Comparative metabolic profiling of posterior parietal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus in conditioned fear memory

Fear conditioning and retrieval are suitable models to investigate the biological basis of various mental disorders. Hippocampus and amygdala neurons consolidate conditioned stimulus (CS)-dependent fear memory. Posterior parietal cortex is considered important for the CS-dependent conditioning and retrieval of fear memory. Metabolomic screening among functionally related brain areas provides molecular signatures and biomarkers to improve the treatment of psychopathologies. Herein, we analyzed and compared changes of metabolites in the hippocampus, amygdala, and posterior parietal cortex under the fear retrieval condition. Metabolite profiles of posterior parietal cortex and amygdala were similarly changed after fear memory retrieval. While the retrieval of fear memory perturbed various metabolic pathways, most metabolic pathways that overlapped among the three brain regions had high ranks in the enrichment analysis of posterior parietal cortex. In posterior parietal cortex, the most perturbed pathways were pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, purine metabolism, glutathione metabolism, and NAD+ dependent signaling. Metabolites of posterior parietal cortex including 4′-phosphopantetheine, xanthine, glutathione, ADP-ribose, ADP-ribose 2′-phosphate, and cyclic ADP-ribose were significantly regulated in these metabolic pathways. These results point to the importance of metabolites of posterior parietal cortex in conditioned fear memory retrieval and may provide potential biomarker candidates for traumatic memory-related mental disorders. © 2021, The Author(s).1

Group-tailored feedback on online mental health screening for university students: using cluster analysis

Background The method by which mental health screening result reports are given affects the user???s health behavior. Lists with the distribution of scores in various mental health areas is difficult for users to understand, and if the results are negative, they may feel more embarrassed than necessary. Therefore, we propose using group-tailored feedback, grouping people of similar mental health types by cluster analysis for comprehensive explanations of multidimensional mental health. Methods This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using a qualitative approach based on cluster analysis. Data were collected via a developed mental screening website, with depression, anxiety, sleep problems, perfectionism, procrastination, and attention assessed for 2 weeks in January 2020 in Korea. Participants were randomly recruited, and sample size was 174. Total was divided into 25 with severe depression/anxiety (SDA+) and 149 without severe depression/anxiety (SDA-) according to the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 criteria. Cluster analysis was conducted in each group, and an ANOVA was performed to find significant clusters. Thereafter, structured discussion was performed with mental health professionals to define the features of the clusters and construct the feedback content initially. Thirteen expert counselors were interviewed to reconstruct the content and validate the effectiveness of the developed feedback. Results SDA- was divided into 3 using the k-means algorithm, which showed the best performance (silhouette score = 0.32, CH score = 91.67) among the clustering methods. Perfectionism and procrastination were significant factors in discretizing the groups. SDA+ subgroups were integrated because only 25 people belonged to this group, and they need professional help rather than self-care. Mental status and treatment recommendations were determined for each group, and group names were assigned to represent their features. The developed feedback was assessed to improve mental health literacy (MHL) through integrative and understandable explanations of multidimensional mental health. Moreover, it appeared that a sense of belonging was induced to reduce reluctance to face the feedback. Conclusions This study suggests group-tailored feedback using cluster analysis, which identifies groups of university students by integrating multidimensions of mental health. These methods can help students increase their interest in mental health and improve MHL to enable timely help

Modeling of electromigration in through-silicon-via based 3D

Abstract Electromigration (EM) is a critical problem for interconnect reliability of modern IC design, especially as the feature size becomes smaller. In 3D IC technology, the EM problem becomes more severe due to drastic dimension mismatches between metal wires, through-silicon-vias (TSVs), and landing pads. Meanwhile, the thermo-mechanical stress due to TSV can further interact with EM and shorten the lifetime of the structure. However, there is very little study on EM issues with respect to TSV for 3D ICs. In this paper, we perform detailed and systematic studies on: (1) EM lifetime modeling of TSV structure, (2) impact of TSV stress on EM lifetime of BEOL wires, and (3) EM-robust design guidelines for TSV-based 3D ICs. Our results show EMinduced lifetime of TSV structure and neighboring wire largely depend on the TSV-induced stress. Also, lifetime of a wire can vary significantly depending on the relative position with the nearby TSV. I. Introduction As semiconductor technologies are pushed forward for higher performance with smaller power and area, threedimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) have attracted a lot of attention from both academia and industry. 3D ICs can be realized with stacked dies and through-silicon-vias (TSVs) to communicate vertically. 3D ICs can help increase the bandwidth by reducing the interconnect length, reduce the footprint of the system, and achieve heterogeneous integration of the system. However 3D ICs introduce many new challenges, in particular the reliability issues which have become more critical. The temperature characteristics of 3D ICs can be worse, additional stress can be generated due to the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between TSV and silicon materials, and current density of the interconnects needs to be increased to feed more transistors in spite of high loading capacitance of TSVs. Electromigration (EM) has been one of the major reliability problems even in conventional 2D IC designs. EM refers to the mass transport in metal structures. It is affected by geometrical shapes, temperature distribution, mechanical stress, current density, and material properties However in 3D ICs, despite of importance of EM which can shorten the lifetime of the system, only a few papers have been published regarding this issue. Shayan et al. considered mean time to failure (MTTF) due to the EM based on Black's equation, for a power distribution network (PDN) for 3D IC

Interplay between chronic inflammation and clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential in Behçets disease

Background Clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is a predisposition to haematological malignancy whose relationship with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, has been highlighted. Here, we aimed to investigate the CHIP emergence rate and its association with inflammatory markers in Behçets disease (BD). Methods We performed targeted next-generation sequencing to detect the presence of CHIP using peripheral blood cells from 117 BD patients and 5004 healthy controls between March 2009 and September 2021 and analysed the association between CHIP and inflammatory markers. Results CHIP was detected in 13.9% of patients in the control group and 11.1% of patients in the BD group, indicating no significant intergroup difference. Among the BD patients of our cohort, five variants (DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, STAG2, and IDH2) were detected. DNMT3A mutations were the most common, followed by TET2 mutations. CHIP carriers with BD had a higher serum platelet count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive protein level; older age; and lower serum albumin level at diagnosis than non-CHIP carriers with BD. However, the significant association between inflammatory markers and CHIP disappeared after the adjustment for various variables, including age. Moreover, CHIP was not an independent risk factor for poor clinical outcomes in patients with BD. Conclusions Although BD patients did not have higher CHIP emergence rates than the general population, older age and degree of inflammation in BD were associated with CHIP emergence

????????????????????? ????????? ?????? ??? ??????????????? ???????????? ??????

Department of Biomedical Engineering (Human Factors Engineering)The present study utilized a Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to investigate the various profiles of sleep hygiene in university. In addition, this study explores the differences in sleep quality, emotional and college-life related variables in various sleep hygiene profiles. Undergraduate and graduate students of UNIST in Korea were administered self-report measures on sleep hygiene, sleep quality, emotional (depression, anxiety, and stress), and college-life (life satisfaction, attention deficit, perfectionism, procrastination, and alcoholism) related variables. A total of 476 respondents were used for analysis. To achieve the objectives of this study, the analysis is divided into Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 identifies the latent classes according to levels of 8 sleep hygiene subscales. Part 2 identifies the latent classes of sleep hygiene in each of the three sub-groups divided by the level of sleep quality. Consequently, first, as a result of classifying latent classes according to the levels of 8 subscales of sleep hygiene, three heterogeneous classes were derived (Good CESH, Middle CESH, and Bad CESH). It was confirmed that they differ according to the relative average score of cognitive/emotional and sleep stability factors. In addition, the identified latent classes were significantly divided into upper, middle, and lower levels in terms of sleep quality and emotional related variables. Second, as a result of classifying the latent classes of sleep hygiene divided according to the level of sleep quality, two heterogeneous classes were derived from the GSQ group (Good SEDH and Bad SEDH) and three heterogeneous classes from the MSQ group (Bad STH, Good STH, and CPH) and BSQ group (Good CESH, Bad STH, and Bad SEDH). Through the eight latent classes classified in this way, it was confirmed that the subscales of sleep hygiene that suffer problems even if they are at the same sleep quality level were different. In addition, even if the sleep quality is poor, the type of sleep hygiene showing a good level has been confirmed. Also, they showed differences in emotional and college-life related variables. Various profiles identified through the 8 subscales of sleep hygiene were able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each type, and other characteristics in emotional and college life-related factors could be examined. Via this, it is possible to propose discriminatory and effective interventions for each type and is expected that it will be of great help to future research by providing various information on sleep hygiene.ope

Four-Dimensional Visualization of Microscale Dynamics of Membrane Oil Fouling via Synchrotron Radiation Microcomputed Tomography

Although oil-water separation technology via wettability-controlled membranes has emerged as a promising technology to treat oily wastewater, membrane fouling by faulents such as sludge flocs and colloids, and the consequent clogging of pores, severely degrades the efficiency of filtration systems. One of the main promotors of fouling by faulents is oil fouling, which is also a form of fouling itself. Despite considerable practical and academic interest in the analysis of oil-fouled membranes, direct visualization of the entire process of oil infiltration into hydrophilic membranes is still preliminary owing to (i) the similar optical contrast and physical density between oil and water, (ii) the low penetration depth of imaging methods, and (iii) the lack of 3D segmentation capability. In this study, microcomputed X-ray tomography using tunable synchrotron radiation provided direct high-speed 3D visualization of the microscale dynamics of the oil infiltration of a prewetted hydrophilic filter membrane over time. Direct visualization of the interfacial dynamics of oil infiltration opens a window into the complex liquid (water/oil)-gas-solid interface and thus helps furnish an in-depth understanding of oil fouling in the prewetted membrane.11Nsciescopu

Tumor Suppressor p53 Inhibits Hepatitis B Virus Replication by Downregulating HBx via E6AP-Mediated Proteasomal Degradation in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Lines

HBx, a multifunctional regulatory protein, plays an essential role in the replication and pathogenesis of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). In this study, we found that in human hepatoma cells, the tumor suppressor p53 downregulates HBx via ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation. p53 transcriptional activity that results from HBV infection was not essential for this effect. This was shown by treatment with a potent p53 inhibitor, pifithrin-α. Instead, we found that p53 facilitated the binding of E6-associated protein (E6AP), which is an E3 ligase, to HBx and induced E6AP-mediated HBx ubiquitination in a ternary complex of p53, E6AP, and HBx. The ability of p53 to induce E6AP-mediated downregulation of HBx and inhibit HBV replication was demonstrated in an in vitro HBV infection system. This study may provide insights into the regulation of HBx and HBV replication, especially with respect to p53 status, which may also help in understanding HBV-associated tumorigenesis in patients