Brain Structural Alterations in Left-Behind Children: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Parental migration has caused millions of children left behind, especially in China and India. Left-behind children (LBC) have a high risk of mental disorders and may present negative life outcomes in the future. However, little is known whether there are cerebral structural alterations in LBC in relative to those with parents. This study is to explore the effect of parental migration on brain maturation by comparing gray matter volume (GMV) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of LBC with well-matched non-LBC. Thirty-eight LBC (21 boys, age = 9.60 ± 1.8 years) and 30 non-LBC (19 boys, age = 10.00 ± 1.95 years) were recruited and underwent brain scans in 3.0 T MR. Intelligence quotient and other factors including family income, guardians’ educational level and separation time were also acquired. GMV and FA were measured for each participant and compared between groups using 2-sample t-tests with atlas-based analysis. Compared to non-LBC, LBC exhibited greater GMV in emotional and cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits, and altered FA in bilateral superior occipitofrontal fasciculi and right medial lemniscus (p < 0.05, Cohen’s d > 0.89, corrected for false-discovery rate). Other factors including family income, guardians’ educational level and separation time were not associated with these brain changes. Our study provides empirical evidence of altered brain structure in LBC compared to non-LBC, responsible for emotion regulation and processing, which may account for mental disorders and negative life outcome of LBC. Our study suggests that absence of direct biological parental care may impact children’s brain development. Therefore, public health efforts may be needed to provide additional academic and social/emotional supports to LBC when their parents migrate to seeking better economic circumstances, which has become increasingly common in developing countries

Meeting patients with substance dependence : nurses’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences

Bakgrund Beroende finns i olika former och begreppet kan förklaras som förlorat självkontroll överett begär efter något. Beroendeforskning visar att det sker neurobiologiska förändringar ihjärnan som styr omdöme och impulskontroll vilket kan förklara ett beroende. Inomvården uppger patienter dock att de fortfarande möts av fördomar och stigma där önskan äratt få bli bemötta på samma sätt som alla andra. Sjuksköterskor bör i sin yrkesroll bemötasamtliga med medkänsla och respekt och öka sin kunskap och kompetens för att ökamöjligheter att ge god och personcentrerad vård. Syfte Att belysa sjuksköterskors attityder, kunskap och erfarenheter kring mötet med patientermed substansberoende. Metod En icke-systematisk litteraturstudie genomfördes där 18 vetenskapliga originalartiklar avkvalitativ och kvantitativ design inkluderades. Datainsamlingen skedde under våren 2021genom sökningar i databaserna PubMed och CINAHL med hjälp av olika kombinationerav söktermer, fritext samt manuell sökning. De funna artiklarna kvalitetsgranskades ochklassificerades utifrån Sophiahemmet högskolas bedömningsinstrument. Sedangenomfördes en integrerad dataanalys där teman samt underteman växte fram ur de valdaartiklarnas resultat. Resultat Sjuksköterskor vittnade om att resurser för att vårda patienter med substansberoende i formav tid, kunskap och rutiner var otillräckliga, vilket väckte känslor som frustration ochosäkerhet. Sjuksköterskor upplevde även oro för sin egen säkerhet då det förekom hot ochvåld. Enligt resultatet förekom det fördomar och stigmatisering hos sjuksköterskor motpatienter med substansberoende. Slutsats Resultatet pekade på en korrelation mellan sjuksköterskors attityder, kunskap ochpersonliga erfarenheter och bemötandet av patienter med substansberoende. Resultatetindikerar att balansgången för omvårdnaden av patienter med substansberoende ärkomplex och att det finns utrymme för utveckling i den omvårdnad som ges till dem.Background Addiction comes in different forms and can be explained as loss of self-control regarding acraving. Addiction research shows that there are neurobiological changes in the brain thatgovern judgement and impulse control which can explain addiction. In healthcare, patientsreport that they still meet prejudice and stigma when the desire is to be treated similarly toeveryone else. Nurses should in their professional role treat all with compassion andrespect and strive to increase their knowledge and competence in order to provide quality,person-centered care. Aim To highlight nurses’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences regarding patients withsubstance dependence. Method A non-systematic literature review was done including 18 original scientific articles ofqualitative and quantitative design. The data was gathered during the spring of 2021 usingcombinations of search terms, free text, and manual searches in the databases PubMed andCINAHL. The articles then underwent quality control and were classified usingSophiahemmet University’s assessment instrument. An integrated data analysis wasperformed where themes and sub-themes surfaced from the chosen articles’ results. Results Nurses witnessed that resources to care for patients with substance dependence such astime, knowledge and routines were not enough, which led to feelings of frustration anduncertainty. Nurses also experienced concerns regarding their own safety as threats andviolence were present in the work environment. According to the results, there wasprejudice and stigma among nurses towards patients with substance dependence. Conclusions The results pointed toward a correlation between nurses' attitudes, knowledge and personalexperiences and the treatment of patients with substance dependence. The results indicatethat the balance of care for patients with substance dependence is complex and that there isroom for improvement in the care given to them

TASG: An Augmented Classification Method for Impersonal HAR

Human activity recognition (HAR) systems are widely used in our lives, such as healthcare, security, and entertainment. Most of the activity recognition models are tested in the personal mode, and the performance is quite good. However, HAR in the impersonal mode is still a great challenge. In this paper, we propose a two-layer activity sparse grouping (TASG) model, in which the first layer clusters the activities into 2–4 groups roughly and the second layer identifies the specific type of activities. A new feature selection metric inspired by the Fisher criterion is designed to measure the importance of the features. We perform the experiment using the TASG model with SVM, KNN, Random Forest, and RNN, respectively. The experiments are tested on HAPT, MobiAct, and HASC-PAC2016 datasets. The experimental results show that the performance of standard classifiers has been improved while combining the TASG method. The features selected by the proposed metric are more effective than other FS methods

Effects of soil nutrients and stand structure on aboveground net primary productivity of oak secondary forests in the forest-steppe transition zone of Loess Plateau, China

Liaodong oak (Quercus liaotungensis) dominated forests contribute to the few natural forest ecosystems in the semiarid Loess Plateau region in China. This study investigated the influence of soil nutrients and stand structure on aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in the oak communities. We aimed to understand the major factors and their possible pathways that determine the ecosystem productivity. The biomass and ANPP were estimated using plot surveys and litterfall collection in fixed plots. Linear regressions and structural equation models were used to evaluate the relationships among soil nutrients, stand structure (including vertical and horizontal structure) and ANPP. The results showed that the effect sizes of soil nutrient on ANPP and leaf production were near 60% and 70%, respectively. More than 70% variance of woody production was explained by stand structure, while litterfall production was largely dependent on stand vertical structure with effect size of 64%. The effect of soil nutrients on stand structural indices was detected only on the vertical structure. The results suggested that soil nutrients could affect forest productivity both directly and indirectly in coordination with stand vertical structure, and that the effect of stand structure was limited in these communities.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Description and plasmid characterization of the qnrD determinant in Proteeae in Wenzhou, Southern China

Background/Purpose: Only limited information is available about the detailed characteristics of qnrD, a plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) gene. This study aimed to understand the distribution of qnrD and the characterization of qnrD-carrying plasmids in Proteeae. Methods: The distribution of qnrD genes was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification in 203 consecutive nonduplicate clinical isolates of Proteeae collected from inpatients at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of antibiotics were measured by agar dilution method and other PMQR determinants were also determined by PCR. qnrD was positioned via Southern hybridization and the transferability of qnrD-carrying plasmids was achieved by conjugation experiment. The genetic environment of qnrD was investigated by sequencing, and chromosomal polymorphism for qnrD-positive strains was analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results: Forty strains carried qnrD, showing decreased fluoroquinolone susceptibility or low-level fluoroquinolone resistance. qnrD was encoded on the plasmid of about 2.7 kb or 5.2 kb in length, which cannot be transferred by liquid conjugation or filter mating, but can be successfully transferred by transduction. The transformants showed 62.5–300-fold increases in the MICs of quinolones compared with the recipient. The plasmids carrying qnrD showed a high similarity with that of Providencia spp. and Proteus vulgaris. PFGE analysis demonstrated that these isolates were divergent and not clone related. Conclusion: qnrD could have originated from Proteeae or presented in these bacteria as a reservoir; furthermore, qnrD could be transferred and spread within the same or across different bacterial species if the plasmids acquired mobile elements under antimicrobial selective pressures

Detwinning through migration of twin boundaries in nanotwinned Cu films under in situ ion irradiation

The mechanism of radiation-induced detwinning is different from that of deformation detwinning as the former is dominated by supersaturated radiation-induced defects while the latter is usually triggered by global stress. In situ Kr ion irradiation was performed to study the detwinning mechanism of nanotwinned Cu films with various twin thicknesses. Two types of incoherent twin boundaries (ITBs), so-called fixed ITBs and free ITBs, are characterized based on their structural features, and the difference in their migration behavior is investigated. It is observed that detwinning during radiation is attributed to the frequent migration of free ITBs, while the migration of fixed ITBs is absent. Statistics shows that the migration distance of free ITBs is thickness and dose dependent. Potential migration mechanisms are discussed

Multiple generation exposure to ZnO nanoparticles induces loss of genomic integrity in Caenorhabditis elegans

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are commonly used in industrial and household applications, prompting the assessment of their associated health risks. Previous studies indicated that ZnO NPs can induce somatic cell mutations, while the aging process appears to increase the mutagenicity of ZnO NPs. However, little is known about the influence of ZnO NPs on genome stability of germ cells, and non-exposed progeny. Here we show that 20 nm ZnO NPs exposure disrupts germ cell development, and elevates the overall mutation frequency of germ cells in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). We observed that pristine ZnO NPs elicit germ cell apoptosis to a greater extent than the 60-day aged ZnO NPs. By treating parental worms with ZnO NPs for seven successive generations, whole-genome sequencing data revealed that, although the frequency of point mutations is kept unchanged, large deletions are significantly increased in F8 worms. Furthermore, we found that the mutagenicity of ZnO NPs might be partially attributed to the release of Zn2+ ions. Together, our results demonstrate the genotoxic effects of ZnO NPs on germ cells, and the possible underlying mechanism. These findings suggest that germ cell mutagenicity is worthy of consideration for the health risk assessment of engineered NPs