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Methamphetamine (MA) is a widely abused illegal drug. As no medication is available for MA addiction, new treatment options are needed. This study examined the effects of aerobic exercise (AE) and attentional bias training (ABT), alone and in combination, on cognitive function and psychiatric symptoms in individuals with MA dependency. One hundred individuals with MA dependency were randomly divided into four groups of 25 persons each (AE + ABT, AE, ABT, and control group). The AE intervention was conducted five times per week for 8 weeks, while the ABT intervention was conducted once per week for 8 weeks. Multiple indicators of cognitive function and psychiatric symptoms revealed significant time-group interactions [F(1,87) = 2.580–4.143, p =.009–.049, η2 =.083–.170]. AE, but not ABT, benefited individuals with MA dependency. Combined AE and ABT was more effective than ABT alone, but not as effective as AE alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous rechargeable ammonium-ion (NH4+) batteries (AAIBs) with ammonium ions as charge carriers possess many advantages, yet the relatively low discharge capacities (e.g., < 200 mAh·g−1) of the reported NH4+ host materials hinder the development of AAIBs. Herein, we study the NH4+ storage properties of an electrochemically activated NiCo double hydroxide (A-NiCo-DH) in neutral ammonium acetate electrolyte for the first time. The activation process extracts the interlayer anions (NO3−) from the host material, providing additional cation accommodation sites for charge storage. The introduced H vacancies in A-NiCo-DH could activate the O sites, leading to the enhanced cation adsorption capability for the electrode. Therefore, A-NiCo-DH exhibits a high discharge capacity of 280.6 mAh·g−1 at 0.72 A·g−1 with good rate capability. Spectroscopy studies suggest A-NiCo-DH experiences a NH4+/H+ coinsertion mechanism. A NH4+-Zn hybrid cell is assembled using A-NiCo-DH as the cathode and Zn foil as the anode, respectively. The device delivers an energy density of 306 Wh·kg−1 at the power density of 745.8 W·kg−1 (based on the active mass of A-NiCo-DH). This work provides a new NH4+ storage material and would push forward the development of aqueous NH4+-based batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Recent progress of active materials in supercapacitors synthesized by electrochemical techniques is reviewed. Electrochemically synthesized nanostructures of various dimensions, compositions, and electrochemical properties are discussed. The advantages and challenges of electrochemical technologies in preparing nano-/microstructured materials for electrochemical energy storage devices are summarized.The article reviews the recent progress of electrochemical techniques on synthesizing nano-/microstructures as supercapacitor electrodes. With a history of more than a century, electrochemical techniques have evolved from metal plating since their inception to versatile synthesis tools for electrochemically active materials of diverse morphologies, compositions, and functions. The review begins with tutorials on the operating mechanisms of five commonly used electrochemical techniques, including cyclic voltammetry, potentiostatic deposition, galvanostatic deposition, pulse deposition, and electrophoretic deposition, followed by thorough surveys of the nano-/microstructured materials synthesized electrochemically. Specifically, representative synthesis mechanisms and the state-of-the-art electrochemical performances of exfoliated graphene, conducting polymers, metal oxides, metal sulfides, and their composites are surveyed. The article concludes with summaries of the unique merits, potential challenges, and associated opportunities of electrochemical synthesis techniques for electrode materials in supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seryl-histidine dipeptide (Ser-His) has been recognized as the shortest peptide with hydrolysis cleavage activity; however, its protein cleavage spectrum has not yet been fully explored. Here, four differently folded proteins were treated with Ser-His, and the digestion products were evaluated with high-resolution mass spectrometry. The cleavage efficiency and cleavage propensity of Ser-His against these protein substrates were calculated at both the primary and secondary sequence levels. The above experiments show that Ser-His cleaves a broad spectrum of substrate proteins of varying secondary structures. Moreover, Ser-His could cleave at all 20 amino acids with different efficiencies according to the protein, which means that Ser-His has the original digestion function of serine proteases. Furthermore, we collected and compared the catalytic sites and cleavage sites of 340 extant serine proteases derived from 17 representative organisms. A consensus motif Ser-[X]-His was identified as the major pattern at the catalytic sites of serine proteases from all of the organisms represented except Danio rerio, which uses Ser-Lys instead. This finding indicates that Ser-His is the core component of the serine protease catalytic site. Moreover, our analysis revealed that the cleavage sites of modern serine proteases have become more specific over the evolutionary history of this family. Based on the above analysis results, it could be found that Ser-His is likely the original serine protease and maybe the evolutionary core of modern serine proteases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil amended with single biochar or nitrogen (N) fertilizer has frequently been reported to alter soil nitrification process due to its impact on soil properties. However, little is known about the dynamic response of nitrification and ammonia-oxidizers to the combined application of biochar and N fertilizer in intensive vegetable soil. In this study, an incubation experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of biochar and N fertilizer application on soil nitrification, abundance and community shifts of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) in Hangzhou greenhouse vegetable soil. Results showed that single application of biochar had no significant effect on soil net nitrification rates and ammonia-oxidizers. Conversely, the application of only N fertilizer and N fertilizer + biochar significantly increased net nitrification rate and the abundance of AOB rather than AOA, and only AOB abundance was significantly correlated with soil net nitrification rate. Moreover, the combined application of N fertilizer and biochar had greater effect on AOB communities than that of the only N fertilizers, and the relative abundance of 156 bp T-RF ( Nitrosospira cluster 3c) decreased but 60 bp T-RF ( Nitrosospira cluster 3a and cluster 0) increased to become a single predominant group. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that all the AOB sequences were grouped into Nitrosospira cluster, and most of AOA sequences were clustered within group 1.1b. We concluded that soil nitrification was stimulated by the combined application of N fertilizer and biochar via enhancing the abundance and shifting the community composition of AOB rather than AOA in intensive vegetable soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Acupuncture & Tuina Science is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The outage performance of the multihop free-space optical (FSO) communication system with decode-and-forward (DF) protocol is studied by considering the joint effects of nonzero boresight pointing errors and atmospheric turbulence modeled by exponentiated Weibull (EW) distribution. The closed-form analytical expression of outage probability is derived, and the results are validated through Monte Carlo simulation. Furthermore, the detailed analysis is provided to evaluate the impacts of turbulence strength, receiver aperture size, boresight displacement, beamwidth and number of relays on the outage performance for the studied system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average bit error rate ( ABER) performance of a decode-and-forward (DF) based relay-assisted free-space optical (FSO) communication system over gamma-gamma distribution channels considering the pointing errors is studied. With the help of Meijer's G-function, the probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the aggregated channel model are derived on the basis of the best path selection scheme. The analytical ABER expression is achieved and the system performance is then investigated with the influence of pointing errors, turbulence strengths and structure parameters. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is also provided to confirm the analytical ABER expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axl encodes the tyrosine-protein kinase receptor, participating in the proliferation and migration of many cells. This study examined the role of Axl in functions of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). Axl was detected by RT-PCR and Western blotting in both placentas and EPCs from normal pregnancy and preeclampsia patients. The Axl inhibitor, BMS777-607, was used to inhibit the Axl signalling pathway in EPCs. Cell proliferation, differentiation, migration and adhesion were measured by CCK-8 assay, cell differentiation assay, Transwell assay, and cell adhesion assay, respectively. Results showed the expression levels of Axl mRNA and protein were significantly higher in both placentas and EPCs from preeclampsia patients than from normal pregnancy ( P<0.05). After treatment with BMS777-607, proliferation, differentiation, migration and adhesion capability of EPCs were all significantly decreased. Our study suggests Axl may play a role in the function of EPCs, thereby involving in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composite semiconductor photocatalyst TiO/SiO was prepared by template-hydrothermal method using carbon spheres as the template. The structural and optical properties of TiO/SiO were characterized by XRD, SEM, BET, UV-Vis DRS, TG-DTA, PL techniques. The formation of hydroxyl radical on the surface of TiO/SiO was studied with terephthalic acid as the probe molecule, combined with fluorescence technique. The results showed that the specific surface area of TiO/SiO composite was 327.9 m/g, and the specific surface area of TiO/SiO was larger than that of pure TiO. Photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B showed that TiO/SiO composite oxide under visible light illumination 40 min, the degradation rate was 98.6 % and the degradation rate of pure TiO was only 11.9 %. The apparent first-order rate constant of TiO/SiO was 33 times that of pure TiO and more than 6 times that of P25 when the molar ratio of Ti to Si was 1:1 under visible light irradiation. Moreover, it's also as much as 5 times that of pure TiO and is more than 1 times that of P25 under UV light irradiation 25 min. Based on the experimental results, O and h were suggested to be the major active species which was responsible for the degradation reaction. The increased photocatalytic activity of TiO/SiO may be mainly attributed to effectively suppressing the recombination of hole/electron pairs. After the photocatalyst TiO/SiO was reused 5 times, the degradation rate of rhodamine B could reach 89.2 % under visible light irradiation. Moreover, The composite semiconductor photocatalyst TiO/SiO was selective towards the degradation of rhodamine B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was performed to explore the antinociceptive effects of the galanin receptor 1 agonist M617 in lateral habenula complex in rats. Intra-lateral habenula injection of 0.1, 0.5, 1 or 2 nmol of galanin induced dose-dependent increases in hindpaw withdrawal latencies (HWLs) to noxious thermal and mechanical stimulations in rats. Furthermore, intra-lateral habenula injection of 0.1, 0.5, 1 or 2 nmol of the galanin receptor 1 agonist M617 also induced dose-dependent increases in HWLs to noxious thermal and mechanical stimulations in rats. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between the antinociceptive effects induced by intra-lateral habenula injection of 2 nmol of M617 and 2 nmol of galanin. The results indicate that galanin receptor 1 may be involved in the galanin-induced antinociceptive effects in the lateral habenula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). Methods: A total of 60 IBS-D patients were randomly allocated into a treatment group and a control group, 30 in each group. Patients in the treatment group were treated with acupuncture combined with ginger and salt-partitioned moxibustion on Shenque (CV 8), whereas patients in the control group only received acupuncture treatment. Six days made up a course of treatment, and the clinical effects were statistically analyzed after 4 courses. Results: The overall response rate in the treatment group was 96.7%, versus 76.7% in the control group, showing a statistical significance ( P<0.05). In the intra-group comparison of the symptom scores after treatment, there were statistical differences in both groups (both P<0.01), and in the inter-group comparison, the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with ginger and salt-partitioned moxibustion on Shenque (CV 8) can obtain better effect for ISB-D than acupuncture alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effect of cholic acid (CA) on cultured cardiac myocytes (CMs) from neonatal rats with an attempt to explore the possible mechanism of sudden fetal death in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP). Inverted microscopy was performed to detect the impact of CA on the beating rates of rat CMs. MTT method was used to study the effect of CA on the viability of CMs. CMs cultured in vitro were incubated with 10 μmol/L Ca-sensitive fluorescence indicator fluo-3/AM. The fluorescence signals of free calcium induced by CA were measured under a laser scanning confocal microscope. The results showed that CA decreased the beating rates of the CMs in a dose-dependent manner. CA could suppress the activities of CMs in a time- and dose-dependent manner. CA increased the concentration of intracellular free calcium in a dose-dependent manner. Our study suggested that CA could inhibit the activity of CMs by causing calcium overload, thereby leading to the sudden fetal death in ICP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To clarify whether a VE-cadherin-dependent pathway allows mini-TrpRS to inhibit mini-TrpRS-induced new blood vessel formation in endothelial cells (ECs), the inhibitory effects of mutant mini-TrpRS and VE-cadherin on mini-TrpRS-induced angiogenesis were investigated. The effects of mini-TyrRS and mini-TrpRS on EC proliferation were evaluated using an MTT colorimetric assay. Cell migration was assayed using a modified Boyden chamber technique. The angiogenic activity in vitro was evaluated by transwell migration assay and matrigel-induced capillary tube formation. It was found that mini-TrpRS does not inhibit the mini-TyrRS-induced proliferation and migration of EC under the condition of VE-cadherin knockout. While wild-type mini-TrpRS inhibited mini-TyrRS-induced angiogenesis, this activity vanished for the mutant protein. Also, the promotion of angiogenesis by mini-TyrRS and the inhibition of angiogenesis by mini-TrpRS were VEGFR2 dependent but not VEGF dependent. Mini-TyrRS was able to increase the protein expression of VEGFR-2 in the presence of VE-cadherin, while no stimulatory effect of mini-TyrRS was detected when VE-cadherin was not present. Angiogenesis is therefore stimulated by mini-TyrRS and inhibited by mini-TrpRS, raising the possibility that mini-TyrRS and mini-TrpRS stimulate a common downstream signaling event: VE-cadherin. Thus, naturally occurring fragments of the two proteins involved in translation, TyrRS and TrpRS, have opposing activities on angiogenesis. The opposing activities of the two tRNA synthetases suggest tight regulation of the balance between pro- and antiangiogenic stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the zero dispersion wavelength (ZDWL) random fluctuations, the gain and noise figures deteriorate in optical parametric amplifiers based on highly nonlinear fibers (HNLFs). The detrimental role of ZDWL fluctuations on the gain and noise performance in dual-pump fiber optical parametric amplifiers (FOPAs) is presented. Numerical investigations of noise figure (NF) for different fibers with random fluctuation are analyzed. The noise figures for different fibers are varying even if the random fluctuation is small. Through choosing HNLFs with low ZDWL fluctuation and large nonlinear coefficient, high-gain and low-noise performance can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture combined with auricular point sticking treatment for primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: Sixty-eight patients with primary dysmenorrhea were randomly divided into two groups, and 35 cases in the treatment group were treated by acupuncture combined with auricular point sticking, while 33 cases in the control group were only treated by acupuncture. The treatments for the patients in both groups began from one week before their menstruation and continued till the menstruation came. And the efficacy was observed after treatments of three consecutive menstrual cycles. Results: The total effective rate was 94.2% in the treatment group, versus 84.8% in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with auricular point sticking treatment for primary dysmenorrhea is more effective than simple acupuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]