Compensatory recombination phenomena of neurological functions in central dysphagia patients

We speculate that cortical reactions evoked by swallowing activity may be abnormal in patients with central infarction with dysphagia. The present study aimed to detect functional imaging features of cerebral cortex in central dysphagia patients by using blood oxygen level-depen- dent functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques. The results showed that when normal controls swallowed, primary motor cortex （BA4）, insula （BA13）, premotor cortex （BA6/8）, supramarginal gyrus （BA40）, and anterior cingulate cortex （BA24/32） were activated, and that the size of the activated areas were larger in the left hemisphere compared with the right. In re- current cerebral infarction patients with central dysphagia, BA4, BA13, BA40 aild BA6/8 areas were activated, while the degree of activation in BA24/32 was decreased. Additionally, more areas were activated, including posterior cingulate cortex （BA23/31）, visual association cortex （BA18/19）, primary auditory cortex （BA41） and parahippocampal cortex （BA36）. Somatosen- sory association cortex （BA7） and left cerebellum in patients with recurrent cerebral infarction with central dysphagia were also activated. Experimental findings suggest that the cerebral cortex has obvious hemisphere lateralization in response to swallowing, and patients with recurrent cerebral infarction with central dysphagia show compensatory recombination phenomena of neurological functions. In rehabilitative treatment, using the favorite food of patients can stimu- late swallowing through visual, auditory, and other nerve conduction pathways, thus promoting compensatory recombination of the central cortex functions.

Evaluation of the dual vascular supply patterns in ground-glass nodules with a dynamic volume computed tomography

BACKGROUND In recent years,the detection rate of ground-glass nodules(GGNs)has been improved dramatically due to the popularization of low-dose computed tomography(CT)screening with high-resolution CT technique.This presents challenges for the characterization and management of the GGNs,which depends on a thorough investigation and sufficient diagnostic knowledge of the GGNs.In most diagnostic studies of the GGNs,morphological manifestations are used to differentiate benignancy and malignancy.In contrast,few studies are dedicated to the assessment of the hemodynamics,i.e.,perfusion parameters of the GGNs.AIM To assess the dual vascular supply patterns of GGNs on different histopathology and opacities.METHODS Forty-seven GGNs from 47 patients were prospectively included and underwent the dynamic volume CT.Histopathologic diagnoses were obtained within two weeks after the CT examination.Blood flow from the bronchial artery[bronchial flow(BF)]and pulmonary artery[pulmonary flow(PF)]as well as the perfusion index(PI)=[PF/(PF+BF)]were obtained using first-pass dual-input CT perfusion analysis and compared respectively between different histopathology and lesion types(pure or mixed GGNs)and correlated with the attenuation values of the lesions using one-way ANOVA,student’s t test and Pearson correlation analysis.RESULTS Of the 47 GGNs(mean diameter,8.17 mm;range,5.3-12.7 mm),30(64%)were carcinoma,6(13%)were atypical adenomatous hyperplasia and 11(23%)were organizing pneumonia.All perfusion parameters(BF,PF and PI)demonstrated no significant difference among the three conditions(all P>0.05).The PFs were higher than the BFs in all the three conditions(all P<0.001).Of the 30 GGN carcinomas,14 showed mixed GGNs and 16 pure GGNs with a higher PI in the latter(P<0.01).Of the 17 benign GGNs,4 showed mixed GGNs and 13 pure GGNs with no significant difference of the PI between the GGN types(P=0.21).A negative correlation(r=-0.76,P<0.001)was demonstrated between the CT attenuation values and the PIs in the 30 GGN carcinomas.CONCLUSION The GGNs are perfused dominantly by the PF regardless of its histopathology while the weight of the BF in the GGN carcinomas increases gradually during the progress of its opacification.

Surface defects,stress evolution,and laser damage enhancement mechanism of fused silica under oxygen-enriched condition

Oxygen ions(O;)were implanted into fused silica at a fixed fluence of 1×10^(17) ions/cm^(2) with different ion energies ranging from 10 ke V to 60 ke V.The surface roughness,optical properties,mechanical properties and laser damage performance of fused silica were investigated to understand the effect of oxygen ion implantation on laser damage resistance of fused silica.The ion implantation accompanied with sputtering effect can passivate the sub-/surface defects to reduce the surface roughness and improve the surface quality slightly.The implanted oxygen ions can combine with the structural defects(ODCs and E′centers)to reduce the defect densities and compensate the loss of oxygen in fused silica surface under laser irradiation.Furthermore,oxygen ion implantation can reduce the Si-O-Si bond angle and densify the surface structure,thus introducing compressive stress in the surface to strengthen the surface of fused silica.Therefore,the laser induced damage threshold of fused silica increases and the damage growth coefficient decreases when ion energy up to30 ke V.However,at higher ion energy,the sputtering effect is weakened and implantation becomes dominant,which leads to the surface roughness increase slightly.In addition,excessive energy aggravates the breaking of Si-O bonds.At the same time,the density of structural defects increases and the compressive stress decreases.These will degrade the laser laser-damage resistance of fused silica.The results indicate that oxygen ion implantation with appropriate ion energy is helpful to improve the damage resistance capability of fused silica components.

Non-parabolic effect for femtosecond laser-induced ultrafast electro-absorption in solids

A theoretical study for femtosecond laser-induced ultrafast electro-absorption of bulk solids is presented.Our numerical results show that,in the case of low intensity of the pump laser where the interaction between the pump laser and solids is in the multi-photon regime,the energy band of solids can be approximately taken as a parabolic band and electro-absorption spectrums from the parabolic band and real band are nearly the same.While,in the case of high intensity where the interaction is in the tunneling regime,spectrums from the parabolic band and real band are quite different.The physical mechanism for the difference in the tunneling regime is found.We find that the non-parabolic parts of the real energy band and Bragger scattering of electrons near the first Brillouin zone boundaries,which are neglected in previous studies,strongly influence the electro-absorption spectrum in the tunneling regime.These two physical processes cause the difference of spectrums.Our theoretical results are in accordance with the experiment result.

Molecular Dynamics Study of the Structural Modification of Porous Silica from Low-Energy Recoils

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the effects of low-energy recoils on the microscopic structure of porous silica. Exhibiting a logistic growth with the recoil energy, the displacement probability of Si is shown to be smaller than that of O at the same primary knock-on level. Computations of pair distribution functions and bond angle distributions reveal that this material upon irradiation with energies around the displacement thresholds mainly undergoes structural changes in the medium-range order. In the porous network,while the formation of nonbridging oxygen defects tends to induce shorter Si–O bonds than those formed by bridging oxygen atoms, a remarkable increase of inter-tetrahedral bond angles created by multiple recoils can be observed and associated with the rearrangement of ring statistics.

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of 28 Cases of Cholera

The data of 35 246 patients with intestinal diseases were retrospectively analyzed, 28 cases of cholera patients were screened in 17 years, of which 23 cases had suspicious unclean food history, 10 cases were migrant workers, 8 cases had history of coastal city tour in one week. All of the 28 patients were positive for Vibrio cholerae culture, 19 cases were identified as O1 serotype Ogawa and 6 were identified as O1 serotype Inaba, 3 were identified as O139. Twenty-three patients were mild, five cases were moderate, patients with severe diseases were not found. It was found in this study that O1 serotype Vibrio cholerae was still dominant, 82% of cholera patients were mild cases. Tourists who had a incompletely heated seafood intake history and migrant people are susceptible to cholera.

Anemia and insomnia: a cross-sectional study and meta-analysis

Background: Several recent genome-wide association studies suggested insomnia and anemia may share some common genetic components. We thus examined whether adults with anemia had higher odds of having insomnia relative to those without anemia in a cross-sectional study and a meta-analysis.Methods: Included in this cross-sectional study were 12,614 Chinese adults who participated in an ongoing cohort, the Kailuan Study. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin levels below 12.0 g/dL in women and 13.0 g/dL in men. Insomnia was assessed using the Chinese version of the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). A total AIS score ≥6 was considered insomnia. The association between anemia and insomnia was assessed using a logistic regression model, adjusting for potential confounders such as age, sex, chronic disease status, and plasma C-reactive protein concentrations. A meta-analysis was conducted using the fixed effects model to pool results from our study and three previously published cross-sectional studies on this topic in adult populations.Results: Individuals with anemia had greater odds of having insomnia (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.32;95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.70) compared with individuals without anemia. A significant association persisted after we excluded individuals with chronic inflammation, as suggested by C-reactive protein levels >1 mg/L (adjusted OR: 1.68;95% CI: 1.22-2.32). The meta-analysis results, including 22,134 participants, also identified a positive association between anemia and insomnia (pooled OR: 1.39;95% CI: 1.22-1.57).Conclusions: The presence of anemia was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of having insomnia in adults. Due to the nature of the cross-sectional study design, results should be interpreted with caution.