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Abstract Background Current research has been focusing on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviors among adolescents with depression. Although family intimacy and adaptability are considered protective factors for NSSI, evidence supporting this relationship is lacking. Objective This study aims to examine the mechanisms operating in the relationship between family intimacy and adaptability and NSSI behaviors among adolescents. Methods A self-administered general demographic information questionnaire, the Behavioral Functional Assessment Scale for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, the Family Intimacy and Adaptability Scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Self-Assessment of Depression Scale were distributed among adolescents with depression in three tertiary hospitals in Jiangsu Province. Results The relationship between family intimacy and adaptability and NSSI was assessed among 596 adolescents with depression. The results revealed the following: (1) Family intimacy and adaptability were negatively correlated with NSSI behavior. (2) Psychological resilience and depression levels acted as chain mediators in the relationship between family intimacy and adaptability and NSSI behavior. Conclusions Enhancing psychological resilience, controlling depressive symptoms, and reducing depression severity among adolescents by improving their family intimacy and adaptability are conducive to preventing and mitigating their NSSI behaviors.

Soil fauna play an important role in litter decomposition and affect the “home-field advantage” (HFA) of litter decomposition. However, how this effect is modulated by the microenvironment needs further investigation. We conducted a reciprocal transplant experiment of litter decomposition using different mesh-size litterbags across litter and soil layers in subtropical coniferous (Pinus massoniana) and broad-leaved (Quercus variabilis) forests. Our results revealed a pronounced HFA in P. massoniana. P. massoniana litter decomposed faster in its home habitat by 40.6% in the litter layer and 10.2% in the soil layer in coarse mesh bags and by 21.8% in the litter layer and 21.4% in the soil layer in fine mesh bags. However, Q. variabilis litter showed faster decomposition in its home soil layer by 10.8% and 4.3% for coarse and fine mesh bags, whereas in the litter layer it decomposed faster in the away habitat by 16.7% and 20.6% for coarse and fine mesh bags, respectively. Higher soil mesofauna abundance and microbial activities in the coniferous forest compared to the broad-leaved forest drive the observed HFA of litter decomposition. Especially in the litter layer, the abundance of mesofauna was 89.8% higher in the coniferous forest. Coarse mesh bags generally facilitated a higher decomposition rate across litter and soil layers, likely due to a better interaction between soil mesofauna and extracellular enzyme activity. The HFA index exhibited distinct seasonal fluctuations, peaking in October for coarse mesh bags and in April for fine mesh bags within the litter layer, while soil layer peaks occurred in August and April. Notably, an increase in Acarina abundance strongly correlated with enhanced decomposition and HFA effects in the litter layer during October. This study revealed the sensitivity of HFA to the soil layer and soil fauna and underscores the complex role of the microclimate in shaping interactions among soil microorganisms, litter quality, and mesofauna, thereby enriching our understanding of litter decomposition dynamics in forest ecosystems.

Objectives The objective is to to explore the longitudinal change trajectories of postpartum stress and its related factors.Design A longitudinal study with follow-ups from 42 days to 6 months after delivery.Settings and participants A total of 406 postpartum women were recruited at baseline (42 days after delivery) from 6 hospitals in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China, and followed up at 3 and 6 months. After the follow-ups, 358 postpartum women were retained for further analysis.Methods Postpartum stress was evaluated using the Maternal Postpartum Stress Scale (MPSS) at baseline (42 days) and 3 and 6 months after delivery. MPSS has three dimensions, such as: personal needs and fatigue, infant nurturing and body changes and sexuality. Postpartum depression and anxiety were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the short-form Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, respectively. The MPSS scores were normalised using a rank-based inverse normal transformation.Results Postpartum stress decreased significantly after 3 months, and postpartum stress reduced further after 6 months. Additionally, the scores for all three dimensions reduced after 6 months, while infant nurturing reduced after both 3 and 6 months. Older age (β=0.028, p=0.049), higher education level (β=0.153, p=0.005) and higher body mass index (BMI) (β=0.027, p=0.008) of the postpartum women were significantly associated with higher postpartum stress levels in corresponding dimensions at 42 days. Older age was also associated with higher postpartum stress at 3 (β=0.030, p=0.033) and 6 months (β=0.050, p

Abstract Background CDK5, an atypical member of the CDK family, play a significant role in the tumorigenesis of multiple organ, but CDK5 and its substrates in genesis and development of HCC is still unclear. Methods Expression of CDK5 in HCC tumor and paired adjacent noncancerous tissues from 90 patients were measured by Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and real-time PCR. The role of CDK5 in cell function and tumorigenesis was explored in HCC cell lines, ex vivo xenografts and diethylnitrosamine induced HCC model. Furthermore, comparative phosphoproteomic screening identified the oncoprotein TPX2 as a new substrate of CDK5. We also identified the effect of CDK5/P25 interaction blocker tamoxifen on HCC cell growth and migration. Results CDK5 was increased in HCC tisues and the level of CDK5 was correlated with the severity of HCC based on patient recurrence and 5-year fatality rate. Exogenously expressed CDK5 but not kinase-dead CDK5 promoted proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells. Functional ablation of CDK5 significantly inhibited the exacerbation of HCC cells. Xenograft implantation of HCC cells overexpressing CDK5 promoted tumorigenesis, and genetic knockdown of CDK5 reduced HCC growth and metastasis in vivo. More importantly, heterozygous knockout CDK5 (Cdk5+/−) attenuated HCC tumorigenesis induced by diethylnitrosamine. CDK5-mediated phosphorylation of TPX2 at serine 486 promoted its protein stability. TPX2 silence could restore HCC cell migration capability with overexpression CDK5. Treatment with tamoxifen inhibited cell growth and migration of HCC, demonstrating the role of active CDK5 in HCC. Conclusions Our results suggest activation of CDK5 is associated with HCC tumorigenesis. CDK5-mediated phosphorylation and stabilization of TPX2 promotes hepatocellular proliferation and tumorigenicity.

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication technology has been widely discussed as a promising part to be used in 5th Generation (5G) fig: interference networks. However, mmWave signals are sensitive to blockage compared with traditional spectrums used for cellular networks, which proposes new challenges. In addition, 5G networks will support Time-Division Duplex (TDD) mode, which is able to provide flexible and dynamic uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configurations. However, dynamic adjustment will then introduce UL-DL interference and will further influence system performance. This paper will focus on the coverage probability of mmWave communication network with dynamic TDD configuration based on stochastic geometry analysis. Both the Line-of-Sight (LoS) link and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) link are modeled, since the transmissions of mmWave signals will be greatly influenced by different link types. Coverage probabilities for downlink and uplink are analyzed, respectively. Furthermore, in order to mitigate the UL-DL interference introduced by dynamic TDD, the Almost-Blank-SubFrame (ABSF) scheme is studied in this work. In ABSF scheme, a base station with DL transmission will mute temporarily to avoid severe DL-UL interference to nearby base stations with LoS links and UL transmissions. Possible improvement after introducing ABSF is studied by updating downlink and uplink coverage probability expressions. Numerical results under different configurations are obtained and discussed. It is shown that uplink coverage probability is greatly influenced by downlink interference, which provides basis for applying ABSF. Improvements by ABSF are validated by corresponding results.

The Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) is expected to be an important feature of 5G and beyond networks. Supporting URLLC in a resource-efficient manner demands optimal Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) selection and spectrum allocation. This paper presents a study on MCS selection and spectrum allocation to support URLLC. The essential idea is to establish an analytical connection between the delay and reliability requirements of URLLC data transmission and the underlying MCS selection and spectrum allocation. In particular, the connection factors in fundamental aspects of wireless data communication include channel quality, coding and modulation, spectrum allocation and data traffic characteristics. With this connection, MCS selection and spectrum allocation can be efficiently performed based on the delay and reliability requirements of URLLC. Theoretical results in the scenario of a 5G New Radio system are presented, where the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) thresholds for adaptive MCS selection, data-transmission rate and delay, as well as spectrum allocation under different configurations, including data duplication, are discussed. Simulation results are also obtained and compared with the theoretical results, which validate the analysis and its efficiency.

Summary: Menin (MEN1) is a critical modulator of tissue development and maintenance. As such, MEN1 mutations are associated with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome. Although menin is abundantly expressed in the nervous system, little is known with regard to its function in the adult brain. Here, we demonstrate that neuron-specific deletion of Men1 (CcKO) affects dendritic branching and spine formation, resulting in defects in synaptic function, learning, and memory. Furthermore, we find that menin binds to the p35 promoter region to facilitate p35 transcription. As a primary Cdk5 activator, p35 is expressed mainly in neurons and is critical for brain development and synaptic plasticity. Restoration of p35 expression in the hippocampus and cortex of Men1 CcKO mice rescues synaptic and cognitive deficits associated with Men1 deletion. These results reveal a critical role for menin in synaptic and cognitive function by modulating the p35-Cdk5 pathway. : The biological function of menin in neurons remains unclear. Zhuang et al. report that menin regulates neuronal dendritic branching, spine density, and synaptic plasticity. Menin binds to the p35 promoter to enhance p35 transcription and CDK5 activity. The study demonstrates a role for menin in synaptic and cognitive function. Keywords: menin, synaptic function, cognition, p35, Cdk5

This paper proposes a novel approach to deal with pilot contamination for spatially correlated massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with insufficient pilots. Specifically, a typical multi-cell multi-terminal time division duplex massive MIMO system is modeled first. To maximize the average achievable system capacity, a user grouping method which progressively merges the individual terminals with the largest angle of arrival similarity is proposed to mitigate the intra-cell interference. Furthermore, in order to alleviate the inter-cell interference, a pilot allocation method is proposed, including two algorithms, i.e., group matching algorithm and graph coloring-based pilot allocation algorithm. Compared with the existing pilot allocation schemes, the simulation results validate that the proposed approach can effectively improve the complexity-performance trade-off with a finite number of the base station antennas.

In this paper, the delay and delay-constrained throughput performance of a point-to-point wireless-powered communication system is investigated. In this system, the wireless-powered node, e.g., a user equipment (UE), receives data at the same time when powered from the other node, e.g., an access point (AP), and uses the harvested wireless energy to send data to the other node. The investigation focuses on the delay performance of sending data in the downlink (DL) from the AP node to the UE node and that in the uplink (UL) from the UE node to the AP node, based on which the throughput performance on both directions when delay constraints are enforced is also studied. To this aim, the cumulative service capacity of the service process is first analyzed for both DL and UL, taking into consideration the delay caused by the nontransmission phase for the AP or UE in each charging cycle. Thereafter, a general upper bound on the delay distribution for stochastic traffic arrivals is obtained for both DL and UL, based on which the delay-constrained throughput performance is further studied. In addition, to ensure the delay performance, the required energy storage capacity and wireless charging rate are investigated. The obtained results are exemplified with two specific traffic types, and the accuracy of the analysis is validated by comparison with extensive simulation results. The analysis and results shed new light on the performance of wireless-powered communication systems.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder associated with aging. There are currently no effective treatments for AD. Bazhu decoction (BZD), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula, has been employed clinically to alleviate AD. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still unclear. Here we found that middle- and high-doses of BZD ameliorated the behavioral aspects of 5xFAD transgenic mice in elevated plus maze, Y maze and Morris water maze tests. Moreover, BZD reduced the protein levels of BACE1 and PS1, resulting in a reduction of Aβ plaques. We also identified a beneficial effect of BZD on oxidative stress by attenuating MDA levels and SOD activity in the brains of 5xFAD mice. Together, these results indicate that BZD produces a dose-dependent positive effect on 5xFAD transgenic mouse model by decreasing APP processing and Aβ plaques, and by ameliorating oxidative damage. BZD may play a protective role in the cognitive and anxiety impairments and may be a complementary therapeutic option for AD.

Accumulation and deposition of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the brain is a primary cause of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ is generated from amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) through sequential cleavages first by β-secretase and then by γ-secretase. Inhibiting β-secretase activity is believed to be one of the most promising strategies for AD treatment. In the present study, we found that a resveratrol trimer, miyabenol C, isolated from stems and leaves of the small-leaf grape (Vitisthunbergii var. taiwaniana), can markedly reduce Aβ and sAPPβ levels in both cell cultures and the brain of AD model mice. Mechanistic studies revealed that miyabenol C affects neither protein levels of APP, the two major α-secretases ADAM10 and TACE, and the γ-secretase component Presenilin 1, nor γ-secretase-mediated Notch processing and TACE activity. In contrast, although miyabenol C has no effect on altering protein levels of the β-secretase BACE1, it can inhibit both in vitro and in vivo β-secretase activity. Together, our results indicate that miyabenol C is a prominent β-secretase inhibitor and lead compound for AD drug development.