Quercetin, kaempferol, and pterostilbene are abundant in berries. The anti-oxidative properties of these constituents may contribute to cancer chemoprevention. However, their precise mechanisms of ...action and their combinatorial effects are not completely understood. Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) regulates anti-oxidative stress enzymes and Phase II drug metabolizing/detoxifying enzymes by binding to antioxidant response element (ARE). This study aimed to investigate the anti-oxidative stress activities of quercetin, kaempferol, and pterostilbene individually and in combination, as well as the involvement of the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway. Quercetin, kaempferol, and pterostilbene all exhibited strong free-radical scavenging activity in the DPPH assay. The MTS assay revealed that low concentration combinations we tested were relatively non-toxic to HepG2-C8 cells. The results of the DCFH-DA assay and combination index (CI) indicated that quercetin, kaempferol, and pterostilbene attenuated intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels when pretreated individually and had synergistic effects when used in combination. In addition, the combination treatment significantly induced ARE and increased the mRNA and protein expression of Nrf2-regulated genes. Collectively, our study demonstrated that the berry constituents quercetin, kaempferol, and pterostilbene activated the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway and exhibited synergistic anti-oxidative stress activity at appropriate concentrations.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Water conservation is an important service function of ecosystems. A timely understanding of dynamic changes in the water conservation function is important for the protection and reconstruction of ...water resources. Based on remote sensing data, meteorological data, land cover data, and the "Technical Criterion for Ecosystem Status Evaluation" issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, a comprehensive evaluation system was designed to assess the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area from 2005 to 2015. The system created from four aspects, including ecological structure, ecological stress, water balance and landscape ecology. The results showed that from 2005 to 2015, the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area first decreased and then increased, and the overall trend was upward. The increasing areas were mainly concentrated around Baiyangdian and near the grassland. Among all evaluated indicators, the precipitation compliance rate index fluctuated the most from -16.62 in 2010 to 6.70 in 2015. The evapotranspiration index was the largest in 2010 (6.47) and the smallest in 2005 (3.52). The Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) showed that the drought was the severest in 2010 and the least severe in 2015. However, the other indicators remain relatively stable. From the perspective of the spatial distribution, the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area was gradually enhanced from north to south.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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•Astaxanthin (AST) was more potent DPPH radical scavenger than DHA and EPA (PUFAs).•AST and PUFAs showed synergistic antioxidant effects at low concentrations.•AST and PUFAs alone or ...in combination elevated cellular GSH level.•AST and PUFAs alone or in combination elevated total antioxidant activity.•AST and PUFAs induced mRNA expression of Nrf2, HO-1, NQO1 and GSTM2.
Oxidative stress is a major driver of many diseases, including cancer. The induction of Nrf2–ARE-mediated antioxidant enzymes provides a cellular defense against oxidative stress. Astaxanthin (AST), a red dietary carotenoid, possesses potent antioxidant activity, and inhibits oxidative damages. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), are important nutritional essentials and potent antioxidants found in fish oil. In the present study, we investigated whether AST in combination with low concentrations of DHA or EPA has a synergistic antioxidant effect in a HepG2-C8-ARE-luciferase cell line system. Using free radical scavenging DPPH assay, AST was more potent DPPH radical scavenger than DHA and EPA. MTS assay revealed that AST was non-toxic up to 100μM compared with more toxic DHA and EPA. The three compounds alone and in combination elevated cellular GSH levels, increased the total antioxidant activity, induced mRNA expression of Nrf2 and Nrf2 downstream target genes NQO1, HO-1, and GSTM2. Lower concentrations of AST show synergistic effects when combined with DHA or EPA. In summary, our study shows synergistic antioxidant effects of AST and PUFAs at low concentrations. The Nrf2/ARE pathway plays an important role in the antioxidative effects induced by AST, DHA, and EPA.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
This article aims to explore the potential categories of college students' sports behavior motivation and the differences between different family social classes on potential categories.
In total, ...1,092 college students were investigated in this study.
This article used the "College Students' Sports Behavior Motivation Questionnaire" to survey 1,092 college students using the whole group sampling method. The potential profile analysis method was applied to classify the types of college students' sports behavior motivation and further analyze the characteristics of different family social classes and sports behavior motivation.
College students' sports behavior motivation types can be divided into the following four categories: "low motivation type" (0.82%), "healthy appearance type" (11.45%), "healthy fun type" (37.36%), and "high motivation type" (50.37%). The higher the family's social class, the more the sports behavior motivation of college students tends to be healthy appearance, health, fun, and high motivation. The lower the family social class, the more motivational sports behavior of college students tends to be low motivation. The better the perception of health, the higher the probability that college students belong to the high-motivation type. The fewer chronic diseases that college students have are associated with a healthy appearance and high motivation.
There is a certain relationship between the type of college students' sports behavior motivation and their family social class. Therefore, in school physical education, we should open all kinds of sports activities according to college students' sports behavior motivation needs and focus on college students with lower family social class in order to intervene precisely on their motivation for sports behaviors, improve participation, and promote the overall health of college students.
Ideal wound dressing materials should be active components in the healing process. Bacterial cellulose (BC) has attracted a great deal of attention as novel wound dressing materials; however, it has ...no intrinsic antimicrobial activity. To explore the practical application values of BC and develop novel wound dressing materials, a series of composite membranes based on BC and polymeric ionic liquids (BC/PILs, composed of BC, and PILs formed by choline and different amino acids) with antimicrobial activity were synthesized by an ex situ method. The physicochemical and antimicrobial properties and biocompatibility of these membranes were systematically investigated. The results indicated that BC/PIL membranes with excellent properties could be obtained by adjusting the concentration and type of PILs. Several kinds of BC/PIL membranes exhibited good biocompatibility and high antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and fungus. The anionic PILs played important roles in the antimicrobial activity of BC/PIL membranes. The obtained membranes provided a novel promising candidate for wound dressing materials.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Global water scarcity is exacerbating owing to climate change and pollution, making the demand for clean water more challenging with the growth of the global economy and population. Membrane ...filtration technologies have been widely applied in drinking water purification due to their energy efficiency while facing challenges like fouling, degradation and trade-offs, such as selectivity and permeability. The sustainable development of our society demands further understanding and improvement of those membranes. In this review, the basic structures of polymer-based water purification membranes including the effective layer for separation, the support layer and the possible top protective layer are presented. Details include the conventional membranes for microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF), the effective layers for separation in thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, electrospun nanofibrous membranes for MF, UF, and membrane distillation (MD), as well as the emerging self-assembled block copolymer membranes. Furthermore, the conventional support layers and electrospun nanofibrous support layers for reverse osmosis (RO) and forward osmosis (FO) processes, and the top protective layers are discussed. The materials, membrane structures and properties, modification strategies, possible interlayers, interconnects, interpenetration, and interactions between different layers are discussed, with the emphasis on the cost-effectiveness of various membranes.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Malignant ovarian tumors bear the highest mortality rate among all gynecological cancers. Both late tumor diagnosis and tolerance to available chemical therapy increase patient mortality. Therefore, ...it is both urgent and important to identify biomarkers facilitating early identification and novel agents preventing recurrence. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that epigenetic aberrations (particularly histone modifications) are crucial in tumor initiation and development. Histone acetylation and methylation are respectively regulated by acetyltransferases-deacetylases and methyltransferases-demethylases, both of which are implicated in ovarian cancer pathogenesis. In this review, we summarize the most recent discoveries pertaining to ovarian cancer development arising from the imbalance of histone acetylation and methylation, and provide insight into novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of ovarian carcinoma.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
As a motivational factor, uniqueness drives individuals to seek and choose unique goods or experiences. The act of wearing masks obscures individuals' facial features and influences their desire for ...uniqueness. This study aims to explore how wearing masks promotes individual uniqueness- seeking behavior. Three experiments were performed using various product categories (Starbucks coffee cups, sweatshirts, suitcases, and baseball caps) and sample types (college student and adult samples). Experiment results show that wearing masks obscures individuals' facial features and weakens their self- perceived uniqueness, thereby increasing their willingness to actively purchase unique products. This study is the first to examine the effect of wearing masks on individuals' choice of unique products. Practically, the results suggest that customized products can compensate for the lack of self-perceived uniqueness brought about by facial occlusion, thus providing valuable guidance for companies and retailers that offer customized services in formulating and designing marketing strategies.
Skeleton has emerged as an endocrine organ which is both capable of regulating energy metabolism and being a target for it. Glutamine is the most bountiful and flexible amino acid in the body which ...provides adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) demands for cells. Emerging evidences support that glutamine which acts as the second metabolic regulator after glucose exerts crucial roles in bone homeostasis at cellular level, including the lineage allocation and proliferation of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), the matrix mineralization of osteoblasts, and the biosynthesis in chondrocytes. The integrated mechanism consisting of WNT, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling pathway in a glutamine-dependent pattern is responsible to regulate the complex intrinsic biological process, despite more extensive molecules are deserved to be elucidated in glutamine metabolism further. Indeed, dysfunctional glutamine metabolism enhances the development of degenerative bone diseases, such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, and glutamine or glutamine progenitor supplementation can partially restore bone defects which may promote treatment of bone diseases, although the mechanisms are not quite clear. In this review, we will summarize and update the latest research findings and clinical trials on the crucial regulatory roles of glutamine metabolism in BMSCs and BMSC-derived bone cells, also followed with the osteoclasts which are important in bone resorption.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is a common cardiovascular disease and recognizing low prognosis risk patients with PTE accurately is significant for clinical treatment. This study evaluated ...the value of federated learning (FL) technology in PTE prognosis risk assessment while ensuring the security of clinical data.
A retrospective dataset consisted of PTE patients from 12 hospitals were collected, and 19 physical indicators of patients were included to train the FL-based prognosis assessment model to predict the 30-day death event. Firstly, multiple machine learning methods based on FL were compared to choose the superior model. And then performance of models trained on the independent (IID) and non-independent identical distributed(Non-IID) datasets was calculated and they were tested further on Real-world data. Besides, the optimal model was compared with pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI), simplified PESI (sPESI), Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH).
The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of logistic regression(0.842) outperformed convolutional neural network (0.819) and multi layer perceptron (0.784). Under IID, AUC of model trained using FL(Fed) on the training, validation and test sets was 0.852 ± 0.002, 0.867 ± 0.012 and 0.829 ± 0.004. Under Real-world, AUC of Fed was 0.855 ± 0.005, 0.882 ± 0.003 and 0.835 ± 0.005. Under IID and Real-world, AUC of Fed surpassed centralization model(NonFed) (0.847 ± 0.001, 0.841 ± 0.001 and 0.811 ± 0.001). Under Non-IID, although AUC of Fed (0.846 ± 0.047) outperformed NonFed (0.841 ± 0.001) on validation set, it (0.821 ± 0.016 and 0.799 ± 0.031) slightly lagged behind NonFed (0.847 ± 0.001 and 0.811 ± 0.001) on the training and test sets. In practice, AUC of Fed (0.853, 0.884 and 0.842) outshone PESI (0.812, 0.789 and 0.791), sPESI (0.817, 0.770 and 0.786) and PUMCH(0.848, 0.814 and 0.832) on the training, validation and test sets. Additionally, Fed (0.842) exhibited higher AUC values across test sets compared to those trained directly on the clients (0.758, 0.801, 0.783, 0.741, 0.788).
In this study, the FL based machine learning model demonstrated commendable efficacy on PTE prognostic risk prediction, rendering it well-suited for deployment in hospitals.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK