Comparison of the Efficacy and Safety Between Intravenous Thrombolysis, Direct Endovascular Therapy, and Bridging Therapy for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion in Cerebral Infarction Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of intravenous thrombolysis, direct endovascular therapy (EVT), and bridging therapy (BT = intravenous thrombolysis + EVT) for acute basilar artery occlusion cerebral infarction. METHODS: One hundred and fourteen patients with acute basilar artery occlusion cerebral infarctions admitted between January 2020 and August 2023 were selected. Differences in the reperfusion rate, prognosis, incidence of stroke-associated pneumonia, and mortality rate were compared among the 3 groups. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in the percentage of patients who achieved successful reperfusion (86.8% vs. 84.2%) or complete reperfusion (72.1% vs. 68.4%) between the direct EVT and BT groups (both P > 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in the rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (3.7% vs. 10.3% vs. 10.5%, P = 0.763). There were statistically significant differences in the rates of good prognosis (modified ranking scale score 0-2) (59.3% vs. 30.9% vs. 26.3%, P = 0.021), stroke-related pneumonia (29.6% vs. 66.2% vs. 36.8%, P = 0.002), and mortality (14.8% vs. 48.5% vs. 42.1%, P = 0.010) among the 3 treatment groups. According to the binary logistic regression analysis, a good prognosis was independently associated with a baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score ≤ 10 (odds ratio, 3.714; 95% confidence interval, 1.207-11.430; P = 0.022) and the incidence of stroke-associated pneumonia (odds ratio, 0.640; 95% confidence interval, 0.484-0.845; P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Although there were differences in prognosis, mortality, and incidence of complications among the 3 treatment groups, after adjusting for confounding factors, prognosis was independently correlated only with the baseline NIHSS score and stroke-associated pneumonia but not with treatment methods.

A quality control circle process to improve enteral nutrition feeding support in discharged patients with colorectal cancer.

Correct usage and maintenance of the enteral nutrition feeding pump system is always a challenge in nutrition support for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). However, there are few studies on the sustained accuracy improvement of the enteral nutrition feeding system in discharged CRC patients. Here, we established a seven-month quality control circle (QCC) activity with the theme of improving the performance of home enteral feeding pumps (EFP) and examined the effect of QCC activity on the nutritional state and quality of life in discharged CRC patients. We enrolled 100 discharged CRC patients treated with home enteral nutrition from Zhejiang Cancer Hospital between March 2020 and December 2021. The patients were randomly split into two research groups: one participated in the QCC activity (n = 50) and the other did not (n = 50). QCC analysis indicated that the top 3 causes of EFP inaccurate usage are the simple and boring contents of training, various types of pumps, no examination rules, and lack of management. Furthermore, both intra- and inter-group comparisons showed that QCC significantly improved the patients' pass rate of nutrition pump operation from 52 to 70% after 1-month of activity, which gradually improved and got the highest (90%) after 3 months (p < 0.05). Interestingly, the established QCC activity significantly increased the patient-generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA) and Barthel index (BI) scores, body fat mass (BFM) and superior longitudinal muscle (SLM) by intra- and inter-group comparisons. In this study, we clarified the main causes of inaccurate EFP usage and established a QCC process to improve the pass rate of EFP usage. It finally leads to the improvement of nutritional state and quality of life in CRC patients.

A Rapid and Accurate Quantitative Analysis of Cellulose in the Rice Bran Layer Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Cultivating rice varieties with lower cellulose content in the bran layer has the potential to enhance both the nutritional value and texture of brown rice. This study aims to establish a rapid and accurate method to quantify cellulose content in the bran layer utilizing near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), thereby providing a technical foundation for the selection, screening, and breeding of rice germplasm cultivars characterized by a low cellulose content in the bran layer. To ensure the accuracy of the NIR spectroscopic analysis, the potassium dichromate oxidation (PDO) method was improved and then used as a reference method. Using 141 samples of rice bran layer (rice bran without germ), near-infrared diffuse reflectance (NIRdr) spectra, near-infrared diffuse transmittance (NIRdt) spectra, and fusion spectra of NIRdr and NIRdt were used to establish cellulose quantitative analysis models, followed by a comparative evaluation of these models' predictive performance. Results indicate that the optimized PDO method demonstrates superior precision compared to the original PDO method. Upon examining the established models, their predictive capabilities were ranked in the following order: the fusion model outperforms the NIRdt model, which in turn surpasses the NIRdr model. Of all the fusion models developed, the model exhibiting the highest predictive accuracy utilized fusion spectra (NIRdr-NIRdt (1st der)) derived from preprocessed (first derivative) diffuse reflectance and transmittance spectra. This model achieved an external predictive R2p of 0.903 and an RMSEP of 0.213%. Using this specific model, the rice mutant O2 was successfully identified, which displayed a cellulose content in the bran layer of 3.28%, representing a 0.86% decrease compared to the wild type (W7). The utilization of NIRS enables quantitative analysis of the cellulose content within the rice bran layer, thereby providing essential technical support for the selection of rice varieties characterized by lower cellulose content in the bran layer.

Development and validation of an emergency bloodstream infection score for predicting in-hospital mortality in patients with community-acquired bloodstream infections.

BACKGROUND: Community-acquired bloodstream infections (CABSIs) are common in the emergency departments, and some progress to sepsis and even lead to death. However, limited information is available regarding the prediction of patients with high risk of death. METHODS: The Emergency Bloodstream Infection Score (EBS) for CABSIs was developed to visualize the output of a logistic regression model and was validated by the area under the curve (AUC). The Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis (MEDS), Pitt Bacteremia Score (PBS), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and McCabe-Jackson Comorbid Classification (MJCC) for patients with CABSIs were computed to compare them with EBS in terms of the AUC and decision curve analysis (DCA). The net reclassification improvement (NRI) index and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) index were compared between the SOFA and EBS. RESULTS: A total of 547 patients with CABSIs were included. The AUC (0.853) of the EBS was larger than those of the MEDS, PBS, SOFA, and qSOFA (all P<0.001). The NRI index of EBS in predicting the in-hospital mortality of CABSIs patients was 0.368 (P=0.04), and the IDI index was 0.079 (P=0.03). DCA showed that when the threshold probability was < 0.1, the net benefit of the EBS model was higher than those of the other models. CONCLUSION: The EBS prognostic models were better than the SOFA, qSOFA, MEDS, and PBS models in predicting the in-hospital mortality of patients with CABSIs.

Simultaneous removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant genes using a CeO2@CNT electrochemical membrane-NaClO system.

The simultaneous removal of antibiotic and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are important to inhibit the spread of antibiotic resistance. In this study, a coupled treatment system was developed using a CeO2 modified carbon nanotube electrochemical membrane and NaClO (denoted as CeO2@CNT-NaClO) to treat simulated water samples containing antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). As the mass ratio of CeO2 to CNT was 5:7 and the current density was 2.0 mA/cm2, the CeO2@CNT-NaClO system removed 99% of sulfamethoxazole, 4.6 log sul1 genes, and 4.7 log intI1 genes from the sulfonamide-resistance water samples, and removed 98% of tetracycline, 2.0 log tetA genes, and 2.6 log intI1 genes of the tetracycline-resistance water samples. The outstanding performance of the CeO2@CNT-NaClO system for simultaneously removing antibiotic and ARGs was mainly ascribed to the generation of multiple reactive species, including •OH, •ClO, •O2- and 1O2. Antibiotics can undergo efficient degradation by •OH. However, the reaction between •OH and antibiotics reduces the availability of •OH to permeate into the cells and react with DNA. Nevertheless, the presence of •OH enhancd the effects of •ClO, •O2-, and 1O on ARG degradation. Through the coupled action of •OH, •ClO, •O2-, and 1O2, the cell membranes of ARB experience severe damage, resulting in an increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Consequently, this coordinated mechanism leads to superior removal of ARGs.

Research on hyperspectral regression method of soluble solids in green plum based on one-dimensional deep convolution network.

Soluble solids content is an important evaluation index affecting the quality of greengage fruit. The SSC content of green plum determines the picking time of green plum and what products are finally made into the market, such as preserves or fruit wine. The traditional destructive experiment is not conducive to the subsequent processing of green plum, and the efficiency is low and the labor cost is high. In this paper, hyperspectral images of green plums are analyzed based on the DenseNet network model, and a sugar content prediction model for green plums is established. After experimental collection and screening, 366 samples were obtained for the prediction of sugar content. According to the ratio of 3:1, 274 samples were obtained for the training set and 92 samples for the test set. In the prediction of sugar content, compared with the PLSR and MobileNetV2 model, the Rp of the 1D-DenseNet121 model in this experiment increased by 8.95%, and 6.27% respectively. and the MAEp was reduced by 15.44% and 10.35% respectively. The 1D-DenseNet121 model had a faster iterative convergence rate than the MobileNetV2 model, showing better prediction performance, which is more in line with the actual demand for green plum sorting, effectively improving the low efficiency of traditional physical and chemical detection.

Accurately quantified plasma free glycine concentration as a biomarker in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

We developed a hollow fiber centrifugal ultrafiltration (HFCF-UF) method to study the change of plasma levels of free glycine (Gly) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Twenty-four patients with AIS confirmed by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) were enrolled. During the study period, the patients did not receive any supplemental amino acids therapy that could affect the obtained results. Our results showed that although AIS patients adopted different methods of treatment (thrombolytic and non-thrombolytic), the clinical NIHSS score of AIS showed a downward trend whereas Gly concentration showed increased trend. Moreover, plasma free Gly concentration was positively correlated with ASPECTS score. The correlation between Gly levels and infarct volume showed a statistical significance. That is to say, higher Gly level predicted smaller infarct size. Thus, the change of free Gly level in plasma could be considered as a potential biomarker of AIS.

A more accurate indicator to evaluate oxidative stress in rat plasma with osteoporosis.

Background: oxidative stress is linked to various human diseases which developed into the idea of "disrupted redox signaling". Osteoporosis (OP) is a chronic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mineral density and deterioration of bone microarchitecture among which estrogen deficiency is the main cause. Lack of estrogen leads to the imbalance between oxidation and anti-oxidation in patients, and oxidative stress is an important link in the pathogenesis of OP. The ratio of the reduced to the oxidized thiols can characterize the redox status. However, few methods have been reported for the simultaneous determination of reduced forms and their oxidized forms of thiols in plasma. Methods: we developed a hollow fiber centrifugal ultrafiltration (HFCF-UF) method for sample preparation and validated a high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method to determine two reduced forms of thiols-homocysteine (Hcy), cysteine (Cys) levels and their respective oxidized compounds, homocystine (HHcy) and cystine (Cyss) in rat plasma simultaneously for the first time. Thirty-six female rats were randomly divided into three groups: normal control (NC), oxidative stress (ovariectomy, OVX) and ovariectomy with hydrogen-rich saline administration (OVX + HRS). Results: the validation parameters for the methodological results were within the acceptance criteria. There were both significant differences of Hcy/HHcy (Hcy reduced/oxidized) and Cys/Cyss (Cys reduced/oxidized) in rat plasma between three groups with both p < 0.05 and meanwhile, the p values of malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase were all less than 0.01. The value of both Hcy/HHcy and Cys/Cyss were significantly decreased with the change of Micro-CT scan result of femoral neck in OVX group (both the trabecular thickness and trabecular number significantly decreased with a significant increase of trabecular separation) which demonstrate OP occurs. The change of Hcy/HHcy is more obvious and prominent than Cys/Cyss. Conclusions: the Hcy/HHcy and Cys/Cyss could be suitable biomarkers for oxidative stress and especially Hcy/HHcy is more sensitive. The developed method is simple and accurate. It can be easily applied in clinical research to further evaluate the oxidative stress indicator for disease risk factors.

CeO2 modified carbon nanotube electrified membrane for the removal of antibiotics.

Electrified carbon nanotube membranes (ECM) are used as electroactive porous materials for the degradation of micropollutants. It integrated design of both electrochemical processes and filtration functions. In this study, CeO2 modified carbon nanotube electrified membrane (CeO2@CNT membrane) was prepared and activate NaClO towards degradation of antibiotics. As CeO2 with face-centered cubic (Fcc) fluorite structure was loaded onto the CNT sidewalls, the CeO2@CNT membrane showed a higher over potential and a smaller equivalent polarization resistance compared to ECM. More reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive chlorine species (RCS) were generated by CeO2@CNT membrane due to faster electron transfer at the solid-liquid interface. Thus, the removal efficiencies of DCF, SMX, CIP, TC and CBZ were more than 91.2%, 91.3%, 94.4%, 99.3% and 89.4% by the CeO2@CNT membrane with NaClO, respetively. And the apparent reaction rate constant (k) of the CeO2@CNT membrane was 2.9 times of that of ECM. The selective capping experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculation showed that the oxygen vacancies of CeO2 contributed to the generation of ‧OH, and the generation of ClO‧ and ‧O2- would mainly occur on Lewis acid sites of CeO2. In addition, the CeO2@CNT membrane showed a reasonable stability to treat actual water samples and reduced disinfection byproducts (DBPs) formation, suggesting that it can potentially be combined with the conventional chlorine disinfection to degrade antibiotics in water.

Analysis of free concentrations of lamotrigine and active oxcarbazepine metabolite in clinical patients by hollow-fiber centrifugal ultrafiltration.

Aim: To establish a simple and accurate method to explore the correlation between free and total concentrations of lamotrigine (LTG) and the active oxcarbazepine metabolite monohydroxy derivative (MHD) (10,11-dihydro-10-hydroxycarbamazepine) in clinical patients. Materials & methods: Serum samples were prepared by hollow-fiber centrifugal ultrafiltration and then injected into UPLC for analysis. Results: Absolute recovery was as high as approximately 90.1-98.6% with excellent precision (relative standard deviation <6.7%). Analysis time was reduced to 5 min. There were significant individual differences in the protein binding rates of both LTG and MHD that were probably due to the use of different clinical patients. Conclusion: Free concentrations of LTG and MHD cannot be estimated by total concentration in specific clinical patients. Free drug monitoring of LTG and MHD in clinical therapeutic drug monitoring is important and essential.

Regulatory mechanisms of the green alga Ulva lactuca oligosaccharide via the metabolomics and gut microbiome in diabetic mice.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has emerged as one of the most acute public health diseases of the present time, which increases with the population ageing. This study aimed to evaluate the hypoglycaemic activity of Ulva lactuca oligosaccharide (ULO) under ageing-related diabetes conditions in an animal model. The results demonstrated that ULO can promote hypoglycaemia and delay senescence as mediated via GLP-1/GLP-1R pathway to mobilize the intercommunication between the brain and gut. In addition, twenty-six different metabolites and eight different bacteria were screened in the brain and the gut, respectively. A network relationship displayed that all-trans-retinoic acid has positive relationships with Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus, suggesting that plays a potential key role in maintaining the hypoglycaemic and anti-ageing activities of ULO. Based on these findings, ULO might be an efficient therapy for restoring blood glucose metabolism and delaying brain senescence in elderly T2D patients.

Weld Feature Extraction Based on Semantic Segmentation Network.

Laser welding is an indispensable link in most types of industrial production. The realization of welding automation by industrial robots can greatly improve production efficiency. In the research and development of the welding seam tracking system, information on the position of the weld joint needs to be obtained accurately. For laser welding images with strong and complex interference, a weld tracking module was designed to capture real-time images of the weld, and a total of 737, 1920 × 1200 pixel weld images were captured using the device, of which 637 were used to create the dataset, and the other 100 were used as images to test the segmentation success rate. Based on the pixel-level segmentation capability of the semantic segmentation network, this study used an encoder-decoder architecture to design a lightweight network structure and introduced a channel attention mechanism. Compared to ERF-Net, SegNet, and DFA-Net, the network model in this paper has a fast segmentation speed and higher segmentation accuracy, with a success rate of 96% and remarkable segmentation results.

How multi-walled carbon nanotubes in wastewater influence the fate of coexisting antibiotic resistant genes in the subsequent disinfection process.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are important hubs for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Engineered nanoparticles, which was inevitably released to WWTPs, could change environmentally sensitive of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB). This would influence the fate of ARGs in subsequent disinfection process and consequent health risk. In this study, the ARGs fate of the effluent in conventional sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) disinfection process was investigated as multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) existed in sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The results showed the existence of MWCNTs in SBR could enhance the removal efficiency of intracellular 16S rRNA gene and intI1, extracellular intI1, sul2 and tetX in the effluent by NaClO. This is mainly due to the variation of bacterial physiological status, bacterial population structure and the activation of NaClO under the role of MWCNTs. MWCNTs in SBR could increase in membrane permeability of bacterial cells, which would be conducive to the penetration of chlorination to cytoplasm. MWCNTs in SBR also could change the bacterial population structure and induce the chlorine-sensitive bacteria; thus the potential hosts of ARGs in the effluent would be more easily inactivated by NaClO. Moreover, the residual MWCNTs in the effluent could activate NaClO to generate various free radical, which would enhance the oxidizing capacity of chlorination.

Effect of the presence of various natural organic matters on anodic oxidation of electrified carbon nanotube membrane.

The widespread adoption of electrified carbon nanotube membranes (ECM) requires to better understand process effectiveness according to limiting phenomena of natural organic matters (NOMs). In this study, the influences of various NOM fractions were investigated on the oxidative degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) in ECM. The results showed the decolorizing efficiencies of RhB in the presence of humic acid (HA) were still above 96%, while bovine serum albumin (BSA) reduced firstly and then increased the decolorizing efficiencies of RhB. The decolorizing efficiencies of RhB with alginate (AA) were over 98% at the first 15 min but decreased gradually to 76% after 150 min. These different performances of HA, BSA and AA were mainly due to their influences on the electrochemical reactivity characterization of ECM. ECM with the BSA depositing layer showed the highest exchange current density (j0), while the AA depositing layer restrained electron-transfer activity of ECM. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) experiments showed that the partial electrooxidation of BSA would occur in ECM with its degradation product observed in the effluent. The variation of electrochemical reactivity characterization of ECM resulted into its electri-oxidation and electri-adsorption rates to be the largest with BSA, followed by AA and HA.

Finite element simulation and optimization of mechanical performance of the magnesium-alloy biliary stent.

A biliary stent is used to expand the bile duct during interventional treatment of biliary stricture. To reduce the complications after stent implantation, it is necessary to understand and improve the comprehensive performance of magnesium alloy biliary stents. In this study, at first, the mechanical performance of magnesium alloy biliary stent in bile ducts with different ellipticitiesis studied, and the influence of the ellipticity of bile duct on the interaction of the stent-bile duct coupling system is better understood. Proposed results show the increment of ellipticity of the bile duct will increase the difficulty of expanding the stent. Second, to improve the mechanical performance and degradation performance of the stent simultaneously, an optimal design method based on a zero-order algorithm is used to reduce the maximum equivalent stress on the stent effectively, to make the stress distribution more uniform, and to expand the bile duct of the lesion more effectively and uniformly. The results of this analysis and optimization are useful to predict the clinical effect of stents and to design and optimize stents for both bile duct and other non-vascular.

Development of silica molecularly imprinted polymer on carbon dots as a fluorescence probe for selective and sensitive determination of cetirizine in saliva and urine.

A fluorescence probe based on carbon dots (CDs) coated with silica molecularly imprinted polymer (MIPs) was synthesized for selective and sensitive determination of cetirizine (CTZ). Green source carbon dots were firstly derived from orange peels through a microwave method, and had the merits of eco-friendly and low toxicity. Then a thin silica film was formed on the surface of CDs by reverse microemulsion technique, and molecularly imprinted polymer coated on silica-carbon dots. In this scene, CTZ, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) were employed as a template, a functional monomer and cross linker, respectively. The obtained CDs-MIPs can selectively bind CTZ through the specific interaction between recognition sites and template, and obey photoinduced electron transfer fluorescence quenching mechanism. Fluorescence dropped linearly in the range of 0.5-500 ng mL-1, under the optimal conditions, with a detection limit of 0.41 ng mL-1. Furthermore, the proposed method was successfully intended for the determination of trace CTZ in human saliva and urine samples without the interference of other molecules and ions. And recoveries ranged from 95.8% to 99.8% with relative standard deviation less than 3.0%.

Edaravone Combined with Clopidogrel Is Beneficial to Improve Efficacy, Neurological Impairment, and Life Function in Acute Cerebral Infarction Patients.

OBJECTIVE: This research aimed at investigating the efficacy of edaravone combined with clopidogrel on acute cerebral infarction (ACI) and its influence on the neurological deficit and life function. METHODS: Totally, 154 ACI cases were included and then divided into the control group (CG) (n = 71) and research group (RG) (n = 83) according to the treatment methods. Patients in the CG were treated with clopidogrel alone, and those in the RG were under edaravone-clopidogrel combination therapy. The efficacy, adverse reactions, NIHSS score, cerebral hemodynamic indexes, and Fugl-Meyer scale (FMA) and Barthel index (BI) of activities of daily living (ADL) scores were observed. RESULTS: Compared with before treatment, the symptoms of both groups were improved after treatment: the NIHSS scores decreased, FMA and ADL scores increased, and cerebral hemodynamic indexes were improved. Compared with the CG, the efficacy and cerebral hemodynamic indexes of the RG were better, the adverse reactions were equivalent, the NIHSS score was lower, and the ADL and FMA scores were higher. CONCLUSION: Edaravone combined with clopidogrel can effectively treat ACI and improve the neurological deficit and life function of patients.

Preservation of Agaricus bisporus freshness with using innovative ethylene manipulating active packaging paper.

Agaricus bisporus produces substantial ethylene during storage and transportation, which accelerates ripening and senescence, thereby shortening the shelf-life. In this study, a novel food packaging material with ethylene removal property was prepared to increase storage time of Agaricus bisporus. 1-Methylcyclopropen and molecular sieves loaded with potassium permanganate were used as ethylene scavengers to coat the fresh-keeping paper. SEM, FT-IR and DSC analyses proved that these functional components were successfully coated on the fresh-keeping paper. The qualities of the mushrooms packed by prepared functional paper were then determined. The results showed that this prepared functional paper could delay the softening, browning and weight loss of mushrooms during storage by inhibiting ethylene synthesis-related enzymes and gene expression in the mushroom fruiting body, and continuous adsorption and removal of the exogenous ethylene. Consequently, the functional paper could reduce the biochemical and physicochemical quality loss of Agaricus bisporus, thus prolonging its shelf-life.

Design and development of novel thiazolidin-4-one-1,3,5-triazine derivatives as neuro-protective agent against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice via attenuation of NF-ĸB.

The present study enumerates the discovery and development of novel thiazolidin-4-one-1,3,5-triazine as neuro-protective agent against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice. These compounds showed significant inhibition of NF-ĸB transcriptional activity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, displaying compound 8k as most potent inhibitor among the tested derivative. The compound 8k was further studied in in vivo middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) mice model for neuro-protective action. Results suggest that compound 8k causes attenuation of inflammation (TNF-α, IL-ß, and IL-6), oxidative stress (SOD, GSH, and MDA), and apoptosis (Bcl-2, Bax, and cleaved caspase-3) in MCAO mice in concentration-dependent manner. Collectively, our results documented that compound 8k pre-treatment protects cerebral I/R. This novel lead scaffold may be helpful for investigation of new neuro-protective agent by inactivation of NF-ĸB.

The degradable performance of bile-duct stent based on a continuum damage model: A finite element analysis.

Biomedical magnesium alloy stents have become a hot bed of research focus in interventional therapy for nonvascular diseases. In this study, a numerical model for a balloon-expandable bile duct stent made of magnesium alloy with laser sculpture is developed to predict the effects of the degradation of the stent on the biomechanical behavior in the stent-bile duct coupling system. Based on a continuum damage model, the degradable model of the stent is built to understand its performance in an idealized bile duct as it is subject to corrosion over time. The degradation model developed in this study addresses the uniform corrosion and pitting corrosion. By means of the secondary development function of commercial numerical software ANSYS, the finite element analysis procedures were written to control the degradation process based on the technology of element "birth and death," and it is shown how the three-dimensional model and approach give the possibility of analyzing for the degradation mechanism of a magnesium alloy stent in the bile duct or other nonvascular cavities.