24 h combined esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance and pH monitoring in children with chronic cough.

BACKGROUND: Chronic cough in children is closely related to gastroesophageal reflux (GER). However, this association has not been adequately studied due to a lack of diagnostic tools. Combined esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance and pH (MII-pH) monitoring is considered the most accurate method for evaluating the association between symptoms and reflux, but data on its use in children with chronic cough are still lacking. We aimed to assess the association between chronic cough and GER in children through MII-pH monitoring. METHODS: Children with chronic cough (> 4 weeks) who were suspected gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD) were selected to undergo 24 h MII-pH monitoring at our hospital. Patients were divided into groups according to their age, body position, reflux index (RI) or total reflux events, and the differences between the groups were analyzed. Then the significance and value of 24 h pH and impedance monitoring in chronic cough and the relationship between chronic cough and reflux were discussed. RESULTS: Overall, 426 patients were included. The median age was 12 months (interquartile range: 6-39.5 months), 129 (30.3%) patients had RI > 7% detected by pH-metry, and 290 (68.1%) patients had positive diagnosis based on the impedance data. GER predominantly occurred in the upright position and mostly involved weakly acidic reflux and mixed gas-liquid reflux. There were 14.1% of children in non-acid GER group were SAP positive showing no difference in acid GER group 13.2% (P = 0.88), whereas patients with SAP > 95% in MII positive group (47[16.2%]) is higher than in MII negative group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Twenty four hour MII-pH monitoring is safe, well tolerated in children, but also has a higher detection rate of gastroesophageal reflux. It can find identify weakly acidic reflux, weakly alkaline reflux and reflux events with different physical properties, which can explain the relationship between GER and chronic cough more comprehensively. It provides new approach for exploring the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of children with chronic cough.

Schizophrenia-Like Deficits and Impaired Glutamate/Gamma-aminobutyric acid Homeostasis in Zfp804a Conditional Knockout Mice.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Zinc finger protein 804A (ZNF804A) was the first genome-wide associated susceptibility gene for schizophrenia (SCZ) and played an essential role in the pathophysiology of SCZ by influencing neurodevelopment regulation, neurite outgrowth, synaptic plasticity, and RNA translational control; however, the exact molecular mechanism remains unclear. STUDY DESIGN: A nervous-system-specific Zfp804a (ZNF804A murine gene) conditional knockout (cKO) mouse model was generated using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/Cas9 technology and the Cre/loxP method. RESULTS: Multiple and complex SCZ-like behaviors, such as anxiety, depression, and impaired cognition, were observed in Zfp804a cKO mice. Molecular biological methods and targeted metabolomics assay validated that Zfp804a cKO mice displayed altered SATB2 (a cortical superficial neuron marker) expression in the cortex; aberrant NeuN, cleaved caspase 3, and DLG4 (markers of mature neurons, apoptosis, and postsynapse, respectively) expressions in the hippocampus and a loss of glutamate (Glu)/γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) homeostasis with abnormal GAD67 (Gad1) expression in the hippocampus. Clozapine partly ameliorated some SCZ-like behaviors, reversed the disequilibrium of the Glu/GABA ratio, and recovered the expression of GAD67 in cKO mice. CONCLUSIONS: Zfp804a cKO mice reproducing SCZ-like pathological and behavioral phenotypes were successfully developed. A novel mechanism was determined in which Zfp804a caused Glu/GABA imbalance and reduced GAD67 expression, which was partly recovered by clozapine treatment. These findings underscore the role of altered gene expression in understanding the pathogenesis of SCZ and provide a reliable SCZ model for future therapeutic interventions and biomarker discovery.

Packed OV-SnO2-Sb bead-electrodes for enhanced electrocatalytic oxidation of micropollutants in water.

Electrocatalytic oxidation is an appealing treatment option for emerging micropollutants in wastewater, however, the limited reactive surface area and short service lifetime of planar electrodes hinder their industrial applications. This study introduces an innovative electrochemical wastewater treatment technology that employs packed bead-electrodes (PBE) as a dynamic electrocatalytic filter on a dimensionally stable anode (DSA) acting as a current collector. By using PBE, the electroactive volume is expanded beyond the vicinity of the common planar anode to the thick porous media of PBE with a vast electrocatalytic surface area. This greatly enhances the efficiency of electrochemical degradation of micropollutants. The OV-SnO2-Sb PBE filter achieved a nearly 100 % degradation of moxifloxacin (MOX) in under 2 min of single-pass filtration, with a degradation rate over an order of magnitude higher than the conventional electrochemical oxidation processes. The generation of abundant radical species (•OH) and non-radical species (1O2 and O3), along with the enhanced direct oxidation, led to the outstanding performance of the charged PBE system in MOX degradation. The OV-SnO2-Sb PBE was remarkably stable, and the separation between the electroactive PBE layer and the base Ti anode allows for easy renewal of the bead-electrode materials and scaling up of the system for practical applications. Overall, our study presents a dynamic electroactive PBE that advances the electrocatalytic oxidation technology for effective control of emerging pollutants in the water environment. This technology has the potential to revolutionize electrochemical wastewater treatment and contribute to a more sustainable future environment.

Analysis of brain signal change response in amygdala evoked by skin pressure stimulus.

BACKGROUND: It was well known that the human body would produce an uncomfortable sensation when the fabric exerted a certain amount of pressure irritation on the skin. The amygdala had long been thought to be the source of negative emotion perception. However, up to now, the brain signal changes in the amygdala evoked by skin exposure pressure had not been known. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this work, a series of gradually increasing contact pressure stimulus from boneless corsets was repeatedly applied to the body's waist and abdomen, and the technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was adopted to detect the brain response synchronously. RESULTS: The results shown that both subjective comfort score and percent signal changes (PSCs) of amygdala decreased with the increase of skin contact pressure. When the skin pressure applied to the waist and abdomen of the human body exceeded about 1 kPa, blood oxygen level dependent signal in the amygdala was negatively activated. Besides, the degree of response of PSCs was intense than subjective evaluation, and the standard deviations of PSCs between individuals were much smaller than subjective evaluations. CONCLUSION: It was suggested that skin contact pressure stimulus caused the attention of the amygdala brain area. The greater the stimulus, the higher the attention, but such attention was caused by negative activation of the amygdala induced by skin discomfort. In addition, skin comfort representation based on brain perception was superior to subjective representation due to its higher response sensitivity and antipsychological interference ability.

Design of Cross-Platform Information Retrieval System of Library Based on Digital Twins.

In order to improve the library's ability of cross-platform information retrieval and data scheduling and distribution, a library cross-platform information retrieval system based on digital twin technology is designed. Using data warehouse decision support and data source structured query methods, the spectral characteristics of Library cross-platform information resources are extracted. Using the method of Hadoop data parallel loading, the library cross-platform operation data is divided into decision-making data, computing resource pool data, and Hadoop parallel loading data. A library cross-platform information digital twin parallel retrieval and information fusion feature matching model is established, and the retrieval channels are allocated through multiple complex and balanced task scheduling sequences. According to the queue configuration model of Library cross-platform information retrieval, the optimization design of Library cross-platform information retrieval system is realized. The simulation test results show that the designed system has good recall ability of cross-platform information retrieval data, and improves the utilization rate of cross-platform resources and the dynamic scheduling ability of online resources.

Intelligent Optimization Method of Resource Recommendation Service of Mobile Library Based on Digital Twin Technology.

In order to improve the Resource Recommendation and sharing ability of mobile library, an intelligent optimization model of Mobile Library Resource Recommendation Service Based on digital twin technology is proposed. Build the association rule feature distribution set of mobile library resource recommendation service, carry out text information retrieval in the process of Mobile Library Resource Recommendation and sharing, carry out semantic correlation feature registration according to the retrieval preference of mobile library reading user object, establish the association rule data set of mobile library reading user object preference for mobile library Resource Recommendation and sharing, carry out feature block processing, and analyze the library reader preference. Complete the collaborative filtering recommendation of Mobile Library Resource Recommendation sharing. The simulation results show that the collaborative recommendation under the intelligent optimization mode of mobile library resource recommendation service using this method has high accuracy and good confidence level, which improves the intelligent level of Mobile Library Resource Recommendation and user satisfaction.

Formation Mechanism of Fibrous Web in the Solution Blowing Process.

Solution blowing (SB) is a widely reported technology that can be used to fabricate fibers at the micro- and nanoscale. To reveal the fibrous web formation mechanism in SB, we improved our previous melt blowing (MB) model to predict fibrous web structures. Then, we fabricated two samples and simulated the same number of virtual samples in the computer to verify the model. Thereafter, we measured the structural parameters including the fiber diameter, fiber orientation, basis weight, and pore size. Our model provides a good prediction of the fiber orientation and basis weight. However, the predicted fiber diameter was slightly smaller than the measured diameter. The experimental pore size distribution was also different from that in the simulated results. The model provides a virtual fabrication process to reveal a fibrous web formation mechanism and finds a similar distribution of these structural parameters between SB and MB.

Oxygen-vacancy-enriched substrate-less SnOx/La-Sb anode for high-performance electrocatalytic oxidation of antibiotics in wastewater.

Electrocatalytic oxidation is a promising technology for treating toxic organic pollutants in water and wastewater, but conventional Ti-based anodes often exhibit a short service life and low efficiency in application. Oxygen vacancy (OV)-based defect engineering is an effective activation method for enhancing the electrocatalytic activity of electrodes. Herein, the controllable formation of OV on the surface of a freestanding SnO2-Sb anode was achieved by the quantitative doping of La3+ into the SnO2 crystal structure of the anode for high-performance electrochemical wastewater treatment. The resultant SnOx/La-Sb anode degraded nearly 100% moxifloxacin (MOX, 10 mg L-1) in 30 min, with a low energy consumption of 0.09 kWh m-3. The SnOx/La-Sb anode with an OV density of 1.09% had the highest degradation rate constant (0.226 min-1), 8 times higher than that of the SnO2-Sb anode and 16 times higher than that of the state-of-the-art boron-doped diamond anode. La3+ doping-induced OV activated the anode surface for electrochemical reactions by boosting the interfacial electron transfer and •OH generation (103% increase). The novel 3D permeable SnOx/La-Sb anode also exhibited remarkable stability (predicted service life of 59 years) and high-rate performance (>98%) in a continuous flow-through treatment system (<1 min through the anode).

Toxicity assessment and underlying mechanisms of multiple metal organic frameworks using the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii model.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an emerging class of materials which have garnered increasing attention for their utility as adsorbents and photocatalysts in water treatment. Nevertheless, the environmental risks of MOFs, especially their underlying impacts on aquatic organisms, are not fully explored. Herein, the toxicity of multiple representative MOFs was systematically assessed using a freshwater green alga (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) model. Six typical MOFs with different metal nodes or organic linkers, including four transition metal incorporated aluminum-based porphyrin MOFs [pristine Al-PMOF, Al-PMOF (Cu), Al-PMOF (Ni), and Al-PMOF (Co)], one amine-functionalized MOF NH2-MIL-125 (Ti), and one bimetallic Hofmann MOF (NiCo-PYZ), were successfully synthesized and characterized. All the tested MOFs significantly reduced the chlorophyll content and inhibited the algal growth, with the most toxic materials being NiCo-PYZ and Al-PMOF (Cu). Distinct toxic mechanisms were observed for the tested MOFs. Metal ion release was the primary cause for algal toxicity induced by NiCo-PYZ. The algal toxicity induced by porphyrin MOFs could be explained by the combined effects of metal ion release and nutrient adsorption, agglomeration and physical interactions, and reactive oxygen species generation. NH2-MIL-125 (Ti) showed higher stability and more biocompatibility than the other tested MOFs. MOFs concentrations with no harmful effects to algae can be taken as the threshold values for safe use and discharge of MOFs. The ecotoxicological risks of MOFs should be considered as the applied concentrations of MOFs at mg/mL levels in environmental remediation were much higher than the no harmful effect thresholds.

Fabrication of a permeable SnO2-Sb reactive anodic filter for high-efficiency electrochemical oxidation of antibiotics in wastewater.

Electrochemical oxidation (ECO) is an appealing technology for treating emerging organic pollutants in wastewater. However, the conventional flow-by ECO process is expensive with a low energy efficiency owing to the limitations of mass transport of contaminants to the limited surface area of the anode. In this study, a novel freestanding porous and permeable SnO2-Sb anode was fabricated by one-step sintering using micrometer-sized (NH4)2CO3 grains as the pore-forming agents. This permeable SnO2-Sb anode without Ti substrate functioned as a reactive anodic filter (RAF) in an ECO cell to treat wastewater containing ciprofloxacin (CIP). Forcing the wastewater through the porous RAF depth-wise improved the mass transport and vastly enlarged the electroactive surface area. Compared with the conventional flow-by configuration, the flow-through RAF exhibited a 12-fold increase in the mass transfer rate constant (60.7 × 10-6 m s-1) and a 5-fold increase in the CIP degradation rate constant (0.077 min-1). At a cell potential of 4.0 V, more than 92% of the CIP was degraded in a single-pass operation at a filtration flux of 54 L m-2 h-1 and a short retention time of 1.7 min through the RAF. The robustness and stability of the RAF were demonstrated by its remarkable CIP degradation efficacy of 99% during 200 h of operation. The mechanism of CIP degradation was examined using probe molecules and density functional theory calculations and found to be a combined effect of direct electron transfer and oxidation by generated radicals (OH and SO4-). The great potential of RAF in flow-through ECO was further validated by its effective removal (>92%) of various organic pollutants in actual municipal wastewater at a low energy consumption of 0.33 kWh m-3. The RAF-based ECO process thus provides an advanced environmental technology for the oxidation of toxic and recalcitrant organic pollutants in wastewater treatment.

The low-temperature NO2 removal by tailoring metal node in porphyrin-based metal-organic frameworks.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is the most toxic and prevalent form of nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollutant and its removal from ambient air is a pressing challenge. The state-of-the-art deNOx technologies such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR) can only work at elevated temperatures (>250-300 °C), but ineffective for the NOx removal under ambient conditions. The adsorptive removal of NO2 is an alternative approach to SCR, whose success depends on the design of stable adsorbents capable of selectively capturing NO2 with a highly reversible capacity. Here we synthesized and developed five porphyrin-based metal-organic frameworks (PMOFs) as robust ambient NO2 adsorbents, including three aluminum-based (Al-PMOF) isostructures, and two zirconium-based (Zr-PMOFs) isostructures. Of them, Al-PMOF stands out to be the most promising candidate by showing the highest NO2 adsorption capacity (1.85 mmol/g), high stability, and good regenerability (retaining 87% capacity after five cycles of adsorption) at dry conditions. The NO2 adsorption capacity of Al-PMOF was approximately doubled (3.61 mmol/g) at wet conditions. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) revealed the NO2 adsorption mechanism - the hydrogen bonding occurs between bridging hydroxyl (-OH) (attached to the metal node) and NO2 molecules. Our work demonstrates that PMOFs are promising NO2 adsorbents and will provide guidance for designing robust and reusable adsorbents for efficiently removing NO2 at ambient temperature.

Atomically Dispersed Iron Metal Site in a Porphyrin-Based Metal-Organic Framework for Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation.

The rational design of photocatalysts for efficient nitrogen (N2) fixation at ambient conditions is important for revolutionizing ammonia production and quite challenging because the great difficulty lies in the adsorption and activation of the inert N2. Inspired by a biological molecule, chlorophyll, featuring a porphyrin structure as the photosensitizer and enzyme nitrogenase featuring an iron (Fe) atom as a favorable binding site for N2via π-backbonding, here we developed a porphyrin-based metal-organic framework (PMOF) with Fe as the active center as an artificial photocatalyst for N2 reduction reaction (NRR) under ambient conditions. The PMOF features aluminum (Al) as metal node imparting high stability and Fe incorporated and atomically dispersed by residing at each porphyrin ring promoting the adsorption and the activation of N2, termed Al-PMOF(Fe). Compared with the pristine Al-PMOF, Al-PMOF(Fe) exhibits a substantial enhancement in NH3 yield (635 µg g-1cat.) and production rate (127 µg h-1 g-1cat.) of 82% and 50%, respectively, on par with the best-performing MOF-based NRR catalysts. Three cycles of photocatalytic NRR experimental results corroborate a stable photocatalytic activity of Al-PMOF(Fe). The combined experimental and theoretical results reveal that the Fe-N site in Al-PMOF(Fe) is the active photocatalytic center that can mitigate the difficulty of the rate-determining step in photocatalytic NRR. The possible reaction pathways of NRR on Al-PMOF(Fe) were established. Our study of porphyrin-based MOF for the photocatalytic NRR will provide insight into the rational design of catalysts for artificial photosynthesis.

Methylome-wide association study of first-episode schizophrenia reveals a hypermethylated CpG site in the promoter region of the TNIK susceptibility gene.

Accumulating evidence suggests that epigenetics plays an important role in the etiology of schizophrenia. Here, we performed a methylome-wide association study (MWAS) of first-onset schizophrenia patients and controls from the Han Chinese population using microarray technology. The DNA methylation profiles revealed 4494 differentially methylated CpG sites. Gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that the functions of differentially methylated genes were primarily involved in enzymatic activity, cytoskeleton organization and cell adhesion, and the TNIK (encoding TRAF2- and NCK-interacting kinase) gene was enriched in most of these terms. By combining the MWAS results with those of previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs), we identified 72 candidate genes located in 49 human genome loci. Among the overlapping genes, the most significantly methylated CpG sites were in the transcriptional start site (TSS) 200 region (cg21413905, Punadjusted = 3.20 × 10-5) of TNIK. TNIK was listed in the top 50 differentially methylated loci. The results of pyrosequencing and TNIK mRNA expression were consistent with those of the microarray study. Bioinformatics analyses, dual-luciferase reporter assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) studies showed that TNIK interacted with genes associated with schizophrenia and NRF1 was identified as a novel transcription factor (TF) that binds to TNIK in its TSS200 region. Thus, the regulatory function of NRF1 may be influenced by the status of the methylated CpG site in this region. In summary, our study provides new insights into the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate schizophrenia. Studies of the functions of TNIK methylation should be performed in vitro and in vivo to provide a better understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Transition-Metal-Containing Porphyrin Metal-Organic Frameworks as π-Backbonding Adsorbents for NO2 Removal.

Mitigating ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) pollution via selective adsorption on porous materials is a promising approach to tackle such an increasingly pressing environmental health issue. However, very few porous adsorbents have sufficiently high NO2 adsorption capacity and good regenerability simultaneously. Here we attempt to address this challenge by developing π-backbonding adsorbents in the transition metal (TM) incorporated porphyrin metal-organic frameworks (PMOFs). Breakthrough experiments show that PMOFs with inserted TMs achieve appreciable NO2 capacity and good regenerability. Combined in situ DRIFTS, synchrotron powder XRD, and DFT calculations reveal the adsorption mechanism: NO2 partially transforms to N2 O4 and interacts with transition metal via π-backbonding and Al-node via hydrogen bonding. This work affords new insights for designing next-generation adsorbents for ambient NO2 removal and presents PMOFs as a platform to tailor π-backbonding adsorbents.

The Evaluation of Building Fire Emergency Response Capability Based on the CMM.

The construction of smart cities is a theme of urban development, and building fires greatly threaten public safety and urban environmental governance, in which fire emergency management is one of the key factors. However, most studies on the evaluation of emergency response capacity ignore the process of improvement, as well as the intelligence and practicality of the results. The evaluation system of building fire emergency response capability maturity (FE-CMM) was innovatively proposed based on the capability maturity model (CMM), including the evaluation index, evaluation grade, evaluation method, and evaluation process. At the same time, a plug-in for evaluating fire emergency response capability was developed based on the building information modeling (BIM) platform. Finally, an empirical study was carried out in combination with the case of a district fire center. The research demonstrates that the evaluation system can effectively judge the maturity of fire emergency response capability, and the established plug-in can preliminarily realize the intelligent evaluation of building fire emergency response capability, which improves the practice and intelligence of the fire emergency response capability evaluation system when fully considering the process of improvement. It has guiding significance for ex ante control and refined management of building fires, thus providing support for urban public safety and environmental governance.

Exfoliated Ni-Al LDH 2D nanosheets for intermediate temperature CO2 capture.

CO2 capture is projected as one of the pragmatic approaches to deal with the global warming phenomenon. Adsorption-based CO2 capture is considered an economically attractive option to reduce CO2 emission. The success of the adsorption-based capture primarily relies on adsorbents and thus a variety of adsorbents have been investigated in the literature. We here report a high surface area (210.2 m2/g) exfoliated Ni-Al LDH nanoplatelet as a promising candidate for CO2 capture at an intermediate temperature of 200 °C applicable to integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and sorption enhanced water gas shift (SEWGS) reactions. The materials were well characterized by PXRD, TGA, FTIR, TEM, ICP-OES, and N2 adsorption surface area, and pore size distribution techniques. A unique nanoflower morphology comprising of exfoliated LDH platelets of ca. 5 layer thickness was obtained. The CO2 capture capacity (0.66 mmol/g) of the exfoliated Ni-Al LDH nanoplatelet is comparable to that of the widely reported Mg-Al LDH-derived mixed oxides and MgO-based adsorbents. Provided that Ni-Al and other transition metal LDH materials are known to exhibit superior catalytic properties for CO2 methanation, this work could pave the way for development of dual-functional materials for CO2 capture and conversion.

Novel M (Mg/Ni/Cu)-Al-CO3 layered double hydroxides synthesized by aqueous miscible organic solvent treatment (AMOST) method for CO2 capture.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have been intensively studied in recent years owing to their great potential in CO2 capture. However, the severe aggregation between platelets and low surface area restricted it from exhibiting very high CO2 adsorption capacity and CO2/N2 selectivity. In this research, we for the first time synthesized Ni-Al-CO3 and Cu-Al-CO3 LDHs using aqueous miscible organic solvent treatment (AMOST) method. The as-synthesized materials were evaluated for CO2 adsorption at three different temperatures (50, 80, 120 °C) applicable to post-combustion CO2 capture. Characterized with XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, TEM, EDX, and TGA, we found the newly synthesized Ni-Al-CO3 LDH showed a nano-flower-like morphology comprising randomly oriented 2D nanoplatelets with both high surface area (249.45 m2/g) and pore volume (0.59 cc/g). Experimental results demonstrated that un-calcined Ni-Al-CO3 LDH is superior in terms of CO2 capture among the three LDHs, with a maximum CO2 adsorption capacity of 0.87 mmol/g and the ideal CO2/N2 selectivity of 166 at 50 °C under 1200 mbar for typical flue gas CO2/N2 composition (CO2:N2 = 15:85, v/v). This is the first report of a delaminated Ni-Al-CO3 LDH showing better CO2 capture performance than the well-reported optimal Mg layered double hydroxide.

Identification of miR-22-3p, miR-92a-3p, and miR-137 in peripheral blood as biomarker for schizophrenia.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous and non-coding single-stranded RNAs with length of about 22 nucleotides, and many are evolutionarily conserved. Although postmortem brain samples provide direct evidence of miRNA dysregulation within the brain, peripheral tissue samples can be obtained from living subjects and have the potential to yield biomarkers that could be used as diagnostic tools. To verify and detect additional miRNAs differentially expressed in peripheral blood and further explore their diagnostic value and function for schizophrenia, we performed a next-generation sequencing approach in combination with a literature search to select appropriate miRNAs. We then used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to identify miRNAs expressed aberrantly in schizophrenia. Binary regression analysis identified miR-22-3p, miR-92a-3p, and miR-137. Analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) indicated that these three miRNAs could be used in combination as a biomarker for schizophrenia. Bioinformatic analyses of these genes and gene ontology (GO) enrichment revealed that the combination of miR-22-3p, miR-92a-3p, and miR-137 was closely associated with synaptic structure and function, which play important roles in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Simultaneous imaging of atherosclerotic plaque composition and structure with dual-mode photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography.

The composition of plaque is a major determinant of coronary-related clinical syndromes. By combining photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and optical coherence tomography (OCT), the optical absorption and scattering properties of vascular plaque can be revealed and subsequently used to distinguish the plaque composition and structure. The feasibility and capacity of the dual-mode PAT-OCT technique for resolving vascular plaque was first testified by plaque composition mimicking experiment. PAT obtained lipid information due to optical absorption differences, while owing to scattering differences, OCT achieved imaging of collagen. Furthermore, by combining PAT and OCT, the morphological characteristic and scattering difference of normal and lipid-rich plaque in the ex vivo rabbit aorta was distinguished simultaneously. The experiments demonstrated that the combined PAT and OCT technique is a potential feasible method for detecting the composition and structure of lipid core and fibrous cap in atherosclerosis.

Study on the luminescence and energy level of lanthanide ions in Lu(0.8)Sc(0.2)BO3 host.

Emission and excitation spectra of undoped and Ln(3+) (Ln = Ce, Pr, Nd, Yb)-doped Lu(0.8)Sc(0.2)BO(3) were studied by vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy, and the X-ray excited luminescence spectra were measured as well at room temperature. The undoped specimen presented two different emissions upon excitation at energies in the vicinity of the band gap or with X-ray. The emission at the highest energy side, located at 4.77 eV, was ascribed to self-trapped exciton, which is anchored by electron capture around the Sc site. We also observed three broad emission bands at 4.43, 3.02, and 2.10 eV, which might be attributed to the trapped exciton, defect -related emissions, or both. Energy transfer processes to the doped lanthanide ions in Lu(0.8)Sc(0.2)BO(3) via exciton state or sequential electron-hole capture are discussed. Finally, the energy level diagram for divalent and trivalent lanthanides in Lu(0.8)Sc(0.2)BO(3) was constructed using the obtained spectroscopic parameters and the three parameters method (Dorenbos, P. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 2003, 15, 8417).