Fas ligand regulate nerve injury and repair by affecting AKT, ß-catenin, and NF-κB pathways.

Objective: To investigate the regulatory effect of Fas-L on the repair and regeneration of peripheral extension injury in rats. Methods: This study aimed to explore the effects of Fas-L on apoptosis and axonal regeneration of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells in rat peripheral nerve repair and regeneration by using several relevant experimental techniques from the injured nerve animal model, cell biology, and molecular biology. Results: The expression level of Fas-L in DRG tissues was significantly down-regulated after sciatic nerve injury. Interference with Fas-L can significantly promote the regeneration of DRG neuronal axons and inhibit apoptosis, while the overexpression of Fas-L is contrary to it. Moreover, Fas-L may play a role in the regulation of DRG function and the repair and regeneration of peripheral nerves in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats by affecting several signaling pathways, such as p-AKT/AKT, ß-catenin, and NF-κB. Conclusion: Fas-L may have a certain effect on the repair and regeneration of peripheral nerve injury in SD rats, which may provide an experimental basis and a new theoretical basis for the functional reconstruction of peripheral nerves. Significance statement: The expression level of Fas-L in DRG tissues was significantly down-regulated after sciatic nerve injury. Fas-L can significantly promote the regeneration of DRG neuronal axons and inhibit apoptosis. Fas-L may play a role in the regulation of DRG function and the repair and regeneration of peripheral nerves in SD rats by affecting several signaling pathways, such as p-AKT/AKT, ß-catenin, and NF-κB. Fas-L may have a certain effect on the repair and regeneration of peripheral nerve injury in SD rats, which may provide an experimental basis and a new theoretical basis for the functional reconstruction of peripheral nerves.

H∞ Controller Design for Networked Systems With Two-Channel Packet Dropouts and FDI Attacks.

In this article, the stochastic analysis and H∞ controller design problems of networked systems with packet dropouts and false data injection attacks are investigated. Different from the existing literature, we focus on the linear networked systems with external disturbances and both sensor-controller channel and controller-actuator channel are studied. First, we present a discrete-time modeling framework that leads to a stochastic closed-loop system with randomly varying parameters. To facilitate the analysis and H∞ control of resulting discrete-time stochastic closed-loop system, an equivalent yet analyzable stochastic augmented model is further constructed by matrix exponential computation. Based on this model, a stability condition is derived in the form of linear matrix inequality (LMI) with the aid of a reduced-order confluent Vandermonde matrix, Kronecker product operation, and law of total expectation. Specifically, the dimension of the LMI obtained in this article does not increase as the upper bound of consecutive packet dropouts does, which is also different from the existing literature. Subsequently, a desired H∞ controller is obtained such that the original discrete-time stochastic closed-loop system is exponentially mean-square stable with a prescribed H∞ performance. Finally, a numerical example and a direct current motor system are exploited to substantiate the effectiveness and practicability of the designed strategy.

Effects of perceived physical and aesthetic quality of urban blue spaces on user preferences-A case study of three urban blue spaces in Japan.

Blue spaces, especially as important urban natural environments, provide various benefits. Despite the increasing number of relevant papers, most recent studies have focused on the association between blue space environmental quality and health, with limited research assessing the environmental quality and user preferences of urban blue spaces. This study establishes a relationship between preference and environmental quality by investigating visitors' perception of the environmental quality of urban blue spaces (physical and aesthetic). For this purpose, 296 questionnaires were collected from three urban blue spaces and a multiple linear regression analysis was executed. Model results indicated that six of nine environmental quality components had a significant effect on preference scores, with "harmony" demonstrating the highest and "visual spaciousness & diversity" the lowest effect. The current study shown that two scales provided were used to measure users' perceived levels of the physical and aesthetic quality of the Urban Blue Spaces were acceptable. These results can help in the effective use of these natural capitals in cities and provide guidance for the environmental design of blue spaces.

Social Infrastructure and Street Networks as Critical Infrastructure for Aging Friendly Community Design: Mediating the Effect of Physical Activity.

Establishing an age-friendly environment at the community level is essential for promoting healthy aging. This study focused on the relationship between older adults and the community environment through their levels of satisfaction within it. We measured their physical activity (PA) in the community environment and three variables of community-level satisfaction: community environment (SCE), community social infrastructure (SSI), and community street networks (SSN). We analyzed 108 older adult participants in Suzhou using mediation analysis and multiple linear regression to investigate the relationship between physical activity and the community environment. The results of the mediation effect model showed that SCE, SSI, and SSN all affected the physical functions of older adults via the total amount of physical activity (TPA); SSI and SSN affected older adults' physical functions by affecting the total duration of moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA) and vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA). In addition, SSI and SSN are related to the types of community facilities, street space quality, and accessibility. Our study provides valuable insights into optimizing aging-friendly neighborhoods through moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PAs at both the facility and street space levels.

Beyond Blue and Green Spaces: Identifying and Characterizing Restorative Environments on Sichuan Technology and Business University Campus.

Undergraduates commonly suffer from stress and anxiety; therefore, it is imperative to find restorative places on campus. Although blue and green spaces are good for recovery and stress relief, previous studies have failed to determine other types of restorative spaces on campuses. Using a bottom-up participatory smartphone photo survey, this study recruited a sample of 243 students from Sichuan Technology and Business University in China, and the results were as follows: (1) potential restorative spaces on campus were grouped into five categories: green, blue, gray, living, and study space; (2) no significant differences were found in the assessment of the five restorative spaces, all of which showed positive effects; (3) the five restorative spaces were linked with four restorative characteristics in different ways, with green, blue, gray, and living space showing the "being away" characteristic (refuges from the hassles of everyday life, indicate geographical or psychological distance), and gray and study spaces showing the "fascination" characteristic (effortless attention); (4) visit duration played an important role in the environment's potential to promote recovery. A shorter visit duration owing to a lack of infrastructure and interest points may contribute to reduced benefits. This study has important implications for the design and management of restorative environments on college campuses.

An Empirical Study of the Restoration Potential of Urban Deciduous Forest Space to Youth.

Urban deciduous forests are an important ecological resource and seasonal landscape in the urban environment. However, in the abundant literature on how urban green space promotes human health and well-being, research on urban seasonal deciduous forests is limited. This study aimed to investigate the physiological and psychological recovery potential provided of urban deciduous forest space for youths and the spatial preferences of youths regarding such spaces. We recruited 120 participants to study the restorative potential of two typical urban deciduous forest landscape spaces (experimental groups) and one urban road environment (control group). The results showed that after 15 min of observation, the blood pressure (especially the diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.01)) and pulse of the deciduous forest trail setting (DFTS) group effectively decreased, and the restorative mood significantly increased. Regarding change in emotional parameters, the DFTS group scored higher on "interest" and significantly higher than the other two groups on positive emotion. The correlation results show that density and level are the key factors affecting spatial preferences regarding complex deciduous forests. An increase in density reduces the mood of re-laxation, and an increase in level decreases fatigue and interest. We suggest (1) constructing foot-paths in urban deciduous forests to reduce their spatial density as to improve the relaxation effect and (2) increasing landscape diversity according to the forest space to facilitate user participation and interest. This study provides a scientific basis for the environmental restoration of deciduous landscapes and for urban forestry management decision-makers based on space type construction.

Effects of Rural Restaurants' Outdoor Dining Environment Dimensions on Customers' Satisfaction: A Consumer Perspective.

The catering industry is one of the important industries that promote rural tourism development. Hence, rural restaurants have high research value. However, few studies have examined rural restaurants and their outdoor dining environments (ODE). In this study, from the perspective of consumers and using exploratory factor analysis, three ODE dimensions (quality and facilities, image and atmosphere, and landscape elements) were proposed that affect customers' satisfaction with rural restaurants. Moreover, the differences between different customer groups in terms of the various dimensions were analyzed. The research results provide management recommendations and fundamental knowledge for rural restaurant managers and rural restaurant designers and articulate different consumer groups' expectations with regard to rural restaurants.

Dysregulated expression of mRNA and SNP in pulmonary artery remodeling in ascites syndrome in broilers.

Broiler ascites syndrome (AS), also called pulmonary artery hypertension, is a metabolic disorder that has been observed worldwide in fast-growing broilers. Pulmonary arterial remodeling is a key step in the development of AS. The precise relationship between mRNA and SNP of the pulmonary artery in regulating AS progression remains unclear. In this study, we obtained pulmonary artery tissues from broilers with AS to perform pathologic section and pathologic anatomic observation. SNP, InDel, and mRNA data analysis were carried out using GATK and ANNOVAR software to study the SNP loci of 985 previously reported genes (437 upregulated and 458 downregulated). The pathology results showed that there was a lot of yellow fluid in the abdominal cavity and pericardium, that the ascites cardiac index and hematocrit changed significantly, and that the pulmonary artery had remodeled and become thicker in the disease group. Myocardial sections showed vacuolar degeneration of myocytes and rupture of muscle fibers. In addition, ALDH7A1, IRG1, GGT5, IGSF1, DHX58, USP36, TREML2, SPAG1, CD34, and PLEKHA7 were found to be closely associated with the pathogenesis of pulmonary artery remodeling in AS progression. Taken together, our present study further illuminates the molecular mechanism of pulmonary artery remodeling underlying AS progression.

Impulsive Synchronization of Reaction-Diffusion Neural Networks With Mixed Delays and Its Application to Image Encryption.

This paper presents a new impulsive synchronization criterion of two identical reaction-diffusion neural networks with discrete and unbounded distributed delays. The new criterion is established by applying an impulse-time-dependent Lyapunov functional combined with the use of a new type of integral inequality for treating the reaction-diffusion terms. The impulse-time-dependent feature of the proposed Lyapunov functional can capture more hybrid dynamical behaviors of the impulsive reaction-diffusion neural networks than the conventional impulse-time-independent Lyapunov functions/functionals, while the new integral inequality, which is derived from Wirtinger's inequality, overcomes the conservatism introduced by the integral inequality used in the previous results. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Later, the developed impulsive synchronization method is applied to build a spatiotemporal chaotic cryptosystem that can transmit an encrypted image. The experimental results verify that the proposed image-encrypting cryptosystem has the advantages of large key space and high security against some traditional attacks.

Multistability in a class of stochastic delayed Hopfield neural networks.

In this paper, multistability analysis for a class of stochastic delayed Hopfield neural networks is investigated. By considering the geometrical configuration of activation functions, the state space is divided into 2(n) + 1 regions in which 2(n) regions are unbounded rectangles. By applying Schauder's fixed-point theorem and some novel stochastic analysis techniques, it is shown that under some conditions, the 2(n) rectangular regions are positively invariant with probability one, and each of them possesses a unique equilibrium. Then by applying Lyapunov function and functional approach, two multistability criteria are established for ensuring these equilibria to be locally exponentially stable in mean square. The first multistability criterion is suitable to the case where the information on delay derivative is unknown, while the second criterion requires that the delay derivative be strictly less than one. For the constant delay case, the second multistability criterion is less conservative than the first one. Finally, an illustrative example is presented to show the effectiveness of the derived results.