58 results about "Pig skin" patented technology

The invention relates to the technical field of collagen, in particular to a pig collagen chemical decellularization method based on a supercritical fluid technology, which comprises the following steps: taking fresh pigskin collagen, cleaning, cutting, and carrying out physical pretreatment; putting the pretreated collagen into a supercritical reaction kettle, introducing supercritical fluid, controlling the pressure to be 30-42 MPa and the temperature to be 40-50 DEG C, and maintaining for 10-20 minutes to establish a supercritical environment; injecting a mixed reagent containing ethanol, protease and a chelating agent into the supercritical reaction kettle, and stirring for 1.0-2.0 hours; after the treatment is finished, reducing the pressure of the reaction kettle in a stepped manner at the rate of 0.5-1MPa / min, introducing supercritical fluid or a mixed fluid of the supercritical fluid and ethanol for replacement during the period, and finally reducing the pressure to normal pressure; and taking out the collagen, carrying out enzymolysis treatment, and washing with a sterile solution to obtain the collagen. And the DNA residual quantity is greatly reduced through supercritical multiphase fluid cooperation and a nano-enzyme directional delivery technology.

The invention relates to the technical field of livestock meat cutting pretreatment, in particular to an efficient livestock meat cutting pretreatment device. Comprising a rack, conveying belts are fixedly arranged on the opposite inner walls of the rack, and a mounting frame is mounted at the top of the rack. According to the device, through an output motor, a threaded rod and an adjusting electric push rod, an extrusion plate can conveniently move and descend, then the edge positions of pork with different sizes are flattened, and then through a movable electric push rod, a trapezoidal block, a limiting plate, a T-shaped plate and an L-shaped limiting block, a pulling plate can firstly apply pressure and then pull pigskin to be straightened; at the moment, a driving motor and a first reciprocating screw rod enable a shifting plate to move continuously, the shifting plate moves continuously to shift the pig legs, and then the armpit positions are exposed, so that pigskin wrinkles and impurities at the armpit hidden parts of the pig legs are effectively cleaned, and the situation that follow-up cutting is affected due to impurity residues is avoided.

This invention discloses a cleaning process for processing collagen casings, employing a cleaning device to clean livestock hides (cow or pig hides). The cleaning device is equipped with an upper rubbing plate with spray nozzles and rubbing strips on its bottom surface, and a lower rubbing plate with spray nozzles and rubbing strips on its top surface. The livestock hide is stretched flat between the upper and lower rubbing plates. Cleaning solution is sprayed onto the livestock hide through the spray nozzles on the bottom and top surfaces of the upper and lower rubbing plates. During the spraying process, the livestock hide is rubbed by the rubbing strips on the bottom and top surfaces of the upper and lower rubbing plates. This invention effectively cleans livestock hides and rubs them during cleaning, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of cleaning and thus enhancing the quality of collagen casings.

The present invention discloses a protein paste and a preparation method thereof, and relates to the technical field of food processing, and the protein paste comprises the following raw materials in parts by mass: 600-800 parts of chicken breast meat, 50-150 parts of carrots, 50-150 parts of shiitake mushrooms, 30-80 parts of whey protein isolate powder, 30-80 parts of ginger, 10-60 parts of sesame oil, 400-700 parts of purified water, 10-40 parts of lemon juice, 100-250 parts of canned yellow peaches, 100-300 parts of pigskin jelly, and 1.5-4.5 parts of protease. According to the preparation method of the protein paste, the protein absorption rate is increased through the enzymolysis technology, nutrition enhancement and flavor improvement are achieved by scientifically proportioning multiple food materials, and finally the healthy protein paste finished product which is high in protein, low in fat, fine and smooth in taste and natural in flavor is prepared.

The utility model is applicable to the technical field of food processing and discloses a pigskin grease positioning, cutting and separating device which is characterized in that a lifting plate is slidably mounted at the top of the inner side of a supporting frame, the bottom of a transmission shaft of a first electric push rod is fixedly connected with the top of the lifting plate, and a separating blade is obliquely mounted on the bottom surface of the lifting plate; an exhaust mechanism is arranged at the bottom of the fixing plate, second electric push rods are vertically and fixedly installed on the two sides of the top of the fixing plate, a fixing frame is fixedly installed on the side, away from the supporting frame, of the top of the bearing table, a rotating frame is hinged to the top of the fixing frame through a rotating shaft, and abutting mechanisms are arranged in the fixing frame and the rotating frame. According to the technical scheme, grease impurities adhered to the edge of the bottom of the blade can be blown and cleaned, so that potential safety hazards caused by manual cleaning of an operator are reduced, the cleaning efficiency of the blade is improved, and the follow-up separation and cutting efficiency of pigskin grease is improved at the same time.

The invention provides a processing method of juice-exploded meat sausages, which comprises the following steps: mixing and stirring pig hind leg meat, edible salt, phosphate and white granulated sugar to obtain a first material; chopping and mixing pig hind leg meat, fat, pigskin gelatin, edible salt, solid compound seasoning, white granulated sugar, glutamine transaminase and ice water to obtain a second material; mixing the frozen spine fat particles and the pigskin gelatin particles to obtain a third material; stirring and mixing the No.1 material, the No.2 material and the No.3 material to obtain stuffing; and filling the stuffing into a hog casing, baking, and quickly freezing to obtain the juice-exploded sausage. The pigskin is subjected to special treatment to form the pigskin gelatin, so that the water-retaining property of the pigskin is 3 times that of the pigskin, and the addition of the pigskin gelatin enhances the juice feeling and the juice explosion feeling of the product. According to the present invention, the pork sausages are not greasy, the pigskin replaces the fat in the roast sausages, the fat content is reduced by more than 50%, the product is not greasy, the juice-exploded pork sausages have characteristics of sufficient juice, strong juice-exploding feeling, slight greasy feeling and good taste, and the pigskin contains high nutritional components and has low fat content.

The invention belongs to the technical field of nutritious food, and particularly relates to a micromolecular donkey-hide gelatin protein polymer which comprises the following components in parts by weight: 40-50 parts of donkey skin, 15-20 parts of deer skin, 10-15 parts of cow leather, 8-12 parts of pigskin, 3-5 parts of sea cucumber, 3-5 parts of fresh oyster, 2-4 parts of snail, 2-4 parts of golden cicada, 5-8 parts of red rock sugar, 4-6 parts of red date and 1-2 parts of fresh ginger. The preparation method comprises the following steps: soaking, cleaning and slicing the raw materials, pre-cooking to remove fishy smell, performing composite enzymolysis, enzyme inactivation and filtration, concentrating and polymerizing, and finally drying and forming. The protein polymer which is appropriate in molecular weight, easy to absorb and comprehensive in nourishing effect is obtained through compatibility of the composite leather raw materials and a precise enzymolysis process, and the absorption efficiency and the comprehensive nourishing effect are improved.

The utility model discloses a pig skin cutting device for an in-vitro transdermal test, and aims to provide equipment capable of accurately cutting pig skins with different sizes so as to meet the requirements of the in-vitro transdermal test. The device is composed of a motor, a cutter assembly, a stand column, a flat plate, a fixing device and a control unit (containing a battery). Operation convenience is achieved through the labor-saving rebounding device on the stand column, and cutting accuracy and skin stability are ensured through the replaceable cutter assembly and the fixing device. In addition, due to the detachable design of the battery, the device is more portable and suitable for being used in different laboratory environments. According to the overall design, labor-saving performance of operation, cutting accuracy and portability of the device are considered, and the pig skin cutting device is suitable for pig skin cutting in an in-vitro transdermal test.

The invention discloses a pigskin pickling method and pickled pigskin, the pigskin is degreased and diced to obtain pretreated pigskin; and adding the pretreated pigskin into a pickling solution with the salt concentration of 2-6%, and performing pickling treatment to obtain the pickled pigskin. The obtained pickled pigskin collagenous fiber is of a regular three-dimensional network structure, no obvious denaturation aggregation exists, compared with traditional high-salt pickling, the product salt content is lower, the salt diffusion efficiency is higher, complex equipment is not needed, operation is easy to control, and the method is suitable for industrial popularization.

1. Name of the product in this design: Scraper (Pigskin Oil Scraper). 2. Purpose of this design: for cutting and scraping. 3. The key design feature of this product is its shape. 4. The image or photograph that best illustrates the design's key points: a 3D model.

The invention provides a preparation method of SPF (specific pathogen free) pigskin extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogel. The preparation method comprises the following steps: S1, collecting SPF pigskin and pretreating; s2, the pretreated SPF pigskin is subjected to degreasing treatment; s3, sterilizing and disinfecting the freeze-dried powder, and then carrying out enzymolysis; s4, adjusting the pH and osmotic pressure of supernate after enzymolysis to obtain a hydrogel product. The source of the hydrogel product does not contain non-biological source materials at all, establishment of a three-dimensional cell culture environment and growth of cultured cells, especially organoids are facilitated, and meanwhile the problems of tumor sources, batch differences, high cost, potential safety hazards and the like of existing hydrogel products such as Matrigel and the like are solved. Experimental results show that the pigskin ECM hydrogel with different concentrations and from different ages can support the growth of intestinal organs, and the number of the organs cultured by the SPF pigskin ECM hydrogel with the concentration of 3 mg / mL is even more than that of Matrigel.

The invention discloses pigskin-derived recombinant lipid nanoparticles as well as a composite wound dressing and application of the pigskin-derived recombinant lipid nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are prepared by taking pigskin extracted lipid as a raw material and adopting an ethanol injection method, are rich in triglyceride and phosphatidylcholine, and have the biological activity of promoting fibroblast proliferation and migration. Furthermore, the active nano-particles are loaded in calcium ion cross-linked sodium alginate hydrogel to prepare the composite hydrogel dressing, and the dressing has injectability and shear thinning characteristics and can continuously release the active nano-particles. In-vitro experiments prove that the biocompatibility is good; animal experiments show that the traditional Chinese medicine composition can remarkably accelerate full-thickness skin defect healing and promote epidermis regeneration, ordered collagen deposition and angiogenesis. According to the invention, high-valued utilization of meat byproducts is realized, and a safe and efficient novel active dressing is provided for chronic wound treatment.

The utility model relates to the technical field of food material processing equipment, in particular to a pigskin shredding knife. Comprising two oppositely-arranged tool aprons, a first roller body and a second roller body, the first roller body and the second roller body are arranged between the two tool aprons in a relatively rotating mode, the first roller body and the second roller body are each provided with a plurality of evenly-arranged tool bit protrusions, and a gap is formed between every two adjacent tool bit protrusions. The cutter strand protrusions on the first roller body and the second roller body are arranged in a staggered mode and meshed with each other, cutters are arranged on the cutter strand protrusions and used for cutting off shredded pigskin, and adjusting mechanisms are arranged on the side faces of the two cutter holders and used for adjusting the distance between the first roller body and the second roller body. Pigskin is cut into strips through the mutually meshed cutter strand protrusions on the first roller body and the second roller body, then the strip-shaped pigskin strips are cut into sections through the cutters on the cutter strand protrusions, the specifications of the cut pigskin strips are consistent, and the production efficiency is high.

This invention belongs to the field of functional marine food processing technology, specifically involving a method for producing a composite sausage made from Antarctic krill, tuna, and collagen, comprising the following steps: (1) preparation of Antarctic krill meat, (2) preparation of tuna blood-infused meat, (3) preparation of low-temperature raw pork skin collagen paste, (4) preparation of krill-derived composite enzyme solution, (5) mixing of meat materials and low-temperature enzymatic hydrolysis, (6) low-temperature chopping, (7) sausage filling and quick-freezing, and (8) thawing and maturation of the product. This invention uses Antarctic krill meat, tuna blood-infused meat, and low-temperature raw pork skin collagen paste as core raw materials, and utilizes krill endogenous composite enzymes for low-temperature enzymatic hydrolysis to produce a composite sausage with uric acid-lowering function, high protein content, and high unsaturated fatty acid content, providing a safe, convenient, and daily-consumable functional marine food for people with hyperuricemia.

The present application relates to a kind of wear-resistant heat-sensitive color development protective layer and its preparation method and application, belong to the technical field of slurry or paper pulp composition.The wear-resistant heat-sensitive color development protective layer of the present application includes mutually adhered mixed gelatin layer and pigskin gelatin layer;The mixed gelatin layer includes fish skin gelatin, pigskin gelatin and glycerol, and the pigskin gelatin layer includes pigskin gelatin and glycerol.The wear-resistant heat-sensitive color development protective layer not only has excellent wear resistance, but also has high adhesion, can be firmly attached to the surface of heat-sensitive paper, thereby significantly improving its anti-friction performance.

The application relates to the technical field of collagen, in particular to a pig collagen chemical decellularization method based on supercritical fluid technology, which comprises the following steps: taking fresh pig skin collagen, performing physical pretreatment after washing and cutting; placing the pretreated collagen in a supercritical reaction kettle, introducing supercritical fluid, controlling the pressure to be 30-42 MPa and the temperature to be 40-50 DEG C, maintaining the supercritical environment for 10-20 minutes; injecting a mixed reagent containing ethanol, protease and chelating agent into the supercritical reaction kettle, stirring for 1.0-2.0 hours; after the treatment is completed, the pressure of the reaction kettle is reduced in steps at a rate of 0.5-1 MPa / min, and supercritical fluid or mixed fluid of supercritical fluid and ethanol is introduced during the replacement, and finally the pressure is reduced to normal pressure; the collagen is taken out, subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis treatment, washed with a sterile solution, and the pig collagen is obtained. Through the supercritical multiphase fluid cooperation and nano-enzyme directional delivery technology, the DNA residual amount is greatly reduced.

The application discloses a kind of pigskin processing pork skin cutting device, including mounting plate, operating table is provided on mounting plate, the top surface of operating table is provided with two lead screws, multiple partitions are provided between the two lead screws, every two partitions are a group, first connecting frame is provided between the two lead screws, the both ends of first connecting frame are connected on the two lead screws, first movable slot is provided on each partition, first connecting frame is provided with the first guide block consistent with the number of partition on first connecting frame, first guide block is located in first movable slot, first connecting frame moves along the setting direction of first movable slot with the rotation of lead screw, and first blade is provided between the two partitions of each group, first blade is installed on first connecting frame and moves with first connecting frame;Operating table is provided with air passage at the position between the two partitions of each group, air passage is connected with air guide member arranged in the interior of operating table by suction column, and air inlet for connecting air pump is arranged on air guide member.

The invention discloses low-immunogenicity, high-purity and high-bioactivity collagen as well as a preparation method and application thereof, and belongs to the technical field of medical material preparation. According to the preparation method disclosed by the invention, transgenic pigskin is taken as a raw material, enzymolysis is carried out under monitoring of an intelligent system, and collagen with low immunogenicity, high purity and high biological activity is prepared by combining salting-out with an isoelectric point separation technology and a multi-stage purification technology. And low immunogenicity, high purity and high biological activity of the collagen can be realized while the complete triple-helix structure of the collagen is ensured. The prepared collagen can be applied to the fields of medical treatment and medical beauty.

The invention discloses a processing method for improving quality stability of preserved meat and a preserved meat product, the processing method comprises the steps of raw material pretreatment, pickling treatment, variable-temperature baking and post-treatment, the variable-temperature baking comprises a preheating fermentation stage, a cooling, water locking and color changing stage, a color developing and shrinking stage and a low-temperature drying and shaping stage; the skin-meat separation rate of the preserved meat is reduced from 25-30% of the traditional constant-temperature process to 1% or below, and the product qualification rate is increased by 25% or above. According to the invention, the problem of skin and meat separation is effectively solved: through a staged temperature-variable humidity-variable baking process, the shrinkage rates of all components (pigskin, fat meat and lean meat) of meat strips tend to be synchronous, and skin and meat separation caused by stress difference is remarkably reduced. The nutritional quality and the safety are improved. The adding time of the chilies is adjusted to be after pickling and before baking, volatile aroma substances of the chilies are effectively reserved, and the flavor of the chilies is more harmonious and stable.

The utility model relates to the technical field of meat fermentation, in particular to a pigskin processing device for pork processing, which comprises a singeing furnace, a guide rail is arranged above the singeing furnace, a traction block is slidably connected to the periphery of the guide rail, a connecting rod is fixedly connected to the bottom of the traction block, and a mounting block is arranged at the bottom of the connecting rod. A rotating assembly is arranged at the joint of the connecting rod and the mounting block, a hook is arranged below the mounting block, and a mounting assembly is arranged at the joint of the hook and the mounting block. According to the device, live pigs can be driven to rotate in the hair removal process, so that the live pigs can be in uniform contact with flames, the hair removal effect is further ensured, the hook can be quickly mounted and dismounted, and the cleaning is more convenient.

The present application belongs to the technical field of grading detection of pig cut meat, and discloses a kind of intelligent grading method of pig middle side meat based on deep learning. First, a ruler is designed; the improved UNet model is used to segment the middle side meat image, the triangular meat and pigskin area are extracted, the intersection point of the triangular meat tip point and its normal direction and the upper edge of pigskin is located, the pixel distance between the two points is calculated and converted to actual distance through the ruler scale, and the fat thickness measurement value is obtained; according to the threshold value set by the standard and enterprise measured data of NY / T 3380-2018 pork grading, the fat thickness grading standard is established; at the same time, 24 color block detection and color correction are carried out on the image, the muscle area is segmented and converted to Lab color space to extract the chroma value, the chroma threshold value is set according to the standard of NY / T 821-2019 pork quality grading, and the meat color grade is divided; finally, the fat thickness grade and muscle chroma grade are weighted and fused according to the weight coefficient, a double-index comprehensive grading model is constructed, and the intelligent and objective grading of middle side meat is realized.

This invention provides a method for preparing a rich broth for pig's trotters, belonging to the field of food processing technology. The method includes: simmering pig bones, pig skin, and water to prepare a high-colloidal braising broth; adding compound spices, soaking, and frying with lard to make an oil-based braising liquid; seasoning and allowing it to settle to obtain an initial stock; subjecting the pre-treated pig's trotters to initial braising and simmering to obtain a circulating rich broth; during the circulating braising process, the amount of spices is halved and the amount of seasonings is reduced by 50%–75%; the circulating rich broth is combined with water to prepare the circulating braising liquid, and this continuous cycle yields a stable rich broth and finished pig's trotters. This invention enhances aroma release and retention through lard frying; the high-colloidal broth stabilizes salinity and flavor; after 10–20 cycles, it reaches its peak flavor; the resulting pig's trotters are bright red, soft, oily, and evenly flavored; exhibit strong batch stability; significantly reduce auxiliary material consumption; and are suitable for continuous industrial production.

The invention provides an SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) molecular marker related to the skin thickness of a deep county pig and application of the SNP molecular marker, and belongs to the technical field of molecular markers. The invention discloses an SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) molecular marker related to the skin thickness of a deep county pig, the SNP molecular marker is located at the 35543837th basic group of a TAF11 gene sequence of the deep county pig, and Cgt exists; and when the genotype is GC, the skin thickness of the deep county pig is higher than that of the genotype CC. The method comprises the following steps: systematically measuring the skin thickness and collagen content of a plurality of key parts of the deep county pig, and drawing a character distribution map of the deep county pig; meanwhile, key genes closely related to skin thickness and functional mononucleotide polymorphic sites of the key genes are screened and verified, and a set of technical scheme combining accurate phenotype data and effective molecular markers is provided, so that rapid breeding of the deep county pigs and accurate utilization of pigskin resources are supported.

The utility model relates to live pig slaughtering and shaving technical field, concretely is a kind of live pig slaughtering and shaving flushing mechanism, including cleaning tank, the inside fixed setting of cleaning tank has booster mechanism, the booster mechanism includes barrier, the inside fixed setting of cleaning tank has barrier, the inside movable setting of barrier has screw thread cover, the inside bottom end fixed setting of cleaning tank has electromagnetic push device, the top end fixed setting of electromagnetic push device has assembly block, the outside fixed setting of assembly block has rubber piston.The utility model by pouring clean water into cleaning tank, screw thread cover knob enters barrier, start electromagnetic push device, assembly block and rubber plug are pushed upwards, clean water will be sprayed from the water jet head on hot water pipe, can increase the internal water pressure, to clean the hair on the surface of pigskin after giving pig shaving, the increase of water pressure can wash the stubborn pig hair on the epidermis, improves the cleaning effect.

The invention relates to an in-vitro transdermal test method of a ketoprofen gel patch, which specifically comprises the following steps: (1) removing an anti-sticking film on the ketoprofen gel patch, sticking the ketoprofen gel patch on the surface of pigskin, and carrying out a transdermal test in a Franz diffusion cell; (2) adding the pigskin subjected to the transdermal test into a potassium hydroxide solution, soaking at the temperature of 45-85 DEG C, homogenizing under the condition of 5000-7000 rpm after soaking, adding methanol into the obtained suspension for diluting, centrifuging, taking the supernate for filtering, and taking the subsequent filtrate as a test solution for the intradermal retention transdermal test; and (3) determining the intradermal retention volume of the test solution or calculating the material balance by adopting a high performance liquid chromatography method. By adopting the method to treat the pigskin, the pigskin is easy to smash in the homogenate treatment process, the main component ketoprofen is easy to extract, and the retention volume in the skin can be accurately measured.

The present application relates to the technical field of hydrogel materials, in particular to a ferulic acid-mediated high-adhesion hydrogel composition, a hydrogel and a preparation method and application thereof.The ferulic acid-mediated high-adhesion hydrogel provided by the present application not only has good mechanical properties, but also has excellent adhesion and sensing properties.In detail, the maximum tensile strength of the ferulic acid-mediated high-adhesion hydrogel is 149.7 kPa, and the tensile strain is 460% at this time.The adhesion effect on various material surfaces is good, and the adhesion strengths on pig skin, glass and wood pieces are 153.9 kPa, 233.4 kPa and 313.2 kPa respectively.The gel still maintains stable electrical signals after 150 times of tensile cycles under 50% strain conditions as a strain sensor, which indicates that the sensing performance has stability and repeatability.Therefore, the ferulic acid-mediated high-adhesion hydrogel provided by the present application is applied in the field of wearable electronic devices.

The invention relates to the field of low-immunogenicity medical collagen. A preparation method of the low-immunogenicity collagen comprises the following steps: raw material pretreatment, enzyme treatment, inactivation treatment, separation and purification, and drying. The raw material is one of fresh pigskin, cow leather and bovine achilles tendon; the inactivation treatment refers to treatment with the pH value being 7 or below; the drying is low-temperature drying. The collagen provided by the invention has high purity which is greater than 99%, and has low immunogenicity.

1. Name of the Design Product: Packaging Bag (Pickled Pork Skin). 2. Use of the Design Product: For food packaging bags. 3. Design Key Points of the Design Product: The combination of shape, pattern and color. 4. Picture or Photograph Most Indicating the Design Key Points: Front View. 5. The claimed design includes color. 6. This design product is a thin product, and the top view, bottom view, left view and right view are omitted.

The present application relates to the field of image data processing technology, and in particular to an intelligent detection method for pig hair removal. The method comprises: determining the first eigenvalue of a target pixel point in a grayscale image of the outer surface of a pig skin that has been subjected to hair removal treatment; determining the second eigenvalue of the target pixel point, and taking the product of the first eigenvalue and the second eigenvalue as the third eigenvalue; determining a target line starting from the target pixel point in the grayscale image, and obtaining a consistency value between the pixel area of ​​the target line and the area of ​​the minimum circumscribed rectangle; determining the probability value of the target pixel point belonging to residual pig hair based on the product of the third eigenvalue and the consistency value; clustering the pixel points in the grayscale image based on the probability value of the pixel point and the color characteristics of the pixel point in the visible light image of the outer surface of the pig skin to obtain a detection result for residual pig hair. Through the above technical solution, it is possible to accurately determine whether there is residual pig hair on the surface of the pig after hair removal treatment.

The utility model discloses a pork cleaning device for a pork processing factory, which comprises a working table, a protective box is arranged at the top end of the working table, one end of the protective box is fixedly connected with a mounting plate, a drying box is arranged at the top end of the protective box, a drying mechanism is arranged on the drying box, a cleaning mechanism is arranged below the working table, and the cleaning mechanism is arranged below the working table. And a brushing mechanism is mounted in the protection box, and a rotating mechanism is arranged below the mounting plate. According to the pork cleaning device for the pork processing factory, the roller brush is driven to rotate efficiently through precise meshing transmission of the worm and the worm wheel. By means of the design, the stability and durability of the scrubbing action are guaranteed, more importantly, the roller brush can be tightly attached to the surface of pork, especially the pigskin part difficult to clean, deep scrubbing is carried out, and compared with a traditional single flushing mode, the physical scrubbing can more effectively remove stains, bloodstains and impurities, and the cleaning effect is remarkably improved.