NNZ-2566 treatment inhibits neuroinflammation and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression induced by experimental penetrating ballistic-like brain injury in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Inflammatory cytokines play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI), exerting either deleterious effects on the progression of tissue damage or beneficial roles during recovery and repair. NNZ-2566, a synthetic analogue of the neuroprotective tripeptide Glypromate^®, has been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models of brain injury. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of NNZ-2566 on inflammatory cytokine expression and neuroinflammation induced by penetrating ballistic-like brain injury (PBBI) in rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>NNZ-2566 or vehicle (saline) was administered intravenously as a bolus injection (10 mg/kg) at 30 min post-injury, immediately followed by a continuous infusion of NNZ-2566 (3 mg/kg/h), or equal volume of vehicle, for various durations. Inflammatory cytokine gene expression from the brain tissue of rats exposed to PBBI was evaluated using microarray, quantitative real time PCR (QRT-PCR), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) array. Histopathology of the injured brains was examined using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunocytochemistry of inflammatory cytokine IL-1β.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>NNZ-2566 treatment significantly reduced injury-mediated up-regulation of IL-1β, TNF-α, E-selectin and IL-6 mRNA during the acute injury phase. ELISA cytokine array showed that NZ-2566 treatment significantly reduced levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α and IFN-γ in the injured brain, but did not affect anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 levels.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Collectively, these results suggest that the neuroprotective effects of NNZ-2566 may, in part, be functionally attributed to the compound's ability to modulate expression of multiple neuroinflammatory mediators in the injured brain.</p

Hybrid Salp Swarm Algorithm for Solving the Green Scheduling Problem in a Double-Flexible Job Shop

Green scheduling is not only an effective way to achieve green manufacturing but also an effective way for modern manufacturing enterprises to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction. The double-flexible job shop scheduling problem (DFJSP) considers both machine flexibility and worker flexibility, so it is more suitable for practical production. First, a multi-objective mixed-integer programming model for the DFJSP with the objectives of optimizing the makespan, total worker costs, and total influence of the green production indicators is formulated. Considering the characteristics of the problem, three-layer salp individual encoding and decoding methods are designed for the multi-objective hybrid salp swarm algorithm (MHSSA), which is hybridized with the L&eacute;vy flight, the random probability crossover operator, and the mutation operator. In addition, the influence of the parameter setting on the MHSSA in solving the DFJSP is investigated by means of the Taguchi method of design of experiments. The simulation results for benchmark instances show that the MHSSA can effectively solve the proposed problem and is significantly better than the MSSA and the MOPSO algorithm in the diversity, convergence, and dominance of the Pareto frontier

Spatial Distribution and Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Sediment of a Tropical Mangrove Wetland on Hainan Island, China

Mangroves have a high ecological service value and play an important role in achieving carbon neutrality. However, mangrove wetland soil quality is constantly being affected, and the ecological services provided are gradually declining due to the threat of various pollutants, especially heavy metal pollution. Exploring the sources and ecological risks of heavy metals in mangrove sediments will be helpful in improving mangrove protection. In 2020, sediments were collected from terrestrial and aquatic areas of Dongzhai Harbor mangrove wetland in Hainan, China, and were analyzed for the concentrations of nine heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Ni, Zn, Co). The results showed that there were obvious spatial distributions of heavy metals in sediments. The high concentrations of heavy metals occurred largely in terrestrial areas and in 0–20 cm of the sediment surface layer. Correlation analysis and cluster analysis indicated that As mainly originated from ships and aquaculture in the harbor waters, Cd and Hg from agriculture, Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn and Co from the weathering of parent rocks, and Pb from soot emitted from metal smelters and automobile exhaust. The individual potential ecological risk index (Eir) indicated that contaminating elements were mainly Cd and Hg. The potential ecological risk index (RI) and multiple probable effect concentrations quality (mPECQs) indicated that the areas with high heavy metal concentration and the 0–20 cm range of sediment surface layer were more susceptible to heavy metal contamination. Although there were no obvious ecological risks in the area, these results could facilitate the understanding of the distribution of heavy metal pollution in mangroves and provide information to achieve sustainable development of mangroves

Recognition of Significant Multi-Element Geochemical Signatures of Lower Soil on Hainan Island, China: Implications for Thermal Mineral Water Exploration

As an important geothermal resource, thermal mineral water has high resource efficiency and thermal energy efficiency. The aim of this study was to delineate prospective areas of thermal mineral water based on potential thermal mineral water sites and faults. Linear regression was used to process the temperature of 22 known thermal mineral water sites as dependent variables, and 54 indices of the lower soil of multipurpose regional geochemical surveys as independent variables, in the area of intermediate-acid intrusive rocks and sediment degeneration rocks on Hainan Island. Published data were quoted from the National Multi-Purpose Regional Geochemical Survey (Hainan Province, China). According to the regressive modelling of 2197 lower soil samples, 547 potential thermal mineral water sites were delineated after considering 4 factors—geological background, regional structure, interval of dependent variable’s predictive temperature, and boundary of independent variable’s contents—which were compared against 22 known thermal mineral water sites to choose the 2197 lower soil samples, based on the choice of prospective sites of thermal mineral water on Hainan Island. The results showed that the proportion of A1-level sites that were >70 °C constituted 11% of all A1-level prospective sites, reflecting the superiority of east–west or north–east directional regional faults in controlling the distribution of thermal mineral water. This study shows the indications of the multipurpose regional geochemical survey with regards to thermal mineral water, which is one of the most important tourist resources of Hainan Island

Recognition of Significant Multi-Element Geochemical Signatures of Lower Soil on Hainan Island, China: Implications for Thermal Mineral Water Exploration

As an important geothermal resource, thermal mineral water has high resource efficiency and thermal energy efficiency. The aim of this study was to delineate prospective areas of thermal mineral water based on potential thermal mineral water sites and faults. Linear regression was used to process the temperature of 22 known thermal mineral water sites as dependent variables, and 54 indices of the lower soil of multipurpose regional geochemical surveys as independent variables, in the area of intermediate-acid intrusive rocks and sediment degeneration rocks on Hainan Island. Published data were quoted from the National Multi-Purpose Regional Geochemical Survey (Hainan Province, China). According to the regressive modelling of 2197 lower soil samples, 547 potential thermal mineral water sites were delineated after considering 4 factors&mdash;geological background, regional structure, interval of dependent variable&rsquo;s predictive temperature, and boundary of independent variable&rsquo;s contents&mdash;which were compared against 22 known thermal mineral water sites to choose the 2197 lower soil samples, based on the choice of prospective sites of thermal mineral water on Hainan Island. The results showed that the proportion of A1-level sites that were &gt;70 &deg;C constituted 11% of all A1-level prospective sites, reflecting the superiority of east&ndash;west or north&ndash;east directional regional faults in controlling the distribution of thermal mineral water. This study shows the indications of the multipurpose regional geochemical survey with regards to thermal mineral water, which is one of the most important tourist resources of Hainan Island

PPO-Based Attitude Controller Design for a Tilt Rotor UAV in Transition Process

The complex aerodynamic changes of the tilt-rotor UAV (TRUAV) in the transition process show strong nonlinearity, which brings a great impact on the stability of the vehicle attitude. This study aims to design a PPO-based RL controller for attitude control in the transition process. A reinforcement-learning PPO approach is used to learn the control strategy by interacting directly with the environment. And the reward function is designed and improved for the transition process. The performance of the proposed controller is tested and compared by simulation. The results show that the PPO algorithm is more suitable for the tilt-rotor transition process control than the A2C algorithm. Our proposed reward function improves the attitude control performance and the designed RL controller has good adaptability to changes in the takeoff weight, the diagonal wheelbase and the tilt rate. This study highlights the effectiveness and potential of reinforcement learning for tilt-rotor UAV transition process attitude control. These findings contribute to the advancement of autonomous flight systems by providing insights into the application of reinforcement learning algorithms. These results have important implications for the development of intelligent flight control systems and could guide future research in this area

Purification of tanshinone IIA from medicinal plant <i>Salvia miltiorrhiza</i>

In this study,petroleum ether and ethyl acetate were used as extraction agents,and polyamide column chromatography was used to separate tanshinone ⅡA using ethanol/water as eluting solvents.TLC,1H NMR,13C NMR,HPLC analysis revealed that the purity of the extracted tanshinone ⅡA was over 93%.Above all,this study provides a highly efficient extraction and separation method for tanshinone ⅡA which displayed a series of advantages including higher yield,lower cost,higher safety and reliability,etc.And it also provides a new approach for purification of other active ingredients from medicinal plants