Electroacupuncture Stimulation Suppresses Postoperative Inflammatory Response and Hippocampal Neuronal Injury.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is consequence of anesthesia and surgery that primarily affects older people. The prevention and treatment of POCD has drawn an increasing attention in recent decades. Here, we established the animal model mimicked POCD after femoral fracture surgery, and analyze the effect of acupuncture stimulation on postoperative cognitive function after femoral fracture surgery. Compared with the mock group, the cognitive function performance was significantly decreased both in the anaesthesia group and the surgery group, between which the symptoms were more severe in the surgery group. The peripheral inflammation response and the neuron impairment and inflammation response in the hippocampus were observed in the surgery group, but only peripheral inflammation response was detected in the anaesthesia group. These findings indicated the POCD was the synergistic outcome of anaesthesia and surgical stimulation but with different pathogenic mechanism. The surgery with mental tri-needles (surgery+MTN) group outperformed the surgery group in terms of cognitive function performance. The peripheral inflammation response and the neuron impairment and inflammation response in the hippocampus was significantly reduced by the electroacupuncture stimulation. Our findings indicated the protection of electroacupuncture form POCD after femoral fracture surgery is related to the inhibition of inflammation response and neuron impairment.

Blends of Cyanate Ester and Phthalonitrile⁻Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane Copolymers: Cure Behavior and Properties.

Blends of cyanate ester and phthalonitrile⁻polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane copolymers were prepared, and their cure behavior and properties were compared via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, Fourier-transform far-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and rheometric studies. The copolymer blends showed high chemical reactivity, low viscosity, and good thermal stability (TG temperatures were above 400 °C). The glass-transition temperature of the blends increased by at least 140 °C compared to cyanate ester resin. The blends are suitable for preparing carbon-fiber-reinforced composite materials via a winding process and a prepreg lay-up process with a molding technique. The FTIR data showed that the polymerization products contained triazine-ring structures that were responsible for the superior thermal properties.

Preparation and Properties of Highly Electroconductive and Heat-Resistant CMC/Buckypaper/Epoxy Nanocomposites.

Self-assembled buckypapers have been successfully prepared using sodium carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) as a binder. The lowest resistivity that was reached was 0.43 ± 0.03 Ω·m, when the buckypapers were prepared by the same mass of CMC and carboxy-modified carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A heat-resistant electroconductive nanocomposite with epoxy resin as the matrix and CMC/buckypapers as the reinforcement was fabricated by a resin impregnation molding technique. The effects of CMC/buckypaper layers on the conductivity, thermal stability, and mechanical and dynamic mechanical performance of the epoxy resin polymer nanocomposites were investigated. It was found that CMC/buckypapers hold great promise for improving the properties of nanocomposites, and the buckypapers' performance can be enhanced by using modified CNTs to prepare them. The obtained nanocomposites showed an approximate 71.23% bending strength improvement (125.04 ± 5.62 MPa) and a 30.71% bending modulus improvement (5.83 ± 0.68 GPa), with an increased number of CMC/buckypaper layers. An enhanced degradation temperature and residual mass were also achieved for the nanocomposites when compared with a pure polymer. The nanocomposites with four CMC/buckypaper layers possessed the highest storage modulus (1934 MPa), which was approximately 60% higher than that of a neat polymer (1185 MPa). Therefore, CMC/buckypapers could be effectively used to manufacture heat-resistant electroconductive polymer nanocomposites with improved properties.