Water Dynamics of Mung bean (Vigna radiata) Sprouts Treated with 6-Benzylaminopurine: Discrimination by Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Spectrometry

Mung bean sprouts are a kind of favorite healthy food across the world. As a forbidden plant hormone cytokinins, the use of 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP) in promoting the growth of bean sprouts is forbidden due to its safety concerns. Rapid analysis of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts is required to assess their growth changes and discriminate them from the normal sample. In this study, the water dynamics of growth for 6-BAP treated bean sprouts was monitored by the low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging. A simplified cartoon model of the water dynamics was proposed to explain the LF-NMR analysis result. Principal component analysis of the NMR relaxation data clearly showed the different water distribution of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts from the control sample. The juice of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts showed significant difference in the ultraviolet absorption and fluorescence spectra. Therefore, combining the spectrometry, the LF-NMR may have potential for rapid discrimination of the 6-BAP treated bean sprouts.

Presence and Formation Mechanism of Foodborne Carbonaceous Nanostructures from Roasted Pike Eel ( Muraenesox cinereus)

Foodborne nanostructures have gained more and more attention in recent years. In this paper, the presence and physicochemical properties of carbonaceous nanostructures (CNSs) from roasted pike eel ( Muraenesox cinereus) were reported. The monodispersed CNSs are strongly photoluminescent under the illustration of ultraviolet (UV) light, with a fluorescent quantum yield of 80.16%, and display excitation-dependent emission behavior. The formation of CNSs is believed to go through a process of morphology evolution, including polymerization, pyrolysis, nucleation, growth, emergence, and blossom. The optical properties of the CNSs were shown to be affected by the roasting temperature. Furthermore, cellular uptake of the CNSs was investigated, and it is shown that the CNSs were clearly absorbed into live cells and were mainly distributed within the cell cytoplasm and not in the cell nucleus. This work is among the very first reports on CNSs present in roasted fish, providing valuable insights into the formation mechanism of such nanostructures and showcasing the biodistribution of these food-originated CNSs in live cells.

Bio-inspired Edible Superhydrophobic Interface for Reducing Residual Liquid Food

Significant wastage of residual liquid food, such as milk, yogurt, and honey, in food containers has attracted great attention. In this work, a bio-inspired edible superhydrophobic interface was fabricated using U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved and edible honeycomb wax, arabic gum, and gelatin by a simple and low-cost method. The bio-inspired edible superhydrophobic interface showed multiscale structures, which were similar to that of a lotus leaf surface. This bio-inspired edible superhydrophobic interface displayed high contact angles for a variety of liquid foods, and the residue of liquid foods could be effectively reduced using the bio-inspired interface. To improve the adhesive force of the superhydrophobic interface, a flexible edible elastic film was fabricated between the interface and substrate material. After repeated folding and flushing for a long time, the interface still maintained excellent superhydrophobic property. The bio-inspired edible superhydrophobic interface showed good biocompatibility, which may have potential applications as a functional packaging interface material.

Adjuvant radiotherapy for positive lymph nodes of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Can it earn promising benefits at long-term follow-up?

PURPOSE

The value of adjuvant radiotherapy for patients with positive lymph nodes after curative resection of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma is controversial. This study aims to investigate its long-term benefits in a specific cohort.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The charts between 1990 and 2003 from patients with positive lymph nodes were retrospectively reviewed. Those subjects were divided into adjuvant radiotherapy and surgery alone groups, with two subgroups defined by radiation dose (cutoff value: 50Gy). Overall survival, disease-free survival and locoregional recurrence-free survival were compared between two groups, with predictive factors of overall survival analysed meanwhile.

RESULTS

In sum, 175 matched patients with 1:2 ratios for group balance were enrolled for final analysis. During the follow-up (median: 37.0 months), 143 (81.7%) deaths were recorded, with 70.6% of deaths from cancer progression. The median overall survival time (19.5, 4 to 172 months) was not significantly different between the two groups (18.9 vs. 20.0 months, P=0.179). However, the disease-free survival time was significantly shorter in the adjuvant radiotherapy group than that in the control group (median, 11.5 vs. 14.9 months; P=0.001), with the locoregional recurrence-free survival time impressively prolonged (median: 18.3 vs. 16.5 months; P=0.022). Age (P=0.030), number (P=0.005) and ratio (P=0.002) of positive lymph nodes were associated with overall survival, but radiation dose was not (P=0.204).

CONCLUSION

Adjuvant radiotherapy with low- or high-dose did not improve survival compared with surgery alone. However, radiotherapy was effective to control locoregional recurrence, and could be applied as salvage therapy when recurrence event occurred.

Fluorescent Carbon Dots Derived from Maillard Reaction Products: Their Properties, Biodistribution, Cytotoxicity, and Antioxidant Activity

Food-borne nanoparticles have received great attention because of their unique physicochemical properties and potential health risk. In this study, carbon dots (CDs) formed during one of the most important chemical reactions in the food processing field, the Maillard reaction from the model system including glucose and lysine, were investigated. The CDs purified from Maillard reaction products emitted a strong blue fluorescence under ultraviolet light with a fluorescent quantum yield of 16.30%. In addition, they were roughly spherical, with sizes of around 4.3 nm, and mainly composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Their surface groups such as hydroxyl, amino, and carboxyl groups were found to possibly enable CDs to scavenge DPPH and hydroxyl radicals. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity assessment of CDs showed that they could readily enter HepG2 cells while causing negligible cell death at low concentration. However, high CDs concentrations were highly cytotoxic and led to cell death via interference of the glycolytic pathway.

Variable Temperature Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Magnetic Resonance Imaging System as a Novel Technique for In Situ Monitoring of Food Phase Transition

A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system with a 45 mm variable temperature (VT) sample probe (VT-NMR-MRI) was developed as an innovative technique for in situ monitoring of food phase transition. The system was designed to allow for dual deployment in either a freezing (-37 °C) or high temperature (150 °C) environment. The major breakthrough of the developed VT-NMR-MRI system is that it is able to measure the water states simultaneously in situ during food processing. The performance of the VT-NMR-MRI system was evaluated by measuring the phase transition for salmon flesh and hen egg samples. The NMR relaxometry results demonstrated that the freezing point of salmon flesh was -8.08 °C, and the salmon flesh denaturation temperature was 42.16 °C. The protein denaturation of egg was 70.61 °C, and the protein denaturation occurred at 24.12 min. Meanwhile, the use of MRI in phase transition of food was also investigated to gain internal structural information. All these results showed that the VT-NMR-MRI system provided an effective means for in situ monitoring of phase transition in food processing.

Influence of Freezing–Thawing Cycle on Water Dynamics of Turbot Flesh Assessed by Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Turbot is a valuable commercial species due to its high nutrient content. Moisture is an important indicator of meat spoilage. This study elucidated distinctive water dynamics in turbot flesh in the freezing–thawing process by nondestructive low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. T 2 relaxation spectra were utilized to describe the mobility and content of different types of water. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a clear discrimination of various freezing–thawing cycles. T 1- and T 2-weighted MRI provided further visualization of internal information for turbot flesh. Microscopic examination clearly identified protein denaturation and structural shrinkage. Furthermore, NMR parameters and conventional physicochemical parameters of color, shear force and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances showed good correlations. To sum up, the study revealed that LF-NMR and MRI are promising techniques to portray the relationship between the water dynamics and changes of turbot quality properties during the freezing–thawing process.

Bio-distribution and interaction with dopamine of fluorescent nanodots from roasted chicken

The formation of a new type of food-borne FNDs with varying particle sizes and different fluorescence properties in chicken roasted at different temperatures, and theirin vitrointeraction with dopamine are reported.

Facile one-step synthesis of highly luminescent N-doped carbon dots as an efficient fluorescent probe for chromium(vi) detection based on the inner filter effect

Label-free fluorescence assay system is designed for Cr(iv) detection.

Ultrasmall fluorescent nanoparticles derived from roast duck: their physicochemical characteristics and interaction with human serum albumin

Fluorescent nanoparticles (FNPs) produced from roast meat have drawn widespread attention due to their potential hazards to human health.

Noise and transmission performance improvement of broadband distributed Raman amplifier using bidirectional Raman pumping with dual order co-pumps

We demonstrate a low noise bidirectional broadband distributed Raman pumping scheme combining dual order co-propagated pumps without increasing the signal RIN level. The noise performance improvement is compared experimentally and numerically with conventional counter-pumping only and bidirectional pumping with only a 2nd order co-pump for a 70nm bandwidth and 61.5km distributed Raman amplifier. The proposed broadband pumping scheme shows 1.2dB maximum noise figure improvement and extends the long-haul transmission reach up to 6150km with a Q-factor improvement of ~0.7dB compared with counter-pumping only scheme.

In-line and cascaded DWDM transmission using a 15dB net-gain polarization-insensitive fiber optical parametric amplifier

We demonstrate and characterize polarization-division multiplexed (PDM) DWDM data transmission for the first time in a range of systems incorporating a net-gain polarization-insensitive fiber optical parametric amplifier (PI-FOPA) for loss compensation. The PI-FOPA comprises a modified diversity-loop architecture to achieve 15dB net-gain, and up to 2.3THz (~18nm) bandwidth. Three representative systems are characterized using a 100Gb/s PDM-QPSK signal in conjunction with emulated DWDM neighbouring channels: (a) a 4x75km in-line fiber transmission system incorporating multiple EDFAs and a single PI-FOPA (b) N cascaded PI-FOPA amplification stages in an unlevelled Nx25km recirculating loop arrangement, with no EDFAs used within the loop signal path, and (c) M cascaded PI-FOPA amplification stages as part of an Mx75.6km gain-flattened recirculating loop system with the FOPA compensating for the transmission fiber loss, and EDFA compensation for loop switching and levelling loss. For the 4x75km in-line system (a), we transmit 45x50GHz-spaced signals ('equivalent' data-rate of 4.5Tb/s) with average OSNR penalty of 1.3dB over the band at 10^-3 BER. For the unlevelled 'FOPA-only' 25.2km cascaded system (b), we report a maximum of eight recirculations for all 10x100GHz-spaced signals, and five recirculations for 20x50GHz-spaced signals. For the 75.6km levelled system

Presence of Fluorescent Carbon Nanoparticles in Baked Lamb: Their Properties and Potential Application for Sensors

The presence of nanoparticles in food has drawn much attention in recent years. Fluorescent carbon nanoparticles are a new class of nanostructures; however, the distribution and physicochemical properties of such nanoparticles in food remain unclear. Herein, the presence of fluorescent carbon nanoparticles in baked lamb was confirmed, and their physicochemical properties were investigated. The fluorescent carbon nanoparticles from baked lamb emit strong blue fluorescence under ultraviolet light with a 10% fluorescent quantum yield. The nanoparticles are roughly spherical in appearance with a diameter of around 2.0 nm. Hydroxyl, amino, and carboxyl groups exist on the surface of nanoparticles. In addition, the nanoparticles could serve as a fluorescence sensor for glucose detection through an oxidation-reduction reaction. This work is the first report on fluorescent carbon nanoparticles present in baked lamb, which provides valuable insight into the physicochemical properties of such nanoparticles and their potential application in sensors.

A Method to Analyze the Protein Denaturation of Whole Quail Egg Based on in situ NMR and MRI

The paper aims to study the change of protein denaturation in whole quail egg during heating using in situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. The NMR relaxometry demonstrated that the protein denaturation occurred within 64–66 °C. The quail eggs after 8 min heating at 65 °C were successfully recognized by NMR combined with principal component analysis due to protein denaturation. The protein denaturation dynamics study revealed that the protein denaturation occurred at 8, 6, 4, 2 min for the quail eggs heated at 65, 70, 75, 100 °C, respectively. In addition, the protein denaturation of quail egg was also detected by the T1 weighted MRI imaging, confirming that the dramatic changes occurred at 8 min when the eggs were heated at 65 °C. All these results showed that the NMR with MRI provided an effective way to assess the protein denaturation of quail eggs.