Oxidative stress involves phenotype modulation of morbid soreness symptoms in fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVES: Muscle soreness occurs after exercise and also in musculoskeletal diseases, such as fibromyalgia (FM). However, the nosography and pathoetiology of morbid soreness in FM remain unknown. This study aimed to investigate the morbid soreness of FM, evaluate its therapeutic responses and probe its pathophysiology with metabolomics profiling. METHODS: Patients with newly diagnosed FM were prospectively recruited and completed self-report questionnaires pertaining to musculoskeletal symptoms. The phenotypes and metabotypes were assessed with variance, classification and correlation analyses. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients and 41 healthy controls were included. Soreness symptoms were prevalent in FM individuals (92.2%). In terms of manifestations and metabolomic features, phenotypes diverged between patients with mixed pain and soreness symptoms (FM-PS) and those with pain dominant symptoms. Conventional treatment for FM did not ameliorate soreness severity despite its efficacy on pain. Moreover, despite the salient therapeutic efficacy on pain relief in FM-PS cases, conventional treatment did not improve their general disease severity. Metabolomics analyses suggested oxidative metabolism dysregulation in FM, and high malondialdehyde level indicated excessive oxidative stress in FM individuals as compared with controls (p=0.009). Contrary to exercise-induced soreness, lactate levels were significantly lower in FM individuals than controls, especially in FM-PS. Moreover, FM-PS cases exclusively featured increased malondialdehyde level (p=0.008) and a correlative trend between malondialdehyde expression and soreness intensity (r=0.337, p=0.086). CONCLUSIONS: Morbid soreness symptoms were prevalent in FM, with the presentation and therapeutic responses different from FM pain conditions. Oxidative stress rather than lactate accumulation involved phenotype modulation of the morbid soreness in FM. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04832100.

Design and Verification of a Dry Sensor-Based Multi-Channel Digital Active Circuit for Human Brain Electroencephalography Signal Acquisition Systems.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a type of interface/communication system that can help users interact with their environments. Electroencephalography (EEG) has become the most common application of BCIs and provides a way for disabled individuals to communicate. While wet sensors are the most commonly used sensors for traditional EEG measurements, they require considerable preparation time, including the time needed to prepare the skin and to use the conductive gel. Additionally, the conductive gel dries over time, leading to degraded performance. Furthermore, requiring patients to wear wet sensors to record EEG signals is considered highly inconvenient. Here, we report a wireless 8-channel digital active-circuit EEG signal acquisition system that uses dry sensors. Active-circuit systems for EEG measurement allow people to engage in daily life while using these systems, and the advantages of these systems can be further improved by utilizing dry sensors. Moreover, the use of dry sensors can help both disabled and healthy people enjoy the convenience of BCIs in daily life. To verify the reliability of the proposed system, we designed three experiments in which we evaluated eye blinking and teeth gritting, measured alpha waves, and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to compare our developed system with a standard Neuroscan EEG system.

Carrier Transport and Recombination Mechanism in Blue Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diode with Hosts Consisting of Cabazole- and Triazole-Moiety.

In this study, we demonstrated a blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode (BPOLED) based on a host with two carbazole and one trizole (2CbzTAZ) moiety, 9,9'-(2-(4,5-diphenyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)-1,3-phenylene)bis(9H-carbazole), that exhibits bipolar transport characteristics. Compared with the devices with a carbazole host (N,N'-dicarbazolyl-3,5-benzene, (mCP)), triazole host (3-(biphenyl-4-yl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-4-phenyl-4H-1,2,4-triazole, (TAZ)), or a physical mixture of mCP:TAZ, which exhibit hole, electron, and bipolar transport characteristics, respectively, the BPOLED with the bipolar 2CbzTAZ host exhibited the lowest driving voltage (6.55 V at 10 mA/cm2), the highest efficiencies (maximum current efficiency of 52.25 cd/A and external quantum efficiency of 23.89%), and the lowest efficiency roll-off, when doped with bis[2-(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-C2,N](picolinato)iridium(III) (FIrpic) as blue phosphor. From analyses of light leakage of the emission spectra of electroluminescence, transient electroluminescence, and partially doped OLEDs, it was found that the recombination zone was well confined inside the emitting layer and the recombination rate was most efficient in a 2CbzTAZ-based OLED. For the other cases using mCP, TAZ, and mCP:TAZ as hosts, electrons and holes transported with different routes that resulted in carrier accumulation on different organic molecules and lowered the recombination rate.

Postprandial Metabolomics Response to Various Cooking Oils in Humans.

Lipids account for a high proportion of dietary calories, which greatly affect human health. As a result of differences in composition of fatty acid of individual cooking oils, certain biological effects of these oils may vary. This study aimed to compare postprandial metabolomic profiles of six commonly consumed cooking oils/fats. Adopting a switch-over experimental design ( n = 15), we carried out a human feeding study with six groups (control without oils, soybean oil, olive oil, palm oil, camellia oil, and tallow) and collected fasting and postprandial serum samples. The metabolomic profile was measured by ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight. We observed significant differences between the control group and experimental groups for 33 serum metabolites (false discovery rate; p < 0.05), which take part in lipid digestion, fatty acid metabolism, metabolism of pyrimidines and pyrimidine nucleosides, amino acid metabolism, neurobiology, and antioxidation. Sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis revealed distinct metabolomics patterns between monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and saturated fatty acid oils, between soybean oil, olive oil, and palm oil, and between two MUFA-rich oils (olive and camellia oils). The present metabolomics study suggests shared and distinct metabolisms of various cooking oils/fats.

Effect of ITO surface modification on the OLED device lifetime.

Pretreatment of the indium tin oxide (ITO) surface is generally adopted to improve the charge injection and device performance in the fabrication of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). For the common approaches of surface treatment, such as oxygen plasma treatment, self-assembled monolayer (SAM) adsorption, and the PEDOT:PSS coating, different effects on the device lifetime were observed. A distinctly different driving voltage change with device operation time was obtained and was correlated with the device lifetime. The fast increase in driving voltage for devices based on oxygen-plasma-treated ITO is attributed to the work function change as a result of the change in the composition of the interface with device operation, whereas a rather stable work function for SAM-modified ITO is suggested due to the permanent dipoles associated with the monolayer and the protecting effect of the covalently bound monolayer on the surface composition.

The use of psychiatric drugs and worsening body mass index among inpatients with schizophrenia.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between 10 psychotropic agents and worsening BMI from overweight to obesity among inpatients with schizophrenia. A total of 138 patients with schizophrenia were recruited in this retrospective study. We included 23 patients with worsening BMI, from overweight (24≤BMI<27 kg/m²) to obesity (BMI≥27 kg/m²), as the case group and 115 patients without a worse BMI as the control group. Data were analyzed to assess the relationships between psychiatric drug use and BMI that worsened from overweight to obesity. Of the 138 patients, 60.9% were men. Their mean age was 47.2±9.7 years, mean age of onset of disease was 32.2±10.4 years, and the mean length of illness 15.0±6.5 years. Valproic acid was found to have a significant impact on the worsening of BMI from overweight to obesity (P<0.05). Age at onset of disease, length of illness, and duration of hospitalization were not associated significantly with worsening of BMI from overweight to obesity. These results call for caution in using valproic acid in schizophrenic inpatients with BMIs indicating overweight or obesity.

High-efficiency small-molecule-based organic light emitting devices with solution processes and oxadiazole-based electron transport materials.

We demonstrate high-efficiency small-molecule-based white phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) by single-active-layer solution-based processes with the current efficiency of 17.3 cdA(-1) and maximum luminous efficiency of 8.86 lmW(-1) at a current density of 1 mA cm(-2). The small-molecule based emitting layers are codoped with blue and orange phosphorescent dyes. We show that the presence of CsF/Al at cathodes not only improves electron transport in oxadiazole-containing electron transport layers (ETLs), but also facilitates electron injection through the reacted oxadiazole moiety to reduce interface resistance, which results in the enhancement of current efficiency. By selecting oxadiazole-based materials as ETLs with proper electron injection layer (EIL)/cathode structures, the brightness and efficiency of white PHOLEDs are significantly improved.

Design of the multi-channel electroencephalography-based brain-computer interface with novel dry sensors.

The traditional brain-computer interface (BCI) system measures the electroencephalography (EEG) signals by the wet sensors with the conductive gel and skin preparation processes. To overcome the limitations of traditional BCI system with conventional wet sensors, a wireless and wearable multi-channel EEG-based BCI system is proposed in this study, including the wireless EEG data acquisition device, dry spring-loaded sensors, a size-adjustable soft cap. The dry spring-loaded sensors are made of metal conductors, which can measure the EEG signals without skin preparation and conductive gel. In addition, the proposed system provides a size-adjustable soft cap that can be used to fit user's head properly. Indeed, the results are shown that the proposed system can properly and effectively measure the EEG signals with the developed cap and sensors, even under movement. In words, the developed wireless and wearable BCI system is able to be used in cognitive neuroscience applications.