Atmospheric ambient gaseous ammonia (NH3), the most abundant alkaline gas, affects public health and climate change through its key role in the formation of secondary aerosols via reactions with ...acidic gases. Estimation of the contributions of ammonia sources is very challenging in the urban atmosphere. Stable nitrogen isotope ratio (δ15N) measurements have shown that urban aerosol NH4+ and gaseous NH3 are derived from fossil fuel combustion-related (FF) sources, such as coal combustion, NH3 slip, and vehicle exhaust, and volatilization-related sources, such as agriculture and urban water volatilization. Biomass burning (BB) sources, especially residential biofuel, can produce vast quantities of NH3 and other pollutants and may greatly influence air quality and contribute to increased urban NH3 emissions. In the present study, we continually collected PM2.5 samples at three urban sites in Central China during autumn and analyzed the major water-soluble ions and δ15N values of aerosol NH4+. The concentrations of NH4+ increased as the temperature decreased close to winter, whereas the δ15N values did not show this pattern. According to the Bayesian model after isotope fractionation correction, FF sources contributed to 56.4 ± 17.1%, 46.4 ± 18.2%, and 51.8 ± 14.9% of aerosol NH4+ in Nanchang, Wuhan, and Changsha, respectively, throughout autumn. The contributions from BB sources were 34.5 ± 20.4%, 46.4 ± 21.4%, and 40.4 ± 17.4% for Nanchang, Wuhan, and Changsha, respectively. We also found the fraction of aerosol NH4+ from BB increased in all three cities from September to November 2017, which was likely caused by increased heating demands with the decrease in temperature during the season. Furthermore, BB was responsible for a severe haze event (maximum PM2.5 of 205.69 μg/m3) in Nanchang. These findings suggest government controls to improve air quality should include BB sources in addition to FF sources.
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•Aerosol NH4+ was mainly derived from fossil fuel combustion-related sources.•Biomass burning’s contribution to aerosol NH4+ increased as the temperature decreased.•Biomass burning greatly contributed to a severe haze event in Nanchang.
The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory that “kidneys give rise to marrow, and the brain is the sea of marrow” has been a guide for the clinical application of kidney, qi and blood tonics for ...prevention and treatment of dementia and improvement in memory. As low resistance end-organs, both the brain and the kidneys are subjected to blood flow of high volumes throughout the cardiac cycle. Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia are two common causes of dementia, and it is increasingly recognized that many older adults with dementia have both AD and vascular pathologies. The underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood, but may involve atherosclerosis, vascular dysfunction, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, history of cardiac disease and possibly, kidney dysfuntion, leading to reduced erythropoietin production, anemia, brain energy deficit and slow excitotoxicity. During the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Jing-Yue used Qi Fu Yin (seven blessings decoction), comprising
Panax ginseng
,
Rehmannia glutinosa
,
Angelica polymorpha
,
Atractylodes macrocephala
,
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
,
Ziziphus jujube
,
and Polygala tenuifolia
to boost qi and blood circulation, strengthen the heart, and calm the spirit—skillfully linking heart, spleen, kidney, qi, blood and brain as a whole to treat age-related dementia. The purpose of this review is to outline TCM concepts for the treatment of dementia and illustrated with a historical prescription for the treatment of the condition, with the hope that this description may lead to advances in its management.
Purpose
To investigate the magic angle effect in three‐dimensional ultrashort echo time Cones Adiabatic T1ρ (3D UTE Cones‐AdiabT1ρ) imaging of articular cartilage at 3T.
Methods
The magic angle ...effect was investigated by repeated 3D UTE Cones‐AdiabT1ρ imaging of eight human patellar samples at five angular orientations ranging from 0° to 90° relative to the B0 field. Cones continuous wave T1ρ (Cones‐CW‐T1ρ) and Cones‐
T2∗ sequences were also applied for comparison. Cones‐AdiabT1ρ, Cones‐CW‐T1ρ and Cones‐
T2∗ values were measured for four regions of interest (ROIs) (10% superficial layer, 60% transitional layer, 30% radial layer, and a global ROI) for each sample at each orientation to evaluate their angular dependence.
Results
3D UTE Cones‐AdiabT1ρ values increased from the radial layer to the superficial layer for all angular orientations. The superficial layer showed the least angular dependence (around 4.4%), while the radial layer showed the strongest angular dependence (around 34.4%). Cones‐AdiabT1ρ values showed much reduced magic angle effect compared to Cones‐CW‐T1ρ and Cones‐
T2∗ values for all four ROIs. On average over eight patellae, Cones‐AdiabT1ρ values increased by 27.2% (4.4% for superficial, 23.8% for transitional, and 34.4% for radial layers), Cones‐CW‐T1ρ values increased by 76.9% (11.3% for superficial, 59.1% for transitional, and 117.8% for radial layers), and Cones‐
T2∗ values increased by 237.5% (87.9% for superficial, 262.9% for transitional, and 327.3% for radial layers) near the magic angle.
Conclusions
The 3D UTE Cones‐AdiabT1ρ sequence is less sensitive to the magic angle effect in the evaluation of articular cartilage compared to Cones‐
T2∗ and Cones‐CW‐T1ρ.
Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a heterogeneous syndrome with unknown etiology, and microRNAs (miRs) were found to be involved in IC. In our study, we aim to explore the role of miR‐132 in the ...inflammatory response and detrusor fibrosis in IC through the Janus kinase‐signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK‐STAT) signaling pathway in rat models. A rat model of IC was established and treated with the miR‐132 mimic, miR‐132 inhibitor, and/or JAK‐STAT signaling pathway inhibitor AG490. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay was applied to measure the expression of interleukin (IL)‐6, IL‐10, interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ), and tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), and intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 (ICAM‐1). The urodynamic test was performed to assess urodynamic parameters, and reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis for the expression of miR‐132, STAT4, suppressors of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3), JAK2, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), IFN‐γ, and TNF‐α. IC rats treated with miR‐132 inhibitor and AG490 had decreased collagen fiber, inflammatory cell infiltration, and mast cells, lower expression of IL‐6, IL‐10, IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, ICAM‐1, collagens I and III, and alleviated urodynamic parameters and decreased expression of STAT4, VEGF, JAK2, IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, and increased expression of SOCS3. Taken together, our data indicate that downregulation of miR‐132 alleviates inflammatory response and detrusor fibrosis in IC via the inhibition of the JAK‐STAT signaling pathway.
Taken together, our data indicate that downregulation of miR‐132 alleviates inflammatory response and detrusor fibrosis in interstitial cystitis via the inhibition of the Janus kinase‐signal transducer and activator of transcription signaling pathway
Aim: To investigate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of intradermal and/or submucosal administration of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) for patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN).
Methods: In ...this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 42 TN patients were randomly allocated into two groups, namely, intradermal and/or submucosal injection of BTX-A (75 U/1.5 mL; n = 22) or saline (1.5 mL; n = 20) in the skin and/or mucosa where pain was experienced. The primary endpoints were pain severity (assessed by the visual analogue scale) and pain attack frequency per day. The secondary endpoint was the patient’s overall response to treatment, assessed using the Patient Global Impression of Change scale. Patients with ≥ 50% reduction in mean pain score at week 12 were defined as responders.
Results: A total of 40 patients completed the study. BTX-A significantly reduced pain intensity at week 2 and pain attack frequency at week 1. The efficacy was maintained throughout the course of the study. More BTX-A treated patients reported that pain had improved by the end of the study. Significantly more responders were present in the BTX-A group (68.18%) than in the placebo group (15.00%). BTX-A was well tolerated, with few treatment-related adverse events.
Conclusions: BTX-A may be an efficient, safe and novel strategy for TN treatment.
Background
Long‐distance running is a common cause of Achilles tendinopathy. A reliable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to track early changes in the tendon caused by running could ...facilitate more effective interventions to combat progression.
Purpose
To evaluate an ultrashort echo time sequence with magnetization transfer preparation (UTE‐MT) in the detection of changes in Achilles tendons of amateur marathon runners before and after long‐distance running.
Study Type
Prospective.
Population
Thirty‐two runners (19 enrolled for full marathons and 13 enrolled for half‐marathons) and 5 healthy non‐runners.
Field Strength/Sequence
3.0 T; UTE‐MT and dual‐echo UTE for T2* assessment (UTE‐T2*).
Assessment
MRI was performed 1‐week pre‐race, 2‐days post‐race, and 4‐weeks post‐race. UTE‐MT ratio (UTE‐MTR) and UTE‐T2* of tendon were measured by two independent radiologists who were blinded to the scan time point and participant data. The Achilles tendon was divided into six regions of interest (ROIs) for data analysis, namely the insertion part (INS), middle part (MID), muscle‐tendon junction (MTJ), tendon‐bone insertion (TBI), tendon‐muscle insertion (TMI), and whole tendon (bulk).
Statistical Tests
Analysis of variance and Friedman's rank tests were used to evaluate changes in UTE‐MTR and UTE‐T2* between time points. Tukey test and Bonferroni method were used for further comparisons. P < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results
The UTE‐MTR values of most tendon ROIs changed significantly between the measured time points, except for the INS region (P = 0.1977). Conversely, the UTE‐T2* values only showed significant changes in the MID and TBI regions. Paired comparisons showed that the UTE‐MTR decreases in the MTJ, MID, TMI, and bulk regions at 2‐days post‐race were significant compared to measures taken pre‐race and 4‐weeks post‐race. For UTE‐T2* measurements, significant differences were observed only for the MID region between pre‐race and 2‐days post‐race (P = 0.0408, 95% CI: 0.0061, 0.1973), and for the TBI region between pre‐race and 4‐weeks post‐race (P = 0.0473, 95% CI: 0.0013, 0.1766).
Data Conclusion
The UTE‐MT sequence is able to detect biochemical changes in the Achilles tendon after long‐distance running.
Level of Evidence
2
Technical Efficacy
Stage 1
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) is an instrument in the assessment of mental health status. The current study recruited 1,532 Chinese hospital workers 74.4% female; mean age = 31.97 ...(SD = 9.70) years to examine the reliability, latent structure, and measurement invariance of the DASS-21 between genders. The Cronbach's α values were greater than 0.90 for total score. This study examined four possible models of the DASS-21 using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in Chinese hospital workers. The results from CFA revealed that the latent structure of the DASS-21 in medical staffs is best represented by a one-factor model. Then we used the one-factor model to examine measurement invariance across genders by using a multiple-group categorical CFA. All values of root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) were less than 0.08, all Comparative Fix Index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index values were greater than 0.90, all ΔCFI (changes in CFI) values were less than 0.010, and ΔRMSEA (the changes in RMSEA) were less than 0.015. These findings supported the gender invariance of the DASS-21 among Chinese hospital workers.
In this article, the dissipativity-based filtering of the Markovian jump neural networks subject to incomplete measurements and deception attacks is investigated by adopting an event-triggered ...communication strategy, where the attackers are supposed to occur in a random fashion but obey the Bernoulli distribution. Consider that the information of the system mode is transmitted to the filter over the communication network that is vulnerable to external attacks, which may lead to the undesired performance of the resulting system by injecting malicious information from the attackers. As a result, the filter has difficulty completing information from the original system. Besides, an event-triggered communication mechanism is introduced to reduce the communication frequency between data transmission due to the limited network resources, and different triggering conditions corresponding to different jump modes are developed. Then, based on the above considerations, the sufficient condition is derived to ensure the stochastic stability and dissipativity of the resulting augmented system although the deception attacks and incomplete information exist. A numerical simulated example is provided to verify the theoretical analysis.
This paper investigates the resilient distributed secure output path following control problem of heterogeneous autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) subject to cyber attacks based on reinforcement ...learning algorithm. Most existing results are subject to the same attack models for all communication channels, however multiple channels launched by different attackers are considered in this paper. First, a predictor-acknowledgement clock algorithm for each vehicle is proposed to judge whether the communication channel among neighboring vehicles is attacked or not by receiving or transmitting an acknowledgement. Then, a resilient distributed predictor is proposed to predict the pinning vehicle's state for each vehicle. In addition, a resilient local control protocol consisting of the feedforward state provided by the predictor and the local feedback state of each vehicle is developed for the output path following problem, which is further converted to the optimal control problem by designing a discounted performance function. Discounted algebraic Riccati equations (AREs) are derived to address the optimal control problem. An off-policy reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is put forward to learn the solution of discounted AREs online without any prior knowledge of vehicles' dynamics. It is shown that the RL-based output path following control problem of AGVs imposed by cyber attacks can be achieved in an optimal manner. Finally, a numerical example is provided to verify the effectiveness of theoretical analysis.
This article studies the problem of dissipativity-based asynchronous state estimation for a class of discrete-time Markov jump neural networks subject to randomly occurring nonlinearities, sensor ...saturations, and stochastic parameter uncertainties. First, two stochastic nonlinearities occurring in the system are described by statistical means and obey two Bernoulli processes independently. Then, the hidden Markov model is used to characterize the real communication environment closely between the designed estimator and the system model due to the networked-induced phenomenons that also lead to randomly occurring parametric uncertainties of the estimator considered modeled by two Bernoulli processes. A new criterion is established to guarantee that the resulting error system is stochastically stable with predefined dissipativity performance. Finally, we provide a simulation example to validate the theoretical analysis.
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