To investigate the effects and the underlying mechanisms of salidroside on diabetic cardiomyopathy, diabetes was induced in mice by a long‐term high‐fat diet and a low‐dose injection of streptozocin. ...Measurements of cardiac function, biochemical analysis, and histopathological examinations were conducted to evaluate the therapeutic effects of salidroside. In this study, we found that diabetic mice exhibited decreased cardiac systolic function and impaired mitochondrial ultrastructure. Pre‐treatment with salidroside protected mice against myocardial dysfunction, reduced blood glucose, improved insulin resistance, and induced mitochondrial biogenesis. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were cultured to explore the mechanisms of salidroside in vitro. Salidroside alleviated decreased expression of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐γ coactivator 1‐alpha (PGC‐1α), mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) via phosphorylation of 5′ AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK), which may be associated with mitochondrial biogenesis. Salidroside also increased sirtuin‐3 (SIRT3) expression in cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, salidroside promoted the translocation of SIRT3 from cytoplasm to mitochondria and increased the deacetylation of mitochondrial proteins such as manganese‐dependent superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). In Conclusion, salidroside not only improved diabetes, but also ameliorated diabetic cardiomyopathy, which was at least partly associated with the activation of mitochondrial SIRT3, AMPK/Akt, and PGC‐1α/TFAM and subsequent improving mitochondrial function.
Inflammation is a major mediator of CKD progression and is partly driven by altered gut microbiome and intestinal barrier disruption, events which are caused by: urea influx in the intestine ...resulting in dominance of urease-possessing bacteria; disruption of epithelial barrier by urea-derived ammonia leading to endotoxemia and bacterial translocation; and restriction of potassium-rich fruits and vegetables which are common sources of fermentable fiber. Restriction of these foods leads to depletion of bacteria that convert indigestible carbohydrates to short chain fatty acids which are important nutrients for colonocytes and regulatory T lymphocytes. We hypothesized that a high resistant starch diet attenuates CKD progression. Male Sprague Dawley rats were fed a chow containing 0.7% adenine for 2 weeks to induce CKD. Rats were then fed diets supplemented with amylopectin (low-fiber control) or high fermentable fiber (amylose maize resistant starch, HAM-RS2) for 3 weeks. CKD rats consuming low fiber diet exhibited reduced creatinine clearance, interstitial fibrosis, inflammation, tubular damage, activation of NFkB, upregulation of pro-inflammatory, pro-oxidant, and pro-fibrotic molecules; impaired Nrf2 activity, down-regulation of antioxidant enzymes, and disruption of colonic epithelial tight junction. The high resistant starch diet significantly attenuated these abnormalities. Thus high resistant starch diet retards CKD progression and attenuates oxidative stress and inflammation in rats. Future studies are needed to explore the impact of HAM-RS2 in CKD patients.
Higher education plays an important role in preparing future citizens and leaders with the capacity to address systemic issues behind complex problems such as climate change. There have however been ...few attempts to assess systems-related competencies in the context of complex problems. This study adapted an existing scenario-based assessment tool to measure Taiwanese undergraduate students' systems thinking competency in the context of climate change. This tool included a climate-related problem scenario and eight follow-up prompts along with a scoring rubric. The scenario was set in a contextual setting familiar to students in Taiwan. Using this tool and an additional knowledge survey, we investigated undergraduate students' (N = 110) systems thinking competency and its relationship to their content knowledge, and further examined the effect of an interdisciplinary climate change course on students' systems thinking and content knowledge. Data analysis revealed a modest level of systems thinking competency among the students, and a significant, positive association between the competency level and content knowledge. Participating in the semester-long course positively influenced student learning outcomes. However, the effect was focused on STEM students. These results provide important implications for teaching and learning of systems thinking competency in the context of complex issues.
A key challenge for photocatalystic CO2 reduction is the design and synthesis of photocatalyst with remarkable performance in visible‐light absorption, CO2 adsorption, and electron‐coupled proton ...transfer. Here a visible light–driven hybrid photocatalyst Au@NENU‐10, consisting of Au nanoparticles (NPs), Ti‐substituted keggin‐type polyoxometalate PTi2W10O407− (PTiW), and HKUST‐1, is synthesized by the one‐pot method at atmosphere condition where PTiW acts as both electrons' and protons' reservoir, and a reactive active center is encaged into HKUST‐1 to boost CO2 reduction, HKUST‐1 as a microreactor to concentrate CO2 molecules, and Au NPs harvesting visible light. Notably, compared to PW12O403−‐encaged HKUST‐1 (NENU‐3) with an octahedron shape, the Ti‐substituted counterpart of NENU‐10 shows a cube shape with a little corner cut, which is ascribed to the higher net charge on terminal oxygen atoms of PTiW, slowing down the crystal growth along the 〈100〉 direction. Moreover, PTiW always exposes on {100} plane of HKUST‐1 in the synthesis process, stabilizing Au NPs and thus being dispersed evenly in NENU‐10. Owing to the stronger protonation of TiO and TiOW, Au@NENU‐10 shows higher CO2 reduction activity and selectivity under visible‐light irradiation (λ > 420 nm), about 85.3‐fold and 5.2‐fold enhancement, respectively, corresponding to the CO2‐to‐CO and CO2‐to‐H2 conversion in contrast to Au@NENU‐3.
A highly efficient visible‐light‐driven CO2 reduction photocatalyst is fabricated by incorporating Ti‐substituted keggin‐type polyoxometalate (PTiW) into metal–organic framework (HKUST‐1) pores. PTiW plays vital roles in catalyst morphology, structure, and multiple electron–coupled multiple protons' reduction reaction.
The diamondback moth (DBM),
Plutella xylostella
(L.), costs the Chinese economy US$0.77 billion annually, and considerable research has focused on its biology, ecology, and management. Much of this ...research has been published locally and is inaccessible outside China. Since 1990
Brassica
vegetable production has increased 20-fold and production practices have intensified, but losses continue to increase. Insecticide use is widespread and many DBM populations, particularly in southern provinces, are resistant to multiple compounds. The molecular bases of several insecticide resistance mechanisms are well understood, and genetic studies suggest that insecticide-resistant populations migrate northward in spring and that back migrations may occur in southern provinces. Fundamental studies have improved our understanding of the effects of temperature on DBM population dynamics and distributions and of interactions between DBM and its well-established parasitoid fauna. Nationally coordinated research is developing regional management strategies that integrate locally appropriate biological, physical, cultural, and insecticidal control, but sustaining their adoption will prove an enormous challenge.
This work incorporates a variety of conjugated donor-acceptor (DA) co-monomers such as 2,6-diaminopurine (DP) into the structure of a polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) backbone using a unique ...nanostructure co-polymerization strategy and examines its photocatalytic activity performance in the field of photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO and H2 under visible light irradiation. The as-synthesized samples were successfully analyzed using different characterization methods to explain their electronic and optical properties, crystal phase, microstructure, and their morphology that influenced the performance due to the interactions between the PCN and the DPco-monomer. Based on the density functional theory (DFT) calculation result, pure PCN and CNU-DP15.0 trimers (interpreted as incorporation of the co-monomer at two different positions) were extensively evaluated and exhibited remarkable structural optimization without the inclusion of any symmetry constraints (the non-modified sample derived from urea, named as CNU), and their optical and electronic properties were also manipulated to control occupation of their respective highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). Also, co-polymerization of the donor–acceptor 2,6-diamino-purine co-monomer with PCN influenced the chemical affinities, polarities, and acid–base functions of the PCN, remarkably enhancing the photocatalytic activity for the production of CO and H2 from CO2 by 15.02-fold compared than that of the parental CNU, while also improving the selectivity.
Superlubricity of graphite and graphene has aroused increasing interest in recent years. Yet how to obtain a long-lasting superlubricity between graphene layers, under high applied normal load in ...ambient atmosphere still remains a challenge but is highly desirable. Here, we report a direct measurement of sliding friction between graphene and graphene, and graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) under high contact pressures by employing graphene-coated microsphere (GMS) probe prepared by metal-catalyst-free chemical vapour deposition. The exceptionally low and robust friction coefficient of 0.003 is accomplished under local asperity contact pressure up to 1 GPa, at arbitrary relative surface rotation angles, which is insensitive to relative humidity up to 51% RH. This ultralow friction is attributed to the sustainable overall incommensurability due to the multi-asperity contact covered with randomly oriented graphene nanograins. This realization of microscale superlubricity can be extended to the sliding between a variety of two-dimensional (2D) layers.
To expand the scientific understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation in restored ecosystems, we used 246 soil samples from a rocky catchment (10.24 km2) in an ecologically fragile karst ...area of southwest China and measured the effects of environmental factors under different vegetation restoration types (managed, including forage grassland and plantation forest, or natural, including grassland, shrubland, and secondary forest) on soil organic carbon content (SOCC) and soil organic carbon density (SOCD). Significantly higher SOCC and SOCD were found in natural vegetation than in managed vegetation and tillage land but no differences in SOCC or SOCD were detected between managed vegetation and tillage land. The environmental factors include rock outcrop ratio (ROR), bulk density, altitude, soil depth, slope gradient, and pH, all showing significant effect on SOC. The proportion of variations in SOCC and SOCD explained by environmental factors was higher in natural vegetation restoration than in managed vegetation restoration, and this proportion increased along the successional gradient. However, the environmental factors driving variations in SOCC and SOCD differed according to vegetation type. Soil bulk density had the strongest effect on SOCC variation in all vegetation types, except for forage grassland, in which the variation was instead controlled by ROR. The variation of SOCD was mainly driven by ROR in most vegetation types, except for tillage land and forage grassland, in which the driving factor was altitude. This results indicated that natural vegetation restoration is more beneficial to SOC sequestration than managed vegetation restoration and thus for mitigating global climate change. Accordingly, future studies should take these different environmental drivers under different vegetation restoration types into consideration when modeling SOC and guiding restoration management.
As the population of Chinese immigrants has been growing rapidly in the United States, it has been understudied on the parenting behaviours as well as the roles parental stress and social support ...playing in parenting in this group. This study investigated whether parental stress was associated with parenting and whether this relationship was mediated by social support in a sample of 255 Chinese immigrant parents from the Survey of Asian American Families in New York City. Regression analyses with a rich array of control variables found that a higher level of parental stress and the presence of one or more stressors such as unemployment, low income, and low education were positively associated with the use of harsh discipline and parent–child conflicts and negatively associated with positive parenting practices. Social support functioned as a significant mediator in the relationships between parental stress and positive parenting practices but not in the relationships of parental stress with parent–child conflict or the use of harsh discipline.
Abstract
Background
To identify and describe the use of the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach for rating the certainty of systematic reviews (SRs) ...evidence published in urology and nephrology journals.
Methods
SRs that were published in the top ten "urology and nephrology" journals with the highest impact factor according to the 2020 Journal Citation Reports (covering 2016–2020) were systematically searched and evaluated using the GRADE approach.
Results
A total of 445 SRs were researched. Sixty SRs of randomized control trials (RCTs) and/or non-randomized studies (NRSs) were evaluated using the GRADE approach. Forty-nine SRs (11%) rated the outcome-specific certainty of evidence (
n
= 29 in 2019–2020). We identified 811 certainty of evidence outcome ratings (
n
= 544 RCT ratings) as follows: very low (33.0%); low (32.1%); moderate (24.5%); and high (10.4%). Very low and high certainty of evidence ratings accounted for 55.0% and 0.4% of ratings in SRs of NRSs compared to 23.0% and 15.3% in SRs of RCTs. The certainty of evidence for RCTs and NRSs was downgraded most often for risk of bias and imprecision.
Conclusions
We recommend increased emphasis on acceptance of the GRADE approach, as well as optimal use of the GRADE approach, in the synthesis of urinary tract evidence.
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