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The EMPA-REG OUTCOME study revealed that a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, empagliflozin, can remarkably reduce cardiovascular (CV) mortality and heart failure in patients with high-risk type 2 diabetes. Recently, the CANVAS program also showed that canagliflozin, another SGLT2 inhibitor, induces a lower risk of CV events. However, the precise mechanism by which an SGLT2 inhibitor elicits CV protective effects is still unclear. Possible sympathoinhibitory effects of SGLT2 inhibitor have been suggested, as significant blood pressure (BP) reduction, following treatment with an SGLT2 inhibitor, did not induce compensatory changes in heart rate (HR). We have begun to characterize the effects of SGLT2 inhibitor on BP and sympathetic nervous activity (SNA) in salt-treated obese and metabolic syndrome rats, who develop hypertension with an abnormal circadian rhythm of BP, a non-dipper type of hypertension, and do not exhibit a circadian rhythm of SNA. Treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors significantly decreased BP and normalized circadian rhythms of both BP and SNA, but did not change HR; this treatment was also associated with an increase in urinary sodium excretion. Taken together, these data suggest that an SGLT2 inhibitor decreases BP by normalizing the circadian rhythms of BP and SNA, which may be the source of its beneficial effects on CV outcome in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes. In this review, we briefly summarize the effects of SGLT2 inhibitors on BP and HR, with a special emphasis on SNA.

Control of S. exigua was greater with M. pallidipes plus SeNPV than with M. pallidipes alone. Microplitis pallidipes preferred healthy hosts to infected hosts. Parasitoids were able to complete their development in virus-infected hosts before the hosts died from the virus infection. The parasitoid ovipositors contaminated with the virus could carry and transmit SeNPV.

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Urban agriculture is making an increasing contribution to food security in large cities around the world. The potential contribution of biodiversity to ecological intensification in urban agricultural systems has not been investigated. We present monitoring data collected from rice fields in 34 community farms in mega-urban Shanghai, China, from 2001 to 2015, and show that the presence of a border crop of soybeans and neighboring crops (maize, eggplant and Chinese cabbage), both without weed control, increased invertebrate predator abundance, decreased the abundance of pests and dependence on insecticides, and increased grain yield and economic profits. Two 2 year randomized experiments with the low and high diversity practices in the same locations confirmed these results. Our study shows that diversifying farming practices can make an important contribution to ecological intensification and the sustainable use of associated ecosystem services in an urban ecosystem.

Lake Dianchi is the sixth largest freshwater lake in China. The pilot experimental area (6 km 2 ) in Lake Dianchi is one of the most severely polluted areas in the lake with heavy cyanobacteria blooms. During June 2002 to May 2003, the algal composition and number, and odorous compounds were identified monthly and monitored in the area. Meanwhile, physicochemical parameters such as total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ), chemical oxygen demand (COD Mn ), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, transparency, temperature and chlorophyll a (chla) were determined. Four odorous compounds: 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), geosmin, b-cyclocitral and b-ionone were found in the lake water. Both the concentration of particulate b-cyclocitral and that of b-ionone correlated significantly with the annual variation of Chla, biomass of total phytoplankton, cyanobacteria and Microcystis. The concentration of particulate MIB correlated significantly with the biomass of Oscillatoria, while the concentration of particulate geosmin correlated significantly with the biomass of Anabaena. Off-flavour in the pilot area was found to be caused by a combination of b-cyclocitral-and b-ionone-producing Microcystis, MIB-producing Oscillatoria and geosmin-producing Anabaena. b-ionone, MIB and geosmin contributed collectively to the odour intensity in the lake water.

Previous studies have shown that the infectivity of baculovirus to herbivores is affected by phytochemicals ingested during the acquisition of viral inoculum on the foliage of host plants. Here, we measured the effects of 14 host plant species on the infectivity of Spodoptera exigua nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeNPV) to its larvae. The order of the LD 50 values of SeNPV among the host plants was Ipomoea aquatica > Brassica oleracea > Raphanus sativus > Amaranthus tricolor > Spinacia oleracea > Vigna unguiculata > Solanum melongena > Capsicum annuum > Apium graveolens > Allium fistulosum > Lactuca sativa > Brassica chinensis > Zea mays > Glycine max, with 940.1 AE 2.26, 424.0 AE 0.60, 295.2 AE 1.13, 147.3 AE 0.63, 138.6 AE 0.22, 119.9 AE 0.07, 119.8 AE 0.02, 109.2 AE 0.18, 104.8 AE 0.62, 102.1 AE 0.66, 97.9 AE 0.22, 89.9 AE 0.32, 79.0 AE 0.13 and 64.0 AE 0.38 OBs per larva, respectively, and the values of mean time to death of virus-infected larvae were 6.21 AE 0.11, 7.12 AE 0.10, 7.33 AE 0.21, 6.97 AE 0.02, 7.06 AE 0.01, 7.29 AE 0.03, 7.32 AE 0.05, 7.07 AE 0.08, 7.24 AE 0.11, 7.09 AE 0.13, 7.50 AE 0.06, 7.23 AE 0.01, 7.30 AE 0.02 and 7.19 AE 0.07 days, respectively. The mean time to death of larvae decreased with increasing viral dose, and corrected mortality decreased as the larval mean time to death increased. These findings have significance for understanding the effects of host plants on the infectivity of baculovirus to noctuids.