Self-assembly of chemical shakers.

Chemical shakers are active particles with zero propulsion velocity whose activity derives from chemical reactions on portions of their surfaces. Although they do not move, except through Brownian motion, the nonequilibrium concentration and velocity fields that they generate endow them with properties that differ from their equilibrium counterparts. In particular, collections of such shakers can actively move, reorient, and self-assemble into various cluster states, which are the subject of this paper.

Neuroprotective effects and possible mechanisms of berberine in animal models of Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Recently, multiple preclinical studies have reported the beneficial effect of berberine in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, the neuroprotective effects and possible mechanisms of berberine against AD are not universally recognized. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis by integrating relevant animal studies to assess the neuroprotective effects and potential mechanisms of berberine on AD.

Multimodal Classification of Alzheimer's Disease and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Integrated 18F-FDG PET and DTI Study.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline and memory impairment. Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is the intermediate stage between normal cognitive aging and early dementia caused by AD. It can be challenging to differentiate aMCI patients from healthy controls (HC) and mild AD patients.

Two New Zn(II)/Cu(II) Compounds: Photoluminescent and Photocatalytic Properties, and Protective Activity on Parkinson Disease.

Two coordination polymers, that is [Zn(pdc)(im)(HO)] (1) and [Cu(pdc)(im)]·n(Hpdc) (2) (Hpdc = terephthalic acid, im = imidazole), were hydrothermally synthesized via the reactions of Hpdc and im in combination with Zn(II) or Cu(II) ions. Compound 1 shows intense blue luminescence and compound 2 shows good photocatalytic activity for the methyl violet degradation under the irradiation of ultraviolet light. In addition, the assessment of the two compounds' application values against Parkinson's disease were carried out and their specific mechanism was tested simultaneously.

Relapses shortly after rituximab treatment in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.

Objective: Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, has been demonstrated to be a useful maintenance therapy for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). However, few patients may suffer from relapses shortly after RTX. In order to investigate the clinical features of RTX-related relapses and guide therapeutic strategy, 3 patients in our department were reported and literatures were reviewed.

CD24 Contributes to Treatment Effect in ABC-DLBCL Patients with R-CHOP Resistance.

Purpose: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and of which the prognosis of activated B-cell-like (ABC) subtype is poor. Although R-CHOP significantly improves the survival of patients with DLBCL, 20% to 40% of patients were resistant to R-CHOP therapy. Thus, screening for candidate therapeutic targets for R-CHOP resistant patients is urgent.

The dynamics and self-assembly of chemically self-propelled sphere dimers.

The dynamics of chemically powered sphere dimers at the micro- and nano-scales confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry are investigated. The dimer consists of a Janus particle and a non-catalytic sphere. A chemical reaction taking place on the catalytic surface of the Janus particle creates asymmetric concentration gradients that give rise to the self-propulsion of both rotation and translation of the dimer.

Stem Cell Therapy for Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease caused by eventually aggregated amyloid β (Aβ) plaques in degenerating neurons of the aging brain. These aggregated protein plaques mainly consist of Aβ fibrils and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) of phosphorylated tau protein. Even though some cholinesterase inhibitors, NMDA receptor antagonist, and monoclonal antibodies were developed to inhibit neurodegeneration or activate neural regeneration or clear off the Aβ deposits, none of the treatment is effective in improving the cognitive and memory dysfunctions of the AD patients.

Transverse myelitis associated with primary biliary cirrhosis: clinical, laboratory, and neuroradiological features.

Purpose: Only five patients diagnosed with transverse myelitis (TM) associated with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) have been reported in the literature to date. We report two additional patients with TM associated with PBC at our hospital and review all seven cases.

Materials And Methods: An association between neuromyelitis optic spectrum disease (NMOSD) and PBC is reported for the first time in one of our patients.

Multiparametric imaging hippocampal neurodegeneration and functional connectivity with simultaneous PET/MRI in Alzheimer's disease.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the hippocampal neurodegeneration and its associated aberrant functions in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients using simultaneous PET/MRI.

Methods: Forty-two cognitively normal controls (NC), 38 MCI, and 22 AD patients were enrolled in this study. All subjects underwent F-FDG PET/functional MRI (fMRI) and high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scans on a hybrid GE Signa PET/MRI scanner.

Prediction models of bit errors for NAND flash memory using 200 days of measured data.

NAND flash memory, with its excellent storage performance, has become a leader in storage media for scientific instruments. With improvements in the manufacturing technique, its reliability is decreasing. Thus, methods for improving the storage reliability of scientific instruments has become a major topic.

Pair Interaction of Catalytical Sphere Dimers in Chemically Active Media.

We study the pair dynamics of two self-propelled sphere dimers in the chemically active medium in which a cubic autocatalytic chemical reaction takes place. Concentration gradient around the dimer, created by reactions occurring on the catalytic sphere surface and responsible for the self-propulsion, is greatly influenced by the chemical activities of the environment. Consequently, the pair dynamics of two dimers mediated by the concentration field are affected.

Effectiveness and safety of immunosuppressive therapy in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder during pregnancy.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of immunosuppressive therapy in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) during pregnancy.

Methods: Sixteen NMOSD patients who had at least one pregnancy after NMOSD onset were enrolled. The patients were divided into two groups according to whether they received immunosuppressive therapy during pregnancy.

Axial MR diffusion tensor imaging and tractography in clinical diagnosed and pathology confirmed cervical spinal cord astrocytoma.

Objective: To evaluate the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) features of cervical spinal cord astrocytoma.

Methods: Eleven patients with cervical spinal cord astrocytomas and 10 healthy volunteers were recruited in this study. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and axial DTI were performed on a 3.

Minimum-action paths for wave-number selection in nonequilibrium systems.

The problem of wave-number selections in nonequilibrium pattern-forming systems in the presence of noise is investigated. The minimum-action method is proposed to study the noise-induced transitions between the different spatiotemporal states by generalizing the traditional theory previously applied in low-dimensional dynamical systems. The scheme is shown as an example in the stabilized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation.

Directly estimating endmembers for compressive hyperspectral images.

The large volume of hyperspectral images (HSI) generated creates huge challenges for transmission and storage, making data compression more and more important. Compressive Sensing (CS) is an effective data compression technology that shows that when a signal is sparse in some basis, only a small number of measurements are needed for exact signal recovery. Distributed CS (DCS) takes advantage of both intra- and inter- signal correlations to reduce the number of measurements needed for multichannel-signal recovery.

A two-year follow-up study of cotransplantation with neural stem/progenitor cells and mesenchymal stromal cells in ischemic stroke patients.

Stem cell therapy is an emerging therapeutic modality in the treatment of stroke. We assessed the safety and feasibility of the cotransplantation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in patients with ischemic stroke. Eight patients were enrolled in this study.

Asymmetric programming: a highly reliable metadata allocation strategy for MLC NAND flash memory-based sensor systems.

While the NAND flash memory is widely used as the storage medium in modern sensor systems, the aggressive shrinking of process geometry and an increase in the number of bits stored in each memory cell will inevitably degrade the reliability of NAND flash memory. In particular, it's critical to enhance metadata reliability, which occupies only a small portion of the storage space, but maintains the critical information of the file system and the address translations of the storage system. Metadata damage will cause the system to crash or a large amount of data to be lost.

Arachnoid involved in idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis.

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shows inflammatory changes in patients with idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis (IHP), which is a rare disorder. However, systemic CSF research including immunoglobulins in patients with IHP are substantially lacking. In the study, clinical, laboratory, neuroradiologic and therapeutic data from 9 patients with IHP were retrospectively studied, and CSF changes were analyzed.

Olanzapine-induced restless legs syndrome.

Only nine patients with olanzapine-induced restless legs syndrome (RLS) have been reported in the literature to our knowledge. We describe two patients with olanzapine-induced RLS treated at our hospital and review the nine reported patients. There were five women and six men aged between 28 and 62 years in the overall group.

Idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis: clinical, laboratory and neuroradiologic features in China.

Hypertrophic pachymeningitis is a rare chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by marked fibrous thickening of the cerebral and/or spinal dura mater. Clinical, laboratory, neuroradiologic and therapeutic data from 12 patients with idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis (IHP) from our department were retrospectively studied. There were four men and eight women with a mean age of 49±15.

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and the reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease in the absence of apolipoprotein E4 allele.

Our cross-sectional study showed that the interaction between apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors was associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this longitudinal study was to differentiate whether ACE inhibitors accelerate or reduce the risk of AD in the context of ApoE alleles. Using the longitudinal data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) with ApoE genotyping and documentation of ACE inhibitors use, we found that in the absence of ApoE4, subjects who had been taking central ACE inhibitor use (χ2 test: 21% versus 27%, p = 0.

Plasma Amyloid-β Peptides and Homocysteine in Depression in the Homebound Elderly.

Objectives: Both plasma amyloid-β peptide 40 (Aβ40) and homocysteine (tHcy) are linked to vascular disease, which is related to depression in the elderly. We sought to study whether the relationship between tHcy and plasma Aβ40 differs in those with and without depression.

Study Design And Methods: In a cross-sectional study of 1058 homebound elders, vascular depression was defined as a score ≥ 16 on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) along with self-reported cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Inhibition of lysosomal functions reduces proteasomal activity.

Protein accumulation and aggregation are signatures of several major neurodegenerative diseases. Proteasomal- and lysosomal-mediated protein degradation pathways are the two major pathways for intracellular protein degradation. Cross-regulation between these two pathways may be important for protein homeostasis.

Lysosomal enzyme cathepsin D protects against alpha-synuclein aggregation and toxicity.

α-synuclein (α-syn) is a main component of Lewy bodies (LB) that occur in many neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with LB (DLB) and multi-system atrophy. α-syn mutations or amplifications are responsible for a subset of autosomal dominant familial PD cases, and overexpression causes neurodegeneration and motor disturbances in animals. To investigate mechanisms for α-syn accumulation and toxicity, we studied a mouse model of lysosomal enzyme cathepsin D (CD) deficiency, and found extensive accumulation of endogenous α-syn in neurons without overabundance of α-syn mRNA.