Search

The colonization of land by animals was a milestone in the history of life. Approximately 100 million years before full terrestrialization, early animals sporadically traversed emergent subaerial substrates, leaving behind trace fossils recording their activities. However, identifying temporarily emergent environments and determining the affinities, motility and subaerial endurance of the trace-makers, and the timing and magnitude of their impacts on marginal-marine environments, are challenging. Here, we used semi-resolved computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method coupling to simulate trace formation on non-cohesive sediments in submerged and emergent subaerial conditions. This revealed instability-induced morphological signatures that allow us to identify the earliest terrestrial trace fossils. Quantitative metrics enable us to infer that the putative earliest terrestrial trace-makers were molluscs, and dimensional analysis suggests that their subaerial excursions could last at least 15 min. These organisms navigated emergent environments from the early Cambrian (stage 2), tens of millions of years earlier than arthropods. This quantitative paradigm provides new insights into the palaeobiology of the earliest subaerial bulldozers and highlights that mollusc-like animals were among the first ecosystem engineers to enter marginal-marine settings. They may thus have contributed to the establishment of marginal-marine biogeochemical cycles, laying the groundwork for subsequent terrestrialization by other animals.

Objective: To analyze the short-term clinical efficacy and safety of arsenic trioxide (ATO) combined with a modified N7 induction regimen in the treatment of children with high-risk neuroblastoma (NB). Methods: This study was a prospective, single-arm, multicenter phase Ⅱ clinical study. Sixty-seven high-risk NB children from eight units of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Wuhan Children's Hospital of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Hainan General Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Kunming Children's Hospital, Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Guangdong Provincial Agricultural Reclamation Center Hospital were enrolled from January 2019 to August 2023 and were treated with ATO combined with a modified N7 induction regimen. The efficacy and adverse effects at the end of induction chemotherapy were assessed and analyzed, and the differences in the clinical characteristics were further compared between the treatment-responsive and treatment-unresponsive groups by using the Fisher's exact test. Results: Among 67 high-risk NB children, there were 40 males (60%) and 27 females (40%), with the age of disease onset of 3.5 (2.6, 4.8) years. Primary NB sites were mostly in retroperitoneum (including adrenal gland) (56/67, 84%) and the common metastases sites at initial diagnosis were distant lymph node in 25 cases (37%),bone in 48 cases (72%),bone marrow in 56 cases (84%) and intracalvarium in 3 cases (4%). MYCN gene amplification were detected in 28 cases (42%). At the end of induction, 33 cases (49%) achieved complete remission, 29 cases (43%) achieved partial remission, 1 case (1%) with stable disease, and 4 cases (6%) were assessed as progressive disease (PD). The objective remission rate was 93% (62/67) and the disease control rate was 94% (63/67). The percentage of central system metastases at the initial diagnosis was higher in the treatment-unresponsive group than in the treatment-responsive group (2/5 vs. 2% (1/62), P =0.013), whereas the difference in MYCN gene amplification was not statistically significant between two groups (3/5 vs. 40% (25/62), P =0.786). Grade Ⅲ or higher adverse reactions during the induction chemotherapy period were myelosuppression occurred in 60 cases (90%), gastrointestinal symptoms occurred in 33 cases (49%), infections occurred in 20 cases (30%), hepatotoxicity occurred in 4 cases (6%), and cardiovascular toxicity occurred in 1 case (2%). There were no chemotherapy-related deaths. Conclusion: ATO combined with N7-modified induction regimen had a superiority in efficacy and safety, which deserved further promotion in clinical practice.

Sponges are the most basal metazoan phylum 1 and may have played important roles in modulating the redox architecture of Neoproterozoic oceans 2 . Although molecular clocks predict that sponges diverged in the Neoproterozoic era 3,4 , their fossils have not been unequivocally demonstrated before the Cambrian period 5-8 , possibly because Precambrian sponges were aspiculate and non-biomineralized 9 . Here we describe a late-Ediacaran fossil, Helicolocellus cantori gen. et sp. nov., from the Dengying Formation (around 551-539 million years ago) of South China. This fossil is reconstructed as a large, stemmed benthic organism with a goblet-shaped body more than 0.4 m in height, with a body wall consisting of at least three orders of nested grids defined by quadrate fields, resembling a Cantor dust fractal pattern. The resulting lattice is interpreted as an organic skeleton comprising orthogonally arranged cruciform elements, architecturally similar to some hexactinellid sponges, although the latter are built with biomineralized spicules. A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis resolves H. cantori as a crown-group sponge related to the Hexactinellida. H. cantori confirms that sponges diverged and existed in the Precambrian as non-biomineralizing animals with an organic skeleton. Considering that siliceous biomineralization may have evolved independently among sponge classes 10-13 , we question the validity of biomineralized spicules as a necessary criterion for the identification of Precambrian sponge fossils., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Late Ediacaran strata from Newfoundland, Canada (~574-560 Ma) document near-census palaeocommunities of some of the earliest metazoans. Such preservation enables reproductive strategies to be inferred from the spatial distribution of populations of fossilized benthic organisms, previously revealing the existence of both propagule and stoloniferous reproductive modes among Ediacaran frondose taxa. Here, we describe 'conga lines': linear arrangements of more than three closely spaced fossil specimens. We calculate probabilistic models of point maps of 13 fossil-bearing bedding surfaces and show that four surfaces contain conga lines that are not the result of chance alignments. We then test whether these features could result from passive pelagic propagules settling in the lee of an existing frond, using computational fluid dynamics and discrete phase modelling. Under Ediacaran palaeoenvironmental conditions, preferential leeside settlement at the spatial scale of the conga lines is unlikely. We therefore conclude that these features are novel and do not reflect previously described reproductive strategies employed by Ediacaran organisms, suggesting the use of mixed reproductive strategies in the earliest animals. Such strategies enabled Ediacaran frondose taxa to act as reproductive generalists and may be an important facet of early metazoan evolution., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Food-related studies often categorize foods using criteria such as fat and sugar content (e.g., high-fat, high-sugar foods; low-fat, low-sugar foods), and use these categorizations for further analyses. While these criteria are relevant to nutritional health, it is unclear whether they agree with the ways in which we typically group foods. Do these objective categories correspond to our subjective sense? To address this question, we recruited a group of 487 online participants to perform a triplet comparison task involving implicit object similarity judgements on images of 36 foods, which varied in their levels of fat and sugar. We also acquired subjective ratings of other food properties from another set of 369 online participants. Data from the online triplet task was used to generate a similarity matrix of these 36 foods. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of this matrix identified that the strongest determinant of food similarity (the first PC) was most highly related to participants' judgements of how processed the foods were, while the second component was most related to estimates of sugar and fat content. K-means clustering analysis revealed five emergent food groupings along these PC axes: sweets, fats, starches, fruits, and vegetables. Our results suggest that naturalistic categorizations of food are driven primarily by knowledge of the origin of foods (i.e., grown or manufactured), rather than by their sensory or macronutrient properties. These differences should be considered and explored when developing methods for scientific food studies.

Objective: Glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) deficiency is a rare hereditary nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia caused by GPI gene variants. This disorder exhibits wide heterogeneity in its clinical manifestations and molecular characteristics, often posing challenges for precise diagnoses using conventional methods. To this end, this study aimed to identify the novel variants responsible for GPI deficiency in a Chinese family., Methods: The clinical manifestations of the patient were summarized and analyzed for GPI deficiency phenotype diagnosis. Novel compound heterozygous variants of the GPI gene, c.174C>A (p.Asn58Lys) and c.1538G>T (p.Trp513Leu), were identified using whole-exome and Sanger sequencing. The AlphaFold program and Chimera software were used to analyze the effects of compound heterozygous variants on GPI structure., Results: By characterizing 53 GPI missense/nonsense variants from previous literature and two novel missense variants identified in this study, we found that most variants were located in exons 3, 4, 12, and 18, with a few localized in exons 8, 9, and 14. This study identified novel compound heterozygous variants associated with GPI deficiency. These pathogenic variants disrupt hydrogen bonds formed by highly conserved GPI amino acids., Conclusion: Early family-based sequencing analyses, especially for patients with congenital anemia, can help increase diagnostic accuracy for GPI deficiency, improve child healthcare, and enable genetic counseling., (© 2024. Huazhong University of Science and Technology.)

Objective: Hemophilia carriers (HCs), who are heterozygous for mutations in the clotting factor VIII/clotting factor IX gene (F8 or F9), may have a wide range of clotting factor levels, from very low, similar to afflicted males, to the upper limit of normal, and may experience mental health issues. The purpose of this study was to provide genetic information on mothers of hemophilia patients and to understand the clotting factor activity and phenotype of HCs. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the mental health status of HCs in China., Methods: A total of 127 hemophilia mothers, including 93 hemophilia A (HA) mothers and 34 hemophilia B (HB) mothers, were enrolled in this study. Long distance PCR, multiplex PCR, and Sanger sequencing were used to analyze mutations in F8 or F9. Coagulation factor activity was detected by a one-stage clotting assay. The Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90, China/Mandarin version) was given to HCs at the same time to assess their mental health., Results: A total of 90.6% of hemophilia mothers were diagnosed genetically as carriers, with inversion in intron 22 and missense mutations being the most common mutation types in HA and HB carriers, respectively. The median clotting factor level in carriers was 0.74 IU/mL (ranging from 0.09 to 1.74 IU/mL) compared with 1.49 IU/mL (ranging from 0.93 to 1.89 IU/mL) in noncarriers, of which 14.3% of HCs had clotting factor levels of 0.40 IU/mL or below. A total of 53.8% (7/13) of HA carriers with low clotting factor levels (less than 0.50 IU/mL) had a history of bleeding, while none of the HB carriers displayed a bleeding phenotype. The total mean score and the global severity index of the SCL-90 for surveyed HCs were 171.00 (±60.37) and 1.78 (±0.59), respectively. A total of 67.7% of the respondents had psychological symptoms, with obsessive-compulsive disorder being the most prevalent and severe. The pooled estimates of all nine factors were significantly higher than those in the general population (P<0.05)., Conclusions: The detection rate of gene mutations in hemophilia mothers was 90.6%, with a median clotting factor level of 0.74 IU/mL, and 14.3% of HCs had a clotting factor level of 0.40 IU/mL or below. A history of bleeding was present in 41.2% of HCs with low clotting factor levels (less than 0.50 IU/mL). Additionally, given the fragile mental health status of HCs in China, it is critical to develop efficient strategies to improve psychological well-being., (© 2024. Huazhong University of Science and Technology.)

Aim: To explore the brain mechanism of acupuncture for children with anisometropic amblyopia using the voxel-mirror homotopic connectivity (VMHC) analysis method of resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) technology based on clinical effectiveness., Methods: Eighty children with anisometropic monocular amblyopia were randomly divided into two groups: control (40 cases, 1 case of shedding) and acupuncture (40 cases, 1 case of shedding) groups. The control group was treated with glasses, red flash, grating, and visual stimulations, with each procedure conducted for 5min per time. Based on routine treatment, the acupuncture group underwent acupuncture of "regulating qi and unblocking meridians to bright eyes", Jingming (BL1), Cuanzhu (BL2), Guangming (GB37), Fengchi (GB20) acupoints were taken on both sides, with the needle kept for 30min each time. Both groups were treated once every other day, three times per week, for a total of 4wk. After the treatment, the overall curative effect of the two groups and the latency and amplitude changes of P100 wave of pattern visual-evoked potential were counted. At the same time, nine children with left eye amblyopia were randomly selected from the two groups and were scanned with rs-fMRI before and after treatment. The differences in the brain regions between the two groups were compared and analyzed with VMHC., Results: Chi-square test showed a notable difference in the total efficiency rate between the acupuncture (94.87%) and control groups (79.49%). Regarding the P100 wave latency and amplitude, the acupuncture group had significantly shorter latency and higher amplitude of P100 wave than the control group. Moreover, the VMHC values of the bilateral temporal lobe, superior temporal gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus were notably increased in the acupuncture group after treatment., Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with conventional treatment can significantly improve the corrected visual acuity and optic nerve conduction in children with anisometropic amblyopia. Compared with the conventional treatment, the regulation of acupuncture on the functional activities of the relevant brain areas in the anterior cerebellum may be an effective acupuncture mechanism for anisometropic amblyopia., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: Wang J, None; Jia J, None; Sun Y, None; Ma CB, None; Chen YZ, None; Liu AG, None; Yan XK, None., (International Journal of Ophthalmology Press.)

Conventional photoresponsive materials have low photon utilization due to irregular distribution of photoactive groups, which severely limits the related real applications. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can modulate the regular arrangement of functional groups to improve the electron transport paths and enhance the photon utilization, which provides strong support for the development of photoactive materials with excellent performance. In this work, one effective strategy for constructing a photoactive MOF had been developed via the utilization of Cd 2+ and pyrazinoquinoxaline tetracarboxylic acid. The structural advantages of the Cd-MOF, such as a porous structure, abundant subject-object interaction sites, and a stable framework, ensure the prerequisite for various applications, while the better synergistic effect of Cd 3 clusters and the pyrazinoquinoxaline derivative ensures efficient electron transfer efficiency. Therefore, by virtue of these structural advantages, the Cd-MOF can achieve fluorescence quenching detection for a variety of substrates, such as Fe 3+ , Cr 2 O 7 2- , MnO 4 - , nitrofuran antibiotics, and TNP explosives, while fluorescence enhancement detection can be achieved for halogen ions, Cs + , Pb 2+ , and NO 2 - . In addition, the Cd-MOF can be used as a photocatalyst to successfully achieve the photocatalytic conversion of benzylamine to N-benzylbenzimidate under mild conditions. Thus, the Cd-MOF as a whole shows the possibility of application as a diverse fluorescence detection and photocatalyst and also illustrates the feasibility of preparing high-performance photoactive materials using the pyrazinoquinoxaline derivative.

HLA-DQB1*06:208:02 differs from HLA-DQB1*06:02:02 by one nucleotide in exon 2., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of targeted sealing with high viscosity bone cement and secondary injection of low viscosity bone cement in the treatment of OVCFs patients with the fracture lines involved vertebral body margin., Methods: The elderly patients who underwent vertebroplasty for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures from January 2019 to September 2021 were selected as the screening objects. Through relevant standards and further CT examination, 56 patients with fracture lines involving the anterior wall or upper and lower endplates of the vertebral body were selected for the study. There were 21 males and 35 females, aged from 67 to 89 years old with an average of (76.58±9.68) years. All 56 patients underwent secondary injection of bone cement during operation. Only a small amount of high viscosity cement was targeted to seal the edge of the vertebral body for the first time, and low viscosity cement was injected to the vertebral bodies during second bolus with well-distributed. The operation time, bone cement volume and bone cement leakage were recorded, and the pain relief was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS)., Results: All patients were followed up for more than 3 months and the surgeries were successfully complete. The operation time was (50.41±10.30) min and the bone cement volume was (3.64±1.29) ml. The preoperative VAS was (7.21±2.41) points, which decreased significantly to (2.81±0.97) points 3 days after operation( P <0.05). Among the 56 patients, 2 cases(3.57%) had bone cement leakage, 1 case leaked to the paravertebral vein, and 1 case slightly bulged to the paravertebral through the crack when plugging the vertebral crack. Both patients had no obvious clinical symptoms., Conclusion: In vertebroplasty surgery, targeted sealing of high viscosity bone cement and secondary injection of low viscosity bone cement can reduce intraoperative bone cement leakage and improve the safety of operation.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of the Hodgkin lymphoma (HL)-2013 regimen in the treatment of children with HL, and to investigate the prognostic factors of childhood HL. Methods: Clinical data of 145 children (aged ≤18 years) with newly diagnosed HL, treated with HL-2013 regimen in 8 tertiary referral centers for childhood cancer from August 2011 to April 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. All the diagnosis were confirmed by histopathological morphology and immunohistochemical examination. The clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were summarized, and the patients were divided into different groups according to clinical characteristics. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis, and the comparison of survival rates between groups was performed with Log-rank test. Results: Of the 145 cases, there were 115 males and 30 females, the age at diagnosis was 7.9 (5.8, 10.6) years. Cervical lymph node enlargement (114 cases, 78.6%) was the common symptom of the disease, and 57 patients (39.3%) were accompanied by large masses. The most common pathological classification was mixed cell type (93 cases, 64.1%). According to the Ann Arbor staging system, there were 9 cases of stage Ⅰ, 62 cases of stage Ⅱ, 45 cases of stage Ⅲ, 29 cases of stage Ⅳ. According to the risk stratification: there were 14 cases of low-risk group, 76 cases of medium-risk group and 55 cases of high-risk group. Of all patients, 68 cases (46.9%) achieved an early complete remission (CR) after 2 courses of chemotherapy, and the CR rate was 93.8% (136/145) after first-line treatment. Disease recurrence or progression occurred in 22 cases (15.2%). Of all patients, 125 cases survived, 6 cases died and 14 cases were lost to follow-up. Among the survived cases, 123 cases were continuously at CR state,and the follow-up time was 55 (40, 76) months. The 5-year overall survival (OS) and event free survival (EFS) rates were (95.3±1.9)% and (84.2±3.0)% for the entire group, respectively. 5-year OS and EFS rates for patients with stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ were both lower than those for patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ (χ 2 =6.28 and 7.58, both P <0.05), the 5-year OS and EFS rates for patients in high-risk group were both lower than those for patients in low-risk and medium-risk group (χ 2 =10.93, 7.79, both P <0.05). The 5-year OS rates for the patient with early CR and without early CR were 100.0% and (90.9±3.6)% (χ 2 =5.77, P =0.016). EFS rates for the patient with early CR (68 cases) and without early CR (77 cases) were (93.8±3.0)% and (75.8±5.0)% (χ 2 =8.78, P =0.003). Conclusions: HL-2013 regimen is significantly effective in the treatment of pediatric HL. However, the patients in high-risk group and those without early CR are prone to disease recurrence or progression. Stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ and without early CR were associated with worse prognosis.

The functionalized design of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been rapidly developed in the last 20 years, and its broad applicability has been demonstrated in many fields. MOFs with desired functions can be assembled using predesigned organic linkers with specific metal nodes, which possess the ordered functional sites and open structures. Although a large number of carboxylic acid junctions have been used to construct MOFs, it is still a great challenge to realize their multifunctionality. In particular, there is a relative lack of research on MOFs as direct photocatalysts, which require not only abundant active sites and open structures but also adsorption groups and effective electron-hole separation performance. To this end, MOFs constructed from the carboxylic acid ligands derived from lophine-based derivatives and copper ions were deliberately used as a photocatalyst, and then, their application in dye degradation and aromatic alcohol conversion was investigated. In addition, in combination with the abundant Lewis sites of copper ions and imidazole sites, the material shows not only the adsorption and separation of C 2 series and dyes but also the application of dye degradation and conversion of aromatic alcohols under illumination conditions. The corresponding results fully illustrate that the MOF constructed by using lophine derivatives can be an effective way to prepare photocatalysts. The subsequent research ideas will focus on designing a series of MOFs constructed with multilinked moieties of lophine groups and exploring their application strategies in the field of photocatalysis.

The evidence for the safety and efficacy of adding rituximab to intensive chemotherapy in pediatric patients with aggressive mature B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma/leukemia (B-NHL/B-AL) is not yet robust. In this prospective multi-institutional trial, 419 evaluable patients ≤ 16 years of age with newly diagnosed B-NHL/B-AL were enrolled. Patients were stratified into 4 risk groups according to stage, resection status, and serum lactate dehydrogenase. Patients in group R1 received 3 therapy courses in the treatment order A-B-A. Patients in group R2 received 5 courses A-B-A-B-A. Patients in group R3 received 6 courses A-BB-AA-BB-AA-BB. For patients in group R4, rituximab was added to the chemotherapy backbone for patients in R3 (A-RBB-RAA-RBB-RAA-BB). At a median follow-up of 54 months, the 4-year event-free survival (EFS) for the entire group was 88.3 ± 1.6% (76.0 ± 4.3% in the historical study). The EFS rates according to the intention-to-treat principle were 100%, 98.6 ± 1.2%, 94.2 ± 1.8%, and 73.5 ± 3.7% for patients in treatment groups R1, R2, R3, and R4, respectively (P < 0.001). There were 9 (2.1%) toxic deaths due to infection during treatment. Regarding the toxicities of rituximab, grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia, mucositis, and infection occurred in 44.0%, 33.3%, and 64.0% after courses R-BB and grade 3/4 neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and infection occurred in 96.3%, 77.8%, and 54.1% after courses RAA. The addition of rituximab to intensive chemotherapy is feasible even in a developing country. EFS was significantly improved when compared with the historical data. clinicals.gov identifier: NCT02405676., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

"Parting is such sweet sorrow." Taste metaphors provide a rich vocabulary for describing emotional experience, potentially serving as an adaptive mechanism for conveying abstract emotional concepts using concrete verbal references to our shared experience. We theorized that the popularity of these expressions results from the close association with hedonic valence shared by these two domains of experience. To explore the possibility that this affective quality underlies the semantic similarity of these domains, we used a behavioral "odd-one-out" task in an online sample of 1059 participants in order to examine the semantic similarity of concepts related to emotion, taste, and color, another rich source of sensory metaphors. We found that the semantic similarity of emotion and taste concepts was greater than that of emotion and color concepts. Importantly, the similarity of taste and emotion concepts was strongly related to their similarity in hedonic valence, a relationship which was also significantly greater than that present between color and emotion. These results suggest that the common core of valence between taste and emotion concepts allows us to bridge the conceptual divide between our shared sensory environment and our internal emotional experience., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Avery, Liu, Carrington and Martin.)

Objective: In times of repeated disaster events, including natural disasters and pandemics, public health workers must recover rapidly to respond to subsequent events. Understanding predictors of time to recovery and developing predictive models of time to recovery can aid planning and management., Methods: We examined 681 public health workers (21-72 y, M(standard deviation [SD]) = 48.25(10.15); 79% female) 1 mo before (T1) and 9 mo after (T2) the 2005 hurricane season. Demographics, trauma history, social support, time to recover from previous hurricane season, and predisaster work productivity were assessed at T1. T2 assessed previous disaster work, initial emotional response, and personal hurricane injury/damage. The primary outcome was time to recover from the most recent hurricane event., Results: Multivariate analyses found that less support (T1; odds ratio [OR] = .74[95% confidence interval [CI] = .60-.92]), longer previous recovery time (T1; OR = 5.22[95%CI = 3.01-9.08]), lower predisaster work productivity (T1; OR = 1.98[95%CI = 1.08-3.61]), disaster-related personal injury/damage (T2; OR = 3.08[95%CI = 1.70-5.58]), and initial emotional response (T2; OR = 1.71[95%CI = 1.34-2.19]) were associated with longer recovery time (T2)., Conclusions: Recovery time was adversely affected in disaster responders with a history of longer recovery time, personal injury/damage, lower work productivity following prior hurricanes, and initial emotional response, whereas responders with social support had shorter recovery time. Predictors of recovery time should be a focus for disaster preparedness planners.

Objective: Community characteristics, such as collective efficacy, a measure of community strength, can affect behavioral responses following disasters. We measured collective efficacy 1 month before multiple hurricanes in 2005, and assessed its association to preparedness 9 months following the hurricane season., Methods: Participants were 631 Florida Department of Health workers who responded to multiple hurricanes in 2004 and 2005. They completed questionnaires that were distributed electronically approximately 1 month before (6.2005-T1) and 9 months after (6.2006-T2) several storms over the 2005 hurricane season. Collective efficacy, preparedness behaviors, and socio-demographics were assessed at T1, and preparedness behaviors and hurricane-related characteristics (injury, community-related damage) were assessed at T2. Participant ages ranged from 21-72 ( M ( SD ) = 48.50 (10.15)), and the majority were female (78%)., Results: In linear regression models, univariate analyses indicated that being older ( B = 0.01, SE = 0.003, P < 0.001), White ( B = 0.22, SE = 0.08, P < 0.01), and married ( B = 0.05, SE = 0.02, p < 0.001) was associated with preparedness following the 2005 hurricanes. Multivariate analyses, adjusting for socio-demographics, preparedness (T1), and hurricane-related characteristics (T2), found that higher collective efficacy (T1) was associated with preparedness after the hurricanes ( B = 0.10, SE = 0.03, P < 0.01; and B = 0.47, SE = 0.04, P < 0.001 respectively)., Conclusion: Programs enhancing collective efficacy may be a significant part of prevention practices and promote preparedness efforts before disasters.

We describe the development of an empirically-derived codebook for qualitative data concerning the impact of grief on the interpersonal relationships of bereaved individuals. Relatives ( N  = 39) of deceased military service members participated in focus groups concerning how grief influenced their relationships across multiple interpersonal domains, including family, friends, community, and with the deceased. Focus group transcripts were coded using a stepwise process consistent with grounded theory to identify and categorize recurrent themes. The process yielded a comprehensive codebook containing 44 nodes with definitions and examples. The codebook provides researchers with an empirically-grounded analytic tool for future studies on bereavement.

Shortened telomeres are associated with aging and age-related diseases. Oxidative stress is thought to be a major contributor to telomere shortening, and antioxidants may be able to mitigate these effects. Ergothioneine is a naturally occurring amino acid with potent antioxidant properties. In order to investigate ergothioneine's effects on telomere length, we cultured primary human fibroblasts under standard and oxidative (10 µM H 2 O 2 ) conditions and treated cells with 0.04, 0.1, 0.3, or 1.0 mg/ml ergothioneine for 8 weeks. Telomere length measurements were performed using high-throughput quantitative fluorescent in situ hybridization (HT Q-FISH). Treatment with ergothioneine transiently increased relative telomerase activity after 24 h ( p  < 0.05 for all concentrations). Under oxidative conditions, ergothioneine treatment resulted in significantly longer median telomere length and 20 th percentile telomere length, and significantly reduced the percentage of short telomeres (<3 kilobase pairs) for all treatment concentrations after 8 weeks. Telomere shortening rate was also reduced. Overall, ergothioneine demonstrated beneficial effects by decreasing the rate of telomere shortening and preserving telomere length under oxidative stress conditions. Our data support a potential role for ergothioneine in oxidative stress-related conditions and healthy aging.

A dinuclear dysprosium cluster [Dy 2 (NO 3 ) 4 (H 2 O) 2 (L) 2 ]·2CH 3 CN was successfully prepared by employing HL (HL = 2,6-dimethoxyphenol) and Dy(NO 3 ) 3 ·6H 2 O in a mixture of CH 3 OH and CH 3 CN. The conversion of this Dy 2 compound by reaction with additional deprotonated ligand generated a Dy 9 cluster [Dy 9 (μ 4 -OH) 2 (μ 3 -OH) 8 (μ 2 -OCH 3 ) 4 (NO 3 ) 8 (H 2 O) 8 (L) 4 ](OH)·2H 2 O with the well-known "diabolo" topology. Magnetic investigation revealed that both of the clusters exhibit typical SMM characteristics, and variable magnetic relaxation with the energy barrier changing from 217.87 K to 9.24 K along with the transition from a dinuclear dysprosium cluster to a nonanuclear one. Ab initio calculations further confirm the corresponding structure-activity relationships that originate the different magnetic behaviours. This design may afford a feasible strategy for modulating the magnetic relaxation dynamics of polynuclear systems.

Molecular timescales estimate that early animal lineages diverged tens of millions of years before their earliest unequivocal fossil evidence. The Ediacaran macrobiota (~574 to 538 million years ago) are largely eschewed from this debate, primarily due to their extreme phylogenetic uncertainty, but remain germane. We characterize the development of Charnia masoni and establish the affinity of rangeomorphs, among the oldest and most enigmatic components of the Ediacaran macrobiota. We provide the first direct evidence for the internal interconnected nature of rangeomorphs and show that Charnia was constructed of repeated branches that derived successively from pre-existing branches. We find homology and rationalize morphogenesis between disparate rangeomorph taxa, before producing a phylogenetic analysis, resolving Charnia as a stem-eumetazoan and expanding the anatomical disparity of that group to include a long-extinct bodyplan. These data bring competing records of early animal evolution into closer agreement, reformulating our understanding of the evolutionary emergence of animal bodyplans., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).)

Previous studies have shown that the conceptual representation of food involves brain regions associated with taste perception. The specificity of this response, however, is unknown. Does viewing pictures of food produce a general, nonspecific response in taste-sensitive regions of the brain? Or is the response specific for how a particular food tastes? Building on recent findings that specific tastes can be decoded from taste-sensitive regions of insular cortex, we asked whether viewing pictures of foods associated with a specific taste (e.g., sweet, salty, and sour) can also be decoded from these same regions, and if so, are the patterns of neural activity elicited by the pictures and their associated tastes similar? Using ultrahigh-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging at high magnetic field strength (7-Tesla), we were able to decode specific tastes delivered during scanning, as well as the specific taste category associated with food pictures within the dorsal mid-insula, a primary taste responsive region of brain. Thus, merely viewing food pictures triggers an automatic retrieval of specific taste quality information associated with the depicted foods, within gustatory cortex. However, the patterns of activity elicited by pictures and their associated tastes were unrelated, thus suggesting a clear neural distinction between inferred and directly experienced sensory events. These data show how higher-order inferences derived from stimuli in one modality (i.e., vision) can be represented in brain regions typically thought to represent only low-level information about a different modality (i.e., taste)., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

The broad-scale environment plays a substantial role in shaping modern marine ecosystems, but the degree to which palaeocommunities were influenced by their environment is unclear. To investigate how broad-scale environment influenced the community ecology of early animal ecosystems, we employed spatial point process analyses (SPPA) to examine the community structure of seven late Ediacaran (558-550 Ma) bedding-plane assemblages drawn from a range of environmental settings and global localities. The studied palaeocommunities exhibit marked differences in the response of their component taxa to sub-metre-scale habitat heterogeneities on the seafloor. Shallow-marine (nearshore) palaeocommunities were heavily influenced by local habitat heterogeneities, in contrast to their deeper-water counterparts. The local patchiness within shallow-water communities may have been further accentuated by the presence of grazers and detritivores, whose behaviours potentially initiated a propagation of increasing habitat heterogeneity of benthic communities from shallow to deep-marine depositional environments. Higher species richness in shallow-water Ediacaran assemblages compared to deep-water counterparts across the studied time-interval could have been driven by this environmental patchiness, because habitat heterogeneities increase species richness in modern marine environments. Our results provide quantitative support for the 'Savannah' hypothesis for early animal diversification-whereby Ediacaran diversification was driven by patchiness in the local benthic environment., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests., (© 2020 The Author(s).)

The SARS-CoV-2 infection status of hospitalized children was surveyed in the department of pediatric hematology and oncology in three different hospitals of epidemic areas in Hubei, China. A cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the clinical characteristics, lung CT scan, SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test and serum antibodies of hospitalized children with hemato-oncological diseases from January 23 to April 24, 2020. 299 children were enrolled in this study, including 176 males (58.9%) and 123 females (41.1%), aged from 2 months to 16 years. 255 cases (85.3%) received chemotherapy or other immunosuppressive therapies, and there were 44 cases (14.7%) of other benign diseases. Nucleic acid test was performed on 258 children (86.3%) and one case was positive. 163 cases (54.5%) were tested for serum antibodies, and all of them were negative. Lung CT scan was performed on 247 children (82.6%), and 107 of them showed infectious changes. Only one case (0.33%) of COVID-19 was diagnosed in the group. The prevalence rate of COVID-19 in enrolled children with hemato-oncological diseases in Hubei was 0.33%. Immunosuppressed patients are not prone to produce related antibodies. Comprehensive protective measures and ward management can reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the group patients.

SAC3 domain containing 1 (SAC3D1) has been reported to be involved in numerous types of cancer. However, the role of SAC3D1 in GC has not yet been elucidated. In the present study, the mRNA expression level of SAC3D1 between GC and normal tissues were assessed with a continuous variable meta‑analysis based on multiple datasets from public databases. The protein expression level of SAC3D1 in GC and normal tissues was assessed by an in‑house immunohistochemistry (IHC). The association between SAC3D1 expression and some clinical parameters was assessed based on the TCGA and IHC data. Survival analysis was performed to assess the association between SAC3D1 expression and the survival of GC patients. The co‑expressed genes of SAC3D1 were determined by integrating three online tools, and the enrichment analyses were performed to determine SAC3D1‑related pathways and hub co‑expressed genes. SAC3D1 was significantly upregulated in GC tumor tissues in comparison to normal tissues with the SMD being 0.45 (0.12, 0.79). The IHC results also indicated that SAC3D1 protein expression in GC tissues was markedly higher than in normal tissues. The SMD following the addition of the IHC data was 0.59 (0.11, 1.07). The protein levels of SAC3D1 were positively associated with the histological grade, T stage and N stage of GC (P<0.001). The TCGA data also revealed that the SAC3D1 mRNA level was significantly associated with the N stage (P<0.001). Moreover, prognosis analysis indicated that SAC3D1 was closely associated with the prognosis of patients with GC. Moreover, 410 co‑expressed genes of SAC3D1 were determined, and these genes were mainly enriched in the cell cycle. In total, 4 genes (CDK1, CCNB1, CCNB2 and CDC20) were considered key co‑expressed genes. On the whole, these findings demonstrate that SAC3D1 is highly expressed in GC and may be associated with the progression of GC.

The Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits and vegetables and includes an abundant intake of oleic-acid-rich olive oil. People who adhere to a Mediterranean diet have reduced risk for numerous chronic diseases. As obesity rates rise globally, people who choose to follow a traditional Mediterranean diet and/or make improvements in food choices may reduce their risk of metabolic dysfunction and disease. Incorporating non-traditional fruits and vegetables into the Mediterranean diet could provide greater flexibility in suitable food choices for people who struggle to adhere to recommended healthy dietary patterns, and it could also provide greater adaptability for people living outside of the Mediterranean region who are interested in adopting the diet. The avocado fruit thrives in a Mediterranean climate, is produced in the region, and is rich in oleic acid and fiber, yet avocados are not commonly consumed within the traditional Mediterranean diet. Based on the existing research studies on the health benefits of avocado consumption and the continued investigation into the nutritional attributes of the avocado, a case can be made for including avocados as part of the Mediterranean dietary pattern., (Copyright © 2020 Ford and Liu.)

Fossils of the Ediacaran macrobiota (∼571-539 mya) record phylogenetically diverse marine palaeocommunities, including early animals, which pre-date the "Cambrian Explosion" [1-4]. Benthic forms with a frondose gross morphology, assigned to the morphogroups Rangeomorpha [5] and Frondomorpha (see also Arboreomorpha) [6-8], are among the most temporally wide-ranging and environmentally tolerant members of the Ediacaran macrobiota [6] and dominated deep-marine ecosystems ∼571-560 mya [9-11]. Investigations into the morphology [12-14], palaeoecology [10, 15, 16], reproductive strategies [17, 18], feeding methods [9, 19], and morphogenesis of frondose taxa together constrain their phylogenetic position to the metazoan (for Rangeomorpha) or eumetazoan (e.g., Arborea) total groups [14, 20], but tighter constraint is currently lacking. Here, we describe fossils of abundant filamentous organic structures preserved among frond-dominated fossil assemblages in Newfoundland (Canada). The filaments constitute a prominent component of the ecosystems, and exhibit clear physical associations with at least seven frondose taxa. Individual specimens of one uniterminal rangeomorph taxon appear to be directly connected by filaments across distances of centimeters to meters. Such physical linkages are interpreted to reflect evidence for stolonic connections: a conclusion with potential implications for the phylogenetic placement and palaeoecology of frondose organisms. Consideration of extant stoloniferous organisms suggests that Ediacaran frondose taxa were likely clonal and resurrects the possibility that they may have been colonial (e.g., [21, 22]). VIDEO ABSTRACT., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the mammalian brain, the insula is the primary cortical substrate involved in the perception of taste. Recent imaging studies in rodents have identified a "gustotopic" organization in the insula, whereby distinct insula regions are selectively responsive to one of the five basic tastes. However, numerous studies in monkeys have reported that gustatory cortical neurons are broadly-tuned to multiple tastes, and tastes are not represented in discrete spatial locations. Neuroimaging studies in humans have thus far been unable to discern between these two models, though this may be because of the relatively low spatial resolution used in taste studies to date. In the present study, we examined the spatial representation of taste within the human brain using ultra-high resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at high magnetic field strength (7-tesla). During scanning, male and female participants tasted sweet, salty, sour, and tasteless liquids, delivered via a custom-built MRI-compatible tastant-delivery system. Our univariate analyses revealed that all tastes (vs tasteless) activated primary taste cortex within the bilateral dorsal mid-insula, but no brain region exhibited a consistent preference for any individual taste. However, our multivariate searchlight analyses were able to reliably decode the identity of distinct tastes within those mid-insula regions, as well as brain regions involved in affect and reward, such as the striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala. These results suggest that taste quality is not represented topographically, but by a distributed population code, both within primary taste cortex as well as regions involved in processing the hedonic and aversive properties of taste. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The insula is the primary cortical substrate involved in taste perception, yet some question remains as to whether this region represents distinct tastes topographically or via a population code. Using high field (7-tesla), high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we examined the representation of different tastes delivered during scanning. All tastes activated primary taste cortex within the bilateral mid-insula, but no brain region exhibited any consistent taste preference. However, multivariate analyses reliably decoded taste quality within the bilateral mid-insula as well as the striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, and bilateral amygdala. This suggests that taste quality is represented by a spatial population code within regions involved in sensory and appetitive properties of taste., (Copyright © 2020 the authors.)

Existing reports have demonstrated that miR-199a-3p plays a role as a tumor suppressor in a variety of human cancers. This study aims to further validate the expression of miR-199a-3p in HCC and to explore its underlying mechanisms by using multiple data sets. Chip data or sequencing data and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were integrated to assess the expression of miR-199a-3p in HCC. The potential targets and transcription factor regulatory network of miR-199a-3p in HCC were determined and possible biological mechanism of miR-199a-3p was analyzed with bioinformatics methods. In the results, miR-199a-3p expression was significantly lower in HCC tissues compared to normal tissues according to chip data or sequencing data and qRT-PCR. Moreover, 455 targets of miR-199a-3p were confirmed, and these genes were involved in the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, pathways in cancer, and focal adhesions. LAMA4 was considered a key target of miR-199a-3p. In CMTCN, 11 co-regulatory pairs, 3 TF-FFLs, and 2 composite-FFLs were constructed. In conclusion, miR-199a-3p was down regulated in HCC and LAMA4 may be a potential target of miR-199a-3p in HCC.

Background: Bereavement is associated with cognitive difficulties, but it is unclear whether these difficulties are associated with normative and/or complicated grief (CG) and how comorbid depression and anxiety contribute to them. Self-reported "minor errors in thinking" (i.e., cognitive failures) may manifest following bereavement and be differentially affected by CG, anxiety, and depression., Methods: Associations between perceived cognitive failures and CG, anxiety, and depression were investigated in 581 bereaved participants. To examine both single and comorbid conditions across the spectrum of bereaved participants, these relationships were examined using both linear regressions and group comparisons., Results: Continuous measures of depression, anxiety, and grief each independently predicted perceived cognitive failures. Group comparisons indicated that the group with three comorbid conditions had the highest frequency of perceived cognitive failures and the group with no conditions had the lowest. In addition, groups with threshold depression levels (both alone and comorbid with another condition) had higher frequencies of perceived cognitive failures than other groups, suggesting that depression was more strongly associated with perceived cognitive failures than CG or anxiety., Conclusions: Future research about cognition following bereavement should address how multiple mental health symptoms or conditions combine to affect perceived and actual cognitive capacity., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a primary bone tumor with a high incidence and mortality in children and adolescents. Emerging evidence shows that microRNAs (miRNAs) participate in biological tumor mechanisms by targeting downstream messenger RNAs (mRNAs). This article aimed to investigate the potential regulatory targets of microRNA-199a-3p (miR-199a-3p) in OS and to contribute to the understanding of miR-199a-3p-related OS regulatory mechanisms. MicroRNA-related Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) chips, ArrayExpress chips and literature data were used to determine the expression of miR-199a-3p in OS and pooled to explore its potential clinical value. To investigate the target genes of miR-199a-3p further, we integrated the results from the following three-part gene study: Twelve online prediction tools were used to predict the target genes of miR-199a-3p; the GEO GSE89370 chip transfected with miRSelect pEP-miR-199a-3p was used to analyze the downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in OS cells; and highly expressed DEGs were derived from an in-house microarray generated from three pairs of clinical OS and normal tissue samples acquired through our department. Then, we analyzed the target genes using the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network to further identify the primary target genes. In addition, we constructed transcription factor (TF)-miRNA-joint gene feed-forward regulatory loops (FFLs) with Circuits DB using miR-199a-3p as the core. A comprehensive meta-analysis of a hub of miR-199a-3p targeted genes was performed to integrate expression level, summary ROC (sROC) curves and survival analysis results from the GEO data for verification and exploration. Finally, the expression levels of the hub genes were verified in OS tissues and U2OS cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunocytochemistry (ICC). Data on miR-199a-3p expression were obtained from three data sets (GSE65071, GSE69524, and PMID 21666078), which showed low miR-199a-3p expression levels in OS tissues. The combined data indicated the same tendency, with the SMD of the random effect model, as shown in forest plots, being -2.8 (95% CI: -4.49, -1.11). In addition, we determined that miR-199a-3p may serve as a molecular marker useful for distinguishing OS tissues from normal tissues with high sensitivity and specificity, with the measured outcomes being 0.94 (95% CI: 0.80, 0.99) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.78, 1.00), respectively. In addition, 391 genes were considered targets of miR-199a-3p in OS, and the enrichment analysis indicated that these targets were mainly enriched in proteoglycans in cancer and in spliceosomes. Four genes, CDKI, CCNB1, AURKA and NEK2, were regarded as hub targets based on the PPI data. Subsequently, TF-miRNA-joint genes FFLs were constructed in Circuits DB and included 17 TFs and 82 joint targets. These joint targets were mainly enriched in spliceosomes. UBE2D1 and RBM25 were regarded as hub joint targets based on the enrichment analysis. All selected target genes were further verified to ensure that they were upregulated in OS and to determine their prognostic significance. At the experimental verification level, the CDK1 protein was confirmed to be positively expressed in the cytoplasm of OS tissues and the U2OS cell line. Our study verified that miR-199a-3p was obviously downregulated in OS. CDK1, CCNB1, NEK2, AURKA, UBE2D1 and RBM25 were identified as potential target genes of miR-199a-3p in OS., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2019.)