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Thalamus plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric conditions due to its strategic position and intricate connectivity with the cerebral cortex, limbic system, and other subcortical structures. In the present study, the potential involvement of the thalamus and subregions of the thalamus are explored in bipolar disorder (BD). In particular, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 73 adult patients with BD‐I and 78 healthy controls (HCs). Seed‐based thalamus and thalamic subregional functional connectivity (FC) were compared between the BD‐I patients and HCs. Compared to HCs, patients with BD‐I showed higher FC between the left thalamus and right lingual gyrus and altered FC between the dorsal thalamus and the default mode network and prefrontal regions, which may be correlated with mania symptomatology. In patients with BD‐I, the anterior subregions of the thalamus had higher FC than the posterior subregions. No significant difference in gray matter volume or local functional activity was found in the thalamus and thalamic subregions between BD‐I and HC. These findings provide evidence of disorganized thalamocortical FC in BD‐I, suggesting that the thalamus and its subregions may play important and specific roles in the neural circuitry of BD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) is an irreplaceable cathode material for lithium‐ion batteries with high volumetric energy density. The prevailing O3 phase LiCoO2 adopts the ABCABC (A, B, and C stand for lattice sites in the close‐packed plane) stacking modes of close‐packed oxygen atoms. Currently, the focus of LiCoO2 development is application at high voltage (>4.55 V versus Li+/Li) to achieve a high specific capacity (>190 mAh g−1). However, cycled with a high cutoff voltage, O3–LiCoO2 suffers from rapid capacity decay. The causes of failure are mostly attributed to the irreversible transitions to H1‐3/O1 phase after deep delithiation and severe interfacial reactions with electrolytes. In addition to O3, LiCoO2 is also known to crystalize in an O2 phase with ABAC stacking. Since its discovery, little is known about the high‐voltage behavior of O2–LiCoO2. Herein, through systematic comparison between electrochemical performances of O3 and O2 LiCoO2 at high voltage, the significantly better stability of O2–LiCoO2 (>4.5 V) than that of O3–LiCoO2 in the same micro‐sized particle morphology is revealed. Combining various characterization techniques and multiscale simulation, the outstanding high‐voltage stability of O2–LiCoO2 is attributed to the high Li diffusivity and ideal mechanical properties. Uniform Li+ distribution and balanced internal stress loading may hold the key to improving the high‐voltage performance of LiCoO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alterations in brain functional connectivity (FC) have been frequently reported in adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD). However, there are few studies of dynamic FC analysis, which can provide information about fluctuations in neural activity related to cognition and behavior. The goal of the present study was therefore to investigate the dynamic aspects of FC in adolescent MDD patients. Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 94 adolescents with MDD and 78 healthy controls. Independent component analysis, a sliding-window approach, and graph-theory methods were used to investigate the potential differences in dynamic FC properties between the adolescent MDD patients and controls. Results: Three main FC states were identified, State 1 which was predominant, and State 2 and State 3 which occurred less frequently. Adolescent MDD patients spent significantly more time in the weakly-connected and relatively highly-modularized State 1, spent significantly less time in the strongly-connected and low-modularized State 2, and had significantly higher variability of both global and local efficiency, compared to the controls. Classification of patients with adolescent MDD was most readily performed based on State 1 which exhibited disrupted intra- and inter-network FC involving multiple functional networks. Conclusions: Our study suggests local segregation and global integration impairments and segregation-integration imbalance of functional networks in adolescent MDD patients from the perspectives of dynamic FC. These findings may provide new insights into the neurobiology of adolescent MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The neuroanatomical alteration in bipolar II depression (BDII-D) and its associations with inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms are currently unclear. We hypothesize that neuroanatomical deficits will be related to higher inflammation, greater childhood adversity, and worse psychiatric symptoms in BDII-D. Methods: Voxel- and surface-based morphometry was performed using the CAT toolbox in 150 BDII-D patients and 155 healthy controls (HCs). Partial Pearson correlations followed by multiple comparison correction was used to indicate significant relationships between neuroanatomy and inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms. Results: Compared with HCs, the BDII-D group demonstrated significantly smaller gray matter volumes (GMVs) in frontostriatal and fronto-cerebellar area, insula, rectus, and temporal gyrus, while significantly thinner cortices were found in frontal and temporal areas. In BDII-D, smaller GMV in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) was correlated with greater sexual abuse (r = −0.348, q < 0.001) while larger GMV in the right orbital MFG was correlated with greater physical neglect (r = 0.254, q = 0.03). Higher WBC count (r = −0.227, q = 0.015) and IL-6 levels (r = −0.266, q = 0.015) was associated with smaller GMVs in fronto-cerebellar area in BDII-D. Greater positive symptoms was correlated with larger GMVs of the left middle temporal pole (r = 0.245, q = 0.03). Conclusions: Neuroanatomical alterations in frontostriatal and fronto-cerebellar area, insula, rectus, temporal gyrus volumes, and frontal-temporal thickness may reflect a core pathophysiological mechanism of BDII-D, which are related to inflammation, trauma, and psychiatric symptoms in BDII-D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate the contemporary environmental challenges and to respect the regulations on the progressive ban of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), natural fluid CO2 was selected as an ideal refrigerant alternative in the transportation domain. In this study, the optimal CO2 charging amount and the refrigerant distribution in a bus air conditioning/heat pump system were analyzed in detail. The results showed that there was a plateau (so named by the best charging amount) of the CO2 charging amount in which the system performance reached an optimal value and maintained it nearly unchanged during this plateau while the performance declined on both sides of the plateau. In addition, the ambient temperature was found to have little effect on the determination of the refrigerant charging plateau, while the refrigerant distribution was affected by the ambient temperature to some extent. Due to the large thermal load and thermal inertia on a bus, the data and conclusions obtained are different from those of ordinary electric small passenger vehicles. This article aims to discover some quantitative parameters and lay a theoretical foundation in this field which is lacking relevant research. Through the research based on the GT-Suite simulation platform, we simulated the transcritical CO2 cycle applied on a bus, and the performance changes of the bus system (COP 1.2–2.2, refrigerating capacity 9.5–18 kW) under different charging rates (3–8 kg) were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipoic acid (LA) is an endogenous antioxidant that exists widely in nature. Supplementation with LA is a promising approach to improve the outcomes of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). This systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of both in vitro and in vivo studies describing the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, and mechanism of LA in MS‐related experiments and clinical trials. A total of 516 records were identified by searching five databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Library. Overall, we included 20 studies reporting LA effects in cell and mouse models of MS and 12 studies reporting LA effects in patients with MS. Briefly, cell experiments revealed that LA protected neurons by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory mediators and activities of immune cells. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis mouse experiments demonstrated that LA consistently reduced the number of infiltrating immune cells in the central nervous system and decreased the clinical disability scores. Patients with MS showed relatively stable Expanded Disability Status Scale scores and better walking performance with few adverse events after the oral administration of LA. Notably, heterogeneity of this evidence existed among modeling methods, LA usage, MS stage, and trial duration. In conclusion, this review provides evidence for the anti‐inflammatory and antioxidative effects of LA in both in vitro and in vivo experiments; therefore, patients with MS may benefit from LA administration. Whether LA can be a routine supplementary therapy warrants further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulin sensitivity in rats was investigated using a modified euglycemic clamp technique under different test conditions. Treatment with atropine but not acetylcholine (ACh) reduced insulin sensitivity with normal innervation. A similar reduction in insulin response was observed during liver denervation but this was reversed by treatment with ACh, suggesting that insulin action occurs in the liver. It was suggested that hepatic parasympathetic pathways rather than cholinergic effects determine insulin response in rats.

Previous studies have suggested a synergistic relationship between the hepatic parasympathetic nervous system and insulin. To assess this relationship, insulin effectiveness in denervated cats was determined using the insulin sensitivity test. Denervation impaired hindlimb responses to insulin but hepatic and gut responses remained unchanged. It was concluded that insulin effectiveness is controlled by a factor that is released by the liver and regulated by hepatic parasympathetic nerves.