Industrial Product Development Research Articles

Elucidating the Mechanism of Inulin-Induced Improvement in the Structural and Functional Properties of High-Moisture Extruded Products

High-moisture extrusion (HME) has increasingly garnered attention in the production of plant-based meat analogs. Nevertheless, the disorganized structural properties and poor functional characteristics of HME extrudates pose significant challenges to the advancement of plant-based alternatives in the food industry. The coextrusion of proteins and polysaccharides has emerged as an effective strategy to improve the sensory qualities of HME meat analogs. Herein, we investigated the effects of the type and addition of inulin on the structural and functional properties of HME extrudates comprising soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, and wheat protein. The results indicated that inulin facilitated the conversion of 7S to 11S globulin and induced a transformation from a β-turn angle to a β-folded protein structure, promoting lamellar structure formation and enhancing the overall stability of the protein matrix. Optimal results were achieved with the addition of 6% long-chain and short-chain inulin. In terms of functional characteristics, the incorporation of short-chain inulin resulted in a superior fiber structure and protein digestibility, whereas long-chain inulin enhanced the water-holding capacity, rehydration rate, and thermal stability. Additionally, intermolecular interaction analysis revealed that these inulin-induced improvements in the quality of HME extrudates are primarily attributed to the strengthening of disulfide bonds and hydrogen bonds. These findings offer crucial insights for advancing the quality of plant-based meat analogs, providing valuable directions for future product development in the food industry.

Advances in Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) In Vitro Culture: A Review

The demand for Vaccinium fruits has skyrocketed due to their nutritional and medicinal properties, notably their high content of phenolic compounds and excellent sensory evaluation. The use of Vaccinium plants and its components as dietary supplements and health ingredients has been on the rise across the world. The attractive fruits contain a high content of anthocyanins and antioxidant compounds. In some popular and valuable cultivars, the conventional propagation methods, exploiting hard or soft wood cuttings, are inefficient. The demand for nursery plants can be fulfilled by micropropagation. This review aims to explore advances in the in vitro culture of Vaccinium plants, focusing on effective disinfection, optimized culture media, and the role of growth regulators in plant development and multiplication. By providing a controlled environment, micropropagation allows the large-scale production of these plants in a short time, ensuring availability throughout the year. Additionally, this technique offers the advantage of studying the effects of abiotic stresses on plants, as well as facilitating research on the production of relevant metabolites. This review seeks to provide an updated overview of the most promising methods and techniques for micropropagation of Vaccinium, thereby contributing to the ongoing development of the blueberry production industry and derivative products.

What Role Does Simulation Play in Sustainable Industrial Development?

Sustainability as a concept is present in most aspects of our everyday life, and industry is no exception. Likewise, there is no doubt that the necessity to produce goods in a sustainable way and to ensure that products are sustainable is gaining more and more attention from producers, customers, governments, and various organizations. Understandably, there are several ways to increase the sustainable development of industrial production. One effective tool is simulation, which can have a significant impact on improving environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This paper explores the role of simulation as a powerful scientific and engineering solution in advancing sustainability within industrial ecosystems. Its main scope is to map the existing literature on the usage of simulation as a supportive tool for achieving this goal. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis was conducted, allowing for tailored insights into the use of simulation in sustainable production.

An Empirical Analysis of New Product Development Success Among Automotive Industry Vendors in Malaysia

New product development in the automotive industry necessitates significant upfront investment, given the uncertainty of a product's competitiveness upon market launch. Hence, industries strive to comprehend and evaluate crucial success factors during implementation phases. This paper delves into the findings of an empirical qualitative analysis study on the success of New Product Development (NPD) in order to provide deeper insights into these success factors. The study delineates three primary dimensions: IT capability, new product development process, and new product development strategy. Conducted within the Malaysian automotive industry, the empirical results affirm the criticality of these factors to success.

Modular metabolic engineering of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens for high-level production of green biosurfactant iturin A

As a kind of biosurfactants, iturin A has attracted people’s wide attentions due to their features of biodegradability, environmentally friendly, etc.; however, high production cost limited its extensive application, and the aim of this research wants to improve iturin A production in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Firstly, dual promoter was applied to strengthen iturin A synthetase expression, and its yield was increased to 1.25 g/L. Subsequently, original 5′-UTRs of downstream genes (ituA, ituB, and ituC) in iturin A synthetase cluster were optimized, which significantly increased mRNA secondary stability, and iturin A yield produced by resultant strain HZ-T3 reached 2.32 g/L. Secondly, synthetic pathway of α-glucosidase inhibitor 1-deoxynojirimycin was blocked to improve substrate corn starch utilization, and iturin A yield was increased by 34.91% to 3.13 g/L. Thirdly, efficient precursor (fatty acids, Ser, and Pro) supplies were proven as the critical role in iturin A synthesis, and 5.52 g/L iturin A was attained by resultant strain, through overexpressing yngH, serC, and introducing ocD. Meanwhile, genes responsible for poly-γ-glutamic acid, extracellular polysaccharide, and surfactin syntheses were deleted, which led to a 30.98% increase of iturin A yield. Finally, lipopeptide transporters were screened, and iturin A yield was increased by 17.98% in SwrC overexpression strain, reached 8.53 g/L, which is the highest yield of iturin A ever reported. This study laid a foundation for industrial production and application development of iturin A, and provided the guidance of metabolic engineering breeding for efficient production of other metabolites synthesized by non-ribosomal peptide synthetase.Key points• Optimizing 5′-UTR is an effective tactics to regulate synthetase cluster expression.• Blocking 1-DNJ synthesis benefited corn starch utilization and iturin A production.• The iturin A yield attained in this work was the highest yield reported so far.

Lightweight network based features fusion for steel rolling ambient sound classification

With the intelligent development of industrial production, sound monitoring technology has been widely used to monitor the operation status of mechanical facilities, and this progress has gradually become a research hotspot in the steel manufacturing industry. However, the complex composition of sound sources and the high computational requirements of most models limit their applicability to industrial scenarios. This work presents a targeted approach for remote monitoring of rolling sound. They are using visual features of audio signals to design classification models on the self-harvested dataset for more efficient adaptation to complex production sites. An in-depth analysis of the actual sound reveals that it is characterized by high similarity, complexity, and partial synchronization. To optimize interclass and intraclass data engineering few-sample, multi-feature fusion, and data augmentation methods were combined to characterize the details fully. In addition, by leveraging the deep small convolutions of VGGNet and the randomness of stochastic pooling, local features are effectively extracted. Finally, global average pooling with final softmax layer stacking is used to classify the rolling signals to reduce the number of parameters, avoid overfitting, and perform a global analysis of the features. Experimental results on the rolling sound dataset show that the method proposed achieves an accuracy of 91.26%, with 92.66%, and 95.88% on the ESC10 and MIMII datasets, respectively. These results confirm that the method can be widely applied to sound classification for multi-category rolling processes, showing good performance and scalability.

Optimization of factors affecting Agrobacterium-mediated hairy root induction in Vitex negundo L. (Lamiaceae)

Vitex negundo L. is an aromatic, woody, blooming shrub in the Verbenaceae family which can grow into a small tree. Traditionally, V. negundo root has been used to cure diabetes, colic, boils, leprosy, and rheumatism. Keeping the importance of its roots in mind, an attempt has been taken for development of a protocol for efficient hairy root proliferation system. The Agrobacterium rhizogenes strains (MTCC 532 and MTCC 2364) were used for hairy root induction. For A. rhizogenes infection, both in vitro and in vivo leaves as well as internodes were used as explant. In vitro leaves and internodal explants were obtained by the inoculation of matured nodal segments on the optimum medium [MS + 2.0 mg/L N6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP)] with c.a. 91.6% shoot regeneration and an average of 8.1 shoots per explants. In vitro leaf showed best hairy root induction followed by in vitro internode on ½ MS medium augmented with acetosyringone. Highest transformation efficiency was achieved using MTCC 2364 strain, while no transformation was observed in MTCC 532 strain. Different factors affecting transformation including co-cultivation period, infection time and optical density (O.D.) value were standardized. The highest efficacy, 88.8% hairy root induction was observed in in vitro leaves infected by MTCC 2364 for 60 minutes infection time with an O.D. value of 0.29 maintained over a 44-48 hours of co-cultivation period. The prescribed protocol may be used as a reference for development of industrial scale hairy root production for bioactive compound located in root of V. negundo.

The effects of environmental factors on the synthesis of water-soluble Monascus red pigments via submerged fermentation: a review.

Monascus pigments (MPs) have been used as natural food pigments for many years. There is a high demand for Monascus red pigments (MRPs) to enhance color and for antibacterial and cancer prevention therapies in food and medicine. Most MRPs are not water soluble, and the yield of water-soluble MRPs is naturally low. On the other hand, water-soluble MRP is more cost effective for application in industrial mass production. Therefore, it is important to improve the yield of water-soluble MRPs. Environmental factors have a significant influence on the synthesis of water-soluble MRPs, which is crucial for the development of industrial production of water-soluble MRPs. This review introduces the biosynthetic pathways of water-soluble MRPs and summarizes the effects of environmental factors on the yield of water-soluble MRPs. Acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) is a precursor for MPs synthesis. Carbon and nitrogen sources and the carbon/nitrogen ratio can impact MP production by regulating the metabolic pathway of acetyl-CoA. Optimization of fermentation conditions to change the morphology of Monascus can stimulate the synthesis of MPs. The appropriate choice of nitrogen sources and pH values can promote the synthesis of MRPs from MPs. Additives such as metal ions and non-ionic surfactants can affect the fluidity of Monascus cell membrane and promote the transformation of MRPs into water-soluble MRPs. This review will lay the foundation for the industrial production of water-soluble MRPs. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Amylopectin chain length distributions and amylose content are determinants of viscoelasticity and digestibility differences in mung bean starch and proso millet starch

This study aimed to reveal the underlying mechanisms of the differences in viscoelasticity and digestibility between mung bean starch (MBS) and proso millet starch (PMS) from the viewpoint of starch fine molecular structure. The contents of amylopectin B2 chains (14.94–15.09 %), amylopectin B3 chains (14.48–15.07 %) and amylose long chains (183.55–198.84) in MBS were significantly higher than PMS (10.45–10.76 %, 12.48–14.07 % and 70.59–88.03, respectively). MBS with higher amylose content (AC, 28.45–31.80 %) not only exhibited a lower weight-average molar mass (91,750.65–128,120.44 kDa) and R1047/1022 (1.1520–1.1904), but also was significantly lower than PMS in relative crystallinity (15.22–23.18 %, p < 0.05). MBS displayed a higher storage modulus (G′) and loss modulus (G′′) than PMS. Although only MBS-1 showed two distinct and discontinuous phases, MBS exhibited a higher resistant starch (RS) content than PMS (31.63–39.23 %), with MBS-3 having the highest RS content (56.15 %). Correlation analysis suggested that the amylopectin chain length distributions and AC played an important role in affecting the crystal structure, viscoelastic properties and in vitro starch digestibility of MBS and PMS. These results will provide a theoretical and scientific basis for the development of starch science and industrial production of low glycemic index starchy food.

Industrial product development with lead users as a source of Schumpeterian opportunity

AbstractIn industrial product development with customers, it is well‐known that lead userness is associated with novel and commercially attractive products. We take a next step by analyzing if lead userness is related to product development that potentially affects industry‐level practices. Our main hypothesis is that lead userness results in the pursuit of Schumpeterian product opportunities: disequilibrating, radical, rare, and based on new knowledge and creative activities. In contrast, at low lead userness, more Kirznerian product opportunities are expected—which maintain industry standards. The hypothesis is supported by data from 139 high‐tech small firms. Next, we anticipate that factors related to the selection of lead users, and the effective processing of their inputs, moderate the connection between lead userness and Schumpeterian opportunity. As for selection, we find a stronger connection when firms collaborate with “new” customers. Conversely, when involved customers have been business partners already for a long time, the pursuit of Schumpeterian opportunities is mitigated. Also, tentative evidence is found that the connection between lead userness and Schumpeterian opportunity amplifies when involved customers are less dominant market players. Finally, when it comes to processing lead users' input, we report tentative evidence that firms' R&amp;D intensity should be higher (indicating ability to process lead users' inputs and make continued development efforts). Our findings help to explain why lead users have been associated with industry dynamics, and provide guidance to identify “relevant” lead users when firms seek product opportunities that potentially disequilibrate their industry.

Effectiveness of using different types of nuclei and methods of replanting queen bees in bags

In Ukraine, among other industries, beekeeping occupies an important place. This fact is facilitated by the developed agricultural direction of the country and the high percentage of cultivation of entomophilic crops. However, despite the broad prospects for development and transition to an industrial basis, the beekeeping industry of Ukraine is represented, in the vast majority, by relatively small farms. One of the reasons for the low development of industrial honey production in Ukraine is the high costs of organizing an industrial apiary, which include the purchase of modern equipment for quick and efficient opening of frames, special equipment for pumping honey, the construction of separate premises for the honey pumping workshop, as well as the constant updating of equipment, such as new hives and frames, and the purchase of breeding queens. Another significant problem is the death of bee colonies due to a variety of diseases, including Varroa mite infestation. The use of pesticides to combat diseases and pests of agricultural plants and forest lands contributes to its negative share. An effective and cost-effective way to expand and increase the productivity of the apiary is the formation of bee packages using high-quality breeding queens. The use of early fertile queens makes it possible to form a strong full-fledged family and make full use of the honey collection this year. The effectiveness of the use of different types of nuclei and methods of replanting fertile queen bees in the formation of bee packages was checked. The study was carried out on bees of the Ukrainian steppe breed. The best results in terms of the percentage of fertile queens and the cost of queens per fertile were obtained using a full-size nucleus for 3 standard frames in a 16-frame bed. However, the same method required a larger number (10 times) of worker bees compared to the micronucleus. With traditional replanting using the Titov cage, the share of accepted queen bees is 90 %, and the maximum rate of reception of queen bees in packages is recorded when using the fourth method of transplantation. So, when transferring a queen with a frame of printed brood and young worker bees, the relative proportion of accepted queen bees was 98 %. Therefore, the traditional method can be considered optimal in terms of indicators: reception, manufacturability, costs.

Process intensification of tar chemical looping reforming based on ReaxFF reaction kinetics investigation

Traditional chemical processes currently produce tar as a by-product with low efficiency. This paper proposes a novel tar chemical looping reforming (t-CLR) process based on reactive force field (ReaxFF) reaction kinetics investigation to enhance its utilization efficiency. Firstly, the t-CLR process is initially established to determine the optimum operating conditions. Through ReaxFF molecular dynamics (ReaxFF-MD) simulations conducted under above conditions, the activation energies of the fuel reactor, steam reactor, and air reactor are determined to be 63.25 kJ/kmol, 107.85 kJ/kmol, and 159.53 kJ/kmol respectively. By implementing micro-dynamic parameters filling, oxygen carrier recovery, and heat integration, the optimal t-CLR process achieves a 97.60 % recovery rate of the oxygen carrier and reduces external utility consumption by 71.39 %. The comprehensive framework with macro and micro dimensions is established based on the above studies to promote the cleaner production of traditional processes. Finally, the utilization efficiency of tar is efficiently improved through t-CLR technology, which allows for an adjustable C/H ratio in syngas. The t-CLR technology can be applied to the chemical and energy industries by adding value to by-products and optimizing energy utilization. Overall, this work provides important guidance for process intensification, energy conservation, environmental protection, and waste utilization. The study further promotes the development of industrial production in a cleaner and more efficient direction.

Streaming ahead: technological innovations redefining new product development in the entertainment industry

Streaming ahead: technological innovations redefining new product development in the entertainment industry

Taste, sustainability, and nutrition: Consumers' attitude toward innovations in aquaculture products

Marine aquaculture is one of the solutions to provide sustainable nutritious food. While technological and product development in the marine aquaculture industry is challenging, the industry is also facing consumer skepticism. Therefore, it is crucial to understand consumers' food decisions to deliver the benefits of marine aquaculture on environmental sustainability and human nutrition. This study aims to test how a sheer cognition of innovative or traditional production methods influences the USA consumers' acceptance of marine aquaculture products.In an online experimental study, 186 consumers from the USA evaluated their perceptions of a series of marine aquaculture products that vary in processing levels. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: Tradition, Technology, and Control condition. In the Tradition condition, participants were told the products are produced in a traditional way. In contrast, a high-tech production system is emphasized in the Technology condition. In the Control condition, the producer uses a conventional method to farm seafood. The results of a set of general linear models for repeated measures reveal that emphasizing traditional production methods is associated with better perceptions of tastefulness, healthiness, and sustainability. Further analysis of a structural equation model found that the difference between the Tradition versus Technology brand image mainly lies in the perceived sincerity of the producer. The image of a traditional producer contributes to better consumer trust, and it further leads to a higher perceived value of healthiness and sustainability.The results of the study shed light on the strategies to accelerate technological advances and the social acceptance of innovative nutritious food. The research is one of the early attempts in the aquaculture industry to collect consumer feedback on tech/product development. The process can support future tech/product research projects by enhancing the societal embeddedness of marine aquaculture innovation.

Potential for industrial production development in the Republic of Bashkortostan and in neighbouring regions

Socio-economic development of regions depends on the level of interaction between them on the basis of their industry specialisation. The purpose of the study is to determine the potential for the industrial production development of the regions for further activation of interregional interaction. Types of industrial production of the Republic of Bashkortostan and its neighbouring regions are the object of the study. The paper assesses its development in dynamics and statics by type of activity. Its specialisation is determined, the leading types of economic activity are identified with the use of localisation coefficients and localisation intensity. The development level of industrial production in the Russian Federation and in the regions near the Republic of Bashkortostan have similar trends, however, sharp fluctuations occur in Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions. In these subjects, the largest share in manufacturing belongs to metallurgical production. Also many activities that are to be in the zone of increased localisation in terms of the turnover of an organisation and the number of employees are actually in the zone of low effective localisation. Industrial production in the Udmurt Republic and the Republic of Tatarstan is less affected by the fluctuations. In Bashkortostan, the largest share is occupied by extraction of coke and petroleum products. To strengthen technological sovereignty, it is necessary to activate the interaction between regions in industrial production.

Potential Ecological Risk Assessment of Soil Heavy Metals in Fengdong New District Based on Information Diffution Model

The large-scale construction of new districts has led to severe soil heavy metal pollution. Therefore, taking Fengdong New District as the target research area, the descriptive statistics of heavy metal content characteristics and Kriging interpolation analysis have been conducted, and the potential ecological risk index and information diffusion theory were further combined to create an information diffusion model based on risk assessment. Finally, the pollution degree, ecological risk, and risk occurrence probability of Pb, Cu, Cd, and Hg were discussed. The findings revealed that the average concentrations of the four heavy metals far exceeded the background value of soil heavy metals by a factor of 1.943 (Pb), 1.419 (Cu), 3.074 (Cd), and 3.567 (Hg), respectively. Moreover, the distribution of soil heavy metals showed strong variability(CV>65%)owing to human interference. The distribution of Pb and Cu pollution were predominantly influenced by industrial production and land development for construction purposes, whereas industrial activities, agricultural practices, and transportation served as the primary sources of Cd contamination. On the other hand, industrial construction emerged as the major factor contributing to Hg pollution. The average values of individual potential ecological risk index for heavy metals of 9.716 (Pb), 7.095 (Cu), 92.292 (Cd), and 142.469 (Hg), coupled with the regional comprehensive potential ecological risk index (RI) average of 251.573, signified that the region was overall characterized by a relatively high potential ecological risk status. The overall potential ecological risk for Pb and Cu in the region were mild, whereas Cd and Hg posed moderate to high risks, indicating that Cd and Hg were the dominant driving factors behind regional heavy metal pollution. The evaluation results of the information diffusion model based on the potential ecological risk indicated that the probability ranking of different levels of comprehensive potential ecological risk was as follows:slightly high (38.98%) > moderate (38.55%) > high (5.89%) > slight (5.15%) > extremely high (3.56%). The exceeding probabilities of potential ecological risk levels for Cd and Hg were significantly higher than those for Pb and Cu. The exceeding probability of different pollution levels of Hg were slight (94.89%), moderate (66.85%), slightly high (23.62%), high (3.9%), and extremely high (2%), of which only the surpassing probability of the slight level was lower than that of Cd. The prediction error of pollution probability of each potential ecological risk level was less than 5%, demonstrating the reliability of the information diffusion model based on the risk assessment. This research will provide technical reference and support for the monitoring and management of potential ecological risks from soil heavy metals in limited sample data regions.

A Study on the Make-up Trends using Unstructured Big Data: Focusing on Make-up Keyword Changes in the Last 10 Years

This study utilized Textom, optimized for big data analysis using unstructured data, to examine the changes in makeup trends over the past decade. It collected various texts from news, blogs, and cafe media on portal sites, spanning a total of ten years from January 2013 to December 2022. The research was conducted in five stages, each covering two years, to observe keyword trends. The results showed that makeup trends have continuously evolved through the integration and interaction with various fields such as digital technology, the beauty industry, art, and healthcare. Digital technology has created new forms and methods of makeup, and makeup has contributed to the utilization and development of digital technology. Additionally, the interaction between digital technology and makeup has enhanced their respective values and influenced consumers' makeup-related behaviors and preferences. This study analyzed the changes and developments in makeup trends over the last decade using unstructured big data, examining various factors and relationships related to makeup trends to predict future trends. This has academic and practical significance in product development and marketing in the beauty industry, consumers' access to makeup information and purchasing behavior, and makeup education and culture. However, such data can suffer from sample bias or lack representativeness, and there can be difficulties in accurately measuring makeup trend information. Therefore, future research should select a variety of platforms or channels, and analyze differences and changes in makeup trends according to users' demographic characteristics. Additionally, it is necessary to collect and analyze structured data on makeup trends to integrate with or complement unstructured data.

A New Method for Selective Extraction of Torularhodin from Red Yeast Using CO2-SFE Technique.

Torularhodin is a dark pink colored carotenoid belonging to the xanthophylls group that can be biologically synthesized by red yeasts, especially by Rhodotorula and Sporobolomyces genera. The growing interest in this molecule is due to its biological activities such as antioxidant, anticholesterolemic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anticancer. To satisfy potential commercial markets, numerous methods have been proposed to develop a cost-effective and environmentally friendly downstream process for the purification of torularhodin. However, obtaining high purity products without resorting to the use of toxic solvents, which can leave residues in the final preparations, remains a major challenge. In this context, the present study aimed to develop a new efficient method for the isolation of torularhodin from the red yeast Rhodotorula strain ELP2022 by applying the extraction technique with supercritical CO2 (CO2-SFE) in two sequential steps. In particular, in the first step, the dried lysed biomass of yeast was subjected to the action of CO2 in supercritical conditions (CO2SC) as sole solvent for extraction of apolar carotenoids. In the second step, the residual biomass was subjected to the action of CO2SC using ethanol as a polar co-solvent for the extraction of torularhodin. Both steps were carried out at different operating parameters of temperature (40 and 60 °C) and pressure (from 300 to 500 bar) with a constant CO2 flow of 6 L min-1. Regardless of the operating conditions used, this method allowed to obtain an orange-colored oily extract and a red-colored extract after the first and second step, respectively. In all trials, torularhodin represented no less than 95.2% ± 0.70 of the total carotenoids in the red extracts obtained from the second step. In particular, the best results were obtained by performing both steps at 40 °C and 300 bar, and the maximum percentage of torularhodin achieved was 97.9% ± 0.88. Since there are no data on the selective recovery of torularhodin from red yeast using the SFE technique, this study may be a good starting point to optimize and support the development of industrial production of torularhodin by microbial synthesis. This new method can significantly reduce the environmental impact of torularhodin recovery and can be considered an innovation for which an Italian patent application has been filed. In a circular bioeconomy approach, this method will be validated up to a pilot scale, culturing the strain Rhodotorula spp. ELP2022 on low-cost media derived from agri-food wastes.

Microproteomic-Based Analysis of the Goat Milk Protein Synthesis Network and Casein Production Evaluation.

Goat milk has been consumed by humans since ancient times and is highly nutritious. Its quality is mainly determined by its casein content. Milk protein synthesis is controlled by a complex network with many signal pathways. Therefore, the aim of our study is to clearly depict the signal pathways involved in milk protein synthesis in goat mammary epithelial cells (GMECs) using state-of-the-art microproteomic techniques and to identify the key genes involved in the signal pathway. The microproteomic analysis identified more than 2253 proteins, with 323 pathways annotated from the identified proteins. Knockdown of IRS1 expression significantly influenced goat casein composition (α, β, and κ); therefore, this study also examined the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) gene more closely. A total of 12 differential expression proteins (DEPs) were characterized as upregulated or downregulated in the IRS1-silenced sample compared to the negative control. The enrichment and signal pathways of these DEPs in GMECs were identified using GO annotation and KEGG, as well as KOG analysis. Our findings expand our understanding of the functional genes involved in milk protein synthesis in goats, paving the way for new approaches for modifying casein content for the dairy goat industry and milk product development.

Reassessment of industrial eco-efficiency in China under the sustainable development goals: A meta two-stage parallel entropy dynamic DDF-DEA model

As the path of industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) needs to be re-examined from a multi-dimensional perspective, this research opens the internal “black box” of China's industrial eco-economic system driven by sustainable development goals (SDGs) and decomposes IEE into industrial production and sustainable development stages. It further divides the industrial production stage into two parallel subsystems of water use efficiency (WUE) and energy efficiency (EE) and derives SDG6 efficiency (SDG6E) and SDG7 efficiency (SDG7E) in the sustainable development stage respectively. The paper proposes a meta two-stage parallel entropy dynamic DDF-DEA model to re-measure IEE of 30 provinces in China from 2015 to 2021, discusses the relationship between overall efficiency and stage efficiency, and by using the Tobit model explores various types of influencing factors by subregion. The results show that the modified DDF-DEA model can explore China's IEE more accurately under SDGs. China's IEE is more stable from 2015 to 2021, with the efficiency value always fluctuating between 0.59 and 0.64, the overall level is low, and there is more room for improvement. There are significant inter-provincial differences in IEE and efficiency inertia. In more than 75% of the provinces SDG7E constrains IEE improvement, while the dynamic evolution of IEE and its subsystem efficiency varies across regions. Environmental regulation is a common factor affecting IEE across the country and in the east, central, and west regions, whereas the level of economic development, openness to the outside world, and urbanization rate are differential factors affecting IEE across the country and in the three major regions. This study offers new perspectives for exploring the path of IEE enhancement and providing empirical references for the collaborative construction of industrial ecological civilization.