Latent profile analysis of Eysenck’s personality dimensions and psychological constructs in university students

BackgroundThe exploration of personality traits in relation to psychological constructs has become increasingly relevant in understanding the mental health of university students (the emerging adulthood). Studies have focused on how dimensions intersect with various psychological parameters.AimThe study aims to identify distinct personality profiles among university students based on Eysenck’s personality dimensions and investigate how these profiles differ across psychological constructs.MethodA quantitative methodology was utilized, involving 708 university students from Wenzhou and Nanjing in China as participants. The research employed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire along with other psychological measures. Latent Profile Analysis was applied to categorize the participants into distinct personality profiles.ResultsFour distinct personality profiles emerged: ‘The Reserved Analyst,’ ‘The Social Diplomat,’ ‘The Unconventional Pragmatist,’ and ‘The Impulsive Truth-Teller.’ Significant differences were found among these profiles on various psychological constructs. ‘The Social Diplomat’ exhibited the most adaptive psychological profile, with higher cognitive reappraisal (F = 45.818, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.163), meaning in life (F  = 17.764, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.070), and positive coping (F = 40.765, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.148) compared to other profiles. Conversely, ‘The Reserved Analyst’ showed higher intolerance of uncertainty (F = 13.854, p  < 0.001, η2 = 0.056) and state anxiety (F = 26.279, p  < 0.001, η2 = 0.101).ConclusionThis study enriches the understanding of personality traits in relation to psychological constructs within the context of university student populations. By identifying distinct personality profiles, it lays the groundwork for developing tailored mental health strategies that cater to the specific needs of different student groups

Can Measuring the ‘Dual Anchors of Aorta’ Enhance the Success Rate of TAVR?—A Single-Center Experience

Introduction: Chronic severe aortic regurgitation (AR) has a poor long-term prognosis, especially among old-age patients. Considering their advancing age, the surgical approach of aortic valve replacement may not always be the best alternative modality of treatment in such patients. Therefore, this study’s primary goal was to provide an initial summary of the medium- and short-term clinical effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) guided by accurate multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) measurements in patients with severe and chronic AR, especially in elderly patients. Methods: The study enrolled retrospectively and prospectively patients diagnosed with severe AR who eventually underwent TAVR procedure from January 2019 to September 2022 at Fuwai cardiovascular Hospital, Beijing. Baseline information, MDCT measurements, anatomical classification, perioperative, and 1-year follow-up outcomes were collected and analyzed. Based on a novel anatomical categorization and dual anchoring theory, patients were divided into four categories according to the level of anchoring area. Type 1, 2, and 3 patients (with at least two anchoring regions) will receive TAVR with a transcatheter heart valve (THV), but Type 4 patients (with zero or one anchoring location) will be deemed unsuitable for TAVR and will instead receive medical care (retrospectively enrolled patients who already underwent TAVR are an exception). Results: The mean age of the 37 patients with severe chronic AR was 73.1 ± 8.7 years, and 23 patients (62.2%) were male. The American Association of Thoracic Surgeons’ score was 8.6 ± 2.1%. The MDCT anatomical classification included 17 cases of type 1 (45.9%), 3 cases of type 2 (8.1%), 13 cases of type 3 (35.1%), and 4 cases of Type 4 (10.8%). The VitaFlow valve (MicroPort, Shanghai, China) was implanted in 19 patients (51.3%), while the Venus A valve (Venus MedTech, Hangzhou, China) was implanted in 18 patients (48.6%). Immediate TAVR procedural and device success rates were 86.5% and 67.6%, respectively, while eight cases (21.6%) required THV-in-THV implantation, and nine cases (24.3%) required permanent pacemaker implantation. Univariate regression analysis revealed that the major factors affecting TAVR device failure were sinotubular junction diameter, THV type, and MDCT anatomical classification (p &lt; 0.05). Compared with the baseline, the left ventricular ejection fraction gradually increased, while the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter remained small, and the N-terminal-pro hormone B-type natriuretic peptide level significantly decreased within one year. Conclusion: According to the results of our study, TAVR with a self-expanding THV is safe and feasible for patients with chronic severe AR, particularly for those who meet the criteria for the appropriate MDCT anatomical classification with intact dual aortic anchors, and it has a significant clinical effect for at least a year.</p

Elevated Plasma Levels of Drebrin in Glaucoma Patients With Neurodegeneration

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by progressive degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Aberrations in several cytoskeletal proteins, such as tau have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, could be initiating factors in glaucoma progression and occurring prior to axon degeneration. Developmentally regulated brain protein (Drebrin or DBN1) is an evolutionarily conserved actin-binding protein playing a prominent role in neurons and is implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. However, the relationship between circulating DBN1 levels and RGC degeneration in glaucoma patients remains unclear. In our preliminary study, we detected drebrin protein in the plasma of glaucoma patients using proteomic analysis. Subsequently, we recruited a total of 232 patients including primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG), primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and Posner-Schlossman syndrome (PS) and measured its DBN1 plasma levels. We observed elevated DBN1 plasma levels in patients with primary glaucoma but not in patients with PS compared to nonaxonopathic controls. Interestingly, in contrast to tau plasma levels increased in all groups of patients, elevated drebrin plasma levels correlated with retinal nerve fiber layer defect (RNFLD) in glaucoma patients. To further explore the expression of DBN1 in neurodegeneration, we conducted experiment of optic nerve crush (ONC) models, and observed increased expression of DBN1 in the serum as well as in the retina and then decreased after ONC. This result reinforces the potentiality of circulating DBN1 levels are increased in glaucoma patients with neurodegeneration. Taken together, our findings suggest that circulating DBN1 levels correlated with RNFLD and may reflect the severity of RGCs injury in glaucoma patients. Combining measurement of circulating drebrin and tau levels may be a useful indicator for monitoring progression of neurodegenerative diseases

Rbm24 Regulates Alternative Splicing Switch in Embryonic Stem Cell Cardiac Lineage Differentiation

此项研究打破了此前一贯认为干细胞分化是从通过启动转录因子开始的常规方式，首次证明了RNA结合蛋白Rbm24具有调控和促进干细胞向心肌分化的能力，开拓了干细胞分化调控的视野，并且以此方式可以高效获得心肌细胞，为干细胞再生医学转化提供应用前景。 文章第一作者是课题组的博士后张涛和博士生林瑜。The transition of embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency to differentiation is accompanied by an expansion of mRNA and proteomic diversity. Post-transcriptional regulation of ESCs is critically governed by cell type-specific splicing. However, little is known about the splicing factors and the molecular mechanisms directing ESC early lineage differentiation. Our study identifies RNA binding motif protein 24 (Rbm24) as a key splicing regulator that plays an essential role in controlling post-transcriptional networks during ESC transition into cardiac differentiation. Using an inducible mouse ESC line in which gene expression could be temporally regulated, we demon- strated that forced expression of Rbm24 in ESCs dramatically induced a switch to cardiac specification. Genome-wide RNA sequencing analysis identified more than 200 Rbm24-regulated alternative splicing events (AS) which occurred in genes essential for the ESC pluripotency or differentiation. Remarkably, AS genes regulated by Rbm24 composed of transcriptional factors,cytoskeleton proteins, and ATPase gene family members which are critical components required for cardiac development and functionality. Furthermore, we show that Rbm24 regulates ESC differentiation by promoting alternative splicing of pluripotency genes. Among the Rbm24-regulated events, Tpm1, an actin filament family gene, was identified to possess ESC/tissue specific isoforms. We demonstrated that these isoforms were functionally distinct and that their exon AS switch was essential for ESC differentiation. Our results suggest that ESC's switching into the differentiation state can be initiated by a tissue-specific splicing regulator, Rbm24. This finding offers a global view on how an RNA binding protein influences ESC lineage differentiation by a splicing-mediated regulatory mechanism.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant no. 81270199), the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (Grant no. 2014CB965101), Xiamen Joint Research Fund for Major Diseases (3502Z20159014), Research Fund of Xiamen Oceanic Administration (14PYY051SF04), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2015A030310008), the Key Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2013D020), and the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2012D038)

Associations of lipid accumulation product, visceral adiposity index, and triglyceride-glucose index with subclinical organ damage in healthy Chinese adults

Background and aimsObesity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease development. Here, we aimed to examine and compare the predictive values of three novel obesity indices, lipid accumulation product (LAP), visceral adiposity index (VAI), and triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, for cardiovascular subclinical organ damage.MethodsA total of 1,773 healthy individuals from the Hanzhong Adolescent Hypertension Study cohort were enrolled. Anthropometric, biochemical, urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR), brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), and Cornell voltage-duration product data were collected. Furthermore, the potential risk factors for subclinical organ damage were investigated, with particular emphasis on examining the predictive value of the LAP, VAI, and TyG index for detecting subclinical organ damage.ResultsLAP, VAI, and TyG index exhibited a significant positive association with baPWV and uACR. However, only LAP and VAI were found to have a positive correlation with Cornell product. While the three indices did not show an association with electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy, higher values of LAP and TyG index were significantly associated with an increased risk of arterial stiffness and albuminuria. Furthermore, after dividing the population into quartiles, the fourth quartiles of LAP and TyG index showed a significant association with arterial stiffness and albuminuria when compared with the first quartiles, in both unadjusted and fully adjusted models. Additionally, the concordance index (C-index) values for LAP, VAI, and TyG index were reasonably high for arterial stiffness (0.856, 0.856, and 0.857, respectively) and albuminuria (0.739, 0.737, and 0.746, respectively). Lastly, the analyses of continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) demonstrated that the TyG index exhibited significantly higher predictive values for arterial stiffness and albuminuria compared with LAP and VAI.ConclusionLAP, VAI, and, especially, TyG index demonstrated utility in screening cardiovascular subclinical organ damage among Chinese adults in this community-based sample. These indices have the potential to function as markers for early detection of cardiovascular disease in otherwise healthy individuals