Unveiling the potential of Butylphthalide: inhibiting osteoclastogenesis and preventing bone loss

Osteoporosis, resulting from overactive osteoclasts and leading to elevated fracture risk, has emerged as a global public health concern due to the aging population. Therefore, inhibiting osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption function represents a crucial approach for preventing and treating osteoporosis. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects and molecular mechanisms of Butylphthalide (NBP) on the differentiation and function of osteoclasts induced by RANKL. Osteoclastogenesis was assessed through TRAP staining and bone slice assay. An animal model that underwent ovariectomy, simulating postmenopausal women’s physiological characteristics, was established to investigate the impact of Butylphthalide on ovariectomy-induced bone loss. To delve deeper into the specific mechanisms, we employed Western blot, PCR, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemical staining to detect the expression of proteins that are associated with the osteoclast signaling pathway. In this study, we found that Butylphthalide not only suppressed osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption in vitro but also significantly decreased TRAcP-positive osteoclasts and prevented bone loss in vivo. Further mechanistic experiments revealed that Butylphthalide reduces intracellular ROS in osteoclasts, inhibits the MAPK and NFATc1 signaling pathways, and downregulates the key genes and proteins of osteoclasts. This inhibits osteoclast formation and function. The reduction in ROS in osteoclasts is intricately linked to the activity of Butylphthalide-modulated antioxidant enzymes. Overall, NBP may offer a alternative treatment option with fewer side effects for skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis

Transposable element-initiated enhancer-like elements generate the subgenome-biased spike specificity of polyploid wheat

Transposable elements (TEs) comprise ~85% of the common wheat genome, which are highly diverse among subgenomes, possibly contribute to polyploid plasticity, but the causality is only assumed. Here, by integrating data from gene expression cap analysis and epigenome profiling via hidden Markov model in common wheat, we detect a large proportion of enhancer-like elements (ELEs) derived from TEs producing nascent noncoding transcripts, namely ELE-RNAs, which are well indicative of the regulatory activity of ELEs. Quantifying ELE-RNA transcriptome across typical developmental stages reveals that TE-initiated ELE-RNAs are mainly from RLG_famc7.3 specifically expanded in subgenome A. Acquisition of spike-specific transcription factor binding likely confers spike-specific expression of RLG_famc7.3-initiated ELE-RNAs. Knockdown of RLG_famc7.3-initiated ELE-RNAs resulted in global downregulation of spike-specific genes and abnormal spike development. These findings link TE expansion to regulatory specificity and polyploid developmental plasticity, highlighting the functional impact of TE-driven regulatory innovation on polyploid evolution

A qualitative examination on the implementation of participatory “A”rt-based activity on “Health” of older community-dwellers: what worked for the Singapore A-Health Intervention?

Introduction: Art and museum-based interventions are gaining increasing recognition for their potential as low-risk activities for older adults, offering numerous physical, cognitive, and emotional benefits. However, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding the science of implementation as well as the factors and processes that contribute to their effectiveness from the perspectives of intervention participants. Methods: The current research draws on the qualitative evaluation data obtained from a larger mixed-method randomized control trial that evaluated a standardized Participatory “A”rt-Based Activity On “Health” of Older Community-Dwellers—the Singapore A-Health Intervention. Adopting a participatory action research approach, the primary objective is to critically examine the lived experiences and health impact of the Singapore A-Health Intervention with a secondary objective to uncover strategies for optimized implementation outcomes. All 56 participants who completed the intervention filled out a program evaluation survey and a nested sample of 30 participants completed a series of acceptability focus groups. Results: Descriptive analyses of the program evaluation survey data revealed that 96.2% of participants were satisfied with the overall experience of the Singapore A-Health intervention (M = 9.00, SD = 1.76), reported that the intervention positively impacted their quality of life (M = 8.90, SD = 1.43), and social wellbeing (M = 8.92, SD = 1.43). Thematic analysis with a grounded theory approach on the qualitative focus group data revealed three interrelated themes detailing how the Singapore A-Health Intervention contributed to positive health and wellbeing outcomes (1. A-Health Experience, 2. Wellbeing Outcomes, 3. Enabling Factors) and nine subthemes (1a. Intellectual Stimulation, 1b. Positive Stress, 1c. Peer Interaction, 2a. Interpersonal Bonds, 2b. Personal Growth, 2c. Mindful Living, 3a. Integrated Support, 3b. Session Design, 3c. Mode of Engagement). Discussion: This investigation provides important insights to the Singapore A-Health intervention’s effectiveness for enhancing wellbeing among older adults, as well as the factors that enable successful program implementation. These findings offer a culturally unique perspective on the benefits of art and museum interventions, while underscoring the imperative need for strong partnership and collaborations among community stakeholders in supporting the health and wellbeing of ageing populations

Effects of participatory ‘A’rt-Based Activity On ‘Health’ of Older Community-Dwellers: results from a randomized control trial of the Singapore A-Health Intervention

Introduction: The practice of participatory art has been found to support the promotion, prevention, and management of health across the lifespan. However, clinical trials investigating the benefits of creative activities curated with and conducted in museums among older adults in East Asia remains limited. Methods: The current research utilized a single-site, open-label randomized control trial (RCT) to evaluate a standardized Participatory ‘A’rt-Based Activity On ‘Health’ of Older Community-Dwellers – the Singapore A-Health Intervention. Outcome measures include frailty as assessed by the Centre of Excellence on Longevity Self-administered Questionnaire, wellbeing as assessed by the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales, and quality of life as assessed by the EuroQol-5D. 112 participants aged 60 and above were randomized into the intervention group (n = 56) or an inactive control group (n = 56). Participants completed four standardized online self-administered assessments at baseline, 5-week, 9-week and 12-week follow-up during the intervention period. Results: Linear mixed model analyses revealed no statistically significant differences between the intervention group and control group for all outcome measures. However, within the intervention group, a consistent significant reduction in frailty was observed across time from baseline to 9 weeks (MD −0.44, 95% CI −0.85 to −0.039, p = 0.032), 5-weeks to 9-weeks (MD −0.64, 95% CI −1.03 to −0.24, p = 0.002), and 5-weeks to 12-weeks (MD −0.51, 95% CI −0.91 to −0.10, p = 0.014). Moreover, the post-test mean wellbeing score in the intervention group significantly improved over time at 9-weeks (MD 1.65, 95% CI 0.09 to 3.22, p = 0.039) and 12-week (MD 2.42, 95% CI 0.67 to 4.16, p = 0.006) as compared to baseline scores. Discussion: The findings demonstrate the potential of a structured art and museum-based intervention as a resource for promoting health among aging populations. Such benefits transcend social, cultural, and societal contexts. Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrial.gov, NCT05945589

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Big Data in Medical Research and Application

With the advanced instruments and information technology integrated in biomedical science more and more extensively, the advent of the big data era has had a significant impact on biomedical research, making human awareness of themselves and diseases more profound. The future medicine tends to combine data and medicine, to master gene database and medical human disease data, then to apply data statistics and analysis and application in healthcare. New techniques of big data in medicine are bound to make medical research and application more predictable. This paper introduces the main sources and characteristics of medical big data, points out the necessity of big data research in medical field, summarizes the current research in medical big data and its application in disease prediction, clinical assistance and pharmaceutical research and development. In other aspects, it analyses the problems of medical big data in applied research

Scalable Optimal Margin Distribution Machine

Optimal margin Distribution Machine (ODM) is a newly proposed statistical learning framework rooting in the novel margin theory, which demonstrates better generalization performance than the traditional large margin based counterparts. Nonetheless, it suffers from the ubiquitous scalability problem regarding both computation time and memory as other kernel methods. This paper proposes a scalable ODM, which can achieve nearly ten times speedup compared to the original ODM training method. For nonlinear kernels, we propose a novel distribution-aware partition method to make the local ODM trained on each partition be close and converge fast to the global one. When linear kernel is applied, we extend a communication efficient SVRG method to accelerate the training further. Extensive empirical studies validate that our proposed method is highly computational efficient and almost never worsen the generalization

Directly searching method for slip plane and its influential factors based on critical state of slope

In order to determine the slip plane of slope directly by the calculation results of strength reduction method, and analyze the influential factors of slope stability, a numerical model was established in plane strain mode by FLAC3D for homogeneous soil slope, whose parameters were reduced until the slope reached the critical state. Then FISH program was used to get the location data of slip plane from displacement contour lines. Furthermore, the method to determine multiple slip planes was also proposed by setting different heights of elastic areas. The influential factors for the stability were analyzed, including cohesion, internal friction angle, and tensile strength. The calculation results show that with the increase of cohesion, failure mode of slope changes from shallow slipping to the deep slipping, while inclination of slip plane becomes slower and slipping volume becomes larger; with the increase of friction angle, failure mode of slope changes from deep slipping to shallow slipping, while slip plane becomes steeper and upper border of slip plane comes closer to the vertex of slope; the safety factor increases little and slip plane goes far away from vertex of slope with the increase of tensile strength

Metabolomics Study of Flavonoids of <em>Taxillus</em><em>chinensis</em> on Different Hosts Using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS

The goal of this study was to identify and compare the main biomarkers of Taxillus chinensis from different hosts. A metabolomics approach utilizing ultra-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS), including cluster analysis, sample correlation analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis, was used to explore the flavonoid metabolites of Taxillus chinensis growing on different hosts. Results: The total flavonoids content (up to 30.08 mg/g) in Taxillus chinensis from Morus alba (CSG) was significantly higher than that from growth on Liquidambar formosana (CFG) or Clausena lansium (CHG) (p Taxillus chinensis; it was found that CSG differed from CFG and CHG in eleven metabolic compounds, ten of which were upregulated and one of which was downregulated. Most of these metabolites derive from compounds contained in the host plant, white mulberry (Morus alba); many feature potent anti-cancer effects. Differences in host can influence the type and abundance of flavonoids in parasitic plants such as Taxillus chinensis, which is of great significance to researchers seeking to understand the formation mechanism of Taxillus chinensis metabolites. Therefore, attention should be paid to the species of host plant when studying the Taxillus chinensis metabolome. Plants grown on Morus alba offer the greatest potential for the development of new anti-cancer drugs

Photomodulated Hysteresis Behaviors in Perovskite Phototransistors with Ultra-Low Operating Voltage

Hysteresis behaviors in the current curves of perovskite-based devices have been widely observed and directly affect the device performances. Phototransistors with a channel material of CH₃NH₃PbI₃ were fabricated, and they showed ambipolar transport characteristics with anticlockwise hysteresis hoops. Electric field and monochromatic light can narrow the wide hysteresis window from 2.1 V in the dark to only 0.5 V under the illumination. A photoexcited high-field-effect carrier mobility of 1.05 cm² V^–1 s^–1 was achieved at a low-operating voltage. The responsivity and photosensitivity of the phototransistor were calculated to be 1 AW^–1 and 18 000%, respectively. The modulation effect of voltage bias and monochromatic lights on such hysteresis behaviors has been demonstrated. By investigating the photo-sensitive carrier-transport characteristics in perovskite channel, the origin of hysteresis can be attributed to the charge-trapping process. This work also provides an effective approach to achieve a photocontrolled temporary erasing process as a data protection mechanism in future photomemory devices