Fair non-contact blood pressure estimation using imaging photoplethysmography.

Hypertension is typically manifested as a latent symptom that requires detection through specialized equipment. This poses an inconvenience for individuals who need to undergo long-term blood pressure monitoring in their daily lives. Therefore, there is a need for a portable, non-contact method for estimating blood pressure. However, current non-contact blood pressure estimation methods often rely on relatively narrow datasets, lacking a broad range of blood pressure distributions. Additionally, their applicability is confined to controlled experimental environments. This study proposes a non-contact blood pressure estimation method suitable for various life scenarios, encompassing multiple age groups, diverse ethnicities, and individuals with different skin tones. The aim is to enhance the practicality and accuracy of existing non-contact blood pressure estimation methods. The research extracts the imaging photoplethysmogram (IPPG) signal from facial videos and processes the signal through four layers of filtering operations to obtain an IPPG signal reflecting pulse wave variations. A CNN+BiLSTM+GRU network structure is constructed to improve the accuracy of current non-contact blood pressure estimation methods. In comparison to existing approaches, the mean absolute error (MAE) for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) is reduced by 13.6% and 16.4%, respectively.

Selective Cocatalyst Decoration of Narrow-Bandgap Broken-Gap Heterojunction for Directional Charge Transfer and High Photocatalytic Properties.

Narrow-bandgap semiconductors are promising photocatalysts facing the challenges of low photoredox potentials and high carrier recombination. Here, a broken-gap heterojunction Bi/Bi2 S3 /Bi/MnO2 /MnOx , composed of narrow-bandgap semiconductors, is selectively decorated by Bi, MnOx nanodots (NDs) to achieve robust photoredox ability. The Bi NDs insertion at the Bi2 S3 /MnO2 interface induces a vertical carrier migration to realize sufficient photoredox potentials to produce O2 •- and • OH active species. The surface decoration of Bi2 S3 /Bi/MnO2 by Bi and MnOx cocatalysts drives electrons and holes in opposite directions for optimal photogenerated charge separation. The selective cocatalysts decoration realizes synergistic surface and bulk phase carrier separation. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation suggests that Bi and MnOx NDs act as active sites enhancing the absorption and reactants activation. The decorated broken-gap heterojunction demonstrates excellent performance for full-light driving organic pollution degradation with great commercial application potential.

Evaluation of Relationships between Corticospinal Excitability and Somatosensory Deficits in the Acute and Subacute Phases of Stroke.

BACKGROUND: Somatosensory deficits are common symptoms post stroke. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the motor cortex is able to promote motor rehabilitation, whereby its impact on somatosensory functioning remains unknown. This study was designed to evaluate the association between somatosensory deficits and corticospinal excitability following stroke, with the purpose to provide insights on rTMS interventions for the management of somatosensory deficits. METHODS: Somatosensory functioning and corticospinal excitability (motor-evoked potential, MEP; cortical silence period, CSP) were evaluated from a group of sixteen patients with unilateral ischemic stroke in the acute or subacute phase. RESULTS: Results indicated that the uncommon presentation of larger MEPs in ipsilesional vs. contralesional motor cortex was associated with worse somatosensory function compared to those with a smaller MEP in ipsilesional motor cortex. Moreover, increased MEP ratio (ipsilesional vs. contralesional motor cortex) was associated with better somatosensory function in patients with well-preserved somatosensory function. CONCLUSIONS: In well-recovered patients, an increased MEP ratio between the ipsilesional and contralesional motor cortex could be an indicator of improved somatosensory functioning following stroke.

Sodium-Based Cylindrical Plasmonic Waveguides in the Near-Infrared.

Subwavelength optical field confinement and low-loss propagation are of great significance for compact photonic integration. However, the field confinement capability of plasmonic devices is always accompanied by the inherent Ohmic loss. Although recent studies have shown that sodium (Na) exhibits lower loss than noble metals in the near-infrared band, the field confinement ability has not been adequately assessed. Meanwhile, the high chemical reactivity of Na should be regulated for practical application. Two dielectric-coated Na nanowires, consisting of cylindrical Na nanowires with one or two dielectric layers as claddings, are proposed and investigated in this paper. Based on finite element calculations, we thoroughly study the modal fields and low-loss propagation properties of dielectric-coated Na nanowires. The results demonstrate that Na exhibits lower loss and stronger field confinement than the typical plasmonic material silver. These findings indicate the performance of plasmonic devices can be considerably improved by employing the metal Na compared with devices using noble metals, which may promote the applications in subwavelength photonic devices.

MiR-10b-3p Protects Cerebral I/R Injury through Targeting Programmed Cell Death 5 (PDCD5).

Previous studies have demonstrated that miR-10b-3p is significantly downregulated in rats after cerebral ischemia injury, and this study aimed to investigate the effect of miR-10b-3p in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. The oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) induced SH-SY5Y cell model and middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO) rats were constructed to investigate the role of miR-10b-3p and underline the regulatory mechanism of miR-10b-3p/PDCD5 axis in cerebral I/R injury. The expression of miR-10b-3p and PDCD5 was evaluated by qRT-PCR and Western blot. The binding relationship between miR-10b-3p and PDCD5 was determined by bioinformatic analysis and luciferase reporter assay. Cell proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay and Edu staining assay. The apoptosis was assessed by TUNEL staining assay and flow cytometry. MiR-10b-3p was significantly downregulated and PDCD5 was upregulated both in OGD/R induced SH-SY5Y cells and the brain tissues of MCAO/R rats. Luciferase reporter assay determined that miR-10b-3p could directly bind to the 3' UTR of PDCD5 and negatively regulate its expression. MiR-10b-3p overexpression could efficiently inhibit cell viability and proliferation, induce apoptosis of OGD/R-induced SH-SY5Y cells in vitro, and attenuate cerebral I/R injury of MCAO rats in vivo. Silencing of PDCD5 showed similar effect to miR-10b-3p mimics, while PDCD5 overexpression significantly reversed the protective effects of miR-10b-3p mimics on cerebral I/R injury. In summary, our results revealed that miR-10b-3p alleviated cerebral I/R injury partly through targeting PDCD5 and indicated that miR-10b-3p might be a potential target for ischemic stroke.

Single and simultaneous effects of naphthalene and salinity on anaerobic digestion: Response surface methodology, microbial community analysis and potential functions prediction.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a persistent and prevalent class of pollutants in petroleum-contaminated saline environment, which pose potential harm to organisms. Researches on anaerobic biodegradation of PAHs are gradually emerging, but the response of anaerobic microorganisms to salinity changes and the co-effects of salinity and PAHs in anaerobic digestion (AD) system have seldom been reported. Thus, we investigated the variations of AD system performance and anaerobic microbial community caused by different concentrations of naphthalene (Nap) or/and NaCl based on Box-Behnken Design (0 mg/L ≤ Nap ≤150 mg/L, 0 g/L ≤ NaCl ≤25 g/L). The promoted efficiencies of acidogenesis and methanogenesis were found in presence of moderate NaCl or Nap, but high salinity (NaCl >4.4 g/L) weakened AD performance. Moreover, the high salinity (NaCl >4.4 g/L) and Nap resulted in reduced microbial Ca2+ Mg2+- ATPase activity, poor EPS secretion and the highest difference of the microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and synergistically inhibited AD process. Microbiological analysis revealed that the relative abundance of Clostridium and acetoclastic Methanosaeta was increased by 2.01 times and 2.17 times in single Nap treated group compared to control. With the simultaneous addition of NaCl and Nap, Proteiniphilum and hydrogenotrophic methanogens (Methanobacterium, Methanofollis, and Methanolinea) occupied the major abundance. Potential functions prediction indicated that high salinity could disrupt the co-metabolism between carbohydrate metabolism and Nap degradation. This study provides basis for anaerobic bioremediation of PAHs-polluted saline environment.

Anaerobic co-digestion of chicken manure and cardboard waste: Focusing on methane production, microbial community analysis and energy evaluation.

This study aimed to investigate the synergistic effect and microbial community changes between chicken manure (CM) and cardboard (CB) during anaerobic co-digestion. Meanwhile, the energy balance of biogas engineering was extrapolated based on the batch tests. In batch tests, co-digestion system achieved the highest improvement (14.2%) and produced 319.62 mL CH4/gVS with a 65:35 ratio of CB: CM. More extracellular polymeric substance secretion promoted the electron transfer for acidogenesis and more hydrolase was provided with 31.6% improvement. The microbial analysis illustrated that higher acetoclastic Methanosaeta abundance was achieved, leading to 211% enhancement of acetoclastic pathway. Moreover, associated network illustrated that the higher methane production was mainly achieved through matching of hydrolytic bacteria and acidogenesis bacteria. As for energy balance, the synergistic effect increased the energy output by 38% and energy recovery to 46.4%.

Fabricating Pyramidal Lattice Structures of 304 L Stainless Steel by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing.

Lattice structures have drawn considerable attention due to their superior mechanical properties. However, the existing fabrication methods for lattice structures require complex procedures, as they have low material utilization and lead to unreliable node connections, which greatly restricts their application. In this work, wire arc additive manufacturing is used to fabricate large-scale lattice structures efficiently, without any air holes between rods and panels. The principle and the process of fabricating the rods were analyzed systematically. The influence of the two most important parameters, including heat input and preset layer height, is disclosed. Through optical microscopy, the microstructure of the fabricated steel rods is found to consist of dendritic austenite and skeletal ferrite. The tensile strength of the rods can reach 603 MPa, and their elongation reaches 77%. These experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of fabricating lattice structures using wire arc additive manufacturing.

Enhancement methane fermentation of Enteromorpha prolifera waste by Saccharomyces cerevisiae: batch kinetic investigation, dissolved organic matter characterization, and synergistic mechanism.

With the invasion of green tide, there were millions of tons of Enteromorpha prolifera (Enteromorpha) that need to be disposed of. An efficient microecological system for Enteromorpha fermentation was constructed using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) and granular sludge at mesophilic condition (35 °C). In order to investigate the influence of S. cerevisiae dosage on fermentation, biomethane production and variations in dissolved organic matter (DOM) were investigated. The results indicated that the microecosystem with added S. cerevisiae exhibited improved fermentation capacity. Specifically, biomethane production was improved by 18%, with a maximum methane yield of 331 mL/g VS, and the time required to reach 90% methane yield was reduced by 41%. There were positive linear relationships between S. cerevisiae dosage and the efficiency of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis (R2 > 0.9). According to theoretical calculations, there was a positive effect of lower S. cerevisiae dosage (less than 0.93 g/g TS) on biomethane production, and excess dosage (more than 0.93 g/g TS) led to a negative effect due to volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation. The excitation-emission matrix (EEM) indicated that the humification index (HIX) and fulvic acid (FA) percentage of fluorescence regional integration in the system were decreased because the quinone and ketone groups of the FA accepted electrons from S. cerevisiae. These findings suggested that this microecosystem can accelerate fermentation speed (41%) and increase biomethane output (18.2%). The synergistic effect of Enteromorpha fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae addition.

Accelerated bio-methane production rate in thermophilic digestion of cardboard with appropriate biochar: Dose-response kinetic assays, hybrid synergistic mechanism, and microbial networks analysis.

The effect of biochar on the thermophilic digestion of mono-cardboard was investigated. Compared with control group (T0), the maximum rate of biomethane production was significantly improved after the addition of biochar, especially, it has been improved by 40.6% in T1 (0.77 g/gTS sludge) with the methane production of 89.28 mL/gVS. Also, the addition of biochar improved the efficiency of acidogenesis and acetogenesis. However, adverse effects were observed with the biomethane production decreased by 33.98% and the lag phase extended by 35 h in T5 (3.86 g/gTS sludge). Especially, the results showed that the adsorption of biochar played important roles in digestion. In addition, acetoclastic Methanosaeta which considered to be involved in interspecific electron transfer (IET) was enriched after biochar added and the highest diversity of acetogens was obtained in T1. Oppositely, microbial networks analysis showed that the excessive biochar may destroy the diversity of microorganism drastically.

Revealing the correlation of biomethane generation, DOM fluorescence, and microbial community in the mesophilic co-digestion of chicken manure and sheep manure at different mixture ratio.

Batch co-digestion tests of chicken manure (CM) and sheep manure (SM) at different ratio (Rs/c) were conducted under mesophilic condition (35 °C). Batch kinetic analysis of bioCH4 production, excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence of dissolved organic matter (DOM), and microbial community were investigated. The well-fitted modified Gompertz model (R2, 0.98-0.99) resulted that the co-digestion markedly improved the methane production rate and shortened the lag phase time. The highest bioCH4 yield of 219.67 mL/gVSadd and maximum production rate of 0.378 mL/gVSadd/h were obtained at an optimum Rs/c of 0.4. Additionally, a significant variation of DOM was detected at the Rs/c of 0.4 with a consistent degradation of soluble microbial byproduct-like and protein-like organics. The positive synergy effects of co-digestion conspicuously enhanced the bioCH4 production efficiency. FI370 and NADH were significantly correlated to Rs/c (p < 0.05). Moreover, the correlations among process indicator, EEM-peaks and different environmental parameters were evaluated by Pearson correlation analysis. The high diversity of acetoclastic methanogens and hydrogenotrophic methanogens in the co-digestion improved the stability of process. Graphical Abstract.

Differences between central nervous system infection and neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is a manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Central nervous system (CNS) infection is a consequence of intensive immunosuppressive therapy that patients with SLE might undergo. This study aimed to compare the differences between NPSLE and CNS infections in patients with SLE. Methods Patients with SLE and NPSLE or CNS infections were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical manifestations, laboratory test results, and prognoses were recorded. The independent sample t-test or chi-square test was used to compare data. Results Patients with CNS infections (n = 20) had more serious headache, high fever (>39.0°C), and vomiting compared with patients with NPSLE (n = 48). Patients with CNS infections also had a larger prednisone dose at the time of symptom onset, larger cumulative dosages over the preceding year, lower SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) scores, higher rate of nephritis, lower albumin levels, higher C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, higher 24-h-urine protein levels, higher cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) white blood cell levels, and lower protein and glucose levels than those with NPSLE. Conclusions For patients with SLE presenting with CNS symptoms, serious headache, high fever, a high dose of corticosteroids, low SLEDAI scores, and abnormal CSF are more important indicators for CNS infections than NPSLE.

Regioselective and Direct Azidation of Anilines via Cu(II)-Catalyzed C-H Functionalization in Water.

We report herein the first example of Cu(II)-catalyzed site selective azidation of aromatic amines via C-H functionalization in aqueous media. In our strategy, a mild reagent was utilized. H2O2 served as the oxidant, and sodium azide was used as the azidation reagent. This method could also be applied to late-stage functionalization of drugs that possess an aromatic amine moiety. In addition, we found that bromination or iodination on the ortho-position of aromatic amines could occur efficiently using this catalytic system.

The correlation between quality of life and social support in female nurses.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between quality of life and social support in female nurses. BACKGROUND: Nurses play an important role in providing care and managing patients' health in hospitals. However, limited studies have shown an association between quality of life and social support in female nurses in China. DESIGN: Questionnaire survey. METHODS: To investigate 320 full-time female nurses in different departments at four comprehensive hospitals in Harbin with a cross-sectional correlational design using questionnaires. A demographic data questionnaire, menopause-specific quality of life questionnaire and social support scale were used. RESULTS: The scores on the physical (36·93 ± 17·65) and psychological (17·57 ± 9·45) subscales were higher than those of the vasomotor (4·88 ± 3·48) and sexual (4·53 ± 3·23) subscales of quality of life. The average score of objective support (25·12 ± 4·32) was higher than those of subjective support (9·80 ± 3·04) and utilisation of social support (7·80 ± 1·97). A significant association between quality of life and social support was found (p < 0·01). CONCLUSIONS: Social support influenced quality of life. Social support as a buffer for pressure can influence individual stress perception, help individuals cope with pressure and reduce the negative impact of stress on mental and physical health, thus improving different aspects of health. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Enhancing social support in an active environment would allow female nurses to enjoy a better quality of life in their clinical practice.

[Treatment of rectus recession-suspension on posterior sclera surgery for restrictive strabismus in thyroid associated ophthalmopathy].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the oblique angle, diplopia and stereoacuity before and after rectus recession-suspension on posterior sclera surgery in patients with restrictive strabismus caused by thyroid associated ophthalmopathy (TAO). METHODS: Data from 18 patients (19 eyes) with restrictive strabismus caused by TAO, who underwent rectus recession-suspension on posterior sclera surgery from July 2010 to June 2013 in Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, were analyzed retrospectively. Eight patients (8 eyes) or 5 patients (5 eyes) with hypotropia were operated with inferior rectus recession or superior rectus recession. Two patients (2 eyes) with esohypertropia or 3 patients (4 eyes) with esotropia were operated with inferior rectus recession plus medial rectus recession or medial rectus recession. Two patients (1 hypotropia, 1 esotropia) underwent orbital decompression surgery before strabismus surgery. All patients were performed rectus recession-suspension on posterior sclera surgery, and the oblique angle, diplopia view and stereopsis test were examined before and after the operation. RESULTS: All patients were followed up for more than 6 months. The preoperative prism were 20(Δ)- 80(Δ) and postoperative prism were 2(Δ)-10(Δ). There was diplopia on the primary position before surgery in 16 patients. After surgery, the diplopia in 14 patients disappeared on the primary and 15° down gaze, and 2 patients had not diplopia on the primary position but residual diplopia on inferior field. Two patients had stereopsis before surgery, and the numbers of patients raised to 14 after surgery. Compared with pre-operation, changes of the above measured indexs in post-operation were significant difference (all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The rectus recession-suspension on posterior sclera surgery is effective to improve oblique angle and diplopia in restrictive strabismus caused by TAO, which can improve patient's living quality.

Chromatographic enantioseparations of binaphthyl compounds on an immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phase.

Seven binaphthyl compounds were enantioseparated by HPLC with an immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phase, Chiralpak IA. The experiments were performed under normal-phase conditions. Effects of polar modifier and column temperature on the retention time and separation factor were evaluated. All examined compounds obtained complete resolutions. This was the unique one ever reported that 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol and its monoether, diether and diester derivatives could all be enantioseparated on a given CSP. Apparent thermodynamic parameters were also deduced from Van't Hoff plots, and some aspects of chiral recognition mechanism were discussed further.