Pharmacotherapy using natural substances can be currently regarded as a very promising future alternative to conventional therapy. With the rapid development of biotechnologies and analytical ...techniques, a great number of methods have been developed for the identification and quantification of the material, extracts, and products of natural ingredients. The advances available today. The need for safer drugs without side effects has led to the use of natural ingredients with proven safety. In recent years, some bioactive polysaccharides isolated from natural sources have attracted much attention in the field of biochemistry and pharmacology. As an example, polysaccharides or their glycoconjugates were shown to exhibit multiple biological activities including anticarcinogenic, anticoagulant, immunostimulating, antioxidant, etc. During the last several years, we have witnessed a steady expansion in the number of publications that focus in antioxidant polysaccharides. This review presents current findings on the latest advancements and trends in antioxidant polysaccharides isolated from the following: plants, fungi, bacteria, animal sources, and algae. Some interesting studies focus on investigation of the relationship between their structure and antioxidant activity, elucidation of their antioxidant mechanism at the molecular level, and improvement of their various biological activities by chemical modifications. Although the mechanism of their antioxidant action is still not completely clear, these polysaccharides are suggested to enhance cell-mediated immune responses in vivo and in vitro and act as biological response modifiers.
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•A total of 17 antibiotics were detected in water, sediment (biofilm), organism and feed samples.•Greenhouse ponds were more likely to accumulate antibiotics compared to outdoor ...ponds.•Zn as the coexisting contaminant was significantly correlated with antibiotic concentrations.•Aquaculture wastewater and domestic sewage were potential sources of antibiotics.•Ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin may present high ecological and resistance risks.
This study focused on the distribution, combined pollution, potential source and risk assessment of 17 antibiotics in an aquaculture ecosystem surrounding the Yellow sea, North China. Antibiotics were detected in various matrices (seawater, sediment/biofilm, organism and feed) in different aquaculture modes (greenhouse and outdoor aquaculture) during the wet and dry seasons in coastal areas of Shandong province. The innovation points of the study were as follows: (1) To the best of our knowledge, this study was one of the few to investigate the occurrence and distribution of antibiotics in mariculture environments along the Yellow Sea coast; (2) Biofilms, a focus of the study, might act as a sink for antibiotics in the aquaculture ecosystem; and (3) The correlation of heavy metals and antibiotic concentrations was proved, which could correspondingly be used as an indicator for antibiotic concentrations in the studied area.
The levels of antibiotics in water were observed to be relatively low, at the ng/L level. Trimethoprim was the most prevalent antibiotic, and was detected in all water samples. Oxytetracycline was detected at high concentrations in biofilms (up to 1478.29 ng/g). Moreover, biofilms exhibited a higher antibiotic accumulation capacity compared to sediments. Concentrations of oxytetracycline and doxycycline were high in feed, while other antibiotics were almost undetected. Tetracycline was widely detected and the concentration of enrofloxacin was highest in organisms.
Correlation analysis demonstrated that environmental parameters and other coexisting contaminants (e.g. heavy metals) significantly affected antibiotic concentrations. In addition, the concentration of Zn was significantly correlated with the total antibiotic concentration and was proportional to several antibiotics in water and sediment (biofilm) samples (p < 0.01). High Mn concentrations were closely related to total and individual (e.g. sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine and enrofloxacin) antibiotic levels, which may result in the combined contamination of the environment. Antibiotics in estuaries and groundwater generally originated from aquaculture wastewater and untreated/treated domestic sewage. Most of the detected antibiotics posed no risk to the environment. Ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin found in water may present high ecological and resistance risks, while the two antibiotics observed to accumulate in fish may pose a considerable risk to human health through diet consumption. All antibiotics detected in seafood were lower than the respective maximum residue limits. This study can act as a reference for the government for the determination of antibiotic discharge standards in aquaculture wastewater and the establishment of a standardized antibiotic monitoring and management system.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Highlights • Guanabenz extended the lifespan of SOD1 G93A mice. • Guanabenz delayed the disease onset of SOD1 G93A mice. • Guanabenz improved motor performance in SOD1 G93A mice. • Guanabenz ...attenuated motor neuron loss in SOD1 G93A mice. • Guanabenz attenuated ER stress and mitochondrial stress.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Tumor metastasis is the major cause of death among cancer patients, with >90% of cancer-related death attributable to the spreading of metastatic cells to secondary organs. Store-operated Ca(2+) ...entry (SOCE) is the predominant Ca(2+) entry mechanism in most cancer cells, and stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) is the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca(2+) sensor for store-operated channels. Here we reported that the STIM1 was overexpressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. STIM1 overexpression in CRC was significantly associated with tumor size, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis status and serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen. Furthermore, ectopic expression of STIM1 promoted CRC cell motility, while depletion of STIM1 with short hairpin RNA inhibited CRC cell migration. Our data further suggested that STIM1 promoted CRC cell migration through increasing the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Importantly, ectopically expressed COX-2 or exogenous PGE2 were able to rescue migration defect in STIM1 knockdown CRC cells, and inhibition of COX-2 with ibuprofen and indomethacin abrogated STIM1-mediated CRC cell motility. In short, our data provided clinicopathological significance for STIM1 and SOCE in CRC progression, and implicated a role for COX-2 in STIM1-mediated CRC metastasis. Our studies also suggested a new approach to inhibit STIM1-mediated metastasis with COX-2 inhibitors.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
In an open‐label, 24‐month trial, 721 de novo heart transplant recipients were randomized to everolimus 1.5 mg or 3.0 mg with reduced‐dose cyclosporine, or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) 3 g/day with ...standard‐dose cyclosporine (plus corticosteroids ± induction). Primary efficacy endpoint was the 12‐month composite incidence of biopsy‐proven acute rejection, acute rejection associated with hemodynamic compromise, graft loss/retransplant, death or loss to follow‐up. Everolimus 1.5 mg was noninferior to MMF for this endpoint at month 12 (35.1% vs. 33.6%; difference 1.5% 97.5% CI: –7.5%, 10.6%) and month 24. Mortality to month 3 was higher with everolimus 1.5 mg versus MMF in patients receiving rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG) induction, mainly due to infection, but 24‐month mortality was similar (everolimus 1.5 mg 10.6% 30/282, MMF 9.2% 25/271). Everolimus 3.0 mg was terminated prematurely due to higher mortality. The mean (SD) 12‐month increase in maximal intimal thickness was 0.03 (0.05) mm with everolimus 1.5 mg versus 0.07 (0.11) mm with MMF (p < 0.001). Everolimus 1.5 mg was inferior to MMF for renal function but comparable in patients achieving predefined reduced cyclosporine trough concentrations. Nonfatal serious adverse events were more frequent with everolimus 1.5 mg versus MMF. Everolimus 1.5 mg with reduced‐dose cyclosporine offers similar efficacy to MMF with standard‐dose cyclosporine and reduces intimal proliferation at 12 months in de novo heart transplant recipients.
In this study comparing cardiac transplant recipients receiving one of two doses of everolimus with reduced dose cyclosporine to patients receiving mycophenolate mofetil with standard dose cyclosporine, the authors find no effect on acute cellular rejection, modestly reduced renal function, and a reduction in the incidence and severity of lesions defined by intravascular ultrasound. See editorial by Mehra on page 1119.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The rise of smartphones and web services made possible the large-scale collection of personal metadata. Information about individuals' location, phone call logs, or web-searches, is collected and ...used intensively by organizations and big data researchers. Metadata has however yet to realize its full potential. Privacy and legal concerns, as well as the lack of technical solutions for personal metadata management is preventing metadata from being shared and reconciled under the control of the individual. This lack of access and control is furthermore fueling growing concerns, as it prevents individuals from understanding and managing the risks associated with the collection and use of their data. Our contribution is two-fold: (1) we describe openPDS, a personal metadata management framework that allows individuals to collect, store, and give fine-grained access to their metadata to third parties. It has been implemented in two field studies; (2) we introduce and analyze SafeAnswers, a new and practical way of protecting the privacy of metadata at an individual level. SafeAnswers turns a hard anonymization problem into a more tractable security one. It allows services to ask questions whose answers are calculated against the metadata instead of trying to anonymize individuals' metadata. The dimensionality of the data shared with the services is reduced from high-dimensional metadata to low-dimensional answers that are less likely to be re-identifiable and to contain sensitive information. These answers can then be directly shared individually or in aggregate. openPDS and SafeAnswers provide a new way of dynamically protecting personal metadata, thereby supporting the creation of smart data-driven services and data science research.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Quantum thermal transport in nanostructures Wang, J.-S.; Wang, J.; Lü, J. T.
The European physical journal. B, Condensed matter physics,
04/2008, Volume:
62, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
.
In this colloquia review we discuss methods for thermal transport calculations for nanojunctions connected to two semi-infinite leads served as heat-baths. Our emphases are on fundamental quantum ...theory and atomistic models. We begin with an introduction of the Landauer formula for ballistic thermal transport and give its derivation from scattering wave point of view. Several methods (scattering boundary condition, mode-matching, Piccard and Caroli formulas) of calculating the phonon transmission coefficients are given. The nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method is reviewed and the Caroli formula is derived. We also give iterative methods and an algorithm based on a generalized eigenvalue problem for the calculation of surface Green's functions, which are starting point for an NEGF calculation. A systematic exposition for the NEGF method is presented, starting from the fundamental definitions of the Green's functions, and ending with equations of motion for the contour ordered Green's functions and Feynman diagrammatic expansion. In the later part, we discuss the treatments of nonlinear effects in heat conduction, including a phenomenological expression for the transmission, NEGF for phonon-phonon interactions, molecular dynamics (generalized Langevin) with quantum heat-baths, and electron-phonon interactions. Some new results are also shown. We briefly review the experimental status of the thermal transport measurements in nanostructures.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
ABSTRACT
We report the phase-connected timing ephemeris, polarization pulse profiles, Faraday rotation measurements, and Rotating-Vector-Model (RVM) fitting results of 12 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) ...discovered with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST survey (CRAFTS). The timing campaigns were carried out with FAST and Arecibo over 3 yr. 11 of the 12 pulsars are in neutron star–white dwarf binary systems, with orbital periods between 2.4 and 100 d. 10 of them have spin periods, companion masses, and orbital eccentricities that are consistent with the theoretical expectations for MSP–Helium white dwarf (He WD) systems. The last binary pulsar (PSR J1912−0952) has a significantly smaller spin frequency and a smaller companion mass, the latter could be caused by a low orbital inclination for the system. Its orbital period of 29 d is well within the range of orbital periods where some MSP–He WD systems have shown anomalous eccentricities, however, the eccentricity of PSR J1912−0952 is typical of what one finds for the remaining MSP–He WD systems.
We present a theoretical approach to use ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic nanoparticles as microwave nanomagnonic cavities to concentrate microwave magnetic fields into deeply subwavelength volumes ...∼10^{-13} mm^{3}. We show that the field in such nanocavities can efficiently couple to isolated spin emitters (spin qubits) positioned close to the nanoparticle surface reaching the single magnon-spin strong-coupling regime and mediate efficient long-range quantum state transfers between isolated spin emitters. Nanomagnonic cavities thus pave the way toward magnon-based quantum networks and magnon-mediated quantum gates.
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