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Background: Although intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) has shown effectiveness in addressing working memory (WM) deficits in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ), the current body of evidence is limited and the specific mechanisms involved remain unclear. Therefore, this pilot fMRI study aimed to examine the efficacy of parietal iTBS in ameliorating WM impairments and explore its influence on the resting-state effective connectivity within the frontoparietal network in patients with SZ., Method: A total of 48 patients diagnosed with SZ were randomly assigned to an active or sham iTBS group and underwent 20 sessions of active or sham iTBS over 4 weeks. Subsequently, all patients underwent cognitive tests, clinical symptom assessments, and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans. The effective connectivity between the frontal and parietal brain regions during the rs-fMRI scans was analyzed using a spectral dynamic causal modeling approach. Additionally, this trial was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry in November 2022 (registry number: ChiCTR2200057286)., Results: iTBS treatment improved the positive symptoms, negative symptoms, general psychopathology, and WM deficits. Following the iTBS intervention, the active group demonstrated a significant increase in connectivity strengths from the right MFG to the right SPL (p = 0.031) and from the left SPL to the left MFG (p = 0.010) compared to the pre-treatment levels. Additionally, compared to the sham group, the active group displayed a significantly higher connectivity strength from the right MFG to the right SPL (p = 0.042) after iTBS treatment., Conclusion: All these findings suggest that iTBS targeting the parietal region may influence the resting-state effective connectivity within the frontoparietal network, thereby offering promising therapeutic implications for alleviating the cognitive deficits in SZ., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To explore the effects of early application of sacubitril/valsartan on ventricular remodeling and prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI)., Methods: Total of 295 patients with AMI admitted to the hospital were enrolled between August 2019 and August 2021. According to different treatment methods, they were divided into observation group (sacubitril/valsartan sodium tables combined with standard treatment, 132 patients) and control group (benazepril hydrochloride tablets combined with standard treatment, 163 patients). The levels of plasma N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), creatinine (Cr) and serum K + before and at 6 months after treatment, standard deviation of all normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN), standard deviation of the average all normal-to-normal intervals (SDANN), root mean square of differences between adjacent normal-to-normal intervals/root mean square differences of successive R-R (RMSSD), left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) in the two groups were compared. The adverse reactions during treatment and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during 6 months of follow-up in both groups were statistically analyzed., Results: The levels of NT-proBNP, Cr and K + , LVEDV and LVESV in observation group were significantly lower than those in control group ( P  < 0.05), while LVEF, SDNN, SDANN and RMSSD were significantly higher than those in control group ( P  < 0.05). The incidence of MACE in observation group was lower than that in control group during 6 months of follow-up (7.58 % vs 27.61 %, P  < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions (9.85 % vs 12.88 %, P  > 0.05)., Conclusion: Early application of sacubitril/valsartan sodium can effectively delay ventricular remodeling, improve cardiac function and heart rate variability indexes, reduce NT-proBNP level and improve prognosis in AMI patients., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise., (© 2024 Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objectives: Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is more energy- and time-efficient than is standard repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). However, further studies are needed to analyze TBS therapy for its efficacy and safety compared with standard rTMS in treating depression. The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare TBS therapy with standard rTMS treatment regarding their safety and therapeutic effect on individuals with depression., Materials and Methods: Six data bases (Wanfang, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO) were searched from inception till December 20, 2022. Two independent reviewers selected potentially relevant studies on the basis of the inclusion criteria, extracted data, and evaluated the methodologic quality of the eligible trials using the modified ten-item Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale per Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. Finally, ten comparable pairs of nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included for meta-analysis. Summary odds ratios (ORs) of the rates of response, remission, and adverse events were simultaneously calculated using quality-effects (QE) and random-effects (RE) models. Changes in depression scores associated with antidepressant effects were expressed using standardized mean differences simultaneously. This study was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42022376790)., Results: Nine of the 602 RCTs, covering 1124 patients (616 who had TBS protocols applied vs 508 treated using standard rTMS), were included. Differences in response rates between the above two treatment modalities were not significant (OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.88-1.16, p = 0.44, I 2  = 0%, RE model; OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.87-1.32, p = 0.44, I 2  = 0%, QE model). Differences in adverse event rates between TBS and standard rTMS groups were not statistically significant., Conclusions: TBS has similar efficacy and safety to standard rTMS for treating depression. Considering the short duration of daily stimulation sessions, this meta-analysis supports the continued development of TBS for treating depression., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors reported no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 International Neuromodulation Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Working memory (WM) deficits are a significant component of neurocognitive impairment in individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ). Two previous meta-analyses, conducted on randomized controlled trials (RCTs), examined the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in addressing WM deficits in individuals diagnosed with SCZ. However, the conclusions drawn from these analyses were inconsistent. Additionally, the commonly used random effects (RE) models might underestimate statistical errors, attributing a significant portion of perceived heterogeneity between studies to variations in study quality. Therefore, this review utilized both RE and quality effects (QE) models to assess relevant RCTs comparing TMS with sham intervention in terms of clinical outcomes. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed and Scopus databases, resulting in the inclusion of 13 studies for data synthesis. Overall, regardless of whether the RE or QE model was used, eligible RCTs suggested that the TMS and sham groups exhibited comparable therapeutic effects after treatment. The current state of research regarding the use of rTMS as a treatment for WM deficits in patients with SCZ remains in its preliminary phase. Furthermore, concerning the mechanism of action, the activation of brain regions focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and alterations in gamma oscillations may hold significant relevance in the therapeutic application of rTMS for addressing WM impairments. Finally, we believe that the application of closed-loop neuromodulation may contribute to the optimization of rTMS for WM impairment in patients with SCZ., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2024 Li et al.)

The economic viability and energy use of vertical farms strongly depend on the efficiency of the use of light. Increasing far-red radiation (FR, 700-800 nm) relative to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400-700 nm) may induce shade avoidance responses including stem elongation and leaf expansion, which would benefit light interception, and FR might even be photosynthetically active when used in combination with PAR. The aims of this study are to investigate the interaction between FR and planting density and to quantify the underlying components of the FR effects on growth. Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa cv. Expertise RZ) was grown in a climate chamber under two FR treatments (0 or 52 μmol m -2 s -1 ) and three planting densities (23, 37, and 51 plants m -2 ). PAR of 89% red and 11% blue was kept at 218 μmol m -2 s -1 . Adding FR increased plant dry weight after 4 weeks by 46-77% (largest effect at lowest planting density) and leaf area by 58-75% (largest effect at middle planting density). Radiation use efficiency (RUE: plant dry weight per unit of incident radiation, 400-800 nm) increased by 17-42% and incident light use efficiency (LUE inc : plant dry weight per unit of incident PAR, 400-700 nm) increased by 46-77% by adding FR; the largest FR effects were observed at the lowest planting density. Intercepted light use efficiency (LUE int : plant dry weight per unit of intercepted PAR) increased by adding FR (8-23%). Neither specific leaf area nor net leaf photosynthetic rate was influenced by FR. We conclude that supplemental FR increased plant biomass production mainly by faster leaf area expansion, which increased light interception. The effects of FR on plant dry weight are stronger at low than at high planting density. Additionally, an increased LUE int may contribute to the increased biomass production., Competing Interests: The authors declare that this study received funding from Priva, De Lier, Netherlands. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Jin, Urbina, Heuvelink and Marcelis.)