Reconnoitering correlation between human papillomavirus infection-induced vaginal microecological abnormality and squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) progression.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the relationship between abnormal vaginal microecology and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, as well as the squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) progression. METHODS: A total of 383 patients diagnosed with HPV infection in our hospital between March 2017 and February 2022 were selected as the experimental group. In addition, several volunteers (n = 898) who underwent physical examination during the same period were randomly selected as the control group. Subsequently, we conducted several investigations, such as HPV detection and gene typing, examined vaginal microecological imbalances, and performed cytological examinations to analyze the correlation between microecological changes, different types of HPV infection, and SIL progression. RESULTS: HPV detection primarily included single and high-risk types of HPV infections. Moreover, significant disparities in the vaginal microecological environment between patients with persistent HPV infection and the control group, as well as patients with low-grade and high-grade SIL (LSIL and HSIL), were observed. The regression analysis revealed a correlation between LSIL and microflora density, diversity, bacteriological vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), trichomonas vaginalis (TV), sialidase, as well as Lactobacillus. In addition, we identified an association between HSIL and pH, flora density, diversity, BV, VVC, candida vaginitis (CV), leukocyte esterase, catalase, and Lactobacillus levels. CONCLUSION: These findings revealed a significant association between abnormal vaginal microecology and both HPV infection and the SIL progression.

Using a 3D Navigation Template to Increase the Accuracy of Thoracic Pedicle Screws in Patients with Scoliosis.

This study compares the accuracy and safety of pedicle screw placement using a 3D navigation template with the free-hand fluoroscopy technique in scoliotic patients. Fifteen scoliotic patients were recruited and divided into a template group (eight cases) and a free-hand group (seven cases). All patients received posterior corrective surgeries, and the pedicle screw was placed using a 3D navigation template or a free-hand technique. After surgery, the positions of the pedicle screws were evaluated using CT. A total of 264 pedicle screws were implanted in 15 patients. Both the two techniques were found to achieve satisfactory safety of screw insertion in scoliotic patients (89.9% vs. 90.5%). In the thoracic region, the 3D navigation template was able to achieve a much higher accuracy of screw than the free-hand technique (75.3% vs. 60.4%). In the two groups, the accuracy rates on the convex side were slightly higher than on the concave side, while no significance was seen. In terms of rotational vertebrae, no significant differences were seen in Grades I or II vertebrae between the two groups. In conclusion, the 3D navigation template technique significantly increased the accuracy of thoracic pedicle screw placement, which held great potential for extensively clinical application.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis, vitiligo, anemia, pituitary hyperplasia, and lupus nephritis-A case report of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type III C + D and literature review.

Objective: This study aims to summarize the clinical characteristics of one teenager with autoimmune polyglandular syndrome (APS) type III C + D to improve the understanding of APS III C + D and its effect of thyroid function. Methods: This article reported the clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, treatment methods, and outcomes of an adolescent with anemia admitted to the Pediatrics Department of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in July 2020 and reviewed the literature. Results: A girl, aged 13 years and 1 month, was admitted to the hospital due to anemia for more than 4 years and episodic abdominal pain for 1 week. Four years ago, the girl went to a local hospital for "vitiligo", and a routine blood test revealed anemia. The lowest hemoglobin (HGB) was 61 g/L, and the blood test revealed iron deficiency anemia. She had no menstrual cramps for 2 months. Urine routine showed protein 3+∼4+ and 258 red blood cells (RBCs)/high-power field. Urine protein was 3,380 mg/24 h. Free thyroxine was low, thyroid-stimulating hormone was >100 uIU/ml, thyroid peroxidase antibody was >1,000 IU/ml, and thyroglobulin antibody and thyrotropin receptor antibody were negative. Pituitary magnetic resonance imaging showed a mass in the sellar region with a uniform signal and a maximum height of about 15.8 mm. The result of the antinuclear antibody was 1:80 homogeneous type, and anti-dsDNA and anticardiolipin antibodies IgA and IgM were slightly higher. Thyroxine and iron were given for 1 month, menstruation resumed, and urine protein and RBC count decreased. After 5 months of treatment, free thyroid function, HGB, RBCs in urine, and pituitary returned to normal. Later, a renal biopsy showed changes in focal proliferative glomerulonephritis, and the girl was diagnosed with lupus glomerulonephritis type III. After 3 days of shock therapy with methylprednisolone, prednisone, mycophenolate mofetil, and other treatments were administrated for 1 year. At the time of writing, urine protein was 280 mg/24 h. Conclusion: Co-occurrence of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, vitiligo, anemia, pituitary hyperplasia, and lupus nephritis is rare. It is very important to pay attention to the screening of thyroid function.

Mediating role of physical activity in the relationship between psychological distress and intimate relationships among stroke patients.

BACKGROUND: Stroke patients often experience psychological distress, which can impact their intimate relationships with spouses, subsequently influencing their treatment and recovery. Physical activity is considered a key rehabilitation method for stroke patients. This paper aims to analyze whether psychological distress affects intimate relationship between spouses through physical activity. AIM: To explore the mediating effect of physical activity between psychological distress and intimate relationship in stroke patients. METHODS: A total of 256 stroke patients who underwent treatment at the First People's Hospital of Shangqiu between July 2021 and July 2022 were enrolled in this study. The participants completed questionnaires, including the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), the Quality of Relationship Index (QRI), International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and a general information questionnaire. Data analysis were performed using SPSS 23.0. The Harman test was employed to detect common method deviations, and Spearman correlation was used for correlation analysis. The mediating effect was assessed using Process 3.4.1, with significance testing of the regression coefficients conducted using the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method (5000 iterations, 95% confidence interval). Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: The results showed that patients scored an average of 21.61 ± 6.44 points on the K10, 32.40 ± 6.19 points on the QRI; the median physical activity level according to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was 1861 (566, 2846) MET·min/w. The level of physical activity (the physical activity intensity of the patients reflected by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Long Form scale) negatively correlated with psychological distress and intimacy (P < 0.05), and positively correlated with each other (P < 0.05), with the correlation stronger at lower physical activity levels compared to higher ones. The mediating effect of physical activity between psychological distress and intimate relationship was calculated to be 40.23%. Bootstrap analysis further validated the results. The mediating effect of psychological distress on intimate relationships through physical activity level was -0.284, with a confidence interval of -0.409 to -0.163, excluding 0, confirming a significant mediating effect of psychological distress on intimate relationships. CONCLUSION: Physical activity significantly affects relationship between psychological distress and intimate relationships among stroke patients. Addressing the role of physical activity may have implications for improving patient outcomes and rehabilitation strategies.

The relative importance of internal and external physical resistances to mass transfer for caffeine release from apple pectin tablets.

The relative importance of the physical resistances to mass transfer have been explored by using halved 13 mm diameter apple-pectin tablets containing caffeine, in different external stirring environments within a beaker containing simulated gastric fluid. The effects of different external (outside of the tablets) mass-transfer resistances to the tablets created through two different stirrer types and stirrer speeds, and different internal (inside of the tablets) mass-transfer resistances created through different tablet concentrations and thicknesses, have been studied. These studies enable internal diffusion coefficients of caffeine through the apple pectin matrix to be estimated, as well as estimating the external mass-transfer coefficients from benzoic acid dissolution, which are in the range of 6.5 × 10-6 m/s - 2.4 × 10-5 m/s for the 0.6 mm thick tablets and 4.0 × 10-6 m/s - 1.6 × 10-5 m/s for the 7 mm thick tablets. The diffusion coefficients for different caffeine concentrations in the apple pectin half-tablets have also been calculated in this study. The diffusivity of caffeine in the 7 mm half-tablets with 1% caffeine through 99% pectin was around (1.8 ± 0.5) × 10-10 m2/s. This study points towards the development of multifilm mass-transfer theory for food digestion to create a more fundamentally based understanding of in-vitro digestion systems as an addition to the use of realistic in-vitro food digestion apparatus and give a better correlation between in-vitro and in-vivo digestion tests.

Fat-poor renal angiomyolipoma combined with pseudoaneurysm: a case report.

Renal angiomyolipoma (RAML), a rare benign mesenchymal tumor, consists of variable proportions of thick-walled blood vessels admixed with adipose tissue and bundles of smooth muscle. Rarely, RAML angiomyolipoma may be associated with pseudoaneurysm, spontaneous rupture and hemorrhage. we herein present an exceptional case of fat-poor RAML containing a large pseudoaneurysm in a 48-yearold woman with known pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis (PLAM), who was admitted to hospital due to right flank pain for about two months. To avoid risk of rupture of the pseudoaneurysms, transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) procedure was performed, at the same time taking into account of the possibility of malignancy in such a large neoplasm, right radical nephrectomy was taken five days later. This case was benign and the 1-year follow-up ultrasonic examination showed no recurrence. This is the first report that the patient had a sporadic giant RAML with pseudoaneurysm which was not associated with the TSC, and to our knowledge, such cases have not been explored in literature. This case reminds us that giant sporadic RAML with pseudoaneurysm, although rare, does exist, and we should improve the understanding of the neoplasm. Early detection and therapeutic interventions of pseudoaneurysm in an AML patient can reduce serious complications.

The effect of regions-of-interest and elasticity modulus selection on differentiating benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes with shear wave elastography.

OBJECTIVE: Imaging diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy has conventionally used ultrasonography. Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a recent ultrasound technological advancement that has shown promise in the important medical problem of differentiating between benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes based on quantitative measurements of elasticity modulus. However, widely varying elasticity modulus metrics and regions-of-interest (ROIs) were used in existing studies, leading to inconsistent findings and results that are hard to compare with each other. METHODS: Using a large dataset of 264 cervical lymph nodes from 200 patients, we designed a study comparing three elasticity modulus metrics (Emax, Emean, and standard deviation-SD) with three different ROIs to evaluate the effect of such selections. The metric values were compared between the benign and malignant node groups. The different ROI and metric selections were also compared through receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. RESULTS: For all ROIs, all metric values were significantly different between the two groups, indicting their diagnostic potential. This was confirmed by the ≥0.80 area under the curve (AUC) values achieved with these metrics. Different ROIs had no effect on Emax, whereas all ROIs achieved high performance at 0.88 AUC. For Emean, the smallest ROI focusing on the area of the highest elasticity achieved the best diagnostic performance. In contrast, the larger ROIs achieved higher performances for SD. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrated the effect of elasticity modulus and ROI selection on the diagnostic performance of SWE on cervical lymphadenopathy. These new findings help guide relevant future studies and clinical applications of this important quantitative imaging modality.

Ultrasound Parameters of Thyroid Nodules and the Risk of Malignancy: A Retrospective Analysis.

Ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy is the common choice for diagnosis of the suspected thyroid nodule. An algorithm(s) that finds the malignant potential of a nodule preoperatively, to overcome unnecessary diagnostic methods, does not exist. The objective of the study was to correlate thyroid nodule sizes measured by ultrasonography and risk of malignancy assessed by cytologic and histologic examinations. Data regarding fine-needle aspiration cytology and the results of histologic examinations of surgical specimens of 260 nodules were collected and analyzed. The macro or multiple calcifications, the complex echo pattern, and posterior region homogeneity were considered suspicious in ultrasonography. Bethesda system for classification of thyroid nodules was used for cytopathology. Histopathology performed as per the 2004 World Health Organization classification system. The benefit score analysis was performed for determination of clinical usefulness. Twenty-eight of 49 malignant nodules and 46 of 68 malignant nodules detected through ultrasound following fine-needle aspiration cytopathology and histopathology were <2 cm in size. A correlation was found for malignancy rate detected by ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology and those of the surgical specimen (r = 0.945, P = .015, R 2 = 0.894). Ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology had 0.994 sensitivities, 0.721 accuracies, and 0.08 to 0.945 diagnostic confidence for the detection of malignant nodules. Nodule size less than 2 mm (P = .011) was associated with the malignancy potential of thyroid nodules. Ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology had 19 (7%) results as a false negative and 1 (1%) results were false positive. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytopathology reported oversize of thyroid nodule than original but can predict the risk of malignancy. Level of Evidence: III.

The effect of regions-of-interest and elasticity modulus selection on differentiating benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes with shear wave elastography

OBJECTIVE: Imaging diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy has conventionally used ultrasonography. Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a recent ultrasound technological advancement that has shown promise in the important medical problem of differentiating between benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes based on quantitative measurements of elasticity modulus. However, widely varying elasticity modulus metrics and regions-of-interest (ROIs) were used in existing studies, leading to inconsistent findings and results that are hard to compare with each other. METHODS: Using a large dataset of 264 cervical lymph nodes from 200 patients, we designed a study comparing three elasticity modulus metrics (Emax, Emean, and standard deviation-SD) with three different ROIs to evaluate the effect of such selections. The metric values were compared between the benign and malignant node groups. The different ROI and metric selections were also compared through receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. RESULTS: For all ROIs, all metric values were significantly different between the two groups, indicting their diagnostic potential. This was confirmed by the ≥0.80 area under the curve (AUC) values achieved with these metrics. Different ROIs had no effect on Emax, whereas all ROIs achieved high performance at 0.88 AUC. For Emean, the smallest ROI focusing on the area of the highest elasticity achieved the best diagnostic performance. In contrast, the larger ROIs achieved higher performances for SD. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrated the effect of elasticity modulus and ROI selection on the diagnostic performance of SWE on cervical lymphadenopathy. These new findings help guide relevant future studies and clinical applications of this important quantitative imaging modality.

Noise-suppressing channel allocation in dynamic DWDM-QKD networks using LightGBM.

Integrating quantum key distribution (QKD) with existing optical networks is highly desired to reduce the deployment costs and achieve efficient resource utilization, and some point-to-point transmitting experiments have verified its feasibility. Nevertheless, there are still many problems in the realistic scenario where QKD coexists with dynamic data traffics. On the one hand, the conventional static channel allocation schemes cannot guarantee the quality of quantum channels in the presence of the time-varying noises. On the other hand, considering the complex noise generation caused by dynamic classical data traffics with variable characters, it is challenging to achieve online high-performance quantum channel assignments. To address these problems, we propose a machine learning based noise-suppressing channel allocation (ML-NSCA) scheme. In this scheme, the LightGBM based ML framework is trained to predict the optimal channel allocations with lowest noise impacts, according to which, the quantum channels are periodically reallocated to guarantee high secure key rate. To improve the accuracy and scalability of the ML framework, we also optimize the method of feature extraction during the training process. The performance evaluation results indicate that the proposed scheme can effectively resist the dynamic noise impacts in the realistic optical networks and obtain higher secure key rate with less operation complexity than the previous schemes.

Priority-Aware Price-Based Power Control for Co-Located WBANs Using Stackelberg and Bayesian Games.

According to the IEEE 802.15.6 standard, interference within each wireless body area network (WBAN) can be well addressed by the time division multiple access (TDMA)-based media access control (MAC) protocol. However, the inter-WBAN interference will be caused after multiple WBANs are gathered together. This paper proposes a priority-aware price-based power control (PPPC) scheme for mitigating the inter-WBAN interference. Specifically, to maximize the transmission data rate of sensors and control the aggregate interference suffered by coordinators, a Stackelberg game is established, in which the coordinators issue interference prices and the active sensors adjust their transmission power accordingly. On the other hand, since the information about the identities of the active sensors in a specific time slot is kept private, a Bayesian game is designed to model the interaction among sensors. Moreover, the timeliness and reliability of data transmission are guaranteed by designing the sensors' priority factors and setting a priority-related active probability for each sensor. At last, a power control algorithm is designed to obtain optimal strategies of game players. Simulation results show that compared with other existing schemes, the proposed scheme achieves better fairness with a comparable network sum data rate and is more energy efficient.

Experimental wavelength-space division multiplexing of quantum key distribution with classical optical communication over multicore fiber.

We demonstrate quantum key distribution (QKD) with classical signals in a seven-core fiber using dense wavelength division multiplexing. Quantum signals are transmitted in an outer core separately and intercore crosstalk (IC-XT) is the main impairment of them. In order to alleviate IC-XT, we propose a quantum-classical interleave scheme. Then the properties of IC-XT are analyzed based on the measurement results, which indicate counter-propagation is a better co-existence method than co-propagation. Finally, we perform QKD experiments in the presence of two classical channels with a channel spacing of 100 GHz between quantum channel and the nearest classical channels. The experiment results prove counter-propagation almost immune to IC-XT, which is consistent with our analysis. Also, the feasibility of the transmission over the range of metropolitan area networks is validated with our scheme.

Optimized channel allocation scheme for jointly reducing four-wave mixing and Raman scattering in the DWDM-QKD system.

Conducting quantum key distribution (QKD) through existing optical fibers together with conventional communication signals is a viable way to expand its practical application, but weak quantum signals can be severely disrupted by co-propagating classical signals. In this paper, the suppression of four-wave mixing (FWM) noise and Raman noise is considered simultaneously for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, and the joint optimized channel allocation (JOCA) scheme is proposed. In the JOCA scheme, the quantum channels and classical channels are interleaved with each other to avoid FWM noise and optimal quantum channel positions are chosen in variable conditions according to the Raman scattering spectrum. Experimental measurements of the noise photons show that the JOCA scheme can effectively reduce the impairments on quantum signals compared with the single-target schemes. Additionally, simulation results verify that the JOCA scheme can increase the secure key generation rate and transmission distance, and that it also enables the DWDM-QKD system to tolerate higher-power classical signals and more classical channels, which improve the compatibility with a high-capacity communication system.

A Conditioned Place Preference Protocol for Measuring Incubation of Craving in Rats.

A major cause of repeated relapses is a craving for the drug. Drug craving increases progressively during the abstinence period, a phenomenon termed incubation of drug craving. Here, we describe a morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) protocol for measuring the incubation of craving in rats. In this protocol, a CPP paradigm mainly employing somatosensory cues is used to establish a long-term reward memory of morphine. A three-chamber CPP box that differs in the texture of the chamber floor is constructed. First, the animals are tested for their baseline preference to the two side chambers for three consecutive days. Then, they are injected intraperitoneally with morphine/saline and put into their non-preferred/preferred chamber for 45 min. After 6 days of conditioning, their preference to the side chambers is tested for 15 min at different time points after the last conditioning session. With this paradigm, the reward memory of morphine could last for at least 18 days. To test whether the above-mentioned protocol can model increased craving, the number of entrances into the two side chambers are counted during the abstinence period. The results show that the entrances increased, suggesting that the CPP paradigm could mimic the incubation of craving. Future studies can employ this model to study neural mechanisms underlying long-term memory and incubation of craving.

The caudal part of the posterior insula of rats participates in the maintenance but not the acquisition of morphine conditioned place preference.

The heterogeneous insular cortex plays an interoceptive role in drug addiction by signaling the availability of drugs of abuse. Here, we tested whether the caudal part of the multisensory posterior insula (PI) stores somatosensory-associated rewarding memories. Using Sprague Dawley rats as subjects, we first established a morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm, mainly based on somatic cues. Secondly, an electrolytic lesion of the caudal portion of the PI was carried out before and after the establishment of CPP, respectively. Our data demonstrated that the caudal PI lesions disrupted the maintenance, but not the acquisition of morphine-induced CPP. Lesion or subtle disruption of the PI had no major impact on locomotor activity. These findings indicate that the caudal portion of the PI might be involved in either the storage or the retrieval of morphine CPP memory.

[Predictive value of ultrasonic diaphragm thickening fraction on successful weaning for patients with myasthenia gravis crisis].

OBJECTIVE: To confirm the predictive value of diaphragm thickening fraction (DTF) on successful weaning by bedside ultrasound in patients with myasthenia gravis crisis. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted. The patients with myasthenia gravis crisis undergoing mechanical ventilation admitted to Department of Critical Care Medicine of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from March 2015 to February 2017 were enrolled. All patients underwent a low level pressure support mode of spontaneous breathing test (SBT), and rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI) was recorded. The indicators of right diaphragm thickness at the end of inspiration (DTei) and expiration (DTee) were determined by bedside ultrasound at 5 minutes and 60 minutes of SBT, and DTF was calculated, the changes in above parameters were observed during SBT. The patients were divided into successful weaning group and failure weaning group, and the differences in above indexes were compared between the two groups. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the predictive value of DTF and RSBI at 60 minutes of SBT on successful weaning. RESULTS: A total of 37 patients were enrolled in the study. Ultrasonic measurement data of 63 person-times at 5 minutes of SBT and 50 at 60 minutes of SBT were obtained. There were no statistical differences in RSBI, DTei, DTee, and DTF at 5 minutes of SBT between successful weaning group (n = 33) and failure weaning group (n = 30). At 60 minutes of SBT, compared with successful weaning group (n = 33), the patients in failure weaning group (n = 17) had a higher RSBI (times×min-1×L-1: 80.41±29.08 vs. 63.94±23.84, t = 2.146, P = 0.037), and lower DTee, DTei and DTF [DTee (mm): 22.00±6.25 vs. 25.45±4.99, t = 2.127, P = 0.039; DTei (mm): 27.94±6.19 vs. 38.48±6.15, t = 5.731, P = 0.000; DTF: (24.46±14.11)% vs. (62.04±30.21)%, t = 4.845, P = 0.000]. There were no statistical differences in RSBI, DTei, DTee, and DTF between 5 minutes and 60 minutes of SBT in 33 person-time successful weaning (all P > 0.05). In 17 person who had 60 minutes of SBT but failed weaning, the RSBI at 60 minutes of SBT was significantly higher than that at 5 minutes (times×min-1×L-1: 80.41±29.08 vs. 57.29±22.46, t = 2.400, P = 0.029), and DTei and DTF were significantly decreased [DTei (mm): 27.94±6.19 vs. 35.35±6.84, t = 3.024, P = 0.000; DTF: (24.46±14.11)% vs. (61.89±23.97)%, t = 5.810, P = 0.000], but the change of DTee during SBT showed no statistical significance. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under ROC curve (AUC) of DTF at 60 minutes of SBT for predicting successful weaning was 0.898; when DTF ≥ 27.9% as the cut-off point, the sensitivity was 93.9%, specificity was 70.6%. The AUC of RSBI for predicting successful weaning was 0.669; when RSBI ≥ 86.50 times×min-1×L-1 as the cut-off point, the sensitivity was 81.8%, specificity was 52.9%. CONCLUSIONS: DTF at 60 minutes of SBT is the effective index of successful weaning prediction in mechanical ventilation patients with myasthenia gravis crisis.

Increased entrances to side compartments indicate incubation of craving in morphine-induced rat and tree shrew CPP models.

In humans, cues associated with the rewarding effect of drugs of abuse induce drug craving and activate drug-associated memories after prolonged abstinence. In animal studies with the self-administration (SA) paradigm, responses to drug-associated cues increase within time after extinction, a phenomenon described as incubation of craving. Conditioned place preference (CPP) is widely used to measure the rewarding effect of drugs and the reward memory thereof. However, little is known whether responses to drug associated cues progressively increase after abstinence from the drugs in the CPP paradigm. To test whether the drug-associated cues could increase specific responses over the abstinence period in the CPP paradigm, we employed the high dose morphine-induced CPP paradigms in rats and tree shrews in the present study. We examined the CPP scores and the entrances to side chambers of the CPP apparatus to check whether they would progressively increase in the CPP paradigms. Twenty-one male adult Sprague-Dawley rats and eight adult male tree shrews were used to establish morphine-induced CPP and another ten rats treated with saline were controls for the rat experiments. After morphine conditioning, rats and tree shrews showed significant higher CPP scores at the first or second post tests than at baseline but then the CPP scores in the abstinence period decreased gradually. During the abstinence period, animals with morphine-conditioning experiences entered progressively more times to both side compartments, whereas the number of entrances to side chambers of the saline group in rats had no such significant differences. These findings suggest that progressively increased entrances to the side chambers in the extended abstinence period reflect the incubation of craving in high dose morphine-induced CPP paradigms. Also, our data imply that reward memory and drug craving can be distinguished in the CPP paradigm.

Acclimatization to middle altitude hypoxia protects against developmental and cognitive deficits caused by acute fetal hypoxia in mice.

Acute fetal hypoxia (AFH) can elicit postnatal motor deficits and cognitive impairments. To test whether lifelong acclimatization to middle altitude (MA) hypoxia has protective effects on the impairments caused by AFH, ICR mice bred at 1 900 m altitude for 6-7 generations were evaluated under AFH. On gestation day 9 (GD 9), 13 (GD 13) or 17 (GD 17), pregnant mice received a single exposure to acute hypoxia (7% O2, 6 h). Physiological and neurodevelopmental behaviors, motor function (open field), spatial learning and memory (Morris water maze), and anxiety level (elevated plus maze) were examined in the offspring from neonate to adulthood. In the neonatal age, among all the physiological and behavioral landmarks, almost no differences were found in the hypoxia groups. In the juvenile period, no obvious impairments of motor function and anxiety level were found in the hypoxia groups. In the adult period, no obvious impairment of motor function was found in hypoxia groups; Interestingly, AFH groups' offspring showed normal or enhanced long-term spatial memory ability after AFH. These data suggest that AFH cause little abnormalities in the offspring of MA-adapted mice. To further investigate the underlying mechanisms, the neuronal numbers in behavior-related brain areas (accumbens nucleus, basal amygdala and hippocampus) were counted, and the physiological parameters of the blood were measured. The morphological data showed that no obvious neuronal necrosis was found in all hypoxia groups. In addition, blood tests showed that red blood corpuscle count, hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit levels in mice raised at MA were markedly higher in both males and females, compared with controls raised at the sea level. These data suggest that lifelong acclimatization to MA hypoxia has protective effects against development delay, motor deficits and spatial learning and memory impairments induced by AFH, and the protective effects may be due to higher hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit levels in the blood. The findings may provide a better understanding of fetal hypoxia and potential intervention treatments.

Feasible attack on detector-device-independent quantum key distribution.

Recently, to bridge the gap between security of Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) and a high key rate, a novel protocol, the so-called detector-device-independent QKD (DDI-QKD), has been independently proposed by several groups and has attracted great interest. A higher key rate is obtained, since a single photon bell state measurement (BSM) setup is applied to DDI-QKD. Subsequently, Qi has proposed two attacks for this protocol. However, the first attack, in which Bob's BSM setup is assumed to be completely a "black box", is easily prevented by using some additional monitoring devices or by specifically characterizing the BSM. The second attack, which combines the blinding attack and the detector wavelength-dependent efficiency, is not explicitly discussed, and its feasibility is not experimentally confirmed. Here, we show that the second attack is not technically viable because of an intrinsically wavelength-dependent property of a realistic beam splitter, which is an essential component in DDI-QKD. Moreover, we propose a feasible attack that combines a well-known attack-detector blinding attack with intrinsic imperfections of single-photon detectors. The experimental measurement and proof-of-principle test results confirm that our attack can allow Eve to get a copy of quantum keys without being detected and that it is feasible with current technology.

A Study on Coexistence Capability Evaluations of the Enhanced Channel Hopping Mechanism in WBANs.

As an important coexistence technology, channel hopping can reduce the interference among Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). However, it simultaneously brings some issues, such as energy waste, long latency and communication interruptions, etc. In this paper, we propose an enhanced channel hopping mechanism that allows multiple WBANs coexisted in the same channel. In order to evaluate the coexistence performance, some critical metrics are designed to reflect the possibility of channel conflict. Furthermore, by taking the queuing and non-queuing behaviors into consideration, we present a set of analysis approaches to evaluate the coexistence capability. On the one hand, we present both service-dependent and service-independent analysis models to estimate the number of coexisting WBANs. On the other hand, based on the uniform distribution assumption and the additive property of Possion-stream, we put forward two approximate methods to compute the number of occupied channels. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that our estimation approaches can provide an effective solution for coexistence capability estimation. Moreover, the enhanced channel hopping mechanism can significantly improve the coexistence capability and support a larger arrival rate of WBANs.