579 research outputs found
Resistant Starch from Exotic Fruit and Its Functional Properties: A Review of Recent Research
Resistant starch is a functional food ingredient that can resist enzymatic digestion in the small intestine and fermentation in large intestine. Resistant starch has many benefits to human health by promoting a balanced blood sugar and beneficial gut bacteria. This review highlighted the sources of different exotic fruit starch, such as banana, jackfruit, cempedak, durian, and breadfruit. The functional properties of these exotic fruit resistant starches were covered in this review. The effect of resistant starch on glycaemic index of food was revealed. This review also discussed on the applications of resistant starch in the production of food products and their effects on food quality. The provided information through the overall review could especially benefit the food industry in producing functional food products with great consumer acceptability
Extended Schmidt Law: Role Of Existing Stars In Current Star Formation
We propose an "extended Schmidt law" with explicit dependence of the star
formation efficiency (SFE=SFR/Mgas) on the stellar mass surface density. This
relation has a power-law index of 0.48+-0.04 and an 1-sigma observed scatter on
the SFE of 0.4 dex, which holds over 5 orders of magnitude in the stellar
density for individual global galaxies including various types especially the
low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies that deviate significantly from the
Kennicutt-Schmidt law. When applying it to regions at sub-kpc resolution of a
sample of 12 spiral galaxies, the extended Schmidt law not only holds for LSB
regions but also shows significantly smaller scatters both within and across
galaxies compared to the Kennicutt-Schmidt law. We argue that this new relation
points to the role of existing stars in regulating the SFE, thus encoding
better the star formation physics. Comparison with physical models of star
formation recipes shows that the extended Schmidt law can be reproduced by some
models including gas free-fall in a stellar-gravitational potential and
pressure-supported star formation. By implementing this new law into the
analytic model of gas accretion in Lambda CDM, we show that it can re-produce
the observed main sequence of star-forming galaxies (a relation between the SFR
and stellar mass) from z=0 up to z=2.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures; Accepted for Publication In Ap
High-resolution, high-contrast mid-infrared imaging of fresh biological samples with ultraviolet-localized photoacoustic microscopy
Mid-infrared (MIR) microscopy provides rich chemical and structural information about biological samples, without staining. Conventionally, the long MIR wavelength severely limits the lateral resolution owing to optical diffraction; moreover, the strong MIR absorption of water ubiquitous in fresh biological samples results in high background and low contrast. To overcome these limitations, we propose a method that employs photoacoustic detection highly localized with a pulsed ultraviolet laser on the basis of the GrĂĽneisen relaxation effect. For cultured cells, our method achieves water-background suppressed MIR imaging of lipids and proteins at ultraviolet resolution, at least an order of magnitude finer than the MIR diffraction limits. Label-free histology using this method is also demonstrated in thick brain slices. Our approach provides convenient high-resolution and high-contrast MIR imaging, which can benefit the diagnosis of fresh biological samples
High-resolution, high-contrast mid-infrared imaging of fresh biological samples with ultraviolet-localized photoacoustic microscopy
Mid-infrared (MIR) microscopy provides rich chemical and structural information about biological samples, without staining. Conventionally, the long MIR wavelength severely limits the lateral resolution owing to optical diffraction; moreover, the strong MIR absorption of water ubiquitous in fresh biological samples results in high background and low contrast. To overcome these limitations, we propose a method that employs photoacoustic detection highly localized with a pulsed ultraviolet laser on the basis of the GrĂĽneisen relaxation effect. For cultured cells, our method achieves water-background suppressed MIR imaging of lipids and proteins at ultraviolet resolution, at least an order of magnitude finer than the MIR diffraction limits. Label-free histology using this method is also demonstrated in thick brain slices. Our approach provides convenient high-resolution and high-contrast MIR imaging, which can benefit the diagnosis of fresh biological samples
Simple non-invasive scoring systems and histological scores in predicting mortality in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
[Background and Aim] There is debate among the hepatology community regarding the simple non-invasive scoring systems and histological scores (even it was developed for histological classification) in predicting clinical outcomes in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study aimed to determine whether the presence of simple non-invasive scoring systems and histological scores could predict all-cause mortality, liver-related mortality, and liver disease decompensation (liver failure, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, or decompensated liver disease).[Methods] The pooled hazard ratio of prognostic factors and incidence rate per 1000 person-years in patients with NAFLD was calculated and further adjusted by two different models of handling the duplicated data.[Results] A total of 19 longitudinal studies were included. Most simple non-invasive scoring systems (Fibrosis-4 Score, BARD, and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index ) and histological scores (NAFLD activity score, Brunt, and "steatosis, activity, and fibrosis" ) failed in predicting mortality, and only the NAFLD fibrosis score > 0.676 showed prognostic ability to all-cause mortality (four studies, 7564 patients, 118 352 person-years followed up, pooled hazard ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05–1.96). The incidence rate per 1000 person-years of all-cause mortality, liver-related mortality, cardiovascular-related mortality, and liver disease decompensation resulted in a pooled incidence rate per 1000 person-years of 22.65 (14 studies, 95% CI 9.62–53.31), 3.19 (7 studies, 95% CI 1.14–8.93), 6.02 (6 studies, 95% CI 4.69–7.74), and 11.46 (4 studies, 95% CI 5.33–24.63), respectively.[Conclusion] Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score showed promising prognostic value to all-cause mortality. Most present simple non-invasive scoring systems and histological scores failed to predict clinical outcomes.Peer reviewe
The Role of Steatosis in HBsAg Seroclearance for Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection: Fact or Fiction?
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