Altered thalamo-cortical functional connectivity in patients with vestibular migraine: a resting-state fMRI study

PURPOSE

To explore the functional connectivity (FC) between the bilateral thalamus and the other brain regions in patients with vestibular migraine (VM).

METHODS

Resting-state fMRI and 3D-T1 data were collected from 37 patients with VM during the interictal period and 44 age-, gender-, and years of education-matched healthy controls (HC). The FC of the bilateral thalamus was analyzed using a standard seed-based whole-brain correlation method. Furthermore, the correlations between thalamus FC and clinical characteristics of patients were investigated using Pearson's partial correlation.

RESULTS

Compared with HC, VM patients showed decreased FC between the left thalamus and the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral insular and right supplementary motor cortex. We also observed decreased FC between the right thalamus and the left insular and ACC in VM patients. Furthermore, patients with VM also exhibited increased FC between the left thalamus and the right precuneus and middle frontal gyrus, between the right thalamus and superior parietal lobule. FC between the right thalamus and the left insular was negatively correlated with disease duration (p = 0.019, r =  - 0.399), FC between the left thalamus and the left ACC was negatively correlated with HIT-6 score (p = 0.004, r =  - 0.484).

CONCLUSION

VM patients showed altered FC between thalamus and brain regions involved in pain, vestibular and visual processing, which are associated with specific clinical features. Specifically, VM patients showed reduced thalamo-pain and thallamo-vestibular pathways, while exhibited enhanced thalamo-visual pathway, which provided first insight into the underlying functional brain connectivity in VM patients.

Effects of humic substances on the aqueous stability of cerium dioxide nanoparticles and their toxicity to aquatic organisms

The impacts of humic substances (HS) on the aquatic stability and toxicity of nano‑cerium dioxide (nCeO₂) to three organisms with different exposure characteristics were investigated. Addition of HS to suspensions of nCeO₂ lowered the surface zeta potential of the particles, reduced their hydrodynamic size, and increased the energy barrier as indicated by the total potential energy profile. This resulted in a more stable suspension compared to suspensions without HS added. Moreover, a higher concentration of HS further stabilized nCeO₂ in the suspension. Acute toxicity of the suspensions to the unicellular green alga Raphidocelis subcapitata and to the crustacean Chydorus sphaericus was lower as compared to exposure without HS added. The acute toxicity of nCeO₂ suspensions to the zebrafish (Danio rerio) eleutheroembryo was on the other hand significantly enhanced (additive and synergistic) upon increasing HS concentration. Our findings emphasize that HS is important to stabilize the nano-suspensions and that its impact on nCeO₂ toxicity differs across different aquatic organisms. Emphasizing the exposure characteristics of each of the organisms selected from the trophic levels can explain how particle stability impacts particle toxicity.

Development of Effective Tumor Vaccine Strategies Based on Immune Response Cascade Reactions

To solve the problems of high toxicity and poor efficacy of existing tumor treatment methods, researchers have developed a variety of tumor immunotherapies. Among them, tumor vaccines activate antigen-presenting cells and T lymphocytes upstream of the cancer-immunity cycle are considered the most promising therapy to activate the immune system. Nanocarriers are considered the most promising tumor vaccine delivery vehicles, including polymer nanocarriers, lipid nanocarriers, inorganic nanocarriers, and biomimetic nanocarriers that have been developed for vaccine delivery. Based on the cascade reaction for tumor vaccines to exert their effects, this review summarizes the four key factors for the design and construction of nano-tumor vaccines. The composition and functional characteristics of the corresponding preferred nanocarriers are illustrated to provide a reference for the development of effective tumor vaccines. Finally, potential challenges and perspectives are illustrated in the hope of improving the efficacy of tumor vaccine immunotherapy and accelerating the clinical transformation of next-generation tumor vaccines.

Compositional and functional responses of bacterial community to titanium dioxide nanoparticles varied with soil heterogeneity and exposure duration

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) are widely used as nano-agrochemicals. In this study we investigated the influence of soil heterogeneity on bacterial communities exposed to TiO₂ NPs over time. Clay and sandy soils with low- and high-organic matter contents were exposed to environmentally relevant concentration of TiO₂ NPs (1 mg/kg) and soil bacterial communities were sampled after short-term (15 days) and long-term exposure (60 days). After short-term TiO₂ NPs exposure, significant effects regarding the enzyme activity, bacterial community structure and composition, and community functioning were observed in the clay soils with high organic matter (clay-HOM) but not in other soil groups. Response alterations were observed to taxa belonging to Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, and functional pathways related to carbohydrates degradation. These results indicated that soil heterogeneity play more important roles in shaping the bacterial community in soil with low clay fraction and less organic matter, while TiO₂ NPs selection was the main driver in inducing the compositional and functional impacts on the soil bacterial community in the presence of clay soil with high organic matter content. As exposure time increased, the bacterial community recovered after a long-term exposure of 60 days, suggesting that the bacterial evolution and adaptation could overcome the TiO₂ NPs selection after long-term exposure. Our results highlighted the importance of soil heterogeneity including clay fraction and organic matter and exposure duration in assessing the impact of nanoparticle on soil bacterial activity, community and function. By comprehensively evaluating the risks of nanoparticles on soil ecosystem and explicitly and explicitly include spatial and temporal variations, the benefit of nano-agrochemical products has the potential to be promoted in future applications.

Current Knowledge of Long Non-Coding RNA HOTAIR in Breast Cancer Progression and Its Application

Breast cancer is one of the most devastating cancers with high morbidity and mortality in females worldwide. Breast tumorigenesis and further development present great uncertainty and complexity, and efficient therapeutic approaches still lack. Accumulating evidence indicates HOX transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) is dysregulated in cancers and has emerged as a novel hotspot in the field. In breast cancer, aberrant HOTAIR expression is responsible for advanced tumor progression by regulating multifarious signaling pathways. Besides, HOTAIR may act as competitive endogenous RNA to bind to several microRNAs and suppress their expressions, which can subsequently upregulate the levels of targeted downstream messenger RNAs, thereby leading to further cancer progression. In addition, HOTAIR works as a promising biomarker and predictor for breast cancer patients’ diagnosis or outcome prediction. Recently, HOTAIR is potentially considered to be a drug target. Here, we have summarized the induction of HOTAIR in breast cancer and its impacts on cell proliferation, migration, apoptosis, and therapeutic resistance, as well as elucidating the underlying mechanisms. This review aims to provide new insights into investigations between HOTAIR and breast cancer development and inspire new methods for studying the association in depth.

Progress in tumour-targeted drug delivery based on cell-penetrating peptides

Since the discovery of cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) in the 1980s, they have played a unique role in various fields owing to their excellent and unique cell membrane penetration function. In particular, in the treatment of tumours, CPPS have been used to deliver several types of 'cargos' to cancer cells. To address the insufficient targeting ability, non-selectivity, and blood instability, activatable cell-penetrating peptides, which can achieve targeted drug delivery in tumour treatment, enhance curative effects, and reduce toxicity have been developed. This study reviews the application of different cell-penetrating peptides in tumour-targeted delivery, overcoming multidrug resistance, organelle targeting, tumour imaging, and diagnosis, and summarises the different mechanisms of activatable cell-penetrating peptides in detail.

Immune Checkpoints, a Novel Class of Therapeutic Targets for Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and type-1 diabetes, are the outcomes of a failure of immune tolerance. Immune tolerance is sustained through interplays between two inter-dependent clusters of immune activities: immune stimulation and immune regulation. The mechanisms of immune regulation are exploited as therapeutic targets for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. One of these mechanisms is immune checkpoints (ICPs). The roles of ICPs in maintaining immune tolerance and hence suppressing autoimmunity were revealed in animal models and validated by the clinical successes of ICP-targeted therapeutics for autoimmune diseases. Recently, these roles were highlighted by the clinical discovery that the blockade of ICPs causes autoimmune disorders. Given the crucial roles of ICPs in immune tolerance, it is plausible to leverage ICPs as a group of therapeutic targets to restore immune tolerance and treat autoimmune diseases. In this review, we first summarize working mechanisms of ICPs, particularly those that have been utilized for therapeutic development. Then, we recount the agents and approaches that were developed to target ICPs and treat autoimmune disorders. These agents take forms of fusion proteins, antibodies, nucleic acids, and cells. We also review and discuss safety information for these therapeutics. We wrap up this review by providing prospects for the development of ICP-targeting therapeutics. In summary, the ever-increasing studies and results of ICP-targeting of therapeutics underscore their tremendous potential to become a powerful class of medicine for autoimmune diseases.

[The epidemic situation and intervention countermeasures of stroke in Japan]

From 1951 to 1980, stroke was the main cause of disability and death among middle-aged and elderly residents in Japan. Its mortality once stood in the first place among all the developed countries, with the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke significantly higher than that of the western countries. In 1965, the mortality of stroke in Japan reached a peak of 175.8 per 100 000. Since then, it began to decline rapidly with a range of 5%-7%, and dropped to 139.5 per 100 000 in 1980, and from the top cause of death to the third place. By 2010, the mortality had dropped to 97.7 per 100 000. The significant decline in stroke morbidity and mortality in Japan is mainly attributed to controlling important risk factors and the public health service system's improvement. Setting up related policies and regulations to ensure comprehensive interventions and using the existing monitoring systems and surveys to assess interventions' effectiveness also contributes. Given the similarities of epidemiological characteristics and risk factors on stroke in Japan and China, strategies and measures adopted in Japan will have certain positive significance for China.

First report of Geotrichum candidum causing sour rot of peach in China

Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) is one of the most important fruit crops in China (Wang et al. 2011). Yangshan Town of Jiangsu Province is one of the four major peach producing areas in China, with a growing area of 2,000 ha (Tian et al. 2018). During June 2020, a postharvest disease presenting with brown necrosis and rot occurred on peaches in Yangshan Town. The estimated damage was more than 10% of the total harvest. The symptoms included soft rot, and the lesion appeared sunken, accompanied with sour odor and white mycelia. Twelve peaches with representative symptom were sampled for pathogen isolation. Pieces (about 5 mm × 5 mm) from the lesion edge of symptomatic fruits were dissected and surface disinfected (3% NaClO for 10 s and 75% ethanol for 30 s), then rinsed three times with distilled water, dried on sterile filter paper and transferred to Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media plates supplemented with 150 ng/mL streptomycin sulfate. The plates were incubated at 28 ℃ for 3 days. Forty-eight isolations were obtained from the plates and isolates were single-spored. All isolates presented white, flat, milky yeast-like colonies with radial mycelia. Hyphae under microscope were septate, branched, disarticulating into arthroconidia measuring 3.39 to 9.27 × 2.05 to 7.71 μm. The morphological characteristics are consistent with Geotrichum candidum (De Hoog et al. 1986). Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 18s nuclear ribosomal small subunit (SSU) of the 48 isolates were amplified and sequenced using the primers ITS5/ITS4, and NS1/NS4 for molecular identification (Schoch et al. 2012). The resulted sequences showed no difference among all the isolates. Alignment by blastn showed the sequence of ITS and SSU were 100% (accession number. GQ376093) and 99.7% identical (accession number. KY977411.1) to Geotrichum candidum, respectively. The sequences of ITS (accession number MW493646) and SSU (accession number MW493648) were submitted to the GenBank. Commercial ripe peaches with the size of about 15 cm × 15 cm × 10 cm was used for pathogenicity test. Peaches were surface disinfected with 75% ethanol, then a wound with 4 mm in diameter and 5 mm in depth was made on the surface of each fruit. Ten peaches were inoculated with 10 μL (1×105 spores /mL) of the isolate suspension. Another ten peaches were inoculated with 10 μL sterile water as the control. Peaches were incubated individually at 28 ℃and a relative humidity of about 85%. After three days, large scale of pits and necrosis appeared on every peach inoculated, and the symptoms were consistent with the diseased peaches in Yangshan Town, while no symptoms non-inoculated on the control peaches were observed. The pathogen was re-isolated from the diseased fruit and was identified again by sequencing of ITS and SSU. All the tests were conducted three times. Considering the evidence, we identified the pathogen as G. candidum. This pathogen has been reported to cause sour rot was reported in kiwifruit, strawberry, melon and other fruits (Alonzo et al. 2020; Cheng et al. 2020; Halfeld-Vieira et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of G. candidum causing sour rot of peach in China, which may cause a great loss to peach industry of China.

Pegylated Liposomal Doxorubicin in Vindesine-Based and Bortezomib-Based Regimens for Patients With Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma: A Retrospective Study of Efficacy and Safety

Purpose

Although pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) has been approved in combination with bortezomib for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM), the antitumor efficacy and tolerability of PLD in different regimens for patients with newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) have not been fully defined.

Methods

A total of 249 NDMM patients diagnosed between January 2008 and October 2019 were included in this retrospective study. Among them, 112 patients received vindesine-based chemotherapy (35 vDD and 77 vAD) and 137 received bortezomib-based chemotherapy (58 VDD and 79 VD).

Results

In bortezomib-containing regimens, the complete response rate (48.3 vs. 30.4%, p = 0.033) and very good partial response or better rate (74.1 vs. 57.0%, p = 0.038) of VDD were significantly higher than those of VD subgroup. While no superior survival was found between VDD and VD subgroup. In vindesine-containing regimens, no statistical significance was identified between vDD and vAD in terms of response rate and survival. The occurrence rates of all cardiac AEs were similar between VDD and VD.

Conclusions

The vDD regimen was similar with vAD in the aspect of response rate, survival, and toxicity in NDMM patients. The addition of PLD to VD brought deeper response without increased toxicity, while no superior survival was found.

Misinformation During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: Cultural, Social and Political Entanglements

Not only did COVID-19 give rise to a global pandemic, but also it resulted in an infodemic comprising misinformation, rumor, and propaganda. The consequences of this infodemic can erode public trust, impede the containment of the virus, and outlive the pandemic itself. The evolving and fragmented media landscape, particularly the extensive use of social media, is a crucial driver of the spread of misinformation. Focusing on the Chinese social media Weibo, we collected four million tweets, from December 9, 2019, to April 4, 2020, examining misinformation identified by the fact-checking platform Tencent-a leading Chinese tech giant. Our results show that the evolution of misinformation follows an issue-attention cycle pertaining to topics such as city lockdown, cures and preventive measures, school reopening, and foreign countries. Sensational and emotionally reassuring misinformation characterizes the whole issue-attention cycle, with misinformation on cures and prevention flooding social media. We also study the evolution of sentiment and observe that positive sentiment dominated over the course of Covid, which may be due to the unique characteristic of "positive energy" on Chinese social media. Lastly, we study the media landscape during Covid via a case study on a controversial unproven cure known as Shuanghuanglian, which testifies to the importance of scientific communication in a plague. Our findings shed light on the distinct characteristics of misinformation and its cultural, social, and political implications, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also offers insights into combating misinformation in China and across the world at large.

JD-SLAM: Joint camera pose estimation and moving object segmentation for simultaneous localization and mapping in dynamic scenes

As a fundamental assumption in simultaneous localization and mapping, the static scenes hypothesis can be hardly fulfilled in applications of indoor/outdoor navigation or localization. Recent works about simultaneous localization and mapping in dynamic scenes commonly use heavy pixel-level segmentation net to distinguish dynamic objects, which brings enormous calculations and limits the real-time performance of the system. That restricts the application of simultaneous localization and mapping on the mobile terminal. In this article, we present a lightweight system for monocular simultaneous localization and mapping in dynamic scenes, which can run in real time on central processing unit (CPU) and generate a semantic probability map. The pixel-wise semantic segmentation net is replaced with a lightweight object detection net combined with three-dimensional segmentation based on motion clustering. And a framework integrated with an improved weighted-random sample consensus solver is proposed to jointly solve the camera pose and perform three-dimensional object segmentation, which enables high accuracy and efficiency. Besides, the prior information of the generated map and the object detection results is introduced for better estimation. The experiments on the public data set, and in the real-world demonstrate that our method obtains an outstanding improvement in both accuracy and speed compared to state-of-the-art methods.

Does aluminum exposure affect cognitive function? a comparative cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed the cognitive function of aluminum-exposed participants from an alum mining zone, compared them with unexposed subjects, and aimed to elucidate the effect of aluminum exposure on cognition.

DESIGN

This was a comparative cross-sectional study. Univariate analyses were used to assess the differences between the aluminum-exposed and unexposed groups. Binary logistic regression models were applied to analyze the effect of aluminum exposure.

SETTING

The aluminum-exposed participants were included from an alum mining zone and the unexposed subjects were residents from another district without alum-mine-related factories.

PARTICIPANTS

We included 539 aluminum-exposed participants (254 men, 285 women) and 1720 unexposed participants (692 men, 1028 women).

RESULTS

The mean cognition score on Mini-Mental State Examination was 21.34 (± 6.81) for aluminum-exposed participants. The exposed group had 6.77 times (95% confidence interval, 5.09-9.00) more risk of cognitive impairment than the unexposed group, after adjusting for age, sex, and educational level. No statistically significant association was found between exposure duration and cognition.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrated a significant association between aluminum exposure and lower cognitive function.

Single-photon detection in the mid-infrared up to 10 μm wavelength using tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire detectors

We developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on tungsten silicide, which show saturated internal detection efficiency up to a wavelength of 10 μm. These detectors are promising for applications in the mid-infrared requiring sub-nanosecond timing, ultra-high gain stability, low dark counts, and high efficiency, such as chemical sensing, LIDAR, dark matter searches, and exoplanet spectroscopy.

Pictures Library of Smoking Cravings: Development and Verification of Smokers and Non-smokers

Background: The cue-induced craving by addiction related materials is commonly employed in addiction research; however, no existing standardized picture database based on the expectation model of craving has been developed. We prepared and validated a Pictures Library of Smoking Cravings (PLSC) in this study. Methods: We captured pictures 366 smoking and 406 control pictures (matched in content). We selected 109 smoking pictures and 115 control pictures and asked participants to provide ratings of craving, familiarity, valence, and arousal induced in them. Participants were divided into three groups: non-smokers (n = 211), light smokers (n = 504), and heavy smokers (n = 101). Results: The results showed that smoking pictures evoked a greater craving, familiarity, and arousal than control pictures in smokers (ps < 0.01). In addition, craving caused by smoking pictures was positively associated with the Fagerström test for nicotine dependence score in dependent smokers. Conclusions: Overall, the contemporary results showed that PLSC is effective and can be used in smoking-related studies.

Alteration of dominant cyanobacteria in different bloom periods caused by abiotic factors and species interactions

Freshwater cyanobacterial blooms have drawn public attention because they threaten the safety of water resources and human health worldwide. Heavy cyanobacterial blooms outbreak in Lake Taihu in summer annually and vanish in other months. To find out the factors impacting the cyanobacterial blooms, the present study measured the physicochemical parameters of water and investigated the composition of microbial community using the 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer amplicon sequencing in the months with or without bloom. The most interesting finding is that two major cyanobacteria, Planktothrix and Microcystis, dramatically alternated during a cyanobacterial bloom in 2016, which is less mentioned in previous studies. When the temperature of the water began increasing in July, Planktothrix appeared first and showed as a superior competitor for M. aeruginosa in NO₃^--rich conditions. Microcystis became the dominant genus when the water temperature increased further in August. Laboratory experiments confirmed the influence of temperature and the total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) form on the growth of Planktothrix and Microcystis in a co-culture system. Besides, species interactions between cyanobacteria and non-cyanobacterial microorganisms, especially the prokaryotes, also played a key role in the alteration of Planktothrix and Microcystis. The present study exhibited the alteration of two dominant cyanobacteria in the different bloom periods caused by the temperature, TDN forms as well as the species interactions. These results helped the better understanding of cyanobacterial blooms and the factors which contribute to them.

The innate immunity protein IFITM3 modulates γ-secretase in Alzheimer's disease

Innate immunity is associated with Alzheimer's disease1, but the influence of immune activation on the production of amyloid-β is unknown2,3. Here we identify interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) as a γ-secretase modulatory protein, and establish a mechanism by which inflammation affects the generation of amyloid-β. Inflammatory cytokines induce the expression of IFITM3 in neurons and astrocytes, which binds to γ-secretase and upregulates its activity, thereby increasing the production of amyloid-β. The expression of IFITM3 is increased with ageing and in mouse models that express familial Alzheimer's disease genes. Furthermore, knockout of IFITM3 reduces γ-secretase activity and the formation of amyloid plaques in a transgenic mouse model (5xFAD) of early amyloid deposition. IFITM3 protein is upregulated in tissue samples from a subset of patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease that exhibit higher γ-secretase activity. The amount of IFITM3 in the γ-secretase complex has a strong and positive correlation with γ-secretase activity in samples from patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease. These findings reveal a mechanism in which γ-secretase is modulated by neuroinflammation via IFITM3 and the risk of Alzheimer's disease is thereby increased.

Seniors' Physical Activity in Neighborhood Parks and Park Design Characteristics

Physical activity brings multiple health benefits to seniors. Neighborhood parks provide seniors with accessible spaces and opportunities to engage in physical activity. This study investigated the associations between neighborhood park design characteristics and seniors' total walking step and energy expenditure during the park visit. Seniors' total step was measured by pedometer, and energy expenditure was calculated based on self-reported activities in the park. The study was conducted in 15 neighborhood parks with an area <10 ha, and included 234 senior participants. One-way ANOVA analyses indicated that seniors in parks with larger surface area, longer trail, larger natural area and outdoor fitness equipment had taken more steps. While seniors in parks without water expended more energy. For instance, seniors in parks with surface areas <3 ha walked 507 fewer steps than seniors in parks with areas between 3 and 5 ha, and 691 fewer steps than those in parks larger than 5 ha. When including seniors' demographic attributes, multiple regression analyses suggested that total step was negatively associated with age, but positively associated with total natural area in the park and the presence of outdoor fitness equipment. Seniors energy expenditure was positively associated with BMI and the presence of outdoor fitness equipment. Energy expenditure was also related to income. These findings provide direct implications for neighborhood park design and management. Planners and designers can include more natural areas over paved areas, create longer trails and place more outdoor fitness equipment in parks to encourage seniors to walk and spend more energy.

[Validity and reliability of physical activity questionnaires in children and adolescents: a Meta-analysis]

Objective: This review is to systematically summarize the studies examining physical activity questionnaires in children and adolescents and assess the overall validity and reliability, providing evidence on epidemiology research of physical activity in youth. Methods: A meta-analysis was performed using Stata 14.0 software. PubMed/Medline and EMBASE databases using the following terms:'Physical Activity'AND (' Questionnaire'OR'Self-report'OR'Recall') AND'Valid*'AND (' Reliab*'OR'Reproducib*'OR'Sensitiv*'OR'Responsiv*') AND (' Child*' OR'Adolescen*'OR'Youth') were searched from January 2008 to December 2018. Articles meeting the inclusion criteria were screened and adopting 'COnsensusbased Standards for the selection of health status Measurement Instruments' to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Results: This review yielded 17 articles on 20 different physical activity questionnaires, the total number of 2 778 participants for validity study and 2 137 participants for reliability study. The combined values of correlation coefficients in validity study were 0.27 (95%CI: 0.23-0.31) for moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, 0.24 (95%CI: 0.18-0.30) for moderate intensity physical activity, 0.33 (95%CI: 0.24-0.42) for vigorous intensity physical activity. The combined values of intraclass correlation coefficients in reliability study were 0.75 (95%CI: 0.68-0.83) for moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, 0.56 (95%CI: 0.46-0.65) for moderate intensity physical activity, 0.68 (95%CI: 0.61-0.75) for vigorous intensity physical activity. Conclusion: Until now, no questionnaires were identified for good validity and reliability to assess the physical activity level in young population.