Enhancement of motor functional recovery in thoracic spinal cord injury: voluntary wheel running versus forced treadmill exercise

Spinal cord injury necessitates effective rehabilitation strategies, with exercise therapies showing promise in promoting recovery. This study investigated the impact of rehabilitation exercise on functional recovery and morphological changes following thoracic contusive spinal cord injury. After a 7-day recovery period after spinal cord injury, mice were assigned to either a trained group(10 weeks of voluntary running wheel or forced treadmill exercise) or an untrained group. Bi-weekly assessments revealed that the exercise-trained group, particularly the voluntary wheel exercise subgroup, displayed significantly improved locomotor recovery, more plasticity of dopaminergic and serotonin modulation compared with the untrained group. Additionally, exercise interventions led to gait pattern restoration and enhanced transcranial magnetic motor-evoked potentials. Despite consistent injury areas across groups, exercise training promoted terminal innervation of descending axons. In summary, voluntary wheel exercise shows promise for enhancing outcomes after thoracic contusive spinal cord injury, emphasizing the role of exercise modality in promoting recovery and morphological changes in spinal cord injuries. Our findings will influence future strategies for rehabilitation exercises, restoring functional movement after spinal cord injury.

Information-motivation-behavioral guided nursing for stroke patients with pulmonary dysfunction:A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND Patients with stroke frequently experience pulmonary dysfunction.AIM To explore the effects of information-motivation-behavioral(IMB)skills modelbased nursing care on pulmonary function,blood gas indices,complication rates,and quality of life(QoL)in stroke patients with pulmonary dysfunction.METHODS We conducted a controlled study involving 120 stroke patients with pulmonary dysfunction.The control group received routine care,whereas the intervention group received IMB-model-based nursing care.Various parameters including pulmonary function,blood gas indices,complication rates,and QoL were assessed before and after the intervention.RESULTS Baseline data of the control and intervention groups were comparable.Post-intervention,the IMB model-based care group showed significant improvements in pulmonary function indicators,forced expiratory volume in 1 sec,forced vital capacity,and peak expiratory flow compared with the control group.Blood gas indices,such as arterial oxygen pressure and arterial oxygen saturation,increased significantly,and arterial carbon dioxide partial.pressure decreased significantly in the IMB model-based care group compared with the control group.The intervention group also had a lower complication rate(6.67%vs 23.33%)and higher QoL scores across all domains than the control group.CONCLUSION IMB model-based nursing care significantly enhanced pulmonary function,improved blood gas indices,reduced complication rates,and improved the QoL of stroke patients with pulmonary dysfunction.Further research is needed to validate these results and to assess the long-term efficacy and broader applicability of the model.

Asymptotic Behaviors of Hankelians, Whose Entries Involve Regularly- or Rapidly-Varying Functions, as the Variable Tends to +∞. Part I

The rich literature concerning “asymptotic behavior of Hankel determinants” concerns the behavior, as the order n tends to ∞, of Hankel determinants whose entries are numbers, e.g., with a combinatorial interest or arising as values of special classes of functions. Such determinants are numbers depending on n, playing roles in number theory, combinatorics, random matrices and the like;and mathematicians in the involved fields have been interested in their asymptotic behaviors as n goes to ∞, as previously mentioned, with no single exception to the author’s knowledge. The study carried on in the present paper treats an altogether different situation as suggested by the specification in the title “as the variable tends to +∞”. We deal with those types of Hankel determinants (purposely called Hankelians) which are special cases of Wronskians and, continuing our work on the asymptotics of Wronskians, we study the asymptotic behaviors of n-order Hankelians, whose entries involve either regularly- or rapidly-varying functions, when the variable tends to +∞. As in the study of Wronskians, the treatment of this case also needs the whole apparatus of the theory of higher-order types of asymptotic variation, but the most demanding results are not automatic corollaries of the general theory. In fact, in the study of generic Wronskians (study motivated by applications to asymptotic expansions), the entries were required to belong to one of the classes of “higher-order regular or rapid variation”;on the contrary, in the case of Hankelians, we are confronted with functions whose logarithms are either “regularly- or rapidly-varying functions”, roughly classifiable as “ultrarapidly-varying functions”, and the study requires both special devices and a number of preliminary lemmas about products and linear combinations of functions in the mentioned classes.

Adsorption behaviors and mechanisms of gold recovery from thiosulfate solution by ion exchange resin

The adsorption behaviors and mechanisms of gold from thiosulfate solution on strong-base anion exchange resin were systematically investigated.The comparison experiment of adsorption ability and selectivity for gold showed that gel Amberlite IRA-400 resin with Type Ⅰ quaternary ammonium functional group had better adsorption performance.The increases of resin dosage,ammonia concentration and solution pH were favorable to gold adsorption,whereas the rises of cupric and thiosulfate concentrations were disadvantageous to gold loading.Microscopic characterization results indicated that gold was adsorbed in the form of [Au(S_(2)O_(3))_(2)]^(3–) complex anion by exchanging with the counter ion Cl^(–) in the functional group of the resin.Density functional theory calculation result manifested that gold adsorption was mainly depended on the hydrogen bond and van der Waals force generated between O atom in [Au(S_(2)O_(3))_(2)]^(3–) and H atom in the quaternary ammonium functional group of the resin.

Deep brain implantable microelectrode arrays for detection and functional localization of the subthalamic nucleus in rats with Parkinson’s disease

The subthalamic nucleus(STN)is considered the best target for deep brain stimulation treatments of Parkinson’s disease(PD).It is difficult to localize the STN due to its small size and deep location.Multichannel microelectrode arrays(MEAs)can rapidly and precisely locate the STN,which is important for precise stimulation.In this paper,16-channel MEAs modified with multiwalled carbon nanotube/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)(MWCNT/PEDOT:PSS)nanocomposites were designed and fabricated,and the accurate and rapid identification of the STN in PD rats was performed using detection sites distributed at different brain depths.These results showed that nuclei in 6-hydroxydopamine hydrobromide(6-OHDA)-lesioned brains discharged more intensely than those in unlesioned brains.In addition,the MEA simultaneously acquired neural signals from both the STN and the upper or lower boundary nuclei of the STN.Moreover,higher values of spike firing rate,spike amplitude,local field potential(LFP)power,and beta oscillations were detected in the STN of the 6-OHDA-lesioned brain,and may therefore be biomarkers of STN localization.Compared with the STNs of unlesioned brains,the power spectral density of spikes and LFPs synchronously decreased in the delta band and increased in the beta band of 6-OHDA-lesioned brains.This may be a cause of sleep and motor disorders associated with PD.Overall,this work describes a new cellular-level localization and detection method and provides a tool for future studies of deep brain nuclei.

Static Extracting Method of Software Intended Behavior Based on API Functions Invoking

The method of extracting and describing the intended behavior of software precisely has become one of the key points in the fields of software behavior＇s dynamic and trusted authentication. In this paper, the author proposes a specified measure of extracting SIBDS （software intended behaviors describing sets） statically from the binary executable using the software＇s API functions invoking, and also introduces the definition of the structure used to store the SIBDS in detail. Experimental results demonstrate that the extracting method and the storage structure definition offers three strong properties： （i） it can describe the software＇s intended behavior accurately; （ii） it demands a small storage expense; （iii） it provides strong capability to defend against mimicry attack.

Effect and function mechanism of sinter basicity on softening-melting behaviors of mixed burden made from chromium-bearing vanadium-titanium magnetite

The effect of sinter basicity on softening-melting behaviors of mixed burden made from chromium-bearing vanadium-titanium magnetite(Cr-V-Ti magnetite) was investigated and the function mechanism was simultaneously analyzed.The results show that with increasing sinter basicity from 1.71 to 2.36,the softening interval tends to increase from 149.3 ℃ to 181.7 ℃while the melting interval tends to decrease from 178.0 ℃ to 136.7 ℃.The location of cohesive zone moves downwards firstly and then ascends slightly,but the cohesive zone becomes thinner.The softening-melting characteristic value becomes small,which indicates that the permeability of burden column is improved.The dripping ratio of mixed burden tends to increase firstly and then decrease,which comes to the highest value of 74.50%when the sinter basicity is 2.13.The content and the recovery of V and Cr in dripping iron are all increased.The generation amount of components with high melting point in slag becomes little with the increase of sinter basicity,which could improve the permeability of mixed burden.Taking softening-melting behaviors of mixed burden and recovery of valuable elements into account,the proper sinter basicity is no less than 2.13 for smelting mixed burden made from Cr-V-Ti magnetite in blast furnace.

Effect of Nb on plasticity and oxidation behavior of TiAlNb intermetallic compound by density functional theory

Based on the pseudo potential plane-wave method of density functional theory （DFT）, Ti1-xNbxAk （x=0, 0.062 5, 0.083 3, 0.125, 0.250） crystals＇ geometry structure, elastic constants, electronic structure and Mulliken populations were calculated, and the effects of doping on the geometric structure, electronic structure and bond strength were systematically analyzed. The results show that the influence of Nb on the geometric structure is little in terms of the plasticity, and with the increase of Nb content, the covalent bond strength remarkably reduces, and Ti-Al, Nb-M （M=Ti, Al） and other hybrid bonds enhance; meanwhile, the peak district increases and the pseudo-energy gap first decreases and then increases, the overall band structure narrows, the covalent bond and direction of bonds reduce. The population analysis also shows that the results are consistent with the electronic structure analysis. The density of states of TiAINb shows that Nb doping can enhance the activity of Al and benefit the form of Al2O3 film. All the calculations reveal that the room temperature plasticity and the antioxidation properties of the compounds can be improved with the Nb content of 8.33%-12.5% （mole fraction）.

The clutch size,incubation behavior of Reeves’s Pheasant(Syrmaticus reevesii) and their responses to ambient temperature and precipitation

Weather conditions play a pivotal role in embryo development and parental incubation costs,potentially impacting the clutch size and incubation behavior of birds.Understanding these effects is crucial for bird conservation.Reeves’ s Pheasant(Syrmaticus reevesii) is a threatened species endemic to China,which is characterized by female-only incubation.However,there is a lack of information regarding the impact of weather conditions on clutch size and incubation behavior in this species.Using satellite tracking,we tracked 27 wild female Reeves’ s Pheasants from 2020 to 2023 in Hubei Province,China.We explored their clutch size and incubation behavior,as well as their responses to ambient temperature and precipitation.Clutch size averaged 7.75 ±1.36,had an association with average ambient temperature and average daily precipitation during the egglaying period,and was potentially linked to female breeding attempts.Throughout the incubation period,females took an average of 0.73 ±0.46 recesses every 24 h,with an average recess duration of 100.80 ±73.37 min and an average nest attendance of 92.98 ±5.27%.They showed a unimodal recess pattern in which nest departures peaked primarily between 13:00 and 16:00.Furthermore,females rarely left nests when daily precipitation was high.Recess duration and nest attendance were influenced by the interaction between daily mean ambient temperature and daily precipitation,as well as day of incubation.Additionally,there was a positive correlation between clutch size and recess duration.These results contribute valuable insights into the lifehistory features of this endangered species.

GREEN'S FUNCTION AND THE POINTWISE BEHAVIORS OF THE VLASOV-POISSON-FOKKER-PLANCK SYSTEM

The pointwise space-time behaviors of the Green’s function and the global solution to the Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck(VPFP)system in three dimensional space are studied in this paper.It is shown that the Green’s function consists of the diffusion waves decaying exponentially in time but algebraically in space,and the singular kinetic waves which become smooth for all(t,x,v)when t>0.Furthermore,we establish the pointwise space-time behaviors of the global solution to the nonlinear VPFP system when the initial data is not necessarily smooth in terms of the Green’s function.

Interconnected microstructure and flexural behavior of Ti_(2)C-Ti composites with superior Young’s modulus

To enhance the Young’s modulus(E)and strength of titanium alloys,we designed titanium matrix composites with intercon-nected microstructure based on the Hashin-Shtrikman theory.According to the results,the in-situ reaction yielded an interconnected microstructure composed of Ti_(2)C particles when the Ti_(2)C content reached 50vol%.With widths of 10 and 230 nm,the intraparticle Ti lamellae in the prepared composite exhibited a bimodal size distribution due to precipitation and the unreacted Ti phase within the grown Ti_(2)C particles.The composites with interconnected microstructure attained superior properties,including E of 174.3 GPa and ultimate flexural strength of 1014 GPa.Compared with that of pure Ti,the E of the composite was increased by 55% due to the high Ti_(2)C content and interconnected microstructure.The outstanding strength resulted from the strong interfacial bonding,load-bearing capacity of interconnected Ti_(2)C particles,and bimodal intraparticle Ti lamellae,which minimized the average crack driving force.Interrupted flexural tests revealed preferential crack initiation along the{001}cleavage plane and grain boundary of Ti_(2)C in the region with the highest tensile stress.In addition,the propagation can be efficiently inhibited by interparticle Ti grains,which prevented the brittle fracture of the composites.

Awareness, self-management behaviors, health literacy and kidney function relationships in specialty practice

AIM To determine the relationship between chronic kidney disease(CKD) awareness(CKD-A), self-management behaviors(CKD-SMB) knowledge, performance of CKDSMBs, health literacy(HL) and kidney function. METHODS Participants were eligible patients attending an outpatient nephrology clinic. Participants were administered: Newest Vital Sign to measure HL, CKD self-managementknowledge tool(CKD-SMKT) to assess knowledge, past performance of CKD-SMB, CKD-A. Estimated GFR(e GFR) was determined using the MDRD-4 equation. Duration of clinic participation and CKD cause were extracted from medical charts. RESULTS One-hundred-fifty patients participated in the study. e GFRs ranged from 17-152 m L/min per 1.73 m2. Majority(83%) of respondents had stage 3 or 4 CKD, low HL(63%), and were CKD aware(88%). Approximately 40%(10/25) of patients in stages 1 and 2 and 6.4%(8/125) in stages 3 and 4 were unaware of their CKD. CKD-A differed with stage(P < 0.001) but not by HL level, duration of clinic participation, or CKD cause. Majority of respondents(≥ 90%) correctly answered one or more CKD-SMKT items. Knowledge of one behavior, "controlling blood pressure" differed significantly by CKD-A. CKD-A was associated with past performance of two CKD-SMBs, "controlling blood pressure"(P = 0.02), and "keeping healthy body weight"(P = 0.01). Adjusted multivariate analyses between CKD-A and:(1) HL; and(2) CKD-SMB knowledge were nonsignificant. However, there was a significant relationship between CKD-A and kidney function after controlling for demographics, HL, and CKD-SMB(P < 0.05). CONCLUSION CKD-A is not associated with HL, or better CKD-SMBs. CKD-A is significantly associated with kidney function and substantially lower e GFR, suggesting the need for focused patient education in CKD stages 1.

On the Weyl’s Lemma for Triharmonic Functions

In this paper,by choosing some appropriate test functions,we prove the Weyl’s lemma for triharmonic functions based on the new type of mean value formulas.

Shock-induced reaction behaviors of functionally graded reactive material

In this paper,the ballistic impact experiments,including impact test chamber and impact double-spaced plates,were conducted to study the reaction behaviors of a novel functionally graded reactive material(FGRM),which was composed of polytetrafluoroethylene/aluminum(PTFE/Al)and PTFE/Al/bismuth trioxide(Bi_(2)O_(3)).The experiments showed that the impact direction of the FGRM had a significant effect on the reaction.With the same impact velocity,when the first impact material was PTFE/Al/Bi_(2)O_(3),compared with first impact material PTFE/Al,the FGRM induced higher overpressure in the test chamber and larger damaged area of double-spaced plates.The theoretical model,which considered the shock wave generation and propagation,the effect of the shock wave on reaction efficiency,and penetration behaviors,was developed to analyze the reaction behaviors of the FGRM.The model predicted first impact material of the FGRM with a higher shock impedance was conducive to the reaction of reactive materials.The conclusion of this study provides significant information about the design and application of reactive materials.

Size-dependent behaviors of viscoelastic axially functionally graded Timoshenko micro-beam considering Poisson effects

A size-dependent continuum-based model is developed for the functionally graded(FG)Timoshenko micro-beams with viscoelastic properties,in which material parameters vary according to the power law along its axial direction.The size effect is incorporated by employing the modified couple stress theory and Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic model,so that viscous components are included in the stress and the deviatoric segments of the symmetric couple stress tensors.The components of strain,curvature,stress and couple stress are formulated by combining them with the Timoshenko beam theory.Based on the Hamilton principle,the governing differential equations and boundary conditions for the micro-beam are expressed with arbitrary beam section shape and arbitrary type of loads.The size effect,FG effect,Poisson effect,and the influence of the beam section shape on the mechanical behaviors of viscoelastic FG micro-beams are investigated by taking the simply supported micro-beam subjected to point load as an example.Results show that the size effect on deflection,normal stress and couple stress are obvious when the size of the micro-beam is small enough,and the FG effects are obvious when the size of the micro-beam is large enough.Moreover,the Poisson ratio influences the size effect significantly and the beam section shape is also an important factor influencing the mechanical behavior of the micro-beam.

Adsorption behavior of CO_(2)/H_(2)S mixtures in calcite slit nanopores for CO_(2) storage:An insight from molecular perspective

It is acknowledged that injecting CO_(2) into oil reservoirs and saline aquifers for storage is a practical and affordable method for CO_(2) sequestration.Most CO_(2) produced from industrial exhaust contains impurity gases such as H_(2)S that might impact CO_(2) sequestration due to competitive adsorption.This study makes a commendable effort to explore the adsorption behavior of CO_(2)/H_(2)S mixtures in calcite slit nanopores.Grand Canonical Monte Carlo(GCMC)simulation is employed to reveal the adsorption of CO_(2),H_(2)S as well as their binary mixtures in calcite nanopores.Results show that the increase in pressure and temperature can promote and inhibit the adsorption capacity of CO_(2) and H_(2)S in calcite nanopores,respectively.CO_(2)exhibits stronger adsorption on calcite surface than H_(2)S.Electrostatic energy plays the dominating role in the adsorption behavior.Electrostatic energy accounts for 97.11%of the CO_(2)-calcite interaction energy and 56.33%of the H_(2)S-calcite interaction energy at 10 MPa and 323.15 K.The presence of H_(2)S inhibits the CO_(2) adsorption in calcite nanopores due to competitive adsorption,and a higher mole fraction of H_(2)S leads to less CO_(2) adsorption.The quantity of CO_(2) adsorbed is lessened by approximately 33%when the mole fraction of H_(2)S reaches 0.25.CO_(2) molecules preferentially occupy the regions near the po re wall and H_(2)S molecules tend to reside at the center of nanopore even when the molar ratio of CO_(2) is low,indicating that CO_(2) has an adsorption priority on the calcite surface over H_(2)S.In addition,moisture can weaken the adsorption of both CO_(2) and H_(2)S,while CO_(2) is more affected.More interestingly,we find that pure CO_(2) is more suitable to be sequestrated in the shallower formations,i.e.,500-1500 m,whereas CO_(2)with H_(2)S impurity should be settled in the deeper reservoirs.

Evaluation of Generalized Error Function via Fast-Converging Power Series

A generalized form of the error function, Gp(x)=pΓ(1/p)∫0xe−tpdt, which is directly associated with the gamma function, is evaluated for arbitrary real values of p>1and 0x≤+∞by employing a fast-converging power series expansion developed in resolving the so-called Grandi’s paradox. Comparisons with accurate tabulated values for well-known cases such as the error function are presented using the expansions truncated at various orders.

A hybrid method integrating Green's function Monte Carlo and projected entangled pair states

This paper introduces a hybrid approach combining Green’s function Monte Carlo(GFMC)method with projected entangled pair state(PEPS)ansatz.This hybrid method regards PEPS as a trial state and a guiding wave function in GFMC.By leveraging PEPS’s proficiency in capturing quantum state entanglement and GFMC’s efficient parallel architecture,the hybrid method is well-suited for the accurate and efficient treatment of frustrated quantum spin systems.As a benchmark,we applied this approach to study the frustrated J_(1)–J_(2) Heisenberg model on a square lattice with periodic boundary conditions(PBCs).Compared with other numerical methods,our approach integrating PEPS and GFMC shows competitive accuracy in the performance of ground-state energy.This paper provides systematic and comprehensive discussion of the approach of our previous work[Phys.Rev.B 109235133(2024)].

Implementation of the Integrated Green’s Function Method for 3D Poisson’s Equation in a Large Aspect Ratio Computational Domain

The solution of Poisson’s Equation plays an important role in many areas, including modeling high-intensity and high-brightness beams in particle accelerators. For the computational domain with a large aspect ratio, the integrated Green’s function method has been adopted to solve the 3D Poisson equation subject to open boundary conditions. In this paper, we report on the efficient implementation of this method, which can save more than a factor of 50 computing time compared with the direct brute force implementation and its improvement under certain extreme conditions.

Research on the Influence of Family Education on Children’s Behavioral Habits

Under the background of the all-round deepening of quality education,the cultivation of comprehensive quality has become the main theme of contemporary education reform.Good behavior and habits are of great significance to children’s future learning,growth,and development.Through literature review and other methods,this paper analyzes the current situation of children’s family education and the influence of family education on the cultivation of children’s behavioral habits and provides some strategies for cultivating children’s good behavioral habits in family education.