Disrupted properties of functional brain networks in major depressive disorder during emotional face recognition: an EEG study via graph theory analysis

Previous neuroimaging studies have revealed abnormal brain networks in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in emotional processing. While any cognitive task consists of a series of stages, little is yet known about the topology of functional brain networks in MDD for these stages during emotional face recognition. To address this problem, electroencephalography (EEG)-based functional brain networks of MDD patients at different stages of facial information processing were investigated in this study. First, EEG signals were collected from 16 patients with MDD and 18 age-, gender-, and education-matched normal subjects when performing an emotional face recognition task. Second, the global field power (GFP) method was employed to divide group-averaged event-related potentials into different stages. Third, using the phase transfer entropy (PTE) approach, the brain networks of MDD patients and normal individuals were constructed for each stage in negative and positive face processing, respectively. Finally, we compared the topological properties of brain networks of each stage between the two groups using graph theory approaches. The results showed that the analyzed three stages of emotional face processing corresponded to specific neurophysiological phases, namely, visual perception, face recognition, and emotional decision-making. It was also demonstrated that depressed patients showed abnormally decreased characteristic path length at the visual perception stage of negative face recognition and normalized characteristic path length in the stage of emotional decision-making during positive face processing compared to healthy subjects. Furthermore, while both the MDD and normal groups' brain networks were found to exhibit small-world network characteristics, the brain network of patients with depression tended to be randomized. Moreover, for patients with MDD, the centro-parietal region may lose its status as a hub in the process of facial expression identification. Together, our findings suggested that altered emotional function in MDD patients might be associated with disruptions in the topological organization of functional brain networks during emotional face recognition, which further deepened our understanding of the emotion processing dysfunction underlying MDD.

[Health Benefit Evaluation for PM2.5 as Well as O3-8h Pollution Control in Chengdu, China from 2016 to 2020]

Both particulate matter with aerodynamics of less than 2.5 (PM_2.5) and ozone are the two main air pollutants in China, which seriously endanger human health. To estimate the adverse impacts of PM_2.5 and ozone on human health during the implementation of air pollution prevention and control actions in Chengdu, both the generalized additive model and the nonlinear distribution lag model of epidemiology were adopted to explore the exposure-response relationship coefficients β of daily ozone 8h maximum concentration average (O_3-8h), as well as that of PM_2.5 on disease deaths in Chengdu from 2014 to 2016. On this basis, the environmental risk model and environmental value assessment model were both adopted to evaluate the health effects and health benefits in Chengdu from 2016 to 2020, respectively, with the assumption that PM_2.5 and O_3-8h concentration were reduced to specified air pollution control limits (35 μg·m^-3 and 70 μg·m^-3, respectively). The results showed 1 the annual concentration of PM_2.5 presented gradually decreasing trends in Chengdu from 2016 to 2020. Specifically, ρ(PM_2.5) from 63 μg·m^-3 in 2016 decreased to 40.92 μg·m^-3 in 2020. The average annual decline rate was approximately 9.8%. In contrast, the annual concentration of O_3-8h from 155 μg·m^-3 in 2016 increased to 169 μg·m^-3 in 2020, and the increasing rate was approximately 2.4%. 2 Both PM_2.5 and O_3-8h had lag effects on three types of disease deaths. Under the maximum lag effect, the corresponding exposure-response relationship coefficients β of PM_2.5were 0.0003600, 0.0005001, and 0.0009237 for all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory premature deaths, respectively, whereas the corresponding β of O_3-8h were 0.0003103, 0.0006726, and 0.0007002, respectively. 3 If ρ(PM_2.5) was reduced to the national secondary standard limit (35 μg·m^-3), the corresponding number of health beneficiaries and economic benefits declined yearly. Specifically, the health beneficiary number of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease deaths were reduced from 1128, 416, and 328 in 2016 to 229, 96, and 54 in 2020, respectively. There were a total number of 3314 avoidable premature deaths for all-cause diseases during the five years, resulting in a total health economic benefit of 7.66 billion yuan. 4 If we assume that ρ(O_3-8h) was reduced to the concentration limit specified by the World Health Organization (70 μg·m^-3), the corresponding number of health beneficiaries and economic benefits were increasing yearly. Specifically, the health beneficiaries' numbers of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease deaths rose from 1919, 779, and 606 in 2016 to 2429, 1157, and 635 in 2020, respectively. The annual average growth rates of avoidable all-cause and cardiovascular mortality were 6.85% and 10.72%, respectively, which was higher than the annual average rise rate of ρ(O_3-8h). There were 10790 total avoidable deaths from all-cause diseases during the five years, resulting in a total health economic benefit of 26.62 billion yuan. These findings indicate that PM_2.5 pollution in Chengdu had been well controlled, whereas O₃ pollution had become more severe and had become another key air pollutant threatening human health. Therefore, the synchronous control of PM_2.5 and ozone should be implemented in the future.

[Prognostic analysis of children with Philadelphia chromosome-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia common genes]

Objective: To summarize the clinical data and prognosis of children with Philadelphia chromosome-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph-like ALL) common genes. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study.Clinical data of 56 children with Ph-like ALL common gene cases (Ph-like ALL positive group) treated from January 2017 to January 2022 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Children's Hospital, Henan Cancer's Hospital and Henan Provincial People's Hospital were collected, 69 children with other high-risk B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) at the same time and the same age were selected as the negative group. The clinical characteristics and prognosis of two groups were analyzed retrospectively. Comparisons between groups were performed using Mann-Whitney U test and χ² test. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival curve, Log-Rank test was used for univariate analysis, and the Cox regression model was used for multivariate prognosis analysis. Results: Among 56 Ph-like ALL positive patients, there were 30 males and 26 females, and 15 cases were over 10 years old. There were 69 patients in Ph-like ALL negative group. Compared with the negative group, the children in positive group were older (6.4 (4.2, 11.2) vs. 4.7 (2.8, 8.4) years), and hyperleukocytosis (≥50×10⁹/L) was more common (25% (14/56) vs. 9% (6/69)), the differences were statistically significant (both P<0.05). In the Ph-like ALL positive group, 32 cases were positive for IK6 (1 case was co-expressed with IK6 and EBF1-PDGFRB), 24 cases were IK6-negative, of which 9 cases were CRLF2 positive (including 2 cases with P2RY8-CRLF2, 7 cases with CRLF2 high expression), 5 cases were PDGFRB rearrangement, 4 cases were ABL1 rearrangement, 4 cases were JAK2 rearrangement, 1 case was ABL2 rearrangement and 1 case was EPOR rearrangement. The follow-up time of Ph-like ALL positive group was 22 (12, 40) months, and 32 (20, 45) months for negative group. The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate of positive group was significantly lower than the negative group ((72±7) % vs. (86±5) %, χ²=4.59, P<0.05). Compared with the 24 IK6-negative patients, the 3-year event free survival (EFS) rate of 32 IK6 positive patients was higher, the difference was statistically significant ((88±9) % vs. (65±14) %, χ²=5.37, P<0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the bone marrow minimal residual disease (MRD) not turning negative at the end of first induction (HR=4.12, 95%CI 1.13-15.03) independent prognostic risk factor for patient with Ph-like ALL common genes. Conclusions: Children with Ph-like ALL common genes were older than other high-risk B-ALL patients at diagnosis, with high white blood cells and lower survival rate. The bone marrow MRD not turning negative at the end of first induction were independent prognostic risk factor for children with Ph-like ALL common gene.

Broadband reflective lens in visible band based on aluminum plasmonic metasurface

We demonstrate a flat optical lens based on plasmonic reflectarray metasurface, which consists of a planar array of hyperbolic-shaped aluminum (Al) nanoantenna separated from an Al ground plane by a SiO₂ spacer. The gradual change in the width of the Al nanoantenna enables unique broadband (400-700 nm) to focus on the visible band because of its hyperbolic reflection-phase profile. The focal length of metalens is quickly decreased with the increase of wavelength in the short wavelength region (400-550 nm), compensating the chromatic aberration in traditional lenses. In long wavelength region (550-700 nm), the focal length has only a slight change, thereby minimizing chromatic aberration. Furthermore, the proposed metalens creates a small focal spot beyond diffraction limit, while maintaining high focusing efficiency. Our method of simple and anisotropic nanoantenna is used to realize wide phase tuning range offers a novel strategy to design braodband metalens, and our metalens has widespread applications in compact camera, telescope, and microscope.

Distribution of food-borne Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin genes

We identified and analyzed 5 new-type enterotoxin genes, including SEj, SEl, SEq, SEm, and SEr, to explore the distribution of 5 enterotoxin genes in Staphylococcus aureus of different origins as well as their correlations and differences. We examined the distribution of the S. aureus enterotoxin genes and their pathogenic mechanisms. A total of 660 specimens were collected from January 2011 to December 2014, and 217 strains of S. aureus were isolated. The template DNA of S. aureus was extracted. The Primer6.0 and Oligo7 software were used to design and synthesize polymerase chain reaction primers. Amplification results were analyzed by electrophoresis, and the amplification products were recovered and sequenced. Thirty-six bacterial strains contained the SEj gene (16.6%), including 15, 8, 8, 4, and 1 strains in fresh meat, quick-frozen food, raw milk, human purulent tissue, and living environment, respectively. Thirty-one bacterial strains contained the SEr gene (14.3%), including 16, 9, and 6 strains in fresh meat, quick-frozen food, and raw milk, respectively. Twenty-one bacterial strains contained the enterotoxin SEq gene (9.7%), including 8, 6, 6, and 1 strains in fresh meat, quick-frozen food, raw milk, and human purulent tissue, respectively. No SEm and SEl genes were detected. Different types of foods carry different types of enterotoxins, providing a basis for quick tracing for food poisoning. Three enterotoxin genes, SEj, SEr, and SEq, showed the highest carrier rate in quick-frozen food. It is imperative to improve their detection in quick-frozen food.

Electronic properties of single Ge/Si quantum dot grown by ion beam sputtering deposition

The dependence of the electronic properties of a single Ge/Si quantum dot (QD) grown by the ion-beam sputtering deposition technique on growth temperature and QD diameter is investigated by conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM). The Si-Ge intermixing effect is demonstrated to be important for the current distribution of single QDs. The current staircase induced by the Coulomb blockade effect is observed at higher growth temperatures (>700 °C) due to the formation of an additional barrier between dislocated QDs and Si substrate for the resonant tunneling of holes. According to the proposed single-hole-tunneling model, the fact that the intermixing effect is observed to increase as the incoherent QD size decreases may explain the increase in the starting voltage of the current staircase and the decrease in the current step width.

Workload influence on fatigue related psychological and physiological performance changes of aviators

OBJECTIVE

We evaluated a variety of non-invasive physiological technologies and a series of test approaches for examination of aviator performances under conditions of mental workload in order to provide a standard real-time test for physiological and psychological pilot fatigue assessments.

METHODS

Twenty-one male aviators were selected for a simulated flight in a hypobaric cabin with artificial altitude conditions of 2400 meter above sea level. The simulated flight lasted for 1.5 h, and was repeated for two times with an intervening 0.5 h rest period outside the hypobaric cabin. Subjective criteria (a fatigue assessment instrument [FAI]) and objective criteria (a standing-position balance test as well as a critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) test) were used for fatigue evaluations.

RESULTS

No significant change was observed in the FAI scores before and after the simulated flight, indicating that there was no subjective fatigue feeling among the participants. However, significant differences were observed in the standing-position balance and CFF tests among the subjects, suggesting that psychophysiological indexes can reflect mental changes caused by workload to a certain extent. The CFF test was the simplest and clearly indicated the occurrence of workload influences on pilot performances after a simulated flight.

CONCLUSIONS

Results showed that the CFF test was the easiest way to detect workload caused mental changes after a simulated flight in a hypobaric cabin and reflected the psychophysiological state of aviators. We suggest that this test might be used as an effective routine method for evaluating the workload influences on mental conditions of aviators.

Investigation on maternal physiological and psychological factors of cheilopalatognathus

OBJECTIVE

Case-control study on mothers of cheilopalatognathus children was conducted, to investigate the maternal physiological and psychological factors for occurrence of cheilopalatognathus.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

One hundred ten mothers of cheilopalatognathus children who were scheduled for one-stage surgery were selected as a research group, and 110 mothers of normal children served as a normal control group at the same time. Trait Anxiety Inventory (T-AI), Life Events Scale (LES), Trait Coping Style Questionnaire (TCSQ), Type C Behavior Scale (CBS), adult Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and homemade general questionnaire survey were employed for the investigation.

RESULTS

Compared with the control group, the scores for negative event tension value, anxiety, and depressive factors were higher in the study group (p < 0.05); while the scores for positive event tension value, intellect, optimism, and social support factors were lower (p < 0.05). Regression analysis found that physiological factors included were five: education, changes in body weight during pregnancy, the intake amount of milk and beans, and intake of healthcare products, and supplementary folic acid taken or not, while the psychological factors included were four: positive event stimulation, negative event stimulation, the amount of social support, as well as introvert and extrovert personalities.

CONCLUSION

The study results suggest that pregnant women's physiological and psychological factors can cause changes in cheilopalatognathus incidence, which is expected to be guidance for healthcare during pregnancy, to prevent the occurrence of cheilopalatognathus.

Effects of sleep deprivation on human postural control, subjective fatigue assessment and psychomotor performance

This study aimed to investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on postural control, subjective fatigue assessment and psychomotor performance, and to assess the efficiency of an objective posturographic test as an indicator of mental fatigue. Postural sway using static posturography (Romberg's test), subjective fatigue assessment (Stanford Sleepiness Scale) and psychomotor performance (Sternberg dual-task test) were assessed in 12 subjects before and after 24 h of sustained wakefulness. After sustained wakefulness, the Romberg test parameters of circumference area and rectangle area with the eyes-closed, and standard deviation in the anterior-posterior direction with the eyes-open were significantly higher compared with baseline values (before sustained wakefulness). Subjective fatigue assessment scores were also significantly increased, while psychomotor performance was unchanged. Sleep deprivation can arouse a feeling of fatigue and can affect postural stability, hence an objective posturographic test score may be useful as an indicator of mental fatigue.

Cerebral hemodynamics and brain functional activity during lower body negative pressure

INTRODUCTION

Exposure to high +Gz acceleration forces on a centrifuge or in an aircraft can severely decrease cerebral blood perfusion and cause rapid G-induced loss of consciousness. However, milder acceleration may gradually reduce cerebral blood flow and affect cognitive function in subtler ways. This study used lower body negative pressure (LBNP) to mimic +Gz circulatory effects in order to study cerebral hemodynamics and brain function.

METHODS

Subjects were 15 healthy men, 19-21 yr of age. They were exposed to LBNP at two levels for 5 min each separated by a 10-min recovery period. The conditions were low (LO), -4.00 kPa (-30 mmHg) and high (HI), -6.67 kPa (-50 mmHg).Variables measured before, during, and after LBNP included cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) in the middle cerebral artery, blood oxygen saturation (SaO2), heart rate (HR), blood pressure, P300 of event-related EEG potentials, reaction time, and tracking error.

RESULTS

LO significantly reduced CBFV at 4 and 5 min, increased HR, and decreased the amplitude of P300, but none of the other variables changed from baseline. In contrast, HI produced significant changes in most variables: CBFV decreased at 2 min and then fell further at 4 and 5 min, HR increased, and SaO2 decreased. Significant neurocognitive changes included increased latency and reduced amplitude of P300, slower reaction time, and greater tracking error.

CONCLUSION

The higher level of LBNP used here reduced cerebral perfusion sufficiently to impair neurocognitive function. This model may be useful for further studies of these and other variables under closely controlled conditions.