Electrophysiological correlates of emotional source memory in high-trait-anxiety individuals

The interaction between recognition memory and emotion has become a research hotspot in recent years. Dual process theory posits that familiarity and recollection are two separate processes contributing to recognition memory, but further experimental evidence is needed. The present study explored the emotional context effects on successful and unsuccessful source retrieval amongst 15 high-trait-anxiety college students by using event-related potentials (ERPs) measurement. During study, a happy, fearful, or neutral face picture first was displayed, then a Chinese word was superimposed centrally on the picture and subjects were asked to remember the word and the corresponding type of picture. During the test participants were instructed to press one of four buttons to indicate whether the displayed word was an old or new word. And then, for the old word, indicate whether it had been shown with a fearful, happy, or neutral face during the study. ERPs were generally more positive for remembered words than for new words and the ERP difference was termed as an old/new effect. It was found that, for successful source retrieval (it meant both the item and the source were remembered accurately) between 500 and 700 ms (corresponding to a late positive component, LPC), there were significant old/new effects in all contexts. However, for unsuccessful source retrieval (it meant the correct recognition of old items matched with incorrect source attribution), there were no significant old/new effects in happy and neutral contexts, though significant old/new effects were observed in the fearful context. Between 700 and 1200 ms (corresponding to a late slow wave, LSW), there were significant old/new effects for successful source retrieval in happy and neutral contexts. However, in the fearful context, the old/new effects were reversed, ERPs were more negative for successful source retrieval compared to correct rejections. Moreover, there were significant emotion effects for successful source retrieval at this time window. Further analysis showed ERPs of old items were more negative in fearful context than in neutral context. The results showed that early unsuccessful fearful source retrieval processes (related to familiarity) were enhanced, but late successful fearful source retrieval processes during source retrieval monitoring (related to recollection) were weakened. This provided preliminary evidence for the dual processing theory

Large and tunable magnetoresistance in van der Waals ferromagnet/semiconductor junctions

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with conventional bulk ferromagnets separated by a nonmagnetic insulating layer are key building blocks in spintronics for magnetic sensors and memory. A radically different approach of using atomically-thin van der Waals (vdW) materials in MTJs is expected to boost their figure of merit, the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), while relaxing the lattice-matching requirements from the epitaxial growth and supporting high-quality integration of dissimilar materials with atomically-sharp interfaces. We report TMR up to 192% at 10 K in all-vdW Fe3GeTe2/GaSe/Fe3GeTe2 MTJs. Remarkably, instead of the usual insulating spacer, this large TMR is realized with a vdW semiconductor GaSe. Integration of semiconductors into the MTJs offers energy-band-tunability, bias dependence, magnetic proximity effects, and spin-dependent optical-selection rules. We demonstrate that not only the magnitude of the TMR is tuned by the semiconductor thickness but also the TMR sign can be reversed by varying the bias voltages, enabling modulation of highly spin-polarized carriers in vdW semiconductors

Large and tunable magnetoresistance in van der Waals Ferromagnet/Semiconductor junctions

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with conventional bulk ferromagnets separated by a nonmagnetic insulating layer are key building blocks in spintronics for magnetic sensors and memory. A radically different approach of using atomically-thin van der Waals (vdW) materials in MTJs is expected to boost their figure of merit, the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), while relaxing the lattice-matching requirements from the epitaxial growth and supporting high-quality integration of dissimilar materials with atomically-sharp interfaces. We report TMR up to 192% at 10 K in all-vdW Fe3GeTe2/GaSe/Fe3GeTe2 MTJs. Remarkably, instead of the usual insulating spacer, this large TMR is realized with a vdW semiconductor GaSe. Integration of two-dimensional ferromagnets in semiconductor-based vdW junctions offers gate-tunability, bias dependence, magnetic proximity effects, and spin-dependent optical-selection rules. We demonstrate that not just the magnitude, but also the TMR sign is tuned by the applied bias or the semiconductor thickness, enabling modulation of highly spin-polarized carriers in vdW semiconductors

Pro-angiogenic Role of Danqi Pill Through Activating Fatty Acids Oxidation Pathway Against Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. Energy metabolism disorders, including a reduction in fatty acids oxidation and upregulation of glycolysis pathway, are involved in the process of CAD. Therapeutic angiogenesis has become a promising treatment for CAD. Traditional Chinese medicines, such as Danqi Pill (DQP), have been proven to be effective in treating CAD in China for many years. However, the pro-angiogenic effects of DQP based on fatty acids oxidation are still unknown and the mechanism is worthy of investigation. In this study, left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery was ligated to induce the CAD models in vivo, and cardiac functions were examined using echocardiography. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were subjected to H2O2-induced oxidative stress in vitro. The effects of DQP on CAD rat models and in vitro HUVEC were detected. Our results showed that DQP had cardio-protective effects in rat model. The intensity of capillaries in the marginal area of infarction of the rat heart was increased remarkably in DQP group, and the expression of PPARα and VEGF-2 were increased. The key enzymes involved in the transportation and intake of fatty acids, including CPT1A and CD36, both increased. In H2O2-induced endothelial cells injury models, DQP also showed protective roles and promoted capillary-like tube formation. DQP up-regulated key enzymes in fatty acids oxidation in H2O2-treated HUVEC. In addition, inhibition of CPT1A compromised the pro-angiogenic effects of DQP. In conclusion, fatty acids oxidation axis PPARα-CD36-CPT1A was involved in the pro-angiogenic roles of DQP against CAD. Cardiac CPT1A may serve as a target in therapeutic angiogenesis in clinics

Evaluation of Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Water Extract of Galla Chinensis In Vivo

Aim. Pain and inflammation are associated with many diseases in humans and animals. Galla Chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine, has a variety of pharmacological properties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of Galla Chinensis through different animal models. Method. The analgesic activities were evaluated by hot-plate and writhing tests. The anti-inflammatory effects were assessed by ear edema, capillary permeability, and paw edema tests. The contents of cytokines (NO, iNOS, PGE2, and IL-10) in serum of rats in paw edema test were inspected by ELISA assays. Results. In the hot-plate test, Galla Chinensis could significantly extend pain threshold when compared to control group. The inhibitory rates of writhes ranged from 36.62% to 68.57% in Galla Chinensis-treated mice. Treatment with Galla Chinensis (1 and 0.5 g/kg) could significantly inhibit ear edema (47.45 and 36.91%, resp.; P < 0.01). Galla Chinensis (1 g/kg) had significant (P < 0.05) anti-inflammatory activity in capillary permeability test (29.04%). In carrageenan-induced edema test, the inhibitory rates were 43.71% and 44.07% (P < 0.01) at 1 h and 2 h after administration of Galla Chinensis (1 g/kg), respectively, and the levels of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly reduced. Conclusion. These results suggest that Galla Chinensis has analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, which may be a candidate drug for the treatment of inflammation and pain

Genome Sequencing of the Sweetpotato Whitefly \u3cem\u3eBemisia tabaci\u3c/em\u3e MED/Q

The sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a highly destructive agricultural and ornamental crop pest. It damages host plants through both phloem feeding and vectoring plant pathogens. Introductions of B. tabaci are difficult to quarantine and eradicate because of its high reproductive rates, broad host plant range, and insecticide resistance. A total of 791 Gb of raw DNA sequence from whole genome shotgun sequencing, and 13 BAC pooling libraries were generated by Illumina sequencing using different combinations of mate-pair and pair-end libraries. Assembly gave a final genome with a scaffold N50 of 437 kb, and a total length of 658 Mb. Annotation of repetitive elements and coding regions resulted in 265.0 Mb TEs (40.3%) and 20 786 protein-coding genes with putative gene family expansions, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on orthologs across 14 arthropod taxa suggested that MED/Q is clustered into a hemipteran clade containing A. pisum and is a sister lineage to a clade containing both R. prolixus and N. lugens. Genome completeness, as estimated using the CEGMA and Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs pipelines, reached 96% and 79%. These MED/Q genomic resources lay a foundation for future \u27pan-genomic\u27 comparisons of invasive vs. noninvasive, invasive vs. invasive, and native vs. exotic Bemisia, which, in return, will open up new avenues of investigation into whitefly biology, evolution, and management

Synthesis and Characterization of Glomerate GaN Nanowires

Glomerate GaN nanowires were synthesized on Si(111) substrates by annealing sputtered Ga2O3/Co films under flowing ammonia at temperature of 950 °C. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectra were used to characterize the morphology, crystallinity and microstructure of the as-synthesized samples. Our results show that the samples are of hexagonal wurtzite structure. For the majority of GaN nanowires, the length is up to tens of microns and the diameter is in the range of 50–200 nm. The growth process of the GaN nanowires is dominated by Co–Ga–N alloy mechanism