Involvement in bullying and sleep disorders in Chinese early adolescents

BackgroundSchool bullying may cause sleep disorders in early adolescents. Here, we determined the relationship between school bullying (considering all the features of bullying involvement) and sleep disorders, which are the common problems in Chinese early adolescents.Materials and methodsWe conducted a questionnaire survey among 5,724 middle school students from Xuancheng, Hefei, and Huaibei cities in Anhui province, China. The self-report questionnaires included the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. We used latent class analysis to identify the potential subgroups of bullying behavior. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between school bullying and sleep disorders.ResultsActive participants in bullying interactions, including the bullies and victims, reported higher levels of sleep disorders compared with the non-active participants [Bully: physical (aOR = 2.62), verbal (aOR = 1.73), relational (aOR = 1.80), and cyber (aOR = 2.08); Victim: physical (aOR = 2.42), verbal (aOR = 2.59), relational (aOR = 2.61), and cyber (aOR = 2.81)]. A dose–response relationship was observed between the number of school bullying types and sleep disorders. In the context of bullying roles, bully-victims had the highest risk of reporting sleep disorders (aOR = 3.07, 95% CI: 2.55–3.69). We identified four potential categories of school bullying behaviors: low involvement in bullying, verbal and relational victims, medium bully-victims, and high bully-victims, and the highest frequency of sleep disorders was observed in the high bully-victims group (aOR = 4.12, 95% CI: 2.94–5.76).ConclusionOur findings indicate a positive correlation between bullying roles and sleep disorders in early adolescents. Therefore, targeted intervention for sleep disorders should include an evaluation of bullying experiences

Drought Stress Stimulates the Terpenoid Backbone and Triterpenoid Biosynthesis Pathway to Promote the Synthesis of Saikosaponin in <i>Bupleurum chinense</i> DC. Roots

Bupleurum chinense is an important medicinal plant in China; however, little is known regarding how this plant transcribes and synthesizes saikosaponins under drought stress. Herein, we investigated how drought stress stimulates the transcriptional changes of B. chinense to synthesize saikosaponins. Short-term drought stress induced the accumulation of saikosaponins, especially from the first re-watering stage (RD_1 stage) to the second re-watering stage (RD_2 stage). Saikosaponin-a and saikosaponin-d increased by 84.60% and 75.13%, respectively, from the RD_1 stage to the RD_2 stage. Drought stress also stimulated a rapid increase in the levels of the hormones abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and jasmonic acid. We screened 49 Unigenes regarding the terpenoid backbone and triterpenoid biosynthesis, of which 33 differential genes were significantly up-regulated during drought stress. Moreover, one P450 and two UGTs are possibly involved in the synthesis of saikosaponins, while some transcription factors may be involved in regulating the expression of key enzyme genes. Our study provides a reference for the cultivation of B. chinense and a practical means to ensure the quality (safety and effectiveness) of B. chinense for medicinal use, as well as insights into the modernization of the China Agriculture Research System

Assessment of the Distribution Effectiveness of Labor Protective Articles in Power Supply Enterprises based on Certain Distribution System

To further optimize the distribution of labor protective articles in certain power supply enterprise, a distribution system is established to help their type selection and allocation, and questionnaires are utilized to assess the changes in relevant knowledge, behaviors, and satisfaction among the randomly sampled respondents, and the effectiveness of the distribution arising from the adoption of the system. It is demonstrated that a remarkable increase occurs in the accuracy of employees mastering knowledge pertaining to labor protective articles, and particularly their willingness to actively learn the correct method of using the articles stands at as high as 94.7%; their satisfaction with the replacement cycle of the protective articles decreases, satisfaction with to what extent their requirements of protection are met by the articles distributed through the system significantly rises, and the proportion of the negative options in terms of willingness to wear the articles drops from 2.7% before adopting the distribution system to 0%. It is suggested that the employees’ requirements of the effectiveness and usability of the protective articles in power supply enterprises can be met quite well through this distribution system, which is of significance in providing guidance about how to enhance the practicability of such articles

Brain insulin resistance deteriorates cognition by altering the topological features of brain networks

Insulin resistance represents one of the mechanisms underlying the link between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and we explored its in vivo neurobiology related to cognition based on a pathway-based genetic association analyses. Eighty-seven mild cognitive impairment (MCIs) subjects and 135 matched controls (HCs) were employed at baseline, and they underwent functional MRI scans, clinical evaluations and exon sequencings of 20 genes related to brain insulin resistance. A longitudinal study for an average of 35 months was performed to assess their cognitive decline over time. By using cognition as the phenotype, we detected genes that modified cognitive impairments, including AKT2, PIK3CB, IGF1R, PIK3CD, MTOR, IDE, AKT1S1 and AKT1. Based on these loci, the mass univariate modeling was utilized to construct the functional network. The MCIs showed disconnections mainly in the cerebellum-frontal-temporal regions, while compensations may occur in frontal-parietal regions to maintain the overall network efficiency. Moreover, the behavioral significance of the network was highlighted, as topological characteristics of the medial temporal lobe and the prefrontal cortex partially determine longitudinal cognitive decline. Our results suggested that the restoration of insulin activity represents a promising therapeutic target for alleviating cognitive decline associated with T2D and AD

Oxygen Vacancy-Dominated Activation of Chlorite and Oxidative Degradation of Sulfamethoxazole

Oxygen vacancy-rich bismuth oxyhalides (BiOX, where X = Cl, Br, I) were successfully synthesized as heterogeneous catalysts for efficiently activating chlorite to produce chlorine dioxide (ClO2) as the prevailing reactive oxidized species (ROS) for sulfamethoxazole (SMX) degradation. Material characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that BiOI possesses the highest oxygen vacancies, which act as highly active sites. Oxygen vacancies (OVs) not only absorb chlorite but also improve the internal electron conduction efficiency between chlorite and metal ions. The best removal of SMX (84.3%) was achieved under neutral conditions using 70 mg of BiOI and 0.1 mM chlorite. It was discovered that ClO2 is the primary ROS, which was generated via two reactions that involved the formation of HOCl and Bi(IV). The minimal change in acute toxicity and the well-maintained performance in degrading pollutants indicated the potential practical applications of the BiOI/chlorite system. This work reveals a unique mechanism for the OV-mediated activation of chlorite, which highlights the potential advantages of activation via heterogeneous metal oxides BiOX and supplies a new viewpoint for the activation of chlorite for contaminant degradation

DataSheet1_Improper preanalytical processes on peripheral blood compromise RNA quality and skew the transcriptional readouts of mRNA and LncRNA.DOCX

Genetic and epigenetic reprogramming caused by disease states in other tissues is always systemically reflected in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs). Accurate transcriptional readouts of Messenger RNA (mRNA) and Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in peripheral blood leukocytes are fundamental for disease-related study, diagnosis and treatment. However, little is known about the impact of preanalytical variables on RNA quality and downstream messenger RNA and Long non-coding RNA readouts. In this study, we explored the impact of RNA extraction kits and timing of blood placement on peripheral blood leukocyte-derived RNA quality. A novel enhanced evaluation system including RNA yields, purity, RNA integrity number (RIN) values and β-actin copies was employed to more sensitively identify RNA quality differences. The expression levels of informative mRNAs and Long non-coding RNAs in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) were measured by Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT–PCR) to investigate the impact of RNA quality on transcriptional readouts. Our results showed that the quality of RNA extracted by different kits varies greatly, and commercial kits should be evaluated and managed before batch RNA extraction. In addition, the quality of extracted RNA was highly correlated with the timing of blood placement, and the copy number of β-actin was significantly decreased after leaving blood at RT over 12 h. More importantly, compromised RNA leads to skewed transcriptional readouts of informative mRNAs and Long non-coding RNAs in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or triple-negative breast cancer. These findings have significant implications for peripheral blood leukocyte-derived RNA quality management and suggest that quality control is necessary prior to the analysis of patient messenger RNA and Long non-coding RNA expression.</p