Neural plasticity in common forms of chronic headaches

Headaches are universal experiences and among the most common disorders. While headache may be physiological in the acute setting, it can become a pathological and persistent condition.The mechanisms underlying the transition from episodic to chronic pain have been the subject of intense study. Using physiological and imaging methods, researchers have identified a number of different forms of neural plasticity associated with migraine and other headaches, including peripheral and central sensitization, and alterations in the endogenous mechanisms of pain modulation. While these changes have been proposed to contribute to headache and pain chronification, some findings are likely the results of repetitive noxious stimulation, such as atrophy of brain areas involved in pain perception and modulation. In this review, we provide a narrative overview of recent advances on the neuroimaging, electrophysiological and genetic aspects of neural plasticity associated with the most common forms of chronic headaches, including migraine, cluster headache, tension-type headache, and medication overuse headache

Polymer Inclusion Membranes with Strip Dispersion

The present work investigated the permeation of indium ions through a polymer inclusion membrane (PIM), prepared with cellulose triacetate (CTA) as the base polymer, tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBEP) as the plasticizer and di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as the extractant. With 5 M HCl aqueous solution as the strip solution, we observed an initial indium permeability of 2.4 × 10−4 m/min. However, the permeability decreases with time, dropping to about 3.4 × 10−5 m/min after 200 min of operation. Evidence was obtained showing that hydrolysis of CTA occurred, causing a dramatic decrease in the feed pH (protons transported from strip to feed solutions) and a loss of extractant and plasticizer from the membrane, and then leading to the loss of indium permeability. To alleviate the problem of hydrolysis, we proposed an operation scheme called polymer inclusion membranes with strip dispersion: dispersing the strip solution in extractant-containing oil and then bringing the dispersion to contact with the polymer membrane. Since the strong acid was dispersed in oil, the membrane did not directly contact the strong acid at all times, and membrane hydrolysis was thus alleviated and the loss of indium permeability was effectively prevented. With the proposed scheme, a stable indium permeability of 2.5 × 10−4 m/min was obtained during the whole time period of the permeation experiment

Do Social Networks of Listed Companies Help Companies Recover from Financial Crises?

This study aims to examine how the social networks of top management affect the recovery of their companies when facing a financial crisis. We mainly use the logit and Cox regression models to investigate whether social networks help overcome the financial distress and shorten the crisis duration. The empirical findings suggest that companies with characteristics of low degree centrality of the chairman’s bank networks and high closeness centrality of the general manager’s general networks and bank networks are more likely to overcome financial distress and get back to normal status. Furthermore, for companies with characteristics of low degree centrality of the chairman’s personal general networks, low closeness centrality of the financial executive’s personal general networks, and high degree centrality of the financial executive’s personal bank networks, it was easier to shorten the crisis duration. The practical implication is that companies need to prioritize quality over quantity in order to survive or shorten the crisis. All company top managers should not look only at the size of the company but consider how the social network is configured

Relationship between workplace violence and mental/physical health of security guards during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan

ObjectivesTo investigate the relationship between workplace violence (WPV) and mental and physical health (MPH) of security guards during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in 15 representative security companies across northern, central, and southern Taiwan, and outlying islands from July 2021 to June 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1,200 questionnaires were distributed. A total of 1,032 valid questionnaires were collected.Results13.18% of the participants reported that they had experienced WPV during the COVID-19 pandemic, including physical violence (PhV), psychological violence (PsV), verbal violence (VV), and sexual harassment (SH). The most common violence was VV (54.19%), followed by PsV (20.69%). Community residents and property owners were the primary perpetrators, followed by strangers. The study showed that the security guards who had experienced WPV had higher scores on the 12-item Chinese Health Questionnaire (Taiwan version) (CHQ-12), indicating poorer MPH than those who had never experienced WPV. The result showed that VV had strong correlations with the lack of effective communication, dissatisfaction with treatment and service attitude, and work stress. PsV was strongly associated with excessive waiting times.ConclusionThere were correlations among PhV, VV, and PsV and they had adverse impacts on MPH, except for SH. The study found that the primary perpetrators of WPV against security guards were community residents and property owners. The causes were the lack of effective communication, dissatisfaction with treatment and service attitude, excessive waiting times, and work stress, which further led to turnover intention and poor MPH. The findings of this study have useful implications and it is recommended to enhance the understanding of workplace violence against security guards and to formulate appropriate local and international strategies to address it

Identifying functional transcription factor binding sites in yeast by considering their positional preference in the promoters.

Transcription factor binding site (TFBS) identification plays an important role in deciphering gene regulatory codes. With comprehensive knowledge of TFBSs, one can understand molecular mechanisms of gene regulation. In the recent decades, various computational approaches have been proposed to predict TFBSs in the genome. The TFBS dataset of a TF generated by each algorithm is a ranked list of predicted TFBSs of that TF, where top ranked TFBSs are statistically significant ones. However, whether these statistically significant TFBSs are functional (i.e. biologically relevant) is still unknown. Here we develop a post-processor, called the functional propensity calculator (FPC), to assign a functional propensity to each TFBS in the existing computationally predicted TFBS datasets. It is known that functional TFBSs reveal strong positional preference towards the transcriptional start site (TSS). This motivates us to take TFBS position relative to the TSS as the key idea in building our FPC. Based on our calculated functional propensities, the TFBSs of a TF in the original TFBS dataset could be reordered, where top ranked TFBSs are now the ones with high functional propensities. To validate the biological significance of our results, we perform three published statistical tests to assess the enrichment of Gene Ontology (GO) terms, the enrichment of physical protein-protein interactions, and the tendency of being co-expressed. The top ranked TFBSs in our reordered TFBS dataset outperform the top ranked TFBSs in the original TFBS dataset, justifying the effectiveness of our post-processor in extracting functional TFBSs from the original TFBS dataset. More importantly, assigning functional propensities to putative TFBSs enables biologists to easily identify which TFBSs in the promoter of interest are likely to be biologically relevant and are good candidates to do further detailed experimental investigation. The FPC is implemented as a web tool at http://santiago.ee.ncku.edu.tw/FPC/

Absolute Configurations of Topologically Chiral [2]Catenanes and the Acid/Base-Flippable Directions of Their Optical Rotations

The absolute configurations of the two enantiomers of a topologically chiral [2]catenane were determined unambiguously based on HPLC resolution and X-ray crystal analysis. Although structurally dissimilar to simple amino acids, the optical rotations of these separated [2]catenanes share the Clough–Lutz–Jirgensons behavior of amino acids: the optical rotation flips direction in the presence of acid and base, the first example of such behavior for a mechanically interlocked topologically chiral catenane

Integrating a Plastic Glucose Biosensor Based on Arrayed Screen-Printed Electrodes Utilizing Magnetic Beads with a Microfluidic Device

In this study, a novel potentiometric glucose biosensor based on magnetic beads-Nafion-glucose oxidase/graphene oxide/aluminium-doped zinc oxide (MBs-Nafion-GOx/GO/AZO) membranes on a PET substrate with arrayed screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) was proposed. The morphologies, elemental analysis, and surface roughnesses of the sensing membranes were characterized. The sensing parameters of the biosensor were investigated by using the voltage-time (V-T) measurement system, which measured sensitivity, linearity, anti-interference ability, reversibility, temperature effect, and lifetime. A microfluidic device using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was integrated with the V-T measurement system to analyze the response characteristics. The results under static solution and microfluidic flow conditions were compared. The results showed that the average sensitivity and linearity of the biosensor depended on the microfluidic flow rate. The best average sensitivity of the glucose biosensor based on MBs-Nafion-GOx/GO/AZO membranes was 20.35 mV/mM at a flow rate of $15~ \mu \text{L}$ /min