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Cerebral ischemia with high mortality and morbidity still requires the effectiveness of medical treatments. A growing number of investigations have shown strong links between inflammation and cerebral ischemia. Natural medicine’s treatment methods of cerebral ischemic illness have amassed a wealth of treatment experience and theoretical knowledge. This review summarized recent progress on the disease inflammatory pathways as well as 26 representative natural products that have been routinely utilized to treat cerebral ischemic injury. These natural products have exerted anti-inflammatory effects in cerebral ischemia based on their inflammatory mechanisms, including their inflammatory gene expression patterns and their related different cell types, and the roles of inflammatory mediators in ischemic injury. Overall, the combination of the potential therapeutic interventions of natural products with the inflammatory mechanisms will make them be applicable for cerebral ischemic patients in the future.

In order to increase the development and utilization of chickpea protein isolate (CPI) and improve the stability of myofibrillar protein (MP) emulsions, the effect of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma-modified CPI on the emulsifying properties of MP was investigated. Three different O/W emulsions were prepared using MP, MP + CPI complex, or MP + DBD-treated CPI complex as the emulsifier. Compared with the emulsion prepared from MP, the emulsifying activity index and stability of DBD-treated CPI and MP complex (MP + CPIDBD) were increased (p < 0.05) from 55.17 m2/g to 74.99 m2/g and 66.31% to 99.87%, respectively. MP + CPIDBD produced more stable emulsions with the lowest Turbiscan stability index (TSI) values for a given 3600 s. At shear rates from 0 to 1000−1, MP + CPIDBD-stabilized emulsions had higher viscosities, which helped to reduce the chance of aggregation between oil droplets. The optical microscope and particle size distribution of emulsions showed that MP + CPIDBD emulsions had the lowest droplet size (d4,3) and exhibited more uniform distribution. MP + CPIDBD emulsions had lower interfacial tension. DBD pretreatment increased the adsorbed protein content in the emulsion stabilized by MP + CPIDBD as compared to the MP + CPI complex and promoted the adsorption of CPI by higher ratios of adsorbed proteins as indicated by its intensity in SDS-PAGE. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the emulsion prepared from MP + CPIDBD had smaller particle size and more uniform dispersion. Therefore, using DBD-modified CPI could enhance the stability of MP emulsions.

In order to combat the impulse noise and channel time-frequency selective fading, it is essential to use channel interleavers. Among them, the block interleaver has been widely used in terrestrial broadcasting systems such as DVB-T2 and ATSC 3.0, since it can better reflect the mapping relationship of data units on time-frequency resources. Due to the limited value of the interleaving structure parameter, the existing block interleavers cannot fully exploit time and frequency diversities, which leads to a loss of partial diversity gains. To address this problem, this paper proposes a generic block interleaver for channel interleaving through jointly considering the time and frequency diversities. First, row crossing is performed according to a certain interval, which will increase the interleaving distance; then, cyclic shift is used to achieve a greater time diversity gain. The proposed method can achieve flexible parameter configuration, which can effectively increase the scalability of the parameters and make the interleaver more versatile. Theoretical analysis shows that a larger interleaving distance is obtained and the multiplicity of minimum distance is significantly reduced. The simulation results of the fixed and mobile reception scenarios in the terrestrial broadcasting systems demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed interleaver compared to existing block interleavers.

The ablative properties of epoxy-modified vinyl silicone rubber (EMVSR) composites containing hexaphenoxycyclotriphosphonitrile (HPCTP) have been systematically studied. The strength of the ablation char layer was greatly enhanced with the addition of HPCTP, which induced the formation of a more complete, denser, and thicker char during oxyacetylene ablation tests. Moreover, the HPCTP-containing EMVSR composites demonstrated lower thermal conductivity and pyrolysis rate when compared with those without HPTCP. At the same time, the thermal insulation properties of HPCTP-filled composites were improved under low heat flow ablation scenarios. The reduction of graphitic carbon content, the formation of phosphate-like crystals as well as the increase of SiC content contributed to strengthening the char layer, which was critical for improving the ablation properties. The optimum char layer strength and thermal insulation properties were achieved when the content of HPCTP was 15 phr, whereas an optimum ablation resistance was achieved at 25 phr HPCTP. This suggests that HPCTP-modified EMVSR composites can be used for thermal protection purposes, especially in the fields of aerospace and aeronautics.

Background and purpose The efficacy and safety of tirofiban in endovascular therapy for cardioembolic ischemic stroke patients remain controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the role of intravenous tirofiban before endovascular therapy in cardioembolic stroke. Methods This post hoc analysis utilized data from the RESCUE BT (Endovascular Treatment With versus Without Tirofiban for Patients with Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke) trial, which was an investigator-initiated, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Participants were randomized to receive either tirofiban or a placebo in a 1:1 ratio before undergoing endovascular therapy. The study included patients aged 18 years or older, presenting with occlusion of the internal carotid artery or middle cerebral artery (MCA) M1/M2 within 24 h of the last known well time, and with a stroke etiology of cardioembolism. The primary efficacy outcome was global disability at 90 days, assessed using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). The safety outcome included symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) within 48 h and mortality within 90 days. Results A total of 406 cardioembolic stroke patients were included in this study, with 212 assigned to the tirofiban group and 194 assigned to the placebo group. Tirofiban treatment did not correlate with a favorable shift towards a lower 90-day mRS score (adjusted common odds ratio [OR], 0.91; 95% CI 0.64–1.3; p  = 0.617). However, the tirofiban group had a significantly higher risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) within 48 h (adjusted OR, 3.26; 95% CI 1.4–7.57; p  = 0.006) compared to the placebo group. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for mortality within 90 days was 1.48 (95% CI 0.88–2.52; p  = 0.143). Conclusions Tirofiban treatment was not associated with a lower level of disability and increased the incidence of sICH after endovascular therapy in cardioembolic stroke patients.

This paper presents a novel low-complexity soft demapping algorithm for two-dimensional non-uniform spaced constellations (2D-NUCs) and massive order one-dimensional NUCs (1D-NUCs). NUCs have been implemented in a wide range of new broadcasting systems to approach the Shannon limit further, such as DVB-NGH, ATSC 3.0 and NGB-W. However, the soft demapping complexity is extreme due to the substantial distance calculations. In the proposed scheme, the demapping process is classified into four cases based on different quadrants. To deal with the complexity problem, four groups of reduced subsets in terms of the quadrant for each bit are separately calculated and stored in advance. Analysis and simulation prove that the proposed demapper only introduces a small penalty under 0.02dB with respect to Max-Log-MAP demapper, whereas a significant complexity reduction ranging from 68.75% to 88.54% is obtained.

Climate change has a distinct impact on agriculture in China, particularly in the northeast, a key agriculture area sensitive to extreme hydroclimate events. Using monthly climate and agriculture data, the influence of drought on maize and soybean yields—two of the main crops in the region—in northeast China since 1961 to 2017 were investigated. The results showed that the temperature in the growing season increased by 1.0 °C from the period 1998–2017 to the period 1961–1980, while the annual precipitation decreased slightly. However, precipitation trends varied throughout the growing season (May–September), increasing slightly in May and June, but decreasing in July, August and September, associated with the weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon. Consequently, the annual and growing season drought frequency increased by 15%, and 25%, respectively, in the period 1998–2017 relative to the period 1961–1980. The highest drought frequency (55%) was observed in September. At the same time, the drought intensity during the growing season increased by 7.8%. The increasing frequency and intensity of drought had negative influences on the two crops. During moderate drought years in the period 1961–2017, 3.2% and 10.4% of the provincial maize and soybean yields were lost, respectively. However, during more severe drought years, losses doubled for soybean (21.8%), but increased more than four-fold for maize (14.0%). Moreover, in comparison to the period 1961–1980, a higher proportion of the yields were lost in the period 1998–2017, particularly for maize, which increased by 15% (increase for soybean was 2.4%). This change largely depends on increasing droughts in August and September, when both crops are in their filling stages. The impact of drought on maize and soybean production was different during different growth stages, where a strong relationship was noted between drought and yield loss of soybean in its filling stage. Given the sensitivity of maize and soybean yields in northeast China to drought, and the observed production trends, climate change will likely have significant negative impacts on productivity in the future.

For thermal protection materials (TPMs) which are used to protect space vehicles from extreme thermomechanical environments, the thermal conductivity of the original material and the char layer that has formed during ablation plays a significant role in determining the ablation performance. In order to investigate this, in this study, we introduced glass hollow microspheres (GHMs), phenolic hollow microspheres (PHMs), and acrylonitrile-methyl methacrylate copolymer hollow microspheres (AMHMs) into silicone rubber (SR), and the ablation performance of these composites was systematically studied. The thermogravimetric results showed that the residue yield of the SR composites was increased with the incorporation of the hollow microspheres. Compared to the SR composites without the hollow microspheres, the residue weight values under 800 °C (R800) of the SR composites with the 30 parts of fumed silica per hundred of the SR (phr) addition of GHMs, PHMs, and AMHMs were increased from 10.11% to 21.70%, 18.31%, and 20.83%, respectively. The ablation tests showed that the addition of the AMHMs enhanced the ablation performance of the SR composites because the linear ablation rates and the backplane temperature were clearly decreased when compared to the SR composites without the hollow microspheres. This work provides an effective and potential method for preparing thermal protection materials with an improved ablation performance.

As non-noble metal co-catalysts, Nitrides have received extensive attention for their high efficiency and low cost in photocatalytic hydrogen production. In this study, we develop a novel composite co-catalyst of Au/Ta3N5 that significantly enhanced the photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of CdS. The activity of photocatalyst (Au/Ta3N5)/CdS is 7.3 times of bare CdS and 2.2 times of Ta3N5/CdS. The proper capacitance and enhanced activity of Ta3N5 demonstrates the capacitance catalysis effect of Ta3N5, which improves the charges separation and storing of the photoexcited electrons from CdS. Au acts as an active site for proton reduction to further improve the activity.

In order to increase the development and utilization of chickpea protein isolate (CPI) and improve the stability of myofibrillar protein (MP) emulsions, the effect of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma-modified CPI on the emulsifying properties of MP was investigated. Three different O/W emulsions were prepared using MP, MP + CPI complex, or MP + DBD-treated CPI complex as the emulsifier. Compared with the emulsion prepared from MP, the emulsifying activity index and stability of DBD-treated CPI and MP complex (MP + CPI[sub.DBD]) were increased (p < 0.05) from 55.17 m[sup.2]/g to 74.99 m[sup.2]/g and 66.31% to 99.87%, respectively. MP + CPI[sub.DBD] produced more stable emulsions with the lowest Turbiscan stability index (TSI) values for a given 3600 s. At shear rates from 0 to 1000[sup.−1], MP + CPI[sub.DBD]-stabilized emulsions had higher viscosities, which helped to reduce the chance of aggregation between oil droplets. The optical microscope and particle size distribution of emulsions showed that MP + CPI[sub.DBD] emulsions had the lowest droplet size (d[sub.4,3]) and exhibited more uniform distribution. MP + CPI[sub.DBD] emulsions had lower interfacial tension. DBD pretreatment increased the adsorbed protein content in the emulsion stabilized by MP + CPI[sub.DBD] as compared to the MP + CPI complex and promoted the adsorption of CPI by higher ratios of adsorbed proteins as indicated by its intensity in SDS-PAGE. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the emulsion prepared from MP + CPI[sub.DBD] had smaller particle size and more uniform dispersion. Therefore, using DBD-modified CPI could enhance the stability of MP emulsions.