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ObjectiveTo Observe the impact of auditory recognition function on vocabulary knowledge in children with functional articulation disorder (FAD) and to explore the mechanism of working memory (mainly auditory working memory and visual working memory) in the relationship between the two.MethodsA total of 113 children with FAD who were treated at the Rehabilitation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University from November 2019 to January 2022 were selected, with 2 cases dropped out. Each child underwent auditory recognition function testing, vocabulary knowledge testing, auditory working memory testing, and visual working memory testing. The minimum difference phoneme contrast test was used to evaluate the children's auditory recognition function; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was used to assess the children's vocabulary knowledge function; auditory working memory of children was evaluated by digital memory span test; visual working memory of children was evaluated using spatial memory span task test.Results1) Correlation analysis was conducted on total average accuracy of minimum difference phoneme contrast test, PPVT score, digit memory span test and spatial memory span task test. It was found that there was a significant positive correlation between total average accuracy of the minimum difference phoneme contrast test and digit memory span test (PPPPPPPP

Tick‐borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) can cause life‐threatening central nervous system infection. Changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) metabolites may reflect critical aspects of host responses and end‐organ damage in neuro infection and neuroinflammation. In this study, we applied an untargeted metabolomics screen of CSF samples to investigate the metabolites profile and explore biomarkers for TBEV infection. By analyzing CSF samples from 77 patients with TBEV infection and 23 without TBEV infection, tryptophan metabolism and Citrate cycle were found to be the top important metabolic pathways in differentiating the control and case groups; acetoacetate, 5′‐deoxy‐5′‐(methylthio)‐adenosine, 3‐methyl‐2‐oxobutanoic acid, and so forth. were identified to be metabolic biomarkers (|log2 ${\mathrm{log}}_{2}$FC|> 1, VIP > 1, FDR < 0.05) in CSF and clearly separated the TBEV infection from the noninfected samples. Moreover, four metabolites were identified to be associated with fatal outcome, including kynurenic acid, 5‐hydroxyindole‐3‐acetic acid, DL‐tryptophan, indole‐3‐acrylic acid, demonstrating the potential predictive biomarkers for severe TBEV infection. This study explored the metabolic profile of TBEV infection in CSF samples and identified candidate biomarkers for TBEV infection, which might be useful in target screening for differential diagnosis and therapeutic inter‐vention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) continues to be a disease with high mortality and no efficacious medical treatment. Although severe AH is presented as acute on chronic liver failure, what underlies this transition from chronic alcoholic steatohepatitis (ASH) to AH is largely unknown. To address this question, unbiased RNA sequencing and proteomic analyses were performed on livers of the recently developed AH mouse model, which exhibits the shift to AH from chronic ASH upon weekly alcohol binge, and these results are compared to gene expression profiling data from AH patients. This cross-analysis has identified Casp11 (CASP4 in humans) as a commonly up-regulated gene known to be involved in the noncanonical inflammasome pathway. Immunoblotting confirms CASP11/4 activation in AH mice and patients, but not in chronic ASH mice and healthy human livers. Gasdermin-D (GSDMD), which induces pyroptosis (lytic cell death caused by bacterial infection) downstream of CASP11/4 activation, is also activated in AH livers in mice and patients. CASP11 deficiency reduces GSDMD activation, bacterial load in the liver, and severity of AH in the mouse model. Conversely, the deficiency of interleukin-18, the key antimicrobial cytokine, aggravates hepatic bacterial load, GSDMD activation, and AH. Furthermore, hepatocyte-specific expression of constitutively active GSDMD worsens hepatocellular lytic death and polymorphonuclear leukocyte inflammation.ConclusionThese results implicate pyroptosis induced by the CASP11/4-GSDMD pathway in the pathogenesis of AH. (Hepatology 2018;67:1737-1753).

In this paper, we design a Fano resonance sensor based on Al 2 O 3 and Ag hybrid metamaterial, the proposed hybrid structure is composed of two concentric cylinders with the same radius. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation and coupled mode theory (CMT) are used to study the transmission characteristics of the structure. The results indicate that the Fano resonance in this structure is caused by the destructive interaction between the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) generated at the interface of Al 2 O 3 /Ag and the local surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) excited at the Ag boundary. The resonance wavelength and line shape of the Fano resonance can be adjusted by the structural geometrical parameters. Additionally, we incorporate four silver bars into the proposed structure to induce a dual Fano resonance, and the dual Fano resonances can be tuned by the size and position of the silver bars. After optimizing the geometric parameters, the maximum sensitivity of the single Fano resonance structure is S = 119 nm/RIU , and its figure of merit is F O M = 63. 4 RIU - 1 . The maximum sensitivity of the dual Fano resonance configuration is S = 407. 8 nm/RIU , which is more than three times as sensitive in the Ag/Al 2 O 3 hybrid metamaterial without the four silver bars, while its figure of merit is F O M = 203. 7 RIU - 1 . The Fano resonance effect has potential applications in various nanophotonic devices, such as switches, sensors, and modulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we proposed a bifunctional sensor of high sensitivity and slow light based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs). An array of left semicircular ring (LSR), right semicircular ring (RSR), and circular ring (CR) resonators are utilized to form the proposed metamaterial. The proposed structure can achieve double plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) effects under the excitation of a TM-polarization wave. The double PIT originated from the destructive interference between two bright modes and a dark mode. A coupled harmonic oscillator model is used to describe the destructive interference between the two bright modes and a dark mode, and the simulation results agree well with the calculated results. Moreover, we investigate the influence of the coupling distance, period, and flare angle on the PIT spectra. The relationship between the resonant frequencies, full width at half maximum (FWHM), amplitudes, quality factors (Q), and the coupling distance is also studied. Finally, a high sensitivity of 1.02 THz RIU−1 is obtained, and the transmission performance can be maintained at a good level when the incident angle is less than 40°. Thus, the sensor can cope with situations where electromagnetic waves are not perpendicular to the structure's surface. The maximum figure of merit (FOM) can reach about 8.26 RIU−1; to verify the slow light property of the device, the slow light performance of the proposed structure is investigated, and a maximum time delay (TD) of 22.26 ps is obtained. The proposed CNT-based metamaterial can be used in electromagnetically induced transparency applications, such as sensors, optical memory devices, and flexible terahertz functional devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]