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Background: Herpes zoster (HZ) typically manifests in the acute phase with distinct blisters and severe neuropathic pain. Remarkably, a subset of patients initially presents with only a mild skin rash and moderate pain that gradually intensifies, following a parabolic pattern. Despite being frequently observed in clinical settings, the underlying causes of this trajectory and its potential connection with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) remain unclear. Methods: To investigate this phenomenon in-depth, we conducted a meticulous retrospective study involving 529 eligible HZ patients. All these patients sought medical care at the Third Central Hospital of Tianjin, China, between January 2020 and December 2023. Results: The research identified that 14.6% of the sample (77 patients) experienced pain scores aligning with a parabolic curve. This trend was significantly more prevalent in patients aged 60 and above, accounting for 90.9% of this group, and demonstrated a positive correlation with age. Moreover, 87.0% of these patients had pre-existing medical conditions, highlighting the potential role of comorbidities in influencing the pain trajectory. A concerning 45.5% of patients sought medical attention more than seven days after the onset of symptoms, a delay that could exacerbate neurological damage. Notably, among those following a parabolic pain pattern, 66.2% eventually developed PHN, a considerably higher rate compared to the broader patient population. Conclusion: We emphasize that healthcare practitioners meticulously assess patients who initially report lower pain scores for high-risk factors potentially leading to parabolic pain increases, including being over 60 years old, having comorbid conditions, and delaying medical consultation beyond seven days from symptom onset. Early implementation of supplementary pain management therapies may mitigate the risk of PHN development and enhance the quality of life for patients. This study furnishes clinicians with a deeper understanding of the variations in HZ-related pain trajectories, promising to improve treatment approaches and prognoses for HZ patients while paving the way for enriched clinical practice in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser‐induced periodic surface structure (LIPSS) can form structural color on the metal surfaces with high production efficiency and thermal stability, and has been used in various industrial applications such as unfaded color marking and anti‐counterfeiting. Herein, a novel fabrication scheme of multilayer LIPSS is proposed by multiple writing in situ with changing the laser polarization direction, to exhibit an effect of color superposition. To verify this approach, the color formation mechanism of LIPSS on the stainless‐steel surface is analyzed by finite‐element numerical calculation and reveals that the high‐angular dispersion of LIPSS is mainly the result of optical diffraction occurring on the surface of periodic structures. The relationship between the angular dispersion of multilayer LIPSS and laser‐processing parameters is established. Through the proposed multilayer LIPSS coloring technology, vivid full‐color patterns on the steel surface are demonstrated, and the in situ superposition of three‐layer graphs is realized, which can greatly enrich the color levels and be competitive in industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) instead of the gold film with photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for the first time. A novel C-type micro-opening surface plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber sensor coated with MoO2 nanofilm is proposed. The polarization and sensing characteristics of the sensor coated with plasma film on the outer surface of the polished optical fiber are numerically analyzed by the finite element method (FEM). The simulation results show that when the plasma material deposited by the optical fiber micro-opening is noble metal gold, the sensor can realize the sensing detection of the refractive index of the analyte from 1.33 to 1.39, and the average wavelength sensitivity in the x-polarization direction reaches 1107 nm/RIU. It is most noteworthy that when the plasma coating material of the optical fiber is replaced by metal oxide MoO2, the sensor can realize the sensing detection of the refractive index of the analyte from 1.31 to 1.37, and the average sensitivity of the x-polarization direction can reach 4821 nm/RIU. By comparison, we can know that the sensor coated with plasma material MoO2 has excellent sensing characteristics. This research is of great scientific significance for expanding the application range of MoO2 materials and promoting the development of photonic crystal fiber sensors coated with new materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]