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Abstract Background Tui Na (Chinese massage) is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and non-invasive intervention, and has been used to treat stroke patients for many years in China. Tui Na acts on specific parts of the body which are called meridians and acupoints to achieve the role of treating diseases. Yet the underlying neural mechanism associated with Tui Na is not clear due to the lack of detection methods. Objective Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to explore the changes of sensorimotor cortical neural activity in patients with upper limb motor dysfunction of stroke and healthy control groups during Tui Na Hegu Point. Methods Ten patients with unilateral upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke and eight healthy subjects received Tui Na. fNIRS was used to record the hemodynamic data in the sensorimotor cortex and the changes in blood flow were calculated based on oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb), the task session involved repetitive Tui Na on Hegu acupoint, using a block design [six cycles: rest (20 seconds); Tui Na (20 seconds); rest (30 seconds)]. The changes in neural activity in sensorimotor cortex could be inferred according to the principle of neurovascular coupling, and the number of activated channels in the bilateral hemisphere was used to calculate the lateralization index. Result 1. For hemodynamic response induced by Hegu acupoint Tui Na, a dominant increase in the contralesional primary sensorimotor cortex during Hegu point Tui Na of the less affected arm in stroke patients was observed, as well as that in healthy controls, while this contralateral pattern was absent during Hegu point Tui Na of the affected arm in stroke patients. 2. Concerning the lateralization index in stroke patients, a significant difference was observed between lateralization index values for the affected arm and the less affected arm (P < 0.05). Wilcoxon tests showed a significant difference between lateralization index values for the affected arm in stroke patients and lateralization index values for the dominant upper limb in healthy controls (P < 0.05), and no significant difference between lateralization index values for the less affected arm in stroke patients and that in healthy controls (P = 0.36). Conclusion The combination of Tui Na and fNIRS has the potential to reflect the functional status of sensorimotor neural circuits. The changes of neuroactivity in the sensorimotor cortex when Tui Na Hegu acupoint indicate that there is a certain correlation between acupoints in traditional Chinese medicine and neural circuits.

Upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke is a serious threat to the living quality of patients and their families. Recovery of upper limb motor function after stroke largely relies on the activation and remodeling of neural circuits. rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) has been proved to promote the reconstruction of neural synapses and neural circuits. However, there are still a large number of patients who cannot fully recover and leave behind varying degrees of dysfunction. Considering the systemic pathology after stroke, in addition to focal brain injury, stroke can also cause extensive dysfunction of peripheral organs. The rehabilitation strategy for stroke should combine the treatment of primary brain lesions with the intervention of secondary systemic damage. The aim of this trial is to verify the efficacy of rTMS synergize with Tui Na (Chinese Massage) on upper limb motor function after ischemic stroke, and to explore the mechanism of activation and remodeling of sensorimotor neural circuits with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Ninety patients will be randomly assigned to either rTMS + Tui Na + conventional rehabilitation group (the experimental group) or rTMS + conventional rehabilitation group (the control group) in 1:1 ratio. Intervention is conducted five sessions a week, with a total of twenty sessions. The primary outcome is Fugl-Meyer Assessment, and the secondary outcomes include Muscle Strength, Modified Ashworth Assessment, Modified Barthel Index Assessment, motor evoked potentials and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. There are four time points for the evaluation, including baseline, 2 weeks and 4 weeks after the start of treatment, and 4 weeks after the end of treatment. This study is a randomized controlled trial. This study was approved by Institutional Ethics Committee of Shanghai Third Rehabilitation Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (approval No. SH3RH-2021-EC-012) on December, 16th, 2021. The protocol was registered with Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2200056266), on February 3th, 2022. Patient recruitment was initiated on February 10th, 2022, and the study will be continued until December 2023.

Electrocatalytic urea synthesis from CO2 and nitrogenous substances represents an essential advance for the chemical industry, enabling the efficient utilization of resources and promoting sustainable development. However, the development of electrocatalytic urea synthesis has been severely limited by weak chemisorption, poor activation and difficulties in C–N coupling reactions. In this review, catalysts and corresponding reaction mechanisms in the emerging fields of bimetallic catalysts, MXenes, frustrated Lewis acid–base pairs and heterostructures are summarized in terms of the two central mechanisms of molecule–catalyst interactions as well as chemical bond cleavage and directional coupling, which provide new perspectives for improving the efficiency of electrocatalytic synthesis of urea. This review provides valuable insights to elucidate potential electrocatalytic mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the support crushing disasters in proximity to coal seam beneath a room mining goaf caused by the different pressure time of the roof above pillars and the immediate roof，according to the nonlinear variation of the pillars'instability failure under the influence of the overlying load，a system mechanics model composed of roof-pillars-gangue was established.In addition，by using the cusp catastrophe theory，the instability mechanisms of the system under the linear loads were studied，the necessary sufficient condition for instability failure of the system and the formula of the jump value and the releasing energy of displacement of pillars were gained，and the main factors for instability failure of the system were analyzed.The results show that the unstable failure of pillars leads to the support crushing disasters.By using the energy method，the attacking dynamic factor and the working resistance of support were calculated.The rationality of the theoretical derivation has been verified by an engineering example.

Watershed water environment governance has always been a research hotspot in the field of transboundary governance. Based on evolutionary game theory, the regional governments of East Dongting Lake, West Dongting Lake and South Dongting Lake were taken as participants to construct a tripartite game model, and the game evolution strategies under unconstrained and constrained conditions were explored respectively, so as to analyze the influencing factors of the construction of synergistic mechanism of water environment governance in Dongting Lake Basin. The results show that: (1) Under the unconstrained condition, the stable strategy of the evolutionary game is “two parties govern, one party does not govern”. However, without intervention of external restraint measures for a long time, the players keep learning and improving according to the game results, and the final synergy mechanism cannot be achieved. (2) Under constraint conditions, the composition of synergistic mechanism mainly depends on the size of ecological compensation and punishment given by the superior government and the duration of constraint by the superior government.

As a cellular project of beautiful China and a systematic project of the whole people, the construction of “Waste Free City” cannot be separated from the extensive participation of the public. This research in China’s Henan province “no waste city” construction of public participation as the research object, using the grounded theory, first through open and spindle coding that affecting public participation “no waste city” of the construction of the six main factors: attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, driving factors and social environment and identity characteristics; Then a model of influencing factors of public participation is constructed through selective coding. The results show that participation attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavior control directly affect the willingness of the public to participate in the construction of “waste-free city”, which are internal psychological factors. Government behavior, group influence, community factor and enterprise factor constitute the external environmental factors that affect public participation. The three categories of publicity and education, reward and punishment mechanism and laws and regulations form the driving factors of public participation in the construction of “waste-free city”, which play a moderating role between internal psychological factors and external environmental factors. At the same time, identity characteristics also directly affect the public participation behavior in the construction of “waste-free city”.

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Background The caper bush Capparis spinosa L. one of the most economically important species of Capparaceae, is a xerophytic shrub that is well adapted to drought and harsh environments. However, genetic studies on this species are limited because of the lack of its reference genome. Findings We sequenced and assembled the Capparis spinosa var. herbacea (Willd.) genome using data obtained from the combination of PacBio circular consensus sequencing and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture. The final genome assembly was approximately 274.53 Mb (contig N50 length of 9.36 Mb, scaffold N50 of 15.15 Mb), 99.23% of which was assigned to 21 chromosomes. In the whole-genome sequence, tandem repeats accounted for 19.28%, and transposable element sequences accounted for 43.98%. The proportion of tandem repeats in the C. spinosa var. herbacea genome was much higher than the average of 8.55% in plant genomes. A total of 21,577 protein-coding genes were predicted, with 98.82% being functionally annotated. The result of species divergence times showed that C. spinosa var. herbacea and Tarenaya hassleriana separated from a common ancestor 43.31 million years ago. Conclusions This study reported a high-quality reference genome assembly and genome features for the Capparaceae family. The assembled C. spinosa var. herbacea genome might provide a system for studying the diversity, speciation, and evolution of this family and serve as an important resource for understanding the mechanism of drought and high-temperature resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf premature senescence largely determines maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield and quality. A natural recessive premature-senescence mutant was selected from the breeding population, and near-isogenic lines were constructed using Jing24 as the recurrent parent. In the near-isogenic lines, the dominant homozygous material was wild-type (WT), and the recessive material of early leaf senescence was the premature-senescence-type ZmELS5. To identify major genes and regulatory mechanisms involved in leaf senescence, a transcriptome analysis of the ZmELS5 and WT near-isogenic lines (NILs) was performed. A total of 8796 differentially expressed transcripts were identified between ZmELS5 and WT, including 3811 up-regulated and 4985 down-regulated transcripts. By combining gene ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, gene set, and transcription factor enrichment analyses, key differentially expressed genes were screened. The senescence regulatory network was predicted based on these key differentially expressed genes, which indicated that the senescence process is mainly regulated by bHLH, WRKY, and AP2/EREBP family transcription factors, leading to the accumulations of jasmonic acid and ethylene. This causes stress responses and reductions in the chlorophyll a/b-binding protein activity level. Then, decreased ATP synthase activity leads to increased photosystem II photodamage, ultimately leading to leaf senescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]