Effects of flavonoids on sphingolipid turnover in the toxin-damaged liver and liver cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ceramide generation is an early event in the apoptotic response to numerous stimuli including the oxidative stress and ceramide analogs mimic the stress effect and induce apoptosis. Flavonoids of German chamomile are reported to exhibit the hepatoprotective effect. Flavonoids affect sphingolipid metabolism and reduce the elevated ceramide level in the aged liver. In the present paper, the ceramide content and production in the CCl₄- and ethanol-treated liver and hepatocytes as well as the correction of sphingolipid metabolism in the damaged liver using the mixture of German chamomile flavonoids (chamiloflan) or apigenin-7-glucoside (AP7Glu) have been investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The experiments were performed in either the rat liver or hepatocytes of normal, CCl₄- and ethanol-treated or flavonoid- and toxin plus flavonoid-treated animals. [¹⁴C]palmitic acid and [methyl-¹⁴C-phosphorylcholine]sphingomyelin were used to investigate the sphingolipid turnover. Addition of the CCl₄or ethanol to isolated hepatocyte suspensions caused loss of cell viability and increased the lactate dehydrogenase release from the cells into supernatant and ceramide level in the cells. CCl₄administration to the rats enlarged ceramide mass as well as neutral sphingomyelinase (SMase) activity and reduced ceramide degradation by the neutral ceramidase. Pretreatment of isolated hepatocytes with flavonoids abrogated the CCl₄effects on the cell membrane integrity and normalized the ceramide content. Flavonoid administration to the rats normalized the elevated ceramide content in the damaged liver via neutral SMase inhibition and ceramidase activation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The data obtained have demonstrated that flavonoids affect sphingolipid metabolism in the CCl₄- and ethanol-damaged liver and liver cells. Flavonoids normalized activities of key enzymes of sphingolipid turnover (neutral SMase and ceramidase) and ceramide contents in the damaged liver and liver cells, and stabilized the hepatocyte membranes.</p

Cross-dimensional Weighting for Aggregated Deep Convolutional Features

We propose a simple and straightforward way of creating powerful image representations via cross-dimensional weighting and aggregation of deep convolutional neural network layer outputs. We first present a generalized framework that encompasses a broad family of approaches and includes cross-dimensional pooling and weighting steps. We then propose specific non-parametric schemes for both spatial- and channel-wise weighting that boost the effect of highly active spatial responses and at the same time regulate burstiness effects. We experiment on different public datasets for image search and show that our approach outperforms the current state-of-the-art for approaches based on pre-trained networks. We also provide an easy-to-use, open source implementation that reproduces our results.Comment: Accepted for publications at the 4th Workshop on Web-scale Vision and Social Media (VSM), ECCV 201

One-sided approximation in L of the characteristic function of an interval by trigonometric polynomials

The value of the best one-sided integral approximation of the characteristic function of the interval (-h, h) by trigonometric polynomials of given degree is found for any 0 < h ≤ π. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd

Special Moduli of Continuity and the Constant in the Jackson-Stechkin Theorem

We consider a special 2k-order modulus of continuity W 2k(f,h) of 2π-periodic continuous functions and prove an analog of the Bernstein-Nikolsky-Stechkin inequality for trigonometric polynomials in terms of W 2k. We simplify the main construction from the paper by Foucart et al. (Constr. Approx. 29(2), 157-179, 2009) and give new upper estimates of the Jackson-Stechkin constants. The inequality W2k(f,h)≤3∥f∥∞ and the Bernstein-Nikolsky-Stechkin type estimate imply the Jackson-Stechkin theorem with nearly optimal constant for approximation by periodic splines. © 2013 The Author(s)

INCIDENCE OF TEENAGE YOUNG MEN BY THE RESULTS OF MEDICAL EXAMINATION AT INITIAL MILITARY REGISTRATION

Teenagers’ health, the level and structure of incidence reflect totality of the influence of the factors and their living conditions, upbringing and training, a way of life, medical care. The results of medical examination of young men at initial military registration to a sufficient extent give an idea of the prevalence of pathology among this contingent and in many respects characterize the quality of labour and defendable potential. Material and methods. The results of medical examination of teenagers by the military physician board of the Novosibirsk Regional Military Registration and Enlistment Office from 2000 to 2014 with the total number of the examined subjects 252.2 thousand were used. The dynamic and comparative analyses of the indices for three time periods along with the assessment of the prevalence of the diseases by the disease classes, separate nosological groups and also the distribution of young men by the medical classification were carried out. Results. It was established that on average 62.7 % of the examined subjects had this or that pathology. At the same time, 22.5 % of all the diseases were revealed for the first time. It was shown that 87.7–88.7 % of all the pathology accounted for 8 basic classes of diseases. Among the diseases limiting the medical classification the main ones were mental and behavioral disorders and also the diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue. The temporary unfitness was determined by endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and the complete one was defined by mental disorders, diseases of the nervous system, endocrine pathology, diseases of the spine and their aftereffects, disorders of refraction and accommodation of the eyes, visual impairment, bronchial asthma, mental retardation, flat foot and other foot deformations, degenerative diseases of the nervous system, which accounted for 63.0 % of all. Conclusion. The study showed the feasibility of using the results of the medical examination to assess the health of teenage young men and the inclusion of these indices in social and hygienic monitoring

Efficacy of sibutramine in different types of eating behavior in obese patients

Introduction. One of the key factors contributing to the development and progression of obesity is impairment eating behavior (EB). Therefore, drug therapy for obesity should not only reduce hunger, contributing to weight loss, but also reducing the severity of EB disorders.Aim. Assess the representation of different types of EB in obese patients, the effect of sibutramine therapy on dynamics EB by The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and for hunger/satiety on a visual analog scale (VAS). Quality life of patients, adherence to treatment of obese patients and their weight dynamics in different types of EB during therapy with sibutramine was also assessed.Materials and methods. The study included 36 obese patients (30 women and 6 men), mean age 38.7 ± 10.8 years, mean body weight 102.8 ± 16.4 kg, body mass index (BMI) 36.8 ± 4.6 kg/m2, receiving therapy with sibutramine at a dose of 10 mg per day once in the morning before meals in combination with hypocaloric nutrition.Results and discussion. The study showed the prevalence of the emotiogenic type of eating disorders in patients. However, it was pointed out that sibutramine therapy combined with hypocaloric nutrition proved its efficacy in any type of eating disorders. Positive dynamics anxiety/depression in subclinical conditions during treatment with sibutramine was also revealed.Conclusion. Sibutramine treatment may be recommended for the development of a new EB model in obese patients because it is effective in reducing weight in any type of EB disorder

Steel Micro-alloying with Boron: A Perspective Direction to Reduce the Consumption of Manganese Ferroalloys

Manganese ferroalloys occupy a strategically important place in the total production of ferroalloys, since no steel grade can be made without the manganese addition. Today, the metallurgical complex of Russia is fully dependent on imports of manganese products (raw ore and ferroalloys), so special attention should be paid to the issues of more rational use of manganese. In particular, one should more widely use the methods of direct micro-alloying of steel with manganese in steel-smelting units and ladle-furnaces unit (LFU) and expand the range of high-strength steel with reduced manganese content, micro-alloyed with high-performance elements. Among the micro-alloying elements, a special place is occupied by boron. Its introduction into the metal in the amount of 0.001–0.005% makes it possible to save expensive and scarce alloying elements, in particular manganese, and to provide an increase in the strength of steel without reducing ductility. The results of the studies of the physicochemical properties of slags of the system CaO–SiO2–B2O3–Al2O3–MgO had formed the basis for the technology development for the formation of basic boron-containing slags, that implementation at the LFU in the converter shop of JSC “ArcelorMittal Temirtau” provided the smelting of boron-containing steel economically doped with manganese with low-content of sulfur and high strength and plastic properties. The developed technology provided, depending on the steel grade, a boron content of 0.001–0.008% by weight, low concentration of sulfur in the metal, not more than 0.004–0.014% by weight, and reducing the manganese ferroalloys consumption from 0.5 to 1.4 kg/ton of steel. Keywords: pipe steel, manganese, sulfur, boron, mechanical properties, structur

“No, not the Moon, but a Bright Dial...” (O. E. Mandelstam): Experience of Poetic-Ideographic Analysis

The principles of the formation of the author’s poetic ideography are highlighted — a new direction in the study of poetic texts, which is currently developing at the intersection of theoretical and practical ideography and author’s lexicography. The main goal of this approach is to identify and describe the individual author’s poetic pictures of the world and their representations in lexicographic parameters. Both the general model of the proposed poetic-ideographic analysis and the main theoretical concepts associated with the new cognitive-discursive approach to the interpretation of a poetic text are presented in the article. They are: a global individual-author’s worldview, a local picture of a fragment of the world, which in the dictionary have features their representation within the framework of various structures: integral global-event, local-fragmentary, macro- and micro-situational. They are used in the process of poetic-ideographic analysis of the poem “No, not the moon, but a bright dial...” (O. E. Mandelstam), carried out in the proposed article on the basis of the developed analysis model, its main stages, and tasks. The prospect of the research is the study of the integral individual-author’s worldview of O. E. Mandelstam, presented in the first edition of the book “Stone”, as well as the compilation of the author’s ideographic dictionary of the poet’s language