Cómo el sentido de la agencia y el sentido de propiedad pueden afectar la ansiedad: un estudio basado en la Virtual Hand Illusion

By using computer program we created a virtual environment to study the possible impacts of sense of agency and sense of ownership on anxiety. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether our setup could achieve the similar effect as traditional rubber hand illusion had, and how sense of self (mainly sense of agency and sense of ownership) affects participants' anxiety. Study 1 the sample consisted of 24 first grade student(12 female, 12 male) aged 18-21 (M=19.98, SD=0.82), who moved a 3D virtual hand in a synchronous or asynchronous situation. Study 2 included 48 first or second grade students (24 female , 24 male) aged 18-22 (M=20.67, SD=1.05), who passed the SCL-90 rating-scale and completed the SCL-90 rating-scale again after they performed a catching/avoiding task. In study 1, all the results only provided evidence for a VHI but no other effect. Study 2 showed that asynchronous conditions had higher anxiety scores than synchronous one in terms of modality and sex, different virtual images would lead to participants' different anxious feelings. Sex itself was not a differentiating factor, however, mean and women reacted differently in different situations. Results indicated that, in general, sense of agency has more impacts on anxiety level compared with sense of ownership. However, sense of agency seemed to affect male more than female while sense of ownership placed more influence on female than on male. This finding may because the different contribution styles and empathy abilities between men and women.Usando un programa de ordenador, creamos un entorno virtual para estudiar los posibles impactos del sentido de agencia y sentido de pertenencia sobre la ansiedad. El objetivo del presente estudio es investigar si nuestra configuración podría lograr el efecto similar al que tenía la ilusión de goma tradicional, y cómo el sentido del yo (principalmente sentido de agencia y sentido de pertenencia) afecta la ansiedad de los participantes. Estudio 1, la muestra consistió en 24 estudiantes de primer grado (12 mujeres, 12 hombres) que movieron una mano virtual en 3D en una situación sincrónica o asincrónica. El estudio 2 incluyó 48 estudiantes de primer o segundo grado (24 mujeres, 24 hombres) que pasaron la escala de calificación SCL-90 y completaron la escala de calificación SCL-90 nuevamente después de realizar una tarea de captura / evitación. En el estudio 1, todos los resultados solo proporcionaron evidencia de una ilusión de mano virtual pero ningún otro efecto. El estudio 2 mostró que las condiciones asincrónicas tenían puntuaciones de ansiedad más altas que las sincrónicas en términos de modalidad y sexo, diferentes imágenes virtuales conducirían a los diferentes sentimientos de ansiedad de los participantes. El sexo en sí mismo no era un factor diferenciador, sin embargo, los hombres y las mujeres reaccionaron de manera diferente en diferentes situaciones. Los resultados indicaron que, en general, el sentido de agencia tiene más impactos en el nivel de ansiedad en comparación con el sentido de pertenencia. Sin embargo, el sentimiento de agencia pareció afectar más a los hombres que a las mujeres, mientras que el sentido de pertenencia ejerció más influencia sobre las mujeres que sobre los hombres. Este hallazgo puede deberse a los diferentes estilos de contribución y habilidades de empatía entre hombres y mujeres

Moderate-to-high risk of obstructive sleep apnea with excessive daytime sleepiness is associated with postoperative neurocognitive disorders: a prospective one-year follow-up cohort study

BackgroundFew studies found that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be related to postoperative neurocognitive disorders (PND) including postoperative delirium (POD) and cognitive decline (POCD) in the early postoperative period. However, the results are controversial and need further verification, and no research has explored the effect of OSA on the incidence of PND during the 1-year follow-up periods. Furthermore, OSA patients with excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) as a severe phenotype have more significant neurocognitive impairments, but the relationship between OSA with EDS and PND within 1 year after surgery has not been studied.ObjectivesTo explore the effect of moderate-to-high risk of OSA and the moderate-to-high risk of OSA with EDS on PND within 1 year after surgery.MethodsIn this prospective cohort study, including 227 older patients, moderate-to-high risk of OSA (using STOP-BANG), subjective EDS (using Epworth Sleepiness Scale), and objective EDS (using Actigraphy) were selected as exposures. Key outcomes included POD during hospitalization (using Confusion Assessment Method-Severity), POCD at discharge, 1-month and 1-year after surgery (using Mini-Mental State Examination and Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-40). We applied multiple logistic regression models to estimate the effect of moderate-to-high risk of OSA and moderate-to-high risk of OSA with EDS on PND.ResultsIn the multivariate analysis, moderate-to-high risk of OSA was not associated with POD during hospitalization and POCD at discharge, 1-month, and 1-year after surgery (p > 0.05). However, the moderate-to-high risk of OSA with subjective EDS was related to POCD at discharge compared to the moderate-to-high risk of OSA or normal group (no moderate-to-high risk of OSA and no EDS) (p < 0.05). In addition, moderate-to-high risk of OSA with objective EDS was associated with POCD at discharge, 1-month, and 1-year postoperatively compared to the moderate-to-high risk of OSA or normal group (p < 0.05).ConclusionModerate-to-high risk of OSA with EDS, not moderate-to-high risk of OSA alone, was a clinically helpful predictor for POCD within 1-year after surgery and should be routinely assessed before surgery

The roles of SMYD4 in epigenetic regulation of cardiac development in zebrafish

SMYD4 belongs to a family of lysine methyltransferases. We analyzed the role of smyd4 in zebrafish development by generating a smyd4 mutant zebrafish line (smyd4L544Efs*1) using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The maternal and zygotic smyd4L544Efs*1 mutants demonstrated severe cardiac malformations, including defects in left-right patterning and looping and hypoplastic ventricles, suggesting that smyd4 was critical for heart development. Importantly, we identified two rare SMYD4 genetic variants in a 208-patient cohort with congenital heart defects. Both biochemical and functional analyses indicated that SMYD4(G345D) was pathogenic. Our data suggested that smyd4 functions as a histone methyltransferase and, by interacting with HDAC1, also serves as a potential modulator for histone acetylation. Transcriptome and bioinformatics analyses of smyd4L544Efs*1 and wild-type developing hearts suggested that smyd4 is a key epigenetic regulator involved in regulating endoplasmic reticulum-mediated protein processing and several important metabolic pathways in developing zebrafish hearts

A Highly Stable and Sensitive MEMS-based Gravimeter for Long-term Earth Tides Observations

Precision measurements of local gravitational acceleration variations are of great importance in geophysical surveys. With advantages such as cost-effectiveness and portability, Micro-Electro-Mechanical system (MEMS)-based gravimeters have shown the potential for long-term gravity measurements. In this paper, aiming to further improve the stability of the instrument, the design considerations and system evaluations of a MEMS gravimeter are presented. With a linear spring design for the silicon proof-mass, a low natural frequency of ~14 Hz and a large linear range of ~10300 mGal are achieved with an ultra-low self-noise floor of 1.2 μGal/√Hz@1 Hz. By implementing a vacuum chamber system, the pressure variation is reduced from hundreds of Pa/day in atmosphere to a linear variation of ~6 Pa/day. In addition, an active temperature control system can suppress temperature fluctuations by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude within the band from 1×10 -4 Hz to 1×10 -2 Hz. The stability of the proposed MEMS gravimeter is demonstrated via long-term Earth tides observations within a 30-day time span, giving a correlation coefficient of 0.957 with the reference. An excellent bias instability of ≤4 μGal is demonstrated within the 8-3000 s averaging time range, representing one of the best performances to date in terms of stability for MEMS gravimeters. This shows the potential of high-performance MEMS gravimeters for petroleum and mineral prospecting, seismology and other geophysical applications

Dcf1 Deficiency Attenuates the Role of Activated Microglia During Neuroinflammation

Microglia serve as the principal immune cells and play crucial roles in the central nervous system, responding to neuroinflammation via migration and the execution of phagocytosis. Dendritic cell-derived factor 1 (Dcf1) is known to play an important role in neural stem cell differentiation, glioma apoptosis, dendritic spine formation, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), nevertheless, the involvement of the Dcf1 gene in the brain immune response has not yet been reported. In the present paper, the RNA-sequencing and function enrichment analysis suggested that the majority of the down-regulated genes in Dcf1-/- (Dcf1-KO) mice are immune-related. In vivo experiments showed that Dcf1 deletion produced profound effects on microglial function, increased the expression of microglial activation markers, such as ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1), Cluster of Differentiation 68 (CD68) and translocator protein (TSPO), as well as certain proinflammatory cytokines (Cxcl1, Ccl7, and IL17D), but decreased the migratory and phagocytic abilities of microglial cells, and reduced the expression levels of some other proinflammatory cytokines (Cox-2, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and Csf1) in the mouse hippocampus. Furthermore, in vitro experiments revealed that in the absence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the majority of microglia were ramified and existed in a resting state, with only approximately 10% of cells exhibiting an amoeboid-like morphology, indicative of an activated state. LPS treatment dramatically increased the ratio of activated to resting cells, and Dcf1 downregulation further increased this ratio. These data indicated that Dcf1 deletion mediates neuroinflammation and induces dysfunction of activated microglia, preventing migration and the execution of phagocytosis. These findings support further investigation into the biological mechanisms underlying microglia-related neuroinflammatory diseases, and the role of Dcf1 in the immune response

Dietary supplementation with a complex of cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol, and thymol negatively affects the intestinal function in LPS-challenged piglets

BackgroundThe effects of cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol and thymol complex (CCT) on the growth performance and intestinal function of piglets challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were determined. Colistin sulphate (CS) was as a positive control.MethodPiglets (n = 24, 32 days of age) were allocated to four treatments: Control group (fed basal diet), LPS group (fed basal diet), CS+LPS group (fed basal diet + 50 mg/kg CS), and CCT+LPS group (fed basal diet + 50 mg/kg CCT).ResultsResults showed that diarrhea rates of piglets were significantly reduced by CCT and CS supplementation respectively. Further research showed that CS supplementation tended to improve the intestinal absorption function in LPS-challenged piglets. Moreover, CS supplementation significantly reduced the contents of cortisol in blood and malondialdehyde in the duodenum and the activities of inducible nitric oxide synthase in the duodenum and ileum and total nitric oxide synthase in the ileum in LPS-challenged piglets. CS supplementation significantly increased the activities of sucrase in the ileum and myeloperoxidase in the jejunum in LPS-challenged piglets. CS supplementation significantly alleviated the reduced mRNA levels of immune-related genes (IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10) in mesenteric lymph nodes and jejunum and mucosal growth-related genes (IGF-1, mTOR, ALP) in LPS-challenged piglets. These results suggested that CS supplementation improved the intestinal function in LPS-challenged piglets by improving intestinal oxidative stress, immune stress, and absorption and repair function. However, although CCT supplementation improved oxidative stress by reducing (p < 0.05) the content of malondialdehyde and the activity of nitric oxide synthase in the duodenum, CCT supplementation tended to aggravate the intestinal absorption dysfunction in LPS-challenged piglets. Furthermore, compared with the control and LPS groups, CCT supplementation remarkably elevated the content of prostaglandin in plasma and the mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory factor IL-6 in mesenteric lymph nodes and jejunum, and reduced the activity of maltase in the ileum in LPS-challenged piglets. These results suggested that CCT supplementation had a negative effect on intestinal function by altering intestinal immune stress response and reducing disaccharidase activity in LPS-challenged piglets.ConclusionsCompared to CS, CCT supplementation exhibited a negative effect on intestinal function, suggesting whether CCT can be as an effective feed additive still needs further study

Attenuation of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae Strain ES-2 and Comparative Genomic Analysis of ES-2 and Its Attenuated Form ES-2L

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae causes swine respiratory disease worldwide. Due to the difficulty of isolating and cultivating M. hyopneumoniae, very few attenuated strains have been successfully isolated, which hampers the development of attenuated vaccines. In order to produce an attenuated M. hyopneumoniae strain, we used the highly virulent M. hyopneumoniae strain ES-2, which was serially passaged in vitro 200 times to produce the attenuated strain ES-2L, and its virulence was evidenced to be low in an animal experiment. In order to elucidate the mechanisms underlying virulence attenuation, we performed whole-genome sequencing of both strains and conducted comparative genomic analyses of strain ES-2 and its attenuated form ES-2L. Strain ES-2L showed three large fragment deletion regions including a total of 18 deleted genes, compared with strain ES-2. Analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and indels indicated that 22 dels were located in 19 predicted coding sequences. In addition to these indels, 348 single-nucleotide variations (SNVs) were identified between strains ES-2L and ES-2. These SNVs mapped to 99 genes where they appeared to induce amino acid substitutions and translation stops. The deleted genes and SNVs may be associated with decreased virulence of strain ES-2L. Our work provides a foundation for further examining virulence factors of M. hyopneumoniae and for the development of attenuated vaccines