Elevated serum Activin A in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with skeletal muscle wasting

OBJECTIVE: Muscle wasting contributes to the reduced quality of life and increased mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Muscle atrophy in mice with cachexia was caused by Activin A binding to ActRIIB. The role of circulating Activin A leading to muscle atrophy in COPD remains elusive. METHODS: In the present study, we evaluated the relationship between serum levels of Activin A and skeletal muscle wasting in COPD patients. The expression levels of serum Activin A were measured in 78 stable COPD patients and in 60 healthy controls via ELISA, which was also used to determine the expression of circulating TNF-a levels. Total skeletal muscle mass (SMM) was calculated according to a validated formula by age and anthropometric measurements. The fat-free mass index (FFMI) was determined as the fat-free mass (FFM) corrected for body surface area. RESULTS: Compared to the healthy controls, COPD patients had upregulated Activin A expression. The elevated levels of Activin A were correlated with TNF-a expression, while total SMM and FFMI were significantly decreased in COPD patients. Furthermore, serum Activin A expression in COPD patients was negatively associated with both FFMI and BMI. CONCLUSION: The above results showed an association between increased circulating Activin A in COPD patients and the presence of muscle atrophy. Given our previous knowledge, we speculate that Activin A contributes to skeletal muscle wasting in COPD

Normative-legal mechanism of state management of vocational (voation-and-technical) education’s development: historical retrospective

У статті наведено періодизацію розвитку професійної (професійно-технічної) освіти в Україні, визначено особливості використання інструментарію державного управління на кожному з етапів її розвитку; розглянуто потенціали нормативно-правового механізму державного управління у формуванні сучасної системи професійної (професійно-технічної) освіти незалежної України.The article contains periodization of vocational (vocation-and-technical) educa-tion’s development in Ukraine, there are determined peculiarities of applying state man-agement instruments on each stage in its development; potential of normative-legal mechanism of state management in respect of forming a modern system of vocational (vocation-and-technical) education of independent Ukraine is viewed

Ground state sign-changing solutions for Kirchhoff equations with logarithmic nonlinearity

In this paper, we study Kirchhoff equations with logarithmic nonlinearity: \begin{equation*} \begin{cases} -(a+b\int_\Omega|\nabla u|^2)\Delta u+ V(x)u=|u|^{p-2}u\ln u^2, & \mbox{in}\ \Omega,\\ u=0,& \mbox{on}\ \partial\Omega, \end{cases} \end{equation*} where $a,b>0$ are constants, $4<p<2^*$, $\Omega$ is a smooth bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^3$ and $V:\Omega\to\mathbb{R}$. Using constraint variational method, topological degree theory and some new energy estimate inequalities, we prove the existence of ground state solutions and ground state sign-changing solutions with precisely two nodal domains. In particular, some new tricks are used to overcome the difficulties that $|u|^{p-2}u\ln u^2$ is sign-changing and satisfies neither the monotonicity condition nor the Ambrosetti–Rabinowitz condition

Ground state sign-changing solutions for Kirchhoff equations with logarithmic nonlinearity

In this paper, we study Kirchhoff equations with logarithmic nonlinearity: −(a + b R |∇u| 2 )∆u + V(x)u = |u| p−2u ln u 2 , in Ω, u = 0, on ∂Ω, where a, b > 0 are constants, 4 < p < 2 , Ω is a smooth bounded domain of R3 and V : Ω → R. Using constraint variational method, topological degree theory and some new energy estimate inequalities, we prove the existence of ground state solutions and ground state sign-changing solutions with precisely two nodal domains. In particular, some new tricks are used to overcome the difficulties that |u| p−2u ln u 2 is sign-changing and satisfies neither the monotonicity condition nor the Ambrosetti–Rabinowitz condition

Existence of infinitely many radial and non-radial solutions for quasilinear Schrödinger equations with general nonlinearity

In this paper, we prove the existence of many solutions for the following quasilinear Schrödinger equation \begin{equation*} -\Delta u - u\Delta(|u|^2) + V(|x|)u = f(|x|,u),\qquad x \in \mathbb{R}^N. \end{equation*} Under some generalized assumptions on $f$, we obtain infinitely many radial solutions for $N\geq 2$, many non-radial solutions for $N=4$ and $N \geq 6$, and a non radial solution for $N=5$. Our results generalize and extend some existing results

Domestic Systemically Important Banks: A Quantitative Analysis for the Chinese Banking System

This paper serves as a response to the official assessment approach proposed by Basel Committee to identify domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) in China. Our analysis presents not only current levels of domestic systemic importance of individual banks but also the changes. We also consider the systemic risk of the whole banking system, by investigating how D-SIBs and non-D-SIBs are correlated before and after the recent financial crises using Copula. We find that the systemic importance of major banks is decreasing, while some banks becoming more systemically important should require tight regulations. D-SIBs as a whole subsystem display stronger correlation with non-D-SIBs than the individual D-SIBs, which alerts the regulatory to pay attention to “too-many-to-fail” problems. Contagion effects between D-SIBs and non-D-SIBs exist during the subprime crisis, but did not exist during the European debt crisis. This yields good signal of a more balanced banking system in China