We investigated the phenomenon of pseudo-Hopf bifurcation in a Filippov Hindmarsh-Rose neuronal system with threshold switching, and the existence of crossing limit cycles was proved by constructing ...the half-return mapping. Through the threshold control, the firing state of the system could be switched, allowing transitions from a non-periodic state to a periodic state, as well as the evolution from spiking to bursting. Furthermore, through threshold switching, the system exhibited the coexistence of multiple attractors, the system could be in multiple stable states, or have multiple stable sets that could attract system trajectories. This meant that neuronal system could exhibits diverse dynamical behaviors than being limited to a single stable state. The phenomenon of period-doubling bifurcation also indicated that the system will eventually enter a chaotic state. By extending the analysis to nonlinear neuronal systems, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of complex dynamics and provides valuable insights for designing state switching in the application of neural dynamics.
La0.6Gd0.2Mg0.2Ni3.0Co0.5−xAlx (x = 0–0.5) hydrogen storage alloys were prepared by induction melting followed by annealing treatment at 1173 K for 8 h. The effects of substitution Al for Co on the ...microstructures and electrochemical performances were studied systematically. The structure analyses show that all alloys consist of multiphase structures such as (La, Mg)2Ni7 phase, (La, Mg) Ni3 phase and LaNi5 phase. The abundance of (La, Mg)2Ni7 phase decreases while the abundance of LaNi5 phase and (La, Mg)Ni3 phase increases directly as the Al content increasing. The electrochemical tests show that the maximum discharge capacity of alloy electrodes are almost unchanged when x ≤ 0.2 while the cyclic stability of the alloy electrode are improved significantly after proper amount of Al substitution for Co. The alloy electrode with x = 0.1 exhibits the better balance between discharge capacity and cycling life than any others. Moreover, at the discharge current density of 900 mA g−1, the high rate dischargeability (HRD) of the alloy electrodes decreases with increasing Al substitution and the relative analyses reveal that the charge transfer on alloy surface is more important than the hydrogen diffusion in alloy bulk for the kinetic properties of the alloy electrodes.
•The substitution Al for Co for A2B7-type alloy electrodes was scarcely reported.•The cooperation of Al and Co yield alloys with superior electrochemical performances.•The mechanism of capacity degradation for alloy electrodes after Al substitution was provided.
Jellyfish envenomations result in extensive dermatological symptoms, clinically named as jellyfish dermatitis, which can seriously affect the daily activities and physical health of people. ...Inflammatory response accompanies the whole process of jellyfish dermatitis and the complexity of jellyfish venom components makes it difficult to treat jellyfish dermatitis symptoms effectively. Moreover, inhibiting inflammation is essential for the treatment of jellyfish stings and exploring the main components of jellyfish venom that cause inflammation is an urgent research area. In this study, the inhibitory effects of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitors for venom-induced inflammation were explored at a cellular level. The expression of the three inflammatory factors, IL-6, TNF-α and MCP-1 in two skin cell lines, human keratinocyte cells (HaCaT) and human embryonic skin fibroblasts cells (CCC-ESF-1), at the cellular level, after treatment with the inhibitors of jellyfish
(
) nematocyst venom (NnNV-I), were determined. The results showed that inhibitors of MMP can significantly reduce the toxic effects of jellyfish
nematocyst venom (NnNV) to skin cells. The expression levels of the three inflammatory factors IL-6, MCP-1, and TNF-α in the cells were also significantly decreased, indicating that MMPs in jellyfish venom are probably vital factors leading to jellyfish dermatitis. This study is beneficial in the prevention and treatment of jellyfish stings.
Miniature pigs have advantages over rodents in modeling atherosclerosis because their cardiovascular system and physiology are similar to that of humans. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) deficiency has long ...been implicated in cardiovascular disease in humans. To establish an improved large animal model of familial hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein 9 system (CRISPR/Cas9) was used to disrupt the
gene in Bama miniature pigs. Biallelic-modified
pigs with in-frame mutations (
) and frameshift mutations (
) were simultaneously produced.
pigs exhibited moderately increased plasma cholesterol levels when fed with a regular chow diet, but displayed severe hypercholesterolemia and spontaneously developed human-like atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta and coronary arteries after feeding on a high-fat and high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet for 6 months. Thus, these
pigs could be valuable large animal models for providing further insight into translational studies of atherosclerosis.
Myostatin (Mstn) is an inhibitor of myogenesis, regulating the number and size of skeletal myocytes. In addition to its myogenic regulatory function, Mstn plays important roles in the development of ...adipose tissues and in metabolism. In the present study, an Mstn knockout rat model was generated using the zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technique in order to further investigate the function and mechanism of Mstn in metabolism. The knockout possesses a frame shift mutation resulting in an early termination codon and a truncated peptide of 109 amino acids rather than the full 376 amino acids. The absence of detectable mRNA confirmed successful knockout of Mstn. Relative to wild-type (WT) littermates, Knockout (KO) rats exhibited significantly greater body weight, body circumference, and muscle mass. However, no significant differences in grip force was observed, indicating that Mstn deletion results in greater muscle mass but not greater muscle fiber strength. Additionally, KO rats were found to possess less body fat relative to WT littermates, which is consistent with previous studies in mice and cattle. The aforementioned results indicate that Mstn knockout increases muscle mass while decreasing fat content, leading to observed increases in body weight and body circumference. The Mstn knockout rat model provides a novel means to study the role of Mstn in metabolism and Mstn-related muscle hypertrophy.
La0.8−xGd0.2MgxNi3.1Co0.3Al0.1 (x = 0.1–0.5) hydrogen storage alloys are prepared by an induction melting followed by annealing treatment for 168 h at 1173 K in a sealed stainless steel tube. ...Instrumentation analyses indicate that the chemical composition and crystalline phase structure of these annealed alloys closely depended on the Mg content (x). At lower x than 0.25, the main phase is the Ce2Ni7-type phase and its phase abundance is 93.4 wt.%. When x > 0.2, the alloys are composed three phases, A2B7-type, CaCu5-type and PuNi3-type structure, in which phase abundance of the PuNi3- and CaCu5-type phase increases to 44.99 wt.% and 44.8 wt.% respectively. When Mg is controlled at x < 0.3, the volume of unit cell of Ce2Ni7-type decreases from 0.5391 nm3 to 0.5170 nm3. Hydrogen absorption capacity reaches maximum value (1.43 wt.%) at Mg = 0.15, whereas the absorption of hydrogen storage content decreases with the x increase, accordingly. Electrochemical measurements indicates La0.65Gd0.2Mg0.15Ni3.1Co0.3Al0.1 alloy electrode exhibits the maximum electrochemical discharge capacity of 391.4 mAh g−1 and the best cyclic stability S100 of 92.0%.
•The substitution of Gd for La in the A2B7-type electrode alloy was scarcely any reported before.•The seal-annealed alloys can control loss of Mg elements during preparation.•The lower Mg content was adopted in order to improve the cycle stability of the alloy.•The relationship between the electrochemical performance and the Mg content was provided.
The idea of Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) has been extensively applied in various decision-making scenarios. Many of the applications of PFSs were carried out based on similarity functions. Some ...methods of similarity functions for PFSs (SFPFSs) cannot be trusted for a reliable interpretations in practical cases due to some of their setbacks. In this work, a new method of SFPFSs is developed with the capacity to outsmart the efficiency of the extant SFPFSs in terms of precise results and appropriately satisfying the rules of SFs. The new method is described with some results to validate the properties of SFs. In terms of practical application, we use the newly developed method of SFPFSs to discuss the relationship between the players of the Liverpool Football Club (FC) in the 2022/2023 English Premier League (EPL) season to assess their performances in their resurgent moments within the season. Using data from BBC Sport analysis (BBCSA) on the players' rating per match in a Pythagorean fuzzy setting, we establish the players' interactions, communications, passing, contributions, and performances to ascertain the high ranking players based on performances. Similarly, a comparative analyses are presented in tables to undoubtedly express the superiority of the newly developed method of SFPFSs. Due to the flexibility of the newly developed method of SFPFSs, it can be used for clustering analysis. In addition, the new method of SFPFSs can be extended to other uncertain environments other than PFSs.
Abstract
Physical and chemical technologies have been continuously progressing advances in neuroscience research. The development of research tools for closed-loop control and monitoring neural ...activities in behaving animals is highly desirable. In this paper, we introduce a wirelessly operated, miniaturized microprobe system for optical interrogation and neurochemical sensing in the deep brain. Via epitaxial liftoff and transfer printing, microscale light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) as light sources and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)-coated diamond films as electrochemical sensors are vertically assembled to form implantable optoelectrochemical probes for real-time optogenetic stimulation and dopamine detection capabilities. A customized, lightweight circuit module is employed for untethered, remote signal control, and data acquisition. After the probe is injected into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of freely behaving mice, in vivo experiments clearly demonstrate the utilities of the multifunctional optoelectrochemical microprobe system for optogenetic interference of place preferences and detection of dopamine release. The presented options for material and device integrations provide a practical route to simultaneous optical control and electrochemical sensing of complex nervous systems.
Complement protein C3 is the pivotal component of the complement system. Previous studies have demonstrated that C3 has implications in various human diseases and exerts profound functions under ...certain conditions. However, the delineation of pathological and physiological roles of C3 has been hampered by the insufficiency of suitable animal models. In the present study, we applied the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) system to target the C3 gene in porcine fetal fibroblasts. Our results indicated that CRISPR/Cas9 targeting efficiency was as high as 84.7%, and the biallelic mutation efficiency reached at 45.7%. The biallelic modified colonies were used as donor for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology to generate C3 targeted piglets. A total of 19 C3 knockout (KO) piglets were produced and their plasma C3 protein was undetectable by western blot analysis and ELISA. The hemolytic complement activity and complement-dependent cytotoxicity assay further confirmed that C3 was disrupted in these piglets. These C3 KO pigs could be utilized as a valuable large animal model for the elucidation of the roles of C3.
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