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Persistent inflammatory infiltration of skeletal muscle is a principal trigger for the loss of muscle mass and strength. Theaflavins, the main functional components of black tea, have effects on muscle health, but their biological effects on skeletal muscle inflammation are unclear. We constructed in vitro and in vivo models of muscle inflammation and found that theaflavins reduced the expression of inflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) by regulating the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway to alleviate muscle inflammation. In addition, TF1 can regulate the metabolic function of skeletal muscle under inflammatory conditions, reduce the content of proinflammatory substances, improve the mechanical properties (stiffness and roughness) of the surface of inflammatory myotubes, and promote the recovery of muscle after an inflammatory injury. In conclusion, theaflavins may serve as a diet-derived anti-inflammatory factor with potential modulatory effects on skeletal muscle metabolism and mechanical properties in an inflammatory environment.

Efficient detection of single optical centres in solids is essential for quantum information processing, sensing, and single-photon generation applications. In this work, we use radio-frequency (RF) reflectometry to electrically detect the photoionisation induced by a single Er3 + ion in Si. The high bandwidth and sensitivity of the RF reflectometry provide sub-100-ns time resolution for the photoionisation detection. With this technique, the optically excited state lifetime of a single Er3 + ion in a Si nano-transistor is measured for the first time to be 0.49 ± 0.04μs. Our results demonstrate an efficient approach for detecting a charge state change induced by Er excitation and relaxation. This approach could be used for fast readout of other single optical centres in solids and is attractive for large-scale integrated optical quantum systems thanks to the multi-channel RF reflectometry demonstrated with frequency multiplexing techniques.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is pathologically related to oxidative stress and cellular senescence. Safinamide is one of the clinically prescribed monoamine oxidase B (MAOB) inhibitors. It has been reported to possess therapeutic potential in neurological disorders. However, the therapeutic potential of safinamide in AD is still under investigation. In this study, we explored the effect of safinamide in amyloid (Aβ)1–42 oligomers-stimulated M17 neuronal cells. We established the in vitro model with M17 cells by treating them with 1 μM Aβ1-42 oligomers with or without safinamide (100 or 200 nM). The results show that safinamide ameliorated Aβ1-42 oligomers-induced oxidative stress in M17 cells as revealed by the decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and reduced glutathione (GSH) content. Safinamide treatment significantly ameliorated senescence-associated-β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal)-positive cells and telomerase activity. Further, we show that safinamide treatment resulted in decreased mRNA and protein expressions of p21 and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). Moreover, silencing of Sirtuin1 (SIRT1) abolished the effects of safinamide on the mRNA levels of p21 and PAI-1, as well as SA-β-gal-positive cells in Aβ1-42 oligomers-induced M17 cells. In conclusion, we reveal that safinamide exerted a protective function on M17 cells from Aβ1-42 oligomers induction-caused oxidative stress and cellular senescence through SIRT1 signaling. These present results provide meaningful evidence that safinamide may be medically developed for the prevention and therapy of AD.

In this paper, a development of new resolved shear stress gradient criteria is performed for the study of crack propagation behavior in polycrystalline materials with an emphasis on the effect of slip plane and slip direction. The prediction of crack deflection behavior by the maximum resolved shear stress gradient criterion shows good agreement with the experimental results. Comparison study for the prediction of crack propagation behavior in polycrystalline materials by other criteria demonstrates that the maximum resolved shear stress gradient criterion is superior to other fracture criteria. This suggests that the new criterion could be further applied for predicting the crack deflection behavior in other polycrystalline materials.

In this paper, a new parameter is developed for I–II mixed mode fracture analysis based on the concepts of the volume strain energy and deviator strain energy. For most fracture conditions, it has been demonstrated that the final fracture state is not dominated by the plastic deformation during the fracture process. For instance, mixed mode crack propagation occurs not along the direction of the maximum plastic deformation near the crack-tip. Based on this phenomenon, it is considered that the crack growth behavior is promoted by the volume strain energy, but not the deviator strain energy. Therefore, a new fracture parameter defined by the ratio (H-parameter) of the volume strain energy density to the deviator strain energy density is proposed for the investigation of crack growth behavior. It is assumed that the crack initiation angle can be determined by the direction of the maximum value of the H-parameter near the crack tip. This newly proposed H-parameter method is validated by comparison with classical criteria and experiments with two materials (PMMA and polysilicon) and shows a good accuracy.

In this work, Mo3S4/Cd0.5Zn0.5S heterojunction with abundant porosity was in-situ synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method. Characterization results clearly indicate that the composite material are composed of nanoparticles with an average particle diameter about 65 nm and abundant inter-particle pores are present in between. The XPS analysis found that when Mo3S4 was introduced, the XPS peak positions of Cd2+ and Zn2+ were shifted from the XPS peak positions of Cd2+ and Zn2+ in pristine Cd0.5Zn0.5S, which indicates that there is an interaction between Mo3S4 and Cd0.5Zn0.5S at the interface. Subsequently, the Mo3S4/Cd0.5Zn0.5S (72.1 mmol h−1 g−1) heterojunction can achieve much higher photocatalytic hydrogen production rate than the pristine Cd0.5Zn0.5S (7.54 mmol h−1 g−1), and even higher than Cd0.5Zn0.5S (56.44 mmol h−1 g−1) loaded with the noble metal Pt (2.0%), indicating that heterojunction can effectively enhance photocatalytic activity. In addition, the improvement in photocatalytic activity of Mo3S4/Cd0.5Zn0.5S is highly related with enhanced absorption and utilization of light due to the presence of the inter-particle pores which inhibit recombination of electron-hole pairs, promote charge separation and accelerate the migration of photogenerated carriers.

Hafnium carbide nanowires (HfCnw) were in-situ grown in 2.5 D needle-punched carbon felts by a catalyst-assisted chemical vapor deposition method. Subsequently, the carbon felts were densified to obtain HfCnw reinforced carbon/carbon (HfCnw-C/C) composites via chemical vapor infiltration. Effects of HfCnw on electrical conductivity, electromagnetic shielding properties and oxidation resistance of C/C composites were investigated for the first time. The results show that the SET of C/C composites with 1.75 wt % HfCnw exceeds 40 dB in the whole frequency range of 8.2–12.4 GHz, implying more than 99.99% of the incident beam was shielded. Moreover, it is found that the relative magnitude relationship of the total shielding effectiveness of composites (SET(S-2h) > SET(S-3h) > SET(S-0h)) is similar with the conductance ( σ S-2h > σ S-3h > σ S-0h), which indicates the conductance can effectively predict the relative magnitude of the SET. In addition, the analysis based on oxidation curves demonstrates that HfCnw significantly enhance the oxidation resistance of the composites even with a small amount of HfCnw. The high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness coupled with relatively low density and good oxidation resistance of HfCnw-C/C composites make itself exhibit remarkable potential as lightweight and high-performance structural-functional integrated materials for future EMI shielding application.

The number of depressed people has increased worldwide. Dysfunction of the gut microbiota has been closely related to depression. The mechanism by which jasmine tea ameliorates depression via the brain-gut-microbiome (BGM) axis remains unclear. Here, the effects of jasmine tea on rats with depressive-like symptoms via the gut microbiome were investigated. We first established a chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) rat model to induce depressive symptoms and measured the changes in depression-related indicators. Simultaneously, the changes in gut microbiota were investigated by 16S rRNA sequencing. Jasmine tea treatment improved depressive-like behaviors and neurotransmitters in CUMS rats. Jasmine tea increased the gut microbiota diversity and richness of depressed rats induced by CUMS. Spearman’s analysis showed correlations between the differential microbiota (Patescibacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Spirochaetes, Elusimicrobia, and Proteobacteria) and depressive-related indicators (BDNF, GLP-1, and 5-HT in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex). Combined with the correlation analysis of gut microbiota, the result indicated that jasmine tea could attenuate depression in rats via the brain- gut-microbiome axis.

Cervical cancer is one of the most common female cancers worldwide, and it is one of the most lethal malignancies of the female reproductive system. Shikonin, a natural pigment of theophyllin, has a variety of biological activities and has shown significant inhibitory effects on a variety of tumours in vitro and in vivo. However, there are few studies on Shikonin in cervical cancer. In the present study, we found that Shikonin inhibited not only the proliferation but also the migration of cervical cancer cells. Our data showed that Shikonin inhibited the proliferation of HeLa and SiHa cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. In cervical cancer cells, Shikonin not only inhibited the phosphorylation of FAK, AKT and GSK3β but also inhibited the phosphorylation of FAK, AKT and GSK3β induced by EGF. Further exploring the mechanism, we found that Shikonin could inhibit the proliferation of cervical cancer cells by regulating the phosphorylation of the FAK/AKT/GSK3β pathway. In addition, Shikonin significantly inhibited cell migration and reduced the expression of proteins such as MTA1, TGFβ1 and VEGF. In conclusion, our study elucidated that Shikonin has an inhibitory effect on the proliferation and migration of cervical cancer cells, which may be mediated by the FAK/AKT/GSK3β signalling pathway. Our results suggest that Shikonin has the potential to become a clinical treatment for cervical cancer.

The aroma quality of jasmine tea refers to the strength and freshness of jasmine fragrance and its coordination with tea aroma, which is regulated by various volatile compounds. In this study, seventy volatile compounds of jasmine tea scented by different scenting technology were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). And seven compounds were identified as the key volatile compounds by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and odor activity value (OAV). According to the equation describing seven key volatile compounds and quality of jasmine tea, the optimal scenting technology was obtained, that is, the amount of flowers (AF) was 65-78%, scenting time (ST) was 15-17 h, and scenting temperature (SW) was 35-40 °C. This study lays a foundation for the study of aroma characteristics of jasmine tea, and guides enterprises to improve jasmine tea processing technology.

circPRDX3 is a circular RNA (circRNA) that has received little attention yet. The purpose of this research is to elucidate circPRDX3 expression pattern and its underlying network in ischemic stroke (IS).Oxygen-glucose deprivation on/reoxygenation (OGD/R) and mice model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) were used to generate IS model in N2a cells or mice, respectively. Expression levels of circPRDX3, miR-641, Natriuretic Peptide Receptor 3 (NPR3), and members of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathway were determined using real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot. Cell viability was assessed by CCK-8 assay and apoptosis was evaluated using TUNEL staining and flow cytometry. Molecule-molecule interactions were verified by dual luciferase and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays. The infarcted area was depicted by Triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and the level of neurological function was measured using National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS).CircPRDX3 and NPR3 were shown to be considerably downregulated in IS samples, as well as OGD/R cells or MCAO mice, while miR-641 was found to be significantly upregulated. A circPRDX3/miR-641/NPR3 mechinary was verified using luciferase and RIP assays. Overexpression of circPRDX3 dramatically reduced miR-641 expression and increased NPR3 expression, boosting cell survival and lowering apoptosis in an OGD/R model, either with inactivated MAPK signaling pathways. Moreover, overexpression of circPRDX3 lowered infarct volume and enhanced neurobehavioral outcomes in mice after MCAO, and these protective effects were dramatically abrogated by depletion of NPR3.Altogether, circPRDX3 inhibited the development of IS by sponging miR-641, hence increasing NPR3 expression and inactivating MAPK pathway. These results may aid in the search of potential therapy targets for IS.

The herbal formula Guizhi Fuling Wan is one common remedy for treating uterine fibroids (UFs) and the relevant symptoms in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Previous systematic reviews showed that Guizhi Fuling Formula appeared to have additional benefit based on mifepristone treatment in reducing volume of fibroids.To study the efficacy and safety of the conventional dose of a modified herbal formula Guizhi Fuling Wan in patients with symptomatic uterine fibroids in comparison with a sub-effective dose control.This randomized double-blind, dosage-controlled trial was carried out in an outpatient clinic of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong. Women with symptomatic uterine fibroids diagnosed according to the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) were recruited and randomly assigned to one of two groups that received modified Guizhi Fuling Wan at either a low dose or the conventional dose on a daily basis for 16 weeks. This study was quality controlled by a data safety monitoring board. The primary outcome was the symptom severity as measured with the Uterine Fibroid Symptom-Quality of Life questionnaire. The secondary outcomes included quality of life, menstrual bleeding (measured on a pictorial blood loss assessment chart), pain severity (measured on the 6-point behavioral rating scale), change in Chinese medicine syndrome score, fibroid volume (measured by magnetic resonance imaging), hemoglobin level, and hormone levels.Seventy-eight women were recruited for this study. Between-groups comparison showed no significant difference at the endpoint for all outcomes except for the Chinese medicine syndrome score; however, at the endpoint, within-group comparison showed significant improvement in both groups relative to baseline in symptom severity, functional influence of pelvic pain, Chinese medicine syndrome score, and fibroid volume and uterus condition on magnetic resonance imaging (p 0.05).The low-dose group yielded greater endpoint improvement in the Chinese medicine syndrome score than the conventional-dose group (p=0.024). No serious adverse events related to the intervention were noted.Both low-dose and conventional-dose preparations significantly ameliorated uterine fibroid-related symptoms and fibroid volume, although no significant difference was found between the low-dose and conventional-dose groups. The herbal formula GuizhiFuling Wan is safe in women with uterine fibroids.

Brittle fracture of polycrystalline silicon wafer is critical to long-term reliability of electronic devices and solar cells for its wide use as components or substrates in semiconductor industry. In order to observe its initiation under loads, classical tensile test was modified by introducing the poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) layer to determine critical stress of the micro-crack initiation in the wafer. The method is verified by the finite element computation and then the fracture criterion of the maximum principal stress criterion for the wafer material is deduced from a series tests on the material strength. It was found that the existence of dislocations and impurities in the wafer significantly influence the threshold stress levels which is modeled by the Weibull distribution. Especially, micro-cracks are more likely to initiate in the dislocation position but not in the impurity position. The proposed method can be further extended for studying the tensile fracture and related issues on such brittle materials as ceramics, quartz, and ice.

A copper sulfide (digenite phase, Cu 9 S 5 ) film composed of hierarchical microprotrusions was fabricated for corrosion protection of the underlying Cu substrate. The copper sulfide microprotrusions follow a heterogeneous nucleation, growth and aggregation mechanism. After hydrophobization with stearic acid, the film exhibits a water contact angle of 163° and a sliding angle of ~ 2°, and shows enhanced corrosion resistance. The mechanism of corrosion protection is clarified according to the proposed equivalent circuits, which show that the superhydrophobic film behaves as an effective barrier and largely separates the Cu substrate from the corrosive solution. The film exhibits good chemical stability against acidic or basic solutions due to the chemical inertness of copper sulfide. It shows good adhesion to the substrate and maintains its hydrophobic property after abrasion test.

Background Some studies have suggested an association between Helicobacter pylori infection and the risk of stroke, but the relationship remains controversial. The aim of this study was to obtain a more comprehensive estimate of H. pylori on the risk of stroke by performing a meta-analysis. Methods A computerized search of PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library (including CENTRAL) up to February 2014 was performed to identify eligible studies. Prospective studies reported that a multivariate-adjusted estimate for the association between H. pylori and stroke were included. A random-effects model was used to calculate the overall combined risk. Results Ten prospective observational studies (6 cohort studies, 4 nested case–control, or case–cohort studies within cohort studies) were included in the meta-analysis. The overall combined odds ratio for H. infection and stroke was .96 (95% confidence interval, .78-1.14). Similar results were yielded in patients with cytotoxin-associated gene-A seropositive strains. The combined estimates were robust across sensitivity analyses and had no observed publication bias. Conclusions In conclusion, our formal meta-analysis indicated no strong association between H. pylori infection and stroke, neither in those with cytotoxin-associated gene-A–positive infection. We believe that future epidemiologic studies of H. pylori and stroke are unlikely to be fruitful.

Over the past two decades, the popularity of the ICT has brought humans into an unprecedented era of information. A academia go into in-depth study of related fields, and has made great progress in the fields of information economy, knowledge-based economy, the network economy, and virtual economy. However, none can provide a unified and comprehensive explanation about the new economic phenomena such as a wide range of free internet applications in our daily life. The bit economy research has emerged to heap up with the times. This article, based on the bit economy, firstly discusses bit and its existing cyberspace from the aspect of natural philosophy, and redefine cyberspace and bit from the point of view of the origin of the world. Then we contrast bit product with atom product to discuss in-depth on how to understand bit product, and define it based on the difference of the connotation from digital products. At last, we explain the key point to cognize bit product from the three aspects of existence, connotation, and appreciable characters. Index Terms Bit; Information; Cyberspace; Bit Product.

Human albumin therapy within the first 4 h is highly neuroprotective in focal ischemia, but it is unknown whether delayed albumin therapy is deleterious. Rats received 2 h middle cerebral artery suture-occlusion. Human albumin (25%, 2.5 mg/kg; n=12) or vehicle (0.9% saline, 5 ml/kg; n=9) were administered at 19 h. Neurological status was evaluated daily, and histopathology and brain swelling were quantified at 3 days. Delayed albumin treatment, while ineffective, failed to show adverse effects.