Comparative analysis of differential gene expression in two species of crucian carps in response to Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) infection

We assessed the expressions of MHCI, LYZC, keratin8, MPO, DUSP1, IκBα, Rab21, and Rac2 between two species of carps (Erqisi river crucian carp and allogynogenetic crucian carp) after Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) infection. The relative expressions of MHCI, LYZC, and keratin8 in the virus-challenged groups were significantly higher than control groups. Moreover, the expression of IκBα in the virus-challenged groups was significantly lower than in the control groups. Compared with the virus-challenged ERO group, the expression of IκBα in the virus-challenged ZHO group decreased. The expression of Rab21 in the virus-challenged groups gradually increased and was significantly higher than in the control groups, and then its expression began to decrease after 24 h. At 72 h, the expression of IκBα in both virus-challenged groups was significantly lower than in the control groups. In addition, the expression of Rab21 in the virus-challenged ZHO group was significantly higher than the virus-challenged ERO group at all time points except for 72 h. Before 24 h, the expression of Rac2 remained unchanged in these four groups, and its expression in the virus-challenged ZHO group was significantly higher than in the other three groups. Nevertheless, its expression began to decrease after 24 h but was still slightly higher than the control group at 72 h. MPO showed a similar expression pattern as Rac2. The expression of DUSP1 in the four groups was the same at 0 h. However, its expression in the virus-challenged ZHO group was significantly higher than in the other three groups at other time points

The effect of visual attention process and thinking styles on environmental aesthetic preference: An eye-tracking study

People often form different aesthetic preferences for natural and built environments, which affects their behavioral intention; however, it remains unknown whether this difference in aesthetic preference is due to differences in thinking styles. However, whether tourists’ aesthetic preferences differ when using different visual attention processes has not been studied further. This study used eye-tracking and self-reporting to investigate these questions. The results show that natural environment images are more favored visually because they can evoke in tourists larger pupil diameters and longer scan paths, but we found no significant difference in fixation duration and fixation counts. We also found that the scanning path of tourists who predominantly rely on intuitive thinking is modulated by the bottom-up attention process, while the scanning path of tourists who prefer rational thinking is modulated by the top-down attention process. In the bottom-up process, tourists who prefer rational thinking exhibit more positive aesthetic preferences and emotional arousal. In summary, the present study verified that aesthetic preference is more likely to be influenced by both thinking style and visual attention processing. The results of the present work provide preliminary evidence that the aesthetic preference of the environment is not only related to visual attention but also affected by the individual visual attention process and thinking style

Multimodal N-of-1 trials: A Novel Personalized Healthcare Design

N-of-1 trials aim to estimate treatment effects on the individual level and can be applied to personalize a wide range of physical and digital interventions in mHealth. In this study, we propose and apply a framework for multimodal N-of-1 trials in order to allow the inclusion of health outcomes assessed through images, audio or videos. We illustrate the framework in a series of N-of-1 trials that investigate the effect of acne creams on acne severity assessed through pictures. For the analysis, we compare an expert-based manual labelling approach with different deep learning-based pipelines where in a first step, we train and fine-tune convolutional neural networks (CNN) on the images. Then, we use a linear mixed model on the scores obtained in the first step in order to test the effectiveness of the treatment. The results show that the CNN-based test on the images provides a similar conclusion as tests based on manual expert ratings of the images, and identifies a treatment effect in one individual. This illustrates that multimodal N-of-1 trials can provide a powerful way to identify individual treatment effects and can enable large-scale studies of a large variety of health outcomes that can be actively and passively assessed using technological advances in order to personalized health interventions

Facilitating granule cell survival and maturation in dentate gyrus with baicalin for antidepressant therapeutics

Baicalin isolated from Scutellaria baicalensis possesses antidepressant abilities through its relation to hippocampal neurogenesis. Current research has found that baicalin can promote the proliferation of hippocampal granule cells, however, the detailed mechanism of baicalin on the survival and maturation of hippocampal granule cells has yet to be sufficiently explored. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether baicalin could facilitate the survival and maturation of hippocampal granule cells, and to explore its potential mechanism. The chronic corticosterone (CORT)-induced mouse model of depression was used to assess antidepressant-like effects of baicalin and to illuminate possible molecular mechanisms by which baicalin affects hippocampal neurogenesis. The survival and maturation of granule cells were measured by immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and Golgi staining. The expression of Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Protein kinase B (AKT)/glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β)/β-catenin pathway related proteins were measured by western blot analysis. PI3K inhibitor LY292002 and AKT inhibitor Perifosine were administered to HT-22 cells to explore the relationship between the PI3K/AKT/GSK3β/β-catenin pathway and baicalin. The results of the study illustrated that baicalin significantly decreased chronic CORT-induced depressive-like behaviors and reduced serum corticosterone levels. In addition, baicalin (administered at 60 mg/kg) reversed chronic CORT-induced lesions on hippocampal granule cells. Moreover, baicalin significantly increased the phosphorylation rate of PI3K, AKT, GSK3β, and total β-catenin. The study found that administration of LY292002/Perifosine counteracted the effects of baicalin in HT-22 cells. These results demonstrate that baicalin can alleviate chronic CORT-induced depressive-like behaviors through promoting survival and maturation of adult-born hippocampal granule cells and exhibiting protective effect on hippocampal neuron morphology. We propose the underlying mechanisms involve the activation of the PI3K/AKT/GSK3β/β-catenin pathway

Quantitative Research of 11C-CFT and 18F-FDG PET in Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study With NeuroQ Software

Dopamine transporter (DAT) and glucose metabolism imaging have been applied in the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). We explored the possibility of evaluating for PD with NeuroQ software by analyzing 11C-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-fluorophenyl) tropane (11C-CFT) and 18F-FDG PET/CT. We retrospectively analyzed brain 11C-CFT and 18F-FDG PET/CT of 38 patients with parkinsonism, including 20 with PD, 10 with multiple system atrophy (MSA) and 8 with essential tremor (ET), and compared them with the PET/CT of 11 normal healthy controls (NC). PD patients were divided into mild and moderate-severe grade according to the Hoehn-Yahr (H&Y) scale. The 11C-CFT uptake in the caudate nuclei (CN) and putamen (Pu) normalized with cerebellum (CN/Cb and Pu/Cb) were obtained with a manual method and NeuroQ software, and their diagnostic performance was compared.18F-FDG uptake of specific regions was also obtained with NeuroQ, and the enhancement effect for the differential diagnosis was evaluated. There was significant agreement between the manual method and the NeuroQ method for 11C-CFT uptake by CN (r2= 0.680) and Pu (r2= 0.770). 11C-CFT uptake by CN and Pu in PD and MSA patients was significantly lower compared to NC and ET patients. The cutoffs of CN/Cb and Pu/Cb for the distinction between PD and NC were 1.71 and 2.20, respectively. No difference in uptake ratios occurred between PD and MSA. 18F-FDG uptake by the pons and cerebellum in the MSA group was markedly decreased. It was highly accurate in distinguishing between PD and MSA when combined with analysis of 11C-CFT uptake. Pu/Cb decreased significantly in mild grade PD compared to NC group (1.92 ± 0.33 vs. 2.82 ± 0.43); however no statistically significant decrease in CN/Cb was observed until moderate-severe grade PD (1.43 ± 0.11 vs. 2.23 ± 0.36). In early asymmetric PD, a statistically significant difference could be seen with Pu/Cb between the symptomatic and asymptomatic side (2.17 ± 0.30 vs. 1.95 ± 0.22). 11C-CFT and 18F-FDG PET/CT can be analyzed quantitatively with NeuroQ software, which provides an accurate method for the diagnosis and severity evaluation of PD

Mantle Flow Underneath the South China Sea Revealed by Seismic Anisotropy

It Has Long Been Established that Plastic Flow in the Asthenosphere Interacts Constantly with the overlying Lithosphere and Plays a Pivotal Role in Controlling the Occurrence of Geohazards Such as Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions. Unfortunately, Accurately Characterizing the Direction and Lateral Extents of the Mantle Flow Field is Notoriously Difficult, Especially in Oceanic Areas Where Deployment of Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBSs) is Expensive and Thus Rare. in This Study, by Applying Shear Wave Splitting Analyses to a Dataset Recorded by an OBS Array that We Deployed between Mid-2019 and Mid-2020 in the South China Sea (SCS), We Show that the Dominant Mantle Flow Field Has a NNW-SSE Orientation, Which Can Be Attributed to Mantle Flow Extruded from the Tibetan Plateau by the Ongoing Indian-Eurasian Collision. in Addition, the Results Suggest that E-W Oriented Flow Fields Observed in South China and the Indochina Peninsula Do Not Extend to the Central SCS

SIRT1 Functions as an Important Regulator of Estrogen-Mediated Cardiomyocyte Protection in Angiotensin II-Induced Heart Hypertrophy

Background. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a member of the sirtuin family, which could activate cell survival machinery and has been shown to be protective in regulation of heart function. Here, we determined the mechanism by which SIRT1 regulates Angiotensin II- (AngII-) induced cardiac hypertrophy and injury in vivo and in vitro. Methods. We analyzed SIRT1 expression in the hearts of control and AngII-induced mouse hypertrophy. Female C57BL/6 mice were ovariectomized and pretreated with 17β-estradiol to measure SIRT1 expression. Protein synthesis, cardiomyocyte surface area analysis, qRT-PCR, TUNEL staining, and Western blot were performed on AngII-induced mouse heart hypertrophy samples and cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) to investigate the function of SIRT1. Results. SIRT1 expression was slightly upregulated in AngII-induced mouse heart hypertrophy in vivo and in vitro, accompanied by elevated cardiomyocyte apoptosis. SIRT1 overexpression relieves AngII-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis. 17β-Estradiol was able to protect cardiomyocytes from AngII-induced injury with a profound upregulation of SIRT1 and activation of AMPK. Moreover, estrogen receptor inhibitor ICI 182,780 and SIRT1 inhibitor niacinamide could block SIRT1’s protective effect. Conclusions. These results indicate that SIRT1 functions as an important regulator of estrogen-mediated cardiomyocyte protection during AngII-induced heart hypertrophy and injury