Search Results (47)

Information about the trace elements content of goose carcass parts with or without skin can be important for consumers when making dietary choices. This study aimed to (1) determine the effects of popular heat processing techniques on the content of chromium (Cr), iodine (I), manganese (Mn), and bromine (Br) in goose breast muscle, and (2) estimate the extent to which 100 g of goose meat—both with and without skin—cover the Nutrient Reference Values (NRV) for Cr, I, Mn, and the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for Br in adults. The heat processing techniques used in the study were water bath cooking (WBC), Oven Convection Roasting (OCR), grilling (G), and pan frying (PF). Grilled goose breast without skin had the highest Br retention (97.4%) and TDI (2.41%). Cooked goose breast (WBC) with skin exhibited the highest retention of Cr (73.8%) and I (73.6%). The highest Mn content was found in meat without skin after OCR processing and grilled meat with skin (0.170 and 0.191 mg/100 g, respectively). The iodine content in the meat decreased (from 0.020 raw to 0.003 mg/100 g after PF) with each heat treatment. The results of our study may provide helpful information for consumers when making dietary choices and using heat treatment techniques. Goose breast muscles, depending on heat treatment and the presence of skin, provide trace elements in the range of 2.21% of NRV (Nutrient Reference Value) for Br without skin to 740.7% of NRV for Cr with skin and may be a valuable component of a varied diet (apart from iodine). The Br content in the meat decreases after WBC treatment (1.29 without skin or 1.43 with skin mg/100 g). For this reason, it seems to be the most beneficial for the consumer’s health because it minimizes the risk of exceeding the TDI value. Total hazard quotients (THQ) in meat (regardless of the treatment and skin presence) for Cr, Mn, and Br contents were <1, indicating a low risk to Polish consumer health. Full article

Natural restoration of vegetation and plantation are effective land use measures to promote soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. How soil physicochemical properties, microorganisms, Glomalin-related soil proteins (GRSPs), and aggregates interact to regulate SOC accumulation and sequestration remains unclear. This study examined five land uses in the karst region of Southwest China: corn field (CF), corn intercropped with cabbage fields (CICF), orchard (OR), plantation (PL), and natural restoration of vegetation (NRV). The results revealed that SOC, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total GRSP (T-GRSP), and easily extractable GRSP (EE-GRSP) contents were significantly higher under NRV and PL than in the CF, CICF, and OR, with increases ranging from 10.69% to 266.72%. Land use significantly influenced bacterial α-diversity, though fungal α-diversity remained unaffected. The stability of soil aggregates among the five land uses followed the order: PL > NRV > CF > OR > CICF. Partial least-squares path modeling (PLS-PM) identified land use as the most critical factor influencing SOC. SOC accumulation and stability were enhanced through improved soil properties, increased microbial diversity, and greater community abundance, promoting GRSP secretion and strengthening soil aggregate stability. In particular, soil microorganisms adhere to the aggregates of soil particles through the entanglement of fine roots and microbial hyphae and their secretions (GRSPs, etc.) to maintain the stability of the aggregates, thus protecting SOC from decomposition. Natural restoration of vegetation and plantation proved more effective for soil carbon sequestration in the karst region of Southwest China compared to sloping cropland and orchards. Full article

Genetics and mitochondrial (mt) dysfunction contribute to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Recently, we demonstrated that the co-presence of PNPLA3, TM6SF2 and MBOAT7 polymorphisms predisposes to disease progression in MASLD patients and that their deletion triggers mt maladaptation in vitro. Here, we deepened the impact of the silencing of these genes on mt dynamism and respiration by reintroducing TM6SF2 and/or MBOAT7 wild-type proteins in deleted cells through lentiviral infection. Since hepatic mt bioenergetics is impaired in MASLD, in the attempt to identify a non-invasive signature, we then compared the enzymatic mt activity of seahorses, which was assessed in liver biopsies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of biopsy-proven MASLD patients (n = 44; Discovery cohort) stratified according to the number of the three at-risk variants (3NRV). Concerning the in vitro results, the rescue of MBOAT7 and/or TM6SF2 wild-type proteins resulted in the assembly of spaghetti-shaped mitochondria with improved oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity. In the Discovery cohort, the hepatic bioenergetic profile fully reflected that in PBMCs and was impaired especially in 3NRV carriers. A lowered serum respiration rate was confirmed in noninvasively assessed MASLD (n = 45; Fibroscan-MASLD cohort), while it did not change in unrelated liver disease patients (n = 45). In summary, we firstly demonstrated that mt circulating respirometry reflects that in liver and is specific in defining genetic MASLD. Full article

Vibration spectroscopy is routinely used in analytical chemistry for molecular speciation. Less common is its use in studying the dynamics of reaction and transport processes. A shortcoming of vibration spectroscopies is that they are not inherently specific to chemical elements. Progress in synchrotron radiation-based X-ray technology has developed nuclear resonance vibration spectroscopy (NRVS), which can be used to produce element-specific vibration spectra and partial vibrational density of states (PVDOS), provided the material under investigation contains a Mössbauer-active element. While the method has been recently used successfully for protein spectroscopy, fewer studies have been conducted for condensed matter. We have employed NRVS on the BaSnO₃ perovskite structure, which is a model compound for ceramic proton conductors in intermediate temperature fuel cells. Since we used ¹¹⁹Sn as a Mössbauer isotope, the derived experimental PVDOS is specific to the element Sn in BaSnO₃. We show how this phonon DOS is used as an experimental anchor for the interpretation of the DFT-calculated PVDOS of BaSnO₃. Full article

Background: Dietary intake during the first year of life is a key determinant of a child’s growth and development. ORIGINS is a longitudinal birth cohort study investigating factors that contribute to a ‘healthy start to life’ and the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study aims to describe the dietary intakes of one-year-old children participating in ORIGINS and compare these to the Australian Dietary Guidelines and Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs). Between 2020 and 2023, dietary intake data were collected on 779 one-year-old children using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The analysis explored milk intake (breastmilk, infant formula, and cow’s milk), the introduction to solids, macronutrient, micronutrient, and food group intakes. Results: The results indicated that 41.5% were still being breastfed at one year of age, while 58.0% continued to receive formula milk. While the cohort met NRV cut-offs for most micronutrients, iodine intake fell below requirements, and sodium intake exceeded recommendations. Diet quality, based on the food group intake, did not meet recommendations, with children over-consuming fruit and discretionary foods, while under-consuming vegetables and cereals and grains foods. Conclusions: These findings highlight areas for improvement in the dietary intake of one-year-old children. Full article

Joint communication and sensing (JCS) is becoming an important trend in 6G, owing to its efficient utilization of spectrums and hardware resources. Utilizing echoes of the same signal can achieve the object location sensing function, in addition to the V2X communication function. There is application potential for JCS systems in the fields of ADAS and unmanned autos. Currently, the NR-V2X sidelink has been standardized by 3GPP to support low-latency high-reliability direct communication. In order to combine the benefits of both direct communication and JCS, it is promising to extend existing NR-V2X sidelink communication toward sidelink JCS. However, conflicting performance requirements arise between radar sensing accuracy and communication reliability with the limited sidelink spectrum. In order to overcome the challenges in the distributed resource allocation of sidelink JCS with a full-duplex, this paper has proposed a novel consecutive-collision mitigation semi-persistent scheduling (CCM-SPS) scheme, including the collision detection and Q-learning training stages to suppress collision probabilities. Theoretical performance analyses on Cramér–Rao Lower Bounds (CRLBs) have been made for the sensing of sidelink JCS. Key performance metrics such as CRLB, PRR and UD have been evaluated. Simulation results show the superior performance of CCM-SPS compared to similar solutions, with promising application prospects. Full article

Background/Objectives: The rise in chronic metabolic diseases has led to the exploration of alternative diets. The carnivore diet, consisting exclusively of animal products, has gained attention, anecdotally, for imparting benefit for inflammatory conditions beyond that possible by other restrictive dietary approaches. The aim was to assess the micronutrient adequacy of four versions of the carnivore diet against national nutrient reference values (NRVs). Methods: This study assessed the nutrient adequacy of the carnivore diet against national NRVs from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and New Zealand Ministry of Health. Four meal plans for hypothetical average Australian adults were developed and analysed using Foodworks.online (Version 1, Xyris Pty Ltd., Brisbane, Australia, 2024), dietary software. Two female and two male plans were included; one set including dairy products and the other set including offal. Results: The carnivore diet met several NRV thresholds for nutrients such as riboflavin, niacin, phosphorus, zinc, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, selenium, and Vitamin A, and exceeded the sodium threshold. However, it fell short in thiamin, magnesium, calcium, and Vitamin C, and in iron, folate, iodine and potassium in some cases. Fibre intake was significantly below recommended levels. Conclusion: The carnivore diet may offer benefits for managing certain chronic conditions. Whether the metabolic contexts from consuming such a diet facilitates a lower requirement of certain nutrients, or whether it poses risks of micronutrient inadequacies remains to be determined. Tailored nutritional guidance and supplementation strategies are recommended to ensure careful consideration of micronutrient intake to prevent deficiencies. Full article

Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication is one of the essential technologies in 5G systems and will certainly play an important role in incoming 6G communications. Two modes of 5G New Radio V2X communication (NR-V2X) have been defined to standardize the direct exchange of messages between vehicles. This paper concentrates on Mode 1, in which message exchange takes place with the support of the cellular infrastructure. In this mode, each vehicle uses a fixed number of subchannels with pre-configured subchannel sizes to transmit packet messages. However, if the packet sizes vary in each transmission, some resource blocks (RBs) assigned to V2X links are wasted. This paper presents the results of investigations on more efficient use of resource blocks, intending to minimize their waste and limit the delay in resource selection. In this paper, two new algorithms for radio resource block assignment are proposed and analyzed. The algorithms are characterized by a lower waste of RBs and a shorter delay in resource assignment compared to current solutions. The first algorithm uses adjacent RBs, whereas the second one can assign non-adjacent RBs, resulting in an even lower waste of radio resources and a shorter delay in their assignment. The simulation results presented confirm the quality of the proposed algorithms. Full article

5G New Radio (NR)-V2X, standardized by 3GPP Release 16, includes a distributed resource allocation Mode, known as Mode 2, that allows vehicles to autonomously select transmission resources using either sensing-based semi-persistent scheduling (SB-SPS) or dynamic scheduling (DS). In unmanaged 5G-NR-V2X scenarios, SB-SPS loses effectiveness with aperiodic and variable data. DS, while better for aperiodic traffic, faces challenges due to random selection, particularly in high traffic density scenarios, leading to increased collisions. To address these limitations, this study models the Cellular V2X network as a decentralized multi-agent networked Markov decision process (MDP), where each vehicle agent uses the Shared Experience Actor–Critic (SEAC) technique to optimize performance. The superiority of SEAC over SB-SPS and DS is demonstrated through simulations, showing that the SEAC with an N-step approach achieves an average improvement of approximately 18–20% in enhancing reliability, reducing collisions, and improving resource utilization under high vehicular density scenarios with aperiodic traffic patterns. Full article

Every year, about 1.19 million people are killed in traffic accidents; hence, the United Nations has a goal of halving the number of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. In line with this objective, technological innovations in telecommunication, particularly brought about by the rise of 5G networks, have contributed to the development of modern Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) systems for communication. A New Radio V2X (NR-V2X) was introduced in the latest Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) releases which allows user devices to exchange information without relying on roadside infrastructures. This, together with Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) and Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), has led to the significantly increased reliability, coverage, and efficiency of vehicular communication networks. The use of artificial intelligence (AI), especially K-means clustering, has been very promising in terms of supporting efficient data exchange in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). K-means is an unsupervised machine learning (ML) technique that groups vehicles located near each other geographically so that they can communicate with one another directly within these clusters while also allowing for inter-cluster communication via cluster heads. This paper proposes a multi-layered VANET-enabled Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) framework powered by unsupervised learning to optimize communication efficiency, scalability, and reliability. By leveraging AI in VANET solutions, the proposed framework aims to address road safety challenges and contribute to global efforts to meet the United Nations’ 2030 target. Additionally, this framework’s robust communication and data processing capabilities can be extended to eHealth monitoring systems, enabling real-time health data transmission and processing for continuous patient monitoring and timely medical interventions. This paper’s contributions include exploring AI-driven approaches for enhanced data interaction, improved safety in VANET-based ITS environments, and potential applications in eHealth monitoring. Full article

Pregnancy is an opportunistic time for dietary intake to influence future disease susceptibility in offspring later in life. The ORIGINS Project was established to identify the factors that contribute to ‘a healthy start to life’ through a focus supporting childhood health and preventing disease (including non-communicable diseases). We aim to describe the dietary intakes of pregnant women in this cohort and to compare these to the Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) and Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS). The usual food and nutrient intakes of women were collected using the Australian Eating Survey (AES), a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). A total of 374 women completed the AES FFQ at both 20 weeks and 36 weeks of gestation between December 2016 and January 2023. Macronutrient, micronutrient, and food group intake were explored using descriptive statistics. Overall, it was found that the energy contribution from carbohydrates was low, while that from fat and saturated fat was high; participants were not meeting the recommendations for several key micronutrients (calcium, iron, iodine, and folate); and they had low diet quality scores for all food groups. These findings suggest that despite the ongoing promotion of healthy eating during pregnancy, further exploration into why dietary guidelines during pregnancy are not being adhered to is warranted. Full article

Background: A common tactic used by athletes to improve performance, lessen tiredness, and hasten recovery is dietary supplementation. We aimed to assess the role of a microalgae dietary liquid supplement additivated with Copper 22.5% NRV in water polo players’ performance. Methods: Twenty male water polo players were split into two groups: ten (spirulina group) took a twice-daily nutritional supplement containing 15 mL of spirulina liquid extract (titrated in Phycocyanin 1 mg/mL) and additivated with Copper 22.5% NRV for eight weeks, and ten (the placebo group) did not take the supplement. Subjective evaluations were finished using the Athlete’s Subjective Performance Scale (ASPS). Levels of the biomarker creatine phosphokinase (CPK) were also assessed. Results: The spirulina group’s mean total ASPS score increased significantly from baseline to follow-up and was significantly better than that of the placebo group (p < 0.001). Conversely, ASPS ratings in the placebo group slightly decreased. A positive correlation between spirulina supplementation and less severe ASPS was found using correlation matrix analysis. However, there was a slight difference in CPK levels from the baseline to the follow-up in the spirulina group. Conclusions: A dietary supplement comprising spirulina and copper may help water polo players’ subjective performance measurements by lowering muscular tension. Larger, randomized controlled trials are yet required. Full article

The International Breakfast Research Initiative is a global study of breakfast nutrition, involving 17 countries in four continents, aiming to derive nutrient-based regional recommendations for breakfast. This study aimed to propose a harmonised recommendation for three South-East Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. For each country, data from nationally representative dietary surveys on the contribution of breakfast to daily nutrient intakes at both the adult population level and at the level of the upper tertile of daily nutrient density using the Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) Index were collated and examined. Energy intakes at breakfast ranged from 26 to 27% of daily energy intake. In all three countries, breakfast was carbohydrate-rich, providing 52 to 72% of breakfast energy intake, while it was higher in total and saturated fat in Malaysia and Indonesia. Intakes of fibre and vitamin C were low in all countries, while Malaysia tended to have higher intakes of most minerals, including sodium. Daily and breakfast nutrient intakes (at the population level and in the upper tertile of the NRF Index) were compared to the Codex Alimentarius nutrient reference values (NRVs) to assess adequacy. A decision tree was established based on these data to guide the development of recommendations for nutrient intakes at breakfast across the three countries. Full article

As autonomous driving may be the most important application scenario of the next generation, the development of wireless access technologies enabling reliable and low-latency vehicle communication becomes crucial. To address this, 3GPP has developed Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) specifications based on 5G New Radio (NR) technology, where Mode 2 Side-Link (SL) communication resembles Mode 4 in LTE-V2X, allowing direct communication between vehicles. This supplements SL communication in LTE-V2X and represents the latest advancements in cellular V2X (C-V2X) with the improved performance of NR-V2X. However, in NR-V2X Mode 2, resource collisions still occur and thus degrade the age of information (AOI). Therefore, an interference cancellation method is employed to mitigate this impact by combining NR-V2X with Non-Orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology. In NR-V2X, when vehicles select smaller resource reservation intervals (RRIs), higher-frequency transmissions use more energy to reduce AoI. Hence, it is important to jointly considerAoI and communication energy consumption based on NR-V2X communication. Then, we formulate such an optimization problem and employ the Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithm to compute the optimal transmission RRI and transmission power for each transmitting vehicle to reduce the energy consumption of each transmitting vehicle and the AoI of each receiving vehicle. Extensive simulations demonstrate the performance of our proposed algorithm. Full article

(1) Background: Despite the important role choline plays in child development, there are no data on dietary choline intake in early childhood in Australia. (2) Aim: In this cross-sectional study, we estimated the usual total choline intake and the proportion exceeding the Adequate Intake (AI) and determined the main dietary sources of choline in infants 6–12 months (n = 286) and toddlers 12–24 months (n = 475) of age. (3) Methods: A single 24-h food record with repeats collected during the 2021 Australian Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (OzFITS 2021) was used to estimate dietary choline intake. (4) Results: The mean choline intake was 142 ± 1.9 mg/day in infants and 181 ± 1.2 mg/day in toddlers. Only 35% of infants and 23% of toddlers exceeded the AI for choline based on Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) for Australia and New Zealand. Breastmilk was the leading source of choline, contributing 42% and 14% of total choline intake in infants and toddlers, respectively; however, egg consumers had the highest adjusted choline intakes and probability of exceeding the AI. (5) Conclusions: Findings suggest that choline intake may be suboptimal in Australian infants and toddlers. Further research to examine the impact of low choline intake on child development is warranted. Full article