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Over the last decades, epidemiology and functional studies have started to reveal a pivotal role of vitamin D in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes pathogenesis. Acting through the vitamin D receptor (VDR), vitamin D regulates insulin secretion in pancreatic islets and insulin sensitivity in multiple peripheral metabolic organs. In vitro studies and both T1D and T2D animal models showed that vitamin D can improve glucose homeostasis by enhancing insulin secretion, reducing inflammation, reducing autoimmunity, preserving beta cell mass, and sensitizing insulin action. Conversely, vitamin D deficiency has been shown relevant in increasing T1D and T2D incidence. While clinical trials testing the hypothesis that vitamin D improves glycemia in T2D have shown conflicting results, subgroup and meta-analyses support the idea that raising serum vitamin D levels may reduce the progression from prediabetes to T2D. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of vitamin D in insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity, and immunity, as well as the observational and interventional human studies investigating the use of vitamin D as a treatment for diabetes.

An innovative iron supplement crucial for treating iron-deficiency anemia was developed in this study. Polysaccharide was extracted from Eucommia ulmoides leaves using a microwave-assisted hot water method, and subsequently, the polysaccharide–iron complex was synthesized through co-thermal synthesis with FeCl3. The physicochemical properties, structure, and thermal stability of the complex were analyzed using FE-SEM, SEC-MALLS, FT-IR, XRD, and DSC techniques. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity of the polysaccharide–iron complex was evaluated through an experiment in vitro. The results revealed that the polysaccharide–iron complex had an iron content of 6.1% and an average particle size of 860.4 nm. The microstructure analysis indicated that the polysaccharide–iron complex possessed a flaky morphology with smooth and compact surfaces. Moreover, the formation of the Fe3+ complex did not alter the structural framework of the polysaccharide; instead, it enhanced the polysaccharide's thermal stability. Compared to traditional iron supplements, the E. ulmoides-derived polysaccharide–iron complex demonstrated significant antioxidant activity. Therefore, this novel compound exhibits significant potential as a viable iron supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Lactobacillus plantarum CICC 20022 as the research object, this study investigated the effects of Eucommia ulmoides leaf polysaccharides on the number of viable bacteria, microstructure, fatty acid composition of cell membrane, and structural integrity of cell membrane and cell wall under bile salt stress. The results showed that the viable count of L. plantarum CICC 20022 was significantly increased (P<0. 05), when the crude polysaccharide or the refined polysaccharide of E. ulmoides leaf were added to the bile salt stress environment and cultured for 24 h, which was 1.30 times or 1.10 times that of the control, respectively. Compared with the control, the addition of crude polysaccharide from E. ulmoides leaf or refined polysaccharide from E. ulmoides leaf could significantly protect the microstructure of bacteria and reduce the cell damage caused by bile salt stress, and the PI fluorescence intensity, alkaline phosphatase (AKP) activity and DNA leakage of cells were significantly reduced (P< 0. 05), while the ratio of unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids (U/S) in cell membrane was significantly increased (P<0. 05) to 0. 37. The results indicated that adding crude polysaccharide from E. ulmoides leaf in the environment of bile salt stress could maintain the integrity of cell structure of L. plantarum CICC 20022 and improve its bile salt tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing heterostructural photoanodes is attractive for elevating the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance, however, it is a long‐standing challenge to achieve highly efficient interfacial charge transfer. Herein, a CoFe metal‐thiolate framework (CoFe MTF)/Fe2O3 photoanode connected by an interfacial Fe─O─N/S bond is designed to modulate the behavior of charge carriers and improve water oxidation performance. It is disclosed that this interfacial bond functions as a direct charge transfer bridge between shallow trap states of Fe2O3 and CoFe MTF, leading to prolonged carrier recombination lifetimes (85 ns for CoFe MTF/Fe2O3 compared to 37 ns for Fe2O3) and enhanced charge transfer efficiency. Alternatively, a robust interfacial electric field is established in the CoFe MTF/Fe2O3 p–n heterojunction, facilitating efficient charge transfer. As expected, the CoFe MTF/Fe2O3 photoanode exhibits significant enhancement in water oxidation, resulting in a three‐fold increase in photocurrent density compared to pristine Fe2O3. This study highlights the significance of designing interfacially bonded heterostructural photoelectrodes to regulate the transfer characters of charge carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the popularized application of micropile for slope reinforcement, there are many kinds of pile section form, such as single steel bar, multisteel bar, and tube. In order to obtain the theoretical calculation model of horizontal capacity of micropiles with different types, numerical simulations for two common conditions, namely, soil-soil and soil-rock, were carried out to study micropile reinforced slope’s deformation and failure regulation. The dominated indicator for micropile horizontal capacity was acquired. By using the equivalence principle, four kinds of micropiles’ capacity calculation model were deduced. Then, FEM numerical analysis was used for validation. The results show that the flexural capacity of micropile is a critical and dominated indicator which should be considered seriously in slope reinforcement design. When the ultimate flexural capacity is reached, the displacement of micropile reinforced slope will increase rapidly. The primary factor affecting the flexural capacity of micropiles is pile diameter, followed by section reinforcement ratio. The calculation results of the calculation model of flexural capacity proposed in this paper are close to those of numerical ones and are safer. The calculation model can provide reference for micropile selecting and slope reinforcement design, especially for quick design of emergency engineering.

Transparent electronics has attracted much attention and been widely studied for next-generation high-performance flat-panel display application in the past few years, because of its excellent electrical properties. In display application, thin film transistors (TFTs) play an important role as the basic units by controlling the pixels. Among them, oxide-based TFTs have become promising candidates and gradually replaced the conventional amorphous and polycrystalline silicon TFTs, due to high mobility, good transparency, excellent uniformity and low processing temperature. Even though n-type oxide TFTs have shown high device performance and been used in commercial display application, p-type oxide TFTs with the equal performance have been rarely reported. Hence, in this paper, recent progress and challenges in p-type oxide-based TFTs are reviewed. After a short introduction, the TFT device structure and operation are presented. Then, recent developments in p-type oxide TFTs are discussed in detail, with the emphasis on the potential p-type oxide candidates as copper oxide, tin oxide and nickel oxide. Moreover, miscellaneous applications of p-type oxide TFTs are also presented. Despite this, the performance of p-type oxide TFTs still lags behind, as compared with that of n-type counterparts. Thus, the current issues and challenges of p-type oxide TFTs are briefly discussed.

β cell dysfunction and failure are driving forces of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) pathogenesis. Investigating the underlying mechanisms of β cell dysfunction may provide novel targets for the development of next generation therapy for T2DM. Epigenetics is the study of gene expression changes that do not involve DNA sequence changes, including DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs. Specific epigenetic signatures at all levels, including DNA methylation, chromatin accessibility, histone modification, and non-coding RNA, define β cell identity during embryonic development, postnatal maturation, and maintain β cell function at homeostatic states. During progression of T2DM, overnutrition, inflammation, and other types of stress collaboratively disrupt the homeostatic epigenetic signatures in β cells. Dysregulated epigenetic signatures, and the associating transcriptional outputs, lead to the dysfunction and eventual loss of β cells. In this review, we will summarize recent discoveries of the establishment and disruption of β cell-specific epigenetic signatures, and discuss the potential implication in therapeutic development.

In order to understand the effect of Eucommia ulmoides leaf water extract (ELWE) on probiotic characteristics in vitro of Lactobacillus plantarum, the effects of different concentrations of ELWE on the growth curve, acid-producing ability, morphology and tolerance of Lactobacillus plantarum were studied by means of bacteria count, scanning electron microscope and gas chromatography, respectively. The results show that the number of viable bacteria in the experimental groups were significantly higher than that of the control group after 24 h cultivation. High concentrations of ELWE (80, 320 mg/mL) make Lactobacillus plantarum fuller, and can significantly improve the lactic acid production capacity of Lactobacillus plantarum, and the lactic acid content increase by 42.07% and 111.64% after 36 h cultivation, respectively. Under the stress of gastric juice environment, the logarithmic survival rate of 80 mg/mL ELWE group can reach 87.77% (3 h), which is significantly higher than that of the control group (0%). And 80 mg/mL ELWE treatment can significantly increase the viable count of Lactobacillus plantarum under heat stress, NaCl stress, bile salt stress and vacuum freeze-drying stress, and the viable count can be maintained at 5.67, 8.16, 7.65, 7.78 lg CFU/mL, respectively. 80 mg/mL ELWE has a positive effect on the in vitro probiotic characteristics of Lactobacillus plantarum. This study provides the necessary theoretical reference for the application of ELWE in probiotic industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]