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Eugenol, as an active compound isolated from Acorus gramineus, has been shown to protect against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Nonetheless, the detailed neuroprotective mechanisms of eugenol in cerebral I/R injury have not been elaborated. In the present study, cerebral I/R injury model was established by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats. HT22 cells were subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) to mimic cerebral I/R injury in vitro. The results showed that eugenol pre-treatment relieved cerebral I/R injury as evidenced by improving neurological deficits and reducing infarct volume. Autophagy was induced by MCAO, which was further promoted by eugenol administration. Moreover, rapamycin, an activator of autophagy, promoted eugenol-induced decreases in neurological score, infarct volume, brain water content, and apoptosis. However, pretreatment with 3-MA, an inhibitor of autophagy, led to the opposite results. Similarly, eugenol pretreatment increased the viability and restrained apoptosis of OGD/R-challenged HT22 cells. OGD/R-induced autophagy was strengthened by eugenol. Mechanically, eugenol promoted autophagy through regulating AMPK/mTOR/P70S6K signaling pathway in vivo and in vitro. In conclusion, pretreatment with eugenol attenuated cerebral I/R injury by inducing autophagy via AMPK/mTOR/P70S6K signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief presents a 65-nm CMOS single-channel 8-bit ADC compatible for energy-efficient high-speed compressive sensing (CS) and Nyquist sampling (NS). A self-timed pipeline two-stage SAR-binary-search architecture is proposed and integrated with a 4-GHz random-matrix clock generator, enabling a physical sampling speed up to 500 MS/s with 40.2-dB SNDR in NS-mode and an equivalent speed up to 4 GS/s with 36.2-dB SNDR in CS-mode, leading to FOMs of 239 fJ/conversion-step and 71 fJ/conversion-step, respectively. A passive-charge-sharing with open-loop residue-amplifier technique is proposed to boost the maximum physical sampling speed and the equivalent CS acquisition bandwidth. A reference-voltage fitting calibration scheme is applied to predistort interstage errors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this brief, a high-resolution successive-approximation-register analog-to-digital-conversion architecture for biomedical data acquisition is proposed. A filtered least-significant-bit segment is employed as a dither to improve the resolution. Theoretical analysis and behavioral simulations show that the error of a most-significant-bit segment can be converted into shaped noise if the input signal is sufficiently small. The proposed self-dithering technique can be used, together with averaging, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and the differential nonlinearity (DNL) performance. The performance improvement is similar to that of a conventional nonsubtractive scheme using a uniform deterministic dither but with simplified hardware and reduced computation complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This brief proposes a low-power architecture for a discrete-time (DT) delta–sigma modulator to take full advantages of increased quantization levels. In the proposed architecture, noise-shaped segmentation is applied to both the quantizer and the feedback digital-to-analog converter to maintain a high resolution and a high linearity and, at the same time, keep the hardware complexity low. This leads to a significantly reduced output swing of the integrator to minimize the slewing-related distortion in a DT implementation. The resulting uniform linear settling behavior can tolerate a relatively large settling error without degrading the performance, which greatly relaxes the bandwidth requirement of the op-amp design. The reduced output swing also allows the use of low-gain amplifiers, which is particularly attractive for an advanced technology in which the intrinsic gain of the transistor is degraded. The proposed architecture is analyzed and verified through simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A single-channel asynchronous successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter with a dual-trial instantaneous switching scheme is presented in this brief. The proposed architecture uses two capacitive digital-to-analog converter (DAC) arrays to generate two possible outputs while the comparator is in the regeneration process. Two comparators are assigned to each DAC to alternately switch between the compare phase and the reset phase. Such an approach allows the overlapping of the DAC settling, the comparator reset, and the comparator regeneration, which significantly improves the conversion speed. Furthermore, the random nature of the internal channel selection converts the mismatches between both channels into wideband noise, which improves the spurious-free dynamic range. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An integrated ultralow EMI Class-D amplifier with a feed-forward ADC and feedback filters is demonstrated in a 180 nm CMOS and wire-bonded package. Circuit and architecture techniques, which enable 1.75 W into an 8 Ohm speaker, 105 dB SNR, 95% efficiency, 0.004% THD+N, and 15.4 dB margin beyond the EN55022 Class-B standard, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 82 mW fully integrated stereo ground-referenced headphone module is designed in 40 nm CMOS. Lower platform cost is enabled by integrating the headphone module on the same SoC as the baseband functions. Maintaining device reliability with direct battery hook-up and providing large output swing are major challenges for this work, and several techniques were employed to guarantee safe operation for all of the devices under various conditions. Area reduction techniques were utilized to reduce the die cost and achieve lower platform cost. The module supports direct battery hookup with a battery range from 3.1 to 4.5 V and achieves a minimum low frequency, i.e., 217 Hz, PSRR of 110 dB at the lowest battery voltage. Audio quality is preserved by achieving a dynamic range of 100 dB, THD+N of -84 dB at 10 mW output power, and 160 \muV pop-and-click noise level during power-up and power-down. The module occupies an area of 0.675 mm^2 on the SoC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A digital noise-coupling technique for delta–sigma modulators with a high-resolution quantizer is presented. The proposed technique divides the outputs of the quantizer into an MSB segment and an LSB segment. The MSBs are directly fed to the modulator input, whereas the LSBs are used as the quantization noise for noise coupling. After the digital postprocessing, the MSBs and the LSBs are then recombined. As a result, it preserves the benefit of increased quantization levels without suffering from the exponential growth of the dynamic element matching logic. The extra noise shaping introduced by the LSB feedback further reduces the quantization noise leakage caused by the mismatch between the analog and digital noise transfer functions, which allows a more relaxed operational amplifier design. This technique is simple to implement and well suited for low-power and wideband applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circuit techniques that overcome practical noise, reliability, and EMI limitations are reported. An auxiliary loop with ramping circuits suppresses pop-and-click noise to 1 mV for an amplifier with 4 V-achievable output voltage. Switching edge rate control enables the system to meet the EN55022 Class-B standard with a 15 dB margin. An enhanced scheme detects short-circuit conditions without relying on overlimit current events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 1.5 V low-power stereo audio codec in 0.13 \mum CMOS is described. The microphone path includes a programmable gain stage with an enhanced transconductance cell followed by a continuous-time \Sigma \Delta ADC with capacitive feed-forward and capacitive direct feedback. The speaker path employs a 1 mA Class-AB speaker amplifier with an improved quiescent current control circuit that delivers 30 mW to a 32 \Omega speaker. The audio input and output paths achieve 92 and 98 dB dynamic range, respectively, with 6.5 mA total quiescent current. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Infantile colic is defined as paroxysms of uncontrollable and unexplained crying in the first three months of life. Complementary and alternative therapy methods are one of the methods used to treat infantile colic, which has negative effects on parents and infants.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the complementary and alternative therapy methods used to treat infantile colic.Methods: The PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases were searched for complementary therapies for infantile colic. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were used to determine the search terms. Combination of infantile colic and acupuncture therapy, musculoskeletal manipulations, massage, phytotherapy, aromatherapy were used as the search terms.Results: A total of 13 interventions were found from Sweden, Norway, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Iran and Finland. In two randomized and controlled trials, acupuncture therapy was found to be effective in the treatment of infantile colic. One study found it to be ineffective. No serious side effects were reported in these studies. A variety of aromatic oils have been used by orally, by inhalation and topically to treat infantile colic and have been found to be effective with no serious side effects. Massage has also been found to effectively reduce the symptoms of infantile colic.Conclusions: Further study of the complementary and alternative therapy methods will help to increase the evidence for their effective use in the treatment of infantile colic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the rapid development of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely used in the diagnosis and prognosis prediction of a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Facts have proved that AI has broad application prospects in rapid and accurate diagnosis., Objective: This study mainly summarizes the research on the application of AI in the field of cardiovascular disease through bibliometric analysis and explores possible future research hotpots., Methods: The articles and reviews regarding application of AI in cardiovascular disease between 2000 and 2023 were selected from Web of Science Core Collection on 30 December 2023. Microsoft Excel 2019 was applied to analyze the targeted variables. VOSviewer (version 1.6.16), Citespace (version 6.2.R2), and a widely used online bibliometric platform were used to conduct co-authorship, co-citation, and co-occurrence analysis of countries, institutions, authors, references, and keywords in this field., Results: A total of 4,611 articles were selected in this study. AI-related research on cardiovascular disease increased exponentially in recent years, of which the USA was the most productive country with 1,360 publications, and had close cooperation with many countries. The most productive institutions and researchers were the Cedar sinai medical center and Acharya, Ur. However, the cooperation among most institutions or researchers was not close even if the high research outputs. Circulation is the journal with the largest number of publications in this field. The most important keywords are "classification", "diagnosis", and "risk". Meanwhile, the current research hotpots were "late gadolinium enhancement" and "carotid ultrasound"., Conclusions: AI has broad application prospects in cardiovascular disease, and a growing number of scholars are devoted to AI-related research on cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular imaging techniques and the selection of appropriate algorithms represent the most extensively studied areas, and a considerable boost in these areas is predicted in the coming years., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2024 Zhang, Zhang, Jin, Jiang, Yang, Fan, Zhang and Chi.)

Background: Extracellular vehicles (EVs) secreted from adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) (ASCs-EVs) have the potential to treat myocardial infarction (MI), although the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The current study explored the ability of ASCs-EVs to inhibit apoptosis and promote myocardial function in the infarcted heart via microRNAs (miRNAs)-221., Methods: In hypoxia-induced H9C2 cells, a cardiac cell strain derived from the SD Rat left ventricle, we measured the cell viability and apoptosis-related protein expression after transfection with the ASCs-EVs-NC (negative control for EVs-miR-221) or ASCs-EVs-miR-221 mimics. We then verified the cardioprotective effects of miR-221-overexpressing ASCs-EVs by investigating myocardial cell apoptosis and cardiac function in a MI rat model treated with ASCs-EVs from miR-221-overexpressing ASCs by comparing control with ASC treatment., Results: The in vitro experiment results showed that the proliferation of H9C2 cells and the anti-apoptotic protein expression were significantly enhanced by the ASCs-EVs-miR-221 mimic. The in vivo experiment results found that ASCs-EVs from miR-221-overexpressing ASCs have cardioprotective effects, as demonstrated by lower serum troponin levels and left ventricular end-systolic volume, and a lower number of apoptotic myocardial cells than those in control and ASC-treated rats., Conclusions: ASCs-EVs have therapeutic effects on MI by inhibiting cardiomyocyte apoptosis via miR-221.

Background: Poststroke depression (PSD) is a common clinical poststroke complication that adversely affects cognitive and physical function rehabilitation. Scalp acupuncture (SA) can significantly improve somatic dysfunction and emotional disorder in stroke patients. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of SA in the treatment of PSD., Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search of multiple electronic databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Internet, China Science and Technology Journal Database, Wan Fang Data Knowledge Service Platform, and China Biology Medicine databases until December 20, 2022, to identify randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of SA in the treatment of PSD. Two independent researchers screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias in the included studies based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. We performed a meta-analysis of the eligible literature using RevMan 5.4.1 and Stata 15.0 software., Results: This study comprised a total of 14 randomized controlled trials, 10 of which used SA and 4 of which used SA in combination with electroacupuncture therapy. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that the effective rate of the SA group was significantly higher than that of the Western medicine group (relative risk = 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.02, 1.16], P = .008). Moreover, compared to the Western medicine group, the SA group demonstrated significant improvements in Hamilton depression scale scores (mean difference = -2.29, 95% CI [-3.88, -0.70], P = .005) and neurological function deficit scores (mean difference = -3.06, 95% CI [-5.91, -0.21], P = .04). Additionally, the SA group has a lower incidence of adverse events than the western medicine group (relative risk = 0.12, 95% CI [0.05, 0.29], P < .00001)., Conclusion: SA has superior efficacy and safety compared to Western medicine for PSD. These findings suggest that SA could be a promising alternative treatment for the assessed condition. Due to the limited number and quality of the included literature, the above conclusions must be confirmed by additional high-quality research., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Context: Evidence from multiple studies has revealed that it's meaningful to evaluate the clinical significance of CD146 because it's related to an early diagnosis of chronic renal failure as well as to the severity of illness and the patient's prognosis., Objective: The current study intended to evaluate the therapeutic effects of Shendibushen on the clinical parameters of blood and urine and on fibrosis in the kidney in a rat model, using simulated renal tissue fibrosis that was surgically induced with unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). Also, our research team intended to analyze the metabolic pathway activated by Shendibushen both in rat and human kidneys through use of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database and the GeneNetwork. The aim is to discover if a connection existed between CD146 and key genes in these pathways., Design: The research team conducted an animal study in Wistar rats., Intervention: The rats were divided into 5 groups of 14 animals each: (1) blank control group, (2) sham control group, (3) model group, (4) Niaoduqing group, and (5) Shendibushen group. Three groups had UUO surgically induced-the model, Niaoduqing, and Shendibushen groups. The sham control group received sham surgery, and the blank control group received no surgery. The Shendibushen and Niaoduqing groups received the relevant capsules once a day at a fixed time, for a total of 28 days., Outcome Measures: The levels of serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, microalbuminuria, serum soluble CD146, and urinary soluble CD146 were measured on the 14th and 28th days after modeling the rats. The degree of renal interstitial fibrosis was examined by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and Masson trichrome staining. The changes at transcriptome level were obtained by target tissue sequencing. The KEGG database was used to analyze the potential pathway activated by the Shendibushen treatment. The GeneNetwork analysis was used to validate the correlation and identify the connections between CD146 and the key genes of the potential pathways., Results: Shendibushen capsules decreased the degree of renal interstitial fibrosis in the UUO rat model and reduced the serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, microalbumin, serum sCD146, and urinary sCD146 significantly compared to the model group (P < .05). Upon analysis of the metabolic pathways activated by Shendibushen, the study further verified, through use of the KEGG database, that CD146 activated the nuclear factor kappa B1 (NF-κB1) and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1)/ SMAD family member 2 (SMAD2) pathways., Conclusions: CD146 could become an early indicator in clinical monitoring. CD146 has a function related to the NF-κB1and TGF-β1/ SMAD2 pathways under Shendibushen treatment.

Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr.2019.12.22). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.