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Secondary flow path is one of the crucial aspects during the design of centrifugal blood pumps. Small clearance size increases stress level and blood damage, while large clearance size can improve blood washout and reduce stress level. Nonetheless, large clearance also leads to strong secondary flows, causing further blood damage. Maglev blood pumps rely on magnetic force to achieve rotor suspension and allow more design freedom of clearance size. This study aims to characterize turbulent flow field and secondary flow as well as its effects on the primary flow and pump performance, in two representative commercial maglev blood pumps of CH-VAD and HeartMate III, which feature distinct designs of secondary flow path. The narrow and long secondary flow path of CH-VAD resulted in low secondary flow rates and low disturbance to the primary flow. The flow loss and blood damage potential of the CH-VAD mainly occurred at the secondary flow path, as well as the blade clearances. By contrast, the wide clearances in HeartMate III induced significant disturbance to the primary flow, resulting in large incidence angle, strong secondary flows and high flow loss. At higher flow rates, the incidence angle was even larger, causing larger separation, leading to a significant decrease of efficiency and steeper performance curve compared with CH-VAD. This study shows that maglev bearings do not guarantee good blood compatibility, and more attention should be paid to the influence of secondary flows on pump performance when designing centrifugal blood pumps., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A microtiter plate (MTP) method was developed to screen 1064 unique microorganisms-substrate fermentations for production of 68 target aroma compounds. Based on the number of hits identified by GC-MS, 50 fermentations were repeated at 50-mL scale in flasks. Comparison of GC-MS data showed that scaling up from MTP to flask did not generally result in large differences between the volatile profiles, even with a wide variety of substrates (juice, food slurry and food side-streams) and microorganisms (yeast, bacteria and fungi) used. From the screening results, Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation of chilli pepper was further studied as a high amount of phenols, especially guaiacol and 4-ethylphenol, was produced after fermentation. From HPLC-MS and sensory analysis, capsaicin was shown to be a probable precursor for these phenols and a potential mechanism was proposed. The protocol described herein to screen aroma compounds from fermentation of agri-food products and side streams can support development of clean label flavourful food ingredients., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Recent studies have indicated that suppressing oxidative stress and ferroptosis can considerably improve the prognosis of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Withaferin A (WFA), a natural compound, exhibits a positive effect on a number of neurological diseases. However, the effects of WFA on oxidative stress and ferroptosis-mediated signaling pathways to ICH remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the neuroprotective effects and underlying mechanism for WFA in the regulation of ICH-induced oxidative stress and ferroptosis. We established a mouse model of ICH by injection of autologous tail artery blood into the caudate nucleus and an in vitro cell model of hemin-induced ICH. WFA was injected intracerebroventricularly at 0.1, 1 or 5 µg/kg once daily for 7 days, starting immediately after ICH operation. WFA markedly reduced brain tissue injury and iron deposition and improved neurological function in a dose-dependent manner 7 days after cerebral hemorrhage. Through in vitro experiments, cell viability test showed that WFA protected SH-SY5Y neuronal cells against hemin-induced cell injury. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in vitro and in vivo showed that WFA markedly decreased the level of malondialdehyde, an oxidative stress marker, and increased the activities of anti-oxidative stress markers superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase after ICH. Western blot assay, quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunofluorescence results demonstrated that WFA activated the nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) signaling axis, promoted translocation of Nrf2 from the cytoplasm to nucleus, and increased HO-1 expression. Silencing Nrf2 with siRNA completely reversed HO-1 expression, oxidative stress and protective effects of WFA. Furthermore, WFA reduced hemin-induced ferroptosis. However, after treatment with an HO-1 inhibitor, the neuroprotective effects of WFA against hemin-induced ferroptosis were weakened. MTT test results showed that WFA combined with ferrostatin-1 reduced hemin-induced SH-SY5Y neuronal cell injury. Our findings reveal that WFA treatment alleviated ICH injury-induced ferroptosis and oxidative stress through activating the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, which may highlight a potential role of WFA for the treatment of ICH., Competing Interests: None

Inlet boundary conditions (BC) are one of the uncertainties which may influence the prediction of flow field and hemolysis in blood pumps. This study investigated the influence of inlet BC, including the length of inlet pipe, type of inlet BC (mass flow rate or experimental velocity profile) and turbulent intensity (no perturbation, 5%, 10%, 20%) on the prediction of flow field and hemolysis of a benchmark centrifugal blood pump (the FDA blood pump) and a commercial axial blood pump (Heartmate II), using large-eddy simulation. The results show that the influence of boundary conditions on integral pump performance metrics, including pressure head and hemolysis, is negligible. The influence on local flow structures, such as velocity distributions, mainly existed in the inlet. For the centrifugal FDA blood pump, the influence of type of inlet BC and inlet position on velocity distributions can also be observed at the diffuser. Overall, the effects of position of inlet and type of inlet BC need to be considered if local flow structures are the focus, while the influence of turbulent intensity is negligible and need not be accounted for during numerical simulations of blood pumps.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of ultrasonic scaling and root planning(SRP) assisted by perioscope on gingival recession of maxillary lateral incisor., Methods: Thirty-six outpatients with moderate to advanced chronic periodontitis from the Department of Periodontology at Dental and Ophthalmic Clinic of Putuo District from June 2020 to December 2020 were collected as research objects. Periodontal treatment was carried out according to a single-blind split-mouth self-control design randomly with(experimental group, namely perioscope group) or without(control group, namely SRP group) periodontal endoscope．The labial periodontal probing depth (PD), labial attachment loss (AL) and gingival recession(GR) in the maxillary lateral incisors were recorded at baseline, 3 and 6 months, and compared among groups by SPSS 22.0 software package., Results: There was no significant difference between perioscope group and SRP group at baseline. ΔGR (the recession extent of gum within two observation time) in perioscope group was significantly smaller than that in SRP group at 3 months（P<0.05）. There was no significant difference in other periodontal indicators at 3 and 6 months between the 2 groups after treatment, but it can be found that the degree of PD reduction and AL improvement in perioscope group was more than those in SRP group, this trend was most obvious at 3 months. PD and AL were significantly different between baseline and 3 months or 6 months in the two groups. There were significant differences in ΔGR at 3 months and 6 months between the two groups., Conclusions: Compared with routine SRP, the extent of root surface debridement with perioscope-assisted SRP is thorough and less invasive, and the reduction of gingival recession of labial surface of maxillary lateral incisor at 3 months is significantly less; thus, the aesthetic effect is prominent.

Goethite-humic acid complex was prepared in a suspension containing goethite and humic acid. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the crystal structure of this complex had no obvious changes compared to pure goethite, but the peak intensity of the complex was slightly reduced. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated that the surface of the goethite was coated by particles of humic acid. Compared to the infra-red (IR) spectra of goethite and humic acid, the anti-vibrational frequencies of COO - and the vibrational frequencies of ≡Fe-OH decreased by 20 cm -1 and 9 cm -1 , respectively, while the vibrational frequencies of the associated hydroxyls increased by 10 cm -1 and the absorption band of carboxylic C-O and free hydroxyls almost disappeared. This indicates that the interactional mechanisms between goethite and humic acid include the monodentate coordination of Fe(Ⅲ) -carboxylate and hydrogen-bonds. Thermogravimetry/differential thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) analysis showed that the temperature of the weight loss peak for ≡Fe-OH in goethite and the complex were 258℃ and 276℃, respectively. This indicates that the coating of humic acid enhances the heat stability of ≡Fe-OH in goethite. Compared with humic acid, the temperature of the weight loss peak for aliphatic organics and aromatic organics in complex decreased by 60℃ and 26℃, respectively and the ratio of weight loss from aliphatic organics to aromatic organics in complex increased. This indicates that organics with a lower heat stability may be more easily adsorbed onto goethite and the affinity to goethite was higher for the aliphatic organics than for aromatic organics. After ultrasonic dispersion, the content of large particles (≥ 2 μm) decreased significantly for both goethite and humic acid, but the content and the size of large particles in the complex changed only slightly.

A phytochemical investigation of a herb tea made from Thamnolia vermicularis led to the isolation of three new β-orcinol-type depsides (1, 2 and 3), along with seven known compounds hypothamnolic acid (4), 3'-methylevenic acid (5), baeomycesic acid (6), squamatic acid (7), methyl 3'-methyllecanorate (8), barbatinic acid (9) and atranorin (10). The structures of the new compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic evidence, including 1-D and 2-D NMR and ESI-MS techniques.

Twelve new dammarane-type glycosides ( 1- 12) were isolated from the ethanol extract from the roots of a wild-type of Gynostemma pentaphyllum. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analysis as well as by chemical degradation. The compounds contained six structurally diverse aglycons similar to those of the reported ginseng saponins with differences in the oligosaccharide moieties., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Nine diterpenoids were isolated from the stems of Euphorbia neriifolia Linn. with their structures established by 1D and 2D NMR techniques. Relative stereochemistries were determined by ROESY, and single-crystal X-ray experiments., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Two new neolignans (1 and 2) were isolated from the root bark of Illicium henryi, along with four known neolignans and seven known flavonoids (3-13). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical methods. The absolute configurations of compounds 1 and 2 were determined by the CD spectrum., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A new dammarane-type glycoside and a new long chain sesquiterpene glycoside, along with nine known compounds 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh1 (3), 20(R)-ginsenoside Rh1 (4), ginsenoside F1 (4), amarantholidoside IV (6), ginsenoside Rc (7), 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg2 (8), 20(R)-ginsenoside Rg2 (9), ginsenoside Rd (10) and gypenoside XLVI (11) were isolated from Gynostemma yixingense. The structures of the new compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic analysis, including 1D-, 2D-NMR and ESI-MS techniques as well as by comparison of the spectral data with those of related compounds as 2 alpha,3beta,20(S)-trihydroxydammar-24-ene-3-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl((1-->2)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-20-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl((1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside] (1) (2E,6E)-10-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-1,10,11-trihydroxy-3,7,11-trimethyldodeca-2,6-diene (2)., ((c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

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