Pupillary response to moving stimuli of different speeds

Purpose: To investigate the pupillary response to moving stimuli of different speeds and the influence of different luminance environments. Methods: Twenty-eight participants with normal or corrected-to-normal vision were included. The participants were required to track moving optotypes horizontally, and their pupils were videoed with an infrared camera. Stimuli of different speeds were presented in different luminance environments. Results: Experiment 1 demonstrated that the motion stimuli induced pupil dilation in a speed-dependent pattern. The pupil dilation increased as the speed increased, and the pupil dilation gradually increased, then reached saturation. Experiment 2 showed that a stimulus targeting the rod- or cone-mediated pathway could induce pupil dilation in a similar speed-dependent pattern. The absolute but not relative pupil dilation in the cone paradigm was significantly larger than that in the rod paradigm. As the speed increased, the pupil dilation in the cone paradigm reached saturation at speed slower than the rod paradigm. Conclusions: Motion stimuli induced pupil dilation in a speed-dependent pattern, and as the motion speed increased, the pupil dilation gradually increased and reached saturation. And the speed required to reach saturation in the cone paradigm was slower than in the rod paradigm

We know what you want to buy:a demographic-based system for product recommendation on microblogs

Product recommender systems are often deployed by e-commerce websites to improve user experience and increase sales. However, recommendation is limited by the product information hosted in those e-commerce sites and is only triggered when users are performing e-commerce activities. In this paper, we develop a novel product recommender system called METIS, a MErchanT Intelligence recommender System, which detects users' purchase intents from their microblogs in near real-time and makes product recommendation based on matching the users' demographic information extracted from their public profiles with product demographics learned from microblogs and online reviews. METIS distinguishes itself from traditional product recommender systems in the following aspects: 1) METIS was developed based on a microblogging service platform. As such, it is not limited by the information available in any specific e-commerce website. In addition, METIS is able to track users' purchase intents in near real-time and make recommendations accordingly. 2) In METIS, product recommendation is framed as a learning to rank problem. Users' characteristics extracted from their public profiles in microblogs and products' demographics learned from both online product reviews and microblogs are fed into learning to rank algorithms for product recommendation. We have evaluated our system in a large dataset crawled from Sina Weibo. The experimental results have verified the feasibility and effectiveness of our system. We have also made a demo version of our system publicly available and have implemented a live system which allows registered users to receive recommendations in real time

Association of serum Nrf2 protein levels with disease activity and renal impairment in lupus nephritis

IntroductionWe aimed to investigate the relationship between nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) protein expression levels, lupus nephritis (LN) disease activity, and the degree of renal injury (based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]) in patients with LN.MethodsWe selected 40 healthy control participants and 102 patients with LN who were treated in the Second Hospital of Jilin University, China, for inclusion in this study. Patients with LN were classified into LN with high-eGFR and LN with low-eGFR groups. Nrf2 protein levels were measured in the serum and renal tissues of the participants in both groups to assess the correlation between Nrf2 protein levels and different LN disease states.ResultsThere was a significantly positive correlation between serum Nrf2 protein levels, the degree of renal injury, and systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI) scores in patients with LN. Nrf2 protein levels were higher in the LN with high-eGFR group than in the healthy control and LN with low-eGFR groups. In follow-up patients in the LN high eGFR group, Nrf2 protein levels decreased significantly after remission of disease activity.ConclusionNrf2 protein expression has a dual role in patients with LN. Nrf2 protein levels not only correlate with disease activity in patients with LN, but also with the degree of kidney injury. Before implementing targeted therapy for Nrf2, evaluating both Nrf2 protein expression and the disease state in patients with LN is necessary to better identify and place each patient in an appropriate patient group

Meta-analysis of ridge-furrow cultivation effects on maize production and water use efficiency

Ridge-furrow cultivation (RF) is a popular dryland agricultural technique in China, but its effects on maize yield, total water consumption during crop growing stage (ET), and water use efficiency (WUE) have not been systematically analyzed. Here we conducted a meta-analysis of the RF effects on maize yield, ET and WUE based on the data collected from peer-reviewed literature. Yield, ET and WUE varied with climate, soil and mulching management. Averaged across all the geographic locations, RF increased the yield and WUE of maize by 47 % and 39 %, respectively, but no effects on ET. An increase in the yield and WUE occurred under RF in regions regardless of the mean growing season air temperature (MT) or a mean precipitation during the growing season (MP), although there was a trend that RF is more beneficial under low MP. RF also decreased ET in regions with MT>12 °C. RF increased the yield and WUE in regions with medium or fine soil texture. RF increased the yield, ET, and WUE in regions with low soil bulk density (BD) (≤1.3 g cm−3). But in areas where BD is larger than 1.3 g cm−3, RF only increased the yield and WUE. RF increased the yield and WUE with or without mulching, but decreased ET when no mulching was used. Together, optimizing RF effects on the yield, ET and WUE in maize was largely dependent on environmental conditions and management practices

Crop yield and soil organic carbon under ridge–furrow cultivation in China: A meta-analysis

Ridge–furrow cultivation (RF) is a popular emerging technique that can increase crop productivity in dry areas. However, the efficacy of RF on crop yield and soil organic carbon (SOC) remains uncertain under different climate and management conditions. Here, we compiled data from 48 publications to evaluate the response of yield and SOC to RF in China. Overall, our meta-analysis showed that RF increased yield by 30.2%, but it had no effects on SOC. When differentiated based on different categories, yield and SOC varied by crop species, climate, soil textures, mulching management, and ridge–furrow patterns. RF increased the yield of wheat, maize, soybean, rape, linseed, potato, and SOC under soybean cultivation. Yield increase with RF was also consistent across temperature and precipitation. Yield increase was observed in all the soil textures. There were no RF effects on SOC under different soil textures. RF enhanced yields under no mulching, straw mulching and plastic film mulching, but increased SOC only in combination with straw mulching. A higher yield increase was observed under alternating small and large ridges (ASLR) than alternating ridges and furrows (AR). RF decreased SOC by 11.7% under AR, but had no effects on SOC under ASLR. Together, ASLR with straw mulching could increase yield and SOC in coarse soil texture regions with annual mean temperature >10°C and annual mean precipitation > 400 mm. This study showed the importance of considering local environmental conditions with management practices in identifying appropriate RF practices for improving crop productivity and soil carbon sequestration

Carotid Intima-Media Thickness but Not Carotid Artery Plaque in Healthy Individuals Is Linked to Lean Body Mass.

Background Lean body mass has been identified as a key determinant of left ventricular mass and wall thickness. However, the importance of lean body mass or other body-size measures as normative determinants of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), a widely used early indicator of atherosclerosis, has not been well established. Methods and Results Carotid artery ultrasound measurements of cIMT and carotid artery plaque burden (derived from plaque number and maximum size) and measurements of body size, including height, body mass index, weight, body fat proportion, and lean body mass ([1-body fat proportion]×weight), were recorded in 25 020 participants from 10 regions of China. Analyses were restricted to a healthy younger subset (n=6617) defined as never or long-term ex-regular smokers aged <60 years (mean age, 50) without previous ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, or hypertension and with plasma non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol <4 mmol/L. Among these 6617 participants, 86% were women (because most men smoked) and 9% had carotid artery plaque. In both women and men separately, lean body mass was strongly positively associated with cIMT, but was not associated with plaque burden: overall, each 10 kg higher lean body mass was associated with a 0.03 (95% CI, 0.03-0.04) mm higher cIMT (P=5×10-33). Fat mass, height, and other body-size measures were more weakly associated with cIMT. Conclusions The strong association of lean body mass with cIMT, but not with plaque burden, in healthy adults suggests a normative relationship rather than reflecting atherosclerotic pathology. Common mechanisms may underlie the associations of lean body mass with cIMT and with nonatherosclerotic vascular traits.This work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC_MC_U137686851, MRC_MC_U137686853); the British Heart Foundation (CH/1996001/9454); Cancer Research UK (C500/A16896); the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation (during 2002–2009); the Wellcome Trust (104085/Z/14/Z); and the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (81390541)

Underlying beneficial effects of Rhubarb on constipation-induced inflammation, disorder of gut microbiome and metabolism

Background: Constipation is a common syndrome and a worldwide healthy problem. Constipation patients are becoming younger, with a 29.6% overall prevalence in children, which has captured significant attention because of its epigenetic rejuvenation and recurrent episodes. Despite the usage of rhubarb extract to relieve constipation, novel targets and genes implicated in target-relevant pathways with remarkable functionalities should still be sought for.Materials and methods: We established a reliable constipation model in C57B/6N male mice using intragastric administration diphenoxylate, and the eligible subjects received 600 mg/25 g rhubarb extract to alleviate constipation. Resultant constipation was morphological and genetically compared with the specimen from different groups.Results: Constipation mice exhibited thicker muscle layers, higher levels of cytokines, including IL-17 and IL-23, and lower content of IL-22. Bacterial abundance and diversity varied tremendously. Notably, the alterations were reversed following rhubarb extract treatment. Additionally, Constipation also had a substantial impact on short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), medium- and long-chain fatty acids (MLCFAs), and the expression of SCFA receptors, GPR41 and GPR43.Conclusion: This thesis has provided insight that rhubarb extract promoted the flexibility of collagen fiber, reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines, enhanced anti-inflammatory cytokines, and maintained gut microflora balance with potential impacts on the fatty acid and polyamine metabolism

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin