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Two previously undescribed dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans, named sieverlignans D–E (1–2), as well as eight known ones (3–10), were isolated from the aerial parts of Artemisia sieversiana. Their structures were elucidated from extensive spectroscopic analysis, including HRMS, NMR and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) experiments. This study is the first to report dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans in the genus Artemisia and this plant. All the compounds were evaluated for their anti-neuroinflammatory activities on the lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced nitric oxide production in BV-2 murine microglial cells. Compounds 1 and 6 exhibited the moderate activities with their IC50 values of 47.7 and 21.9 μM, compared to a positive control quercetin with the IC50 value of 16.0 μM.

A new lignan, named sieverlignan C (1), as well as nine known compounds (2–10), were isolated from the leaves and stems of Artemisia sieversiana. The structure of the new lignan was elucidated from detailed spectroscopic analysis, including HR-MS, NMR, and circular dichroism experiments. All the compounds were isolated from the A. sieversiana plant for the first time.

Background Stroke is a leading cause of death and functional impairment in older people. To assess the prospective association between fasting blood glucose-to-glycated hemoglobin ratio and all-cause mortality and poor prognosis in stroke patients. Methods A total of 971 Chinese inpatients with acute stroke (mean age of 65.7) were consecutively enrolled in the prospective clinical study and followed up for 12 months after discharge. Stress hyperglycemia was measured using the ratio of fasting blood glucose (FBG, mmol/L)/glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c, %). The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, and secondary outcomes were poor prognosis defined as infectious complications, a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ≥ 6, a Barthel Index score ≤ 60, or a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 3–6, presented as multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) across the quartiles of the FBG/HbA1c ratio. Results There were 35 (4.1%) all-cause deaths at 3 months and 85 (11.4%) at 12 months. The inpatients with the highest quartile of the FBG/HbA1c ratio had a higher risk of all-cause death at 3 months (adjusted OR: 5.16, 95% CI: 1.03–25.74) and at 12 months (adjusted OR: 2.59, 95% CI: 1.14–5.89)) and a higher risk of infectious complications (adjusted OR 2.37, 95% CI 1.27–4.43) and dysfunction (adjusted OR 1.79, 95% CI 1.06–3.01) during hospitalization than inpatients with the lowest quartile. Conclusions Stress hyperglycemia, measured by the FBG/HbA1c ratio, was associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including all-cause death, infectious complications, and dysfunction after stroke.

It is well known that mutations in the gene coding for amyloid precursor protein are responsible for autosomal dominant forms of Alzheimer’s disease. Proteolytic processing of the protein leads to a number of metabolites including the amyloid beta peptide. Although brain amyloid precursor protein expression and amyloid beta production are associated with the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, it is clear that amyloid precursor protein is expressed in numerous cell types and tissues. Here we demonstrate that amyloid precursor protein is involved in regulating the phenotype of both adipocytes and peripheral macrophages and is required for high fat diet-dependent weight gain in mice. These data suggest that functions of this protein include modulation of the peripheral immune system and lipid metabolism. This biology may have relevance not only to the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease but also diet-associated obesity.

The corrosion behavior of Al-Zn-Sn-Ga alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution was investigated by corrosion morphology observation and electrochemical testing. The experimental results show that there exist three stages during the course of corrosion. At the initial stage, pitting occurs surrounding the precipitates, which is driven by the galvanic couple effect. At the middle stage, pitting rapidly extends toward the horizontal direction, forming the shallow circular structure caused by the deposition of Ga ions around Sn. At the final stage, the new active sites led to the continuous corrosion of the alloy.

The numerical thermal mechanical simulation of radial forging process of steel H13 stepped shaft with GFM (Gesellschaft fur Fertigungstechnik und Maschinenbau) forging machine was carried out by three-dimensional finite element code DEFORM 3D. According to the effective plastic strain, the mean stress and the mean plastic strain distribution of the radial forging, the forging penetration efficiency (FPE) was studied throughout each operation. The results show that the effective plastic strain in the center of the forging is always greater than zero for the desirable larger axial drawing velocity. The mean stress in the center of the workpiece is proposed to describe hydrostatic pressure in this paper. There is compressive strain layer beneath the surface of the workpiece to be found, while there is tensile strain core in the center of the workpiece. These results could be a valuable reference for designing the similar forging operations.

This laboratory has generated a series of seven cadmium (Cd(+2))- and six arsenite (As(+3))-transformed urothelial cancer cell lines by exposure of parental UROtsa cells to each agent under similar conditions of exposure. In this study, the seven Cd(+2)-transformed cell lines were characterized for the expression of keratin 6, 16, and 17 while the six As(+3) cell lines were assessed for the expression of keratin 7 and 19. The results showed that the series of Cd(+2)-transformed cell lines and their respective transplants all had expression of keratin 6, 16, and 17 mRNA and protein. The expression of keratin 6, 16, and 17 was also correlated with areas of the urothelial tumor cells that had undergone squamous differentiation. The results also showed that four of the six As(+3)-transformed cell lines had expression of keratin 7 and 19 mRNA and protein and produced subcutaneous tumors with intense focal staining for keratin 7 and 19. The other two As(+3)-transformed cell lines had very low expression of keratin 7 mRNA and protein and produced subcutaneous tumors having no immunoreactivity for keratin 7; although keratin 19 expression was still present. The peritoneal tumors produced by one of these two cell lines regained expression of keratin 7 protein. The present results, coupled with previous studies, indicate that malignant transformation of UROtsa cells by Cd(+2) or As(+3) produce similar patterns of keratin 6, 7, 16, 17, and 19 in the resulting series of cell lines and their respective tumors.

The continuous heating transformation program is developed to investigate the influence of continuous annealing technological parameters on recrystalization for cold-rolled strip in galvanizing line. This program can be used for the calculation of the continuous annealing temperature field of strip steel, determination of the start and end time of recrystallization in continuous heating process, and procurement of the continuous heating transformation diagram. The temperature field for continuous annealing is simulated by means of finite difference method. Based on the Scheil superposition principle, the continuous heating transformation curve is obtained by using time temperature transformation (TTT) curve which is measured experimentally. The developed program has been used in practice, and the strip speed on production line increases by more than 10%.

Warm surface rolling is a working process between room temperature and re-crystallization temperature. With warm surface rolling of steel grade 45 grooved axle, its fatigue lifespan was measured by the endurance bending test. The influence of surface rolling reduction on the axle fatigue life period was experimentally studied at different surface rolling temperatures. The experimental results show that the fatigue life of the steel axles can be significantly improved by the warm surface rolling process. The optimum rolling reductions for the maximum fatigue life at different warm surface rolling temperatures were explored. The microstructures of the steel axles were analyzed. The surface strength improved by refining grains after the warm surface rolling was calculated by the Hall-Petch model. These research achievements could be also valuable to the relevant works.

Recently, we found that chromosome 8p deletion might be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis by analyzing the differences in chromosomal alterations between primary tumors and their matched metastatic lesions of HCC with comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) (Qin et al. 1999). To further confirm this interesting finding, the genomic changes of two models bearing human HCC with different metastatic potentials (LCI-D20 and LCI-D35), and the new human HCC cell line with high metastatic potential (MHCC97) were analyzed by CGH. Gains on 1q, 6q, 7p, and 8q, and losses on 13p, 14p, 19p, 21, and 22 were detected in both LCI-D20 and LCI-D35 models. However, high copy number amplification of a minimum region at 1q12-q22 and 12q, and deletions on 1p32-pter, 3p21-pter, 8p, 9p, 10q, 14q, and 15p were detected only in the LCI-D20 model. Gains on 1p21-p32, 2p13-p21, 6p12-pter, 9p, 15q, and 16q11-q21, and losses on 2p23-pter, 4q24-qter, 7q31-qter, 12q, 17p, and 18 were detected only in the LCI-D35 model. The chromosomal aberration patterns in the MHCC97 cell line were similar to its parent LCI-D20 model, except that gains on 19q and losses on 4, 5, 10q, and 13q were found only in the cell line. These results provide some indirect clues to the metastasis-related chromosomal aberrations of HCC and further support the finding that 8p deletion is associated with HCC metastasis. 1q12-22 and 12q might harbor a novel oncogene(s) that contributes to the development and progression of HCC. Amplification on 8q and deletions on 4q and 17p may be not necessary for HCC metastasis.