Effects of antipsychotics on bone mineral density and prolactin levels in patients with schizophrenia: a 12-month prospective study

Objective: Effects of conventional and atypical antipsychotics on bone mineral density (BMD) and serum prolactin levels (PRL) were examined in patients with schizophrenia.Methods: One hundred and sixty-three first-episode inpatients with schizophrenia were recruited, to whom one of three conventional antipsychotics (perphenazine, sulpiride, and chlorpromazine) or one of three atypical antipsychotics (clozapine, quetiapine, and aripiprazole)was prescribed for 12 months as appropriate. BMD and PRL were tested before and after treatment. Same measures were conducted in 90 matched healthy controls.Results Baseline BMD of postero-anterior L1–L4 range from 1.04 ± 0.17 to 1.42 ± 1.23, and there was no significant difference between the patients group and healthy control group. However, post-treatment BMD values in patients (ranging from 1.02 ± 0.15 to 1.23 ± 0.10) were significantly lower than that in healthy controls (ranging from 1.15 ± 0.12 to 1.42 ± 1.36). The BMD values after conventional antipsychotics were significantly lower than that after atypical antipsychotics. The PRL level after conventional antipsychotics (53.05 ± 30.25 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that after atypical antipsychotics (32.81 ± 17.42 ng/ml). Conditioned relevance analysis revealed significant negative correlations between the PRL level and the BMD values after conventional antipsychotics.Conclusion The increase of PRL might be an important risk factor leading to a high prevalence of osteoporosis in patients with schizophrenia on long-term conventional antipsychotic medication.<br/

Vibration analysis of the beam structure under the moving mass

Analytical solution of vibration of simply supported beam under the action of centralized moving mass and two numerical methods using life and death element method and displacement contact method are analyzed in this paper. The results show that vertical acceleration resulted from speed and centrifugal acceleration resulted from load moving must be taken into consideration for large quality and high speed. The characteristics and applicable situations of the two numerical methods are also studied to provide a basis for analyzing and considering structural dynamic problems of moving load mass

Actin depolymerization enhances adipogenic differentiation in human stromal stem cells

Human stromal stem cells (hMSCs) differentiate into adipocytes that play a role in skeletal tissue homeostasis and whole body energy metabolism. During adipocyte differentiation, hMSCs exhibit significant changes in cell morphology suggesting changes in cytoskeletal organization. Here, we examined the effect of direct modulation of actin microfilament dynamics on adipocyte differentiation. Stabilizing actin filaments in hMSCs by siRNA-mediated knock down of the two main actin depolymerizing factors (ADFs): Cofilin 1 (CFL1) and Destrin (DSTN) or treating the cells by Phalloidin reduced adipocyte differentiation as evidenced by decreased number of mature adipocytes and decreased adipocyte specific gene expression (ADIPOQ, LPL, PPARG, FABP4). In contrast, disruption of actin cytoskeleton by Cytochalasin D enhanced adipocyte differentiation. Follow up studies revealed that the effects of CFL1 on adipocyte differentiation depended on the activity of LIM domain kinase 1 (LIMK1) which is the major upstream kinase of CFL1. Inhibiting LIMK by its specific chemical inhibitor LIMKi inhibited the phosphorylation of CFL1 and actin polymerization, and enhanced the adipocyte differentiation. Moreover, treating hMSCs by Cytochalasin D inhibited ERK and Smad2 signaling and this was associated with enhanced adipocyte differentiation. On the other hand, Phalloidin enhanced ERK and Smad2 signaling, but inhibited adipocyte differentiation which was rescued by ERK specific chemical inhibitor U0126. Our data provide a link between restructuring of hMSCs cytoskeleton and hMSCs lineage commitment and differentiation. Keywords: Actin cytoskeleton, Actin depolymerizing factors, Adipocyte differentiation, Human stromal stem cell

Fluorescent Probes Design Strategies for Imaging Mitochondria and Lysosomes

Modern cellular biology faces several major obstacles, such as the determination of the concentration of active sites corresponding to chemical substances. In recent years, the popular small-molecule fluorescent probes have completely changed the understanding of cellular biology through their high sensitivity toward specific substances in various organisms. Mitochondria and lysosomes are significant organelles in various organisms, and their interaction is closely related to the development of various diseases. The investigation of their structure and function has gathered tremendous attention from biologists. The advanced nanoscopic technologies have replaced the diffraction-limited conventional imaging techniques and have been developed to explore the unknown aspects of mitochondria and lysosomes with a sub-diffraction resolution. Recent progress in this field has yielded several excellent mitochondria- and lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes, some of which have demonstrated significant biological applications. Herein, we review studies that have been carried out to date and suggest future research directions that will harness the considerable potential of mitochondria- and lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes

Indoor Particulate Matter Transfer in CNC Machining Workshop and The Influence of Ventilation Strategies—A Case Study

Particulate matter in Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining workshop is harmful to workers’ health. This paper studies particulate matter transfer and the performance of various ventilation strategies in a CNC machining workshop. To obtain the boundary condition of the particle field, instruments were installed to obtain the particle size attenuation characteristics and source strength, respectively. The results show that the 99% cumulative mass concentration of particles is distributed within 1.5 μm, and the release rate of particles from the full enclosure. Next, the indoor flow field and particle field were simulated by numerical simulation with the measured boundary conditions. The working area’s age of air, particle concentration, and ventilation efficiency were compared between four displacement ventilation methods and one mixed ventilation method. The results show that the working area’s mean particle concentration and ventilation efficiency under longitudinal displacement ventilation is better than other methods. At the same time, the mean age of air is slightly worse. In addition, mixed ventilation can obtain lower mean age of air, but the particle concentration is higher in the working area. The bilateral longitudinal ventilation can be improved by placing axial circulation fans with vertical upward outlets in the center of the workshop

Single Fasting Plasma Glucose Versus 75-g Oral Glucose-Tolerance Test in Prediction of Adverse Perinatal Outcomes::A Cohort Study

Background: There remains uncertainty regarding whether a single fasting glucose measurement is sufficient to predict risk of adverse perinatal outcomes. Methods: We included 12,594 pregnant women who underwent a 75-g oral glucose-tolerance test (OGTT) at 22–28 weeks' gestation in the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study, China. Outcomes were large for gestational age (LGA) baby, cesarean section, and spontaneous preterm birth. We calculated the area under the receiver operator characteristic curves (AUCs) to assess the capacity of OGTT glucose values to predict adverse outcomes, and compared the AUCs of different components of OGTT. Results: 1325 women had a LGA baby (10.5%). Glucose measurements were linearly associated with LGA, with strongest associations for fasting glucose (odds ratio 1.37, 95% confidence interval 1.30–1.45). Weaker associations were observed for cesarean section and spontaneous preterm birth. Fasting glucose have a comparable discriminative power for prediction of LGA to the combination of fasting, 1 h, and 2 h glucose values during OGTT (AUCs, 0.611 vs. 0.614, P = 0.166). The LGA risk was consistently increased in women with abnormal fasting glucose (≥5.1 mmol/l), irrespective of 1 h or 2 h glucose levels. Conclusions: A single fasting glucose measurement performs comparably to 75-g OGTT in predicting risk of having a LGA baby

GaitAE: a cognitive model-based autoencoding technique for gait recognition.

Gait recognition is a long-distance biometric technique with significant potential for applications in crime prevention, forensic identification, and criminal investigations. Existing gait recognition methods typically introduce specific feature refinement modules on designated models, leading to increased parameter volume and computational complexity while lacking flexibility. In response to this challenge, we propose a novel framework called GaitAE. GaitAE efficiently learns gait representations from large datasets and reconstructs gait sequences through an autoencoder mechanism, thereby enhancing recognition accuracy and robustness. In addition, we introduce a horizontal occlusion restriction (HOR) strategy, which introduces horizontal blocks to the original input sequences at random positions during training to minimize the impact of confounding factors on recognition performance. The experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves high accuracy and is effective when applied to existing gait recognition techniques

Characteristics of convective storm activity during the warm season over Anhui Province based on radar mosaic climatology and the possible causes

In order to understand the radar climatology characteristics of convective activity over Anhui Province, the climatological distribution and influencing factors of convective activity during the warm season (May-September) were investigated using Doppler radar mosaic data from five Next Generation Weather Radars and ERA5 reanalysis data between 2015 and 2020. Results indicate that: (1) There are obvious inter-monthly variations and spatial differences of convective activity during the warm season. The convective activity peaks during the Meiyu period, with the highest frequency in June and July, followed by May and August, and the lowest in September. The region with the highest convective in July and July is mainly distributed in the southwest-northeast direction. (2) It is found that the diurnal variation of convective number is bimodally distributed in summer (June-August), with the main peak in the afternoon and a subpeak in the early morning. In June, the peak convective activity mainly occurs in the early morning, which is related to the strengthening of low-level southwest airflow from night to early morning, and thus enhancing the moisture flux convergence in Anhui. In July, the peak convective activity appears in the afternoon, with a subpeak in the early morning. Note that the main peak is stronger and the duration is longer, which is related to the enhancement of convective available potential energy in Anhui in July. The second peak in early morning is also caused by the strengthening of the low-level southwest airflow, which is similar to that in June, but the intensity is weaker. Convective activity in August exhibits a single peak in the afternoon with the most significant diurnal variation, which shows a typical afternoon thermal convection type