The data concerning the association between environmental pollution and epilepsy attacks are limited. The aim of this study was to explore the association between acute air pollution exposure and ...epilepsy attack.
A hospital record-based study was carried out in Xi'an, a heavily-polluted metropolis in China. Daily baseline data were obtained. Time-series Poisson regression models were applied to analyze the association between air pollution and epilepsy.
A 10 μg/m3 increase of NO2, SO2, and O3 concentrations corresponded to 3.17% (95%Cl: 1.41%, 4.93%), 3.55% (95%Cl: 1.93%, 5.18%), and -0.84% (95%Cl: -1.58%, 0.09%) increase in outpatient-visits for epilepsy on the concurrent days, which were significantly influenced by sex and age. The effects of NO2 and SO2 would be stronger when adjusted for PM2.5. As for O3, a -1.14% (95%Cl: -1.90%, -0.39%) decrease was evidenced when adjusted for NO2. The lag models showed that the most significant effects were evidenced on concurrent days.
We discovered previously undocumented relationships between short-term air pollution exposure and epilepsy: while NO2 and SO2 were positively associated with outpatient-visits of epilepsy, O3 might be associated with reduced risk.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Considering the basic concepts of P‐type and N‐type originated from inorganic semiconductors, it has been deduced in this report that the non‐doped polymer semiconductors should be ambipolar ...materials. Thus, the carrier dynamics of hole‐only and electron‐only devices of poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) (PVK) are researched through impedance spectroscopy. The results show that the hole and electron transports both possess high dispersion with parameter of 0.1–0.2 and 0.1, respectively. In addition, the hole and electron mobilities under different electric field are basically in the same order of magnitude, which shows that PVK is one intrinsically ambipolar polymer semiconductor although it is traditionally thought to “P‐type.” Finally, the abnormal negative slope phenomenon of transferring curve is analyzed, which is ascribed to the energy relaxation through vibration in polymer segment.
This paper uses impedance spectroscopy to study the carrier dynamics of non‐doped “P‐type” poly(N‐vinylcarbazole). The hole and electron mobilities of poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) are almost same to each other under various film thickness conditions. In addition, the mobilities are negatively dependent on the electric field, which is attributed to the energy relaxation through vibration of polymer segment.
Diffusive scatterings of electromagnetic (EM) waves by a thin screen are important in many applications, but available approaches cannot ensure uniform angular distributions of low-intensity ...scatterings without time-consuming optimizations. Here, we propose a robust and deterministic approach to design metasurfaces to achieve polarization-independent diffusive scatterings of EM waves within an ultrabroad frequency band and for wide-range of incident angles. Our key idea is to use high-efficiency Pancharatnam–Berry meta-atoms to form subarrays exhibiting focusing reflection-phase profiles, that can guarantee nearly uniform diffusive scatterings for arbitrarily polarized EM waves. As an illustration, we design and fabricate two metasurfaces and experimentally characterize their wave-diffusion properties in C, X, and Ku bands. Theoretical, numerical and experimental results demonstrate that our approach can diffuse the incident energy much more uniformly than available approaches based on the uniform-phase subarrays, thanks to the intrinsic wave-diffusion capabilities of the focusing-phase subarrays. The −7 dB fractional bandwidth is measured as 88.3% and the diffusive scattering behavior can be preserved up to 60° off-normal incidence irrespective of incident polarizations. Our approach, simple and robust, can help realize stealth applications under bistatic detections.
There are increasing concerns with regard to spontaneous abortion (SAB), the loss of pregnancy without external intervention before 20 weeks of gestation, among reproductive-aged women. To date, ...limited evidence is available concerning the association between SAB and air pollutants, especially in developing countries. Daily baseline outpatient data for SAB from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2018 (1826 days) were obtained in Chongqing, a metropolis of southwest China. The over-dispersed Poisson generalized additive model with control of meteorological conditions and day of week was used to estimate the short-term effects of ambient air pollution on the daily number of SAB outpatients. A total of 42,334 SAB outpatient visits for SAB were recorded. No statistically significant association was observed between SAB and CO, PM2.5, PM10, O3, and SO2. The positive association only appeared for NO2: positive associations between SAB and NO2 were observed in both single-day models (lag 0, lag 1, lag 3, and lag 4) and cumulative exposure models (lag 01, lag 03, and lag 05) and the most significant effects were observed at lag 05 (3.289%; 95% CI: 1.568%, 5.011%). Moreover, the women with higher ages (30–39 and > 39) were more sensitive than those with lower ages (18−29), and the effect estimates were more evident in cool seasons. Collectively, our results suggested that short-term NO2 exposure was associated with higher risk of SAB, especially in elder women and cool seasons, which may contribute to further understand the role of air pollution on SAB and other adverse obstetric outcomes.
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•Few studies have evaluated the association of short-term air pollution with SAB.•Short-term ambient NO2 exposure was associated with increased risk of SAB.•Such association was more obvious in elder women and cool seasons.
Recent breakthroughs in deep learning have ushered in an essential tool for optics and photonics, recurring in various applications of material design, system optimization, and automation control. ...Deep learning-enabled on-demand metasurface design has been the subject of extensive expansion, as it can alleviate the time-consuming, low-efficiency, and experience-orientated shortcomings in conventional numerical simulations and physics-based methods. However, collecting samples and training neural networks are fundamentally confined to predefined individual metamaterials and tend to fail for large problem sizes. Inspired by object-oriented C++ programming, we propose a knowledge-inherited paradigm for multi-object and shape-unbound metasurface inverse design. Each inherited neural network carries knowledge from the "parent" metasurface and then is freely assembled to construct the "offspring" metasurface; such a process is as simple as building a container-type house. We benchmark the paradigm by the free design of aperiodic and periodic metasurfaces, with accuracies that reach 86.7%. Furthermore, we present an intelligent origami metasurface to facilitate compatible and lightweight satellite communication facilities. Our work opens up a new avenue for automatic metasurface design and leverages the assemblability to broaden the adaptability of intelligent metadevices.
To present an evidence map for explicating research trends and gaps, we systematically review clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) on diabetic retinopathy (DR) and assess the quality of CPGs and ...consistency of recommendations. A literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CPG databases, and website of diabetes society to include the CPGs. The basic information, methodological quality, and reporting quality of CPGs, recommendations for DR were exacted by the Excel 2013. Methodological and reporting quality of DR CPGs were evaluated by AGREE II instrument and RIGHT checklist. The bubble plot format of evidence map was made by Excel 2013. Nineteen CPGs proved eligible, which included eight DR CPGs and 11 comprehensive diabetic CPGs. The identified CPGs were of mixed quality and they scored poorly in the rigor of development, applicability domains by AGREE II. Field two (background) had the highest reporting rate (86.31%) and field five (review and quality assurance) obtained the lowest reporting rate (31.58%) among the seven domains of RIGHT checklist. According to the recommendations of CPGs, there were three inconsistencies in the screening of DR, and CPGs recommendations for treatment were consistent on the whole. At the same time, recommendations for laser therapy were not accurate. Some recommendations were not specific and clear in some DR CPGs. This evidence map could collect and evaluate the characteristics of published CPGs, add to our knowledge and promote the development of trustworthy CPGs for DR.
Anxiety, a common and devastating mental disorder, has raised widespread interests. The impacts of air pollution on physical health are well known, whereas few studies have explored the association ...of atmospheric pollution, especially short-term air pollution exposure, with the risk of anxiety disorders. In addition, there are increasing concerns in emerging evidence supporting a possible etiological link. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the relationship between short-term exposure to atmospheric pollutants and anxiety outpatient visits in Xi'an, a city of northwestern China and a metropolis with relatively heavy air pollution. We collected the data of both daily outpatient visits and daily air pollution (SO2, NO2, and PM10) between January 1, 2010 and January 31, 2016 (2222 days). To clarify the association between short-term ambient atmospheric pollution exposure and anxiety outpatient visits, an over-dispersed Poisson generalized additive model was applied by adjusting the day of the week and weather conditions (including temperature, humidity, sunlight hours, and rainfalls). Positive association between gaseous air pollutants (SO2 and NO2) and anxiety daily outpatient visits was observed. Moreover, the largest estimated values of both SO2 and NO2 were evidence at lag 03 (4-day moving average lag), with 10 μg/m3 increase corresponded to the increase of outpatient anxiety visits at 4.11% (95% CI: 2.15%, 6.06%) for SO2 and 3.97% (95% CI: 1.90%, 6.06%) for NO2. However, there was no differences in susceptibility to air pollutants between different genders as well as different ages. Taken together, short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants, especially gaseous air pollutants (NO2 and SO2), can be related to higher risk of anxiety outpatient visits.
•Short-term ambient air pollution was associated with outpatient anxiety visits.•Positive association was evidenced for SO2 and NO2.•No gender and age difference were found in this association.
Short-term ambient air pollution and anxiety.
Petite Integration Factor 1 (PIF1) is a multifunctional helicase and DNA processing enzyme that plays an important role in the process of several cancer types. However, the relationship between clear ...cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and PIF1 remains unclear. This study aims to explore the role of PIF1 in ccRCC tumorigenesis and prognosis.
Based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, we retrieved and verified the expression of PIF1 in ccRCC tissues as well as normal tissues. To assess the protein expression of PIF1 by using the Human Protein Atlas and the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC). We also performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to differentiate the effectiveness of PIF1 in ccRCC and adjacent normal tissues. To evaluate the value of PIF1 on clinical outcomes in ccRCC patients by using multivariate methods and Kaplan‒Meier survival curves. Protein‒protein interaction (PPI) networks were made with STRING. We determined the relationship between the expression of PIF1 and immune cell infiltration with single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA).
Compared with normal tissues, the expression of PIF1 was significantly elevated in ccRCC. The mRNA expression of PIF1 is correlated with high TNM stage and high pathologic stage. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that PIF1 was related to an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.928 to distinguish between ccRCC tissues and normal tissues. Kaplan‒Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival (OS) of ccRCC patients with a high level of PIF1 was significantly shorter than that of those with a low level of PIF1. PIF1 may play an important role in the occurrence of tumors. Correlation analysis showed that PIF1-mediated carcinogenesis may participate in the process of tumor immune escape in ccRCC.
PIF1 could be a reference biomarker to identify ccRCC patients with poor prognosis. PIF1 may play a distinct role in the microenvironment of ccRCC by regulating tumor infiltration of immune cells, which is a new therapeutic target to affect the growth of the tumor.
Recent studies have suggested that exposure to ambient airborne pollutants is associated with inflammatory skin diseases, but the epidemiological evidence regarding the association between air ...pollution and acne vulgaris is limited. To address that, a hospital-based time-series analysis was conducted in Xi’an, a metropolitan in northwest China. A total of 71,625 outpatient visits for acne from 2010 to 2013 were identified. The mean daily concentrations of PM
10
, SO
2
, and NO
2
were 142.6 μg/m
3
, 44.7 μg/m
3
, and 48.5 μg/m
3
, and all were higher than WHO air quality guidelines. A generalized additive model was used to analyze the relationship between short-term ambient air pollution exposure and outpatient visits for acne. The gender- and age-specific analyses were conducted as well. The results showed that the increase of SO
2
and NO
2
concentrations corresponded to a significant rise in the number of outpatient visits for acne at lag 0 in both single-lag and cumulative exposure models. Both SO
2
and NO
2
were positively associated with acne outpatient visits for both males and females. In age-specific analyses, the effect estimate of PM
10
was only significant for adults over 30 years old; SO
2
was significantly associated with acne visits in children and adolescents (<21 years) and young adults (21–30 years); and NO
2
was significantly associated with acne visits in all age subgroups. In conclusion, short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants (PM
10
, SO
2
, or NO
2
) with the average levels above WHO limits was associated with increased risk of outpatient visits for both teenage acne and adult acne. Moreover, the effects of air pollutants may vary with age.
Abstract
The dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) has previously been proved to be involved in the regulation of the sleep–wake behavior. DRN contains several neuron types, such as 5-HTergic and GABAergic ...neurons. GABAergic neurons, which are the second largest cell subtype in the DRN, participate in a variety of neurophysiological functions. However, their role in sleep–wake regulation and the underlying neural circuitry remains unclear. Herein, we used fiber photometry and synchronous electroencephalogram (EEG)/electromyography (EMG) recording to demonstrate that DRN GABAergic neurons exhibit high activities during wakefulness and low activities during NREM sleep. Short-term optogenetic activation of DRN GABAergic neurons reduced the latency of NREM-to-wake transition and increased the probability of wakefulness, while long-term optogenetic activation of these neurons significantly increased the amount of wakefulness. Chemogenetic activation of DRN GABAergic neurons increased wakefulness for almost 2 h and maintained long-lasting arousal. In addition, inhibition of DRN GABAergic neurons with chemogenetics caused a reduction in the amount of wakefulness. Finally, similar to the effects of activating the soma of DRN GABAergic neurons, optogenetic stimulation of their terminals in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) induced instant arousal and promoted wakefulness. Taken together, our results illustrated that DRN GABAergic neurons are vital to the induction and maintenance of wakefulness, which promote wakefulness through the GABAergic DRN-VTA pathway.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
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