The Neuroprotective Effects of Brazilian Green Propolis on Neurodegenerative Damage in Human Neuronal SH-SY5Y Cells

Oxidative stress and synapse dysfunction are the major neurodegenerative damage correlated to cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We have found that Brazilian green propolis (propolis) improves the cognitive functions of mild cognitive impairment patients living at high altitude; however, mechanism underlying the effects of propolis is unknown. In the present study, we investigated the effects of propolis on oxidative stress, expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc), the critical factors of synapse efficacy, using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Pretreatment with propolis significantly ameliorated the hydrogen peroxide- (H2O2-) induced cytotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells. Furthermore, propolis significantly reduced the H2O2-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) derived from mitochondria and 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG, the DNA oxidative damage marker) but significantly reversed the fibrillar β-amyloid and IL-1β-impaired BDNF-induced Arc expression in SH-SY5Y cells. Furthermore, propolis significantly upregulated BDNF mRNA expression in time- and dose-dependent manners. In addition, propolis induced Arc mRNA and protein expression via phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K). These observations strongly suggest that propolis protects from the neurodegenerative damage in neurons through the properties of various antioxidants. The present study provides a potential molecular mechanism of Brazilian green propolis in prevention of cognitive impairment in AD as well as aging

Facile fabrication of the porous adsorbent from natural plant Angelica Sinensis stabilized liquid foam for dye removal

Porous materials as emerging high-efficiency adsorbents have attracted increasing attention in recent years, due to the high specific surface area, fast adsorption rate, favorable adsorption capacity to heavy metal, dyes, and other pollutants, etc. Among various approaches, the foam template method with the advantage of flexible operation and controllable pores structure is proposed to prepare net type of porous adsorbents with superior adsorption capacity and rapid adsorption rate. In this process, natural plant Angelica Sinensis (AS) was treated with a simple alkaline-heat process, and the resultant product was used firstly to prepare foam with high stability, and the positive effect of the cellulose dissociation and the conversion of ligustilide into amphiphilic moleculars on improving the stability of Pickering foam was revealed. The liquid foam can serve as pore-foaming template and precursor of polymerization for synthesizing porous adsorbent by one-step integrated process of free radical polymerization and silane hydrolysis. The porous adsorbent showed the sufficient porous structure and excellent adsorption performance for cationic dye, with maximum adsorption capacities of 386.13 mg g-1 and 284.20 mg g-1 for methyl violet (MV) and malachite green (MG). In a word, the novel approach can provide an important reference for green synthesis of high stable foam and the superporous material, and the adsorbent showed great application potential in the field of water treatment

Fabrication of Eco-Friendly Superabsorbent Composites Based on Waste Semicoke

A series of novel superabsorbent composites of poly(acrylic acid)/semicoke were prepared by polymerization of acrylic acid using ammonium persulphate as initiator, N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide as crosslinker and semicoke which was the by-product of coal carbonizing as the inorganic components. FTIR and SEM analysis indicated that the superabsorbent composites had been successfully polymerized and the semicoke participated in construction of the 3D polymeric network. Meanwhile, the effects of initiator, crosslinker, semicoke, and neutralization degree, as well as the pH value, were investigated, and the results showed that superabsorbent composites containing 10% of semicoke possessed the maximum water absorbency of 584 g/g in distilled water and 75 g/g in 0.9% NaCl solution. The superabsorbent composites kept the high water absorbency within a wide pH range of 4–11, and still exhibited better re-swelling capability even after seven times. The superabsorbent composite with its excellent performance is a potential water-retaining agent used in agriculture

Nutrients, Microglia Aging, and Brain Aging

As the life expectancy continues to increase, the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) becomes a big major issue in the world. After cellular activation upon systemic inflammation, microglia, the resident immune cells in the brain, start to release proinflammatory mediators to trigger neuroinflammation. We have found that chronic systemic inflammatory challenges induce differential age-dependent microglial responses, which are in line with the impairment of learning and memory, even in middle-aged animals. We thus raise the concept of “microglia aging.” This concept is based on the fact that microglia are the key contributor to the acceleration of cognitive decline, which is the major sign of brain aging. On the other hand, inflammation induces oxidative stress and DNA damage, which leads to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species by the numerous types of cells, including macrophages and microglia. Oxidative stress-damaged cells successively produce larger amounts of inflammatory mediators to promote microglia aging. Nutrients are necessary for maintaining general health, including the health of brain. The intake of antioxidant nutrients reduces both systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation and thus reduces cognitive decline during aging. We herein review our microglia aging concept and discuss systemic inflammation and microglia aging. We propose that a nutritional approach to controlling microglia aging will open a new window for healthy brain aging

Intelligent Bandwidth Reservation for Big Data Transfer in High-Performance Networks

Many scientific applications are generating extremely large amounts of data at a high speed, which must be transferred to remote collaborating sites for storage and analysis. Such high- demanding data transfer has been increasingly supported by bandwidth reservation services in high-performance networks (HPNs). For each bandwidth reservation request (BRR), most existing scheduling algorithms return either the best-case reservation option or a reject message if the BRR cannot be satisfied. To perform intelligent scheduling, we provide two alternative reservation options in the latter case: schedule the BRR within the closest time intervals before and after the user-specified time interval. We consider two different types of BRRs and for each, we design a flexible bandwidth scheduling algorithm with a rigorous optimality proof to compute both the best and alternative reservation options. For comparison, we also design two heuristics adapted from existing bandwidth scheduling algorithms. Extensive simulations show that the proposed algorithms have superior performance to those in comparison