Protective Effects of Lycium barbarum

To observe the effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) on testis spermatogenic injuries induced by Bisphenol A (BPA) in mice. BPA was subcutaneously injected into mice at a dose of 20 mg/kg body weight (BW) for 7 consecutive days. LBP was administered simultaneously with BPA by gavage daily at the dose of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg BW for 7 days. After treatment, the weight and the histopathology changes of testis and epididymis were examined; the contents of T, LH, GnRH, antioxidant enzyme, and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum were detected; proapoptotic protein Bax and antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 were also detected by immunohistochemical method. Results showed that the weights of testis and epididymis were all increased after supplement with different dosages of LBP compared with BPA group, and the activities of SOD and GSH-Px were significantly increased in LBP groups, while MDA contents were gradually decreased. Moreover, the levels of T, LH, and GnRH were significantly elevated in serum treated with 100 mg/kg LBP. LBP also shows significant positive effects on the expression of Bcl-2/Bax in BPA treated mice. It is concluded that LBP may be one of the potential ingredients protecting the adult male animals from BPA induced reproductive damage

Profiles in neglect of older adult care workers in a long-term care facility: a latent profile analysis

BackgroundNeglect is a common form of abuse, and long-term care facilities record higher incidences of this abuse. Given that older adult care workers are the main workforce in these facilities, their neglectful behavior requires public health attention. Internal individual characteristics can lead to older adult abuse, and managing workers who abuse older adults may require various methods. This study aimed to identify the profiles of neglect among older adult care workers in long-term care facilities and explore the influencing factors of neglect.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, a convenience sample of older adult care workers from 15 long-term care facilities in Shandong Province (N = 421) completed a questionnaire on the characteristics associated with neglect. Latent profile analysis was used to identify distinct neglect profiles and promote the understanding of individual characteristics associated with varying levels of neglect. One-way analysis of variance and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the population characteristic differences.ResultsOlder adult care workers exhibited three neglect profiles, namely, the “low-risk group,” “medium-risk group,” and “high-risk group.” Males, participants with no employment qualification certificate, and those who did not attend regular training represented the majority of those in the “high-risk group.” Participants with a monthly income of more than ¥ 4,000 and nursing 1–2 older adults simultaneously represented the majority of those in the “low-risk group.”ConclusionLong-term care facility administrators should tailor interventions to individual care worker profiles to reduce neglect behaviors and improve care levels

Genetic modification of Mucor circinelloides for canthaxanthin production by heterologous expression of β-carotene ketolase gene

11 pags, 4 figs, 1 tab. -- he Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.756218/full#supplementary-materiaCanthaxanthin is a reddish-orange xanthophyll with strong antioxidant activity and higher bioavailability than carotenes, primarily used in food, cosmetics, aquaculture, and pharmaceutical industries. The spiking market for natural canthaxanthin promoted researchers toward genetic engineering of heterologous hosts for canthaxanthin production. Mucor circinelloides is a dimorphic fungus that produces β-carotene as the major carotenoid and is considered as a model organism for carotenogenic studies. In this study, canthaxanthin-producing M. circinelloides strain was developed by integrating the codon-optimized β-carotene ketolase gene (bkt) of the Haematococcus pluvialis into the genome of the fungus under the control of strong promoter zrt1. First, a basic plasmid was constructed to disrupt crgA gene, a negative regulator of carotene biosynthesis resulted in substantial β-carotene production, which served as the building block for canthaxanthin by further enzymatic reaction of the ketolase enzyme. The genetically engineered strain produced a significant amount (576 ± 28 μg/g) of canthaxanthin, which is the highest amount reported in Mucor to date. Moreover, the cell dry weight of the recombinant strain was also determined, producing up to more than 9.0 g/L, after 96 h. The mRNA expression level of bkt in the overexpressing strain was analyzed by RT-qPCR, which increased by 5.3-, 4.1-, and 3-folds at 24, 48, and 72 h, respectively, compared with the control strain. The canthaxanthin-producing M. circinelloides strain obtained in this study provided a basis for further improving the biotechnological production of canthaxanthin and suggested a useful approach for the construction of more valuable carotenoids, such as astaxanthin.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31670064 and 31972851), the Tai Shan Industrial Experts Program tscy 20160101, and the Shandong provincial key technology R&D plan (2018GNC110039, 2018GSF121013).Peer reviewe

The use of plants in the traditional management of diabetes in Nigeria: Pharmacological and toxicological considerations

Ethnopharmacological relevance: The prevalence of diabetes is on a steady increase worldwide and it is now identified as one of the main threats to human health in the 21st century. In Nigeria, the use of herbal medicine alone or alongside prescription drugs for its management is quite common. We hereby carry out a review of medicinal plants traditionally used for diabetes management in Nigeria. Based on the available evidence on the species׳ pharmacology and safety, we highlight ways in which their therapeutic potential can be properly harnessed for possible integration into the country׳s healthcare system. Materials and methods: Ethnobotanical information was obtained from a literature search of electronic databases such as Google Scholar, Pubmed and Scopus up to 2013 for publications on medicinal plants used in diabetes management, in which the place of use and/or sample collection was identified as Nigeria. ‘Diabetes’ and ‘Nigeria’ were used as keywords for the primary searches; and then ‘Plant name – accepted or synonyms’, ‘Constituents’, ‘Drug interaction’ and/or ‘Toxicity’ for the secondary searches. Results: The hypoglycemic effect of over a hundred out of the 115 plants reviewed in this paper is backed by preclinical experimental evidence, either in vivo or in vitro. One-third of the plants have been studied for their mechanism of action, while isolation of the bioactive constituent(s) has been accomplished for twenty three plants. Some plants showed specific organ toxicity, mostly nephrotoxic or hepatotoxic, with direct effects on the levels of some liver function enzymes. Twenty eight plants have been identified as in vitro modulators of P-glycoprotein and/or one or more of the cytochrome P450 enzymes, while eleven plants altered the levels of phase 2 metabolic enzymes, chiefly glutathione, with the potential to alter the pharmacokinetics of co-administered drugs. Conclusion: This review, therefore, provides a useful resource to enable a thorough assessment of the profile of plants used in diabetes management so as to ensure a more rational use. By anticipating potential toxicities or possible herb–drug interactions, significant risks which would otherwise represent a burden on the country׳s healthcare system can be avoided

Interaction Between Plant Competition and Rhizospheric Bacterial Community Influence Secondary Succession of Abandoned Farmland on the Loess Plateau of China

Interactions between plant and soil communities have important implication for plant competition, development and succession. In order to explore the internal mechanism behind natural succession of abandoned farmland, we test the effect of plant–soil interaction on plant growth and competitive ability through performing a pot experiment, which included three grasses in different successional stages on the Loess Plateau of China (Setaria viridis, Stipa bungeana, and Bothriochloa ischaemum) in monoculture and all possible two- and three-way combinations, along with a plant-free control pot. The plants were harvested after about 4 months, and the rhizospheric soil was collected. The bacterial communities of the soils were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Plant competition affected richness of bacterial communities. Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were generally higher and Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria were lower in relative abundance in the mixed treatments associated with B. ischaemum. Photosynthetic bacterium, Genus Rhodobacter family Rhodospirillaceae, affected the growth condition and increased the competitive ability of B. ischaemum. Differences in the amounts of soil organic carbon, water-soluble organic carbon and nitrate nitrogen and available phosphorus drove the differences in bacterial communities. Our study has an important significance for understanding the trend of natural succession on the abandoned farmland on the Loess Plateau of China

Land-Use Conversion Changes the Multifractal Features of Particle-Size Distribution on the Loess Plateau of China

Analyzing the dynamics of soil particle-size distributions (PSDs), soil nutrients, and erodibility are very important for understanding the changes of soil structure and quality after long-term land-use conversion. We applied multifractal Rényi spectra (Dq) and singularity spectra (f(α)) to characterize PSDs 35 years after conversions from cropland to shrubland with Caragana microphylla (shrubland I), shrubland with Hippophae rhamnoides (shrubland II), forested land, and grassland on the Loess Plateau of China. Multifractal parameters (capacity dimension (D0), entropy dimension (D1), D1/D0, correlation dimension (D2), and Hölder exponent of order zero (α0)) were used to analyze the changes of PSDs. Dq and f(α) characterized the PSDs well and sensitively represented the changes in PSDs after conversion. All types of land-use conversion significantly improved the properties of the topsoil (0–10 cm), but the effect of shrubland I and even forested land decreased with depth. All types of land-use conversion significantly increased D1 and D2 in the topsoil, and D1 and D2 in the 10–50 cm layers of shrubland II, forested land, and grassland and D1 in the 50–100 cm layers of shrubland II were significantly higher relative to the control. Both D1 and D2 were positively correlated with the contents of soil nutrients and fine particles and were negatively correlated with soil erosion, indicating that D1 and D2 were potential indices for quantifying changes in soil properties and erosion. In conclusion, all types of land-use conversion significantly improved the conditions of the topsoil, but conversion from cropland to shrubland II, forested land, and grassland, especially shrubland II and grassland, were more effective for improving soil conditions in deeper layers

Study on the Effect of Asparagus Extracts on Promoting Metabolism of the Body

This study aims to analyze the effective ingredients of asparagus extracts and the changes of vitamins content in mice body after the intake of asparagus extracts, thus to conclude the effect of asparagus extracts on body metabolism during exercises. Extracts were made into different concentrations of solution and given to the mice by intragastric administration. The content of micro-elements and vitamin groups in the mice body before and after the drug administration were detected respectively and biochemical index parameter values before and after swimming were measured respectively. Results showed that, 20 min after the drug administration, the content of blood lactic acid of the mice in the swimming experiment group decreased significantly. Besides, the content of muscle glycogen decreased and correspondingly the content of hepatic glycogen increased significantly (experiment group one and two: p < 0.01; experiment group 3: p < 0.05). Thus the ethanol extract solution of asparagus can effectively improve body metabolism

The Application of Mesh-Free Method in the Numerical Simulation of Beams with the Size Effect

The mesh-free method is employed to implement the numerical simulation of the bending behavior of beams with the size effect. On the basis of the classical Bernoulli-Euler beam theory, two higher-order strain components are involved in the beam model. The intrinsic bulk length and the directional surface length components are introduced into the constitutive relationship to describe the size effect, and the variation of the total potential is provided. The moving-least square approximation is used to construct the shape function and its second- and third-order derivatives, and the choice of the scaling factor is discussed in detail. A mesh-free scheme is built to implement numerical simulation, in which the higher-order strains are directly approximated with the nodal components due to the higher-order continuity of the shape function. The convergence of method is illustrated in virtue of an example of the simply supported beam, and the effect of the intrinsic bulk length and the directional surface length components are studied

Adaptive Information Bottleneck Guided Joint Source-Channel Coding

Joint source channel coding (JSCC) has attracted increasing attentions due to its robustness and high efficiency. However, the existing research on JSCC mainly focuses on minimizing the distortion between the transmitted and received information, while limiting the required data rate. Therefore, even though the transmitted information is well recovered, the transmitted bits may be far more than the minimal threshold according to the rate-distortion (RD) theory. In this paper, we propose an adaptive Information Bottleneck (IB) guided JSCC (AIB-JSCC), which aims at achieving the theoretically maximal compression ratio for a given reconstruction quality. In particular, we first derive a mathematically tractable form of loss function for AIB-JSCC. To keep a better tradeoff between compression and reconstruction quality, we further propose an adaptive algorithm that adjusts hyperparameter beta of the proposed loss function dynamically according to the distortion during training. Experiment results show that AIB-JSCC can significantly reduce the required amount of the transmitted data and improve the reconstruction quality and downstream artificial-intelligent task performance