Social Preference Deficits in Juvenile Zebrafish Induced by Early Chronic Exposure to Sodium Valproate

Prenatal exposure to sodium valproate (VPA), a widely used anti-epileptic drug, is related to a series of dysfunctions, such as deficits in language and communication. Clinical and animal studies have indicated that the effects of VPA are related to the concentration and to the exposure window, while the neurobehavioral effects of VPA have received limited research attention. In the current study, to analyze the neurobehavioral effects of VPA, zebrafish at 24 hours post-fertilization (hpf) were treated with early chronic exposure to 20 μM VPA for 7 hours per day for 6 days or with early acute exposure to 100 μM VPA for 7 hours. A battery of behavioral screenings was conducted at 1 month of age to investigate social preference, locomotor activity, anxiety and behavioral response to light change. A social preference deficit was only observed in animals with chronic VPA exposure. Acute VPA exposure induced a change in the locomotor activity, while chronic VPA exposure did not affect locomotor activity. Neither exposure procedure influenced anxiety or the behavioral response to light change. These results suggested that VPA has the potential to affect some behaviors in zebrafish, such as social behavior and the locomotor activity, and that the effects were closely related to the concentration and the exposure window. Additionally, social preference seemed to be independent from other simple behaviors

Identification and Characterization of Circular RNAs in Brassica rapa in Response to \u3ci\u3ePlasmodiophora brassicae\u3c/i\u3e

Plasmodiophora brassicae is a soil-borne pathogen that attacks the roots of cruciferous plants and causes clubroot disease. CircRNAs are noncoding RNAs, widely existing in plant and animal species. Although knowledge of circRNAs has been updated continuously and rapidly, information about circRNAs in the regulation of clubroot disease resistance is extremely limited in Brassica rapa. Here, Chinese cabbage (BJN 222) containing clubroot resistance genes (CRa) against P. brassicae Pb4 was susceptible to PbE. To investigate the mechanism of cicRNAs responsible for clubroot disease resistance in B. rapa, circRNA-seq was performed with roots of ‘BJN 222’ at 0, 8, and 23 days postinoculated (dpi) with Pb4 and PbE. A total of 231 differentially expressed circRNAs were identified between the groups. Based on the differentially expressed circRNAs, the circRNA–miRNA–mRNA network was constructed using the target genes directly or indirectly related to plant resistance. Upregulated novel_circ_000495 suppressed the expression of miR5656-y, leading to the upregulation of Bra026508, which might cause plant resistance. Our results provide new insights into clubroot resistance mechanisms and lay a foundation for further studies exploring complex gene regulation networks in B. rapa

Chronic Alcohol Causes Alteration of Lipidome Profiling in Brain

Much efforts have been tried to clarify the molecular mechanism of alcohol-induced brain damage from the perspective of genome and protein; however, the effect of chronic alcohol exposure on global lipid profiling of brain is unclear. In the present study, by using Q-TOF/MS-based lipidomics approach, we investigated the comprehensive lipidome profiling of brain from the rats orally administrated with alcohol daily, continuously for one year. Through systematically analysis of all lipids in prefrontal cortex (PFC) and striatum region, we found that long-term alcohol exposure profoundly modified brain lipidome profiling. Notably, three kinds of lipid classes, glycerophospholipid (GP), glycerolipid (GL) and fatty acyls (FA), were significantly increased in these two brain regions. Interestingly, most of the modified lipids were involved in synthetic pathways of endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which may result in ER stress-related metabolic disruption. Moreover, alcohol-modified lipid species displayed long length of carbon chain with high degree of unsaturation. Taken together, our results firstly present that chronic alcohol exposure markedly modifies brain lipidomic profiling, which may activate ER stress and eventually result in neurotoxicity. These findings provide a new insight into the mechanism of alcohol-related brain damage.Peer reviewe

Cardiovascular mortality by cancer risk stratification in patients with localized prostate cancer: a SEER-based study

PurposeThe risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in patients with localized prostate cancer (PCa) by risk stratification remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the risk of CVD death in patients with localized PCa by risk stratification.Patients and methodsPopulation-based study of 340,806 cases in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database diagnosed with localized PCa between 2004 and 2016. The proportion of deaths identifies the primary cause of death, the competing risk model identifies the interaction between CVD and PCa, and the standardized mortality rate (SMR) quantifies the risk of CVD death in patients with PCa.ResultsCVD-related death was the leading cause of death in patients with localized PCa, and cumulative CVD-related death also surpassed PCa almost as soon as PCa was diagnosed in the low- and intermediate-risk groups. However, in the high-risk group, CVD surpassed PCa approximately 90 months later. Patients with localized PCa have a higher risk of CVD-related death compared to the general population and the risk increases steadily with survival (SMR = 4.8, 95% CI 4.6–5.1 to SMR = 13.6, 95% CI 12.8–14.5).ConclusionsCVD-related death is a major competing risk in patients with localized PCa, and cumulative CVD mortality increases steadily with survival time and exceeds PCa in all three stratifications (low, intermediate, and high risk). Patients with localized PCa have a higher CVD-related death than the general population. Management of patients with localized PCa requires attention to both the primary cancer and CVD

Workplace Negative Gossip Atmosphere and Employees’ Cyberloafing Behaviors: Effects and Mechanisms

Most previous studies of workplace gossip pay attention to its impacts on the target of gossip, but few focus on how audience of gossip in the workplace may be influenced when workplace gossip happens. This study adopts audience-centric perspective to understand workplace negative gossip, proposes the construct of “workplace negative gossip atmosphere” (WNGA), and studies how employees’ perception of WNGA influence their behaviors (cyberloafing). Based on the theory of social information processing and ego depletion theory, this study proposes a dual path model under the “cognitive-emotional” framework. The data analysis software STATA 15.1 is used to analyse 243 employee data collected at 3 time points, and hierarchical regression analyses are conducted to to examine the model. Results show that: 1) WNGA positively influences employees’ cyberloafing behaviors; 2) Employees’ cognitive trust and emotional exhaustion play mediating roles between WNGA and cyberloafing behaviors, respectively. 3) Task interdependence is a moderator that changes both the relationship between WNGA and cognitive trust, and the relationship between WNGA and emotional exhaustion. This study broadens the research thinking in the field of workplace negative gossip and cyberloafing, and also offers some management suggestions for organizations

Assessment of adherence behaviors for the self-reporting of occupational exposure to blood and body fluids among registered nurses: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND:In China, register nurses (RNs) have a high risk of occupational exposure to blood/body fluids. The adherence behavior related to self-reporting of occupational exposure needs to be evaluated to protect RNs from healthcare-related infections. OBJECTIVES:To assess adherence behaviors for self-reporting of occupational exposure to blood and body fluids among RNs and identify factors affecting self-reporting in Hunan Province, China for developing upgraded strategies. METHODS:Study participants, randomly selected from six tertiary hospitals in Changsha City, completed a structured questionnaire. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe basic demographic data. One-way analysis of variance was performed to assess whether adherence behaviors were correlated to each other; the multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with reporting exposure to blood/body fluids. RESULTS:In total, 548 RNs completed the questionnaire. All participants experienced sharp object injuries at least once during their career; 65.88% of participants were exposed to blood/body fluids thrice, and 31.2% experienced 1-5 occupational exposures in the past month. However, only 14.6% of participants submitted a blood/body fluid exposure report to a supervisor/official after every incident. Blood/body fluid exposure was associated with the non-usage of safety protocols. Only 10.2% of participants believed the employer paid more attention to needle-stick injuries (P<0.01) than to other injuries. Most participants (73.5%) reported the absence of psychological support after injuries (P<0.01). Nine personal and management factors were observed to be closely related to underreporting behavior. CONCLUSION:The prevalence of exposure to blood/body fluids among RNs was high, and the underreporting rate was likely substantially underestimated. Safety-engineered devices must be adopted to decrease the prevalence of sharp object injuries. To encourage employees to report occupational exposure events, a series of hospital-wide actions need to be adopted

Early Warning of Systemic Financial Risk of Local Government Implicit Debt Based on BP Neural Network Model

In recent years, local governments have boosted their local economies by raising large amounts of debt. Even though the state further strictly controls local government debt, the hidden debt formed by the local government borrowing in disguised form can infect systemic financial risks, creating an urgent need to carry out risk warning based on local government hidden debt. The paper uses the macro indicators of local government implicit debt risk at the prefecture-level city level, and introduces the micro indicators of PPP projects, financing platform bank debt, and urban investment debt to establish a BP neural network model. We not only study the contagion effect of local government hidden debt on systemic financial risks, but also predict the systemic financial risks in 2019 and construct an early warning risk system based on the prefecture-level city data from 2015 to 2018. In addition, the early warning effect of local government implicit debt on systemic financial risk under different stress scenarios is investigated. The study found that the implicit debt risk of local governments, the scale of financing platform bank debt, the scale of PPP, and the scale of urban investment bonds have a significant impact on systemic financial risks. The neural network model constructed by introducing these four variables at the same time can better predict the level of systemic financial risk. The model can also accurately predict the changes in systemic financial risks under the stress test of the increase in hidden debt of different local governments, and has a good early warning effect