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By considering both scattering and reflection events as collision-induced events (CIEs), an analytical path loss model of reflection-assisted non-line-of-sight (NLOS) ultraviolet communications (UVC) is proposed with single CIE incorporated, which refers to the single-collision-induced (SCI) path loss model. More specifically, the analytical expressions of the received optical energy resulting from single-scatter and single-reflection events in reflection-assisted NLOS UVC are respectively derived. Then, in terms of those two expressions, the expression of the proposed SCI path loss model is obtained. Finally, Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations and experimental results are given to verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed SCI path loss model. The results manifest that the proposed SCI path loss model can work well in both coplanar and noncoplanar geometry of the reflection-assisted NLOS UVC.

Ultraviolet (UV) technology plays an important role in the fields of sterilization, disinfection, and short-range wireless optical communications. In this Letter, a theoretical model to determine the UV radiation intensity (UVRI) on human skin is put forward based on the Monte Carlo method, where the UV wavelength ranges from 200 to 300 nm. Meanwhile, the UVRI evaluation algorithm is provided to reproduce the simulation results. Furthermore, the penetration depth of UV radiation in the human epidermis is investigated, which can be used to assess whether UV radiation causes damage to human health. Simulation results coincide with the existing experimental results that the 222-nm UV radiation is harmless to humans at the given dose of 1.7 mJ/cm2. This work provides theoretical guidelines for the power control of a UV system when humans are in the vicinity.

This publisher’s note contains corrections to Opt. Lett. 46, 4013 (2021)OPLEDP0146-959210.1364/OL.435418.

Metformin is the first-line therapy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D) through mechanism of reduction in hepatic glucose production and fasting plasma glucose. Dorzagliatin is a novel glucokinase activator (GKA) that improves glucose and insulin sensitivity which significantly reduces post meal plasma glucose. Combination of dorzagliatin with metformin would offer benefits through the synergy of two mechanisms. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial (NCT03141073), the efficacy and safety of dorzagliatin add-on to metformin in T2D patients were assessed. Eligible T2D patients (n=767) were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to dorzagliatin group or placebo group add-on to metformin (1500 mg/day) for a 24-week double-blind treatment, then followed by a 28-week open-label treatment with dorzagliatin in all patients. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change from baseline in the glycated hemoglobin(HbA1c) level at week 24 and the safety was assessed throughout the trial. At week 24, the HbA1c was reduced from baseline in dorzagliatin group, superior to placebo (-1.02% vs. -0.36%; ETD, -0.66%; 95% CI, -0.79 to -0.53; P

Metformin, the first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes (T2D), decreases hepatic glucose production and reduces fasting plasma glucose levels. Dorzagliatin, a dual-acting orally bioavailable glucokinase activator targeting both the pancreas and liver glucokinase, decreases postprandial glucose in patients with T2D. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, the efficacy and safety of dorzagliatin as an add-on therapy to metformin were assessed in patients with T2D who had inadequate glycemic control using metformin alone. Eligible patients with T2D (n = 767) were randomly assigned to receive dorzagliatin or placebo (1:1 ratio) as an add-on to metformin (1,500 mg per day) for 24 weeks of double-blind treatment, followed by 28 weeks of open-label treatment with dorzagliatin for all patients. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels from baseline to week 24, and safety was assessed throughout the trial. At week 24, the least-squares mean change from baseline in HbA1c (95% confidence interval (CI)) was −1.02% (−1.11, −0.93) in the dorzagliatin group and −0.36% (−0.45, −0.26) in the placebo group (estimated treatment difference, −0.66%; 95% CI: −0.79, −0.53; P NCT03141073).

The single-scattering model for short-range ultraviolet (UV) communication is often replaced by an approximate model due to its simplified calculation. However, there are certain errors associated with the existing approximate models. To reduce the errors, a spherical crown (SC) model in a narrow beam case is derived in this letter, where we assume that the differential volume is a thin layer of SC. Meanwhile, the applicable conditions and the error range of the SC model are provided. The calculation results indicate that the errors of the existing approximate models range from −1.4 to 6.0 dB while those of the SC model range from −0.2 to 0.4 dB for the considered transceiver geometries, which means that the SC model has a higher accuracy than the existing approximate models. In addition, the bit-error rate performance of the UV communication system under the SC model is also presented. This letter greatly improves the accuracy of the single-scattering approximate model and provides a new method to estimate the path loss of short-range UV communication.

The study on short-range ultraviolet communication (UVC) channel modeling is often based on prolate-spheroidal coordinate system in the previous studies. In this letter, we propose a single scattering coplanar model based on spherical coordinate system, where the transmitter beam and receiver field of view (FOV) can point arbitrarily under the limitation that the sum of transceiver elevation angles and half of their own FOV is less than 180°, and the transmitter beam and receiver FOV are above ground. We utilize the number of intersections between a special ray on the transmitter cone and the receiver conical surface to distinguish the UVC scenarios, which makes the analysis of UVC channel modeling comprehensible. Meanwhile, we validate the proposed model in comparison with the single scattering model and the Monte Carlo simulation model through numerical calculations. The results show that the proposed model agrees well with both models. This letter presents a new method to estimate the path loss of short-range UVC and provides guidelines for the experimental system design.

The applications of temperature sensor have penetrated into the electric power, metallurgy, chemical industry, building materials, machinery, food, petroleum, etc. The requirement on the precision of temperature measurement is a very important parameter. However, various factors affect the measurement precise of temperature sensor. One of the errors is caused by the temperature difference between the sensor surface temperature and the ambient temperature. A temperature sensor is usually wire bonded to a test PCB board, and then it is usually covered by glue for lab measurement. This results in a large error between the temperature measured by the chip and the temperature of the environment. This paper introduces an error correction method to deal with this temperature difference. In addition, we propose a technique to stabilize the environment temperature of DUT (device under test). Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively reduce the errors caused by the chip packaging and temperature variation of the environment.

Existing studies of ultraviolet (UV) communication channel models focus mainly on point-to-point scenarios. To analyze UV channel characteristics in omni-directional scenarios, we propose a multiple scattering omni-directional channel model based on the Monte Carlo method in this Letter, where we assume that the receiver can be anywhere in a certain area and all the receivers point to the vertical axis of the transmitter. Meanwhile, we validate the proposed model in comparison to the existing point-to-point Monte Carlo simulation model. Simulation results demonstrate that a single scattering model is not applicable to omni-directional analysis due to the difference in path loss between the single scattering model and the multiple scattering model. Furthermore, the transceiver configurations can affect the coverage area of the UV omni-directional communication system significantly. This work presents a new way to obtain UV path loss distribution and provides guidelines for the omni-directional communication system design.

Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide due to its high incidence, malignant behaviour and lack of major advancements in treatment strategy. The occurrence and development of lung cancer is closely related to inflammation. Thus, we conducted the present study to investigate the effects of IL-38 (interleukin-38), a newly identified anti-inflammatory factor, on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. We first evaluated the IL-38 expression in 384 pairs of NSCLC samples and their adjacent normal mucosa by real-time PCR, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) and tissue microarrays. Then the role of IL-38 on patient survival rates, cancer progression and their sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs was assessed. IL-38 was barely expressed in the NSCLC tissues but highly expressed in the adjacent normal tissues. The downregulation of IL-38 was significantly correlated with the results of the American Joint Committee on Cancer stage and degree of differentiation, and it was also shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of disease-free survival and overall survival for patients with NSCLC. Overexpression of IL-38 in NSCLC cells suppressed cell migration, invasion, proliferation and colony formation through suppressing β-catenin. IL-38 inhibited NSCLC formation in a mice model and sensitized the cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs. Our results show that IL-38 plays an inhibitory role in NSCLC development and functions as a novel prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target.

Rhenium was one of important alloying elements in the Ni-based superalloys. Based on the molar Gibbs energy of the pure Re updated in SGTE Pure 5 database, the Re–X(X=Al, Co, Cr, Ta) systems were re-optimized by means of CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams) technique. In the present work, the phases liquid, fcc, bcc and hcp were described using a substitutional solution model. The phases AlRe, Al3Re, Al6Re, Al12Re, AlRe2 and Al11Re4 in the Re–Al system were described as stochiometric compound. The Al4Re_H and Al4Re_L instead of Al4Re were evaluated in the present work. The phases σ in the Re–Cr and Re–Ta systems and χ in the Re–Ta system were modeled as (X, Re)10(X, Re)20 (X=Cr or Ta) and Re24(Re, Ta)10(Re, Ta)24, respectively. A set of self-consistent thermodynamic parameters of the Re–X systems were obtained and the optimized results were in good agreement with the experimental data.

Existing studies of the ultraviolet (UV) channel mainly focus on non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios, while line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios are generally neglected since obstacles sometimes block them. To fill this gap, a UV diffused-LOS channel model in the presence of an obstacle is proposed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. For easy interpretation, the whole derivation is combined with four typical positions of the obstacle. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed model is investigated via comparison with the classical Monte Carlo simulation model, where the transceiver elevation angle and azimuth angle are always kept optimal. Calculation and simulation results show that when the obstacle thickness is relatively small, the channel attenuation of the UV diffused-LOS system is lower than that of the UV NLOS system with the variation of obstacle width, height, and distance between transceiver and obstacle. In addition, an expression of the impulse response time of the diffused-LOS channel with the obstacle is also derived for tractable analysis.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are popularly used as light sources in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) ultraviolet communications (UVC). However, currently reported single-scatter path loss (PL) models of NLOS UVC links assume that the radiant intensity of the light source is uniformly distributed within the beam divergence angle, which cannot well characterize the light emission pattern of LEDs. In this Letter, we propose a single-scatter PL model for LED-based NLOS UVC systems, and the corresponding analytical expression is derived by modeling the LED emission pattern as a Lambertian distribution. Monte Carlo simulations and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed PL model. Results show that the proposed model can accurately predict PL results in actual situations. The root-mean-square error of the proposed PL model is only about 1 dB in typical scenarios with experimental results as benchmarks. Also, the proposed model is much easier to implement than the currently reported PL model with the light source model of a uniformly distributed emission pattern.

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥25 mL/min/1.73 m2 and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio ≥30 to ≤5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level α = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049.

Resource selection is a key task in distributed information retrieval. There are many factors that affect the performance of resource selection. Learning to rank methods can effectively combine features and are widely used for document ranking in web search. But few of them are explored for resource selection. In this paper, we propose a resource selection algorithm based on learning to rank called LTRRS. By analyzing the factors affecting the effectiveness of resource selection, we extract multi-scale features including term matching features, topical relevance features and central sample index (CSI) based features. By training LambdaMART learning to rank model, we directly optimize NDCG metric of resource ranking list in LTRRS. Experiments on the Sogou-QCL dataset show that LTRRS algorithm can significantly outperform the baseline methods in NDCG and precision metrics.

Limited data are available regarding the association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the gender-specific association between NAFLD and T2DM risk in a middle-aged and elderly Chinese population.This cross-sectional study was carried out in a group of 1492 Chinese adults (60.30% males) aged between 45 and 69 years old, in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province who were attending their annual health check-up from June 2015 to December 2016 in the Medical Center for Physical Examination, Zhejiang Hospital. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a written questionnaire. NAFLD was divided into none, mild, moderate/severe based on ultrasound examination. Logistic regression analyses were employed to determine the relationship between NAFLD and the risk of T2DM, with adjustment of potential confounding variables.Of the 1492 participants, 163 (10.92%) were diagnosed with T2DM. Educational level, smoking, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting glucose (FG), triglycerides (TG), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), asparagine aminotransferase (AST)and the prevalence of T2DM were significantly higher in males than in females (P

Previous studies have suggested that tubular epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important event in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis, which is a clinical characteristic of diabetic nephropathy. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of allicin, the major biological active component of garlic, on the EMT of a human renal proximal tubular epithelial cell line (HK-2) cultured under high glucose concentrations. HK-2 cells were exposed for 48 h to 5.5 or 25 mmol/l D-glucose, 25 mmol/l D-glucose plus allicin (2.5, 5, 10 or 20 µg/ml) or 25 mmol/l D-glucose plus 20 µmol/l PD98059, a selective inhibitor of the mitogen activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway. The EMT of HK-2 cells was assessed by analyzing the protein expression of E-cadherin, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), vimentin and collagen I via immunocytochemistry. In addition, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were used to detect the expression levels of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and phosphorylated (p)-ERK1/2. Marked morphological changes were observed in HK-2 cells cultured under high glucose conditions, and these changes were abrogated by simultaneous incubation with allicin and PD98059. The expression levels of α-SMA, vimentin and collagen I were significantly increased in HK-2 cells cultured under high glucose conditions, as compared with those cultured under normal glucose conditions (P

Background: Studies in animal models have shown that allicin, a major biologically active component of garlic, can play a role in the prevention of tissue fibrosis in the liver, lung and heart, mainly related to the inhibition of fibroblast proliferation, fibrogenic cytokine secretion and extracellular matrix synthesis. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of allicin on renal damage in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. STZ-induced diabetic rats were administered allicin (15, 30 and 45 mg · kg-1 · day-1 ) via daily intra-gastric gavage for 12 weeks. The levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (sCr), lipid and 24 h urine albumin excretion (UAE) were measured at the end of weeks 4, 8 and 12. The renal histopathology and the expression levels of collagen I, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (p-ERK1/2) were measured using immunohistochemistry and/or western blotting.; Results: In 12 week STZ-induced diabetic rats, severe hyperglycemia and albuminuria were markedly developed. Treatment with allicin for 12 weeks ameliorated diabetes-induced morphological alterations of the kidney and decreased FBG, BUN, sCr, triglyceride (TG) and 24 h UAE in diabetic rats. The expression levels of collagen I, TGF-β1 and p-ERK1/2 were significantly decreased by allicin treatment.; Conclusion: These results suggested that allicin may play a protective role in diabetic nephropathy via the TGF-β1/ERK pathway in diabetic rats. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.; © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

In this Letter, a single scattering turbulence model in a narrow beam case for ultraviolet (UV) communication is proposed based on the division of the effective scattering volume. This model takes the variation of atmospheric scattering, absorption, and turbulence in different paths into account. Meanwhile, the applicable transceiver configurations of this model are provided by analyzing path loss error caused by the single scattering assumption in the UV channel. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of turbulence on the probability density function of the arriving power in both coplanar and non-coplanar scenarios. The averaging effect of multipath propagation on the arriving power’s fluctuations is presented. Then, the bit-error-rate performance is also studied. This work provides an efficient way for UV turbulence channel estimation.

Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide due to its high incidence, malignant behaviour and lack of major advancements in treatment strategy. The occurrence and development of lung cancer is closely related to inflammation. Thus, we conducted the present study to investigate the effects of IL-38 (Interleukin 38), a newly identified anti-inflammatory factor, on non-small cell lung cancer (a novel prognostic indicator and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)), which accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. We first evaluated the IL-38 expression in 384 pairs of NSCLC samples and their adjacent normal mucosa by real-time PCR, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) and tissue microarrays. Then the role of IL-38 on patient survival rates, cancer progression and their sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs was assessed. IL-38 was barely expressed in the NSCLC tissues but highly expressed in the adjacent normal tissues. The downregulation of IL-38 was significantly correlated with the results of American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, differentiation and it was also shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of disease-free survival and overall survival for patients with NSCLC. Overexpression of IL-38 in NSCLC cells suppressed cell migration, invasion, proliferation, colony formation through suppressing β-catenin. IL-38 inhibited NSCLC formation in the mice model and sensitized the cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs. Our results showed that IL-38 plays an inhibitory role in NSCLC development and function as a novel prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target.

Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide due to its high incidence, malignant behaviour and lack of major advancements in treatment strategy. The occurrence and development of lung cancer is closely related to inflammation. Thus, we conducted the present study to investigate the effects of IL-38 (Interleukin 38), a newly identified anti-inflammatory factor, on non-small cell lung cancer (a novel prognostic indicator and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)), which accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. We first evaluated the IL-38 expression in 384 pairs of NSCLC samples and their adjacent normal mucosa by real-time PCR, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) and tissue microarrays. Then the role of IL-38 on patient survival rates, cancer progression and their sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs was assessed. IL-38 was barely expressed in the NSCLC tissues but highly expressed in the adjacent normal tissues. The downregulation of IL-38 was significantly correlated with the results of American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, differentiation and it was also shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of disease-free survival and overall survival for patients with NSCLC. Overexpression of IL-38 in NSCLC cells suppressed cell migration, invasion, proliferation, colony formation through suppressing β-catenin. IL-38 inhibited NSCLC formation in the mice model and sensitized the cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs. Our results showed that IL-38 plays an inhibitory role in NSCLC development and function as a novel prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target.

Background: There is a growing focus on nutritional therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and controversy exists regarding the association between AD and homocysteine (Hcy), vitamin B 12 , and folate levels. Objective: The present study evaluated the association between AD and the combined levels of Hcy, vitamin B 12 , and folate. Methods: This case-control study consisted of 115 patients with AD and 115 matched controls. Serum folate and vitamin B 12 were measured using an automated immunoassay analyzer. Plasma Hcy was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography. The association between AD and Hcy, vitamin B 12 , and folate was analyzed using binary logistic regression, adjusted for age and sex. Results: With the combination of normal blood Hcy, vitamin B 12 , and folate levels as the reference category, low vitamin B 12 in subjects with normal Hcy and folate was associated with AD (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 4.6; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6–13.2). The combination of low vitamin B 12 and folate in subjects with normal Hcy was associated with AD (adjusted OR, 4.3; 95% CI: 1.3–14.6). The combination of high Hcy and low folate levels in patients with normal vitamin B 12 was associated with AD (adjusted OR, 17.0; 95% CI: 5.4– 53.4). The combination of high Hcy, low vitamin B 12 , and any folate level was associated with AD (adjusted OR, 30.5; 95% CI: 9.7–95.9). Conclusion: Vitamin B 12 was directly associated with AD. The combination of high Hcy, low vitamin B 12 , and any folate level represented the poorest association with AD.

The non-line-of-sight ultraviolet single-scatter approximate model is usually used to study the channel characteristics and system performance due to its simplification. In this paper, a performance evaluation system based on the approximate model is established, which includes four aspects, namely, packet error rate, average transmitting power, bandwidth utilizing efficiency and data transmission rate. Under the condition that Gaussian noise distribution is considered in channel model, the performance of different modulation schemes is evaluated. Finally, give the performance metrics that the system can achieve within 100 meters.

The existing ultraviolet (UV) single scattering models do not incorporate the applicability of transceiver geometry, which makes them have certain errors even in short-range cases. To solve this issue, we propose a single scattering model in this Letter, which is suitable for the case where the transceiver field of view is above ground. This meets the requirements of general UV communication. For tractable analysis, we utilize the number of intersections between special rays on a transceiver cone to classify communication scenarios. Calculation results show that when the transceiver elevation angle exceeds certain values, the path loss difference between the single scattering model and Monte Carlo simulation model increases rapidly, which implies that single scattering approximation is not applicable to these conditions even in short-range cases. This work presents a new way to obtain the path loss of the UV channel and provides guidelines for experimental system design.

This study aimed to evaluate whether folic acid supplementation would improve cognitive performance by reducing serum inflammatory cytokine concentrations. This RCT was performed in Tianjin, China. Participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were randomly assigned to the folic acid (400 μg/day) or conventional treatment groups. Neuropsychological tests were administered, and folate, homocysteine, vitamin B12, IL-6, TNF-α, Aβ-42, and Aβ-40 were measured at baseline and at 6- and 12-month time points.152 participants (folic acid: 77, conventional: 75) completed the trial. Significant improvements in folate (ηp2 = 0.703, P = 0.011), homocysteine (ηp2 = 0.644, P = 0.009), Aβ-42 (ηp2 = 0.687, P = 0.013), peripheral IL-6 (ηp2 = 0.477, P = 0.025), TNF-α (ηp2 = 0.709, P = 0.009) levels were observed in folic acid group compared with conventional group. Folic acid supplementation improved the Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (P = 0.028; effect size d = 0.153), Information (P = 0.031; d = 0.157) and Digit Span (P = 0.009; d = 0.172) scores at 12 months compared with conventional treatment. Based on these findings, daily oral administration of a 400-μg folic acid supplement to MCI subjects for 12 months can significantly improve cognitive performance and reduce peripheral inflammatory cytokine levels.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is important for brain function, and higher DHA intake is inversely correlated with relative risk of Alzheimer's disease. The potential benefits of DHA supplementation in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have not been fully examined. Our study aimed to determine the effect of DHA supplementation on cognitive function and hippocampal atrophy in elderly subjects with MCI. This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in Tianjin, China. 240 individuals with MCI aged 65 years and over were recruited and equalized randomly allocated to the DHA or the placebo group. Participants received 12-month DHA supplementation (2 g/day) or corn oil as placebo. Both global and specific subdomains of cognitive function and hippocampal volume were measured at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Both changes were analyzed by repeated-measure analysis of variance (ANOVA). This trial has been registered: ChiCTR-IOR-15006058. A total of 219 participants (DHA: 110, Placebo: 109) completed the trial. The change in mean serum DHA levels was greater in the intervention group (+3.85%) compared to the control group (+1.06%). Repeated-measures analyses of covariance showed that, over 12 months, there was a significant difference in the Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (ηp2 = 0.084; p = 0.039), Information (ηp2 = 0.439; p = 0.000), and Digit Span (ηp2 = 0.375; p = 0.000) between DHA-treated versus the placebo group. In addition, there were significant differences in volumes of left hippocampus (ηp2 = 0.121, p = 0.016), right hippocampus (ηp2 = 0.757, p = 0.008), total hippocampus (ηp2 = 0.124, p = 0.023), and global cerebrum (ηp2 = 0.145, p = 0.032) between the two groups. These findings suggest that DHA supplementation (2 g/day) for 12 months in MCI subjects can significantly improve cognitive function and slow the progression of hippocampal atrophy. Larger, longer-term confirmatory studies are warranted.

Background High lipid levels may constitute a more important risk factor for cognitive health in previous studies. However, the association of plasma lipids with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among elderly people had not been studied exactly. This study aims to explore the relationship between plasma lipids/lipoproteins and the risk of MCI in elderly Chinese individuals. Methods CSI-MCI study was a preliminary case-control study of the association of plasma lipids/lipoproteins with MCI in 112 MCI cases and 115 cognitively normal controls. Plasma total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) levels were measured in fasting blood samples. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the potential association between MCI and these factors. Statistical models were adjusted for multiple demographic and biological covariates. Results The subjects with MCI were significantly older, higher percentage of females and less educated than controls (P

Nowadays, mobile phones have prevailed in a great variety of applications, through which massive personal trajectories can be collected and analyzed to support many interesting location-based services. However, it is still challenging to efficiently store and retrieve this kind of spatio-temporal data, which has typical big-data feature with large size, streaming style and multiple data source. To address this issue, we develop a mobile trajectory retrieval system named TREST, which is based on the distributed Hadoop and HBase systems. TREST makes use of the horizontal expansion mechanism of Hadoop to store overwhelming spatio-temporal trajectories, and supports frequent incremental insertion of data stream. Meanwhile, TREST maps the spatio-temporal features of trajectories into the simple key-value schema of HBase to support fast retrieval. We also develop a prototype of TREST to manipulate the real mobile trajectory data set, which contains totally 104 million records collected by mobile service providers. Experiments on this data set show that TREST can efficiently support both Single-track and All-track retrieval within milliseconds on average.

Background/Aims: The prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and its subtypes among Chinese older adults, and the contribution of vascular risk factors (VRF) and vascular disorders to MCI remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of MCI and its different subtypes, and clarify the role of VRF and vascular diseases in the occurrence of MCI. Methods: A random sample of 5,214 nondementia (DSM-IV) individuals aged ≥65 years underwent neuropsychological assessments and clinical examinations. MCI, including amnestic MCI-single domain (aMCI-SD), amnestic MCI-multiple domains (aMCI-MD), nonamnestic MCI-single domain (naMCI-SD), and nonamnestic MCI-multiple domains (naMCI-MD), was defined according to modifications of the Petersen criteria. VRF (smoking, obesity, and diabetes) and vascular disorders (myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, stroke, and hypertension) were assessed based on information through self-report and medical records. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of MCI was 11.33% (95% CI: 8.21-14.43), and that of aMCI-SD, aMCI-MD, naMCI-SD, and naMCI-MD was 4.48% (95% CI: 2.24-6.74), 2.09% (95% CI: 0.80-3.38), 4.22% (95% CI: 1.38-7.08), and 0.53% (95% CI: 0.32-0.75), respectively. The prevalence of MCI is higher in women than in men. Multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that VRF and vascular diseases were significantly related to increase the odds of MCI and its specific subtype. Conclusions: The prevalence of MCI is almost 11% among Chinese older adults. VRF and vascular disorders are associated with MCI, especially naMCI.

Background and Aims There is a growing focus on frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, compared with other major dementias, very little is known about the factors associated with FTD. The present study evaluated candidate factors associated with FTD in the Chinese population. Methods One hundred eight elderly patients (36 diagnosed with FTD and 72 controls) of the Neurology Central Hospital of Tianjin (China), were diagnosed by neurologists, and recruited for the study between November 2011 and November 2014. Clinical evaluation, laboratory tests, brain images (computed tomography scans and magnetic resonance images), neuropsychological, and neuropsychiatric assessments were performed. The association between FTD and the variables was assessed using multiple binary logistic regression analyses adjusted for age and gender. Results With controls as the reference category, education was associated with the diagnosis of FTD (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.60; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17–2.19). Serum vitamin B12 levels were associated with the diagnosis of FTD (adjusted OR, 0.99; 95% CI: 0.98–0.99). Serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were associated with the diagnosis of FTD (adjusted OR, 8.54; 95% CI: 2.86–25.49). Conclusions Education and serum LDL levels were positively associated with the diagnosis of FTD. Serum vitamin B12 levels were negatively associated with the diagnosis of FTD.

To develop a method for determination of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) simultaneously in mice liver by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Mice livers were weighed, emulsified quickly by handheld homogenate, four times the volume of 0.6 mol/L HCLO4 added for ultrasonic, and the hydrolysate was adjusted to centrifuged and filtrated with a membrane. The supernatants were separatedonVenusil MP-C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 µm) at 30 °C with a mobile phase of 50 mmol/L NaH2PO4, 10 mmol/L C7H15NaO3S and methanol, a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min and UV detection at 254 nm.The SAM and SAH in the corresponding concentration range showed a good linear relation with its peak area, correlation coefficient ( r0. 9990 ) , recovery was 92.20%-101.38%, RSD was 2.88%-6.78%. The average within-day precision of SAM and SAH was 4.14% and 3.71%, and the average day to day precision was 7.51% and 9.54%. The content of SAM and SAH in mice liver was 3.14-6.09 mg/L (31.44-60.98 nmol/g wet weight) and 1.29-3.10 mg/L (13.38-32.17 nmol/g wet weight) respectively.The validated method is simple, rapid accurate and reliable to the determination of SAM and SAH in mice liver.

Studies in animal models have shown that allicin, a major biologically active component of garlic, can play a role in the prevention of tissue fibrosis in the liver, lung and heart, mainly related to the inhibition of fibroblast proliferation, fibrogenic cytokine secretion and extracellular matrix synthesis. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of allicin on renal damage in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. STZ-induced diabetic rats were administered allicin (15, 30 and 45 mg · kgIn 12 week STZ-induced diabetic rats, severe hyperglycemia and albuminuria were markedly developed. Treatment with allicin for 12 weeks ameliorated diabetes-induced morphological alterations of the kidney and decreased FBG, BUN, sCr, triglyceride (TG) and 24 h UAE in diabetic rats. The expression levels of collagen I, TGF-β1 and p-ERK1/2 were significantly decreased by allicin treatment.These results suggested that allicin may play a protective role in diabetic nephropathy via the TGF-β1/ERK pathway in diabetic rats. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Background This study is to examine the effects of folic acid supplementation on cognitive function in Chinese older adults with mild cognitive impairment who are unexposed to folic acid fortification and assess cognitive functioning in relation to folate, homocysteine, and vitamin B12 values at baseline. Methods This was a single-center, randomized, controlled trial in Tianjin, China; 180 individuals aged 65 years and older who had mild cognitive impairment were assigned randomly to one of two groups: (a) those treated with oral folic acid (400 µg/day) and (b) those treated via conventional treatment. Tests of cognitive performance and biomarkers were measured at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Analysis was by intention-to-treat. Changes in cognitive or clinical function were analyzed by repeated-measure analysis of variance or mixed-effects models. This trial has been registered with the trial number ChiCTR-TRC-13003227. Results Total of 159 participants (intervention group: 80; control group: 79) completed the trial. Repeated-measure analysis of variance showed significant improvements in serum folate (ηp (2) = 0.712, p = .009), homocysteine (ηp (2) = 0.119, p = .017), serum vitamin B12 (ηp (2) = 0.144, p = .022), and S-adenosylmethionine (ηp (2) = 0.117, p = .033) in the intervention group over the control group. Folic acid supplementation improved Full Scale IQ (p = .031; effect size d = 0.168), Digit Span (p = .009; d = 0.176), and Block Design (p = .036; effect size d = 0.146) scores at 6 months in comparison to the control. There were no significant findings for all other cognitive measures. Conclusion There was a beneficial effect from relatively short-term folate supplementation on cognitive functioning in later life. Larger-scale, randomized, controlled trials of longer duration in selected age groups are needed.