Highland barley Monascus purpureus Went extract ameliorates high-fat, high-fructose, high-cholesterol diet induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by regulating lipid metabolism in golden hamsters.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Hepatocyte lipid accumulation is the main feature in the early stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Highland barley Monascus purpureus Went (HBMPW), a fermentation product of Hordeum vulgare Linn. var. nudum Hook. f. has traditionally been used as fermented foods in Tibet with the effect of reducing blood lipid in folk medicine. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study investigated the protective effects and molecular mechanism of highland barley Monascus purpureus Went extract (HBMPWE) on NAFLD in syrian golden hamster fed with high-fat, high-fructose, high-cholesterol diet (HFFCD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: HFFCD-induced NAFLD golden hamster model was established and treated with HBMPWE. Liver index, biochemical index, and hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining were observed. Liver metabolomics and western blot analysis were employed. RESULTS: Our study found that HBMPWE ameliorated HFFCD induced dyslipidemia, weight gain and elevated the liver index. In addition, HBMPWE treatment significantly attenuated lipid accumulation in the liver and modulated lipid metabolism (sphingolipid, glycerophospholipid). Our data demonstrated that HBMPWE not only regulated the expression of proteins related to fatty acid synthesis and decomposition (SREBP-1/ACC/FAS/AceS1, PPARα/ACSL/CPT1/ACOX1), but also regulated the expression of proteins related to cholesterol synthesis and clearance (HMGCR, LDLR, CYP7A1). CONCLUSIONS: HBMPWE improved NAFLD through multiple pathways and multiple targets in body metabolism and could be used as a functional food to treat NAFLD and other lipid metabolic disorders.

Investigation of the Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow and Separation Behaviors at Inclined T-Junction Pipelines.

The T-junction is a novel type of separator used in the petroleum and gas industry. It is used to achieve the gas-liquid or liquid-liquid two-phase separation. To obtain an applicative T-junction separator, in the present study, the gas-liquid two-phase separation characteristics in multiple inclined T-junctions were investigated through a series of numerical simulations and field experiments. Two representative multiphase modes, namely, the Euler model and the mixture model, were chosen for this study. Comparisons of the field experiments were made to obtain a highly accurate simulation model. The mixture model was chosen to be better suited for this study. It is used to investigate the gas-liquid two-phase flow and the separation behaviors, which include the effect of inlet flow velocity, inlet bubble diameter, and the split ratio of two outlets. The results indicate that the best flow split ratio exists when the two-phase separation reaches the best consequence, and the best flow split ratio changes when the separation demands of gas or liquid are different. Furthermore, the separation efficiency keeps decreasing as the inlet velocity is increased. Hence, the inlet mixture velocity should be reduced to improve the gas-liquid two-phase separation. More specifically, to obtain a better separation for the same throughput, the size of the T-junction should be increased. Moreover, the separation efficiency increases as the inlet bubble diameter increases. Consequently, the results can be used to design the T-junction as an industrial separator, which can then be directly used in petroleum and gas production.

Experiments of a 100 kV-level pulse generator based on metal-oxide varistor.

This paper introduces the development and experiments of a 100 kV-level pulse generator based on a metal-oxide varistor (MOV). MOV has a high energy handling capacity and nonlinear voltage-current (V-I) characteristics, which makes it useful for high voltage pulse shaping. Circuit simulations based on the measured voltage-current characteristics of MOV verified the shaping concept and showed that a circuit containing a two-section pulse forming network (PFN) will result in better defined square pulse than a simple L-C discharging circuit. A reduced-scale experiment was carried out and the result agreed well with simulation prediction. Then a 100 kV-level pulse generator with multiple MOVs in a stack and a two-section pulse forming network (PFN) was experimented. A pulse with a voltage amplitude of 90 kV, rise time of about 50 ns, pulse width of 500 ns, and flat top of about 400 ns was obtained with a water dummy load of 50 Ω. The results reveal that the combination of PFN and MOV is a practical way to generate high voltage pulses with better flat top waveforms, and the load voltage is stable even if the load's impedance varies. Such pulse generator can be applied in many fields such as surface treatment, corona plasma generation, industrial dedusting, and medical disinfection.

[Effects of maize plant type and planting width on the early morphological characters and yield of relayplanted soybean].

This paper studied the effects of different maize plant type and planting width on the early morphological characters and yield of relayplanted soybean under wheat/maize/soybean relayplanting. The results showed that different maize plant type led to different micro-climate in soybean planting strip, which was a direct factor affecting the changes in morphological characters and tissue structure of soybean. Large planting width and relay cropping with erect maize resulted in the short plant, thick main stem, large accumulation of dry matter, higher LAI and SLM, and high yield of soybean, while small planting width and relay cropping with flat maize led to the undergrowth of leaf and stem, overgrowth of plant, thin and lodging-susceptible stem, and low yield of soybean. From the tissue sections of soybean leaf and stem at early blossoming stage under conditions of planted with different maize plant type and 1.17 m/0.83 m (soybean/maize) of planting width, it was found that under more shading, the leaf thickness decreased, epidermis cells became larger, cuticle became thinner, differentiation of palisade tissue and spongy tissue was inconspicuous, space between cells was large, epidermis and secondary xylem of stem all became thinner, parenchyma cells were loose, formulation of vessel delayed, and phloem fibers were less developed. It was concluded that relayplanting soybean with erect maize in a planting width of 1.17 m/0.83 m (soybean/maize) could be the best field combination in ensuring high yield and high efficiency all the year round.