The worldwide prevalence of diabetes mellitus has increased substantially in recent years, posing a serious global public health challenge. Hydrocolloids are functional ingredients that increase the viscosity of gastrointestinal contents, which has been shown to reduce the absorption of digestible carbohydrates. In this study, delaying starch hydrolysis using low methoxyl pectin (LMP) and sodium alginate (SA) gels, mediated by calcium ions, were investigated to develop an ingredient of starch and SA-LMP composite (SC). LMP, SA and the combination were added to wheat flour (WF) to develop SCs with different compositions: 0% LMP & SA (Control), 2% LMP (Trial 1), 1% LMP & SA (Trial 2) and 3% SA (Trial 3). The SC physicochemical properties, such as proximate composition, color, pasting and rheological properties were evaluated. Incorporation of LMP and SA gels reduced the WF pasting profiles due to reduction of starch gelatinization. The addition of LMP and SA enhanced cross-link formation, resulting in higher composite gel strength and increased noodle hardness. The in vitro behavior of wheat noodles was influenced by the specific SC type. Trial 2 noodles showed the lowest reduction in glucose release as combination of LMP and SA gels formed thick wall gel networks, thus limited the enzyme accessibility to starch. Overall, the results showed that modulating glucose release from noodles using SA and LMP gels is a useful technique to reduce starch digestibility, thus lower the glycaemic index of wheat noodles.
In current network environments, extensive interconnection between devices greatly accelerates the spread of computer viruses, malicious programs and various cyber threats along connection links, posing serious hidden dangers to daily network operation and data safety. Most existing defense methods adopt a fixed static protection mode, which cannot adjust measures according to the real-time spread of network attacks. Meanwhile, they fail to consider that the importance of each node will constantly change over time, making it difficult to accurately block major transmission channels of invasion. Combined with complex network characteristics and the classic SIR propagation model, this study constructs a new targeted protection method with adaptive adjustment ability. Different from traditional fixed node immunization, this solution regularly reassesses node significance and flexibly update protection objects in the whole defense cycle. This paper selects ER random network, WS small-world network and BA scale-free network to carry out simulation tests, and sets no defense, static random protection and static targeted protection as contrast groups. With peak infection proportion and final infection scale as evaluation standards, the experimental data shows that the adaptive protection method achieves better blocking effects in all three network structures. The optimization effect is most obvious in BA scale-free network: compared with static targeted defense, the maximum infection proportion drops by 52.0%, and the final stable infection rate decreases by 45.6%. The research findings can offer practical references for dynamic security defense and risk control in large-scale actual network environments.
O trabalho objetiva analisar as inundações de maio de 2024 em Porto Alegre como um evento crítico para a governança do risco climático, da segurança alimentar e da coordenação de políticas públicas no âmbito regional do MERCOSUL. Para este estudo, foi adotada uma abordagem qualitativa, de caráter analítico e interdisciplinar, combinando estudo de caso, análise documental e referencial teórico da geografia crítica, da economia política internacional e da sociologia global. Nesse sentido, a originalidade reside na articulação entre gestão de riscos climáticos, mobilidade humana e segurança alimentar a partir de uma perspectiva multiescalar, conectando o nível local ao regional sul-americano. Os resultados indicam fragilidades institucionais e logísticas que amplificaram os impactos das inundações, especialmente sobre cadeias agroalimentares, infraestrutura urbana e populações vulneráveis. O estudo propõe uma agenda integrada de políticas públicas organizada em eixos estratégicos. O trabalho contribui ao integrar os conceitos de território, poder estrutural e mecanismos de vinculação para analisar respostas estatais a eventos climáticos extremos, oferecendo um modelo analítico replicável no MERCOSUL. Por fim, o texto pode oferecer subsídios para gestores públicos e privados de Supply Chain na formulação de estratégias de contingência e cooperação regional.
The evolution of financial technology has been marked by successive waves of innovation, from rule-based systems to the widespread adoption of machine learning methods, including deep learning approaches, which have delivered remarkable performance in a range of financial tasks. Recently, the emergence of generative AI (GenAI) has marked a new era in financial evolution, fundamentally reshaping the industry by enabling the creation of data, content, and solutions. Unlike conventional discriminative AI models that primarily focus on prediction and classification, generative models—such as Variational Autoencoders, Generative Adversarial Networks, Normalizing Flow, Diffusion Models, and Large Language Models—offer broader capabilities, enhanced user interaction, and improved interpretability. These advances are driving a new wave of innovative applications across diverse financial domains. Despite the growing literature on GenAI, there remains a lack of comprehensive surveys dedicated to its applications and sectoral impact in finance. This paper systematically reviews the deployment of GenAI techniques across key financial sectors. In particular, we highlight representative applications in securities, investment, banking, accounting, and regulatory compliance, illustrating how GenAI is transforming financial services and operations. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges associated with integrating GenAI into financial applications. This work aspires to be a reference for researchers and practitioners navigating the new era of generative AI in finance.
