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The present study aimed to examine how individuals with high schizotypy, a high risk group of schizophrenia patients, resolve emotional conflict in proactive and reactive control and the underlying neural mechanisms.Thirty-two individuals with high schizotypy and 30 matched individuals with low schizotypy completed an emotional face-word Stroop task with electroencephalographic data recorded. The proportion of incongruent trials was manipulated in the task to induce proactive control (mostly incongruent trials context, MI context) or reactive control (mostly congruent trials context, MC context). Two event-related potential (ERP) components (N170 and N2) were examined, which represent face processing and cognitive control processes, respectively.In the MC context, significantly decreased N2 and N170 amplitudes were found in high schizotypy individuals compared with low schizotypy individuals, suggesting abnormal neural activity of reactive control in high schizotypy individuals. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the MI context.These results provide initial evidence for dissociation of neural activity of proactive and reactive control on emotional conflict in individuals with high schizotypy.The current findings provide important insight into the emotional conflict resolution in the schizophrenia spectrum.

Ni-based alloy is a typical high-temperature alloy material possessing high hardness, good thermal stability, and wear resistance. It is widely used as the surface strengthening and repair materials for aviation, vehicle engines, and industrial parts. In this study, Ni60 alloy coating was prepared on the surface of ZL109 aluminum alloy by plasma spraying technology, and its tribological properties at different temperatures (T = 25 ℃, 100 ℃ and 350 ℃) were evaluated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the phase analysis, micromorphology of Ni60 alloy coating fabricated with different spraying distance(D = 100 mm, 110 mm and 120 mm). The result shows that with the increase of spraying distance, the defects such as pores and microcracks decrease gradually. The porosity decreased from 2.2–0.76% and the fractal dimension decreased from 1.83 to 1.57. The element composition (Ni, Fe, Cr, Si, C, B) and phase composition (Ni3Fe, Cr23C6 and Cr7C3) of powder and coating were basically the same. The microhardness of the coating after spraying was about 5 times higher than that of the substrate. When D = 120 mm, the microhardness and bonding strength of the coating were the highest, which were 804 HV0.1 and 26 ± 0.05 MPa, respectively. The friction coefficient of the coating in the stable stage decreased with the increase of temperature, and all change in the range of 0.1 ~ 0.2. With the increase of temperature, the width, depth and volume wear rate of the coating increase gradually.

Auxin (indole-3-acetic acid, IAA) has a considerable impact on the regulation of plant carbohydrate levels and growth, but the mechanism by which it regulates sugar levels in plants has received little attention. In this study, we found that exogenous IAA altered fructose (Fru), glucose (Glc), and sucrose (Suc) concentrations in shoot tips mainly by regulating MdSUSY1, MdFRK2, MdHxK1 and MdSDH2 transcript levels. Additionally, we used 5-year-old ‘Royal Gala’ apple trees to further verify that these genes play primary roles in regulating sink strength. The results showed that MdSUSY1, MdFRK2, MdHxK1/3 and MdSDH2 might be major contributors to sink strength regulation. Taken together, these results provide new insight into the regulation of the carbohydrate metabolism mechanism, which will be helpful for regulating sink strength and yield.

Theory suggests that in high-energy elastic hadron+hadron scattering, $t$-channel exchange of a family of colourless crossing-odd states -- the odderon -- may generate differences between $p\bar p$ and $pp$ cross-sections in the neighbourhood of the diffractive minimum. Using a mathematical approach based on interpolation via continued fractions enhanced by statistical sampling, we develop robust comparisons between $p\bar p$ elastic differential cross-sections measured at $\surd s=1.96\,$TeV by the D0 Collaboration at the Tevatron and function-form-unbiased extrapolations to this energy of kindred $pp$ measurements at $\surd s /{\rm TeV} = 2.76, 7, 8, 13$ by the TOTEM Collaboration at the LHC and a combination of these data with earlier cross-section measurements at $\surd s/{\rm GeV} = 23.5, 30.7, 44.7, 52.8, 62.5$ made at the internal storage rings. Focusing on a domain that straddles the diffractive minimum in the $p\bar p$ and $pp$ cross-sections, we find that these two cross-sections differ at the $(2.2-2.6)\sigma$ level; hence, supply evidence with this level of significance for the existence of the odderon. If combined with evidence obtained through different experiment-theory comparisons, whose significance is reported to lie in the range $(3.4-4.6)\sigma$, one arrives at a $(4.0 - 5.2)\sigma$ signal for the odderon., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Schizotypal traits can be conceptualized as a phenotype for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. As such, a better understanding of schizotypal traits could potentially improve early identification and treatment of schizophrenia. We used connectome-based predictive modelling (CPM) based on whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity to predict schizotypal traits in 82 healthy participants. Results showed that only the negative network could reliably predict an individual's schizotypal traits (r = 0.29). The 10 nodes with the highest edges in the negative network were those known to play a key role in sensation and perception, cognitive control as well as motor control. Our findings suggest that CPM might be a promising approach to improve early identification and prevention of schizophrenia from a spectrum perspective.

The present study aimed to examine whether impairments in reactive (outright stopping) and proactive (preparation for stopping) response inhibition are affected by negative emotions in individuals with high schizotypy, a subclinical group at risk for schizophrenia, as well as the neural mechanisms underlying these processes. Twenty-seven participants with high schizotypy and 28 matched low-schizotypy individuals completed an emotional stop-signal task in which they responded to facial emotions (neutral or angry) or inhibited their responses (when the frame of the picture turned red). Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were also recorded during the task. At the neural level, analysis of go trials revealed that viewing angry faces impaired proactive inhibition. In addition, the high-schizotypy group exhibited a greater P3 amplitude in go trials in the neutral condition than the low-schizotypy group; however, no group difference was found in the angry condition. For stop trials (reactive inhibition), a smaller P3 amplitude was found in the angry condition than in the neutral condition. Moreover, high-schizotypy individuals showed smaller P3 amplitudes than low-schizotypy individuals. The current findings suggest that, at the neural level, viewing negative emotions impaired both proactive and reactive response inhibition. Individuals with high schizotypy exhibited impairments in proactive response inhibition in the neutral condition but not in the angry condition; they exhibited impaired reactive response inhibition in both emotion conditions. The present findings deepen our understanding of emotional response inhibition in individuals on the schizophrenia spectrum.

Herein, a facial stratagem for the large-scale synthesis of NiO/C nanosheets used as magnetic adsorbents is proposed by using nanoscale coordination polymers (nanoCPs) as precursors. The NiO nanoparticles (NPs) scattered on the NiO/C nanosheets have an untrasmall size (~3 nm) as well as uniform dispersion, since the Ni2+ ions are preassembled into the nanoCPs precursors by coordination bonds and transformed to NiO NPs in situ under the restriction of carbon layers. Thanks to the small size and spatially uniform distribution of NiO NPs, fully exposed carbon matrix containing part of graphene structures, and the high specific surface area of the special nanosheet structure, the magnetic NiO/C nanosheets have an a great breakthrough in the adsorption performance toward Congo Red (CR) among many reported NiO-based materials. The maximum adsorption capacity for CR is up to 2000 mg/g, and the adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics are also systematically studied. Moreover, the NiO/C nanosheets can be separated from water and reused simply by an external magnetic field. The NiO/C nanosheets with low cost and extraordinary adsorption ability have great potential in water pollution treatment area.

Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) consistently show prospective memory (PM) impairments, and the technique of implementation intentions has been shown to improve PM performance in these patients. PM is considered to have prospective and retrospective components. However, it remains unclear which component of PM is impaired in patients with SCZ and which component(s) is facilitated by implementation intentions (II). The present study aimed to examine these two issues. Forty-two patients with SCZ and 42 matched healthy controls were randomly assigned to an II group or a typical instruction group. All participants were administered a color-matching PM task. Results showed that, using a multinomial-modeling approach, patients with SCZ exhibited impairment in the retrospective component of PM. In addition, while II improved the prospective PM component in healthy controls, both prospective and retrospective PM components in patients with SCZ were improved. Together, our results shed light on the mechanism of PM impairment in SCZ patients and the mechanism of II in improving PM performance.

Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and interleukin-17F (IL-17F) as two potent proinflammatory cytokines and the signature cytokines of Th17 cells play important roles in human autoimmune diseases, inflammation and host defenses. In this study, rhesus macaque IL-17A (rhIL-17A) and IL-17F (rhIL-17F) were cloned and expressed, and their biological activities and in vivo distribution were examined. The resulting data showed that both the rhIL-17A and rhIL-17F genes were consisted of three exons and two introns. RhIL-17A and rhIL-17F shared 96.8% and 93.9% amino acid sequence identity with human IL-17A (huIL-17A) and IL-17F (huIL-17F) respectively and the sequences also shared one N-glycosylation site and six conserved cysteine residues with huIL-17A and huIL-17F. IL-17A and IL-17F transcripts were highly expressed in lymphoid tissues and the intestinal tract of rhesus macaques. Functionally, recombinant rhIL-17A and rhIL-17F showed similar effect on Act1 levels and NF-κB phosphorylation compared with that of commercial human IL-17A and IL-17F. Moreover, the antibacterial proteins (such as β-defensin 2, S100A8, S100A9, RegIIIα and Muc1) and the tight junction associated genes (including CLDN1, CLDN4, OCLN, and ZO1) expressed by Caco-2 cells were largely enhanced after treatment with rhIL-17A and rhIL-17F. Meanwhile, purified rhIL-17A and rhIL-17F could also induce the expression of IL-6 and TNF-α by THP-1 cells. These data indicated that rhesus macaque IL-17A and IL-17F are highly similar to that of humans in both structure and function. Studies on rhIL-17A/rhIL-17F are promising approach to contribute to the understanding of human IL-17A and IL-17F-related intestinal diseases.

Agricultural soils, which are closely linked to human health via food supply, have been recognized as an important reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the role of soil aggregates in shaping ARG profile. In this study, we collected soils from long-term experimental farmland plots receiving inorganic and/or organic fertilizers and examined the patterns of antibiotic resistome distribution among differently sized soil aggregates using high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (HT-qPCR). Our results showed that the distribution of soil ARGs could be affected by manure application and aggregate size individually but not interactively. More diverse and abundant ARGs were found in the manured soils, compared to the non-manured soils. The aggregate size fraction of53 μm exhibited the highest diversity and abundance of ARGs. Variation partitioning analysis revealed that soil traits, mobile genetic elements, and bacterial community collectively contributed to the variation of soil antibiotic resistance. The knowledge about aggregation stratification of soil ARGs obtained in this study is fundamental and essential to understanding the fate of soil ARGs at the microscale.

The person-centered account of moral judgments is important since immoral behaviors are diagnostic of an individual’s character. The present study explored how the professional stereotypes associated with the agents shaped the way people perceiving moral/immoral behaviors. The behavioral ratings and neural responses (i.e., P200, N2, LPC event-related potentials (ERPs)) to moral/immoral behaviors done by agents with respectable or ordinary professional roles were recorded and compared. Behaviorally, we found that participants rated the agent with a respectable professional role behaving immorally as more dislikable comparing to the agent with an ordinary professional role. For ERPs, we found that: 1) the agents with respectable professional roles elicited larger P200 than agents with ordinary professional roles did; 2) immoral behavior elicited larger LPC than moral behaviors did; 3) for agents with respectable professional roles, the immoral behaviors elicited significantly more positive N2 than the moral behaviors did whereas this difference was not significant for the agents with ordinary professional roles. The immoral behaviors done by agents with respectable professional roles elicited more positive N2 than the immoral behavior done by agents with ordinary professional roles. Moreover, this effect was correlated with the participants’ subjective rating of the professional roles’ respectable level. These results suggest that 1) the more the agents with respectable professional roles are respected, the more dislikable they became when behaving immorally; 2) the moral stereotype associated with professional roles can influence the early processing stage reflected in N2 but not the later evaluative process reflected in LPC.

The photoionization of helium ion in bichromatic circularly polarized XUV laser pulses is investigated by solving the time-dependent Schrӧdinger equation. It shows that the electron can reach the continuum at the same momentum by absorbing one high-energetic photon or two low-energetic photons sequentially, and these two pathways can interfere with each other. Moreover, the interference can induce the asymmetrical round and the spiral-loop photoelectron momentum distributions in bichromatic circularly laser fields without and with the time delay.

A nanocrystalline TiN graded coating was prepared on Ti6Al4V alloy by DC reactive magnetron sputtering method. The microstructure and mechanic properties of the coating were investigated. The electrochemical corrosion and tribocorrosion of the coated specimens in physiological environment were compared with those of Ti6Al4V substrate. The results show that the gradient distribution of nanocrystalline TiN is favorable for releasing the inner stress in the coating, which increases adhesion strength to 90 N. The compact structure and refined-grains of the coating result in the surface nanohardness of 28.5 GPa. The corrosion protection efficiency of the nanocrystalline TiN coating reaches 96.6%. The tribocorrosion resistance of the coating increases by 100 times in comparison with that of Ti6Al4V substrate. The high chemical stability and H3/E2 ratio (where H is hardness, and E is elastic modulus) of the nanocrystalline TiN coating are responsible for good corrosion and wear resistances.

The beneficial effect of implementation intentions (II) on prospective memory (PM) deficits in patients with schizophrenia has been reported. However, these studies were limited to brief interventions such that the transfer and long-term effects of II training remains unclear. This study examined whether a 10-session II programme could improve PM performance, social functioning and functional capacity in patients with schizophrenia immediately after training and at 3-month follow-up. Patients with schizophrenia (n = 42) recruited from the community were randomly assigned to II training (n = 21) or treatment as usual (TAU) (n = 21). Participants in the II group learned the verbal and imagery component of II and were encouraged to apply these strategies in their daily lives. We found that the II group performed better than the TAU group on computer-based PM tasks and a daily life PM task (telephone call at specified date and time) at post-treatment and at 3-month follow-up. The II group also exhibited better working ability than the TAU group at post-treatment. Our results suggest that the II intervention programme may have lasting beneficial effects in PM performance and significant transfer effects to functional capacity in schizophrenia patients.

The development of high-efficiency metal oxide electrode materials with high reaction kinetics and excellent conductivity are a cutting-edge strategy to obtain high-performance energy storge devices. Forming oxygen vacancy on the surface of the metal oxide tune electronic structure is a feasible approach to boost the electroactive of metal oxides for supercapacitor. Herein, an effective solution reduction method is reported for tuning the electronic structure of Co3O4 nanoribbons reacting with NaBH4 to enhance the faradaic redox reaction for high electrochemical performance. The vacancy-rich defects can endow more electroactive sites and reduce the electrical resistance for the enhanced supercapacitor performance. Therefore, compared to pristine Co3O4 (347.4 F g-1), the reduced Co3O4 (R-Co3O4) shows a high specific capacitance (Cs, 464.9 F g-1) and a reduced charge transfer resistance. The asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC, R-Co3O4// active carbon) exhibits an energy density of 18.6 Wh kg-1 at the power density of 400 W kg-1 and excellent cycling stability. Such a feasible approach realizes the electronic tuning by creating oxygen vacancy that provides sufficient active sites and activates the fast faradaic redox reaction with enhanced energy storge ability of redox-active electrode materials.

Exploring porous carbon (PC)-based materials from low-cost, renewable precursors has always been a challenging objective, since they meet the demands of next-generation supercapacitors and electrochemical devices. Herein, hierarchical multi-heteroatoms co-doped PC (MHPC) materials are successfully achieved by the carbonization and activation of tea waste that used as the self-template. The natural structure of the tea leaves combined with the activation strategy favor the formation of special hierarchical MHPC materials, which are constructed by ultrathin MHPC nanosheets. In addition, the heteroatomic doped carbon derived from organic compounds in tea leaves can act as an ideal precursor to fabricate the resultant heteroatomic functionalized carbon nanosheets. Such heteroatoms content of carbon nanosheets are adjustable by altering pyrolysis condition to effectively enhance the electrochemical performance of PC. After activation by KOH, the as-prepared MHPC, especially MHPC-3 (weight ratio of KOH/pre-carbonized tea waste is 3:1) has a superior supercapacitance of up to 170 and 132 F g−1 at current density of 0.5 and 10 A g−1 in KOH electrolyte, and an excellent capacitance retention of ∼94.8% over 14,000 cycles at 3 A g−1. The result reported here provides valuable guidelines of high-performance energy storge devices from natural sources at the industrial scale.

To reveal the inherent relation between energy change and confining pressure during the process of sandstone damage, and its characteristics of energy storage and energy dissipation in different deformation stage. Obtaining the mechanical parameters by testing the Sandstone of two1 coal seam roof under uniaxial compression in Zhaogu coalmine, using Particle Flow Code (PFC) and fish program to get the meso-mechanical parameters, studying Sandstone energy evolution mechanism under different confining pressures, and deducing energy strength criterion based on energy principle of rock failure, some main researching results are reached as follows: with the increasing of confining pressure, the Sandstone yield stage and ductility increases, but brittleness decreases; Under higher confining pressure, the elastic strain energy of Sandstone before peak approximately keeps constant in a certain strain range, and rock absorbs all the energy which converts into surface energy required for internal damage development; Under lower confining pressure, Sandstone no longer absorbs energy with increasing strain after peak under lower confining pressure, while it sequentially absorbs energy under higher confining pressure; Under lower confining pressure, the energy Sandstone before peak absorbed mainly converts into elastic strain energy, while under higher confining pressure, dissipation energy significantly increases before peak, which indicates that the degree rock strength loss is higher under higher confining pressure; with the increasing of confining pressure, the limit of elastic strain energy increases and there exists a favourable linear variation relationship; At the peak point, the ratio of elastic strain energy to total energy of Sandstone nonlinearly decreases, while the ratio of dissipation energy to total energy nonlinearly increases with the increasing of confining pressure; According to energy evolution mechanism of rock failure, an energy strength criterion is derived. The criterion equation includes lithology constants and three principal stresses, and its physical meaning is clear. This criterion has an evident advantage than Hoek-Brown and Drucker-Prager criterion in calculation accuracy and can commendably describe rock failure characteristics.

To establish the movement relationship for the roof breaking under shallow mining conditions, the mechanical model of the roof rock beam was built, then the structure instability process of the roof rock beam was analyzed. The changing criterion of the vertical displacement was established and the relationship between the deflection and the rotary motion of roof block was determined. Regarding a mining face in Shangwan Mine, the responsing laws of the deflection and horizontal thrust of the roof rock beam were obtained through FLAC3D numerical analysis. The results show that the structure instability of the cracked roof rock beam depends on the interaction between the vertical load and the horizontal thrust. For the roof rock beam, when the vertical load keeps constant, the horizontal thrust fluctuating rises with increasing deflection. The horizontal thrust increases constantly with the deeper buried depth and the smaller span. Keywords: Shallow mining, Working face, Roof rock beam, Structure stability, Horizontal thrust

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a glycoprotein, is a wide-spectrum tumor marker for cancer diagnosis. Developing simple, stable, and low-cost methods for CEA detection is of great importance. In this work, a novel, label-free, and antibody-free electrochemical sandwich CEA biosensor was developed based on concanavalin A (ConA) and a DNA aptamer against CEA. Horse radish peroxidase (HRP) was labeled on the sandwich structure for signal production and amplification. Both the CEA and the HRP bind to ConA through sugar-lectin interactions. Under optimum conditions, the detection linear range was from 5 to 40 ng mL−1 CEA, with a detection limit of 3.4 ng mL−1, lower than the threshold level in human serum for cancer patients (∼10 ng mL−1). The biosensor is reproducible, accurate, specific, and stable, with RSD value of 3% for inter-biosensors, and relative error of

A novel SAITS alcoholism model on networks is introduced, in which alcoholics are divided into light problem alcoholics and heavy problem alcoholics. Susceptible individuals can enter into the compartment of heavy problem alcoholics directly by contacting with light problem alcoholics or heavy problem alcoholics and the heavy problem alcoholics who receive treatment can relapse into the compartment of heavy problem alcoholics are also considered. First, the dynamics of our model on unweighted networks, including the basic reproduction number, existence and stability of equilibria are studied. Second, the models with fixed weighted and adaptive weighted networks are introduced and investigated. At last, some simulations are presented to illustrate and extend our results. Our results show that it is very important to treat alcoholics to quit the drinking.

Laser shock-wave-driven nanoparticle implantation (LSWNI) in alloys is a novel surface strengthening technique based on plastic deformation induced by laser shock processing and the excellent properties of hard-phase nanoparticles. In the present work, 50–100 nm silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles were successfully implanted into commercially pure aluminum (Al) substrates under the effect of a laser shock wave. After the implantation, stable nanoparticle-reinforced layers were fabricated, and their microstructural response and grain refinement were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), focused ion beam (FIB), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, the mechanical properties, including residual stress, nanohardness, elastic modulus, and wear resistance, were investigated. Experimental results showed that Al samples subjected to LSWNI exhibited superior mechanical properties because of the good combination between the gradient microstructure induced by plastic deformation and the gradient distribution of the implanted SiC nanoparticles along the depth direction. Therefore, the overall strengthening effect generated by the LSWNI process can be described as two different modes: (i) the gradient microstructure induced by plastic deformation contributed mainly to the enhancement of residual stress and nanohardness, and (ii) the gradient distribution of the implanted SiC nanoparticles was dedicated primarily to the improvement of the wear resistance. As indicated by the strengthening effect during the LSWNI process, three competing strengthening mechanisms, namely, SiC nanoparticle strengthening, refined grain strengthening, and dislocation strengthening, existed in the gradient-reinforced layers. The detailed contribution of each mechanism to the overall properties of the reinforced layer was determined using the modified Clyne computational model and was described herein. Finally, the wear mechanism of the reinforced layer fabricated by the LSWNI process is revealed.

As a typical failure characteristic gas dissolved in transformer oil, C2H2 has a great significance to evaluate the running state of transformer by monitoring its content. Previous reports mainly focus on organizing WO3 nanoscale building blocks into well-defined 3D nanostructures. However, little attention has been paid to different 1D building blocks on the impact of gas sensing properties. In this work, nanorod and nanowire-assembled WO3 porous networks were controllably synthesized, which were applied to C2H2 detection. In comparison, sensor based on the latter exhibited superior performance than the former one, which seems indicate the significance of electronic transport in gas sensing process. It is proposed that the former possesses numerous nanojunctions between nanorods, while the latter has features with larger capping area and less junction density.

Complex datasets can be routinely produced from modern analytical platforms in metabonomics surveys, which brings enormous challenges to existing chemometrics tools. In the current study, inspired by the characteristic of classification tree (CT) in automatically selecting the most informative variables and measuring their importance, the potential of bagging in improving the reliability and robustness of a single model, and the promising modeling performance of radial basis function network (RBFN), we designed a new chemometrics tool, i.e., bagging classification tree-radial basis function network (BAGCT-EBFN), for metabonomics data analysis. In BAGCT-RBFN, a series of parallel CT models were firstly established based on the idea of bagging (BAGCT). The informative variables can be successfully spied via inspecting the variable importance values over all CTs in BAGCT. Then, RBFN was utilized to relate the identified informative variables to the class memberships. To demonstrate the practical application of BAGCT-RBFN in metabonomics, an H-1 NMR-based metabonomics dataset associated with lung cancer was applied. The results showed that BAGCT-RBFN can find a shortlist of discriminatory variables with reliability while attain more satisfactory classification accuracy than traditional CT and RBFN.

A highly stable electrochemical acetylcholinesterase (AChE) biosensor for detection of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) was developed simply by adsorption of AChE on chitosan (CS), TiO2 sol-gel, and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based multi-layered immobilization matrix (denoted as CS@TiO2-CS/rGO). The biosensor fabrication conditions were optimized, and the fabrication process was probed and confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical techniques. The matrix has a mesoporous nanostructure. Incorporation of CS and electrodeposition of a CS layer into/on the TiO2 sol-gel makes the gel become mechanically strong. The catalytic activity of the AChE immobilized CS@TiO2-CS/rGO/glassy carbon electrode to acetylthiocholine is significantly higher than those missing any one of the component in the matrix. The detection linear range of the biosensor to dichlorvos, a model OP compound, is from 0.036μM (7.9 ppb) to 22.6μM, with a limit of detection of 29nM (6.4 ppb) and a total detection time of about 25min. The biosensor is very reproducibly and stable both in detection and in storage, and can accurately detect the dichlorvos levels in cabbage juice samples, providing an efficient platform for immobilization of AChE, and a promisingly applicable OPs biosensor with high reliability, simplicity, and rapidness.

The development of sensitive and convenient strategies for monitoring intracellular caspase-1 activity is of great significance. Herein, a novel fluorescence nanoprobe for caspase-1 activity determination was constructed based on surface energy transfer (SET) between red-emissive carbon dots (RCDs) as a donor, and Au nanorods (AuNRs) as an acceptor. The donor/acceptor pair were covalently bridged with a peptide containing a caspase-1 cleavage site (YVAD) at middle. The stability and dispersivity of the AuNR-Pep-RCD nanoprobe was realized/enhanced by pretreating the AuNRs with PEG-SH. Active caspase-1 cleaves the YVAD site, releasing RCDs and recovering the fluorescence. Synergic effect of the red-emission, sensitive and selective cleavage, and excellent SET efficiency contribute to the nanoprobe with high sensitivity and selectivity, especially in biological samples. More importantly, the nanoprobe can be uptaken by living cells, capable of in-situ intracellular caspase-1 activity imaging. The fluorescence recovery is linearly correlated with caspase-1 activity in the range of 5‒300 ng·mL−1 (2.5 × 10−5‒1.3 × 10−3 U·mL−1), with a limit of detection of 1.76 ng·mL−1 (8.8 × 10-6 U·mL−1). In particular, the fluorescence nanoprobe can accurately detect caspase-1 activity in cells extract, and sensitively probe the caspase-1 activation treatment and inhibition treatment for the intracellular caspase-1 activity levels.

Mental Time Travel (MTT) is the ability of individuals to project themselves to the past or to the future. Studies have shown that schizophrenia (SZ) patients are impaired in MTT. The present study aimed to examine whether MTT in patients with SZ can be improved through Life Review Therapy. Fifty patients with SZ were randomly assigned to the training (SZ-training) or control (SZ-control) group. Whereas the SZ-training group received four-week Life Review Therapy in addition to conventional treatment, the SZ-control group only received conventional treatment. MTT, emotional status, life satisfaction and cognitive functions were assessed before and after the training. We also recruited 25 matched healthy controls to complete all the assessments at baseline. After training, the SZ-training group showed higher specificity and more field perspective than the SZ-control group. No significant difference was found between the SZ-training group post-training assessment and the healthy controls. The SZ-training group also showed significant improvements in emotional expression, semantic memory and verbal fluency, but the SZ-control group did not show such improvements. These results indicated that Life Review Therapy is effective in improving MTT of SZ patients.

The corrosion resistance and antibacterial activity of dental metal materials are important service performances. In this paper, the TiN and Ti-N-O coatings with different chemical compositions were deposited on Ti6Al4V alloy by physical vapor deposition (PVD). The phase structure, surface morphology and elemental distribution of the Ti-N-O coatings were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM and EPMA. The electrochemical corrosion behavior of the Ti-N-O coatings in acidic and fluoride-containing artificial saliva was investigated. The antibacterial activity of the coated Ti alloy was evaluated by an in vitro antibacterial test. The results show that with increasing O2 flow rate in the reaction atmosphere, the phase compositions of the Ti-N-O coatings gradually change from TiN to TiNxOy, Ti2O3, TiO2 and Ti3O5. The Ti-N-O coatings show good passivation behavior. Particularly, when the ratio of N2 and O2 flow rate is 2:1, the corrosion current density of the Ti-N-O coated specimen in acid (pH = 5.2) solution is only 6.0 × 10−8 A/cm2. In an acidic solution containing 0.1% NaF, the passivation potential of the Ti-N-O coatings exceeds +1.0 V, and the corrosion resistance is exceeds that of a TiN coating. When the ratio of N2 and O2 flow rate is 1:1, the antibacterial rate of the Ti-N-O coating against Staphylococcus aureus approaches 90%.

A novel and sensitive Helicobacter pylori assay strategy based on linear isothermal amplification reaction (LIAR) and DNAzymes catalyzed DNA sensor was developed. A 17 nt target DNA (tDNA) specific in the H. pylori genome was selected and used as primer in the LIAR. A template DNA was designed to produce an amplicon with Mg2+-dependent and RNA-cleaving DNAzyme (Md-Dz) activity. The amplicon (i.e. Md-Dz) was then detected with the DNA sensor. The DNA sensor was fabricated simply through immobilization of a hairpin DNA that contains both Md-Dz substrate and G-quadruplex DNAzyme (Gq-Dz), on gold electrodes. The Gq-Dz possesses peroxidase activity, catalyzing the electro-redox of the electrochemical signal probe hydroquinon. The LIAR, Md-Dz catalytic reaction, and DNA sensor fabrication and detection processes were characterized and optimized. The LIAR amplification efficiency is as high as ~5 × 105 fold, and the assay strategy is very sensitive, selective and repetitive. The differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) detection signals linearly correlate to the logarithmic tDNA concentration in the range of 0.1–10,000 fM, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 34 aM. The detection linear range for H. pylori genomic DNA is 2.1–67.2 pg, with an LOD of 1.3 pg. Muted DNA sequences and other pathogenic bacteria did not result in interferences. In addition, the DNA sensor is very stable in storage. More importantly, the DNA sensor and the assay strategy could be universally applicable to detect any biological sample and short DNA sequence of interests.

The recognition of mercury(II) ions content in the environment and organisms is of great significance for maintaining the health of the organism and preventing diseases induced by mercury(II) ions. Herein a fluorescent probe which includes rhodamine B and acenaphtho[1,2-b]quinoxaline-9-amin has been designed and synthesized for recognizing mercury(II) ions. The structure of RB-AQ was confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HR-MS analyses and single X-ray crystallography. The fluorescent probe RB-AQ exhibited an obvious “turn-on” fluorescence enhancement for mercury(II) ions at 586 nm. RB-AQ showed good recognization capability and selectivity toward mercury(II) ions over other interfering metal ions in solution. Further, the probe has mercury(II) ions imaging capability in cells and zebrafish.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease with unclear pathogenesis. To date, there have been no reports regarding the distribution of dopamine receptors outside the striatum in ALS patients. In this study, 17 ALS patients and 11 healthy controls underwent 18F-fallypride positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and completed cognitive-related tests for assessment of the distribution of dopamine receptors inside and outside the striatum in ALS and evaluation of the relationships between the distribution of dopamine receptors and cognitive function. The results showed that ALS patients showed significantly lower scores only in language and delayed recall of Montreal Cognitive Assessment scale. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the cognitive-related test results. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) data showed that the binding affinity of 18F-fallypride in ALS patients was decreased in the bilateral nucleus accumbens septi, bilateral frontal lobes, and the superior frontal gyrus, left temporal lobe, and angular gyrus regions. In conclusion, the levels of dopamine receptors were significantly decreased in some areas outside the striatum in patients with ALS, which may contribute to mild cognitive impairment in ALS patients.

The present study investigated the time course of processing other's pain under different conditions of working memory (WM) load. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while the participants held two digits (low WM load) or six digits (high WM load) in WM and viewed pictures that showed others who were in painful or non-painful situations. Robust WM-load×Picture interactions were found for the N2 and LPP components. In the high WM-load condition, painful pictures elicited significantly larger amplitudes than non-painful pictures. In the low WM load condition, the difference between the painful and non-painful pictures was not significant. These ERP results indicate that WM load can influence both the early automatic N2 component and late cognitive LPP component. Compared with high WM load, low WM load reduced affective arousal and emotional sharing in response to other's pain and weakened the cognitive evaluation of task irrelevant stimuli. These findings are explained from the load theory perspective.

This study explored specificity and visual perspective of mental time travel in schizophrenia. Fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 18 controls were recruited. Participants were asked to recall or imagine specific events according to cue words. Results showed that schizophrenia patients generated fewer specific events than controls, the recalled events were more specific than imagined events. Schizophrenia adopted less field perspective and more observer perspective than controls. These results suggested that patients with schizophrenia were impaired in mental time travel both in specificity and visual perspective. Further studies are needed to identify the underlying mechanisms.

Design and fabrication of multifunctional nano-carrier is a promising tool in the field of nanomedicine for glioma theranostics. In this study, blue color nanoparticles with targeted tumor cell staining and drug delivery capabilities were simply fabricated by crosslinking lysine (Lys) and lysine-folic acid (Lys-FA) mixture with genipin as the crosslinking agent through a reversed microemulsion method. Doxorubicin (DOX) as the model drug was loaded through electrostatic interaction. The nanoparticles before (Lys-FA NPs) and after (Lys-FA/DOX NPs) loading of DOX were characterized by ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic laser light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and fluorescence spectroscopy. Ultimately, the glioma cell staining ability of Lys-FA NPs and cytotoxicity of Lys-FA/DOX NPs were tested in vitro. The results showed that the particle size of Lys-FA NPs can be tuned by adjusting the ratio of Lys to Lys-FA simply. The Lys-FA NPs exhibited dark blue and the blue color is stable under different pH values and temperatures. The feature makes the staining glioma cell pellets visible to naked-eyes. The model drug DOX was loaded on Lys-FA NPs indicated by the increase of size and zeta potential, and change of optical properties. The DOX loaded on the Lys-FA NPs can be sustainedly released, other than burst release. Encouragingly, the Lys-FA NPs can deliver DOX into cells and dramatically reduce cell viability, as proved by U87 cell cytotoxicity analysis and confocal fluorescence imaging. In addition, the Lys-FA NPs (≤2.5 mg mL−1) are nontoxic to CHO cells. In a short, the blue color Lys-FA NPs can visibly stain glioma cell pellets and deliver DOX into glioma cells, which can potentially be applied as a multifunctional nanocarrier for tumor imaging and drug delivery.

A fast and sensitive carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) aptasensor with multiple detection modes was developed. It is based on hollow gold nanoparticles (HGNPs) and horse radish peroxidase (HRP) as both labels and signal amplification elements. In fabrication, capture DNA (cpDNA) was modified on magnetic beads, and reporter DNA (rpDNA) and HRP were co-modified on HGNPs. A combination DNA, containing a DNA aptamer (GAC-P) segment, hybridized with cpDNA and rpDNA, forming a satellite-structured biosensor. In response to CEA, the aptamer switches its structure, releasing rpDNA/HGNPs/HRP under magnetic separation. The surface plasmon resonance of HGNPs and the HRP enzyme activity of the supernatant were observed/detected with naked eyes, UV–vis spectroscopy, and electrochemistry techniques. The assay time is as short as ~45 min. CEA levels can be differentiated with naked eyes. The absorbance at 677 nm is linearly proportional to CEA concentration from 10 to 250 ng mL−1, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 8.6 ng mL−1. In contrast, the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) peak current at -0.057 V is linearly correlated with CEA concentration in the range of 2−250 ng mL−1, with an LOD of 0.78 ng mL−1. The LOD values are lower than cancer patient threshold levels. The aptasensor exhibits negligible responses to interfering proteins. In addition, it displays good reproducibility, stability, accuracy and easiness of usage. The recovery rate for CEA spiked human serum samples are 100±5%. The developed assay strategy should provide a general platform for detecting other interested biomarkers.