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In the vanguard of neuromorphic engineering, we develop a paradigm of biocompatible polymer memcapacitors using a seamless solution process, unleashing comprehensive synaptic capabilities depending on both the stimulation form and history. Like the human brain to learn and adapt, the memcapacitors exhibit analogue-type and evolvable capacitance shifts that mirror the complex flexibility of synaptic strengthening and weakening. With increasing frequency and intensity of the stimulation, the memcapacitors demonstrate an evolution from short-term plasticity (STP) to long-term plasticity (LTP), and even to metaplasticity (MP) at a higher level. A physical picture, featuring the stimulus-controlled spatiotemporal ion redistribution in the polymer, elaborates the origin of the memcapacitive prowess and resultant versatile synaptic plasticity. The distinctive MP behavior endows the memcapacitors with a dynamic learning rate (LR), which is utilized in an artificial neural network. The superiority of implementing a dynamic LR compared with conventional practices of using constant LR shines light on the potential of the memcapacitors to exploit organic neuromorphic computing hardware.

Objective: Here, we explored molecular changes that could potentially mediate healing effects of Gua Sha - a method employed by the Chinese traditional medicine with proven track records of safe and efficient applications dating back to ancient times as well as support from randomized controlled trials performed by modern medical studies - yet remaining almost entirely unexplored by the modern-day high-throughput methods of the -omics sciences., Methods: We investigated transcriptome changes occurring shortly after Gua Sha treatment in the whole blood of healthy volunteers using bulk RNA-seq analysis. We applied various analytical tools to identify genes with consistent expression changes in multiple individuals in response to Gua Sha and their networks., Results: We found that while the changes were very subtle and individual-specific, we could identify consistent upregulation of three histone genes. Further analysis of the potential regulatory networks of these histone genes revealed the enrichment of functions involved in the immune response and inflammation., Conclusion: The significance of these results in the context of potential effects of Gua Sha and the next steps in exploring the molecular mechanisms of action of this technique are discussed., (Copyright © 2023 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.)

The contribution of S2 accessory gene of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) to the virulence of pathogenic strains was investigated in the present study by reverse mutation of all four consensus S2 mutation sites in an attenuated EIAV proviral strain, FDDV3-8, to the corresponding sequences of a highly pathogenic strain DV117. The S2 reverse-mutated recombinant strain FDDVS2r1-2-3-4 replicated with similar kinetics to FDDV3-8 in cultivated target cells. In contrast to the results of other studies of EIAV with dysfunctional S2, reverse mutation of S2 only transiently and moderately increased the plasma viral load of inoculated horses, and induction of transient immunosuppression did not boost viral pathogenicity. In addition, inoculation of FDDVS2r1-2-3-4 induced partial protection to a challenge pathogenic virus. These results suggest that the attenuated EIAV vaccine strain with multiple mutations in multiple genes will not easily revert to a virulent phenotype., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

To elucidate the function of the S2 gene in equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) and its role in the attenuation of the Chinese attenuated EIAV vaccine strains, the S2 in the EIAV vaccine strain EIAV (FDDV) was reverse-mutated and the in vitro replication character of the resultant virus was evaluated. Based on the sequence variation of the S2 gene between the EIAV virulent strains and vaccine strains, all the four vaccine-specific sites in the S2 of an EIAV(FDDV) infectious clone, pFDDV3-8, were reverse-mutated to the sequences of the virulent strain EIAV(DV115). The reverse-mutated molecular clone pFDDVS2r1-3-4-5 was used to transfect fetal donkey dermal (FDD) cells for rescuing the derived virus vpFDDVS2r1-3-4-5. The production and replication of vpFDDVS2r1-3-4-5 in FDD cells were proved by RT-PCR, immune fluorescence assay and reverse transcriptase activity assay. Typical virons of EIAV were clearly observed under the electron microscopy. The parallel analysis of the dynamic replication of the reverse-mutated viral clone vpFDDVS2r1-3-4-5 and its parental virus vpFDDV3-8 showed that the virus with four reverse mutations in the S2 replicated only slightly slower than its parental vaccine strain in FDD cells. This result implicates that the mutations in the S2 of the EIAV vaccine strains did not significantly alter the viral replication in vitro. Further studies on the in vivo replication of the reverse-mutated viral clone are required for understanding the relationship between the S2 and the attenuated pathogenesis of EIAV attenuated vaccines.

The space station is available from 2004 for scientific research including human physiology and medicine. In that instance, non-invasive research of human brain in the microgravity condition was highly required. The present newly developed dipole tracing method fits this research purpose, by determining current source in the brain from EEG activity. EEG is also very helpful to monitor the conditions of subjects in various hazard cases. We strongly recommend to use this apparatus in the space station.