Effect of bupleurum liver-coursing powder on acute gastric ulcer and expressions of gastric mucosal epidermal growth factor and receptor

Purpose: To investigate the ameliorative effect of bupleurum liver-coursing powder on symptoms of acute gastric ulcer (AGU), and on the expressions of gastric mucosal epidermal growth factor (EGF) and EGF receptor (EGFR).Methods: A total of 120 patients were recruited over a 1-year period for this study, and assigned to observation and control groups (60 patients each). The observation group consisted of 31 males and 29 females aged between 23 and 55 years (mean age, 38.77 ± 4.36 years; mean disease history, 7.94 ± 2.49 days). Control group consisted of 33 males and 27 females aged between 26 and 51 years (mean age, 37.68 ± 4.67 years; mean disease history, 8.06 ± 2.31 days). Following 14 days of treatment, clinical symptoms such as gastric swelling and pain, chest distress, belching, and sour regurgitation were recorded and analyzed. Serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6 and TNF-α were assayed using ELISA, while the expressions of EGF and EGFR were determined using immuno-histochemical staining.Results: Total effectiveness (recovery, excellent, effective and ineffective) in observation patients (91.70 %) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in control group (65.0 %). Prior to treatment, both groups were comparable with respect to the major symptoms of AGU, and serum levels of CRP, TNF-α and IL-6. However, there were significant reductions in symptoms and serum levels of CRP, TNF-α and IL-6 in bupleurum liver-coursing powder-treated patients, post-treatment (p < 0.05). Similarly, after treatment, there were significant increases in the expressions of EGF and EGFR in the observation patients, relative to control patients (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Bupleurum liver-coursing powder is effective in ameliorating symptoms of AGU, and it enhances the expressions of EGF and EGFR.Keywords: Acute gastric ulcer, Bupleurum liver-coursing powder, Inflammation-related factors, Epithelial growth factor, Recepto

Resonant waves in the gap between two advancing barges

The gap resonance between two advancing rectangular barges in side-by-side arrangement is investigated using a 3-D Rankine source method. A modified Sommerfeld radiation condition accounting for Doppler shift is applied for the low forward speed problem when the scattered waves could propagate ahead of the barges. Numerical studies are conducted to investigate various factors which will influence the wave resonance in the narrow gap with particular attention paid on the forward speed effect and its coupling effects with gap width and draft. It is found that in the absence of forward speed, the trapped water surface oscillates like a flexible plate and the wave flow within the gap behaves like a standing wave. When the two barges are travelling ahead, the resonant wave patterns within the gap are reshaped. Additionally, the resonant frequencies shift to lower value and are compressed within a narrow range. Gap resonances are reduced by the augment of gap width. The effect of draft is shown to be associated with resonant modes. Draft effect becomes less pronounced at higher order resonant modes. Furthermore, both gap width and draft effects on gap resonance are found to be independent from forward speed

Metabolomic analysis of human oral cancer cells with adenylate kinase 2 or phosphorylate glycerol kinase 1 inhibition.

The purpose of this study was to use liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) with XCMS for a quantitative metabolomic analysis of UM1 and UM2 oral cancer cells after knockdown of metabolic enzyme adenylate kinase 2 (AK2) or phosphorylate glycerol kinase 1 (PGK1). UM1 and UM2 cells were initially transfected with AK2 siRNA, PGK1 siRNA or scrambled control siRNA, and then analyzed with LC-MS for metabolic profiles. XCMS analysis of the untargeted metabolomics data revealed a total of 3200-4700 metabolite features from the transfected UM1 or UM2 cancer cells and 369-585 significantly changed metabolites due to AK2 or PGK1 suppression. In addition, cluster analysis showed that a common group of metabolites were altered by AK2 knockdown or by PGK1 knockdown between the UM1 and UM2 cells. However, the set of significantly changed metabolites due to AK2 knockdown was found to be distinct from those significantly changed by PGK1 knockdown. Our study has demonstrated that LC-MS with XCMS is an efficient tool for metabolomic analysis of oral cancer cells, and knockdown of different genes results in distinct changes in metabolic phenotypes in oral cancer cells

Privacy-Preserving Federated Deep Clustering based on GAN

Federated clustering (FC) is an essential extension of centralized clustering designed for the federated setting, wherein the challenge lies in constructing a global similarity measure without the need to share private data. Conventional approaches to FC typically adopt extensions of centralized methods, like K-means and fuzzy c-means. However, these methods are susceptible to non-independent-and-identically-distributed (non-IID) data among clients, leading to suboptimal performance, particularly with high-dimensional data. In this paper, we present a novel approach to address these limitations by proposing a Privacy-Preserving Federated Deep Clustering based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). Each client trains a local generative adversarial network (GAN) locally and uploads the synthetic data to the server. The server applies a deep clustering network on the synthetic data to establish $k$ cluster centroids, which are then downloaded to the clients for cluster assignment. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that the GAN-generated samples, shared among clients, inherently uphold certain privacy guarantees, safeguarding the confidentiality of individual data. Furthermore, extensive experimental evaluations showcase the effectiveness and utility of our proposed method in achieving accurate and privacy-preserving federated clustering

Federated clustering with GAN-based data synthesis

Federated clustering (FC) is an extension of centralized clustering in federated settings. The key here is how to construct a global similarity measure without sharing private data, since the local similarity may be insufficient to group local data correctly and the similarity of samples across clients cannot be directly measured due to privacy constraints. Obviously, the most straightforward way to analyze FC is to employ the methods extended from centralized ones, such as K-means (KM) and fuzzy c-means (FCM). However, they are vulnerable to non independent-and-identically-distributed (non-IID) data among clients. To handle this, we propose a new federated clustering framework, named synthetic data aided federated clustering (SDA-FC). It trains generative adversarial network locally in each client and uploads the generated synthetic data to the server, where KM or FCM is performed on the synthetic data. The synthetic data can make the model immune to the non-IID problem and enable us to capture the global similarity characteristics more effectively without sharing private data. Comprehensive experiments reveals the advantages of SDA-FC, including superior performance in addressing the non-IID problem and the device failures

State-independent geometric quantum gates via nonadiabatic and noncyclic evolution

Geometric phases are robust to local noises and the nonadiabatic ones can reduce the evolution time, thus nonadiabatic geometric gates have strong robustness and can approach high fidelity. However, the advantage of geometric phase has not being fully explored in previous investigations. Here, we propose a scheme for universal quantum gates with pure nonadiabatic and noncyclic geometric phases from smooth evolution paths. In our scheme, only geometric phase can be accumulated in a fast way, and thus it not only fully utilizes the local noise resistant property of geometric phase but also reduces the difficulty in experimental realization. Numerical results show that the implemented geometric gates have stronger robustness than dynamical gates and the geometric scheme with cyclic path. Furthermore, we propose to construct universal quantum gate on superconducting circuits, and the gate fidelity can be $99.97\%$ and $99.87\%$, respectively. Therefore, these high-fidelity quantum gates are promising for large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computation

Salvianolic acid B prevents epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition through the TGF-β1 signal transduction pathway in vivo and in vitro

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Salvianolic Acid B (Sal B) is a water-soluble component from Danshen (a traditional Chinese herb widely used for chronic renal diseases) with anti-oxidative and cell protective properties. Sal B also has potential protective effects on renal diseases. Tubular epithelial cells can undergo epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of renal interstitial fibrosis (RIF) and is mainly regulated by TGF-β1/Smads pathway. The aims of the study are to investigate the effect of Sal B on tubular EMT <it>in vivo </it>and <it>in vitro</it>, and to elucidate its underlying mechanism against EMT related to TGF-β1/Smads pathway.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For <it>in vivo </it>experiments, RIF was induced in rats by oral administration of HgCl₂and prophylaxised with Sal B and vitamin E. The protein expression of E-cadherin was down-regulated, while the expression of α-SMA, TGF-β1, TβR-I, p-Smad2/3 and the activity of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) were up-regulated in kidneys of model rats when compared with those of normal rats. In contrast, Sal B and vitamin E significantly attenuated the expression of α-SMA, TGF-β1, TβR-I, p-Smad2/3, and MMP-2 activity, but increased E-cadherin expression. For <it>in vitro </it>experiments, HK-2 cells were incubated with TGF-β1 to induce EMT, and the cells were co-cultured with 1 and 10 μM Sal B or SB-431542 (a specific inhibitor of TβR-I kinase). TGF-β1 induced a typical EMT in HK-2 cells, while it was blocked by Sal B and SB-431542, as evidenced by blocking morphologic transformation, restoring E-cadherin and CK-18 expression, inhibiting α-SMA expression and F-actin reorganization, and down-regulating MMP-2/9 activities in TGF-β1 mediated HK-2 cells. Furthermore, Sal B and SB-431542 profoundly down-regulated the expressions of TβR-I and p-Smad2/3 but prevented the decreased expression of Smad7 in TGF-β1 stimulated HK-2 cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Sal B can prevent tubular EMT in the fibrotic kidney induced by HgCl₂as well as HK-2 cells triggered by TGF-β1, the mechanism of Sal B is closely related to the regulation of TGF-β1/Smads pathway, manifested as the inhibition of TGF-β1 expression, suppression of TβR-I expression and function, down-regulation of Smad2/3 phosphorylation, and restoration of the down-regulation of Smad7, as well as inhibition of MMP-2 activity.</p

Experimental study of a new type of floating breakwater

A new type of floating breakwater (FB) is proposed in this paper. Its hydrodynamic performance has been tested. The structure of the new breakwater named cylindrical floating breakwater (CFB) consists of two parts: a main body of rigid cylinders, and a flexible mesh cage containing a number of suspending balls that are intended to absorb the wave energy into their mechanical energy. A series of experiments were carried out on the new floating breakwater and traditional double pontoons and box floating breakwaters to compare their performances. A two-dimensional wave flume was used in the experiment; the incident and transmitted waves, the tensions on the mooring lines and the motion responses of the floating breakwaters were measured. Results showed that the new floating breakwater had a better performance than the traditional double pontoons and the box floating breakwaters: wave transmission was significantly reduced by the mesh cage with the balls, especially for long waves