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Purpose: Children with cochlear implants (CIs) have less experience accessing spoken language. Mandarin Chinese uses pitch information to contrast word meaning, and the signal that the CI devices provide is degraded. Thus, Mandarin-speaking children with CIs may face more challenges in the development of language skills. This study examines preschool Mandarin-speaking children's performance in lexical access. We hypothesized that children with CIs and their peers with normal hearing (NH) have comparable naming ability, but they process phonological or semantic information differently. Method: Twenty children with CIs and 20 age-matched children with NH were tested. The cross-modal visual-auditory picture-word interference paradigm was applied. The distractor was either phonologically related ("mao"[superscript 55] cat "-mao"[superscript 51] hat), semantically related ("mao"[superscript 55] cat "-shu"[superscript 214] mouse) or unrelated ("mao"[superscript 55] cat "-zhi"[superscript 214] paper) to the target, and it was aurally presented at four different points in time relative to the picture. Accuracy was compared between the two groups to tap into the children's naming abilities, and reaction time was analyzed to examine the effects of phonological and semantic information. Results: No group difference in accuracy was found. The phonologically related distractors led to significantly higher accuracy scores and shorter reaction times, whereas the semantically related distractors did not. Unlike the NH group, the CI group did not respond significantly faster or slower in phonologically related condition when the distractor and picture occurred simultaneously. Finally, the CI group made overall quicker responses than the NH group. Conclusions: Children with CIs are as successful as children with NH in word retrieval and production, and the two groups both show phonological priming effect and lack semantic effect. However, children with CIs do not process phonological information as early as their NH peers, and they may be more task directed and hence make quicker responses.

ABSTRACT It remains inconclusive about the stability and optimal fixation scheme of screw internal fixation for lateral malleolus oblique fractures in clinical practice. In this study, the effects of different screw internal fixation methods on the biomechanics of lateral malleolus oblique fractures were investigated. These efforts are expected to lay a theoretical foundation for the selection of internal fixation methods and rehabilitation training regimens in the treatment of lateral malleolus fractures. A healthy ankle joint model and a lateral malleolus fracture internal fixation model were established based on CT data with the aid of some software. Besides, the effects of screw internal fixation modalities on the fracture displacement of fibula fractures, fibula Von Mises stress, and screw Von Mises stress under different physiological conditions and loading conditions were investigated using finite element methods (FEMs) and in vitro physical experiments. The double screw vertical fibular axis internal fixation approach had the lowest fracture displacement of fibula fractures and screw Von Mises stress values; while the double screw vertical fracture line internal fixation approach had the lowest fibula Von Mises stress values. Under different physiological conditions, the magnitude of the peak Von Mises stress of the fibula and screw was ranked as plantarflexion 20° > plantarflexion 10° > neutral position > dorsiflexion 10° > dorsiflexion 20°; and the magnitude of the peak displacement of the fibula fracture breaks was ranked as plantarflexion 20° > plantarflexion 10° > neutral position > dorsiflexion 20° > dorsiflexion 10°. The results of in vitro physical experiments and finite element analyses were in good agreement, which validated the validity of finite element analyses. The vertical fracture line screw implantation method displays a better load‐sharing ability; while the vertical fibular axis screw implantation method exhibits a better ability to prevent axial shortening of the fibula and also reduces the risk of screw fatigue damage. Overall, the double screw achieves better therapeutic effects than the single screw. Given that the ankle joint has high stability in the dorsiflexion position, it is recommended to prioritize dorsiflexion rehabilitation training, rather than dorsiflexion and plantarflexion rehabilitation training with too large angles, in the treatment of lateral malleolus fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the active components and mechanism of Sanao Decoction (三拗汤, SAD) in treating chronic cough based on network pharmacology and molecular docking. Methods: Active components and their targets were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems and Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular mechANism of Traditional Chinese Medicine (BATMAN-TCM) database, and the literature. The component-target regulatory network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed by Cytoscape 3.7.2, and a bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify the significant pathways and their relevant targets. Molecular docking of the core active components and relevant targets was performed. Results: A total of 98 active components of SAD and the corresponding 113 drug targets were identified. The component-target regulatory network and PPI network were successfully established. Results of the bioinformatics analysis indicated that 2 281 Gene Ontology (GO) terms were enriched in chronic cough, including 2 062 terms were in biological processes, 77 in cellular components, and 142 in molecular functions, and top 20 significant pathways in Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis. Molecular docking study demonstrated that quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, and naringenin were in good agreement with the corresponding targets. Conclusion: The active compounds of SAD, such as quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, and naringenin, may act on AKT1, MAPK1, RELA, EGFR, and Bcl-2 and regulate the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway, and fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis pathway to exert the effects of anti-inflammatory, anti-airway remodeling, anti-oxidant stress effects, and repair airway damage, thus treating chronic cough.

Intestinal absorption of compounds is significant in drug research and development. To evaluate this efficiently, a method combining mathematical modeling and molecular simulation was proposed, from the perspective of molecular structure. Based on the quantitative structure–property relationship study, the model between molecular structure and their apparent permeability coefficients was successfully constructed and verified, predicting intestinal absorption of drugs and interpreting decisive structural factors, such as AlogP98, Hydrogen bond donor and Ellipsoidal volume. The molecules with strong lipophilicity, less hydrogen bond donors and receptors, and small molecular volume are more easily absorbed. Then, the molecular dynamics simulation and molecular docking were utilized to study the mechanism of differences in intestinal absorption of drugs and investigate the role of molecular structure. Results indicated that molecules with strong lipophilicity and small volume interacted with the membrane at a lower energy and were easier to penetrate the membrane. Likewise, they had weaker interaction with P‐glycoprotein and were easier to escape from it and harder to export from the body. More in, less out, is the main reason these molecules absorb well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular switches that reversibly change their structures and physical properties are important for applications such as sensing and information processing at molecular scales. In order to avoid the intermolecular aggregation that is often detrimental to the stimuli‐responses of molecular switches, previous studies of molecular switches have been often conducted in dilute solutions which are difficult for applications in solid‐state devices. Here we report molecular design and synthesis that integrates anthraquinodimethane as molecular switching units into polymers with amenable processibility in solid states. Optical and electron spin resonance characterizations indicate that the four‐arm polymers of poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) or poly(D,L‐lactide) tethered from anthraquinodimethane slow down the dynamics of the conformational switching between the folded and the twisted conformations, enhance the photoluminescence in solid states and impart materials with a small energy gap from singlet ground state to thermally accessible triplet state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]