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Abstract Tandem repeats (TRs) are genomic regions that tandemly change in repeat number, which are often multiallelic. Their characteristics and contributions to gene expression and quantitative traits in rice are largely unknown. Here, we survey rice TR variations based on 231 genome assemblies and the rice pan-genome graph. We identify 227,391 multiallelic TR loci, including 54,416 TR variations that are absent from the Nipponbare reference genome. Only 1/3 TR variations show strong linkage with nearby bi-allelic variants (SNPs, Indels and PAVs). Using 193 panicle and 202 leaf transcriptomic data, we reveal 485 and 511 TRs act as QTLs independently of other bi-allelic variations to nearby gene expression, respectively. Using plant height and grain width as examples, we identify and validate TRs contributions to rice agronomic trait variations. These findings would enhance our understanding of the functions of multiallelic variants and facilitate rice molecular breeding.

Background Sleep apnea (SA) has been linked to an increased risk of dementia in numerous observational studies; whether this is driven by neurodegenerative, vascular, or other mechanisms is not clear. We sought to examine the bidirectional causal relationships between SA, Alzheimer disease (AD), coronary artery disease (CAD), and ischemic stroke using Mendelian randomization. Methods and Results Using summary statistics from 4 recent, large genome‐wide association studies of SA (n=523 366), AD (n=94 437), CAD (n=1 165 690), and stroke (n=1 308 460), we conducted bidirectional 2‐sample Mendelian randomization analyses. Our primary analytic method was fixed‐effects inverse variance–weighted (IVW) Mendelian randomization; diagnostics tests and sensitivity analyses were conducted to verify the robustness of the results. We identified a significant causal effect of SA on the risk of CAD (odds ratio [ORIVW]=1.35 per log‐odds increase in SA liability [95% CI=1.25–1.47]) and stroke (ORIVW=1.13 [95% CI=1.01–1.25]). These associations were somewhat attenuated after excluding single‐nucleotide polymorphisms associated with body mass index (ORIVW=1.26 [95% CI=1.15–1.39] for CAD risk; ORIVW=1.08 [95% CI=0.96–1.22] for stroke risk). SA was not causally associated with a higher risk of AD (ORIVW=1.14 [95% CI=0.91–1.43]). We did not find causal effects of AD, CAD, or stroke on risk of SA. Conclusions These results suggest that SA increased the risk of CAD, and the identified causal association with stroke risk may be confounded by body mass index. Moreover, no causal effect of SA on AD risk was found. Future studies are warranted to investigate cardiovascular pathways between sleep disorders, including SA, and dementia.

The task of background suppression in infrared small-target scenarios aims to eliminate irregular noisy backgrounds while preserving targets with high-frequency features. In infrared small-target scenes at long distances, the backgrounds become complex and the target features are degraded, highlighting a significant disparity between the detailed and realistic background and the limited features of the targets. To address these challenges, we propose a patch-based semantically enhanced generative adversarial network (GAN) named PSEnet for background suppression in infrared small-target scenarios. First, we introduce a patch-scale GAN that allows the model to concentrate on local background suppression. This shift from a global to local perspective simplifies the complexity of background suppression. Second, we employ the PSE module consisting multiscale dilated convolution and adaptive weight fusion to extract local semantic information. Third, by segmenting the infrared image into smaller patches and resampling them, we create a more balanced dataset for adversarial training. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio of dim and small targets, reduces the missing detection rate, and achieves a precision of almost 91%. In conclusion, this approach effectively uses GANs for background suppression in complex environments.

Infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens have emerged as a serious threat to public health. To develop new antibacterial agents to combat such drug-resistant bacteria, a class of novel amphiphilic xanthoangelol-derived compounds were designed and synthesized by mimicking the structure and function of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Among them, compound 9h displayed excellent antimicrobial activity against the Gram-positive strains tested (MICs = 0.5–2 μg/mL), comparable to vancomycin, and with low hemolytic toxicity and good membrane selectivity. Additionally, compound 9h demonstrated rapid bactericidal effects, low resistance frequency, low cytotoxicity, and good plasma stability. Mechanistic studies further revealed that compound 9h had good membrane-targeting ability and was able to destroy the integrity of bacterial cell membranes, causing an increase in intracellular ROS and the leakage of DNA and proteins, thus accelerating bacterial death. These results make 9h a promising antimicrobial candidate to combat bacterial infection.

In this report, the case of a 65-year-old immunosuppressed female who presented with recurring redness and irritation in her right eye for 2 months is described. Ocular examination revealed conjunctival congestion, feather-like greyish-white corneal deep stromal infiltrate, white, floccular material sprawling from the anterior chamber angle and hypopyon. The in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) instantly confirmed fungal keratitis, and empirical antifungal therapy was thus administered. The patient exhibited therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty, however, due to the progression of infection and the lack of identified pathogens. The fungal isolate was identified as Corynespora cassiicola by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of the host cornea. The patient responded well to intensive conservative therapy and subsequent surgical therapy. To our knowledge, this case represents the first case of C. cassiicola infection from China, highlighting the emergence of a rare fungus that causes keratitis. Furthermore, mNGS has the capability to facilitate prompt identification and timely management of challenging ocular infections that are difficult to diagnose.

This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of walnut-derived peptide LPLLR (LP-5) in oxidative stress-induced Caco-2 cells and model mice. The results showed that LP-5 significantly increased the activities of CAT and SOD, while decreased the levels of MDA both in vitro and in vivo. The oxidative stress signaling was regulated by promoting Nrf2 nuclear transfer, up-regulating HO-1 expression, and down-regulating Keap1 expression. As demonstrated by molecular docking, LP-5 could effectively bind Keap1. Additionally, LP-5 effectively inhibited the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome via down-regulating the expression of NLRP3, ASC, and caspase-1, significantly reducing the release of inflammatory cytokines, including IL-18, IL-1β, and TNF-α, thereby preventing cell apoptosis. Moreover, LP-5 increased the production of IL-10 and decreased the levels of iNOS and COX-2 in Caco-2 cells. These data suggested that LP-5 ameliorated oxidative stress-mediated inflammation by inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome by activating Nrf2/Keap1 signaling.

Background: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic worldwide has caused a high burden of mental problems, which may be associated with subjective cognitive impairment in the general population. Objectives: This cross-sectional survey aimed to investigate the level and pattern of cognitive failure (CF) and its negative changes during the COVID-19 pandemic among the general population in China. Methods: The participants completed an online questionnaire between April 18 and May 4, 2020, and those aged between 18 and 70 were included in this study. CF was measured using the 14-item CF Questionnaire (CFQ-14). Factors associated with CF and negative changes in CF were evaluated using multiple linear and logistic regression models. A total of 30,879 eligible participants were recruited; most were female (59.10%) and aged 31–45 (61.51%). Results: The mean CFQ-14 score was 15.62 (standard deviation = 11.55), and 4,619 (14.96%) participants reported negative changes in CF during the pandemic. Multiple regression analyses showed that participants with female gender, history of physical and mental disease, the self-perceived influence of COVID-19, altered appetite and taste preference, worse interpersonal relationships, long sleep duration, poor sleep quality, depressive, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms had a higher level of CF and negative CF changes, while regular exercise was associated with a lower risk of both outcomes. Conclusions: This study indicates that CF symptoms should be monitored in the general population during pandemics. A healthy lifestyle and reduction in psychological stress could help promote normal cognitive function during pandemics.

Underwater gravity-assisted navigation is typically employed by submarines as a navigation method when external navigation information is not easily available, which necessitates the acquisition of gravity information through autonomous measurement. However, underwater gravity measurement research currently relies heavily on high-precision external navigation information, such as acoustic positioning, and lacks autonomy. Therefore, there is a contradiction between the existing underwater gravity measurement technology and the underwater gravity-assisted navigation application scenario. To solve this problem, a real-time, autonomous gravity measurement method specifically designed for underwater gravity-assisted navigation is proposed in this study. The proposed method achieves real-time, autonomous underwater gravity measurement with mGal-level precision by integrating classical gravity measurement principles, which involves a gravimeter, an electromagnetic log (EML), and a depth gauge (DG). To evaluate the proposed method’s effectiveness, a semi-physical simulation was conducted through vehicle testing. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method achieved a precision of 1.01 mGal at 0.0033 Hz within the repeated measuring line.

The target recognition performance of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces can be significantly improved with a training-based approach. However, the training procedure is time consuming and often causes fatigue. Consequently, the number of training data should be limited, which may reduce the classification performance. Thus, how to improve classification accuracy without increasing the training time is crucial to SSVEP-based BCI system. This study proposes a transfer-related component analysis (TransRCA) method for addressing the above issue. In this method, the SSVEP-related components are extracted from a small number of training data of the current individual and combined with those extracted from a large number of existing training data of other individuals. The TransRCA method maximizes not only the inter-trial covariances between the source and target subjects, but also the correlation between the reference signals and SSVEP signals from the source and target subjects. The proposed method was validated on the SSVEP public Benchmark and BETA datasets, and the classification accuracy and information transmission rate of the ensemble version of the proposed TransRCA method were compared with those of the state-of-the-art eCCA, eTRCA, ttCCA, LSTeTRCA, and eIISMC methods on both datasets. The comparison results indicate that the proposed method provides a superior performance compared with these state-of-the-art methods, and thus has high potential for the development of a SSVEP-based brain-computer interface system with high classification performance that only uses a small number of training data.

Objective: To better study and make use of the medicinal value of Hericium erinaceus and ginseng. Methods: In this paper, Hericium erinaceus was used as the fermentation strain and ginseng was used as the drug substrate (PGP) for two-way solid fermentation to obtain Hericium erinaceus ginseng two-way solid fermentation bacteria (HEP). The contents of polysaccharides and proteins of fermentation bacteria and different alcohol precipitation components of ginseng drug substrate group in different fermentation periods were determined by phenol sulfuric acid method and Coomassie brilliant blue method. And DPPH·, ·OH and ABTS+· methods were used to determine the antioxidant capacity of different alcohol precipitation components. Results: The total sugar content of 40% alcohol precipitation component was the most. At the 9th day of fermentation, the total sugar content of 40% alcohol precipitation component HEP-40 in fermentation substrate group reached 0.98 mg/g, and the total sugar content of 40% alcohol precipitation component PGP-40 in ginseng matrix group reached 1.03 mg/g. The content of reducing sugar and protein in 90% alcohol precipitation component was the most. At the 30th day of fermentation, the content of reducing sugar in 90% alcohol precipitation component HEP-90 of fermentation substrate group reached 0.18 mg/g, and the content of reducing sugar in 90% alcohol precipitation component PGP-90 of ginseng matrix group reached 0.24 mg/g; At the 40th day of fermentation, the protein content of HEP-90 and PGP-90 reached 0.54 and 0.46 mg/g respectively. The scavenging of DPPH radicals by all alcoholic fractions of the fermentation plasm up to the 24th day of fermentation was good, with DPPH scavenging rates of 37.66%, 60.06% and 73.58% for the polysaccharides HEP-40, HEP-70 and HEP-90 in the fermentation plasm, respectively; At the 40th day of fermentation, the clearance rates of HEP-40, HEP-70 and HEP-90 on OH radical were 33.71%, 54.32% and 94.90%, respectively; When the fermentation reached the 40th day, the clearance ability of the HEP group reached the peak, and the clearance rates of HEP-40, HEP-70 and HEP-90 on ABTS radical were 44.83%, 87.90% and 98.90%, respectively. Conclusion: After two-way solid fermentation of Hericium erinaceus and ginseng, the antioxidant capacity of the pharmacodynamic active components in the fermentation products (HEP) was higher than that of the pharmacodynamic active components in ginseng without fermentation treatment (PGP).

This paper addresses the challenge of reduced tracking accuracy in maritime electro-optical tracking equipment when dealing with high-mobility targets like speedboats and aircraft due to off-target error delays. We propose an innovative technique that leverages inertial navigation data to enhance target prediction and tracking control. Our approach involves the real-time integration of high-frequency inertial navigation-derived attitude information into the tracking system. By combining off-target error information with angular measurements from the tracking mechanism, we project the vector of the tracked target into multiple coordinate systems, including the imaging coordinate system, carrier coordinate system, and geographic coordinate system. Subsequently, we model and predict the target’s motion trajectory in the relatively slow-changing geographic coordinate system. This transformation process increases the update frequency and real-time performance of the tracking control position loop command angle. Unlike traditional control methods that heavily rely on the model of the controlled object, our approach significantly improves tracking accuracy and engineering applicability. It offers a technology-based optimization of tracking and control performance through an interdisciplinary theoretical fusion, deeply integrating inertial navigation technology with tracking control technology. Experimental results with maritime electro-optical tracking equipment demonstrate that our proposed control technique increases tracking accuracy for high-speed targets by approximately threefold compared to traditional methods. Under the same experimental conditions, the off-target error statistics are reduced from 1.8 mrad to 633 μrad.

Abstract. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia characterized by the progressive cognitive and social decline. Clinical drug targets have heavily focused on the amyloid hypothesis, with amyloid beta (Aβ), and tau proteins as key pathophysiologic markers of AD. However, no effective treatment has been developed so far, which prompts researchers to focus on other aspects of AD beyond Aβ, and tau proteins. Additionally, there is a mounting epidemiologic evidence that various environmental factors influence the development of dementia and that dementia etiology is likely heterogenous. In the past decades, new risk factors or potential etiologies have been widely studied. Here, we review several novel epidemiologic and clinical research developments that focus on sleep, hypoxia, diet, gut microbiota, and hearing impairment and their links to AD published in recent years. At the frontiers of AD research, these findings and updates could be worthy of further attention.

This work aimed to investigate whether there are synergistic effects between walnut peptide (WNP) and ginseng extracts (GSE) treatments to ameliorate the memory impairment caused by scopolamine (SCOP). The Morris water maze trial, hippocampal neuron morphology, neurotransmitters, and synaptic ultrastructure were examined, along with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-related signaling pathway proteins. The results of the Morris water maze trial demonstrated that the combined administration of WNP and GSE effectively alleviated memory impairment in C57BL/6 rats caused by SCOP. Improvement in the morphology of hippocampal neurons, dendritic spines, and synaptic plasticity and upregulation of neurotransmitters AChE, ACh, ChAT, Glu, DA, and 5-HT supported the memory improvement effects of WNP + GSE. In addition, compared with the model group, WNP + GSE significantly enhanced the protein levels of VAChT, Trx-1, and the CREB/BDNF/TrkB pathway in hippocampal and PC12 cells induced by SCOP (p < 0.05). Notably, WNP + GSE boosted memory via multiple pathways, not only the BDNF/TrkB/CREB target.

Core disgust is elicited by physical or chemical stimuli, while moral disgust is evoked by abstract violations of moral norms. Although previous studies have pointed out these two types of disgust can affect behavior and spatial dimensions of moral judgment, less is known about how moral and core disgust affect the temporal neural processing of moral judgment. In addition, whether moral and core disgust are only related to purity-based moral judgment or all kinds of moral judgment is still controversial. This study aimed to explore how core and moral disgust affect the neural processing of purity-based moral judgment by using affective priming and moral judgment tasks. The behavioral results showed that the severity of moral violation of non-purity ones is higher than purity ones. The event-related potentials (ERP) results mainly revealed that earlier P2 and N2 components, which represent the automatic moral processes, can differentiate neutral and two types of disgust rather than differentiating moral domain, while the later N450, frontal, and parietal LPP components, which represent the conflict detection and, later, cognitive processing can differentiate the purity and non-purity ones rather than differentiating priming type. Moreover, core and moral disgust priming mainly differed in the purity-based moral processing indexed by parietal LPP. Our findings confirmed that the disgusting effect on moral judgments can be explained within the framework of dual-process and social intuitionist models, suggesting that emotions, including core and moral disgust, played an essential role in the automatic intuition process. The later parietal LPP results strongly supported that core disgust only affected the purity-based moral judgment, fitting the primary purity hypothesis well. We show how these theories can provide novel insights into the temporal mechanisms of moral judgment.

Background: Ganoderma lucidum spore powder (GLSP) has abundant pharmacological activities. However, the difference in the hepatoprotective function of sporoderm-broken and sporoderm-unbroken Ganoderma spore powder has not been studied. This study is the first to investigate the effects of both sporoderm-damaged and sporoderm-intact GLSP on the improvement of acute alcoholic liver injury in mice and gut microbiota of mice. Methods: Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and interleukin 1β (IL-1β), interleukin 18 (IL-18), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels in liver tissues from mice in each group were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits, and histological analysis of liver tissue sections was performed to evaluate the liver-protecting effects of both sporoderm-broken and sporoderm-unbroken GLSP. Additionally, 16S rDNA sequencing of feces from the bowels of mice was performed to compare the regulatory effects of both sporoderm-broken and sporoderm-unbroken GLSP on the gut microbiota of mice. Results: Compared with those in the 50% ethanol model group (MG), sporoderm-broken GLSP significantly reduced serum AST and ALT levels (p < 0.0001) and the release of the inflammatory factors, including IL-1β, IL-18, and TNF-α (p < 0.0001), and effectively improved the pathological state of liver cells; sporoderm-unbroken GLSP significantly reduced the ALT content (p = 0.0002) and the release of the inflammatory factors, including IL-1β (p < 0.0001), IL-18 (p = 0.0018), and TNF-α (p = 0.0005), and reduced the serum AST content, but the reduction was not significant; compared with the gut microbiota of the MG, sporoderm-broken GLSP reduced the levels of Verrucomicrobia and Escherichia_Shigella, increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Bacteroidetes, and decreased the abundance levels of harmful bacteria, such as Proteobacteria and Candidatus_Saccharibacteria; sporoderm-unbroken GLSP could reduce the abundance levels of harmful bacteria, such as Verrucomicrobia and Candidatus_Saccharibacteria; and GLSP treatment alleviates the downregulation of the levels of translation, ribosome structure and biogenesis, and lipid transport and metabolism in liver-injured mice; Conclusions: GLSP can alleviate the imbalance of gut microbiota and improve liver injury, and the effect of sporoderm-broken GLSP is better.

Objective: To evaluate the altered expression of peripheral clock genes, circulating melatonin levels, and their correlations with sleep-wake phenotypes including probable rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (pRBD) symptoms in a relatively large population of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.Methods: We determined the expression profiles of five principal clock genes, BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY1, PER1, and PER2, in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of PD patients (n = 326), and healthy controls (HC, n = 314) using quantitative real-time PCR. Melatonin concentration in the plasma of two groups was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Then we performed comprehensive association analyses on the PBMCs clock gene expression, plasma melatonin levels and sleep characteristics.Results: Our data showed that the expression levels of BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY1, PER1, and PER2 were significantly decreased in the PBMCs of PD as compared with that of HC (P < 0.05). PD patients had reduced plasma melatonin levels compared with HC (P < 0.0001). pRBD and excessive daytime sleepiness are common in these PD patients and are associated with the expression levels of all five clock genes (r = −0.344∼−0.789, P < 0.01) and melatonin concentration (r = −0.509∼−0.753, P < 0.01). Statistical analyses also revealed that a combination of five clock genes and melatonin could reach a high diagnostic performance (areas under the curves, 97%) for PD comorbid pRBD.Conclusion: This case-control study demonstrates that peripheral BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY1, PER1, PER2, and melatonin levels are altered in PD patients and may serve as endogenous markers for sleep and wakefulness disturbances of PD.

Oral nutritional (ON) products are an effective way to treat patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) whose gastrointestinal functions are normal. The influence of ON formula prepared with three different proteins on T2DM was studied. The hyperglycaemic mouse model using a high-fat diet (HFD) combined with an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) was used to simulate T2DM. The study was done for 15 weeks using seven groups of mice: control group (CG, normal mice, and normal food), non-treated group (BG, diabetic mice, and normal food), positive control group (PG, diabetic mice, and HFD), soybean protein group (SPG, diabetic mice, and HFD), silkworm pupa protein group (SPPG, diabetic mice, and HFD), whey protein group (LPG, diabetic mice, and HFD), and whey protein combined with silkworm pupa protein group (LCSSPG, diabetic mice, and HFD). The plasma levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were analyzed on weeks 2, 10, 12, 14, and 15. The concentration of total protein (TP) and albumin (ALB) of the plasma was increased in SPG, SPPG, and PG comparing with BG (p < 0.05). The TC, TG, and LDL-C levels were decreased, and HDL-C level was increased in SPG, PG, SPPG, PG comparing with BG (p < 0.05). Blood glucose (BLG) levels were decreased 47, 34, 24, and 21% in SPG, LCSSPG, SPPG, and PG, respectively. While BLG was not significantly changed (p ≥ 0.05) in LG after 5 weeks of treatment. Overall, the data suggested that consumption of SP, SPP, LCSSPG Oral-formula may be beneficial for the treatment of T2DM.

Objectives To determine the association of general practitioner (GP) contact with depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in China.Design In April 2020, a follow-up survey was conducted on the basis of a baseline survey conducted between October 2018 and May 2019.Setting The survey was embedded in the Stanford Wellness Living Laboratory-China (WELL China) study, an ongoing prospective community-based cohort study during 2018–2019.Participants The survey was conducted by telephone interview among 4144 adult urban residents participating in the WELL China study at baseline. We collected information on sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms and GP contact during the lockdown period (February to March 2020).Primary and secondary outcome measures Depressive symptoms were measured using the WHO-Five Well-being Index, comprising five questionnaire items that briefly indicate psychological well-being. Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association between GP contact and depressive symptoms.Results In total, 3356 participants responded to the survey; 203 were excluded owing to missing data on depressive symptoms, leaving 3153 participants in the present study. During lockdown, 449 participants had GP contact. GP contact was significantly negatively associated with prevalent depressive symptoms (OR, 0.67; 95% CI 0.51 to 0.89; p

Background: Growing evidence has suggested a link between poor sleep quality and increased risk of dementia. However, little is known about the association between sleep timing, an important behavior marker of circadian rhythms, and dementia risk in older adults, and whether this is independent of sleep duration or quality.Methods: We included data from 1,051 community-dwelling older men and women (aged≥ 60y) without dementia from the Shanghai Aging Study. At baseline, participants reported sleep timing, duration, and quality using the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (CPSQI). Dementia diagnosis over the following 7.3 years was determined by neurologists using DSM-IV criteria. We used Cox proportional hazards models to examine the association between bedtime (before 9 p.m., after 11 p.m. vs. 9–11 p.m.), rise time (before 6 a.m., after 8 a.m. vs. 6–8 a.m.), and risk of dementia.Results: A total of 238 (22.8%), 675 (64.5%), and 133 (12.7%) participants reported going to bed before 9 p.m., between 9 and 11 p.m., and after 11 p.m., respectively, while 272 (26%), 626 (59.9%), and 148 (14.2%) reported getting up before 6 a.m., between 6 and 8 a.m., and after 8 a.m., respectively. Participants who reported going to bed earlier had a lower education level, were less likely to be smokers, more likely to have hypertension or diabetes, and had longer sleep duration but poorer sleep quality compared to those who reported a later bedtime. We found 47 incidents of dementia among 584 participants followed up over an average of 7.3 years. After adjustment for demographics, education, income, body mass index, depressive symptoms, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, comorbidities, APOE4 genotype, and baseline MMSE, those with a bedtime of before 9 p.m. were two times more likely to develop dementia [hazard ratio (HR)=2.16 (95%CI: 1.06–4.40)], compared to those going to bed between 9 and 11 p.m. Later bedtime (i.e., after 11 p.m.) showed the opposite but had a non-significant association with dementia risk (HR=0.15, 95%CI: 0.02–1.29). We did not find an association for rise time and risk of dementia.Conclusion: Earlier sleep timing in older adults without dementia was associated with an increased risk of dementia. Future studies should examine the underlying mechanisms of this association and explore the usefulness of sleep timing as a preclinical marker for dementia.

Moral judgment can be highly affected by the action and intention factors on a behavior level. Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the intention factor can modulate both the affective and cognitive processing of moral judgment. The present event-related potentials (ERP) study examined how the action factor modulated the neural dynamics of moral judgment under a newly developed moral dilemma paradigm including three different conditions: harm caused by action (i.e., doing harm), harm caused by omission (i.e., allowing harm), and no harm. Behavior data showed that participants preferred utilitarian judgments and spent less time on the allowing harm condition than for the doing harm condition. ERP results revealed that, compared with the doing harm and no harm dilemmas, the allowing harm dilemmas elicited an enhanced N450 response associated with cognitive control and/or cognitive effort processes, but attenuated a late positive potentials (LPP) response associated with top-down control of attention and cognitive “rational” control processes. Such LPP amplitude differences were positively correlated with the C-score of the moral competence test which indexed the cognitive aspect of moral judgment competency. These findings suggested that people have a strong omission bias, and such an action factor modulates the conscious reasoning process during moral judgment, including the cognitive control and/or cognitive effort, and attentional allocation processes.

Abstract Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are essential regulators of a broad range of biological processes in plants. The spectacular progress made in next‐generation sequencing technologies has enabled a genome‐wide identification of lncRNAs in multiple plant species. In this study, a genome‐wide lncRNA sequencing technology was used to identify cold‐responsive lncRNAs at the booting stage in rice by comparing a tolerant variety, Kongyu131 (KY131) and a sensitive variety, Dongnong422 (DN422). A total of 1485 lncRNAs were identified, and 566 of these lncRNAs were defined as differential lncRNAs by comparing four samples. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed, focusing on the cis‐ and trans‐ target genes of the differential lncRNAs. To identify cold‐responsive genes, a meta‐analysis was used to integrate 35 cold‐tolerant QTLs at the booting stage. In summary, 12 candidate genes and their target lncRNAs were identified by qRT‐PCR. LncTar was used to identify the interaction between lncRNAs and the candidate genes. In addition, 130 rice cultivars with rich genetic diversity were collected to verify the association of candidate genes with cold‐resistance. The results revealed that five SNPs in LOC_Os07g42940, three SNP and one InDel in LOC_Os02g03410 were associated with cold‐resistance at a significant level using association analysis. This study provides new gene resources and insights into cold‐resistance research for rice.

The present study assessed the willingness of the general population to receive COVID-19 vaccines and identified factors that influence vaccine hesitancy and resistance. A national online survey was conducted from 29 January 2021 to 26 April 2021 in China. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors that influence vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Of the 34,041 participants surveyed, 18,810 (55.3%) were willing to get vaccinated, 13,736 (40.3%) were hesitant, and 1495 (4.4%) were resistant. Rates of vaccine acceptance increased over time, with geographical discrepancies in vaccine hesitancy and resistance between provinces in China. Vaccine safety was the greatest concern expressed by most participants (24,461 [71.9%]), and the major reason for participants’ refusing vaccination (974 [65.2%]). Government agencies (23,131 [68.0%]) and social media (20,967 [61.6%]) were the main sources of COVID-19 vaccine information. Compared with vaccination acceptance, female, young and middle-aged, high income, and perceived low-risk of infection were associated with vaccine hesitancy. Histories of allergic reactions to other vaccines and depression symptoms were related to vaccine resistance. Common factors that influenced vaccine hesitancy and resistance were residing in cities and perceiving less protection with vaccines than with other protective measures. The results indicate that the rate of vaccine resistance is relatively low, but vaccine hesitancy is common. Individuals who are female, young and middle-aged, with a high income, and residing in cities are more likely to be hesitant for vaccination and should be the target populations for vaccination campaigns. Specific vaccine messaging from the government and social media could alleviate public concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy.

With the development of the wearable brain-computer interface (BCI), a few-channel BCI system is necessary for its application to daily life. In this paper, we proposed a bimodal BCI system that uses only a few channels of electroencephalograph (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals to obtain relatively high accuracy. We developed new approaches for signal acquisition and signal processing to improve the performance of this few-channel BCI system. At the signal acquisition stage, source analysis was applied for both EEG and fNIRS signals to select the optimal channels for bimodal signal collection. At the feature extraction stage, phase-space reconstruction was applied to the selected three-channel EEG signals to expand them into multichannel signals, thus allowing the use of the traditional effective common spatial pattern to extract EEG features. For the fNIRS signal, the Hurst exponents for the selected ten channels were calculated and composed of the fNIRS data feature. At the classification stage, EEG and fNIRS features were joined and classified with the support vector machine. The averaged classification accuracy of 12 participants was 81.2% for the bimodal EEG-fNIRS signals, which was significantly higher than that for either single modality.

Understanding the actions of other people is a key component of social interaction. This paper used an electroencephalography and functional near infrared spectroscopy (EEG-fNIRS) bimodal system to investigate the temporal-spatial features of action intention understanding. We measured brain activation while participants observed three actions: 1) grasping a cup for drinking; 2) grasping a cup for moving; and 3) no meaningful intention. Analysis of EEG maximum standardized current density revealed that brain activation transitioned from the left to the right hemisphere. EEG-fNIRS source analysis results revealed that both the mirror neuron system and theory of mind network are involved in action intention understanding, and the extent to which these two systems are engaged appears to be determined by the clarity of the observed intention. These findings indicate that action intention understanding is a complex and dynamic process.

Objective To investigate the association between the Tangshan earthquake and depression after 37 years.Design and setting A cross-sectional study conducted in Tangshan from 2013 to 2014.Participants The sample included 5024 participants born before 28 July 1976 the date of the Tangshan earthquake, with available data on their earthquake experiences and depression 37 years post-earthquake.Outcomes and variables The outcome was depression measured using the Center for Epidemiological Study and Depression Scale. The independent variable was earthquake experience, which was classified into three groups: no earthquake experience, earthquake experience without bereavement and earthquake experience with bereavement. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between earthquake experience and depression after adjusting for gender, age at the time of the earthquake, smoking status, drinking status, education, income, residence in Tangshan 1 to 2 years post-earthquake, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidaemia.Results Of the 5024 participants, 641 experienced the Tangshan earthquake, and 98 experienced bereavement due to the earthquake. 37 years after the earthquake, survivors who had lost relatives during the earthquake were nearly three times (OR 2.82, 95% CI 1.24 to 6.39) as likely to have depression as those who had not experienced the earthquake, while those who had not lost relatives were 1.69 times as likely (OR 1.69, 95% CI 0.93 to 3.08). Stratified analyses showed that earthquake was significantly associated with depression in women with (OR 3.51, 95% CI 1.21 to 10.16) or without bereavement (OR 3.07, 95% CI 1.44 to 6.56) but not in men; this association was also significant in individuals over 18 years old at the time of the earthquake with (OR 13.16, 95% CI 3.08 to 56.3) or without bereavement (OR 3.39, 95% CI 1.31 to 8.87) but not in individuals less than 18 years old.Conclusions 37 years after the Tangshan earthquake, earthquake experience was associated with depression among bereaved survivors, women and individuals over 18 years old at the time of the earthquake.

Eye gaze plays a fundamental role in social communication. The averted eye gaze during social interaction, as the most common form of silent treatment, conveys a signal of social exclusion. In the present study, we examined the time course of brain response to social exclusion by using a modified version of Eye-gaze paradigm. The event-related potentials (ERPs) data and the subjective rating data showed that the frontocentral P200 was positively correlated with negative mood of excluded events, whereas, the centroparietal late positive potential (LPP) was positively correlated with the perceived ostracism intensity. Both the P200 and LPP were more positive-going for excluded events than for included events. These findings suggest that brain responses sensitive to social exclusion can be divided into the early affective processing stage, linking to the early pre-cognitive warning system; and the late higher-order processes stage, demanding attentional resources for elaborate stimuli evaluation and categorization generally not under specific situation.

BackgroundInsomnia is one of the main symptoms of sleep disorders. Previous studies have suggested that alcohol intake is associated with several adverse health outcomes. The association between alcohol consumption and insomnia has been addressed in several studies with different results. However, whether gender may modify the association between alcohol consumption and insomnia is not clear. This study will focus on gender differences in the relationship between alcohol consumption and insomnia.MethodsThe final study includes 8081 subjects aged between 18 and 65 years from the Jidong cohort. The data on alcohol consumption is collected by questionnaires, and insomnia problems are assessed using the entire 8-item Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS-8). Logistic analysis is used to evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and insomnia.ResultsAmong the 8081 participants in this study, 2618 (32.4%) are alcohol drinkers, including 2424 males and 194 females. The prevalence of insomnia is 9.6% in the male and 10.6% in the female. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) of mild-to-moderate drinkers and heavy drinkers for insomnia are 1.27 (1.02-1.58) and 1.02 (0.79-1.32), respectively. Heavy alcohol consumption is significantly correlated with insomnia in the female, after controlling for potential confounding factors (OR: 2.11, 95% CI: 1.28-3.49, p for interaction = 0.002).ConclusionA significant association between alcohol consumption and insomnia is found in females, but not in males from the northern Chinese population.

Soybean oil content is one of main quality traits. In this study, we used the multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method and a soybean high-density genetic map including 5,308 markers to identify stable single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-SNP interactions controlling oil content in soybean across 23 environments. In total, 36,442,756 SNP-SNP interaction pairs were detected, 1865 of all interaction pairs associated with soybean oil content were identified under multiple environments by the Bonferroni correction with p