Evidence based on Mendelian randomization and colocalization analysis strengthens causal relationships between structural changes in specific brain regions and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

BackgroundAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord with a poor prognosis. Previous studies have observed cognitive decline and changes in brain morphometry in ALS patients. However, it remains unclear whether the brain structural alterations contribute to the risk of ALS. In this study, we conducted a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization analysis to investigate this causal relationship.MethodsSummary data of genome-wide association study were obtained for ALS and the brain structures, including surface area (SA), thickness and volume of subcortical structures. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was used as the main estimate approach. Sensitivity analysis was conducted detect heterogeneity and pleiotropy. Colocalization analysis was performed to calculate the posterior probability of causal variation and identify the common genes.ResultsIn the forward MR analysis, we found positive associations between the SA in four cortical regions (lingual, parahippocampal, pericalcarine, and middle temporal) and the risk of ALS. Additionally, decreased thickness in nine cortical regions (caudal anterior cingulate, frontal pole, fusiform, inferior temporal, lateral occipital, lateral orbitofrontal, pars orbitalis, pars triangularis, and pericalcarine) was significantly associated with a higher risk of ALS. In the reverse MR analysis, genetically predicted ALS was associated with reduced thickness in the bankssts and increased thickness in the caudal middle frontal, inferior parietal, medial orbitofrontal, and superior temporal regions. Colocalization analysis revealed the presence of shared causal variants between the two traits.ConclusionOur results suggest that altered brain morphometry in individuals with high ALS risk may be genetically mediated. The causal associations of widespread multifocal extra-motor atrophy in frontal and temporal lobes with ALS risk support the notion of a continuum between ALS and frontotemporal dementia. These findings enhance our understanding of the cortical structural patterns in ALS and shed light on potentially viable therapeutic targets

Spatiotemporal variations in deep soil moisture and its response to land-use shifts in the Wind-Water Erosion Crisscross Region in the Critical Zone of the Loess Plateau (2011-2015), China

Soil water content (SWC) with a deep profile is crucial to land use management, soil and water conservation, and ecological restoration worldwide, including the wind-water erosion crisscross region in the Critical Zone of the Chinese Loess Plateau. To ascertain the spatiotemporal variation of deep SWC and its response to land-use shifts in the region, the SWC was monitored at four representative land uses (farmland, shrubland, natural grassland, and planted grassland) to a depth of 21 m. Monitoring occurred between 2011 and 2015 in the Liudaogou watershed of the Chinese Loess Plateau. The Hydrus-1D model was then applied to simulate the SWC dynamics for the different land-use types and scenarios of land-use shifts. The SWC exhibited a high spatial variability in the vertical direction both within a given soil profile and among the different land uses. In the 0-2 m layer, the soil texture and root biomass controlled the spatial-temporal variability of the SWC. The temporal variability was also controlled by meteorological factors. In the 2-21 m layer, spatial variability was controlled by the soil texture, while soil texture and root biomass influenced the temporal variability of the SWC. The Hydrus-1D model accurately simulated spatiotemporal variations of SWC in the 0-21 m layer and was more effective on layers minimally influenced by weather. Land-use shifts from farmland with shallow-rooted plants to those with deep-rooted plants intensified soil water consumption in the 3.5-5 m layer. For best-management practices, appropriate plant species should be considered based on climatic conditions and SWC regimes. A better understanding of this information is useful for plant species selection, soil water resource utilization, and land use policymaking in the wind-water erosion crisscross region of the Critical Zone and other similar regions around the world

Estimating regional losses of soil water due to the conversion of agricultural land to forest in China's Loess Plateau

Afforestation on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) has been extensively implemented by the central government over the past decades to control soil erosion. The conversion of agricultural land to forest, however, has led to decreases in soil-water storage (SWS), which may in turn limit tree growth and threaten the health of ecosystems in the region. This study estimated the regional patterns of losses of soil water (Delta SWS) following conversions across the CLP. Soil-water content at 0-5.0 m was measured in 169 forests on the plateau, and the initial preafforestation SWS at each sample site was then estimated using stepwise regression. The mean.SWS in the 1.0-to 5.0-m profile across the study area was 203.7 mm, with an estimated annual average Delta SWS rate of 16.2 mm/ year. Delta SWS and its main contributing factors varied amongst 3 rainfall zones. Delta SWS generally increased with mean annual precipitation (MAP), Delta SWS depended primarily on tree age in the > 550 mm MAP zone and on slope gradient and initial SWS in the < 450 mm MAP zone. This result suggested that the vegetation might be more important than soil or topographic properties for estimating Delta SWS following the conversion of farmland in the wettest area of the CLP. Our study also suggests that MAP, tree age, slope gradient, and initial SWS have important effects on Delta SWS, which vary with rainfall. Understanding the regional hydrological effects of afforestation is necessary for the efficient management of soil-water resources on the CLP and in other water-limited regions

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Brachypodium sylvaticum

The first complete chloroplast genome (cpDNA) sequence of Brachypodium sylvaticum was determined from Illumina HiSeq pair-end sequencing data in this study. The cpDNA is 136,392 bp in length, contains a large single-copy region (LSC) of 80,854 bp and a small single-copy region (SSC) of 12,765 bp, which were separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IR) regions of 21,383 bp. The genome contains 130 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes, and 38 transfer RNA genes. Further phylogenomic analysis showed that B. sylvaticum and B. distachyon clustered in a unique clade in Brachypodium genus

Multi-Objective Immune Optimization of Path Planning for Ship Welding Robot

In order to improve the welding efficiency of the ship welding robot, the path planning of the welding robot based on immune optimization is proposed by taking the welding path length and energy loss as the optimization goals. First, on the basis of the definition of the path planning of the welding robot, the grid modeling of the robot’s working environment and the triangular modeling of the welding weldments are carried out. Then, according to the working process of the welding robot, the length objective function, including the welded seam path and the welding torch path without welding, is constructed, and the energy loss function is constructed based on the kinematics and Lagrange function. Finally, the immune optimization algorithm based on cluster analysis and self-circulation is introduced to realize the multi-objective optimization of the path planning for the ship welding robot. The test results of four kinds of ship welding weldments show that compared with the simple genetic algorithm, immune genetic algorithm, ant colony algorithm, artificial bee colony, particle swarm optimization, and immune cloning optimization, the proposed multi-objective immune planning algorithm is the best in terms of planning path length, energy consumption, and stability. Furthermore, the average shortest path and its standard deviation, the average minimum energy consumption and its standard deviation, and the average lowest convergence generation and its standard deviation are reduced by an average of 9.03%, 54.04%, 8.23%, 19.10%, 27.84%, and 52.25%, respectively, which fully verifies the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed welding robot path planning algorithm

Comparison of changes in vegetation and land cover types between Shenzhen and Bangkok

As important node cities in the Belt and Road region, Shenzhen and Bangkok are faced with similar environmental threats posed by the high-speed social development process. Rapid urbanization leads to changes in vegetation growth and land cover types and then affects ecosystem services. In the current study, we used a time-series normalized difference vegetation index dataset from 2000 to 2019 and two land cover type datasets from 2000 to 2018 to investigate and compare the spatiotemporal characteristics of the changes in vegetation and land cover types of the two cities. We found that the trend of vegetation change was mainly affected by the change in land cover types, while the interannual fluctuation of vegetation change was likely related to the extreme climate events caused by El Nino-Southern Oscillation events. However, different urbanization strategies led to opposite vegetation change trends in Bangkok and Shenzhen after 2005. With urbanization, the vegetation coverage (P-v) of Shenzhen increased from 48% in 2000 to 62% in 2018. The total urban green spaces (except croplands) of Shenzhen have remained above 33% of the total area since 2006. However, the total urban green space in Bangkok accounted for only 8% of the total area in 2018, which was even lower than the area percentage of Shenzhen's forests in the same year. Rapid urbanization without adequate urban green spaces caused a decreasing trend ofP(v)in Bangkok. Green development under the Belt and Road Initiative requires serious considerations of environmental quality and urban livability during the rapid urbanization

Diabetic patient review helpfulness: unpacking online drug treatment reviews by text analytics and design science approach

The transparency of online reviews of drug treatment in patients with diabetes supports the use of text analytics to investigate review helpfulness based on the dual-process theory and design science approach. The first purpose of our study is to explore the influences of informational elements (emotions with the degrees of different arousal, review length) and normative elements (perceived effectiveness and ease of use, and patient satisfaction) in online drug treatment reviews on review helpfulness. We also examine the moderate role of review length on the relationship between patient satisfaction and review helpfulness. The second purpose is to explore the influences of the review topics on review helpfulness. Our study reveals four essential findings. First, not all emotions significantly influence review helpfulness, and only low-arousal emotions have a significant positive influence on review helpfulness. Second, an inverted U-shaped relationship between review length and review helpfulness and a U-shaped relationship between patient satisfaction and review helpfulness are confirmed. Third, review length has a moderate influence on the inverted U-shaped relationship between patient satisfaction and review helpfulness. Finally, the review topics related to blood sugar, family medical history, dosing time and injection significantly influence review helpfulness. These findings may serve as a stepping stone for future research on review helpfulness in the healthcare context, offering guidance for patients with diabetes, design implications for platform providers, and drug improvement suggestions for pharmaceutical companies

Comparing watershed black locust afforestation and natural revegetation impacts on soil nitrogen on the Loess Plateau of China

This study examined a pair of neighbouring small watersheds with contrasting vegetations: artificial forestland and natural grassland. Since 1954, afforestation which mainly planted with black locust has been conducted in one of these watersheds and natural revegetation in the other. The differences in soil total N, nitrate, ammonium, foliar litterfall delta N-15 and dual stable isotopes of delta N-15 and delta O-18 in soil nitrate were investigated in the two ecosystems. Results showed that there was no significant difference in soil total N storage between the two ecosystems, but the black locust forestland presented higher soil nitrate than the grassland. Moreover, the foliar litterfall N content and delta N-15 of the forestland were significant higher than the grassland. These results indicate that 60 years of watershed black locust afforestation have increased soil N availability. The higher nitrate in the forestland was attributed to the biological N fixation of black locust and difference in ecosystem hydrology. The dual stable isotopes of delta N-15 and delta O-18 revealed that the two ecosystems had different sources of soil nitrate. The soil nitrate in the forestland was likely derived from soil N nitrification, while the soil nitrate in the grassland was probably derived from the legacy of NO3- fertiliser

A Power Management IC Used for Monitoring and Protection of Li-Ion Battery Packs

A power management system is a critical component of the system which needs Li-ion battery packs for power supply. This paper proposes a fully integrated, high-precision, and high-reliability Integrated Circuit (IC) for the power management system of Li-ion battery packs. It has full protection circuits including overvoltage, overtemperature, and overcurrent circuits with measuring voltage accuracy of 0.2 mV and a 15-bit internal Successive Approximation Register (SAR) Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). This IC is designed to protect the system automatically and measure the battery cells’ voltage, temperature, and charging or discharging current with high precision. It also provides an I2C interface to communicate with an external Microcontroller Unit (MCU), making it achievable to perform battery cells’ voltage balancing and SOC estimation with 0.1% estimation accuracy in an hour