Vagus nerve stimulation is a potential treatment for ischemic stroke

Microglia are the brain’s primary innate immune cells,and they are activated and affect pro-inflammatory phenotype or regulatory phenotype after ischemic stroke.Vagus nerve stimulation was shown to activate microglial phenotypic changes and exhibit neuroprotective effects in ischemia/reperfusion injury.In this study,we established rat models of ischemic stroke by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery and performed vagus nerve stimulation 30 minutes after modeling.We found that vagus nerve stimulation caused a shift from a pro-inflammatory phenotype to a regulatory phenotype in microglia in the ischemic penumbra.Vagus nerve stimulation decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory phenotype markers inducible nitric oxide synthase and tumor necrosis factorαand increased the expression of regulatory phenotype markers arginase 1 and transforming growth factorβthrough activatingα7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression.Additionally,α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor blockade reduced the inhibition of Toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor kappa-B pathwayassociated proteins,including Toll-like receptor 4,myeloid differentiation factor 88,I kappa B alpha,and phosphorylated-I kappa B alpha,and also weakened the neuroprotective effects of vagus nerve stimulation in ischemic stroke.Vagus nerve stimulation inhibited Toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor kappa-B expression through activatingα7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and regulated microglial polarization after ischemic stroke,thereby playing a role in the treatment of ischemic stroke.Findings from this study confirm the mechanism underlying vagus nerve stimulation against ischemic stroke.

Secure Content Based Image Retrieval Scheme Based on Deep Hashing and Searchable Encryption

To solve the problem that the existing ciphertext domain image retrieval system is challenging to balance security,retrieval efficiency,and retrieval accuracy.This research suggests a searchable encryption and deep hashing-based secure image retrieval technique that extracts more expressive image features and constructs a secure,searchable encryption scheme.First,a deep learning framework based on residual network and transfer learn-ing model is designed to extract more representative image deep features.Secondly,the central similarity is used to quantify and construct the deep hash sequence of features.The Paillier homomorphic encryption encrypts the deep hash sequence to build a high-security and low-complexity searchable index.Finally,according to the additive homomorphic property of Paillier homomorphic encryption,a similarity measurement method suitable for com-puting in the retrieval system’s security is ensured by the encrypted domain.The experimental results,which were obtained on Web Image Database from the National University of Singapore(NUS-WIDE),Microsoft Common Objects in Context(MS COCO),and ImageNet data sets,demonstrate the system’s robust security and precise retrieval,the proposed scheme can achieve efficient image retrieval without revealing user privacy.The retrieval accuracy is improved by at least 37%compared to traditional hashing schemes.At the same time,the retrieval time is saved by at least 9.7%compared to the latest deep hashing schemes.

光相干断层扫描血管成像观察新生血管性ARMD的临床研究

目的:利用光相干断层扫描血管成像(optical coherence tomography angiography,OCTA)观察新生血管性年龄相关性黄斑变性(neovascular age-related macular degeneration,n ARMD)患者的脉络膜新生血管(choroidal neovascularization,CNV)及接受抗血管内皮生长因子(vascular endothelial growth factor,VEGF)治疗前后的变化。方法:本研究为病例系列分析研究。纳入2017-05/12就诊于我院眼科的n ARMD患者29例37眼。所有患者玻璃体腔注射抗VEGF治疗前和治疗后1d,1wk,1mo及每月随访时均行OCTA检查,共随访3～6mo,观察抗VEGF治疗前后CNV病灶形态和大小、中心凹旁浅层视网膜血管密度和血流灌注的变化。结果:n ARMD患者CNV病灶的组织结构中不成熟的结构、小分支血管和毛细血管对抗VEGF的治疗应答反应较好;术前基线病灶面积为1. 27±1. 88mm2,术后第1d病灶面积为1. 13±1. 79mm2,CNV病灶在抗VEGF治疗后1d即可缩小,最终病灶大小稳定在1mo时的病灶面积水平,与治疗前比较差异有统计学意义(P=0. 001);抗VEGF治疗后3mo,中心凹旁浅层视网膜血管密度和血流灌注明显降低,差异有统计学意义(P=0. 003、0. 015)。结论:OCTA能够无创、清晰地显示n ARMD患者CNV病灶的细微结构变化和定量分析CNV病灶面积的变化。OCTA还能够对视网膜血管进行分层显示,定量分析视网膜微循环的变化,在nARMD患者的病情监测和指导治疗方面有重要的临床应用价值。

Preliminary results of a Compton camera based on a single 3D position-sensitive CZT detector

A Compton camera prototype has been developed using a pixelated CZT detector with 4-by-4 pixels.Signals of the detector are read out by a VASTAT ASIC that is controlled by a self-developed DAQ board. The DAQ software is developed using LabVIEW, and the offline Compton imaging codes are written in C++. The prototype has been successfully calibrated, and its capabilities for source detection, spectroscopy, and Compton imaging have been demonstrated using a Cs-137 source.The angular resolution of the 662 keV line is 36° FWHM for the simple back-projection method and 9.6° FWHM for the MLEM reconstruction method. The system is ready to be extended to 11-by-11 pixels in the future, and a better imaging quality can be expected due to the better relative position resolution.

Bismuth Oxide Selenium/Graphene Oxide Composites:Toward High-Performance Electrodes for Aqueous Alkaline Battery

Aqueous alkaline battery represents a promising energy storage technology with both high energy density and high power density as rechargeable batteries.However,the low theoretical capacities,kinetics and stability of anode materials have limited their developments and commercializations.In this study,we propose a novel method to produce two-dimensional layered bismuth oxide selenium(Bi_(2)O_(2)Se)and reduced graphene oxide(r GO)composites via a one-step hydrothermal method.The volume change caused by phase change during rapid charging and discharging is significantly reduced and the capacity reaches 263.83 m Ah g^(-1)at a current density of 0.5 A g^(-1).The Bi_(2)O_(2)Se/r GO electrode exhibits excellent cycling stability in which the capacity retention rate is 81.04%after 5000 cycles.More importantly,the Bi_(2)O_(2)Se/r GO nanosheet composite is used as the anode electrode material with MnCo_(2)O_(4.5)@Ni(OH)_(2)as the cathode electrode material in aqueous alkaline battery.When the energy density is 76.16 W h kg^(-1),the power density reaches 308.65 W kg^(-1).At a power density of 10.21 k W kg^(-1),the energy density remains as high as 33.86 W h kg^(-1).The results presented here may advance the understanding of the issues facing the development of aqueous battery anode materials.

Analysis of knowledge graph based on CiteSpace research on the treatment of pediatric pneumonia with traditional Chinese medicine

Objective:Based on the CiteSpace tool,this study makes a visualization analysis on the treatment of infantile pneumonia with traditional Chinese medicine in the past 20 years,so as to explore the development status,research hotspots and frontier trends of the treatment of infantile pneumonia with traditional Chinese medicine,and provide a reference for the research on the treatment of infantile pneumonia and related diseases with traditional Chinese medicine.Methods:A total of 645 literatures related to the treatment of pediatric pneumonia with traditional Chinese medicine were retrieved from CNKI.The visual atlas was made by year,author,institution and key words,and the co-occurrence,clustering and emergence analysis were performed.Results:The related literatures span from January 2001 to February 2021,and the number of related literatures showed an obvious increasing trend,with an average annual publication of 38 papers.From 2002 to 2014,the increase was the most obvious,and began to show a gentle growth trend in 2015.Twelve main clusters were obtained by keyword cluster analysis.Emergent analysis results in a total of 19 emergent words,which are composed of 439 nodes and 1,452 lines in total.There are different research hotspots in different periods,and in the past five years,the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of infantile pneumonia and the related research of traditional Chinese medicine characteristic nursing has become a contemporary hot spot.Conclusion:At present,the research on the treatment of children's pneumonia with traditional Chinese medicine shows an increasing trend.There is still a lack of continuity among various studies.The cooperation between the authors and various institutions is low.Moreover,the research direction in this field mainly focuses on children's mycoplasma pneumonia.In addition,the clinical efficacy observation of the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and azithromycin in the treatment of children's pneumonia will become a hot topic in the future.In addition to the research focus in this field,the clinical efficacy of TCM(traditional Chinese medicine)in the treatment of infantile pneumonia and the characteristic nursing of traditional Chinese medicine may still become one of the hot spots in the future.

High mass-loading and binder-free flexible vanadium-based oxide cathode for zinc-ion battery via a bridge of MXene

Flexible zinc-ion batteries(ZIBs)are promising power sources for portable devices due to their high safety and low production cost.However,the low mass-loading and limited areal capacity of cathode materials are the major problems blocking the practicability of ZIBs.Herein,a high mass-loading and binder-free flexible vanadium oxide(MCV@CC)cathode with a large areal capacity was fabricated via the bridge effect of MXene.The functional MXene bridge induces the growth of the vanadium oxide active layer on the carbon cloth(CC)flexible substrate.The binder-free cathode can reduce the electrochemically inactive weight of the whole electrode,which enhances the energy density of ZIBs.Consequently,the MCV@CC cathode(mass-loading of∼7 mg cm^(−2))delivers a desirable areal capacity(2.36 mAh cm^(−2))and good cycling stability(capacity retention of 86.1%after 1200 cycles at 10 mA cm^(−2)).Moreover,several ex-situ characterization results indicate that the reaction mechanism upon battery cycling is based on the reversible Zn^(2+)/H^(+)(de)intercalation in the vanadium oxide interlayer.Furthermore,the assembled quasi-solid-state MCV@CC//Zn flexible battery exhibits decent performance at different bending states.Such a bridge effect strategy sheds light on the construction of high mass-loading flexible electrodes for ZIBs applications.

A homologous strategy to parallelly construct doped MOFs-derived electrodes for flexible solid-state hybrid supercapacitors

Developing efficient and cost-effective electrode materials is of essential significance to advance various energy storage technologies,among which flexible supercapacitors hold great promise to meet the growing popularity of wearable electronics.Herein,we report a homologous strategy to parallelly synthesize phosphorus-doped ZnCo_(2)O_(4)(P-ZnCo_(2)O_(4)@NCC)and nitrogen-doped carbon(NC@NCC)both derived from ZnCo-metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)precursors in-situ grown on dopamine-modified carbon cloth(NCC)as conductive substrates.Impressively,the as-obtained P-ZnCo_(2)O_(4)@NCC can achieve a high specific capacitance of 2702.2 mF∙cm^(−2)at 1 mA∙cm^(−2)with the capacitance retention rate exceeding 70.6%at 10 mA∙cm^(−2),demonstrating the outstanding rate capability.Moreover,flexible solid-state hybrid supercapacitors,using P-ZnCo_(2)O_(4)@NCC as positive electrode and NC@NCC as negative electrode,are assembled with poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA)/KOH as the gel electrolyte,which deliver the energy density of 11.9 mWh∙cm^(−3)when the power density reaches up to 47.3 mW∙cm^(−3).In addition,85.15%of the initial specific capacitance is maintained after 5000 continuous cycles and no obvious capacitance decay is observed under different bending conditions,revealing the excellent cycling stability and flexibility.As a proof-of-concept demonstration,two as-assembled hybrid supercapacitors connected in series can light up a red light-emitting diode(LED)under the bending angle of 180°,heralding the feasibility for broad practical applications.

Irritable bowel syndrome in China: a review on the epidemiology, diagnosis, and management

Irritable bowel syndrome(IBS)is a common functional gastrointestinal disease worldwide.Current guidelines of IBS are mostly based on the western populations and expected to vary in different communities.China has a large population and a vast literature is available on IBS.Due to linguistic variations in the literature,the studies are not widely known and their conclusions thus remain largely obscured to the western medical literature.In this article,we reviewed the published literatures on the investigations of IBS epidemiology,diagnosis,and management in the Chinese population and emphasized the different findings gleaned from the western publications.The detailed literature review will benefit understanding of and promote future study on IBS.

Asymmetrical Bell state analysis for photon-atoms hybrid system

Bell-state analysis(BSA) has great application in the quantum communication. To our best knowledge, the current works are devoted to the physical realization of symmetrical 2×2-dimensional or 2^N× 2^N-dimensional 2-qudit BSA, and there is no work focused on the physical realization of the asymmetrical high-dimensional(for example 3×4-dimensional 2-qudit) Bell-states complete analysis. In this paper, by using the nonlinear interaction between the atoms and photons, we propose a scheme to completely distinguish the asymmetrical 3×4-dimensional 2-qudit Bell states of a hybrid system. We use the quantum information splitting, which is exploited to resolve the degree-mismatch issue in the quantum state sharing schemes, as an example to show the application of the asymmetrical BSA. Finally, we discuss its possible realization with current experimental techniques. Our asymmetrical high-dimensional BSA protocol may pave a new way for high-capacity long-distance quantum communication.