Global brain analysis of minor hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease using EEG and MRI data

IntroductionVisual hallucination is a prevalent psychiatric disorder characterized by the occurrence of false visual perceptions due to misinterpretation in the brain. Individuals with Parkinson’s disease often experience both minor and complex visual hallucinations. The underlying mechanism of complex visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s patients is commonly attributed to dysfunction in the visual pathway and attention network. However, there is limited research on the mechanism of minor hallucinations.MethodsTo address this gap, we conducted an experiment involving 13 Parkinson’s patients with minor hallucinations, 13 Parkinson’s patients without hallucinations, and 13 healthy elderly individuals. We collected and analyzed EEG and MRI data. Furthermore, we utilized EEG data from abnormal brain regions to train a machine learning model to determine whether the abnormal EEG data were associated with minor hallucinations.ResultsOur findings revealed that Parkinson’s patients with minor hallucinations exhibited excessive activation of cortical excitability, an imbalanced interaction between the attention network and the default network, and disruption in the connection between these networks. These findings is similar to the mechanism observed in complex visual hallucinations. The visual reconstruction of one patient experiencing hallucinations yields results that differ from those observed in subjects without such symptoms.DiscussionThe visual reconstruction results demonstrated significant differences between Parkinson’s patients with hallucinations and healthy subjects. This suggests that visual reconstruction techniques may offer a means of evaluating hallucinations

Catalytic Hydrogen Evolution of NaBH4_4 Hydrolysis by Cobalt Nanoparticles Supported on Bagasse-Derived Porous Carbon

As a promising hydrogen storage material, sodium borohydride (NaBH4) exhibits superior stability in alkaline solutions and delivers 10.8 wt.% theoretical hydrogen storage capacity. Nevertheless, its hydrolysis reaction at room temperature must be activated and accelerated by adding an effective catalyst. In this study, we synthesize Co nanoparticles supported on bagasse-derived porous carbon (Co@xPC) for catalytic hydrolytic dehydrogenation of NaBH$_4$. According to the experimental results, Co nanoparticles with uniform particle size and high dispersion are successfully supported on porous carbon to achieve a Co@150PC catalyst. It exhibits particularly high activity of hydrogen generation with the optimal hydrogen production rate of 11086.4 mL$_{H2}$∙min$^{H2}$∙g$_{Co}$$^{H2}$ and low activation energy (E$_{a}$) of 31.25 kJ mol$^{H2}$. The calculation results based on density functional theory (DFT) indicate that the Co@xPC structure is conducive to the dissociation of [BH$_{4}$]$^{-}$, which effectively enhances the hydrolysis efficiency of NaBH$_4$. Moreover, Co@150PC presents an excellent durability, retaining 72.0% of the initial catalyst activity after 15 cycling tests. Moreover, we also explored the degradation mechanism of catalyst performance

Quantitative trait locus mapping and candidate gene analysis for salt tolerance at bud stage in rice

Soil salinization has a serious influence on rice yield and quality. How to enhance salt tolerance in rice is a topical issue. In this study, 120 recombinant inbred line populations were generated through nonstop multi-generation selfing using a male indica rice variety Huazhan (Oryza sativa L. subsp. indica cv. ‘HZ’) and a female variety of Nekken2 (Oryza sativa L. subsp. japonica cv. ‘Nekken2’) as the parents. Germination under 80 mM NaCl conditions was measured and analyzed, and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping was completed using a genetic map. A total of 16 salt-tolerance QTL ranges were detected at bud stage in rice, which were situated on chromosomes 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The maximum limit of detection was 4.69. Moreover, the qST12.3 was narrowed to a 192 kb region on chromosome 12 using map-based cloning strategy. Statistical analysis of the expression levels of these candidate genes under different NaCl concentrations by qRT-PCR revealed that qST12.3 (LOC_Os12g25200) was significantly down-regulated with increasing NaCl concentration, and the expression level of the chlorine-transporter-encoding gene LOC_Os12g25200 in HZ was significantly higher than that of Nekken2 under 0 mM NaCl. Sequencing analysis of LOC_Os12g25200 promoter region indicated that the gene expression difference between parents may be due to eight base differences in the promoter region. Through QTL mining and analysis, a plurality of candidate genes related to salt tolerance in rice was obtained, and the results showed that LOC_Os12g25200 might negatively regulate salt tolerance in rice. The results provide the basis for further screening and cultivation of salt-tolerant rice varieties and have laid the foundation for elucidating further molecular regulation mechanisms of salt tolerance in rice

Isolation and Characterization of Cytotoxic, Aggregative Citrobacter freundii

Citrobacter freundii is an infrequent but established cause of diarrhea in humans. However, little is known of its genetic diversity and potential for virulence. We analyzed 26 isolates, including 12 from human diarrheal patients, 2 from human fecal samples of unknown diarrheal status, and 12 from animals, insects, and other sources. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis using XbaI allowed us to divide the 26 isolates into 20 pulse types, while multi-locus sequence typing using 7 housekeeping genes allowed us to divide the 26 isolates into 6 sequence types (STs) with the majority belonging to 4 STs. We analyzed adhesion and cytotoxicity to HEp-2 cells in these 26 strains. All were found to adhere to HEp-2 cells. One strain, CF74, which had been isolated from a goat, showed the strongest aggregative adhesion pattern. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released from HEp-2 cells was evaluated as a measure of cytotoxicity, averaging 7.46%. Strain CF74 induced the highest level of LDH, 24.3%, and caused >50% cell rounding, detachment, and death. We named strain CF74 “cytotoxic and aggregative C. freundii.” Genome sequencing of CF74 revealed that it had acquired 7 genomic islands, including 2 fimbriae islands and a type VI secretion system island, all of which are potential virulence factors. Our results show that aggregative adherence and cytotoxicity play an important role in the pathogenesis of C. freundii

Research on regulation of Lactobacillus biofilm formation and their characteristics

Nowadays, probiotics powder is the main material for the probiotics productions. However, due to the poor resistance of Lactobacillus in the unfavourable culture conditions, the existing technology is limited to vacuum freeze-drying. This kind of probiotics production has high cost and low efficiency. Therefore, it is significant to resolve this problem by improving the resistance of bacteria cells. Biofilm is a highly organized form of bacteria cells with protein producing by its own and DNA fragments wrapping in the polysaccharides immobilized on the surface. The formation of biofilms can help cells to adapt to adverse environment, reduce the impact of adverse changes and improve the tolerance of bacteria to stressful environment. At present, the research on biofilm mainly focuses on topics in the field of medicine and environment. Fewer studies have been reported on probiotic biofilm such as Lactobacillus biofilm mainly concentrated on single strains. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate the biofilm-forming ability of Lactobacillus strains and to explore the common rules of biofilm formation and the resistance of biofilm-like cells to provide a theoretical basis for the industrial application in the future. All Lactobacillus spp. studied showed biofilm-forming property. In addition, the morphology of biofilm on soybean particles was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), which showed that adhesion and secretion of extracellular matrix helped to envelop the cells. Composition and concentration of culture medium and culture conditions had different effects on biofilm formation and this effect had no relationship with the species or the biofilm-forming ability, so it also showed that there was strain specificity. In addition, while exploring the influence factors, it was found that there was a certain correlation between the properties of bacteria and the ability of biofilm formation: the strains with higher film-forming ability had higher hydrophobicity than those with lower film-forming ability. By comparing the drying and heating resistance of Lactobacillus biofilm-like cells and suspension cells, it was found that the resistance ability of biofilm-like cells to unfavorable conditions was significantly higher. In conclusion, Lactobacillus has the ability to form biofilm but there is no common rule of the formation which has nothing to do with the species, sources and forming ability. Besides, biofilm-like Lactobacillus cell has a much higher resistance to unfavorable conditions compared with suspension cells. These results lay a theoretical and practical foundation for the industrial application of Lactobacillus biofilm and probiotic productions

Effects of carbamazepine on gut microbiota, ARGs and intestinal health in zebrafish

Carbamazepine (CBZ) in the aquatic environment is recognized as a potential threat to aquatic organisms and public health. However, the response of organism intestinal health, resistome, microbiota, and their relationship after CBZ exposure has been rarely reported. This study aimed to explore the impacts of CBZ on gut microbiota, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and the expression of intestinal health related genes as well as their interaction using the zebrafish model. 16 S ribosomal RNA sequencing indicated CBZ altered the composition of gut microbiota. Using high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (HT-qPCR), we found the number and abundance of ARGs were impacted by CBZ levels and exposure duration. We also observed the upregulated expression of the pro-inflammatory gene IL6 and downregulated expression of toll-like receptor gene TLR2 and intestinal barrier gene TJP2a at different exposure times. Correlation analyses revealed that Geobacillus, Rhodococcus, Ralstonia, Delftia, Luteolibacter and Escherichia-Shigella might be the main bacterial genera carrying ARGs. Meanwhile, Cetobacterium and Aeromonas could be the dominant bacteria affecting intestinal health related genes. Our results could contribute to understanding the health risks of CBZ to the intestinal microecology of aquatic animals

“She is not just a computer”: Gender Role of AI Chatbots in Debt Collection

Chatbots have been empowered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and rapidly applied to many industries. There is a call for more understanding of the effect of chatbots’ social cues on business outcomes. This paper investigates how does the choice of chatbots’ voice gender impacts customers’ intention to repay overdue debt. Prior studies on gender differences have conflicting implications. Applying real business data, we find that for male customers, they are more willing to repay when served by female chatbots. However, female customers have no preference for the gender of chatbots. We finally explain the effect of chatbot gender in ten gender-stereotypical attributes (e.g., forceful and assertive of masculinity, gentle and warm of femininity). The results demonstrate that masculine attributes have negative effects on both male and female customers while feminine attributes only have (positive) effects on male customers. Based on the results, we further discuss the explanation and managerial implications