Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu Capsule regulates the macrophage polarization and inflammatory response via the let-7i/TLR9/MyD88 signaling pathway.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu Capsule (ZL) is clinically prescribed for acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, only a few studies have addressed the mechanisms of ZL in treating AIS. AIM OF THE STUDY: To explore the underlying mechanism of macrophage polarization and inflammation mediated by ZL, and to provide a reference for AIS treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixteen SD rats were fed with different dose of ZL (0, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.6 g/kg/d) for 4 days to prepare ZL serum. After 500 ng/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, RAW264.7 cells were administrated with ZL serum. Then, experiments including ELISA, flow cytometry, real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot were performed to verify the effects of ZL on macrophage polarization and inflammation. Next, let-7i inhibitor was transfected in RAW264.7 cells when treated with LPS and ZL serum to verify the regulation of ZL on the let-7i/TLR9/MyD88 signaling pathway. Moreover, the interaction between let-7i and TLR9 was confirmed by the dual-luciferase assay. RESULTS: ZL serum significantly decreased the expression of interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and increased the expression of IL-10 and transforming growth factor ß1 (TGF-ß1) of LPS stimulated-macrophages. Furthermore, ZL serum polarized macrophages toward M2, decreased the expressions of TLR9, MyD88, and iNOS, as well as increased the expressions of let-7i, CHIL3, and Arginase-1. It is worth mentioning that the effect of ZL serum is dose-dependent. However, let-7i inhibitor restored all the above effects in LPS stimulated-macrophages. In addition, TLR9 was the target of let-7i. CONCLUSIONS: ZL targeted let-7i to inhibit TLR9 expression, thereby inhibiting the activation of the TLR9/MyD88 pathway, promoting the M2 polarization, and inhibiting the development of inflammation in AIS.

Tailoring Biomaterials Ameliorate Inflammatory Bone Loss.

Inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, periodontitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and celiac disease, disrupt the delicate balance between bone resorption and formation, leading to inflammatory bone loss. Conventional approaches to tackle this issue encompass pharmaceutical interventions and surgical procedures. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical interventions exhibit limited efficacy, while surgical treatments impose trauma and significant financial burden upon patients. Biomaterials show outstanding spatiotemporal controllability, possess a remarkable specific surface area, and demonstrate exceptional reactivity. In the present era, the advancement of emerging biomaterials has bestowed upon more efficacious solutions for combatting the detrimental consequences of inflammatory bone loss. In this review, the advances of biomaterials for ameliorating inflammatory bone loss are listed. Additionally, the advantages and disadvantages of various biomaterials-mediated strategies are summarized. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of biomaterials are analyzed. This review aims to provide new possibilities for developing more advanced biomaterials toward inflammatory bone loss.

Therapeutic Mechanism of Kai Xin San on Alzheimer's Disease Based on Network Pharmacology and Experimental Validation / 中国结合医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the specific pharmacological molecular mechanisms of Kai Xin San (KXS) on treating Alzheimer's disease (AD) based on network pharmacology and experimental validation.@*METHODS@#The chemical compounds of KXS and their corresponding targets were screened using the Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ETCM) database. AD-related target proteins were obtained from MalaCards database and DisGeNET databases. Key compounds and targets were identified from the compound-target-disease network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. Functional enrichment analysis predicted the potential key signaling pathways involved in the treatment of AD with KXS. The binding affinities between key ingredients and targets were further verified using molecular docking. Finally, the predicted key signaling pathway was validated experimentally. Positioning navigation and space search experiments were conducted to evaluate the cognitive improvement effect of KXS on AD rats. Western blot was used to further examine and investigate the expression of the key target proteins related to the predicted pathway.@*RESULTS@#In total, 38 active compounds and 469 corresponding targets of KXS were screened, and 264 target proteins associated with AD were identified. The compound-target-disease and PPI networks identified key active ingredients and protein targets. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis suggested a potential effect of KXS in the treatment of AD via the amyloid beta (A β)-glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK3 β)-Tau pathway. Molecular docking revealed a high binding affinity between the key ingredients and targets. In vivo, KXS treatment significantly improved cognitive deficits in AD rats induced by Aβ1-42, decreased the levels of Aβ, p-GSK3β, p-Tau and cyclin-dependent kinase 5, and increased the expressions of protein phosphatase 1 alpha (PP1A) and PP2A (P<0.05 or P<0.01).@*CONCLUSION@#KXS exerted neuroprotective effects by regulating the Aβ -GSK3β-Tau signaling pathway, which provides novel insights into the therapeutic mechanism of KXS and a feasible pharmacological strategy for the treatment of AD.

Floquet engineering of tilted and gapped Dirac bandstructure in 1T[Formula: see text]-MoS[Formula: see text].

We have developed a rigorous theoretical formalism for Floquet engineering, investigating, and subsequently tailoring most crucial electronic properties of 1T[Formula: see text]-MoS[Formula: see text] by applying an external high-frequency dressing field within the off-resonance regime. It was recently demonstrated that monolayer semiconducting 1T[Formula: see text]-MoS[Formula: see text] exhibits tunable and gapped spin- and valley-polarized tilted Dirac bands. The electron-photon dressed states depend strongly on the polarization of the applied irradiation and reflect a full complexity of the low-energy Hamiltonian for non-irradiated material. We have calculated and analyzed the properties of the electron dressed states corresponding to linear and circular polarization of a dressing field by focusing on their symmetry, anisotropy, tilting, direct and indirect band gaps. Circularly polarized dressing field is known for transition into a new electronic state with broken time-reversal symmetry and a non-zero Chern number, and therefore, the combination of these topologically non-trivial phases and transitions between them could reveal some truly unique and previously unknown phenomena and applications. We have also computed and discussed the density of states for various types of 1T[Formula: see text]-MoS[Formula: see text] materials and its modification in the presence of a dressing field.

Health Disparity Measurement Among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Populations Across the United States.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe current measurement of health disparities for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations and subgroups across U.S. states. Methods: State department of health websites were searched for publicly available online reports and interactive databases denoted as state health or minority health assessments. Sources were examined to determine whether health metrics stratified by any racial/ethnic groups included the AANHPI aggregate population or subgroups. The number and frequency of AANHPI population designations were tabulated, as were the proportion of states that included AANHPIs in stratified metrics in four domains across the life span and the median number of metrics (1) stratified by any racial/ethnic group and (2) including AANHPI populations. A Pearson correlation coefficient assessed the association between the proportion of AANHPIs in state populations and the proportion of state metrics that included AANHPIs in the stratification. Results: States used 17 AANHPI population descriptors. Of 49 states stratifying health metrics by race/ethnicity, 34 included AANHPI populations and 2 included disaggregated AANHPI subgroups in ≥1 metric. The proportion of states that included AANHPI populations in stratification ranged from 57% for maternal-infant health to 69% for adult health, and by metric groups within domains, the proportion ranged from 14% for maternal mortality to 100% for marital or head of household status. The median number of metrics reported for AANHPI populations was lower than the median number reported for other racial/ethnic groups in adult, maternal-infant, and child and adolescent health domains. The proportion of state metrics that included AANHPIs in racial/ethnic stratification was not correlated with the proportion of AANHPIs in state populations (r=0.30). Conclusions and Implications for Health Equity: AANHPIs were substantially underrepresented in state health equity data, with rare subgroup disaggregation. Reducing disparities and inequities affecting AANHPI health in the United States requires improved and equitable data.

Resumption of school after lockdown in COVID-19 pandemic: Three case reports.

BACKGROUND: Students in the 9th grade of junior high school in Changsha were under a 75 d lockdown due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. After the resumption of school post-lockdown, the 9th grade students in Changsha faced the entrance physical examination test for senior high school. CASE SUMMARY: We report on 3 cases of occult fracture on the same site in adolescents of the same grade since resumption of school after the lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic. Three students in the 9th grade of junior high school who were facing the physical examination in 2 wk were diagnosed with an occult fracture of the distal femur. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that the students, parents, education providers and policy makers should all pay attention to the physical exercise of students when the resumption of school after lockdown occurs and they should be aware of occult fractures when the adolescents have pain after physical exercise.

Impurity screening and Friedel oscillations in Floquet-driven two-dimensional metals.

We develop a theory for the non-equilibrium screening of a charged impurity in a two-dimensional electron system under a strong time-periodic drive. Our analysis of the time-averaged polarization function and dielectric function reveals that Floquet driving modifies the screened impurity potential in two main regimes. In the weak drive regime, the time-averaged screened potential exhibits unconventional Friedel oscillations with multiple spatial periods contributed by a principal period modulated by higher-order periods, which are due to the emergence of additional Kohn anomalies in the polarization function. In the strong drive regime, the time-averaged impurity potential becomes almost unscreened and does not exhibit Friedel oscillations. This tunable Friedel oscillations is a result of the dynamic gating effect of the time-dependent driving field on the two-dimensional electron system.

Synovial chondromatosis of the hip joint in a 6 year-old child: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Synovial chondromatosis (SC) is a rare benign lesion first reported by Ambrose Pare in 1558. It is most common in the knee joint, followed by the hip joint and elbow joint. It is characterized by the presence of multiple pearl-like osteochondral bodies in the joint. The incidence in children is extremely low. CASE SUMMARY: We report a 6-year-old Chinese boy who presented to our hospital with left hip joint pain and claudication for more than one year. We performed total surgical resection of SC tissue in the left hip. A good prognosis was confirmed at the 6-wk follow-up. Pain and swelling symptoms were totally relieved, range of motion of his left hip returned to normal, and there was no clinical evidence of lesion recurrence at last follow-up. Our case is the youngest reported patient with SC occurring in the hip. CONCLUSION: SC is a rare disease and can be easily misdiagnosed. When we encounter children with hip pain and claudication, increased vigilance and a comprehensive physical examination and imaging examination should be considered, in order to avoid misdiagnosis and delayed treatment in patients.

Tritiated Water Induces Toxicity in Human Umbilical Vein Vascular Endothelial Cells via IL8.

We aimed to determine the toxic effects of tritiated water (HTO) on 12 generations (T1-T12) of human umbilical vein vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. We evaluated cellular senescence, interleukin (IL) 8 concentrations, and angiogenesis using ß-galactosidase staining, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and in vitro assays, respectively. The adhesion properties of contaminated cells and differentially expressed genes were assessed using the xCELLigence RTCA SP system and gene chip analysis, respectively. We found that long-term exposure to low levels of HTO can reduce the adhesion of HUVECs to the cellular matrix as well as their angiogenic capacity, while increasing their permeability, senescence, and adhesion to monocytes. Interleukin 8 activated the p38 and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) pathways in HTO-treated cells and hence was identified as a key candidate of biomarker. The present study clarified the toxicity of HTO in vascular endothelial cells and identified IL8 as a novel protective target with important theoretical and practical values.

Electron-Hole Asymmetry of Surface States in Topological Insulator Sb2Te3 Thin Films Revealed by Magneto-Infrared Spectroscopy.

When surface states (SSs) form in topological insulators (TIs), they inherit the properties of bulk bands, including the electron-hole (e-h) asymmetry but with much more profound impacts. Here via combining magneto-infrared spectroscopy with theoretical analysis, we show that e-h asymmetry significantly modifies the SS electronic structures when interplaying with the quantum confinement effect. Compared with the case without e-h asymmetry, the SSs now bear not only a band asymmetry, such as that in the bulk, but also a shift of the Dirac point relative to the bulk bands and a reduction of the hybridization gap of up to 70%. Our results signify the importance of e-h asymmetry in the band engineering of TIs in the thin-film limit.

Monitoring of Tritium Internal Exposure Doses of Heavy-Water Reactor Workers in Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant.

To analyze the tritium internal exposure dose of workers in the Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant over the past 15 years. Urine samples provided by workers are tested directly to analyze the tritium concentrations and estimate internal exposure dose. Since 2004, an average of approximately 1600 workers have been monitored annually, with an average annual monitoring frequency of approximately 11 000. Since 2004, the average annual collective dose of tritium internal exposure was 149.62 person·mSv, accounting for 19.07% of the total annual collective dose. A total of 18 workers' annual individual internal tritium radiation doses exceeded 2 mSv, of which 5 workers' internal tritium radiation doses in a single intake exceeded 2 mSv. The occupational population with the largest total internal tritium radiation doses consists of maintenance personnel, fuel operators, and radiation protection personnel, whose collective doses of internal exposure account for 75.51% of the total collective doses within the plant. Over 15 years of operation, the internal tritium radiation doses of workers in the Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant have been strictly controlled within the national regulatory limit and power plant management target, ensuring the health and safety of the workers.

Apatinib as an optional treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer.

Antiangiogenic therapy has shown clinical benefit in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apatinib in patients who failed standard treatment and to explore potential factors related to its efficacy.A total of 47 patients were enrolled in this retrospective study. Patients who received apatinib therapy after failure of standard therapy from December 2014 and February 2018 were included. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), and treatment-related adverse events were recorded and evaluated.The median PFS was 3.717 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.198-4.235), and the median OS was 7.335 months (95% CI, 6.738-7.932). The disease control rate was 72.34%, and the ORR was 8.51%. The most common grade 3 to 4 adverse reactions were hypertension, proteinuria, hand-foot syndrome, and diarrhea. Multivariate analysis indicated previous antiangiogenic therapy and baseline elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as independent prognostic factors.Apatinib might be a reasonable treatment option with a controlled safety profile for patients with mCRC who have failed standard therapy. Patients who previously received antiangiogenic therapy and who have baseline elevated NLR are more likely to benefit from apatinib.

Magneto-Coulomb Drag and Hall Drag in Double-Layer Dirac Systems.

We develop a theory of Coulomb drag due to momentum transfer between graphene layers in a strong magnetic field. The theory is intended to apply in systems with disorder that is weak compared to Landau level separation, so that Landau level mixing is weak but strong compared to correlation energies within a single Landau level, so that fractional quantum Hall physics is not relevant. We find that, in contrast to the zero-field limit, the longitudinal magneto-Coulomb drag is finite and, in fact, attains a maximum at the simultaneous charge neutrality point (CNP) of both layers. Our theory also predicts a sizable Hall drag resistivity at densities away from the CNP.

Relaxation dynamics of a driven two-level system coupled to a Bose-Einstein condensate: application to quantum dot-dipolar exciton gas hybrid systems.

We develop a microscopic theory for the relaxation dynamics of an optically pumped two-level system (TLS) coupled to a bath of weakly interacting Bose gas. Using Keldysh formalism and diagrammatic perturbation theory, expressions for the relaxation times of the TLS Rabi oscillations are derived when the boson bath is in the normal state and the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) state. We apply our general theory to consider an irradiated quantum dot coupled with a boson bath consisting of a two-dimensional dipolar exciton gas. When the bath is in the BEC regime, relaxation of the Rabi oscillations is due to both condensate and non-condensate fractions of the bath bosons for weak TLS-light coupling and pre dominantly due to the non-condensate fraction for strong TLS-light coupling. Our theory also shows that a phase transition of the bath from the normal to the BEC state strongly influences the relaxation rate of the TLS Rabi oscillations. The TLS relaxation rate is approximately independent of the pump field frequency and monotonically dependent on the field strength when the bath is in the low-temperature regime of the normal phase. Phase transition of the dipolar exciton gas leads to a non-monotonic dependence of the TLS relaxation rate on both the pump field frequency and field strength, providing a characteristic signature for the detection of BEC phase transition of the coupled dipolar exciton gas.

Expression of FOXM1 in colorectal carcinoma and its clinical significance / 临床与实验病理学杂志

Purpose To investigate the expression of forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) in human colorectal cancer(CRC) tissues,and to analyze the correlation between its expression and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of CRC.Methods The expression of FOXM1 was examined in 297 cases of CRC tissues and 80 cases of normal peritumoral tissues by immunohistochemistry of SP.Western blot was used to detect the expression of FOXM1 in 20 cases of fresh CRC tissues and the corresponding normal peritumoral tissues.Results The expression of FOXM1 was significantly higher in CRC tissues (60.6％) compared with normal peritumoral tissues (17.50％,P ＜ 0.01).The positive expression of FOXM1 was related to the depth of invasion,lymph node metastasis,intravascular cancer embolus,distant metastasis and TNM stage (P ＜ 0.05).However,there was no correlation with age,sex,tumor location,tumor size,tumor differentiation degree,CEA and CA199 (P ＞0.05).The relative expression levels of FOXM1 protein was also significantly higher in CRC tissues (0.855 ± 0.063) compared with corresponding normal peritumoral tissues (0.150 ± 0.041,P ＜0.01).The 3-year overall survival of CRC patients with FOXM1 expression was significantly lower than that of patients without FOXM1 expression (P＜0.01),and FOXM1 is an independent prognostic factor for CRC.Conclusion The overexpression of FOXM1 protein in CRC tissues correlate with the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis.FOXM1 may play an important role in the occurrence and metastasis of CRC,and it may be a new tumor marker and potential therapeutic target for CRC.

High-Resolution Faraday Rotation and Electron-Phonon Coupling in Surface States of the Bulk-Insulating Topological Insulator Cu_{0.02}Bi_{2}Se_{3}.

We have utilized time-domain magnetoterahertz spectroscopy to investigate the low-frequency optical response of the topological insulator Cu_{0.02}Bi_{2}Se_{3} and Bi_{2}Se_{3} films. With both field and frequency dependence, such experiments give sufficient information to measure the mobility and carrier density of multiple conduction channels simultaneously. We observe sharp cyclotron resonances (CRs) in both materials. The small amount of Cu incorporated into the Cu_{0.02}Bi_{2}Se_{3} induces a true bulk insulator with only a single type of conduction with a total sheet carrier density of ~4.9×10^{12}/cm^{2} and mobility as high as 4000 cm^{2}/V·s. This is consistent with conduction from two virtually identical topological surface states (TSSs) on the top and bottom of the film with a chemical potential ~145 meV above the Dirac point and in the bulk gap. The CR broadens at high fields, an effect that we attribute to an electron-phonon interaction. This assignment is supported by an extended Drude model analysis of the zero-field Drude conductance. In contrast, in normal Bi_{2}Se_{3} films, two conduction channels were observed, and we developed a self-consistent analysis method to distinguish the dominant TSSs and coexisting trivial bulk or two-dimensional electron gas states. Our high-resolution Faraday rotation spectroscopy on Cu_{0.02}Bi_{2}Se_{3} paves the way for the observation of quantized Faraday rotation under experimentally achievable conditions to push the chemical potential in the lowest Landau level.

[Isolation and Identification of Bacteria and Mycete from Preservation of Morinda officinalis].

OBJECTIVE: In order to select antistaling agent which had obvious antibacterial effect on Morinda officinalis, the colony counts of microorganism from the surface of Morinda officinalis and the species of bacteria and mycete were analyzed. METHODS: Bacteria and moulds classification identification method were carried out. RESULTS: After using 10 g burdock oligosaccharide, 20 g chitosan and 0. 5 g potassium sorbate treated for 60 d, the total bacteria on the surface of Morinda officinalis was 3. 0 x 10(4) cfu/g, mycete total of 1. 5 x 10(4) cfu/g, preservation effect was better than the other treatments. CONCLUSION: The common advantage microorganisms group of Morinda officinalis on the surface are from Leuconostoc ,Aerococcus and Penicillium genera.

Radiative heat transfer in 2D Dirac materials.

We compute the radiative heat transfer between two sheets of 2D Dirac materials, including topological Chern insulators and graphene, within the framework of the local approximation for the optical response of these materials. In this approximation, which neglects spatial dispersion, we derive both numerically and analytically the short-distance asymptotic of the near-field heat transfer in these systems, and show that it scales as the inverse of the distance between the two sheets. Finally, we discuss the limitations to the validity of this scaling law imposed by spatial dispersion in 2D Dirac materials.

Analysis of Intonation Patterns in Cantonese Aphasia Speech.

This paper presents a study on intonation patterns in Cantonese aphasia speech. The speech materials were spontaneous discourse recorded from seven pairs of aphasic and unimpaired speakers. Hidden Markov model based forced alignment was applied to obtain syllable-level time alignments. The pitch level of each syllable was determined and normalized according to the given tone identity of the syllable. Linear regression of the normalized pitch levels was performed to describe the intonation patterns of sentences. It was found that aphasic speech has a higher percentage of sentences with increasing pitch. This trend was found to be more prominent in story-telling than descriptive discourses.

Spin and valley noise in two-dimensional Dirac materials.

We develop a theory for optical Faraday rotation noise in two-dimensional Dirac materials. In contrast to spin noise in conventional semiconductors, we find that the Faraday rotation fluctuations are influenced not only by spins but also the valley degrees of freedom attributed to intervalley scattering processes. We illustrate our theory with two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides and discuss signatures of spin and valley noise in the Faraday noise power spectrum. We propose optical Faraday noise spectroscopy as a technique for probing both spin and valley relaxation dynamics in two-dimensional Dirac materials.