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Helianthus Annuus L. (HAL) is composed of flavonoids and polysaccharides. Flavonoids have demonstrated beneficial effects on atherosclerosis (AS). The objective of this study was to investigate the anti-atherosclerosis effect and the related mechanism of HAL. In this study, the AS model induced by high-fat diet (HFD) mice that lacked apolipoprotein E (Apoe[Formula: see text] received feed containing 5% HAL for 24 weeks. After administration, the analysis of plaque on aorta was conducted, and the possible mechanisms were further explored. With HAL treatment, the size of atherosclerotic lesions in HFD-induced AS model mice was reduced. HAL ameliorated dyslipidemia and decreased the combined ratio. HAL up-regulated concentrations of superoxide dismutase (SOD), nitric oxide (NO) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and down-regulated concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) in the aorta. In addition, 16S rRNA analysis showed that HAL also reduced diversity of the intestinal microbiota, decreased the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio, and increased the relative abundance of probiotics such as Akkermansia muciniphila and Lactobacillus. In the end, HAL decreased the permeability of intestine by increasing the levels of occludin and tight junction protein 1 (ZO-1) in the colon, consequently decreasing concentration of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1[Formula: see text] and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-[Formula: see text] in serum and mRNA expressions in the aorta. Data showed that HAL alleviates AS by restraining oxidative stress, regulating intestinal microbiota, decreasing intestinal permeability and inhibiting inflammation. Our findings provided novel insights into the role and mechanism of anti-atherogenic potential of HAL.

Numerous studies have been made on paleoclimate and paleovegetation reconstructions and simulations of the past interglacials. However, systematical analysis of the global patterns of the correlation between vegetation pattern and astronomical forcing as well as CO2 between different interglacials is rare. Given the distinct differences in orbital configurations and climate/vegetation variations between MIS-11 and MIS-13, we performed two sets of transient simulations using LOVECLIM 1.3, one driven by insolation change only, and another one by changes in both insolation and CO2. These simulations allow us to investigate the relative effect of astronomical forcing and CO2 on global and regional vegetation changes during these two interglacials. Our results show that the effects of precession and obliquity on vegetation depend strongly on regions, and the simulated results are in good agreement with vegetation reconstructions at key regions. The vegetation response differs widely between MIS-11and MIS-13, which is mainly caused by the difference in their astronomical configurations, and the difference in CO2 concentration between these two interglacials plays a minor role. In addition to the effect of precession and obliquity, our simulations are also able to capture the half precession signal (~ 10 ka) in the climate and vegetation changes in the tropical regions in response to the tropical insolation.

The current study examined the relationship among temporal processing speed, spatial visual span and Chinese character reading speed in normal central and peripheral vision. Maximum reading speed (MRS) and critical print size (CPS) of 26 native Chinese readers (13 young and 13 older adults) were determined at three visual field locations: central vision, 10o left and 10o below fixation using the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. Temporal processing speed was measured using trigrams of randomly selected Chinese characters presented at a range of exposure durations, while spatial visual span was measured using trigrams presented at different spatial positions. We found that faster MRS was significantly associated with faster temporal processing speed and larger spatial visual span at the central and inferior visual field locations, but not at the left of the fixation location. As expected, reading and visual span metrics were better in central vision compared to both non-central presentation locations. In addition, reading, temporal processing, and spatial visual span metrics were better in the younger than older subjects for central and inferior vision, but not for the left of fixation condition. Our results for central and inferior presentation locations support the hypothesis that temporal processing speed and spatial visual span were associated with Chinese character reading speed. Surprisingly, no association was observed for the 10o left of the fixation presentation location, suggesting that the factors affecting reading speed differ for inferior and lateral mid-peripheral viewing locations.

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, between about 130 and 70 ka BP, is a relatively long warm period characterized by climate oscillations consisting of three interstadials and two stadials. In this study, two sets of snapshot simulations by a step of 2 ka covering the whole MIS-5 period are performed with the model HadCM3 to investigate the relative impacts of insolation, CO2 and Northern Hemisphere ice sheets on the internal variations within MIS-5 and spatial variations of the East Asian climate, including the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) intensity. The first set of experiments are forced by varying insolation and GHGs (OrbGHG) and the second ones are forced by varying insolation, GHGs and ice sheets (OrbGHGIce). Results show that a similar trend with precession can be found in the simulated summer precipitation, temperature and EASM index in both OrbGHG and OrbGHGIce, indicating the dominant role of precession on the EASM. Within the range of CO2 variability during MIS-5, the change of CO2 causes similar degree of warming effect, but much lower degree of humidifying effect compared to insolation. Insolation and CO2 change the precipitation through different dynamic and thermodynamic processes. Our results also show that the influence of ice sheets on temperature and precipitation is less important than the effect of insolation and it varies from regions and in time. The effect of ice sheets depends on background insolation and also the location, height and area of ice sheets. The simulated spatial-temporal variations of the EASM climate are compared with proxy records and the mechanisms involved are investigated.

Disentangling the links between terrestrial vegetation changes and astronomical forcing as well as CO2 is of great help to understand the sensitivity of contemporary vegetation and predict future vegetation and climate changes, yet it remains challenging. Given the distinct differences in astronomical configurations and CO2 concentration between Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 and 13, here we investigate the role of astronomical forcing and CO2 on global vegetation changes during these two interglacials based on transient simulations performed with the model LOVECLIM1.3. Our results show that during these two interglacials, astronomical forcing plays a dominant role on the vegetation evolution, with the effect of CO2 being relatively small. The effect of astronomical forcing on vegetation can be explained successively by the relationship between climate (temperature, precipitation) and the astronomical parameters and by the relationship between vegetation and climate. The relative effect of precession and obliquity on vegetation strongly depends on regions and on interglacials. In general, obliquity plays a more important role on vegetation variations during MIS-11, while precession is more important during MIS-13. Our results also reveal a clear half-precession cycle (~ 10 ka) in the variations of temperature, precipitation and vegetation in the tropical area during MIS-13, as a direct response to the tropical insolation. However, no obvious half-precession cycle is simulated during MIS-11 due to its weak precession variation but large obliquity variation, indicating that half-precession cycle is not stable in time.

Rationale Coronary artery ligation to induce myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemia injury in mice is typically performed in normal mice, but This is not consistent with disease progression. There should be atherosclerosis (AS) first, followed by MI. Objective We tried a novel model to induce MI that was established on atherosclerosis in mice. This approach was much more consistent with disease progression. Methods In this study, Mice lacking apolipoprotein E (ApoE−/-) were randomly divided into four groups. The mice of the control and MI groups were fed normal diet for 24-weeks, while the mice of AS and AS + MI groups were fed high-fat diet (HFD). After 23 weeks, the mice of MI and AS + MI groups were ligated with coronary arteries. A week later, after echocardiography, analysis of plaque and myocardium were conducted on aortic and heart, then the serum, aorta and heart tissues were further detected. Results Our results showed that AS model mice exhibited significant body weight gain, dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic lesions formation which were in accordance with the pathological changes of AS. Co-treatment with AS and MI led to higher operative mortality and heart pathological were in accordance with the pathological changes of MI. In addition, Echocardiography and NT pro-BNP revealed co-treatment with AS and MI led to deterioration of cardiac function. AS also aggravated myocardial inflammatory cell infiltration and fibrosis post-MI. Conclusions Together, it is feasible to establish myocardial infarction model based on atherosclerosis model.

The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) is an important component of the climate system and it influences about one-third of the world’s population. Numerous paleoclimate records and climate simulations have been used to study its long-term evolution and response to different forcings. The strong regional dependence of the EASM variation questions the relative role of ice sheets and insolation on the EASM precipitation in different sub-regions in East Asia. A Gaussian emulator, which was generated and calibrated by interpolating the outputs of 61 snapshot simulations performed with the model HadCM3, is used to quantitatively assess how astronomical forcing, CO2 and northern hemisphere ice sheets affect the variation of the summer precipitation over the last 800 ky. Our results show that in the north of 25°N of the EASM domain, the variation of the summer precipitation is dominated by precession and insolation. This leads to strong 23-ky cycles in the summer precipitation. However, in the southern part (south of 25°N), the impact of ice volume becomes more important, leading to strong 100-ky cycles. Ice sheets influence the summer precipitation in the south mainly through its control on the location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which is very sensitive to ice volume. ITCZ is shifted significantly to the south under large ice sheets conditions. Therefore, the region under control of the ITCZ is more sensitive to the influence of ice volume than other regions. Our results also show that obliquity and CO2 have relatively small effect on the summer precipitation as compared to precession and ice sheets.

Objective To investigate surgical methods for the removal of larger ear keloids. Methods Two different surgical techniques were used: Method A, tumour excision followed by in situ scar flap repair; and Method B, wedge resection of an auricular lesion followed by primary closure or local flap repair. After the treatment, patients received postoperative, local radiotherapy. Follow-up was for 1-3 years (median 28.9 months). Results Twenty patients with 35 large ear keloids were reviewed. In Method A, six ears were cured, three ears improved, five ears relapsed after 1 year and one ear recurred within 1 year. In Method B, 17 ears were cured, two ears improved and one ear recurred within 1 year. Conclusion Keloid scars can be effectively treated with a combination of radiotherapy and surgical excision.

The stable carbon isotopic composition of organic matter of aeolian silt deposits is regarded as an appropriate proxy index of paleovegetation, especially in the Chinese Loess Plateau in central China. In this study, a loess–paleosol sequence in the southeastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northeastern (NE) China, which is located outside the Chinese Loess Plateau, is chosen to reconstruct the vegetation history since ∼1.08 Ma. Temperature exhibits a threshold value, which determines the growth of C4 plants in this study area. The organic matter of the samples is derived from two different vegetation types, namely, the mixed C3 and C4 plants and the pure C3 plants. The δ13C of the organic matter shows negative values in loess units and higher values in paleosol units. This finding reflects the influence of temperature and summer monsoon intensity on the vegetation dynamics over glacial–interglacial cycles. On a longer time scale, the δ13C values are higher between ∼1.1 and ∼0.9 Ma and after ∼0.35 Ma, and lower between ∼0.9 and ∼0.35 Ma, which may be attributed to a long-term temperature variation. Our analysis shows that regional temperature is the most important limiting factor that forces vegetation changes at the glacial–interglacial time scale in NE China.

Previous studies from the central and eastern Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) showed that the S5-1 paleosol, which corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 13, was the strongest developed during the last million years, suggesting extremely strong East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). However, evidence shows that regional diversity exists in the relative intensity of the S5-1 soil formation. In this study, we first verify systematically the S5-1 soil development across the whole CLP by using numerous loess records. We then examine the spatial variation of the magnetic susceptibility of different loess-paleosol sections to identify the spatial change of the EASM intensity during MIS-13. We also compare the loess records with other monsoon records in China. Our results show that, in central CLP, S5-1 is indeed the strongest developed as suggested by previous studies, whereas in the western CLP, it is weakly developed and the S4 paleosol developed during MIS-11 is the strongest. As compared to MIS-11, the northern front of the EASM during MIS-13 didn’t penetrate into western CLP, but was located more northerly and eastward. Based on sea surface temperature records in the tropical Pacific, we suggest that the temporal and spatial abnormal variation of the EASM during MIS-13 could be related to a strong La Nina or La Nina-like climate condition. Under such condition, the Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) becomes weaker and retreats more northeastward, leading to more precipitation in the mid-east region of northern China but less rainfall in the western inland.

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a rare cutaneous tumor with a high incidence of misdiagnosis. DFSP has a high rate of recurrence but a low rate of metastasis. In the present study, retrospective analyses were performed on the clinical features, differential diagnosis and treatment of patients with DFSP to improve our understanding of the disease and allow more effective treatment measures to be implemented. The present study investigated the clinicopathological features of 70 pathologically confirmed cases of DFSP at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University (Zhengzhou, China) between March 2012 and 2017. The primary endpoint was recurrence rate. Three cases were analyzed in detail. The results revealed that 7 of the 41 primary patients (follow-up at 2.7 years) had recurrence (17.1%), compared with 11 (37.9%) of the 29 recurrent patients (follow-up at 2.0 years, P=0.049). Of the 59 patients with DFSP (follow-up at 2.6 years), 12 had recurrence (20.3%) compared with 6 (54.6%) of the 11 patients with fibrosarcomatous DFSP (FS-DFSP; follow-up at 2.1 years, P=0.045). DFSP requires diagnosis by pathological examination, and surgical resection is the main treatment. DFSP demonstrated a high recurrence rate, with the degree of malignancy increasing following multiple recurrences. FS-DFSP had a higher risk of local recurrence and distant metastasis, and a higher degree of malignancy than classic DFSP. These data may be useful to guide clinicians to improve decisions in the treatment of patients with DFSP.