Hydrocolloids are important ingredients in food formulations and their modification can lead to novel ingredients with unique functionalities beyond their nutritional value. Cold plasma is a promising technology for the modification of food biopolymers due to its non-toxic and eco-friendly nature. This review discusses the recent published studies on the effects of cold plasma treatment on non-starch hydrocolloids and their derivatives. It covers the common phenomena that occur during plasma treatment, including ionization, etching effect, surface modification, and ashing effect, and how they contribute to various changes in food biopolymers. The effects of plasma treatment on important properties such as color, crystallinity, chemical structure, rheological behavior, and thermal properties of non-starch hydrocolloids and their derivatives are also discussed. In addition, this review highlights the potential of cold plasma treatment to enhance the functionality of food biopolymers and improve the quality of food products. The mechanisms underlying the effects of plasma treatment on food biopolymers, which can be useful for future research in this area, are also discussed. Overall, this review paper presents a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge in the field of cold plasma treatment of non-starch hydrocolloids and their derivatives and highlights the areas that require further investigation.

Pharmacological treatment for schizophrenia has been a long-standing concern. As a severe neuropsychological illness, schizophrenia is always a challenging disorder to unravel its pathophysiology. Since it exhibits both positive and negative symptoms, such as hallucination and delusion, as well as social isolation and cognitive impairment, following the symptomatic changes is a crucial task for clinicians. Although various pharmacological treatments are available in the form of antipsychotics, however, their actual consequences need to be examined with the observable changes in symptoms as well as the unobservable changes in brain functioning. This study is a first of its kind to critically investigate both clinical and neuroimaging studies to find out the changes being observed in schizophrenia patients after clinical intervention with various antipsychotics. We observed several symptomatic changes being reported in clinical studies incorporating clinical trials of various first-generation and second-generation antipsychotic drugs. Alongside, we encapsulated several neuroimaging studies showing functional and structural changes in the brain of schizophrenia patients triggered by a variety of drugs. The basal ganglia, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, cuneus, and middle occipital gyrus are some of the notable brain regions that were observed to show subtle functional and structural changes. This critical review paper may pave the way for future research into the study of the pathological and morphological changes in the brains of schizophrenia patients as they progress through the course of medicinal therapy.

Stem cell is considered a potential therapy for treating erectile dysfunction (ED), including diabetic mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED), which was investigated in some preclinical studies. Several trials introduced stem cell into clinical practice, but divergences emerged.
To further investigate the therapeutic effects of stem cell on DMED in preclinical studies and investigate some possible factors that influence curative effects.
The literature research was conducted in Web of Science and PubMed to retrieve studies utilizing stem cell to treat DMED. Revman 5.3 was used to perform subgroup analysis of intracavernosal pressure/mean artery pressure (ICP/MAP) and structural changes. Publication bias was assessed with Egger\'s test, funnel plot, and sensitivity analysis by Stata 15.0.
The ICP/MAP and structural changes before and after stem cell treatment.
Of 2,115 studies retrieved, 23 studies are eligible. Plus 10 studies from a meta-analysis published in 2016, 33 studies were enrolled. Pooled analysis showed that stem cell ameliorates damaged ICP/MAP (WMD 0.26; 95% CI 0.23-0.29; P < .001) and structural changes induced by diabetes. Subgroup analysis indicated that adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell (ADSC) may have better efficacy than bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) (χ2= 4.21, P = .04; ADSC WMD 0.28, 95% CI [0.24-0.32] vs BMSC WMD 0.22 95% CI [0.17-0.26]). Transplantation type, diabetes type, and cell number make no difference to curative effects. Gene modification and therapy combination proved promising in improving the therapeutic effects of stem cell.
The evidence reminded that ADSC may be prior to BMSC in clinical trials and autotransplantation is probably not compulsory in the clinical practice of stem cell.
The study number and sample size are large enough. However, high degree of heterogeneity remains after subgroup analysis.
This meta-analysis suggests the efficacy of stem cell therapy for DMED and the possible superiority of ADSC over BMSC in erection restoration and structure renovation.

UNASSIGNED: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common disease among elderly men, and novel therapy methods are needed for drug-refractory ED. As an extracellular vesicle, stem cell-derived exosomes displayed erectile function improvement in rat ED models in some preclinical studies. However, the therapeutic efficacy has not been comprehensively evaluated.
UNASSIGNED: To study the therapeutic effects of stem cell-derived exosomes on ED in preclinical studies and to investigate the potential mechanisms responsible for the efficacy.
UNASSIGNED: The systematic literature search was conducted in Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase to retrieve studies utilizing stem cell-derived exosomes for ED treatment. We extracted data of intracavernous pressure/mean artery pressure (ICP/MAP), and cavernosum structural changes in rat ED models before and after stem cell-derived exosome therapy. RevMan 5.3 was used to perform meta-analyses of ICP/MAP and cavernosum microstructural changes. Publication bias was assessed with the Egger test and funnel plot by Stata 15.0 (StataCorp).
UNASSIGNED: Outcomes included ICP/MAP, smooth muscle, and endothelial markers-such as the ratio of smooth muscle to collagen and the expression of α-SMA (alpha smooth muscle actin), CD31 (cluster of differentiation 31), nNOS and eNOS (neuronal and endothelial nitric oxide synthase), TGF-β1 (transforming growth factor β1), and caspase 3 protein-to evaluate erectile function and microstructural changes. Forest plots of effect sizes were performed.
UNASSIGNED: Of 146 studies retrieved, 11 studies were eligible. Pooled analysis showed that stem cell-derived exosomes ameliorated damaged ICP/MAP (standardized mean difference, 3.68; 95% CI, 2.64-4.72; P < .001) and structural changes, including the ratio of smooth muscle to collagen and the expression of α-SMA, CD31, nNOS, eNOS, TGF-β1, and caspase 3 protein. Subgroup analysis indicated that exosome type and ED model type made no difference to curative effects.
UNASSIGNED: This meta-analysis suggests the therapeutic efficacy of stem cell-derived exosomes for ED. Exosomes may restore erectile function by optimizing cavernosum microstructures.

Amblyopia is the decreased best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in one or both eyes caused by the abnormal processing of visual input during development. One common cause of amblyopia is anisometropia, which has attracted widespread attention. Many structural changes occur in the primary and extrastriate visual areas of the cerebral cortex, as well as in the eyes, in patients with anisometropic amblyopia. Understanding these mechanisms has provided a favorable theoretical basis for treating anisometropic amblyopia. This article reviews the functional and anatomical changes and progress toward the treatment of anisometropic amblyopia.

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment induces structural changes in bovine milk proteins depending on factors such as the temperature, pH, concentration, decompression rate, cycling, composition of the medium and pressure level and duration. An in-depth understanding of the impact of these factors is important for controlling HHP-induced modification of milk proteins and the interactions within or between them, which can be applied to prevent undesired aggregation, gelation, and precipitation during HHP processing or to obtain specific milk protein modifications to attain specific protein properties. In this regard, understanding the influences of these factors can provide insight into the modulation and optimization of HHP conditions to attain specific milk protein structures. In recent years, there has been a great research attention on HHP-induced changes in milk proteins influenced by factors such as pH, temperature, concentration, cycling, decompression condition, and medium composition. Hence, to provide insight into how these factors control milk protein structures under HHP treatment and to understand if their effects depend on HHP parameters and environmental conditions, this review discusses recent findings on how various factors (pH, temperature, cycling, decompression rate, medium composition, and concentration) affect HHP-induced bovine milk protein modification. Practical Application: The information provided in this review will be very useful to anticipate the challenges related to the formulation and development of pressure-treated milk and dairy products.

For road safety, braking system performance has become a very important requirement for car vehicle manufacturers and passengers. To this end, vehicle designers must understand the characteristics of tribological behavior and the causes of their variation in properties. This paper analyzes the tribological behavior (at friction and wear) of the most recent material couples of the braking disk-pad system affected by their structural change through the implications on the braking system stability, reliability and suitable characterizations. Obtaining information to design a very efficient braking system and assessing the influence of the material\'s structural changes on its stability has become a necessity. This has been made possible by using several methods of testing a brake disk-pad couple on various devices intended for this purpose. The materials of the contact surface disk-brake pad with their tribological performance (friction, wear), especially the friction coefficient, present particular importance. Also, system components\' reliability, heat transfer and the noise and vibration of the brake disk-pad couple are vital to the correct operation of the braking system and should be given special attention. The test results obtained define the friction patterns and the influence of structural changes and other environmental factors that can be used in computer analysis.

Aging is accompanied by many changes in brain and contributes to progressive cognitive decline. In contrast to pathological changes in brain, normal aging brain changes have relatively mild but important changes in structural, biochemical and molecular level. Representatively, aging associated brain changes include atrophy of tissues, alteration in neurotransmitters and damage accumulation in cellular environment. These effects have causative link with age associated changes which ultimately results in cognitive decline. Although several evidences were found in normal aging changes of brain, it is not clearly integrated. Figuring out aging related changes in brain is important as aging is the process that everyone goes through, and comprehensive understanding may help to progress further studies. This review clarifies normal aging brain changes in an asymptotic and comprehensive manner, from a gross level to a microscopic and molecular level, and discusses potential approaches to seek the changes with cognitive decline.

Exploration of lignocellulosic biomass provides a sustainable and eco-friendly route for producing liquid fuels, materials, and chemicals. However, direct utilization of lignocelluloses is limited by the stable and complicated cross-linking structure of the plant cell wall. Hydrothermal pretreatment (HTP) is a green and cost-effective technology because it can disrupt lignin-carbohydrate complex (LCC) linkages, dissolve hemicelluloses and lignin, and redistribute lignin in the cell wall layers without utilization of any chemicals. Thus, HTP is expected to achieve industrial scale in second-generation biorefineries and circular bioeconomies. This review analyzed the deconstruction of lignocelluloses by HTP, with particular emphasis on the formation mechanism of hemicellulose degradation products and the structural evolution of hemicelluloses and lignin accompanying HTP. Meanwhile, the formation mechanism of pseudolignin and its effect on the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose as well as strategies for inhibiting lignin recondensation were discussed.

BACKGROUND: Stem cell is considered a potential therapy for treating erectile dysfunction (ED), including diabetic mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED), which was investigated in some preclinical studies. Several trials introduced stem cell into clinical practice, but divergences emerged.
OBJECTIVE: To further investigate the therapeutic effects of stem cell on DMED in preclinical studies and investigate some possible factors that influence curative effects.
METHODS: The literature research was conducted in Web of Science and PubMed to retrieve studies utilizing stem cell to treat DMED. Revman 5.3 was used to perform subgroup analysis of intracavernosal pressure/mean artery pressure (ICP/MAP) and structural changes. Publication bias was assessed with Egger\'s test, funnel plot, and sensitivity analysis by Stata 15.0.
RESULTS: The ICP/MAP and structural changes before and after stem cell treatment.
RESULTS: Of 2,115 studies retrieved, 23 studies are eligible. Plus 10 studies from a meta-analysis published in 2016, 33 studies were enrolled. Pooled analysis showed that stem cell ameliorates damaged ICP/MAP (WMD 0.26; 95% CI 0.23-0.29; P < .001) and structural changes induced by diabetes. Subgroup analysis indicated that adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell (ADSC) may have better efficacy than bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) (χ2= 4.21, P = .04; ADSC WMD 0.28, 95% CI [0.24-0.32] vs BMSC WMD 0.22 95% CI [0.17-0.26]). Transplantation type, diabetes type, and cell number make no difference to curative effects. Gene modification and therapy combination proved promising in improving the therapeutic effects of stem cell.
CONCLUSIONS: The evidence reminded that ADSC may be prior to BMSC in clinical trials and autotransplantation is probably not compulsory in the clinical practice of stem cell.
UNASSIGNED: The study number and sample size are large enough. However, high degree of heterogeneity remains after subgroup analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis suggests the efficacy of stem cell therapy for DMED and the possible superiority of ADSC over BMSC in erection restoration and structure renovation. Yao C, Zhang X, Yu Z, et al., Effects of Stem Cell Therapy on Diabetic Mellitus Erectile Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Sex Med 2022;19:21-36.