Mental health of Chinese people during the COVID-19 pandemic: associations with infection severity of region of residence and filial piety

This study aims to investigate mental health among Chinese people living in areas with differing levels of infection severity during the COVID-19 outbreak. It also assesses the association between reciprocal and authoritarian filial piety and mental health in times of crises. A sample of 1,201 Chinese participants was surveyed between April and June 2020. Wuhan city (where 23.4% of participants resided), Hubei province outside Wuhan (13.4% of participants), and elsewhere in China (63.1% of participants) were categorized into high, moderate, and low infection severity areas, respectively. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale’s severity cut-points were used to categorize participants. In the overall sample, 20.9, 34.2, and 29.0% of the participants showed elevated (mild to extremely severe) levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Those in the highest infection severity group were significantly more likely to be categorized as having elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. General linear modeling was performed on a composite mental distress variable (taking into account stress, anxiety, and depression scores). This model indicated that, even after adjusting for group differences in age, gender, education, and filial piety, the high infection severity group displayed more mental distress than the low infection severity groups. The model also found reciprocal filial piety to have a negative association with mental distress. Conversely, authoritarian filial piety was found to be unrelated to mental distress when controlling for the other variables in the model. No evidence was found for an interaction between either authoritarian or reciprocal filial piety and infection severity, which suggests that the negative association observed between reciprocal filial piety and mental distress was relatively consistent across the three infection severity groups. The findings suggest that future public health programs may integrate the promotion of filial piety as a strategy to help Chinese people maintain good mental health in the face of pandemic crises

Molecular cloning, expression, and immobilization of glutamate decarboxylase from Lactobacillus fermentum YS2

Background: GABA (\u3b3-aminobutyric acid) is a four-carbon nonprotein amino acid that has hypotensive, diuretic, and tranquilizing properties. Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) is the key enzyme to generate GABA. A simple and economical method of preparing and immobilizing GADwould be helpful for GABA production. In this study, the GAD from Lactobacillus fermentum YS2 was expressed under the control of a stress-inducible promoter and was purified and immobilized in a fusion form, and its reusability was investigated. Results: The fusion protein CBM-GAD was expressed in Escherichia coli DH5\u3b1 carrying pCROCB-gadB, which contained promoter PrpoS, cbm3 (family 3 carbohydrate-binding module from Clostridium thermocellum ) coding sequence, the gadB gene from L. fermentum YS2 coding for GAD, and the T7 terminator. After a one-step purification of CBM-GAD using regenerated amorphous cellulose (RAC) as an adsorbent, SDS-PAGE analysis revealed a clear band of 71 kDa; the specific activity of the purified fusion protein CBM-GAD reached 83.6 \ub1 0.7 U\ub7mg-1. After adsorption onto RAC, the immobilized GAD with CBM3 tag was repeatedly used for GABA synthesis. The protein-binding capacity of RAC was 174 \ub1 8 mg\ub7g-1. The immobilized CBM-GAD could repeatedly catalyze GABA synthesis, and 8% of the initial activities was retained after 10 uses. We tested the conversion of monosodium glutamate to GABA by the immobilized enzyme; the yield reached 5.15 g/L and the productivity reached 3.09 g/L\ub7h. Conclusions: RAC could be used as an adsorbent in one-step purification and immobilization of CBM-GAD, and the immobilized enzyme could be repeatedly used to catalyze the conversion of glutamate to GABA

The relationship between mindfulness and mental distress in Chinese people during the COVID-19 pandemic: Moderating effects of infection severity of region and mediating effects of resilience and self-efficacy

The current study investigated the moderating effects of COVD-19 infection severity of region of residence, and the mediating effects of resilience and self-efficacy, on the relationship between mindfulness and mental distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1,220 participants from 107 cities in China took part in a cross-sectional survey. The data were collected during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (from April 10 to June 10, 2020). The final sample comprised of 1,201 participants with a mean age of 29.62 (SD = 12.72; Range = 18–78). Participants were categorized into high, moderate, and low infection-severity areas according to the numbers of infected people and deaths in their residential areas as of April 16, 2020. The findings showed that mindfulness, resilience, and self-efficacy were negatively associated with the mental distress indicators of stress, anxiety, and depression and that mindfulness, resilience, and self-efficacy positively correlated to one another. COVID-19 infection severity in one's region of residence did not moderate the negative associations between mindfulness and stress, anxiety and depression, while resilience and self-efficacy mediated the negative relationship between mindfulness and mental distress. This study therefore sheds light on some of the mechanisms by which mindfulness helps individuals maintain good mental health in times of adversity. The inclusion of mindfulness, resilience, and self-efficacy in the design and implementation of mental health intervention in response to the pandemic and future public health crisis may help mitigate some of the mental problems related to the COVID-19 and future pandemics

Novelty seeking and mental health in Chinese university students before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: a longitudinal study

COVID-19 has created significant concern surrounding the impact of pandemic lockdown on mental health. While the pandemic lockdown can be distressing, times of crisis can also provide people with the opportunity to think divergently and explore different activities. Novelty seeking, where individuals explore novel and unfamiliarly stimuli and environments, may enhance the creativity of individuals to solve problems in a way that allows them to adjust their emotional responses to stressful situations. This study employs a longitudinal design to investigate changes in novelty seeking and mental health outcomes (namely, stress, anxiety, and depression) before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, among a group of students (final N = 173; Mage = 19.81; SDage = 0.98; 135 females and 38 males) from a university in southeast China. Participants were surveyed at three points: November, 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic); between February and March, 2020 (during the peak of the pandemic and intense lockdown in China); and between May and June, 2020 (after lockdown had been lifted in China). Cross-sectionally, correlation analysis indicated that greater novelty seeking was associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression at all three time points. Univariate latent curve modelling (LCM) indicated a growth trajectory in which novelty seeking increased over time and then remained high during the post-lockdown period. Stress, anxiety, and depression all showed V-shaped growth trajectories in which these variables decreased during lockdown, before increasing in the post-lockdown period. Multivariate LCM indicated the growth trajectory for novelty seeking was associated with the growth trajectories for stress, anxiety, and depression. This suggests that the observed decreases in stress, anxiety, and depression during the lockdown period may be attributable to the sample’s observed increase in novelty seeking. These findings are valuable in that they challenge the notion that lockdown measures are inherently detrimental to mental health. The findings indicate the important role of novelty seeking in responding to crises. It may be possible for future public health measures to incorporate the promotion of novelty seeking to help individuals’ respond to stressful situations and maintain good mental health in the face of crises

Identification of Topping Responsive Proteins in Tobacco Roots

Tobacco plant has many responses to topping, such as the increase in ability of nicotine synthesis and secondary growth of roots. Some topping responsive miRNAs and genes had been identified in our previous work, but it is not enough to elaborate mechanism of tobacco response to topping. Here, topping responsive proteins were screened from tobacco roots with two-dimensional electrophoresis. Of these proteins, calretulin (CRT) and Auxin-responsive protein IAA9 were related to the secondary growth of roots, LRR disease resistance, heat shock protein 70 and farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase 1（FPPS）were involved in wounding stress response, and F-box protein played an important role in promoting the ability of nicotine synthesis after topping. In addition, there were five tobacco bHLH proteins (NtbHLH, NtMYC1a, NtMYC1b, NtMYC2a and NtMYC2b) related to nicotine synthesis. It was suggested that NtMYC2 might be the main positive transcription factor and NtbHLH protein is a negative regulator in the JA-mediating activation of nicotine synthesis after topping. Tobacco topping activates some comprehensive biology processes involving IAA and JA signaling pathway, and the identification of these proteins will be helpful to understand the process of topping response

Identification of Changes in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Seeds Proteome in Response to Anti–trx s Gene

BACKGROUND: Thioredoxin h (trx h) is closely related to germination of cereal seeds. The cDNA sequences of the thioredoxin s (trx s) gene from Phalaris coerulescens and the thioredoxin h (trx h) gene from wheat are highly homologous, and their expression products have similar biological functions. Transgenic wheat had been formed after the antisense trx s was transferred into wheat, and it had been certified that the expression of trx h decreased in transgenic wheat, and transgenic wheat has high resistance to pre-harvest sprouting. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Through analyzing the differential proteome of wheat seeds between transgenic wheat and wild type wheat, the mechanism of transgenic wheat seeds having high resistance to pre-harvest sprouting was studied in the present work. There were 36 differential proteins which had been identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). All these differential proteins are involved in regulation of carbohydrates, esters, nucleic acid, proteins and energy metabolism, and biological stress. The quantitative real time PCR results of some differential proteins, such as trx h, heat shock protein 70, α-amylase, β-amylase, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, 14-3-3 protein, S3-RNase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and WRKY transcription factor 6, represented good correlation between transcripts and proteins. The biological functions of many differential proteins are consistent with the proposed role of trx h in wheat seeds. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A possible model for the role of trx h in wheat seeds germination was proposed in this paper. These results will not only play an important role in clarifying the mechanism that transgenic wheat has high resistance to pre-harvest sprouting, but also provide further evidence for the role of trx h in germination of wheat seeds

Advances in Clinical Application of Bone Mineral Density and Bone Turnover Markers

Bone mineral density is the main basis for the diagnosis of osteoporosis. The measurement methods of bone mineral density include dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), quantitative computer tomography (QCT), quantitative ultrasound (QUS), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and so on. Currently, bone mineral density measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the gold standard for the diagnosis of osteoporosis. Bone turnover markers (BTMs) are biochemical products that reflect the activity of bone cells and the metabolic level of bone matrix, and they reflect the dynamic changes of bone tissue in the whole body earlier than bone mineral-density, procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide (PINP) and carboxy-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX) is sensitive BTMs, widely used in clinical practice, and can predict the occurrence of fractures. Some new markers such as Periostin, AGEs/RAGE, Gelsolin, and Annexin A2 provide new clues for exploring the mechanism of osteoporosis. The combination of the two can better carry out the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of multiple metabolic bone diseases, evaluate the therapeutic response of anti-osteoporotic medicines, and predict fracture risk

Expression profiling and integrative analysis of the CESA/CSL superfamily in rice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The cellulose synthase and cellulose synthase-like gene superfamily (<it>CESA</it>/<it>CSL</it>) is proposed to encode enzymes for cellulose and non-cellulosic matrix polysaccharide synthesis in plants. Although the rice (<it>Oryza sativa </it>L.) genome has been sequenced for a few years, the global expression profiling patterns and functions of the <it>OsCESA</it>/<it>CSL </it>superfamily remain largely unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 45 identified members of <it>OsCESA</it>/<it>CSL </it>were classified into two clusters based on phylogeny and motif constitution. Duplication events contributed largely to the expansion of this superfamily, with Cluster I and II mainly attributed to tandem and segmental duplication, respectively. With microarray data of 33 tissue samples covering the entire life cycle of rice, fairly high <it>OsCESA </it>gene expression and rather variable <it>OsCSL </it>expression were observed. While some members from each <it>CSL </it>family (<it>A1</it>, <it>C9</it>, <it>D2</it>, <it>E1</it>, <it>F6 </it>and <it>H1</it>) were expressed in all tissues examined, many of <it>OsCSL </it>genes were expressed in specific tissues (stamen and radicles). The expression pattern of <it>OsCESA</it>/<it>CSL </it>and <it>OsBC1L </it>which extensively co-expressed with <it>OsCESA</it>/<it>CSL </it>can be divided into three major groups with ten subgroups, each showing a distinct co-expression in tissues representing typically distinct cell wall constitutions. In particular, <it>OsCESA1, -3 & -8 </it>and <it>OsCESA4, -7 & -9 </it>were strongly co-expressed in tissues typical of primary and secondary cell walls, suggesting that they form as a cellulose synthase complex; these results are similar to the findings in <it>Arabidopsis</it>. <it>OsCESA5</it>/<it>OsCESA6 </it>is likely partially redundant with <it>OsCESA3 </it>for OsCESA complex organization in the specific tissues (plumule and radicle). Moreover, the phylogenetic comparison in rice, <it>Arabidopsis </it>and other species can provide clues for the prediction of orthologous gene expression patterns.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study characterized the <it>CESA</it>/<it>CSL </it>of rice using an integrated approach comprised of phylogeny, transcriptional profiling and co-expression analyses. These investigations revealed very useful clues on the major roles of <it>CESA</it>/<it>CSL</it>, their potentially functional complement and their associations for appropriate cell wall synthesis in higher plants.</p