Search

Objective To investigate the mental health status of eight-year medical undergraduates in different academic years and to analyze the influencing factors, so as to put forward countermeasures to improve the mental health of students. Methods Questionnaires were used to investigate the mental health status of undergraduate medical students in grades 5 to 7 in our university. The differences among groups were analyzed according to different grades. The statistical methods of Chi-square test and Fisher exact test were used for data analysis. Results The recovery rate of the questionnaire was 96.5%, and 164 qualified questionnaires were obtained. Fourteen students (8.5%) had depression and 28(17%) had anxiety problems. Fifty-seven cases (34.76%) needed the help of self-rating questionnaire and 110 cases (67.07%) needed the help of depression and anxiety counseling. The proportion of demand for depression/anxiety counseling among sixth grade medical students was significantly higher than that of fifth grade (82% vs 50%; P＜0.05) and seventh grade (82% vs 57%; P＜0.05). As much as 86.67% of the seventh grade students had self-rating psychological questionnaires, higher than the fifth grade group (64.29%, P＜ 0.05) with no significant difference with the sixth grade group. Conclusions The mental health status of eight-year medical students in different learning stages is different, and there are emotional adjustment disorders different degrees. Effective measures they need to support and psychologically intervention.

Vegetation restoration influences near soil-surface characteristics and thus likely affects soil erodibility. This study was performed to quantify the effects of vegetation restoration on soil erodibility on steep gully slopes, and to identify the potential influencing factors on the Loess Plateau. Three shrub and four grass types distributed on different gully slopes were selected, and six erodibility indicators and an integrated erodibility index (IEI) were applied to indirectly evaluate the effects of vegetation restoration on soil erodibility. The former included the soil erodibility K factor, aggregate stability (the mean weight diameter, MWD, and the mean number of drop impacts, MND), saturated hydraulic conductivity ([K.sub.s]), cohesion (Coh), and penetration resistance (PR), and the latter was calculated using these indicators and a weighted integration method. The results showed that vegetation restoration on steep gully slopes was effective in reducing soil erodibility on the Loess Plateau, and grasses seemed more effective than shrubs. Compared with the control, the K of vegetation-restored gully slopes decreased by 4.1-24.0%, and MWD, MND, [K.sub.s], Coh, and PR increased by 64.0-284.3, 51.4-269.5, 100.5-417.4, 10.1-172.2, and 63.3-278.9% respectively. Consequently, the IEI of the vegetation-restored gully slopes declined by 33.1-81.9%, and the mean reduction percentage of the four grasses was 1.5 times that of the three shrubs. The variation in soil erodibility was closely related to the changes in the soil organic matter content and root mass density with vegetation restoration. The results will help in understanding the soil conservation mechanisms of vegetation restoration on steep gully slopes.Additional keywords: revegetation, soil erosion, soil physical properties., IntroductionThe Loess Plateau of China is one of the regions in the world with large gullies and suffers from severe soil erosion, with a soil erosion rate of 5000-10000t [km.sup.-2] [...]

Respiration is an important metabolic basis for plant growth and development. The objective of this study is to compare the differences of taproot development characteristics, respiratory rate, respiratory key enzyme activity, gene expression, and energy change in different growth stages, and analyze the relationship between various respiratory physiological and sugar accumulation of sugar beet roots. In this study, four different genotypes of sugarbeet varieties were used as the experimental materials. The key enzyme activity and gene expression of respiratory metabolic pathway were determined, and respiratory pathway inhibitors were used at different growth stages. These results indicated the EMP-TCA was the main respiratory metabolic pathway during the growth process in beet taproot. No matter which respiratory pathway was inhibited, the weight and diameter of beet taproot can be reduced. Different respiratory metabolic pathways (EMP, TCA, and PPP) all played the important roles in promoting taproot expansion. In conclusions, this study laid a theoretical foundation for further research on the physiological mechanism of sugarbeet taproot, and provided physiological indicators for the breeding and identifying high-yield sugarbeet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and genetic factors play important roles in the development of schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD) or major depressive disorder (MDD). Some risk loci are identified with shared genetic effects on major psychiatric disorders. To investigate whether SNX29 gene played a significant role in these psychiatric disorders in the Han Chinese population. We focussed on 11 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) harbouring SNX29 gene and carried out case–control studies in patients with SCZ (n = 1248), BPD (n = 1344), or MDD (n = 1056), and 1248 healthy controls (HC) recruited from the Han Chinese population. We constructed weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and extracted significant modules by R package. We found that rs3743592 was significantly associated with MDD and rs6498263 with BPD in both allele and genotype distributions. Before correction, rs3743592 showed allelic and genotypic significance with SCZ, rs6498263 showed allelic significance with SCZ. WGCNA identified top 10 modules of co-expressed genes. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway analysis were used to examine the functions of SNX29, which revealed that SNX29 was involved in the regulation of a number of biological processes, such as TGF-beta, ErbB, and Wnt signalling pathway, etc. Our results supported common risk factors in SNX29 might share among these three mental disorders in the Han Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]