To collect the data of measuring skin thickness of children of both genders of different ages and parts of body with non-invasive high-frequency ultrasound method.Two hundred and twenty-one children from 1 to 18 years of age,without systemic disease or injury in skin, were enrolled in the study and divided into 4 groups: i.e., infant group (112 years of age), pre-school age group (3-6 years of age), school age group (7-12 years for boys and 7-11 years for girls), adolescent age group (13-18 years for boys and 12-18 years for girls), and each group was subdivided into 2 groups according to the gender. The skin thicknesses of children in cheek, chest, abdomen, forearms, fundament and thigh was respectively measured by 13 MHz high-frequency ultrasound.The region with thinnest skin in children was the cheek, and the thickest was the back and buttock. (1) There were no significant differences in thickness of skin in the same region between genders and also among different age groups (P > 0.05). (2) There were also no obvious differences of thickness of the dermis and the whole skin in the same region between male and female, or among infants, pre-school age and school age groups (P > 0.05). In adolescent group, the average thickness of dermis in male was (1.16 +/- 0.04 ) - (1.98 +/- 0.47) mm, the average whole thickness of skin in male was (1.27 +/- 0.12) - (2.20 +/- 0.45) mm, while those of female were (1.00 +/- 0.18) - (1.60 +/- 0.30) mm and (1.10 +/- 0.17) - (1.83 +/- 0.29) mm (P < 0.05).It is reliable to measure the skin thickness by 13MHz ultrasound as a non-invasive method. The main factor which determined the thickness of the skin is dermal thickness, especially in males. The significant differences of skin thickness among cheek, back and buttock provide the basis for us to choose the appropriate thickness of skin grafts harvested from different body parts.
Yellow Monascus pigments can be of two kinds: Natural and reduced, in which natural yellow Monascus pigments (NYMPs) attract widespread attention for their bioactivities. In this study, the antioxidative and antibreast cancer effects of the water-soluble NYMPs fermented by Monascus ruber CGMCC 10910 were evaluated. Results showed that water-soluble NYMPs had a significantly improved antioxidative activities compared to the reduced yellow Monascus pigments (RYMPs) that were chemically derived from orange or red Monascus pigments. Furthermore, NYMPs exhibited a concentration-dependent inhibition activity on MCF-7 cell growth (p < 0.001). After a 48-h incubation, a 26.52% inhibition yield was determined with 32 μg/mL of NYMPs. NYMPs also significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of MCF-7 cells. Mechanisms of the activities were associated with a down-regulation of the expression of matrix metalloproteinases and vascular endothelial growth factor. Rather than being alternatively used as natural colorants or antioxidants, this work suggested that NYMPs could be selected as potential functional additives in further test of breast cancer prevention and adjuvant therapy.
Ozone is a non-chlorine bleaching agent that can reduce pollution in the pulp bleaching stage. In this work the ozone bleaching of eucalyptus kraft pulp was performed as part of a kinetics study to explain factors affecting the properties of bleached pulp. The bleaching efficiency was closely related to the rates of mass transfer and self-decomposition, as well as the intensity of ozonation. For ozone bleaching of 3% consistency pulp, a brightness of 68% ISO, viscosity of 579 mL/g, and kappa values of 7.9 were achieved under an optimal condition with pH 2 and organic reagent NP-10 supplied. In this condition, the ozone mass transfer and intensity of ozonation were promoted, while self-decomposition declined.
The biosynthesis of microbial secondary metabolites is induced by a wide range of environmental stresses. In this study, submerged fermentation of Monascus yellow pigments by Monascus ruber CGMCC 10910 under high glucose stress was investigated. The increase of lipid content was the major contributor to the increase of dry cell weight (DCW), and the lipid-free DCW was only slightly changed under high glucose stress, which benefited the accumulation of intracellular hydrophobic pigments. The fatty acid composition analysis in Monascus cell membranes showed that high glucose stress significantly increased the ratio of unsaturated/saturated fatty acid and the index of unsaturated fatty acid (IUFA) value, which would improve the fluidity and permeability of the cell membrane. As a consequence, high glucose stress increased extracellular yellow pigments production by enhancing secretion and trans-membrane conversion of intracellular pigments to the broth. The total yield of extracellular and intracellular yellow pigments per unit of lipid-free DCW increased by 94.86 and 26.31% under high glucose stress compared to conventional fermentation, respectively. A real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the expression of the pigment biosynthetic gene cluster was up-regulated under high glucose stress. The gene mppE, which is associated with yellow pigment biosynthesis, was significantly up-regulated. These results indicated that high glucose stress can shift the Monascus pigment biosynthesis pathway to accumulate yellow pigments and lead to a high yield of both extracellular and intracellular yellow pigments. These findings have potential application in commercial Monascus yellow pigment production.
Crawfish can be easily spoiled due to their rich nutrition and high water content, which is difficult to preserve. In this study, the dominant spoilage organisms in crawfish which were stored at 4 °C in vacuum packaging were identified by high-throughput sequencing technology; after sequencing the full-length 16S rRNA gene, the changes in the bacterial community structure, diversity and quality (texture, flavor, etc.) were analyzed. Our results reflected that the specific spoilage organisms (SSOs) of crawfish were Aeromonas sobria, Shewanella putrefaciens, Trichococcus pasteurii and Enterococcus aquimarinus, since their abundances significantly increased after being stored for 12 days at 4 °C under vacuum conditions. At the same time, the abundance and diversity of the microbial community decreased with storage time, which was related to the rapid growth of the dominant spoilage organisms and the inhibition of other kinds of microorganisms at the end of the spoilage stage. Function prediction results showed that the gene which contributed to metabolism influenced the spoilage process. Moreover, the decline in texture of crawfish was negatively correlated to the richness of SSOs; this may be because SSOs can produce alkaline proteases to degrade the myofibrillar protein. On the contrary, the unpleasant flavor of crawfish, resulting from volatile flavor compounds such as S-containing compounds and APEOs, etc., is negatively correlated to the richness of SSOs, due to the metabolism of SSOs by secondary metabolites such as terpenoids, polyketides and lips, which can lead to decarboxylation, deamination and enzymatic oxidation. These results are very important to achieve the purpose of targeted inhibition of crawfish spoilage at 4 °C in vacuum packaging.
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