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PurposeInsomnia is the most prevalent sleep complaint in the general population but is often intractable due to uncertainty regarding the underlying pathomechanisms. Sleep is regulated by a network of neural structures interconnected with the core nodes of the brain connectome referred to as the “rich club”. We examined alterations in brain rich-club organization as revealed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and the statistical relationships between abnormalities in rich-club metrics and the clinical features of primary insomnia (PI).MethodsThis study recruited 43 primary insomnia (PI) patients and 42 age-, sex-, and education level-matched healthy controls (HCs). Differences in global and regional network parameters between PI and healthy control groups were compared by nonparametric tests, and Spearman's correlations were calculated to assess associations of these network metrics with PI-related clinical features, including disease duration and scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia Severity Index, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, and Self-Rating Depression Scale.ResultsWeighted white matter networks exhibited weaker rich-club organization in PI patients than HCs across different thresholds (50%, 75%, and 90%) and parcellation schemes [automated anatomical labeling (AAL)-90 and AAL-1024]. Aberrant rich-club organization was found mainly in limbic-cortical-basal ganglia circuits and the default-mode network.ConclusionsAbnormal rich-club metrics are a characteristic feature of PI-related to disease severity. These metrics provide potential clues to PI pathogenesis and may be useful as diagnostic markers and for assessment of treatment response.

Campylobacter is one of the most important foodborne pathogens worldwide, and poultry is regarded as the main reservoir of Campylobacter. The contamination of Campylobacter in broiler chickens at the farm level is closely related to the transmission of Campylobacter in the poultry production chain. This study identified 464 Campylobacter isolates from 1,534 samples from broiler rearing period and slaughtering process including 233 Campylobacter jejuni isolates and 231 Campylobacter coli isolates. We have observed a dynamic distribution of Campylobacter during broiler chicken production, that 66.3% of Campylobacter isolates were C. jejuni during broiler rearing period, while C. coli occupied 60.4% of Campylobacter isolates during the broiler slaughtering process. A tag-label method allowed us to track the dynamic of Campylobacter in each broiler chicken from 31-day age at rearing to the partition step in the slaughterhouse. At the 31-day during rearing, 150 broiler chicken were labeled, and was tracked for Campylobacter positive from rearing period to slaughtering process. Among the labeled broiler, 11 of the tracking broiler samples were able to detect Campylobacter from rearing period to slaughtering. All Campylobacter isolates from the 11 tracking samples were sequenced and analyzed. C. jejuni isolates were divided into four STs and C. coli isolates were divided into six STs. Isolates with identical core genome were observed from the same tag-labeled samples at different stages indicating a vertical transmission of Campylobacter in the early broiler meat production. Meanwhile, the core genome analysis elucidated the cross-contamination of Campylobacter during the rearing period and the slaughtering process. The virulotyping analysis revealed that all C. jejuni isolates shared the same virulotypes, while C. coli isolates were divided into three different virulotypes. The antimicrobial resistance gene analysis demonstrated that all Campylobacter isolates contained at least two antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and the ARG profiles were well-corresponding to each ST type. Our study observed a high prevalence of Campylobacter during the early chicken meat production, and further studies will be needed to investigate the diversity and transmission of Campylobacter in the poultry production chain.

Abstract While large‐scale floods directly impact human lives and infrastructures, they also profoundly impact agricultural productivity. New satellite observations of vegetation activity and atmospheric CO2 offer the opportunity to quantify the effects of such extreme events on cropland carbon sequestration. Widespread flooding during spring and early summer 2019 induced conditions that delayed crop planting across the U.S. Midwest. As a result, satellite observations of solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence from TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument and Orbiting Carbon Observatory reveal a 16‐day shift in the seasonal cycle of photosynthesis relative to 2018, along with a 15% lower peak value. We estimate a reduction of 0.21 PgC in cropland gross primary productivity in June and July, partially compensated in August and September (+0.14 PgC). The extension of the 2019 growing season into late September is likely to have benefited from increased water availability and late‐season temperature. Ultimately, this change is predicted to reduce the crop productivity in the Midwest Corn/Soy belt by ~15% compared to 2018. Using an atmospheric transport model, we show that a decline of ~0.1 PgC in the net carbon uptake during June and July is consistent with observed CO2 enhancements of up to 10 ppm in the midday boundary layer from Atmospheric Carbon and Transport‐America aircraft and over 3 ppm in column‐averaged dry‐air mole fractions from Orbiting Carbon Observatory. This study quantifies the impact of floods on cropland productivity and demonstrates the potential of combining solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence with atmospheric CO2 observations to monitor regional carbon flux anomalies.

This paper provides a review of the compact intense electron-beam accelerators (IEBAs) based on liquid pulse forming lines (PFLs) that have been developed at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China. The history and roadmap of the compact IEBAs used to drive high-power microwave (HPM) devices at NUDT are reviewed. The properties of both de-ionized water and glycerin as energy storage media are presented. Research into the breakdown properties of liquid dielectrics and the desire to maximize energy storage have resulted in the invention of several coaxial PFLs with different electromagnetic structures, which are detailed in this paper. These high energy density liquid PFLs have been used to increase the performance of IEBA subsystems, based on which the SPARK (Single Pulse Accelerator with spark gaps) and HEART (High Energy-density Accelerator with Repetitive Transformer) series of IEBAs were constructed. This paper also discusses how these compact IEBAs have been used to drive typical HPM devices and concludes by summarizing the associated achievements and the conclusions that can be drawn from the results.

Scalp epidermoid cysts are a common tumor subtype in head, which usually exhibit hypodense on CT scans. Here, the authors report a case of 50 years old man with a mass at left frontal scalp with hyperdense on CT scans. Subsequent histological analysis identified the tumor as an epidermoid cyst. Keywords: Scalp epidermoid cysts, Hyperdense, Calcification

Sleep quantification and automatic scoring of sleep stages via electroencephalogram (EEG) signals has been a challenge for years. It is crucial to investigate the correlation of brain waves by sleep EEG analysis due to the association between rhythmic oscillations of neuronal activity and neocortical synchronization. Multiscale joint permutation entropy (MJPE) had been proven to be capable of measuring the correlation between time series from the view of multiple time scales and thus can be a promising approach to address the challenge. Instead of simulation, we tested the MJPE method on a widely used open dataset of sleep EEG time series from healthy subjects and found that the correlation index obtained by MJPE had the capability of quantifying the brain wave correlations under different sleep stages, reflecting the typical sleep patterns and indicating the weakened correlation with aging. A higher level of correlation was found as the sleep stage advanced. The findings based on the MJPE results were in accordance with previous studies and existing knowledge in sleep medicine. In the second part of the study, we applied MJPE on sleep EEGs from subjects under pathological conditions (sleep apnea and sleep at high altitude). Likewise, the correlation index also properly revealed their sleep architectures, with consistent trends of the correlation through the nights. The effectiveness and practicability of the MJPE method had been verified on sleep EEGs. Therefore, the MJPE method should be encouraged to be widely used for analyzing large-scale sleep EEGs under various pathological conditions to provide insight into the mechanisms of the sleep process and neuron synchronization.

Abstract Background The incidence of early postoperative complications of displaced intracapsular hip fractures is high. The purpose of this study was to compare the early postoperative complications and assess the incidence of femoral neck shortening on using a newly designed proximal femoral cannulated screw locking plate (CSLP) versus multiple cancellous screws (MCS) in the treatment of displaced intracapsular hip fractures in young adults. Methods Sixty-eight young adult patients with displaced intracapsular hip fractures were randomly assigned to either the CSLP group or the MCS group and treated routinely by internal fixation with either the CSLP or the MCS. Harris Hip Score, nonunion, failure of fixation, overall complications, and femoral neck shortening were recorded and compared. Results Two patients (5.88%) in the CSLP group and eight (23.53%) in the MCS group had postoperative nonunion (P 0.05). Three patients (8.82%) in the CSLP group and 11 (32.35%) in the MCS group had overall complications (P

Background and objective There is no standard treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after the failure of two lines of chemotherapy, S-1 as the third generation of fluorouracil derivate with well safety and low toxicity, presented some efficacy in lung cancer treatment. The aim of this study is to explore the efficacy of S-1 for advanced NSCLC patients treated with two or more prior chemotherapy regimens. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 105 NSCLC patients treated with S-1 monotherapy or S-1 contained chemotherapy as the third or more line of treatment in our hospital from January 2014 to April 2017. S-1 was administrated orally twice daily for 2 weeks, followed by one week of rest, the dose of drug was determined by body surface area (

In this paper, a modified algorithm is introduced to explain the process of charge formation in water tree aged cable insulation with respect to the dielectric properties of water tree areas and the cylindrical geometries of cable insulation. The algorithm combined with the classic bipolar charge transport model represents a novel attempt to simulate charge behavior in insulation with water tree. The finite-difference method is employed to solve for the electric field in the presence of space charge, and the finite-volume method is employed to solve the charge continuity equation. The dielectric parameters in this paper are not instantaneous near the interface but are functions of the radius. To overcome the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition, the Crank-Nicolson method is used to separate the governing equations in the time domain. To validate the accuracy of the model, this paper also presents the space charge behavior in water tree aged cross-linked polyethylene cable samples measured by the full-scale pulsed electro-acoustic method. The homocharge is injected under a high electric field. During the depolarization process, the shallow trap charge gradually disappears, whereas the homocharge continues to form a positive peak signal. Simulations show that the homocharge accumulates in the tip of the water tree because the dielectric characteristics of the material change during the water-aging process. The model describes the behavior of space charge in the water tree aged insulation of cylindrical geometries. Improvements will be needed in the following research.

BRD4 belongs to the bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) family of chromatin reader proteins that bind acetylated histones and regulate gene expression. Pharmacological inhibition of BRD4 by BET inhibitors (BETi) has indicated antitumor activity against multiple cancer types. We show that BRD4 is essential for the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and mediates the formation of oncogenic gene rearrangements by engaging the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway. Mechanistically, genome-wide DNA breaks are associated with enhanced acetylation of histone H4, leading to BRD4 recruitment, and stable establishment of the DNA repair complex. In support of this, we also show that, in clinical tumor samples, BRD4 protein levels are negatively associated with outcome after prostate cancer (PCa) radiation therapy. Thus, in addition to regulating gene expression, BRD4 is also a central player in the repair of DNA DSBs, with significant implications for cancer therapy.

Codeine-containing cough syrups (CCS) have become one of the most popular drugs of abuse in young population worldwide. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying CCS-dependence are yet ill-defined. Therefore, understanding the brain abnormalities in chronic users of CCS is crucial for developing effective interventions. The present study depicted the intrinsic dysconnectivity pattern of whole-brain functional networks at the voxel level in chronic users of CCS. In addition, the degree centrality (DC) changes were correlated to the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) total score, dose, duration of CCS use, and the age at first use of cough syrups. The current study included 38 chronic CCS users and 34 matched control subjects. All patients were evaluated using the BIS-11. Next, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) datasets were acquired from these CCS users and controls. Whole-brain connectivity was analyzed using a graph theory approach: degree centrality (DC). CCS-dependent individuals exhibited low DC values in the left inferior parietal lobule and the left middle temporal gyrus, while high DC values were noted in the right pallidum and the right hippocampus (P

Cyclodextrin (CD) molecules have a toroidal shape with a hydrophobic inner cavity and a hydrophilic exterior. The hydrophobic inner cavity can enable CD molecules to show high molecular selectivity and enrichment capability, and the hydrophilic exterior can make CD have high solubility in various solvents. On the other hand, because of the large theoretical surface areas and excellent electrochemical properties of carbon nanomaterials, they have important potential applications in electroanalytical chemistry. However, pure carbon nanomaterials usually are insoluble in solvents. Thus, it's of great significance to functionalize carbon nanomaterials with CD:CD not only improves the dispersity of carbon nanomaterials, but also enables high molecular selectivity and enrichment capacity, and hence shows extremely high electroanalytical capability. This review shows the methods and mechanism for preparing CD functionalized carbon nanomaterials (carbon nanotube, graphene, hollow carbon sphere,etc.) and their applications in electroanalytical chemistry. Finally, some critical challenges and prospects in this field were also briefly discussed.

Nowadays, Mn-doping is considered as a promising dissolution for the heavy usage of toxic lead in CsPbX3 perovskite material. Interestingly, Mn-doping also introduces an additional photoluminescence band, which is favorable to enrich the emission gamut of this cesium lead halide. Here, a solution spraying strategy was employed for the direct preparation of CsPbxMn1−x(Br,Cl)3 film through MnCl2 doping in host CsPbBr3 material. The possible fabrication mechanism of the provided approach and the dependences of material properties on Mn-doping were investigated in detail. As the results shown, Pb was partially substituted by Mn as expected. With the ratio of PbBr2:MnCl2 increasing from 3:0 to 1:1, the obtained film separately featured green, cyan, orange-red and pink-red emission, which was caused by the energy transferring process. Moreover, the combining energy of Cs, Pb, and Mn gradually red-shifted resulted from the formation of Cs-Cl, Pb-Cl and Mn-Br coordination bonding as MnCl2 doping increased. In addition, the weight of short decay lifetime of prepared samples increased with the doping rising, which indicated a better exciton emission and less defect-related transition. The aiming of current work is to provide a new possibility for the facile preparation of Mn-doping CsPbX3 film material.

Oil-immersed cooling provides an effective cooling scheme for high-power hub motors with compact structure and serious heating problems. However, with this cooling method, some oil friction loss will be generated, making the output torque and efficiency of the motor lower, which limits its application in the motor. It is essential to get an exact calculation of the oil friction loss so that it can be reduced in the future research. Firstly, a new method was proposed to improve the accuracy of oil friction loss calculated by an existing analytical method (Kori’s method), while the influence laws of oil-soaked depth and rotation speed on it were explored. Secondly, a three-dimensional transient Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model based on Volume of Fluid (VOF) was established, considering the actual complex structure and the disorderly mixing of oil and air inside the motor. Finally, the oil friction loss calculated with an improved analytical method and a VOF model was verified by a testing. It was indicated that the VOF model was more precise but more time-consuming. The proposed method has the second highest accuracy but takes less time.

Abstract Background Myopic foveoschisis (MF) is among the leading causes of visual loss in high myopia. However, it remains controversial whether internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling or gas tamponade is necessary treatment option for MF. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, WANFANG DATA and VIP databases were systematically reviewed. Outcome indicators were myopic foveoschisis resolution rate, visual acuity improvement and postoperative complications. Results Nine studies that included 239 eyes were selected. The proportion of resolution of foveoschisis was higher in ILM peeling group than non-ILM peeling group (OR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.06–4.35; P = 0.03). The proportion of postoperative complications was higher in Tamponade group than non-Tamponade group (OR = 10.81, 95% CI: 1.26–93.02; P = 0.03). However, the proportion of visual acuity improvement (OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 0.56–4.80; P = 0.37) between ILM peeling group and non-ILM peeling group and the proportion of resolution of foveoschisis (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 0.76–4.28; P = 0.18) between Tamponade group and non-Tamponade group were similar. Conclusions Vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling could contribute to better resolution of myopic foveoschisis than non-peeling, however it does not significantly influence the proportion of visual acuity improvement and postoperative complications. Vitrectomy with gas tamponade is associated with more complications than non-tamponade and does not significantly influence the proportion of visual acuity improvement and resolution of myopic foveoschisis.

Abstract The pseudogap (PG) state and its related intra-unit-cell symmetry breaking remain the focus in the research of cuprate superconductors. Although the nematicity has been studied in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ, especially underdoped samples, its behavior in other cuprates and different doping regions is still unclear. Here we apply a scanning tunneling microscope to explore an overdoped (Bi, Pb)2Sr2CuO6+δ with a large Fermi surface (FS). The establishment of a nematic order and its real-space distribution is visualized as the energy scale approaches the PG.

Periodic grounded dc trees in cross-linked polyethylene under various dc prestressing times are investigated in the temperature range of 20 °C-80 °C. Space charge behaviors in the samples during dc prestressing are simulated based on the bipolar charge transport model. The results reveal that the dc prestressing time has different effects on the tree growth at different temperatures, which is because that the space charge behavior in the sample during dc prestressing is closely related to the dc prestressing time and the temperature, and it has both promotion effect and impedance effect on the tree growth. The moderate promotion effect and impedance effect under 160 s dc prestressing at 20 °C, and the strongest promotion effect and the weakest impedance effect under 240 s dc prestressing at 40 °C result in the largest tree lengths, widths, and accumulated damages under each corresponding condition. At 60 °C and 80 °C, the lengths, widths, and accumulated damages are the largest under 240 s dc prestressing, smaller under 80 s dc prestressing, and the smallest under 160 s dc prestressing, and the reason is believed to be the growth rates reversal during the tree growth. Also it is found that the dc prestressing time has significant effects on the tree shape at 60 °C and 80 °C, which is believed to be related to the wider charge diffusion range under longer dc prestressing time. The electrical tree characteristics are discussed in detail combined with the space charge behaviors.

Background Many self-harmers do not present in hospitals due to the self-harm. It is still unclear on the differences between medically treated and untreated self-harm in China. This study described the differences of the two groups of self-harmers using the largest psychological aid hotline data. Methods The present observational study recruited 3,403 hotline callers who reported episodes of self-harm before the call. In routine assessment, information about the most recent episode of self-harm was collected, including the method of self-harm, the wish to die, goals of the self-harm, and any medical treatment (irrespective of psychological services) in the hospital. The callers were divided into two groups: those who received hospital-based medical treatment due to the most recent self-harm (treated self-harm callers) and those who did not (untreated self-harm callers). Results In the most recent episode of self-harm, 65% (n = 2,217) of callers were untreated and 55% (1,226/2,217) of the untreated self-harm callers reported a wish to die. A total of 67% of the callers reported that their main goal of self-harm was to relieve suffering. The most common self-harm methods were using instruments (knife or rope) and overdosing on medicines. Compared with treated self-harm callers, the untreated self-harm callers were less likely to have a wish to die (OR = 0.57), engage in self-harm outside the home (OR = 0.71 and 0.78), and attribute their self-harm to romantic relationship problems (OR = 0.76); however, they were more likely to use instruments, to jump, or to choose other methods (OR = 3.73, 3.83, and 7.71, respectively). Conclusions Among hotline callers, many episodes of self-harm did not receive medical treatment, despite over half reporting a wish to die. Characteristics of self-harm behaviors were different between treated and untreated self-harm callers. Our findings suggest that more strategies should improve access to hospital-based medical treatment and coverage for post-intervention for self-harmers who are not presented in hospitals.

Accumulating evidence from neuroimaging studies has supported that chronic pain could induce changes in brain function. However, few studies have focused on the dynamic regional homogeneity (dReHo) of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). In this study, twenty-eight TN patients and 28 healthy controls (HC) were included. Based on the resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI), we detected abnormalities in dReHo in the TN patients. Patients with TN had decreased dReHo in the left middle temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and precentral gyrus, and increased dReHo in the thalamus. Furthermore, the increase in dReHo in the thalamus was positively correlated with duration of TN (r = 0.485, p = 0.012). These results provide compelling evidence for abnormal resting-state brain activity in TN and suggest that the duration of TN may play a critical role in brain function.

Objective: To explore whether or not functional connectivity (FC) could be used as a potential biomarker for classification of primary insomnia (PI) at the individual level by using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA).Methods: Thirty-eight drug-naive patients with PI, and 44 healthy controls (HC) underwent resting-state functional MR imaging. Voxel-wise functional connectivity strength (FCS), large-scale functional connectivity (large-scale FC) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were calculated for each participant. We used support vector machine (SVM) with the three types of metrics as features separately to classify patients from healthy controls. Then we evaluated its classification performances. Finally, FC metrics with significant high classification performance were compared between the two groups and were correlated with clinical characteristics, i.e., Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) in the patients' group.Results: The best classifier could reach up to an accuracy of 81.5%, with a sensitivity of 84.9%, specificity of 79.1%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 83.0% (all P < 0.001). Right anterior insular cortex (BA48), left precuneus (BA7), and left middle frontal gyrus (BA8) showed high classification weights. In addition, the right anterior insular cortex (BA48) and left middle frontal gyrus (BA8) were the overlapping regions between MVPA and group comparison. Correlation analysis showed that FCS in left middle frontal gyrus and head of right caudate nucleus were correlated with PSQI and SDS, respectively.Conclusion: The current study suggests abnormal FCS in right anterior insular cortex (BA48) and left middle frontal gyrus (BA8) might serve as a potential neuromarkers for PI.

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a devastating disease that is characterized by high morbidity and high mortality. ICH has an annual incidence of 10–30/100,000 people and accounts for approximately 10%–30% of all types of stroke. ICH mostly occurs at the basal ganglia, which is rich in nerve fibers; thus, hemiplegia is quite common in ICH patients with partial sensory disturbance and ectopic blindness. In the clinic, those symptoms are considered to originate from the white matter injury in the area, but the exact mechanisms are unknown, and currently, no effective drug treatments are available to improve the prognosis. Clarifying the mechanisms will contribute to the development of new treatment methods for patients. The transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) channel is a non-selective cation channel that plays a role in inflammatory pain sensation and nociception and may be a potential regulator in emotion, cognition and social behavior. Here, we report that TRPA1 is involved in myelin damage and oxidative stress injury in a mouse ICH model. Intervention with the TRPA1 channel may be a new method to improve the motor function of patients in the early stage of ICH.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has received increasing attention in recent years. However, the characteristics and relevant mechanisms of biofilm formation in oxacillin-sensitive MRSA (OS-MRSA) are poorly understood. This study was designed to characterize biofilm formation in OS-MRSA BWSA15 in response to ceftazidime (TZ) by comparing the methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strain BWSA23 and the oxacillin-resistant MRSA (OR-MRSA) strain BWSA11. The biofilms and biofilm-forming cells were observed by electron microscopy. Biofilms grown on microtiter plates were chemically decomposed and analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The transcriptional regulation of genes associated with methicillin resistance, surface adhesion, fatty acid biosynthesis, and global regulation (sigma B) was investigated. A significant increase in biofilm formation ability (10.21-fold) and aggregation ability (2.56-fold) was observed in BWSA15 upon the treatment with TZ (16 μg/ml). The TZ-induced biofilm formation in BWSA15 was characterized by a disappearance of polysaccharide-like extracellular substances and an appearance of a large number of intercellular MVs from extracellular matrix. Few MVs were identified in the biofilms formed by BWSA11 and BWSA23. There was a significant upregulation of mecA, sigB, and fatty acid biosynthesis-associated genes and downregulation of icaA, icaD, clfA, clfB, and fnaA in BWSA15 upon the treatment with TZ. The formation of intracellular junctions of MVs in the biofilms of BWSA15 was mediated by a significant increase in the proportion of proteins as well as by an increase in the proportion of non-ionized carboxyl groups in fatty acids. This study demonstrated that beta-lactam antibiotics can induce biofilm formation in OS-MRSA, and the biofilm induction in OS-MRSA can mainly be attributed to exposed MVs with increased hydrophobicity rather than polysaccharide intercellular adhesins, cell wall-anchored surface proteins, and extracellular DNA.

Objectives: The present study explored the changes in spontaneous regional activity in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients, who experienced severe traffic accidents. Methods: 20 drug-naive PTSD patients and 18 healthy control subjects were imaged using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and analyzed by the algorithm of regional homogeneity (ReHo). Results: Compared to the healthy control group, the PTSD group showed decreased ReHo values in the right angular gyrus. In addition, a negative correlation was found between the activity level of the angular gyrus and the CAPS score. Conclusion: The dysfunctions were found in the memory- and emotion-related areas, suggested a possible mechanism of memory dysregulation that might be related to the intrusive memory symptoms of PTSD. These results provided imaging evidence that might provide an in-depth understanding of the intrinsic functional architecture of PTSD. Keywords: PTSD, Angular gyrus, fMRI, Traffic accidents

Background: Pre-operative non-invasive differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules is difficult for doctors. This study aims to determine whether amide proton transfer (APT) imaging and zonally oblique multi-slice (ZOOM) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) can provide increased accuracy in differentiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Methods: This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board and included 60 thyroid nodules in 50 patients. All of the nodules were classified as malignant (n = 21) or benign (n = 39) based on pathology. It was meaningful to analyze the APT and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the two groups by independent t-test to identify the benign and malignant thyroid nodules. The relationship between APT and ZOOM DWI was explored through Pearson correlation analysis. The diagnostic efficacy of APT and ZOOM DWI in determining if thyroid nodules were benign or malignant was compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.Results: The mean APTw value of the benign nodules was 2.99 ± 0.79, while that of the malignant nodules was 2.14 ± 0.73. Additionally, there was a significant difference in the APTw values of the two groups (P < 0.05). The mean ADC value of the benign nodules was 1.84 ± 0.41, and was significantly different from that of the malignant nodules, which was 1.21 ± 0.19 (P < 0.05). Scatter point and Pearson test showed a moderate positive correlation between the APT and ADC values (P < 0.05). The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC) value of ZOOM DWI (AUC = 0.937) was greater than that of APT (AUC = 0.783) (P = 0.028).Conclusion: APT and ZOOM DWI imaging improved the accuracy of distinguishing between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. ZOOM DWI is superior to APTw imaging (Z = 2.198, P < 0.05).

Matter with chiral fermions is microscopically described by theory with quantum anomaly and macroscopically described (at low energy) by anomalous hydrodynamics. For such systems in the presence of external magnetic field and chirality imbalance, a charge current is generated along the magnetic field direction — a phenomenon known as the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME). The quark–gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy ion collisions provides an (approximate) example, for which the CME predicts a charge separation perpendicular to the collisional reaction plane. Charge correlation measurements designed for the search of such signal have been done at RHIC and the LHC for which the interpretations, however, remain unclear due to contamination by background effects that are collective flow driven, theoretically poorly constrained, and experimentally hard to separate. Using anomalous (and viscous) hydrodynamic simulations, we make a first attempt at quantifying contributions to observed charge correlations from both CME and background effects in one and same framework. The implications for the search of CME are discussed.

Aiming to explore the meaning and value of the space of a sports club for university students in South Korea, this study employs the idea of spatial culture by Henri Lefebvre. The foundation of the cultural experience of a sports club is the cultural experience of a specific space; therefore, this paper takes the concern of spatial culture as the theoretical starting point. The research method is participant observation, and the researchers explored a sports club culture in South Korea for 4 months. The topics discussed in this study, such as, the boundaryless atmosphere within the sports club which provides the possibility for students to seek empathy; the sports club provides an obvious boundary with daily life which allows students to build another identity for resisting dissatisfaction with life; and last, it also provides the possibility of learning for students in a changing and diverse campus environment.

Quasiparticle interference (QPI) of the electronic states has been widely applied in scanning tunneling microscopy to analyze the electronic band structure of materials. Single-defect-induced QPI reveals defect-dependent interaction between a single atomic defect and electronic states, which deserves special attention. Due to the weak signal of single-defect-induced QPI, the signal-to-noise ratio is relatively low in a standard two-dimensional QPI measurement. In this paper, we introduce a projective quasiparticle interference (PQPI) method in which a one-dimensional measurement is taken along high-symmetry directions centered on a specified defect. We apply the PQPI method to the topological nodal-line semimetal ZrSiS. We focus on two special types of atomic defects that scatter the surface and bulk electronic bands. With an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio in PQPI, the energy dispersions are clearly resolved along high-symmetry directions. We discuss the defect-dependent scattering of bulk bands with the nonsymmorphic symmetry-enforced selection rules. Furthermore, an energy shift of the surface floating band is observed, and a branch of energy dispersion (q_{6}) is resolved. This PQPI method can be applied to other complex materials to explore defect-dependent interactions in the future.

A magnetic nano-solid acid catalyst Fe3O4-PDA-SO3H was synthetized through an efficient method, as an eco-friendly and more efficient catalyst. The obtained catalyst has uniform core-shell structure, appropriate particle size, and high acid density. Fe3O4-PDA-SO3H was applied to catalyze the esterification of levulinic acid (LA) with alcohols of different chain length to produce the levulinate esters. The catalytic effect was optimized from the aspects of catalyst dosage, reaction temperature, and acid-alcohol molar ratio. Furthermore, the response surface optimization method was used to obtain the optimal conditions. Verified under these conditions, the experimental results showed that the conversion rate of LA can reach 95.87%, which was much higher than common cationic exchange resin Amberlyst 36 and Amberlyst 46. Furthermore, the recovery and reuse of the Fe3O4-PDA-SO3H was demonstrated six times without obvious loss in the activity.

Purpose: Primary insomnia (PI) is the second most common mental disorder. However, the topologic alterations in structural brain connectome in patients with PI remain largely unknown.Methods: A total of 44 PI patients and 46 age-, gender-, and education level matched healthy control (HC) participants were recruited in this study. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting state MRI were used to construct structural connectome for each participant, and the network parameters were employed by non-parametric permutations to evaluate the significant differences between the two groups. Relationships between abnormal network metrics and clinical characteristics, including the disease duration, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), were investigated with Spearman’s correlation analysis in PI patients.Results: PI patients demonstrated small-world architecture with lower global (P = 0.005) and local (P = 0.035) efficiencies compared with the HC group. The unique hub nodal properties in PI patients were mainly in the right limbic cortico-basal-ganglia circuit. Five disrupted subnetworks in PI patients were observed in the limbic cortico-basal-ganglia circuit and left default-mode networks (DMN) (P < 0.05, NBS corrected). Moreover, most unique hub nodal properties in the right limbic cortico-basal-ganglia circuit were significantly correlated with disease duration, and clinical characteristics (SAS, SDS, ISI scores) in PI processing.Conclusion: These findings suggested the abnormal anatomical network architecture may be closely linked to clinical characteristics in PI. The study provided novel insights into the neural substrates underlying symptoms and neurophysiologic mechanisms of PI.

Since the proposal of the notion of nanodielectric, the space charge characteristics of nanodielectrics have been widely investigated. With the addition of nanoparticles, some nanodielectrics exhibit smaller space charge accumulation amount during the polarisation, and also faster charge decay during the depolarisation, which is believed to be related to the interfacial layer between the nanoparticle and the base material. In this study, the space charge measurement methods, theoretical models, and experimental results are reviewed in detail. Space charge measurement methods have been greatly improved after more than 20 years development. The nature of the interfacial layer between the nanoparticle and the base material has been investigated in detail, and based on that, several models are proposed to explain some electrical experimental results of nanodielectrics. Furthermore, the parameters of nanoparticle (such as the type, size, amount, shape, and the surface modification), the experimental conditions, and the base material properties can strongly affect the space charge characteristics of nanodielectrics. This study will provide useful research results and conclusions for researchers, and may also be an overview for recent study and an outlook for future investigation on space charge characteristics of nanodielectrics.

ObjectiveDaytime cognitive impairment is an essential symptom of primary insomnia (PI). However, the underlying neural substrate remains largely unknown. Many studies have shown that the right anterior insula (rAI) as a key node of salience network (SN) plays a critical role in switching between the executive control network (ECN) and the default mode network (DMN) for better performance of cognitively demanding tasks. Aberrant effective connectivity (directional functional connectivity) of rAI with ECN or DMN may be one reason for daytime cognitive impairment in PI patients. Up to now, no effective connectivity study has been conducted on patients with PI during resting state. Our aim is to investigate the effective connectivity between the rAI and the other voxels in the whole brain in PI.Materials and methodsFifty drug-naive patients with PI and forty age- and sex-matched healthy controls were scanned using resting-state functional MRI. Seed-based Granger causality analysis was used to examine effective connectivity between the rAI, including ventral and dorsal part, and the whole brain. The effective connectivity was compared between the two groups and was correlated with clinical characteristics.ResultsCompared with controls, patients showed decreased effective connectivity from the rAI to the bilateral precuneus, the left postcentral gyrus (extending to bilateral precuneus) and the bilateral cerebellum posterior lobe, and decreased effective connectivity from the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to the rAI (single voxel P

Background: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a serious public health problem, which can often lead to multiorgan dysfunction, such as cerebrovascular disease and cognitive damage. It is essential to understand cognitive impairment in patients with ESRD to develop better ESRD treatment and prevent further cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment is believed to be related to structural abnormalities in the brain.Purpose: To investigate white matter microstructural abnormalities in patients with ESRD using TBSS analysis of DTI and to explore the possible mechanisms underlying the impaired cognitive function.Materials and Methods: A TBSS analysis of DTI data was to investigate the microstructural changes in their WM over the whole brain. We chose the white matter tracts or regions with significantly reduced FA as the regions of interest (ROIs), Pearson's correlations were performed between clinical indicators (Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), digit span task scores, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen and hemodialysis duration) and the mean FA value of the ROIs in the ESRD patients.Results: Lower FA and higher MD, AD and RD values were observed in widespread and symmetrical WM in ESRD patients than healthy controls (HCs), Pearson correlation analysis revealed a significantly positive correlation between the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and FA values in the right corona radiata and left anterior thalamic radiation (ATR) and demonstrated a significantly negative correlation between FA values and the serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in the ATR (P < 0.01) in addition, digit span task scores positively correlate with the FA value in the left anterior rather than in the corona radiata. No cluster survived when we adopted the False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction to multiple comparisons.Conclusion: Our study indicate widespread impairment of the white matter in ESRD patients. Damage to the thalamic radiation and corona radiata may affect cognitive function in ESRD patients, the reduced integrity of ATR may tend to affect the working memory while the damage to the corona radiata may involve the executive function impaired in ESRD patients. The accumulation of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen may contribute to the WM impairment.

Sonneratia apetala is a true mangrove distributed in South Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Here the whole chloroplast genome of S. apetala was assembled. The chloroplast genome was 153,052 bp in length, consisting of a large single copy (LSC) region of 87,210 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,026 bp, and two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 23,908 bp. It contained 131 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and eight rRNA genes. The overall GC content was 37.3%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that S. apetala was sister to Trapa maximowiczii in Lythraceae.

Central carbon metabolism is the main source of energy required by organisms and it provides precursors for other in vivo metabolic processes. The flux flowing through the pathways involved in central carbon metabolism characterizes its biological function and genetic readout between species or environments. In recent years, using a 13C tracer technique, researchers have measured the flux of central carbon metabolism in Corynebacterium glutamicum under a variety of nutritional and environmental changes or genetic modifications. However, there is no integrated and comparative analysis of these measured flux values. In this study, the flux values of central carbon metabolism in Corynebacterium glutamicum that were obtained in other recent studies were consolidated. A preliminary examination of the distribution characteristics of flux values in each metabolic pathway was conducted and the regression relationship between different fluxes was investigated. The principal components of the flux vector were further extracted and aggregated based on the components, and the general features of flux distribution of central carbon metabolism as well as the influence of environmental and genetic factors on the flux distribution were determined. This study provides a foundation for further investigation into the flux distribution and regulation characteristics of central carbon metabolism.

Brucella is a Gram-negative facultative intracellular pathogen that causes the worldwide zoonosis, known as brucellosis. Brucella virulence relies mostly on its ability to invade and replicate within phagocytic cells. The type IV secretion system (T4SS) and lipopolysaccharide are two major Brucella virulence factors. Brucella rough mutants reportedly induce the death of infected macrophages, which is T4SS dependent. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this study, the T4SS secretion capacities of Brucella rough mutant and its smooth wild-type strain were comparatively investigated, by constructing the firefly luciferase fused T4SS effector, BPE123 and VceC. In addition, quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting were used to analyze the T4SS expression. The results showed that T4SS expression and secretion were enhanced significantly in the Brucella rough mutant. We also found that the activity of the T4SS virB operon promoter was notably increased in the Brucella rough mutant, which depends on quorum sensing-related regulators of VjbR upregulation. Cell infection and cell death assays revealed that deletion of vjbR in the Brucella rough mutant absolutely abolished cytotoxicity within macrophages by downregulating T4SS expression. This suggests that up-regulation of T4SS promoted by VjbR in rough mutant ΔrfbE contribute to macrophage death. In addition, we found that the Brucella rough mutant induce macrophage death via activating IRE1α pathway of endoplasmic reticulum stress. Taken together, our study provide evidence that in comparison to the Brucella smooth wild-type strain, VjbR upregulation in the Brucella rough mutant increases transcription of the virB operon, resulting in overexpression of the T4SS gene, accompanied by the over-secretion of effecter proteins, thereby causing the death of infected macrophages via activating IRE1α pathway of endoplasmic reticulum stress, suggesting novel insights into the molecular mechanisms associated with Brucella rough mutant-induced macrophage cytotoxicity.

In yeast, DNA breaks are usually repaired by homologous recombination (HR). An early step for HR pathways is formation of a heteroduplex, in which a single-strand from the broken DNA molecule pairs with a strand derived from an intact DNA molecule. If the two strands of DNA are not identical, there will be mismatches within the heteroduplex DNA (hetDNA). In wild-type strains, these mismatches are repaired by the mismatch repair (MMR) system, producing a gene conversion event. In strains lacking MMR, the mismatches persist. Most previous studies involving hetDNA formed during mitotic recombination were restricted to one locus. Below, we present a global mapping of hetDNA formed in the MMR-defective mlh1 strain. We find that many recombination events are associated with repair of double-stranded DNA gaps and/or involve Mlh1-independent mismatch repair. Many of our events are not explicable by the simplest form of the double-strand break repair model of recombination.

National annual inventories of CO2 emitted during fossil fuel consumption (FFCO2) bear 5–10% uncertainties for developed countries, and are likely higher at intra annual scales or for developing countries. Given the current international efforts of mitigating actions, there is a need for independent verifications of these inventories. Atmospheric inversion assimilating atmospheric gradients of CO2 and radiocarbon measurements could provide an independent way of monitoring FFCO2 emissions. A strategy would be to deploy such measurements over continental scale networks and to conduct continental to global scale atmospheric inversions targeting the national and one-month scale budgets of the emissions. Uncertainties in the high-resolution distribution of the emissions could limit the skill for such a large-scale inversion framework. This study assesses the impact of such uncertainties on the potential for monitoring the emissions at large scale. In practice, it is more specifically dedicated to the derivation, typical quantification and analysis of critical sources of errors that affect the inversion of FFCO2 emissions when solving for them at a relatively coarse resolution with a coarse grid transport model. These errors include those due to the mismatch between the resolution of the transport model and the spatial variability of the actual fluxes and concentrations (i.e. the representation errors) and those due to the uncertainties in the spatial and temporal distribution of emissions at the transport model resolution when solving for the emissions at large scale (i.e. the aggregation errors). We show that the aggregation errors characterize the impact of the corresponding uncertainties on the potential for monitoring the emissions at large scale, even if solving for them at the transport model resolution. We propose a practical method to quantify these sources of errors, and compare them with the precision of FFCO2 measurements (i.e. the measurement errors) and the errors in the modelling of atmospheric transport (i.e. the transport errors). The results show that both the representation and measurement errors can be much larger than the aggregation errors. The magnitude of representation and aggregation errors is sensitive to sampling heights and temporal sampling integration time. The combination of these errors can reach up to about 50% of the typical signals, i.e. the atmospheric large-scale mean afternoon FFCO2 gradients between sites being assimilated by the inversion system. These errors have large temporal auto-correlation scales, but short spatial correlation scales. This indicates the need for accounting for these temporal auto-correlations in the atmospheric inversions and the need for dense networks to limit the impact of these errors on the inversion of FFCO2 emissions at large scale. More generally, comparisons of the representation and aggregation errors to the errors in simulated FFCO2 gradients due to uncertainties in current inventories suggest that the potential of inversions using global coarse-resolution models (with typical horizontal resolution of a couple of degrees) to retrieve FFCO2 emissions at sub-continental scale could be limited, and that meso-scale models with smaller representation errors would effectively increase the potential of inversions to constrain FFCO2 emission estimates.

The inductive detection of wear debris in lubrication oil is an effective method to monitor the machine status. As the wear debris is usually micro scale, a micro inductive sensor is always used to detect them in research papers or high-tech products. However, the improvement of detection sensitivity for micro inductive sensors is still a great challenge, especially for early wear debris of 20 μm or smaller diameter. This paper proposes a novel method to improve the detection sensitivity of a micro inductive sensor. Regarding the magnetic powder surrounding the sensor, the magnetic field in the core of the sensor where the wear debris pass through would be enhanced due to the increased relative permeability. Thus, the inductive signal would be improved and the detection sensitivity would be increased. It is found that the inductive signal would linearly increase with increasing the concentration of the magnetic powder and this enhancement would also be effective for wear debris of different sizes. In addition, the detection limit of the micro inductive sensor used in our experiment could be extended to 11 μm wear debris by the proposed method.

Atmospheric CO _2 observations have the potential to monitor regional fossil fuel emission (FFCO _2 ) changes to support carbon mitigation efforts such as the Paris Accord, but they must contend with the confounding impacts of the natural carbon cycle. Here, we quantify trend detection time and magnitude in gridded total CO _2 fluxes—the sum of FFCO _2 and natural carbon fluxes—under an idealized assumption that monthly total CO _2 fluxes can be perfectly resolved at a 2°×2° resolution. Using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) ‘business-as-usual’ emission scenarios to represent FFCO _2 and simulated net biome exchange (NBE) to represent natural carbon fluxes, we find that trend detection time for the total CO _2 fluxes at such a resolution has a median of 10 years across the globe, with significant spatial variability depending on FFCO _2 magnitude and NBE variability. Differences between trends in the total CO _2 fluxes and the underlying FFCO _2 component highlight the role of natural carbon cycle variability in modulating regional detection of FFCO _2 emission trends using CO _2 observations alone, particularly in the tropics and subtropics where mega-cities with large populations are developing rapidly. Using CO _2 estimates alone at such a spatiotemporal resolution can only quantify fossil fuel trends in a few places—mostly limited to arid regions. For instance, in the Middle East, FFCO _2 can explain more than 75% of the total CO _2 trends in ∼70% of the grids, but only ∼20% of grids in China can meet such criteria. Only a third of the 25 megacities we analyze here show total CO _2 trends that are primarily explained (>75%) by FFCO _2 . Our analysis provides a theoretical baseline at a global scale for the design of regional FFCO _2 monitoring networks and underscores the importance of estimating biospheric interannual variability to improve the accuracy of FFCO _2 trend monitoring. We envision that this can be achieved with a fully integrated carbon cycle assimilation system with explicit constraints on FFCO _2 and NBE, respectively.

Nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation has received increasing attention due to its robustness against control errors and high-speed realization. The original protocol of nonadiabatic holonomic one-qubit gates has been experimentally demonstrated with a superconducting transmon qutrit. However, it requires two noncommuting gates to complete an arbitrary one-qubit gate, doubling the exposure time of the gate to error sources and thus leaving the gate vulnerable to environment-induced decoherence. Single-shot protocol has been subsequently proposed to realize an arbitrary one-qubit nonadiabatic holonomic gate. In this paper, a single-shot protocol of nonadiabatic holonomic gates is experimentally demonstrated by using a superconducting Xmon qutrit, with all the single-qubit Clifford gates carried out by a single-shot implementation. Characterized by quantum process tomography and randomized benchmarking, the single-shot gates reach a fidelity exceeding 99%.

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing has promising therapeutic potential for genetic diseases and cancers, but safety could be a concern. Here we use whole genomic analysis by 10x linked-read sequencing and optical genome mapping to interrogate the genome integrity after editing and in comparison to four parental cell lines. In addition to the previously reported large structural variants at on-target sites, we identify heretofore unexpected large chromosomal deletions (91.2 and 136 Kb) at atypical non-homologous off-target sites without sequence similarity to the sgRNA in two edited lines. The observed large structural variants induced by CRISPR-Cas9 editing in dividing cells may result in pathogenic consequences and thus limit the usefulness of the CRISPR-Cas9 editing system for disease modeling and gene therapy. In this work, our whole genomic analysis may provide a valuable strategy to ensure genome integrity after genomic editing to minimize the risk of unintended effects in research and clinical applications.