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Currently, the effect and molecular mechanism of calycosin, the main active ingredient of Qinshi Simiao San, which can alleviate chronic prostatitis (CP), on CP remain unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the potential mechanism of action of calycosin in CP in a rat CP model. The prostate tissue morphology was evaluated based on hematoxylin–eosin staining. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was conducted to evaluate inflammatory cytokine and immune factor levels (secretory immunoglobulin A [SIgA]; immunoglobulin G [IgG]) in prostate tissues and serum. Additionally, representative biomarkers of oxidative stress, including malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, and catalase were detected using detection kits, and reactive oxygen species release was evaluated using immunofluorescence staining. Furthermore, the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK)/NF-kappaB (NF-κB) signaling pathway was analyzed by western blotting. The results showed that calycosin substantially ameliorated the pathological damage to prostate tissues of the CP rats. Moreover, calycosin significantly downregulated interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IgG, and SIgA levels. Furthermore, we found that calycosin considerably suppressed oxidative stress and inhibited the activation of the p38MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway in rats with CP. In summary, our findings revealed that calycosin protects against CP in rats by inhibiting the p38MAPK/NF-κB pathway.

This paper applies the emotion extraction method based on emotion lexicon to the group emotion analysis of the information system, combines the vector space model to process the text emotion in the information system, expresses the emotion in the form of vectors, and divides the different types of emotion according to the distance between the emotion vectors for identification. The five-level index system in fuzzy mathematics is chosen to measure the value of emotional intensity, and by analyzing the emotional state of the group in the information leakage incident, a decision in line with the user’s emotion is made based on the emotion of the information system security. Accordingly, the security defense index of the information system is improved according to the information security risk index. The results show that in identifying the emotions of the information system security events, the group’s emotions are mainly biased towards the negative. The proportion of negative emotions is the largest of 98%, which indicates that attention should be paid to the confidentiality of the user group’s information in the security of the information system. The maximum security event risk value in the evaluation in the information system is in the T8 period, with a value of 0.819, indicating that the security defense of the information system should be strengthened in the T8 period.

The aim of the present study was to gain a better understanding of the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and dopamine D3 receptors in the effects of chronic methamphetamine (METH) on prepulse inhibition (PPI), an endophenotype of psychosis. We compared the effect of a three-week adolescent METH treatment protocol on the regulation of PPI in wildtype mice, BDNF heterozygous mice (HET), D3 receptor knockout mice (D3KO), and double-mutant mice (DM) with both BDNF heterozygosity and D3 receptor knockout. Chronic METH induced disruption of PPI regulation in male mice with BDNF haploinsufficiency (HET and DM), independent of D3 receptor knockout. Specifically, these mice showed reduced baseline PPI, as well as attenuated disruption of PPI induced by acute treatment with the dopamine receptor agonist, apomorphine (APO), or the glutamate NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801. In contrast, there were no effects of BDNF heterozygosity or D3 knockout on PPI regulation in female mice. Chronic METH pretreatment induced the expected locomotor hyperactivity sensitisation, where female HET and DM mice also showed endogenous sensitisation. Differential sex-specific effects of genotype and METH pretreatment were observed on dopamine receptor and dopamine transporter gene expression in the striatum and frontal cortex. Taken together, these results show a significant involvement of BDNF in the long-term effects of METH on PPI, particularly in male mice, but these effects appear independent of D3 receptors. The role of this receptor in psychosis endophenotypes therefore remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fritillaria has a long history in China, and it can be consumed as medicine and food. Owing to the high cost of Fritillaria cirrhosa, traders sometimes mix it with the cheaper Fritillaria thunbergii powder to make profit. Herein, we proposed a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique to test the adulteration present in the sample of Fritillaria cirrhosa powder. Experimental samples with different adulteration levels were prepared, and their LIBS spectra were obtained. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was adopted as the quantitative analysis model to compare the effects of four data standardization methods, namely, mean centring, normalization by total area, standard normal variable, and normalization by the maximum, on the performance of the PLSR model. Principal component analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were utilized for feature extraction and feature selection, and the performance of the PLSR model was determined based on its quantitative analysis. Subsequently, the optimal number of features was determined. The residuals were corrected using support vector regression (SVR). The mean absolute error and root mean square error of prediction obtained from the quantitative analysis results of the combined LASSO-PLSR-SVR model for the test set data were 5.0396% and 7.2491%, respectively, and the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.9983. The results showed that the LIBS technique can be adopted to test adulteration in the sample of Fritillaria cirrhosa powder and has potential applications in drug quality control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through in-depth analysis of the definition and connotation of new urbanization quality, a new urbanization indicator system with typical representativeness and quantification is established, a spatio-temporal coupling coordination model is constructed based on this indicator system, and model input is obtained through urban statistical yearbooks and relevant government year reports. Data completes the temporal-spatial coupling coordination analysis of new urbanization and economic development. Taking a province as an example, it has been experimentally verified that the quality of new urbanization in the province has developed rapidly from 2010 to 2014, and the quality of new urbanization has stagnated from 2014 to 2015. In 2018, the quality of new urbanization in the province has rapidly increased its comprehensive value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The systemic immune inflammatory index (SII), as a new marker, is widely used to predict the disease prognosis. We investigated the predictive value of SII for malignant cerebral edema (MCE) and whether postoperative MCE mediates the relationship between SII and functional prognosis in patients undergoing endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). Patients and Methods: A total of 829 patients with anterior circulation large-vessel occlusive stroke (LVOS) were registered, and 675 (81.4%) met the inclusion criteria. We collected baseline data upon admission, including SII. Postoperative computed tomography was performed to assess the presence and grading of cerebral edema (CED), and MCE was defined as a CED score of 3. A good prognosis was defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 0– 2 at the 90-day follow-up. Results: A total of 132 patients developed MCE after EVT. The patients were divided into MCE and non-MCE groups, and univariate and multifactorial analyses were performed. Among these risk factors, an elevated SII was independently correlated with the occurrence of MCE. In addition, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the predictive capability of SII levels for prognosis. The area under the ROC was 0.69, and the optimal critical value was 2.14. In addition, postoperative MCE may partially account for the poorer functional prognosis of patients with elevated SII (regression coefficient changed by 40.3%). Conclusion: The SII is an independent predictor of malignant brain edema after EVT. Postoperative MCE is partly the reason for the poorer prognosis in patients with elevated SII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the differences in raw materials and production processes, the quality of the same type of drug produced by different manufacturers is different. In drug supervision, determining the manufacturer can help to trace drug quality issues. In this study, a method for the quick identification of drug manufacturers based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was proposed for the first time. We obtained the LIBS spectra from 12 samples of three types of penicillin (phenoxymethylpenicillin potassium tablets, amoxicillin capsules, and amoxicillin and clavulanate potassium tablets) produced by 10 manufacturers. The LIBS characteristic lines of the three types of penicillin were ranked by importance based on the decrease in the Gini index of random forest (RF). Three classifiers—the linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN)—were used to identify the different manufacturers of the three types of penicillin. RF-ANN provided the best classification result and an accuracy of 100% in penicillin manufacturer identification. The results show that LIBS combined with chemometrics could be used in the identification of penicillin manufacturers, and this method has application potential in drug quality supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a popular food, Chinese yam (CY) powder is widely used for healthy and commercial purposes. Detecting adulteration of CY powder has become essential. In this work, chemometric methods combined with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) were developed for identification and quantification of CY powder adulteration. Pure powders (CY, rhizome of winged yam (RY) and cassava (CS)) and adulterated powders (CY adulterated with CS) were pressed into pellets to obtain LIBS spectra for identification and quantification experiments, respectively. After variable number optimization by principal component analysis and random forest (RF), the best model random forest-support vector machine (RF-SVM) decreased 48.57% of the input variables and improved the accuracy to 100% in identification. Following the better feature extraction method RF, the Gaussian process regression (GPR) method performed the best in the prediction of the adulteration rate, with a correlation coefficient of prediction (Rp2) of 0.9570 and a root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 7.6243%. Besides, the variable importance of metal elements analyzed by RF revealed that Na and K were significant due to the high metabolic activity and maximum metal content of CY powder, respectively. These results demonstrated that chemometric methods combined with LIBS can identify and quantify CY powder adulteration accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]