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Background: Herpes zoster (HZ) typically manifests in the acute phase with distinct blisters and severe neuropathic pain. Remarkably, a subset of patients initially presents with only a mild skin rash and moderate pain that gradually intensifies, following a parabolic pattern. Despite being frequently observed in clinical settings, the underlying causes of this trajectory and its potential connection with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) remain unclear. Methods: To investigate this phenomenon in-depth, we conducted a meticulous retrospective study involving 529 eligible HZ patients. All these patients sought medical care at the Third Central Hospital of Tianjin, China, between January 2020 and December 2023. Results: The research identified that 14.6% of the sample (77 patients) experienced pain scores aligning with a parabolic curve. This trend was significantly more prevalent in patients aged 60 and above, accounting for 90.9% of this group, and demonstrated a positive correlation with age. Moreover, 87.0% of these patients had pre-existing medical conditions, highlighting the potential role of comorbidities in influencing the pain trajectory. A concerning 45.5% of patients sought medical attention more than seven days after the onset of symptoms, a delay that could exacerbate neurological damage. Notably, among those following a parabolic pain pattern, 66.2% eventually developed PHN, a considerably higher rate compared to the broader patient population. Conclusion: We emphasize that healthcare practitioners meticulously assess patients who initially report lower pain scores for high-risk factors potentially leading to parabolic pain increases, including being over 60 years old, having comorbid conditions, and delaying medical consultation beyond seven days from symptom onset. Early implementation of supplementary pain management therapies may mitigate the risk of PHN development and enhance the quality of life for patients. This study furnishes clinicians with a deeper understanding of the variations in HZ-related pain trajectories, promising to improve treatment approaches and prognoses for HZ patients while paving the way for enriched clinical practice in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser‐induced periodic surface structure (LIPSS) can form structural color on the metal surfaces with high production efficiency and thermal stability, and has been used in various industrial applications such as unfaded color marking and anti‐counterfeiting. Herein, a novel fabrication scheme of multilayer LIPSS is proposed by multiple writing in situ with changing the laser polarization direction, to exhibit an effect of color superposition. To verify this approach, the color formation mechanism of LIPSS on the stainless‐steel surface is analyzed by finite‐element numerical calculation and reveals that the high‐angular dispersion of LIPSS is mainly the result of optical diffraction occurring on the surface of periodic structures. The relationship between the angular dispersion of multilayer LIPSS and laser‐processing parameters is established. Through the proposed multilayer LIPSS coloring technology, vivid full‐color patterns on the steel surface are demonstrated, and the in situ superposition of three‐layer graphs is realized, which can greatly enrich the color levels and be competitive in industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) instead of the gold film with photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for the first time. A novel C-type micro-opening surface plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber sensor coated with MoO2 nanofilm is proposed. The polarization and sensing characteristics of the sensor coated with plasma film on the outer surface of the polished optical fiber are numerically analyzed by the finite element method (FEM). The simulation results show that when the plasma material deposited by the optical fiber micro-opening is noble metal gold, the sensor can realize the sensing detection of the refractive index of the analyte from 1.33 to 1.39, and the average wavelength sensitivity in the x-polarization direction reaches 1107 nm/RIU. It is most noteworthy that when the plasma coating material of the optical fiber is replaced by metal oxide MoO2, the sensor can realize the sensing detection of the refractive index of the analyte from 1.31 to 1.37, and the average sensitivity of the x-polarization direction can reach 4821 nm/RIU. By comparison, we can know that the sensor coated with plasma material MoO2 has excellent sensing characteristics. This research is of great scientific significance for expanding the application range of MoO2 materials and promoting the development of photonic crystal fiber sensors coated with new materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of the high computational complexity, low real-time performance, and low accuracy of classification models in the current malicious domain name detection algorithms, a malicious domain name detection algorithm by Rf-C5 (Relief-C5.0) is proposed. Firstly, the global URL features of the domain names to be tested are extracted. Then, the improved Relief algorithm is used to calculate the weight of the extracted features, and the features are prioritized according to the weight values. Finally, the key features of the top 20 weighted values are selected as the input of C5.0 classifier to classify legitimate domain names and malicious domain names. Experimental results show that under the large sample data set, compared with the current mainstream malicious domain name detection algorithms, the detection accuracy of Rf-C5 model increases by 1.58~4.91 percentage points on the basis of increasing the average detection rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adenosine deaminases acting on tRNAs (ADATs) are involved in the formation of inosine in tRNAs, and they are members of the adenosine deaminase acting on RNA (ADAR) family of RNA editing enzymes. In this study, we analyzed and characterized two ADAT genes, AdADAT2 and AdADAT3, from Dabry's sturgeon (Acipenser dabryanus). The full‐length cDNAs of AdADAT2 and AdADAT3 were 1704 and 1402 bp, respectively, and they encoded putative proteins of 188 amino acids and 355 amino acids, respectively. AdADAT2 and AdADAT3 genes contain six exons and two exons, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequences exhibit signature features of three residues (generally, one histidine and two cysteines) embedded in three characteristic motifs (motif Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ). AdADAT2 and AdADAT3 mRNAs were expressed ubiquitously in the tissues of healthy A. dabryanus, with elevated levels in the intestine, middle kidney, head kidney, and spleen. In response to polyinosine‐polycytidylic acid (poly I:C), the AdADAT2 mRNA level was significantly upregulated at 6 h post‐stimulation (hps), but the AdADAT3 mRNA level was prominently downregulated at 6 hps. The different responses of the two genes to poly I:C indicate that they have different defense mechanisms against viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Herpes zoster (HZ) and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) significantly affect patients' quality of life (QoL). Cultural differences may lead to different patient-reported outcomes across countries. The current study aims to evaluate the detrimental impact of HZ and PHN on QoL in China., Methods: This prospective study was conducted from January 2020 to April 2023. We used the Zoster Brief Pain Inventory (ZBPI) and 5-level EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire to assess the QoL of HZ and PHN patients. Patients were required to complete the questionnaires at 15, 30, 60, and 90 days after the onset of the HZ rash. Additional questionnaires were administered at 120, 150, and 180 days for those who developed PHN within three months of the rash's onset., Results: A cohort of 633 patients with a median age of 63 years were included in the study. The mean delay from the appearance of the initial HZ rash to the first medical consultation was 5.1 ± 2.8 days. Approximately 30% of the HZ patients (189/633) went on to develop PHN. For patients with HZ who did not progress to PHN, the ZBPI worst pain score and impaired QoL had nearly resolved by day 90 post-rash onset. Conversely, there was no significant improvement in the ZBPI worst pain score and QoL for those with PHN, even by day 180 post-rash onset., Conclusion: Both HZ and PHN significantly impaired patients' QoL. However, the impairment caused by PHN was more severe in both intensity and duration., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2024 Liu et al.)

A. Numerous studies have been trying to create nanomaterials based antimicrobial surfaces to combat the growing bacterial infection problems. Mechanical durability has become one of the major challenges to applying those surfaces in real life. In this study, we demonstrate the Durable Antimicrobial Microstructures Surface (DAMS) consisting of DLP 3D printed microstructures and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflowers. The microstructures serve as a protection armor for the nanoflowers during abrasion. The antimicrobial ability was tested by immersing in 2E8 CFU/mL Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) suspension and then evaluated using electron microscopy. Compared to the bare control, our results show that the DAMS reduces bacterial coverage by more than 90% after 12 hrs of incubation and approximately 50% after 48 hrs of incubation before abrasion. Importantly, bacterial coverage is reduced by approximately 50% after 2 min of abrasion with a tribometer, and DAMS remains effective even after 6 min of abrasion. These findings highlight the potential of DAMS as an affordable, scalable, and durable antimicrobial surface for various biomedical applications.

In order to improve the mechanical and water electrolysis performance of anion exchange membranes (AEMs), we adjusted the ratio between p -terphenyl and m -terphenyl to balance the backbone conformation, which gives it a better suitability for a better combination with cations. The results showed that poly( m -terphenyl- co - p -terphenyl)-based AEMs have excellent mechanical properties. Among them, the m - p -TP-40-BOP-ASU membrane has the highest tensile strength and elongation at break (75.72 MPa and 16.07%). The ionic conductivity reaches 137.14 mS cm -1 at 80 °C owing to the fact that efficient ion-conducting channels are formed by well-balanced molecular structures. The current density of the m - p -TP-40-BOP-ASU membrane reached 1.96 A cm -2 (1 M KOH aq, 2.0 V and 60 °C). After testing for 112 h under a current density of 500 mA cm -2 , the voltage increased by 102 mV compared to the initial electrolysis voltage. All results have shown that m - p -TP- x -BOP-ASU has excellent electrolysis performance and electrochemical durability and has a promising application prospect in AEM water electrolyzers.

The present paper studied the chitosan-doped composite diaphragm by the phase exchange method with the objective of developing a composite diaphragm that complies with the alkaline water electrolysis requirements, as well as tested the electrolytic performance of the diaphragm in alkaline water electrolysis. The structure and morphology are characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The performance of chitosan-doped composite diaphragms was tested; CS 3 Z 12 composite diaphragm with a low area resistance (0.20 Ω cm 2 ), a high bubble point pressure (2.75 bar), and excellent electrochemical performance (current density of 650 mA cm -2 at 1.83 V) shows the best performance. Moreover, the performance of the synthesized composite diaphragm is significantly elevated compared to commercial diaphragms (Zirfon PERL), which is promising for practical application in alkaline electrolytic cells.