Strontium Attenuates Hippocampal Damage via Suppressing Neuroinflammation in High-Fat Diet-Induced NAFLD Mice.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) leads to hippocampal damage and causes a variety of physiopathological responses, including the induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), neuroinflammation, and alterations in synaptic plasticity. As an important trace element, strontium (Sr) has been reported to have antioxidant effects, to have anti-inflammatory effects, and to cause the inhibition of adipogenesis. The present study was undertaken to investigate the protective effects of Sr on hippocampal damage in NAFLD mice in order to elucidate the underlying mechanism of Sr in NAFLD. The mouse model of NAFLD was established by feeding mice a high-fat diet (HFD), and the mice were treated with Sr. In the NAFLD mice, we found that treatment with Sr significantly increased the density of c-Fos+ cells in the hippocampus and inhibited the expression of caspase-3 by suppressing ERS. Surprisingly, the induction of neuroinflammation and the increased expression of inflammatory cytokines in the hippocampus following an HFD were attenuated by Sr treatment. Sr significantly attenuated the activation of microglia and astrocytes induced by an HFD. The expression of phospho-p38, ERK, and NF-κB was consistently significantly increased in the HFD group, and treatment with Sr decreased their expression. Moreover, Sr prevented HFD-induced damage to the ultra-structural synaptic architecture. This study implies that Sr has beneficial effects on repairing the damage to the hippocampus induced by an HFD, revealing that Sr could be a potential candidate for protection from neural damage caused by NAFLD.

Uncertainties of urban flood modeling: Influence of parameters for different underlying surfaces.

Rapid urbanization has dramatically increased the impermeable surface in urban area, which led to urban severe flooding and waterlogging in the world, especially in China and southeast Asia. There are more than 100 cities that suffered from urban flood every year since 2006, and more than 100 million citizens are involved in China. Urban flood mitigation is one of the most critical issues for both water administration and city management agency, in which urban flood modeling is vital and necessary. Whereas, there are relatively few data of waterlogging and runoff in urban area during flooding episodes to calibrate and validate the models, for there are usually few observation facilities installed in the cities. This paper used a combination of experiment and modelling to overcome the lack of reliable discharge data and be able to characterize the urban flooding problems in Xiamen Island, China. This paper simulated the urban flooding in Xiamen Island based on a hydrodynamic model coupled with hydrological model. The datasets of underlying surfaces were input to the model, including the terrain data, building plan, land use, etc. The uncertainty of the urban flood model was analyzed based on the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) method with shuffled complex evolution Metropolis (SCEM-UA) sampling algorithm. The key parameters were evaluated by on-site experiment to reduce the uncertainties of the model, which could improve the accuracy of the model. If using the recommended parameter value range, the average relative error of flood depth was less than 27.2% at 90% confidence level. A typical rain pattern of 50 years return event was used for flood simulation. The results show that the main inundated areas (flooded depth more than 40 cm) are located in three groups: southeast to the Yundang Lake, around the Hubian Reservoir, along the Exhibition Road. The other inundated areas that less than 40 cm deep are scattered in some low-lying land of Xiamen Island. The main inundated areas simulated are consistent with the point survey of urban flooding, which verifies that the suggested model and the on-site experiment is effective and reliable for urban flood prediction.

An Effect Analysis of Comprehensive Treatment of Groundwater Over-Exploitation in Cheng'an County, Hebei Province, China.

The comprehensive treatment project of groundwater over-exploitation in Hebei Province has been implemented for more than a year, and the effect of exploitation restriction is in urgent need of evaluation. This paper deals with Cheng'an County of Hebei Province as the research subject. Based on collected hydro-meteorological, socioeconomic, groundwater, and other related data, together with typical regional experimental research, this study generates the effective precipitation-groundwater exploitation (P-W) curve and accompanying research methods, and calculates the quantity of groundwater exploitation restriction. It analyzes the target completion status of groundwater exploitation restriction through water conservancy measures and agricultural practices of the groundwater over-exploitation comprehensive treatment project that was implemented in Cheng'an County in 2014. The paper evaluates the treatment effect of groundwater over-exploitation, as well as provides technical support for the effect evaluation of groundwater exploitation restriction of agricultural irrigation in Cheng'an County and relevant areas.