Effects of Astragaloside IV on heart failure in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Astragaloside IV (ASI) in <it>Radix Astragali </it>is believed to be the active component in treating heart failure. The present study aims to examine the effects of ASI on cardiovascular parameters in long-term heart failure in rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using echocardiographic and haemodynamic measurements, we studied the effects of ASI on congestive heart failure (CHF) induced by ligation of the left coronary artery in rats.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ASI (0.1, 0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg/day) attenuated the decline of fractional shortening (FS). The peak derivatives of the left ventricle (LV) pressure (dp/dt) in ASI-treated groups significantly increased. Both LV internal diameters in diastole (LVIDd) and in systole (LVIDs) decreased significantly after ASI treatment (0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg/day). ASI (1.0 mg/kg/day) attenuated the decrease of LV systolic pressure (LVSP). ASI treatment inhibited compensatory hypertrophy of myocardial cells and lowered the number of apoptotic myocytes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>ASI improved cardiac functions as measured by cardiovascular parameters.</p

Rethinking the measurement of capital flight: An application to Asian economies

This paper improves on the widely used residual method in order to estimate the magnitude of capital flight in eight Asian economies over the period of 1980-2004. The paper argues that as capital flight is a drain on financial resources for development, it is more appropriate to measure it against the size of the financial market, which can be proxied by money aggregate, in contrast to the common practice of measuring it as a percentage of gross domestic product. Using this more appropriate new measure, we find that capital flight is more severe in some financially underdeveloped countries than has been suggested previously. It is also found that while capital flight could be a dormant sideshow in a benign economic environment, it could have considerable impact on the availability of financial resources when activated

Does Past Experience in Natural Disasters Affect Willingness-to-Pay for Weather Index Insurance? Evidence from China

Although numerous index insurance pilot programs have been conducted in China, little is known about Chinese farmers’ willingness to pay for index insurance. By using a field survey of small farm households in China’s Heilongjiang Province, which suffered a large flood in the summer of 2013, this paper explores farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical rainfall index insurance product, with a special interest in whether farmers affected by the flood are willing to pay more than those where not

Coupled responses of the flow-induced vibration and flow-induced rotation of a rigid cylinder-plate body

In this study, coupled responses of flow-induced vibration and rotation for an elastically mounted cylinder-plate body are numerically investigated at a low Reynolds number of 120. A wide vibrational reduced velocity range of Uy = 3–18 under four rotational reduced velocities Uθ = 5, 8, 12, and 18 are considered. The non-bifurcation responses, bifurcation only in rotation responses, and bifurcation in both vibration and rotation responses are identified. Typical vortex-induced vibration (VIV) responses are recognized when considering the passive rotations, different from the full interactions between VIV and galloping for the vibration-only case. As Uθ increases, the peak vibration amplitudes increase, the onset Uy of the lock-in region becomes larger, and the lock-in region is wider. The phase angles of displacements versus lift coefficients experience a jump from 0° to 180° in the lock-in region, and the larger the Uθ, the wider the Uy range of phase jump. Whether the instantaneous posture of the cylinder-plate body is streamlined or not is determined by oscillation amplitudes and phase differences between displacements versus rotation angles. Streamlined profiles can be achieved under small oscillation amplitudes or when the phase angles are nearly 90°. The 2S (two isolated vortices) vortex shedding mode dominates the initial and desynchronization branch, while the 2P (two pairs of vortices), 2S* (two isolated vortices with tendency to split), and 2T (two triplets of vortices) modes appear in the lock-in region. After the symmetry-breaking bifurcation, the reattachment behavior becomes simpler and the length of the recirculation region is significantly increased, as compared with those in non-bifurcation region. With the above study, a new method of improving energy harvesting from flow-induced vibration, by incorporating passive rotations simultaneously, is first introduced. It is found that passive rotations can enhance the vibration responses and thus lead to the increased output power and energy transfer ratio, although they make less contributions to the total power. Generally, this mechanical system presents a promising opportunity for energy harvesting through flow-induced vibration

Poorly differentiated chordoma

Chordoma is a rare primary malignant bone tumor that is believed to develop from embryonic notochordal remnants. The current World Health Organization (WHO) classification system divides chordoma into three subtypes: conventional, dedifferentiated and poorly differentiated chordoma (PDC). PDC is a newly recognized subtype of chordoma with distinct clinicopathological features characterized by loss of SMARCB1 expression. It typically occurs in young adults and children, more commonly arises in the skull base and cervical spine, rarely in the sacrococcygeal region, and exhibits more aggressive clinical behavior. Histologically, PDC is composed of cohesive sheets of poorly differentiated epithelioid cells with scattered intracytoplasmic vacuoles and minimal myxoid stroma, which may evoke a broad spectrum of differential diagnoses. Molecularly, PDC bears chromosome 22q loss leading to SMARCB1/INI1 inactivation. Clinicopathological correlation, including ancillary studies to confirm the loss of SMARCB1 expression, is critical for reaching the correct diagnosis

A new turn-on chemosensor for bio-thiols based on the nanoaggregates of a tetraphenylethene-coumarin fluorophore

In this work, a tetraphenylethene-coumarin hybrid fluorophore (TPE-Cou) that contains a Schiff base form is designed and synthesized. A combination of plentiful optical properties and chemical reactivity towards thiols allows TPE-Cou to work as an excellent turn-on probe of thiols with a wide linear range, revealing the great potential of this dye as a quantitative fluorescence indicator. By means of NMR and optical spectrum analyses, a mechanistic picture at the molecular level has been drawn to illustrate how this dye works as a bio-thiol-sensitive fluorescent probe. This journal i