RESULTS: Total scores obtained from the selected nutritional criteria ranked MSCF, with total score of 15, as the lowest and thus it was considered to have the most desirable nutritional characteristics compared to MF, MSF and FWMF, which had respective total scores of 31, 22 and 20.

RESULTS: Both doses of the alcohol extract of S. polycystum and the 300 mg kg(-1) water extract, significantly reduced blood glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C ) levels. Serum total cholesterol, triglyceride levels and plasma atherogenic index were significantly decreased after 22 days treatment in all seaweed groups. Unlike metformin, S. polycystum did not significantly change plasma insulin in the rats, but increased the response to insulin.

RESULTS: The lysis buffer 2 (LB2) has been shown to be the best lysis buffer for DNA extraction from both raw and processed meat samples comparing to other lysis buffers tested. Hence, the LB2 has been found to be ideal to detect meat and porcine DNAs by real-time PCR using pairs of porcine specific primers and universal primers which amplified at 119 bp fragment and 93 bp fragment, respectively. This assay allows detection as low as 0.0001 ng of DNA. Higher efficiency and sensitivity of real-time PCR via a simplified DNA extraction method using LB2 have been observed, as well as a reproducible and high correlation coefficient (R2  = 0.9979) based on the regression analysis of the standard curve have been obtained.

RESULTS: The total phenolic and flavonoid content, radical scavenging (IC50 ) and metal reducing properties were 67.0 ± 2.5 mg GAE g-1 sample 32.0 ± 0.5 mg QE g-1 extract, 0.08 ± 0.01 mg mL-1 and 510 ± 10 µmol eq Fe(II) g-1 extract, respectively. Morphological and spectroscopic analysis of the fibre mats confirmed successful nanoencapsulation of MO extract within defect free nanofibres via electrospinning process. The percentage encapsulation efficiency (EE) was between 80% and 85%. Furthermore, thermal stability of encapsulated fibres, especially at 3% and 5% of core loading content, was significantly improved. Toxicological analysis revealed that the extract in its original and encapsulated form was safe for oral consumption.

RESULTS: As pods developed, flavonol accumulated while nitrogen content degraded. Mature pods produced beans with a higher flavonol, catechin, and total phenolic content (TPC). As fermentation progressed, the beans' fat, TPC, antioxidant activity, and catechin content increased, regardless of pod maturity at harvest. Free fatty acid (FFA) levels were highest in 5 day fermented beans. The 3 day fermented beans contained significantly higher epicatechin, with lower FFA content. Chocolate made from mature beans with 3 day fermentation was more pleasant as it scored the highest in flavor intensity and complexity and the lowest in acidity and astringency.

RESULTS: The mean values of colour features in RGB R m , G m , B m , normalised RGB R nm , G nm , B nm HSV H m , S m , V m , and L*a*b* L m , a m , b m were the best estimator for predicting TSS with R2 ≥ 0.90. All colour channels also showed satisfactory accuracies of R2 ≥ 0.80 in predicting the bioyield force, apparent modulus and mean force. The highest average classification accuracy was obtained using LDA with an average accuracy of more than 82%. The study showed that LDA, LSVM, QDA and QSVM obtained the correct classification of up to 100% for R5, whereas R1, R2, R3 and R4 gave classification accuracies in the range between 83.75-91.85%, 85.6-90.25%, 85.75-90.85% and 77.35-87.15% respectively. This indicates R5 colour information was obviously different from R1-R4. The mean values of the HSV channel indicated the best performance to predict the ripening stages of papaya, compared to RGB, normalised RGB and L*a*b*channels, with an average classification accuracy of more than 80%.

RESULTS: Thirty-two non-repeat Y. enterocolitica strains of three bioserotypes (3 variant/O:3, n = 27; 1B/O:8, n = 3; 1A/O:5, n = 2) were analysed. Approximately 90% of strains were multidrug-resistant with a multiple antibiotic resistance index < 0.2 and the majority of the strains were resistant to nalidixic acid, clindamycin, ampicillin, ticarcillin, tetracycline and amoxicillin. Yersinia enterocolitica could be distinguished distinctly into three clusters by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, with each belonging to a particular bioserotype. Strains of 3 variant/O:3 were more heterogeneous than others. Eleven of the 15 virulence genes tested (hreP, virF, rfbC, myfA, sat, inv, ail, ymoA, ystA, tccC, yadA) and pYV virulence plasmid were present in all the bioserotpe 3 variant/03 strains.

RESULTS: During 1980-2014, the FIs of NPK chemical fertilizers in China showed a significant growing trend. After reaching the highest value of 339 kg ha-1 in 2014, FIs were reduced to 303 kg ha-1 in 2019, higher than the 225 kg ha-1 maximum safe usage internationally recognized. Meanwhile, the pattern of change of FAE was one of 'decreasing to increasing', with values of 1 in 1980, 0.66 in 2003, and 0.80 in 2019. FIE basically showed an increasing trend, which could be divided into three stages: the first stage of low efficiency during 1980-2009, the second stage of medium efficiency after 2010, and the third stage of high efficiency after 2018.