USA_NC_Charllotte_Christmas Village

This year we attended to the Christmas market in Romare Bearden Park

and Christmas village/town in McAdenville, Charlotte, NC.

It is the first time that in this holiday season, Romare Bearden Park will transform into a Christmas Village. The Vendors in wooden huts were filled with the park. It really seems like the traditional Christmas Village in Germany. However, maybe it is the first time to held this kind of activity here, so the people is not ao crowded and vendor is not so much. The vendors sold traditional handmade jam, honey, cookies, things for pet, beautiful Turkish Mosaic Handmade Lamp, and so much more. And, you can take a picture with the Santa there.

McAdenville Christmas is a treasured tradition in the Charlotte area. McAdenville calls itself Christmas Town USA, and for good reason. For 60 years the Christmas lights display has drawn visitors to this small town west of Charlotte and east of Gastonia. Hundreds of thousands of lights set the scene for holiday displays. 

2016 has been passed ! Welcome the new coming year 2017! Any new hope for the new year? Write them down and keep it well. We will come back to check how many wishes did you make it come true!

時差--生理時鐘亂了，可能引發肝癌!

熬夜過度可能引發肝癌!
美國貝勒醫學院研究人員發現，使小鼠突然生理時鐘被打亂一段長期的時間(20小時開燈、4小時關燈；一般為12小時開燈、12小時關燈)，經過30個星期後，小鼠肝臟有過度累積脂肪的現象，而其中有9%的小鼠引發了肝癌。這樣的現象可能與肝臟細胞的bile acids以及 constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) 活化有關。CAR原本是調節肝臟再生的一種受體，會受到bile acid的刺激。此外，若另一個控制bile acid產生在正常範圍的受體FXR被剔除時，即便生理時鐘正常運作的小鼠，仍有30%會引發肝癌。
所以，在怎麼忙，也要好好遵守生理時鐘，不要長時間熬夜過度，免得影響身體健康。

根據最近的科學期刊：

Circadian Homeostasis of Liver Metabolism Suppresses Hepatocarcinogenesis 

Cancer Cell Volume 30, Issue 6, p909–924, 12 December 2016  

Chronic jet lag induces spontaneous hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in wild-type mice following a mechanism very similar to that observed in obese humans. The process initiates with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that progresses to steatohepatitis and fibrosis before HCC detection. This pathophysiological pathway is driven by jet-lag-induced genome-wide gene deregulation and global liver metabolic dysfunction, with nuclear receptor-controlled cholesterol/bile acid and xenobiotic metabolism among the top deregulated pathways. Ablation of farnesoid X receptor dramatically increases enterohepatic bile acid levels and jet-lag-induced HCC, while loss of constitutive androstane receptor (CAR), a well-known liver tumor promoter that mediates toxic bile acid signaling, inhibits NAFLD-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Circadian disruption activates CAR by promoting cholestasis, peripheral clock disruption, and sympathetic dysfunction.