An investigation of the stability and diffusivity of flexible lipid vesicles for transdermal insulin delivery

Gemstone Team No More NeedlesFlexible lipid vesicles have the potential of complementing or even replacing traditional needle injection methods for insulin delivery. Vesicles are made flexible by the incorporation of a chemical surfactant which may also hinder their stability. We studied the changes in the size and apparent flexibility of vesicles with varying surfactant concentrations over time and the effects these changes have on vesicle diffusion. We found that increased surfactant concentrations lead to greater size fluctuations. In addition, we witnessed a significant decrease in the flexibility of vesicles over six weeks, while the diffusivity of surfactant infused liposomes increased over a single week. Our data suggests that while surfactants are necessary in vesicles for transdermal drug delivery, their long-term stability is uncertain. Using our diffusion data, we developed a model to estimate the insulin delivering capacity of a hypothetical insulin patch which has the potential to stabilize vesicles for extended periods of time

Clinical Study Metformin and Diammonium Glycyrrhizinate Enteric-Coated Capsule versus Metformin Alone versus Diammonium Glycyrrhizinate Enteric-Coated Capsule Alone in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective. The present study was conducted to compare the efficacy of metformin combined with diammonium glycyrrhizinate enteric-coated capsule (DGEC) versus metformin alone versus DGEC alone for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Subjects and Methods. 163 patients with NAFLD and T2DM were enrolled in this 24-week study and were randomized to one of three groups: group 1 was treated with metformin alone; group 2 was treated with DGEC alone; group 3 received metformin plus DGEC combination therapy. Anthropometric parameters, liver function, lipid profile, serum ferritin (SF), metabolic parameters, liver/spleen computed tomography (CT) ratio, and fibroscan value were evaluated at baseline and after 8, 16, and 24 weeks of treatment. Results. After 24 weeks, significant improvements in all measured parameters were observed in three groups ( < 0.05) except for the improvements in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and metabolic parameters in group 2 which did not reach statistical significance ( > 0.05). Compared with group 1 and group 2, the patients in group 3 had greater reductions in observed parameters apart from CB and TB ( < 0.05). Conclusions. This study showed that metformin plus DGEC was more effective than metformin alone or DGEC alone in reducing liver enzymes, lipid levels, and metabolic parameters and ameliorating the degree of hepatic fibrosis in patients with NAFLD and T2DM

Understanding the Role of Video Quality and Emotion in Live Streaming Viewership

Live streaming platforms, such as Twitch and Youtube Live, have become the most prevalent user-generated content platforms globally. Despite the prevalence, scholars and practitioners have spent much effort exploring the engagement pattern and the culture of live streaming communities. In this paper, we investigate the effect of video quality and streamers’ emotional expression on real-time viewership. We first propose a context-aware deep learning model to identify the camera frame and extract video quality and emotion traits from live streaming videos with state-of-art computer vision implementations. We then empirically examine the correlation between the proposed measures and real-time viewership. The preliminary result suggests that live streaming users generally prefer live streaming content with more pleasant valence, less thrilling elements, and “warm” colors. This research takes the first step to examine live streaming videos with the sectional settings and significantly contributes to the live streaming literature from both theoretical and technical perspectives

Change, We Can Believe in: Examining Spillover Effect of Content Switch on Live Streaming Platform

With the increasing popularity of live streaming services, an intensive competition \ emerges among streamers who are streaming during the same time period. In this \ competition, streamers frequently switch their streaming content which drives changes

Raid the Chat Room: The Effects of Group Size on User Engagement in Online Synchronized Communication

Online synchronous platforms, such as live streaming, spend tremendous efforts engaging users in a real-time setting, which has gained considerable popularity very recently. While the existing literature finds that the group size of peers positively affects user engagement on asynchronous platforms, the effect of group size remains unexplored in the context of synchronous streaming. In this work, we leverage the unique raid functionality, an exogenous increase in live streaming viewers, and empirically examine how group size affects users’ real-time commenting engagement. Collecting and analyzing chat history in 13,382 playbacks on Twitch, our result suggests that existing viewers (users who engage in the live streaming channel before the raid) tend to engage less after the raid. The findings in this paper indicate a negative effect of group size on viewer engagement in the synchronous communication setting, which theoretically extends the prior literature in user engagement and crowd effects

Extended Ensemble Approach to Transferable Potentials for Low-Resolution Coarse-Grained Models of Ionomers

We develop an extended ensemble method for constructing transferable, low-resolution coarse-grained (CG) models of polyethylene-oxide (PEO)-based ionomer chains with varying composition at multiple temperatures. In particular, we consider ionomer chains consisting of 4 isophthalate groups, which may be neutral or sulfonated, that are linked by 13 PEO repeat units. The CG models represent each isophthalate group with a single CG site and also explicitly represent the diffusing sodium counterions but do not explicitly represent the PEO backbone. We define the extended ensemble as a collection of equilibrium ensembles that are obtained from united atom (UA) simulations at 2 different temperatures for 7 chemically distinct ionomers with varying degrees of sulfonation. We employ a global force-matching method to determine the set of interaction potentials that, when appropriately combined, provide an optimal approximation to the many-body potential of mean force for each system in the extended ensemble. This optimized xn force field employs long-ranged Coulomb potentials with system-specific dielectric constants that systematically decrease with increasing sulfonation and temperature. An empirical exponential model reasonably describes the sensitivity of the dielectric to sulfonation, but we find it more challenging to model the temperature-dependence of the dielectrics. Nevertheless, given appropriate dielectric constants, the transferable xn force field reasonably describes the ion pairing that is observed in the UA simulations as a function of sulfonation and temperature. Remarkably, despite eliminating any explicit description of the PEO backbone, the CG model predicts string-like ion aggregates that appear qualitatively consistent with the ionomer peak observed in X-ray scattering experiments and, moreover, with the temperature dependence of this peak

Metformin and Diammonium Glycyrrhizinate Enteric-Coated Capsule versus Metformin Alone versus Diammonium Glycyrrhizinate Enteric-Coated Capsule Alone in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective. The present study was conducted to compare the efficacy of metformin combined with diammonium glycyrrhizinate enteric-coated capsule (DGEC) versus metformin alone versus DGEC alone for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Subjects and Methods. 163 patients with NAFLD and T2DM were enrolled in this 24-week study and were randomized to one of three groups: group 1 was treated with metformin alone; group 2 was treated with DGEC alone; group 3 received metformin plus DGEC combination therapy. Anthropometric parameters, liver function, lipid profile, serum ferritin (SF), metabolic parameters, liver/spleen computed tomography (CT) ratio, and fibroscan value were evaluated at baseline and after 8, 16, and 24 weeks of treatment. Results. After 24 weeks, significant improvements in all measured parameters were observed in three groups (P<0.05) except for the improvements in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and metabolic parameters in group 2 which did not reach statistical significance (P>0.05). Compared with group 1 and group 2, the patients in group 3 had greater reductions in observed parameters apart from CB and TB (P<0.05). Conclusions. This study showed that metformin plus DGEC was more effective than metformin alone or DGEC alone in reducing liver enzymes, lipid levels, and metabolic parameters and ameliorating the degree of hepatic fibrosis in patients with NAFLD and T2DM

Shikonin Attenuates Concanavalin A-Induced Acute Liver Injury in Mice via Inhibition of the JNK Pathway

Objective. Shikonin possesses anti-inflammatory effects. However, its function in concanavalin A-induced acute liver injury remains uncertain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the functions of shikonin and its mechanism of protection on ConA-induced acute liver injury. Materials and Methods. Balb/C mice were exposed to ConA (20 mg/kg) via tail vein injection to establish acute liver injury; shikonin (7.5 mg/kg and 12.5 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally administered 2 h before the ConA injection. The serum liver enzyme levels and the inflammatory cytokine levels were determined at 3, 6, and 24 h after ConA injection. Results. After the injection of ConA, inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α, and IFN-γ were significantly increased. Shikonin significantly ameliorated liver injury and histopathological changes and suppressed the release of inflammatory cytokines. The expressions of Bcl-2 and Bax were markedly affected by shikonin pretreatment. LC3, Beclin-1, and p-JNK expression levels were decreased in the shikonin-pretreated groups compared with the ConA-treated groups. Shikonin attenuated ConA-induced liver injury by reducing apoptosis and autophagy through the inhibition of the JNK pathway. Conclusion. Our results indicated that shikonin pretreatment attenuates ConA-induced acute liver injury by inhibiting apoptosis and autophagy through the suppression of the JNK pathway