Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 is associated with the prognosis and mortality of elderly patients with hip fractures

Objectives: To investigate the expression level and clinical significance of Methyl-CpG binding Protein 2 (MECP2) in elderly patients with hip fractures. Methods: This prospective observational study included 367 elderly patients with hip fractures between April 2016 and December 2018. All the patients were treated with internal fixation or joint replacement. In addition, 50 healthy elderly individuals were enrolled as healthy controls. The serum levels of MECP2 and inflammatory factors Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data on patients' basic characteristics and postoperative complications were collected. The Harris score was used to assess hip function at 1-month, 3-months, and 6-months after surgery. Patient quality of life was measured using the Barthel Index (BI) score 3-months after surgery. The 1-year mortality was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier curve, and logical regression was used to analyze the risk factors for mortality. Results: No significant differences were observed in the basic clinical characteristics of all patients. The serum MECP2 levels were remarkably high in patients with hip fractures and negatively correlated with serum IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α levels. Patients with higher MECP2 predicted higher dynamic Harris scores, lower postoperative complications, lower 1-year mortality, and higher BI scores. Logical regression showed that age was the only independent risk factor for postoperative 1-year mortality in elderly patients with hip fractures. Conclusion: Lower MECP2 predicted poor prognosis and higher 1-year mortality in elderly patients with hip fractures

Vibration characteristics and environmental responses of different vehicle-track-ballast coupling systems in subway operation

The vibration characteristics of two ballast beds are analyzed in this study from five aspects including the amplitude-frequency characteristic curve of foundation reaction. This study also shows that the maximum ground Z vibration level caused by a normal monolithic ballast bed structure is 75 dB. The range of its vibration influence during daytime is approximately 30 m. The maximum ground Z vibration level caused by a rubber floating slab track structure is 52 dB, whereas that caused by a steel spring floating slab track structure is 57 dB. The maximum damping amount in horizontal speed of a rubber floating slab track structure is 74 %, whereas the reduction of vertical ground vibration speed and acceleration is 92 % and 93 %, respectively. The reduction in Z level is 37 %. The horizontal speed reduction in a steel spring floating slab track structure is 71 %, whereas the reduction of ground vertical vibration speed and acceleration is 83 % and 84 %, respectively. The reduction in Z level is 29 %

Autophagy protects against palmitate-induced apoptosis in hepatocytes

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, one of the most common liver diseases, has obtained increasing attention. Palmitate (PA)-induced liver injury is considered a risk factor for the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Autophagy, a cellular degradative pathway, is an important self-defense mechanism in response to various stresses. In this study, we investigated whether autophagy plays a protective role in the progression of PA-induced hepatocytes injury. RESULTS: Annexin V-FITC/PI staining by FCM analysis, TUNEL assay and the detection of PARP and cleaved caspase3 expression levels demonstrated that PA treatment prominently induced the apoptosis of hepatocytes. Meanwhile, treatment of PA strongly induced the formation of GFP-LC3 dots, the conversion from LC3I to LC3II, the decrease of p62 protein levels and the increase of autophagosomes. These results indicated that PA also induced autophagy activation. Autophagy inhibition through chloroquine pretreatment or Atg5shRNA infection led to the increase of cell apoptosis after PA treatment. Moreover, induction of autophagy by pretreatment with rapamycin resulted in distinct decrease of PA-induced apoptosis. Therefore, autophagy can prevent hepatocytes from PA-induced apoptosis. In the further study, we explored pathway of autophagy activation in PA-treated hepatocytes. We found that PA activated PKCα in hepatocytes, and had no influence on mammalian target of rapamycin and endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated that autophagy plays a protective role in PA-induced hepatocytes apoptosis. And PA might induce autophagy through activating PKCα pathway in hepatocytes

Involvement of Lysosome Membrane Permeabilization and Reactive Oxygen Species Production in the Necrosis Induced by Chlamydia muridarum Infection in L929 Cells

Chlamydiae, obligate intracellular bacteria, are associated with a variety of human diseases. The chlamydial life cycle undergoes a biphasic development: replicative reticulate bodies (RBs) phase and infectious elementary bodies (EBs) phase. At the end of the chlamydial intracellular life cycle, EBs have to be released to the surrounded cells. Therefore, the interactions between Chlamydiae and cell death pathways could greatly influence the outcomes of Chlamydia infection. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we investigated host cell death after Chlamydia infection in vitro, in L929 cells, and showed that Chlamydia infection induces cell necrosis, as detected by the propidium iodide (PI)-Annexin V double-staining flow-cytometric assay and Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), an important factor in induction of necrosis, was increased after Chlamydia infection, and inhibition of ROS with specific pharmacological inhibitors, diphenylene iodonium (DPI) or butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), led to significant suppression of necrosis. Interestingly, live-cell imaging revealed that Chlamydia infection induced lysosome membrane permeabilization (LMP). When an inhibitor upstream of LMP, CA-074-Me, was added to cells, the production of ROS was reduced with concomitant inhibition of necrosis. Taken together, our results indicate that Chlamydia infection elicits the production of ROS, which is dependent on LMP at least partially, followed by induction of host-cell necrosis. To our best knowledge, this is the first live-cell-imaging observation of LMP post Chlamydia infection and report on the link of LMP to ROS to necrosis during Chlamydia infection. </p

Hyperglycemia Induced by Chronic Restraint Stress in Mice Is Associated With Nucleus Tractus Solitarius Injury and Not Just the Direct Effect of Glucocorticoids

Chronic restraint stress (CRS) can affect hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and increase glucocorticoid levels. Glucocorticoids are stress hormones that regulate multiple aspects of energy homeostasis. Stress also impairs glucose tolerance. The aim of this study was to investigate the cause of insulin-resistant hyperglycemia during CRS. We produced the CRS models (a 7-day restraint followed by a 3-day free moving procedure, total of 4 cycles for 40 days) in mice, detected the parameters related to glucose metabolism, and compared them to those of the dexamethasone (DEX) injection (0.2 mg/kg i.p., also a 4 cycle procedure as the CRS). The results showed that the CRS induced a moderate (not higher than 11 mmol/L) and irreversible insulin-resistant hyperglycemia in about 1/3 of the individuals, and all the restrained mice had adrenal hypertrophy. CRS induced the apoptosis of neurons in the anterior part of commissural subnucleus of nucleus tractus solitarius (acNTS) in the hyperglycemic mice, and acNTS mechanical damage also led to insulin-resistant hyperglycemia. In contrast, in the DEX-treated mice, adrenal gland atrophy was evident. The glucose and insulin tolerance varied with the delay of determination. DEX exposure in vivo does not induce the apoptosis of neurons in NTS. This study indicates that restraint stress and DEX induce metabolic disorders through different mechanisms. During CRS, injury (apoptosis) of glucose-sensitive acNTS neurons cause dysregulation of blood glucose. This study also suggests the mouse restraint stress model has value as a potential application in the study of stress-induced hyperglycemia

Isolation and Identification of Pediococcus lactis in Human Intestinal Tract and Its Performance Analysis of Fermented Goji Berry Juice

In order to obtain candidate strains with strong colonization ability and excellent fermentation performance of goji berry juice, 3 strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated and screened from human intestinal tract. They were identified by morphological, physiological and biochemical, 16S rDNA sequence analysis and phylogenetic tree construction, and their acid resistance, bile salt resistance, artificial gastric fluid, intestinal fluid resistance and fermentation performance were studied. The results showed that all three strains were identified as Pediococcus lactis, numbered NXU_220218, NXU_220219 and NXU_220220, respectively. The growth rate from 2 to 8 h, the ability of NXU 220218 to produce acid was stronger, and the tolerance to acid, bile salt and artificial gastric juice was better than NXU 220219 and NXU 220220. The survival rate of NXU_220218 was 67% at pH2, 65% in bovine bile salt at 0.3% concentration, 72% tolerance to artificial gastric juice, and 95% tolerance to artificial intestinal juice. Finally, the NXU_220218 strain was inoculated and used in the preparation of fermented goji berry juice. It was found that the reducing sugar content and the free radical scavenging rate in the fermented goji berry juice were significantly reduced and increased, respectively, compared with the unfermented goji berry juice, indicating that the NXU_220218 strain had good fermentation performance for goji berry juice and could be used as a candidate strain of lactic acid bacteria for the fermentation of goji berry juice

In-situ synthesis of ultra-fine ZrB2–ZrC–SiC nanopowders by sol-gel method

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. ZrB2–ZrC–SiC nanopowders with uniform phase distribution were prepared from cost-effective ZrOCl2·8H2O by a simple sol-gel method. The synthesis route, ceramization mechanism and morphology evolution of the nanopowders were investigated. ZrB2–ZrC–SiC ceramic precursor can be successfully obtained through hydrolysis and condensation reactions between the raw materials. Pyrolysis of the precursor was completed at 650 °C, and it produced ZrO2, SiO2, B2O3 and amorphous carbon with a yield of 39% at 1300 °C. By heat-treated at 1500 °C for 2 h, highly crystallized ZrB2–ZrC–SiC ceramics with narrow size distribution were obtained. With the holding time of 2 h, both the crystal size and the particle size can be refined. Further prolonging the holding time can lead to serious particles coarsening. Studies on the microstructure evolution of the generated carbon during the ceramic conversion demonstrates the negative effect of the ceramic formation on the structure order improvement of the carbon, due to the large amount of defects generated in it by the boro/carbothermal reduction reactions

Securing radio resources allocation with deep reinforcement learning for IoE services in next-generation wireless networks

The next generation wireless network (NGWN) is undergoing an unprecedented revolution, in which trillions of machines, people, and objects are interconnected to realize the Internet of Everything (IoE). with the emergence of IoE services such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and industrial 5G, the scarcity of radio resources becomes more serious. Moreover, there are hidden dangers of untrusted terminals accessing the system and illegally manipulating interconnected devices. To tackle these challenges, this paper proposes a securing radio resources allocation scheme with Deep Reinforcement Learning for IoE services in NGWN. First, the solution uses a BP neural network based on multi-feature optimized Firefly Algorithm (FA) for spectrum prediction, thereby improving the prediction accuracy and avoiding interference between unauthorized and authorized users with efficient radio utilization. Then, a spectrum sensing method based on deep reinforcement learning is proposed to identify the untrusted users in system while fusing the sensing results, to enhance the security of the cooperative process and the detection accuracy of spectrum holes. Extensive simulation results show that the proposal is superior to the traditional solutions in terms of prediction accuracy, spectrum utilization and energy consumption, and is suitable for deployment in future wireless systems

Association Between Different Indicators of Obesity and Depression in Adults in Qingdao, China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: This study was designed to investigate the perceived relationship between body weight and depression risk in a Chinese population in Qingdao, China.Methods: A population-based cross-sectional survey was performed with 4,573 participants (between 35 and 74 years) from the year 2009 to 2012 in Qingdao, China. We applied the Zung self-rating depression scale to ascertain the level of depression in participants. The associations between different indicators of obesity [body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)] and depression were assessed by logistic regression based on the Chinese criteria of obesity. Sensitivity analysis was done based on the Asian and WHO criteria of obesity.Results: The Zung scores for the 243 participants (5.2%) were over 45 and they were entitled as depression. Furthermore, multivariable logistic analyses revealed that being overweight [odds ratios (OR): 1.48, 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]: 1.08–2.03] and having abdominal obesity (WC category in Chinese criteria) (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.08-2.00) were often associated with a higher risk for depression compared to normal weight subjects. Sensitivity analysis revealed that abdominal obesity (Asian criterion) (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.03-1.91) was a significant risk factor for depression. Similarly, being overweight (WHO criterion) (OR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.03-1.87) was an obvious risk factor for depression.Conclusion: Being overweight and having abdominal obesity (WC category) were found to be linked with a higher risk of depression. However, abdominal obesity (WHR category) was not associated with depression