Magnetic Resonance Image Texture Analysis of the Periaqueductal Gray Matter in Episodic Migraine Patients without T2-Visible Lesions

Zhiye Chen,Xiaoyan Chen,Mengqi Liu,Shuangfeng Liu,Shengyuan Yu,Lin Ma 대한영상의학회 2018 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.19 No.1

Objective: The periaqueductal gray matter (PAG), a small midbrain structure, presents dysfunction in migraine. However, the precise neurological mechanism is still not well understood. Herein, the aim of this study was to investigate the texture characteristics of altered PAG in episodic migraine (EM) patients based on high resolution brain structural magnetic resonance (MR) images. Materials and Methods: The brain structural MR images were obtained from 18 normal controls (NC), 18 EM patients and 16 chronic migraine (CM) patients using a 3T MR system. A PAG template was created using the International Consortium Brain Mapping 152 gray matter model, and the individual PAG segment was developed by applying the deformation field from the structural image segment to the PAG template. A grey level co-occurrence matrix was used to calculate the texture parameters including the angular second moment (ASM), contrast, correlation, inverse difference moment (IDM) and entropy. Results: There was a significant difference for ASM, IDM and entropy in the EM group (998.629 ± 0.162 x 10-3, 999.311 ± 0.073 x 10-3, 916.354 ± 0.947 x 10-5) compared to that found in the NC group (998.760 ± 0.110 x 10-3, 999.358 ± 0.037 x 10-3 and 841.198 ± 0.575 x 10-5) (p < 0.05). The entropy was significantly lower among the patients with CM (864.116 ± 0.571 x 10-5) than that found among patients with EM (p < 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.776 and 0.750 for ASM and entropy in the distinction of the EM from NC groups, respectively. ASM was negatively related to disease duration (DD) and the Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS) scores in the EM group, and entropy was positively related to DD and MIDAS in the EM group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The present study identified altered MR image texture characteristics of the PAG in EM. The identified texture characteristics could be considered as imaging biomarkers for EM.

Basement Design for Vibration Reduction of High-Rise Buildings under Metro Operation

Zhaowei Chen,Song Peng,Defeng Zeng,Qinglie He,Jing Tang,Mengqi Zhang 대한토목학회 2023 KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Vol.27 No.4

Vibration induced by metro operation on the underground line is transmitted to the buildings above the line, which adversely affects on the normal life and work of human in the building. To study this problem, based on the plate-shell vibration theory, a plate-column-plate coupled model is constructed to analyze the influence of plate thickness, plate elastic modulus and column arrangement on the vibration in mechanism firstly. Relying on a practical engineering problem, two models are established, namely a train-track coupled dynamic model and a monolithic track bed-tunnel-soil-building model, loading fastener force from the train-track coupled dynamic model on the monolithic track bed, vibration propagates to high-rise building through soil-building coupling. Field test is conducted to verify the reliability of the numerical model. On the basis, the vibration law of building under different basement floor thicknesses, basement floor material and arrangement of non-permanent columns are studied. Results show that changing the basement design parameters has different effects. The Z vibration level of building floor decreases with the increase of basement floor thickness. Basement floor thickness increases by 0.02 m, the Z vibration level of the floor decreased by 1.4 – 2.2 dB at most. The decrease of elastic modulus leads to a slight decrease of the Z vibration level of building, the change is less than 1 dB. Without changing the arrangement of basement load-bearing columns, reducing non-permanent structural columns significantly reduces the Z vibration level, with attenuation of up to 5.1 dB.

The Chitin-Induced Chimeric LYK4-ER Gene Improves the Heat Tolerance of Arabidopsis at the Seedling Stage

Linxiao Chen,Wei Xia,Jinxing Song,Mengqi Wu,Zhizhen Xu,Xiangyang Hu,Wenqing Zhang 한국식물학회 2020 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.63 No.4

Due to global warming, high temperature has become the main abiotic stress affecting plant growth worldwide. LysM-containing receptor-like kinase 4 (LYK4) is the receptor for chitin, and ERECTA(ER) is a key factor in plant tolerance to high temperature. In this study, we constructed a chitin-induced chimeric LYK4-ER gene, in which the extracellular region and transmembrane domain of the LYK4 gene are fused with the intracellular region of the ER gene. Colony PCR, RT-PCR and western blot analyses of LYK4-ER transcription in plants, confirmed that the LYK4-ER gene was successfully constructed and transferred into Arabidopsis. The LYK4-ER gene localized to the cytomembrane and cytoplasm in vivo because of the binding properties of the transmembrane domain of the LYK4-ER gene to the cell membrane. The transgenic plants showed a higher germination rate and germination index as well as a shorter mean germination time than the wild-type plants, indicating that the LYK4-ER gene increases the heat tolerance of Arabidopsis. The lower H2O2 content and relative electrolytic leakage of the transgenic plants showed that the status of these plants under heat stress was improved. UPLC-MS/MS was used to analyze the phytohormones content, which suggested that the transgenic plants exhibited improved heat tolerance through jasmonic acid signal transduction pathways.

A Dynamic Wireless Charging System Based on Transmitter Module Composed of Coplanar Double Bipolar Pads with Hybrid Compensation Topology

Xia Nenghong,Chen Mengqi,Zhu Yimin 대한전기학회 2024 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.19 No.3

This paper targets to meet three key requirements of dynamic wireless charging system (WCS) for electric vehicles: high output power, misalignment tolerance, and good interoperability. A hybrid wireless charging system with transmitter module composed of coplanar double bipolar pads (BPPs) is designed. The primary side is composed of two BPPs which are driven out of phase to function as bipolar pads for generating larger fundamental magnetic fux height than unipolar pads. A hybrid compensation topology where the decoupled coils in the two BPPs adopt (LCC, S) and (S, LCC) topology, respectively, and that in BPP on the secondary side adopt (LCC, S) topology, forming four coupled coil pairs with LCC-LCC, S–S, S-LCC and LCC-S topologies. This hybrid compensation can efectively restrain the fuctuation of output power caused by the variation of mutual inductance in dynamic charging. And the symmetry of both the pad structure (BPP) and the compensation topologies ensures the transmitter module a good interoperability. The designed system is validated by experimental study on a 6 kW WCS prototype, where the deviations of output power are lower than 2.9% under a 220 mm X-axis misalignment with an efciency higher than 88.6%.

Self‑assembled graphene quantum dots‑Co3O4 nanocomposite for highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst

Ruibin Guo,Mengqi Fang,Qianglong Chen,Nan Wang,Bingjie Wang,Nijuan Liu,Zunli Mo 한국탄소학회 2023 Carbon Letters Vol.33 No.6

A novel kind of self-assembled graphene quantum dots-Co3O4 (GQDs-Co3O4) nanocomposite was successfully manufactured through a hydrothermal approach and used as an extremely effectual oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst. The characterization of morphology with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that Co3O4 nanosheets combined with graphene quantum dots (GQDs) had a new type of hexagonal lamellar selfassembly structure. The GQDs-Co3O4 electrocatalyst showed enhanced electrochemical catalytic properties in an alkaline solution. The start potential of the OER was 0.543 V (vs SCE) in 1 M KOH solution, and 0.577 V (vs SCE) in 0.1 M KOH solution correspondingly. The current density of 10 mA cm? 2 had been attained at the overpotential of 321 mV in 1 M KOH solution and 450 mV in 0.1 M KOH solution. Furthermore, the current density can reach 171 mA cm? 2 in 1 M KOH solution and 21.4 mA cm? 2 in 0.1 M KOH solution at 0.8 V. Moreover, the GQDs-Co3O4 nanocomposite also maintained an ideal constancy in an alkaline solution with only a small deterioration of the activity (7%) compared with the original value after repeating potential cycling for 1000 cycles.

Ginsenoside compound K protects against cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion injury via Mul1/Mfn2-mediated mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy

Qingxia Huang,Jing Li,Jinjin Chen,Zepeng Zhang,Peng Xu,Hongyu Qi,Zhaoqiang Chen,Jiaqi Liu,Jing Lu,Mengqi Shi,Yibin Zhang,Ying Ma,Daqing Zhao,Xiangyan Li The Korean Society of Ginseng 2023 Journal of Ginseng Research Vol.47 No.3

Background: Ginsenoside compound K (CK), the main active metabolite in Panax ginseng, has shown good safety and bioavailability in clinical trials and exerts neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemic stroke. However, its potential role in the prevention of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury remains unclear. Our study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of ginsenoside CK against cerebral I/R injury. Methods: We used a combination of in vitro and in vivo models, including oxygen and glucose deprivation/reperfusion induced PC12 cell model and middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion induced rat model, to mimic I/R injury. Intracellular oxygen consumption and extracellular acidification rate were analyzed by Seahorse multifunctional energy metabolism system; ATP production was detected by luciferase method. The number and size of mitochondria were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and MitoTracker probe combined with confocal laser microscopy. The potential mechanisms of ginsenoside CK on mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy were evaluated by RNA interference, pharmacological antagonism combined with co-immunoprecipitation analysis and phenotypic analysis. Results: Ginsenoside CK pretreatment could attenuate mitochondrial translocation of DRP1, mitophagy, mitochondrial apoptosis, and neuronal bioenergy imbalance against cerebral I/R injury in both in vitro and in vivo models. Our data also confirmed that ginsenoside CK administration could reduce the binding affinity of Mul1 and Mfn2 to inhibit the ubiquitination and degradation of Mfn2, thereby elevating the protein level of Mfn2 in cerebral I/R injury. Conclusion: These data provide evidence that ginsenoside CK may be a promising therapeutic agent against cerebral I/R injury via Mul1/Mfn2 mediated mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy.

Serum MicroRNA Levels as a Noninvasive Diagnostic Biomarker for the Early Diagnosis of Hepatitis B Virus-Related Liver Fibrosis

( Suxia Bao ),( Jianming Zheng ),( Ning Li ),( Chong Huang ),( Mingquan Chen ),( Qi Cheng ),( Kangkang Yu ),( Shengshen Chen ),( Mengqi Zhu ),( Guangfeng Shi ) 대한간학회 2017 Gut and Liver Vol.11 No.6

Background/Aims: To investigate the role of selected serum microRNA (miRNA) levels as potential noninvasive biomarkers for differentiating S0-S2 (early fibrosis) from S3-S4 (late fibrosis) in patients with a chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Methods: One hundred twenty-three treatment-naive patients with a chronic HBV infection who underwent a liver biopsy were enrolled in this study. The levels of selected miRNAs were measured using a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay. A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess factors associated with fibrosis progression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and discriminant analyses validated these the ability of these predicted variables to discriminate S0-S2 from S3-S4. Results: Serum miR-29, miR-143, miR-223, miR-21, and miR-374 levels were significantly downregulated as fibrosis progressed from S0-S2 to S3-S4 (p<0.05), but not miR-16. The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified a panel of three miRNAs and platelets that were associated with a high diagnostic accuracy in discriminating S0-S2 from S3-S4, with an area under the curve of 0.936. Conclusions: The levels of the studied miRNAs, with the exception of miR-16, varied with fibrosis progression. A panel was identified that was capable of discriminating S0-S2 from S3-S4, indicating that serum miRNA levels could serve as a potential noninvasive biomarker of fibrosis progression. (Gut Liver 2017;11:860-869)

In silico identification and computational characterization of endogenous small interfering RNAs from diverse grapevine tissues and stages

Xudong Zhu,Songtao Jiu,Xiaopeng Li,Kekun Zhang,Mengqi Wang,Chen Wang,Jinggui Fang 한국유전학회 2018 Genes & Genomics Vol.40 No.8

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are effectors of regulatory pathways underlying plant development, metabolism, and stress- and nutrient-signaling regulatory networks. The endogenous siRNAs are generally not conserved between plants; consequently, it is necessary and important to identify and characterize siRNAs from various plants. To address the nature and functions of siRNAs, and understand the biological roles of the huge siRNA population in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.). The high-throughput sequencing technology was used to identify a large set of putative endogenous siRNAs from six grapevine tissues/organs. Subsequently, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis was performed to classify the target genes of siRNA. In total, 520,519 candidate siRNAs were identified and their expression profiles exhibited typical temporal characters during grapevine development. In addition, we identified two grapevine trans-acting siRNA (TAS) gene homologs (VvTAS3 and VvTAS4) and the derived trans-acting siRNAs (tasiRNAs) that could target grapevine auxin response factor (ARF) and myeloblastosis (MYB) genes. Furthermore, the GO and KEGG analysis of target genes showed that most of them covered a broad range of functional categories, especially involving in disease-resistance process. The large-scale and completely genome-wide level identification and characterization of grapevine endogenous siRNAs from the diverse tissues by high throughput technology revealed the nature and functions of siRNAs in grapevine.