Analysis of factors influencing fall risk among elderly people in rural of China.

Falls can cause serious health problems in the elderly. China is gradually entering a moderately aging society. In rural areas of China, the elderly are at a higher risk of falling. This study aims to explore and analyze the factors affecting the fall risk of elderly people in rural areas of China, and provide theoretical basis for reducing the fall risk of elderly people. M County, Anhui Province, China was selected as the survey site by the typical field sampling method, and the elderly people in rural areas were selected as the research objects. A total of 1187 people were investigated. Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used for univariate analysis, and multiple linear regression was used for multivariate analysis. Chronic diseases, multimorbidity, daily living ability, mental health, working status and family doctors are the factors that influence falls among elderly people in rural areas of China (P < 0.05, Adjusted R2 = 0.395). The falls risk of the elderly in rural areas of China is influenced by multiple factors. Therefore, comprehensive measures should be taken to reduce the fall risk by comprehensively evaluating the influencing factors.

A hydrogel-based first-aid tissue adhesive with effective hemostasis and anti-bacteria for trauma emergency management.

BACKGROUND: Clinical tissue adhesives remain some critical drawbacks for managing emergency injuries, such as inadequate adhesive strength and insufficient anti-infection ability. Herein, a novel, self-healing, and antibacterial carboxymethyl chitosan/polyaldehyde dextran (CMCS/PD) hydrogel is designed as the first-aid tissue adhesive for effective trauma emergency management. METHODS: We examined the gel-forming time, porosity, self-healing, antibacterial properties, cytotoxicity, adhesive strength, and hemocompatibility. Liver hemorrhage, tail severance, and skin wound infection models of rats are constructed in vivo, respectively. RESULTS: Results demonstrate that the CMCS/PD hydrogel has the rapid gel-forming (~ 5 s), good self-healing, and effective antibacterial abilities, and could adhere to tissue firmly (adhesive strength of ~ 10 kPa and burst pressure of 327.5 mmHg) with excellent hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility. This suggests the great prospect of CMCS/PD hydrogel in acting as a first-aid tissue adhesive for trauma emergency management. The CMCS/PD hydrogel is observed to not only achieve rapid hemostasis for curing liver hemorrhage and tail severance in comparison to commercial hemostatic gel (Surgiflo ®) but also exhibit superior anti-infection for treating acute skin trauma compared with clinical disinfectant gel (Prontosan ®). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the CMCS/PD hydrogel offers a promising candidate for first-aid tissue adhesives to manage the trauma emergency. Because of the rapid gel-forming time, it could also be applied as a liquid first-aid bandage for mini-invasive surgical treatment.

Factors related to self-rated health of older adults in rural China: A study based on decision tree and logistic regression model.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the related factors of self-rated health (SRH) by using decision tree and logistic regression models among older adults in rural China. Methods: Convenience sampling was employed with 1,223 enrolled respondents who met the inclusion criteria from 10 randomly selected villages in M County in China. The content of the questionnaire covered demographic characteristics, physical and mental health, sleep status, and risk of falling. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Morse Falls Risk Scale (MFS) were used to evaluate sleep status and risk of falling, respectively. The decision tree and logistic regression models were employed to analyze the related factors of SRH. Results: Notably, 817 (68.7%) subjects had good SRH. The logistic regression model showed that living standard, alcohol consumption, sleep quality, labor, hospitalization, discomfort, the number of chronic diseases, and mental health were associated with SRH (P-value < 0.05), while the decision tree model showed that the number of chronic diseases, sleep quality, mental health, hospitalization, gender, and drinking were associated with SRH. The sensitivity and specificity of the logistic regression model were 67.7 and 75.5%, respectively, and the area under the ROC curve was 0.789 (0.763, 0.816); the sensitivity and specificity of the decision tree model were 71.5, and 61.4% respectively, and the area under the ROC curve was 0.733 (0.703, 0.763). Conclusion: Decision tree and logistic regression models complement each other and can describe the factors related to the SRH of the elderly in rural China from different aspects. Our findings indicated that mental health, hospitalization, drinking, and sleep quality were the important associated factors.

Gycyrrhizic acid alleviates atherosclerotic lesions in rats with diabetes mellitus.

Gycyrrhizic acid (GA), an inhibitor of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), inhibits inflammatory responses and is involved in the occurrence and development of several inflammation­related diseases. However, the role of GA in the atherosclerotic lesions caused by diabetes mellitus (DM) remains unknown. In the present study, Sprague Dawley rats were selected to desi=gn a diabetic atherosclerosis (AS) model. Rats from the DM­AS group were subsequently divided into DM­AS, DM­AS + GA (50 mg/kg) and DM­AS + GA (150 mg/kg) groups. Biochemical analyzers were used to measure levels of blood glucose, fasting insulin, total cholesterol, total triglyceride, low­density lipoprotein and high­density lipoprotein. The number of plaques was recorded after collection of thoracic aortas from the rats. The intimal thickness of arterial tissue was detected by hematoxylin and eosin staining. The expression levels of CD68 and α­smooth muscle actin (α­SMA) were detected by immunohistochemistry. The expression of tumor necrosis factor­α, interleukin (IL)­6 and IL­1ß in the serum of the rats was detected by ELISA. The expression of fatty acid synthetase, sterol regulatory element binding protein 1C, HMGB1 and receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) was detected by western blotting. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression of HMGB1 and RAGE. The results demonstrated that GA treatment could decrease the body weight, blood glucose level and biochemical parameters of AS DM rats in a dose­dependent manner. In addition, GA decreased the intimal thickness of carotid artery and the formation of plaque in rats with diabetic AS. Furthermore, GA inhibited macrophage activation and decreased α­SMA expression in vascular smooth muscle cells, and decreased the expression of proteins (FAS and SREBP­1c) and inflammatory factors. Taken together, the findings from the present study demonstrated that GA may have a therapeutic effect on DM­associated AS. This study provides a theoretical basis for the treatment of diabetic AS.

Limited knowledge and distrust are important social factors of out-patient' s 'inappropriate diagnosed seeking behaviour': a qualitative research in Shanghai.

AIMS: This study is designed to present out-patient's 'inappropriate diagnosed seeking behaviour' in tertiary hospitals and interpret its association with some potential social factors. METHODS: A qualitative study based on grounded theory was designed in this paper. The participates were recruited by a two-stage process. The field observation and in-depth interview were adopted for data collection. Multi-round (five rounds) sampling and continuing data analysis were adopted as well. RESULTS: Totally 26 out-patients from three tertiary hospitals in Shanghai were involved. Four focused codes, including 'limited policy-related knowledge', 'limited health-related knowledge', 'distrust on related policy' and 'distrust on medical networks', were identified. Then, a theoretical model about the association of out-patient's 'limited knowledge' with 'distrust' and its relationship with 'inappropriate first-diagnosed seeking behaviour' in tertiary hospitals was developed. CONCLUSION: 'Inappropriate first-diagnosed seeking behaviour' of the out-patients in tertiary hospitals is closely associated with their limited knowledge and related distrust. Great effort on improving publics' knowledge and rebuilding a benign trust relationship with out-patients and the medical networks is found to be essential for guiding publics' appropriate first-diagnosed health behaviour in various levels of medical institutions.

Radar Emitter Signal Recognition Based on One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network with Attention Mechanism.

As the real electromagnetic environment grows complex and the quantity of radar signals turns massive, traditional methods, which require a large amount of prior knowledge, are time-consuming and ineffective for radar emitter signal recognition. In recent years, convolutional neural network (CNN) has shown its superiority in recognition so that experts have applied it in radar signal recognition. However, in the field of radar emitter signal recognition, the data are usually one-dimensional (1-D), which takes more time and storage space than by using the original two-dimensional CNN model directly. Moreover, the features extracted from convolutional layers are redundant so that the recognition accuracy is low. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a novel one-dimensional convolutional neural network with an attention mechanism (CNN-1D-AM) to extract more discriminative features and recognize the radar emitter signals. In this method, features of the given 1-D signal sequences are extracted directly by the 1-D convolutional layers and are weighted in accordance with their importance to recognition by the attention unit. The experiments based on seven different radar emitter signals indicate that the proposed CNN-1D-AM has the advantages of high accuracy and superior performance in radar emitter signal recognition.

Synergistic antitumor effect of ING4/PTEN double tumor suppressors mediated by adenovirus modified with arginine-glycine-aspartate on glioma.

BACKGROUND: Gene therapy is regarded as a new and promising therapeutic modality for cancers, and adenovirus is one of the most frequently used vectors. However, because of low or absent coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor levels on the surface of many kinds of tumor cells, the efficiency of adenovirus infection of target tumor cells may be low. Meanwhile, gene therapy by a single vector carrying two or more antioncogenes can improve treatment effects and reduce side effects from vectors. In this research, we aimed to detect the antitumor effect of ING4/PTEN double tumor suppressors mediated by adenovirus modified with arginine(R)-glycine(G)-aspartate(D) (RGD) on glioma cells. METHODS: We treated U87 glioma cells with PBS, blank adenovirus or adenovirus carrying RGD, ING4, PTEN, or both ING4 and PTEN, then we detected and compared the U87 cells' growth, apoptosis, and invasion. Moreover, we established a U87 glioma transplantation tumor model to study the antitumor effect in vivo by measuring the volume and weight of tumor masses in each condition. In addition, we analyzed the transcription of related genes by fluorescent quantitative PCR and detected their expression by immunohistochemistry staining to reveal the underlying mechanisms. RESULTS: The double tumor suppressors ING4/PTEN could inhibit the growth of U87 glioma cells with a synergistic antitumor effect, and the RGD modification also acted as an antioncogene to inhibit U87 cell invasion and tumor angiogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: The ING4/PTEN double tumor suppressors mediated by adenovirus modified with RGD had a significantly synergistic antitumor effect on glioma.

CircRNA hsa-circ-0014359 promotes glioma progression by regulating miR-153/PI3K signaling.

RNA back splicing produces circRNA, a new type of non-coding RNA. Studies have indicated that circRNAs play important roles in malignant tumors of the central nervous system. Here, we aimed to evaluate the expression of the circRNA, hsa-circ-0014359 (circ-0014359) in human glioma cell lines to assess its function in glioma progression and prognosis. The expression of circ-0014359 was increased in T98G and SHG44 cancer cell lines and glioma tissues from patients, when compared with control cells and tissue. SiRNA-mediated silencing of circ-0014359 potently inhibited cell viability, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of glioma cells. Further, our observations indicated that circ-0014359 acted as a miRNA-153 (miR-153) sponge in glioma cells. Transfection of miR-153 inhibitor significantly suppressed si-circ-0014359-induced inhibition of cell viability, cell migration, and invasion. The increased expression of circ-0014359 levels in glioma cells was correlated with downregulated expression of miR-153. Overexpression of miR-153 reduced p-AKTser473 (a PI3K pathway indicator) and the rescue experiment showed enhanced p-AKTser473 expression. Together, our study suggests that circ-0014359 promotes glioma progression via targeting miR-153/PI3K signaling pathway. Thus, our study provides insights into glioma progression and reveals potential new targets for treatment of glioma.

[The rules of acupoint selection of acupuncture for dry eye].

The rules of acupoint selection of acupuncture for dry eye in recent 10 years were summarized to provide reference for clinical treatment. The clinical researches regarding acupuncture for dry eye published from May 5, 2007 to December 1, 2017 were searched in CNKI, WANFANG and VIP database. The acupoint and meridian used and application frequency were analyzed to summarize the rules of acupoint selection. Totally, 52 related clinical papers were collected, involving 60 acupoints, 14 meridians and 5 extra point. The total frequency of acupoints was 541, which were mainly related with the bladder meridian, stomach meridian and gallbladder meridian. In conclusion, the rules of acupoint selection of acupuncture for dry eye highlighted meridians circulation, acupoint combination, and syndrome differentiation.

Identification of Exogenous Nitric Oxide-Responsive miRNAs from Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) under Drought Stress by High-Throughput Sequencing.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a high quality leguminous forage. Drought stress is one of the main factors that restrict the development of the alfalfa industry. High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the microRNA (miRNA) profiles of alfalfa plants treated with CK (normal water), PEG (polyethylene glycol-6000; drought stress), and PEG + SNP (sodium nitroprusside; nitric oxide (NO) sprayed externally under drought stress). We identified 90 known miRNAs belonging to 46 families and predicted 177 new miRNAs. Real-time quantitative fluorescent PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to validate high-throughput expression analysis data. A total of 32 (14 known miRNAs and 18 new miRNAs) and 55 (24 known miRNAs and 31 new miRNAs) differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in PEG and PEG + SNP samples. This suggested that exogenous NO can induce more new miRNAs. The differentially expressed miRNA maturation sequences in the two treatment groups were targeted by 86 and 157 potential target genes, separately. The function of target genes was annotated by gene ontology (GO) enrichment and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis. The expression profiles of nine selected miRNAs and their target genes verified that their expression patterns were opposite. This study has documented that analysis of miRNA under PEG and PEG + SNP conditions provides important insights into the improvement of drought resistance of alfalfa by exogenous NO at the molecular level. This has important scientific value and practical significance for the improvement of plant drought resistance by exogenous NO.

Cytotropic heterogeneous molecular lipids inhibit the growth of glioma cells by inducing apoptosis and autophagy.

The cytotropic heterogeneous molecular lipid (CHML) is a mixture of lipids isolated from natural products. CHML is an effective therapy for various kinds of cancers; however, the effect of CHML on glioma cells was seldom reported. Here, we aim to explore the cytotoxicity of CHML on glioma cells, and analyze the possible mechanisms. U251 glioma cells were cultured with CHML at different concentration, and the growth inhibition was measured by CCK-8 assay. Induced apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry, and the induced autophagies were observed by a transmission electron microscope. The key molecules involved in apoptosis and autophagy were detected by quantitative PCR and western-blot. CHML might inhibit the growth of U251 cells and promote apoptosis by up-regulating the expressions of Caspase-8 and Caspase-3; CHML also induced autophagy of U251 cells by promoting the expressions of MAP LC-3 and Beclin-1. CHML can inhibit proliferation of U251 cells by promoting cell apoptosis and inducing autophagy.

[Xerophthalmia of qi and yin deficiency treated with jinhuobu needling technique].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the differences in the clinical therapeutic effects on xerophthalmia of qi and yin deficiency between the jinhuobu needling technique (the combined reinforcing technique to induce warm sensation) and the reinforcing needing technique achieved by rotating needle. METHODS: A total of 54 patients of xerophthalmia were randomized into an observation group (28 cases) and a control group (26 cases). In both of the groups, the main acupoints included Cuanzu (BL 2), Sizhukong (TE 23), Taiyang (EX-HN 5) and Fengchi (GB 20); the combined acupoints were Danzhong (CV 17), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Taixi (KI 3) and Taichong (LR 3). In the observation group, the jinhuobu needling technique was used and in the control group, the reinforcing needing technique achieved by rotating needle was adopted. The treatment was given once every day. 10 treatments made one course and 2 courses were required. Before and after treatment, the score of eye symptoms, tear secretion and the breakup time of tear film were observed in the two groups. The clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the two groups after treatment and in 4-week follow-up after treatment separately. RESULTS: After treatment, the total effective rate was 92.9% (26/28) in the observation group and was 80.8% (21/26) in the control group, without significant difference in comparison (P>0.05). In 4-week follow-up after treatment, the total effective rate was 85.7% (24/28) in the observation group and was 61.5% (16/26) in the control group, indicating the significant difference in comparison (P<0.05). After treatment, the differences were significant in the score of eye symptoms, tear secretion and the breakup time of tear film as compared with those before treatment in the two groups (all P<0.01). After treatment, the improvements of the score of eye symptoms, tear secretion and the breakup time of tear film in the observation group were better remarkably than those in the control group, indicating the significant differences (all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The jinhuobu needling technique achieves the significant therapeutic effects on xerophthalmia of qi and yin deficiency and the recurrence rate of the disease is low.

[Effect of Warm Acupuncture on the Levels of Serum Immunoglobulin E, Interleukin-1 ß and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α in Rats with Allergic Rhinitis].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of warm acupuncture on behavior and contents of serum immunoglobulin E(IgE), interleukin-1 ß(IL-1 ß) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) in allergic rhinitis(AR) rats, so as to explore its mechanism underlying improving AR. METHODS: Forty Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: control group, model group, medication group and warm acupuncture group(10 rats/group). The AR model was established by intraperitoneal injection of sensitization and nasal drip. The rats in the medication group were given fluticasone propionate nasal spray, daily for 10 days. Warm acupuncture was applied to "Fengchi"(GB 20), "Yintang"(GV 29), "Yingxiang"(LI 20) for 60 seconds, once daily for 10 days. Behavioral scores were used to evaluate behavioral changes in rats. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the expression levels of serum IgE, IL-1 ß and TNF-α. RESULTS: Behavioral scores of the model group were significantly higher than those of the control group 0, 3, 7 and 10 days after modeling (P<0.05). After treatment, the behavioral scores of medication group and the warm acupuncture group were lower than those of the model group (P<0.05), and the score was more lower in the warm acupuncture group than in the medication group (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the levels of serum IgE, IL-1 ß and TNF-α in the model group were all increased (P<0.01), while the levels of serum IgE, IL-1 ß and TNF-α were decreased in the medication and warm acupuncture groups after treatment in comparison with the model group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Compared with the medication group, the levels of serum IgE, IL-1 ß and TNF-α were significantly lower in the warm acupuncture group (P<0.05, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The expression levels of IgE, IL-1 ß and TNF-α were elevated in serum after AR attack. Warm acupuncture can improve the symptoms of AR rats, which may be associated to its effect in inhibiting the expression of serum IgE, IL-1 ß and TNF-α.

The application of improved abdominal wall punctures technique in ventriculoperitoneal shunt for hydrocephalus: a retrospective analysis versus open mini-laparotomy.

PURPOSE: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) remains as one of the main treatment for hydrocephalus. The traditional technique for placing the distal ends of shunts is via a mini-laparotomy. However, laparotomies are relatively time consuming. Trocars to penetrate abdominal wall by blind puncture have been used. Here, we report on the abdominal wall puncture technique, and compare the possible complications and outcomes with traditional mini-laparotomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We use a 5mm incision at the inverse McBurney point. The abdominal wall on both sides of the incision point is lifted with two towel clips prior to puncture to create a potential gap between the abdominal wall and viscera. After the puncture, a guide wire is inserted followed by a dilator, introducer and the distal shunt tubing using a Seldinger technique. In this process, the operator feels resistance give with breakthrough of parietal peritoneal. After the insertion of introducer, a negative pressure injection test helps confirm whether the introducer is inside the peritoneum. RESULTS: Operative time is less than with mini-laparotomies. Postoperative abdominal symptoms are mild. Out of 29 patients there were no puncture related complications. CONCLUSION: The improved abdominal-wall puncture technique is a simple, fast, economical and effective method. Patients, who are treated by the method, generally experience rapid postoperative recoveries.

Research on human glioma stem cells in China.

Research on human glioma stem cells began early in the 21st century and since then has become a rapidly growing research field with the number of publications increasing year by year. The research conducted by our diverse group of investigators focused primarily on cell culture techniques, molecular regulation, signaling pathways, cancer treatment, the stem cell microenvironment and the cellular origin and function of glioma stem cells. In particular, we put forward our view that there are inverse or forward transformations among neural stem cells, glial cells and glioma stem cells in glioma tissues under certain conditions. Based on the background of the progress of international research on human glioma stem cells, we aim to share our progress and current findings of human glioma stem cell research in China with colleagues around the world.

Human glioma stem-like cells induce malignant transformation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells by activating TERT expression.

We investigated whether glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) malignantly transformed bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (tBMSCs) in the tumor microenvironment. Transplantation of enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP)-labeled BMSCs into irradiated athymic nude mice was followed by intracranial injection of red fluorescent protein-expressing glioma stem-like cells (SU3-RFP-GSCs). Singly cloned EGFP-BMSCs, harvested from the intracranial tumors showed TERT overexpression, high proliferation, colony formation and invasiveness in Transwell matrigel assays. Transfection of normal BMSCs with TERT (TERT-BMSCs) enhanced proliferation, colony formation and invasiveness, though these characteristics remained lower than in tBMSCs. The tBMSCs and TERT-BMSCs showed high surface expression of CD44, CD105, CD29 and CD90 and an absence of CD31, CD34, CD45, and CD11b, as in normal BMSCs. Alizarin red S and oil red O staining confirmed tBMSCs and TERT-BMSCs transdifferentiated into osteocytes and adipocytes, respectively. When normal BMSCs were indirectly co-cultured in medium from SU3-RFP-GSCs, they exhibited increased growth and proliferation, suggesting paracrine factors from GSCs induced their malignant transformation. Tumorigenicity assays in athymic nude mice showed that transplanted tBMSCs and TERT-BMSCs generated 100% and 20% subcutaneous tumors, respectively, while normal BMSCs generated no tumors. GSCs thus induce malignant transformation of BMSCs by activating TERT expression in BMSCs.

Non-contact method to freely control the radiation patterns of antenna with multi-folded transformation optics.

In this paper, we propose to use multi-folded transformation optics method to design a non-contact illusion device that can distantly and freely manipulate the radiation behavior of antenna located at a certain distance and such manipulation is enabled by the use of mapped electromagnetic medium coated with the transformed medium. The proposed design aims to achieve the radiation pattern of our choice from the antenna that does not possess any electromagnetic medium. Based on this, the functionality of parabolic antenna is distantly achieved from the point source. We further extended our idea to array of antennas in which the proposed device distantly makes the linear array of antennas behave like a geometrically different array of antennas. Our work extends the concept of illusion optics for active scatterer that will be very helpful for future antenna design.

Effects of transforming growth factor-ß inhibitor on the proliferation of glioma stem/progenitor cell.

Transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) signaling pathways play an important role in inhibition and promotion of cell proliferation in neural stem cells (NSCs) and glioma stem/progenitor cells (GSPCs), respectively. However, the mechanisms underlying these processes remain unknown. We presumed that there may be functional inhibition at the receptor downstream of TGF-ß signaling pathway leading to the activation of non- TGF-ß/Smad signaling pathway, which stimulates the proliferation of GSPCs. In this study, GSPCs, from glioma cell lines SHG44, were cultivated with TGF-ß receptor inhibitors (LY2157299 and LY2109761), and then the proliferative capability of GSPCs was measured; as well, the synthesis of TGF-ß ligands, and the mRNA expression level of TGF-ß and some key molecules of non-Smad signaling pathways were also detected. Our results showed that inhibitors against TGF-ß receptors could promote the proliferation of GSPCs, and the synthesis of TGF-ß ligands was enhanced. Furthermore, the inhibition of TGF-ß receptor may lead to the activation of non-Smad signaling pathways (mTOR and NF-κB). In conclusion, the down-regulation of TGF-ß receptor capability by TGF-ß receptor inhibitors can increase TGF-ß ligands synthesis and secretion, which then promote GSPCs proliferation by activating non-Smad signaling pathways.

Design and construction of Keda Space Plasma Experiment (KSPEX) for the investigation of the boundary layer processes of ionospheric depletions.

In this work, the design and construction of the Keda Space Plasma EXperiment (KSPEX), which aims to study the boundary layer processes of ionospheric depletions, are described in detail. The device is composed of three stainless-steel sections: two source chambers at both ends and an experimental chamber in the center. KSPEX is a steady state experimental device, in which hot filament arrays are used to produce plasmas in the two sources. A Macor-mesh design is adopted to adjust the plasma density and potential difference between the two plasmas, which creates a boundary layer with a controllable electron density gradient and inhomogeneous radial electric field. In addition, attachment chemicals can be released into the plasmas through a tailor-made needle valve which leads to the generation of negative ions plasmas. Ionospheric depletions can be modeled and simulated using KSPEX, and many micro-physical processes of the formation and evolution of an ionospheric depletion can be experimentally studied.