Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is closely associated with frailty, and prevention of acute exacerbations is important for disease management. Moreover, COPD patients with frailty experience a higher risk of acute exacerbations. However, the frailty instruments that can better predict acute exacerbations remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeoxynivalenol (DON) is a significant Fusarium toxin that has gained global attention due to its high frequency of contamination in food and feed. It was reported to have hepatotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and reproduction toxicity in organs. On the other hand, Selenomethionine (SeMet) was proven to have anti-oxidation, tissue repairing, immunity improvement, and antifungal mycotoxin infection functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Research on the health checkup status of urban residents in Southwest China is limited. In this study, we aimed to investigate the current status of health checkups and explore their influencing factors by analyzing the cognition, attitudes, and practices of urban residents in Southwest China.
Methods: We sampled 1200 urban residents for a questionnaire survey.
Micromachines (Basel)
August 2019
This paper presents a positioning error model and a control compensation scheme for a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) micro-positioner based on a compliant mechanism and piezoelectric actuators (PZT). The positioning error model is established by means of the kinematic model of the compliant mechanism and complete differential coefficient theory, which includes the relationships between three typical errors (hysteresis, machining and measuring errors) and the total positioning error. The quantitative analysis of three errors is demonstrated through several experimental studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe piezoelectric-actuated flexure-based compliant platform is commonly adopted in many fields of micro and nanotechnology. In this paper, bond graph modeling, and kinematic and dynamic characteristics of a piezoelectric-actuated micro-/nano compliant platform system are investigated. During modeling, the bond graph model of the piezoelectric actuator (PZT) is derived by considering both the electrical domain and the mechanical domain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSOCS3 has been postulated to play a role in the occurrence and progression of malignancies. However, the relationship of SOCS3 with colorectal carcinoma remains poorly understood. The purpose of the study was to explore the role of SOCS3 in colorectal carcinoma and its underlying mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute lung injury (ALI) induced by intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (II/R) has high incidence and mortality, in which IL-1β was essential for the full development of ALI. However, the detailed regulating mechanism for this phenomenon remains to be unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether inhibition of P38 MAPK could downregulate the expression of IL-1β to protect lung from acute injury in II/R rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistorical levels of Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, As, Fe, Al and Mn were found in C1 and C2 sediment cores from the Hejiang River, which is located in a typical mining region of Southern China, the levels date back approximately 57 and 83 years. Temporal variations in the core C1 around the mining peaked in the 1960s, after which they exhibited a decreasing trend, which reflects successful government management. Historical events such as the Pacific War and China's first 5-year economic plan were recorded in core C2, which was collected from the downstream portion of the Hejiang River.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFifteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 41 surface sediment samples and a sediment core (50 cm) from the Beibu Gulf, a significant low-latitude developing gulf, were analyzed. PAHs concentrations were 3.01-388 ng g(-)(1) (mean 95.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Lijiang River is a typical karst river of southwestern China. Karst-aquifer systems are more vulnerable to contamination compared to other types of aquifers. The occurrence and distribution of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in surface sediments from the Lijiang River were investigated to evaluate their potential ecological risks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe temporal distribution of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) was examined in the (210)Pb dated sediment core from the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea. The total OCPs concentrations were in the range of 0.93-26.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) has been proposed as a peptidergic molecule for behavioral fear and itching. Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization studies have shown that GRP and GRP receptor are widely distributed in forebrain areas. Less information is available for the functional action for GRP in the prefrontal cortex including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional receptive fields of neurons in sensory cortices undergo progressive refinement during development. Such refinement may be attributed to the pruning of non-optimal excitatory inputs, reshaping of the excitatory tuning profile through modifying the strengths of individual inputs, or strengthening of cortical inhibition. These models have not been directly tested because of the technical difficulties in assaying the spatiotemporal patterns of functional synaptic inputs during development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSynaptic inputs underlying spike receptive fields are important for understanding mechanisms of neuronal processing. Using whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings from neurons in mouse primary visual cortex, we examined the spatial patterns of their excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs evoked by On and Off stimuli. Neurons with either segregated or overlapped On/Off spike subfields had substantial overlaps between all the four synaptic subfields.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSynaptic inhibition plays an important role in shaping receptive field (RF) properties in the visual cortex. However, the underlying mechanisms remain not well understood, partly because of difficulties in systematically studying functional properties of cortical inhibitory neurons in vivo. Here, we established two-photon imaging guided cell-attached recordings from genetically labeled inhibitory neurons and nearby "shadowed" excitatory neurons in the primary visual cortex of adult mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntensity-tuned neurons, characterized by their nonmonotonic response-level function, may play important roles in the encoding of sound intensity-related information. The synaptic mechanisms underlying intensity tuning remain unclear. Here, in vivo whole-cell recordings in rat auditory cortex revealed that intensity-tuned neurons, mostly clustered in a posterior zone, receive imbalanced tone-evoked excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs.
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