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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that occurs following exposure to traumatic events. Current treatments, such as psychological debriefing and pharmacotherapy, often have limited efficacy and may result in unwanted side effects, making early intervention is a more desirable strategy. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of a single dose of pulsed (10 Hz) 810 nm laser-phototherapy (P-PT) as an early intervention for preventing PTSD-like comorbidities in rats induced by single inescapable electric foot shock following the single prolonged stress (SPS&S). As indicated by the results of the open filed test, elevated plus maze test, and contextual fear conditioning test, P-PT prevented the development of anxiety and freezing behaviors in rats exposed to the SPS&S. We also compared the effects of P-PT and continuous wave 810 nm laser-phototherapy (CW-PT) in preventing PTSD-like comorbidities in rats. The results revealed that P-PT was effective in preventing both freezing and anxiety behavior in stressed rats. In contrast, CW-PT only had a preventive effect on freezing behavior but not anxiety. Additionally, P-PT significantly reduced the c-fos expression in cingulate cortex area 1(Cg1) and infralimbic cortex (IL) of stressed rats, while CW-PT had no significant effects on c-fos expression. Taken together, our results demonstrate that P-PT is a highly effective strategy for preventing the occurrence of PTSD-like comorbidities in rats.

Effective small object detection is crucial in various applications including urban intelligent transportation and pedestrian detection. However, small objects are difficult to detect accurately because they contain less information. Many current methods, particularly those based on Feature Pyramid Network (FPN), address this challenge by leveraging multi-scale feature fusion. However, existing FPN-based methods often suffer from inadequate feature fusion due to varying resolutions across different layers, leading to suboptimal small object detection. To address this problem, we propose the Two-layer Attention Feature Pyramid Network (TA-FPN), featuring two key modules: the Two-layer Attention Module (TAM) and the Small Object Detail Enhancement Module (SODEM). TAM uses the attention module to make the network more focused on the semantic information of the object and fuse it to the lower layer, so that each layer contains similar semantic information, to alleviate the problem of small object information being submerged due to semantic gaps between different layers. At the same time, SODEM is introduced to strengthen the local features of the object, suppress background noise, enhance the information details of the small object, and fuse the enhanced features to other feature layers to ensure that each layer is rich in small object information, to improve small object detection accuracy. Our extensive experiments on challenging datasets such as Microsoft Common Objects in Context (MS COCO) and Pattern Analysis Statistical Modelling and Computational Learning, Visual Object Classes (PASCAL VOC) demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. Experimental results show a significant improvement in small object detection accuracy compared to state-of-the-art detectors. Graphic Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separators are of significance in the thermal safety and energy‐storage performance of lithium‐ion batteries. Polyimide (PI) separators have great prospects as membrane candidate materials due to their high thermal and chemical stability. Here, a series of PI lithium‐ion battery membranes containing benzonorbornene and pyridine were prepared by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) or polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as pore‐forming agents. The obtained porous polymer membrane PI‐PEG600 had excellent thermal stability (initial weight‐loss temperature up to 300°C and Tg of 278°C), satisfying liquid electrolyte uptakes (up to 132.65%), and admirable ionic conductivity (1.62 × 10−4 S cm−1). The battery with PI porous membranes showed greatly enhanced electrochemical performance with high C‐rate discharge capability (167.3–108.8 mAh g−1, 0.1–2 C) and excellent capacity of 155.6 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C after 55 cycles, meanwhile, it could work steadily at 180°C. This work offers a feasible and effective route to develop membranes of heat‐resistant PI separators for safe lithium‐ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy (V-PDT) is an effective treatment for port wine stains (PWS). However, repeated treatment is usually needed to achieve optimal treatment outcomes, possibly due to the limited treatment light penetration depth in the PWS lesion. The optical clearing technique can increase light penetration in depth by reducing light scattering. This study aimed to investigate the V-PDT in combination with an optical clearing agent (OCA) for the therapeutic enhancement of V-PDT in the rodent skinfold window chamber model. Vascular responses were closely monitored with laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI), optical coherence tomography angiography, and stereo microscope before, during, and after the treatment. We further quantitatively demonstrated the effects of V-PDT in combination with OCA on the blood flow and blood vessel size of skin microvasculature. The combination of OCA and V-PDT resulted in significant vascular damage, including vasoconstriction and the reduction of blood flow. Our results indicate the promising potential of OCA for enhancing V-PDT for treating vascular-related diseases, including PWS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]