48 research outputs found
Improvement of Liquid Fructose-Induced Adipose Tissue Insulin Resistance by Ginger Treatment in Rats Is Associated with Suppression of Adipose Macrophage-Related Proinflammatory Cytokines
Adipose tissue insulin resistance (Adipo-IR) results in excessive release of free fatty acids from adipose tissue, which plays a key role in the development of âlipotoxicity.â Therefore, amelioration of Adipo-IR may benefit the treatment of other metabolic abnormalities. Here we found that treatment with the alcoholic extract of ginger (50âmg/kg/day, by oral gavage) for five weeks attenuated liquid fructose-induced hyperinsulinemia and an increase in the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index in rats. More importantly, ginger reversed the increases in the Adipo-IR index and plasma nonesterified fatty acid concentrations during the oral glucose tolerance test assessment. Adipose gene/protein expression profiles revealed that ginger treatment suppressed CD68 and F4/80, two important macrophage accumulation markers. Consistently, the macrophage-associated cytokines tissue necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-6 were also downregulated. In contrast, insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1, but not IRS-2, was upregulated. Moreover, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1 and its receptor chemokine (C-C motif) receptor-2 were also suppressed. Thus these results suggest that amelioration of fructose-induced Adipo-IR by ginger treatment in rats is associated with suppression of adipose macrophage-related proinflammatory cytokines
Fabrication and Magnetic Properties of Fe65Co35âZnO Nano-Granular Films
A series of nano-granular films composed of magnetic metal (Fe65Co35) granules with a few nanometers in size and semiconductor oxide (ZnO) have been fabricated by a magnetron sputtering method, and excellent soft magnetic properties have been achieved in a wide metal volume fraction (x) range for as-deposited samples due to the exchange coupling between FeCo granules (a ferromagnetic interaction in nano-scale). In a wide range (0.53 <x < 0.71), the films exhibit coercivity HC not exceeding 15 Oe, along with high resistivity. Especially for the sample with x = 0.67, coercivities in hard and easy axes are 1.43 and 7.08 Oe, respectively, 4ÏMS = 9.85 kg, and Ï reaches 2.06 Ă 103 ΌΩ cm. The dependence of complex permeability ÎŒ = ÎŒâČ â jÎŒâł on frequency shows that the real part ÎŒâČ is more than 100 below 1.83 GHz and that the ferromagnetic resonance frequency reaches 2.31 GHz, implying the promising for high frequency application. The measured negative temperature coefficient of resistivity reveals that may be the weak localized electrons existing in samples mediate the exchange coupling
Defective Osteogenic Differentiation in the Development of Osteosarcoma
Osteosarcoma (OS) is associated with poor prognosis due to its high incidence of metastasis and chemoresistance. It often arises in areas of rapid bone growth in long bones during the adolescent growth spurt. Although certain genetic conditions and alterations increase the risk of developing OS, the molecular pathogenesis is poorly understood. Recently, defects in differentiation have been linked to cancers, as they are associated with high cell proliferation. Treatments overcoming these defects enable terminal differentiation and subsequent tumor inhibition. OS development may be associated with defects in osteogenic differentiation. While early regulators of osteogenesis are unable to bypass these defects, late osteogenic regulators, including Runx2 and Osterix, are able to overcome some of the defects and inhibit tumor propagation through promoting osteogenic differentiation. Further understanding of the relationship between defects in osteogenic differentiation and tumor development holds tremendous potential in treating OS
Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study
Summary
Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally.
Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies
have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of
the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income
countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality.
Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to
hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis,
exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprungâs disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a
minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical
status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary
intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause,
in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status.
We did a complete case analysis.
Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital
diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal
malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprungâs disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome
countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male.
Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36â39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3â3·3).
Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income
countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups).
Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome
countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries;
pâ€0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients
combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88â4·11],
p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59â2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20
[1·04â1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention
(ASA 4â5 vs ASA 1â2, 1·82 [1·40â2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1â2, 1·58, [1·30â1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety
checklist not used (1·39 [1·02â1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed
(ventilation 1·96, [1·41â2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05â1·74], p=0·018). Administration of
parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47â0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65
[0·50â0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48â1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality.
Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome,
middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will
be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger
than 5 years by 2030
XFEM for Thermal Crack of Massive Concrete
Thermal cracking of massive concrete structures occurs as a result of stresses caused by hydration in real environment conditions. The extended finite element method that combines thermal fields and creep is used in this study to analyze the thermal cracking of massive concrete structures. The temperature field is accurately simulated through an equivalent equation of heat conduction that considers the effect of a cooling pipe system. The time-dependent creep behavior of massive concrete is determined by the viscoelastic constitutive model with Prony series. Based on the degree of hydration, we consider the main properties related to cracking evolving with time. Numerical simulations of a real massive concrete structure are conducted. Results show that the developed method is efficient for numerical calculations of thermal cracks on massive concrete. Further analyses indicate that a cooling system and appropriate heat preservation measures can efficiently prevent the occurrence of thermal cracks
Magnetic properties of oblique deposited (FeCoNiNbB)
(Fe57Co24Ni4Nb2B13)x-(SiO2)1-x nano-granular thin films in a wide x range were fabricated by magnetron sputtering by oblique incidence. Excellent soft magnetic properties have been achieved with variable in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy field Hk. For same oblique angle Ξ, with decreasing x, Hk increases first and reaches maximum at x = 0.88, then decreases; while the coercivity in the easy axis changes slightly and is less than 10 Oe and the resitivity Ï increases monotonously and exhibits a higher rate in x < 0.88. For films with Ξ = 15°, the sample x = 0.88 possesses a high FMR frequency fr of 5.4âGHz and a large permeability of 40 up to 4.1âGHz. The sample x = 0.66 has both high resistivity and excellent soft magnetic properties, of which the coercivities in hard and easy axes are 3.1 and 2.4 Oe, respectively, Hk is 60 Oe, and Ï reaches 3.1 103âΌΩâcm. The magnetic spectrum ÎŒ = - shows that is more than 150 below 0.70âGHz and fr reaches 1.70âGHz
Antitumor Research on Artemisinin and Its Bioactive Derivatives
Abstract Cancer is the leading cause of human death which seriously threatens human life. The antimalarial drug artemisinin and its derivatives have been discovered with considerable anticancer properties. Simultaneously, a variety of target-selective artemisinin-related compounds with high efficiency have been discovered. Many researches indicated that artemisinin-related compounds have cytotoxic effects against a variety of cancer cells through pleiotropic effects, including inhibiting the proliferation of tumor cells, promoting apoptosis, inducing cell cycle arrest, disrupting cancer invasion and metastasis, preventing angiogenesis, mediating the tumor-related signaling pathways, and regulating tumor microenvironment. More importantly, artemisinins demonstrated minor side effects to normal cells and manifested the ability to overcome multidrug-resistance which is widely observed in cancer patients. Therefore, we concentrated on the new advances and development of artemisinin and its derivatives as potential antitumor agents in recent 5Â years. It is our hope that this review could be helpful for further exploration of novel artemisinin-related antitumor agents. Graphical Abstrac
Coupled Gold Nanoparticles with Aptamers Colorimetry for Detection of Amoxicillin in Human Breast Milk Based on Image Preprocessing and BP-ANN
Antibiotic residues in breast milk can have an impact on the intestinal flora and health of babies. Amoxicillin, as one of the most used antibiotics, affects the abundance of some intestinal bacteria. In this study, we developed a convenient and rapid process that used a combination of colorimetric methods and artificial intelligence image preprocessing, and back propagation-artificial neural network (BP-ANN) analysis to detect amoxicillin in breast milk. The colorimetric method derived from the reaction of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was coupled to aptamers (ssDNA) with different concentrations of amoxicillin to produce different color results. The color image was captured by a portable image acquisition device, and image preprocessing was implemented in three steps: segmentation, filtering, and cropping. We decided on a range of detection from 0 µM to 3.9 µM based on the physiological concentration of amoxicillin in breast milk and the detection effect. The segmentation and filtering steps were conducted by Hough circle detection and Gaussian filtering, respectively. The segmented results were analyzed by linear regression and BP-ANN, and good linear correlations between the colorimetric image value and concentration of target amoxicillin were obtained. The R2 and MSE of the training set were 0.9551 and 0.0696, respectively, and those of the test set were 0.9276 and 0.1142, respectively. In prepared breast milk sample detection, the recoveries were 111.00%, 98.00%, and 100.20%, and RSDs were 6.42%, 4.27%, and 1.11%. The result suggests that the colorimetric process combined with artificial intelligence image preprocessing and BP-ANN provides an accurate, rapid, and convenient way to achieve the detection of amoxicillin in breast milk