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This study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) in mice using CIR and hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) cell models. The study evaluated brain tissue weight, pathological injury, and changes in the expression levels of TIMP2, p-ERK1/2 and NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis-related proteins in brain tissues and hippocampal neurons of CIR mice using established methods such as dry/wet weight measurement, HE staining, qPCR, TUNEL assay, and Western blotting. The results demonstrated a significant increase in brain water content and neuronal apoptosis rate in the experimental groups compared with those in the control group. In particular, the I/R+TIMP2 group showed the highest increase. Additionally, the control group exhibited a clear brain tissue structure, neatly and densely arranged cells with normal morphology, and evenly stained and clear hippocampal tissues. However, the I/R group showed hippocampal structure disorders, interstitial edema, deep nuclear staining, karyopyknosis, and karyorrhexis in brain tissues. The study results further revealed that TIMP2 could aggravate the pathological damage of brain tissues in the I/R+TIMP2 group compared with the I/R group and significantly reduced it in the TIMP2-KD group. Furthermore, the Western blotting results demonstrated that the protein expression levels of TIMP2, p-ERK1/2, t-ERK1/2, NLRP3, IL-1β, IL-18, GSDMD, Caspase-1, and ASC in brain tissues and hippocampal neurons were significantly higher in the experimental groups than those in the control group. The I/R+TIMP2 group displaying the highest increase and the TIMP2-KD group showing a significant decrease. In conclusion, TIMP2 can contribute to the occurrence and progression of CIRI by activating NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis.

Cameras with rolling shutters (RSs) dominate consumer markets but are subject to distortions when capturing motion. Many methods have been proposed to mitigate RS distortions for applications such as vision-aided odometry and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction. They usually need known line delay d between successive image rows. To calibrate d, several methods have been proposed that often involve complex procedures. This Letter proposes an easy RS calibration method by using an off-the-shelf light-emitting diode (LED) panel, using the fact that the RS causes the blinking LED columns to appear slanted in images by a static camera. The calibration starts with extracting the LED lights and then rectifies the images to remove the lens distortion and misalignment between the camera and the LED panel. Next, blocks of slanted bright LEDs are recognized and their inclination leads to the line delay estimate. Our method needs not to move the camera, adjust the ambient light, or calibrate camera intrinsic parameters beforehand, and it can usually estimate the line delay given two LED panel images in one second. Extensive tests with industrial cameras and consumer cameras of wide-angle and fish-eye lenses validate its competitive accuracy relative to the established methods.

High-quality imaging with reduced optical complexity has been extensively investigated owing to its promising future in academic and industrial research. However, the practical performance of most imaging systems has encountered a bottleneck posed by optics rather than electronics. Here, we propose a digital lens (DL) to compensate for the chromatic aberration induced by physical optical elements, while the residual wavelength-independent degradation is tackled through a self-designed neural network. By transforming physical aberration correction to an algorithm-based computational imaging task, the proposed DL enables our framework to reduce optical complexity and achieve achromatic imaging in the analog domain. Real experiments have been conducted with an off-the-shelf single lens and recovered images show up to 14.62 dB higher peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) than the original chromatic input. Furthermore, we run a comprehensive ablation study to highlight the contribution of embedding the proposed DL, which shows a 4.83 dB PSNR improvement compared with the methods without DL. Technically, the proposed method can be an alternative for future applications that require both simple optics and high-fidelity visualization.

Pyroptosis is a form of cell death triggered by the innate immune system that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of sepsis and acute lung injury. At the cellular level, pyroptosis is characterized by cell swelling, membrane rupture, and release of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β. However, the role of endogenous lipids in pyroptosis remains underappreciated. We discovered that 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), a major endogenous product of lipid peroxidation, inhibited pyroptosis and inflammasome activation. HNE at physiological concentrations (3 µM) blocked nigericin and ATP-induced cell death, as well as secretion of IL-1β, by mouse primary macrophages and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Treatment with HNE, or an increase of endogenous HNE by inhibiting glutathione peroxidase 4, reduced inflammasome activation in mouse models of acute lung injury and sepsis. Mechanistically, HNE inhibited the NLRP3 inflammasome activation independently of Nrf2 and NF-κB signaling, and had no effect on the NLRC4 or AIM2 inflammasome. Furthermore, HNE directly bound to NLRP3 and inhibited its interaction with NEK7. Our findings identify HNE as a novel, endogenous inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to ADMC Associazione Differenziamento e Morte Cellulare.)

Large DOF (depth-of-field) with high SNR (signal-noise-ratio) imaging is a crucial technique for applications from security monitoring to medical diagnostics. However, traditional optical design for large DOF requires a reduction in aperture size, and hence with a decrease in light throughput and SNR. In this paper, we report a computational imaging system integrating dual-aperture optics with a physics-informed dual-encoder neural network to realize prominent DOF extension. Boosted by human vision mechanism and optical imaging law, the dual-aperture imaging system is consisted of a small-aperture NIR camera to provide sharp edge and a large-aperture VIS camera to provide faithful color. To solve the imaging inverse problem in NIR-VIS fusion with different apertures, a specific network with parallel double encoders and the multi-scale fusion module is proposed to adaptively extract and learn the useful features, which contributes to preventing color deviation while preserving delicate scene textures. The proposed imaging framework is flexible and can be designed in different protos with varied optical elements for different applications. We provide theory for system design, demonstrate a prototype device, establish a real-scene dataset containing 3000 images, perform elaborate ablation studies and conduct peer comparative experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that our method effectively produces high-fidelity with larger DOF range than input raw images about 3 times. Without complex optical design and strict practical limitations, this novel, intelligent and integratable system is promising for variable vision applications such as smartphone photography, computational measurement, and medical imaging.

The collagen from jellyfish has many beneficial effects, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory activities. However, whether jellyfish collagen hydrolysate (JCH) has any effects on high-fat diet-induced obesity remains unknown. Consequently, we in the present study orally administrated JCH in high-fat diet-fed mice to explore its effects on body weight gain, inflammatory and oxidative status, and cecum microbe composition. The results showed that oral administration of JCH prevented the body weight gain in high-fat diet-treated mice. Meanwhile, glucose, triglycerides, and total cholesterol level in serum were maintained by JCH administration. Furthermore, JCH administration alleviated oxidative stress by increasing the GSH content and decreasing the level reactive oxygen species in the liver and improved inflammatory response by decreasing the expression of TNF- α , IL-1 β , and IL-8 gene in the liver and ileum. Importantly, JCH administration helps recover the alteration of microbiota composition induced by high-fat diet, and the genus Romboutsia may critically involve in the beneficial effects of JCH administration. In conclusion, our results indicated that JCH could be potentially used for the prevention and treatment of diet-induced obesity., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhe Lv et al.)

As a kind of photodetector, position-sensitive-detectors (PSDs) have been widely used in noncontact photoelectric positioning and measurement. However, fabrications and applications of solar-blind PSDs remain yet to be harnessed. Herein, we demonstrate a solar-blind PSD developed from a graphene/Ga 2 O 3 Schottky junction with a 25-nanometer-thick Ga 2 O 3 film, in which the absorption of the nanometer-thick Ga 2 O 3 is enhanced by multibeam interference. The graphene/Ga 2 O 3 junction exhibits a responsivity of 48.5 mA/W and a rise/decay time of 0.8/99.8 μs at zero bias. Moreover, the position of the solar-blind spot can be determined by the output signals of the PSD. Using the device as a sensor of noncontact test systems, we demonstrate its application in measurement of angular, displacement, and light trajectory. In addition, the position-sensitive outputs have been used to demodulate optical signals into electrical signals. The results may prospect the application of solar-blind PSDs in measurement, tracking, communication, and so on.

Photomemories offer great opportunities for multifunctional integration of optical sensing, data storage, and processing into one single device. However, little attention has been paid to photomemories working in the solar-blind region so far, which may have unique advantages of insusceptibility to ambient light and higher capacity. Herein, we propose and demonstrate a Ga 2 O 3 based solar-blind photomemory array with logic, arithmetic, and optoelectronic memory functions. The device shows n-type field effect-transistor performance with an on/off ratio as high as 10 6 , a responsivity of 8 × 10 3 A W -1 , and a detectivity of 1.42 × 10 14 Jones, all of which are amongst the best values ever reported for Ga 2 O 3 based photodetectors. Based on the trapping and de-trapping process of holes in Ga 2 O 3 , multilevel data storage can be realized from the device. Simultaneously, the optical and electrical mixed basic logic of reconfigurable "AND" and "OR" operations have been realized in a single cell through the co-regulation of solar-blind light and the grid voltage. In addition, the photomemory can perform counting and addition operations, and the photomemory array can be utilized to realize solar-blind image storage. The results suggest that Ga 2 O 3 may have potential applications in high-performance information storage, computing, and communications.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a devastating pandemic worldwide. Vaccines and antiviral drugs are the most promising candidates for combating this global epidemic, and scientists all over the world have made great efforts to this end. However, manipulation of the SARS-CoV-2 should be performed in the biosafety level 3 laboratory. This makes experiments complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, a safer system for working with this virus is urgently needed. Here, we report the construction of plasmid-based, non-infectious SARS-CoV-2 replicons with turbo-green fluorescent protein and/or firefly luciferase reporters by reverse genetics using transformation-associated recombination cloning in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Replication of these replicons was achieved simply by direct transfection of cells with the replicon plasmids as evident by the expression of reporter genes. Using SARS-CoV-2 replicons, the inhibitory effects of E64-D and remdesivir on SARS-CoV-2 replication were confirmed, and the half-maximal effective concentration (EC 50 ) value of remdesivir and E64-D was estimated by different quantification methods respectively, indicating that these SARS-CoV-2 replicons are useful tools for antiviral drug evaluation., (© 2021. Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS.)

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is characterized by aorta dilation due to wall degeneration, which mostly occurs in elderly males. Vascular aging is implicated in degenerative vascular pathologies, including AAA. Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases, by hydrolyzing cyclic nucleotides, play critical roles in regulating vascular structure remodeling and function. Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase 1C (PDE1C) expression is induced in dedifferentiated and aging vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs), while little is known about the role of PDE1C in aneurysm. We observed that PDE1C was not expressed in normal aorta but highly induced in SMC-like cells in human and murine AAA. In mouse AAA models induced by Angiotensin II or periaortic elastase, PDE1C deficiency significantly decreased AAA incidence, aortic dilation, and elastin degradation, which supported a causative role of PDE1C in AAA development in vivo. Pharmacological inhibition of PDE1C also significantly suppressed preestablished AAA. We showed that PDE1C depletion antagonized SMC senescence in vitro and/or in vivo, as assessed by multiple senescence biomarkers, including senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity, γ-H2AX foci number, and p21 protein level. Interestingly, the role of PDE1C in SMC senescence in vitro and in vivo was dependent on Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1). Mechanistic studies further showed that cAMP derived from PDE1C inhibition stimulated SIRT1 activation, likely through a direct interaction between cAMP and SIRT1, which leads to subsequent up-regulation of SIRT1 expression. Our findings provide evidence that PDE1C elevation links SMC senescence to AAA development in both experimental animal models and human AAA, suggesting therapeutical significance of PDE1C as a potential target against aortic aneurysms., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

Objective: To analyze the distribution and composition characteristics of jellyfish stings in various coastal baths in Qinhuangdao City from 2017 to 2019, and to provide scientific basis for the prevention, control and early warning of jellyfish stings., Methods: Statistics and analysis of the age, gender, time of stings, location of injury, first symptoms, and playing time in the sea at the time of the sting, etc. of people with jellyfish stings in various bathing beaches along the coast of Qinhuangdao from 2017 to 2019 (July to August) were conducted., Results: The number of jellyfish stings in the coastal bathing beaches of Qinhuangdao City in 2017, 2018, and 2019 was decreasing year by year, with 1 890, 492, and 171 cases respectively. Among them, Qianshuiwan Bathing Beach and Dongshan Bathing Beach had more stings (60.90% and 35.08% respectively in 2017, 24.39% and 64.23% respectively in 2018, 16.96% and 16.42% respectively in 2019). There was no significant change in the gender and age distribution of jellyfish stings each year [57.99% males in 2017, with a median age of 13 (8, 31) years old; 63.21% males in 2018, with a median age of 25 (8, 29) years old; and 59.65% males in 2019, with a median age of 12 (7, 31) years old]. Stings were mainly located at the lower limbs (the proportion of lower limb injuries: 46.54% in 2018, 45.61% in 2019), followed by upper limbs (upper arm, elbow, forearm), trunk, etc. The first symptom was mainly pain (89.43% in 2018, 38.29% in 2019), followed by rash (64.43% in 2018, 59.43% in 2019), numbness, blisters, etc. Sting incidents mainly occurred from 13:00 to 17:59 (the proportion of sting incidents in this time period in 2018 and 2019 were 68.09% and 52.63%, respectively)., Conclusions: Jellyfish stings in coastal baths in Qinhuangdao City are mainly distributed in Qianshuiwan Baths and Dongshan Baths. The management of these sea areas should be strengthened, and scientific publicity and medical rescue should be strengthened to prevent jellyfish stings in peak hours and related baths.

Objective: To investigate the value of quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) in the evaluation of thrombolytic efficacy in acute cerebral infarction., Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted. Ninety-four patients with acute cerebral infarction who received intravenous thrombolysis admitted to the department of emergency of Qinhuangdao First Hospital from October 2019 to September 2020 were enrolled. The relative energy values of δ, θ, α and β waves in qEEG before and 2 hours, 24 hours and 7 days after intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) thrombolysis were dynamically monitored, and the power ratio index [DTABR, DTABR = (δ+θ)/(α+β)] was calculated. The National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) score was also recorded. The reduction of NIHSS score ≥ 3 or the disappearance of neurological symptoms were regarded as effective thrombolytic therapy. The changes of DTABR before and after thrombolysis in patients with effective and ineffective thrombolysis were analyzed, and the correlation between DTABR and NIHSS score was analyzed by Pearson method., Results: A total of 94 patients were enrolled, including 64 males and 30 females. The average age was (61.71±10.11) years from 36 to 89 years old. Thrombolysis was effective in 57 cases and ineffective in 37 cases. Compared with before thrombolysis, DTABR of the effective group was significantly decreased at 2 hours, 24 hours and 7 days after thrombolysis (left cerebral infarction: 1.87±1.45, 1.59±0.88, 1.58±0.90 vs. 3.82±2.60; right cerebral infarction: 1.55±0.57, 1.41±0.50, 1.35±0.44 vs. 3.20±1.63, all P < 0.05). DTABR did not change or increase significantly at 2 hours, 24 hours and 7 days after thrombolysis compared with before thrombolysis (left cerebral infarction: 3.56±2.57, 3.48±2.19, 3.54±2.50 vs. 3.11±1.62; right cerebral infarction: 5.29±3.93, 5.33±3.94, 5.19±4.52 vs. 4.73±2.43, all P > 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between DTABR and NIHSS score in patients with acute cerebral infarction (r = 0.691, P < 0.01)., Conclusions: The quantitative index of qEEG, DTABR, can accurately and quickly monitor the process of thrombolysis in acute cerebral infarction, and can effectively evaluate the effect of thrombolysis in patients.

Objective: To analyze the status quo of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BCPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Qinhuangdao area and its influence on the prognosis of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)., Methods: Based on the Utstein model CPR database of Qinhuangdao, data of 1 162 OHCA patients admitted to the Health Emergency Dispatch Center of Qinhuangdao City from January 2018 to January 2019 were collected, and they were divided into two groups according to whether BCPR was performed or not. The patients' demographic parameters (gender, age), precardiac arrest parameters (location of cardiac arrest), the parameters of the CPR (first aid response time before hospital, initial diagnosis of causes of cardiac arrest, initial cardiac rhythm) and the parameters of the CPR results [whether to achieve on-site restoration of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and 30-day survival rate] were collected. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was performed for the relationship between BCPR and on-site ROSC rate. The social characteristics of bystanders implementing BCPR, including gender, age, occupation, educational background, and acquisition method of CPR knowledge, were analyzed., Results: Among the 1 162 OHCA patients, the patients witnessed by professional medical personnel in nursing homes, hospitals and other places and pre-hospital emergency personnel were excluded. 852 OHCA patients were enrolled, among which only 24 patients obtained BCPR (2.8%), and the remaining 828 patients did not obtain BCPR (97.2%). There were no statistically significant differences in gender, age, location of cardiac arrest, pre-hospital emergency response time, primary diagnosis of cardiac arrest causes and initial cardiac rhythm between the two groups. Compared with the non-BCPR group, the on-site ROSC rate and the 30-day survival rate of the BCPR group were significantly increased [on-site ROSC rate: 16.7% (4/24) vs. 5.2% (43/828), 30-day survival rate: 8.3% (2/24) vs. 1.3% (11/828), both P < 0.05]. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that BCPR [odds ratio (OR) = 32.132, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 11.129-65.471], location of cardiac arrest (OR = 0.080, 95%CI was 1.212-3.125) and response time during pre-hospital emergency treatment (OR = 0.121, 95%CI was 0.174-0.816) were important factors for on-site ROSC of OHCA patients (all P < 0.01). A total of 30 bystanders participated in the implementation of OHCA patients' BCPR, excluding 2 bystanders of lost follow-up, 28 bystanders with effective return visit. The 28 bystanders of BCPR practitioners were mainly male (85.7%), the age was mainly 18-40 years old (57.1%), the occupation was mainly in the tourism service industry (21.5%), students (17.9%), soldiers (14.3%) and bus drivers (10.7%), and the education background was mainly junior college or above (85.7%), the methods of acquiring CPR knowledge mainly included APP and new media (42.9%) and lectures (21.4%)., Conclusions: The BCPR implementation rate of OHCA in Qinhuangdao was only 2.8%. BCPR can improve the success rate of pre-hospital CPR and the 30-day survival rate of OHCA patients. Targeted selection of tourism service industry, students, military personnel and bus drivers as CPR training targets may obtain more significant social benefits.

Synergistic effects of drug combinations are very important in improving drug efficacy or reducing drug toxicity. However, due to the complex mechanism of action between drugs, it is expensive to screen new drug combinations through trials. It is well known that virtual screening of computational models can effectively reduce the test cost. Recently, foreign scholars successfully predicted the synergistic value of new drug combinations on cancer cell lines by using deep learning model DeepSynergy. However, DeepSynergy is a two-stage method and uses only one kind of feature as input. In this study, we proposed a new end-to-end deep learning model, MulinputSynergy which predicted the synergistic value of drug combinations by integrating gene expression, gene mutation, gene copy number characteristics of cancer cells and anticancer drug chemistry characteristics. In order to solve the problem of high dimension of features, we used convolutional neural network to reduce the dimension of gene features. Experimental results showed that the proposed model was superior to DeepSynergy deep learning model, with the mean square error decreasing from 197 to 176, the mean absolute error decreasing from 9.48 to 8.77, and the decision coefficient increasing from 0.53 to 0.58. This model could learn the potential relationship between anticancer drugs and cell lines from a variety of characteristics and locate the effective drug combinations quickly and accurately.

Vinpocetine is a derivative of vincamine. It has been used to prevent and treat cerebrovascular disorders such as stoke and dementia, and remains widely available in dietary supplements that often marketed as nootropics. Due to its excellent safety profile at therapeutic dose regimen, vinpocetine has raised research interest in its new applications in various experimental disease models. Here we review recent studies that uncovered novel functions of vinpocetine in cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, obesity, neointimal hyperplasia, vasoconstriction, pathological cardiac remodeling and ischemia stroke. Molecular mechanisms underlined the protective effects of vinpocetine are also discussed. These novel findings may suggest a broadened usage of vinpocetine against relevant cardiovascular diseases in human.

Objective: To study the effect of mild hypothermiaon neurological function and oxidative stress in patients with acute massive cerebral infarction., Methods: Sixty patients with acute massive cerebral infarction (within 12 hours of onset, the age < 70 years old) admitted to the First Hospital of Qinhuangdao from August 2017 to August 2018 were enrolled. Patients were divided into control group and observation group according to random number table method, with 30 patients in each group. The control group was given conventional treatment such as lowering intracranial pressure, anticoagulation, improving microcirculation, neurotrophy and anti-stress ulcer, while the observation group was received mild hypothermia (after 72 hours of treatment at 32-35 centigrade, it increased about 1 centigrade every 6 hours until the normal temperature). The neurological impairment (the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, NIHSS), motor function (Fugl-Meyer score), daily living ability (Bathel index) and coma degree (Glasgow coma scale, GCS) were observed before treatment and 72 hours after treatment. The levels of plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and advanced oxidative protein products (AOPP) were measured at same time. After 72 hours of treatment, the therapeutic effect was judged according to the NIHSS score., Results: There was no significant difference in NIHSS score, Fugl-Meyer score, Bathel index and GCS scores, and the levels of plasma MDA, SOD and AOPP between two groups before treatment. Compared with before treatment, NIHSS score and plasma MDA and AOPP levels in the two groups were significantly decreased after treatment, while Fugl-Meyer score, Bathel index, GCS score and plasma SOD activity were significantly increased; and the change of observation group was more significant than those of control group [NIHSS score: 9.78±3.24 vs. 13.44±2.63, MDA (mmol/L): 8.70±2.79 vs. 10.50±3.81, AOPP (μmol/L): 51.10±17.81 vs. 72.60±18.71, Fugl-Meyer score: 55.68±8.38 vs. 46.25±3.92, Bathel index: 66.63±11.25 vs. 56.71±10.81, GCS score: 13.78±1.31 vs. 10.49±1.03, SOD (kU/L): 134.70±29.87 vs. 104.60±25.75, all P < 0.05]. The total effective rate of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group [93.3% (28/30) vs. 86.7% (26/30), χ 2 = 6.119, P = 0.020]., Conclusions: Mild hypothermia was effective in treating acute massive cerebral infarction. It could significantly improve the neurological function and oxidative stress of patients, improve the quality of life, and was safe and reliable.

Objective: To investigate the role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) signaling pathway in the expression of aquaporin 4 (AQP4) in brain tissue of rats with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during mild hypothermia., Methods: Forty-eight healthy male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into sham operation group, normal temperature group and mild hypothermia group according to random number table method, with 16 in each group. The rat model of cardiac arrest-cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was established by asphyxia method. The sham operation group only experienced venous catheterization and tracheal intubation. The mild hypothermia group was treated with hypothermia 0.5 hours after restore of spontaneous circulation (ROSC, maintaining esophageal temperature at 32-34 centigrade); the normal temperature group was treated at room temperature after ROSC (maintaining esophageal temperature at 36-38 centigrade). Brain tissue was harvested at 6 hours after ROSC, and histopathological changes were observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. The water content of brain tissue was determined by dry-wet specific gravity method. The protein expressions of phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p-p38MAPK), p38MAPK and AQP4 in brain tissue were determined by Western Blot., Results: Compared with the sham operation group, the nerve cells in the normal temperature group were reduced in size, cytoplasmic loosening, nuclear pyknosis, and in apoptotic body formation, water content of brain tissue was significantly increased [(83.64±2.53)% vs. (77.95±0.94)%, P < 0.05], the protein expressions of p-p38MAPK, p38MAPK, AQP4 were significantly increased (p38MAPK/β-actin: 1.010±0.217 vs. 0.427±0.090, p-p38MAPK/p38MAPK: 0.451±0.172 vs. 0.191±0.141, AQP4/β-actin: 3.129±0.754 vs. 1.598±0.464, all P < 0.05). Compared with the normal temperature group, the degree of necrosis of nerve cells in the mild hypothermia group was reduced, the water content of brain tissue was significantly decreased [(80.49±2.05)% vs. (83.64±2.53)%, P < 0.05], the protein expression of p38MAPK, p-p38MAPK and AQP4 in brain tissue were significantly decreased (p38MAPK/β-actin: 0.590±0.162 vs. 1.010±0.217, p-p38MAPK/p38MAPK: 0.298±0.076 vs. 0.451±0.172, AQP4/β-actin: 2.061±0.340 vs. 3.129±0.754, all P < 0.05)., Conclusions: Mild hypothermia may regulate the expression of AQP4 in brain tissue of CPR rats through p38MAPK signaling pathway, and reduce brain edema, thereby exerting brain protection.

The synthesis of a nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes (NGPEs) using Li + -functionalized SPEEK (SPEEK(Li)) nanofiber membrane as a matrix, cross-linked PVA as a gelled agent and LiClO 4 as an electrolytic salt for electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) were reported in this work. Compared with conventional PVA based gel electrolyte, the "SO 3 - Li + " functional groups and the pores structure of the SPEEK(Li) nanofiber membrane improves the ionic conductivity as well as mechanical stability, which made the prepared NGPEs exhibited a high ionic conductivity of 8.9 × 10 -3  S cm -1 at ambient temperature and a large voltage stability window range from 0 to 2.0 V. The fabricated symmetric EDLCs showed a specific capacitance of 146.96 F g -1 at a current density of 0.5 A g -1 , with a maximum energy density of 18.26 W h kg -1 . Meanwhile, the EDLCs showed outstanding cyclical stability of 98% specific capacitance retention after 3000 cycles GCD testing, all of these results indicated that the NGPEs should be appropriate to EDLCs and next-generation energy storage systems., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the prehospital intervention based on emergency medical services (EMS) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) for door-to-needle time (DNT) with intravenous thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) impact., Methods: 112 emergency patients receiving rt-PA intravenous thrombolysis admitted to the First Hospital of Qinhuangdao City based on EMS from June 2016 to December 2017 were enrolled. According to whether or not to receive prehospital interventions, patients were divided into prehospital intervention group (n = 42) and routine treatment group (n = 70). Both groups followed the general principles of first aid, including assessment and support of the airway, respiration, and circulation, and blood glucose, electrocardiogram, and dynamic vital signs were monitored. Based on the general principle of EMS, first-aid personnel in the prehospital intervention group screened suspected acute stroke patients requiring prehospitalization according to Los Angeles prehospital stroke screening table (LAPSS), and established fluid ways, and got blood samples to evaluate rt-PA intravenous thrombolysis and risks. Factors influenced DNT compliance were analyzed through multivariate Logistic regression, which included the education level of the patient, whether there were risk factors related to cerebrovascular disease (hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes), visit time, National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) score, whether received EMS intervention or not. The average DNT, DNT ≤ 60 minutes compliance rate, communication time, and decision time for thrombolysis were compared between the two groups. NIHSS score was used to evaluate the effective rate of thrombolysis for 7 days. The modified Rankin score (mRs) was used to evaluate the neurological function after 3 months of thrombolysis (a mRs score of 0-2 was defined as a good nerve function)., Results: Univariate analysis showed that the DNT of patients with NIHSS score > 5 was significantly shorter than those with NIHSS score ≤ 5, and DNT in patients received EMS intervention was significantly shorter than the non-receiver; but education level, visiting time, and risk factors associated with cerebrovascular disease had nothing to do with DNT. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that NIHSS score and EMS intervention were the influencing factors of DNT compliance [NIHSS score: odds ratio (OR) = 0.452, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 0.162-1.263, P = 0.030; EMS intervention: OR = 3.077, 95%CI = 1.260-7.514, P = 0.014]. Compared with conventional treatment group, DNT of intravenous thrombolytic in prehospital intervention group was significantly shortened (minutes: 62.00±11.07 vs. 78.03±21.04), DNT ≤ 60 minutes compliance rate was significantly increased [35.7% (15/42) vs. 12.9% (9/70)], communication time [minutes: 4 (3, 6) vs. 6 (5, 9)] and decision-making thrombolytic time (minutes: 5.81±2.48 vs. 6.70±2.15) were significantly shortened, the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). The 7-day effective rate in the prehospital intervention group [33.3% (14/42) vs. 14.3% (10/70), χ 2 = 5.657, P = 0.017] and the 3-mouth good rate of nerve function [38.1% (16/42) vs. 14.3% (10/70), χ 2 = 10.759, P = 0.001] were significantly higher than those in the conventional treatment group., Conclusions: Prehospital interventions based on EMS can shorten DNT of intravenous thrombolysis in the patients with AIS, improve treatment efficiency, and improve prognosis.

Objective: To objectively and standardly compare the bare-handed CPR and Thumper cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR recovery effect based on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) Utstein model., Methods: A retrospective study was conducted. CPR adult patients admitted to the Emergency Room of First Hospital of Qinhuangdao in Hebei Province from January 2015 to January 2017 were enrolled. Seventy patients who underwent CPR using the Thumper cardiopulmonary resuscitator were included in the Thumper CPR group; 80 patients who underwent manual hand-held CPR were included in the bare-handed CPR group. Return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and return of spontaneous breathing, and blood gas analysis indexes of recovery for 5 minutes and 15 minutes [arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO 2 ), arterial blood carbon dioxide partial pressure (PaCO 2 ), arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO 2 ), blood lactic acid (Lac)] were collected., Results: There was no significant difference in gender, age and cardiac arrest (CA) causes between the two groups. Compared with the bare-handed CPR group, the ROSC rate in the Thumper CPR group was significantly increased [68.57% (48/70) vs. 51.25% (41/80), χ 2 = 4.642, P = 0.031], but there was no significant difference in return of spontaneous breathing rate [48.57% (34/70) vs. 47.50% (38/80), χ 2 = 0.017, P = 0.896]. There was no significant difference in blood gas index between the two groups after 5 minutes of recovery. The PaO 2 and SaO 2 in the Thumper CPR group were significantly higher than those in the bare-handed CPR group [PaO 2 (mmHg, 1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa): 88.13±5.06 vs. 84.26±5.53, SaO 2 : 0.828±0.068 vs. 0.766±0.031, both P < 0.05), PaCO 2 and Lac were significantly lower than those in the bare-handed CPR group [PaCO 2 (mmHg): 34.04±4.62 vs. 40.43±5.29, Lac (mmol/L): 6.90±2.07 vs. 8.50±2.12, both P < 0.05]., Conclusions: In the process of emergency rescue, Thumper cardiopulmonary resuscitator is more successful than bare-handed CPR. The recovery rate of Thumper cardiopulmonary resuscitator is more conducive to save manpower and obtain better metabolic effect, which is worthy of clinical promotion and application.

Objective: This study aimed to gain a better insight into the impact of the mir-196a-2 C>T polymorphism on the susceptibility to colorectal cancer (CRC)., Methods: In a meta-analysis of 6 publications with a total of 1,754 cancer cases and 2,430 controls, we summarized the data on the associations between the studied mir-196a-2 C>T polymorphism and CRC risk and conducted subgroup analyses by ethnicity and control sources., Results: We found no overall association between the mir-196a-2 C>T polymorphism and CRC risk. But a significant association was found in the stratified analysis according to ethnicity among Asians (ORCC vs. TT = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.02-1.45, P heterogeneity = 0.718; ORCC vs. TC + TT = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.04-1.44, P heterogeneity = 0.590; ORallele C vs. allele T = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.01-1.20, P heterogeneity = 0.726) rather than Caucasians., Conclusions: Our results suggested that there was no overall risk of CRC in relation to the mir-196a-2 C>T polymorphism. However, this polymorphism was associated with an increased risk in Asian populations.