Moxibustion has a positive effect on pulmonary fibrosis: an alternative approach

Background: An increasing number of people suffered idiopathic fibrosis (IPF) and the current treatment was far from clinical satisfaction. Moxibustion, another effective and safe unconventional therapy, had been introduced to treat this refractory disease. The study aimed to investigate the effect of moxibustion on a bleomycin A5-induced pulmonary fibrosis model.Materials and Methods: Sprague-dawley (SD) rats were randomly allocated to the blank group, model group, moxibustion group, and prednisone group, for which they received no treatment, modeling, moxibustion treatment and prednisone treatment. After four-week treatment, the rats were euthanized for Hematoxylin and Eosin (H.E.) staining, and TGF-β1 and IFN-γ protein and mRNA detection in lungs.Results: In the model group, TGF-β1 was significantly increased and IFN-γ was significantly decreased at both protein and mRNA levels in comparison to the blank group. In the moxibustion and prednisone group, however, TGF- β1 was decreased and IFN-γ was increased at both protein and mRNA levels in comparison to the model groups. Compared with prednisone, moxibustion showed comparable effect in lowing TGF-β1 (P>0.05) and better effect in up-regulating IFN-γ(P>0.05).Conclusion: The study concludes moxibustion protected pulmonary fibrosis by downregulating TGF-β1 and upregulating IFN-γ cytokines at both mRNA and protein levels, and the effect was comparable to prednisone. Moxibustion could be used as a therapeutic alternative treatment for pulmonary fibrosis.Keywords: moxibustion; pulmonary fibrosis; TGF-β1; IFN-γ; rat

Problems Faced by Rice Growing Farmers and Their Behavior to the Government Policies:; A Case from Pakistan

Importance of rice in agricultural crops cannot be ignored as it is the staple food for more than fifty percent population of the world and a big source to cope with the food security issues of the world. Considering the importance of rice the year 2004 was declared as the international year of rice by FAO .Rice is cultivated over one hundred countries in the world. During 2011-2012, rice production in the world was 718.345 million tons and it was cultivated over an area of 163.463 million hectares.  In Pakistan, rice also enjoys a prominent status among cereal crops as in terms of area it is the third largest crop of Pakistan. In 2011-2012 rice was cultivated on 2.571 million hectares with production of 6.16 million tones and the average yield remained 2396 kg/ha. In the year 2012-2013, Per capita rice consumption in Pakistan is 15.30 kg/year. Since rice is not a staple food in Pakistan so every year a considerable quantity of rice produce is exported to earn foreign exchange. This present study was conducted in 2013 in two tehsils; namely Daska and Pasroor of Sialkot district of Punjab province of Pakistan. The main purpose of the study was to inquire the problems faced by rice farmers at different stages of rice cultivation i.e. rice production, rice crop protection and rice marketing stages. Out of the four tehsils of districts Sialkot, two tehsils were purposely selected due to the excessive cultivation of rice in these areas. Out of each tehsil, ten villages were randomly selected and out of each village, six farmers were randomly selected. Hence a sample of 120 farmers was selected. The selected farmers were interviewed and data were collected and analyzed. In terms of production related problems the findings showed that farmers perceived high price of fertilizer, shortage of canal water, high price of agricultural input, high rent charges of agricultural machinery, lack of consultancy facilities and lack of credit/finance as the major problems during the rice crop production stage. In terms of rice crop protection related problems, costly pesticides/weedicide and ineffective fungicide were identified by the farmers and in terms of marketing related problems of rice crop, unsatisfactory price offered of the produce, poor transportation, storage issues and lack of knowledge about market prices were identified by the farmers. The farmers also showed great dissatisfaction over the initiatives taken by government authorities to resolve the problems faced by them Keywords: Rice farmer’s problems; production related issues; crop protection related issues; marketing related issues; dissatisfaction level on government policies

Governance strategies for end-of-life electric vehicle battery recycling in China: A tripartite evolutionary game analysis

End-of-life (EOL) electric vehicle (EV) batteries have both economic and environmental benefits if recycled in an environmentally friendly manner while they may cause environmental pollution if treated improperly. China is currently working hard to promote the development of a circular economy by EOL EV battery recycling. However, conflicts of interest among electric vehicle manufacturers (EVMs), consumers, and the government often hinder efficient recycling. This study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model under the condition of bounded rationality, analyzes the evolutionary stability strategy of three participants, and combines with numerical simulation to explore the feasible governance strategies of EOL EV battery recycling. The results show that four evolutionary stable strategies (ESSs) correspond to the three stages of the EOL EV battery recycling industry: early stage, development stage, and maturity stage. In the early stage, the punishment strategy is more critical to motivate EVMs and consumers to actively participate in battery recycling. The subsidy mechanisms can influence the strategic choices of the three participants, but the excessive subsidy is not conducive to the sustainable development of the EOL EV battery industry. In addition, when the industry matures, the government will gradually decrease intervention, thereby realizing the development path of EOL EV battery recycling from exogenous government supervision to endogenous profit drive

Digitalization, resource misallocation and low-carbon agricultural production: evidence from China

With the rapid development of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, China’s agricultural production is entering a new era characterized by digitalization. Based on provincial panel data of China from 2013 to 2020, this paper adopts the system GMM and mediating effects model to systematically examine the impact of digitalization on low-carbon agricultural production from the perspective of resource misallocation. The results indicate that digitalization can significantly curb agricultural carbon emissions and thus promote low-carbon agricultural production, and this finding still holds after the robustness test. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the inhibiting effect of digitalization on agricultural carbon emissions is most pronounced in the eastern region relative to the central and western regions (the regression coefficients are −0.400 and −0.126 respectively). Further mechanism analysis suggests that digitalization can reduce agricultural carbon emissions by correcting the widespread capital and labor misallocation in agricultural factor markets. The findings of this study provide significant policy implications for low-carbon agricultural production in China

Two novel hierarchical homogeneous nanoarchitectures of TiO2 nanorods branched and P25-coated TiO2 nanotube arrays and their photocurrent performances

We report here for the first time the synthesis of two novel hierarchical homogeneous nanoarchitectures of TiO2 nanorods branched TiO2 nanotube arrays (BTs) and P25-coated TiO2 nanotube arrays (PCTs) using two-step method including electrochemical anodization and hydrothermal modification process. Then the photocurrent densities versus applied potentials of BTs, PCTs, and pure TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs) were investigated as well. Interestingly, at -0.11 V and under the same illumination condition, the photocurrent densities of BTs and PCTs show more than 1.5 and 1 times higher than that of pure TNTAs, respectively, which can be mainly attributed to significant improvement of the light-absorbing and charge-harvesting efficiency resulting from both larger and rougher surface areas of BTs and PCTs. Furthermore, these dramatic improvements suggest that BTs and PCTs will achieve better photoelectric conversion efficiency and become the promising candidates for applications in DSSCs, sensors, and photocatalysis

MOXIBUSTION HAS A POSITIVE EFFECT ON PULMONARY FIBROSIS: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH

Background: An increasing number of people suffered idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and the current treatment was far from clinical satisfaction. Moxibustion, another effective and safe unconventional therapy, had been introduced to treat this refractory disease. The study aimed to investigate the effect of moxibustion on a bleomycin A5-induced pulmonary fibrosis model”. Please add a” before bleomycin A5. Please capital Eosin in Hematoxylin and Eosin (H.E.) staining. Materials and Methods: Sprague-dawley (SD) rats were randomly allocated to the blank group, model group, moxibustion group, and prednisone group, for which they received no treatment, modeling, moxibustion treatment and prednisone treatment. After four-week treatment, the rats were euthanized for Hematoxylin and Eosin (H.E.) staining, and TGF-β1 and IFN-γ protein and mRNA detection in lungs. Results: In the model group, TGF-β1 was significantly increased and IFN-γ was significantly decreased at both protein and mRNA levels in comparison to the blank group. In the moxibustion and prednisone groups, however, TGF-β1 was decreased and IFN-γ was increased at both protein and mRNA levels in comparison to the model group. Compared with prednisone, moxibustion showed comparable effect in lowing TGF-β1 (P>0.05) and better effect in up-regulating IFN-γ (

Clinical Study Age-Associated Reduction of Asymmetry in Human Central Auditory Function: A 1H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of age on hemispheric asymmetry in the auditory cortex after pure tone stimulation. Ten young and 8 older healthy volunteers took part in this study. Two-dimensional multivoxel 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans were performed before and after stimulation. The ratios of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), glutamate/glutamine (Glx), and -amino butyric acid (GABA) to creatine (Cr) were determined and compared between the two groups. The distribution of metabolites between the left and right auditory cortex was also determined. Before stimulation, left and right side NAA/Cr and right side GABA/Cr were significantly lower, whereas right side Glx/Cr was significantly higher in the older group compared with the young group. After stimulation, left and right side NAA/Cr and GABA/Cr were significantly lower, whereas left side Glx/Cr was significantly higher in the older group compared with the young group. There was obvious asymmetry in right side Glx/Cr and left side GABA/Cr after stimulation in young group, but not in older group. In summary, there is marked hemispheric asymmetry in auditory cortical metabolites following pure tone stimulation in young, but not older adults. This reduced asymmetry in older adults may at least in part underlie the speech perception difficulties/presbycusis experienced by aging adults

Molecular characterization of methicillin-resistant and -susceptible Staphylococcus aureus recovered from hospital personnel

Introduction Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the major causes of hospital acquired infections. Over the past two decades MRSA has become ‘epidemic’ in many hospitals worldwide. However, little is known about the genetic background of S. aureus recovered from hospital personnel in China. Aim The aim of this study was to determine the genetic diversity of MRSA and methicillin susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) recovered from hospital personnel in Tianjin, North China. Methodology Three hundred and sixty-eight hand or nasal swabs were collected from 276 hospital personnel in four tertiary hospitals in Tianjin, North China between November 2017 and March 2019. In total, 535 gram-positive bacteria were isolated, of which 59 were identified as S. aureus. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and spa typing were performed to determine molecular characteristics of S. aureus. Results Thirty-one out of 276 (11%) hospital personnel were S. aureus carriers, whereas 11/276 (4%) carried MRSA. Fifty out of 59 (85%) of S. aureus isolates were resistant or intermediate resistant to erythromycin. The dominant genotypes of MRSA recovered from hospital personnel were ST398-t034-SCCmecIV/V, and ST630-t084/t2196, whereas major genotypes of MSSA included ST15-t078/t084/t346/t796/t8862/ t8945/t11653 and ST398-t189/t034/ t078/t084/t14014. Conclusion Although, the predominant genotypes of MRSA recovered from hospital personnel in this study were different from those main genotypes that have previously been reported to cause infections in Tianjin and in other geographic areas of China, the MRSA ST398-t034 genotype has previously been reported to be associated with livestock globally. The dominant MSSA genotypes recovered from hospital personnel were consistent with those previously reported MSSA genotypes recovered from the clinic. The diversity of S. aureus genotypes warrantee further surveillance and genomic studies to better understand the relatedness of these bacteria with those recovered from patients and community