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Background and purposeIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common bowel-brain interaction disorder whose pathogenesis is unclear. Many studies have investigated abnormal changes in brain function in IBS patients. In this study, we analyzed the dynamic changes in brain function in IBS patients using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM).MethodsResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data and the clinical characteristics of 35 patients with IBS and 31 healthy controls (HCs) were collected. The rs-fMRI data of all participants were analyzed using HMM to identify recurrent brain activity states that evolve over time during the resting state. Additionally, the temporal properties of these HMM states and their correlations with clinical scale scores were examined.ResultThis study utilized the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) method to identify six distinct HMM states. Significant differences in fractional occupancy (FO) and lifetime (LT) were observed in states 5 and 6 between the IBS and HCs. The state transition probabilities differed between IBS and HCs, with an increased probability of transitioning from state 2 to state 6 in IBS patients. The reconfiguration of HMM states over time scales in IBS patients was associated with abnormal activity in the default mode network (DMN), sensorimotor network (SMN), and cingulo-opercular network (CON).ConclusionThis study offers novel insights into the dynamic reorganization of brain activity patterns in IBS and elucidates potential links between these patterns and IBS-related emotional regulation and symptom experience, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying IBS.

BackgroundTrigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a chronic neuropathic pain disorder that not only causes intense pain but also affects the psychological health of patients. Since TN pain intensity and negative emotion may be grounded in our own pain experiences, they exhibit huge inter-individual differences. This study investigates the effect of inter-individual differences in pain intensity and negative emotion on brain structure in patients with TN and the possible pathophysiology mechanism underlying this disease.MethodsT1 weighted magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging scans were obtained in 46 patients with TN and 35 healthy controls. All patients with TN underwent pain-related and emotion-related questionnaires. Voxel-based morphometry and regional white matter diffusion property analysis were used to investigate whole brain grey and white matter quantitatively. Innovatively employing partial least squares correlation analysis to explore the relationship among pain intensity, negative emotion and brain microstructure in patients with TN.ResultsSignificant difference in white matter integrity were identified in patients with TN compared to the healthy controls group; The most correlation brain region in the partial least squares correlation analysis was the genus of the corpus callosum, which was negatively associated with both pain intensity and negative emotion.ConclusionThe genu of corpus callosum plays an important role in the cognition of pain perception, the generation and conduction of negative emotions in patients with TN. These findings may deepen our understanding of the pathophysiology of TN.

Abstract Li+ insertion and extraction inherently impact the switching dynamics and cycling stability of inorganic electrochromic (EC) electrodes. Herein, the extraction of Li+ out of the TiO2 lattice to release the electron is replaced by the charge recombination of the electron with I3− at the TiO2‐electrolyte interface, which avoids the mechanical breakdown of the electrodes and renders self‐bleaching with no applied voltages. A device design of the same two TiO2 nanocrystal (NC) electrodes combined with the redox lithium salt (LiI) electrolyte confers symmetric electrochromism. By applying a forward or reverse bias, the two TiO2 electrodes alternately serve as the electrochromic electrode and exhibit voltage‐controlled gradient coloration, a maximum optical modulation of 90% at 700 nm, and a doubled cycling performance. The microstructure of the TiO2 NC film is characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller methods. The electrochemical and electrochromic properties of the device are investigated using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Mott–Schottky method.

Layered double hydroxide (LDH), a kind of 2D layered materials, has been recognized as the promising anticorrosion materials for metal and its alloy. The microstructure, physical/chemical properties, usage in corrosion inhibition and inhibition performance of LDH have been studied separately in open literature. However, there is a lack of a complete review to summarize the status of LDH technology and the potential R&D opportunities in the field of corrosion inhibition. In addition, the challenges for LDH in corrosion inhibition of metal-based system have not been summarized systematically. Herein, we review recent advances in the rational design of LDH for corrosion inhibition of metal-based system (i.e. Mg alloy, Al alloy, steel and concrete) and high-throughput anticorrosion materials development. By evaluating the physical/chemical properties, usage in metal-based system and the corrosion inhibition mechanism of LDH, we highlight several important factors of LDH for anticorrosion performance and common features of LDH in applying different metal alloys. Finally, we provide our perspective and recommendation in this field, including high-throughput techiniques for combinatorial compositional design and rapid synthesis of anticorrosion alloys, with the goal of accelerating the development and application of LDH in corrosion inhibition of metal-based system.

Magnesium alloys, the advanced lightweight structural materials, have been successfully applied in the manufacturing field. Unfortunately, their poor corrosion resistance restrains the potential wide applications. In this work, anti-corrosion coatings were fabricated via the in-situ growth of the corrosion inhibitors intercalated magnesium-aluminum layered double hydroxide (Mg–Al LDH) on AZ31 magnesium alloy and then post-sealing it by a super-hydrophobic coating. SEM, XRD, EDS, FTIR, XPS and contact angle test were conducted to analyze physical/chemical features of these coatings. Potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were recorded to assess the anti-corrosion performance of prepared coatings. Surprisingly, Mg–Al LDH with molybdate intercalation and lauric acid modification achieves the excellent corrosion inhibition performance (99.99%) due to the multicomponent synergistic effect such as the physical protection of Mg–Al LDH, the corrosion inhibition of molybdate and super-hydrophobic properties of lauric acid. This work presents a scientific perspective and novel design philosophy to fabricate the efficient anti-corrosion coating to protect magnesium alloys and then expand their potential applications in other field. Keywords: Magnesium alloy, Superhydrophobicity, LDH films, Corrosion inhibitor, Corrosion resistance

In nature, biomineralization is a common phenomenon, which can be further divided into authigenic and artificially induced mineralization. In recent years, artificially induced mineralization technology has been gradually extended to major engineering fields. Therefore, by elaborating the reaction mechanism and bacteria of mineralization process, and summarized various molecular dynamics equations involved in the mineralization process, including microbial and nutrient transport equations, microbial adsorption equations, growth equations, urea hydrolysis equations, and precipitation equations. Because of the environmental adaptation stage of microorganisms in sandy soil, their reaction rate in sandy soil environment is slower than that in solution environment, the influencing factors are more different, in general, including substrate concentration, temperature, pH, particle size and grouting method. Based on the characteristics of microbial mineralization such as strong cementation ability, fast, efficient, and easy to control, there are good prospects for application in sandy soil curing, building improvement, heavy metal fixation, oil reservoir dissection, and CO2 capture. Finally, it is discussed and summarized the problems and future development directions on the road of commercialization of microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation technology from laboratory to field application.

The issue of achieving an appropriate segmentation for indoor point cloud scenes remains difficult. Although available methods continue to improve the benchmark performance, more attentions need to be paid to deal with the drawbacks of inaccurate or incomplete segments in division. To push the research to the next level, this work proposes an learning-free algorithm for the segmentation of indoor point clouds which consists of two stages. The first stage extracts edges of RGBD point clouds and applies them in the voxel clustering process to avoid generating supervoxels which are situated across object boundaries. After this pre-segmentation, a two-phase merging procedure is presented in the second part. By conducting region growing on optimized supervoxels, a set of local regions is obtained. Then we propose to define the convexity-concavity of adjacent regions based on the observations of object structures and merge the convexly connected regions to achieve object-level segmentation. This algorithm is straightforward to implement and requires no training data. Experimental results show that it produces supervoxels with plausible boundaries and arrives at better object-level segmentation.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the effectiveness of enhancing individual spatial cognitive abilities in alleviating the negative symptoms of visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). Additionally, it seeks to develop innovative intervention methods to improve spatial cognition and identify new treatment approaches for VIMS. Methods: The study investigated the impact of innovative interventions on spatial cognitive abilities and their modulation of VIMS susceptibility. A total of 43 participants were recruited (23 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group). The experimental group underwent six sessions of spatial cognitive ability training, while the control group engaged in activities unrelated to spatial cognition. Results: The analysis revealed that the spatial cognitive ability scores of the experimental group significantly improved after the intervention. Furthermore, the experimental group exhibited significant differences in nausea, oculomotor, disorientation, and total SSQ scores before and after the intervention, indicating that the intervention effectively mitigated VIMS symptoms. Conclusion: This study developed a virtual reality training method that effectively enhances individual spatial cognitive abilities and significantly alleviates VIMS symptoms, providing a novel and effective approach for VIMS intervention and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variational problem, Noether symmetry and conserved quantity, and Lie symmetry and conserved quantity of singular systems are investigated on the basis of Riesz derivatives. First, based on Riesz derivatives, the variational problem of Lagrangian systems is studied, the fractional Lagrange equation is established, and the primary constraint problem of the system is discussed when the Lagrangian is singular. Second, the constrained Hamilton equation is established and the compatibility condition is provided. Third, the Noether symmetry and conserved quantity and the Lie symmetry and conserved quantity of the constrained Hamiltonian system are studied. In the end, an example is provided for illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KDF1 has been reported to be correlated with carcinogenesis. However, its role and mechanism are far from clear. To explore the possible role and underlying mechanism of KDF1 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), we investigated KDF1 expression in LUAD tissues and the influence of KDF1 in the phenotype of LUAD cells (A549 and PC-9) as well as the underlying mechanism. Compared to non-tumor lung epithelial cells, KDF1 was upregulated in the cancer cells of the majority of LUAD patients, and its expression was correlated with tumor size. Patients with enhanced KDF1 in cancer cells (compared with paired adjacent non-neoplastic lung epithelial cells) had shorter overall survival than patients with no increased KDF1 in cancer cells. Knockdown of KDF1 inhibited the migration, proliferation and invasion of LUAD cells in vitro. And overexpression of KDF1 increased the growth of the subcutaneous tumors in mice. In terms of molecular mechanisms, overexpression of KDF1 induced the expression of AKT, p-AKT and p-STAT3. In KDF1-overexpressing A549 cells, inhibition of the STAT3 pathway decreased the level of AKT and p-AKT, whereas inhibition of the AKT pathway had no effect on the activation of STAT3. Inhibition of STAT3 or AKT pathways reversed the promoting effects of KDF1 overexpression on the LUAD cell phenotype and STAT3 inhibition appeared to have a better effect. Finally, in the cancer cells of LUAD tumor samples, the KDF1 level was observed to correlate positively with the level of p-STAT3. All these findings suggest that KDF1, which activates STAT3 and the downstream AKT pathway in LUAD, acts as a tumor-promoting factor and may represent a therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]