Search

The synthesis and photocatalytic properties of cobalt-incorporated polyoxometalate H18[α1-P2W17Co(H2O)O61]-[Co4(H2O)2(PW9O34)2] (1) were reported, and split into α1-H8-[P2W17Co(H2O)O61] (2) and H10[Co4(H2O)2(PW9O34)2] (3) by adjusting the types of acids and solvents in the reaction. The photocatalytic production of O2 and H2 from water by compounds 1, 2 and 3 was evaluated. Notably, compounds 1 and 2 demonstrate superior performance in the photocatalytic production of both hydrogen and oxygen, whereas compound 3 solely exhibits activity in the photocatalytic generation of oxygen. The significantly enhanced performance against the control [P2W18O62]6− can be attributed to the modulation of the electronic structures of these novel POMs facilitated by the incorporation of cobalt.

Background: Lipid metabolism disorders have become a major global public health issue. Due to the complexity of these diseases, additional research and drugs are needed. Oroxin A, the major component of Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz (Bignoniaceae), can improve the lipid profiles of diabetic and insulin-resistant (IR) rats. Because insulin resistance is strongly correlated with lipid metabolism, improving insulin resistance may also constitute an effective strategy for improving lipid metabolism. Thus, additional research on the efficacy and mechanism of oroxin An under non-IR conditions is needed. Methods: In this study, we established lipid metabolism disorder model rats by high-fat diet feeding and fatty HepG2 cell lines by treatment with oleic acid and evaluated the therapeutic effect and mechanism of oroxin A in vitro and in vivo through biochemical indicator analysis, pathological staining, immunoblotting, and immunofluorescence staining. Results: Oroxin A improved disordered lipid metabolism under non-IR conditions, improved the plasma and hepatic lipid profiles, and enhanced the lipid-lowering action of atorvastatin. Additionally, oroxin A reduced the total triglyceride (TG) levels by inhibiting sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1) expression and reducing the expression of acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC) and fatty acid synthase (FASN) in vivo and in vitro. Oroxin A also reduced the total cholesterol (TC) levels by inhibiting SREBP2 expression and reducing HMGCR expression in vivo and in vitro. In addition, oroxin A bound to low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) and increased AMPK phosphorylation. Conclusions: Our results suggested that oroxin A may modulate the nuclear transcriptional activity of SREBPs by binding to LDLR proteins and increasing AMPK phosphorylation. Oroxin A may thus reduce lipid synthesis and could be used for the treatment and prevention of lipid metabolism disorders.

Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a chronic liver disease characterized by the excessive accumulation of fat in hepatocytes. However, due to the complex pathogenesis of MAFLD, there are no officially approved drugs for treatment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find safe and effective anti-MAFLD drugs. Recently, the relationship between the gut microbiota and MAFLD has been widely recognized, and treating MAFLD by regulating the gut microbiota may be a new therapeutic strategy. Natural products, especially plant natural products, have attracted much attention in the treatment of MAFLD due to their multiple targets and pathways and few side effects. Moreover, the structure and function of the gut microbiota can be influenced by exposure to plant natural products. However, the effects of plant natural products on MAFLD through targeting of the gut microbiota and the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Based on the above information and to address the potential therapeutic role of plant natural products in MAFLD, we systematically summarize the effects and mechanisms of action of plant natural products in the prevention and treatment of MAFLD through targeting of the gut microbiota. This narrative review provides feasible ideas for further exploration of safer and more effective natural drugs for the prevention and treatment of MAFLD.

In this paper, we consider the variational inequality problem and the split common fixed point problem. Considering the common fixed points of an infinite family of nonexpansive mappings, instead of just the fixed point of one nonexpansive mapping, we generalize the results of Tian and Jiang. By removing a projection operator, we improve the efficiency of our algorithm. Finally, we propose a very simple modification to the extragradient method, which gives our algorithm strong convergence properties. We also provide some numerical examples to illustrate our main results.

Introduction: Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a common chronic metabolic disease that seriously threatens human health. The pharmacological activity of unsaturated fatty acid-rich vegetable oil interventions in the treatment of MAFLD has been demonstrated. This study evaluated the pharmacological activity of Polygala tenuifolia Willd, which contains high levels of 2-acetyl-1,3-diacyl-sn-glycerols (sn-2-acTAGs).Methods: In this study, a mouse model was established by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD, 31% lard oil diet), and the treatment group was fed a P. tenuifolia seed oil (PWSO) treatment diet (17% lard oil and 14% PWSO diet). The pharmacological activity and mechanism of PWSO were investigated by total cho-lesterol (TC) measurement, triglyceride (TG) measurement and histopathological observation, and the sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1 (SREBP1), SREBP2 and NF-κB signaling pathways were evaluated by immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses.Results: PWSO attenuated the increases in plasma TC and TG levels. Furthermore, PWSO reduced the hepatic levels of TC and TG, ameliorating hepatic lipid accumulation. PWSO treatment effectively improves the level of hepatitic inflammation, such as reducing IL-6 levels and TNF-α level.Discussion: PWSO treatment inactivated SREBP1 and SREBP2, which are involved in lipogenesis, to attenuate hepatic lipid accumulation and mitigate the inflammatory response induced via the NF-κB signaling pathway. This study demonstrated that PWSO can be used as a relatively potent dietary supplement to inhibit the occurrence and development of MAFLD.

IntroductionFire and nitrogen (N) deposition each impact biodiversity and ecosystem productivity. However, the effect of N deposition on ecosystem recovery after fire is still far from understood, especially in coastal wetlands.MethodsWe selected a typical coastal shrubland to simulate three N deposition levels (0, 10, and 20 g N m−2 year−1) under two different burned conditions (unburned and burned) in the Yellow River Delta of North China. Soil properties, soil microbial biodiversity, shrub growth parameters, herbaceous biodiversity, and aboveground productivity were determined after experimental treatments for 1 year.ResultsWe found that fire had a stronger influence on the ecosystem than N addition. One year after the fire, shrub growth had significantly decreased, while soil pH, soil electrical conductivity, herbaceous biodiversity, soil microbial biodiversity, and herbaceous aboveground productivity significantly increased. Conversely, a single year of N addition only slightly increased herbaceous aboveground productivity. The combined effect of fire and N addition was only significant for fungus biodiversity and otherwise had minimal influence. Interestingly, we found that herbaceous aboveground productivity was positively associated with fungal community diversity under unburned conditions but not in burned shrublands. Fire showed a great impact on soil parameters and biodiversity in the coastal wetland ecosystem even after a full year of recovery.DiscussionFire may also diminish the influence of several belowground factors on herbaceous aboveground productivity, which ultimately reduces recovery and stability. Appropriate N addition may be an effective way to improve the ecosystem productivity in a wetland dominated by shrub species.

Obesity is strongly associated with the occurrence and development of many types of cancers. Patients with obesity and cancer present with features of a disordered gut microbiota and metabolism, which may inhibit the physiological immune response to tumors and possibly damage immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. In recent years, bariatric surgery has become increasingly common and is recognized as an effective strategy for long-term weight loss; furthermore, bariatric surgery can induce favorable changes in the gut microbiota. Some studies have found that microbial metabolites, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), inosine bile acids and spermidine, play an important role in anticancer immunity. In this review, we describe the changes in microbial metabolites initiated by bariatric surgery and discuss the effects of these metabolites on anticancer immunity. This review attempts to clarify the relationship between alterations in microbial metabolites due to bariatric surgery and the effectiveness of cancer treatment. Furthermore, this review seeks to provide strategies for the development of microbial metabolites mimicking the benefits of bariatric surgery with the aim of improving therapeutic outcomes in cancer patients who have not received bariatric surgery.

Self-adaptive algorithms are presented for solving the split common fixed point problem of quasi-pseudocontractive operators in Hilbert spaces. Weak and strong convergence theorems are given under some mild assumptions.

In the paper, we introduce new ρ-functional inequalities related to the Jensen functional equation and some properties. The Hyers-Ulam stability of functional inequalities is proved.

Hyperuricemia is the result of increased production and/or underexcretion of uric acid. Hyperuricemia has been epidemiologically associated with multiple comorbidities, including metabolic syndrome, gout with long-term systemic inflammation, chronic kidney disease, urolithiasis, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, dyslipidemia, diabetes/insulin resistance and increased oxidative stress. Dysregulation of xanthine oxidoreductase (XOD), the enzyme that catalyzes uric acid biosynthesis primarily in the liver, and urate transporters that reabsorb urate in the renal proximal tubules (URAT1, GLUT9, OAT4 and OAT10) and secrete urate (ABCG2, OAT1, OAT3, NPT1, and NPT4) in the renal tubules and intestine, is a major cause of hyperuricemia, along with variations in the genes encoding these proteins. The first-line therapeutic drugs used to lower serum uric acid levels include XOD inhibitors that limit uric acid biosynthesis and uricosurics that decrease urate reabsorption in the renal proximal tubules and increase urate excretion into the urine and intestine via urate transporters. However, long-term use of high doses of these drugs induces acute kidney disease, chronic kidney disease and liver toxicity. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new nephroprotective drugs with improved safety profiles and tolerance. The current systematic review summarizes the characteristics of major urate transporters, the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of hyperuricemia, and the regulation of uric acid biosynthesis and transport. Most importantly, this review highlights the potential mechanisms of action of some naturally occurring bioactive compounds with antihyperuricemic and nephroprotective potential isolated from various medicinal plants.

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL)-induced macrophage foam cell formation plays an important role in atherosclerosis progression. Baicalein is a constituent of Scutellaria baicalensis. Herein, we investigated the effect of baicalein on macrophage foam cell formation and the underlying mechanism. The THP-1 macrophage foam cell was established by oxLDL stimulation and the effects of baicalein on cholesterol uptake and efflux were analysed by molecular docking, ELISA, immunofluorescence, western blot, the inhibitor and siRNA experiment. The results showed that baicalein suppressed oxLDL-induced cholesterol accumulation. Mechanistically, baicalein reduced oxLDL uptake through competitive inhibiting the binding of CD36 to the epitope structure of oxLDL. Moreover, the binding of baicalein to CD36 enhanced the cholesterol efflux via the CD36-Src-JNK-ABCA1 signalling pathway. Meanwhile, Src and JNK inhibitors reversed the baicalein-induced reduction in cholesterol accumulation. In conclusion, these findings suggested that baicalein as a food supplement could inhibit macrophage foam cell formation and play an anti-atherosclerosis effect.

Currently, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide, and more functional foods are needed for NAFLD prevention and treatment. Kaempferol can be obtained from tea, broccoli, propolis, grapefruit and other green plants. However, relatively systematic studies concerning the preventative effects of kaempferol against NAFLD are lacking. In this study, using network pharmacological methods, we found that kaempferol could prevent the development of NAFLD by targeting multiple targets; for instance, kaempferol suppressed inflammation, improved insulin resistance and reduced oxidative stress. Furthermore, we confirmed that kaempferol could suppress inflammatory responses and prevent the development of NAFLD in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting the nuclear transcriptional activity of NF-κB. Our study supports the use of kaempferol as a functional food or dietary supplement for NAFLD prevention and treatment. In addition, this study could be beneficial for understanding the anti-NAFLD mechanism of many other flavonoids.

Metabolism-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide, and the use of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) to treat this disease has attracted increasing attention. The Qing Gan San (QGS) formula comprises Polygonatum sibiricum, the peel of Citrus reticulata Blanco, the leaves of Morus alba L, Cichorium intybus, Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch, and Cirsium setosum. The present study aimed to uncover the anti-hyperlipidaemic effects, hepatic fat accumulation-lowering effects and mechanisms of QGS in high-fat diet-induced MAFLD rats. QGS significantly reduced the levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides in both serum and liver tissue and partially protected hepatic function. Additionally, QGS significantly ameliorated hepatic lipid accumulation with histopathology observation, as demonstrated by H&E and oil red O staining. RNA sequencing was used to further investigate the key genes involved in the development and treatment of MAFLD. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed that the gene expression profiles in rats with MAFLD were reversed to normal after QGS treatment. QGS had 222 potential therapeutic targets associated with MAFLD. Enrichment analysis among these targets revealed that QGS affected biological functions/pathways such as the regulation of lipid metabolic processes (GO: 0019216) and the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease pathway (hsa04932), and identified Srebp-1 as a key regulator in the synthesis of cholesterol and triglycerides. Subsequently, both immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses demonstrated that QGS suppressed the transfer of Srebp-1 to the nucleus from the cytoplasm, suggesting that the activation of Srebp-1 was inhibited. Our study reveals the effects and mechanisms of QGS in the treatment of MAFLD and provides insights and prospects to further explore the pathogenesis of MAFLD and TCM therapies.

Baicalein is a dietary flavonoid that exhibits a variety of intestinal pharmacological activities with limited oral bioavailability. In the present study, the intestinal pharmacokinetics of baicalein was determined by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS and HPLC-PDA analysis. After oral administration, the intestinal concentration of baicalein was peaked at 1 h, and the amount of baicalein in the intestine corresponded to 87%, 45%, and 20% of the administered dose at 1 h, 8 h, and 12 h, respectively. Glucuronidation, sulfation, and methylation metabolites were the major metabolites of baicalein in the small intestine, including duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. Dehydroxylation, sulfation, and methylation metabolites were the major metabolites in the large intestine, including cecum and colon. In vitro, baicalein was transformed into its glucuronidation and methylation metabolites in hepatic and intestinal S9 fraction. The glucuronidation metabolites was hydrolyzed to baicalein by gut microbiota, but the dehydroxylation and methylation metabolites were stable during gut microbiota incubation.In conclusion, the intestinal concentration of baicalein can support its intestinal pharmacological activities, and the present study may provide useful information for understanding the bioactivities of flavonoids with limited systemic bioavailability.

In previous studies on learner lexicography, design features of both the content and presentation of learner's dictionaries are the two major research concerns. The quality assessment of learner's dictionaries also covers the two dimensions. Terms used for evaluating them are respectively "usability" or "availability" for the former and "findability" or "accessibility" for the latter. However, the lexicographical construction of "learnability", which takes into account the users' reference and learning needs, remains virtually unexplored either theoretically or practically. Compared to the features of dictionary design mentioned above, "learnability" as the design philosophy of learner lexicography is worth more serious consideration. The present paper aims at exploring the lexicographical notion of "learnability" by way of introducing the neglected legacy of Robert Morrison in his compilation of Wuche Yunfu (五车韵府) (1819), which is characterized by a high degree of learnability illustrated in the dictionary entries. Morrison's pioneering efforts may help with the conceptual clarification of "learnability" in compiling learner's dictionaries, bilingual ones in particular. Moreover, it is hoped that the recognition of Morrison's lexicographical practice will be beneficial to the future production of better Chinese–English dictionaries for non-native Chinese learners.

Anemarrhena asphodeloides is an herb widely used to treat symptoms associated with diabetes in traditional Chinese medicine. However, its key components and metabolites have low bioavailability and poor host absorption. To clarify the anti-diabetic mechanism of A. asphodeloides extract (AAE), we examined the anti-diabetic effects of AAE in rats with diabetes induced by a high-fat diet and streptozotocin. Faeces levels of the main components and metabolites of AAE were significantly higher than levels in plasma, which indicated that gut microbiota might play important roles in its anti-diabetic effect. Microbiological studies showed that unabsorbed components increased the diversity of the gut microbiota, enriched potentially beneficial bacteria, and suppressed potentially harmful bacteria. In vitro studies showed that AAE promoted the proliferation of Blautia coccoides, a bacterium with positive implication for diabetes, in a dose-dependent manner. AAE also promoted pancreatic cell regeneration and restored the function of pancreatic islet cells via peroxiredoxin 4 overexpression. Overall, these results suggest that AAE alleviates diabetes via modulating gut microbiota and protein expression.

Traditionally, machine learning algorithms relied on reliable labels from experts to build predictions. More recently however, algorithms have been receiving data from the general population in the form of labeling, annotations, etc. The result is that algorithms are subject to bias that is born from ingesting unchecked information, such as biased samples and biased labels. Furthermore, people and algorithms are increasingly engaged in interactive processes wherein neither the human nor the algorithms receive unbiased data. Algorithms can also make biased predictions, leading to what is now known as algorithmic bias. On the other hand, human's reaction to the output of machine learning methods with algorithmic bias worsen the situations by making decision based on biased information, which will probably be consumed by algorithms later. Some recent research has focused on the ethical and moral implication of machine learning algorithmic bias on society. However, most research has so far treated algorithmic bias as a static factor, which fails to capture the dynamic and iterative properties of bias. We argue that algorithmic bias interacts with humans in an iterative manner, which has a long-term effect on algorithms' performance. For this purpose, we present an iterated-learning framework that is inspired from human language evolution to study the interaction between machine learning algorithms and humans. Our goal is to study two sources of bias that interact: the process by which people select information to label (human action); and the process by which an algorithm selects the subset of information to present to people (iterated algorithmic bias mode). We investigate three forms of iterated algorithmic bias (personalization filter, active learning, and random) and how they affect the performance of machine learning algorithms by formulating research questions about the impact of each type of bias. Based on statistical analyses of the results of several controlled experiments, we found that the three different iterated bias modes, as well as initial training data class imbalance and human action, do affect the models learned by machine learning algorithms. We also found that iterated filter bias, which is prominent in personalized user interfaces, can lead to more inequality in estimated relevance and to a limited human ability to discover relevant data. Our findings indicate that the relevance blind spot (items from the testing set whose predicted relevance probability is less than 0.5 and who thus risk being hidden from humans) amounted to 4% of all relevant items when using a content-based filter that predicts relevant items. A similar simulation using a real-life rating data set found that the same filter resulted in a blind spot size of 75% of the relevant testing set.

Aims. Tripartite motif protein 36 (TRIM36) plays a tumor-suppressive role in prostate cancer. However, there is little information on the clinical relevance of TRIM36 expression in esophageal cancer (ESCA). Methods. TRIM36 expression was analyzed by using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) ESCA dataset as well as by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining on samples from our hospital. Results. In the current study, the analysis of TCGA ESCA dataset suggested the decreased expression of TRIM36 in ESCA tissues. Further analyses on samples from our hospital demonstrated that TRIM36 was significantly downregulated in ESCA tissues than in the noncancerous controls at both the mRNA and protein levels. Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis on TCGA ESCA dataset suggested that TRIM36 expression was inversely correlated with the β-catenin pathway. IHC staining data showed that 66.25% (53/80) and 51.25% (41/80) of ESCA cases had a low expression of TRIM36 and a high expression of β-catenin, respectively. By Fisher’s exact test, we found that TRIM36 protein expression was significantly correlated with tumor size (P=0.0104), tumor stage (P=0.0169), lymph node metastasis (P=0.0021), vital status (P=0.0443), and β-catenin expression (P=0.0329). These findings suggest the potential clinical significance of TRIM36 in ESCA. Kaplan–Meier and log-rank test demonstrated that a low expression of TRIM6 and a high expression of β-catenin were associated with poor overall survival of ESCA patients. Conclusions. Our study provides evidence for the prognostic value of TRIM36 in ESCA.

Baicalein, a dietary flavonoid, is the major constituent of Oroxylum indicum and Scutellaria baicalensis which are consumed as teas or dietary supplements in Asia, European, and the United States. The compound exhibits a variety of bioactivities despite its limited bioavailability. In the present work, 4-week treatment of baicalein significantly decreased the levels of blood glucose and circulating lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and improved insulin resistance, inflammation, and lipid profile in diabetic rats induced by STZ and high-fat-high-sugar-diet. These anti-diabetic effects were attributed to the increased SCFAs content and the increased thickness of gut mucus layer, and were associated with the modulation of gut microbiota. Among the key phylotypes, Bacteroides and Bacteroidales S24-7 had the highest relative abundance in the rats receiving high-dose baicalein and showed positive correlation with the phenotypes related to the improvement of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Our study supports the use of baicalein as a dietary supplement and a potential prebiotic for its ability to modify gut microbiota and to improve T2DM-related biochemical abnormalities.

In this article, we investigate the pullback asymptotic behavior of solutions for a non-autonomous micropolar fluid flows in 2D unbounded channel-like domains. First, applying the technique of truncation functions, decomposition of spatial domain, and the energy method, we show the existence of the pullback attractor in the space $\widehat{H}(\Omega)$ (has L^2-regularity). In fact, we can deduce the existence of pullback attractor in space $\widehat{V}(\Omega)$ (has H^1-regularity). Also the tempered behavior of the pullback attractor is verified. Moreover, when the spatial domain varies from $\Omega_m$ ($\{\Omega_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}$ be an expanding sequence of simply connected, bounded and smooth subdomains of $\Omega$ such that $\cup_{m=1}^{\infty}\Omega_m = \Omega$) to $\Omega$, the upper semicontinuity of the pullback attractor is discussed.

Baicalein, a major component in Scutellaria baicalensis and Oroxylum indicum, is used as dietary supplement in Asia. In this study, we characterized the insulin-sensitizing activity of baicalein and found that baicalein improved insulin resistance by reducing the expression of SOCS3, increasing the phosphorylation of IRS1 and Akt1, reducing the phosphorylation of GSK3β and increasing hepatic glycogen level. We further evaluated the preventive effect of baicalein combined with acarbose in mice, aiming to enhance the therapeutic effect and reduce the side-effects of acarbose. The combination reduced the relative risk of progression from prediabetes to diabetes by 83.3% and the dose of acarbose by 80%. The underlying mechanisms include reducing postprandial hyperglycemia, improving insulin resistance, improving lipid metabolism, and reducing oxidative stress. Our results suggest that the consumption of 195–780 mg/d baicalein might improve the efficacy of acarbose on diabetes prevention and reduce the side-effects of acarbose in long-term acarbose users.

Abstract We establish the H 2 $H^{2}$ -boundedness of the pullback attractor for a two-dimensional nonautonomous micropolar fluid flow with infinite delays.

Baicalein, a widely-distributed natural flavonoid, exhibits antioxidative activity in mice with type-2 diabetes. However, the underlying mechanisms remain partially elucidated. In this study, we investigated the effect of baicalein on protein kinase R-like ER kinase (PERK)/nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway for the alleviation of oxidative stress and apoptosis. Human liver HL-7702 cells were stimulated with 60.5 mM of glucose to induce oxidative stress and treated with baicalein. The apoptosis was determined by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The regulation of the PERK/Nrf2 pathway by baicalein was determined by immunoblotting in both HL-7702 cells and liver tissues from diabetic mice. We found that baicalein significantly alleviated the oxidative stress and apoptosis in HL-7702 cells stimulated with glucose. Mechanistic studies showed that baicalein downregulated PERK and upregulated Nrf2, two key proteins involved in endoplasmic reticulum stress, in both HL-7702 cells and liver tissues from diabetic mice receiving baicalein treatment. Furthermore, the subcellular localization of Nrf2 and the regulation of downstream proteins including heme oxygenase-1 and CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) by baicalein were also investigated. Our results suggest that the regulation of the PERK/Nrf2 pathway is one of the mechanisms contributing to the bioactivities of baicalein to improve diabetes-associated complications.

A method of employing high-resolution mass spectrometry in combination with in vivo metabolite deuterium labeling was developed in this study to investigate the effects of alcohol exposure on lipid homeostasis at the white adipose tissue (WAT)-liver axis in a mouse model of alcoholic fatty liver. In order to differentiate the liver lipids synthesized from the fatty acids that were transported back from adipose tissue and the lipids synthesized from other sources of fatty acids, a two-stage mouse feeding experiment was performed to incorporate deuterium into metabolites. Hepatic lipids extracted from mouse liver, epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) and subcutaneous white adipose tissue (sWAT) were analyzed. It was found that 13 and 10 triacylglycerols (TGs) incorporated with a certain number of deuterium were significantly increased in alcohol induced fatty liver at two and four weeks of alcohol feeding periods, respectively. The concentration changes of these TGs ranged from 1.7 to 6.3-fold increase. A total of 14 deuterated TGs were significantly decreased in both eWAT and sWAT at the two and four weeks and the fold-change ranged from 0.19 to 0.77. The increase of deuterium incorporated TGs in alcohol-induced fatty liver and their decrease in both eWAT and sWAT indicate that alcohol exposure induces hepatic influx of fatty acids which are released from WATs. The results of time course analysis further indicate a mechanistic link between adipose fat loss and hepatic fat gain in alcoholic fatty liver.

In this paper, we present an iterative algorithm for solving split mixed equilibrium problems, fixed point problems of an infinite family of nonexpansive mappings and fixed point problems of λ-hybrid multivalued mappings in real Hilbert spaces. We prove that the proposed iterative algorithm converges weakly to a common solution of the considered problems under some mild assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a generalized variational inequality and fixed points problem is presented. An iterative algorithm is introduced for finding a solution of the generalized variational inequalities and fixed point of two uniformly Lipschitzian asymptotically quasi-pseudocontractive operators under a nonlinear transformation. Strong convergence of the suggested algorithm is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a new iterative algorithm for finding a common element of the set of solutions of a split variational inequality problem, the set of fixed points of an infinite family of nonexpansive mappings and the set of solutions of a variational inclusion problem in Hilbert spaces. Under some mild conditions imposed on algorithm parameters, we prove that the proposed iterative algorithm have strong convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a topology of wind energy conversion system based on hexagonal modular multilevel converter (H-MMC), which can connect the wind turbine and the AC grid with one stage conversion. It has the advantages of low power losses, low ripple of capacitor voltage and transformer-less grid connection. The operation principle of the proposed topology is analysed in detail. Then, the positive and negative sequence control method is proposed to eliminate the second harmonics in the output power of H-MMC under asymmetrical grid faults. The double proportional resonant (PR) controller is proposed to track arm current references without steady error. The effectiveness of the proposed topology and its control method are verified by simulations and hardware in loop tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A topology for six series-connected single-phase modular multilevel converters (MMCs) for multi-phase permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) wind power systems is proposed to deliver wind power to a medium-voltage DC (MVDC) grid. The AC side of each MMC is connected to one phase of the multi-phase PMSG. The DC sides of the MMCs are connected in series to obtain a medium-level DC voltage. The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and grid-connected control methods are discussed in detail. The high-frequency voltage injection circuit is designed to suppress the voltage fluctuations of the sub-module capacitor. Further, the nearest-level and pulse width modulation (NL-PWM) based on the sampling value is proposed to suppress the harmonics of the stator current. The proposed topology exhibits low costs, a high efficiency, and a high boost ratio without an additional step-up DC/DC converter or transformer. The constructed simulation model verifies the validity of the proposed topology. Moreover, the experimental results are assessed with RT-Lab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz (Bignoniaceae) has been widely used for the treatment of respiratory infections and gastrointestinal disorders. Our previous study showed that an ethanol-water O. indicum seed extract (OISE), when combined with acarbose, reduced the risk of diabetes by 75% and effectively prevented the associated complications. Oroxin A, a major component of OISE, can activate PPARγ and inhibit α-glucosidase and it represents a promising candidate for diabetes intervention.Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of oroxin A from O. indicum on the progression of prediabetes to diabetes and the underlying mechanisms in streptozotocin and high-fat-diet induced prediabetic mice.Methods: Oroxin A was purified from OISE and its PPARγ transcriptional activation was determined in vitro and in vivo. The prediabetic mice were established by high-fat diet and streptozotocin, which was followed by treatment with oroxin A. The effect of oroxin A was determined by analysis of the lipid profiles, oxidative stress, hepatic function and histology. The mechanism of oroxin A was also investigated.Results: Oroxin A is a compound with low toxicity that has reduced the relative risk of progression from prediabetes to diabetes by 66.7% without inducing weight gain or hepatotoxicity. Oroxin A also improved the complications of prediabetes, such as lipid metabolism dysfunction and liver injury. Results of mechanism studies suggested that oroxin A is a partial PPARγ agonist that can activate PPARγ transcriptional activation in vitro and in vivo. Oroxin A also exhibited an inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase and an antioxidant capacity.Conclusion: Oroxin A prevents the progression from prediabetes to diabetes through a multi-pathway intervention mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By choosing V-shaped ligands, Cu2+ cations and isopolymolybdates as starting materials, a novel double helical compound [Cu(H2O)(bimb)]2[ß-Mo8O26] (1) (bimb = 1,3-bis(1-imidazoly)benzene) was hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy. A structural feature is that compound 1 represents the first example of a helical compound based on polyoxometalates, which possesses an unprecedented helical disposition, namely the coexistence of both interconnected and interweaved double helices in one structure. The photocatalytic properties of compound 1 were also investigated in detail and the result of photocatalytic experiments shows that compound 1 can be used as a stable photocatalyst toward the decomposition of the organic pollutant methylene blue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two novel helical compounds based on polyoxovanadates, [Co(H2O)2V2O6] (1) and [Co(bimb)-V2O6] (2) (binib =1,3-bis(1-imidazoly)benzene), have been synthesized under identical hydrothermal conditions, providing two structurally different helical motifs due to introduction of a V-shaped bimb ligand in 2, Compound 1 possesses a pair of entanglement double helixes in a 3D inorganic framework, whereas compound 2 shows a single entangled double helix in a 3D inorganic--organic network owing to the influences of steric hindrance of ligands as well as coordination geometries of metal cations. The electrocatalytic and photocatalytic properties of 1 and 2 were also investigated in details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data analysis in metabolomics is currently a major challenge, particularly when large sample sets are analyzed. Herein, we present a novel computational platform entitled MetSign for high-resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. By converting the instrument raw data into mzXML format as its input data, MetSign provides a suite of bioinformatics tools to perform raw data deconvolution, metabolite putative assignment, peak list alignment, normalization, statistical significance tests, unsupervised pattern recognition, and time course analysis. MetSign uses a modular design and an interactive visual data mining approach to enable efficient extraction of useful patterns from data sets. Analysis steps, designed as containers, are presented with a wizard for the user to follow analyses. Each analysis step might contain multiple analysis procedures and/or methods and serves as a pausing point where users can interact with the system to review the results, to shape the next steps, and to return to previous steps to repeat them with different methods or parameter settings. Analysis of metabolite extract of mouse liver with spiked-in acid standards shows that MetSign outperforms the existing publically available software packages. MetSign has also been successfully applied to investigate the regulation and time course trajectory of metabolites in hepatic liver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Chronic diseases have become a major public health problem affecting the health of the population, and the number of patients with chronic diseases in China continues to increase, as well as the increasing number of deaths due to chronic disease by year, and the increasing burden of disease on patients gradually. Understanding the changes in the burden of chronic diseases is of great importance for the prevention and control of chronic diseases. However, there is a lack of research on the changes in the burden of common chronic diseases in rural Yunnan Province. Objective To examine the changes in the disease burden of five common chronic diseases [hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ] among rural residents in Yunnan Province in 2011 and 2021. Methods A repeated cross-sectional design was used to select 8 400 and 7 700 rural residents aged≥35 years in Yunnan Province using multistage stratified random sampling method in 2011 and 2021 as the research subjects, respectively. Data were collected from on-site questionnaires and physical examinations of study participants, as well as data on the causes of death of five common chronic diseases. Principal component analysis was used to construct a socioeconomic position (SEP) indicator by selecting three variables including education level, annual household income per capita and accessibility to medical services, the coefficients of the variables were used to calculate the SEP composite score, and the SEP was classified into four grades of low, medium-low, medium-high and high based on the quartiles of the SEP composite score. Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) was used to measure the magnitude of the disease burden for five chronic diseases. Results Compared with 2011, the overall prevalence of hypertension (25.14% vs. 41.57%), stroke (1.03% vs. 2.52%), and COPD (9.23% vs. 12.60%) in rural Yunnan Province in 2021 increased (P0.05), while an increase was found in the prevalence of CHD among males and those with high SEP grade, and in the prevalence of asthma among males and those with medium-high SEP grade (P