Research Progress on the Effect of New Electrophysical Processing on Multiscale Protein Structure

Protein is an important nutrient required by the human body. The change of protein structure during processing will lead to changes in its functional properties, in turn affecting the quality of foods. There are many physical methods available to alter the structure of proteins to expand their application in the food industry. The new electrophysical processing technology has become a hot spot in the field of food processing due to its advantages of high efficiency, low energy consumption, and slight loss of nutrients. Therefore, this paper reviews the effects of electric field technology (ohmic heating and electrostatic field) and electromagnetic field technology (microwave, radio frequency and magnetic field) on the change of protein structure at multiscales (macroscopic, molecular and microscopic levels), in order provide a theoretical basis for the development and utilization of electromagnetic field processed protein products

Countdown to 2015 country case studies: what have we learned about processes and progress towards MDGs 4 and 5?

Background: Countdown to 2015 was a multi-institution consortium tracking progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. Case studies to explore factors contributing to progress (or lack of progress) in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) were undertaken in: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Pakistan, Peru, and Tanzania. This paper aims to identify cross-cutting themes on how and why these countries achieved or did not achieve MDG progress. Methods: Applying a standard evaluation framework, analyses of impact, coverage and equity were undertaken, including a mixed methods analysis of how these were influenced by national context and coverage determinants (including health systems, policies and financing). Results: The majority (7/10) of case study countries met MDG-4 with over two-thirds reduction in child mortality, but none met MDG-5a for 75 % reduction in maternal mortality, although six countries achieved >75 % of this target. None achieved MDG-5b regarding reproductive health. Rates of reduction in neonatal mortality were half or less that for post-neonatal child mortality. Coverage increased most for interventions administered at lower levels of the health system (e.g., immunisation, insecticide treated nets), and these experienced substantial political and financial support. These interventions were associated with ~30–40 % of child lives saved in 2012 compared to 2000, in Ethiopia, Malawi, Peru and Tanzania. Intrapartum care for mothers and newborns -- which require higher-level health workers, more infrastructure, and increased community engagement -- showed variable increases in coverage, and persistent equity gaps. Countries have explored different approaches to address these problems, including shifting interventions to the community setting and tasks to lower-level health workers. Conclusions: These Countdown case studies underline the importance of consistent national investment and global attention for achieving improvements in RMNCH. Interventions with major global investments achieved higher levels of coverage, reduced equity gaps and improvements in associated health outcomes. Given many competing priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals era, it is essential to maintain attention to the unfinished RMNCH agenda, particularly health systems improvements for maternal and neonatal outcomes where progress has been slower, and to invest in data collection for monitoring progress and for rigorous analyses of how progress is achieved in different contexts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3401-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

The observation and prediction of constant quality factors of LnAlO_3 doped Ba_(6-3x)Ln_(8+2x)Ti_(18)O_(54)(Ln = Nd, Sm, La) ceramics

Usually, the quality factor of a binary-phase ceramic will increase if the volume molar ratio of the high quality factor component increases, and vice versa. However, the quality factor of Ba_(6-3x)Ln_(8+2x)Ti_(18)O_(54) (Ln = Nd, Sm, La) ceramics (~ 2500 at 4 GHz) keeps a constant as the volume molar ratio of LnAlO_3 (~ 9000 at 7 GHz) increases. While previous studies reported the importance of microstructure variation, here by fitting the dielectric constant, via definition we derived a quality factor calculation formula that can precisely determine the quality factor variation versus the volume molar ratio, which is of great significance for guiding the ceramic manufacturing

The observation and prediction of constant quality factors of LnAlO_3 doped Ba_(6-3x)Ln_(8+2x)Ti_(18)O_(54)(Ln = Nd, Sm, La) ceramics

Usually, the quality factor of a binary-phase ceramic will increase if the volume molar ratio of the high quality factor component increases, and vice versa. However, the quality factor of Ba_(6-3x)Ln_(8+2x)Ti_(18)O_(54) (Ln = Nd, Sm, La) ceramics (~ 2500 at 4 GHz) keeps a constant as the volume molar ratio of LnAlO_3 (~ 9000 at 7 GHz) increases. While previous studies reported the importance of microstructure variation, here by fitting the dielectric constant, via definition we derived a quality factor calculation formula that can precisely determine the quality factor variation versus the volume molar ratio, which is of great significance for guiding the ceramic manufacturing