Publications by authors named "Xu Zhai"

This study explored the complete replacement of sodium nitrite with a combination of pigments (MPs)-calcium carbonate colorant lake (MPs-CaCO lake) and nisin in smoked sausage production. The effects of the replacement on color stability, total aerobic mesophilic bacteria count (TAMB), and physicochemical properties of sausages were assessed. The results indicated that combining 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This review examines the impact of combining acupuncture with drug therapy on abnormal glucose metabolism and investigates their underlying mechanisms. Conditions like diabetes pose significant health risks due to irregular glucose metabolism. Traditional drug treatments often encounter challenges related to side effects and drug resistance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Observational studies have suggested a potential relationship between birthweight and telomere length. However, the causal link between these two parameters remains undefined. In this study, we use Mendelian Randomization (MR).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aim: Previous observational investigations have indicated a potential association between relative dietary macronutrient intakes and atrial fibrillation and flutter (AF) risk. In this study, we employed Mendelian Randomization (MR) to evaluate the presence of causality and to elucidate the specific causal relationship.

Methods: We employed six, five, and three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables for relative carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake, identified from a genome-wide association study that included 268,922 individuals of European descent.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The application of soil amendment (SA) and the cultivation of low Cd-accumulating varieties have been a widely favored strategy to enable the safe utilization of Cd-contaminated arable land. However, little has been reported on the reciprocal effects of SA on the Cd mitigation and nutritional quality of different wheat varieties. In this study, we evaluated the impact of an SA on agronomic traits, Cd accumulation, translocation and mineral nutrition of 12 wheat varieties in an acidic field with a Cd concentration of 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * High blood sugar levels contribute to kidney dysfunction through inflammation and oxidative stress, while fibrotic changes worsen kidney injuries.
  • * Effective management focuses on tightly controlling blood sugar and blood pressure, with new treatments showing promise in protecting kidney health and improving patient outcomes through targeted strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coronary heart disease (CHD), a cardiovascular condition that poses a significant threat to human health and life, has imposed a substantial economic burden on the world. However, in contrast to conventional risk factors, depression emerges as a novel and independent risk factor for CHD. This condition impacts the onset and progression of CHD and elevates the risk of adverse cardiovascular prognostic events in those already affected by CHD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

With the exponential advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the realm of medicine is experiencing a paradigm shift, engendering a multitude of prospects and trials for healthcare practitioners, encompassing those devoted to the practice of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This study explores the evolving landscape for TCM practitioners in the AI era, emphasizing that while AI can be helpful, it cannot replace the role of TCM practitioners. It is paramount to underscore the intrinsic worth of human expertise, accentuating that artificial intelligence (AI) is merely an instrument.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Diabetes and depression are common comorbid conditions that impose a substantial health burden. Acupuncture may effectively improve symptoms in patients with diabetes and depression, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) may play a vital role in the effects of acupuncture on diabetes and depression comorbidity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the leading cause of diabetes worldwide and is increasing rapidly, especially in youth. It accounts for most diabetes deaths in adults ≥20 years old in the Americas, with type 2 diabetes responsible for most of the disease burden. The incidence and burden of type 2 diabetes in adolescents and young adults have risen in recent decades globally.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Acupuncture has been widely used in stroke and post-stroke rehabilitation (PSR), but there is no literature on the bibliometric analysis of acupuncture for stroke. This study aimed to characterize the global publications and analyze the trends of acupuncture for stroke in the past 40 years. We identified 1157 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's disease-related constipation (PDC) is commonly associated with impaired dopamine transmission and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Current pharmacological treatments have limited efficacy and potential side effects. Acupuncture has shown promise as an alternative or adjunct therapy by modulating the brain-gut axis, gastrointestinal hormones, and autonomic function.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is characterized by forming of arterial plaques composed mainly of lipids, calcium, and inflammatory cells. These plaques narrow the lumen of the coronary artery, leading to episodic or persistent angina. Atherosclerosis is not just a lipid deposition disease but an inflammatory process with a high-specificity cellular and molecular response.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Atopic eczema (AE) is a chronic relapsing dermatological disease characterized by pruritus, dryness, erythema, and lichenification. Acupuncture as an alternative treatment can relieve symptoms, reduce the recurrence, and improve the quality of life (QoL) with less adverse reactions in treating AE. This network meta-analysis (NMA) will comprehensively access the efficacy and safety of different acupuncture therapies for patients with AE, and rank the different acupuncture therapies, in order to present evidence-based medicine evidence for clinical application extensively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sustainable strategies are essential for zinc (Zn) biofortification and cadmium (Cd) reduction in staple food crops. Herein, we evaluated the phytotoxicity of Glyzinc under foliar and root application (FA&RA) in a lab-scale experiment, and then investigated its Zn efficiency and Cd reduction through foliar application on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under field conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Incorporating secondary metal nodes with functionality into organic ligand nodes to form a bimetallic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) would facilitate an enhancement in properties and broaden applied areas of MOFs. Hierarchical tubular Cu/Zn-MOF-74 assembled by nanosheet arrays is synthesized at ambient temperature and pressure by phase transformation of Cu-based precursor MOF in immersion solution with Zn. The content of Zn in Cu/Zn-MOF-74 can be controlled by adjusting the concentration of Zn in immersion solution, and it can reach a maximum of 36.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Soil organic matter (SOM) is of vital importance to soil health, and also plays a crucial role in the quality of the crops such as tobacco. However, the link between tobacco quality and SOM chemical compositions is still not well understood. To fill the information gap, we analyzed the quality of tobacco leaves and the corresponding SOM molecular compositions by electrospray ionization (ESI) coupled with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS), that were collected from six different sites in Bijie, Guizhou Province, China.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the most common comorbidity of COVID-19, and both are related to the lack of circulating melatonin. In addition, chronic pain is a common sequela of both COVID-19 and T2D. Using a neuropathic pain model produced by sciatic nerve chronic constriction injury in Zucker diabetic fatty rats, a verified preclinical genetic T2D neuropathy animal model, this study aimed to show that transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation (taVNS) could elevate plasma melatonin concentration, upregulate the expression of melatonin receptors (MTRs) in the amygdala, and relieve peripheral neuropathic pain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common disease seen in orthopedics; it is caused by nucleus pulposus herniation. Its clinical manifestations are low back pain, radiating pain of the lower limbs, and cauda equina symptoms that seriously affect patients' quality of life. At present, oral analgesics are commonly used in the treatment of LDH; but they can produce gastrointestinal reactions and other side effects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Transformer oil jet fire is one of the most dangerous types of fires in substations. The combustion behavior of transformer oil jet fire produces uncontrollable hazards to personnel and equipment and even triggers a domino effect. However, the jet fire combustion behavior of such materials as transformer oil has not been revealed before.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

"Unblocking organs" is one of the essential principles of 's warm moxibustion technique, characterized as "dredging" and "harmonizing" for either deficiency or excess condition. Under the guidance of this therapeutic thought, the acupoints for moxibustion are mainly selected from the middle and lower parts of the body. Regarding the therapeutic approach, the acupoint prescription for moxibustion should be formed in line with warming and promoting circulation of organs; the moxibustion degree should be specially considered, in which, the mild moxibustion is recommended to induce promoting action; and the systematic moxibustion technique should be the root for dredging organs and regulating organs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bimetallic oxides are a class of promising advanced functional metal nanomaterials, especially in terms of the sophisticated hierarchical structure of bimetallic oxide, which not only is in favor of enhancing their intrinsic physiochemical properties because of more accessible actives sites but also is capable of integrating the synergistic effect between two metals. Herein, we report a novel strategy to controllably construct bimetallic CuO/ZnO nanomaterials with sophisticated hierarchical structure through a pseudomorphic transformation and subsequent calcination process. The resulting unique hierarchical structure of ZnO/CuO is primarily constituted of a nanosphere and a rod grafted in a microscale cube with multidimensional size, which thus results in excellent dispersion, superior charge-transport capability, and abundant accessible active sites.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hierarchically porous metal-organic frameworks (HP-MOFs) are a class of promising functional material with micropores, mesopores, and/or macropores, which can address the issue of slow mass transfer and less exposed active sites for primitive microporous MOFs. Despite many attempts that have been achieved through a variety of techniques to date, there is still a myriad of spaces that urgently need to be exploited. In this work, we report the novel synthesis of HP-MOFs slow chemical steam etching.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating the symptoms and quality of life (QoL) of patients with moderate or severe acne vulgaris (AV).

Methods: Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive 12 treatment sessions of acupuncture or sham acupuncture over 4 weeks with 24 weeks of follow-up. The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the Skindex-16 scale total score at treatment completion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An acidified magnetic sludge-biochar (MSB) was prepared to enhance ammonium nitrogen (AN) removal efficiency in eutrophic water, and MSB was obtained by secondary pyrolysis of sludge biochar powder. A series of MSB were prepared under 300, 400, 500, 600 °C and different valence states of iron ions by impregnation pyrolysis, which is based on the deposition of unstable iron minerals on biochar matrix. Physicochemical properties of pristine biochar and MSB were revealed through characterization analysis, suggesting that MSB prepared by ferric chloride at 400 °C presented the largest adsorption capacity, and the acid-modification enhanced the ammonium adsorption capacity by 10.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF