Search

Astragaloside IV (AsIV), an active ingredient isolated from traditional Chinese medicine astragalus membranaceus, is beneficial to cardiovascular health. This study aimed to characterize the functional role of AsIV against adriamycin (ADR)-induced cardiomyopathy. Here, healthy rats were treated with ADR and/or AsIV for 35 days. We found that AsIV protected the rats against ADR-induced cardiomyopathy characterized by myocardial fibrosis and cardiac dysfunction. Meanwhile, ADR increased type I and III collagens, TGF-β, NOX2, and NOX4 expression and SMAD2/3 activity in the left ventricles of rats, while those effects were countered by AsIV through suppressing oxidative stress. Moreover, ADR was found to promote cardiac ferroptosis, whereas administration of AsIV attenuated the process via activating Nrf2 signaling pathway and the subsequent GPx4 expression increasing. These results suggest that AsIV might play a protective role against ADR-induced myocardial fibrosis, which may partly attribute to its anti-ferroptotic action by enhancing Nrf2 signaling.

Aortic dissection (AD) is a serious, life-threatening disease. It is currently crucial for AD patients to be transferred to a specialised hospital in a safe and timely manner. For this reason, the search for clinical and imaging changes related to transportation risk is becoming increasingly important. The transportation risks of AD patients were assessed by studying the correlation between computed tomography angiography (CTA) parameters and shock index. Thirty-six cases of AD confirmed with 64-slice volumetric CT (VCT) (18 cases of Stanford type A and 18 cases of type B) were divided into a high-risk group (14 cases, six Stanford type A and eight type B) and a low-risk group (22 cases, 12 Stanford type A and 10 type B) according to the modified Early Warning Score. The shock index (ratio of heart rate to systolic blood pressure) and measured CTA parameters were compared between the high-risk group and the low-risk group, and the correlation between the measured CTA parameters and shock index was analysed. The shock index and ratio of false/true lumen were compared between Stanford type A and type B, and no statistically significant differences were found. The shock index and ratio of false/true lumen were compared between the high-risk group and low-risk group, revealing a statistically significant difference (p

Nowadays in the IT convergence environment, the Service Oriented Architecture has its unique significance. The RBAC model has a variety of advantages in protecting the security of services. When the network is extended to a certain scale, it must be divided into multi domains for convenient management. However, the study to the RBAC model can be applied in multi-domain environment is still lacked. Corresponding feasible implementation architectures for the individual and composite services are also in weak. In this paper, we proposed a domain model and a domain based RBAC model can better adapt to the multi-domain security requirements. Then based on the model we designed feasible and efficient access control architectures respectively focusing on the individual services and different type of composite services. The evaluation cases showed the proposed model and implementation architectures achieved desired effects and the performances are in promising.

Graded porous titanium scaffolds with a pore size of 300–400 μm are prepared by sintering. Their mechanical properties and porosity are investigated. Compared with common titanium scaffolds, the mechanical properties of graded specimens can be improved by introducing graded structure. The graded porous titanium scaffold consists of inner, middle, and outer layers. When the outer layer porosity of the graded specimen is increased from 67 to 72%, the Young’s modulus of the graded specimen increases from 3.29 to 4.72 GPa, meanwhile the compressive strength increases from 131.9 to 165 MPa, respectively. These results suggest that the graded porous titanium scaffold has potential application for tissue engineering scaffolds under load-bearing conditions.

Cathepsin S (CTSS) is a lysosomal cysteine endopeptides of the papain family. In the present study, CTSS gene was isolated from miiuy croaker (Miichthys miiuy) by expressed sequence tag analysis. The complete miiuy croaker CTSS cDNA comprised 1,454 nucleotides, including 56 bp at the 5'-UTR and 394 bp at the 3'-UTR. The open reading frame is 1,017 bp, and it encodes 338 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of 37.1 kDa. BLAST analysis revealed that miiuy croaker cathepsin S shared high similarity with other known cathepsin S, and it showed significant homology with that of Japanese flounder, the degree of conservation of the miiuy croaker CTSS nucleotide sequence in comparison with other teleost species ranged from 63.0 to 81.7%. The N-linked glycosylation sites and catalytic sites are conserved in miiuy croaker CTSS. The CTSS transcript was expressed in all tissues examined; high levels of transcripts of CTSS were detected liver, muscle, and fin. These results provide important information for further exploring the roles of cathepsin S in antigen processing.

The microstructures, wettabilities and mechanical properties of Sn–9Zn–xAg (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1 wt%) lead-free solders were investigated, respectively in this paper. Results show that, when the quantity of Ag added to the solder is 0.3 wt%, the microstructure of the solder becomes finer and more uniform than Sn–9Zn, and when the quantity of Ag is exceeded 0.3 wt% (upto 0.5–1 wt%), the AgZn3 intermetallic compounds appear in the solder. In particular, adding 0.3 wt% Ag improves the wettability due to the better oxidation resistance of the Sn–9Zn–0.3Ag solder. Results also indicate that adding 0.3 wt% Ag to the solder enhances mechanical property of soldered joint, at which the fracture micrographs show that plenty of small and uniform dimples could be observed on the Sn–9Zn–0.3Ag soldered joints fractures. When the content of Ag is upto 1 wt%, some Cu–Zn and Ag–Zn intermetallic compounds appear on the bottom of dimples, and the mechanical property of the soldered joint decreases.

This paper reports on the nematicidal activity of methylene bisthiocyanate (MBT) on the eggs and juveniles of Meloidogyne spp. Mortality of second-stage juveniles of Meloidogyne spp. was over 97% and the inhibition of egg hatching was above 94% when treated with 4.2% MBT EC at 1.25 mg a.i./L. The activity of MBT was not significantly higher than that of abamectin for inhibition of egg hatching. The efficacy of 4.2% MBT EC for controlling root-knot nematode in tomato was tested in pots that were treated by drenching the soil with 4.2% MBT EC diluted 550, 666, 832, 1110-fold, covered with plastic film for 3 days, and then aired for 4, 6, 8 or 10 days, respectively, before transplantation. Efficacy, as assessed by root galling, increased with increasing concentration of 4.2% MBT EC or decreasing interval between soil treatment and transplantation. Efficacy ranged from 100% for 7-week-old seedlings transplanted 7 days after soil treatment with 4.2% MBT EC diluted 550-fold to 33% for 6-week-old seedlings transplanted 13 days after soil treatment with 4.2% MBT EC diluted 1110-fold.