Riboflavin alleviates cardiac failure in Type I diabetic cardiomyopathy

Heart failure (HF) is a common and serious comorbidity of diabetes. Oxidative stress has been associated with the pathogenesis of chronic diabetic complications including cardiomyopathy. The ability of antioxidants to inhibit injury has raised the possibility of new therapeutic treatment for diabetic heart diseases. Riboflavin constitutes an essential nutrient for humans and animals and it is an important food additive. Riboflavin, a precursor of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), enhances the oxidative folding and subsequent secretion of proteins. The objective of this study was to investigate the cardioprotective effect of riboflavin in diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced in 30 rats by a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ) (70 mg /kg). Riboflavin (20 mg/kg) was orally administered to animals immediately after induction of diabetes and was continued for eight weeks. Rats were examined for diabetic cardiomyopathy by left ventricular (LV) remadynamic function. Myocardial oxidative stress was assessed by measuring the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) as well as heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) protein level. Myocardial connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) level was measured by Western blot in all rats at the end of the study. In the untreated diabetic rats, left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) rate of pressure rose (+dp/dt), and rate of pressure decay (−dp/dt) were depressed while left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) was increased, which indicated the reduced left ventricular contractility and slowing of left ventricular relaxation. The level of SOD decreased, CTGF and HO-1 protein expression and MDA content rose. Riboflavin treatment significantly improved left ventricular systolic and diastolic function in diabetic rats, there were persistent increases in significant activation of SOD and the level of HO-1 protein, and a decrease in the level of CTGF. These results suggest that riboflavin treatment ameliorates myocardial function and improves heart oxidant status, whereas raising myocardial HO-1 and decreasing myocardial CTGF levels have beneficial effects on diabetic cardiomyopathy

Large-scale prediction of long non-coding RNA functions in a coding–non-coding gene co-expression network

Although accumulating evidence has provided insight into the various functions of long-non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), the exact functions of the majority of such transcripts are still unknown. Here, we report the first computational annotation of lncRNA functions based on public microarray expression profiles. A coding–non-coding gene co-expression (CNC) network was constructed from re-annotated Affymetrix Mouse Genome Array data. Probable functions for altogether 340 lncRNAs were predicted based on topological or other network characteristics, such as module sharing, association with network hubs and combinations of co-expression and genomic adjacency. The functions annotated to the lncRNAs mainly involve organ or tissue development (e.g. neuron, eye and muscle development), cellular transport (e.g. neuronal transport and sodium ion, acid or lipid transport) or metabolic processes (e.g. involving macromolecules, phosphocreatine and tyrosine)

The Overseeing Mother: Revisiting the Frontal-Pose Lady in the Wu Family Shrines in Second Century China

Located in present-day Jiaxiang in Shandong province, the Wu family shrines built during the second century in the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) were among the best-known works in Chinese art history. Although for centuries scholars have exhaustively studied the pictorial programs, the frontal-pose female image situated on the second floor of the central pavilion carved at the rear wall of the shrines has remained a question. Beginning with the woman’s eyes, this article demonstrates that the image is more than a generic portrait (“hard motif ”), but rather represents “feminine overseeing from above” (“soft motif ”). This synthetic motif combines three different earlier motifs – the frontal-pose hostess enjoying entertainment, the elevated spectator, and the Queen Mother of the West. By creatively fusing the three motifs into one unity, the Jiaxiang artists lent to the frontal-pose lady a unique power: she not only dominated the center of the composition, but also, like a divine being, commanded a unified view of the surroundings on the lofty building, hence echoing the political reality of the empress mother’s “overseeing the court” in the second century during Eastern Han dynasty

The Novel Successive Variational Mode Decomposition and Weighted Regularized Extreme Learning Machine for Fault Diagnosis of Automobile Gearbox

In order to improve the diagnosis accuracies of the current diagnosis methods, a novel fault diagnosis method of automobile gearbox based on novel successive variational mode decomposition and weighted regularized extreme learning machine is presented for fault diagnosis of gearbox in this paper. The novel successive variational mode decomposition (SVMD) is presented to improve the traditional variational mode decomposition, which finds modes one after the other, and this succession helps increase convergence rate and also not extract the unwanted modes; weighted regularized extreme learning machine (WRELM) is presented to improve the traditional extreme learning machine, which uses the weight of each sample with the nonparametric kernel density estimation and can find the optimal weight for each sample. The test results indicate that the diagnosis accuracy of SVMD-WRELM for gearbox is better than that of VMD-WRELM, VMD-ELM

Comprehensive Evaluation of the Sustainable Development of Battery Electric Vehicles in China

Due to the rapid growth in the total number of vehicles in China, energy consumption and environmental pollution are serious problems. The development of electric vehicles (EVs) has become one of the important measures for solving these problems. As EVs are in a period of rapid development, sustainability research on them is conducive to the timely discovery of—and solution to—problems in the development process, but current research on the sustainability of EVs is still scarce. Based on the strategic development direction of EVs in China, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were chosen as the research object of this study. The theory and method of the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) were used to study the sustainability of BEVs. Specifically, the indicators of the life cycle assessment (LCA) were constructed, and the GaBi software was used to assess the environmental dimensions. The framework of life cycle costing (LCC) was used to assess the economic dimensions from the perspective of consumers. The indicators of the social life cycle assessment (SLCA) of stakeholders were constructed to assess the social dimension. Then, the method of the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was selected for multicriteria decision-making in order to integrate the three dimensions. A specific conclusion was drawn from a comparison of BEVs and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). The study found that the life cycle sustainability of ICEVs in China was better than that of BEVs. This result might be unexpected, but there were reasons for it. Through sensitivity analysis, it was concluded that the current power structure and energy consumption in the operation phase of BEVs had a higher environmental impact, and the high cost of batteries and the government subsidy policy had a higher impact on the cost of BEVs. Corresponding suggestions are put forward at the end of the article

Simultaneous determination of carbamate and benzoylurea pesticides in vegetables and fruits with QuEChERS method

A QuEChERS high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method for the determination of carbamate and benzoylurea pesticides in vegetables and fruits was established.The recovery rate of pesticide components is between 70.5% and 118.5%,and the relative standard deviation (RSD) is between 2.6% and 9.8%.The detection limit is between 0.02~0.30 mg/kg,meeting the requirements of the national standard for the detection limit.The developed method is rapid,simple,economical and environment-friendly,and is easy to be popularized in local inspection institutions