Effects of ulinastatin combined with dexmedetomidine on cognitive dysfunction and emergence agitation in elderly patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty

BACKGROUND With the continuous growth of the modern elderly population,the risk of fracture increases.Hip fracture is a common type of fracture in older people.Total hip arthroplasty(THA)has significant advantages in relieving chronic pain and promoting the recovery of hip joint function.AIM To investigate the effect of ulinastatin combined with dexmedetomidine(Dex)on the incidences of postoperative cognitive dysfunction(POCD)and emergence agitation in elderly patients who underwent THA.METHODS A total of 397 patients who underwent THA from February 2019 to August 2022.We conducted a three-year retrospective cohort study in Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital.Comprehensive demographic data were obtained from the electronic medical record system.We collected preoperative,intraoperative,and postoperative data.One hundred twenty-nine patients who were administered Dex during the operation were included in the Dex group.One hundred fifty patients who were intravenously injected with ulinastatin 15 min before anesthesia induction were included in the ulinastatin group.One hundred eighteen patients who were administered ulinastatin combined with Dex during the operation were included in the Dex+ulinastatin group.The patients’perioperative conditions,hemodynamic indexes,postoperative Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE)scores,Ramsay score,incidence of POCD,and serum inflammatory cytokines were evaluated.RESULTS There was a significant difference in the 24 h visual analogue scale score among the three groups,and the score in the Dex+ulinastatin group was the lowest(P<0.05).Compared with the Dex and ulinastatin group,the MMSE scores of the Dex+ulinastatin group were significantly increased at 1 and 7 d after the operation(all P<0.05).Compared with those in the Dex and ulinastatin groups,incidence of POCD,levels of serum inflammatory cytokines in the Dex+ulinastatin group were significantly decreased at 1 and 7 d after the operation(all P<0.05).The observer’s assessment of the alertness/sedation score and Ramsay score of the Dex+ulinastatin group were significantly different from those of the Dex and ulinastatin groups on the first day after the operation(all P<0.05).CONCLUSION Ulinastatin combined with Dex can prevent the occurrence of POCD and emergence agitation in elderly patients undergoing THA.

A three-dimensional environmental monitoring system for the production of marine gas hydrates

1.Objectives As about 99% of the natural gas hydrate (NGH)resources are stored on the seafloor,it is inevitable that in its process of exploration and production,there will be geohazards such as methane leakage,seabed subsidence,ecosystem damage and even landslide.Therefore,a set of integrated systems for environmental monitoring in the process of NGH production has been proposed in the consideration of environmental disasters that may arise in the process of hydrate production.

Repair mechanism of astrocytes and non-astrocytes in spinal cord injury

BACKGROUND Spinal cord injury(SCI)is a destructive disease that incurs huge personal and social costs,and there is no effective treatment.Although the pathogenesis and treatment mechanism of SCI has always been a strong scientific focus,the pathogenesis of SCI is still under investigation.AIM To determine the key genes based on the modularization of in-depth analysis,in order to identify the repair mechanism of astrocytes and non-astrocytes in SCI.METHODS Firstly,the differences between injured and non-injured spinal cord of astrocyte(HA),injured and non-injured spinal cord of non-astrocyte(FLOW),injured spinal cord of non-injured astrocyte(HA)and non-injured spinal cord of nonastrocyte(FLOW),and non-injured spinal cord of astrocyte(HA)and nonastrocyte(FLOW)were analyzed.The total number of differentially expressed genes was obtained by merging the four groups of differential results.Secondly,the genes were co-expressed and clustered.Then,the enrichment of GO function and KEGG pathway of module genes was analyzed.Finally,non-coding RNA,transcription factors and drugs that regulate module genes were predicted using hypergeometric tests.RESULTS In summary,we obtained 19 expression modules involving 5216 differentially expressed genes.Among them,miR-494,XIST and other genes were differentially expressed in SCI patients,and played an active regulatory role in dysfunction module,and these genes were recognized as the driving genes of SCI.Enrichment results showed that module genes were significantly involved in the biological processes of inflammation,oxidation and apoptosis.Signal pathways such as NF-kappa B/A20,AMPK and MAPK were significantly regulated.In addition,non-coding RNA pivot(including miR-136-5p and let-7d-5p,etc.)and transcription factor pivot(including NFKB1,MYC,etc.)were identified as significant regulatory dysfunction modules.CONCLUSION Overall,this study uncovered a co-expression network of key genes involved in astrocyte and non-astrocyte regulation in SCI.These findings helped to reveal the core dysfunction modules,potential regulatory factors and driving genes of the disease,and to improve our understanding of its pathogenesis.

PuzzleNet:Boundary-Aware Feature Matching for Non-Overlapping 3D Point Clouds Assembly

We address the 3D shape assembly of multiple geometric pieces without overlaps, a scenario often encountered in 3D shape design, field archeology, and robotics. Existing methods depend on strong assumptions on the number of shape pieces and coherent geometry or semantics of shape pieces. Despite raising attention to 3D registration with complex or low overlapping patterns, few methods consider shape assembly with rare overlaps. To address this problem, we present a novel framework inspired by solving puzzles, named PuzzleNet, which conducts multi-task learning by leveraging both 3D alignment and boundary information. Specifically, we design an end-to-end neural network based on a point cloud transformer with two-way branches for estimating rigid transformation and predicting boundaries simultaneously. The framework is then naturally extended to reassemble multiple pieces into a full shape by using an iterative greedy approach based on the distance between each pair of candidate-matched pieces. To train and evaluate PuzzleNet, we construct two datasets, named ModelPuzzle and DublinPuzzle, based on a real-world urban scan dataset (DublinCity) and a synthetic CAD dataset (ModelNet40) respectively. Experiments demonstrate our effectiveness in solving 3D shape assembly for multiple pieces with arbitrary geometry and inconsistent semantics. Our method surpasses state-of-the-art algorithms by more than 10 times in rotation metrics and four times in translation metrics.

RC-Net:Row and Column Network with Text Feature for Parsing Floor Plan Images

The popularity of online home design and floor plan customization has been steadily increasing. However, the manual conversion of floor plan images from books or paper materials into electronic resources can be a challenging task due to the vast amount of historical data available. By leveraging neural networks to identify and parse floor plans, the process of converting these images into electronic materials can be significantly streamlined. In this paper, we present a novel learning framework for automatically parsing floor plan images. Our key insight is that the room type text is very common and crucial in floor plan images as it identifies the important semantic information of the corresponding room. However, this clue is rarely considered in previous learning-based methods. In contrast, we propose the Row and Column network (RC-Net) for recognizing floor plan elements by integrating the text feature. Specifically, we add the text feature branch in the network to extract text features corresponding to the room type for the guidance of room type predictions. More importantly, we formulate the Row and Column constraint module (RC constraint module) to share and constrain features across the entire row and column of the feature maps to ensure that only one type is predicted in each room as much as possible, making the segmentation boundaries between different rooms more regular and cleaner. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets validate that our framework substantially outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches in terms of the metrics of FWIoU, mACC and mIoU.

Experimental and model comparisons of H_2O_2 assisted UV photodegradation of Microcystin-LR in simulated drinking water

The degradation of Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) in water by hydrogen peroxide assisted ultraviolet (UV/H2O2) process was investigated in this paper. The UV/H2O2 process appeared to be effective in removal of the MC-LR. MC-LR decomposition was primarily ascribed to production of strong and nonselective oxidant-hydroxyl radicals within the system. The intensity of UV radiation, initial concentration of MC-LR, MC-LR purity, dosages of H2O2, the initial solution pH, and anions present in water, to some extent, influenced the degradation rate of MC-LR. A modified pseudo-first-order kinetic model was developed to predict the removal efficiency under different experimental conditions.

Synthesis and properties of novel cationic gemini surfactants with adamantane spacer

Novel quaternary ammonium cationic gemini surfactants, with two hydrocarbon chains and an adamantane core, were designed and synthesized by three-step reactions from adamantane. The structure of obtained surfactants were confirmed by 1H NMR, FTIR and elements analysis and the surface properties of these surfactants were also studied by surface tension measurements. These target surfactants exhibit much lower critical micelle concentrations （CMC） and higher efficiency in lowering the surface tension of water than typical surfactants.

Antibacterial Thermoplastic Polyurethane/PL-DOSS Composite Films

Medical devices-related infections pose a great threat to patients and cause an increased morbidity and mortality. Herein, we prepare an antibacterial composite(TPU-x) through blending medical grade thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU) and the complex(PL-DOSS) of ε-polylysine(ε-PL) and docusate sodium(DOSS). >99% reduction of colony forming unit(CFU) can be obtained in TPU-x composite films even at relatively low content of PL-DOSS, e.g. 0.13% for Methicillin resistant S. aureus(MRSA) and 0.5% for E. coli. The excellent antibacterial activity is mainly attributed to the formation of PL-DOSS nanoparticles that are uniformly dispersed in the TPU matrix with a size of ~100 nm. TPU-x composite films exhibit long-term stability in saline and good biocompatibility, and retain mechanical properties of TPU.