Therapeutic efficacy of a combination of mesalazine and Bifid Triple Viable Capsules (BTVCs) on ulcerative colitis patients, and its effect on inflammation and oxidative stress

Purpose: To determine the curative impact of mesalazine (MSZ)-BTVCs combination on ulcerative colitis (UC), and its influence on inflammation and oxidative stress in the patients.Methods: 100 UC patients were randomely assigned to a control group given MSZ capsule treatment only, and a combination group treated with BTVCs and MSZ. Treatment effectiveness, inflammatory response, and oxidative stress in the two groups before and after treatment were compared.Results: The combination group had higher total effectiveness than the control group. The serum levels of MDA, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), TNF-α and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were lower, while serum levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were markedly increased in patients given combination treatment, when compared with controls. Pre-drug exposure UC disease activity index (UC-DAI) and clinical symptom scores were similar in both cohorts of patients, but the post-treatment scores were statistically decreased, especially in the combination group.Conclusion: The combined use of MSZ and BTVCs was more effective against UC than monotherapy, as it effectively relieved inflammation and oxidative stress in patients, resulting in better clinical efficacy

A Hotspot Discovery Method Based on Improved FIHC Clustering Algorithm

It was difficult to find the microblog hotspot because the characteristics of microblog were short, rapid, change and so on. A microblog hotspot detection method based on MFIHC and TOPSIS was proposed in order to solve the problem. Firstly, the calculation of HowNet similarity was used in the score function of FIHC, the semantic links between frequent words were considered, and the initial clusters based on frequent words were produced more accurately. Then the initial cluster of the text repletion of mircoblog was reduced, and the idea of Single-Pass clustering was used to the reduced topic cluster in order to get the Hotspot. At last, an improved TOPSIS model was used to sort the hot topics in order to get the rank of the hot topics. Compared with the other text clustering algorithms and hotspot detection methods, the method has good effect, and can be a more comprehensive response to the current hot topics

Modelling arterial pressure waveforms using Gaussian functions and two-stage particle swarm optimizer

Changes of arterial pressure waveform characteristics have been accepted as risk indicators of cardiovascular diseases. Waveform modelling using Gaussian functions has been used to decompose arterial pressure pulses into different numbers of subwaves and hence quantify waveform characteristics. However, the fitting accuracy and computation efficiency of current modelling approaches need to be improved. This study aimed to develop a novel two-stage particle swarm optimizer (TSPSO) to determine optimal parameters of Gaussian functions. The evaluation was performed on carotid and radial artery pressure waveforms (CAPW and RAPW) which were simultaneously recorded from twenty normal volunteers. The fitting accuracy and calculation efficiency of our TSPSO were compared with three published optimization methods: the Nelder-Mead, the modified PSO (MPSO), and the dynamic multiswarm particle swarm optimizer (DMS-PSO). The results showed that TSPSO achieved the best fitting accuracy with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.1% for CAPW and 1.0% for RAPW, in comparison with 4.2% and 4.1% for Nelder-Mead, 2.0% and 1.9% for MPSO, and 1.2% and 1.1% for DMS-PSO. In addition, to achieve target MAE of 2.0%, the computation time of TSPSO was only 1.5 s, which was only 20% and 30% of that for MPSO and DMS-PSO, respectively

Oroxylin A attenuates cytokines in neonatal asthmatic mice by regulating Notch signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate the protective effect of oroxylin A against neonatal asthma in mice. Methods: Asthma was induced in P12 mice with ovalbumin (OVA) immediately after litter (day 0), and on day 14 of protocol. Oroxylin A was given daily in two doses (2 and 10 mg/kg, i.p.) from day 0 to 14, 2 h before the administration of OVA. The protective effect of oroxylin A against asthma was determined by evaluating lung function and levels of cytokines and IgE in OVA-challenged mice. Moreover, Western blot assay and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were used to determine the effect of oroxylin A on Notch signaling pathway in OVA-challenged mice. Results: Oroxylin A improved lung function in OVA-challenged mice. There were significant (p < 0.01) reductions in levels of IgE and cytokines in the BALF of oroxylin A-treated group, when compared to OVA group of mice. Furthermore, treatment with oroxylin A significantly ameliorated the OVA-induced changes in protein expressions of Notch1, Jagged1, NICD, PTEN, PI3K and Akt in the CD+ cells of OVA-challenged mice (p < 0.01). Conclusion: These results indicate that oroxylin A improves lung function and reduces the level of cytokines in neonatal asthmatic rat by downregulating Notch signaling. Thus, oroxylin A may be clinically beneficial in the management of asthma

Discovering Geometric and Topological Properties of Ellipsoids by Curvatures

Aims/ Objectives: We are interested in discovering the geometric, topological and physical properties of ellipsoids by analyzing curvature properties on ellipsoids. We begin with studying ellipsoids as a starting point. Our aim is to find a way to study geometric, topological and physical properties from the analytic curvature properties for convex hyper-surfaces in the general setting. Study Design: Multiple-discipline study between Differential Geometry, Topology and Mathematical Physics. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Mathematics (Borough of Manhattan Community College-The City University of New York), Department of Mathematics (University of Oklahoma), Department of Mathematics and Statistics (University of West Florida), and Department of Mathematics (Central Michigan University), between January 2014 and February 2015. Methodology: Calculating curvatures of a surface is now at the threshold of a better understanding regarding geometric, topological and physical properties on a surface. In order to calculate various curvatures, we demonstrate the way to compute the second fundamental form associated with curvatures by extending the calculation method from spheres to ellipsoids. Results: Just as curvatures of a sphere are determined by its radius, curvatures of an ellipsoid are determined by its longest axis and its shortest axis. On an ellipsoid, the value of the ratio of its longest axis to its shortest axis is also a critical index to characterize its geometric, topological and physical behaviors. Conclusion: Our results on ellipsoids are extensions or generalizations of results of Lawson-Simons, Wei, and Simons on spheres, and Kobayashi-Ohnita-Takeuchi on an ellipsoid with “one variable”. Methods and research findings in this paper can lead to future research on convex hyper-surfaces