Protective effect of ginkgolide B against isoproterenolinduced chronic heart failure in rats via modulation of Nrf2 and HO-1 signaling pathways

Purpose: To determine the protective effect of ginkgolide B (GB) against isoproterenol (ISO)-induced chronic heart failure in a rat model. Methods: A total of 32 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups. Rats in control group received only saline, while rats in GB alone group were injected with GB at a dose of 20 mg/kg body weight (bwt) intraperitoneally (i.p). Another group of rats was injected with ISO  subcutaneously (s.c.) at a dose of 85 mg/kg for 2 days (ISO group). Rats in the GB+ISO group were administered GB at a dose of 20 mg/kg, i.p., for 7 days prior to exposure to ISO s.c. at a dose of 85 mg/kg. Results: Rats pre-treated with GB for 7 days prior to ISO exposure showed a significant decrease in cardiac infarct size, and marked decreases in the levels of cardiac biomarkers, inflammatory and apoptotic biomarkers, and lipid peroxidation (p < 0.05), but significant improvement in the levels ofendogenous antioxidants (p < 0.05). In addition, GB administration resulted in marked increases in the protein expression levels of heme  oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and Nrf2 in cardiac tissue (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These results indicate that pre-treatment of chronic heart failure rats with GB for 7 consecutive days considerably lowered inflammatory and apoptotic markers via upregulation of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway. Thus, GB has cardioprotective potential in humans. Keywords: Ginkgolide B, Nrf2/HO-1, Inflammatory markers, Apoptotic markers, Antioxidant

Representation and measurement of the beam health based on one-dimensional model

This paper proposes a method for online structural health evaluation, and analyzes the correlation between online monitoring data and structural health status. On the basis of this analysis, the structural health can be evaluated by using the deviation of the current status from the initially designed status. The health degree index, representation and measurement models are also defined for structural health evaluation in this work. A numerical case study is conducted to validate the related concept and health evaluation model using a beam under pressure loads. The results indicate that the proposed method can effectively represent the structural health status

Barrier Inhomogeneity of Schottky Diode on Nonpolar AlN Grown by Physical Vapor Transport

An aluminum nitride (AlN) Schottky barrier diode (SBD) was fabricated on a nonpolar AlN crystal grown on tungsten substrate by physical vapor transport. The Ni/Au-AlN SBD features a low ideality factor n of 3.3 and an effective Schottky barrier height (SBH) of 1.05 eV at room temperature. The ideality factor n decreases and the effective SBH increases at high temperatures. The temperature dependences of n and SBH were explained using an inhomogeneous model. A mean SBH of 2.105 eV was obtained for the Ni-AlN Schottky junction from the inhomogeneity analysis of the current-voltage characteristics. An equation in which the parameters have explicit physical meanings in thermionic emission theory is proposed to describe the current-voltage characteristics of inhomogeneous SBDs.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure