1,044 research outputs found
Interaction between Thalamus and Hippocampus in Termination of Amygdala-Kindled Seizures in Mice
The thalamus and hippocampus have been found both involved in the initiation, propagation, and termination of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, the interaction of these regions during seizures is not clear. The present study is to explore whether some regular patterns exist in their interaction during the termination of seizures. Multichannel in vivo recording techniques were used to record the neural activities from the cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) of hippocampus and mediodorsal thalamus (MDT) in mice. The mice were kindled by electrically stimulating basolateral amygdala neurons, and Racine’s rank standard was employed to classify the stage of behavioral responses (stage 1~5). The coupling index and directionality index were used to investigate the synchronization and information flow direction between CA1 and MDT. Two main results were found in this study. (1) High levels of synchronization between the thalamus and hippocampus were observed before the termination of seizures at stage 4~5 but after the termination of seizures at stage 1~2. (2) In the end of seizures at stage 4~5, the information tended to flow from MDT to CA1. Those results indicate that the synchronization and information flow direction between the thalamus and the hippocampus may participate in the termination of seizures
Neuroprotective Effect of Ginkgolide B on Bupivacaine-Induced Apoptosis in SH-SY5Y Cells
Local anesthetics are used routinely and effectively. However,
many are also known to activate neurotoxic pathways. We tested the neuroprotective
efficacy of ginkgolide B (GB), an active component of Ginkgo biloba, against
ROS-mediated neurotoxicity caused by the local anesthetic bupivacaine.
SH-SY5Y cells were treated with different concentrations of bupivacaine
alone or following preincubation with GB. Pretreatment with GB increased
SH-SY5Y cell viability and attenuated intracellular ROS accumulation, apoptosis,
mitochondrial dysfunction, and ER stress. GB suppressed bupivacaine-induced
mitochondrial depolarization and mitochondria complex I and III inhibition and increased
cleaved caspase-3 and Htra2 expression, which was strongly indicative of activation of
mitochondria-dependent apoptosis with concomitantly enhanced expressions of Grp78,
caspase-12 mRNA, protein, and ER stress. GB also improved ultrastructural changes
indicative of mitochondrial and ER damage induced by bupivacaine. These results implicate
bupivacaine-induced ROS-dependent mitochondria, ER dysfunction, and apoptosis,
which can be attenuated by GB through its antioxidant property
LTMG: a novel statistical modeling of transcriptional expression states in single-cell RNA-Seq data
A key challenge in modeling single-cell RNA-seq data is to capture the diversity of gene expression states regulated by different transcriptional regulatory inputs across individual cells, which is further complicated by largely observed zero and low expressions. We developed a left truncated mixture Gaussian (LTMG) model, from the kinetic relationships of the transcriptional regulatory inputs, mRNA metabolism and abundance in single cells. LTMG infers the expression multi-modalities across single cells, meanwhile, the dropouts and low expressions are treated as left truncated. We demonstrated that LTMG has significantly better goodness of fitting on an extensive number of scRNA-seq data, comparing to three other state-of-the-art models. Our biological assumption of the low non-zero expressions, rationality of the multimodality setting, and the capability of LTMG in extracting expression states specific to cell types or functions, are validated on independent experimental data sets. A differential gene expression test and a co-regulation module identification method are further developed. We experimentally validated that our differential expression test has higher sensitivity and specificity, compared with other five popular methods. The co-regulation analysis is capable of retrieving gene co-regulation modules corresponding to perturbed transcriptional regulations. A user-friendly R package with all the analysis power is available at https://github.com/zy26/LTMGSCA
AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviors in Agents
Autonomous agents empowered by Large Language Models (LLMs) have undergone
significant improvements, enabling them to generalize across a broad spectrum
of tasks. However, in real-world scenarios, cooperation among individuals is
often required to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of task
accomplishment. Hence, inspired by human group dynamics, we propose a
multi-agent framework \framework that can collaboratively and dynamically
adjust its composition as a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts system. Our
experiments demonstrate that \framework framework can effectively deploy
multi-agent groups that outperform a single agent. Furthermore, we delve into
the emergence of social behaviors among individual agents within a group during
collaborative task accomplishment. In view of these behaviors, we discuss some
possible strategies to leverage positive ones and mitigate negative ones for
improving the collaborative potential of multi-agent groups. Our codes for
\framework will soon be released at
\url{https://github.com/OpenBMB/AgentVerse}.Comment: Work in progres
The Association of Thyroid Nodules with Metabolic Status: A Cross-Sectional SPECT-China Study
Purpose. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of thyroid nodules (TNs) and their ultrasound (US) characteristics related to malignancy with metabolic status. Methods. The data were obtained from a cross-sectional study (SPECT-China, 2014-2015). The study included 9898 participants older than 18 years. Participants underwent several checkups, which included the measurement of anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, TSH levels, glucose, and lipid profiles. TN and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were diagnosed by US. TN US characteristics, including microcalcification and a taller-than-wide shape, were recorded. Results. Participants with TN [TN(+)] had a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome (Met-S), obesity, central obesity, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, hypertension, and NAFLD, especially women (all P≤0.001). After full adjustment, logistic regression analysis indicated that metabolic syndrome, obesity, central obesity, and hyperlipidaemia were all independent risk factors for the increased prevalence of TN in both genders (P<0.05). In terms of TN US imaging characteristics associated with malignancy, being female with obesity, central obesity, and NAFLD had 1.91-fold, 2.09-fold, and 1.75-fold increased risks of developing a taller-than-wide nodule (P=0.014, 0.004, and 0.027, resp.). Conclusions. The status of metabolic disorders might be associated with higher risks of TN in both genders. In women, obesity, central obesity, and NAFLD might contribute to the development of a taller-than-wide nodule. The potential role of metabolic status in the pathogenesis of the thyroid nodule and thyroid cancer remains to be elucidated
Observation of Fluctuation Spin Hall Effect in Antiferromagnet
The spin Hall effect (SHE) can generate a pure spin current by an electric
current, which is promisingly used to electrically control magnetization. To
reduce power consumption of this control, a giant spin Hall angle (SHA) in the
SHE is desired in low-resistivity systems for practical applications. Here,
critical spin fluctuation near the antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase-transition is
proved as an effective mechanism to create an additional part of SHE, named as
fluctuation spin Hall effect (FSHE). This FSHE enhances the SHA due to the AFM
spin fluctuation between conduction electrons and local spins. We detect the
FSHE with the inverse and direct spin Hall effect (ISHE and DSHE) set-up and
their temperature (T) dependences in the Cr/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions
(MTJs). The SHA is significantly enhanced when temperature is approached to the
N\'eel temperature (T_N) and has a peak value of -0.34 at 200 K near T_N. This
value is higher than the room-temperature value by 240% and comparable to that
of heavy metals Ta and W. Furthermore, the spin Hall resistivity of Cr well
fits the modeled T-dependence when T approaches T_N from low temperatures,
implying the AFM spin fluctuation nature of strong SHA enhancement. Thus, this
study demonstrates the critical spin fluctuation as a prospective way of
increasing SHA and enriches the AFM material candidates for spin-orbitronic
devices.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figure
Association Between Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone and Renal Function: a Mendelian Randomization Study
Background/Aims: Increasing evidence suggests an association between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). We conducted a Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to examine the causality of the association between TSH and eGFR. Methods: 10,603 participants were recruited from the Survey on Prevalence in East China for Metabolic Diseases and Risk Factors (SPECT-China), which was performed in 23 sites in East China during 2014-2016. We constructed weighted genetic risk scores (GRS) for TSH based on three TSH-related single nucleotide polymorphisms. eGFR was calculated using the CKD Epidemiology Collaboration formula. The instrumental variable (IV) was used to explore the causal relationship between TSH and eGFR. Results: Higher measured TSH levels were associated with lower eGFR (B -0.717, 95%CI -0.958, -0.476) after multivariable adjustment. However, by MR analysis, per SD increase in the TSH_GRS was significantly associated with TSH (B 0.155, 95%CI 0.076, 0.235, P< 0.001) but not with eGFR (B -0.127, 95%CI -0.364, 0.110). Using IV estimator, no causal associations were observed for genetically instrumented TSH with eGFR. Conclusion: By a genetic approach that limits residual confounding and reverse causation in observational conventional epidemiological studies, TSH and eGFR are not causally associated, which suggests genetically elevated TSH concentrations may not affect the renal function
LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (LEGUE) The survey science plan
We describe the current plans for a spectroscopic survey of millions of stars
in the Milky Way galaxy using the Guo Shou Jing Telescope (GSJT, formerly the
Large Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope - LAMOST). The survey will
obtain spectra for 2.5 million stars brighter than during dark/grey
time, and 5 million stars brighter than or on nights that are
moonlit or have low transparency. The survey will begin in fall of 2012, and
will run for at least four years. The telescope design constrains the optimal
declination range for observations to , and site
conditions lead to an emphasis on stars in the direction of the Galactic
anticenter. The survey is divided into three parts with different target
selection strategies: disk, anticenter, and spheroid. The resulting dataset
will be used to study the merger history of the Milky Way, the substructure and
evolution of the disks, the nature of the first generation of stars through
identification of the lowest metallicity stars, and star formation through
study of open clusters and the OB associations. Detailed design of the LEGUE
survey will be completed after a review of the results of the pilot survey in
summer 2012.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in RA
Effects of electronic structure and interfacial interaction between metal-quinoline complexes and TiO 2 on visible light photocatalytic activity of TiO 2
Two metal-quinoline complexes, Fe(III)-8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulfonic acid (Fe-HQS) and Er(III)-8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulfonic acid (Er-HQS), were used as sensitizers of TiO 2 for improving visible light photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 . UV-vis spectra, X-ray Diffraction, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope and Transmission Electron Microscope were put to use to characterize the structure and morphology of Fe-HQS-TiO 2 and Er-HQS-TiO 2 . The effects of interfacial electron transfer and energy level matching between each complex and TiO 2 were researched intensively. Er-HQS-TiO 2 and Fe-HQS-TiO 2 exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity on photodecomposition of phenol in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation comparing to that of pure TiO 2 . According to photoelectrochemical response property and theoretical calculation of energy levels, two possible energy matching modes and photoelectron transmission pathways were proposed to explain the effects of Fe-HQS and Er-HQS on the interfacial interaction between metal-HQS complex and TiO 2 , and their different photocatalytic activities under visible light irradiation. The work in this paper indicated that metal-HQS complex with appropriate electronic structure and HOMO-LUMO energy levels relative to the band gap of TiO 2 played a major role in improving TiO 2 photocatalytic activity
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