Effect of Maccog Tcm Tea On Improving Glucolipid Metabolism and Gut Microbiota in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes in Community

OBJECTIVES: This work aimed to observe the effect of consuming Chinese herb tea on glucolipid metabolism and gut microbiota in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: Ninety patients with T2DM were recruited from a community and randomly divided into the control group (CG) and intervention group (IG). CG maintained conventional treatment and lifestyle, and IG accepted additional maccog traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) tea (mulberry leaf, radix astragali, corn stigma, cortex lycii, radix ophiopogonis, and gynostemma) for 12 weeks. Glucolipid metabolism, hepatorenal function, and gut microbiota were then measured. RESULTS: After the intervention, the decreases in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and total cholesterol (TC) were greater (P CONCLUSIONS: Administration of maccog TCM tea for 12 weeks slightly improved glucolipid metabolism and significantly increased the abundance of beneficial gut microbiota in community patients with T2DM. The increase in beneficial bacteria abundance may be involved in the improvement of glucose metabolism indicators. In addition, this intervention is safe and feasible. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=31281, identifier ChiCTR1800018566

Frost resistance of concrete with and without silica fume, and the effects of external loads

A study of frost resistance of non-air-entrained concrete was carried out to explore the possibilities of making concrete with both high strength and high frost resistance. The relationship between frost durability and air spacing factor of the mixtures was also studied. The influence of curing duration before freezing-and-thawing exposure and the effects of silica fume incorporation were investigated, and an innovative test was designed to investigate the concurrent acts of freezing-and-thawing and external loading. A study of failure modes and its relation with cracking density was conducted to establish a relationship between preloading level and freezing-and-thawing damage. The results of this study indicated that increasing curing duration before freezing-and-thawing exposure is beneficial to portland-cement concrete, however, after a certain period of curing, any further curing only results in marginal gain in frost resistance. An undesirable curing period exists for silica-fume concrete of 14-21 days. This study concludes that silica-fume concrete has no advantage over portland-cement concrete in freezing-and-thawing durability, if the mixtures do not have air entrainment. On the other hand, air-entrained silica-fume concrete can achieve a high strength level similar to non-air-entrained portland-cement concrete, and in addition achieve much higher frost resistance. The results of this study indicate that silica-fume concrete has a lower value of critical spacing factor in comparison with portland-cement concrete. This study reveals that external loading plays an important role in concrete failure under the influence of concurrent acts of freezing-and-thawing and external loading. Different modes of failure were observed, which were found to be closely related to the level of preloading and the water-to-cementitious materials ratio of a mortar mixture. Extensive matrix cracking was found to be associated with gradual freezing-and-thawing damage, and brittle fracture with heavy external loading. By examining the advantages and disadvantages of commonly used freezing-and-thawing monitoring methods, the studies found that the pulse velocity technique and the resonant frequency method are well correlated in monitoring the changes due to freezing-and-thawing exposure until disintegration point of a concrete mixture is reached, and they differ significantly beyond that point. The studies also found that the resonant frequency method is more sensitive to the real changes in concrete, especially when severe freezing-and-thawing damage occurs

Estimating the Effects of Economic Agglomeration on Haze Pollution in Yangtze River Delta China Using an Econometric Analysis

Haze pollution, a serious livelihood and environmental issue, has hindered China’s economic development. This paper, based on the improved output density model, empirically analyzes spatial patterns and impact factors of haze pollution within the Yangtze River Delta from 2015 to 2017 by statistical and spatial econometric models. The study shows that: (1) The characteristics of haze pollution due to seasonal changes are obvious in the Yangtze River Delta region, and the situation has gradually improved. (2) The haze pollution has significant local agglomeration characteristics and spatial heterogeneity, demonstrated as significant low-level agglomerations in Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Taizhou, and high agglomerations in Chuzhou, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Taizhou. The polluted area clusters around the provincial boundary, and its level gradually decreases from northwest to southeast. There is a significant spatial positive correlation and spatial spillover effect of intercity haze pollution, which will have a negative impact on the region and surrounding areas. (3) The population growth, research and development (R&D) investment, industrial structure, industrial smoke and dust emissions, and urban construction in the Yangtze River Delta have positive impacts on haze pollution, while factors, such as investment intensity of foreign direct investment (FDI), energy consumption and precipitation, have a negative impact on smog pollution. However, there is no Kuznets curve relationship between smog pollution and economic growth. By optimizing spatial distribution, incorporating production factors, and sharing pollution control infrastructure, this paper shows that economic agglomeration has an inhibitory effect on haze pollution

A temperature-dependent material model for numerical simulation of steel fibre reinforced concrete

Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) has been increasingly used in super high-rise buildings, nuclear facilities and infrastructures in recent years. Fire is one of the inevitable threats to these structures during their service life, therefore it is of great significance to study the behaviour of SFRC at elevated temperatures. In this study, a new temperature-dependent constitutive model is proposed to describe the mechanical behaviour of SFRC at elevated temperatures. In the present model, the plastic damage of SFRC is considered using the sum of accumulated shear damage and compaction damage, and a temperature-dependent coefficient is introduced to evaluate the plastic strain at fracture. To predict the mechanical properties of SFRC at elevated temperatures, a set of equations are proposed based on the collected experimental data. Particularly, three indexes, i.e. water to binder ratio, moisture content and alumina content, are introduced to calibrate the normalised compressive strength of SFRC. Besides, the effects of fibre dosage and fibre shape are taken into account. The proposed model is used to predict the mechanical behaviour of SFRC subjected to elevated temperatures and is demonstrated to be effective

Associations of Dietary Patterns and Risk of Hypertension in Southwest China: A Prospective Cohort Study

Empirical data on the association between diet and incident hypertension in Southwest China is lacking. We examined the associations between various dietary patterns and the risk of incident hypertension in this prospective population cohort of Southwest China. A total of 5442 eligible adults were included from Guizhou Province, China, since 2010. Dietary information was obtained using face-to-face interviews with a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, and dietary patterns were characterized using factor analysis. The hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated for the associations between various dietary patterns and incident hypertension risk using a Cox proportional hazard model. Until 2020, a total of 1177 new hypertension cases were identified during an average follow-up of 6.97 years. In the multivariable-adjusted analysis, a low intake of the junk food pattern was significantly associated with the reducing risk of incident hypertension (HR: 0.772, 95% CI: 0.671, 0.887) and a high intake of the vegetable–grain pattern statistically lowered the risk of incident hypertension (HR: 0.774, 95% CI: 0.669, 0.894) compared with the medium intake of such patterns. Higher adherence to the vegetable–grain pattern and lower adherence to the junk food pattern significantly lowered the hypertension incidence among the population in Southwest China. Those findings suggested healthy diet guidelines should be developed for the prevention of hypertension

Colorimetric Method for Sensitive Detection of Microcystin-LR Using Surface Copper Nanoparticles of Polydopamine Nanosphere as Turn-On Probe

A novel, facile sensor was further developed for microcystin-LR (MC-LR) determination by visible spectroscopy. Antibody-functionalized SiO2-coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2) and aptamer-functionalized polydopamine nanospheres decorated with Cu nanoparticles (PDA/CuNPs) recognized specific sites in MC-LR and then the sandwich-type composites were separated magnetically. The Cu in the separated composites was converted to Cu2+ ions in solution and turn-on visible absorption was achieved after reaction with bis(cyclohexanone)oxaldihydrazone (BCO) (λmax = 600 nm). There was a quantitative relationship between the spectral intensity and MC-LR concentration. In addition, under the optimum conditions, the sensor turns out to be a linear relationship from 0.05 to 25 nM, with a limit of detection of 0.05 nM (0.05 μg/L) (S/N = 3) for MC-LR. The sensitivity was dependent on the low background absorption from the off-to-on spectrum and label amplification by the polydopamine (PDA) surface. The sensor had high selectivity, which shows the importance of dual-site recognition by the aptamer and antibody and the highly specific color formed by BCO with Cu2+. The bioassay was complete within 150 min, which enabled quick determination. The sensor was successfully used with real spiked samples. These results suggest it has potential applications in visible detection and could be used to detect other microcystin analogs

Cardiac telerehabilitation under 5G internet of things monitoring: a randomized pilot study

Abstract Owing to issues such as time and cost, patients often show poor acceptance of and adherence to center-based cardiac rehabilitation (CBCR), which impacts the effectiveness of rehabilitation. Therefore, there is growing interest in home-based cardiac rehabilitation and cardiac telerehabilitation (CTR), which entail less time and cost than CBCR. This study aimed to compare the changes in physiological and psychological indicators, compliance, and satisfaction after CTR and CBCR. In this single-blind, randomized, controlled trial, the intervention group received CTR via the 5G Internet of Things platform, while the control group received CBCR. Data from 50 patients (age 66.28 ± 4.01 years) with acute myocardial infarction who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention were analyzed. After an intervention period of three months, the maximal oxygen uptake and metabolic equivalent of task were 5.53 ± 0.12 and 19.32 ± 0.17, respectively, in the intervention group, and 4.15 ± 0.13 and 16.52 ± 0.18, respectively, in the control group. After three months of intervention, there were significant differences between the two groups in all observed indicators (p  0.05). The use of a 5G Internet of Things platform cardiac rehabilitation model effectively improved outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention. Trials registry: The study protocol was registered at Chinese Clinical Trials Registry (ChiCTR), first trial registration 07/08/2023, identification number ChiCTR2300074435