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Fulminant hepatitis remains a critical health problem owing to its high mortality rate and the lack of effective therapies. An increasing number of studies have shown that glutamine supplementation provides protective benefits in inflammation-related disorders, but the pharmacological significance of glutamine in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/D-galactosamine (D-Gal)-induced fulminant hepatitis remains unclear. In the present study, the potential effects of glutamine on LPS/D-Gal-induced fulminant hepatitis were investigated. Pretreatment with glutamine decreased plasma activities of alanine and aspartate aminotransferases, and ameliorated hepatic morphological abnormalities in LPS/D-Gal-exposed mice. Glutamine pretreatment also inhibited LPS/D-Gal-induced tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production. In addition, glutamine pretreatment decreased the level of cleaved cysteinyl aspartate–specific proteinase 3 (caspase-3), suppressed the activities of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9, and reduced the number of cells positive for TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling in LPS/D-Gal-challenged mice. Interestingly, post-treatment with glutamine also provided protective benefits against LPS/D-Gal-induced acute liver injury, although these effects were less robust than those of glutamine pre-treatment. Thus, glutamine may have potential value as a pharmacological intervention in fulminant hepatitis.

This paper analyzed the differences between the two harvesting periods (Taiju and Duoju) on the ingredients and pharmacological activity in Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.

It is well known that the most important task of photocatalytic technology is to synthesize photocatalysts with compact heterojunction structure and high redox ability. To achieve the goal, a novel Z-scheme BiO2-x/BiOBr heterojunction containing oxygen vacancy was synthesized by an in-situ generation process. Several techniques, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have verified the BiO2-x/BiOBr heterojunction. XPS and electron spin resonance (ESR) reveals the presence of oxygen vacancy in the BiO2-x/BiOBr composite. As expected, the BiO2-x/BiOBr composite showed good performance in removing Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline (TC). The effects of inorganic ions, pH value and water matrix were investigated with many details. The active species and proposed mechanism were revealed by trapping experiment and related characterizations. The synergistic effect of oxygen vacancy and Z-scheme heterojunction makes the BiO2-x/BiOBr composite possess excellent photocatalytic activity.

A novel dual-mode large-mode-area multicore fiber with air-hole structure, which is a quasi-37 core structured fiber with 20 air holes and 17 cores, is proposed in this paper. This fiber can realize strict dual-mode operation, that is, the fundamental mode HE11 and the second-order mode HE21 operation. The air-hole structure makes the second-order modes TE01 and TM01 cut off. Effects of structural parameters on effective refractive index and effective area of fundamental mode are investigated systematically. By optimizing the structural parameters of the fiber, effective area of fundamental mode is up to 1557.91 μm2 and maintaining a low bending loss (less than 10-4 dB/m at R > 0.47 m) while keeping dual-mode operation. The fiber can be used for large-mode-area high-power optical fiber laser, amplifier, FTTH and so on.

A multiwavelength fiber laser based on erbium-doped twin-core fiber (ED-TCF) and nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. The ED-TCF is employed as comb filter and gain medium simultaneously. The NOLM serves as an intensity equalizer. A fiber laser with 8 wavelength outputs is achieved at room temperature. The optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) is larger than 40 dB. The fluctuation of peak power and wavelength is less than 1 dB and within 0.015 nm, respectively. This fiber laser has the advantages of simple structure and stable operation.

It is well known that the most important task of photocatalytic technology is to synthesize photocatalysts with compact heterojunction structure and high redox ability. To achieve the goal, a novel Z-scheme BiO

Glaucocalyxin A (GLA) belongs to the natural ent-kauranoid diterpenoids family with antitumor, antifibrotic, anticoagulative, antioxidant, and anti-AD effects. In this study, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS) system was applied to observe probable metabolites of GLA

A novel trench-assisted dual-mode multi-core fiber with large-mode-field-area is proposed. The structure consists of 17 conventional cores and two air holes according to a regular hexagon, which can realize strict dual-mode transmission. The structural parameters’ effect on mode transmission characteristics, mode-field-area, and bending loss are analyzed systematically. By optimizing the structural parameters, the mode-field-area of the fundamental mode can reach 2100.619 µ m 2 . The introduction of the trench with a lower refractive index than cladding can reduce the bending loss to 9.88 × 10 − 4 d B / m when the bending radius is 2.3 cm. Besides, the structural design is flexible, and the manufacturing process is simple, which has broad application prospects.

This study investigates the use of electrically conductive granules as packing material in biotrickling filter (BTF) systems as to provide insights on the specific microbial abundance and functions during the treatment of xylene-containing waste gas. In addition, the effect of applied potential on attached biofilm on conductive granules during xylene degradation was briefly investigated. During stable operation period, the conductive granules packed BTF achieved reactor performance of no less than 80% with a maximum EC of 137.7 g/m3 h. Under applied potential of 1V, the BTF system showed deterioration of xylene removal by ranging from 21 to 76%, which also affected the distribution and relative abundance of the major microorganisms such as Xanthobacter, Acidovorax, Rhodococcus, Hydrogenophaga, Arthrobacter, Brevundimonas, Pseudoxanthomonas, Devosia, Shinella, Sphingobium, Dokdonella, Pseudomonas and Bosea. The acclimation of applied potential led to the enrichment of autotrophic bacteria and strains, which are correlated to improved nitrogen cycling. In general, applying electrical potential is feasible to shape the microbiological structure of biofilms to selectively adjust their biochemical functions.

The present study optimized the ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) conditions using Box-Behnken design (BBD) with response surface methodology (RSM) and evaluated the antioxidant activity of total flavonoids from Cryptotaenia japonica Hassk. The results showed that the optimum conditions were 55% ethanol concentration, 1:30 g/mL solid to solvent ratio, 400 W ultrasound power, 70 min extraction time and 3 cycles. Under these optimum conditions, the extraction yield of total flavonoids was 33.110 ± 0.742 mg/g DW (dry weight), which was well consisted with value predicted by the model. The RSM optimized extract was subsequently checked for antioxidant activity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay, hydroxyl scavenging assay and reducing power assay. Under the flavonoid concentration of 3.0 mg/mL, antioxidant scavenging activity were of 79.87±2.7% and 71.60±2.6% for DPPH and hydroxyl assay while for reducing power and absorbance of 1.200±0.053 was obtained. Furthermore, the composition in antioxidants were investigated, and the luteolin and apigenin were determined. The results indicated that ultrasound assisted extraction is a promising technique for extraction of flavonoids from C. japonica Hassk and the flavonoids could be explored as a potential antioxidant agent for use in medicine or functional foods.