The present study investigated the synergic effect of extracts of Morus alba (MA) and Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) (AR) against high-fat diet induced obesity. Four-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into five groups that were fed for 14 weeks with a normal diet (ND), high-fat diet (HD), HD with M. alba 400 mg/kg body weight (MA), HD with A. melanocarpa 400 mg/kg body weight (AR), or HD with a mixture (1:1, v/v) of M. alba and A. melanocarpa (400 mg/kg) (MA + AR). Treatment with MA, AR, and MA + AR for 14 weeks reduced high fat diet-induced weight gain and improved serum lipid levels, and histological analysis revealed that MA and AR treatment markedly decreased lipid accumulation in the liver and adipocyte size in epididymal fat. Furthermore, micro-CT images showed MA + AR significantly reduced abdominal fat volume. Expression levels of genes involved in lipid anabolism, such as SREBP-1c, PPAR-γ, CEBPα, FAS, and CD36 were decreased by MA + AR treatment whereas PPAR-α, ACOX1, and CPT-1a levels were increased by MA + AR treatment. Protein expression of p-AMPK and p-ACC were increased in the MA + AR group, indicating that MA + AR ameliorated obesity by upregulating AMPK signaling. Together, our findings indicate that MA and AR exert a synergistic effect against diet-induced obesity and are promising agents for managing obesity.
Norovirus (NV) has caused large outbreaks of gastroenteritis in schools. Studies of NV epidemiology in schools related to NV outbreaks have been frequently reported. However, reports of that in schools without outbreaks are not found. Presently, NV molecular epidemiology surveillance was carried out in asymptomatic food handlers working at nonoutbreak elementary schools in Incheon, Korea, in March, April and December, 2009. NV prevalence was examined by real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and the positive products were re-evaluated by conventional RT-PCR for sequencing. Fecal samples (n = 776) were collected from 776 food handlers in 60 schools. NV was detected in 26 of them (3.4%). Of these, 17 (65%) were positive for NV GII and 10 (38%) were positive for NV GI. Of the 26 samples, 19 were positive by conventional RT-PCR. Sequencing of these 19 strains revealed GII/4 (n = 5), GI/6 (n = 3), GI/14 (n = 2), GII/8 (n = 2), GI/2 (n = 2), GI/10 (n = 1), GII/1 (n = 1), GII/3 (n = 1), GII/7 (n = 1), and GII/16 (n = 1). In this survey, the food handler population unrelated to NV outbreaks was found to normally contain asymptomatic carriers of NV. The excretion of NV from asymptomatic food handlers should be an infection source of NV outbreaks.
Although the typical antioxidant, N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD), ensures high durability and long lifespan for rubber compounds, it generates a highly toxic quinone in water, causing serious environmental pollution. Herein, as an alternative material of 6PPD, we newly introduce ecofriendly amine-functionalized lignin (AL) to be incorporated in rubber, which can provide excellent combinatorial antiaging properties of thermal stability and ozone/fatigue resistances through radical scavenging effect. The heterolytic ring-opening reaction of AL and sulfur can accelerate curing and improve the cross-link density by 28% (v, 4.107 × 10 −4 mol/cm 3 ), consequently reducing the ozone vulnerable areas of the matrix and further improving the aging resistance. Notably, AL allows its rubber compound to exhibit superior anti-ozone performance after ozone aging, with the arithmetic surface roughness (Sa) of 2.077 μm, which should be compared to that of 6PPD (4.737 μm). The developed chemically modified lignin and the methodology have enormous potential as a promising additive for future eco-friendly rubber compounds. The eco-friendly lignin-based antioxidant manufactured by amination reaction has the potential to reduce environmental pollution for the future rubber industry.
Objectives: This study aims to examine underlying difficulties of children with articulation/ phonological disorders in their speech process by comparing the quality of phonological representations (QPR) and the ability to encode phonological representations to that of normal children. Methods: A phonological representation judgment task and a non-word repetition task were conducted in order to compare QPR and their encoding ability in phonological representations, respectively. With regard to the task of judgment in phonological representations, the scores of correct responses and reaction times were examined. Regarding the non-word repetition task, the differences in the degree of repeated accuracy and the percentage of error types were analyzed. Then, the correlation between the two tasks was analyzed for each group. Results: In the phonological representations judgment task, there were significant differences between the groups according to correct response scores but there were no significant differences between the groups in reaction time. In the task of non-word repetition, the degree of repetition accuracy for children with articulation/ phonological disorders was significantly low as compared to that of normal children. However, there were no significant differences in the percentage of error types between the two groups. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the two tasks of both groups. Conclusion: The children with articulation/phonological disorders had less distinct and less accurate QPR than normal children, and the former's ability to encode phonological representations were lower than the latter's ability quantitatively but not qualitatively.
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