Effect of Maillard reaction conditions on the solubility and molecular properties of wheat gluten–maltose conjugates

In this experiment, the conjugation reaction between gluten and maltose via Maillard reaction under dry-heated condition was studied. The process conditions for the preparation of protein–maltose conjugates with optimum solubility were optimized by using Box-Behnken model. The conjugation reaction and the structure changes of the protein–maltose conjugates were confirmed by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the process conditions for the preparation of protein–maltose conjugates with optimum solubility were as follows: temperature 50.72°C, time 1.92 days, and gluten/maltose (W/W) 267.36%. The infrared spectroscopy showed that the structure of the modified protein had a very obvious change, including the decrease in β-fold and β-turn and the increase in α-helix at a certain degree. But the conjugation reaction has little effect on the irregular coiled structure. The scanning electron microscopy showed that the microstructure of gluten is small grainy, but gluten–maltose conjugate looks sheet with bigger volume

Systems Pharmacology-Based Research on the Mechanism of Tusizi-Sangjisheng Herb Pair in the Treatment of Threatened Abortion

Threatened abortion (TA) is a common complication with high incidence in the first trimester of pregnancy, which will end in miscarriage if not treated properly. The Chinese herbs Cuscutae Semen (Tusizi in Chinese) and Herba Taxilli (Sangjisheng in Chinese) first recorded in the ancient classic medical book Shennong Bencao Jing are effective and widely used as an herb pair for the treatment of TA, while the active ingredients and the functional mechanism of Tusizi-Sangjisheng herb pair treating TA are still unknown. In order to exploit the relationship between those two herbs and TA, systems pharmacology analysis was carried out in this study. A total of 75 ingredients of Tusizi-Sangjisheng were collected from Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). 12 bioactive compounds were screened, and 153 directly related targets were predicted by systematic models. Besides, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were used to systematically explore the potential mechanisms of Tusizi-Sangjisheng treating TA. Meanwhile, Compound-Target (C-T), Target-Disease (T-D), and Target-Pathway (T-P) networks were constructed to further quest the underlying functional mechanisms of Tusizi-Sangjisheng. As a result, 31 targets and 3 key pathways were found to be directly related to TA that includes mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K-Akt), and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling pathways. The results in this study may provide some valuable clues about the molecular mechanisms of the efficient Chinese herb pair Tusizi-Sangjisheng in the treatment of TA

Characterizing the Emission Region Properties of Blazars

Studies and constraints on the emission region are crucial to the blazar radiation mechanism. Yet previous works have mainly focused on individual sources. In this work, we make use of the largest and the latest spectral energy distribution fitting results in the literature to statistically study the blazar emission region properties in the framework of a one-zone leptonic model. Our results reveal: (1) that flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) show lower electron energy ( γ _p ≲ 1.6 × 10 ^3 ) than BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) and tend to have a stronger magnetic field ( B ) and smaller electron-to-magnetic energy ratio ( U _e / U _B ) than BL Lacs; (2) we find that the electromagnetic equipartition would rather happen in the jets of BL Lacs than happen in the jets of FSRQs; (3) there are 682 blazars with a magnetic field weaker than the critical value for generating the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, thus one-third of the blazars in our sample are able to produce this instability; and (4) the distance ( d _em ) between the emission region and the central black hole is on the scale of ∼0.1 pc, so the location of the emission region may be evenly distributed inside and outside the broad-line region

The Classifications and Some Correlations for Fermi Blazars

In a recent paper, we constructed the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 1425 Fermi blazars. We classify them as low synchrotron peak sources (LSPs) if log ν p ( Hz ) ≤ 14.0, intermediate synchrotron peak sources (ISPs) if 14.0 < log ν p ( Hz ) ≤ 15.3 , and high synchrotron peak sources (HSPs) if log ν p ( Hz ) > 15.3 . We obtain an empirical relation to estimate the synchrotron peak frequency, ν p Eq . from effective spectral indexes α o x and α r o as log ν p Eq . = 16 + 4.238 X if X < 0 , and log ν p Eq . = 16 + 4.005 Y if X > 0 , where X = 1.0 − 1.262 α r o − 0.623 α o x and Y = 1.0 + 0.034 α r o − 0.978 α o x . In the present work, we investigate the correlation between the peak frequency and the radio-to-X-ray spectral index, between peak luminosity (bolometric luminosity) and γ-ray/optical luminosity, and between peak luminosity and bolometric luminosity. Some discussion is presented

Characterizing the emission region property of blazars

The studies and constraints on the emission region are crucial to the blazar radiation mechanism. Yet the previous works mainly focus on individual sources. In this work, we make use of the largest and the latest spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting results in the literature to statistically study the blazar emission region property in the framework of leptonic one-zone. Our results reveal (1) FSRQs show lower electron energy ($\gamma_{\rm p} \lesssim 1.6 \times 10^{3}$) than BL Lacs and tend to have a stronger magnetic field ($B$) and smaller electron-to-magnetic energy ratio ($U_{\rm e}/U_{\rm B}$) than BL Lacs; (2) we find the electro-magnetic equipartition would rather happen in the jets of BL Lacs than happen in the jets of FSRQs; (3) there are 682 blazars with a magnetic field weaker critical value of generating the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, thus one-third of the blazars in our sample are able to produce this instability; (4) the distance ($d_{\rm em}$) between the emission region and the central black hole (BH) is in the scale of $\sim$0.1 pc, the location of the emission region may be evenly distributed inside and outside the broad line region (BLR).Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to ApJ

Characteristics and Recent Development of Fluoride Magneto-Optical Crystals

Magneto-optical materials are the fundamental component of Faraday isolators; therefore, they are significantly important for solid-state laser systems. Fluoride magneto-optical crystals such as CeF3, KTb3F10 and LiTbF4 exhibit advantages of wide transmittance range, high optical homogeneity, smaller thermal lensing and weaker thermal induced depolarization effect, and thus are promising candidates for Faraday isolators in high-power solid-state lasers. Recent progress in crystal growth and characterizations of these fluoride magneto-optical crystals are introduced. Possible applications of Faraday isolators based on various fluoride crystals are discussed, especially for solid-state lasers in the ultraviolet (UV) or infrared (IR) spectral region

Characteristics and Recent Development of Fluoride Magneto-Optical Crystals

Magneto-optical materials are the fundamental component of Faraday isolators; therefore, they are significantly important for solid-state laser systems. Fluoride magneto-optical crystals such as CeF3, KTb3F10 and LiTbF4 exhibit advantages of wide transmittance range, high optical homogeneity, smaller thermal lensing and weaker thermal induced depolarization effect, and thus are promising candidates for Faraday isolators in high-power solid-state lasers. Recent progress in crystal growth and characterizations of these fluoride magneto-optical crystals are introduced. Possible applications of Faraday isolators based on various fluoride crystals are discussed, especially for solid-state lasers in the ultraviolet (UV) or infrared (IR) spectral region