Northeastern University (China)

About: Northeastern University (China) is a education organization based out in Shenyang, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Control theory & Microstructure. The organization has 36087 authors who have published 36125 publications receiving 426807 citations. The organization is also known as: Dōngběi Dàxué & Northeastern University (东北大学).

Time‐varied characteristics of acupuncture effects in fMRI studies

Abstract: When studying the neural responses to acupuncture with a block-designed paradigm, its temporal dynamics predicted by the general linear model (GLM) conforms to typical "on-off" variations during a limited period of the experiment manipulation. Despite a lack of direct evidence associating its psychophysiological response, numerous clinical reports suggest that acupuncture can provide pain relief beyond a needling session. Therefore, a typical GLM analysis may be insensitive or inappropriate for identifying altered neural responses resulting from acupuncture. We developed a new approach to investigate the dynamics underlying sustained effects of acupuncture. Specifically, we designed two separate models to evaluate the baseline activities (prior to stimulation) and neural activities in sequential epochs, using three block-designed functional runs: acupuncture at acupoint ST36, nonmeridian point (NMP) stimulation, and a visual task. We found that the activity patterns during rest were associated with the stimulus types and that the resting activities might be even higher than that of stimulation phases. Such effects of the elevated activity during rest may reduce or eliminate the activity during stimulus conditions or even reverse the sign of brain activation using conventional GLM analysis. Moreover, such sustained responses, followed by acupuncture at ST36 and NMP, exhibited distinct patterns in wide brain structures, particularly in the limbic system and brainstem. These findings may pose great implications for the design and interpretation of a range of acupuncture neuroimaging studies.

Optimal partitioning method for stability analysis of continuous/discrete delay systems

Abstract: Summary This paper is concerned with the problem of stability analysis for continuous-time/discrete-time systems with interval time-varying delay. Based on the idea of partitioning the delay interval into l nonuniform subintervals, new Lyapunov functionals are established. By utilizing the reciprocally convex approach to deal with the delay information in each subinterval, sufficient stability conditions are proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Based on these criteria, the optimal partitioning method is given on the basis of the genetic algorithm. Finally, the reduced conservatism of the results in this paper is illustrated by numerical examples. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A high capacity small molecule quinone cathode for rechargeable aqueous zinc-organic batteries.

Abstract: Rechargeable aqueous zinc-organic batteries are promising energy storage systems with low-cost aqueous electrolyte and zinc metal anode. The electrochemical properties can be systematically adjusted with molecular design on organic cathode materials. Herein, we use a symmetric small molecule quinone cathode, tetraamino-p-benzoquinone (TABQ), with desirable functional groups to protonate and accomplish dominated proton insertion from weakly acidic zinc electrolyte. The hydrogen bonding network formed with carbonyl and amino groups on the TABQ molecules allows facile proton conduction through the Grotthuss-type mechanism. It guarantees activation energies below 300 meV for charge transfer and proton diffusion. The TABQ cathode delivers a high capacity of 303 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 in a zinc-organic battery. With the increase of current density to 5 A g−1, 213 mAh g−1 capacity is still preserved with stable cycling for 1000 times. Our work proposes an effective approach towards high performance organic electrode materials. The flexible structural design of organic materials make them promising candidates for cathode in rechargeable batteries. Here, the authors report a tetraamino-p-benzoquinone cathode which realizes facile proton conduction by the Grotthuss-type mechanism and shows excellent electrochemical performance.