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BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is associated with common mental health problems. However, evidence for the association between fear of COVID-19 and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is limited. ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine if fear of negative events affects Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) scores in the context of a COVID-19–fear-invoking environment. MethodsAll participants were medical university students and voluntarily completed three surveys via smartphone or computer. Survey 1 was conducted on February 8, 2020, following a 2-week-long quarantine period without classes; survey 2 was conducted on March 25, 2020, when participants had been taking online courses for 2 weeks; and survey 3 was conducted on April 28, 2020, when no new cases had been reported for 2 weeks. The surveys comprised the Y-BOCS and the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS); additional items included questions on demographics (age, gender, only child vs siblings, enrollment year, major), knowledge of COVID-19, and level of fear pertaining to COVID-19. ResultsIn survey 1, 11.3% of participants (1519/13,478) scored ≥16 on the Y-BOCS (defined as possible OCD). In surveys 2 and 3, 3.6% (305/8162) and 3.5% (305/8511) of participants had scores indicative of possible OCD, respectively. The Y-BOCS score, anxiety level, quarantine level, and intensity of fear were significantly lower at surveys 2 and 3 than at survey 1 (P

Background: The kidney-brain crosstalk has been involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) with the mechanism remaining unclear. The anti-aging factor Klotho was reported to attenuate both kidney injury and AD pathologies. Objective: To investigate whether plasma Klotho participated in kidney-brain crosstalk in AD. Methods: We enrolled 33 PiB-PET-positive AD patients and 33 amyloid-β (Aβ)-negative age- and sex-matched cognitively normal (CN) controls from the Chongqing Ageing & Dementia Study (CADS). The levels of plasma Klotho, Aβ, and tau in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: We found higher plasma Klotho and lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels in AD patients compared with CN. The eGFR was positively associated with Aβ42, Aβ40 levels in CSF and negatively associated with CSF T-tau levels. Plasma Klotho levels were both negatively correlated with CSF Aβ42 and eGFR. Mediation analysis showed that plasma Klotho mediated 24.96% of the association between eGFR and CSF Aβ42. Conclusion: Renal function impacts brain Aβ metabolism via the kidney-brain crosstalk, in which the plasma Klotho may be involved as a mediator. Targeting Klotho to regulate the kidney-brain crosstalk provides potential therapeutic approaches for AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia with a complex genetic background. The cause of sporadic AD (sAD) remains largely unknown. Increasing evidence shows that genetic variations play a crucial role in sAD. P75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR, encoded by NGFR) plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of AD. Yet, the relationship between NGFR gene polymorphisms and AD was less studied. This study aims to analyze the relationship of NGFR gene polymorphism with the risk of AD in the Chinese Han population and amyloid‐β deposition in the ADNI cohort. Methods: This case–control association study was conducted in a Chinese Han cohort consisting of 366 sporadic AD (sAD) patients and 390 age‐ and sex‐matched controls. Twelve tag‐SNPs were selected and genotyped with a multiplex polymerase chain reaction‐ligase detection reaction (PCR‐LDR) method. The associations between tag‐SNPs and the risk of AD were analyzed by logistic regression. Moreover, another cohort from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database was included to examine the association of one tag‐SNP (rs2072446) with indicators of amyloid deposition. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were used to test the predictive abilities of rs2072446 genotypes for AD progression. The mediation effects of Aβ deposition on this association were subsequently tested by mediation analyses. Results: After multiple testing corrections, one tag‐SNP, rs2072446, was associated with an increased risk of sAD (additive model, OR = 1.79, Padjustment = 0.0144). Analyses of the ADNI cohort showed that the minor allele (T) of rs2072446 was significantly associated with the heavier Aβ burden, which further contributed to an increased risk of AD progression in APOE ε4 non‐carrier. Conclusion: Our study found that rs2072446 in NGFR is associated with both the risk of sAD in the Chinese Han population and the amyloid burden in the ADNI cohort, which reveals the role of p75NTR in AD from a genetic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A previous study demonstrated that nearly 40%–60% of brain Aβ flows out into the peripheral system for clearance. However, where and how circulating Aβ is cleared in the periphery remains unclear. The spleen acts as a blood filter and an immune organ. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the spleen in the clearance of Aβ in the periphery. Methods: We investigated the physiological clearance of Aβ by the spleen and established a mouse model of AD and spleen excision by removing the spleens of APP/PS1 mice to investigate the effect of splenectomy on AD mice. Results: We found that Aβ levels in the splenic artery were higher than those in the splenic vein, suggesting that circulating Aβ is cleared when blood flows through the spleen. Next, we found that splenic monocytes/macrophages could take up Aβ directly in vivo and in vitro. Splenectomy aggravated behaviour deficits, brain Aβ burden and AD‐related pathologies in AD mice. Conclusion: Our study reveals for the first time that the spleen exerts a physiological function of clearing circulating Aβ in the periphery. Our study also suggests that splenectomy, which is a routine treatment for splenic rupture and hypersplenism, might accelerate the development of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel genus and species within the order Glissmonadida (Cercozoa, Rhizaria), Saccharomycomorphapsychra n. g., n. sp., is described from lichen in the Ny‐Ålesund region (High Arctic) and moss in the Fildes peninsula of King George Island (Maritime Antarctica). Cells were spherical and did not appear to present flagella in organic‐rich Potato Dextrose Agar medium where they were able to feed osmotrophically. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on 18S rRNA gene sequence demonstrated that Saccharomycomorphapsychra belong to "clade T" within the order Glissmonadida (Cercozoa, Rhizaria). All three investigated strains could grow at 4 °C and had an optimum growth temperature of 12 °C, 20 °C, and 20 °C, while a maximum growth temperature of 20 °C, 20 °C, and 25 °C, respectively. In conclusion, we established the phenotypic identity of "clade T," which until now was exclusively detected by environmental sequences, and erect a new family Saccharomycomorphidae for "clade T." Nomenclatural, morphological and ecological aspects of this novel species are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT At present, the metallic interconnects of the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) can result in Cr poisoning problem of cathode after long‐term high‐temperature oxidation. Such problem seriously affects the efficiency of battery power generation. In order to optimize the performance of the metallic interconnect, this paper firstly studies the doping effect of rare earth element Y and metal element X (Co, Mn, Ni, Cu) on the diffusion behavior of Cr at the FeCr/Cr2O3 interface by the first principles method. The Cr diffusion pathway and energy barriers under different elemental doping models are calculated by CI‐NEB method. Based upon the theoretical results, the Mn1.8CoY0.2O4 spinel coating is further deposited on the surface of Crofer 22 APU substrate by sol–gel and electrophoretic deposition method to verify the theoretical results. The performance of the coating samples after high‐temperature oxidation are tested and analyzed. The experimental results show that the Mn1.8CoY0.2O4 spinel coating significantly improves the high‐temperature antioxidation, Cr resistance performance, and electrical conductivity of the interconnect, providing a feasible solution for solving the Cr poisoning problem in cathode and accelerating the application of Crofer 22 APU alloy materials in SOFC metallic interconnects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water inrush should been rapidly and accurately identified during preventing coalmine water inrush. The laser induced fluorescent (LIF) spectrum technology provides a new method to identify water inrush with the characteristics of high sensitivity, quick and accurate monitoring. In order to identify water inrush, this paper introduces the spectrum technology of LIF to obtain water inrush fluorescence spectra data. The spectral preprocessing methods of Savitzky-Golay(SG) and Multiplicative Scatter Correction (MSC) have been used to eliminate noise spectra in collecting process. Principal component analysis (PCA) extracts feature information, for SG reprocessing data, when the number of principal component is 3, the cumulative contribution rate can reach 99.76 percent. This method has largely retained the information of original data. This paper chooses the classification model with 3 layers BP neural network, constructing by different training and testing sets. The classification model with SG preprocessing has achieved accurate identification, however, appeared few false identification for MSC and original data. The result shows that SG preprocessing is better than MSC. Research results show that the classification model with PCA and BP neural network can effectively identify coalmine water inrush, and have the strong self-organizing, self-learning ability.

Rapid identification and classification of mine water inrush is important for flood prevention work underground. This paper proposed a method of KNN combined with PCA identification of water inrush in mine with the laser induced fluorescence spectrum with an immersion probe laser into water samples. The fluorescence spectra of 4 kinds of water samples were obtained. For each set of data preprocessing, the processed data in each sample from 15 sets of data as the training setwith a total of 60 groups. The other 20 groups were used as the prediction set. The data were processed by principal component analysis (PCA), and then the KNN algorithm was used to classify and identify the principal component analysis. During the experiment, the pretreatment method in the principal component number is 2 while the correct rate has reached 100% by KNN classification algorithm.

Rapid source identification of mine water inrush is of great significance for early warning and prevention in mine water hazard. According to the problem that traditional chemical methods to identify source takes a long time, put forward a method for rapid source identification of mine water inrush with laser induced fluorescence (LIF) technology and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) algorithm. Laser induced fluorescence technology has the characteristics of fast analysis, high sensitivity and so on. With the laser assisted, fluorescence spectrums can be collected real-time by the fluorescence spectrometer. According to the fluorescence spectrums, the type of water samples can be identified. If the database is completed, it takes a few seconds for coal mine water source identification, so it is of great significance for early warning and post-disaster relief in coal mine water disaster. The experiment uses 405 nm laser emission laser into the 5 kinds of water inrush samples and get 100 groups of fluorescence spectrum, and then put all fluorescence spectrums into preprocessing. Use 15 group spectrums of each water inrush samples, a total of 75 group spectrums, as the prediction set, the rest of 25 groups spectrums as the test set. Using principal component analysis (PCA) to modeling the 5 kinds of water samples respectively, and then classify the water samples with SIMCA on the basis of the PCA model. It was found that the fluorescence spectrum are obvious different of different water inrush samples. The fluorescence spectrums after preprocessing of Gaussian-Filter, under the condition of the principal component number is 2 and the significant level α = 5%, the accuracy of prediction set and testing set are all 100% with the SIMCA to classify the water inrush samples.

The ferric iron absorption is one of the most important limiting factors of bacterial growth of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. It has been previously speculated that r p f F xoo might be involved in the ferric iron metabolism of the pathogen. In the present study, deltar p f F xoo, a gene deletion mutant, was generated from the wild-type strain PXO99A of Xoo through the homologous recombination, and Fe content was assayed using flame atomic absorption in PXO99A and deltar p f F xoo. The results indicated that the recovery was 99.7% and the relative standard deviation was 1.89 under optimized AAS operating conditions. The increase in Fe absorption in PXO99A and deltar p f F xoo was observed with the increasing time. However, the ferric content of deltar p f F xoo was significantly lower than that of PXO99A (P < 0.05). It is suggested that r p f F xoo is involved in iron metabolism in Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.