Stability of initialization response of fractional oscillators

Application of fractional calculus representations, shortly termed as fractional constitute relations becomes an effective and powerful technique to characterize the rheological behavior of viscoelastic materials. Research on fractional oscillators provides a novel approach to deal with viscoelastically damped structures. This paper firstly investigates the memory effects or historical effects on dynamical responses of fractional oscillators via numerical simulations. Then the stability of initialization response is proved based on the unit impulse response function and the Lyapunov stability theorem for fractional differential equations. The main conclusion in this paper is that the stability of initialization responses of fractional oscillators is irrelevant to initial conditions or prehistory

Contribution of basal ganglia activity to REM sleep disorder in Parkinson’s disease

Background: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is one of the most common sleep problems and represents a key prodromal marker in Parkinson’s disease (PD). It remains unclear whether and how basal ganglia nuclei, structures that are directly involved in the pathology of PD, are implicated in the occurrence of RBD. Method: Here, in parallel with whole-night video polysomnography, we recorded local field potentials from two major basal ganglia structures, the globus pallidus internus and subthalamic nucleus, in two cohorts of patients with PD who had varied severity of RBD. Basal ganglia oscillatory patterns during RBD and REM sleep without atonia were analysed and compared with another age-matched cohort of patients with dystonia that served as controls. Results: We found that beta power in both basal ganglia nuclei was specifically elevated during REM sleep without atonia in patients with PD, but not in dystonia. Basal ganglia beta power during REM sleep positively correlated with the extent of atonia loss, with beta elevation preceding the activation of chin electromyogram activities by ~200 ms. The connectivity between basal ganglia beta power and chin muscular activities during REM sleep was significantly correlated with the clinical severity of RBD in PD. Conclusions: These findings support that basal ganglia activities are associated with if not directly contribute to the occurrence of RBD in PD. Our study expands the understanding of the role basal ganglia played in RBD and may foster improved therapies for RBD by interrupting the basal ganglia-muscular communication during REM sleep in PD

Development and validation of a nomogram to predict the five-year risk of revascularization for non-culprit lesion progression in STEMI patients after primary PCI

BackgroundAcute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients after primary PCI were readmitted for revascularization due to non-culprit lesion (NCL) progression.ObjectiveTo develop and validate a nomogram that can accurately predict the likelihood of NCL progression revascularization in STEMI patients following primary PCI.MethodsThe study enrolled 1,612 STEMI patients after primary PCI in our hospital from June 2009 to June 2018. Patients were randomly divided into training and validation sets in a 7:3 ratio. The independent risk factors were determined by LASSO regression and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was utilized to develop a nomogram, which was then evaluated for its performance using the concordance statistics, calibration plots, and decision curve analysis (DCA).ResultsThe nomogram was composed of five predictors, including age (OR: 1.007 95% CI: 1.005–1.009, P < 0.001), body mass index (OR: 1.476, 95% CI: 1.363–1.600, P < 0.001), triglyceride and glucose index (OR: 1.050, 95% CI: 1.022–1.079, P < 0.001), Killip classification (OR: 1.594, 95% CI: 1.140–2.229, P = 0.006), and serum creatinine (OR: 1.007, 95% CI: 1.005–1.009, P < 0.001). Both the training and validation groups accurately predicted the occurrence of NCL progression revascularization (The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values, 0.901 and 0.857). The calibration plots indicated an excellent agreement between prediction and observation in both sets. Furthermore, the DCA demonstrated that the model exhibited clinical efficacy.ConclusionA convenient and accurate nomogram was developed and validated for predicting the occurrence of NCL progression revascularization in STEMI patients after primary PCI

Bone Marrow Derivation of Interstitial Cells of Cajal in Small Intestine Following Intestinal Injury

Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) in gastrointestinal tract are specialized cells serving as pacemaker cells. The origin of ICCs is currently not fully characterized. In this work, we aimed to study whether bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) could contribute to the origin of ICCs in the muscular plexus of small intestine using GFP-C57BL/6 chimeric mice.Engraftment of BMDCs in the intestine was investigated for GFP expression. GFP positive bone marrow mononuclear cells reached a proportion of 95.65%±3.72% at different times in chimerism. Donor-derived cells distributed widely in all the layers of the gastrointestinal tract. There were GFP positive BMDCs in the myenteric plexus, which resembled characteristics of ICCs, including myenteric location, c-Kit positive staining, and ramified morphology. Donor-derived ICCs in the myenteric plexus contributed to a percentage ranging 9.25%±4.9% of all the ICCs in the myenteric plexus. In conclusion, here we described that donor-derived BMDCs might differentiate into gastrointestinal ICCs after radiation injury, which provided an alternative source for the origin of the ICCs in the muscular plexus of adult intestine. These results further identified the plasticity of BMDCs and indicated therapeutic implications of BMDCs for the gastrointestinal dysmotility caused by ICCs disorders

MAML2 rearrangement in primary pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma and the correlation with FLT1 expression.

INTRODUCTION: Primary pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (PMEC) is an uncommon neoplasm with remarkable resemblance to mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the salivary glands. The latter has been shown to harbor t(11,19) resulting in MECT1-MAML2 fusion, which may be of diagnostic and prognostic values. However, the importance of such feature in PMEC has not been well studied. METHODS: We detected MAML2 rearrangement using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in tissue samples from 42 cases of PMEC and 40 of adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC), and the expression of potential downstream targets of MECT1-MAML2, including HES1, FLT1 and NR4A2 with immunohistochemistry (IHC). The findings were then examined regarding the clinicopathological parameters and patient outcomes. RESULTS: FISH analysis revealed MAML2 rearrangement in 50% of the PMEC cases, and such property was prominent in considerable younger patients (33 versus 60 years; p = 0.001) and restricted to cases of low and intermediate grades. IHC analysis showed that FLT1 and HES1 were expressed at lower level in MAML2 rearranged group than MAML2 non-rearranged group (p<0.001 and p = 0.023, respectively). Survival analysis showed significant correlation between MAML2 rearrangement and overall survival (p = 0.023) or disease-free survival (p = 0.027) as well as correlation between FLT1 and overall survival (p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: MAML2 rearrangement appears frequent in PMEC and specific with this tumor. Both the presence of MAML2 rearrangement and absence of FLT1 tend to confer a favorable clinical outcome. These findings suggest that molecular detection of MAML2 rearrangement combined with FLT1 may be of important clinical value for PMEC

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in patients with leukoaraiosis-associated subcortical vascular cognitive impairment : a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate the difference of resting-state default-mode network (DMN) between patients with leukoaraiosis (LA)-associated subcortical vascular cognitive impairment (SVCI) and control subjects, and to provide functional imaging evidence of SVCI. METHODS: All subjects (n = 58) were divided into two groups based on their clinical diagnosis: a LA-associated SVCI group (n = 31, 14 males) and a control group (n = 27, 14 males). Demographic information and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data were obtained. These subjects were assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Depression Scale, Clinical Dementia Rating, Mini Mental State Exam, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Experimental data and confounding factors were described with a General Liner Model. Independent components of fMRI data were analyzed with an fMRI toolbox. RESULTS: The active areas involved in DMN of LA-associated SVCI group were similar to those of the control group. However, several active areas of LA-associated SVCI group, especially the left anterior cingulate cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus, showed significantly lower blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals compared with the control group (p ≤ 0.05); whereas the left caudate nucleus (p = 0.015), the right frontal lobe (p = 0.004), and the superior temporal gyrus/inferior parietal gyrus (p = 0.001) exhibited significantly higher BOLD signals compared with the control group. DISCUSSION: The present study provides neuroimaging evidence for the recognition of LA-associated SVCI. Moreover, the differences in the functional alterations of the resting-state DMN might be a distinguishing feature between SVCI and amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients

Glycated hemoglobin independently or in combination with fasting plasma glucose versus oral glucose tolerance test to detect abnormal glycometabolism in acute ischemic stroke: a Chinese cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The investigation of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) as a diagnostic tool for abnormal glycometabolism is lack in acute ischemic stroke patients in China and worldwide. This paper was aimed to determine whether HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), or HbA1c combined with FPG, could be used to screen for diabetes mellitus (DM) or prediabetes in acute ischemic stroke patients without previous DM. METHODS: Acute ischemic stroke patients without previous DM (n = 1,316) were selected from the Abnormal gluCose Regulation in Patients with Acute StrOke acrosS China Study (ACROSS-China). Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), HbA1c, FPG, and HbA1c combined with FPG were used as the screening methods to categorize the glycometabolic status. OGTT was taken as the golden method. Venn diagrams and the overlap index were used to determine the associations among the three methods of identifying abnormal glycometabolism. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and Youden index were used to assess and compare the accuracy in detecting abnormal glycometabolism. Youden analyses were performed to determine the ideal cutoff values of HbA1c in diagnosing abnormal glycometabolism. RESULTS: In acute ischemic stroke patients without previous DM, the overlaps of HbA1c versus OGTT, HbA1c versus FPG, and all the three methods independently, were low for detecting abnormal glycometabolism (all <50%). HbA1c can significantly detect more cases of prediabetes than OGTT (P < 0.001). The combination of HbA1c and FPG significantly raised the sensitivity to over 60.0%, specificity to over 80.0%, and the diagnostic accuracy (Youden index from under 40.0% to 42.4%)for DM. HbA1c of 5.7%-6.4% had a low to moderate concordance with OGTT for identifying prediabetes (AUROC = 0.557, P = 0.001). HbA1c values of 6.3% and 5.9% were found to be the ideal cutoff values for detecting DM and abnormal glycometabolism in our data, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of HbA1c and FPG increased the diagnostic rate of DM when compared with OGTT, and increased the diagnostic accuracy for DM compared with HbA1c or FPG alone. Our results advocate the use of HbA1c as screening tool for the diagnosis of pre-diabetes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12883-014-0177-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Glycated hemoglobin independently predicts stroke recurrence within one year after acute first-ever non-cardioembolic strokes onset in A Chinese cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Hyperglycemia is related to stroke. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) can reflect pre-stroke glycaemia status. However, the information on the direct association between HbA1c and recurrence after non-cardioembolic acute ischemic strokes is rare and there is no consistent conclusion. METHODS: The ACROSS-China database comprised of 2186 consecutive first-ever acute ischemic stroke patients with baseline HbA1c values. After excluding patients who died from non-stroke recurrence and patients lost to follow up, 1817 and 1540 were eligible for 3-month and 1-year analyses, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression was performed to evaluate the associations between HbA1c and 3-month and 1-year stroke recurrence. RESULTS: The HbA1c values at admission were divided into 4 levels by quartiles: Q1 (<5.5%); Q2 (5.5 to <6.1%); Q3 (6.1% to <7.2%); and Q4 (≥ 7.2%). The cumulative recurrence rates were 8.3% and 11.0% for 3 months and 1 year, respectively. In multivariate analyses, when compared with Q1, the adjusted hazard ratios (AHRs) were 2.83 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28-6.26) in Q3 and 3.71(95% CI 1.68-8.21) in Q4 for 3-month stroke recurrence; 3.30 (95% CI 1.31-8.34) in Q3 and 3.35 (95% CI 1.36-8.21) in Q4 for 1-year stroke recurrence. Adding fasting plasma glucose in the multivariate analyses did not modify the association: AHRs were 2.75 (95% CI 1.24-6.11) in Q3 and 3.67 (95% CI 1.59-8.53) in Q4 for 3-month analysis; AHRs were 3.08 (95% CI 1.10-8.64) in Q3 and 3.31(95% CI 1.35-8.14) in Q4 for 1-year analysis. CONCLUSIONS: A higher "normal" HbA1c level reflecting pre-stroke glycaemia status independently predicts stroke recurrence within one year after non-cardioembolic acute ischemic stroke onset. HbA1c is recommended as a routine test in acute ischemic stroke patients

Prevalence of Abnormal Glucose Regulation according to Different Diagnostic Criteria in Ischaemic Stroke without a History of Diabetes

We aimed to investigate the prevalence and distribution of abnormal glucose regulation, including prediabetes and newly diagnosed diabetes, according to different criteria in ischaemic stroke patients without a history of diabetes. Data were derived from a representative cohort across China. Prediabetes was defined as fasting plasma glucose (FPG) 5.6–6.9 mmol/L or 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) 7.8–11.0 mmol/L or haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) 5.7–6.4%. Newly diagnosed diabetes was defined as FPG ≥ 7.0 mmol/L, 2 h OGTT ≥ 11.1 mmol/L or HbA1c ≥ 6.5%. Among 1251 ischaemic stroke patients, 471 (37.5%) were detected as prediabetes and 539 (43.1%) were detected as newly diagnosed diabetes. Prediabetes was present in 118 (9.4%), 290 (23.2%) and 314 (25.1%) stroke patients, and newly diagnosed diabetes was present in 138 (11.0%), 370 (29.6%), and 365 (29.2%) stroke patients, based on FPG, 2 h OGTT, and HbA1c criteria, respectively. Dependency on FPG alone would have missed 74.9% of patients in the prediabetes range and 74.4% of patients in the diabetes range. Our study demonstrated a high prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes in ischaemic stroke patients without a history of diabetes. OGTT and HbA1c helped detect the majority of prediabetes and newly diagnosed diabetes in ischaemic stroke patients