The effects of corn silk on glycaemic metabolism

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Corn silk contains proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, Ca, K, Mg and Na salts, fixed and volatile oils, steroids such as sitosterol and stigmasterol, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, and flavonoids. Base on folk remedies, corn silk has been used as an oral antidiabetic agent in China for decades. However, the hypoglycemic activity of it has not yet been understood in terms of modern pharmacological concepts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of corn silk on glycaemic metabolism.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Alloxan and adrenalin induced hyperglycemic mice were used in the study. The effects of corn silk on blood glucose, glycohemoglobin (HbA1c), insulin secretion, damaged pancreatic β-cells, hepatic glycogen and gluconeogenesis in hyperglycemic mice were studied respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After the mice were orally administered with corn silk extract, the blood glucose and the HbA1c were significantly decreased in alloxan-induced hyperglycemic mice (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, respectively), while the level of insulin secretionn was markedly elevated in alloxa-induced hyperglycemic mice (p < 0.05). The alloxan-damaged pancreatic β-cells of the mice were partly recovered gradually after the mice were administered with corn silk extract 15 days later. Also, the body weight of the alloxan-induced hyperglycemic mice was increased gradually. However, ascension of blood glucose induced by adrenalin and gluconeogenesis induced by L-alanine were not inhibited by corn silk extract treatment (p > 0.05). Although corn silk extract increased the level of hepatic glycogen in the alloxan-induced hyperglycemic mice, there was no significant difference between them and that of the control group(p > 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Corn silk extract markedly reduced hyperglycemia in alloxan-induced diabetic mice. The action of corn silk extract on glycaemic metabolism is not via increasing glycogen and inhibiting gluconeogenesis but through increasing insulin level as well as recovering the injured β-cells. The results suggest that corn silk extract may be used as a hypoglycemic food or medicine for hyperglycemic people in terms of this modern pharmacological study.</p

Photonic Metamaterial Analogue of a Continuous Time Crystal

Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter with broken time-translation symmetry. Quantum time crystals with discretely broken time-translation symmetry have been demonstrated in trapped ions, atoms and spins while continuously broken time-translation symmetry has been observed in an atomic condensate inside an optical cavity. Here we report that a classical metamaterial nanostructure, a two-dimensional array of plasmonic metamolecules supported on flexible nanowires, can be driven to a state possessing all of the key features of a continuous time crystal: continuous coherent illumination by light resonant with the metamolecules' plasmonic mode triggers a spontaneous phase transition to a superradiant-like state of transmissivity oscillations, resulting from many-body interactions among the metamolecules, characterized by long-range order in space and time. The phenomenon is of interest to the study of dynamic classical many-body states in the strongly correlated regime and applications in all-optical modulation, frequency conversion and timing.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Generation of Ultra-intense Gamma-ray Train by QED Harmonics

When laser intensity exceeds 10^22W/cm^2, photons with energy above MeV can be generated from high-order harmonics process in the laser-plasma interaction. We find that under such laser intensity, QED effect plays a dominating role in the radiation pattern. Contrast to the gas and relativistic HHG processes, both the occurrence and energy of gamma-ray emission produced by QED harmonics are random and QED harmonics are usually not coherent, while the property of high intensity and ultra-short duration is conserved. Our simulation shows that the period of gamma-ray train is half of the laser period and the peak intensity is 1.4e22W/cm^2. This new harmonic production with QED effects are crucial to light-matter interaction in strong field and can be verified in experiments by 10PW laser facilities in the near future.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Association of Three Polymorphisms rs11614913, rs2910146, and rs3746444 in miRNA-196a2, miRNA-146a, and miRNA-499 with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background. It has been found that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of microRNA might be involved in the development of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). However, the related retrospective research has not been reported. In this work, we performed a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of the associated relationship. Methods. We searched the studies on the association of SNPs of microRNA with the hereditary susceptibility of IBD in PubMed and Embase; eligible research was selected by screening the abstract and full text. The meta-analysis was performed based on the statistical software Stata 14.0, and besides, the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were calculated to evaluate the strength of the association. Results. 159 papers were acquired from the PubMed and Embase databases, and five eligible articles containing nine case-control studies were selected. In the study, we first found that the association between miRNA-196a2 rs11614913 and IBD was insignificant. Then, the susceptibility of miRNA-146a rs2910146 to IBD increased significantly in allelic comparison, homozygote model, heterozygote model, and dominant model. Moreover, a positive relationship between miRNA-499 rs3746444 and IBD was identified in the homozygote model. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrated that miRNA-146a rs2910146 (G>C) polymorphism was associated with the susceptibility to IBD and miRNA-196a2 rs11614913 (T>C) and miRNA-499 rs3746444 (A>G) did not reveal an obvious relationship with the IBD susceptibility

Bis{tris­[3-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-pyrazole]iron(II)} dodeca­molybdo(V,VI)phosphate hexa­hydrate

Crystals of the title compound, [Fe(C8H7N3)3]2[PMo12O40]·6H2O, prepared under hydro­thermal conditions, are isotypic with the Mn2+ and Cd2+ analogues. The Fe2+ cation is in a distorted octa­hedral coordination by six N atoms from three chelating 3-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-pyrazole ligands. The heteropoly­anion [PMo12O40]4− is a one-electron reduced species in which two O atoms of the central PO4 group ( symmetry) are equally disordered about an inversion centre. N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds make a contribution to the crystal packing. The Fe—N bond lengths [2.085 (19)—2.15 (2) Å] are somewhat shorter than the Mn—N and Cd—N bond lengths [2.224 (6)–2.283 (5) and 2.316 (7)–2.334 (6) Å, respectively]. All other bond lengths and angles and the hydrogen-bonding motifs are very similar in the isotypic structures

Stochastic Spline-Collocation Method for Constrained Optimal Control Problem Governed by Random Elliptic PDE

In this paper, we investigate a stochastic spline-collocation approximation scheme for an optimal control problem governed by an elliptic PDE with random field coefficients. We obtain the necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for the optimal control problem and establish a scheme to approximate the optimality system through the discretization with respect to the spatial space by finite elements method and the probability space by stochastic splinecollocation method. We further investigate Smolyak approximation schemes, which are effective collocation strategies for smooth problems that depend on a moderately large number of random variables. For more general control problems where the state may be non-smooth with respect to the random variables in some areas, we adopt a domain decomposition strategy to partition the random space into smooth and non-smooth parts and then apply Smolyak scheme and spline approximation respectively. A priori error estimates are derived for the state, the co-state and the control variables. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate our theoretical results

Bis{tris­[3-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-pyrazole]nickel(II)} dodeca­molybdo(V,VI)phosphate hexa­hydrate

The hydro­thermally prepared title compound, [Ni(C8H7N3)3]2[PMo12O40]·6H2O, is a member of the isotypic series [(M(C8H7N3)3]2[PMo12O40]·6H2O where M is Mn, Cd, and Fe. The Ni2+ cation is in a distorted octa­hedral environment, coordinated by six N atoms from three chelating 3-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-pyrazole ligands. In the one-electron reduced heteropolyanion, two O atoms of the central PO4 group ( symmetry) are equally disordered about an inversion centre. N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds contribute to the crystal packing. Compared with the isotypic structures, the main difference is related with the M—N bond lengths, whereas all other bond lengths, angles and the hydrogen-bonding motifs are very similar