Studies on the storage stability of fermented red dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) drink

The objective of this work was to study the effect of storage temperatures and duration on the stability of fermented red dragon fruit drink (FRDFD) on its betacyanins content, physicochemical and microbiological qualities (BPM) and determining sensory acceptability. Results showed that both storage temperatures and duration have a significant effect on betacyanins content and physicochemical properties of FRDFD. Aerobic mesophilic and yeast and mold counts were lower than 1 × 103 CFU/mL for FRDFD stored at both temperatures. The loss of betanin (16.53–13.93 g/L) at 4 °C was 15.73% with no significant changes in physicochemical properties from week two onwards compared to 56.32% (16.53–7.22 g/L) of betanin loss at 25 °C. At week eight, FRDFD stored at 4 °C still contained 13.93 g/L betanin with a pH value of 3.46, suggested its potential as a functional drink which is sensory acceptable (mean score > 80% using hedonic test) among consumers

Study on bioaccessibility of betacyanins from red dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus)

Betacyanins are bioactive dietary phytochemicals which can be found in red dragon fruit (RDF). Therefore, the bioaccessibility of betacyanins that present in fermented red dragon fruit drink (RDFD) and pressed red dragon fruit juice (RDFJ) was accessed in simulated gastric and intestinal digestion. Results disclosed that betacyanins from RDFD and RDFJ suffered minor loss (< 25%) at gastric-like environment but greater loss was observed during the intestinal phase digestion. After subjected to intestinal digestion, RDFD retained 46.42% of betanin while RDFJ retained 43.76%, with betanin concentration of 17.12 mM and 12.37 mM, respectively. Findings also revealed that RDFD exhibited higher antioxidant capacity compared to RDFJ after subjected to intestinal digestion, with values of 0.88 mM Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and 0.85 mM TEAC, respectively. The data suggests that betacyanins that present in RDF are bioaccessible while fermentation able to enhance the bioavailability with more betacyanins retained after intestinal digestion

Fermentation of red dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) for betalains concentration

Red dragon fruits (RDF) contain high levels of health-promoting betalains but its bioavailability in plasma is low (< 1.0%). Therefore, fermentation technique was adopted to improve the yield of betalains presenting in fermented red dragon fruit drink (FRDFD) via concentration. Fermentation of RDF was carried out with autochthonous strains. The objectives of present study were to evaluate 1) the effects of fermentation duration 2) white refined cane sugar to flesh ratio and 3) types of sugar on betalainic (betanin, isobetanin) and non-betalainic phenolic compounds in FRDFD using HPLC-DAD, total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) assay. Results indicated that all fermentation parameters showed a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the yields of betalainic (betanin, isobetanin) and non-betalainic phenolic compounds in FRDFD. The best fermentation parameters were 7 days fermentation at 10% white refined cane sugar to flesh ratio. The highest concentration of betanin, TPC and TFC achieved were 131.68 g/L, 1136.85 mg GAE/100mL and 10.39 mg CE/100mL respectively. The concentration of betanin obtained through best fermentation parameters (131.68 g/L) in present study has increased nine-fold compared to non-optimized fermentation (14.23 g/L). This indicated that fermentation is a potential economic processing technique to concentrate bioactive compounds present in functional drinks

SARS-CoV-2 Infects Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes, Impairing Electrical and Mechanical Function

COVID-19 patients often develop severe cardiovascular complications, but it remains unclear if these are caused directly by viral infection or are secondary to a systemic response. Here, we examine the cardiac tropism of SARS-CoV-2 in human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) and smooth muscle cells (hPSC-SMCs). We find that that SARS-CoV-2 selectively infects hPSC-CMs through the viral receptor ACE2, whereas in hPSC-SMCs there is minimal viral entry or replication. After entry into cardiomyocytes, SARS-CoV-2 is assembled in lysosome-like vesicles and egresses via bulk exocytosis. The viral transcripts become a large fraction of cellular mRNA while host gene expression shifts from oxidative to glycolytic metabolism and upregulates chromatin modification and RNA splicing pathways. Most importantly, viral infection of hPSC-CMs progressively impairs both their electrophysiological and contractile function, and causes widespread cell death. These data support the hypothesis that COVID-19-related cardiac symptoms can result from a direct cardiotoxic effect of SARS-CoV-2

Epicardial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells augment cardiomyocyte-driven heart regeneration.

The epicardium and its derivatives provide trophic and structural support for the developing and adult heart. Here we tested the ability of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived epicardium to augment the structure and function of engineered heart tissue in vitro and to improve efficacy of hESC-cardiomyocyte grafts in infarcted athymic rat hearts. Epicardial cells markedly enhanced the contractility, myofibril structure and calcium handling of human engineered heart tissues, while reducing passive stiffness compared with mesenchymal stromal cells. Transplanted epicardial cells formed persistent fibroblast grafts in infarcted hearts. Cotransplantation of hESC-derived epicardial cells and cardiomyocytes doubled graft cardiomyocyte proliferation rates in vivo, resulting in 2.6-fold greater cardiac graft size and simultaneously augmenting graft and host vascularization. Notably, cotransplantation improved systolic function compared with hearts receiving either cardiomyocytes alone, epicardial cells alone or vehicle. The ability of epicardial cells to enhance cardiac graft size and function makes them a promising adjuvant therapeutic for cardiac repair.: This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF; Grants NH/11/1/28922, G1000847, FS/13/29/30024 and FS/18/46/33663), Oxford-Cambridge Centre for Regenerative Medicine (RM/13/3/30159), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Cambridge Hospitals National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre funding (SS), as well as National Institutes of Health Grants P01HL094374, P01GM081619, R01HL12836 and a grant from the Fondation Leducq Transatlantic Network of Excellence (CEM). J.B. was supported by a Cambridge National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre Cardiovascular Clinical Research Fellowship and subsequently, by a BHF Studentship (Grant FS/13/65/30441). DI received a University of Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship. LG is supported by BHF Award RM/l3/3/30159 and LPO is funded by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship (203568/Z/16/Z). NF was supported by BHF grants RG/13/14/30314. NL was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Institute Strategic Programmes BBS/E/B/000C0419 and BBS/E/B/000C0434). SS and MB were supported by the British Heart Foundation Centre for Cardiovascular Research Excellence. Core support was provided by the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (203151/Z/16/Z), The authors thank Osiris for provision of the primary mesenchymal stem cells (59

Cellular therapy for chronic heart failure: a key role for epicardial fibronectin

Myocardial infarction (MI) results in permanent cardiomyocyte loss, frequently leading to heart failure, with a 50% 5-year mortality. At subacute time points following MI, animal studies have shown ‘remuscularization’ of the damaged heart with human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocytes. Recently, outcomes were improved by co-delivering hESC-derived epicardium. Clinically, the main challenge remains chronic heart failure. However, hESC-cardiomyocytes alone, in the chronically infarcted heart, have shown no benefit. Here, we show that both species-matched cellular therapy and combination therapy with hESC-epicardium could attenuate cardiac dysfunction in the chronically failing heart, underpinned by sizeable cardiac grafts, cardiomyocyte proliferation and maturation, together with a host-derived vascular supply. Notably, hESC-epicardium’s augmentation of cardiomyocyte maturation within 3D-engineered heart tissues in vitro appeared to be underpinned by epicardial-secreted fibronectin. Thus, hESC-combination cell therapy holds clinical promise for ‘remuscularising’ chronically infarcted hearts.Wellcome Trust, Addenbrooke's Charitable Trus

R&D costs of SGX-listed high technology and Internet-related companies.

This research attempts to provide insights into the accounting and disclosure practices for R&D, and a more in-depth understanding of the economic consequences resulting from different accounting treatments

Vision-Based Hand Detection and Tracking Using Fusion of Kernelized Correlation Filter and Single-Shot Detection

Hand detection and tracking are key components in many computer vision applications, including hand pose estimation and gesture recognition for human–computer interaction systems, virtual reality, and augmented reality. Despite their importance, reliable hand detection in cluttered scenes remains a challenge. This study explores the use of deep learning techniques for fast and robust hand detection and tracking. A novel algorithm is proposed by combining the Kernelized Correlation Filter (KCF) tracker with the Single-Shot Detection (SSD) method. This integration enables the detection and tracking of hands in challenging environments, such as cluttered backgrounds and occlusions. The SSD algorithm helps reinitialize the KCF tracker when it fails or encounters drift issues due to sudden changes in hand gestures or fast movements. Testing in challenging scenes showed that the proposed tracker achieved a tracking rate of over 90% and a speed of 17 frames per second (FPS). Comparison with the KCF tracker on 17 video sequences revealed an average improvement of 13.31% in tracking detection rate (TRDR) and 27.04% in object detection error (OTE). Additional comparison with MediaPipe hand tracker on 10 hand gesture videos taken from the Intelligent Biometric Group Hand Tracking (IBGHT) dataset showed that the proposed method outperformed the MediaPipe hand tracker in terms of overall TRDR and tracking speed. The results demonstrate the promising potential of the proposed method for long-sequence tracking stability, reducing drift issues, and improving tracking performance during occlusions

Statistical methods for discovery sampling.

This research project first presents an overview of discovery sampling, a sampling method that can be used in an audit. It also highlights the various probability distributions that are used in fixed sample size discovery sampling, including the hypergeometric, binomial and poisson distribution. The project also discusses the use of sequential sampling approach in discovery sampling and concludes with a recommendation of the most appropriate statistical method

Prolonged Intensive Care Unit Stay after Bilateral Lung Transplantation - Late Mortality & Functional Outcome?

Prolonged ICU stay is associated with high mortality and adverse long term outcome in the general cardiothoracic population. We investigated the causes & outcomes of prolonged ICU stay after bilateral lung transplantation(BLT)