Exploring the Causal Relationship Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Bell's Palsy Based on Inflammatory Proteins: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Background: The relationship between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Bell's palsy remains unsubstantiated. This study aims to investigate the causal relationship between IBD and Bell's palsy.

Methods: Using the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) method to explore the relationship between IBD and Bell's palsy.

One-Component Degradable High-Thermal-Conductivity Liquid Crystal Epoxy Resins and Their Composites Based on Self-Curing Strategy.

High thermal conductivity liquid crystal epoxy resins (LCERs) and their composites are essential for efficient thermal management in electronic devices. The production of LCERs currently depends on combining epoxy monomers and hardeners or catalysts. However, these curing agents or catalysts destroy the liquid crystal phase in the crosslinked network, thereby limiting the thermal conductivity of LCERs.

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles accelerate diabetic wound healing by inhibiting NET-induced ferroptosis of endothelial cells.

Impaired angiogenesis is a major factor contributing to delayed wound healing in diabetes. Dysfunctional mitochondria promote the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), obstructing angiogenesis during wound healing. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) have shown promise in promoting tissue repair and regeneration in diabetes; however, the precise pathways involved in this process remain unclear.

Nitro-oleic acid (NO-OA) ameliorates erectile dysfunction in a rat model of diabetes mellitus via modulation of fibrosis, inflammation and autophagy.

Background: Inflammation, fibrosis and autophagy represent closely related factors associated with the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED). In this study, the therapeutic effect of nitro-oleic acid (NO-OA) in a streptozotocin-induced rat model of DMED was evaluated.

Methods: Sixty rats were randomly divided into four groups: control, DMED, DMED + Vehicle and DMED + NO-OA.

Nitro-oleic acid ameliorates erectile dysfunction in a streptozotocin-induced rat model of diabetes by inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis and activating the NO/cGMP pathway.

The major vascular complications associated with diabetes make the management of diabetic mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED) a challenging endeavor. Notable factors contributing to DMED include oxidative stress, nitric oxide (NO)/cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway activation, and apoptosis, while nitro-oleic acid (NO 2 -OA) has been shown to be beneficial in treating these aspects of this condition. We, herein, investigated the effects and possible mechanisms of NO 2 -OA on erectile function as assessed in a streptozotocin-induced rat model of diabetes.

Eugenol-derived Organic Liquids as an In-Situ CO Capturing and Conversion System for Eugenol-based Polycarbonate Synthesis.

The significant development of catalytic biomass conversion has provided a large library of chemicals ready for subsequent upgrading to polymerisable monomers for the design and preparation of sustainable polymers. In this study, hydroxyethylation of eugenol by using green ethylene carbonate as alkylation reagent and cheap tetrabutylammonium iodide ionic liquids as green solvents and catalysts produced 2-(4-allyl-2-methoxyphenoxy)ethan-1-ol with a 85% yield, which could be used to construct an in situ CO capture and conversion system by taking the reversible chemistry of alcoholic compounds with CO in the presence of superbases, on which α,ω-diene functionalized carbonate monomers were successfully prepared and were applied in thiol-ene click and acyclic diene metathesis polymerisation (ADMET), producing a series of poly(thioether carbonate)s and unsaturated aromatic aliphatic polycarbonates with moderate molecular weights and satisfactory thermal properties. The structures of the formed CO reversible ILs, the polymerisable monomers and the corresponding polymers were fully characterized by various technologies.

N-acetylcysteine improves diabetic associated erectile dysfunction in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice by inhibiting oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress appears to play a role in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED). This study aimed to investigate the effect of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on DMED in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice and to explore potential mechanisms. In the present study, we show that an erectile dysfunction is present in the streptozotocin-induced mouse model of diabetes as indicated by decreases in intracavernous pressure responses to electro-stimulation as well as from results of the apomorphine test of erectile function.

Efficient Antibacterial Agent Delivery by Mesoporous Silica Aerogel.

Bacterial infections still cause many health problems for human beings. Silica aerogels with a three-dimensional (3D) porous structure and a large surficial area are promising candidates for drug delivery, but they have rarely been investigated for antibacterial agent delivery. Herein, we study mesoporous silica aerogels as carriers for delivery of three slightly soluble antibacterial agents including cinnamaldehyde (CA, liquid), salicylic acid (SAA, solid), and sorbic acid (SOA, solid) under supercritical fluid carbon dioxide.

AIE-active polyelectrolyte based photosensitizers: the effects of structure on antibiotic-resistant bacterial sensing and killing and pollutant decomposition.

A facile and effective multifunctional platform with high bacterial detection sensitivity, good antibacterial activity, and excellent dye decomposition efficiency holds great promise for wastewater treatment. To explore the design rationality and mechanism of material platforms with various integrated components into a single molecule for wastewater treatment applications, herein, four kinds of polyelectrolyte photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescent units are synthesized and systematically studied to investigate the structure-property relationship that influences the level of conjugation and the hydrophobicity-hydrophilicity balance. By improving the strength of the conjugation, the new AIE photosensitizers DBPVEs (including DBPVE-4 and DBPVE-6) generate a reactive oxygen species (ROS), and a decomposition efficiency of around 55% is obtained for dyes when they are exposed to DBPVEs under white light irradiation, which is higher than those of DBPEs (including DBPE-4 and DBPE-6).

Sustainable Aromatic Aliphatic Polyesters and Polyurethanes Prepared from Vanillin-Derived Diols via Green Catalysis.

The design and preparation of polymers by using biobased chemicals is regarded as an important strategy towards a sustainable polymer chemistry. Herein, two aromatic diols, 4-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methoxyphenol and 2-(4-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methoxyphenoxy)ethanol, have been prepared in good yields through the direct reduction of vanillin and hydroxyethylated vanillin (4-(2-hydroxyethoxy)-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) using NaBH, respectively. The diols were submitted to traditional polycondensation and polyaddition with acyl chlorides and diisocyanatos, and serials of new polyesters and polyurethanes were prepared in high yields with moderate molecular weight ranging from 17,000 to 40,000 g mol.

MicroRNA-588 is upregulated in human prostate cancer with prognostic and functional implications.

Background: Epigenetic factors of microRNAs (miRNAs) are important biomarkers and modulators in human prostate cancer (PCa). In this work, we characterized the expression, biomarker-potential and functional regulation of miR-588 in PCa.

Methods: Endogenous miR-588 levels were quantified by qRT-PCR in both prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-negative and PSA-positive PCa cell lines, as well as human PCa tumors.

Facial Color Management for Mobile Health in the Wild.

Nowadays, mobile technologies have changed the patient routine health care and management. With a large amount of mobile health applications developed, massive and valuable health data are possibly collected with a smart mobile phone in hand. Facial color images are recently proved to be available and effective for health condition diagnosis both in modern medicine and ancient medicine perspectives.

A hybrid imputation approach for microarray missing value estimation.

Background: Missing data is an inevitable phenomenon in gene expression microarray experiments due to instrument failure or human error. It has a negative impact on performance of downstream analysis. Technically, most existing approaches suffer from this prevalent problem.

Advances in Patient Classification for Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Machine Learning Perspective.

As a complementary and alternative medicine in medical field, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has drawn great attention in the domestic field and overseas. In practice, TCM provides a quite distinct methodology to patient diagnosis and treatment compared to western medicine (WM). Syndrome (ZHENG or pattern) is differentiated by a set of symptoms and signs examined from an individual by four main diagnostic methods: inspection, auscultation and olfaction, interrogation, and palpation which reflects the pathological and physiological changes of disease occurrence and development.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis for facial complexion in traditional Chinese medicine.

Facial diagnosis is an important and very intuitive diagnostic method in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). However, due to its qualitative and experience-based subjective property, traditional facial diagnosis has a certain limitation in clinical medicine. The computerized inspection method provides classification models to recognize facial complexion (including color and gloss).

Computer-assisted lip diagnosis on Traditional Chinese Medicine using multi-class support vector machines.

Background: In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the lip diagnosis is an important diagnostic method which has a long history and is applied widely. The lip color of a person is considered as a symptom to reflect the physical conditions of organs in the body. However, the traditional diagnostic approach is mainly based on observation by doctor's nude eyes, which is non-quantitative and subjective.