[Effects of moxibustion at Yongquan (KI 1) on cognition function and lower limb motor function in patients with post-stroke cognitive impairment of kidney essence deficiency].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of moxibustion at Yongquan（KI 1） on the cognitive function and lower limb motor function in patients with post-stroke cognitive impairment of kidney essence deficiency. METHODS: Eighty-four patients with post-stroke cognitive impairment of kidney essence deficiency were randomly divided into an observation group（42 cases，1 case dropped off）and a control group（42 cases，1 case dropped off）.The control group was treated with medication，electroacupuncture，rehabilitation training and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation（rTMS）；on the basis of the treatment as the control group，moxibustion at bilateral Yongquan（KI 1）was adopted in the observation group.Both groups were treated once a day，5 days a week with 2-day interval，4 weeks were required. The Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) score, mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score, Fugl-Meyer assessment-lower extremity (FMA-LE) score, Berg balance scale (BBS) score, functional independence measure (FIM) score, modified fall efficacy scale (MFES) score and scale for the differentiation of syndromes of vascular dementia (SDSVD) score before and after treatment were observed in the two groups. RESULTS: After treatment，the MoCA, MMSE, FMA-LE, BBS, FIM and MFES scores were higher than those before treatment in both groups (P<0.05), and the scores in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). After treatment，the SDSVD scores were lower than those before treatment in both groups (P< 0.05), and the SDSVD score in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: Moxibustion at Yongquan（KI 1） can improve the cognitive function and motor and balance function of lower limbs in patients with post-stroke cognitive impairment of kidney essence deficiency，reduce the risk of fall and improve the quality of life.

[Characteristics of Ozone Pollution and High-impact Meteorological Factors in Urban Cities: A Case of Suzhou].

The problem of urban ozone (O3) pollution has become prominent in recent years. However, the meteorological factors associated with O3 pollution remain unclear. Analyzing the characteristics of O3 pollution in Suzhou, as a typical urban city, and exploring the high-impact meteorological factors with O3 pollution are crucial to the prevention and control of air pollution in this region. This study used correlation analysis and machine learning methods to analyze the variation in O3 concentration and the relationship between meteorological driving factors in Suzhou based on the O3 concentration data provided by Suzhou Environmental Monitoring Center and the contemporaneous meteorological observation data in Suzhou from April to September in 2015 to 2020. The results showed that: ① O3 pollution exceeding the standard rate was more than 20% in ozone seasons during the past six years; further, pollution days of O3 and the number of pollution days of O3 as the primary pollutant increased yearly. Evidently, the problem of O3 pollution has become increasingly prominent. ② The diurnal variations in O3 were unimodal with the valley point at 07:00 and the highest peak between 15:00 and 16:00. Similar trends were found in diurnal variations of both air temperature and solar radiation, but the daily highest peak came earlier than that of O3. The results also showed an apparent weekend effect of O3 concentration in 2017 and 2019 and a significant correlation between O3 concentration and solar irradiance during the week. In addition, the monthly variation in O3 concentration and pollution exceeding the standard rate was bimodal. ③The occurrence of ozone pollution was affected by various meteorological conditions. The maximum number of days appeared when daily sunshine hours lasted longer than 7 hours, with a daily maximum air temperature around 30℃, solar irradiance ranging from 350 to 440 kW·m-2, and relative humidity ranging from 50% to 75%, at which time the intensity of pollution was the strongest. When the wind speed of easterly wind was less than 1.5 m·s-1, or the wind speed of southwest wind was less than 3.5 m·s-1, moderate ozone pollution occurred. ④ An optimal prediction model of O3 concentration was established based on machine learning, which had good predictive ability for O3 concentration in April, May, July, and September but did not perform well when O3 concentration exceeded 200 µg·m-3. Meanwhile, it was found that solar radiation had the most obvious effect on O3 concentration, followed by relative humidity, whereas the temperature and wind were less important than the former two factors.

Evaluation of Subjective Sleep Disturbances in Cancer Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Radiotherapy Department.

Background: The factors associated with sleep disturbances in cancer patients remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the prevalence of sleep disorders and predictors associated with sleep disturbance in cancer patients from a radiotherapy department. Methods: Patients with cancers were recruited before the start of radiotherapy from our institution between January 2019 and February 2020. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scale was used to assess sleep quality. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to conduct statistical analysis. Results: A total of 330 eligible patients were included. Of them, 38.3% (n = 127) had the globe PSQI score >7, indicating that they suffered from sleep disorders. Patients with lung cancer (45.2%) were more likely to suffer from sleep disturbance, followed by cervical cancer (43.8%), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (41.7%), esophageal cancer (41.5%), breast cancer (37.7%), and colorectal cancer (30%). With regard to the PSQI components, the mean sleep duration was 8 h, 20.3% (n = 67) of them reported poor subjective sleep quality, 6.1% (n = 20) needed medication to improve sleep, and 53.6% (n = 177) suffered daytime dysfunction. Multivariate logistic regression models showed body mass index (BMI) ≥ 20 kg/m2 [odds ratio (OR) 0.599, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.329-0.948, P = 0.031] and the receipt of surgery (OR 0.507, 95% CI 0.258-0.996, P = 0.048) were the significant favorable predictors for sleep disturbance, while age, gender, marital status, education level, comorbidity, metastasis status, diagnostic status, and cancer type were not significantly associated with sleep disturbance. Conclusions: Approximately 40% of the cancer patients suffer from sleep disturbance before the start of radiotherapy. Patients with BMI ≥ 20 kg/m2 and receiving surgery are less likely to develop sleep disturbance in comparison with others.

Porous polycarbene-bearing membrane actuator for ultrasensitive weak-acid detection and real-time chemical reaction monitoring.

Soft actuators with integration of ultrasensitivity and capability of simultaneous interaction with multiple stimuli through an entire event ask for a high level of structure complexity, adaptability, and/or multi-responsiveness, which is a great challenge. Here, we develop a porous polycarbene-bearing membrane actuator built up from ionic complexation between a poly(ionic liquid) and trimesic acid (TA). The actuator features two concurrent structure gradients, i.e., an electrostatic complexation (EC) degree and a density distribution of a carbene-NH3 adduct (CNA) along the membrane cross-section. The membrane actuator performs the highest sensitivity among the state-of-the-art soft proton actuators toward acetic acid at 10-6 mol L-1 (M) level in aqueous media. Through competing actuation of the two gradients, it is capable of monitoring an entire process of proton-involved chemical reactions that comprise multiple stimuli and operational steps. The present achievement constitutes a significant step toward real-life application of soft actuators in chemical sensing and reaction technology.

Short-Fragment DNA Residue from Vaccine Purification Processes Promotes Immune Response to the New Inactivated EV71 Vaccine by Upregulating TLR9 mRNA.

To reduce potential oncogenic long genomic DNA in vaccines, nuclease treatment has been applied in the purification processes. However, this action increased the residue of short-fragment DNA and its effect on vaccine potency was still elusive. In this study, we found residual sf-DNA in an inactivated EV71 vaccine could enhance humoral immune response in mice. Ag stimulation in vitro and vaccine injection in vivo revealed that TLR9 transcription level was elevated, indicating that sf-DNA could activate TLR9. These new findings will help us to understand the molecular mechanism induced by vero-cell culture-derived vaccines.