Sclerostin decreases in regular swimmers after ice swimming and is associated with meteorin-like protein serum levels

Introduction: Cold and exercise are two important stimuli affecting the secretion of osteokines and adipomyokines, which often occur simultaneously. However, few studies have investigated the changes in osteokines and adipomyokines induced by exercise during severe cold and their corresponding associations. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the changes in sclerostin and meteorin-like (metrnl) protein before and after cold exercise (ice swimming [IS]) and observe their correlation.Methods: For this, 56 daily ice swimmers’ data were included in this study. Serum sclerostin and metrnl were measured 30 min before IS and 30 min after. The fat mass, visceral fat area, fat-free mass, skeletal muscle mass, lumbar spine, and femoral neck bone mineral density of the ice swimmers were measured.Results: After IS, sclerostin exhibited significant decreases, whereas metrnl showed no significant change. In addition, the baseline level of sclerostin and the decrease in sclerostin were positively correlated with serum metrnl after adjusting for age, gender, and body composition indicators.Discussion: IS caused a significant decrease in sclerostin but did not affect metrnl. Furthermore, the associations between sclerostin and metrnl suggested a correlation between osteokines and adipomyokines; this encourages future exploration of the interconnection between bone, muscle, and fat, which will be beneficial for identifying potential common therapeutic targets for diseases such as osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and obesity

Monotone iterative method for semilinear impulsive evolution equations of mixed type in Banach spaces

We use a monotone iterative method in the presence of lower and upper solutions to discuss the existence and uniqueness of mild solutions for the initial value problem $$displaylines{ u'(t)+Au(t)= f(t,u(t),Tu(t)),quad tin J,; t eq t_k,cr Delta u |_{t=t_k}=I_k(u(t_k)) ,quad k=1,2,dots ,m,cr u(0)=x_0, }$$ where $A:D(A)subset Eo E$ is a closed linear operator and $-A$ generates a strongly continuous semigroup $T(t)(tgeq 0)$ in $E$. Under wide monotonicity conditions and the non-compactness measure condition of the nonlinearity f, we obtain the existence of extremal mild solutions and a unique mild solution between lower and upper solutions requiring only that $-A$ generate a strongly continuous semigroup

Research on the Status of European and Chinese Trade Competition in the Third Party Market

China’s increasingly important role in the global economy has changed the nature of global competition and reshaped international trade. At the same time, the EU has long been the most important force in global trade and continues to maintain a very large trade surplus. We discussed whether China is an increasingly important competitor of Europe in third-party markets, especially Latin America. More specifically, we have empirically estimated the elasticity of substitution between European exports and Chinese exports to Latin American economies (i.e. Their response to Latin American exports to changes in relative export prices). The results of this article show that over time, the competition between China and the EU in Latin America has increased. Before 2007, the competition between China and the EU was relatively high. Less, this reflects to a certain extent the fact that China mainly exports inferior products. However, since 2007, the substitution elasticity has increased, reflecting China ’s rise in the value chain upstream. We also studied China and the EU’s. The competition between the key industries of the EU exported by the Americas. We found that the competition between China and Europe in the field of motors and road vehicles is more intense. This should be sought Global level to maintain the competitiveness of European sounded the alarm

Mismatch in Urban Construction Land Use and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from China

Seeking land use development strategies is an effective policy tool to support economic development, especially in developing countries. Previous studies evidence the indispensable role of urban construction land use (UCLU) in regional economic development. However, neglecting the two-stage characteristic and mismatch of UCLU could misinterpret the strategy. This study, considering a two-stage characteristic, aims to explore how land use development strategy affects economic development. First, we create a measure for UCLU mismatch. Second, using both linear and nonlinear models, we explore the possible relationship between the land use strategy and economic development. Subsequently, robustness and the potential path-dependent reinforcement loop (PDRL) are discussed further. Finally, the fundamental channels are investigated in the mechanism analysis section. The results confirm that temporary positive effects stimulate economic development, whereas permanent potential negative effects undermine robust economic development. In addition, the PDRL shows that irrational adoption of the strategy would mean succumbing to low- and medium-industries. We also find that land and capital demonstrate exogenous properties that function as visible hands, with economic regulation exploring UCLU mismatches and misallocation of resources. However, the overuse of these two policies could lead to an unhealthy cycle of mutually reinforcing adverse effects. Based on these findings, we propose policy recommendations to support the rational use of this strategy

Ridesharing accessibility from the human eye: Spatial modeling of built environment with street-level images

Scholarly interest in the accessibility of ridesharing services stems from debates within the transportation and planning communities on the inequality of access to transit and the growing digital divide embedded within novel forms of transit services. Contributing to such discussions, this paper considers the city of Atlanta as a case study and explores the links between the spatial disparity of accessibility to different Uber ridesharing products and features of the built environment extracted from Google Street View (GSV) imagery. The variability of wait time for an Uber service is used as a proxy of accessibility, while semantic image segmentation is performed on GSV imagery using a deep learning model DeepLabv3+ to identify notable spatial features captured at the eye-level perspective around service pick-up points. Results from spatial models show that proportions of built environment features such as buildings, vegetation, and terrains are associated with longer waiting times. In contrast, larger salient regions with foreground features are associated with shorter waiting times for several Uber service products

Heat Transfer Performance of Gel Foam Layer with Nanoparticles Doping under a Radiative Heat Flux

The risk of fire in the chemical industry’s production process is fatal. Gel foam has been widely employed in petroleum storage tanks, oil pools, and other petrochemical equipment for fire extinguishing and thermal protection. Recently, nanoparticles have been doped into gel foam to enhance thermal stability and insulation. However, heat transfer behaviors of the gel foam layer containing nanoparticles are still missing. In this study, a numerical heat transfer model of a gel foam layer containing silica nanoparticles under a radiative heat flux was established. Through simulation, the changes in foam thickness and temperature distribution were analyzed. The effects of the maximum heating temperature, initial gas content, nanoparticle size, and concentration on the thermal insulation behavior of the gel foam layer were systematically studied. The results showed that the thermal stability and insulation performance of the three-phase gel foam layer decreased with the increase in the initial gas content and particle size. Increasing the nanoparticle concentration could enhance the foam’s thermal stability and insulation performance. The results provide guidance for a designing gel foam with high thermal protection performance

Synthesis of Carboxyl Modified Polyether Polysiloxane Surfactant for the Biodegradable Foam Fire Extinguishing Agents

It is necessary to develop novel and efficient alternatives to fluorocarbon surfactant and prepare fluorine-free environmentally-friendly fire extinguishing agent. The carboxyl modified polyether polysiloxane surfactant (CMPS) with high surface activity was synthesized via the esterification reaction using hydroxyl-containing polyether modified polysiloxane (HPMS) and maleic anhydride (MA) as raw materials. The process conditions of the esterification reaction were optimized by orthogonal tests, and the optimum process parameters were determined as follows: reaction temperature of 85 °C, reaction time of 4.5 h, isopropyl alcohol content of 20% and the molar ratio of HPMS/MA of 1/1. The chemical structure, surface activity, aggregation behavior, foam properties, wetting properties and electron distribution were systematically investigated. It was found that the carboxyl group was successfully grafted into silicone molecule, and the conjugated system was formed, which changed the interaction force between the molecules and would affect the surface activity of the aqueous solution. The CMPS exhibited excellent surface activity and could effectively reduce the water’s surface tension to 18.46 mN/m. The CMPS formed spherical aggregates in aqueous solution, and the contact angle value of CMPS is 15.56°, illustrating that CMPS had excellent hydrophilicity and wetting performance. The CMPS can enhance the foam property and has good stability. The electron distribution results indicate that the introduced carboxyl groups are more inclined towards the negative charge band, which would be conducive to weak the interaction between molecules and improve the surface activity of the solution. Consequently, new foam fire extinguishing agents were prepared by using CMPS as a key component and they exhibited excellent fire-fighting performance. The prepared CMPS would be the optimal alternative to fluorocarbon surfactant and could be applied in foam extinguishing agents

Modeling organochlorine compounds and the σ-hole effect using a polarizable multipole force field.

The charge distribution of halogen atoms on organochlorine compounds can be highly anisotropic and even display a so-called σ-hole, which leads to strong halogen bonds with electron donors. In this paper, we have systematically investigated a series of chloromethanes with one to four chloro substituents using a polarizable multipole-based molecular mechanics model. The atomic multipoles accurately reproduced the ab initio electrostatic potential around chloromethanes, including CCl4, which has a prominent σ-hole on the Cl atom. The van der Waals parameters for Cl were fitted to the experimental density and heat of vaporization. The calculated hydration free energy, solvent reaction fields, and interaction energies of several homo- and heterodimer of chloromethanes are in good agreement with experimental and ab initio data. This study suggests that sophisticated electrostatic models, such as polarizable atomic multipoles, are needed for accurate description of electrostatics in organochlorine compounds and halogen bonds, although further improvement is necessary for better transferability

β Sheets Not Required: Combined Experimental and Computational Studies of Self-Assembly and Gelation of the Ester-Containing Analogue of an Fmoc-Dipeptide Hydrogelator

In our work toward developing ester-containing self-assembling peptides as soft biomaterials, we have found that a fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-conjugated alanine-lactic acid (Ala-Lac) sequence self-assembles into nanostructures that gel in water. This process occurs despite Fmoc-Ala-Lac’s inability to interact with other Fmoc-Ala-Lac molecules via β-sheet-like amide–amide hydrogen bonding, a condition previously thought to be crucial to the self-assembly of Fmoc-conjugated peptides. Experimental comparisons of Fmoc-Ala-Lac to its self-assembling peptide sequence analogue Fmoc-Ala-Ala using a variety of microscopic, spectroscopic, and bulk characterization techniques demonstrate distinct features of the two systems and show that while angstrom-scale self-assembled structures are similar, their nanometer-scale size and morphological properties diverge and give rise to different bulk mechanical properties. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to gain more insight into the differences between the two systems. An analysis of the hydrogen-bonding and solvent-surface interface properties of the simulated fibrils revealed that Fmoc-Ala-Lac fibrils are stronger and less hydrophilic than Fmoc-Ala-Ala fibrils. We propose that this difference in fibril amphiphilicity gives rise to differences in the higher-order assembly of fibrils into nanostructures seen in TEM. Importantly, we confirm experimentally that β-sheet-type hydrogen bonding is not crucial to the self-assembly of short, conjugated peptides, and we demonstrate computationally that the amide bond in such systems may act mainly to mediate the solvation of the self-assembled single fibrils and therefore regulate a more extensive higher-order aggregation of fibrils. This work provides a basic understanding for future research in designing highly degradable self-assembling materials with peptide-like bioactivity for biomedical applications