The structure of electronic polarization and its strain dependence

The \phi(\kpp)\sim \kpp relation is called polarization structure. By density functional calculations, we study the polarization structure in ferroelectric perovskite PbTiO$_3$, revealing (1) the \kpp point that contributes most to the electronic polarization, (2) the magnitude of bandwidth, and (3) subtle curvature of polarization dispersion. We also investigate how polarization structure in PbTiO$_3$ is modified by compressive inplane strains. The bandwidth of polarization dispersion in PbTiO$_3$ is shown to exhibit an unusual decline, though the total polarization is enhanced. As another outcome of this study, we formulate an analytical scheme for the purpose of identifying what determine the polarization structure at arbitrary \kpp points by means of Wannier functions. We find that \phi(\kpp) is determined by two competing factors: one is the overlaps between neighboring Wannier functions within the plane {\it perpendicular} to the polarization direction, and the other is the localization length {\it parallel} to the polarization direction. Inplane strain increases the former while decreases the latter, causing interesting non-monotonous effects on polarization structure. Finally, polarization dispersion in another paradigm ferroelectric BaTiO$_3$ is discussed and compared with that of PbTiO$_3$.Comment: 5 Figure

IL-33 ameliorates Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology and cognitive decline

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating condition with no known effective treatment. AD is characterized by memory loss as well as impaired locomotor ability, reasoning, and judgment. Emerging evidence suggests that the innate immune response plays a major role in the pathogenesis of AD. In AD, the accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain perturbs physiological functions of the brain, including synaptic and neuronal dysfunction, microglial activation, and neuronal loss. Serum levels of soluble ST2 (sST2), a decoy receptor for interleukin (IL)-33, increase in patients with mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that impaired IL-33/ST2 signaling may contribute to the pathogenesis of AD. Therefore, we investigated the potential therapeutic role of IL-33 in AD, using transgenic mouse models. Here we report that IL-33 administration reverses synaptic plasticity impairment and memory deficits in APP/PS1 mice. IL-33 administration reduces soluble Aβ levels and amyloid plaque deposition by promoting the recruitment and Aβ phagocytic activity of microglia; this is mediated by ST2/p38 signaling activation. Furthermore, IL-33 injection modulates the innate immune response by polarizing microglia/macrophages toward an antiinflammatory phenotype and reducing the expression of proinflammatory genes, including IL-1β, IL-6, and NLRP3, in the cortices of APP/PS1 mice. Collectively, our results demonstrate a potential therapeutic role for IL-33 in AD

An estimation model on electricity consumption of new metro stations

Electricity consumption of metro stations increases sharply with expansion of a metro network and this has been a growing cause for concern. Based on relevant historical data from existing metro stations, this paper proposes a support vector regression (SVR) model to estimate daily electricity consumption of a newly constructed metro station. The model considers some major factors influencing the electricity consumption of metro station in terms of both the interior design scheme of a station (e.g., layout of the station and allocation of facilities) and external factors (e.g., passenger volume, air temperature and relative humidity). A genetic algorithm with five-fold cross-validation is used to optimize the hyper-parameters of the SVR model in order to improve its accuracy in estimating the electricity consumption of a metro station (ECMS). With the optimized hyper-parameters, results from case studies on the Beijing Subway showed that the estimating accuracy of the proposed SVR model could reach up to 95% and the correlation coefficient was 0.89. It was demonstrated that the proposed model could outperform the traditional methods which use a back-propagation neural network or multivariate linear regression. The method presented in this paper can be an adequate tool for estimating the ECMS and should further assist in the delivery of new, energy-efficient metro stations

Changes in mental health services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in high-income countries: a rapid review

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Background: Severe deterioration in mental health and disrupted care provision during the COVID-19 increased unmet needs for mental health. This review aimed to identify changes in mental health services for patients in response to the pandemic and understand the impact of the changes on patients and providers. Methods: Following the Cochrane guidance for rapid reviews, Cochrane CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase and PsycInfo were searched for empirical studies that investigated models of care, services, initiatives or programmes developed/evolved for patients receiving mental health care during COVID-19, published in English and undertaken in high-income countries. Thematic analysis was conducted to describe the changes and an effect direction plot was used to show impact on outcomes. Results: 33 of 6969 records identified were included reporting on patients’ experiences (n = 24), care providers’ experiences (n = 7) and mixed of both (n = 2). Changes reported included technology-based care delivery, accessibility, flexibility, remote diagnostics and evaluation, privacy, safety and operating hours of service provision. These changes had impacts on: (1) care access; (2) satisfaction with telehealth; (3) comparability of telehealth with face-to-face care; (4) treatment effectiveness; (5) continuity of care; (6) relationships between patients and care providers; (7) remote detection and diagnostics in patients; (8) privacy; (9) treatment length and (10) work-life balance. Conclusions: A shift to telecommunication technologies had a significant impact on patients and care providers’ experiences of mental health care. Improvements to care access, flexibility, remote forms of care delivery and lengths of operating service hours emerged as crucial changes, which supported accessibility to mental health services, increased attendance and reduced dropouts from care. The relationships between patients and care providers were influenced by service changes and were vastly depending on technological literacy and context of patients and availability and care access ranging from regular contact to a loss of in-person contact. The review also identified an increase in care inequality and a feeling of being disconnected among marginalised groups including homeless people, veterans and ethic minority groups. Telehealth in mental care could be a viable alternative to face-to-face service delivery with effective treatment outcomes. Further research is needed to better understand the impact of the changes identified particularly on underserved populations

High Relief from Brush Painting

Relief is an art form part way between 3D sculpture and 2D painting. We present a novel approach for generating a texture-mapped high-relief model from a single brush painting. Our aim is to extract the brushstrokes from a painting and generate the individual corresponding relief proxies rather than recovering the exact depth map from the painting, which is a tricky computer vision problem, requiring assumptions that are rarely satisfied. The relief proxies of brushstrokes are then combined together to form a 2.5D high-relief model. To extract brushstrokes from 2D paintings, we apply layer decomposition and stroke segmentation by imposing boundary constraints. The segmented brushstrokes preserve the style of the input painting. By inflation and a displacement map of each brushstroke, the features of brushstrokes are preserved by the resultant high-relief model of the painting. We demonstrate that our approach is able to produce convincing high-reliefs from a variety of paintings(with humans, animals, flowers, etc.). As a secondary application, we show how our brushstroke extraction algorithm could be used for image editing. As a result, our brushstroke extraction algorithm is specifically geared towards paintings with each brushstroke drawn very purposefully, such as Chinese paintings, Rosemailing paintings, etc