The dynamic influence of thermohaline circulation onwind-driven circulation in the SouthChina Sea (SCS) is studied using a simple reduced gravitymodel, in which the upwelling driven bymixing in the abyssal ocean is treated in terms of an upward pumping distributed at the base of the upper layer. Because of the strong upwelling of deep water, the cyclonic gyre in the northern SCS is weakened, bu...

Previous studies have shown that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) of upper lumbar segments decreases visceromotor responses to mechanical stimuli in a sensitized rat colon and reduces symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in patients. SCS applied to the upper cervical spinal dorsal column reduces pain of chronic refractory angina. Further, chemical stimulation of C1-C2 propriospinal neurons in rats...

UNLABELLED The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a tripartite synapse that is formed by motor nerve terminals, postjunctional muscle membranes, and terminal Schwann cells (TSCs) that cover the nerve-muscle contact. NMJ formation requires intimate communications among the three different components. Unlike nerve-muscle interaction, which has been well characterized, less is known about the role of...

BACKGROUND Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a disabling disease that is sometimes difficult to treat. Although spinal cord stimulation (SCS) can reduce pain in most patients with CRPS, some do not achieve the desired reduction in pain. Moreover, the pain reduction can diminish over time even after an initially successful period of SCS. Pain reduction can be regained by increasing the SC...

Using a set of statistical methods and HIV mathematical models applied on nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey data, we characterized HIV serodiscordancy patterns and HIV transmission dynamics in stable couples (SCs) in four countries: Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India. The majority of SCs affected by HIV were serodiscordant, and about a third of HIV-infected...

During nerve development, Schwann cells (SCs) build multilayered myelin sheaths around axons to accelerate nerve conduction. The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) downstream of PI3K/AKT signaling lately emerged as a central anabolic regulator of myelination. Using mutant mice with sustained mTORC1 hyperactivity in developing SCs we recently uncovered that mTORC1 impedes develop...

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in trials involving external stimulation are easily conducted under local anesthesia. However, implantation of a permanent SCS system is painful, and can be intolerable in some patients. Epidural anesthesia can be used to perform the SCS implantation without discomfort if the patient can localize the area of paresthesia. However, little is known about epidural anes...

Shepherd's purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik., has been considered a health food for centuries in Asia and is known to contain the isothiocyanate compound sulforaphane. In this study, we evaluated the anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties of a sulforaphane-containing solution (SCS) isolated from shepherd's purse. SCS had significant anti-inflammatory activity indicated by the d...

Using a set of statistical methods and HIV mathematical models applied on nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey data, we characterized HIV serodiscordancy patterns and HIV transmission dynamics in stable couples (SCs) in four countries: Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India. The majority of SCs affected by HIV were serodiscordant, and about a third of HIV-infected...

Notions of passivity for a class of switched control systems (SCS) are developed first in this article. We then study the following problems: 1) When is an SCS passive? 2) Does passivity imply Lyapunov stability as in the classical passive systems? 3) How to use passivity as a tool to design controllers to stabilize an SCS? For Problem 1), we derive sufficient conditions for passivity. For prob...