New perspectives on migraine treatment: a review of the mechanisms and effects of complementary and alternative therapies.

Migraine is a prevalent and disabling neurovascular disorder, with women being more susceptible, characterized by unilateral throbbing headache, often accompanied by nausea and vomiting, and often associated with various comorbidities such as brain and cardiovascular diseases, which can have a serious impact on quality of life. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the main first-line medications for the treatment of pain, long-term use often leads to side effects and drug addiction, which emphasizes the need to investigate alternative pain management strategies with fewer adverse effects. Complementary and alternative medicine is a viable pain intervention often used in conjunction with traditional medications, including acupuncture, herbs, moxibustion, transcutaneous electrical stimulation, bio-supplements, and acupressure, which offer non-pharmacological alternatives that are now viable pain management options. This review focuses on the mechanistic doctrine of migraine generation and the role and potential mechanisms of Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CAT) in the treatment of migraine, summarizes the research evidences for CAT as an adjunct or alternative to conventional therapies for migraine, and focuses on the potential of novel migraine therapies (calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists and pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP) antagonists) with the aim of evaluating CAT therapies as adjunctive or alternative therapies to conventional migraine treatment, thereby providing a broader perspective on migraine management and the design of treatment programs for more effective pain management.

Structural transitions in two-dimensional modulated systems under triangular confinement.

We study numerically the structural transitions of two-dimensional systems of classic particles with competing interactions under a triangular confinement with two different types of soft-wall potentials. We observe a variety of novel confinement-induced equilibrium configurations as a function of particle density and confinement steepness for each considered confinement potential. The specific role played by the confining potentials on the ordering of the particle clusters is revealed. These findings allow us to control the self-organization of modulated systems through using external confinements.

[Visual analysis of literature knowledge structure and acupoint matching rules of acupuncture for depression].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the literature knowledge structure and acupoint matching rules of acupuncture for depression. METHODS: The articles regarding acupuncture for depression published from January 1 of 1984 to October 19 of 2020 were searched in CNKI database. CiteSpace5.7.R2 software was used to import the literature data, and the keyword cluster analysis, emergence analysis and time-zone analysis of articles and acupoints were conducted, and the map of scientific knowledge was draw. RESULTS: A total of 3524 articles were included to the knowledge structure analysis, while 601 articles into the acupoint matching rules analysis. There were 13 keyword clusters of acupuncture for depression, with "post-stroke depression" and "electroacupuncture treatment" as high-frequency keywords, and "electroacupuncture treatment" and "Hamilton depression scale" had high centrality, and "electroacupuncture treatment" had the highest emergence intensity. The keywords such as "electroacupuncture treatment" and "Hamilton depression scale", etc. appeared the earliest, followed by "post-stroke depression", "fluoxetine" and "auricular point therapy", etc. According to traditional Chinese medicine theory, acupoint keywords were divided into four clusters: ①core acupoint, ②replenishing-spleen and dispelling phlegm, dispersing-liver and relieving depression, reinforcing qi and nourishing blood, ③back-shu points, five-zhi points, ④inducing-resuscitation and opening-closes. CONCLUSION: The main knowledge structure of acupuncture for depression includes five parts: treatment method, depression type, TCM-related diseases, literature type and curative effect index. Clinical acupoint matching should adhere to the principle of "focusing the disease before syndrome" and "combination of disease and syndrome", and treatment should be modified for the syndromes of phlegm stagnation blocking, liver-stagnation and qi-stagnation, and deficiency of both qi and blood.

Enhanced capacitive performance by improving the graphitized structure in carbon aerogel microspheres.

Herein, good electrical conductivity and high specific surface area carbon aerogel (CA) microspheres were synthesized by a facile and economical route using a high temperature carbonization and CO2 activation method. The electroconductive graphitized structure of the CA microspheres could be easily improved by increasing the carbonization temperature. Then the CA microspheres were activated with CO2 to increase the specific surface area of the electrode material for electric double layer capacitors (EDLC). The sample carbonized at 1500 °C for 0.5 h and CO2 activated at 950 °C for 8 h showed an acceptable specific surface area and excellent cycle performance and rate capability for EDLC: 98% of the initial value of the capacitance was retained after 10 000 cycles, a specific capacitance of 121 F g-1 at 0.2 A g-1 and 101 F g-1 at 2 A g-1.

Realization of Tunable Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance of Cu@Cu2O Core-Shell Nanoparticles by the Pulse Laser Deposition Method.

Cu@Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) not only possess a stabilized structure but also exhibit better photocatalytic performance as compared to pure Cu2O. Therefore, preparation of Cu@Cu2O core-shell NPs is key toward efficient photocatalysis applications. In this paper, the fabrication of Cu@Cu2O core-shell NPs on single-crystal MgO(100) substrates has been studied systematically by pulse laser deposition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the average diameter of NPs is enlarged from 89.9 to 150.3 nm with the increasing of oxygen pressure. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicate that the NPs have elongated hexagons and a core-shell structure with a shell thickness of about 10 nm. UV-vis absorption spectra show that the position of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks shifts from 648 to 858 nm and the full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of the LSPR peaks broadens from 226.7 to 436.5 nm with increasing average diameter of NPs. According to the analysis, the red shift of the LSPR peaks is caused by enlargement of the core diameter; higher fwhm is a result of broadened particle size distribution and the elongated morphology of NPs. Therefore, the width and range of LSPR peaks of the absorption spectrum can be tuned using this method, which is beneficial for enhancing the light absorption and improving the photocatalytic efficiency of Cu@Cu2O core-shell NPs.

Nanostrip-Induced High Tunability Multipolar Fano Resonances in a Au Ring-Strip Nanosystem.

Surface plasmon resonances of a Au ring-strip nanosystem with tunable multipolar Fano resonances have been investigated based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Abundant plasmon properties of a Au ring-strip nanosystem can be obtained on the basis of the unique electronic properties of different geometry parameters. In our research models, these multipolar Fano resonances are induced and can be tuned independently by changing the geometry parameters of the Au ring-strip nanosystem. Complex electric field distributions excited by the Au ring-strip nanosystem provide possibility to form dark plasmonic modes. Multipolar Fano resonances display strong light extinction in the Au ring-strip nanosystem, which can offer a new approach for an optical tunable filter, optical switching, and advanced biosensing.

Plasmonic Absorption Enhancement in Elliptical Graphene Arrays.

In this paper, we come up with a wavelength tunable absorber which is made up of periodically elliptical graphene arrays in the far-infrared and terahertz regions. Through simulation, we find that we can increase the length of long axis of the ellipse, raise the incidence angles of TM- and TE-polarization (TM- and TE-polarization indicate the direction of the incident electric field along the direction of the x and the y axis, respectively.) within certain limits, and increase the chemical potential of graphene, so as to enhance the absorption of light in the elliptical graphene arrays. We also compare the absorption spectra of the original structure and the complementary structure, and find that the absorption of the original structure is higher than that of the complementary structure. In the end, we study the changes in the absorption rate of the double layer structure of the elliptical array with the increase in the thickness of SiO2. The elliptical array structure can be applied to tunable spectral detectors, filters and sensors at far-infrared and terahertz wavelengths.

Multi-Scale Modeling for Predicting the Stiffness and Strength of Hollow-Structured Metal Foams with Structural Hierarchy.

This work was inspired by previous experiments which managed to establish an optimal template-dealloying route to prepare ultralow density metal foams. In this study, we propose a new analytical-numerical model of hollow-structured metal foams with structural hierarchy to predict its stiffness and strength. The two-level model comprises a main backbone and a secondary nanoporous structure. The main backbone is composed of hollow sphere-packing architecture, while the secondary one is constructed of a bicontinuous nanoporous network proposed to describe the nanoscale interactions in the shell. Firstly, two nanoporous models with different geometries are generated by Voronoi tessellation, then the scaling laws of the mechanical properties are determined as a function of relative density by finite volume simulation. Furthermore, the scaling laws are applied to identify the uniaxial compression behavior of metal foams. It is shown that the thickness and relative density highly influence the Young's modulus and yield strength, and vacancy defect determines the foams being self-supported. The present study provides not only new insights into the mechanical behaviors of both nanoporous metals and metal foams, but also a practical guide for their fabrication and application.

Discrete Dipole Approximation Simulation of Nearly Touching Plasmonic Au Dimers and Influence of Particle Shape Assembly on Optical Response.

The method Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) is used to calculate the extinction spectra and field distribution of three types of dimers. In the paper we provide a systematic analysis of the optical response of different nanoscopic dimer structures with relatively small gap distances. A description is given about how the energy and excitation cross sections of dimer plasmons depend on nanoparticle separation. Resonance peaks of dimers show red-shift compared with single nanoparticle. Dimers formed by different single particle display distinct optical response. Interaction junctions in dimers can serve as hot spots for field enhancement. Field distribution in gaps made of two flat planes is nearly continuous. Changing gaps between two particles in dimers can tune the resonance wavelength effectively as well as different particle ensembles. Existence of sharp corners can attract and change field distribution. It is not effective volume but the effective cross-section that dominates the extinction efficiency.

The influence of edge and corner evolution on plasmon properties and resonant edge effect in gold nanoplatelets.

In this paper a simulation of the properties of surface plasmons on gold nanoplatelets with various cross-sections inscribed in a circle and an investigation of their field distributions to assign multiple SPRs are described. The manipulated propagation can be obtained through the evolution of edges and corners. Furthermore, the particle morphology and the associated spectral positions alone do not uniquely reflect the important details of the local field distribution or the resonance modes. The plasmon modes were investigated and found to be mainly excited along the edges and in the side and sloped side surfaces. The strong field distributions can generally be found around the corners and how the plasmons transmit through the corners to adjacent edges was also investigated. Besides the plasmons excited along the edges as were found for the triangular nanoplatelets, plasmons were excited in the interior region of the triangular surfaces and were also investigated. Despite this in the infrared region, plasmon modes were found to be along the edges for the hexagonal nanoplatelets. Also, it can be seen that the change of nanoplatelet thickness can support different plasmon modes ranging from dipolar resonance mode to quadrupole resonance mode. The thickness far below the skin depth can display complex plasmon modes along the edges and on the side and sloping side surfaces as well as the strong coupling between the top and bottom surfaces. The observed plasmon resonance modes in this simulation reflect the interference of all these contributions including the plasmons along the edges and on the side surfaces. This is an essential step towards a thorough understanding of plasmon modes and the effect of edge and corner evolution in polygonous nanoplatelets.