Effects of electrostatic therapy on nighttime sleep and daytime symptoms in patients with chronic insomnia: Evidences from an open label study

IntroductionTranscranial electric stimulation (TES) is a neuromodulation approach that applies low-intensity electrical current to the brain and has been proposed as a treatment for insomnia. Electrostatic therapy is a kind of TES and people do not have a feeling of electrical stimuli when the voltage of static electricity is lower than 2,000 volts. However, no studies have examined the effects of electrostatic therapy on objective sleep and daytime symptoms in patients with insomnia.Materials and methodsThirty chronic insomnia patients were included. All patients received a 6 week electrostatic therapy and three comprehensive assessments including two consecutive polysomnography (PSG) and daytime symptoms assessments, at pre-treatment, 3 week and 6 week of treatment. Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) was used to assess the severity of insomnia. Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Flinders Fatigue Scale (FFS) were used to assess objective and self-reported daytime sleepiness and fatigue, respectively. Attention network test (ANT) was used to assess attention levels.ResultsTotal ISI scores decreased significantly at 3 weeks (p < 0.001) and 6 weeks (p < 0.001) after initiation of treatment. Furthermore, objective total sleep time (TST, p = 0.020) and sleep efficiency (SE, p = 0.009) increased and wake time after sleep onset (p = 0.012) decreased significantly after 6 weeks electrostatic therapy. Regarding daytime symptoms, ESS and FFS scores decreased significantly at 3 weeks (ESS, p = 0.047; FFS, p = 0.017) and 6 weeks (ESS, p = 0.008; FFS, p = 0.003) after initiation of treatment. Moreover, executive control improved significantly from pre-treatment to 3 weeks (p = 0.006) and 6 weeks (p = 0.013) and altering network improved significantly at 6 weeks (p = 0.003) after initiation of treatment. Secondary analyses showed that TST and SE improved significantly after electrostatic therapy in insomnia patients who slept < 390 min (all p-value < 0.05). However, no significant changes regarding TST and SE were observed in insomnia patients who slept ≥ 390 min.ConclusionElectrostatic therapy improves both nighttime sleep and daytime symptoms in patients with chronic insomnia. The effect on objective sleep appears to be stronger in patient with objective short sleep duration. Electrostatic therapy might be a therapeutic choice for insomnia patients with difficulty maintaining sleep and not responding to behavioral treatments.Clinical trial registration[www.clinicaltrials.gov], identifier [ChiCTR2100051590]

Exploring the Quantitative Assessment of Spatial Risk in Response to Major Epidemic Disasters in Megacities: A Case Study of Qingdao

With the global spread of various human-to-human epidemics, public health issues have become a focus of attention. Therefore, it is of great importance to improve the quantitative risk assessment of the construction of resilient cities in terms of epidemic disasters. Starting with the dimensions of social activities and material space, this paper took Qingdao, China, with a population of 5 million, as an example, and took its seven municipal districts as the research scope. In this paper, five risk factors, including the Population density index, Night light index, Closeness index of roads, Betweenness index of roads and Functional mixed nuclear density index were selected for weighted superposition analysis. We conducted a quantitative assessment of the spatial risk of epidemic disaster so as to obtain the classification and spatial structure of the epidemic disaster risk intensity. The results show that: ① The roads with a large traffic flow are most likely to lead to the risk of urban spatial agglomeration, and the areas with a large population density and large mixture of infrastructure functions are also important factors causing the risk of epidemic agglomeration. ② The analysis results regarding the population, commerce, public services, transportation, residence, industry, green space and other functional places can reflect the high-risk areas for epidemic diseases with different natures of transmission. ③ The risk intensity of epidemic disasters is divided into five risk grade areas. Among them, the spatial structure of epidemic disasters, composed of the first-level risk areas, is characterized by “one main area, four secondary areas, one belt and multiple points” and has the characteristics of spatial diffusion. ④ Catering, shopping, life services, hospitals, schools and transportation functional places are more likely to cause crowd gathering. The management of these places should be focused on prevention and control. At the same time, medical facilities should be established at fixed points in all high-risk areas to ensure the full coverage of services. In general, the quantitative assessment of the spatial risk of major epidemic disasters improves the disaster risk assessment system in the construction of resilient cities. It also focuses on risk assessment for public health events. It is helpful to accurately locate the agglomeration risk areas and epidemic transmission paths that are prone to outbreak or cause epidemic transmission in cities so as to assist the relevant practitioners in containing the epidemic from the initial stage of transmission in a timely manner and prevent the further spread of the epidemic

A Reflectivity Enhanced 3D Optical Storage Nanostructure Application Based on Direct Laser Writing Lithography

To enable high-density optical storage, better storage media structures, diversified recording methods, and improved accuracy of readout schemes should be considered. In this study, we propose a novel three-dimensional (3D) sloppy nanostructure as the optical storage device, and this nanostructure can be fabricated using the 3D laser direct writing technology. It is a 900 nm high, 1 × 2 µm wide Si slope on a 200 nm SiO2 layer with 200 nm Si3N4 deposited on top to enhance reflectivity. In this study, we propose a reflected spectrum-based method as the readout recording strategy to stabilize information readout more stable. The corresponding reflected spectrum varied when the side wall angle of the slope and the azimuth angle of the nanostructure were tuned. In addition, an artificial neural network was applied to readout the stored information from the reflected spectrum. To simulate the realistic fabrication error and measurement error, a 20% noise level was added to the study. Our findings showed that the readout accuracy was 99.86% for all 120 data sequences when the slope and azimuth angle were varied. We investigated the possibility of a higher storage density to fully demonstrate the storage superiority of this designed structure. Our findings also showed that the readout accuracy can reach its highest level at 97.25% when the storage step of the encoded structure becomes 7.5 times smaller. The study provides the possibility to further explore different nanostructures to achieve high-density optical storage

Constructing Stable MoO_x-NiS_x Film via Electrodeposition and Hydrothermal Method for Water Splitting

The hydrothermal method is a frequently used approach for synthesizing HER electrocatalysts. However, a weak tolerance to high temperature is an intrinsic property of carbon cloth (CC) in most situations, and CC-based catalysts, which require complex technological processes in low-temperature environments, exhibit weak stability and electrochemical performance. Hence, we provide a new solution for these issues. In this work, MoO3-NiSx films of 9H5E-CC catalysts are synthesized, first through electrodeposition to form Ni particles on CC and then through a hydrothermal reaction to reform the reaction. The advantages of this synthetic process include mild reaction conditions and convenient operation. The obtained MoO3-NiSx film presents excellent catalytic activity and stability for HER. MoO3-NiSx film requires only a low overpotential of 142 mV to drive 10 mA cm−2 for HER in 1.0 m KOH, and the obtained 9H5E-CF film only needs 294 mV to achieve 50 mA cm−2 for OER. Remarkably, they also show excellent OER, HER, and full water splitting long-term electrochemical stability, maintaining their performance for at least 72 h. This work can be expanded to provide a new strategy for the fabrication of stable, high-performing electrodes using simple, mild reaction conditions

Effect of Sm Doping on the Microstructure, Mechanical Properties and Shape Memory Effect of Cu-13.0Al-4.0Ni Alloy

The effects of rare earth element Sm on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and shape memory effect of the high temperature shape memory alloy, Cu-13.0Al-4.0Ni-xSm (x = 0, 0.2 and 0.5) (wt.%), are studied in this work. The results show that the Sm addition reduces the grain size of the Cu-13.0Al-4.0Ni alloy from millimeters to hundreds of microns. The microstructure of the Cu-13.0Al-4.0Ni-xSm alloys are composed of 18R and a face-centered cubic Sm-rich phase at room temperature. In addition, because the addition of the Sm element enhances the fine-grain strengthening effect, the mechanical properties and the shape memory effect of the Cu-13.0Al-4.0Ni alloy were greatly improved. When x = 0.5, the compressive fracture stress and the compressive fracture strain increased from 580 MPa, 10.5% to 1021 MPa, 14.8%, respectively. When the pre-strain is 10%, a reversible strain of 6.3% can be obtained for the Cu-13.0Al-4.0Ni-0.2Sm alloy

Ultrasound-assisted Xylanase Treatment of Chemi-Mechanical Poplar Pulp

Xylanase treatment can be an environmentally friendly way to improve the formability and drainability of chemi-mechanical pulp (CMP). Improvements in xylanase treatment efficiency are possible with application of an ultrasonic wave via the cavitation effect. Results showed that the specific surface area (SSA) of the combined treated pulp increased by 14.6% at an ultrasonic treatment of 30 min and xylanase dosage of 10 U/g, in comparison to xylanase treatment alone. Also, the drainability of xylanase-treated pulp increased from 450 to 500 mL, and it further increased to 775 mL with ultrasonic-assisted xylanase treatment. Morphological characterization of pulps showed an enhanced fibrillation for the combined treatment, as shown by scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. In addition, the dimensions of treated fibers were negligibly affected

Water-mediated adhesion of oil sands on solid surfaces at low temperature

Adhesion of frozen granular materials on solid surfaces creates various problems for surface cleaning, reduces the carrying capacity of vehicles, and increases energy consumption for in-land transportation. Here we report that water content determines the adhesion strength of oil sands on solid surfaces at temperature of -2.5 ◦C to -20 ◦C. Our measurements by X-ray micro-computed tomography revealed that water forms capillary bridges between the sand particles and the solid substrate and more air gaps at the interface between oil sands and the substrate are filled with interstitial water at a higher content. We experimentally measured the minimal force required to push the frozen oil sands off the substrate and identified that the adhesion strength increased linearly with water content from 4% to 14% on both rubber and steel substrate. For short freezing time at a fixed water content, lowering the temperature increased the adhesion strength on the steel substrate. Fouling from a layer of bitumen or asphaltenes aggravated the adhesion of oil sands on steel. A theoretical model was proposed to rationalize the linear relationship between water content and the adhesion strength, based on the contact area between ice and the substrate. We also found an effective method to reduce the adhesion of oil sands by spraying a little amount of anti-freezing liquid on the substrate. Our approach may reduce the energy consumption in transport and processing of wet granular materials, and potentially save manpower and the cost from cleaning in industrial operations. The insight from our work may have wide applicability to many natural/industrial processes, such as soil formation, food processing, and porous structures in ice crystal-templating nanomaterials synthesis by freezing-drying

An Optimised Region-Growing Algorithm for Extraction of the Loess Shoulder-Line from DEMs

The positive and negative terrains (P–N terrains) of the Loess Plateau of China are important geographical topography elements for measuring the degree of surface erosion and distinguishing the types of landforms. Loess shoulder-lines are an important terrain feature in the Loess Plateau and are often used as a criterion for distinguishing P–N terrains. The extraction of shoulder lines is important for predicting erosion and recognising a gully head. However, existing extraction algorithms for loess shoulder-lines in areas with insignificant slopes need to be improved. This study proposes a regional fusion (RF) method that integrates the slope variation-based method and region-growing algorithm to extract loess shoulder-lines based on a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) at a spatial resolution of 5 m. The RF method introduces different terrain factors into the growth standards of the region-growing algorithm to extract loess-shoulder lines. First, we employed a slope-variation-based method to build the initial set of loess shoulder-lines and used the difference between the smoothed and real DEMs to extract the initial set for the N terrain. Second, the region-growing algorithm with improved growth standards was used to generate a complete area of the candidate region of the loess shoulder-lines and the N terrain, which were fused to generate and integrate contours to eliminate the discontinuity. Finally, loess shoulder-lines were identified by detecting the edge of the integrated contour, with results exhibiting congregate points or spurs, eliminated via a hit-or-miss transform to optimise the final results. Validation of the experimental area of loess ridges and hills in Shaanxi Province showed that the accuracy of the RF method based on the Euclidean distance offset percentage within a 10-m deviation range reached 96.9% compared to the manual digitalisation method. Based on the mean absolute error and standard absolute deviation values, compared with Zhou’s improved snake model and the bidirectional DEM relief-shading methods, the proposed RF method extracted the loess shoulder-lines highly accurately