Prevalence of gaming disorder in East Asia: A comprehensive meta-analysis

Background and aims: Asian countries are deemed to be high prevalence areas for gaming disorder (GD). This meta-analysis is the first to synthesize the overall prevalence of GD in East Asia and investigate characteristics that influence prevalence estimates. Methods: Systematic and independent searches were conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library since their inception to January 27, 2021. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality scale was used for quality assessment. A random effect model was used to calculate the overall GD prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: In total, 22 articles (26 studies) comprising 51,525 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The overall pooled prevalence of GD in East Asia was 12%, 95% CI (10%–15%); this figure was adjusted to 6%, 95% CI (3%–9%) for a representative sample. Higher prevalence was observed in males than in females (16% vs. 8%, respectively, P < 0.05). Subgroup and meta-regression analyses revealed that studies among gamers or those without random sampling reported significantly higher prevalence rates. There were no significant differences between countries/regions, sample size, quality score, proportion of males, and scale used. Discussion and conclusions: The prevalence of GD in East Asia is higher than that in other world regions. Future studies should extend such epidemiological research to other regions to calculate the accurate prevalence of GD to benefit the local identification, prevention, policy formulation, and treatment efforts. Considering its negative effects, effective preventive and treatment measures for GD in East Asia need greater attention

Topological Magnetoresistance of Magnetic Skyrmionic Bubbles

Magnetic skyrmions offer promising prospects for constructing future energy-efficient and high-density information technology, leading to extensive explorations of new skyrmionic materials recently. The topological Hall effect has been widely adopted as a distinctive marker of skyrmion emergence. Alternately, here we propose a novel signature of skyrmion state by quantitatively investigating the magnetoresistance (MR) induced by skyrmionic bubbles in CeMn2Ge2. An intriguing finding was revealed: the anomalous MR measured at different temperatures can be normalized into a single curve, regardless of sample thickness. This behavior can be accurately reproduced by the recent chiral spin textures MR model. Further analysis of the MR anomaly allowed us to quantitatively examine the effective magnetic fields of various scattering channels. Remarkably, the analyses, combined with the Lorentz transmission electronic microscopy results, indicate that the in-plane scattering channel with triplet exchange interactions predominantly governs the magnetotransport in the Bloch-type skyrmionic bubble state. Our results not only provide insights into the quantum correction on MR induced by skyrmionic bubble phase, but also present an electrical probing method for studying chiral spin texture formation, evolution and their topological properties, which opens up exciting possibilities for identifying new skyrmionic materials and advancing the methodology for studying chiral spin textures.Comment: 17 pages,5 figures,submitte

Hyperconnectivity of the lateral amygdala in long-term methamphetamine abstainers negatively correlated with withdrawal duration

Introduction: Several studies have reported structural and functional abnormalities of the amygdala caused by methamphetamine addiction. However, it is unknown whether abnormalities in amygdala function persist in long-term methamphetamine abstainers.Methods: In this study, 38 long-term male methamphetamine abstainers (&gt;12 months) and 40 demographically matched male healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Considering the heterogeneous nature of the amygdala structure and function, we chose 4 amygdala subregions (i.e., left lateral, left medial, right lateral, and right medial) as regions of interest (ROI) and compared the ROI-based resting-state functional connectivity (FC) at the whole-brain voxel-wise between the two groups. We explored the relationship between the detected abnormal connectivity, methamphetamine use factors, and the duration of withdrawal using correlation analyses. We also examined the effect of methamphetamine use factors, months of withdrawal, and sociodemographic data on detected abnormal connectivity through multiple linear regressions.Results: Compared with HCs, long-term methamphetamine abstainers showed significant hyperconnectivity between the left lateral amygdala and a continuous area extending to the left inferior/middle occipital gyrus and left middle/superior temporal gyrus. Abnormal connections negatively correlated with methamphetamine withdrawal time (r = −0.85, p &lt; 0.001). The linear regression model further demonstrated that the months of withdrawal could identify the abnormal connectivity (βadj = −0.86, 95%CI: −1.06 to −0.65, p &lt; 0.001).Discussion: The use of methamphetamine can impair the neural sensory system, including the visual and auditory systems, but this abnormal connectivity can gradually recover after prolonged withdrawal of methamphetamine. From a neuroimaging perspective, our results suggest that withdrawal is an effective treatment for methamphetamine

Attractor for a Reaction-Diffusion System Modeling Cancer Network

A reaction-diffusion cancer network regulated by microRNA is considered in this paper. We study the asymptotic behavior of solution and show the existence of global uniformly bounded solution to the system in a bounded domain Ω⊂Rn. Some estimates and asymptotic compactness of the solutions are proved. As a result, we establish the existence of the global attractor in L2(Ω)×L2(Ω) and prove that the solution converges to stable steady states. These results can help to understand the dynamical character of cancer network and propose a new insight to study the mechanism of cancer. In the end, the numerical simulation shows that the analytical results agree with numerical simulation

Fabrication and Characterization of Alveolus-Like Scaffolds with Control of the Pore Architecture and Gas Permeability

The micrometer scale sac-like alveoli are the most important and essential unit for gas exchange in the lung. Thus, design and fabrication of scaffolds for alveoli regeneration by tissue engineering approach should meet a few topography and functional requests such as large surface area, flexibility, and high gas permeability to their native counterpart. Testing the gas permeability of scaffolds through a fast and simple technique is also highly demanded to assist new scaffold development. This study fabricated alveolus-like scaffolds with regular pore shape, high pore connectivity, and high porosity produced by inverse opal technique alongside randomly distrusted porous scaffolds by salt leaching technique from two different materials (polyurethane and poly(L-lactic acid)). The scaffold surface was modified by immobilization of VEGF. A facile and new technique based on the bubble meter principle enabling to measure the gas permeability of porous scaffolds conveniently has been developed specifically. The cellular response of the scaffolds was assessed by culturing with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and coculturing with lung epithelial NL20 and endothelial HUVECs. Our results showed that the newly designed gas permeability device provided rapid, nondestructive, reproducible, and accurate assessment of gas permeability of different scaffolds. The porous polyurethane scaffolds made by inverse opal method had much better gas permeability than other scaffolds used in this study. The cellular work indicated that with VEGF surface modification, polyurethane inverse opal scaffolds induced alveolus-like tissues and have promising application in lung tissue engineering

Large Linear Giant Magneto-Impedance Response of Microwire Annealed under Liquid Medium for Potential Sensor Applications

Herein, we have presented the giant magneto-impedance (GMI) effect, microstructure and surface domain structure of the Co-Fe-based amorphous microwires after liquid medium&mdash;anhydrous ethanol Joule annealing (AJA). The AJA technique can effectively release the radial stress and induce large a circumferential magnetic field by changing the Joule heat transfer and the circumferential domain, to further tune the GMI performance of microwire. The linear response fields (0~3.5 Oe), the high sensitivity of 124.1%/Oe and the high GMI ratio make the microwire as promising materials for the miniaturized GMI sensors. The GMI ratios of [&Delta;Z/Z0]max(%) and [&Delta;Z/Zmax]max(%) increase the near-linearly to 201.9% and 200.5%, respectively, for the 250 mA anhydrous ethanol Joule annealed wires. Moreover, a linear response to Hex (ranging from 3.5 to 25 Oe, or more) is observed, which bears the potential in fabricating bi-sensors

Martensitic Transition and Superelasticity of Ordered Heat Treatment Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe Microwires

The preparation of Ni-Mn-Ga and Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe master alloy ingots and microwires was completed by high vacuum electric furnace melt melting furnace and melt drawing liquid forming equipment, and the lattice dislocations and defects formed inside the microwires during the preparation process were corrected by stepwise ordered heat treatment. The micro-structure and phase structure were characterized using a SEM field emission scanning electron microscopy and an XRD diffractometer combined with an EDS energy spectrum analyzer; the martensitic phase transformation process of the microwires was analyzed using a DSC differential scanning calorimeter; and the superelasticity of the microwires was tested by a Q800 dynamic mechanical analyzer. The results indicate that Fe doping can refine the grain, transform the phase structure from parent phase to single 7M martensite, reduce the number of martensitic variants, and increase the mobility of the twin grain boundary interface. The MT phase transition temperature (MS) is substantially increased in the martensite transition (MT) process by the increase of the number of free electrons in its lattice. During the superelasticity (SE) test, both microwires displayed superior recover-ability of SE curves, and the Fe doping curves showed similar characteristics of “linear superelasticity”, showing higher critical stress values and complete SE in the experiment. The critical stress satisfies the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and exhibits higher temperature sensitivity than Ni-Mn-Ga microwires

Therapeutic effect of Ixekizumab combined with hemoperfusion in a patient with severe psoriasis (依奇珠单抗联合血液灌流治疗重度银屑病1例疗效观察)

In this paper, clinical data of a case of hemodialysis patients with erythrodermic psoriasis who were treated with Ixekizumab injection combined with hemoperfusion were retrospectively analyzed. The first administration was subcutaneous injection of Ixekizumab 80 mg, followed by injection every three weeks (6 doses in total), and maintenance therapy with 80 mg once a month. The hemodialysis treatment was performed three times a week, and hemoperfusion treatment was carried out every two weeks. After more than 1 year of observation, the patient's current systemic skin lesions were significantly improved, without scaling or skin itching and other manifestations. Ixekizumab combined with hemoperfusion had achieved good clinical efficacy in the treatment of erythrodermic psoriasis. (本文回顾1例红皮病型银屑病血液透析患者临床资料, 使用依奇珠单抗注射联合血液灌流治疗。依奇珠单抗方案: 第一次皮下注射依奇珠单抗注射液80 mg, 此后每3周注射1次(共6次), 并以80 mg每月1次维持治疗; 透析方案: 血液透析治疗每周3次, 每2周进行1次血液灌流治疗。经1年多的观察, 患者全身皮损明显改善, 无鳞屑及皮肤瘙痒等表现, 提示依奇珠单抗联合血液灌流治疗红皮病型银屑病取得很好的临床疗效。

Improvement of Electrochemical Water Oxidation by Fine-Tuning the Structure of Tetradentate N-4 Ligands of Molecular Copper Catalysts

Two copper complexes, [(L1)Cu(OH2)](BF4)(2) [1; L1 = N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-1,2-diaminoethane] and [(L2)Cu(OH2)](BF4)(2) [2, L2 = 2,7-bis(2-pyridyl)-3,6-diaza-2,6-octadiene], were prepared as molecular water oxidation catalysts. Complex 1 displayed an overpotential (eta) of 1.07V at 1 mAcm(-2) and an observed rate constant (k(obs)) of 13.5 s(-1) at eta 1.0 V in pH 9.0 phosphate buffer solution, whereas 2 exhibited a significantly smaller eta (0.70 V) to reach 1 mAcm(-2) and a higher k(obs) (50.4 s(-1)) than 1 under identical test conditions. Additionally, 2 displayed better stability than 1 in controlled potential electrolysis experiments with a faradaic efficiency of 94% for O-2 evolution at 1.58 V, when a casing tube was used for the Pt cathode. A possible mechanism for 1- and 2-catalyzed O-2 evolution reactions is discussed based on the experimental evidence. These comparative results indicate that fine-tuning the structures of tetradentate N-4 ligands can bring about significant change in the performance of copper complexes for electrochemical water oxidation