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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex disease with unclear etiology. Studies have shown that ferroptosis is also related to ASD progression, but the specific mechanism is still unclear. Valproic acid (VPA) induced neuronal ferroptosis in vitro. Mechanistic studies showed that both VPA and ferroptosis inducers promoted the expression of DDIT4 in neurons, thereby inhibiting the activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. DDIT4 increased the accumulation of ROS, MDA and Fe

The purpose of this study is to verify the hypothesis that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) model rat is more susceptible to cold stress and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure than the healthy rat, and explore the related mechanism. COPD rat model, established with cigarette smoke and lipopolysaccharide intratracheal instillation, were exposed to cold stress (0 °C) and PM2.5 (0, 3.2, 12.8 mg/ml). After that, the levels of superoxide dismutase, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and angiotensin Ⅱ (Ang-Ⅱ) in lung were measured, as well as the expression levels of lung 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). There were significant positive relationships between PM2.5 and lung level of iNOS, TNF-α, MCP-1 and Ang-Ⅱ, lung function and pathologic damage in COPD rats. The HO-1, NF-κB and 8-OHdG were found highly expressed in COPD rat lung, particularly at the higher PM2.5 dose of cold stress groups, while Nrf2 was found declined. Thus, COPD rats may be more susceptible to cold stress and PM2.5 exposure. Cold stress may aggravate PM2.5-induced toxic effects in the lung of COPD rats through increasing Ang-Ⅱ/NF-κB signaling pathway and suppressing Nrf2 signaling pathway.

Objective This study examined the effect of adjunctive minocycline on psychopathology and possibly relevant biomarkers in patients with schizophrenia. Method In a 16-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, subjects received either minocycline (200 mg per day) or placebo. Psychopathology was assessed using the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline and week 16. Plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), interleukin-1 β (IL-1β) and nitric oxide metabolites were assessed at both time points. Results Fifty-five patients completed the study (27 in the minocycline group, 28 in the placebo group). The minocycline group had significant decreases in the SANS total sore, the PANSS total score and the PANSS negative symptoms score at week 16 compared to the placebo group. In addition, the minocycline group had a significant decrease in plasma levels of nitric oxide metabolites, but no significant difference in changes in plasma levels of IL-1β or TNF-α, compared to the placebo group at week 16. Further, the more decrease in plasma levels of nitric oxide metabolites was associated with less improvement in negative symptoms. Conclusion The beneficial effect of adjunctive minocycline treatment on negative symptoms might be through mechanisms other than the nitric oxide pathway. The implications for future studies were discussed.

Lanzhou, an ex-heavily polluted city, was awarded “The Award for Today’s Transformative Step” in 2015 World Climate Conference at Paris for its great efforts on air quality improvement since 2012. However, the health benefits from this improvement remain unclear. Therefore, we collected time-series data covering deaths, weather variables and air pollutants during the two periods (2004–2009, 2014–2017) and fitted single-pollutant models using the generalized additive models to evaluate the change of mortality risks associated with air pollutants in Lanzhou. Results showed that the annual average concentrations of respirable particulate matter (PM10) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) dropped by 19.28% and 66.29%, while the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) increased by 16.61% in 2014–2017 compared to 2004–2009. During the period 2004–2009, we found a 10-μg/m3 increase in PM10 (lag 2), SO2 (lag 0–5) and NO2 (lag 0–5) were associated with mortality increments of 0.12% (95% CI: 0.01, 0.22), 0.86% (95% CI: 0.42, 1.31) and 1.29% (95% CI: 0.70, 1.90), respectively. During the period 2014–2017, the association between PM10 and daily deaths was not significant, but we observed a 10-μg/m3 increase in SO2 (lag 0–5) and NO2 (lag 4) were related to mortality increments of 4.23% (95% CI: 1.82, 6.70) and 0.85% (95% CI: 0.19, 1.52), respectively. From 2004–2009 to 2014–2017, we observed markedly decline of mortality risk due to PM10, but not SO2 or NO2. In conclusion, the mortality risk of PM10 in Lanzhou has declined obviously after the substantially improved air quality due to the enforcement of air pollution controlling policies.

Background: In recent decades, the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in depression has received intensive attention. However, the relationship between proBDNF and depression has not been clearly elucidated. Conclusion: The balance between the proBDNF/p75NTR/sortilin and mBDNF/TrkB signaling pathways appears dysregulated in major depression and both pathways should be considered as biomarkers for the major depression Limitations: More cases on both genders should be enrolled in our study. And further works on the mechanisms of how BDNF and its receptors are regulated in depression should also be carried out. Methods: Forty drug-free women patients diagnosed with major depression and 50 healthy female controls were enrolled in our study. Peripheral blood was sampled from all the subjects. With the blood samples, we assessed the relationship between BDNF and major depression from following aspects: the levels of BDNF, proBDNF and their receptors in the sera and lymphocytes. The mRNA levels of these factors in lymphocytes were also examined. Furthermore, the correlations between each factor and the severity of major depression were tested. Results: It was found that: (a) the protein and serum levels of proBDNF, sortilin and p75NTR were higher in major depressive patients than in healthy controls while mature BDNF and TrkB levels were lower; (b) the BDNF, TrkB, sortilin and p75NTR mRNA levels changed in line with their protein levels; (c) The levels of mature BDNF and TrkB had negative correlations with the major depression severity, and the levels of proBDNF, p75NTR and sortilin were positively correlated with the scores of HRSD-21; (d) the ratio of proBDNF and mBDNF was imbalanced in major depressive patients. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Because weakly damped system oscillations can endanger the secure operation of power systems, this paper is a study on how damping can be increased. As the power system is nonlinear, an energy function approach, patterned after the direct method of Lyapunov function, is used in the analysis. The analysis develops an energy function W and shows that a real power term (proportional to local frequency) and/or a reactive power term (proportional to the line voltage differentiated with respect to time) increase the rate of diminution of the energy function W. This implies effective damping of power swings by such power signals and is verified by simulations of a multi-machine system model. The damping signals are introduced by voltage-source-converter (VSC) stations.

The purpose of this paper is to study the mathematical model and its control strategy of HVDC Light transmission system in order to enhance system stability. In this paper, the steady state mathematical model for the HVDC Light system is developed and the decoupled relationship between the controlling variables is proposed. An appropriate controller utilizing nonlinear control for HVDC Light system is proposed to maintain the dc link voltage and control the active and reactive power. The control is not complex. Basic functions of HVDC Light system can be realized. What is further, better performances are obtained when compared with a traditional control. The digital simulation results show that the proposed nonlinear control is effective to damp system oscillations and enhance system stability.

An adaptive control design is proposed to improve dynamic performances of voltage source converter high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) systems. The adaptive controller design for nonlinear characteristics of VSC-HVDC systems, which is based on backstepping method, considers parameters uncertainties. For an original high-order system, the final control laws can be derived step by step through suitable Lyapunov functions. Thus, the design process is not complex. The effectiveness of the proposed adaptive controllers is demonstrated through digital simulation studies on a VSC-HVDC power system, using the PSCAD/EMTDC software package. The simulation results show that the controllers contribute significantly toward improving the dynamic behavior of the VSC-HVDC system under a wide range of operating conditions.