Type 2 diabetes mellitus-related environmental factors and the gut microbiota: emerging evidence and challenges

The gut microbiota is a group of over 38 trillion bacterial cells in the human microbiota that plays an important role in the regulation of human metabolism through its symbiotic relationship with the host. Changes in the gut microbial ecosystem are associated with increased susceptibility to metabolic disease in humans. However, the composition of the gut microbiota in those with type 2 diabetes mellitus and in the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases is not well understood. This article reviews the relationship between environmental factors and the gut microbiota in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Finally, we discuss the goal of treating type 2 diabetes mellitus by modifying the gut microbiota and the challenges that remain in this area

The Effect of Different Laser Irradiation on Cyclophosphamide-Induced Leucopenia in Rats

Objective. To assess the effect of different lasers on cyclophosphamide- (CTX-) induced leucopenia in rats. Methods. 11 rats were normal control and 55 rats were injected with a dose of 80 mg/kg CTX for the first time and 40 mg/kg on the 6th and the 11th days to establish a leucopenia model. Rats of the irradiation groups received a 5-minute laser irradiation with either single 10.6 μm or 650 nm laser or alternatively 10.6 μm–650 nm laser irradiation, besides a sham treatment on acupoint Dazhui (DU 14) and acupoint Zusanli (ST 36) of both sides, 8 times for 16 days. Normal and model control group received no treatment. Results. On day 16 after the first CTX injection, the WBC counts from all the laser irradiation groups were significantly higher than those from the model control and the sham group (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences compared with the normal control (P>0.05). The TI of 10.6 μm–650 nm laser irradiation group was significantly higher than that of the model control group (P<0.05). Conclusions. The single and combined 10.6 μm and 650 nm laser irradiation on ST36 and DU14 accelerated the recovery of the WBC count in the rats with leucopenia

Multiphysics vibration FE model of piezoelectric macro fibre composite on carbon fibre composite structures

This paper presents a finite element (FE) model developed using commercial FE software COMSOL to simulate the multiphysical process of pieozoelectric vibration energy harvesting (PVEH), involving the dynamic mechanical and electrical behaviours of piezoelectric macro fibre composite (MFC) on carbon fibre composite structures. The integration of MFC enables energy harvesting, sensing and actuation capabilities, with applications found in aerospace, automotive and renewable energy. There is an existing gap in the literature on modelling the dynamic response of PVEH in relation to real-world vibration data. Most simulations were either semi-analytical MATLAB models that are geometry unspecific, or basic FE simulations limited to sinusoidal analysis. However, the use of representative environment vibration data is crucial to predict practical behaviour for industrial development. Piezoelectric device physics involving solid mechanics and electrostatics were combined with electrical circuit defined in this FE model. The structure was dynamically excited by interpolated vibration data files, while orthotropic material properties for MFC and carbon fibre composite were individually defined for accuracy. The simulation results were validated by experiments with <10﹪ deviation, providing confidence for the proposed multiphysical FE model to design and optimise PVEH smart composite structures

A New Classification Method of Infrasound Events Using Hilbert-Huang Transform and Support Vector Machine

Infrasound is a type of low frequency signal that occurs in nature and results from man-made events, typically ranging in frequency from 0.01 Hz to 20 Hz. In this paper, a classification method based on Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) and support vector machine (SVM) is proposed to discriminate between three different natural events. The frequency spectrum characteristics of infrasound signals produced by different events, such as volcanoes, are unique, which lays the foundation for infrasound signal classification. First, the HHT method was used to extract the feature vectors of several kinds of infrasound events from the Hilbert marginal spectrum. Then, the feature vectors were classified by the SVM method. Finally, the present of classification and identification accuracy are given. The simulation results show that the recognition rate is above 97.7%, and that approach is effective for classifying event types for small samples

The Immediate Analgesic Effect of Acupuncture for Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Although acupuncture is gaining popularity for the treatment of nonspecific pain, the immediate analgesic effect of acupuncture has never been reviewed. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on disease-related pain to critically evaluate the immediate effect of acupuncture for pain relief. The PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases as well as three Chinese databases including the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, and VIP platforms were searched through November 2016. The outcome was the extent of pain relief from baseline within 30 min of the first acupuncture treatment. We evaluated all RCTs comparing acupuncture with other interventions for disease-related pain. Real acupuncture showed statistically significantly greater pain relief effect compared to sham acupuncture (SMD, −0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], −1.00 to −0.12; 9 RCTs) and analgesic injection (SMD, −1.33; 95% CI, −1.94 to −0.72; 3 RCTs). No serious adverse events were documented. Acupuncture was associated with a greater immediate pain relief effect compared to sham acupuncture and analgesic injections. Further RCTs with stricter design and methodologies are warranted to evaluate the immediate pain relief effect of acupuncture for more disease-related pain

Flexibility evaluation of psammophytes using Young’s modulus based on 3D numerical simulation

Flexible psammophytes play an important role in controlling soil wind erosion and desertification, owing to their characteristics. Although flexibility of psammophytes has been considered in previous studies, the interaction between flexible psammophytes and the surrounding airflow field still remained unclear. In this study, we used the Young’s modulus to describe plant flexibility and conducted a 3D computational fluid dynamics simulation using a standard k-ε model and a fluid–structure interaction model. Taking Caragana korshinskii (Caragana), a typical psammophyte, as the research object, we constructed 3D geometric models with different diameters to simulate the airflow field around the flexible psammophytes. By comparing with the simulation results of rigid plants and simulation results of flexible plants at different wind speeds, we could verify the rationality of the simulation method. Based on the simulation results, the maximum swing amplitude of the model and the Young’s modulus were found to have a negative correlation, presenting an exponential functional relationship with good fitting. The relationship between the actual Young’s modulus of the plant branches and that of different diameter models in the numerical simulation was also established. This study is expected to improve our basic understanding of the interaction between flexible psammophytes and the surrounding airflow field, and provide some qualitative reference for the numerical simulation of the airflow field around flexible psammophytes

A capsule network-based method for identifying transcription factors

Transcription factors (TFs) are typical regulators for gene expression and play versatile roles in cellular processes. Since it is time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive to detect it by using physical methods, it is desired to develop a computational method to detect TFs. Here, we presented a capsule network-based method for identifying TFs. This method is an end-to-end deep learning method, consisting mainly of an embedding layer, bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) layer, capsule network layer, and three fully connected layers. The presented method obtained an accuracy of 0.8820, being superior to the state-of-the-art methods. These empirical experiments showed that the inclusion of the capsule network promoted great performances and that the capsule network-based representation was superior to the property-based representation for distinguishing between TFs and non-TFs. We also implemented the presented method into a user-friendly web server, which is freely available at http://www.biolscience.cn/Capsule_TF/ for all scientific researchers

Eriodictyol protects skin cells from UVA irradiation-induced photodamage by inhibition of the MAPK signaling pathway

Solar UVA irradiation-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) induces the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1), leading to photoaging, however the molecular mechanism remains unclear. In the present study, we found that eriodictyol remarkably reduces UVA-mediated ROS generation and protects the skin cells from oxidative damage and the ensuing cell death. Moreover eriodictyol pretreatment significantly down-regulates the UVA-induced MMP-1 expression, and lowers the inflammatory responses within the skin cells. Pretreatment with eriodictyol upregulates the expression of tissue inhibitory metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1) and collagen-I (COL-1) at the transcriptional level in a dose-dependent manner. UVA-induced phosphorylation levels of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 leading to increased MMP-1 expression are significantly reduced in eriodictyol-treated skin cells. In addition, eriodictyol pretreatment significantly suppresses inflammatory cytokines and inhibits the activation of MAPK signaling cascades in skin cells. Taken together, our results demonstrate that eriodictyol has both potent anti-inflammatory and anti-photoaging effects.</p