness levels. Qualitative findings corroborated these trends, revealing a predominant reliance on pharmacological interventions and a critical need for structured multidisciplinary training. This study identifies potential knowledge gaps and variability in cancer pain management practices among physicians in China. The findings suggest that targeted training programs, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the standardization of assessment tools may be beneficial to improve clinical outcomes and patient quality of life. Furthermore, these results underscore the need to address resource disparities to promote more equitable pain care across different regions.

Species specific marker genes for systemic defence and stress responses to leaf wounding and flagellin stimuli in hybrid aspen and silver birch

In Northern Europe, climate warming is driving the northward expansion of deciduous tree species such as aspen and silver birch, while simultaneously intensifying biotic stress from pests and pathogens. This creates an urgent need for improved understanding of molecular defence mechanisms underlying stress resistance and resilience in temperate forest trees, as a basis for the development of innovative biotechnological approaches. However, progress in this area remains limited by the lack of reproducible experimental systems and well-characterized molecular markers for systemic defence responses in deciduous tree species. In this study, we aimed to identify and validate known plant defence gene markers associated with systemic stress responses in hybrid aspen and silver birch to support future functional research. Using sequence mining and phylogenetic analyses, we identified homologues of biotic stress-response genes in the genomes of both species. We then employed in vitro propagated tree clones to assess defence gene activation in distal leaves following systemic signal induction by leaf wounding and bacterial flagellin treatment at 4 and 24 hours post-induction. We identified LOX2, MPK3 , and EIN2 as early wounding-responsive genes in silver birch, while JAZ10 together with EIN2 showed robust induction in hybrid aspen in response to the combined effects of wounding and flagellin. Collectively, these findings establish a reproducible in vitro framework for validating stress responsive genes and provide a foundation for future studies of systemic signalling, tree–microbe interactions, and stress resilience in ecologically and economically important forest tree species.