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Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive cardiovascular disease with high mortality. However, there were no efficient medical drugs for PAH to enormously improve the survival and quality of life measures. The present study aimed to explore the protective effect of baicalin against experimental PAH in vivo and vitro. All the experimental rats received intraperitoneal injection of monocrotaline (MCT) to induce PAH model. Baicalin was given by intragastric administration from 2 days after MCT injection. Forty animals were randomly divided into four groups: Control, MCT, saline-, and baicalin-treated groups (n = 10 in each). Post-operation, hemodynamic data, and index of right ventricular hypertrophy (RVHI) were recorded to evaluate the inhibition of baicalin on MCT-induced PAH. Furthermore, pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) model induced by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was used to observe the inhibition of vascular cells proliferation in vitro. The results demonstrated that baicalin significantly attenuated MCT-induced right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP), the index of right ventricular hypertrophy, and vessel wall thickness; inhibit inflammatory and cell proliferation induced by MCT or TNF-α, respectively. In addition, we found that baicalin might protect against experimental PAH via regulating the TNF-α/BMPR2 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the presented hybrid simulation testing method for the reduced scale model, the numerical simulation of the measurement error, which is simulated by the random number of the normal distribution, on both the shear model and the bending-shear model have been finished by using the multi-language programming technology with MATLAB and OpenSEES. The measurement error used in the numerical simulation analysis, which meets the code of JGJ/T 101-2015 'Specification of testing methods for earthquake resistant building', is obtained from the normal distribution random number by using the Matlab. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the errors from the 1/2 and 1/4 reduced scale model are basically equivalent with the ones from the full-scale model in both the relative error of the peak point and the accumulated error. With the reduced-scale more than 1/4, the accumulated errors increase with the increase of the peak ground acceleration. Meanwhile, the accumulated errors decrease with the increase of beam column linear stiffness ratio under the same peak ground acceleration. The hybrid simulation test of the 1/2 reduced-scale steel frame structure was completed in the laboratory, and the accuracy and feasibility of the hybrid simulation testing method are verified by the test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]