Traditional Chinese medicine Pien-Tze-Huang ameliorates LPS-induced sepsis through bile acid-mediated activation of TGR5-STAT3-A20 signalling

Pien Tze Huang(PZH),a class-1 nationally protected traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),has been used to treat liver diseases such as hepatitis;however,the effect of PZH on the progression of sepsis is unknown.Here,we reported that PZH attenuated lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced sepsis in mice and reduced LPS-induced production of proinflammatory cytokines in macrophages by inhibiting the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)and nuclear factor-kappa B(NF-κB)signalling.Mechanistically,PZH stimulated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3)phosphorylation to induce the expression of A20,which could inhibit the activation of NF-κB and MAPK signalling.Knockdown of the bile acid(BA)receptor G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1(TGR5)in macrophages abolished the effects of PZH on STAT3 phosphorylation and A20 induction,as well as the LPS-induced inflammatory response,suggesting that BAs in PZH may mediate its anti-inflammatory effects by activating TGR5.Consistently,deprivation of BAs in PZH by cholestyramine resin reduced the effects of PZH on the expression of phosphorylated-STAT3 and A20,the activation of NF-κB and MAPK signalling,and the production of proinflammatory cytokines,whereas the addition of BAs to cholestyramine resin-treated PZH partially restored the inhibitory effects on the production of proinflammatory cytokines.Overall,our study identifies BAs as the effective components in PZH that activate TGR5-STAT3-A20 signalling to ameliorate LPS-induced sepsis.

高职技能大师工作室建设与发展的探索

建设高职技能大师工作室是学校和专业响应国家号召,在服务行业和区域经济发展、跟跑产业发展基础上,实现并跑、领跑、彰显自身办学特色的一项重要举措,是优质培养高素质技术技能人才的有效途径。通过分析高职技能大师工作室建设中现存的问题,从提高政治站位、坚持协同共生理念、多方联动共建发展长效机制等三个方面为高职技能大师工作室的可持续发展提出一些建议。

Audible Threshold of Early Reflections with Different Orientations and Delays

Early reflection is an important component in an enclosedsound field. Due to the precedence effect, the early reflection maynot be the dominant factor in sound source localization;however,it still has obvious influences on spatial position, loudness, timbre,and etc. Till now, there have sparse studies on evaluation of theaudible threshold of early reflections with lacking of general andquantitative results. This work investigated the audible thresholdof early reflection with a simplified sound field model undervarious experimental conditions including the combination ofeight incidence angles and five time delays. Three-down-one-upadaptive strategy with three-interval three-alternativeforced-choice (3I-3AFC) paradigm was used due to its efficiencyand robustness. Results indicate that (1) the audible threshold ofearly reflections decreases monotonically with increasing timedelay relative to the direct sound. Furthermore, a linear equationbetween early reflection threshold and time delay is establishedwith correlation coefficient higher than 0.9;(2) When the directsound and the reflection locate in the same half-plane, the audiblethreshold of early reflections decreases with increasing angledeviation between the direct sound and the reflection. Moreover,a front-back symmetry of early reflection threshold is observedfor stimuli below 5 kHz;(3) Considerable variations in earlyreflection threshold are found among individuals, especially atlarge angle deviation and time delay of early reflections relativeto the direct sound.

Advances in quantitative assessment of parkinsonian motor symptoms with wearable devices

Parkinson's disease(PD)is featured with motor disorder and nonmotor manifestations(Li et al.,2017;Zhang et al.2016) under the pathological change of Substantia Nigra(Dong et al.,2017)and non substantia nigra including medial prefrontal cortex(Li et al.,2017).Its primary motor symptoms include tremor(oscillatory movement),bradykinesia(slowness of motion),rigidity(increment of muscle tone),and postural instability,which seriously affect patients'quality of life(Du and Chen,2017).