Mills’syndrome is a unique entity of upper motor neuron disease with N-shaped progression:Three case reports

BACKGROUND Mills’syndrome is an extremely rare degenerative motor neuron disorder first described by Mills in 1900,but its nosological status is still not clear.We aimed to analyze the clinical features of Mills’syndrome.CASE SUMMARY Herein,we present 3 cases with similar features as those described in Mills’original paper and review the related literature.Our patients showed middle-and older-age onset,with only upper motor neuron symptoms evident throughout the course of the disease.Spastic hemiplegia began in the lower extremity with a unique progressive pattern.CONCLUSION We consider that Mills’syndrome is a unique entity of motor neuron disorder with an N-shaped progression.Clinicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for the diagnosis of Mills’syndrome when the onset involves lower extremity paralysis without evidence of lower motor neuron or sensory involvement.

An N-shape thermal front in the western South Yellow Sea in winter

An N-shape thermal front in the western South Yellow Sea （YS） in winter was detected using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiation （AVHRR） Sea Surface Temperature data and in-situ observations with a merged front-detecting method. The front, which exists from late October through early March, consists of western and eastern wings extending roughly along the northeast-southwest isobaths with a southeastward middle segment across the 20--50 m isobaths. There are north and south inflexions connecting the middle segment with the western and eastern wings, respectively. The middle segment gradually moves southwestward from November through February with its length increasing from 62 km to 107 km and the southern inflexion moving from 36.2°N to 35.3°N. A cold tongue is found to coexist with the N-shape front, and is carried by the coastal jet penetrating southward from the tip of the Shandong Peninsula into the western South YS as revealed by a numerical simulation. After departing from the coast, the jet flows as an anti-cyclonic recirculation below 10 m depth, trapping warmer water originally carried by the compensating Yellow Sea Warm Current （YSWC）. A northwestward fowing branch of the YSWC is also found on the lowest level south of the front. The N-shape front initially forms between the cold tongue and warm water involved in the subsurface anti-cyclonical recirculation and extends upwards to the surface through vertical advection and mixing. Correlation analyses reveal that northerly and easterly winds tend to be favorable to the formation and extension of the N-shape front probably through strengthening of the coastal jet and shifting the YSWC pathway eastward, respectively.

Multicompartment Micelles From π-Shaped ABC Block Copolymers

Dissipative particle dynamics simulations were performed on the morphology and structure of multicompartmerit micelles formed from n-shaped ABC block copolymers in water. The influences of chain architectures were studied in a systematic way, and a rich variety of morphologies were observed, such as spherical, wormlike, X-shaped, Y-shaped, ribbon-like, layered rod-like, layered disk-like, as well as network morphologies. The simulations show that the distance between the two grafts plays an important role in control of the morphology. Since n-shaped ABC block copolymers can be reduced to linear ABC and star ABC block copolymers, they are good model copolymers for studying the self-assembly of complex block copolymers into micelles. The knowledge obtained in this work as well as the new morphologies identified provide useful information for future rational design and synthesis of novel multicompartment micelles.