Mindfulness practice for protecting mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emerging evidence shows that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is negatively affecting mental health around the globe. Interventions to alleviate the psychological impact of the pandemic are urgently needed. Whether mindfulness practice may protect against the harmful emotional effects of a pandemic crisis remains hitherto unknown. We investigated the influence of mindfulness training on mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. We hypothesized that mindfulness practitioners might manifest less pandemic-related distress, depression, anxiety, and stress than non-practitioners and that more frequent practice would be associated with an improvement in mental health during the pandemic. Therefore, we assessed pandemic-related distress and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as the frequency of meditation practice at the peak of new infections (Feb 4-5; N = 673) and three weeks later (Feb 29-30; N = 521) in mindfulness practitioners via online questionnaires. Self-reported symptoms were also collected from non-practitioners at peak time only (N = 1550). We found lower scores of pandemic-related distress in mindfulness practitioners compared to non-practitioners. In general, older participants showed fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. In younger practitioners, pandemic-related distress decreased from peak to follow-up. Importantly, increased mindfulness training during the preceding two weeks was associated with lower scores of depression and anxiety at both assessments. Likewise, practice frequency predicted individual improvement in scores of depression, anxiety, and stress at follow-up. Our results indicate that mindfulness meditation might be a viable low-cost intervention to mitigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics

Mindfulness practice for protecting mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emerging evidence shows that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is negatively affecting mental health around the globe. Interventions to alleviate the psychological impact of the pandemic are urgently needed. Whether mindfulness practice may protect against the harmful emotional effects of a pandemic crisis remains hitherto unknown. We investigated the influence of mindfulness training on mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. We hypothesized that mindfulness practitioners might manifest less pandemic-related distress, depression, anxiety, and stress than non-practitioners and that more frequent practice would be associated with an improvement in mental health during the pandemic. Therefore, we assessed pandemic-related distress and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as the frequency of meditation practice at the peak of new infections (Feb 4-5; N = 673) and three weeks later (Feb 29-30; N = 521) in mindfulness practitioners via online questionnaires. Self-reported symptoms were also collected from non-practitioners at peak time only (N = 1550). We found lower scores of pandemic-related distress in mindfulness practitioners compared to non-practitioners. In general, older participants showed fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. In younger practitioners, pandemic-related distress decreased from peak to follow-up. Importantly, increased mindfulness training during the preceding two weeks was associated with lower scores of depression and anxiety at both assessments. Likewise, practice frequency predicted individual improvement in scores of depression, anxiety, and stress at follow-up. Our results indicate that mindfulness meditation might be a viable low-cost intervention to mitigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics

The Impact of Attention Mechanisms on Speech Emotion Recognition

Speech emotion recognition (SER) plays an important role in real-time applications of human-machine interaction. The Attention Mechanism is widely used to improve the performance of SER. However, the applicable rules of attention mechanism are not deeply discussed. This paper discussed the difference between Global-Attention and Self-Attention and explored their applicable rules to SER classification construction. The experimental results show that the Global-Attention can improve the accuracy of the sequential model, while the Self-Attention can improve the accuracy of the parallel model when conducting the model with the CNN and the LSTM. With this knowledge, a classifier (CNN-LSTM×2+Global-Attention model) for SER is proposed. The experiments result show that it could achieve an accuracy of 85.427% on the EMO-DB dataset

A Structurally Simplified Hybrid Model of Genetic Algorithm and Support Vector Machine for Prediction of Chlorophyll a in Reservoirs

With decreasing water availability as a result of climate change and human activities, analysis of the influential factors and variation trends of chlorophyll a has become important to prevent reservoir eutrophication and ensure water supply safety. In this paper, a structurally simplified hybrid model of the genetic algorithm (GA) and the support vector machine (SVM) was developed for the prediction of monthly concentration of chlorophyll a in the Miyun Reservoir of northern China over the period from 2000 to 2010. Based on the influence factor analysis, the four most relevant influence factors of chlorophyll a (i.e., total phosphorus, total nitrogen, permanganate index, and reservoir storage) were extracted using the method of feature selection with the GA, which simplified the model structure, making it more practical and efficient for environmental management. The results showed that the developed simplified GA-SVM model could solve nonlinear problems of complex system, and was suitable for the simulation and prediction of chlorophyll a with better performance in accuracy and efficiency in the Miyun Reservoir

Irisin Ameliorates Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-Induced Injury through Modulation of Histone Deacetylase 4

<div><p>Irisin is a recently identified myokine which brings increases in energy expenditure and contributes to the beneficial effects of exercise through the browning of white adipose tissues. However, its effects in the heart remains unknown. This study sought to determine the effects of irisin on hypoxia/reoxygenation injury and its relationship with HDAC4. Wild type and stable HDAC4-overexpression cells were generated from H9c2 cardiomyoblasts. HDAC4 overexpression cells and wild type H9c2 cells were exposed to 24 hours of hypoxia followed by one hour of reoxygenation in vitro in the presence or absence of irisin (5 ng/ml). Cell cytotoxicity, apoptosis, mitochondrial respiration, and mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) were determined. Western blotting was employed to determine active-caspase 3, annexin V, and HDAC4 expression. As compared to wild type H9c2 group, HDAC4 overexpression remarkably led to a great increase in cell death as evident by the increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage, ratio of caspase-3-positive cells as well as the upregulated levels of active-caspase 3 and annexin V shown by western blot analysis. In addition, HDAC4 overexpression also induced much severe mitochondrial dysfunction, as indicated by apoptotic mitochondria and increased mPTP. However, irisin treatment significantly attenuated all of these effects. Though irisin treatment did not influence the expression of HDAC4 at the transcriptional level, western blot analysis showed that HDAC4 protein levels decreased in a time-dependent way after administration of irisin, which is associated with the degradation of HDAC4 mediated by small ubiquitin-like modification (SUMO). Our results are the first to demonstrate that the protective effects of irisin in cardiomyoblasts exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation might be associated with HDAC4 degradation.</p></div

Effects of irisin on mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening in cardiomyoblasts exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation.

<p>(A) Representative images of mPTP staining. The onset of mPTP is demonstrated by loss of green fluorescence signal from mitochondria. Detailed methods for measurement of mPTP were described in materials and methods. Scale bar:100 μm. (B) Quantitation analysis of mPTP in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation. Our analysis showed that irisin treatment rescued the HDAC4 induced-increase in mPTP opening. The results represent 3–4 independent experiments counting 150–200 cells per condition. Values represent means±SE (n = 3-4/group). ****P<0.0001.</p

Irisin treatment reduced active caspase-3-positive nuclei in cardiomyoblasts exposed to H/R.

<p>(A) Representative images showing the apoptotic H9c2 cardiomyoblasts: active caspase-3-positive nuclei in red (white arrows); nuclei were stained in blue (DAPI). (B) Quantification of active caspase-3-positive nuclei between groups. Values represent means±SE (n = 3/group). ***P<0.001, ****P<0.0001. Scale bar: 100μm.</p

The effect of irisin on H/R induced MMP reduction in H9c2 cells.

<p>Cardiomyoblast mitochondrial damage was assessed by examining mitochondrial membrane depolarization. The MitoCapture dye accumulates in the mitochondria under normoxia to emit a red signal. In apoptotic cells, the MitoCapture diffuses into the cytoplasm and emits a green signal. Exposing H9c2 cells to H/R caused a significant decrease in the ratio of red to green fluorescence intensity, which is a sign of the early stages of cell apoptosis. Apoptosis was more severe in the HDAC4 group. However, irisin treatment improved the H/R-led MTP loss significantly in both WT cells and HDAC4 over-expression cells. The bar represents 100 μm.</p

Irisin suppressed HDAC4 induced cell apoptosis after H/R.

<p>Active-caspase 3 and annexin V signals were significantly reduced by irisin treatment. Irisin mitigated the increase in both active caspase 3 and annexin V in HDAC4 overexpression group.</p