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The partial nitritation-anammox process based on a membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) faces several challenges, such as difficulty in suppressing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), excessive effluent nitrate, and ineffective synergy between denitrification and anammox bacteria. Therefore, a novel partitioned granular sludge coupling with MABR (G-MABR) was constructed. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrogen removal efficiency were 88.8 ± 1.8 %-92.6 ± 1.2 % and 88.8 ± 1.5 %-93.6 ± 0.7 %, respectively. The COD was mainly lowered in the lower granular sludge-zone, while nitrogen was removed in the upper MABR-zone. NOB was significantly suppressed in the MABR-zone due to competition for substrate with denitrifying bacteria and anammox bacteria. This partitioned configuration reduced the C/N ratio in the MABR-zone, thus facilitating autotrophic nitrogen removal. Both partial nitrification and denitrification provided nitrite for anammox bacteria in granular sludge, whereas partial nitrification mainly supplied nitrite to the anammox bacteria in membrane biofilms., 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. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Human beings display the extraordinary ability of grasping and communicating abstract concepts. Yet, no standardized instruments exist to assess this ability. Developing these tools is paramount for understanding abstract representations such as social concepts, with ramifications in educational and clinical settings. Here, we developed an image database depicting abstract social concepts varying in social desirability. We first validated the image database in a sample of neurotypical participants. Then, we applied the database to test different hypotheses regarding how social concepts are represented across samples of adults and children with autism spectrum condition (ASC). Relative to the neurotypicals, we did not observe differences related to ASC in identification performance of the social desirability of the concepts, nor differences in metacognitive ability. However, we observed a preference bias away from prosocial concepts that was linked to individual autistic traits in the neurotypicals, and higher in ASC relative to the neurotypicals both in adults and children. These results indicate that abstract representations such as social concepts are dependent on individual neurodevelopmental traits. The image database thus provides a standardized assessment tool for investigating the representation of abstract social concepts in the fields of psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience, across different cultures and languages., (© 2024. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

Objective: This study aimed to explore the mechanism by which noise contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like lesions., Method: Male Wistar rats (24 months) were allocated into two groups (n = 6 per groups): a noise group exposed to 98 dB sound pressure-level white noise for 4 hours daily from 8:00 to 12:00 for 30 days, and a control group without noise exposure. The cognitive functions of the rats were assessed using new-object recognition and Morris water maze tests. Then, hippocampal tissues were collected, and the levels of amyloid β 1-42 (Aβ1-42), Aβ1-40, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Protein expression was evaluated through Western blot., Results: Noise exposure significantly impaired cognitive and recognition abilities, increased the escape latency, and decreased the number of crossings through the platform quadrant intersection and the time spent in the target quadrant (P < 0.01). The new-object exploration and recognition index of the rats in the noise group markedly decreased (P < 0.01). ELISA results indicated increases in Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 levels and decreases in BDNF and TrkB levels in the rat hippocampus in the noise group (P < 0.01). Western blot analyses revealed that beta-site amyloid precursor protein (APP) cleaving enzyme 1, phosphorylated tau protein, gamma-H2A histone family, member X, checkpoint kinase 2, p53, and p21 were remarkably elevated in the noise group (P < 0.01)., Conclusion: Chronic noise exposure can cause hippocampal genetic damage in aged rats, leading to cognitive disorders and the development of lesions similar to those observed in AD. Thus, noise is a potential risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders., (Copyright © 2024 Noise & Health.)

Ensemble representations are efficient codes that the brain generates effortlessly even under noisy conditions. However, the role of visual awareness for computing ensemble representations remains unclear. We present two psychophysical experiments ( N = 15 × 2) using a bias-free paradigm to investigate the contribution of conscious and unconscious processing to ensemble perception. Here, we show that ensemble perception can unfold without awareness of the relevant features that define the ensemble. Computational modeling of the type-1 and type-2 drift-rates further suggest that awareness lags well behind the categorization processes that support ensemble perception. Additional evidence indicates that the dissociation between type-1 from type-2 sensitivity, was not driven by the type-2 inefficiency or a systematic disadvantage in type-2 decision making. The present study demonstrates the utility of robust measures for studying the role of visual consciousness and metacognition in stimuli and tasks of increasing complexity, crucially, without underestimating the contribution of unconscious processing in an otherwise visible stimulus. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding how the human brain maps different dimensions of social conceptualizations remains a key unresolved issue. We performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in which participants were exposed to audio definitions of personality traits and asked to simulate experiences associated with the concepts. Half of the concepts were affective (e.g. empathetic), and the other half were non-affective (e.g. intelligent). Orthogonally, half of the concepts were highly likable (e.g. sincere) and half were socially undesirable (e.g. liar). Behaviourally, we observed that the dimension of social desirability reflected the participant's subjective ratings better than affect. FMRI decoding results showed that both social desirability and affect could be decoded in local patterns of activity through distributed brain regions including the superior temporal, inferior frontal, precuneus and key nodes of the default mode network in posterior/anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Decoding accuracy was better for social desirability than affect. A representational similarity analysis further demonstrated that a deep language model significantly predicted brain activity associated with the concepts in bilateral regions of superior and anterior temporal lobes. The results demonstrate a brain-wide representation of social knowledge, involving default model network systems that support the multimodal simulation of social experience, with a further reliance on language-related preprocessing., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

In this study, matrix degradation, microbial community development, and distribution using an individual-based model during biofilm formation on carriers at varying depths within a single-stage partial nitrification/anammox system were simulated. The findings from the application of individual-based model fitting, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and high-throughput sequencing reveal the presence of aerobic bacteria, specifically ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, as discrete particles within the outer layer of the carrier. Facultative anaerobic bacteria exemplified by anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, are observed as aggregates within the middle layer. Conversely, anaerobic bacteria, represented by denitrifiers, are enveloped by extracellular polymeric substances within the inner layer. The present study extends the application of individual-based model to the formation of polyurethane-supported biofilms and presents valuable avenues for the design and advancement of pragmatic engineering carriers., 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. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The necessity of conscious awareness in human learning has been a long-standing topic in psychology and neuroscience. Previous research on non-conscious associative learning is limited by the low signal-to-noise ratio of the subliminal stimulus, and the evidence remains controversial, including failures to replicate. Using functional MRI decoded neurofeedback, we guided participants from both sexes to generate neural patterns akin to those observed when visually perceiving real-world entities (e.g., dogs). Importantly, participants remained unaware of the actual content represented by these patterns. We utilized an associative DecNef approach to imbue perceptual meaning (e.g., dogs) into Japanese hiragana characters that held no inherent meaning for our participants, bypassing a conscious link between the characters and the dogs concept. Despite their lack of awareness regarding the neurofeedback objective, participants successfully learned to activate the target perceptual representations in the bilateral fusiform. The behavioral significance of our training was evaluated in a visual search task. DecNef and control participants searched for dogs or scissors targets that were pre-cued by the hiragana used during DecNef training or by a control hiragana. The DecNef hiragana did not prime search for its associated target but, strikingly, participants were impaired at searching for the targeted perceptual category. Hence, conscious awareness may function to support higher-order associative learning. Meanwhile, lower-level forms of re-learning, modification, or plasticity in existing neural representations can occur unconsciously, with behavioral consequences outside the original training context. The work also provides an account of DecNef effects in terms of neural representational drift., (Copyright © 2024 the authors.)

Objective: To explore the feasibility of the golden-angle radial sparse parallel (GRASP) dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique in predicting the intraoperative bleeding risk of scar pregnancy., Methods: A total of 49 patients with cesarean scar pregnancy (CSP) who underwent curettage and GRASP-MRI imaging were retrospectively selected between January 2021 and July 2022. The pharmacokinetic parameters, including Wash-in, Wash-out, time to peck (TTP), initial area under the curve (iAUC), the transfer rate constant (Ktrans), constant flow rate (Kep), and volume of extracellular space (Ve), were calculated. The amount of intraoperative bleeding was recorded by a gynecologist who performed surgery, after which patients were divided into non-hemorrhage (blood loss ≤ 200 mL) and hemorrhage (blood loss > 200 mL) groups. The measured pharmacokinetic parameters were statistically compared using the t-test or Mann-Whitney U test with a significant level set to be p < 0.05. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to evaluate each parameter's capability in intraoperative hemorrhage subgroup classification., Results: Twenty patients had intraoperative hemorrhage (blood loss > 200 mL) during curettage. The hemorrhage group had larger Wash-in, iAUC, Ktrans, Ve, and shorter TTP than the non-hemorrhage group (all P > 0.05). Wash-in had the highest AUC value (0.90), while Ktrans had the lowest value (0.67). Wash-out and Kep were not significantly different between the two groups., Conclusion: GRASP DCE-MRI has the potential to forecast intraoperative hemorrhage during curettage treatment of CSP, with Wash-in exhibiting the highest predictive performance. This data holds promise for advancing personalized treatment. However, further study is required to compare its effectiveness with other risk factors identified through anatomical MRI and ultrasound., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is mainly used as a food additive due to its antioxidant properties, which prevent or delay oxidation reactions and extend the storage life of products. The widespread use of BHA has led to its extensive presence in various environmental matrices and human tissues. Food intake is the main route of human exposure to BHA. Under different conditions, BHA can produce different metabolites, with tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) being one of the major products. Several studies have shown that BHA could cause thyroid system damage, metabolic and growth disorders, neurotoxicity, and carcinogenesis. Mechanisms such as endocrine disruption, genotoxicity, disturbances of energy metabolism, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, signaling pathways, and imbalances in calcium homeostasis appear to be associated with the toxic effects of BHA. Avoiding the toxic effects of BHA to the maximum extent possible is a top priority. Finding safe, non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternatives to BHA should be the focus of subsequent research. In all, this review summarized the current situation related to BHA and might make recommendations for future research directions. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1a (GHS-R1a) is an important G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that regulates a variety of functions by binding to ghrelin. It has been shown that the dimerization of GHS-R1a with other receptors also affects ingestion, energy metabolism, learning and memory. Dopamine type 2 receptor (D 2 R) is a GPCR mainly distributed in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), substantia nigra (SN), striatum and other brain regions. In this study we investigated the existence and function of GHS-R1a/D 2 R heterodimers in nigral dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD) models in vitro and in vivo. By conducting immunofluorescence staining, FRET and BRET analyses, we confirmed that GHS-R1a and D 2 R could form heterodimers in PC-12 cells and in the nigral dopaminergic neurons of wild-type mice. This process was inhibited by MPP + or MPTP treatment. Application of QNP (10 μM) alone significantly increased the viability of MPP + -treated PC-12 cells, and administration of quinpirole (QNP, 1 mg/kg, i.p. once before and twice after MPTP injection) significantly alleviated motor deficits in MPTP-induced PD mice model; the beneficial effects of QNP were abolished by GHS-R1a knockdown. We revealed that the GHS-R1a/D 2 R heterodimers could increase the protein levels of tyrosine hydroxylase in the SN of MPTP-induced PD mice model through the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) signaling pathway, ultimately promoting dopamine synthesis and release. These results demonstrate a protective role for GHS-R1a/D 2 R heterodimers in dopaminergic neurons, providing evidence for the involvement of GHS-R1a in PD pathogenesis independent of ghrelin., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Our perceptual system appears hardwired to exploit regularities of input features across space and time in seemingly stable environments. This can lead to serial dependence effects whereby recent perceptual representations bias current perception. Serial dependence has also been demonstrated for more abstract representations, such as perceptual confidence. Here, we ask whether temporal patterns in the generation of confidence judgments across trials generalize across observers and different cognitive domains. Data from the Confidence Database across perceptual, memory, and cognitive paradigms was reanalyzed. Machine learning classifiers were used to predict the confidence on the current trial based on the history of confidence judgments on the previous trials. Cross-observer and cross-domain decoding results showed that a model trained to predict confidence in the perceptual domain generalized across observers to predict confidence across the different cognitive domains. The recent history of confidence was the most critical factor. The history of accuracy or Type 1 reaction time alone, or in combination with confidence, did not improve the prediction of the current confidence. We also observed that confidence predictions generalized across correct and incorrect trials, indicating that serial dependence effects in confidence generation are uncoupled to metacognition (i.e., how we evaluate the precision of our own behavior). We discuss the ramifications of these findings for the ongoing debate on domain-generality versus domain-specificity of metacognition., (© 2023. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

Lung cancer, a highly malignant disease, greatly affects patients' quality of life. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most common posttranscriptional modifications of various RNAs, including mRNAs and ncRNAs. Emerging studies have demonstrated that m6A participates in normal physiological processes and that its dysregulation is involved in many diseases, especially pulmonary tumorigenesis and progression. Among these, regulators including m6A writers, readers and erasers mediate m6A modification of lung cancer-related molecular RNAs to regulate their expression. Furthermore, the imbalance of this regulatory effect adversely affects signalling pathways related to lung cancer cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis and other biological behaviours. Based on the close association between m6A and lung cancer, various prognostic risk models have been established and novel drugs have been developed. Overall, this review comprehensively elaborates the mechanism of m6A regulation in the development of lung cancer, suggesting its potential for clinical application in the therapy and prognostic assessment of lung cancer., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

While the multiple functions of extracellular DNA (exDNA) in biofilm formation and electron transfer have been extensively studied in pure culture, its role in mixed anodic biofilm was still unknown. In this study, we employed DNase I enzyme to digest exDNA, thereby investigating its role in anodic biofilm formation based on the performance of four microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) groups with different DNase I enzyme concentration (0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 mg/mL). The responding time to reach 60 % maximum current of treatment group with DNase I enzyme has been significantly reduced to 83 %-86 % of the blank group (t-test, p < 0.01), indicating the exDNA digestion could promote the biofilm formation at the early stage. The anodic coulombic efficiency was enhanced by 10.74- 54.42 % in treatment group (t-test, p < 0.05), which could be ascribed to the higher absolute abundance of exoelectrogens. The lower relative abundance of exoelectrogens indicated the DNase I enzyme addition was beneficial for the enrichment of extensive species rather than exoelectrogens. As the DNase I enzyme augments the fluorescence signal of exDNA distribution in the small molecular weight region, implying the short chain exDNA could contribute to the biomass enhancement via boosting the most species enrichment. Furthermore, the exDNA alteration improved the complexity of microbial network. Our findings provide a new insight into the role of exDNA in the extracellular matrix of anodic biofilms., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has been widely used for the sustainable removal of nitrogen from wastewater. Extracellular DNA (exDNA), as one of the main components of biofilms, not only determines the initial formation process, but also allows the three-dimensional structure to be maintained. Since the effects of exDNA on anammox biofilm formation are still poorly understood, this study elucidated the effects of exDNA on different stages of anammox biofilm establishment and maintenance under static conditions and its mechanism. The results revealed that exDNA mainly affected the maintenance stage of anammox biofilm formation. Compared with the absence of exDNA, nitrogen removal efficiency in the presence of exDNA was 6.17 % higher; the number of bacteria cells attached to the carrier was 2.23 times that in the absence of exDNA. The spatiotemporal distribution of bacteria was revealed by fluorescence in situ hybridization. After 30 days, the relative abundances of anammox in biofilms were 6.19 % and 0.4 % in the presence and absence of exDNA, respectively, indicating its positive role in anammox bacteria (AnAOB) adhesion and biofilm formation. The presence of exDNA in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) promotes the synthesis of proteins and soluble microbial products. According to the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (X - DLVO) theory, the presence of exDNA also reduced the Lewis acid-base interaction energy and created favorable thermodynamic conditions for AnAOB adhesion. These findings advance our understanding of the role of exDNA in anammox-mediated biofilm formation and offer insights into the mechanism of exDNA in the establishment and maintenance stages., 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 © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Significantly decreased H3K4 methylation in oocytes from aged mice indicates the important roles of H3K4 methylation in female reproduction. However, how H3K4 methylation regulates oocyte development remains largely unexplored. In this study, it is demonstrated that oocyte-specific expression of dominant negative mutant H3.3-K4M led to a decrease of the level of H3K4 methylation in mouse oocytes, resulting in reduced transcriptional activity and increased DNA methylation in oocytes, disturbed oocyte developmental potency, and fertility of female mice. The impaired expression of genes regulating mitochondrial functions in H3.3-K4M oocytes, accompanied by mitochondrial abnormalities, is further noticed. Moreover, early embryos from H3.3-K4M oocytes show developmental arrest and reduced zygotic genome activation. Collectively, these results show that H3K4 methylation in oocytes is critical to orchestrating gene expression profile, driving the oocyte developmental program, and ensuring oocyte quality. This study also improves understanding of how histone modifications regulate organelle dynamics in oocytes., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Hippophae rhamnoides L. (sea buckthorn), consumed as a food and health supplement worldwide, has rich nutritional and medicinal properties. Different parts of H. rhamnoides L. were used in traditional Chinese medicines for relieving cough, aiding digestion, invigorating blood circulation, and alleviating pain since ancient times. Phytochemical studies revealed a wide variety of phytonutrients, including nutritional components (proteins, minerals, vitamins, etc.) and functional components like flavonoids ( 1 - 99 ), lignans ( 100 - 143 ), volatile oils ( 144 - 207 ), tannins ( 208 - 230 ), terpenoids ( 231 - 260 ), steroids ( 261 - 270 ), organic acids ( 271 - 297 ), and alkaloids ( 298 - 305 ). The pharmacological studies revealed that some crude extracts or compounds of H. rhamnoides L. demonstrated various health benefits, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, anticardiovascular disease, anticancer, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, neuroprotective, antibacterial activities, and their effective doses and experimental models were summarized and analyzed in this paper. The quality markers (Q-markers) of H. rhamnoides L. were predicted and analyzed based on protobotanical phylogeny, traditional medicinal properties, expanded efficacy, pharmacokinetics and metabolism, and component testability. The applications of H. rhamnoides L. in juice, wine, oil, ferment, and yogurt were also summarized and future prospects were examined in this review. However, the mechanism and structure-activity relationship of some active compounds are not clear, and quality control and potential toxicity are worth further study in the future.

Objective: Naringin is a flavonoid derived from Chinese herbs. According to earlier studies, naringin may have the potential to alleviate aging-induced cognitive dysfunction. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the protective effect and underlying mechanism of naringin on aging rats with cognitive dysfunction., Methods: After the construction of a model of aging rats with cognitive dysfunction through subcutaneous injection of D-galactose (D-gal; 150 mg/kg), intragastric administration of naringin (100 mg/kg) was performed for treatment. Behavioral tests, including Morris water maze test (MWM), novel object recognition test (NORT), and fear conditioning test, were used to measure the cognitive function; ELISA and biochemical tests were used to determine the levels of interleukin (IL)-1 β , IL-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), malondialdehyde (MDA), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the hippocampus of rats in each group, respectively; H&E staining was used to observe the pathological changes in the hippocampus; Western blot was used to examine the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/NF- κ B pathway-related proteins and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related proteins in the hippocampus., Results: The model was successfully constructed by subcutaneous injection of D-gal (150 mg/kg). The behavioral test results showed that naringin could ameliorate the cognitive dysfunction and alleviate the histopathological damage of hippocampus. Moreover, naringin significantly improve the inflammatory response (the levels of IL-1 β , IL-6, and MCP-1 were decreased), oxidative stress response (MDA level was increased while GSH-Px activity was decreased), and ER stress (the expression of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), C/-EBP homologous protein (CHOP), and transcription factor 6 (ATF6) expression was downregulated), and increased the levels of neurotrophic factors BDNF and NGF in D-gal rats. Besides, further mechanistic studies revealed the downregulation of naringin on TLR4/NF- κ B pathway activity., Conclusion: Naringin may inhibit inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and ER stress by downregulating TLR4/NF- κ B pathway activity, thereby improving cognitive dysfunction and alleviating histopathological damage of hippocampus in aging rats. Briefly, naringin is an effective drug for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Xiao-jie Dai et al.)

Background: Readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (rs-EPI) with simultaneous multislice (SMS) technology has been successfully applied to tumor research in many organs, but no feasibility study in rectal cancer has been reported, and the optimal acceleration of SMS with rs-EPI in rectal cancer has not been well determined yet., Objective: To investigate the feasibility of SMS rs-EPI of rectal cancer with different acceleration factors (AF s ) and its influence on image quality, acquisition time and apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC s ) in comparison to conventional sequences., Methods: All patients underwent rs-EPI and SMS rs-EPI with AF s of 2 and 3 (2 × SMS rs-EPI and 3 × SMS rs-EPI, respectively) using a 3T scanner. Acquisition times of the three rs-EPI sequences were measured. Image qualitative parameters (5-point Likert scale), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), geometric distortion, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the three sequences were compared., Results: A total of eighty-three patients were enrolled in our study. rs-EPI and 2 × SMS rs-EPI offered equivalently high overall image quality with a scan time reduction to nearly half (rs-EPI: 137 s, 2 × SM rs-EPI: 60 s). 3 × SMS rs-EPI showed significantly poorer image quality ( p < 0.05). ADC values were significantly lower in 3 × SMS rs-EPI compared to rs-EPI in rectal tumors and normal tissue (tumor tissue: rs-EPI 1.19 ± 0.21 × 10 -3 mm 2 /s, 3 × SMS rs-EPI 1.10 ± 0.26 × 10 -3 mm 2 /s, p < 0.001; normal tissue: rs-EPI 1.68 ± 0.13 × 10 -3 mm 2 /s, 3 × SMS rs-EPI 1.54 ± 0.20 × 10 -3 mm 2 /s, p < 0.001)., Conclusions: SMS rs-EPI using an AF of 2 is feasible for rectal MRI resulting in substantial reductions in acquisition time while maintaining diagnostic image quality and similar ADC values to those of rs-EPI when the slice distance and number of shots are the same among three rs-EPI sequences.

Background: Pyrethrum tatsienense (Bureau & Franch.) Ling ex C. Shih (PTLCS) belongs to the family Compositae, which is a perennial medicinal plant mainly distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of PTLCS. This review offers valuable references and guidance for researching PTLCS in depth., Methods: The related references of PTLCS were retrieved from an online database, such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, SciFinder, PubMed, SpringLink, Elsevier, Willy, CNKI, and so on., Results: PTLCS is widely reported for treating headaches, head injuries, traumatic injuries, anabrosis, impetigo, hepatitis, and other diseases in the medical field. Phytochemical research revealed that this plant contained flavonoid aglycones, flavonoid glycosides, xanthones, triterpenoids, coumarins, polyacetylenes, volatile oils, and other compounds. Meanwhile, PTLCS exhibited extensive pharmacological activities including anti-cardiac ischemia, anti-hypoxia, hepatoprotective, anti- inflammatory and analgesic, and antioxidant activities., Conclusions: PTLCS is widely used as a Tibetan medicine, which has a variety of chemicals with diverse bioactivities. Therefore, further studies are necessary to perform on the PTLCS to assay biological activities, discover their bioactive constituents, and reveal pharmacological mechanisms. This review may supply an important theoretical basis and valuable reference for in-depth research and exploitations of PTLCS., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: Highland barley Monascus purpureus Went, a traditional Tibetan medicine with food functions, which is fermented by Monascus purpureus with highland barley as substrate. It possesses various medical functions of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, invigorating spleen and promoting digestion in folk of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. This review provides a comprehensive overview of ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of highland barley Monascus purpureus Went., Methods: The references of highland barley Monascus purpureus Went were retrieved from the online database, such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, SciFinder, PubMed, SpringLink, Elsevier, Willy, CNKI, and so on., Results: Phytochemical research revealed that highland barley Monascus purpureus Went contained multiple chemical components, including Monascus pigments, monacolins, lactones, and other compounds. The reported pharmacological activities of highland barley Monascus purpureus Went included hypolipidemic, anti-nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and hepatoprotective activities., Conclusion: In a word, botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology of highland barley Monascus purpureus Went were reviewed comprehensively in this paper. In the future, highland barley Monascus purpureus Went needs further study, such as paying more attention to quality control and utilization of medicine. Therefore, this review may provide a theoretical basis and valuable data for future studies and exploitations on highland barley Monascus purpureus Went., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Humans have a remarkably high capacity and long duration memory for complex scenes. Previous research documents the neural substrates that allow for efficient categorization of scenes from other complex stimuli like objects and faces, but the spatiotemporal neural dynamics underlying scene memory at timescales relevant to working and longer-term memory are less well understood. In the present study, we used high density EEG during a visual continuous recognition task in which new, old, and scrambled scenes consisting of color outdoor photographs were presented at an average rate 0.26 Hz. Old scenes were single repeated presentations occurring within either a short-term (< 20 s) or longer-term intervals of between 30 s and 3 min or 4 and 10 min. Overall recognition was far above chance, with better performance at shorter- than longer-term intervals. Sensor-level ANOVA and post hoc pairwise comparisons of event related potentials (ERPs) revealed three main findings: (1) occipital and parietal amplitudes distinguishing new and old from scrambled scenes; (2) frontal amplitudes distinguishing old from new scenes with a central positivity highest for hits compared to misses, false alarms and correct rejections; and (3) frontal and parietal changes from ∼300 to ∼600 ms distinguishing among old scenes previously encountered at short- and longer-term retention intervals. These findings reveal how distributed spatiotemporal neural changes evolve to support short- and longer-term recognition of complex scenes., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Ellmore, Reichert Plaska, Ng and Mei.)

Backgruound: It is well-established that serum testosterone in men decreases with age, yet the underlying mechanism of this change remains elusive., Methods: The expression patterns of Fancd2 opposite-strand (Fancd2os) in BALB/c male mice and testicular tissue derived cell lines (GC-1, GC-2, TM3, and TM4) were assessed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blot and immunofluorescence. The Fancd2os-overexpressing or knockdown TM3 cells were constructed by infecting them with lentivirus particles and were used to evaluated the function of Fancd2os. The testosterone production was measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the steroidogenic enzymes such as steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), P450 cholesterol side-chain cleavage (P450scc), and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD) were analysed using RT-PCR. The apoptosis of TM3 cells induced by ultraviolet light or testicular tissues was detected using flow cytometry, Western blot or dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) assays. Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between the Fancd2os expression and TUNEL-positive staining in mouse testicular Leydig cells., Results: The Fancd2os protein was predominantly expressed in mouse testicular Leydig cells and its expression increased with age. Fancd2os overexpression inhibited testosterone levels in TM3 Leydig cells, whereas knockdown of Fancd2os elevated testosterone production. Fancd2os overexpression downregulated the levels of StAR, P450scc and 3β-HSD, while Fancd2os knockdown reversed this effect. Fancd2os overexpression promoted ultraviolet light-induced apoptosis of TM3 cells. In contrast, Fancd2os knockdown restrained apoptosis in TM3 cells. In vivo assays revealed that higher Fancd2os levels and mouse age were associated with increased apoptosis in Leydig cells and decreased serum testosterone levels. Pearson correlation analysis exhibited a strong positive correlation between the expression of Fancd2os and TUNEL-positive staining in mouse testicular Leydig cells., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Fancd2os regulates testosterone synthesis via both steroidogenic enzymes and the apoptotic pathway.

A framework to pinpoint the scope of unconscious processing is critical to improve models of visual consciousness. Previous research observed brain signatures of unconscious processing in visual cortex, but these were not reliably identified. Further, whether unconscious contents are represented in high-level stages of the ventral visual stream and linked parieto-frontal areas remains unknown. Using a within-subject, high-precision functional magnetic resonance imaging approach, we show that unconscious contents can be decoded from multi-voxel patterns that are highly distributed alongside the ventral visual pathway and also involving parieto-frontal substrates. Classifiers trained with multi-voxel patterns of conscious items generalized to predict the unconscious counterparts, indicating that their neural representations overlap. These findings suggest revisions to models of consciousness such as the neuronal global workspace. We then provide a computational simulation of visual processing/representation without perceptual sensitivity by using deep neural networks performing a similar visual task. The work provides a framework for pinpointing the representation of unconscious knowledge across different task domains., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Hepatocyte lipid accumulation is the main feature in the early stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Highland barley Monascus purpureus Went (HBMPW), a fermentation product of Hordeum vulgare Linn. var. nudum Hook. f. has traditionally been used as fermented foods in Tibet with the effect of reducing blood lipid in folk medicine., Aim of the Study: This study investigated the protective effects and molecular mechanism of highland barley Monascus purpureus Went extract (HBMPWE) on NAFLD in syrian golden hamster fed with high-fat, high-fructose, high-cholesterol diet (HFFCD)., Materials and Methods: HFFCD-induced NAFLD golden hamster model was established and treated with HBMPWE. Liver index, biochemical index, and hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining were observed. Liver metabolomics and western blot analysis were employed., Results: Our study found that HBMPWE ameliorated HFFCD induced dyslipidemia, weight gain and elevated the liver index. In addition, HBMPWE treatment significantly attenuated lipid accumulation in the liver and modulated lipid metabolism (sphingolipid, glycerophospholipid). Our data demonstrated that HBMPWE not only regulated the expression of proteins related to fatty acid synthesis and decomposition (SREBP-1/ACC/FAS/AceS1, PPARα/ACSL/CPT1/ACOX1), but also regulated the expression of proteins related to cholesterol synthesis and clearance (HMGCR, LDLR, CYP7A1)., Conclusions: HBMPWE improved NAFLD through multiple pathways and multiple targets in body metabolism and could be used as a functional food to treat NAFLD and other lipid metabolic disorders., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a serious problem endangering human health in the world. The pathogenesis of this disease is often accompanied by lipid metabolism disorder and can cause liver lipid accumulation. Highland barley Monascus purpureus Went extract (HBMPWE) can inhibit the liver lipid accumulation caused by a high-fat, high-fructose, high-cholesterol diet. However, it is not clear what changes have taken place in the process of liver lipid metabolism after HBMPWE administration. To fill this knowledge gap and to support the findings published in the companion research article entitled "Highland Barley Monascus purpureus Went Extract Ameliorates High-Fat, High-Fructose, High-Cholesterol Diet Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease by Regulating Lipid Metabolism in Golden Hamsters" [1], we provided important information related to the liver differential metabolites and identified twenty-one differential metabolites of liver metabolism. In the model group, the levels of lactate, linoleic acid, and malic acid increased significantly. After HBMPWE treatment, the expressions of these metabolites reduced significantly. Therefore, these liver differential metabolites could be used as biological signatures reflecting the severity of NAFLD and HBMPWE treatment outcomes., Competing Interests: All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Mitochondrion plays an indispensable role during preimplantation embryo development. Dynamic-related protein 1 (DRP1) is critical for mitochondrial fission and controls oocyte maturation. However, its role in preimplantation embryo development is still lacking. In this study, we demonstrate that inhibition of DRP1 activity by mitochondrial division inhibitor-1, a small molecule reported to specifically inhibit DRP1 activity, can cause severe developmental arrest of preimplantation embryos in a dose-dependent manner in mice. Meanwhile, DRP1 inhibition resulted in mitochondrial dysfunction including decreased mitochondrial activity, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, reduced mitochondrial copy number and inadequate ATP by disrupting both expression and activity of DRP1 and mitochondrial complex assembly, leading to excessive ROS production, severe DNA damage and cell cycle arrest at 2-cell embryo stage. Furthermore, reduced transcriptional and translational activity and altered histone modifications in DRP1-inhibited embryos contributed to impeded zygotic genome activation, which prevented early embryos from efficient development beyond 2-cell embryo stage. These results show that DRP1 inhibition has potential cytotoxic effects on mammalian reproduction, and DRP1 inhibitor should be used with caution when it is applied to treat diseases. Additionally, this study improves our understanding of the crosstalk between mitochondrial metabolism and zygotic genome activation., Competing Interests: 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 Li, Mei, Cheng, Yang and Zhou.)

Objective: To analyze changes in volume and position of target regions and organs at risk (OARs) during radiotherapy for esophageal cancer patients., Methods: Overall, 16 esophageal cancer patients who underwent radiotherapy, including 10 cases of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and six of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), were enrolled. The prescription doses for the planning target volumes (PTVs) were as follows: PTV1, 64 Gy/32 fractions; and PTV2, 46 Gy/23 fractions. Repeat computed tomography (CT) was performed for patients after the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th fractions. Delineation of the gross tumor volume (GTV) and OAR volume was determined using five repeat CTs performed by the same physician. The target and OAR volumes and centroid positions were recorded and used to analyze volume change ratio (VCR), center displacement (ΔD), and changes in the distance from the OAR centroid positions to the planned radiotherapy isocenter (distance to isocenter, DTI) during treatment., Results: No patient showed significant changes in target volume (TV) after the first week of radiotherapy (five fractions). However, TV gradually decreased over the following weeks, with the rate slowing after the fourth week (40 Gy). The comparison of TV from baseline to 40 Gy (20 fractions) showed that average GTVs decreased from 130.7 ± 63.1 cc to 92.1 ± 47.2 cc, with a VCR of -29.21 ± 13.96% ( p <0.01), while the clinical target volume (CTV1) decreased from 276.7 ± 98.2 cc to 246.7 ± 87.2 cc, with a VCR of -10.34 ± 7.58% ( p <0.01). As TVs decreased, ΔD increased and DTI decreased. After the fourth week of radiotherapy (40 Gy), centroids of GTV, CTV1, and prophylactic CTV (CTV2) showed average deviations in ΔD of 7.6 ± 4.0, 6.9 ± 3.4, and 6.0 ± 3.0 mm, respectively. The average DTI of the heart decreased by 4.53 mm (from 15.61 ± 2.96 cm to 15.16 ± 2.27 cm)., Conclusion: During radiotherapy for esophageal cancer, Targets and OARs change significantly in volume and position during the 2 nd -4 th weeks. Image-guidance and evaluation of dosimetric changes are recommended for these fractions of treatment to appropriate adjust treatment plans., Competing Interests: 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 Liu, Peng, Li, Shen, Ma, Chen, Zhang, Fu, Qiu, Liu and Deng.)

Upon mammalian fertilization, zygotic genome activation (ZGA) and activation of transposable elements (TEs) occur in early embryos to establish totipotency and support embryogenesis. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling the expression of these genes in mammals remain poorly understood. The 2-cell-like population of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) mimics cleavage-stage embryos with transient Dux activation. In this study, we demonstrated that deficiency of the transcription factor OTX2 stimulates the expression of ZGA genes in mESCs. Further analysis revealed that OTX2 is incorporated at the Dux locus with corepressors for transcriptional inhibition. We also found that OTX2 associates with TEs and silences the subtypes of TEs. Therefore, OTX2 protein plays an important role in ZGA and TE expression in mESCs to orchestrate the transcriptional network.

In a groundwater plant, removal of iron, manganese, and ammonia nitrogen was performed via a purification process using a filter column at a low temperature (5-6℃). Iron, manganese and ammonia [Fe(Ⅱ) 0-19.26 mg·L -1 , Mn(Ⅱ) 0.52-2.05 mg·L -1 , and NH 4 + -N 0.37-2.59 mg·L -1 ] were analyzed to explore the ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency under different iron and manganese concentrations. The results showed that when the concentration of manganese in the inlet water was maintained at approximately 0.6 mg·L -1 and the concentration of ferrous iron in the inlet water was increased, with the increase of iron oxides in the filter layer, the ratio of ammonia nitrogen removed by adsorption of iron oxides increased, while the ratio of ammonia nitrogen removed by nitrification will decreased and adsorption preceded nitrification. When the concentration of ferrous iron in the water was maintained at approximately 8 mg·L -1 and 11 mg·L -1 , and the concentration of manganese in the water was increased, the proportion of ammonia nitrogen removed by adsorption did not increase with the increase of manganese oxide, and the removal route of ammonia nitrogen hardly changed. This is because less manganese oxides were formed 20 cm before the filter layer, which had little effect on the ammonia nitrogen adsorbed in this range. The production area of manganese oxides was concentrated below 20 cm of the filter layer, and most ammonia nitrogen was removed by adsorption and nitrification before this area, and the manganese oxides in this area did not adsorb ammonia nitrogen.

How the brain representation of conceptual knowledge varies as a function of processing goals, strategies and task-factors remains a key unresolved question in cognitive neuroscience. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants were presented with visual words during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During shallow processing, participants had to read the items. During deep processing, they had to mentally simulate the features associated with the words. Multivariate classification, informational connectivity and encoding models were used to reveal how the depth of processing determines the brain representation of word meaning. Decoding accuracy in putative substrates of the semantic network was enhanced when the depth processing was high, and the brain representations were more generalizable in semantic space relative to shallow processing contexts. This pattern was observed even in association areas in inferior frontal and parietal cortex. Deep information processing during mental simulation also increased the informational connectivity within key substrates of the semantic network. To further examine the properties of the words encoded in brain activity, we compared computer vision models-associated with the image referents of the words-and word embedding. Computer vision models explained more variance of the brain responses across multiple areas of the semantic network. These results indicate that the brain representation of word meaning is highly malleable by the depth of processing imposed by the task, relies on access to visual representations and is highly distributed, including prefrontal areas previously implicated in semantic control., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2020 The Authors.)

Metacognition can be deployed retrospectively -to reflect on the correctness of our behavior- or prospectively -to make predictions of success in one's future behavior or make decisions about strategies to solve future problems. We investigated the factors that determine prospective decision making. Human participants performed a visual discrimination task followed by ratings of visibility and response confidence. Prior to each trial, participants made prospective judgments. In Experiment 1, they rated their belief of future success. In Experiment 2, they rated their decision to adopt a focused attention state. Prospective beliefs of success were associated with no performance changes while prospective decisions to engage attention were followed by better self-evaluation of the correctness of behavioral responses. Using standard machine learning classifiers we found that the current prospective decision could be predicted from information concerning task-correctness, stimulus visibility and response confidence from previous trials. In both Experiments, awareness and confidence were more diagnostic of the prospective decision than task correctness. Notably, classifiers trained with prospective beliefs of success in Experiment 1 predicted decisions to engage in Experiment 2 and vice-versa. These results indicate that the formation of these seemingly different prospective decisions share a common, dynamic representational structure.

Cognitive functions, for example speech processing, are distributed asymmetrically in the two hemispheres that mostly have homologous anatomical structures. Dichotic listening is a well-established paradigm to investigate hemispherical lateralization of speech. However, the mixed results of dichotic listening, especially when using tonal languages as stimuli, complicates the investigation of functional lateralization. We hypothesized that the inconsistent results in dichotic listening are due to an interaction in processing a mixture of acoustic and linguistic attributes that are differentially processed over the two hemispheres. In this study, a within-subject dichotic listening paradigm was designed, in which different levels of speech and linguistic information was incrementally included in different conditions that required the same tone identification task. A left ear advantage (LEA), in contrast with the commonly found right ear advantage (REA) in dichotic listening, was observed in the hummed tones condition, where only the slow frequency modulation of tones was included. However, when phonemic and lexical information was added in simple vowel tone conditions, the LEA became unstable. Furthermore, ear preference became balanced when phonological and lexical-semantic attributes were included in the consonant-vowel (CV), pseudo-word, and word conditions. Compared with the existing REA results that use complex vowel word tones, a complete pattern emerged gradually shifting from LEA to REA. These results support the hypothesis that an acoustic analysis of suprasegmental information of tones is preferably processed in the right hemisphere, but is influenced by phonological and lexical semantic processes residing in the left hemisphere. The ear preference in dichotic listening depends on the levels of speech and linguistic analysis and preferentially lateralizes across the different hemispheres. That is, the manifestation of functional lateralization depends on the integration of information across the two hemispheres., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In a groundwater plant we carried out a process operation test of biological removal of iron and manganese nitrification coupled with completely autotrophic ammonium removal over nitrite (CANON) (Fe(Ⅱ) 2.91-6.35 mg·L -1 , Mn(Ⅱ) 0.47-0.98 mg·L -1 , NH 4 + -N 1.15-2.26 mg·L -1 ) at low temperature (6-8℃), to explore the effects of filter speed and water quality on ammonia nitrogen removal. The results showed that the mature low-temperature biological filter column, which had been out of service for one month, was cultured for 40 days at a filtration rate of 2 m·h -1 and successfully started. In this process, when the water inlet concentration remained the same, the improved filter speed would reduce the efficiency of ammonia nitrogen capture by the filter column, increase the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the depth of the filter layer, and improve the efficiency of ammonia nitrogen ions capture by anaerobic ammonia oxidation bacteria (AnAOB) in the depth of the filter layer, so that the ammonia nitrogen removed by CANON in the water increased, while the ammonia nitrogen removed by nitrification decreased. When the filter speed remained unchanged, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in water was increased to make the ammonia nitrogen with higher concentration enter the filter layer, which increased the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the zone where ammonia nitrogen and nitrous nitrogen coexist, and improved the net catching efficiency of AnAOB on ammonia nitrogen ions in the filter layer, thus resulting in an increase in ammonia nitrogen removed by CANON.

Mature biological phosphorus removal granules were inoculated into a SBR. The effect of the ammonia concentration on biological phosphorus removal granules system was investigated by increasing the concentration of ammonia in the influent. The ability of the system to withstand ammonia loading was determined. The results showed that when the influent ammonia concentration was below 45 mg·L -1 , the biological phosphorus removal granule system showed good performance. The TP removal efficiency was above 96%, the COD removal efficiency was over 89%. The effluent TP concentration and COD concentration were 0.4 mg·L -1 and 25 mg·L -1 respectively. The particle size was above 950 μm and the SVI was below 45 mL·g -1 . When the influent ammonia concentration was 60 mg·L -1 , the removal efficiency of TP was more than 95%. The effluent TP concentration was below 0.5 mg·L -1 , the particle size was 760 μm, and the SVI was 56 mL·g -1 . Furthermore, the biological phosphorus removal granules partially disintegrated and the metabolism and growth of PAOs began to be inhibited in the system. When the influent ammonia concentration reached 70 mg·L -1 , the removal efficiency of TP was 70%, the effluent TP concentration was about 3 mg·L -1 , the particle size was 570 μm, the SVI was 75 mL·g -1 , and the value of PN/PS was about 7.50. The biological phosphorus granules severely disintegrated and the metabolism and growth of PAOs was severely inhibited in the system. Moreover, as the influent ammonia concentration increased, the protein increased and polysaccharide decreased from the microbial secretion of biological phosphorus removal granules. Moreover, the value of PN/PS increased, the biological phosphorus removal granules disintegrated, the particle size decreased, the SVI increased, and the structure and function of the biological phosphorus removal granules were destroyed.

In this study, the effect of COD loading on a biological phosphorus removal granule system under different phosphorus concentrations was investigated by changing the concentration of total phosphorus (TP) and COD in the influent. The lowest concentration of COD for good performance of the biological phosphorus removal system under different phosphorus concentrations was obtained. The results show that when the concentration of TP was 10 mg·L -1 in the influent, the lowest concentration of COD for good performance of the biological phosphorus removal system was 175 mg·L -1 . The concentration of TP in the effluent was below 0.5 mg·L -1 ; the particle size and SVI were 1020 μm and 36 mL·g -1 , respectively; and the contents of PN and PS (by MLSS) were 78 mg·g -1 and 39 mg·g -1 , respectively. Furthermore, the PN/PS was lower and the granules had good structure and performance. When the concentration of TP was 6 mg·L -1 in the influent, the lowest concentration of COD for good performance of the biological phosphorus removal system was 150 mg·L -1 . The concentration of TP in the effluent was below 0.3 mg·L -1 ; the particle size and SVI were respectively 960 μm and 35 mL·g -1 ; and the contents of PN and PS were 75 mg·g -1 and 35 mg·g -1 , respectively. Moreover, the PN/PS was lower and the granules had good structure and performance. The removal efficiency of COD was above 83% and the concentration of COD in the effluent was below 25 mg·L -1 throughout the operational process. Under different the influent phosphorus concentrations, the contents of PN and PS decreased, PN/PS increased, particle size decreased, SVI increased, and the structure and performance of the biological phosphorus removal granules deteriorated as the COD concentration decreased.

There is growing interest in understanding how specific neural events that occur during sleep, including characteristic spindle oscillations between 10 and 16 Hz (Hz), are related to learning and memory. Neural events can be recorded during sleep using the well-known method of scalp electroencephalography (EEG). While publicly available sleep EEG datasets exist, most consist of only a few channels collected in specific patient groups being evaluated overnight for sleep disorders in clinical settings. The dataset described in this Data in Brief includes 22 participants who each participated in EEG recordings on two separate days. The dataset includes manual annotation of sleep stages and 2528 manually annotated spindles. Signals from 64-channels were continuously recorded at 1 kHz with a high-density active electrode system while participants napped for 30 or 60 min inside a sound-attenuated testing booth after performing a high- or low-load visual working memory task where load was randomized across recording days. The high-density EEG datasets present several advantages over single- or few-channel datasets including most notably the opportunity to explore spatial differences in the distribution of neural events, including whether spindles occur locally on only a few channels or co-occur globally across many channels, whether spindle frequency, duration, and amplitude vary as a function of brain hemisphere and anterior-posterior axis, and whether the probability of spindle occurrence varies as a function of the phase of ongoing slow oscillations. The dataset, along with python source code for file input and signal processing, is made freely available at the Open Science Framework through the link https://osf.io/chav7/.

Low-speed marine diesel flue gas denitrification is in great demand in the ship transport industry. This research proposes an ammonia supply system which can be used for flue gas denitrification of low-speed marine diesel. In this proposed ammonia supply system, ammonium bicarbonate is selected as the ammonia carrier to produce ammonia and carbon dioxide by thermal decomposition. The diesel engine exhaust heat is used as the heating source for ammonium bicarbonate decomposition and ammonia gas desorption. As the ammonium bicarbonate decomposition is critical to the proper operation of this system, effects have been observed to reveal the performance of the thermal decomposition chamber in this paper. A visualization experiment for determination of the single-tube heat transfer coefficient and simulation of flow and heat transfer in two structures is conducted; the decomposition of ammonium bicarbonate is simulated by ASPEN PLUS. The results show that the single-tube heat transfer coefficient is 1052 W m 2  °C -1 ; the thermal decomposition chamber fork-type structure gets a higher heat transfer compared with the row-type. With regard to the simulation of ammonium bicarbonate thermal decomposition, the ammonia production is significantly affected by the reaction temperature and the mass flow rate of the ammonium bicarbonate input., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Researchers classify critical neural events during sleep called spindles that are related to memory consolidation using the method of scalp electroencephalography (EEG). Manual classification is time consuming and is susceptible to low inter-rater agreement. This could be improved using an automated approach. This study presents an optimized filter based and thresholding (FBT) model to set up a baseline for comparison to evaluate machine learning models using naïve features, such as raw signals, peak frequency, and dominant power. The FBT model allows us to formally define sleep spindles using signal processing but may miss examples most human scorers would agree are spindles. Machine learning methods in theory should be able to approach performance of human raters but they require a large quantity of scored data, proper feature representation, intensive feature engineering, and model selection. We evaluate both the FBT model and machine learning models with naïve features. We show that the machine learning models derived from the FBT model improve classification performance. An automated approach designed for the current data was applied to the DREAMS dataset [1]. With one of the expert's annotation as a gold standard, our pipeline yields an excellent sensitivity that is close to a second expert's scores and with the advantage that it can classify spindles based on multiple channels if more channels are available. More importantly, our pipeline could be modified as a guide to aid manual annotation of sleep spindles based on multiple channels quickly (6-10 s for processing a 40-min EEG recording), making spindle detection faster and more objective., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective To construct a model of Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) for forecasting the epidemic of Japanese encephalitis (JE) in Xianyang, Shaanxi, China, and provide valuable reference information for JE control and prevention. Methods Theoretically epidemiologic study was employed in the research process. Monthly incidence data on JE for the period from Jan 2005 to Sep 2014 were obtained from a passive surveillance system at the Center for Diseases Prevention and Control in Xianyang, Shaanxi province. An optimal SARIMA model was developed for JE incidence from 2005 to 2013 with the Box and Jenkins approach. This SARIMA model could predict JE incidence for the year 2014 and 2015. Results SARIMA (1, 1, 1) (2, 1, 1) 12 was considered to be the best model with the lowest Bayesian information criterion, Akaike information criterion, Mean Absolute Error values, the highest R 2 , and a lower Mean Absolute Percent Error. SARIMA (1, 1, 1) (2, 1, 1) 12 was stationary and accurate for predicting JE incidence in Xianyang. The predicted incidence, around 0.3/100 000 from June to August in 2014 with low errors, was higher compared with the actual incidence. Therefore, SARIMA (1, 1, 1) (2, 1, 1) 12 appeared to be reliable and accurate and could be applied to incidence prediction. Conclusions The proposed prediction model could provide clues to early identification of the JE incidence that is increased abnormally (≥0.4/100 000). According to the predicted Results in 2014, the JE incidence in Xianyang will decline slightly and reach its peak from June to August.

Binding of the viral ligand to a specific receptor is the first step of virus entry into target cells. The envelope proteins E rns , E1, and E2 of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) are involved in the interaction with host cell receptors to mediate CSFV infection. The aim of this investigation was to identify epitopes that bind to porcine kidney (PK)-15 cells to prevent CSFV infection. Ten peptides representing E rns , E1, and E2 were synthesized. Immunohistochemical study showed that the SE24 peptide, which is derived from the E2 amino acid sequence, could effectively bind to PK-15 cells. Similarly, a flow cytometry assay demonstrated that SE24 binding to PK-15 cells could be blocked by CSFV. The binding of SE24 with PK-15 cells leads to decreased CSFV infection of PK-15 cells in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest a potential new strategy for the prevention and control of CSFV infection that requires further investigation.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the potential effects of the 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis (1-methylpyridinium-4-yl) porphyrin (TMPyP4) on the proliferation and apoptosis of SW480 cells and the underlying mechanisms by which TMPyP4 exerted its actions., Methods: After treated with different doses of TMPyP4, cell viability was determined by MTT method, the apoptosis was observed by flow cytometry (FCM) and the expression of Wnt, GSK-3β, β-catenin and cyclinD1 was measured by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis., Results: The analysis revealed that TMPyP4 potently suppressed cell viability and induced the apoptosis of SW480 cells in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the downregulation of Wnt, β-catenin and cyclinD1 expression levels was detected in TMPyP4-treated SW480 cells. However, followed by the block of Wnt signaling pathway using siRNA methods, the effects of TMPyP4 on proliferation and apoptosis of SW480 cells were significantly reduced., Conclusion: It indicates that the TMPyP4-inhibited proliferation and -induced apoptosis in SW480 cells was accompanied by the suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Therefore, TMPyP4 may represent a potential therapeutic method for the treatment of colon carcinoma.

We report on a thermal diffusivity study of suspended graphene foam (GF) using the transient electro-thermal technique. Our Raman study confirms the GF is composed of two-layer graphene. By measuring GF of different lengths, we are able to exclude the radiation effect. Using Schuetz's model, the intrinsic thermal diffusivity of the free-standing two-layer graphene is determined with a high accuracy without using knowledge of the porosity of the GF. The intrinsic thermal diffusivity of the two-layer graphene is determined at 1.16-2.22 × 10(-4) m(2) s(-1). The corresponding intrinsic thermal conductivity is 182-349 W m(-1) K(-1), about one order of magnitude lower than those reported for single-layer graphene. Extensive surface impurity defects, wrinkles and rough edges are observed under a scanning electron microscope for the studied GF. These structural defects induce substantial phonon scattering and explain the observed significant thermal conductivity reduction. Our thermal diffusivity characterization of GF provides an advanced way to look into the thermal transport capacity of free-standing graphene with high accuracy and ease of experimental implementation.

For ultrathin metallic films (e.g., less than 5 nm), no knowledge is yet available on how electron scattering at surface and grain boundaries reduces the electrical and thermal transport. The thermal and electrical conduction of metallic films is characterized down to 0.6 nm average thickness. The electrical and thermal conductivities of 0.6 nm Ir film are reduced by 82% and 50% from the respective bulk values. The Lorenz number is measured as 7.08 × 10⁻⁸ W Ω K⁻², almost a twofold increase of the bulk value. The Mayadas-Shatzkes model is used to interpret the experimental results and reveals very strong electron reflection (>90%) at grain boundaries., (Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Feedstock for biofuel synthesis is transitioning to lignocelluosic biomass to address criticism over competition between first generation biofuels and food production. As microbial catalysis is increasingly applied for the conversion of biomass to biofuels, increased import has been placed on the development of novel enzymes. With revolutionary advances in sequencer technology and metagenomic sequencing, mining enzymes from microbial communities for biofuel synthesis is becoming more and more practical. The present article highlights the latest research progress on the special characteristics of metagenomic sequencing, which has been a powerful tool for new enzyme discovery and gene functional analysis in the biomass energy field. Critical enzymes recently developed for the pretreatment and conversion of lignocellulosic materials are evaluated with respect to their activity and stability, with additional explorations into xylanase, laccase, amylase, chitinase, and lipolytic biocatalysts for other biomass feedstocks., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

To investigate the effect of chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) on drug-metabolizing enzymes in rat liver and kidneys, male Spraque-Dawley rats were fed a diet containing 1% or 3% COS for 5 weeks. The activities of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, UDP-glucurosyltransferase (UGT) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in the liver and kidneys were determined. Significant decreases in microsomal CYP3A-catalyzed testosterone 6β-hydroxylation, CYP2C-catalyzed diclofenac 4-hydroxylation, and CYP4A-catalyzed lauric acid 12-hydroxylation in the liver of rats fed the COS diets were observed compared with those rats fed the control diet. Immunoblot analyses of CYP proteins showed the same trend as with enzyme activities. Increased glutathione content in liver was found in rats fed the 1% COS diet. Increased hepatic NADPH: quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) activity was found in rats fed the COS diets. In kidneys, COS had little or no effect on CYP enzyme activities. However, increased GST activity was observed in rats fed the COS diets. Moreover, a higher UGT activity was found in rats fed the 1% COS diet. Our results indicate that COS may suppress hepatic CYP enzymes and induce phase II detoxifying reactions in the liver and kidneys of rats., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Phyllodes tumor of the breast is a rare disease constituting 0.3-0.9% of all breast neoplasms. Occurring mainly in females aged 35 to 55 yr, the disease is especially rare among adolescent females. There is no published literature about de novo phyllodes tumor after liver transplantation. Here we describe a case of de novo phyllodes tumors in an adolescent female after liver transplantation from a living donor for Wilson disease., (© 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S.)