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Abstract A comprehensive immune landscape for Brucella infection is crucial for developing new treatments for brucellosis. Here, we utilized single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA‐seq) of 290,369 cells from 35 individuals, including 29 brucellosis patients from acute (n = 10), sub‐acute (n = 9), and chronic (n = 10) phases as well as six healthy donors. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays were applied for validation within this cohort. Brucella infection caused a significant change in the composition of peripheral immune cells and inflammation was a key feature of brucellosis. Acute patients are characterized by potential cytokine storms resulting from systemic upregulation of S100A8/A9, primarily due to classical monocytes. Cytokine storm may be mediated by activating S100A8/A9‐TLR4‐MyD88 signaling pathway. Moreover, monocytic myeloid‐derived suppressor cells were the probable contributors to immune paralysis in acute patients. Chronic patients are characterized by a dysregulated Th1 response, marked by reduced expression of IFN‐γ and Th1 signatures as well as a high exhausted state. Additionally, Brucella infection can suppress apoptosis in myeloid cells (e.g., mDCs, classical monocytes), inhibit antigen presentation in professional antigen‐presenting cells (APCs; e.g., mDC) and nonprofessional APCs (e.g., monocytes), and induce exhaustion in CD8+ T/NK cells, potentially resulting in the establishment of chronic infection. Overall, our study systemically deciphered the coordinated immune responses of Brucella at different phases of the infection, which facilitated a full understanding of the immunopathogenesis of brucellosis and may aid the development of new effective therapeutic strategies, especially for those with chronic infection.

Judges tend to discount the opinions of others even though advice is often helpful in improving their accuracy. The present research proposes that this phenomenon of advice discounting results from the judges’ confidence in their initial decision and little trust in advice. Furthermore, the degree of advice discounting may be predicted by the combined roles of confidence and trust. Three studies provide evidence for these hypotheses. Participants were very confident in their initial estimation and had little trust in the advice (study 1). The degree of advice discounting decreased when participants felt less confidence in performing difficult tasks compared with easy tasks (study 2) or when participants placed more trust in advice because the advice was from an expert rather than from a novice (study 3). In addition, confidence and trust predicted the degree of advice discounting across three studies. These findings shed new light on the mechanism underlying advice discounting and advice taking by indicating the combined roles of confidence and trust.

The DOSPERT, developed by Weber, Blais and Betz, can be used to measure risk behaviors in a variety of domains. We investigated the use of this scale in China. The participants were 1144 undergraduate students. After we removed some items that were not homogeneous, a principal component analysis extracted six components that accounted for 44.48% of the variance, a value similar to that obtained in the analysis conducted by Weber et al. Chinese undergraduates scored higher on the investment subscale compared with the results of Weber's study. The analysis of individual differences indicated that there was a significant gender difference in the ethical, investment and health/safety subscales, where males scored significantly higher than females. The type of home location was also significant on the ethical and health/safety subscales, where undergraduates from the countryside scored lower than undergraduates from cities and towns on the ethical subscale, and undergraduates from towns scored higher than those from other two areas on the health/safety subscale. Male undergraduates from towns scored higher than male undergraduates from other areas on the gambling subscale.

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Introduction: Soluble CD163 (sCD163) and soluble CD14 (sCD14) levels, monocyte/macrophage activation markers, are elevated in patient serum during Brucella infection. The aim of this study was to measure serum sCD163 and sCD14 levels during treatment for acute brucellosis to determine whether they can be used to monitor treatment efficacy. Methodology: Blood samples were collected from 30 patients with acute brucellosis (disease duration < 8 weeks) before and after 6 weeks of antibiotic therapy as well as from a comparison group of 28 healthy control individuals. Serum sCD163 and sCD14 levels were measured with specific, sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The clinical data and routine indices including C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rates (ESR), as well as white cell counts (WBC) were also studied. Results: Both serum sCD163 and sCD14 levels were significantly higher in patients with acute brucellosis than in healthy controls (p < 0.0001). A significant decline was observed in patients after cessation of treatment (p < 0.001), which still be significantly higher than that in healthy controls (p < 0.001). In additional, serum sCD163 levels were positively correlated with sCD14 levels; both of which were positively associated with CRP levels. However, neither sCD163 nor sCD14 levels were correlated with ESR or WBC. Conclusions: The decline in sCD163 and sCD14 levels following antibiotic therapy may be used as a marker to assess therapeutic efficacy following treatment of acute brucellosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]