Psychometric property study of the Affective Lability Scale-short form in Chinese patients with mood disorders

IntroductionThis study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Affective Lability Scale-short form (ALS-SF) among Chinese patients with mood disorders, and to compare ALS-SF subscale scores between patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and patients with bipolar disorder (BD) depression.MethodsA total of 344 patients with mood disorders were included in our study. Participants were measured through a set of questionnaires including the Chinese version of ALS-SF, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7), and NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to examine the psychometric properties of ALS-SF. Besides, correlation and regression analyses were performed to explore the relationship between affective lability and depression, anxiety, and neuroticism. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare the subscale scores of ALS-SF between the MDD and BD depression groups.ResultsResults of factor analysis indicated that the model of ALS-SF was consistent with ALS-SF. The ALS-SF showed a solid validity and high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.861). In addition, each subscale of ALS-SF was significantly correlated with PHQ-9, GAD-7, and NEO-FFI neuroticism subscale, except for the anger subscale showed no significant correlation with PHQ-9. Besides, the depression/elation and anger factor scores in patients with BD depression were higher than in patients with MDD.ConclusionOur study suggests that the Chinese version of ALS-SF has good reliability and validity for measuring affective lability in Chinese patients with mood disorders. Assessing affective lability would assist clinicians to distinguish between MDD and BP depression and may decrease the risks of misdiagnosis

DNMT3A Loss Drives Enhancer Hypomethylation in FLT3-ITD-Associated Leukemias.

DNMT3A, the gene encoding the de novo DNA methyltransferase 3A, is among the most frequently mutated genes in hematologic malignancies. However, the mechanisms through which DNMT3A normally suppresses malignancy development are unknown. Here, we show that DNMT3A loss synergizes with the FLT3 internal tandem duplication in a dose-influenced fashion to generate rapid lethal lymphoid or myeloid leukemias similar to their human counterparts. Loss of DNMT3A leads to reduced DNA methylation, predominantly at hematopoietic enhancer regions in both mouse and human samples. Myeloid and lymphoid diseases arise from transformed murine hematopoietic stem cells. Broadly, our findings support a role for DNMT3A as a guardian of the epigenetic state at enhancer regions, critical for inhibition of leukemic transformation.L.Y. is funded by the Robert and Janice McNair Foundation as an MD/PhD McNair Scholar. This project was funded by CPRIT (RP110028, RP110471 and RP150292 ), the NIH (DK092883 and HG007538), and the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. We also thank the Cytometry and Cell Sorting and Genomic and RNA Profiling Cores (NCI P30CA125123, P30 AI036211, P30 CA125123, and S10 RR024574 ) at Baylor College of Medicine. Authors declare no conflicts of interest.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cell Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2016.05.00

Eosinophil Lineage-Committed Progenitors as a Therapeutic Target for Asthma

Eosinophilic asthma is the most prevalent phenotype of asthma. Although most asthmatics are adequately controlled by corticosteroid therapy, a subset (5–10%) remain uncontrolled with significant therapy-related side effects. This indicates the need for a consideration of alternative treatment strategies that target airway eosinophilia with corticosteroid-sparing benefits. A growing body of evidence shows that a balance between systemic differentiation and local tissue eosinophilopoietic processes driven by traffic and lung homing of bone marrow-derived hemopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) are important components for the development of airway eosinophilia in asthma. Interleukin (IL)-5 is considered a critical and selective driver of terminal differentiation of eosinophils. Studies targeting IL-5 or IL-5R show that although mature and immature eosinophils are decreased within the airways, there is incomplete ablation, particularly within the bronchial tissue. Eotaxin is a chemoattractant for mature eosinophils and eosinophil-lineage committed progenitor cells (EoP), yet anti-CCR3 studies did not yield meaningful clinical outcomes. Recent studies highlight the role of epithelial cell-derived alarmin cytokines, IL-33 and TSLP, (Thymic stromal lymphopoietin) in progenitor cell traffic and local differentiative processes. This review provides an overview of the role of EoP in asthma and discusses findings from clinical trials with various therapeutic targets. We will show that targeting single mediators downstream of the inflammatory cascade may not fully attenuate tissue eosinophilia due to the multiplicity of factors that can promote tissue eosinophilia. Blocking lung homing and local eosinophilopoiesis through mediators upstream of this cascade may yield greater improvement in clinical outcomes

Real-Time Phase Retrieval Based on Cube-Corner Prisms Single Exposure

The phase retrieval method based on the Transport of Intensity Equation needs to record the light intensity information on two or more planes perpendicular to the optical axis propagating along the optical axis. Usually, a single CCD camera is moved back and forth for recording, which not only brings the corresponding mechanical errors, but also has a certain time difference between the collected intensity images, which cannot meet the real-time requirements. In this paper, a single phase retrieval technique based on cube-corner prisms is proposed. This method can simultaneously collect the required initial intensity image in a single exposure, and then calculate the phase after registration and repair, so as to obtain high-precision results. According to the parallel reflection characteristics of the cube-corner prisms, the experimental system designed correspondingly can not only stagger the two beams separated by the beam splitter, but also ensure that the upper and lower propagation distances of a single beam are equal. Finally, the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method are fully verified by simulation experiments and experimental measurements

Real-Time Phase Retrieval Based on Cube-Corner Prisms Single Exposure

The phase retrieval method based on the Transport of Intensity Equation needs to record the light intensity information on two or more planes perpendicular to the optical axis propagating along the optical axis. Usually, a single CCD camera is moved back and forth for recording, which not only brings the corresponding mechanical errors, but also has a certain time difference between the collected intensity images, which cannot meet the real-time requirements. In this paper, a single phase retrieval technique based on cube-corner prisms is proposed. This method can simultaneously collect the required initial intensity image in a single exposure, and then calculate the phase after registration and repair, so as to obtain high-precision results. According to the parallel reflection characteristics of the cube-corner prisms, the experimental system designed correspondingly can not only stagger the two beams separated by the beam splitter, but also ensure that the upper and lower propagation distances of a single beam are equal. Finally, the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method are fully verified by simulation experiments and experimental measurements

Outsourcing flexibility under financial constraints

We posit that outsourcing flexibility helps overcome financial constraints and provide evidence concerning the role of financial constraints and its interaction with operational flexibility on the likelihood and market value of outsourcing. We find that the likelihood of outsourcing is higher the greater the firm's financial constraints prior to outsourcing and that the effect of financial constraints on the likelihood of outsourcing is greater the lower the ex-ante operational flexibility, suggesting partial substitution between financial and operational flexibility. We further show that the market value impact of outsourcing announcements is predominantly positive confirming net flexibility gains positively related to ex-ante financial constraints. Our findings suggest that outsourcing is a vehicle for flexibility acquisition and that financial constraints play a prominent role

Theoretical study of low-energy electron scattering with GeH

We present a comprehensive study of electron collisions with germylene (GeH2 using the UK molecular R-matrix codes for electron energies ranging from 0.01 to 10 eV. The calculations are performed within the static-exchange, static-exchange-polarization, and 17-state close-coupling approximations. The elastic integral, differential, momentum transfer cross sections and the excitation cross sections from the ground state to the six low-lying electron excited states are presented. We found three Feshbach resonances and one Core-excited resonance. These resonances reveal the probability of anion formation by an electron attachment process and further decay to neutral and negative ion fragments. The electronic and rotational excitation cross sections for e-GeH2 scattering are reported for the first time. The cross-section dataset obtained from the present calculations are expected to be sufficiently accurate and comprehensive for most current modeling applications involving neutral GeH2

Spin–Orbit Torque and Current‐Driven Switching in Pt100‐yTby/Co/AlOx Trilayers

Abstract To decrease the energy consumption for the electrical manipulation of magnetization, the enhancement of the spin Hall effect through alloying is widely investigated, but the use of rare earth elements is rarely mentioned. This work reports the modification of the spin Hall effect on Pt by doping rare earth Tb atoms. The spin–orbit torque (SOT) performance is significantly enhanced in Pt100‐yTby alloyed heavy metal (HM) layer. Compared with the Tb‐free sample, the damping‐like effective field per unit current density increases to 1.9 times in the samples with Tb content between 5% and 10%. The critical current density for magnetization reversal is greatly reduced by 65% in a device with Pt87Tb13 HM layer and the in‐plane assistant field as small as ±20 Oe is sufficient for the deterministic switching in the same device. By magneto‐optical Kerr effect imaging, it is confirmed that the increased in‐plane field can effectively compensate the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), which not only helps to reduce the critical current, but also facilitates the domain wall motion and is beneficial for the switching process. All results show that the Pt‐Tb alloy is a competitive candidate for low‐power spintronic devices

Exploring Optimized Organic Fluorophore Search Through Simple Experimental Data-Driven VAE

Designing organic fluorescent molecules with tailored optical properties is challenging in decades, while the new avenue was opened by the statistical models. Inverse design has garnered considerable interest in organic materials science but concentrates on arbitrary design or theoretical properties. Here, we introduce a strategy that enables direct optimization of specific experimental properties in the inverse design process, utilizing a variational autoencoder (VAE) with a latent vector-based prediction model. Omitting the Kullback-Leibler divergence and separate training strategy successfully improved the generator\u27s robustness and molecular diversity. We confirm the latent vectors obtained from VAE are powerful inputs for downstream prediction models of experimental properties, fluorescence energy and quantum yield. Our approach for the optimized search of organic fluorescent materials, substantiated by gradient space derived from latent vector and validated by newly synthesized and uncharacterized molecules, shows potential for broader applications in diverse organic material design