Effect of Liuweibuqi capsule, a Chinese patent medicine, on the JAK1/STAT3 pathway and MMP9/TIMP1 in a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease rat model

AbstractObjectiveTo observe effect of Liuweibuqi Capsule, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), on the janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rat model with lung deficiency in terms of TCM's pattern differentiation.MethodsRats were randomly divided into a normal group, model group, Liuweibuqi group, Jinshuibao group, and spleen aminopeptidase group (n= 10). Aside from the normal group, all rats were exposed to smoke plus lipopolysaccharide tracheal instillation to establish the COPD model with lung deficiency. Models were established after 28 days and then the normal and model groups were given normal saline (0.09 g/kg), Liuweibuqi group was given Liuweibuqi capsule (0.35 g/kg), Jinshuibao group was given Jinshuibao capsules (0.495 g/kg), and the spleen group was given spleen aminopeptidase (0.33 mg/kg), once a day for 30 days. Changes in symptoms, signs, and lung histology were observed. Lung function was measured with a spirometer. Serum cytokines were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and changes in the JAK/STAT pathway, MMP-9, and MMPs inhibitor 1 (TIMP1) were detected by immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, and western blotting, respectively.ResultsCompared with the normal group, lung tissue was damaged, and lung function was reduced in the model control group. Additionally, the levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, γ interferon (IFN-γ), and IL-6 were higher, while IL-4 and IL-10 were lower in the model control group than those in the normal group. The expressions of JAK1, STAT3, p-STAT3, and MMP-9 mRNA and protein in lung tissue were higher, and TIMP1 mRNA and protein was lower in the model group compared with the normal group. After treatment, compared with the model group, the expression of inflammatory cytokines was lower in each treatment group, and expressions of JAK/STAT pathway, MMPs were lower. Compared with the positive control groups, the Jinshuibao and spleen aminopeptidase groups, lung function was better, and JAK1, STAT3, and p-STAT3 protein were lower and TIMP1 was higher in the Liuweibuqi group.ConclusionLiuweibuqi capsules can improve the symptoms of COPD possibly by regulating the expression of the JAK1/STAT3 pathway and MMP9/TIMP1

Intraday effects of ambient PM1 on emergency department visits in Guangzhou, China: A case-crossover study

Background: Short-term exposure to PM2.5 has been widely associated with human morbidity and mortality. However, most up-to-date research was conducted at a daily timescale, neglecting the intra-day variations in both exposure and outcome. As an important fraction in PM2.5, PM1 has not been investigated about the very acute effects within a few hours. Methods: Hourly data for size-specific PMs (i.e., PM1, PM2.5, and PM10), all-cause emergency department (ED) visits and meteorological factors were collected from Guangzhou, China, 2015–2016. A time-stratified case-crossover design with conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the hourly association between size-specific PMs and ED visits, adjusting for hourly mean temperature and relative humidity. Subgroup analyses stratified by age, sex and season were conducted to identify potential effect modifiers. Results: A total of 292,743 cases of ED visits were included. The effects of size-specific PMs exhibited highly similar lag patterns, wherein estimated odds ratio (OR) experienced a slight rise from lag 0–3 to 4–6 h and subsequently attenuated to null along with the extension of lag periods. In comparison with PM2.5 and PM10, PM1 induced slightly larger effects on ED visits. At lag 0–3 h, for instance, ED visits increased by 1.49% (95% confidence interval: 1.18–1.79%), 1.39% (1.12–1.66%) and 1.18% (0.97–1.40%) associated with a 10-μg/m3 rise, respectively, in PM1, PM2.5 and PM10. We have detected a significant effect modification by season, with larger PM1-associated OR during the cold months (1.017, 1.013 to 1.021) compared with the warm months (1.010, 1.005 to 1.015). Conclusions: Our study provided brand-new evidence regarding the adverse impact of PM1 exposure on human health within several hours. PM-associated effects were significantly more potent during the cold months. These findings may aid health policy-makers in establishing hourly air quality standards and optimizing the allocation of emergency medical resources

Breaking Dynamic Behavior in 3D Covalent Organic Framework with Pre-Locked Linker Strategy

Due to their large surface area and pore volume, three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (3D COFs) have emerged as competitive porous materials. However, structural dynamic behavior, often observed in imine-linked 3D COFs, could potentially unlock their potential application in gas storage. Herein, we showed how a pre-locked linker strategy introduces breaking dynamic behavior in 3D COFs. A predesigned planar linker-based 3,8-diamino-6-phenylphenanthridine (DPP) was prepared to produce non-dynamic 3D JUC-595, as the benzylideneamine moiety in DPP locked the linker flexibility and restricted the molecular bond rotation of the imine linkages. Upon solvent inclusion and release, the PXRD profile of JUC-595 remained intake, while JUC-594 with a flexible benzidine linker experienced crystal transformation due to framework contraction–expansion. As a result, the activated JUC-595 achieved higher surface areas (754 m2 g−1) than that of JUC-594 (548 m2 g−1). Furthermore, improved CO2 and CH4 storages were also seen in JUC-595 compared with JUC-594. Impressively, JUC-595 recorded a high normalized H2 storage capacity that surpassed other reported high-surface area 3D COFs. This works shows important insights on manipulating the structural properties of 3D COF to tune gas storage performance

Study on Crystal Growth of Tobermorite Synthesized by Calcium Silicate Slag and Silica Fume

In order to high-value utilize the secondary solid waste calcium silicate slag (CSS) generated in the process of the extraction of alumina from fly ash, in this paper, tobermorite was synthesized using CSS and silica fume (SF) at different hydrothermal synthesis times. The hydrothermal synthesis was evaluated by means of XRD, SEM, EDS, and micropore analysis, and the results discussed. The results indicate that β-dicalcium silicate, the primary phase in the CSS, partially hydrates at the beginning of hydrothermal synthesis conditions to form mesh-like crystal C-S-H (calcium-rich) and calcium hydroxide. It then reacts with SF to form yarn-like crystal C-S-H (silicon-rich) and then furtherly grows into large flake-like crystal C-S-H (silicon-rich) at 3 h. When the synthesis time is 4 h, β-dicalcium silicate completely hydrates, and crystal C-S-H (calcium-rich) and calcium hydroxide further reacts with large flake-like crystal C-S-H (silicon-rich) to generate medium flake-like tobermorite. With the increase in time, the crystal of hydrothermal synthesis grows in the order of medium flake-like tobermorite, small flake-like tobermorite, strip flake-like tobermorite, fibrous-like tobermorite, and spindle-like tobermorite, and the APV, APD, and SSA show a trend of decreasing first, then increasing, and then decreasing. Meanwhile, strip flake-like tobermorite with a higher average pore volume (APV), average pore diameter (APD), and specific surface area (SSA) can be synthesized at 6 h

Towards Escaping from Language Bias and OCR Error: Semantics-Centered Text Visual Question Answering

Texts in scene images convey critical information for scene understanding and reasoning. The abilities of reading and reasoning matter for the model in the text-based visual question answering (TextVQA) process. However, current TextVQA models do not center on the text and suffer from several limitations. The model is easily dominated by language biases and optical character recognition (OCR) errors due to the absence of semantic guidance in the answer prediction process. In this paper, we propose a novel Semantics-Centered Network (SC-Net) that consists of an instance-level contrastive semantic prediction module (ICSP) and a semantics-centered transformer module (SCT). Equipped with the two modules, the semantics-centered model can resist the language biases and the accumulated errors from OCR. Extensive experiments on TextVQA and ST-VQA datasets show the effectiveness of our model. SC-Net surpasses previous works with a noticeable margin and is more reasonable for the TextVQA task

Hydration Mechanisms of Alkali-Activated Cementitious Materials with Ternary Solid Waste Composition

Considering the recent eco-friendly and efficient utilization of three kinds of solid waste, including calcium silicate slag (CSS), fly ash (FA), and blast-furnace slag (BFS), alkali-activated cementitious composite materials using these three waste products were prepared with varying content of sodium silicate solution. The hydration mechanisms of the cementitious materials were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results show that the composite is a binary cementitious system composed of C(N)-A-S-H and C-S-H. Si and Al minerals in FA and BFS are depolymerized to form the Q0 structure of SiO4 and AlO4. Meanwhile, β-dicalcium silicate in CSS hydrates to form C-S-H and Ca(OH)2. Part of Ca(OH)2 reacts with the Q0 structure of AlO4 and SiO4 to produce lawsonite and wairakite with a low polymerization degree of the Si-O and Al-O bonds. With the participation of Na+, part of Ca(OH)2 reacts with the Q0 structure of AlO4 and the Q3 structure of SiO4, which comes from the sodium silicate solution. When the sodium silicate content is 9.2%, the macro properties of the composites effectively reach saturation. The compressive strength for composites with 9.2% sodium silicate was 23.7 and 35.9 MPa after curing for 7 and 28 days, respectively

Soil microbial carbon and nutrient constraints are driven more by climate and soil physicochemical properties than by nutrient addition in forest ecosystems

Soil enzymes produced by microorganisms transform substrates in the soil carbon (C) and nutrient cycles. Limitations in C and other nutrients could affect microbial biosynthesis processes, so we expect that soil enzyme activity will reflect microbial deficiencies in C, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) at a large spatial scale. We collected soil from nutrient addition trials in eight forest ecosystems, ranging from temperate forests to tropical forests in eastern China, and conducted vector analysis of the soil enzymatic stoichiometry to examine the spatial extent of soil microbial C and nutrient limitations. We also determined whether nutrient addition could alleviate nutrient limitation or otherwise impact soil microbial resource use. Soil microbial C vs. nutrient limitation (thereafter C limitation) was greater in the temperate forests than in the tropical forests, but did not vary with soil depth. Soil microbial P vs. N limitation (thereafter nutrient limitation) decreased with latitude, and increased with soil depth. We found a negative relationship between soil microbial C limitation and nutrient limitation, which was more pronounced in the topsoil than in deeper soil depths. Furthermore, we found that climate (mean annual precipitation and temperature), soil pH and soil nutrients were significantly correlated with soil microbial C (explaining about 23% of the variation) and nutrient limitation (responsible for about 87% of the variation). Nutrient addition represented similar to 1% of the variation in soil microbial C and nutrient limitations and thus did not alleviate nutrient deficiencies. We conclude that soil microbial C and nutrient limitations are more likely driven by climate and soil physicochemical properties than by nutrient addition in eight forest ecosystems. Since soil microbial C and nutrient limitations result from long-term adaptation of soil microbial communities to site-specific soil and environmental conditions, the soil enzyme activity is not modified by short-term changes in nutrient availability resulting from fertilizer application

Crystal Evolution of Calcium Silicate Minerals Synthesized by Calcium Silicon Slag and Silica Fume with Increase of Hydrothermal Synthesis Temperature

In order to realize high-value utilization of calcium silicon slag (CSS) and silica fume (SF), the dynamic hydrothermal synthesis experiments of CSS and SF were carried out under different hydrothermal synthesis temperatures. In addition, phase category, microstructure, and micropore parameters of the synthesis product were analyzed through testing methods of XRD, SEM, EDS and micropore analysis. The results show that the main mechanism of synthesis reaction is that firstly β-Dicalcium silicate, the main mineral in CSS, hydrates to produce amorphous C–S–H and Ca(OH)2, and the environment of system is induced to strong alkaline. Therefore, the highly polymerized Si-O bond of SF is broken under the polarization of OH− to form (SiO4) of Q0. Next, amorphous C–S–H, Ca(OH)2 and (SiO4) of Q0 react each other to gradually produce various of calcium silicate minerals. With an increase of synthesis temperature, the crystal evolution order for calcium silicate minerals is cocoon-like C–S–H, mesh-like C–S–H, large flake-like gyrolite, small flake-like gyrolite, petal-like gyrolite, square flake-like calcium silicate hydroxide hydrate, and strip-like tobermorite. In addition, petal-like calcium silicate with high average pore volume (APV), specific surface area (SSA) and low average pore diameter (APD) can be prepared under the 230 °C synthesis condition

Nitrogen trade-off during lignite chemical looping combustion using hematite as an oxygen carrier

The chemical looping combustion (CLC) of coal has attracted signification attention due to low CO2 and NOx emissions. In this paper, the lignite CLC and hematite used as an oxygen carrier (OC) were investigated. The thermodynamic behavior of NH3/HCN (NOx precursors) and Fe2O3 (the main component of hematite) were analyzed. Under different OC masses, the release characteristics of NH3 and HCN with temperature were studied using TG-MS. Using a fixed bed reactor, the nitrogen trade-off in the fuel reactor was investigated as a function of OC mass, changing reaction temperature, carrier gas flow rate, and type of OC (modified by K/Na/Ca/Ni/Cu/ Mn). Increasing the OC to lignite mass ratio led to a decrease of NH3 and HCN release. The release of HCN increased with the increasing temperature, while NH3 release decreased. An increased gas flow rate increased the emission of NH3 and HCN. Additionally, modifying the OC with Ni and Cu improved the oxidation performance and significantly reduced the emission of NH3 and HCN. To sum up, NH3 and HCN emission were lowest when the OC mass, temperature, and carrier gas flow rate were 10 g, 900 C, and 50 mL/min, respectively, and OC-Ni or OC-Cu was the OC