Anti-oxidative Effect of Ligustrazine on Treatment and Prevention of Atherosclerosis

Purpose: To investigate the protective effects of ligustrazine on oxidative stress-induced atherosclerosis.Methods: The indicators related to oxidative stress were determined using commercially available assay kits. MTT assay was used to assess the survival rate of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). HUVECs apoptosis was analyzed using fluorescence staining and flow cytometry. mRNA expression level and activity of caspases 3, 8, and 9 were determined via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and caspase 3, 8, and 9 assay kits.Results: Ligustrazine concentration of < 80 μmol/L had negligible inhibitory effect on HUVECs viability and protected HUVECs against oxygen stress damage by regulating the indicators related to oxidative stress. Flow cytometry results show that ligustrazine ameliorated H2O2-induced apoptosis, while the proportion of cells that stepped into early apoptosis and late apoptosis or necrosis were 52.7 and 0.6 %, respectively, in the H2O2 group, and 38.2 and 1.3 %, respectively, in the ligustrazine group. In addition, ligustrazine attenuated the up-regulation of caspase 3, 8, and 9 mRNA expression levels and activity.Conclusion: Ligustrazine can protect HUVECs against H2O2-induced injuries by regulating the indicators related to oxidative stress and suppressing the overexpression of caspases 3, 8, and 9. The protective mechanism of ligustrazine on H2O2-induced injury in HUVECs may be a caspase-dependent anti-apoptotic mechanism which provide important information for treating and preventing oxidative stress-induced atherosclerosis.Keywords: Ligustrazine, Oxidative stress, Umbilical vein, Endothelial cells, Atherosclerosi

Enhancing resilience by reducing critical load loss via an emergent trading framework considering possible resources isolation under typhoon

Leveraging distributed resources to enhance distribution network (DN) resilience is an effective measure in response to natural disasters. However, the willingness and economy of distributed resources are typically ignored. To address this issue, this paper proposes an emergent trading framework that uses parking lots (PLs) as resources to provide power support to critical loads (CLs) in a blackout due to typhoons. In this trading framework, an evolutionary Stackelberg game-based trading model is established to consider maximizing all stakeholders' economic benefits, considering possible resources isolation under typical fault scenarios caused by typhoons, and a benefit allocation mechanism is proposed for all stakeholders to motivate all stakeholders to participate in the trading. This framework allows that critical loads could reduce their load loss, parking lots could receive adequate compensation to stimulate them to participate in the trading, and distribution utility could ensure its economic benefits. Furthermore, an iterative evolutionary-Stackelberg solution set-up is applied to obtain the equilibria of the proposed framework. Simulation results on the modified IEEE 69-bus test system and IEEE 123-bus test system reveal the validity of the proposed method

A survey on health-promoting lifestyle among community-dwelling older people with hypertension in Macau

2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

The optical microscopy with virtual image breaks a record: 50-nm resolution imaging is demonstrated

We demonstrate a new 'microsphere nanoscope' that uses ordinary SiO2 microspheres as superlenses to create a virtual image of the object in near field. The magnified virtual image greatly overcomes the diffraction limit. We are able to resolve clearly 50-nm objects under a standard white light source in both transmission and reflection modes. The resolution achieved for white light opens a new opportunity to image viruses, DNA and molecules in real time

ERS-2 SAR反演海洋风矢量的研究

Author name used in this publication: 陈艳玲Author name used in this publication: 丁晓利, DING Xiao-liAuthor name used in this publication: 李志伟Title in Traditional Chinese: ERS-2 SAR反演海洋風矢量的研究Journal title in Traditional Chinese: 地球物理學報2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Studies on the interactions between potassium oxalato-oxodiperoxovanadate and histidine by NMR and MS

Multi-nuclear NMR and ESI-MS have been applied to study the interactions between oxalato-oxodiperoxovanadate and histidine in neutral solution. Coordination between the complex and histidine was monitored by V-51 NMR. A pair of new isomers produced via vanadium atom binding separately to N1 and N3 of the imidazole ring of histidine was characterized by several spectroscopic methods. Experimental results show that the structure activity relationship of peroxovanadium complexes bearing organic ligands may be related to the specific recognition between peroxovanadium and histidine residue of tyrosine phosphatase

China's Rural Logistics Distribution

Only including agricultural products logistics, agricultural means of production logistics, rural daily consumer goods logistics, as well as rural reverse logistics, it really be considered "rural logistics". This paper analyzes the distribution of agricultural products, and distribution of daily consumer goods, agricultural means of production distribution, rural reverse logistics; states that chain management should be one of its meaning in new rural modern circulation system, and logistics distribution is an effective way to enhance effectiveness of chain, therefore this article attempts to integrate the 4 kinds of logistics to a distribution center. In building a rural distribution network, we should consider the original network, but also should pay attention to the needs of new rural construction

Fast empirical Bayesian LASSO for multiple quantitative trait locus mapping

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Bayesian shrinkage technique has been applied to multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) mapping to estimate the genetic effects of QTLs on quantitative traits from a very large set of possible effects including the main and epistatic effects of QTLs. Although the recently developed empirical Bayes (EB) method significantly reduced computation comparing with the fully Bayesian approach, its speed and accuracy are limited by the fact that numerical optimization is required to estimate the variance components in the QTL model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a fast empirical Bayesian LASSO (EBLASSO) method for multiple QTL mapping. The fact that the EBLASSO can estimate the variance components in a closed form along with other algorithmic techniques render the EBLASSO method more efficient and accurate. Comparing with the EB method, our simulation study demonstrated that the EBLASSO method could substantially improve the computational speed and detect more QTL effects without increasing the false positive rate. Particularly, the EBLASSO algorithm running on a personal computer could easily handle a linear QTL model with more than 100,000 variables in our simulation study. Real data analysis also demonstrated that the EBLASSO method detected more reasonable effects than the EB method. Comparing with the LASSO, our simulation showed that the current version of the EBLASSO implemented in Matlab had similar speed as the LASSO implemented in Fortran, and that the EBLASSO detected the same number of true effects as the LASSO but a much smaller number of false positive effects.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The EBLASSO method can handle a large number of effects possibly including both the main and epistatic QTL effects, environmental effects and the effects of gene-environment interactions. It will be a very useful tool for multiple QTL mapping.</p