Symptom continuum reported by affective disorder patients through a structure-validated questionnaire

Background: Affective disorders, such as major depressive (MDD), bipolar I (BD I) and II (BD II) disorders, are overlapped at a continuum, but their exact loci are not clear. The self-reports from patients with affective disorders might help to clarify this issue. ----- Methods: We invited 738 healthy volunteers, 207 individuals with BD I, 265 BD II, and 192 MDD to answer a 79 item-MATRIX about on-going affective states. ----- Results: In study 1, all 1402 participants were divided random-evenly and gender-balanced into two subsamples; one subsample was used for exploratory factor analysis, and another for confirmatory factor analysis. A structure-validated inventory with six domains of Overactivation, Psychomotor Acceleration, Distraction/ Impulsivity, Hopelessness, Retardation, and Suicide Tendency, was developed. In study 2, among the four groups, MDD scored the highest on Retardation, Hopelessness and Suicide Tendency, whereas BD I on Distraction/ Impulsivity and Overactivation. ----- Conclusion: Our patients confirmed the affective continuum from Suicide Tendency to Overactivation, and described the different loci of MDD, BD I and BD II on this continuum

Auditory mismatch negativity in adolescents with dissociative identity disorder

Objective: : Dissociative identity disorder (DID) has connections with childhood trauma, and there might be an attentional deterioration in DID adolescents.  The mismatch negativity (MMN) of the event-related potentials might provide an objective marker of pre-attention (passive or involuntary attention) deficit in these younger patients.  Methods: We therefore trialed MMN in 10 adolescents with DID and 11 age and gender matched healthy volunteers using an auditory frequency deviance paradigm at three midline scalp electrodes.  Their anxiety and depression levels were measured using the self-rating anxiety and depression scales respectively.  Results: The MMN amplitudes at the three electrode sites and N1 amplitudes to deviant stimulus at two sites were higher in patients, both anxiety and depression levels were also more elevated in patients, but the cerebral potentials were not correlated with either anxiety or depression level.  Conclusions: The higher MMN amplitudes in DID indicate more enhanced accuracy in discriminating stimulus change, which might be related to an atypical lack of inhibition on the irrelevant stimuli or increased cortical neuronal activity in the disorder

Influencing factors of wide pulse pressure in an elderly Chinese population: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract Blood pressure and pulse pressure (PP) had their own characteristics in the elderly population. This cross‐sectional study including 5030 elderly participants was conducted to describe the distribution of blood pressure and wide PP in the elderly population and find influencing factors of wide PP. Wide PP was defined as PP equal to or more than 65 mmHg, and was classified three types as low systolic blood pressure (SBP) and low diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (LSLD), high SBP and low DBP (HSLD), and high SBP and high DBP (HSHD). Using multivariate logistic regression models to analyze the associations of demographic factors, health‐related factors and lifestyle factors with different wide PP types. The associations of lifestyles with wide PP by gender were estimated by subgroup analyses. Among 5030 elderly participants, 2727 (54.2%) participants had wide PP. Logistic regression models showed older age (OR = 2.48, 95%CI: 2.14‐2.88), female (OR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.07‐1.60), not married (OR = 1.26, 95%CI: 1.07‐1.49), having chronic diseases (OR = 1.28, 95%CI: 1.09‐1.50), current alcohol drinker (OR = 1.29, 95%CI: 1.11‐1.50) were positively associated, and higher body height (OR = .78, 95%CI: .62‐.99), higher education level (OR = .60, 95%CI: .43‐.82), current smoker (OR = .79, 95%CI: .64‐.97) were negatively associated with wide PP. Among three different types of wide PP including LSLD, HSLD, HSHD, these factors had different effects. Subgroup analyses found that only among male, current smoker was negatively associated and current alcohol drinker was positively associated with wide PP

Developing strategies “SATIA”: How to manage dysphagia in older people? A Delphi panel consensus

Abstract Aim To develop a set of evidence‐informed strategies to assist older people to improve swallowing functions and prevent further damage from complications. Design A two‐round Delphi survey. Methods An initial set of dysphagia care strategies with 74 relevant items for older people was formed based on a literature review by seven researchers. An online survey was conducted by 21 panellists, and data of experts' opinions were collected and analysed by improved Delphi method. Results The positive coefficients in the two rounds of expert consultation were 85.71% and 83.33%, respectively. Consensus was reached with 53 items included and was allocated into the following five sections: (1) screening, (2) assessment, (3) training, (4) interventions and (5) management. These strategies were named with the acronym of each section—“SATIA”. The management strategy can be applied to guide the management of older people with dysphagia

Association of walkability and NO2 with metabolic syndrome: A cohort study in China

Background: Epidemiological studies have reported an association between traffic-related pollution with risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, evidence from prospective studies on the association of walkability and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) with MetS is still scarce. We, therefore, aimed to evaluate the association of long-term exposure to NO2 and walkability with hazards of incident MetS. Methods: A total of 17,965 participants without MetS diagnosed within one year at baseline were included in our study from a population-based prospective cohort in Yinzhou District, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. Participants were followed up by the regional Health Information System (HIS) until December 15, 2021. MetS was defined based on the criteria of Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS2004). We used walkscore tools, calculating with amenity categories and decay functions, and spatial–temporal land-use regression (LUR) models to estimate walkability and NO2 concentrations. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine the association of walkability and NO2 with hazards of MetS incidence reporting with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Overall, we followed up 77,303 person-years and identified 4040 incident cases of MetS in the entire cohort. Higher walkability was inversely associated with incident MetS (HR = 0.94, 95 % CI: 0.91–0.99), whereas NO2 was positively associated with MetS incidence (HR = 1.07, 95 %CI: 1.00–1.15) per interquartile range increment in two-exposure models. Furthermore, we found a significant multiplicative interaction between walkability and NO2. Stronger associations were observed for NO2 and incident MetS among men, smokers, drinkers and participants who aged < 60 years and had higher levels of income. Conclusion: In summary, we found living in areas with lower walkability and higher concentrations of NO2 were associated with increased incidence of MetS. The beneficial effect of higher walkability may be attenuated by exposure to NO2

GhCYS2 governs the tolerance against cadmium stress by regulating cell viability and photosynthesis in cotton

Cysteine, an early sulfur-containing compound in plants, is of significant importance in sulfur metabolism. CYS encodes cysteine synthetase that further catalyzes cysteine synthesis. In this investigation, CYS genes, identified from genome-wide analysis of Gossypium hirsutum bioinformatically, led to the discovery of GhCYS2 as the pivotal gene responsible for Cd2+ response. The silencing of GhCYS2 through virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) rendered plants highly susceptible to Cd2+ stress. Silencing GhCYS2 in plants resulted in diminished levels of cysteine and glutathione while leading to the accumulation of MDA and ROS within cells, thereby impeding the regular process of photosynthesis. Consequently, the stomatal aperture of leaves decreased, epidermal cells underwent distortion and deformation, intercellular connections are dramatically disrupted, and fissures manifested between cells. Ultimately, these detrimental effected culminating in plant wilting and a substantial reduction in biomass. The association established between Cd2+ and cysteine in this investigation offered a valuable reference point for further inquiry into the functional and regulatory mechanisms of cysteine synthesis genes

Additional file 1 of GhIMP10D, an inositol monophosphates family gene, enhances ascorbic acid and antioxidant enzyme activities to confer alkaline tolerance in Gossypium hirsutum L.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table S1. Gene locus ID and their proposed names of all observed species and the gene characteristics in G. hirsutum. Supplementary Table S2. Duplicated gene pairs in 10 combinations (Ga-Ga, Ga-Gb, Ga-Gr, Gb-Gb, Gb-Gr, Gh-Gh, Gh-Ga, Gh-Gb, Gh-Gr and Gr-Gr). Supplementary Table S3. Non-synonymous (Ka) and synonymous (Ks) divergence values for Ga-Ga, Ga-Gb, Ga-Gr, Gb-Gb, Gb-Gr, Gh-Gh, Gh-Ga, Gh-Gb, Gh-Gr and Gr-Gr. Supplementary Table S4. Primer pairs used for this experiment