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Purpose: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its related mortality is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been shown to offer potential for early prevention and treatment of NAFLD. The new mechanism of “Shenling Baizhu San” (SLBZS) is examined in this study for the prevention and treatment of NAFLD at the preclinical level.Methods: Male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into three groups: normal diet (ND), western diet + CCl4 injection (WDC), and SLBZS intervention (WDC + SLBZS). Body weights, energy intake, liver enzymes, pro-inflammatory factors, and steatosis were recorded in detail. Meanwhile, TPH1, 5-HT, HTR2A, and HTR2B were tested using qRT-PCR or ELISA. Dynamic changes in the gut microbiota and metabolites were further detected through the 16S rRNA gene and untargeted metabolomics.Results: SLBZS intervention for 6 weeks could reduce the serum and liver lipid profiles, glucose, and pro-inflammatory factors while improving insulin resistance and liver function indexes in the mice, thus alleviating NAFLD in mice. More importantly, significant changes were found in the intestinal TPH-1, 5-HT, liver 5-HT, and related receptors HTR2A and HTR2B. The 16S rRNA gene analysis suggested that SLBZS was able to modulate the disturbance of gut microbiota, remarkably increasing the relative abundance of probiotics (Bifidobacterium and Parvibacter) and inhibiting the growth of pro-inflammatory bacteria (Erysipelatoclostridium and Lachnoclostridium) in mice with NAFLD. Combined with metabolomics in positive- and negative-ion-mode analyses, approximately 50 common differential metabolites were selected via non-targeted metabolomics detection, which indicated that the targeting effect of SLBZS included lipid metabolites, bile acids (BAs), amino acids (AAs), and tryptophan metabolites. In particular, the lipid metabolites 15-OxEDE, vitamin D3, desoxycortone, and oleoyl ethanol amide were restored by SLBZS.Conclusion: Integrating the above results of multiple omics suggests that SLBZS ameliorates NAFLD via specific gut microbiota, gut-derived 5-HT, and related metabolites to decrease fat accumulation in the liver and inflammatory responses.

Purpose Owing to the mortality associated with metastatic prostate cancer and the shortcomings of the current parameters in predicting the disease prognosis, we require the identification of viable biomarkers, which would help in the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease. We aimed to determine whether the interleukin-8 level in the tumor microenvironment could serve as a potential clinical diagnostic marker and prognostic factor for prostate cancer. Methods The migration assay of prostate cancer cells was performed in an in vitro co-culture model. Cell lines PC3 and DU145 were divided into two groups and co-cultured with M0 and M2 macrophages, respectively. We used reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction to detect M2 macrophage marker expression levels. Immunohistochemistry analyses of tissue microarrays were performed to analyze the correlation between the increased expression of interleukin-8 and the prognosis of prostate cancer. A retrospective analysis based on 142 residual serum specimens was performed to analyze the level of interleukin-8. Results We observed that M2 macrophages promoted the migration of prostate cancer cells and significantly increased the concentrations of interleukin-8 in the co-culture supernatants. We observed increased expression of CD163 and interleukin-8 in prostate cancer tissues. Furthermore, the levels of interleukin-8 in the serum of prostate cancer patients were higher than those in healthy controls. Untreated patients had higher levels of interleukin-8, which could be a predictor of a higher metastasis rate. Conclusion These results suggest that interleukin-8 produced via bidirectional communication between prostate cancer cells and M2 macrophages is a putative biomarker for prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Research on the efficiency and quality issues faced in aircraft assembly was conducted in this article. A new method of human–machine collaborative riveting was proposed, which combined the flexibility of manual collaboration with the precise control of automatic riveting. The research works include: (1) a theoretical model of pneumatic hammer riveting was established to clarify the principle and parameters of riveting process. (2) A smart bucking bar was designed to support the data collection and extraction of manual collaborative riveting process. (3) An automatic riveting experimental platform was designed to test the automatic riveting process incorporating the extracted manual riveting process parameters, and further an optimization strategy was proposed for the automatic riveting process. (4) A human–machine collaborative riveting experimental platform was developed to conduct the verification work. Through the theoretical analysis, experimental research, system scheme design, and process parameters optimization, the application and verification of human–machine collaborative assembly technology have been achieved. This technology is expected to be comprehensively promoted in the field of aircraft manufacturing, and for breaking through the current difficulties of low production efficiency and poor assembly quality control.

The global pandemic COVID-19 has led to an increase in the number of people purchasing food online, which has brought to a higher demand on the food supply chain. Such as the need to collect more information related to food safety and quality in real-time. Strengthening management of food logistics information flow can reduce food loss and waste and bring better quality and safety of food to consumers. In this review, the importance and applicability of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to smart food packaging are described. This study emphasizes the recent advancement of the RFID tags in humidity, temperature, gas, pH, integrity, and traceability sensor applications in connection with food packaging. RFID sensors are more suitable for smart packaging both in terms of sensing ability and data transmission. A simpler, low-cost, more robust and less power-demanding sensors network is the development direction of smart packaging in the future. Chipless RFID sensors have the potential to achieve these functions. But it still faces many challenges to be overcome. For example, biocompatible, cost, reading range, multi-tag collision, multi-parameter sensors, recycling issues, security and privacy of RFID system should be solved.