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INTRODUCTION: Contrast-induced spinal cord injury (CIS) is an uncommon yet severe neurological complication following cerebral angiography. It can lead to dire consequences, including limb paralysis, respiratory distress, and even death. PATIENT CONCERNS: After undergoing cerebral angiography, a 41-year-old male initially displayed symptoms of dizziness and blurred vision, which advanced into dysphoria and limb weakness within 3 hours. These initial symptoms diminished by the 12th hour. Yet, 18 hours following the procedure, the patient developed quadriplegia and paresthesia below the T5 level, even though his deep sensory functions persisted unaffected. DIAGNOSIS: The magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion weighted imaging scans excluded the presence of cerebrovascular ischemia or subarachnoid hemorrhage. However, the magnetic resonance angiography displayed arterial vasospasms in both posterior cerebral arteries and the V4 segment of the right vertebral artery. The encephalopathy symptoms faded within 12 hours, suggesting a probable contrast-induced encephalopathy diagnosis. An magnetic resonance imaging on day 4 revealed an intensified signal in the spinal cord from C1 to T1. This finding supported the diagnosis of CIS. INTERVENTIONS: Following treatment with mannitol, methylprednisolone, and nimodipine, the patient's contrast-induced encephalopathy symptoms resolved completely within 12 hours. With a 2-week regimen of aspirin, methylprednisolone, and rehabilitative training, the neurological symptoms from CIS showed steady improvement. OUTCOMES: The symptoms and signs of CIS gradually improved after 2 weeks' treatment and rehabilitation program. CONCLUSION: Given the grave outcomes of CIS, like limb paralysis, breathing difficulties, and even fatality, it is imperative to remain cautious about this complication, even with the use of modern, less harmful contrast agents.

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Soil polluted by heavy metals (HMs) is an important environmental issue in China, and regional geological background is a vital factor that influences the enrichment of HMs in soils. Previous studies have shown that soils derived from black shales are commonly enriched in HMs and present high potential eco-environmental risks. However, few studies have investigated the HMs in different agricultural products, which inhibit the safe use of land and safe production of food crops in black shale regions. This study investigated the concentrations, pollution risks, and speciation of HMs in soils and agricultural products from a typical black shale region in Chongqing. The results showed that the study soils were enriched in Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, and Se but not in Pb. Approximately 98.7% of total soils exceeded the risk screening values, and 47.3% of total soils exceeded the risk intervention values. Cd had the highest pollution level and potential ecological risks and was the primary pollutant in soils of the study area. Most of the Cd resided in ion-exchangeable fractions (40.6%), followed by residual fractions (19.1%) and weak organic matter combined fractions (16.6%), whereas Cr, Cu, Pb, Se, and Zn were dominated by residual fractions. Additionally, organic combined fractions contributed to Se and Cu, and Fe-Mn oxide combined fractions contributed to Pb. These results indicated that Cd had higher mobility and availability than those of other metals. The agricultural products presented a weak ability to accumulate HMs. Approximately 18.7% of the collected samples with Cd exceeded the safety limit, but the enrichment factor was relatively low, indicating low pollution risks of the heavy metals. The findings of this study could provide guidelines for safe use of land and safe production of food crops in black shale regions with high geological background.

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Acute anterior circulation large vessel occlusion refers to a blockage in the blood flow of one of the major blood vessels in the anterior (front) part of the brain. Acute anterior circulation large vessel occlusion can lead to a range of symptoms, including sudden headache, difficulty speaking or understanding speech, weakness or numbness on one side of the body and loss of vision in one eye. According to relevant data, mechanical thrombectomy in the treatment of the large vessel recanalization rate can reach 70%. However, hemorrhage is one of the serious complications after mechanical thrombectomy, and it is the main factor leading to the deterioration of neurological function and death of patients after large blood vessels. Therefore, the risk factors of bleeding in patients were analyzed before surgery, and effective prevention during and after surgery had positive significance for patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy. This study uses regression analysis to analyze the correlation between bleeding factors and FPE and NLR after mechanical thrombectomy for acute anterior circulation large vessel occlusion. We retrospectively analyzed 81 patients with acute anterior circulation large vessel occlusion who underwent mechanical embolization in our hospital from September 2019 to January 2022 and separated them into a bleeding group (46 patients) and a non-bleeding group (35 patients) based on the presence or absence of bleeding after surgery.

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BACKGROUND: Cerebral ischemia is associated with a high burden of neurological disability. Recently, emerging evidence has demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are crucial regulators in cerebral ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. Herein, we investigated the function and potential mechanism of long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 473 (LINC00473) in cerebral I/R injury. METHODS: We established oxygen glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) model in Neuro-2a (N2a) cells to mimic the cerebral I/R injury in vitro. RT-qPCR and Western blot assays were conducted to detect target gene expression. Functional assays measured the effects of LINC00473 on cell viability, apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. A series of mechanism assays were carried out to detect the potential mechanism of LINC00473 in cerebral I/R injury. RESULTS: LINC00473 was significantly down-regulated in OGD/R-induced injury model. LINC00473 overexpression reversed the reduced cell viability as well as the enhanced apoptosis and ROS level induced by OGD/R. Moreover, LINC00473 functioneds as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to sponge miR-15b-5p and miR-15a-5p and thereby regulated SRSF protein kinase 1 (SRPK1) expression. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirmed the protective role of LINC00473 in cerebral I/R injury, which might provide a novel target for treating ischemic brain injury.

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Normal melting invariably starts from surfaces or interfaces due to the weaker bonding constraints in these regions. However, we show that melting can be initiated from the interior of gold nanoparticles with high heating rates. We find that melting starts from the surface with the formation of a premelting layer, as usual, but that the premelting layer does not extend to the interior under certain conditions. Instead, liquid nucleation occurs in the core of the nanoparticle. This unexpected interior melting is connected to the slower melting kinetics, which is related to heat transfer near the premelted surface. The required conditions for interior melting are a suitable size of the nanoparticle and a sufficiently fast heating rate. The present results point to a novel melting regime in nanoparticles. We note that the time scales are now accessible using ultrafast tools such as X-ray lasers that can probe dynamical structure changes, suggesting opportunities for experiments.

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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2020.587409.].

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BACKGROUND: Ischemic encephalopathy is a common clinical disease. The main treatment goal is to achieve vascular recanalization. However, after vascular recanalization, the reperfusion of fresh blood can change local cell metabolism, thus adversely affecting cell structure and function, which can result in reperfusion injury. OBJECTIVES: To explore the effect of matrine intervention of different concentrations on JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway and brain protection in rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Healthy male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into a blank control group (20 rats), a model group (80 rats) and a sham group (20 rats). In the model group, the middle cerebral artery was occluded with suture method to establish cerebral ischemia-reperfusion model rats, which were subdivided into cerebral ischemia-reperfusion group, and 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg matrine groups, with 20 rats in each group. Indicators including neurological function score, brain infarct size, brain water content, lactic dehydrogenase activity, protein expressions of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3, as well as superoxide dismutase activity and malondialdehyde content were evaluated. RESULTS: Compared with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion group, all the indicators were significantly improved in the 3 matrine treatment groups in a dose-dependent manner, and protein expressions of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 in the brain tissue and brain cell apoptosis rate were decreased with the increase of matrine concentration (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Matrine can significantly ameliorate the neurological function and brain edema of rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, and improve superoxide dismutase, malondialdehyde and lactic dehydrogenase levels in the brain tissue and brain cell apoptosis rate. The mechanism of matrine may be related to the inhibition of abnormal JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway activation.

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Background and purpose: Data concerning the learning curve for endovascular treatment (EVT) of anterior circulation large vessel occlusion are scarce. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between operator experience and the outcome of EVT and to further identify the number of cases needed to acquire the ability to perform successful reperfusion. Materials and methods: Four hundred and thirty-four patients who underwent EVT by seven operators at a single center from January 2016 to September 2019 were enrolled. Procedural experience was defined by the number of cases performed by each operator. Multivariable backward regression analyses were used to investigate the association between procedural experience and functional independence (defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 0-2), 90-days mortality, successful reperfusion (defined as a modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction score of 2b-3), and puncture-to-reperfusion time after adjusting for covariates. A risk-adjusted cumulative sum (RA-CUSUM) chart was utilized to identify the number of caseloads needed to overcome the learning curve effect. Results: Procedural experience was independently associated with functional independence, 90-days mortality, successful reperfusion, and puncture-to-reperfusion time reduction (per 10-case increment: OR 1.219, 95% CI: 1.079-1.383, P < 0.001; OR 0.847, 95% CI: 0.738-0.968, P = 0.016; OR 1.553, 95% CI: 1.332-1.830, P < 0.001 and ß 8.087 min, 95% CI: 6.184-9.991, P < 0.001, respectively). The RA-CUSUM chart indicated that at least 29 cases were required to overcome the learning curve effect. Conclusions: There was a dose-response relationship between operator case volume and clinical outcome, procedure time, and successful reperfusion. The experience needed for successful EVT was at least 29 cases.

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Facing the demands of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service improvement, the spatial pattern optimization of nature reserves has always been a research topic of interest. However, there remains a lack of methodological guidance in the planning of nature reserves and the surrounding areas. To promote the landscape sustainability of nature reserves, we constructed ecological security patterns (ESPs) with two scenarios as a case study in Wenchuan, China. In detail, the ecological sources were identified by ecosystem service evaluation, and the resistance surface was characterized by the habitat quality. The ecological corridors were determined based on circuit theory and the minimum cumulative resistance model. The ecological sources were mainly aggregated in the protected areas, with an area of more than 1000 ha; the high-resistance values were mainly in the area with dense roads or high elevation. There were 21 corridors in the scenario of only optimizing the nature reserve, while 31 corridors were identified when considering non-nature reserves, and the landscape connectivity was enhanced accordingly. The result supported constructing the ESPs between nature and non-nature reserves in Wenchuan to further protect pandas, and a methodological contribution was made to understand the differences of ESPs between them, thus supporting a methodological formulation of sustainable landscape patterns.

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