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ObjectivesMethodsResultsDiscussionThe study aimed to explore whether TP could improve memory in the aged type 2 diabetic rat model by regulating microbiota-immune-synaptic plasticity axis.The experiment was divided into two parts. Firstly, to investigate the effects of TP on the physiopathology of the aged T2DM model rats, rats were randomly divided into the Normal control group, the aged group, the Aged T2DM model group, the TP 75, 150, 300 mg/kg groups, the 150 mg/kg Piracetam group and the 3 mg/kg Rosiglitazone group. Then, to further verify whether TP improved memory in aged T2DM rat model by regulating intestinal flora, the fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from the rats in the 300 mg/kg TP group into the rats in the aged T2DM model group was carried out. Effects on gut microbiota, colonic integrity (epithelial tight junction proteins), and endotoxemia (serum LPS) were examined, along with synaptic structure, synaptic plasticity-related structural proteins and inflammation signaling of the hippocampus in our study.Our results demonstrated that TP alleviated memory impairments in the aged T2DM rat model. The specific outcomes were as follows: TP 300 mg/kg corrected the gut dysbacteriosis, alleviated intestinal permeability reduction and peripheral/central inflammation, inhibited the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. Meanwhile, TP improved the synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus of the aged T2DM model rats, whose expressions of SYN, PSD 95, NMDAR1 and GluR1 in hippocampus were significantly up-regulated. Surprisingly, rats of the FMT group displayed the same changes.TP improves the memory in aged T2DM rat model. The mechanism may be related to the alteration of gut flora, which can inhibit hippocampal TLR4/NF-κB signaling to attenuate neuroinflammation, then improve synaptic plasticity. The study proposes that TP interventions aimed at manipulating the gut microbiota may hold great potential as an effective approach for preventing and treating this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The EU Artificial Intelligence Act: Regulating Subliminal AI Systems" by Rostam J. Neuwirth explores the need for regulation in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address legal and ethical concerns. The book focuses on the specific challenge of regulating subliminal techniques used by AI systems. It examines the proposed EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) and its objective, scope, and context. The book also delves into the psychology of subliminal messages and the potential negative effects they can have. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of global collaboration and a binding legal framework for regulating AI systems. This book provides valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and legal professionals interested in understanding and addressing the impact of AI on society. [Extracted from the article]

This study is aimed at the preparation and evaluation of walnut meal-derived elastase inhibitory peptide loaded in chitosan-tripolyphosphate (CS-TPP) nanoparticles (NPs). It was shown that the maximum encapsulation efficiency of FFVPF could reach 94.58 ± 0.23%. TEM microphotographs, polydispersity index, and zeta-sizer reports indicated that FFVPF-loaded CS-TPP NPs were in nanometric range and were spherical, discrete, and uniform in size with PDI less than 0.3. FTIR analysis indicated that the peptides interacted with CS-TPP NPs through strong hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions. The CS-TPP FFVPF NPs showed better stability with heating treatment, pH treatment, or photochemical treatment. Moreover, the in vitro release profile of peptides was identified. The release rate of encapsulated FFVPF was released explosively to 77.22 ± 2.21% and gradually slowed down. These findings highlighted the prospect of CS-TPP NPs as an oral delivery system, and the application of peptides within food and pharmaceutical products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study has conducted a diachronic analysis of law and order metaphors in a self-compiled corpus of China's Government Work Reports (CGWR) over a span of 22 years (2000–2021). By mapping target domains with source domains, we categorized four major types of legal metaphors, including building, physical object, journey, and living being, among which physical object was overwhelmingly predominant. Our analysis suggests metaphorical expressions that highlight physicality more than specificity will constantly remain in use because the stability and universality of such metaphors are conducive to the dissemination and reinforcement of legal thoughts. Additionally, there is a direct correlation between legal metaphors and the government's economic, political, and social concerns, as evidenced by increasing attention paid to various security issues and new challenges in China. Given that the rule of law with Chinese characteristics becomes more institutionally recognized and systematically theorized, legal metaphors are implemented in a top-down manner to justify the exercise of power in CGWRs, making Chinese people identified with the governing philosophy and further contributing to the ideological construction of discourse. This study is thus conducive to a general but insightful understanding of how political stances are embodied and reinforced persuasively in discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser scribing technology is a straightforward technique to fabricate porous graphene, yet only conducted with polymeric precursors. Compared to polymers, molecular engineering of small organic molecules is much easier, which can be used to modify the graphene with tailored performance. Here we report the first employment of a laser to respectively transform small organic molecules, pentacene quinone and tetraazapentacene quinone (TAPQ), into graphene (P‐LIG and N‐LIG) as high‐performance lithium‐ion battery anodes. The TAPQ, as the N‐fused molecular precursor, produces nitrogen‐doped graphene. Both N‐LIG and P‐LIG exhibit significant self‐enhancement of capacity upon cycling; the N‐LIG anode delivers reversible capacities of 5863 mAh g‐1 at 0.2 A g‐1 and retains 1970 mAh g‐1 at 2 A g‐1 after another 500 cycles, which is the best performance for the graphene‐type anode. Kinetics studies and structural characterizations verify that the surface‐ and diffusion‐controlled processes are both progressively optimized, providing extra lithium storage upon cycling. It is also supported by small‐angle X‐ray scattering that the disordering level of micropores is increased upon cycling for N‐LIG, corresponding to the enhancement of microporous level. Our work successfully develops a novel facile approach to fabricating heteroatom‐doped microporous graphene exhibiting high performance and provides new insight into the lithium storage mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ore beneficiation process, large block detection is necessary to ensure production safety. This typically involves identifying oversized ore on the conveyor belt and preventing material blockage accidents in the transfer buffer bin between the ore feeding belt and the ore receiving belt. Methods based on deep learning can learn to construct complex features from a large amount of data, but they also require a large number of hand-made datasets for training. Although the existing few shot detection methods for ore images reduce the cost of manual labeling, the corresponding detection performance is insufficient. This article mainly explores how to improve the performance of the detector under the ore image detection task in the case of few labeled images. First, a shot enhancement block is proposed to enhance the valuable foreground information for higher-quality support features. Subsequently, we present a dual-attention region proposal network that effectively leverages support features to enhance the precision of generating candidate proposals. Finally, we propose a lightweight multi-relational detector to effectively evaluate the relationship between query and support proposals, leading to a substantial enhancement in guidance performance. The proposed few-shot object detector (FS-OreDet) achieves the best detection results with state-of-the-art methods with an average precision (A P) of 55.1, a speed of 57 frames per second (F P S), and a model size of only 17 M B. Furthermore, our framework adeptly captures the feature information of ore images with substantial data. The detector's accuracy achieves a significant improvement of 14% in A P. Compared with general object detectors, the performance of the detector ranks first and meets the requirements for outdoor scene deployment. • Proposing a stronger few-shot object detector for ore images via feature enhancement and relationship exploration. • Some components are designed for boosting few-shot object detectors of ore images. • Extensive experiments on the ore dataset and theoretical analyses are also added to verify the superiority of the proposed detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, from a sociosemiotic perspective, sets out to examine the meaning making process of the International Telecommunication Regulations by investigating the contributions submitted by the Member States and Sector Members of the International Telecommunication Union, and two versions of the International Telecommunication Regulations (1988 version and 2012 version). The findings show that the International Telecommunication Regulations, as a sign, may be ideologically and institutionally constrained as well as historically situated. As regards its review, Member States and Sector Members have divergent views carrying distinct institutional positions, which are induced by various national interests and different technological levels. Concerning its revision, a comparative analysis of the overall articles and the modal system of the 1988 version and the 2012 version reflects that the meaning making of the International Telecommunication Regulations is inherently embedded in specific historical backgrounds, and the frequent use of soft language in the 2012 version may be conceived of as a mediational means to compromise the distinct views of member states on the controversial issues and facilitate institutional interactions. It is therefore argued that the discourse construction of the International Telecommunication Regulations is an institutional process of "interest weighing", jurisdictional compromise and institutional dialogue among Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squalene is a polyunsaturated triterpenoid compound present in various organisms. Squalene has multiple biological activities, which makes it a potential new functional food ingredient for nutrition enhancement or disease prevention. However, low extraction efficiency, high cost, and environmental issues greatly limit the practical application of squalene. This review discusses the latest findings on the biological activities, natural and genetically modified organism (GMO) sources, trends of extraction technologies, and delivery systems of squalene, providing innovative prospects for the large-scale production and application of squalene. Key findings and conclusions: Squalene has various biological activities, such as immunity enhancement, skin senility resistance, and hypolipidemic, antioxidant, antitumor, antibacterial, and detoxification effects. Thus, squalene can be widely applied in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Natural and GMO sources provide the foundation for large-scale squalene production. Innovative, green, sustainable extraction technologies are emerging as substitutes for traditional technologies. In addition, delivery systems can be used to maintain oxidation stability and efficacy of squalene in food applications. • Biological activities of squalene are presented. • Natural and GMO sources of squalene are summarized. • The advantages and limitations of squalene extraction technologies are discussed. • Delivery systems are beneficial for the application of squalene in food and drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avalanche transistor (AT)-based repetitive nanosecond pulse generators with high amplitude, fast rise time, narrow pulse width, and low jitter have been widely developed and applied in numerous fields. However, relatively little research has been carried out on the positive nanosecond pulse generation with high flexibility in a wide range of output voltage amplitude. In this article, a novel AT-based Marx circuit (MC) topology adopting base-triggering method is proposed to avoid the formation of current filamentation inside the transistors and resolve the contradiction between high-voltage output and high repetition rate operation. A $6\times 10$ -stage MC prototype is implemented with optimized parameters to validate the feasibility of the proposed topology. The conduction processes of transistors show that, with the injection of additional base current, the switched-ON modes are transformed, which contributes to reliable conduction of transistors even without sufficient overvoltage ramp. With the adoption of inner triggering loops, the minimum working voltage of the prototype is extended to 1150 V. The operation characteristics of the generator in the whole operation range are investigated in depth. Experimental results illustrate that, at the 75- $\Omega $ match-ended coaxial cable, the prototype is capable of generating positive pulses with an adjustable voltage amplitude in the range of 6.50 to 12.39 kV, a basically consistent rise time of 3.6 ns and pulse width of 19.5 ns. Over 107 successive pulses are generated at a maximum repetition rate of 1 kHz without any device failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising global population and improved living standards have led to an alarming increase in non‐communicable diseases, notably cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, posing a severe threat to human health. Wearable sensing devices, utilizing micro‐sensing technology for real‐time monitoring, have emerged as promising tools for disease prevention. Among various sensing platforms, graphene‐based sensors have shown exceptional performance in the field of micro‐sensing. Laser‐induced graphene (LIG) technology, a cost‐effective and facile method for graphene preparation, has gained particular attention. By converting polymer films directly into patterned graphene materials at ambient temperature and pressure, LIG offers a convenient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional methods, opening up innovative possibilities for electronic device fabrication. Integrating LIG‐based sensors into health monitoring systems holds the potential to revolutionize health management. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the discovery of LIG, this work provides a comprehensive overview of LIG's evolution and the progress of LIG‐based sensors. Delving into the diverse sensing mechanisms of LIG‐based sensors, recent research advances in the domain of health monitoring are explored. Furthermore, the opportunities and challenges associated with LIG‐based sensors in health monitoring are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence demonstrated that mitophagy and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) was closely associated with memory decline in elderly type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Tea polyphenols (TP), an excellent natural antioxidant, has been reported to have neuroprotective properties in aging and diabetes, but the underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood. This study targets ERS-mitophagy in hippocampal neurons to investigate the improvement effect of memory in aged T2DM rats by TP. Rats were randomly divided into the control group, the aged group, the aged T2DM model group, the TP 75, 150, 300 mg/kg groups. TP 300 mg/kg ameliorated mitophagy by decreasing the levels of p-mTOR (S2448), P62 and HSP60 and increasing the levels of PINK1 and Parkin, the ratio of LC3Ⅱ/LC3Ⅰ, co-localization of LC3 and HSP60 and the number of autophagosomes and autolysosomes. TP 300 mg/kg attenuated ERS by downregulating the levels of p-PERK, p-eIF2α, ATF4, GRP78 and restoring the ER structure. To further verify epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is the main active component of TP, enhanced mitophagy by inhibiting ERS, PC12 cells were pretreated with ERS activator tunicamycin (TM) or ERS inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA). The results showed that the improvement of mitophagy by EGCG was inhibited by TM and promoted by 4-PBA. Collectively, ERS-mitophagy in hippocampal neurons plays a key role in the improvement of memory by TP in aged T2DM rats. This study will provide a new perspective and strategy for the prevention of memory decline in elderly with T2DM. [Display omitted] • Tea polyphenols improves spatial memory and apoptosis in hippocampal neurons. • Mitophagy and endoplasmic reticulum stress involve in the apoptosis. • Endoplasmic reticulum stress mediated by PERK/eIF2α/ATF4 signaling pathway. • Mitophagy mediated by mTOR/PINK1/Parkin signaling pathway. • Tea polyphenols improves mitophagy by inhibiting endoplasmic reticulum stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Enthalpy Control Process was proposed to prepare semi-solid 7075 aluminum alloy slurry. • Temperature distribution during the ECP process was predicted by machine learning. • The predicted results displayed an excellent fit with the experimental results. The rapid preparation of desired semi-solid slurry with a specific average temperature and a high temperature uniformity is of essential importance for the rheocasting of high-strength aluminum (Al) alloys. In this study, a novel semi-solid slurry preparation process, namely Enthalpy Control Process (ECP), has been proposed for rapid preparation of 7075 Al alloy slurry. The machine learning approach from the aspect of neural network was utilized to predict the average temperature and maximum temperature difference of the Al slurry prepared by ECP. The results indicated that the temperature values predicted by Back Propagation Neural Network optimized by Genetic Algorithm (GA-BPNN) models exhibit an excellent fit with the experimental results. The average relative error and the coefficient of determination for average temperature of were 0.9988 and 0.027%, while the values for the maximum temperature difference were 0.9910 and 3.4%, respectively. The GA-BPNN has a great latent capacity in predicting the temperature of the semi-solid slurry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-induced graphene (LIG) has gained popularity for electrochemical water disinfection due to its efficient antimicrobial activity when activated with low voltages. However, the antimicrobial mechanism of LIG electrodes is not yet fully understood. This study demonstrated an array of mechanisms working synergistically to inactivate bacteria during electrochemical treatment using LIG electrodes, including the generation of oxidants, changes in pH—specifically high alkalinity associated with the cathode, and electro-adsorption on the electrodes. All these mechanisms may contribute to the disinfection process when bacteria are close to the surface of the electrodes where inactivation was independent of the reactive chlorine species (RCS); however, RCS was likely responsible for the predominant cause of antibacterial effects in the bulk solution (i.e., ≥100 mL in our study). Furthermore, the concentration and diffusion kinetics of RCS in solution was voltage-dependent. At 6 V, RCS achieved a high concentration in water, while at 3 V, RCS was highly localized on the LIG surface but not measurable in water. Despite this, the LIG electrodes activated by 3 V achieved a 5.5-log reduction in Escherichia coli (E.coli) after 120-min electrolysis without detectable chlorine, chlorate, or perchlorate in the water, suggesting a promising system for efficient, energy-saving, and safe electro-disinfection. [Display omitted] • An array of mechanisms works synergistically to inactivate bacteria close to LIG electrodes. • The RCS was likely responsible for the predominant cause of antibacterial effects in the bulk solution. • At a low applied voltage (3 V), highly localized RCS on the LIG surface contributed to efficient disinfection. • LIG with low voltages inactivated bacteria without high levels of oxidants, suggesting a safe electro-disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis and discrimination of time series data has important practical significance. Currently, transforming the time series data into networks through visibility graph (VG) methods is an effective approach for classifying the series data through GNNs. However, there are two main obstacles to the VG method: (1) the tension between efficiency and complexity during weighted graph construction; (2) difficulty in assigning the different importance of nodes. To tackle these difficulties, we propose an improved weighted visibility graph algorithm (WLVG) in this paper. The proposed algorithm can first intelligently assign weights to the network according to the Euclidean distance among nodes, and then resample the network by the weight coefficients resulting in the removal of the unimportant edges. Finally, in order to effectively aggregate the information among neighbors, the graph isomorphism network (GIN) is utilized for identifying the objects. Experimental results show WLVG outperforms other baseline methods on several practical datasets and demonstrate its effectiveness. • We propose a new weighting method, which can reduce the interference of remote noisy nodes. • We propose an improved visibility graph algorithm to actively drop the trivial edges in the network. • We combine the proposed weighting method with VG/HVG, which is then integrated with GIN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A lightweight and effective few-shot detector is designed to address the over-fitting issue under limited labeled data for ore particle detection. • We introduce a support feature mining block to characterize the importance of semantic information. • A relationship guidance block is used to establish the correlation between support and query features for guiding the generation of precise candidate proposals. • The novel dual-scale semantic aggregation module is proposed to retrieve detailed features at different resolutions to contribute with the prediction process. For the ore particle size detection, obtaining a sizable amount of high-quality ore labeled data is time-consuming and expensive. General object detection methods often suffer from severe over-fitting with scarce labeled data. Despite their ability to eliminate over-fitting, existing few-shot object detectors encounter drawbacks such as slow detection speed and high memory requirements, making them difficult to implement in a real-world deployment scenario. To this end, we propose a lightweight and effective few-shot detector to achieve competitive performance with general object detection with only a few samples for ore images. First, the proposed support feature mining block characterizes the importance of location information in support features. Next, the relationship guidance block makes full use of support features to guide the generation of accurate candidate proposals. Finally, the dual-scale semantic aggregation module retrieves detailed features at different resolutions to contribute with the prediction process. Experimental results show that our method consistently exceeds the few-shot detectors with an excellent performance gap on all metrics. Moreover, our method achieves the smallest model size of 19 MB as well as being competitive at 50 FPS detection speed compared with general object detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose the layered gravity bridge algorithm (LGB) to derive the seed set. • We present the hierarchical gravity approach (HGA) to derive the candidate seeds. • Extensive experiments demonstrate our LGB outperforms the considered approaches. Influence maximization (IM) is a widely investigated issue in the study of social networks because of its potential commercial and social value. The purpose of IM is to identify a group of influential nodes that will spread information to other nodes in a network while simultaneously maximizing the number of nodes that are ultimately influenced. Traditional IM methods have different limitations, such as limited scalability to address large-scale networks and the neglect of community structural information. Here, we propose a novel influence maximization approach, i.e., the layered gravity bridge algorithm (LGB), to address the IM problem, which emphasizes the local structural information of networks and combines community detection algorithms with an improved gravity model. With the proposed LGB, a community detection method is used to derive the communities, and then the bridge nodes are found, which can be regarded as possible candidate seeds. Later, communities are merged into larger communities according to our proposed algorithm, and new bridge nodes are determined. Finally, all candidate seed nodes are sorted through an improved gravity model to determine the final seed nodes. The algorithm fully explores the network structural information provided by the communities, thereby making it superior to the current algorithms in terms of the number of ultimately infected nodes. Furthermore, our proposed algorithm possesses the potential to alleviate the influence overlap effect of seed nodes. To verify the effect of our approach, the classical SIR model is adopted to propagate information with the selected seed nodes, while experiments are performed on several practical datasets. As indicated by the obtained results, the performance of our proposed algorithm outperforms existing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the design of a self-developed EMP simulator with a 5 m height and an inverted conducting mono-cone antenna with a cone half-angle of 32° is introduced. The experimental region of the simulator is a circular area of 25 m in diameter around the cone vertex. Two feeding modes, feed-in over the ground and feed-in under the ground, are realized by two different high-voltage pulse sources. It can be concluded through radiation field testing that the radiation field waveform generated by the simulator has a rise time of 2–3 ns and a half-width of about 25 ns, meeting the specifications of the EMP experimental waveform in the IEC61000-2-9 standard. Meanwhile, the differences between the engineering implementation of the simulator and its ideal structure during the design process can lead to some distortion issues in the antenna radiation characteristics and the electromagnetic radiation field it generates. The radiation field waveform and the distribution of the EMP field generated by the simulator under different feeding methods, antenna wire quantities, antenna end processing methods, and different antenna resistive loading were studied, and the changes in the radiation field waveform and field distribution with different angles and distances of the monitoring point were analyzed. Based on the measurement results, the radiation characteristics of the antenna and the factors that affect the waveform of the field were studied and analyzed. Through the aforementioned work, a comprehensive understanding of the performance, radiation characteristics, and engineering factors affecting the electromagnetic environment generated by the simulator has been obtained. On this basis, the parameters of the antenna wire quantity, antenna end processing method, and test point position of the designed simulator were reconfirmed and optimized. In summary, this work has important reference significance for mastering the development technology of such simulators, understanding their antenna radiation characteristics, and conducting EMP-related assessments and effect experiments in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation approaches have been utilized to determine the particle size distribution of crushed ores in the past decades. It is not possible to deploy large and high-powered computing equipment due to the complex working environment, so existing algorithms are difficult to apply in practical engineering. This article presents a novel efficient and lightweight framework for ore image segmentation to discern full and independent ores. First, a lightweight backbone is introduced for feature extraction while reducing computational complexity. Then, we propose a compact pyramid network to process the data obtained from the backbone to reduce unnecessary semantic information and computation. Finally, an optimized detection head is proposed to obtain the feature to maintain accuracy. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, which achieves 40 frames per second on our new ore image dataset with a very small model size. Meanwhile, our method maintains a high level of accuracy—67.68% in A P 50 b o x and 46.73% in A P 50 m a s k —compared with state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polymer film dielectric has been widely used in high voltage equipment for bulk insulation owing to the excellent insulation performance. Martin’s empirical formula for bulk breakdown is frequently used to predict the breakdown field strength of multilayer thin film with different electrode areas. In this article, based on the academic consensus that the cumulative breakdown probability of single-layer film obeys the Weibull distribution, the relationship between the cumulative breakdown probability of film dielectric under different electrode areas and the applied electrical field is deduced. Moreover, the relationship between the cumulative breakdown probability of film dielectric with various numbers of film layers and the applied electrical field is obtained and simplified. On these bases, combined with the experimental results of the average breakdown field of film dielectric with smaller electrode areas and fewer layers, a prediction model of the average breakdown field strength of film dielectric with different electrode areas and film layers is established. To obtain the solution of the prediction model concerning the number of film layer, an effective approximate solution method is proposed to solve the calculation problem with ultralarge and ultrasmall data, which significantly reduces the complexity of the solution process. A coaxial film capacitor is developed and tested to verify the prediction model with the “Chenguang” accelerator. The experimental breakdown field strength of 54 layers of 15 $\mu \text{m}$ biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film with an electrode area of 218.1 cm2 is 355.6 V/ $\mu \text{m}$ , which is comparable to the predicted result of 374 V/ $\mu \text{m}$. The prediction model presented in this article is of certain reference significance for the insulation design of film dielectrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaxial peaking capacitor is a key component in high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP) simulators with fast front pulse output. It poses significant technical and engineering challenges in limiting radiation field amplitude and test space. This paper presents the design and testing of a 180 pF, 3 MV coaxial peaking capacitor with improved insulation performance. In the insulation design, the length of the dielectric film is extended to reduce the background electric field on the flashover path. The electric field threshold obtained from image diagnosis is used as a reference. During capacitor testing, the insulation characteristics are diagnosed using both direct and indirect methods. The voltage measured by a D-dot probe, the output waveform of the Marx generator in the primary source, and the radiation field waveform are analyzed to understand the flashover characteristics of the capacitor and to improve the reliability of the test results. The experimental results demonstrate that the peaking capacitor can operate stably at 3.0 MV. If flashover occurring on the dropping edge of the pulse is permitted, the operating voltage can be greater than 3.7 MV without significantly affecting the radiation field waveform. The analysis on the surface flashover morphology of the peaking capacitor reveals that the flashover mainly occurs at the dropping edge of the capacitor's waveform, indicating that the damage to the film is not serious. This research significantly increases the working voltage of coaxial peaking capacitors and contributes to the development of high-altitude EMP simulation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combined use of walnut meal peptides and ellagic acid demonstrated synergistic anti-inflammatory properties, which could be enhanced through encapsulation into nanoparticles to enhance their bioavailability. However, the specific anti-inflammatory mechanism of these nanoparticles remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanism of nanoparticles composed of walnut meal peptides and ellagic acid using ELISA, Western Blot, and qRT-PCR techniques. The ELISA results revealed a significantly reduction in the secretion of nitric oxide and inflammatory factors upon treatment with the nanoparticles. Besides, the findings from the qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated a significant reduction in the mRNA expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and inflammatory factors in RAW264.7 cells following treatment with the nanoparticles. Additionally, the Western Blot results indicated that the nanoparticles exerted inhibitory effects on the upstream signaling pathway of nuclear factor kappa-B and modulated the mitogen-activated protein kinases signaling pathway, resulting in the suppression of inflammatory factor expression. This study contributes to the foundational understanding of the potential application of these nanoparticles as anti-inflammatory agents in the context of health food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: DTL has been found to be related with multiple cancers. However, comprehensive analyses, which identify the prediction value of DTL in diagnosis, prognosis, immune infiltration and treatment, have rarely been reported so far. Methods: Combined with the data online databases, the gene expression, gene mutation, function enrichment and the correlations with the immunity status and clinical indexes of DTL were analyzed. Expression of DTL and the degree of immune cell infiltration were examined by immunofluorescence (IF) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) and analyzed by statistical analysis. Furthermore, the influences of DTL on the cell cycle, cell proliferation and apoptosis were detected by live cell imaging, IF and flow cytometric (FC) analysis. Genomic stability assays were conducted by chromosome slide preparation. Results: DTL was widely expressed in various cells and tissues, while it was overexpressed in tumor tissues except acute myeloid leukemia (LAML). Pan-cancer bioinformatics analysis showed that the expression of DTL was correlated with the prognosis, immunotherapy, and clinical indexes in various cancers. In addition, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) uncovered that DTL was enriched in oocyte meiosis, pyrimidine metabolism, the cell cycle, the G2M checkpoint, mTORC1 signaling and E2F targets. Furthermore, the overexpression of DTL, and its association with immune cell infiltration and clinical indexes in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC), bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) and stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) were verified in our study. It was also verified that overexpression of DTL could regulate the cell cycle, promote cell proliferation and cause genomic instability in cultured cells, which may be the reason why DTL plays a role in the occurrence, progression and treatment of cancer. Conclusions: Collectively, this study suggested that DTL is of clinical value in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of various cancers, and may be a potential biomarker in certain cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have examined the beneficial effects of tea polyphenols (TP) and proanthocyanidins (PC) on the memory impairment in different animal models. However, the combined effects of them on synaptic, memory dysfunction and molecular mechanisms have been poorly studied, especially in the menopause-related memory decline in rats. In this rat study, TP and PC were used to investigate their protective effects on memory decline caused by inflammation. We characterized the learning and memory abilities, synaptic plasticity, AMPAR, phosphorylation of the p38 protein, TNF-ɑ, structural synaptic plasticity-related indicators in the hippocampus. The results showed that deficits of learning and memory in OVX + D-gal rats, which was accompanied by dendrites and synaptic morphology damage, and increased expression of Aβ1-42 and inflammation. The beneficial effects of TP and PC treatment were found to prevent memory loss and significantly improve synaptic structure and functional plasticity. TP+PC combination shows more obvious advantages than intervention alone. TP and PC treatment improved behavioral performance, the hippocampal LTP damage and the shape and number of dendrites, dendritic spines and synapses, reduced the burden of Aβ and decreased the inflammation in hippocampus. In addition, TP and PC treatment decreased the expressions of Iba-1, TNF-α, TNFR1, and TRAF2. These results provided a novel evidence TP combined with PC inhibits p38 MAPK pathway, suppresses the inflammation in hippocampus, and increase the externalization of AMPAR, which may be one of the mechanisms to improve synaptic plasticity and memory in the menopause-related memory decline rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megavolt-class pulsed gas switches play an important role in large pulsers as transfer switches. This article analyzes the breakdown process and characteristics of a megavolt self-triggered preionized switch under 100-ns pulses based on the optical diagnosis. It is discovered that the triggering spark illumination targeting the main cathode or anode can separately preionize the main gap. The discharge channel is likely to first form between trigger electrodes and the main anode. Based on the above deduction, the streamer velocity is calculated to be $0.54 \times 10^{6}$ – $2.34 \times 10^{6}$ m/s, proportional to the electric field. Also, parameters of the empirical formula for calculating the gas heating time are amended. Influence mechanisms of the switch jitter are also studied. Under pulsed preionization mode, the trigger gap breaks down when the main gap electric field is high enough, and the switch jitter is mainly determined by the self-triggering jitter. Nonetheless, the self-triggering jitter can be partly offset during the breakdown process if the changing rate of mean reduced electric field $d(E/p)$ / dt at the self-triggering time is higher than 1.0 $1.0\left(\mathrm{kV} \cdot \mathrm{ns}^{-1} \cdot \mathrm{cm}^{-1} \cdot \mathrm{MPa}^{-1}\right)$. Under sustaining preionization mode, the trigger gap breaks down prematurely, and the continuous arcing driven by switch leak current preionizes the main gap. Therefore, the influence of the self-triggering jitter on the switch jitter can be eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further improve the insulation performance of fiber reinforce plastic (FRP) materials used in electromagnetic pulse (EMP) simulators, the flashover characteristics of FRP materials with different surface roughness and groove, i.e., those who are easily achieved and have a prominent effect, are investigated in 0.1 MPa SF6 under nanosecond pulse voltage with a rise time of 20–30 ns. The experimental results show that surfaces with different roughness have no significant influence on the flashover voltages of the FRP insulators, and both the convex grooves made of FRP and the convex grooves with nylon rings inlaid to form projections can improve the surface flashover voltage of epoxy FRP insulators under nanosecond pulse, in which the effect of the former surface is more obvious. For the insulators with convex grooves made of FRP, it is found that the root of the FRP protrusions breaks down after a number of shots with the occurrence of carbonization channels and spots, which is nonexistent for the nylon projections. Combined with the test results of surface characteristics, the surface roughness and the secondary electron emission yield (SEEY) are not key factors of flashover characteristics in SF6 under nanosecond pulse, arguably due to the fact that the energy needed for an incident electron to ionize an SF6 molecule is lower than that to excite two secondary electrons. Hence, the flashover performance cannot be improved by adjusting the surface roughness, and the flashover channel is principally governed by the macroscopic distribution of electrical field which can be changed by the convex groove. Breakdown phenomena of FRP protrusions indicate that the bulk insulation performance of resin FRP is weaker compared to pure resin because of its composite structure, as well as the impurities and voids introduced in the manufacturing process. The results are instructive for the design of FRP insulation structures in the compact EMP simulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation methods have been utilized to determine the particle size distribution of crushed ores. Due to the complex working environment, high-powered computing equipment is difficult to deploy. At the same time, the ore distribution is stacked, and it is difficult to identify the complete features. To address this issue, an effective box-supervised technique with texture features is provided for ore image segmentation that can identify complete and independent ores. Firstly, a ghost feature pyramid network (Ghost-FPN) is proposed to process the features obtained from the backbone to reduce redundant semantic information and computation generated by complex networks. Then, an optimized detection head is proposed to obtain the feature to maintain accuracy. Finally, Lab color space (Lab) and local binary patterns (LBP) texture features are combined to form a fusion feature similarity-based loss function to improve accuracy while incurring no loss. Experiments on MS COCO have shown that the proposed fusion features are also worth studying on other types of datasets. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which achieves over 50 frames per second with a small model size of 21.6 MB. Meanwhile, the method maintains a high level of accuracy 67.8 in A P 50 b o x and 47.7 in A P 50 m a s k compared with the state-of-the-art approaches on ore image dataset, even better than bounding box tightness prior (BBTP) by 10.4/1.3 on A P 50 b o x / A P 50 m a s k metrics with the ResNet50 as backbone. The source code is available at https://github.com/MVME-HBUT/OREINST. • A fusion feature combining Lab color space (Lab) and local binary pattern (LBP) texture features is proposed. • A Ghost-FPN and an optimized detection head are presented to reduce model size while increasing inference speed. • Experiments on MS COCO have shown that the proposed fusion features are also worth studying on other types of datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted between 2018 and 2020. From a cohort of 113 hearing impaired (HI), five non‐DFNB12 probands identified with heterozygous CDH23 variants were subjected to exome analysis. This resolved the etiology of hearing loss (HL) in four South Indian assortative mating families. Six variants, including three novel ones, were identified in four genes: PNPT1 p.(Ala46Gly) and p.(Asn540Ser), MYO15A p.(Leu1485Pro) and p.(Tyr1891Ter), PTPRQ p.(Gln1336Ter), and SLC12A2 p.(Pro988Ser). Compound heterozygous PNPT1 variants were associated with DFNB70 causing prelingual profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), vestibular dysfunction, and unilateral progressive vision loss in one family. In the second family, MYO15A variants in the myosin motor domain, including a novel variant, causing DFNB3, were found to be associated with prelingual profound SNHL. A novel PTPRQ variant was associated with postlingual progressive sensorineural/mixed HL and vestibular dysfunction in the third family with DFNB84A. In the fourth family, the SLC12A2 novel variant was found to segregate with severe‐to‐profound HL causing DFNA78, across three generations. Our results suggest a high level of allelic, genotypic, and phenotypic heterogeneity of HL in these families. This study is the first to report the association of PNPT1, PTPRQ, and SLC12A2 variants with HL in the Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clausena lansium (Lour.) Skeels (Rutaceae), recognized as wampee, is a widely distributed fruit tree which is utilized as a folk-medicine for treatment of several common diseases. However, the genomic information about this medicinally important species is still lacking. Therefore, we assembled the first genome of Clausena genus with a total length of 310.51 Mb and scaffold N50 of 2.24 Mb by using 10× Genomics technology. Further annotation revealed a total of 34,419 protein-coding genes, while repetitive elements covered 39.08% (121.36 Mb) of the genome. The Clausena and Citrus genus were found to diverge around 22 MYA, and also shared an ancient whole-genome triplication event with Vitis. Furthermore, multi-tissue transcriptomic analysis enabled the identification of genes involved in the synthesis of carbazole alkaloids. Altogether, these findings provided new insights into the genome evolution of Wampee species and highlighted the possible role of key genes involved in the carbazole alkaloids biosynthetic pathway. • First high-quality genome of Clausena genus (Clausena lansium). • Wampee genome encode 34,419 protein-coding genes, and 39.08% repetitive elements. • Clausena and Citrus diverged around 22 MYA. • C. lansium shared an ancient whole-genome triplication event with Vitis. • Key genes involved in the carbazole alkaloids biosynthesis pathways were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea is a rich source of pharmacologically active molecules that has been suggested to provide a variety of health benefits. However, its mechanism of action in aging-related intestinal flora dysbiosis mediated neuroinflammation is still unclear. This study aimed to explore whether tea polyphenols (TP) can improve memory by regulating intestinal flora mediated neuroinflammation in aging model rats. Ovariectomy (OVX) combined with D-galactose injection was used to establish aging rats related to menopause. The rats were divided into Sham control group, Aging model group, TP 75 mg/kg, 150 mg/kg, 300 mg/kg groups and VE group. After 12 weeks of intervention, the shuttle box test and Y maze test were used to check the memory of rats. The composition of intestinal flora was assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing technology. HE staining and ELISA were used to detect intestinal epithelial morphology and permeability, respectively. TLR4/NF-κB inflammation pathway related indicators were investigated by western blot, and the microglia activation in rat hippocampal tissue was checked by immunofluorescence. In the shuttle box test and the Y maze test, compared with the Sham control group, the memory of Aging model rats was significantly declined. It was observed that the intestinal flora of Aging model rats was dysbiosis, the permeability of the intestinal epithelium was increased. Further experimental results showed that the expression of TLR4/NF-κB inflammatory pathway related proteins in the hippocampus were increased, and the excessive activation of microglia was observed. The beneficial effects of TP intervention have been found to prevent memory decline and significantly improve brain inflammation induced by intestinal flora dysbiosis, and TP 300 mg/kg showed a more obvious advantage than TP 75 mg/kg. TP 300 mg/kg can significantly improve the behavior of rats, improve the composition and diversity of the intestinal flora, and the shape and function of the intestinal epithelium. By reversing the increased expression levels of TLR4, IRAK, p-IκBα and nuclear NF-κB p65 proteins in the hippocampus of Aging model rats, the activation of microglia in the CA1, CA3 and Dentate gyrus (DG) sub-regions of the hippocampus can be inhibited. TP inhibits the brain TLR4/NF-κB inflammatory signal pathway caused by the dysbiosis of intestinal flora, which may be one of the mechanisms to improve the memory decline in aging model rats. [Display omitted] • In this study, ovariectomy and D-galactose injection were used to establish aging model rats related to menopause. • The composition of the intestinal flora of aging rats was dysbiosis, which in turn triggered inflammation in the brain. • This study can provide laboratory evidence for the prevention of menopause-related memory decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sarcopenia is a progressive systemic skeletal muscle disorder characterized by a pathological decline in muscle strength, quantity, and quality, which frequently affects the elderly population. The majority of cancer patients are of advanced age. Patients may already have sarcopenia prior to cancer development, and those with cancer are prone to developing sarcopenia due to hypercatabolism, inflammation, reduced physical fitness, anorexia, adverse effects, and stress associated with anticancer therapy. Based on the timing, sarcopenia in patients with cancer can be categorized into three: pre-existing sarcopenia before the onset of cancer, sarcopenia related to cancer, and sarcopenia related to cancer treatment. Sarcopenia not only changes the body composition of patients with cancer but also increases the incidence of postoperative complications, reduces therapeutic efficacy, impairs quality of life, and results in shortened survival. Different therapeutic strategies are required to match the cancer status and physical condition of patients with different etiologies and stages of sarcopenia. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the epidemiology and diagnosis of sarcopenia in patients with cancer, elucidate the complex interactions between cancer and sarcopenia, and provide evidence-based strategies for sarcopenia management in these patients. [Display omitted] • Cancer and sarcopenia mutually exacerbate, forming a vicious cycle. • Interventions vary depending on temporal occurrence of sarcopenia in cancer. • Early recognition and multimodal interventions are needed for sarcopenia in cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an often challenging but essential issue to develop a facile and cost-effective approach to additively manufacture crack-free and high-strength Al alloys for their wider commercial applications. However, efficient synergistic combination of advanced technology and material development is hardly likely to achieve without considering the extreme processing conditions during additive manufacturing. In this study, the addition of 4 wt% Ti-6Al-4V (TC4) alloy powders, the most commercially used Ti alloy powders, into the laser powder bed fusion (L -PBF) of 7075 Al alloy was performed and experimentally verified to be capable of eliminating the hot cracks while substantially refining the grains. The as-printed sample was crack-free and had a high relative density of up to 99.95%. Synergy effect of the in-situ formation of Al 3 (Ti x ,V 1−x) particles that act as the heterogeneous nucleation sites, and the solute effect of the elements Ti and V that possess a high grain growth restriction factor (Q value) in Al matrix can efficiently control the grain growth. After a direct ageing treatment, the resultant alloy displayed an excellent combination of the high ultimate tensile strength (441 ± 3 MPa) and large plasticity (10.1 ± 0.4%). Our work brings new insights between the grain refinement and crack elimination of additively manufactured Al alloys through addition of commercial Ti alloys, benefiting the tailoring and development of new crack-free and dense high-strength Al alloys for L -PBF. [Display omitted] • The addition of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy powders to laser powder bed fusion of 7075 Al alloy can eliminate the cracks. • The as-printed sample is crack-free and has a high relative density of up to 99.95%. • The grain refinement is due to the formation of Al 3 (Ti x ,V 1−x) particles and solute effect of the Ti and V. • The heat-treated sample shows a superior combination of high ultimate tensile strength and large plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastritis can lead to ulcers and the development of gastric cancer. The rhizome of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz. (Asteraceae), a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, is prescribed for the treatment of gastric disorders, hepatitis and rheumatism. Its bio-active compounds are considered to be particularly effective in this regard. However, the molecular processes of the herb's anti-inflammatory activity remain obscure. This study elucidates a mechanism upon which an ethanolic extract of this herb (Am-EE) exerts anti-inflammation effects in RAW264.7 macrophage cells (RAW cells) stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment and HCl Ethanol-stimulated gastritis rats. To investigate the anti-gastritis activities of Am-EE and explore the mode of action. Ethanol (95%) was used to prepare Am-EE. The quality of the extract was monitored by HPLC analysis. The in vivo effects of this extract were examined in an HCl Ethanol-stimulated gastritis rat model, while LPS-stimulated RAW cells were used for in vitro assays. Cell viability and nitric oxide (NO) production were observed by MTT and Griess assays. Real-time PCR was used to examine mRNA expression. The PGE 2 ELISA kit was employed to detect prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2). Enzyme activities and protein contents were examined by immunoblotting. Luciferase reporter gene assays (LRA) were employed to observe nuclear transcription factor (NF)-κB activity. The SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, United States) application was used for statistical examination. HPLC analysis indicates that Am-EE contains atractylenolide-1 (AT-1, 1.33%, w/w) and atractylenolide-2 (AT-2, 1.25%, w/w) (Additional Figure. A1). Gastric tissue damage (induced by HCl Ethanol) was significantly decreased in SD rats following intra-gastric application of 35 mg/kg Am-EE. Indistinguishable to the anti-inflammation effects of 35 mg/kg ranitidine (gastric medication). Am-EE treatment also reduced LPS-mediated nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2) production. The mRNA and protein synthesis of inducible cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and NO synthase (iNOS) was down-regulated following treatment in RAW cells. Am-EE decreased NF-κB (p50) nuclear protein levels and inhibited NF-κB-stimulated LRA activity in RAW cells. Lastly, Am-EE decreased the up-regulated levels of phosphorylated IκBα and Akt proteins in rat stomach lysates and in LPS challenged RAW cell samples. Our study illustrates that Am-EE suppresses the Akt/IκBα/NF-κB pathway and exerts an anti-inflammatory effect. These novel conclusions provide a pharmacological basis for the clinical use of the A. macrocephala rhizome in the treatment and prevention of gastritis and gastric cancer. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth and metastasis of solid tumors including melanoma. Inhibiting tumor-associated angiogenesis is a tactic in treating melanoma. Dioscin restrains angiogenesis in colon tumor and has anti-melanoma effects in cell and animal models. In a previous study, we found that dioscin inhibits Src/STAT3 signaling in melanoma cells. Activation of the Src/STAT3 pathway has been shown to promote tumor angiogenesis. This study aimed to determine whether dioscin's anti-melanoma effects is related to inhibiting Src/STAT3 signaling-mediated angiogenesis. In a B16F10 allograft mouse model, we found that dioscin inhibited melanoma growth and angiogenesis. To exclude the impact of tumor growth on angiogenesis, a chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model was used to verify the anti-angiogenic effect of dioscin. Results showed that dioscin suppressed vessel formation in CAM. To determine if tumor secreted pro-angiogenic cytokines are involved in the anti-angiogenic effect of dioscin, conditioned media from dioscin-treated A375 melanoma cells were used to culture human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and tube formation was monitored. It was observed that the tube formation of HUVECs was inhibited. Mechanistic studies revealed that dioscin inhibited the activation of Src and STAT3, and lowered mRNA and protein levels of STAT3 transcriptionally-regulated genes, in B16F10 melanomas. ELISA assays showed that dioscin decreased the secretion of MMP-2, MMP-9 and VEGF from A375 cells. Over-activation of STAT3 lessened the effects of dioscin in decreasing the secretion of pro-angiogenic cytokines from melanoma cells, and in inhibiting tube formation of HUVECs cultured with conditioned media from melanoma cell cultures. In summary, we for the first time demonstrated that inhibiting Src/STAT3 signaling-mediated angiogenesis is involved in the anti-melanoma effects of dioscin. This study provides further pharmacological groundwork for developing dioscin as an anti-melanoma agent. [Display omitted] We used in vitro and in vivo models to investigate the anti-angiogenic effects and mechanisms of dioscin. We demonstrated that inhibiting Src/STAT3 signaling-mediated angiogenesis is associated with the anti-melanoma effects of dioscin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dried rhizome of Atractylodes lancea (Thumb.) DC. (Compositae) has been prescribed in folk medicine for the management of various inflammatory conditions such as rheumatic diseases, gastritis and hepatitis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial properties of this herb remain elusive. In this study, we investigated the anti-gastritis activities of Al-EE (an ethanolic extract of the herb) and explored the mechanism of action. An ethanolic extract of the Atractylodes lancea (Thumb.) DC. (Compositae) rhizome, Al-EE, was prepared with ethanol (95%) and quality controlled using HPLC analysis. To determine the in vivo effects of this extract, we utilised a HCl/EtOH-induced gastritis rat model. In vitro assays were carried out using a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cell model. MTT assays were used to examine cell viability, while Griess assays were carried out to measure nitric oxide (NO) production. Messenger RNA expression was examined by real-time PCR. Prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2) production was examined using ELISA assays. To examine protein expression and enzymatic activities, we employed western blot analysis. Nuclear transcription factor (NF)-κB activity was determined by Luciferase reporter assays. The content of atractylenolide (AT)-1 and AT-2 in Al-EE was 0.45% and 5.07% (w/w), respectively (Supplementary Fig. 1). Al-EE treatment suppressed the production of NO and PGE 2 , reduced the mRNA expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, while also reducing the protein levels of iNOS and COX-2 in RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Furthermore, Al-EE inhibited the nuclear protein levels of NF-κB (p65) and NF-κB-driven luciferase reporter gene activity in RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Critically, intra-gastric injection of Al-EE (25 mg/kg) attenuated HCl/EtOH-induced gastric damage in SD rats, while the phosphorylation of Akt and IκBα was suppressed by Al-EE in vitro and in vivo. In summary, Al-EE has significant anti-gastritis effects in vivo and in vitro , which can be associated with the inhibition of the Akt/IκBα/NF-κB signalling pathway. This mechanistic finding provides a pharmacological basis for the use of the A. lancea rhizome in the clinical treatment of various inflammatory conditions. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]