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Background: Patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are at risk of considerable adverse events, and the ongoing struggle is to accurately identify the subset of patients who will benefit. Lymphocyte subsets play a pivotal role in the antitumor response, this study attempted to combine the absolute counts of lymphocyte subsets (ACLS) with the clinicopathological parameters to construct nomograms to accurately predict the prognosis of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) patients treated with anti-PD-1 inhibitors. Methods: This retrospective study included a training cohort (n = 200) and validation cohort (n = 100) with aNSCLC patients treated with anti-PD-1 inhibitors. Logistic and Cox regression were conducted to identify factors associated with efficacy and progression-free survival (PFS) respectively. Nomograms were built based on independent influencing factors, and assessed by the concordance index (C-index), calibration curve and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Result: In training cohort, lower baseline absolute counts of CD3+ (P < 0.001) and CD4+ (P < 0.001) were associated with for poorer efficacy. Hepatic metastases (P = 0.019) and lower baseline absolute counts of CD3+ (P < 0.001), CD4+ (P < 0.001), CD8+ (P < 0.001), and B cells (P = 0.042) were associated with shorter PFS. Two nomograms to predict efficacy at 6-week after treatment and PFS at 4-, 8- and 12-months were constructed, and validated in validation cohort. The area under the ROC curve (AUC-ROC) of nomogram to predict response was 0.908 in training cohort and 0.984 in validation cohort. The C-index of nomogram to predict PFS was 0.825 in training cohort and 0.832 in validation cohort. AUC-ROC illustrated the nomograms had excellent discriminative ability. Calibration curves showed a superior consistence between the nomogram predicted probability and actual observation. Conclusion: We constructed two nomogram based on ACLS to help clinicians screen of patients with possible benefit and make individualized treatment decisions by accurately predicting efficacy and PFS for advanced NSCLC patient treated with anti-PD-1 inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) members, PPARγ is a ligand binding and activated nuclear hormone receptor, which is an important regulator in metabolism, proliferation, tumor progression, and immune response. Increased evidence suggests that activation of PPARγ in response to ligands inhibits multiple types of cancer proliferation, metastasis, and tumor growth and induces cell apoptosis including breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and bladder cancer. Conversely, some reports suggest that activation of PPARγ is associated with tumor growth. In addition to regulating tumor progression, PPARγ could promote or inhibit tumor immunotherapy by affecting macrophage differentiation or T cell activity. These controversial findings may be derived from cancer cell types, conditions, and ligands, since some ligands are independent of PPARγ activity. Therefore, this review discussed the dual role of PPARγ on tumor progression and immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Concurrent follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)was reported in some studies, while the diagnosis of TdT (terminal deoxynucleotydil transferase) positive high grade B cell lymphoma (HGBL) with MYC and BCL2 rearrangements ("double hit") transformed from FL/DLBCL has been rarely reported. Herein, we described the clinical features and mutation profiles of a case diagnosed with TdT positive "double hit" HGBL following the treatment of FL/DLBCL. Case presentation: This is a 43-year-old Chinese man who was diagnosed with low grade FL (account for 80%) combined with DLBCL (20%) at a stage of IVB. The patient presented with BCL2/IGH translocation without MYC rearrangement, as well as the expressions of CD20, CD19, CD10 and BCL2 at the initial diagnosis of FL/DLBCL. MYC rearrangement and TdT expression occurred after the treatment. The targeted sequencing revealed mutations in KMT2D, FOXO1, CREBBP, ATM, STAT6, BCL7A, DDX3X, MUC4, FGFR3, ARID5B, DDX11 and PRKCSH genes were the co-mutations shared by the FL/DLBCL and TdT positive "double hit" HGBL, while CCND3, BIRC6, ROBO1 and CHEK2 mutations specifically occurred after the treatment. The overall survival time was 37.8 and 17.8 months after the initial diagnosis of FL/DLBCL and TdT positive "double hit" HGBL, respectively. Conclusion: This study reports a rare case of TdT positive "double hit" HGBL following the treatment of concurrent FL/DLBCL and highlights the mutation characteristics. Collectively, this study will help enrich the knowledge of TdT positive "double hit" HGBL transformed from FL/DLBCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interval timing can be distorted by emotions. Previous studies indicated that anticipated fear stimuli can lead to temporal overestimation, similar to the effects observed from direct exposure to fear stimuli. However, this time distortion may not always manifest when anticipated. This study aimed to systematically examine the effect of the reinforcement probability of anticipated fear stimuli on time perception in predictable emotional scenarios. The experiment established 100% fear conditioning by associating a conditioned stimulus (CS+) with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US), electrical stimulation. Participants completed a temporal bisection task under different cues (threat CS+ and safe CS−) expectations. Participants were explicitly informed that an aversive electrical stimulus would always follow the threat cues (CS+) with 100% probability, though in reality, different blocks presented the threat cue with probability manipulation of 50 and 100%. Results showed that only in the 50% reinforcement probability, participants overestimated the duration when anticipating aversive electrical stimulation, while no significant differences were observed in the 100% reinforcement probability. Additionally, the effect of anxiety on temporal judgment failed to capture the overall trend as fixed effects but only contributed to the individual variations as random effects. The findings suggest that the anticipated aversive electrical stimulation may lead to temporal overestimation. Furthermore, the results indicate that a reliable approach for manipulating the effect of anticipated aversive electrical stimulation on temporal overestimation is to establish 100% fear conditioning and use a reinforcement probability like 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-doped carbon Co/CoOx with laccase-like activity was directionally designed by pyrolyzing Co-coordination polymer and applied to detect epinephrine, which revealed a new preparation strategy for laccase mimics. The formation mechanism of the N-doped carbon Co/CoOx nanozyme was reconnoitered by a thermogravimetric-mass spectrometry system (TG-MS). N-doped carbon Co/CoOx exhibited outstanding laccase-like activity, and the Michaelis–Menten constant and maximum initial velocity were calculated to be 0.087 mM and 0.0089 μM s–1, respectively. Based on this principle, a simple colorimetric sensing platform was developed for the quantitative detection of epinephrine, which can be used to diagnose pheochromocytoma. In addition, the visual platform for detecting epinephrine exhibited a linear range of 3 to 20 μg mL−1 and a calculated detection limit of 0.42 μg mL−1. Therefore, the proposed colorimetric sensing platform is a promising candidate to be applied in precise early pheochromocytoma diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions are a major concern in China, and transportation is an important part of it. In this paper, data on China's 30 provinces' transport carbon emissions from 2005 to 2019 were selected to construct a spatial autocorrelation model and identified the decoupling types, which revealed the relationship between transport carbon emissions and economic development. This study suggests a regulation strategy for provincial transport carbon emissions in China based on the contribution rates of transport carbon emission variables. According to the findings, transport carbon emissions of China indicated a slow rise from 2005 to 2019, the annual growth rate has fluctuated downward, and petroleum products have been the most major source. The geographical correlation of transport carbon emissions has gradually improved, and the transport carbon emission intensity has become more significant. Differences in the transport carbon emission intensity slightly increased, which were significantly regionally correlated. There were seven forms of decoupling between yearly provincial transport carbon emissions and economic development, with weak decoupling accounting for the largest proportion, 45.24%. Decoupling was achieved in 83.33% of the provinces in the period of 2005–2019. As a consequence of factor decomposition, the energy intensity, transport intensity, and economic structure played an overall inhibitory role, while the carbon emission intensity, economic scale, and population played promoting roles. The economic scale was the most important influencing factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cycling stability of SnO2 anode as lithium-ion battery is poor due to volume expansion. Polyimide coatings can effectively confine the expansion of SnO2. However, linear polyimides are easily dissolved in ester electrolytes and their carbonyls is not fully utilized during charging/discharging process. Herein, the SnO2 enclosed with anthraquinone-based polyimide/reduced graphene oxide composite was prepared by self-assembly. Carbonyls from the anthraquinone unit provide fully available active sites to react with Li+, improving the utilization of carbonyl in the polyimide. More exposed carbonyl active sites promote the conversion of Sn to SnO2 with electrode gradual activation, leading to an increase in reversible capacity during the charge/discharge cycle. In addition, the introduction of reduced graphene oxide cannot only improve the stability of polyimide in the electrolyte, but also build fast ion and electron transport channels for composite electrodes. Due to the multiple effects of anthraquinone-based polyimide and the synergistic effect of reducing graphene oxide, the composite anode exhibits a maximum reversible capacity of 1266 mAh·g−1 at 0.25 A·g−1, and maintains an excellent specific capacity of 983 mAh·g−1 after 200 cycles. This work provides a new strategy for the synergistic modification of SnO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The high inter-individual heterogeneity in individuals with depression limits neuroimaging studies with case-control approaches to identify promising biomarkers for individualized clinical decision-making. We put forward a framework integrating the normative model and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) to quantitatively assess altered gray matter morphology in depression from a dimensional perspective. The proposed framework parses altered gray matter morphology into overlapping latent disease factors, and assigns patients distinct factor compositions, thus preserving inter-individual variability. We identified four robust disease factors with distinct clinical symptoms and cognitive processes in depression. In addition, we showed the quantitative relationship between the group-level gray matter morphological differences and disease factors. Furthermore, this framework significantly predicted factor compositions of patients in an independent dataset. The framework provides an approach to resolve neuroanatomical heterogeneity in depression. The neuroanatomical heterogeneity of depression is not well understood. Here, the authors identify four latent factors which characterise different patterns of gray matter morphology and are related to clinical symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The psychological and physiological meanings of resting-state global brain signal (GS) and GS topography have been well confirmed. However, the causal relationship between GS and local signals was largely unknown. Based on the Human Connectome Project dataset, we investigated the effective GS topography using the Granger causality (GC) method. In consistent with GS topography, both effective GS topographies from GS to local signals and from local signals to GS showed greater GC values in sensory and motor regions in most frequency bands, suggesting that the unimodal superiority is an intrinsic architecture of GS topography. However, the significant frequency effect for GC values from GS to local signals was primarily located in unimodal regions and dominated at slow 4 frequency band whereas that from local signals to GS was mainly located in transmodal regions and dominated at slow 6 frequency band, consisting with the opinion that the more integrated the function, the lower the frequency. These findings provided valuable insight for the frequency-dependent effective GS topography, improving the understanding of the underlying mechanism of GS topography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High electrical and thermal conductive metals (HETCM) play a key role in smart electronics, green energy, modern communications and healthcare, however, typical HETCM (e.g., Ag, Au, Cu) usually have relatively low mechanical strength, hindering further applications. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a potentially transformative manufacturing technology that is expected to address the issue. Ag is the metal with the highest thermal conductivity, which induces microscale grain refinement, but also leads to high internal stresses by SLM. Here, we select Ag7.5Cu alloy as an example to demonstrate that multi-scale (micro/meso/macro) synergies can take advantage of high thermal conductivity and internal stresses to effectively strengthen Ag alloy. The mimicry of metal-hardened structures (e.g., large-angle boundary) is extended to the mesoscale by controlling the laser energy density and laser scanning strategy to manipulate the macroscale internal stress intensity and mesoscale internal stress direction, respectively, to form mesoscale large-angle "grains", resulting in multiple mutual perpendicular shear bands during fracture. The presented approach achieved a significant enhancement of yield strength (+ 145%) and ductility (+ 28%) without post-treatment. The results not only break the strength-ductility trade-off of conventional SLM alloys, but also demonstrate a multi-scale synergistic enhancement strategy that exploits high thermal conductivity and internal stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variation of brain functions as healthy ageing has been discussed widely using resting-state brain imaging. Previous conclusions may be misinterpreted without considering the effects of global signal (GS) on local brain activities. Up to now, the variation of GS with ageing has not been estimated. To fill this gap, we defined the GS as the mean signal of all voxels in the gray matter and systematically investigated correlations between age and indices of GS fluctuations. What's more, these tests were replicated with data after hemodynamic response function (HRF) de-convolution and data without noise regression as well as head motion data to verify effects of non-neural information on age. The results indicated that GS fluctuations varied as ageing in three ways. First, GS fluctuations were reduced with age. Second, the GS power transferred from lower frequencies to higher frequencies with age. Third, the GS power was more evenly distributed across frequencies in ageing brain. These trends were partly influenced by HRF and physiological noise, indicating that the age effects of GS fluctuations are associated with a variety of physiological activities. These results may indicate the temporal dedifferentiation hypothesis of brain ageing from the global perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant performance, which considers plant growth, community composition, and diversity, demonstrated the wetland plants' restoration efficiency of wetland plants following restoration. Carex tussocks are widespread in temperate freshwater wetlands and streams, well as characterizing with rich biodiversity. However, tussock wetlands sharply shrank and plant performance has changed due to the interaction of long-term drought, and human disturbance (road construction, grazing and mowing). In recent decades, ecological restoration has been widely conducted in degraded tussock wetlands in semi-arid area. A field investigation was done in a restored tussock wetland (R) after restoration for 10 years in order to evaluate efficacy of tussock restoration. Tussock wetlands were chosen as reference wetlands, both natural (N) and degraded (D). In semi-arid zones, the results showed that wetlands were affected by drought and flooding. After 10 years, wetland restoration effectively restored the growth and yield of Carex schmidtii tussocks compared to D, but did not reach to the natural state. The importance value (IV) of C. schmidtii has sharply decreased in R. Xerophyte species (Artemisia integrifolia) have occupied dominant position growth. Furthermore, the IV of other wetland species has dropped through time, and some have even disappeared as a result of drought and flooding. R and N have much lower species richness and Shannon–Wiener index than D. Flooding in August, following a drought, boosted the Simpson index and Evenness index in R and N. Obvious differences in species composition and community structure were found using principal component analysis among N, R, and D. Ecological restoration substantially alleviated wetland degradation in the semi-arid zone, but subsequent hydrological management is required to further promote plant growth and diversity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until now, knowledge about the effects of motor training on the temporal dynamics of the brain functional organization is still limited. Here we combined dynamic functional connectivity density (dFCD) mapping and k-means clustering analyses to explore how early and advanced stages of motor training affected the brain dynamic FC architecture and dynamic states in little-ball athletes using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of student-athletes (SA), elite athletes (EA) and non-athlete healthy controls (NC). The ANOVA analysis demonstrated the levels of dFCD variability in the EA group had the trend to regress to the NC group levels in all statistically significant regions. Specifically, the brain regions responsible for the basic motor and sensory innervations showed more stabilized dFCD variability in EA and NC compared with SA. The results supported the idea of a stronger efficiency of functional networks and an automation process of new motor skills in EA. Furthermore, EA and NC had the increased dFCD variability in brain regions responsible for top-down visual-motor control compared with SA; while EA exhibited more flexible alterations in FCD status levels and the equilibrium probability in the long run compared with SA and NC. This suggested that regions involved in higher functions of visual-motor control exhibited more flexibility in functional regulation with other brain networks in EA. Our findings suggested the diversity and specialization of fluctuating dynamic brain adaption induced by motor training in different training stages, and highlighted the effect of motor training stages on brain functional adaption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the health impact represented by exposure to current atmospheric pollution in China, an environmental health indicators (EHIs) system of atmospheric pollution was established. The EHIs were based on comprehensive consideration of environment, population, economy and diseases associated with atmospheric pollution. An EHIs evaluation system of atmospheric pollution, based on corresponding EHIs data collection and weighting coefficients determined using principal component analysis, was applied to major provinces and regions in China to evaluate the environmental health status. Results showed that the EHIs of atmospheric pollution in Central and East China were low, indicating a serious environmental health condition. Prevention and management of atmospheric pollution in these regions should be strengthened and protective measures taken to improve human health. Compared with other methods, the EHIs evaluation system was more intuitive, which facilitated users to identify the environmental health status and provided support for health management and pollution prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the rational design of heteroatom-doping carbon catalysts toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), various structure-wise and porous metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) were preferred especially the transition metal imidazoles frameworks (ZIFs) with abundant N and C elements. Herein, taking advantage of the volatile nature of Zn in ZIF-Zn at high temperatures, we synthesized the bimetallic ZIFs with Zn/Fe molar ratio of 10:1 firstly, and then obtained a structure-define and porous Fe- and N-doped C electrocatalyst by calcining at 900 °C in Ar flow. With the well-defined polyhedrons morphology, high surface area, and evenly distributed C-Nx and Fe-Nx active sites, the as-synthesized Fe-N-C catalysts including the acid-leached Fe-N-C gave superior ORR capability, selectivity, and stability in 0.1 M KOH, and can be also applied in acidic electrolyte. Inspiringly, Fe-N-C exhibited excellent ORR activity exceeding Pt/C benchmark in 0.1 M KOH with a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.878 V and the kinetic current density (jk at 0.85 V) of 13.2 mA cm−2, and the single N-C material. And after acid leaching, the obtained Fe-N-C(L) catalyst still maintained the excellent ORR activity (E1/2 = 0.855 V, jk = 6.8 mA cm−2). Additionally, though their ORR performance in acid was inferior to that of Pt/C, the gap was also significantly narrowed by Fe-introduction into N-C structures. Experiments demonstrated that Fe-Nx structure in N-doped C matrix and cooperated with C-Nx centers were very essential to deliver the significantly enhanced ORR activity, in addition to good structural characteristics, i.e., the high pore volume, abundant defects, and good conductivity. This synthesis method based on M-doped MOFs was expected to be transplanted to obtain other energy-relative non-precious metal catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide an estimate of the prevalence of child maltreatment among Chinese primary and middle school students. An attempt was also made to explore the causes of heterogeneity by analyzing stratified variables and other potentially related factors included in the study. Methods: Literature retrieval has been carried out in the databases, including Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database and China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc), for relevant published studies up to October 2019. The Cochran's chi-squared test (Cochran's Q), I2 test and subgroup analysis were performed to evaluate the heterogeneity. Funnel plots were used to detect publication bias. Trim-and-fill method was performed to identify possible asymmetry and assess the robustness of the conclusions. Results: A total of 1433 studies were obtained after retrieval. Finally, 19 eligible studies were included in meta-analysis after detailed exclusion. The pooled prevalence of child physical abuse (CPA), child emotional abuse (CEA), child sexual abuse (CSA), child physical neglect (CPN) and child emotional neglect (CEN) were 0.20 (95% CI 0.13, 0.27), 0.30 (95% CI 0.20, 0.39), 0.12 (95% CI 0.09, 0.15), 0.47 (95% CI 0.35, 0.58) and 0.44 (95% CI 0.28, 0.59), respectively. In subgroup analyses, a higher prevalence of CEN was reported in rural areas. Meanwhile, the prevalence of CPN and CEN in non-only child group was higher than that observed in only child group. Compared with children without mental symptoms, children with mental symptoms have a higher incidence of all categories of child maltreatment. In terms of assessment tools, studies using Childhood Trauma Questionnaire as an assessment tool reported lower prevalence of CPA, CEA. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire In addition, the prevalence of CPN, CEN in studies conducted in northern China was significantly higher than that estimated in southern and central China. For CSA, eight additional studies required trimming according to the trim-and-fill analysis, and the pooled estimate was 0.042 after filling. For CPA, CEA, CPN and CEN, there were no indications of publication with the trim and fill method (data unchanged). Conclusion: Our findings indicated that primary and middle school students had a relatively high prevalence of maltreatment. Because of the visible heterogeneity of the studies included, more large samples, high-quality and prospective studies are needed in the future to acquire the accurate prevalence of child maltreatment in China. Certainly, future research needs to focus not only on the estimate of prevalence of child maltreatment, but also on risk factors and intervention strategies for child maltreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the effect of online motivation and maladaptive cognition on adolescent Internet addiction and examined whether this process was moderated by effortful control. Cluster sampling was used to recruit 1221 middle school students as subjects (mean age = 13.45 years; 49.5% girls). The subjects completed an Internet addiction questionnaire, a maladaptive cognition questionnaire, an online motivation questionnaire, and an effortful control questionnaire anonymously. Results indicated that (1) maladaptive cognition exerted an indirect effect on Internet addiction via the complete mediating effect of online motivation, with sex, grade, and socioeconomic status controlled for; (2) this indirect effect was moderated mildly by effortful control and was stronger in students with lower levels of effortful control relative to that observed in students with higher levels of effortful control. Therefore, the results showed both mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between adaptive cognition and Internet addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cigarette smoking is intimately associated with both early onset and increased severity of schizophrenia. The self-medication hypothesis suggests that nicotine can relieve or restore neurocognitive deficits and symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia patients and healthy subjects who smoked showed deficits in communication between their hemispheres. These homotopic connectivity mechanisms associated with both schizophrenia and smoking comorbidity were largely unknown until now. A mixed sample including patients with schizophrenia (22 smokers and 27 non-smokers) and healthy controls (22 smokers and 21 non-smokers) based on clinical diagnoses and cigarette dependence were recruited for the current study. All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine possible interactions between schizophrenia and smoking, and to determine the main effects of schizophrenia and smoking on homotopic functional connectivity. Decreased homotopic functional connectivity of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex suggested a main effect of schizophrenia and smoking-an additive effect. Furthermore, we found an antagonistic interaction effect between schizophrenia and smoking located in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). In addition, the connectivity strength of the bilateral VLPFC was negatively correlated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale Negative scores and positively correlated with lifetime smoking. These results suggest that smoking has multiple effects on the modulation of interhemispheric connectivity in schizophrenia. Our findings provide valuable information underlying the pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenia and offer a potential target for future clinical treatment of schizophrenia and smoking comorbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White matter (WM) fibers underpin individual differences in extraversion and neuroticism. These personality traits are associated with integration of emotion, cognition, and behavior, which rely on a large-scale brain network. Thus, research at network level is needed to characterize neural underpinnings of extraversion and neuroticism. We performed diffusion tensor imaging on 68 healthy individuals and combined a WM network with graph theory analysis to investigate the connectivity of the whole-brain network and individual regions associated with extraversion and neuroticism. Extraversion was negatively associated with local efficiency in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and neuroticism was positively associated with local and global efficiencies mainly in the hippocampus and MPFC regions, respectively. These identified regions demonstrated connectivity with other cortical and subcortical regions. No reliable associations were found between the network local and global efficiencies and extraversion, as well as neuroticism. These findings indicated the association between specific personality dimensions and information transfer in the prefrontal-limbic regions, which provided further insight into the neural mechanism to characterize extraversion and neuroticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new nanoadsorbent A/Fe3O4/GO (AFG) is developed for eliminating Cs+ from water by anchoring Fe3O4 nanoparticles onto graphene oxide (GO/Fe3O4) and in situ controllable growing nanocrystal of ammonium 12-molybdophosphate (A) on the surface of GO/Fe3O4 with a simple procedure at room temperature. AFG shows a high adsorption capacity for Cs+ (Qmax = 82.71 mg g−1) and fast kinetics (> 88.83% elimination efficiency within only 1 min and reaches the end equilibrium in about 10 min). It presents good selectivity for Cs+ in a wide pH range (2.0-10). Furthermore, it can be recovered from water with easily magnetic separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop following a traumatic event. Previous studies have found abnormal functional connectivity between the thalamus and other brain regions. However, the traditional functional connectivity method cannot investigate the directional flow of the influence in PTSD. In the present study, we used an effective connectivity method based on Granger causality to explore altered direction of causal information flow within a network associated with the thalamus in PTSD. Employing this method, we found that PTSD patients exhibited increased influence from thalamus to middle/inferior frontal gyrus and insula, and increased bidirectional influences between thalamus and medial prefrontal cortex compared to healthy controls. This is the first study to reveal a network of abnormal effective connectivity in PTSD. In addition, using the machine learning approach, we found that the altered functional measurements could differentiate patients from healthy controls. Our findings may have important implications for the pathophysiological basis underlying PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The X-ray repair cross-complementing group 3 ( XRCC3) Thr241Met polymorphism (rs861539, C > T) has drawn wide attentions as its association with cancer risk and its involvement in DNA repair. Several studies have attempted to link rs861539 to nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) risk; however, the sample sizes of these studies are small and the results are controversial. To investigate the relationship of rs861539 and NPC susceptibility, we conducted a large-scale case-control study involving 4001 NPC cases and 2967 controls of southern Chinese. Logistic regression analysis revealed significant association for rs861539 and NPC risk under the recessive model (TT vs. CT + CC) with adjustment of age and gender (odds ratio, OR = 2.72; 95 % CI 1.10-6.72; P = 0.03). Further, meta-analysis involving 4457 NPC cases and 4132 controls from four studies showed consistent association of TT carriers and NPC risk ( OR = 3.12; 95 % CI 1.58-6.13; P = 0.001). Taken together, our findings based on large-scale sample size suggested rs861539 at XRCC3 to be associated with NPC risk through recessive model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intentional binding effect refers to a subjective compression over a temporal interval between the start point initialized by a voluntary action and the endpoint signaled by an external sensory (visual or audio) feedback. The present study aimed to explore the influence of tactile sensory feedback on this binding effect by comparing voluntary key-press actions with voluntary key-release actions. In experiment 1, each participant was instructed to report the perceived interval (in ms) between an action and the subsequent visual sensory feedback. In this task, either the action (key-press or key-release) was voluntarily performed by the participant or a kinematically identical movement was passively applied to the left index finger of the participant. In experiment 2, we explored whether the difference in the perception of time was affected by the direction of action. In experiment 3, we developed an apparatus in which two parallel laser beams were generated by a laser emission unit and detected by a laser receiver unit; this allowed the movement of the left index finger to be detected without it touching a keyboard (i.e., without any tactile sensory feedback). Convergent results from all of the experiments showed that the temporal binding effect was only observed when the action was both voluntary and involved physical contact with the key, suggesting that the combination of intention and tactile sensory feedback, as a form of top-down processing, likely distracted attention from temporal events and caused the different binding effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotubes are believed to be powerful materials for constructing novel hybrid composites with desirable functionalities and applications in many fields. Therefore, a better understanding of the functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) holds the key to a better performance of the hybrid properties. In this paper, with a series of aromatic bifunctional molecule additives, modified MWCNTs were used as composite supports for synthesizing nanostructured palladium catalysts for formic acid oxidation. The additives contain anthranilic acid, o-phenylenediamine, salicylic acid, catechol, and phthalic acid. The influence of the different bifunctional groups (such as -NH, -OH, -COOH, and their mixed groups) on the morphologies, particle sizes, and electrical properties of Pd nanocrystals was intensively studied. Transmission electron microscopy measurement demonstrates that the palladium nanoparticles were well dispersed on the surface of MWCNTs with a relatively narrow particle size distribution in the presence of the additives. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry tests demonstrate that the functional groups of the additives play an important role in electrocatalytic activity and stability for formic acid oxidation, and the influence law of various functional groups on electrocatalytic activity and stability is also investigated in this paper. We hope it can provide certain theoretical guidance meaning and practical reference value in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify genetic risk factors underlying non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) from the B cell lineage, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 253 Chinese individuals with B cell NHL (cases) and 1,438 controls and further validation in 1,175 cases and 5,492 controls. We identified a new susceptibility locus, rs6773854, located between BCL6 (encoding B cell lymphoma protein 6) and LPP (encoding lipoma preferred partner) on oncogene-rich chromosome 3q27 that was significantly associated with increased risk of B cell NHL (meta-analysis P = 3.36 × 10−13, per-allele odds ratio (OR) = 1.44) and with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in particular (meta-analysis P = 1.14 × 10−11, OR = 1.47). We found no evidence of association of rs6773854 with non-B cell NHLs (T cell and natural killer (NK) lineages) (P = 0.17, OR = 1.12) and observed significant heterogeneity between B cell and non-B cell subtypes (Phet = 0.01, I2 = 84%). Our results provide insight that germline variation in the intergenic region between BCL6 and LPP has a role in risk of B cell lymphomagenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermo-responsive block copolymers poly(ethylene glycol)- block-poly( N-acryloyl-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-oxazolidine), PEG- b-PADMO, based on linear PEG were prepared via a versatile reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. PEG ( M = 1000) was used as the hydrophilic component, whose dehydration was the main driving force for the phase transition of these copolymers, as demonstrated by the H-NMR spectra. Their lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) could be tuned in the range of 20°C to 35°C, by adjusting the degree of polymerization (DP) of PADMO between 14-27. Furthermore, a sharp phase transition at ca. 33°C, close to the physiological temperature with minimal hysteresis, was observed for the PEG- b-PADMO copolymer. Moreover, excellent reversibility and reproducibility were displayed for the same copolymer over 10 cycles of repeated temperature change between 25°C (below the LCST) and 40°C (above the LCST). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly accurate observations at various scales on the land surface are urgently needed for the studies of many areas, such as hydrology, meteorology, and agriculture. With the rapid development of remote sensing techniques, remote sensing has had the capacity of monitoring many factors of the Earth's land surface. Especially, the space-borne microwave remote sensing systems have been widely used in the quantitative monitoring of global snow, soil moisture, and vegetation parameters with their all-weather, all-time observation capabilities and their sensitivities to the characteristics of land surface factors. Based on the electromagnetic theories and microwave radiative transfer equations, researchers have achieved great successes in the microwave remote sensing studies for different sensors in recent years. This article has systematically reviewed the progresses on five research areas including microwave theoretical modeling, microwave inversion on soil moisture, snow, vegetation and land surface temperatures. Through the further enrichment of remote sensing datasets and the development of remote sensing theories and inversion techniques, remote sensing including microwave remote sensing will play a more important role in the studies and applications of the Earth systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

n indirect high-performance capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection (CE-AD) method has been developed for determination of lactic acid (LA) in body fluids of lactating postpartum women. Several important factors such as the running buffer additive and concentration, the working electrode potential, the pH value and concentration of the running buffer, the separation voltage and injection time were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, LA could be well separated with co-existing interferences including uric acid (UA) in real samples in a 90-cm-length capillary at separation voltage of 12 kV in 4.0 × 10 g mL 3,4-dihydroxybenzylamine (DHBA)/40 mmol L HBO-NaBO buffer (pH 7.8). The linearity between peak current and concentration of LA was over three orders of magnitude with detection limit of 5.00 × 10 g mL (S/N = 3). This proposed method has been successfully used to study the effects of moderate exercise on LA content in breast milk and urine samples of lactating postpartum women, and assay results showed that LA content in breast milk can return to normal level through 60 min rest without decreasing acceptance by breast-feeding infants, although the LA level did increase by 4-6 times in both breast milk and urine samples at 10 min after moderate exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hub role of the right anterior insula (AI) has been emphasized in cognitive neurosciences and been demonstrated to be frequency-dependently organized. However, the functional organization of left AI (LAI) has not been systematically investigated. Here we used 100 unrelated datasets from the Human Connectome Project to study the frequency-dependent organization of LAI along slow 6 to slow 1 bands. The broadband functional connectivity of LAI was similar to previous findings. In slow 6-slow 3 bands, both dorsal and ventral seeds in LAI were correlated to the salience network (SN) and language network (LN) and anti-correlated to the default mode network (DMN). However, these seeds were only correlated to the LAI in slow 2-slow 1 bands. These findings indicate that broadband and narrow band functional connections reflect different functional organizations of the LAI. Furthermore, the dorsal seed had a stronger connection with the LN and anti-correlation with DMN while the ventral seed had a stronger connection within the SN in slow 6-slow 3 bands. In slow 2-slow 1 bands, both seeds had stronger connections with themselves. These observations indicate distinctive functional organizations for the two parts of LAI. Significant frequency effect and frequency by seed interaction were also found, suggesting different frequency characteristics of these two seeds. The functional integration and functional segregation of LDAI and LVAI were further supported by their cognitive associations. The frequency- and seed-dependent functional organizations of LAI may enlighten future clinical and cognitive investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic selection and genome-wide association studies need thousands to millions of SNPs. However, many non-model species do not have reference chips for detecting variation. Our goal was to develop and validate an inexpensive but effective method for detecting SNP variation. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) can be a highly efficient strategy for genome-wide SNP detection, as an alternative to microarray chips. Here, we developed a GBS protocol for ducks and tested it to genotype 49 Pekin ducks. A total of 169,209 SNPs were identified from all animals, with a mean of 55,920 SNPs per individual. The average SNP density reached 1156 SNPs/MB. In this study, the first application of GBS to ducks, we demonstrate the power and simplicity of this method. GBS can be used for genetic studies in to provide an effective method for genome-wide SNP discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]