Discrepancies in resistant starch and starch physicochemical properties between rice mutants similar in high amylose content

The content of resistant starch (RS) was considered positively correlated with the apparent amylose content (AAC). Here, we analyzed two Indica rice mutants, RS111 and Zhedagaozhi 1B, similar in high AAC and found that their RS content differed remarkably. RS111 had higher RS3 content but lower RS2 content than Zhedagaozhi 1B; correspondingly, cooked RS111 showed slower digestibility. RS111 had smaller irregular and oval starch granules when compared with Zhedagaozhi 1B and the wild type. Zhedagaozhi 1B showed a B-type starch pattern, different from RS111 and the wild type, which showed A-type starch. Meantime, RS111 had more fa and fb1 but less fb3 than Zhedagaozhi 1B. Both mutants showed decreased viscosity and swelling power when compared with the parents. RS111 had the lowest viscosity, and Zhedagaozhi 1B had the smallest swelling power. The different fine structures of amylopectin between RS111 and Zhedagaozhi 1B led to different starch types, gelatinization properties, paste viscosity, and digestibility. In addition to enhancing amylose content, modifications on amylopectin structure showed great potent in breeding rice with different RS2 and RS3 content, which could meet the increasing needs for various rice germplasms

Precision Higgs physics at the CEPC

The discovery of the Higgs boson with its mass around 125 GeV by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations marked the beginning of a new era in high energy physics. The Higgs boson will be the subject of extensive studies of the ongoing LHC program. At the same time, lepton collider based Higgs factories have been proposed as a possible next step beyond the LHC, with its main goal to precisely measure the properties of the Higgs boson and probe potential new physics associated with the Higgs boson. The Circular Electron Positron Collider~(CEPC) is one of such proposed Higgs factories. The CEPC is an $e^+e^-$ circular collider proposed by and to be hosted in China. Located in a tunnel of approximately 100~km in circumference, it will operate at a center-of-mass energy of 240~GeV as the Higgs factory. In this paper, we present the first estimates on the precision of the Higgs boson property measurements achievable at the CEPC and discuss implications of these measurements.Comment: 46 pages, 37 figure

Numerical Simulation of Time-Optimal Path Planning for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Using a Markov Decision Process Method

Many path planning algorithms developed for land or air based autonomous vehicles no longer apply under the water. A time-optimal path planning method for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), based on a Markov decision process (MDP) algorithm, is proposed for the marine environment. Its performance is examined for different oceanic conditions, including complex coastal bathymetry and time-varying ocean currents, revealing advantages compared to the A* algorithm, a traditional path planning method. The ocean current is predicted using a regional ocean model and then provided to the MDP algorithm as a priori. A computation-efficient and feature-resolved spatial resolution are determined through a series of sensitivity experiments. The simulations demonstrate the importance to incorporate ocean currents in the path planning of AUVs in the real ocean. The MDP algorithm remains robust even if the ocean current is complex

Disrupted topological organization of structural and functional brain connectomes in clinically isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis

The brain connectome of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been investigated by several previous studies; however, it is still unknown how the network changes in clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), the earliest stage of MS, and how network alterations on a functional level relate to the structural level in MS disease. Here, we investigated the topological alterations of both the structural and functional connectomes in 41 CIS and 32 MS patients, compared to 35 healthy controls, by combining diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional MRI with graph analysis approaches. We found that the structural connectome showed a deviation from the optimal pattern as early as the CIS stage, while the functional connectome only showed local changes in MS patients, not in CIS. When comparing two patient groups, the changes appear more severe in MS. Importantly, the disruptions of structural and functional connectomes in patients occurred in the same direction and locally correlated in sensorimotor component. Finally, the extent of structural network changes was correlated with several clinical variables in MS patients. Together, the results suggested early disruption of the structural brain connectome in CIS patients and provided a new perspective for investigating the relationship of the structural and functional alterations in MS

A Robust and Wearable Triboelectric Tactile Patch as Intelligent Human-Machine Interface

10.3390/ma14216366Materials1421636

Altered Topological Organization of White Matter Structural Networks in Patients with Neuromyelitis Optica

<div><h3>Objective</h3><p>To investigate the topological alterations of the whole-brain white-matter (WM) structural networks in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO).</p> <h3>Methods</h3><p>The present study involved 26 NMO patients and 26 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. WM structural connectivity in each participant was imaged with diffusion-weighted MRI and represented in terms of a connectivity matrix using deterministic tractography method. Graph theory-based analyses were then performed for the characterization of brain network properties. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed on each network metric between the NMO and control groups.</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>The NMO patients exhibited abnormal small-world network properties, as indicated by increased normalized characteristic path length, increased normalized clustering and increased small-worldness. Furthermore, largely similar hub distributions of the WM structural networks were observed between NMO patients and healthy controls. However, regional efficiency in several brain areas of NMO patients was significantly reduced, which were mainly distributed in the default-mode, sensorimotor and visual systems. Furthermore, we have observed increased regional efficiency in a few brain regions such as the orbital parts of the superior and middle frontal and fusiform gyri.</p> <h3>Conclusion</h3><p>Although the NMO patients in this study had no discernible white matter T2 lesions in the brain, we hypothesize that the disrupted topological organization of WM networks provides additional evidence for subtle, widespread cerebral WM pathology in NMO.</p> </div

Comparisons of global network measures between controls and NMO patients.

<p>Note: The WM network with different connectivity metrics (FN-weighted, FA-weighted and binary networks) for each participant was constructed under the threshold T = 3.</p>*<p><i>p</i><0.05 was considered significant. NS: not significant.</p