BackgroundSensing tissue acidosis is an important function of the somatosensory nervous system to response to noxious stimuli.Main bodyIn the pain clinic, acid or soreness sensation is a characteristic sensory phenotype of various acute and chronic pain syndromes, such as delayed onset muscle soreness, fibromyalgia, and radicular pain. However, soreness sensation is a sign of successful analgesia for acupuncture and noxipoint therapy. Thus, the nature of acid or soreness sensation is not always nociceptive (or painful) and could be anti-nociceptive. To facilitate the investigation of the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms of soreness sensation, we propose a concept called “sngception (sng- ception)” to describe the response of the somatosensory nervous system to sense tissue acidosis and to distinguish it from nociception. “Sng” is a Taiwanese word that represents the state of soreness while at the same time imitates the natural vocalization of humans feeling sore.ConclusionHere we propose sngception as a specific somatosensory function that transmits the acid sensation from the peripheral to the central nervous system. Sngception could partially overlap with nociception, but it could also transmit antinociception, proprioception, and pruriception.

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Nanoporous silica films were prepared through the templating of amphiphilic block copolymer, poly(styrene-2-vinyl pyridine) (PS-b-P2VP), and colloidal silica nanoparticles. The experimental and theoretical studies suggested that the intermolecular hydrogen bonding was existed between the colloidal silica nanoparticles and PS-b-P2VP. The miscible hybrid and the narrow thermal decomposition of the PS-b-P2VP led to nanopores in the prepared films from the results of TGA, AFM, and TEM. The effects of the loading ratio and P2VP chain length on the morphology and properties of the prepared nanoporous silica films were investigated. The TEM and AFM studies showed that the uniform pore morphology with pore size 10-15nm was prepared from a modest porogen loading level for the optimum intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The refractive index and dielectric constant of the prepared nanoporous films decreased with an increase in PS-b-P2VP loading. On the other hand, the porosity increased with an increasing PS-b-P2VP loading. This study demonstrated a methodology to control pore morphology and properties of the nanoporous silica films through the templating of PS-b-P2VP.