Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) is a stress responsive cytokine. It is highly expressed in cardiomyocytes, adipocytes, macrophages, endothelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells in normal and pathological condition. GDF-15 increases during tissue injury and inflammatory states and is associated with cardiometabolic risk. Increased GDF-15 levels are associated with cardiovascular diseases such as hypertrophy, heart failure, atherosclerosis, endothelial dysfunction, obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and chronic kidney diseases in diabetes. Increased GDF-15 level is linked with the progression and prognosis of the disease condition. Age, smoking, and environmental factors are other risk factors that may increase GDF-15 level. Most of the scientific studies reported that GDF-15 plays a protective role in different tissues. However, few reports show that the deficiency of GDF-15 is beneficial against vascular injury and inflammation. GDF-15 protects heart, adipose tissue, and endothelial cells by inhibiting JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase), Bad (Bcl-2-associated death promoter), and EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) and activating Smad, eNOS, PI3K, and AKT signaling pathways. The present review describes the different animal and clinical studies and patent updates of GDF-15 in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. It is a challenge for the scientific community to use GDF-15 information for patient monitoring, clinical decision-making, and replacement of current treatment strategies for diabetic and cardiovascular diseases.

Garlic and its preparations have been widely recognized as agents for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia, thrombosis, hypertension and diabetes. Effectiveness of garlic in cardiovascular diseases was more encouraging in experimental studies, which prompted several clinical trials. Though many clinical trials showed a positive effect of garlic on almost all cardiovascular conditions mentioned above, however a number of negative studies have recently cast doubt on the efficary of garlic specially its cholesterol lowering effect of garlic. It is a great challenge for scientists all over the world to make a proper use of garlic and enjoy its maximum beneficial effect as it is the cheapest way to prevent cardiovascular disease. This review has attempted to make a bridge the gap between experimental and clinical study and to discuss the possible mechanisms of such therapeutic actions of garlic.

We develop a tight-binding model description of semi-Dirac electronic spectra, with highly anisotropic dispersion around point Fermi surfaces, recently discovered in electronic structure calculations of ${\mathrm{VO}}_2\mathrm{\text{−}}{\mathrm{TiO}}_2$ nanoheterostructures. We contrast their spectral properties with the well-known Dirac points on the honeycomb lattice relevant to graphene layers and the spectra of bands touching each other in zero-gap semiconductors. We also consider the lowest order dispersion around one of the semi-Dirac points and calculate the resulting electronic energy levels in an external magnetic field. In spite of apparently similar electronic structures, Dirac and semi-Dirac systems support diverse low-energy physics.

In the literature, anisotropy-invariant maps are being proposed to represent a domain within which all realizable Reynolds stress invariants must lie. It is shown that the representation proposed by Lumley and Newman has disadvantages owing to the fact that the anisotropy invariants (II, III) are nonlinear functions of stresses. In the current work, it is proposed to use an equivalent linear representation of the anisotropy invariants in terms of eigenvalues. A barycentric map, based on the convex combination of scalar metrics dependent on eigenvalues, is proposed to provide a non-distorted visual representation of anisotropy in turbulent quantities. This barycentric map provides the possibility of viewing the normalized Reynolds stress and any anisotropic stress tensor. Additionally the barycentric map provides the possibility of quantifying the weighting for any point inside it, in terms of the limiting states (one-component, two-component, three-component). The mathematical basis for the barycentric map is derived using the spectral decomposition theorem for second-order tensors. In this way, an analytical proof is provided that all turbulence lies along the boundaries or inside the barycentric map. It is proved that the barycentric map and the anisotropy-invariant map in terms of (II, III) are one-to-one uniquely interdependent, and as a result satisfies the requirement of realizability.