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Objective: Investigate the impact of combined computerized cognitive training and occupational therapy on individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: We randomly assigned 118 MCI patients into two groups: a combined intervention group (n = 37) and a control group (n = 81), the latter receiving standard nursing care. The intervention group additionally underwent 12 weeks of computerized cognitive training and occupational therapy. Blind assessors evaluated cognitive performance, anxiety, depression, and daily living activities before the intervention, post-intervention, and at a 3-month follow-up. Results: Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that the sMoCA scores, HAMA scores, and ADL scores of the experimental group at T2 (post-intervention) and T3 (3-month follow-up) were higher than those of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.026). Conclusion: Computerized cognitive training combined with occupational therapy can improve patients' cognitive status, enhance their compliance with continuing care, and maintain their anxiety and self-care ability at a stable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to identify the location and magnitude of the impact force accurately, determine the damage range of the structure and accelerate the health monitoring of key components of the composite, this paper studies the location and magnitude of the impact force of composite plates by an inverse method. Firstly, a PZT sensor mounted on the material plate is used to collect the response signal generated by the impact force, which is from several impact locations, and establish transfer functions between the impact location and the PZT sensor. Secondly, this paper applies several forces to any location on the material plate, and collects the corresponding response signals, and reconstructs the impact force of several locations in turn. Finally, according to the reconstruction result of each location, the correct impact location is identified. Then, an improved regularization method is used to optimize the reconstructed impact force and accurate the magnitude of the impact force. The comparison experiments prove that the recognition error of this method is smaller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase of offshore PV and wind power installation capacity can increase the uncertainty and randomness of the power system. Therefore, it is necessary to study the offshore multi-energy system. A traditional offshore community with hybrid energy storage system (HESS) installation usually participates in demand response program to improve system economy. However, due to the high price and low discharge power of the HESS, it cannot response to the loads effectively. This paper introduces water electrolysis and on-board hydrogen storage technologies to an offshore multi-energy system, so as to effectively optimize the operation of system. Subsequently, to analyze the impact of climate change on system operation, the concept of loads matching degree is firstly defined. Finally, this paper gives a suggestion for an existed offshore multi-energy system on how to reasonably increase renewable generation system installation capacity. Results show that compared with the traditional offshore multi-energy system, the improved system can significantly reduce system operation costs and carbon emissions by 23.02% and 48.43%, respectively. Additionally, with the increase of loads matching degree, offshore system optimal operation costs, carbon emissions and the amount of hydrogen produced by water electrolysis reduce significantly. Finally, the growth of renewable energy generation capacity can lead to the reduce of emissions and increase of operating costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The signal processing problem has become increasingly complex and demand high acquisition system, this paper proposes a new method to reconstruct the structure phased array structural health monitoring signal. The method is derived from the compressive sensing theory and the signal is reconstructed by using the basis pursuit algorithm to process the ultrasonic phased array signals. According to the principles of the compressive sensing and signal processing method, non-sparse ultrasonic signals are converted to sparse signals by using sparse transform. The sparse coefficients are obtained by sparse decomposition of the original signal, and then the observation matrix is constructed according to the corresponding sparse coefficients. Finally, the original signal is reconstructed by using basis pursuit algorithm, and error analysis is carried on. Experimental research analysis shows that the signal reconstruction method can reduce the signal complexity and required the space efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of acid hydrolysis lignin-g-poly-(acrylic acid) (AHL-g-PAA) composites was prepared by grafting acid hydrolysis lignin on the surface of the polyacrylic acid network. The results of structure analysis revealed that AHL-g-PAA had been grafted. The surface morphologies of the hydrogels were improved, as shown by scanning electron microscopy observation. The AHL-g-PAA hydrogel had high water absorption and it possessed sensitivity to external pH stimulus. This study also revealed that the adsorption capacity of AHL-g-PAA was 235 mg/g for Pb(II) ions. The adsorption kinetics data could be described by the pseudo-secondorder model, and the adsorption isotherm agrees well with the Langmuir model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the controlled release of pesticides, a novel composite porous hydrogel (LBPAA) was prepared based on lignin and polyacrylic acid for use as the support frame of a pore structure for water delivery. The LBPAA was analyzed to determine its water-swelling and slow release properties. The controlled release properties of LBPAA were evaluated through experiments in relation to the cumulative release of pesticides, with particular emphasis on environmental effects and release models. The porous LBPAA hydrogel showed improved properties compared to polyacrylic acid, and could therefore be considered an efficient material for application in controlled release systems in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: GABAergic deficit is one of the major mechanisms underlying epileptic seizures. Previous studies have mainly focused on alterations of synaptic GABAergic inhibition during epileptogenesis. Recent work suggested that tonic inhibition may also play a role in regulating epileptogenesis, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. Results: We employed molecular and pharmacological tools to investigate the role of tonic inhibition during epileptogenesis both in vitro and in vivo. We overexpressed two distinct subtypes of extrasynaptic GABAA receptors, α5β3γ2 and α6β3δ receptors, in cultured hippocampal neurons. We demonstrated that overexpression of both α5β3γ2 and α6β3δ receptors enhanced tonic inhibition and reduced epileptiform activity in vitro. We then showed that injection of THIP (5 μM), a selective agonist for extrasynaptic GABAA receptors at low concentration, into rat brain also suppressed epileptiform burst activity and behavioral seizures in vivo. Mechanistically, we discovered that low concentration of THIP had no effect on GABAergic synaptic transmission and did not affect the basal level of action potentials, but significantly inhibited high frequency neuronal activity induced by epileptogenic agents. Conclusions: Our studies suggest that extrasynaptic GABAA receptors play an important role in controlling hyperexcitatory activity, such as that during epileptogenesis, but a less prominent role in modulating a low level of basal activity. We propose that tonic inhibition may play a greater role under pathological conditions than in physiological conditions in terms of modulating neural network activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-field ultrasonic phased array theory is researched and utilized in the carbon-fiber wing box to identify the damage in the structure. Near-field ultrasonic phased array based structural health monitoring is researched to overcome the limitation of the far-field ultrasonic phased array in monitoring scope. The time delay of the theory and the process of the damage identification method are researched in detail. The recognition result is shown in a mapped image. The proposed method is applied in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) wing box to monitor the load in the structure. The experimental results show that the near-field ultrasonic phased array based structural health monitoring method is effective to identify the load position in the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li A, Pan Z, Jie Y, Sun Y, Luo F, Wang L. Comparison of immunogenicity and porcine-to-rhesus lamellar corneal xenografts survival between fresh preserved and dehydrated porcine corneas. Xenotransplantation 2011; 18: 46-55. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S. To compare the immunogenicity of fresh preserved and dehydrated lamellar porcine corneas in porcine-to-mouse heterotopic transplantation and to investigate the survival of preserved porcine corneas as xenografts in porcine-to-rhesus lamellar corneal transplantation. Dehydrated and fresh preserved, endothelium deprived, porcine corneas were cut into fragments and grafted beneath the kidney capsule of BALB/c mice. Porcine-specific delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) and antibody (IgM, IgG) immune responses of the recipient mice were assessed. In addition, fresh preserved and dehydrated porcine corneas were used in porcine-to-rhesus lamellar corneal xenotransplantation. The rhesus recipients were divided into three groups. Dehydrated corneas were applied to Group 1 and 3, and fresh preserved corneas were applied to Group 2. Only Group 3 received subconjunctival injections with triamcinolone acetonide for 1 month. All xenografts were evaluated by slit-lamp microscopy for 6 months. Two recipients in each group were examined by in vivo confocal microscopy and then killed for corneal histopathological staining 3 months after surgery. Neither fresh preserved nor dehydrated corneal fragments evoked any measurable change in mice recipient humoral immune status, but both could induce porcine-specific DTH at 1, 2, and 4 week after being grafted. However, the intensity of the DTH responses evoked by dehydrated corneas was lower than that evoked by fresh preserved corneas. In porcine-to-rhesus lamellar keratoplasty, with the exception one graft in Group 2 that developed characteristics of rejection, all the xenografts remained transparent or translucent up to 6 month after surgery. Histopathological examination of Group 1 showed that the infratemporal xenografts were much thicker and displayed some inflammatory cell infiltration in the peripheral portion of the graft and bed interface. However, in Group 3, which was treated with triamcinolone acetonide, there was an easily identified scar at the lamellar interface with no inflammatory cells present. In the rejected graft in Group 2, infiltrating cells included a few eosinophils and massive lymphocytes. Confocal microscopy examination showed that activated keratocytes localized in the anterior stroma and highly reflective tissue at the interface of the graft and bed. Porcine corneas might be an ideal source for clinical lamellar corneal xenotransplantation. In cases of tectonic lamellar transplantation, the possibility to use dehydrated pig material may become an option in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detailed landscape pattern of the urban area within the 6th ring road in Beijing City was identified using airborne remote sensing data acquired between 1997 and 2002. The landscape indices at landscape level were computed using Fragstats 3.3, and changes in land use/cover types in Beijing from 1997 to 2002 were examined. The results show that urban built area (UBA) and farmland changed greatly within the 6th ring road, and that farmland had been replaced by UBA. The number of patches increased by 106.6%, mean patch area decreased by 51.6%, the splitting index increased by 94.3%, and the landscape diversity index increased by 17.8%. The landscape pattern had become more fragmented and diversified in these 5 years. The main driving forces for landscape change were the increasing demand for land for construction due to the growing population, unreasonable urban growth, and improvements in housing standards. The landscape pattern change in Beijing led by rapid urbanisation has negatively influenced urban ecosystem health and has caused several environmental problems. We provide suggestions for improving urban planning and sustainable development in Beijing City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of the breast skin-line is an important prerequisite for both enhancement and analysis of mammograms for computer-aided detection of breast cancer. In our proposed system, an initial estimate of the skin-line is first computed using a combination of adaptive thresholding and connected-component analysis. This skin-line is susceptible to errors in the top and bottom portions of the breast region. Using the observation that the Euclidean distance from the edge of the stroma to the actual skin-line is usually uniform, we develop a novel dependency approach for estimating the skin-line boundary of the breast. In the proposed dependency approach, the constraints are first developed between the stroma edge and the initial skin-line boundary using the Euclidean distance. These constraints are then propagated to estimate the upper and lower skin-line portions. We evaluated the performance of our skin-line estimation algorithm by comparing the estimated boundary with respect to the ground-truth boundary drawn by an expert radiologist. We adapted a metrics for error measurement: the polyline distance measure (PDM). As part of our protocol, we compared the results of our dependency approach methodology with those of a deformable model strategy (proposed by Ferrari et al. in Med Biol Eng Comput 42(2):210–208, 2004). On a dataset of 82 images from the MIAS database, the dependency approach yielded a mean error (μ) of 3.28 pixels with a standard deviation (σ) of 2.17 pixels using the PDM. In comparison, the deformable model strategy (Ferrari et al. in Med Biol Eng Comput 42(2):210–208, 2004) yielded μ = 4.92 pixels with σ = 1.91 pixels. The improvement is statistically significant. The results are clinically relevant, according to the radiologists who evaluated the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on isotope studies which comprise tracer experiments and the determination of isotope ratios in fertilizers. It mentions that discriminate crops offers information about the contamination with heavy metals or rare earth elements which can be beneficiated and taken as raw material for industrial purposes. It states that rock phosphates and to follow up fluxes of contaminants in the environment.