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Objective: To evaluate the effect of butylphthalide combined with oxiracetam on cognitive function, intellectual recovery and serum inflammatory factors in patients with cognitive impairment after cerebral infarction. Methods: This is a Clinical comparative study. A total of 80 patients with cognitive impairment after cerebral infarction who visited Renmin Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine from January 2020 to January 2022 were enrolled and randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the control group were treated with oral oxiracetam combined with routine treatment. Patients in the study group were given butylphthalide combined with oxiracetam on the basis of routine treatment. Compare the clinical effect, cognitive function and intellectual recovery, inflammatory factor level changes, CBV, CBF, MTT and other cerebral blood flow perfusion indicators, as well as post-treatment incidence of adverse drug reactions in the two groups of patients. Results: The efficacy of the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p=0.03). After treatment, the levels of CBV and CBF in the study group were higher than those in the control group, the levels of TNF-α, CRP and IL-6 were significantly lower than those of the control group, while MTT was shorter than that in the control group, with statistically significant difference (p=0.00). Furthermore, there was a statistically significant difference that the MMSE score and MOCA score of the study group were higher than those of the control group (p=0.00). Conclusion: Butylphthalide combined with oxiracetam has an obvious curative effect in the treatment of patients with cognitive impairment after cerebral infarction. It is a safe and effective therapeutic option that can significantly recover cognitive function and intelligence, improve cerebral blood flow perfusion and reduce inflammatory factors, without an obvious increase in adverse reactions. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.2.6901 How to cite this: Jiang W, Yu X, Deng Y. Effect of Butylphthalide combined with Oxiracetam on cognitive function, Intellectual recovery and serum inflammatory factors in patients with cognitive impairment after cerebral infarction. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(2):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.2.6901 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease, and its advanced form non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Ceramides have been shown to exacerbate NAFLD development through enhancing insulin resistance, reactive oxygen species production, liver steatosis, lipotoxicity and hepatocyte apoptosis, and eventually causing hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Emerging evidence indicates that ceramide production in NAFLD is predominantly attributed to activation of the de novo synthesis pathway of ceramides in hepatocytes. More importantly, pharmacological modulation of ceramide de novo synthesis in preclinical studies seems efficacious for the treatment of NAFLD. In this review, we provide an overview of the pathogenic mechanisms of ceramides in NAFLD, discuss recent advances and challenges in pharmacological interventions targeting ceramide de novo synthesis, and propose some research directions in the field.

The prompt introduction of single-molecule science into undergraduates’ curricula is an urgent but challenging task. However, the research experiments are often too complicated and the instruments are too expensive to be widely transferred into a compulsory course of undergraduate students. Herein, we introduce a recently developed nanopore technique into an accessible laboratory course for students with the advantages of simple operation, high repeatability, and low cost. The nanopore course serves to help undergraduates in practice to understand single-molecule behaviors, think at a single molecule level, and gradually develop single-molecule solutions for scientific issues. The learning activities for undergraduate students include setup of the instrument, fabrication of a biological nanopore on an artificial lipid bilayer membrane, detection of individual oligonucleotides, and data analysis. An experiment example is single-molecule detection of the model DNA sample poly(dA)n (n = 4, 5) using the aerolysin nanopore. As our developed nanopore sensing system is simple, portable, and easy to handle, the experiment course could be implemented and popularized in undergraduates’ laboratory education. For the undergraduate students who have taken general chemistry and/or biochemistry courses, this hands-on experience of nanopore experiments would benefit them with a better understanding of the chemical world at a single-molecule level and further using single-molecule tools in various applications including DNA and/or protein sequencing.

The polyamic acid (PAA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) blends electrospun fibers were prepared by electrospinning method. PAA with high carbon conversion served as carbon nanofibers; PVP with low carbon conversion served as porogenic sacrificial agent. Then, the PAA-PVP-based carbon nanofibers with well-controlled meso/macro pore structure were obtained via thermally induced phase separation process. The morphology and electrochemical performance of porous carbon nanofibers are investigated by structural analysis and electrochemical measurements. The relationship among pore structure, character of electrolyte and electrochemical performance of porous carbon nanofibers was extensively evaluated. Porous carbon nanofibers derived from PAA-PVP (mass ratio = 5:2) electrospun fibers show adjustable average pore diameter (3.1 nm), high BET specific surface area (743.5 m2 g−1), and average pore volume (0.126 cm3 g−1). The supercapacitor constructed by porous nanofibers as electrode in ionic liquids electrolyte exhibits wide electrochemical stability window (3.4 V), high specific capacity (211.7 F g−1), good power density (2021 W kg−1), and low internal resistance (1.0 Ω). The findings reveal a guideline of the preparation of blending polymer-based porous carbon nanofibers for electrochemical energy conversion and storage.

Previously reported copper oxide-based cathodic photoelectrochemical bioanalysis of cysteine had attributed the decrease of the photocurrents to the binding of cysteine onto the CuO surface. However, our latest investigation found that the previous explanation was not correct. This Letter presents the in-depth study of such phenomena and a new insight into the underlying mechanism. Specifically, the unique redox reaction between the CuO photocathode and cysteine produced [Cys-Cu(I)] and cystine, and the insoluble complex blocked the partial contact between the photoelectrode and the dissolved O

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to analyze the bearing capacity of hydrostatic bearing during the change of film thickness under different working conditions and to improve the processing efficiency and precision of equipment. Design/methodology/approach In this study, Q1-205 double rectangular cavity hydrostatic thrust bearing is selected as the research object. The dynamic mesh method and ANSYS/FLUENT software are used to simulate the curves of oil film thickness and oil pressure under different operating conditions. Finally, the change of pressure in the oil cavity at different operating speeds under a certain inlet flow rate was tested through design experiments. Findings When the film thickness was thick, the maximum pressure in the oil cavity at different inlet velocities showed little difference. With a larger inlet flow, the maximum pressure in the oil cavity was higher. The pressure at the edge of the oil seal was linearly distributed. The oil pressure in the downstream side was greater than that in the counter flow side. When the working pressure was low, the pressure in the oil cavity slightly decreased with the increase of working speed. Moreover, the pressure loss at high speed was considerable. Originality/value Based on the lubrication theory, the mathematical model of the bearing oil film was set up. The bearing capacity equation of the hydrostatic cavity was derived. The double-rectangular-annular hydrostatic guides studied in this paper have not been reported in previous research literature and the method of dynamic mesh dynamic simulation of variable viscosity is seldom studied before. The bearing characteristics and the change of oil film thickness under different working conditions have been studied systematically and comprehensively. The theoretical analysis results are basically consistent with the experimental results.

Chemical vapor transport deposition (CVTD) is an effective method for preparing large tungsten coatings for space thermionic reactors. In this study, a high-density, high-work-function polycrystalline tungsten coating was prepared using a WCl6 transport agent in a concentric tube-type closed transport system. The relationship between the kinetics and the microstructures of the CVTD polycrystalline tungsten coating at the substrate temperature of 1593 K-1793 K and system pressure of 15.93 Pa-106.8 Pa was studied, which provided a basis for the preparation of high-quality tungsten coatings. At a low temperature or a low pressure, the activation energy was approximately 2 kJ/mol, the deposition rate was almost independent of the temperature changes, and the control mechanism was mass transport limited. The tungsten coating had nodules on the surface with pores in the grain boundaries and grew preferentially along . At a high temperature and a high pressure, the apparent activation energy was approximately 90 kJ/mol, the value of order was approximately 1, and the control mechanism in this process range was surface limited. The tungsten coating exhibited a hexagonal pyramidal structure, and the growth direction was preferred along . The average work function of the tungsten coating prepared at a temperature of 1673 K and a system pressure of 106.80 Pa was as high as 5.20 eV.

The second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) effects are usually forbidden in materials with inversion symmetry, which restricts the application of graphene in NLO technologies such as phase-only modul...

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) DNA bioanalysis has been drawing more attention in recent years due to the advantages of PEC technique and the vital importance of DNA biomolecules. DNAzymes are unique catalytic nucleic acid molecules that are capable of catalyzing specific biochemical reactions. Using the target-binding-induced conformation change of hairpin DNA probe to hemin/G-quadruplex-based DNAzyme and a plasmonic Au@Ag nanoparticles (NPs)/TiO2 nanorods (NRs)/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) heterostructured photoelectrode, this work reported a novel and sensitive PEC DNA analysis on the basis of a DNAzyme-stimulated biocatalytic precipitation (BCP) strategy. In such a design, the BCP-induced decrease of plasmonic photocurrent can be related to the target-responsive formation of DNAzymes and thus be monitored to assay the target DNA from 0.1 and 100 nM. In brief, with a plasmonic photoelectrode and a hairpin probe, this work reported a general plasmonic DNAzyme-based PEC DNA analysis, which could also be easily extended to aptasensing toward numerous targets of interest.

In order to improve the lubrication performance of the double-rectangular cavity hydrostatic thrust bearing, this paper selects the temperature rise characteristics of hydrostatic bearing as the research object under the conditions of changing oil film thickness and different working conditions. Using the dynamic mesh method with variable viscosity dynamic simulation, the changing temperature rise curves under different inlet flow velocities and rotating speeds are obtained. This paper obtains the changing laws of oil film thickness and temperature under the hydrostatic bearing running in no-load, load 2.5 t, load 10 t and the rotating speeds of 40 r/min, 60 r/min and 80 r/min. Under the low rotating speed, the high temperature region in the oil cavity mainly concentrates on the counter flow side. With the increase of working speed, the high temperature region on the counter flow side expands to the oil seal side obviously. When the oil film thickness was in the range of 0.04 mm to 0.07 mm, the temperature of oil seal edge increased with the increase of the inlet flow velocity. Using the FLUENT software, the variable viscosity simulation of hydrostatic bearing is carried out under different oil film thickness, and the temperature distribution of oil cavity is obtained. Finally, the correctness of theoretical analysis and simulation are verified by conducting experiment.

A novel Gram-stain-negative, motile, rod-shaped (0.4–0.5×1.0–2.0 µm) strain with one polar flagellum, designated SY39T, was isolated from seawater in Sanya, China. Strain SY39T was able to grow at 15–40 °C (optimum, 35–37 °C), pH 6.5–8.5 (pH 8.0) and 0.5–6.0 % (w/v) NaCl (3.5 %). Chemotaxonomic analysis showed that the isoprenoid quinones were Q-8 (88.6 %) and Q-7 (11.4 %). The dominant fatty acids were C16 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c/C16 : 1 ω6c). The polar lipids of strain SY39T consisted of diphosphatidyglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unknown phosphoglycolipid, one unknown glycolipid and two unknown aminophosphoglycolipids. The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA was 66.5 mol%. The phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SY39T belongs to the genus Azoarcus with similarity ranging from 92.3 to 95.2 %. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic features, strain SY39T is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Azoarcus , for which the name Azoarcus pumilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SY39T (=KCTC 62157T=MCCC 1K03430T).

A Gram-stain-negative, motile, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium with flagella, designated ZX-21T, was isolated from surface seawater of the East Sea in Zhoushan, China. Growth of strain ZX-21T was observed at 10--35 o°C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 6.0-8.5 (pHoptimum 6.5-7.0) and in the presence of 0.5-8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3-4 %). It was positive for oxidase and catalase activity. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ZX-21T constituted an independent lineage within the family Spongiibacteraceae and was most closely related to Zhongshania guokunii (96.83 %). Strain ZX-21T contained ubiquinone-8 (Q-8) as the sole isoprenoid quinone and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω77c and/or C16 : 1ω66c), summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω77c and/or C18 : 1ω66c) and C16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. Phosphatidylglycerol (), phosphatidylethanolamine (), diphosphatidylglycerol () and an unidentified glycolipid were the major cellular polar lipids. The DNA G+C content was 49.1 mol%. Based on itsthe morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain ZX-21Tis described as a novel species in a novel genus for whichwith the name Marortus luteolus gen. nov., sp. nov. (type strain ZX-21T = MCCC 1K03431T=KCTC 62160T) is proposed.

Intervertebral disk degeneration (IDD) is a severe health problem that results in lower back pain and disability. Previous evidence has indicated that excessive apoptosis of nucleus pulposus (NP) cell is involved in the occurrence and development of IDD. However, the underlying mechanisms regulating NP cell apoptosis are unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the function of a novel long non-coding RNA RP11-81H3.2 in modulating NP cell apoptosis and the potential underlying mechanisms. The results demonstrated that the RP11-81H3.2 expression levels were significantly decreased in NP tissues from patients with IDD compared with those from healthy controls, and that lower expression levels were associated with higher-grade disk degeneration. Functionally, RP11-81H3.2 silencing promoted apoptosis and decreased the viability of NP cells derived from tissue samples of patients with IDD, whereas RP11-81H3.2 overexpression induced opposite effects. Bioinformatics analysis, luciferase assays and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR revealed that microRNA (miR)-1539 was a direct target of RP11-81H3.2. A mechanistic analysis demonstrated that RP11-81H3.2 functioned as an RNA sink to downregulate miR-1539, which led to the upregulation of collagen type 2 α 1 chain (COL2A1), a target of miR-1539. Collectively, the present results suggested that lower RP11-81H3.2 expression levels were associated with higher-grade IDD, and that RP11-81H3.2 inhibited NP cell apoptosis by decreasing the levels of miR-1539 to increase COL2A1 expression levels. The present study identified a beneficial role of RP11-81H3.2 against NP cell apoptosis.

A conceptually simple and experimentally prevalent class of entanglement witnesses, known as fidelity witnesses, detect entanglement via a state's fidelity with a pure reference state. While existence proofs guarantee that a suitable witness can be constructed for every entangled state, such assurances do not apply to fidelity witnesses. Recent results have found that entangled states that cannot be detected by a fidelity witness, known as unfaithful states, are exceedingly common among bipartite states. In this paper, we show that even among two-qubit states, the simplest of all entangled states, unfaithful states can be created through a suitable application of decoherence and filtering to a Bell state. We also show that the faithfulness is not monotonic to entanglement, as measured by the concurrence. Finally, we experimentally verify our predictions using polarization-entangled photons and specifically demonstrate a situation where an unfaithful state is brought to faithfulness at the expense of further reducing the entanglement of the state., 9 pages, 6 figures

The efficient and reliable certification of quantum states is essential for various quantum information processing tasks as well as for the general progress on the implementation of quantum technologies. In the last few years several methods have been introduced which use advanced statistical methods to certify quantum states in a resource-efficient manner. In this article we present a review of the recent progress in this field. We first explain how the verification and fidelity estimation of a quantum state can be discussed in the language of hypothesis testing. Then, we explain in detail various strategies for the verification of entangled states with local measurements or measurements assisted by local operations and classical communication. Finally, we discuss several extensions of the problem, such as the certification of quantum channels and the verification of entanglement., Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, close to the published version

Engineered nanopipette tools have recently emerged as a powerful approach for electrochemical nanosensing, which has major implications in both fundamental biological research and biomedical applications. Herein, we describe a generic method of target-triggered assembly of aptamers in a nanopipette for nanosensing, which is exemplified by sensitive and rapid electrochemical single-cell analysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a ubiquitous energy source in life and important signaling molecules in many physiological processes. Specifically, a layer of thiolated aptamers is immobilized onto a Au-coated interior wall of a nanopipette tip. With backfilled pairing aptamers, the engineered nanopipette is then used for probing intracellular ATP via the ATP-dependent linkage of the split aptamers. Due to the higher surface charge density from the aptamer assembly, the nanosensor would exhibit an enhanced rectification signal. Besides, this ATP-responsive nanopipette tool possesses excellent selectivity and stability as well as high recyclability. This work provides a practical single-cell nanosensor capable of intracellular ATP analysis. More generally, integrated with other split recognition elements, the proposed mechanism could serve as a viable basis for addressing many other important biological species.

A typical concept in quantum state analysis is based on the idea that states in the vicinity of some pure entangled state share the same properties; implying that states with a high fidelity must be entangled. States whose entanglement can be detected in this way are also called faithful. We prove a structural result on the corresponding fidelity-based entanglement witnesses, resulting in a simple condition for faithfulness of a two-party state. For the simplest case of two qubits faithfulness can directly be decided and for higher dimensions accurate analytical criteria are given. Finally, our results show that faithful entanglement is, in a certain sense, useful entanglement; moreover, they establish connections to computational complexity and simplify several results in entanglement theory., 8 pages, no figures. v2: extended and final version

Quantum processes, such as quantum circuits, quantum memories, and quantum channels, are essential ingredients in almost all quantum information processing tasks. However, the characterization of these processes remains a daunting task due to the exponentially increasing amount of resources required by traditional methods. Here, by first proposing the concept of quantum process verification, we establish two efficient and practical protocols for verifying quantum processes which can provide an exponential improvement over the standard quantum process tomography and a quadratic improvement over the method of direct fidelity estimation. The efficacy of our protocols is illustrated with the verification of various quantum gates as well as the processes of well-known quantum circuits. Moreover, our protocols are readily applicable with current experimental techniques since only local measurements are required. In addition, we show that our protocols for verifying quantum processes can be easily adapted to verify quantum measurements., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

Microfluidic paper analytical devices (μPADs) are smart and accessible substituents to traditional counterparts in point-of-care tests (POCT), which exploited delicate control over passive fluid in microscale for rich functions. In this work, we are extending such control by introducing novel ways to generate 1D and 2D gradients on μPADs. It is achieved by using paper-capillary-based serial sampling. The paper capillary is composed of a concaved paper channel sealed with tape, with test pads properly distributed aside. In such a structure, the liquid can not only quickly and automatically flow along the capillary but also be continuously consumed by the peripheral test pads. Thus, when we do serial sampling, an abnormal liquid chasing effect can be observed, where the later liquid sample chases and surpasses the earlier parts in the paper capillary, leading to reversely ordered sample distribution compared with that in a typical glass capillary. This specialty allows for fast, ordered, and tunable sequential sampling and enables efficient generation of 1D and 2D concentration gradient with one, two, and even three components on μPADs. Besides, we verified the applicability of this technique for arrayed assays, including 1D serial dilution-based metal ion colorimetry and a 2D bacterial antibiotic susceptibility test for synergic effect evaluations, which paves the way for high-throughput sample analysis and information-rich condition screening on μPADs.

Networks based on entangled quantum systems enable interesting applications in quantum information processing and the understanding of the resulting quantum correlations is essential for advancing the technology. We show that the theory of quantum coherence provides powerful tools for analyzing this problem. For that, we demonstrate that a recently proposed approach to network correlations based on covariance matrices can be improved and analytically evaluated for the most important cases., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, comments are welcome!