Beyond Aromas: Exploring the Development and Potential Applications of Electroencephalography in Olfactory Research - From General Scents to Food Flavor Science Frontiers

Olfaction is crucial to our dietary choices and significantly influences our emotional and cognitive landscapes. Understanding the underlying neural mechanisms is pivotal, especially through the use of electroencephalography (EEG). This technology has strong temporal resolution, allowing it to capture the dynamics of neural responses to odors, bypassing the need for subjective interpretations. The application of EEG in food flavor research is still relatively new, but it has great potential. This review begins with an examination of general scent stimulation, charts the advances in using EEG to understand odor perception, and explores its future in food flavor science. By analyzing EEG&#39;s ability to detect distinct patterns and strengths in brain activity, we can elucidate the perceptual, affective, and cognitive frameworks associated with food odors. Event-related potentials and oscillatory activities, markers of central olfactory processing, provide insights into the neural architecture of olfaction. These markers are instrumental in assessing the influence of food odors on health, emotions, and decision-making processes. We argue that EEG&#39;s application in olfaction research holds considerable promise for the food industry to innovate products that are not only healthier but also more appealing, thereby promoting human well-being.</p

Prognostic Significance of Serum Cysteine-Rich Protein 61 in Patients with Acute Heart Failure

Background/Aims: Cyr61-cysteine-rich protein 61 (CCN1/CYR61) is a multifunctional matricellular protein involved in the regulation of fibrogenesis. Animal experiments have demonstrated that CCN1 can inhibit cardiac fibrosis in cardiac hypertrophy. However, no study has been conducted to assess the relation between serum CCN1 and prognosis of acute heart failure (AHF). Methods: We measured the serum CCN1 levels of 183 patients with AHF, and the patients were followed up for 6 months. The associations between CCN1 levels and some clinical covariates, especially left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), atrial fibrillation and age, were estimated. The AHF patients were followed up for 6 months. The endpoint was all-cause mortality. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis and multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis were employed to evaluate the prognostic ability of CCN1. We used calibration, discrimination and reclassification to assess the mortality risk prediction of adding CCN1. Results: Serum CCN1 concentrations in AHF patients were significantly increased compared with those in individuals without AHF (237 pg/ml vs. 124.8 pg/ml, p&#x3c; 0.001). CCN1 level was associated with the level of NT-proBNP (r=0.349, p&#x3c; 0.001) and was not affected by LVEF, eGFR, age or atrial fibrillation in AHF patients. Importantly, Kaplan-Meier curve analysis illustrated that the AHF patients with serum CCN1 level &#x3e; 260 pg/ ml had a lower survival rate (p&#x3c; 0.001). Multivariate Cox hazard analysis suggests that CCN1 functions as an independent predictor of mortality for AHF patients (LgCCN1, hazard ratio 5.825, 95% confidence interval: 1.828-18.566, p=0.003). In addition, the inclusion of CCN1 in the model with NT-proBNP significantly improved the C-statistic for predicting death (0.758, p&#x3c; 0.001). The integrated discrimination index was 0.019 (p&#x3c; 0.001), and the net reclassification index increased significantly after addition of CCN1 (23.9%, p=0.0179). Conclusions: CCN1 is strongly predictive of 6-month mortality in patients with AHF, suggesting serum CCN1 as a promising candidate prognostic biomarker for AHF patients

Multi-objective optimization on supercritical CO2 recompression brayton cycle using Kriging surrogate model

Supercritical CO2 cycle has become one of the most popular research fields of thermal science. The selection of operation parameters on thermodynamic cycle process is an important task. The computational model of supercritical CO2 recompression cycle is built to solve the multi-objective problem in this paper. Then, the optimization of parameters is performed based on genetic algorithm. Several Kriging models are also used to reduce the quantity of samples. According to the calculation, the influence of sample quantity on the result and the time cost is obtained. The results show that it is required to improve the heat transfer when improvement of the cycle efficiency is desired.</jats:p

The Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Residents&rsquo; Cultural Consumption in China: An Urban-Rural Difference Perspective

This paper uses panel data from the 2014&ndash;2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to study the impact of digital inclusive finance (DIF) on the cultural consumption of urban and rural residents using two-way fixed effects. The results show that DIF can promote the growth of cultural consumption of urban and rural residents, and the promotion effect is greater for rural residents. Mechanism analysis shows that DIF increases the cultural consumption of urban and rural residents mainly through easing liquidity constraints, reducing precautionary savings, and increasing payment convenience. Moreover, reducing precautionary savings has a greater impact on the cultural consumption of urban residents, while the other two mechanisms have a greater impact on rural residents. In the heterogeneity analysis, credit business and some indicators reflecting the convenience of payment have a greater impact on rural residents. The insurance business has a greater impact on urban residents. This paper provides policy references for the development of DIF and the enhancement of residents&rsquo; cultural consumption

Effects of Antimony Stress on Photosynthesis and Growth of Acorus calamus

This study was aimed to explore that effects of Sb on physiological parameters of Acorus calamus and the possibility of using A. calamus as a remediation plant. A. calamus potted experiments were conducted using different concentrations (0, 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg) of antimony potassium tartrate (Sb3+) (marked as CK, T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively) and potassium pyroantimonate (Sb5+) (marked as CK, T′1, T′2, T′3, and T′4, respectively). The effects of Sb stress (Sb3+ and Sb5+) on leaf photosynthetic pigments, biomass, photosynthetic characteristics and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of potted A. calamus were studied. With the rise of Sb3+ concentration from T1 to T4, the leaf pigment contents (chlorophyll a, b, carotenoid), plant height, dry weight, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), evaporation rate (E), PSII maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm), and PSII electron transfer quantum yield rate (ΦPSII) of A. calamus all reduced, while intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) significantly increased. The reduction of Pn was mainly induced by non-stomatal limitation. Chlorophyll a/b ratio increased significantly versus the control, while carotenoid/chlorophyll ratio (Car/Chl) first decreased and then increased. The leaf Chl a, Chl b, Car, plant height, dry weight, Pn, Gs, E, Fv/Fm, and ΦPSII all maximized in T′1 (250 mg/kg), but were not significantly different from the control. As the Sb5+ concentration increased from T′2 to T′4, the above indices all decreased and were significantly different from the control. Moreover, intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) decreased significantly. The reduction of Pn was caused by non-stomatal limitation, indicating the mesophyll cells were damaged. The Car/Chl ratio was stable within 0–500 mg/kg Sb, but decreased in T3 and T4, and rose in T′3 and T′4. After Sb3+ and Sb5+ treatments, translocation factor varied 19.44–27.8 and 19.44–24.86%, respectively. In conclusion, different form Sb3+ treatment, Sb5+ treatment showed a Hormesi effect, as low-concentration treatment promoted A. calamus growth, but high-concentration treatment inhibited its growth. The two forms of Sb both caused unfavorable effects on A. calamus, but the seedlings did not die and were modestly adaptive and Sb-accumulative. A. calamus, which is easily maintained and cultivated, can serve as a good candidate for phytoremediation of water contaminated with Sb