Potassium and calcium channels in different nerve cells act as therapeutic targets in neurological disorders

The central nervous system, information integration center of the body, is mainly composed of neurons and glial cells. The neuron is one of the most basic and important structural and functional units of the central nervous system, with sensory stimulation and excitation conduction functions. Astrocytes and microglia belong to the glial cell family, which is the main source of cytokines and represents the main defense system of the central nervous system. Nerve cells undergo neurotransmission or gliotransmission, which regulates neuronal activity via the ion channels, receptors, or transporters expressed on nerve cell membranes. Ion channels, composed of large transmembrane proteins, play crucial roles in maintaining nerve cell homeostasis. These channels are also important for control of the membrane potential and in the secretion of neurotransmitters. A variety of cellular functions and life activities, including functional regulation of the central nervous system, the generation and conduction of nerve excitation, the occurrence of receptor potential, heart pulsation, smooth muscle peristalsis, skeletal muscle contraction, and hormone secretion, are closely related to ion channels associated with passive transmembrane transport. Two types of ion channels in the central nervous system, potassium channels and calcium channels, are closely related to various neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and epilepsy. Accordingly, various drugs that can affect these ion channels have been explored deeply to provide new directions for the treatment of these neurological disorders. In this review, we focus on the functions of potassium and calcium ion channels in different nerve cells and their involvement in neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, depression, epilepsy, autism, and rare disorders. We also describe several clinical drugs that target potassium or calcium channels in nerve cells and could be used to treat these disorders. We concluded that there are few clinical drugs that can improve the pathology these diseases by acting on potassium or calcium ions. Although a few novel ion-channelspecific modulators have been discovered, meaningful therapies have largely not yet been realized. The lack of target-specific drugs, their requirement to cross the blood–brain barrier, and their exact underlying mechanisms all need further attention. This review aims to explain the urgent problems that need research progress and provide comprehensive information aiming to arouse the research community's interest in the development of ion channel-targeting drugs and the identification of new therapeutic targets for that can increase the cure rate of nervous system diseases and reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions in other systems.

Altruism and Pricing Strategy in Dual-Channel Supply Chains

With the development of behavioral operational management, human behavior such as altruism, fairness and trust has received considerable attention. This paper studies the effect of altruism on retailer’s and manufacturer’s pricing strategy in two classic dual-channel supply chains by presenting Stackelberg game models. The analysis shows that the player’s altruism preference strongly affects their pricing strategies. The more altruistic one player is, the more profits the other player obtains. Moreover, the effect of manufacturer’s altruistic preference is larger than that of retailer’s. In addition, online price is always lower than offline price in dual-channel supply chain, which still holds true considering altruism. The results also reveal that the product web-fit has significant effect on the player’s optimal pricing strategies. The more compatible with online market the product is, the lower the retail price is set, and the more profit the manufacturer obtains whereas the less the retailer gets.

Dual-Channel Communication of Column Plasma Antenna Excited by a Surface Wave——Actualization and Simulation of Radiation Pattern

Along with the introduction of the concept of dual-channel communication,we utilized the finite-difference time-domain（FDTD） method to simulate and measure the radiation pattern under certain plasma densities and plasma collision frequencies.Results show that under certain settings,the radiation pattern of a plasma antenna resembles that of a metallic antenna.In contrast to a metallic antenna,a plasma antenna possesses other functionalities,such as dynamic reconfiguration and digital controllability.The data from simulation are similar to the measurement results,indicating that column plasma antenna can realize dual-channel communication.This work confirms the viability of realizing dual-channel communication by column plasma antenna,which adds a new but promising method for modern intelligent communication.

An analytical threshold voltage model for dual-strained channel PMOSFET

Based on the analysis of vertical electric potential distribution across the dual-channel strained p-type Si/strained Si1-xGex/relaxd Si1-yGey（s-Si/s-SiGe/Si1-yGey） metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor （PMOSFET）, analytical expressions of the threshold voltages for buried channel and surface channel are presented. And the maximum allowed thickness of s-Si is given, which can ensure that the strong inversion appears earlier in the buried channel （compressive strained SiGe） than in the surface channel （tensile strained Si）, because the hole mobility in the buried channel is higher than that in the surface channel. Thus they offer a good accuracy as compared with the results of device simulator ISE. With this model, the variations of threshold voltage and maximum allowed thickness of s-Si with design parameters can be predicted, such as Ge fraction, layer thickness, and doping concentration. This model can serve as a useful tool for p-channel s-Si/s-SiGe/Si1-yGey metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor （MOSFET） designs.

Consumer Choice, Firm Performance and Channel Coordination in a Dual-Channel Distribution System

The expanding role of the Internet in consumer purchasing activities has created substantial new opportunities accessing to end-consumers. More and more manufacturers are beginning to sell products to potential consumers directly online while continuing to sell through the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, a phenomenon leading to intense channel competition and conflicts. Using game theory, this research examines the effect of market segments, consumer choice and the acceptance of direct online channels on firm performance and the whole system’s profit. The analysis indicates that the addition of direct online channel does not necessarily harm the incumbent retailers. A win-win zone is proposed, in which both the manufacturer and the retailer benefit from the encroachment.

Cognitive amplify-and-forward dual-hop relay networks over α-μ fading channels

This paper provides an analytic performance evaluation of dual-hop cognitive amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks over independent nonidentically distributed (i.n.i.d.) fading channels. Two different transmit power constraint strategies at the secondary network are proposed to investigate the performance of the secondary network. In the case of combined power constraint,the maximum tolerable interference power on the primary network and the maximum transmit power at the secondary network are considered. Closed-form lower bound and its asymptotic expression for the outage probability (OP) are achieved. Utilizing the above results,average symbol error probability (ABEP) at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are also derived. In order to further study the performance of dual-hop cognitive AF relaying networks,the Closed-form lower bounds and asymptotic expressions for OP with single power constraint of the tolerable interference on the primary network is also obtained. Both analytical and simulation are employed to validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis. The results show that the secondary network obtains a better performance when higher power constraint is employed.

Designing cost-effective network-on-chip by dual-channel access mechanism

A dual-channel access mechanism to overcome the drawback of traditional single-channel access mechanism for network-on-chip （NoC） is proposed. In traditional single-channel access mechanism, every Internet protocol （IP） has only one chan- nel to access the on-chip network. When the network is relatively idle, the injection rate is too small to make good use of the network resource. When the network is relatively busy, the ejection rate is so small that the packets in the network cannot leave immediately, and thus the probability of congestion is increased. In the dual-channel access mechanism, the injection rate of IP and the ejection rate of the network are increased by using two optional channels in network interface （NI） and local port of routers. Therefore, the communication performance is improved. Experimental results show that compared with traditional single-channel access mechanism, the proposed scheme greatly increases the throughput and cuts down the average latency with reasonable area increase.

Cascaded dual-channel fiber SPR temperature sensor based on liquid and solid encapsulations

In order to control the working wavelength range of the fiber surface plasmon resonance(SPR)temperature sensor and realize the wavelength division multiplexing type multi-channel fiber SPR temperature sensor,by comprehensively investigating the influence of liquids with different thermal-optical coefficients and solid packaging materials on the performance of fiber SPR temperature sensor,a dual-channel fiber SPR temperature sensor based on liquid-solid cascade encapsulation was designed and fabricated.The liquid temperature sensing stage encapsulated in capillary worked in 616.03 nm-639.05 nm band,the solid sensing stage coated with pouring sealant worked in 719.37 nm-825.27 nm band,and the two stages were cascaded to form a fiber dual-channel temperature sensor.The testing results indicated that when the temperature range was 35℃-95℃,the sensitivity of two-stage temperature detection was−0.384 nm/℃and−1.765 nm/℃respectively.The proposed fiber sensor has simple fabrication and excellent performance which can be widely used in various fields of dual-channel temperature measurement and temperature compensation.

Numerical Simulation of Dual-Channel Communication of Column Plasma Antenna Excited by a Surface Wave

This paper focuses on the application of plasma as wireless antenna. In order to reveal the radiation characteristics of column plasma antenna, we chose the finite-difference time- domain （FDTD） numerical analysis method to simulate radiation impedance and efficiencies of each channel for a few sets of plasma densities and plasma collision frequencies. Simulation results demonstrate that a plasma antenna shares similar characteristics with a metallic antenna in radiation impedance and efficiency of each channel when an appropriate setting is adopted. Unlike a metallic antenna, a plasma antenna is capable of realizing such functions as dynamic reconfiguration, digital control and dual-channel communication. Thus it is possible to carry out dual-channel communication by plasma antenna, indicating a new path for modern intelligent communication.

A Dual-Channel Secure Transmission Scheme for Internet-Based Networked Control Systems

Two significant issues in Internet-based networked control systems （ INCSs）, transport performance of different protocols and security breach from Internet side, are investigated. First, for improving the performance of data transmission, user datagram protocol （UDP） is adopted as the main stand for controllers and plants using INCSs. Second, a dual-channel secure transmission scheme （DCSTS）based on data transmission characteristics of INCSs is proposed, in which a raw UDP channel and a secure TCP （transmission control protocol） connection making use of SSL/TLS （secure sockets layer/transport layer security） are included. Further, a networked control protocol （NCP） at application layer for supporting DCSTS between the controllers and plants in INCSs is designed, and it also aims at providing a universal communication mechanism for interoperability of devices among the networked control laboratories in Beijing Institute of Technology of China, Central South University of China and Tokyo University of Technology of Japan. By means of a networked single-degree-of-free- dom robot arm, an INCS under the new protocol and security environment is created. Compared with systems such as IPSec or SSL/TLS, which may cause more than 91% network throughput deduction, the new DCSTS protocol may yield results ten times better, being just 5.67%.

Statistical Modeling of the High Altitude Platform Dual-Polarized MIMO Propagation Channel

In order to investigate the benefit of multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) technique applying to the high altitude platform(HAP), a 2×2 MIMO statistical model, which can accurately describe the channel between HAP and high-speed train, is presented. And dual polarization diversity is particularly considered. Based on first-order three-state Markov chain, the single-input single-output(SISO) channel, a subset of the MIMO channel is first established. The ray tracing approach applied to the digital relief model(DRM) which covers the railway between Xi'an and Zhengzhou is used to obtain the state probability vector and matrix of the state transition probability. The proposed model considers both Doppler shift and temporal correlation, and the polarization correlation and spatial correlation statistical properties of large-scale fading and smallscale fading are analyzed. Moreover, useful numerical results on the MIMO HAP channel outage capacity are provided based on which, significant capacity gains with respect to the conventional SISO case are illustrated. Such statistical channel model can be applied to the future wireless communication system between HAP and high-speed train.

A New Dual-electrode and Multi-channel Electrochemical Detection System for Capillary Electrophoresis

A new type of dual-electrode and multi-channel electrochemical detection technology for capillary electrophoresis is described in this paper. Two detectors(the amperometric detector and the conductometric detector) or two conductometric detectors are connected to the same capillary electrophoresis system. The whole system possesses the advantages of the two electrochemical detectors including sparing time, improving the analytical speed and expanding the sample range. The working electrode and detector cell are handled easily. The system was applied to sample detection with satisfactory results.

Piezo1 channel exaggerates ferroptosis of nucleus pulposus cells by mediating mechanical stress-induced iron influx

To date,several molecules have been found to facilitate iron influx,while the types of iron influx channels remain to be elucidated.Here,Piezo1 channel was identified as a key iron transporter in response to mechanical stress.Piezo1-mediated iron overload disturbed iron metabolism and exaggerated ferroptosis in nucleus pulposus cells(NPCs).Importantly,Piezo1-induced iron influx was independent of the transferrin receptor(TFRC),a well-recognized iron gatekeeper.Furthermore,pharmacological inactivation of Piezo1 profoundly reduced iron accumulation,alleviated mitochondrial ROS,and suppressed ferroptotic alterations in stimulation of mechanical stress.Moreover,conditional knockout of Piezo1(Col2a1-CreERT Piezo1^(flox/flox))attenuated the mechanical injury-induced intervertebral disc degeneration(IVDD).Notably,the protective effect of Piezo1 deficiency in IVDD was dampened in Piezo1/Gpx4 conditional double knockout(cDKO)mice(Col2a1-CreERT Piezo1^(flox/flox)/Gpx4^(flox/flox)).These findings suggest that Piezo1 is a potential determinant of iron influx,indicating that the Piezo1-iron-ferroptosis axis might shed light on the treatment of mechanical stress-induced diseases.

Diversity–Multiplexing Tradeoff and Outage Performance for 2×2 Dual-Polarized Uncorrelated Rice MIMO Channels

In this paper, diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) curve for 2×2 Dual-Polarized uncorrelated Rice MIMO channels is studied. Exact expressions for statistic information of mutual information exponent are derived. Impacts of channel parameters such as signal to noise ratio (SNR), k-factor and cross polarization discrimination (XPD) on mutual information exponent are analyzed. Compared to conventional single-polarized (SP) Rice MIMO systems, a qualitatively different behavior is observed for DP Rice systems. The work in this paper, allows identifying quantitatively for which channels (k-factor) and SNR levels the use of dual polarization becomes beneficial. Gamma or lognormal distribution are used to describe mutual information component, and a theoretical formulation for finite-SNR DMT curve in 2×2 DP uncorrelated Rice channels is presented for the first time, which is valid in low and medium SNRs when multiplexing gain is larger than 0.75.

Channel modeling and influenced factor analysis of the broadband dual-orthogonal polarized MIMO land mobile satellite channel

An accurate, complete and realistic channel model is re- quired to accurately analyze the system performance of a multiple input multiple output （MIMO） broadband satellite mobile commu- nication system with dual-orthogonal polarized antennas （DPAs）. In most current studies, the channel characteristic matrix （CCM） is always formed by an independent identical distribution （i.i.d） model of Rayleigh or Rice distribution and nevertheless incomplete and inaccurate to describe a broadband dual-orthogonal polarized MIMO land mobile satellite （BDM-LMS） channel. This paper fo- cuses on establishing the BDM-LMS channel statistical model, which combines the 4-state broadband LMS channel model, the time selective fading features, the channel covariance information （CCI） channel model and polarization correlations between an- tennas. The modeling steps of the channel model are introduced. The main emphasis is placed on the effects of the factors, such as antenna numbers, temporal correlations, terminal environments, elevation angles and polarization correlations between the DPAs, on the channel capacity in the BDM-LMS system. Many simulation results are provided to illustrate the effects of these factors through comparisons of the transmit rate, ergodic capacity and outage capacity with different factor values. Besides, the MIMO outage capacity advantages, which indicate the benefits of MIMO com- pared with a single input single output （SISO） system under the same channel condition, are also studied under i.i.d or BDM-LMS channel.

Lithium-Ion Charged Polymer Channels Flattening Lithium Metal Anode

The concentration difference in the near-surface region of lithium metal is the main cause of lithium dendrite growth.Resolving this issue will be key to achieving high-performance lithium metal batteries(LMBs).Herein,we construct a lithium nitrate(LiNO_(3))-implanted electroactiveβphase polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene(PVDF-HFP)crystalline polymorph layer(PHL).The electronegatively charged polymer chains attain lithium ions on the surface to form lithium-ion charged channels.These channels act as reservoirs to sustainably release Li ions to recompense the ionic flux of electrolytes,decreasing the growth of lithium dendrites.The stretched molecular channels can also accelerate the transport of Li ions.The combined effects enable a high Coulombic efficiency of 97.0%for 250 cycles in lithium(Li)||copper(Cu)cell and a stable symmetric plating/stripping behavior over 2000 h at 3 mA cm^(-2)with ultrahigh Li utilization of 50%.Furthermore,the full cell coupled with PHL-Cu@Li anode and Li Fe PO_(4) cathode exhibits long-term cycle stability with high-capacity retention of 95.9%after 900 cycles.Impressively,the full cell paired with LiNi_(0.87)Co_(0.1)Mn_(0.03)O_(2)maintains a discharge capacity of 170.0 mAh g^(-1)with a capacity retention of 84.3%after 100 cycles even under harsh condition of ultralow N/P ratio of 0.83.This facile strategy will widen the potential application of LiNO_(3)in ester-based electrolyte for practical high-voltage LMBs.

The Channel Branches & Network Vessels on the Tianhui Lacquered Meridian Figurine——Taking the Heart-Regulated Channel as an Example

Along with the surge of unearthed medical literature and cultural relics in recent years,a network of channels in the system of medical conduit vessels(meridians) during the early Western Han dynasty has become much clearer gradually.In it,the increasing number of channel branches,network vessels and needle insertion holes(acupoints) is an important feature of the development of channel medicine during the Western Han dynasty.This is not only a reflection of the expanding requirements of the theoretical system of the main trunk channels and other vessels,but also an inevitable result of the continuous enrichment and accumulation of clinical experience.This article integrates the information about channel branches,network vessels,inscriptions,dots and further relics on the Tianhui(天回) Lacquered Meridian Figurine to compare the unearthed literature of the channel genre with the transmitted classical literature about acupuncture.The “Heart-Regulated Channel” in Medical Manuscripts on Bamboo Slips from Tianhui(《天回医简》) serves as an example to explain the occurrence,development and changes of the channel branches and network vessels in the early system of medical channels.

Deep learning for joint channel estimation and feedback in massive MIMO systems

The great potentials of massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output(MIMO)in Frequency Division Duplex(FDD)mode can be fully exploited when the downlink Channel State Information(CSI)is available at base stations.However,the accurate CsI is difficult to obtain due to the large amount of feedback overhead caused by massive antennas.In this paper,we propose a deep learning based joint channel estimation and feedback framework,which comprehensively realizes the estimation,compression,and reconstruction of downlink channels in FDD massive MIMO systems.Two networks are constructed to perform estimation and feedback explicitly and implicitly.The explicit network adopts a multi-Signal-to-Noise-Ratios(SNRs)technique to obtain a single trained channel estimation subnet that works well with different SNRs and employs a deep residual network to reconstruct the channels,while the implicit network directly compresses pilots and sends them back to reduce network parameters.Quantization module is also designed to generate data-bearing bitstreams.Simulation results show that the two proposed networks exhibit excellent performance of reconstruction and are robust to different environments and quantization errors.

Channel Correlation Based User Grouping Algorithm for Nonlinear Precoding Satellite Communication System

Low Earth Orbit(LEO)multibeam satellites will be widely used in the next generation of satellite communication systems,whose inter-beam interference will inevitably limit the performance of the whole system.Nonlinear precoding such as Tomlinson-Harashima precoding(THP)algorithm has been proved to be a promising technology to solve this problem,which has smaller noise amplification effect compared with linear precoding.However,the similarity of different user channels(defined as channel correlation)will degrade the performance of THP algorithm.In this paper,we qualitatively analyze the inter-beam interference in the whole process of LEO satellite over a specific coverage area,and the impact of channel correlation on Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR)of receivers when THP is applied.One user grouping algorithm is proposed based on the analysis of channel correlation,which could decrease the number of users with high channel correlation in each precoding group,thus improve the performance of THP.Furthermore,our algorithm is designed under the premise of co-frequency deployment and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM),which leads to more users under severe inter-beam interference compared to the existing research on geostationary orbit satellites broadcasting systems.Simulation results show that the proposed user grouping algorithm possesses higher channel capacity and better bit error rate(BER)performance in high SNR conditions relative to existing works.

Two-Staged Method for Ice Channel Identification Based on Image Segmentation and Corner Point Regression

Identification of the ice channel is the basic technology for developing intelligent ships in ice-covered waters,which is important to ensure the safety and economy of navigation.In the Arctic,merchant ships with low ice class often navigate in channels opened up by icebreakers.Navigation in the ice channel often depends on good maneuverability skills and abundant experience from the captain to a large extent.The ship may get stuck if steered into ice fields off the channel.Under this circumstance,it is very important to study how to identify the boundary lines of ice channels with a reliable method.In this paper,a two-staged ice channel identification method is developed based on image segmentation and corner point regression.The first stage employs the image segmentation method to extract channel regions.In the second stage,an intelligent corner regression network is proposed to extract the channel boundary lines from the channel region.A non-intelligent angle-based filtering and clustering method is proposed and compared with corner point regression network.The training and evaluation of the segmentation method and corner regression network are carried out on the synthetic and real ice channel dataset.The evaluation results show that the accuracy of the method using the corner point regression network in the second stage is achieved as high as 73.33%on the synthetic ice channel dataset and 70.66%on the real ice channel dataset,and the processing speed can reach up to 14.58frames per second.