Chronic vagus nerve stimulation in patients with heart failure: challenge or failed translation?

Autonomic imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems contributes to the progression of chronic heart failure (HF). Preclinical studies have demonstrated that various neuromodulation strategies may exert beneficial cardioprotective effects in preclinical models of HF. Based on these encouraging experimental data, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been assessed in patients with HF with a reduced ejection fraction. Nevertheless, the main trials conducted thus far have yielded conflicting findings, questioning the clinical efficacy of VNS in this context. This review will therefore focus on the role of the autonomic nervous system in HF pathophysiology and VNS therapy, highlighting the potential reasons behind the discrepancy between preclinical and clinical studies

Effective Removal of Sulfanilic Acid From Water Using a Low-Pressure Electrochemical RuO2-TiO2@Ti/PVDF Composite Membrane

Removal of sulfanilic acid (SA) from water is an urgent but still challenging task. Herein, we developed a low pressure electrochemical membrane filtration (EMF) system for SA decontamination using RuO2-TiO2@Ti/PVDF composite membrane to serve as not only a filter but also an anode. Results showed that efficient removal of SA was achieved in this EMF system. At a charging voltage of 1.5 V and a electrolyte concentration of 15 mM, flow-through operation with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2 h led to a high SA removal efficiency (80.4%), as expected from the improved contact reaction of this compound with ROS present at the anode surface. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis indicated that the direct anodic oxidation played a minor role in SA degradation. Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra demonstrated the production of •OH in the EMF system. Compared to the cathodic polarization, anodic generated ROS was more likely responsible for SA removal. Scavenging tests suggested that adsorbed •OH on the anode (>•OH) played a dominant role in SA degradation, while O2•- was an important intermediate oxidant which mediated the production of •OH. The calculated mineralization current efficiency (MCE) of the flow-through operated system 29.3% with this value much higher than that of the flow-by mode (5.1%). As a consequence, flow-through operation contributed to efficient oxidation of SA toward CO2 and nontoxic carboxylic acids accounting for 71.2% of initial C. These results demonstrate the potential of the EMF system to be used as an effective technology for water decontamination

Genetic Variation of HvCBF Genes and Their Association with Salinity Tolerance in Tibetan Annual Wild Barley

The evaluation of both the genetic variation and the identification of salinity tolerant accessions of Tibetan annual wild barley (hereafter referred to as Tibetan barley) (Hordeum vulgare L. ssp. Spontaneum and H. vulgare L. ssp. agriocrithum) are essential for discovering and exploiting novel alleles involved in salinity tolerance. In this study, we examined tissue dry biomass and the Na+ and K+ contents of 188 Tibetan barley accessions in response to salt stress. We investigated the genetic variation of transcription factors HvCBF1, HvCBF3 and HvCBF4 within these accessions, conducting association analysis between these three genes and the respective genotypic salt tolerance. Salt stress significantly reduced shoot and root dry weight by 27.6% to 73.1% in the Tibetan barley lines. HvCBF1, HvCBF3 and HvCBF4 showed diverse sequence variation in amplicon as evident by the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 3, 8 and 13 haplotypes, respectively. Furthermore, the decay of Linkage disequilibrium (LD) of chromosome 5 was 8.9 cM (r2<0.1). Marker bpb-4891 and haplotype 13 (Ps 610) of the HvCBF4 gene were significantly (P<0.05) and highly significantly (P<0.001) associated with salt tolerance. However, HvCBF1 and HvCBF3 genes were not associated with salinity tolerance. The accessions from haplotype 13 of the HvCBF4 gene showed high salinity tolerance, maintaining significantly lower Na+/K+ ratios and higher dry weight. It is thus proposed that these Tibetan barley accessions could be of value for enhancing salinity tolerance in cultivated barley

Information sharing in supply chains with competing retailers

Information sharing is often said to improve the profitability and efficiency of supply chains. However, it is not necessarily the case that information sharing always improves the profit of every party in the supply chain, or even the profit of the supply chain as a whole. This thesis studies vertical information sharing in a two-echelon supply chain with one manufacturer and two competing retailers. Two types of channel interaction are modeled with different game rules, manufacturer Stackelberg or vertical Nash. It is found that the equilibria obtained by previous work on vertical information sharing with manufacturer Stackelberg have a subtle error, which this thesis rectifies. In obtaining the correct equilibrium, two different methods are proposed, with or without leakage effect. Without leakage effect, the manufacturer is always better off by acquiring demand information from more retailers, and each retailer is worse off to disclose his demand information as the first mover but could be better off as the second mover. Two equilibria exist: both retailers sharing informat ion or none sharing; the latter Pareto always dominates the former. With leakage effect, it may occur that the manufacturer loses and the retailers gain from information sharing. The supply chain always benefits from information sharing and the retailers may want to pay the manufacturer for receiving their information. Information sharing in a vertical Nash setting is also examined. The manufacturer is always better off by acquiring more information from retailers and the retailers are always worse off by disclosing their private signals; no information sharing is the unique equilibrium. One counterintuitive finding is that information trading can be achieved even when it reduces the total supply chain profit in the case of vertical Nash or manufacturer Stackelberg without leakage effect. We start by assuming that the manufacturer is make-to-order and generalize the results to the make-to-stock situation on the assumption that the manufacturer always meets the downstream orders

Developing Rural Cooperative Finance with Reference to Experience of Foreign Countries

At present, rural credit cooperative is an essential part of rural financial system in China. Since the foundation of new China, especially since the reform and opening-up, rural credit cooperative has become the largest financial organization in rural areas. However, its operation mode needs further improvement and service functions are to be strengthened. Therefore, learning successful mode of rural cooperative finance in foreign countries has important theoretical and realistic significance for promoting development of China’s rural cooperative finance

Noise Immunity Analysis and Improvement of dq Frame Based Open-Loop Phase Detection Scheme

To improve the noise immunity of a dq frame based open-loop phase detection (OPD) under high-frequency noise grid conditions, this paper develops a detailed model to quantitatively evaluate the phase detection error and noise immunity. It is found that the OPD behaves differently in terms of noise immunity when the dq frame is in different angle positions with the grid voltage. When the grid voltage coincides with the d axis, the high-frequency noise has the smallest impact on the phase detection accuracy, and the OPD thus has the strongest noise immunity. Inspired by this conclusion, an improved OPD algorithm is proposed in this paper, which can effectively reduce the phase detection error by fine-tuning the rotation angle of the dq frame to ensure that the angle between the voltage vector and d axis is always close to 0. The improved OPD algorithm has a fast and precise character to detect the phase information with less error and is flexible for application. Under heavy noise grid conditions, it can also effectively shorten the dynamic response time in the phase-detecting process using a low-pass filter (LPF) with a higher cut-off frequency. The correctness of the noise immunity analysis and the effectiveness of the improved OPD algorithm are verified by the simulations and experimental results in MATLAB and RT-LAB

The association between walking pace and hand grip strength with the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

Abstract Background Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) currently ranks as the third leading cause of mortality worldwide, imposing substantial burdens on societal and individual health. Amongst health research tools, walking pace (WP) and hand grip strength (HGS) are cornerstones, extensively associated with diverse health conditions. However, the intricate interplay between these factors and COPD risk remains ambiguous. This study aims to elucidate the causal association of WP, HGS, with COPD risk through a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. Methods Bidirectional MR analysis was performed using Genome-wide association study (GWAS) data of European individuals for WP, HGS, and COPD. Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW) served as the primary MR analysis approach. To supplement the IVW findings, four additional MR methods [MR-Egger, weighted median, maximum likelihood, simple median] were used. To assess heterogeneity and pleiotropy, sensitivity analyses were performed. In addition, multivariate MR (MVMR) analysis was used to assess causality after adjustment for potential confounders. Results IVW method results show a significant negative association between WP and COPD risk in both initial (genome-wide threshold, odds ratio (OR) = 0.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.09–0.51, P = 5.06 × 10− 4) and secondary (locus-wide threshold, OR = 0.27, 95%CI: 0.18–0.41, P = 4.88 × 10− 10) MR analysis. The reverse MR analysis suggested that COPD also diminishes WP. Additionally, a causal risk reduction for COPD with right HGS (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.58–0.94, P = 1.44 × 10− 2) was only found in secondary MR analysis. The outcomes of the four additional MR methods also suggested similar causal relationships, and sensitivity analyses endorsed their robustness. Lastly, the MVMR analysis demonstrated that the WP’s effect on reducing COPD risk persisted independently of potential confounding variables. Conclusion A bidirectional causal relationship exists between typical WP and COPD risk. Conversely, a decrease in right HGS is unidirectionally associated with an increased risk of COPD. The study suggests that WP may serve as a predictive factor for COPD or as a simple evaluative indicator for prognosis

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Clematis chinensis Osbeck

Clematis chinensis Osbeck is an important medicinal and edible plant. The complete chloroplast genome of C. chinensis Osbeck was constructed and annotated for the first time in this study. Full length of the chloroplast genome of C. chinensis Osbeck is 159,647 bp, with a large single-copy (LSC) region of 86,301 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 79,536 bp, and a pair of inverted repeats IRa and IRb regions of 31,039 bp. The result of the gene annotation identified the 135 genes in the chloroplast genome, including 91 protein-coding genes, 36 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. The total amount of GC is 47.82%. In the phylogenetic analysis, C. chinensis Osbeck showed the closest relationship with Clematis uncinata