Desalted duck egg white nanogels as Pickering stabilizers for food-grade oil-in-water emulsion

Achieving the reuse of traditional egg by-products,salted duck egg whites(SEW),is an urgent problem to be solved.In this current work,we constructed a heat-induced gel-assisted desalination method for SEW.Subsequently,a top-down way was utilized to prepare desalted duck egg protein nanogels(DEPN)with uniformly distributed diameters and their application in the oil/water(O/W)interface system was explored.The results revealed that the increase of DEPN concentration could lower the droplet size,however,the size was negatively correlated with the oil phase fraction.Moreover,the effect of pH,ionic strength,and temperature on the emulsion stability demonstrated that the DEPN-stabilized emulsion displayed superior physical stability under different conditions.The addition of NaCl resulted in the significant decrease in droplet size of the emulsion,while further increasing the NaCl concentration,the droplet size did not decrease accordingly.Besides,heat-treatment and cold-treatment had little negative effect on the stability of the emulsion.Even if the droplet size of the emulsion increased at 80℃for 3 h,the morphology of the emulsion remained unchanged.Our study demonstrated DEPN had great potential as a stabilizer for food-grade Pickering emulsions.

目标结构、信息干预与信用卡还款决策:来自实验室实验的证据

伴随消费观念的改变和信用支付的便捷化,过度借贷现象愈发突出,人们对多个债务还款时的非最优决策加剧了不良信贷的出现。本研究关注信用卡还款过程中优先偿还债务额更低信用卡,而不是偿还利率更低信用卡的非理性行为,探究这一行为的内在机理及干预措施。我们利用实验室实验方法,考察个体在面对不同目标结构下的还款决策,研究社会规范、外部激励等干预信息在个体还款决策过程中的作用。结果表明,人们在进行还款决策时会选择高利率低债务额的信用卡进行偿还;可通过目标结构和信息来改善非理性还款行为。

Quality Evaluation of Threshing and Redrying Process Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

Improving the stability of the homogenization process to achieve the homogeneity of tobacco products is one of important targets for the redrying industry.According to the specification for threshing and redrying process,a total of 14 indicators in three categories that affect the quality of the threshing and redrying process were selected.Using analytic hierarchy process,combined with expert experiences,a judgment matrix was constructed to conduct consistency test.The weights of indices in production were obtained.This will help in evaluating the actual production quality,finding the weak links of process and adjusting the parameters of the corresponding links in a targeted manner,thereby improving the quality of production process.

Functional nanoemulsions: Controllable low-energy nanoemulsification and advanced biomedical application

Nanoemulsions are widely used as advanced pharmaceutical delivery systems in biomedical field, due to their high encapsulation efficiency and good therapy efficacy.Nanoemulsification techniques that produce nanoemulsions with controllable sizes and compositions are promising for creating advanced nanoemulsion systems for pharmaceutical delivery.This review summarizes recent advances on low-energy emulsification techniques for producing nanoemulsions, and the use of these nanoemulsions as advanced pharmaceutical delivery systems and as templates to create drug-loaded functional particles for biomedical application.First, nanoemulsification techniques that utilize elaborate interfacial physics/chemistry and micro-/nano-fluidics, featured with relatively-low energy input, to produce nanoemulsions with controllable sizes and compositions, are introduced.Uses of these nanoemulsions to create nanoemulsionincorporated milli-particles, drug-loaded nanoparticles and nanoparticle-incorporated microparticles with sizes ranging from several millimeters to sub-10 nm are emphasized.Flexible and efficient use of the nanoemulsions, functional nanoparticles and milli-/micro-particles integrated with nanoemulsions or nanoparticles for advanced pharmaceutical delivery in biomedical field are highlighted, with focus on how the interplay between their sizes and compositions achieve desired pharmaceutical-delivery performances.Finally, perspectives on further advances on the controllable production of nanoemulsions are provided.

Nanotechnology’s frontier in combatting infectious and inflammatory diseases:prevention and treatment

Inflammation-associated diseases encompass a range of infectious diseases and non-infectious inflammatory diseases,which continuously pose one of the most serious threats to human health,attributed to factors such as the emergence of new pathogens,increasing drug resistance,changes in living environments and lifestyles,and the aging population.Despite rapid advancements in mechanistic research and drug development for these diseases,current treatments often have limited efficacy and notable side effects,necessitating the development of more effective and targeted anti-inflammatory therapies.In recent years,the rapid development of nanotechnology has provided crucial technological support for the prevention,treatment,and detection of inflammation-associated diseases.Various types of nanoparticles(NPs)play significant roles,serving as vaccine vehicles to enhance immunogenicity and as drug carriers to improve targeting and bioavailability.NPs can also directly combat pathogens and inflammation.In addition,nanotechnology has facilitated the development of biosensors for pathogen detection and imaging techniques for inflammatory diseases.This review categorizes and characterizes different types of NPs,summarizes their applications in the prevention,treatment,and detection of infectious and inflammatory diseases.It also discusses the challenges associated with clinical translation in this field and explores the latest developments and prospects.In conclusion,nanotechnology opens up new possibilities for the comprehensive management of infectious and inflammatory diseases.

Plasmonic nanostructure characterized by deep-neuralnetwork-assisted spectroscopy[Invited]

The lateral geometry and material property of plasmonic nanostructures are critical parameters for tailoring their optical resonance for sensing applications.While lateral geometry can be easily observed by a scanning electron microscope or an atomic force microscope,characterizing materials properties of plasmonic devices is not straightforward and requires delicate examination of material composition,cross-sectional thickness,and refractive index.In this study,a deep neural network is adopted to characterize these parameters of unknown plasmonic nanostructures through simple transmission spectra.The network architecture is established based on simulated data to achieve accurate identification of both geometric and material parameters.We then demonstrate that the network training by a mixture of simulated and experimental data can result in correct material property recognition.Our work may indicate a simple and intelligent characterization approach to plasmonic nanostructures by spectroscopic techniques.

Review on bio-inspired polarized skylight navigation

In this review, the research progress of bio-inspired polarized skylight navigation is evaluated from the perspectives of theoretical basis, information detection, sensor design, and navigation realization. First, the theory for characterizing the polarization mode of the skylight was introduced. Second, using sunlight, moonlight, and ocean as backgrounds, the measurement results of skylight polarization distribution under different weather conditions are described to compare the variation patterns. Third, the development history and research outcomes of bionic polarization navigation sensor for polarized skylight detection and navigation information calculation are categorized into two types, namely non-imaging and imaging types. In precision measurement, the non-imaging type is higher than the imaging type, and the accuracy that it can reach is ± 0.1° of navigation accuracy without drift error. Fourth, two polarized skylight orientation algorithms,E-vector-based method and Solar Meridian-Anti Solar Meridian(SM-ASM)-based method are summarized. Fifth, this review details the combined application of polarized skylight navigation sensors and Inertial Navigation System(INS), Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS), Vision,Simultaneous Localization and Mapping(SLAM), and other navigation systems. The yaw and trajectory accuracy can be increased by about 40% compared to classical navigation system in complex outdoor environments. Finally, the future development trends of polarization navigation are presented.

Generated SecPen_NY-ESO-1_ubiquitin-pulsed dendritic cell cancer vaccine elicits stronger and specific T cell immune responses

Dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines(DC vaccines)have been proved efficient and safe in immunotherapy of various cancers,including melanoma,ovarian and prostate cancer.However,the clinical responses were not always satisfied.Here we proposed a novel strategy to prepare DC vaccines.In the present study,a fusion protein SNU containing a secretin-penetratin(SecPen)peptide,NY-ESO-1 and ubiquitin was designed and expressed.To establish the DC vaccine(DC-SNU),the mouse bone marrowderived DCs(BMDCs)were isolated,pulsed with SNU and maturated with cytokine cocktail.Then peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)from C57 BL/6 mice inoculated intraperitoneally with DCSNU were separated and cocultured with MC38/MC38NY-ESO-1 tumor cells or DC vaccines.The results show that SNU was successfully expressed.This strategy made NY-ESO-1 entering cytoplasm of BMDCs more efficiently and degraded mainly by proteasome.As we expected,mature BMDCs expressed higher CD40,CD80 and CD86 than immature BMDCs.Thus,the PBMCs released more IFN-γand TNF-αwhen stimulated with DC-SNU in vitro again.What’s more,the PBMCs induced stronger and specific cytotoxicity towards MC38NY-ESO-1 tumor cells.Given the above,it demonstrated that DC-SNU loaded with SecPen and ubiquitin-fused NY-ESO-1 could elicit stronger and specific T cell immune responses.This strategy can be used as a platform for DC vaccine preparation and applied to various cancers treatment.