3,757 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
A comparison of breastfeeding among Han, Uygur and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, PR China
BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding is an important factor in infant health and there have been no previous studies of breastfeeding practices in the different ethnic groups of this region of China. We aimed to compare breastfeeding rates and duration between Han, Uygur and other ethnic groups living in Xinjiang, PR China. METHODS: A longitudinal study of infant feeding practices was undertaken using a sample that included different ethnic groups. Mothers were randomly recruited and interviewed in hospitals and after discharge were contacted in person or by telephone at approximately monthly intervals to obtain details of infant feeding practices. Setting: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, PR China. Subjects: A total of1219 mothers (578 Han, 360 Uygur and 281 'other minority' mothers) who delivered babies during 2003 and 2004 were interviewed in five hospitals or institutes located in both urban and rural areas. RESULTS: 'Any breastfeeding' rates in Han, Uygur and 'other minority' groups at discharge were 88.5 %, 94.3 % and 97.1 % respectively, and at six months 76.7 %, 54.7 % and 87.6 % respectively. While 'exclusive breastfeeding' rates in the Han, Uygur and 'other minority' groups at discharge were 78.0 %, 34.5 % and 83.1 % respectively, at six months they had fallen to 4.8 %, 0.4 % and 16.8 % respectively. The median duration of 'Exclusive breastfeeding' of Han, Uygur and 'other minority' babies were 1.5, 0.1 and 2.5 months respectively. The Uygur babies were least likely to be 'exclusive breastfed'. CONCLUSION: Uygur babies were least likely to be 'exclusive breastfed' and continued to 'any breastfeed' at six month. The 'any breastfeeding' rates in the Han group were lower in the first four months. An education program focused on breastfeeding continuation and exclusive breastfeeding is necessary in Xinjiang, especially for Uygur and Han ethnic groups
Enhancing Speech-to-Speech Translation with Multiple TTS Targets
It has been known that direct speech-to-speech translation (S2ST) models
usually suffer from the data scarcity issue because of the limited existing
parallel materials for both source and target speech. Therefore to train a
direct S2ST system, previous works usually utilize text-to-speech (TTS) systems
to generate samples in the target language by augmenting the data from
speech-to-text translation (S2TT). However, there is a limited investigation
into how the synthesized target speech would affect the S2ST models. In this
work, we analyze the effect of changing synthesized target speech for direct
S2ST models. We find that simply combining the target speech from different TTS
systems can potentially improve the S2ST performances. Following that, we also
propose a multi-task framework that jointly optimizes the S2ST system with
multiple targets from different TTS systems. Extensive experiments demonstrate
that our proposed framework achieves consistent improvements (2.8 BLEU) over
the baselines on the Fisher Spanish-English dataset
Accurate MALDI-TOF/TOF Sequencing of One-Bead−One-Compound Peptide Libraries with Application to the Identification of Multiligand Protein Affinity Agents Using in Situ Click Chemistry Screening
Combinatorial one-bead−one-compound (OBOC) peptide libraries are widely used for affinity screening, and the sequencing of peptides from hit beads is a key step in the process. For rapid sequencing, CNBr cleavage of the peptides from the beads, followed by de novo sequencing by MALDI-TOF/TOF, is explored. We report on a semiautomated sequencing algorithm and validate it through comparison against Edman degradation sequencing. The initial 44% sequencing success rate of the standard de novo sequencing software was improved to nearly 100%. The sequencing algorithm incorporates existing knowledge of amino acid chemistry and a new strategy for differentiating isobaric amino acids. We tested the algorithm by using MALDI-TOF/TOF to identify a peptide biligand affinity agent against the protein bovine carbonic anhydrase II, starting from comprehensive one-bead−one-compound peptide libraries comprised of non-natural and artificial amino acid components and using the strategy of in situ click/OBOC library screening
Simple scheme for expanding a polarization-entangled W state by adding one photon
We propose a simple scheme for expanding a polarization-entangled W state. By
mixing a single photon and one of the photons in an n-photon W state at a
polarization-dependent beam splitter (PDBS), we can obtain an (n+1)-photon W
state after post-selection. Our scheme also opens the door for generating
n-photon W states using single photons and linear optics.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
Methyl 2-{[3-(4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl)ureido]sulfonylmethyl}benzoate
In the title compound, C16H18N4O7S, a synthetic sulfonylurea herbicide, there are intramolecular N—H⋯N and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. Intermolecular N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds form centrosymmetric dimers. The dihedral angle between the two rings is 50.00 (15)°
Early Science with the Large Millimeter Telescope: Exploring the Effect of AGN Activity on the Relationships Between Molecular Gas, Dust, and Star Formation
The molecular gas, H, that fuels star formation in galaxies is difficult
to observe directly. As such, the ratio of to
is an observational estimation of the star formation rate compared with the
amount of molecular gas available to form stars, which is related to the star
formation efficiency and the inverse of the gas consumption timescale. We test
what effect an IR luminous AGN has on the ratio
in a sample of 24 intermediate redshift galaxies from the 5 mJy Unbiased
Spitzer Extragalactic Survey (5MUSES). We obtain new CO(1-0) observations with
the Redshift Search Receiver on the Large Millimeter Telescope. We diagnose the
presence and strength of an AGN using Spitzer IRS spectroscopy. We find that
removing the AGN contribution to results in a mean
for our entire sample consistent with
the mean derived for a large sample of star
forming galaxies from . We also include in our comparison the
relative amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission for our sample and
a literature sample of local and high redshift Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies
and find a consistent trend between and , such that small dust grain emission decreases
with increasing for both local and high
redshift dusty galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (to appear on December 10
Association of CNVs with methylation variation.
Germline copy number variants (CNVs) and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) form the basis of inter-individual genetic variation. Although the phenotypic effects of SNPs have been extensively investigated, the effects of CNVs is relatively less understood. To better characterize mechanisms by which CNVs affect cellular phenotype, we tested their association with variable CpG methylation in a genome-wide manner. Using paired CNV and methylation data from the 1000 genomes and HapMap projects, we identified genome-wide associations by methylation quantitative trait locus (mQTL) analysis. We found individual CNVs being associated with methylation of multiple CpGs and vice versa. CNV-associated methylation changes were correlated with gene expression. CNV-mQTLs were enriched for regulatory regions, transcription factor-binding sites (TFBSs), and were involved in long-range physical interactions with associated CpGs. Some CNV-mQTLs were associated with methylation of imprinted genes. Several CNV-mQTLs and/or associated genes were among those previously reported by genome-wide association studies (GWASs). We demonstrate that germline CNVs in the genome are associated with CpG methylation. Our findings suggest that structural variation together with methylation may affect cellular phenotype
Unexpected irreducible femoral hernia during elective operation: what is the best surgical approach?
Femoral hernia is rare and commonly presents with incarceration in emergency situations. From the literature review, there is no femoral hernia reported in chronic irreducible presentation. A 44-year-old female, who was planned for an elective hernia surgery for a chronic irreducible inguinal hernia, was discovered to have an irreducible femoral hernia intraoperatively. Herein, we revisit this diagnostic entity, discuss its misdiagnosis and suggest the best surgical approach when such an unexpected situation happens during an operation
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