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Nitric oxide (NO) can pose a severe threat to human health and the environment. Many catalytic materials that contain noble metals can oxidize NO into NO2. Therefore, the development of a low-cost, earth-abundant, and high-performance catalytic material is essential for NO removal. In this study, mullite whiskers on a micro-scale spherical aggregate support were obtained from high-alumina coal fly ash using an acid–alkali combined extraction method. Microspherical aggregates and Mn(NO3)2 were used as the catalyst support and the precursor, respectively. A mullite-supported amorphous manganese oxide (MSAMO) catalyst was prepared by impregnation and calcination at low temperatures, in which amorphous MnOx is evenly dispersed on the surface and inside of aggregated microsphere support. The MSAMO catalyst, with a hierarchical porous structure, exhibits high catalytic performance for the oxidation of NO. The MSAMO catalyst, with a 5 wt% MnOx loading, presented satisfactory NO catalytic oxidation activity at 250 °C, with an NO conversion rate as high as 88%. Manganese exists in a mixed-valence state in amorphous MnOx, and Mn4+ provides the main active sites. The lattice oxygen and chemisorbed oxygen in amorphous MnOx participate in the catalytic oxidation of NO into NO2. This study provides insights into the effectiveness of catalytic NO removal in practical industrial coal-fired boiler flue gas. The development of high-performance MSAMO catalysts represents an important step towards the production of low-cost, earth-abundant, and easily synthesized catalytic oxidation materials.

Background No guideline recommends antiviral therapy for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B patients with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase levels and a high hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA viral load. Aim To evaluate the feasibility and safety of a Chinese herbal formula as a therapeutic option for chronic HBV infection. Methods In total, 395 patients (30-65 years old) with confirmed HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B infection and persistently normal alanine aminotransferase were randomized to receive either Chinese herbal formula or placebo for 96 wk. Endpoints to evaluate therapeutic efficacy included: (1) HBV DNA levels decreased to less than 4 log10 IU/mL at weeks 48 and 96; and (2) HBeAg clearance and seroconversion rates at weeks 48 and 96. Results HBV DNA levels ≤ 4 log10 IU/mL were 10.05% at week 48 and 18.59% at week 96 in the treatment group. The HBeAg clearance and conversion rates were 8.54% and 8.04% at week 48 and 16.08% and 14.57% at week 96, respectively. However, HBV DNA levels ≤ 4 log10 IU/mL were 2.55% and 2.55% at weeks 48 and 96, respectively, and the HBeAg clearance rates were 3.06% and 5.61% at weeks 48 and 96, respectively, in the control group. The quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen and HBeAg levels at baseline and changes during the treatment period as well as the alanine aminotransferase elevation at weeks 12 and 24 were strong predictors of HBeAg clearance. Conclusion High rates of HBV DNA reduction, HBeAg clearance and seroconversion could be achieved with Chinese herbal formula treatments, and the treatments were relatively safe for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B-infected patients with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase. The ability of the compound to modulate host immune function probably contributed to this effect.

Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a critical role in metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). This study aims to characterize mitochondrial dysfunctions in a human MAFLD Huh7 cell model triggered by free fatty acid (FFA) (palmitate and oleate) overload for 24 hours. We investigate its impact on cellular energy metabolism and identify potential targets for MAFLD treatment. FFA-treated cells displayed an accumulation of lipid droplets and slightly decreased viability but no significant changes in mitochondrial superoxide levels. Bioenergetic analysis showed a shift to more respiration and less glycolytic fermentation. Comprehensive transcriptomics and proteomics analyses identified changes in the expression of genes prominently involved in fatty acid handling and metabolism. The expressions of seven genes were consistently and significantly (p < 0.05) altered (4 upregulated and 3 downregulated genes) in both proteomics and transcriptomics. The FFA-treated Huh7 cell model is an appropriate in vitro model to study fatty acid metabolism and suitable to investigate the role of mitochondria, glycolysis, and multiple metabolic pathways in MAFLD. Our comprehensive analyses form a basis for drug discovery and screening using this model.

The etiology of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) is complicated and closely related to neurotransmission in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Developing new strategies for treating this disease is a major challenge for IBS-D research. Berberine hydrochloride (BBH), the derivative of berberine, is a herbal constituent used to treat IBS. Previous studies have shown that BBH has potential anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, analgesic, and antidiarrheal effects and a wide range of biological activities, especially in regulating the release of some neurotransmitters. A modified IBS-D rat model induced by chronic restraint stress was used in all experiments to study the effects of BBH on the GI tract. This study measured the abdominal withdrawal reflex (AWR) response to graded colorectal distention (CRD; 20, 40, 60, and 80 mmHg) and observed the fecal areas of stress-induced IBS-D model. Experiments were conducted using organ bath techniques, which were performed in vitro using strips of colonic longitudinal smooth muscle. Inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitter agents were added to each organ bath to observe contractile responses on the strips and the treatment effect exerted by BBH. The IBS-D rat model was successfully induced by chronic restraint stress, which resulted in an increased defecation frequency and visceral hypersensitivity similar to that of humans. BBH could reduce 4-h fecal areas and AWR response to CRD in IBS-D. The stress-induced IBS-D model showed upregulated colonic mRNA expression levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine-3A receptor and downregulated expression levels of neuronal nitric oxide synthase. Meanwhile, BBH could reverse this outcome. The responses of substances that regulate the contraction induced by related neurotransmission in the longitudinal smooth muscle of IBS-D colon (including the agonist of acetylcholine, carbachol; NOS inhibitor, L-NAME; and P2Y1 receptor antagonist, MRS2500) can be inhibited by BBH. In summary, BBH promotes defecation frequency and visceral hypersensitivity in IBS-D and exerts inhibitory effects on contractile responses in colonic longitudinal smooth muscle. Thus, BBH may represent a new therapeutic approach for treating IBS-D.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common chronic liver disease in clinical practice. It has been considered that NASH is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and carcinoma. The mechanism of the NASH progression is complex, including lipid metabolism dysfunction, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, fibrosis and gut microbiota dysbiosis. Except for lifestyle modification and bariatric surgery, there has been no pharmacological therapy that is being officially approved in NASH treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), as a conventional and effective therapeutic strategy, has been proved to be beneficial in treating NASH in numbers of studies. In the light of this, TCM may provide a potential therapy for treating NASH. In this review, we summarized the associated mechanisms of action TCM treating NASH in preclinical studies and systematically analysis the effectiveness of TCM treating NASH in current clinical trials.

Cells with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were studied to determine the mechanism of liver deficiency via the AdipoR2-PPARa pathway. NAFLD cells were randomly divided into a normal control group, blank control group, model group, low dose group, medium dose group, and high dose group. The NAFLD models were established by incubating the cells with linoleic acid (LA) and palmitic acid (PA) (2:1) for 24 h. The test groups were incubated with different doses of Shugan Xiaozhi Fang extract. The pathological changes in cells that accumulated lipids were detected by Oil Red O staining. Malondialdehyde (MDA) and triglyceride (TG) levels were measured. The apoptosis of cells was evaluated by flow cytometry. The levels of AdipoR2, PPARa, CD36, acyl-CoA mRNA, and protein were confirmed by RT- PCR and Western blot. The results of the Oil Red O staining demonstrated that the NAFLD cell model was successfully established. Compared with the model group, the levels of TG and MDA in the groups that received low, medium, and high doses of Shugan Xiaozhi were significantly lower (P

AIM To elucidate the mechanism of patchouli alcohol (PA) in treatment of rat models of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). METHODS We studied the effects of PA on colonic spontaneous motility using its cumulative log concentration (3 × 10−7 mol/L to 1 × 10−4 mol/L). We then determined the responses of the proximal and distal colon segments of rats to the following stimuli: (1) carbachol (1 × 10−9 mol/L to 1 × 10−5 mol/L); (2) neurotransmitter antagonists including Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (10 μmol/L) and (1R*, 2S*)-4-[2-Iodo-6-(methylamino)-9H-purin-9-yl]-2-(phosphonooxy)bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane-1-methanol dihydrogen phosphate ester tetraammonium salt (1 μmol/L); (3) agonist α,β-methyleneadenosine 5′-triphosphate trisodium salt (100 μmol/L); and (4) single KCl doses (120 mmol/L). The effects of blockers against antagonist responses were also assessed by pretreatment with PA (100 μmol/L) for 1 min. Electrical-field stimulation (40 V, 2-30 Hz, 0.5 ms pulse duration, and 10 s) was performed to observe nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurotransmitter release in IBS-D rat colon. The ATP level of Kreb’s solution was also determined. RESULTS PA exerted a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on the spontaneous contraction of the colonic longitudinal smooth muscle, and the half maximal effective concentration (EC50) was 41.9 μmol/L. In comparison with the KCl-treated IBS-D group, the contractile response (mg contractions) in the PA + KCl-treated IBS-D group (11.87 ± 3.34) was significantly decreased in the peak tension (P < 0.01). Compared with CCh-treated IBS-D rat colon, the cholinergic contractile response of IBS-D rat colonic smooth muscle (EC50 = 0.94 μmol/L) was significantly decreased by PA (EC50 = 37.43 μmol/L) (P < 0.05). Lack of nitrergic neurotransmitter release in stress-induced IBS-D rats showed contraction effects on colonic smooth muscle. Pretreatment with PA resulted in inhibitory effect on L-NAME-induced (10 μmol/L) contraction (P < 0.05). ATP might not be the main neurotransmitter involved in inhibitory effects of PA in the colonic relaxation of stress-induced IBS-D rats. CONCLUSION PA application may serve as a new therapeutic approach for IBS-D.

Recently the integrated modular avionics (IMA) architecture which introduces the concept of resource partitions becomes popular as an alternative to the traditional federated architecture. This study investigates the problem of designing hierarchical scheduling for IMA systems. The proposed scheduler model enables strong temporal partitioning, so that multiple hard real-time applications can be easily integrated into an uniprocessor platform. This paper derives the mathematic relationships among partition cycle, partition capacity and schedulability under the real-time condition, and then proposes an algorithm for optimizing partition parameters. Real-time tasks with arbitrary deadlines are considered for generality. To further improve the basic algorithm and reduce the energy consumption for embedded systems in aircraft, a power optimization approach is also proposed by exploiting the slack time. Experimental results show that the designed system can guarantee the hard real-time requirement and reduce the power consumption by at least 14%.

This paper aims to develop a novel road sectional characteristic cluster matching algorithm for selecting the highlycorrelated road sectional samples and studying the relationship between Physical Characteristics (PC) and Traffic Flow Characteristics (TFC). After analyzing the mapping relationship between PC and TFC of road sections, a system optimization-based cluster matching algorithm is proposed. Compared with the individual optimization-based algorithm, the proposed algorithm could provide more accurate matching results, especially when the road sectional sample size is large and the cluster numbers of both physical characteristic matrix and traffic flow characteristic vector are small.

Background Previous studies have discussed the liver stiffness measurement (LSM) performance on predicting liver-related surgical outcomes for patients of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) under hepatic resection, yet there is much variation in reporting and consistency of findings. Therefore, we report a meta-analysis on this issue. Methods We comprehensively searched PubMed, Embase, and Web of science to find the eligible cohort studies. The pooled Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate effect. The weighted mean LSM value was calculated as the optimal LSM cut-off value among studies. Results 12 prospective cohort studies and one retrospective cohort study, including a total of 1942 cases were identified. The pooled results showed that preoperative LSM is significantly associated with the occurrence of overall postoperative complications (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.46–2.11). In addition, a weighted mean LSM value of 14.2 kPa and 11.3KPa were suggested as the optimal LSM cut-off value reference using transient elastoqraphy (TE) for predicting overall postoperative complications in Asia countries and European countries, respectively. Conclusions Preoperative LSM should be taken into account cautiously in the management of patients undergoing hepatectomy of HCC. Future studies could focus on setting a prognostic model integrated with LSM in predicting post-hepatectomy outcomes.

Dynamic allocation and intelligent scheduling of terminal passenger service resources (TPSR) is a focus in the field of the international civil aviation. To address the issue of data integration for dynamic allocation and intelligent scheduling of airport terminal resources, a geodatabase-based spatial data model of airport terminal Layout and a multidimensional data model of on-line analytical processing(OLAP) of airport terminal operation are presented. The models can efficiently organize data from airport terminal layout design, manual survey for passenger service processes(PSP), passenger flow detector, departure control system, management information system for airport security and global distribution system, and assure logical rationality and efficiency of data query for dynamic allocation and intelligent scheduling of airport terminal resources, and then, support passenger flow prediction and simulation and optimizing for passenger service process. The proposed models have reference value to data integration for dynamic allocation and intelligent scheduling of airport terminal resources.

Oriented to address abnormal traffic condition, such as adverse weather and traffic incidents, the Highway Network Intelligent Coordinated Information Dissemination Model based on VMS is proposed. This model contains two sub-models. The first is the traffic spatial impact range forecast model under abnormal traffic condition, which is established based on the traffic flow assignment model and traffic wave theory so as to provide selection criterions for VMS in highway network. In this sub-model, the impacts of different traffic organization strategies on equilibrium assignment theory are considered. Another model is the regional coordinated information generating model, which provides the regional dissemination strategies according to VMS classification based on VMS's function, position, and impact range of abnormal traffic condition. In this model, the VMS intelligent selection and the VMS coordinated information auto-generation could be achieved by providing efficient decisions to support a highway's network regional operation and management.

A flexible sound rendering system is presented. Multi-channel music is played in manners adaptive to the locations of the speakers and the listener. In addition, a user can specify the positions of sound sources in a music ensemble to be replayed to be different from the original positions at the time of recording.

The rapid growing of online purchasing of information products poses challenges of how to preserve the customer's privacy during the online transactions. The current widely used way of online shopping does not consider the customer's privacy protection. It exposes the customer's sensitive information unnecessarily. We propose a new five-party implementation model called 5PAPS that provides much enhanced protection of the customer's privacy. The model combines the advantages of the e-cash techniques, the mix technique, the anonymous-honoring merchant model, and the anonymity-protecting payment gateway model. It is aimed for protecting the customer's anonymity in all applicable aspects. Security and anonymity issues of the model have been analyzed. The results show that the model is robust against varieties of common attacks and the customer's anonymity can be protected even in the presence of some collusion among the parties involved in the transactions. Experimental prototyping of the essential parts yields partial validation of the practical nature of the 5PAPS model, and it has also produced reliable estimates of the storage and messaging volume requirements present in sizable purchasing systems.