This study investigates whether mother's exposure to the artificial sweetener acesulfame-K (AK) during pregnancy or lactation affected her adult offspring's sweet preference. It was found that mother's dietary exposure to AK in pregnancy or lactation decreased the preference thresholds for AK and sucrose solutions in the adult offspring, whereas the preference pattern and the most preferred concentration for AK or sucrose solution were unchanged. Furthermore, the preference scores in the exposure groups were increased significantly when compared with the control group at a range of concentrations for AK or sucrose solution. The existence of AK and its dynamic changes within 24 h in amniotic fluid during pregnancy or in mother's milk during lactation after a single oral infusion of AK solution were revealed by the methods of reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Our data suggest that AK can be ingested by the prenatal or postnatal mice through their mother's amniotic fluid or breast milk, producing a long-dated function on the adult's sweet preference.

Recently, Pt-Y alloy has displayed an excellent electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and is regarded as a promising cathode catalyst for fuel cells. However, the bulk production of nanoscaled Pt-Y alloy with outstanding catalytic performance remains a great challenge. Here, we address the challenge through a simple dealloying method to synthesize nanoporous Pt-Y alloy (NP-PtY) with a typical ligament size of ~5 nm. By combining the intrinsic superior electrocatalytic activity of Pt-Y alloy with the special nanoporous structure, the NP-PtY bimetallic catalyst presents higher activity for ORR and ethanol oxidation reaction, and better electrocatalytic stability than the commercial Pt/C catalyst and nanoporous Pt alloy. The as-made NP-PtY holds great application potential as a promising electrocatalyst in proton exchange membrane fuel cells due to the advantages of facile preparation and excellent catalytic performance.

Our study confirms the existence of four SNPs among Han Chinese. In addition, the association of one SNP haplotype with HT suggests that Tg may be an AITD susceptibility gene.

Culture may influence sensory perception and behavior. Earlier we have shown that circular shapes and semantic familiar words enhance sweetness sensitivity with the Chinese volunteers. Do these effects also affect people from other cultural background? How does culture actually affect cross‐modal sensory perception? Here, we performed similar experiments with the Indian volunteers and compared the effects of vision on taste between the two groups. The results show that similar as the Chinese group, the circular shapes and semantic familiar words enhance sweetness sensitivities of the Indian volunteers as well, although their average sweetness threshold is higher than that of the Chinese group. Practical applications These invariant effects may be explained by the hypothesis that the role of culture is associated with the previous experience that breeds familiarity of the stimulus in the subjects. It might be due to a combination of higher degrees of the hedonics and familiarity of the visual stimulus (circular shapes and semantic familiar words), that manifest in the subjects of both cultures, as enhanced sweetness sensitivities. This work may lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior across cultures, and may have benefits in consumer research to design internationally competitive labelling or packaging of the food and gain advantage in the FMCG‐market. It can help to resolve the ongoing controversy centered around cultural influence on the cross‐modal sensory perception (vision‐taste) in neurosciences.

No abstract