Maternal Diet Intervention Before Pregnancy Primes Offspring Lipid Metabolism in Liver

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has a developmental origin and is influenced in utero. We aimed to evaluate if maternal diet intervention before pregnancy would be beneficial to reduce the risk of offspring NAFLD. In our study, female mice were either on a normal-fat diet (NF group), or a high-fat diet for 12 weeks and continued on this diet throughout pregnancy and lactation (HF group), or switched from HF-to-NF diet 1 week (H1N group), or 9 weeks (H9N group) before pregnancy. Compared with the NF offspring, the H1N and HF, but not the H9N offspring, displayed more severe hepatic steatosis and glucose intolerance. More specifically, an abnormal blood lipid panel was seen in the H1N offspring and abnormal hepatic free fatty acid composition was present in both the HF and H1N offspring, while the H9N offspring displayed both at normal levels. These physiological changes were associated with desensitized hepatic insulin/AKT signaling, increased expression of genes and proteins for de novo lipogenesis and cholesterol synthesis, decreased expression of genes and proteins for fatty acid oxidation, increased Pcsk9 expression, and hypoactivation of 5' AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling in the HF and H1N offspring. However, these effects were completely or partially rescued in the H9N offspring. In summary, we found that early maternal diet intervention is effective in reducing the risk of offspring NAFLD caused by maternal HF diet. These findings provide significant support to develop effective diet intervention strategies and policies for prevention of obesity and NAFLD to promote optimal health outcomes for mothers and children

Celastrol alleviates diabetic vascular injury via Keap1/Nrf2-mediated anti-inflammation

Introduction: Celastrol (Cel) is a widely used main component of Chinese herbal medicine with strong anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antitumor activities. In the present study, we aimed to elucidate the cellular molecular protective mechanism of Cel against diabetes-induced inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.Methods: Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) was induced by db/db mice, and osmotic pumps containing Cel (100 μg/kg/day) were implanted intraperitoneally and were calibrated to release the drug for 28 days. In addition, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured in normal or high glucose and palmitic acid-containing (HG + PA) media in the presence or absence of Cel for 48 h.Results: Cel significantly ameliorated the hyperglycemia-induced abnormalities in nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like protein 2 (Nrf2) pathway activity and alleviated HG + PA-induced oxidative damage. However, the protective effect of Cel was almost completely abolished in HUVECs transfected with short hairpin (sh)RNA targeting Nrf2, but not by nonsense shRNA. Furthermore, HG + PA reduced the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), the autophagic degradation of p62/Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1), and the nuclear localization of Nrf2. However, these catabolic pathways were inhibited by Cel treatment in HUVECs. In addition, compound C (AMPK inhibitors) and AAV9-sh-Nrf2 reduced Cel-induced Nrf2 activation and angiogenesis in db/db mice.Discussion: Taking these findings together, the endothelial protective effect of Cel in the presence of HG + PA may be at least in part attributed to its effects to reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation through p62/Keap1-mediated Nrf2 activation

Coping strategies following the diagnosis of a fetal anomaly: A scoping review

IntroductionMany women experience severe emotional distress (such as grief, depression, and anxiety) following a diagnosis of fetal anomaly. The ability to cope with stressful events and regulate emotions across diverse situations may play a primary role in psychological wellbeing. This study aims to present coping strategies after disclosing a fetal anomaly to pregnant women.MethodsThis is a scoping review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Electronic databases, including Web of Science (WOS, BCI, KJD, MEDLINE, RSCI, SCIELO), CINAHL, and EBSCO PsycARTICLES, were used to search for primary studies from the inception of each database to 2021. The keywords were determined by existing literature and included: “fetal anomaly,” “fetal abnormality,” “fetal anomaly,” “fetal abnormality” AND “cope,” “coping,” “deal,” “manage,” “adapt*,” “emotion* regulate*,” with the use of Boolean operators AND/OR. A total of 16 articles were reviewed, followed by advancing scoping review methodology of Arksey and O'Malley's framework.ResultsIn this review, we identified 52 coping strategies using five questionnaires in seven quantitative studies and one mixed-method study. The relationship between coping strategies and mental distress was explored. However, the results were inconsistent and incomparable. We synthesized four coping categories from qualitative studies and presented them in an intersection.ConclusionThis scoping review identified the coping strategies of women with a diagnosis of a fetal anomaly during pregnancy. The relationship between coping strategies and mental distress was uncertain and needs more exploration. We considered an appropriate measurement should be necessary for the research of coping in women diagnosed with fetal anomaly pregnancy

ALDH1 Expression and Vasculogenic Mimicry Are Positively Associated with Poor Prognosis in Patients with Breast Cancer

Background/Aims: This study aimed to explore the prognostic value of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) expression and vasculogenic mimicry (VM) in patients with breast cancer. Methods: ALDH1 expression and the presence of VM were examined by immunohistochemistry and CD31/PAS double staining, respectively, using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues from 202 breast cancer patients. The mean follow-up period ranged from 15 to 115 months. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to plot survival curves. Prognostic values were assessed by multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model. Results: ALDH1 expression was strongly associated with VM (P = 0.005). ALDH1 expression was positively correlated with histological grade (P = 0.011). Both ALDH1 expression and VM were negatively related to the status of the estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor and were statistically increased in triple-negative breast cancer. Patients with ALDH1 expression or VM displayed poorer disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) than ALDH1-negative or VM-negative patients, with the worst OS and DFS observed in ALDH1/VM-double-positive patients. ALDH1-positive and VM-positive were independent survival risk factors for DFS and OS. Conclusion: ALDH1 expression and VM are correlated with the survival rate of patients with breast cancer. ALDH1 and VM, either alone or together, are prognostic factors in patients with breast cancer

Expression Profile and Ligand Screening of a Putative Odorant-Binding Protein, AcerOBP6, from the Asian Honeybee

Olfaction is essential in some behaviors of honeybee, such as nursing, foraging, attracting a mate, social communication, and kin recognition. OBPs (odorant binding proteins) play a key role in the first step of olfactory perception. Here, we focused on a classic OBP with a PBP-GOBP domain from the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana cerana. Beyond that, the mRNA expression profiles and the binding affinity of AcerOBP6 were researched. According to qRT-PCR analysis, AcerOBP6 transcripts were mainly expressed in the antennae of forager bees. In addition, we found that the expression level of AcerOBP6 was higher than that of AmelOBP6. The fluorescence competitive binding assay indicated that the AcerOBP6 protein had binding affinity with most of the tested odors, including queen pheromone, worker pheromone, and floral volatiles, among which the strongest one was linolenic acid (with a Ki value of 1.67). However, AcerOBP6 was not sensitive to the brood pheromones. A further study based on EAG assay revealed that the antennae had the strongest response to 2-heptanone. The EAG recording values of the selected ligands were all reduced after AcerOBP6 was silenced, with 8 of 14 declining significantly (p < 0.01) given that these odors could specifically bind to AcerOBP6. As revealed in our current study, AcerOBP6 might be a crucial protein involved in olfactory recognition for foraging. Overall, the research provides a foundation for exploring the olfactory mechanism of A. cerana cerana

Preparation of sodium alginate-polyvinyl alcohol@PVDF hybrid membrane for efficient oil-water separation

Oily sewage is widespread in petrochemical and machinery manufacturing industries. Direct discharge not only wastes water and oil resources, pollutes the ecological environment, but also affects the survival and health of humans and other organisms. The traditional oil-water separation method has strong limitations, poor economy and low separation efficiency. Sodium alginate (SA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were uniformly coated on the surface of PVDF membrane, and superhydrophilic SA-PVA@PVDF hybrid membrane was prepared by multiple cyclic self-assembly. The oil-water separation experiment was carried out by using the membrane. The initial separation efficiency was 99.8%, and the overall separation efficiency remained above 98.3% after 10 cycles of regeneration experiments. This study provides a new idea for the low-cost, green and simple preparation of superhydrophilic-underwater superoleophobic separation materials

Joint Management of Energy Harvesting, Storage, and Usage for Green Wireless Sensor Networks

Recently, energy harvesting has been emerging as a promising technique to prolong the lifetime for wireless sensor nodes. Most existing efforts address the design of energy harvesting and sensor node subsystem separately or ignore some real-world constraints. In this paper, we study how to codesign the two subsystems and how to jointly manage energy harvesting, storage, and usage. We first propose a novel system architecture for energy harvesting which employs several supercapacitors to eliminate the conflicts on charging and discharging among different system components. Then, we present a method to schedule their charging and discharging, which is proved to be able to guarantee zero waste of the harvested energy if the battery is not full. Third, we propose an optimal algorithm to minimize different components’ capacity and two heuristic algorithms to maximize the system reward. We conduct extensive experiments based on real-life data traces. Results show that the proposed system architecture can harvest more energy compared to the state of the art, and the capacity optimization algorithm can choose the most suitable size for each system component

Mixed Criticality Scheduling for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been widely used in industrial systems. Their real-time performance and reliability are fundamental to industrial production. Many works have studied the two aspects, but only focus on single criticality WSNs. Mixed criticality requirements exist in many advanced applications in which different data flows have different levels of importance (or criticality). In this paper, first, we propose a scheduling algorithm, which guarantees the real-time performance and reliability requirements of data flows with different levels of criticality. The algorithm supports centralized optimization and adaptive adjustment. It is able to improve both the scheduling performance and flexibility. Then, we provide the schedulability test through rigorous theoretical analysis. We conduct extensive simulations, and the results demonstrate that the proposed scheduling algorithm and analysis significantly outperform existing ones

A study to examine the uses of personal strength in relation to mental health recovery in adults with serious mental illnesses: a research protocol

This study will explore the relationships among strengths self-efficacy, resourcefulness, stigma experience and mental health recovery in community-dwelling adults with serious mental illnesses. Mental health practices have focued on psychopathphysiology. Stigma heavily plagued clients with mental illnesses and is one of the greatest barriers to mental health recovery. Personal strengths like strengths self-efficacy, people’s confidence in using their personal strengths, and resourcefulness, the ability to carry out daily activities, have been linked to positive mental health. However, the linkage between strengths self-efficacy, resourcefulness and mental health recovery remains uncharted. A cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed methods study will be conducted. A funded study by the Sigma Theta Tau, Upsilon Eta Chapter, August 2013, involving a convenience sample of 100 participants is planned. Included are community dwelling adults between 21 to 65 years old having been diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. Clients with current co-occurring substance abuse will be excluded. Participants complete questionnaires and undergo an interview. Correlations among the study variables will be examined. Regression analysis will determine if recovery can be predicted by strengths self-efficacy, resourcefulness and stigma experience. Interview data will be transcribed and analyzed by thematic analysis. This study will look beyond clients’ disability to focus on their recovery and healing capacities such as strengths self-efficacy and resourcefulness. Findings will expand our knowledge about mental health recovery. Knowledge gained from this study may pave the way for future nursing strategies to aid recovery and inform the development of positive, strengths-based interventions