Randomized controlled trial for time-restricted eating in overweight and obese young adults.

Time-restricted eating (TRE) is known to improve metabolic health, whereas very few studies have compared the effects of early and late TRE (eTRE and lTRE) on metabolic health. Overweight and obese young adults were randomized to 6-h eTRE (eating from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.) (n = 21), 6-h lTRE (eating from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.) (n = 20), or a control group (ad libitum intake in a day) (n = 19). After 8 weeks, 6-h eTRE and lTRE produced comparable body weight loss compared with controls. Compared with control, 6-h eTRE reduced systolic blood pressure, mean glucose, fasting insulin, insulin resistance, leptin, and thyroid axis activity, whereas lTRE only reduced leptin. These findings shed light on the promise of 6-h eTRE and lTRE for weight loss. Larger studies are needed to assess the promise of eTRE to yield better thyroid axis modulation and overall cardiometabolic health improvement.

Procyanidins inhibit fine particulate matter-induced vascular smooth muscle cells apoptosis via the activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway.

The functional role of procyanidins (PC) in PM2.5-induced cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is largely unexplored. This study aimed to explore the protective effect of PC against PM2.5-induced vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) apoptosis and underlying mechanisms. Sprague Dawley rats were pretreated with three doses of PC (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg) and exposed to 10 mg/kg PM2.5 by intratracheal instillation three times a week. VSMCs were exposed to 5, 10, and 20 µM PC before the addition of 100 µg/mL PM2.5. In vivo, the PM2.5 exposure induced apoptosis in the thoracic aorta of rats. The PM2.5 exposure significantly elevated the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and decreased the superoxide dismutase activity. Also, PC supplementation increased the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), and its downstream antioxidant genes, i.e., NAD(P)H dehydrogenase (quinine) 1 and heme oxygenase 1, attenuated oxidative stress and vascular apoptosis. In vitro, PM2.5 induced cytotoxicity in VSMCs in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, PC abolished the PM2.5-induced cytotoxicity by activating the Nrf2 signal pathway, alleviating oxidative stress, and decreasing apoptosis. In conclusion, this work is the first study to demonstrate that PC can suppress the PM2.5-induced VSMCs apoptosis via the activation of the Nrf2 signal pathway.

Chinese preschoolers' acquisition of temporal adverbs indicating past, present, and future: a corpus-based study.

This study investigated the development of temporal adverbs in early childhood Mandarin. All cases of temporal adverbs indicating the past, present, and future were extracted from the Early Child Mandarin Corpus (168 children in four age groups: 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6). Data analyses indicated: (1) Mandarin-speaking children produced a repertoire of 21 types of temporal adverbs, and the children in the first age group (M = 2;6) were capable of using temporal adverbs to denote past, present, and future events; (2) within each age group, the children produced significantly more future temporal adverbs than the other two subtypes; and (3) there was a significant age effect that, with increased age, more children were able to produce all subtypes of temporal adverbs. Overall, findings of this corpus-based investigation shed light upon Chinese children's early-attained ability to express the three fundamental notions of time by resorting to the appropriate linguistic devices.