Changes of adrenocorticotropic hormone rhythm and cortisol circadian rhythm in patients with depression complicated with anxiety and their effects on the psychological state of patients

Objective: This work was to explore the rhythm of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol in patients with depression and anxiety and their effects on mental state. In this work, with depression complicated with anxiety patients as the A-MDD group (n = 21), and depression without anxiety symptoms as the NA-MDD group (n = 21). Firstly, data features were extracted according to the electroencephalo-graph (EEG) data of different patients, and a DR model was constructed for diagnosis. The Hamilton Depression Scale 24 (HAMD-24) was employed to evaluate the severity, and the ACTH and cortisol levels were detected and compared for patients in the A-MDD group and NA-MDD group. In addition, the psychological status of the patients was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). As a result, the AI-based DR model showed a high recognition accuracy for depression. The HAMD-24 score in the A-MDD group (31.81 ± 5.39 points) was statistically higher than the score in the NA-MDD group (25.25 ± 5.02 points) (P < 0.05). No visible difference was found in ACTH levels of patients in different groups (P > 0.05). The incidence of cortisol rhythm disorder (CRD) in the A-MDD group was much higher (P < 0.05). The differences in TAS scores between the two groups were significantly statistically significant (P < 0.01). In conclusion, the AI-based DR Model achieves a more accurate identification of depression; depression with or without anxiety has different effects on the mental state of patients. CRD may be one of the biological markers of depression combined with anxiety

Evaluation of the anti-biofilm activities of bacterial cellulose-tannic acid-magnesium chloride composites using an in vitro multispecies biofilm model

Chronic wounds are a serious worldwide problem, which are often accompanied by wound infections. In this study, bacterial cellulose (BC)-based composites introduced with tannic acid (TA) and magnesium chloride (BC-TA-Mg) were fabricated for anti-biofilm activities. The prepared composites' surface properties, mechanical capacity, thermal stability, water absorption and retention property, releasing behavior, anti-biofilm activities and potential cytotoxicity were tested. Results showed that TA and MgCl2 particles closely adhered to the nanofibers of BC membranes, thus increasing surface roughness and hydrophobicity of the membranes. While the introduction of TA and MgCl2 did not influence the transparency of the membranes, making it beneficial for wound inspection. BC-TA and BC-TA-Mg composites displayed increased tensile strength and elongation at break compared to pure BC. Moreover, BC-TA-Mg exhibited higher water absorption and retention capacity than BC and BC-TA, suitable for the absorption of wound exudates. BC-TA-Mg demonstrated controlled release of TA and good inhibitory effect on both singly cultured Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm and co-cultured biofilm of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity grade of BC-TA-6Mg membrane was eligible based on standard toxicity classifications. These indicated that BC-TA-Mg is potential to be used as wound dressings combating biofilms in chronic wounds.Peer reviewe

Air-soil diffusive exchange of PAHs in an urban park of Shanghai based on polyethylene passive sampling: Vertical distribution, vegetation influence and diffusive flux

Compared with dry and wet deposition rates, air-soil exchange fluxes cannot be directly measured experimentally. Polyethylene passive sampling was applied to assess transport directions and to measure concentration gradients in order to calculate diffusive fluxes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) across the air-soil interface in an urban park of Shanghai, China. Seven campaigns with high spatial resolution sampling at 18 heights between 0 and 200 cm above the ground were conducted in 2017–2018. Air-to-soil deposition was observed, e.g. for phenanthrene, and soil-to-air volatilization for high molecular weight compounds, such as benzo[b]fluoranthene. Significant linear correlations between gaseous PAH concentration and log-transformed height were observed. Influence of vegetation on vertical concentration gradients of gaseous PAHs was insignificant in most cases except during the growing season. Local micrometeorological conditions resulted in a directional eddy diffusion in air and then influenced vertical diffusion of gaseous PAHs. Furthermore, the vertical eddy diffusivity was estimated as a function of distance to the air-soil surface. Air-soil exchange fluxes based on the Mackay\u27s fugacity approach were calculated and confirmed by diffusive fluxes within air layer based on vertical concentration gradient of PAHs and eddy/molecular diffusion. Polyethylene passive sampling technology provides a useful tool to investigate air-soil exchange process

Optimization of Extraction Process and Evaluation of Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities of Total Flavonoids from Scutellaria barbata

The purpose of this experiment was to optimize the extraction process of total flavonoids from Scutellaria barbata and to evaluate the antioxidant and antitumor activity of total flavonoids. A single factor experiment combined with a response surface Box-Behnken design was used to study the extraction process of total flavonoids from Scutellaria barbata. The effects of extraction time, material-to-liquid ratio, extraction temperature and volume fraction of ethanol on the yield of flavonoids were investigated to arrive at the optimal extraction process of total flavonoids from Scutellaria barbata. The antioxidant activity of total flavonoids from Scutellaria barbata was detected by DPPH and ABTS methods, and the effect of purified products on the proliferation of NCI-H1299, HepG2, MHCC-97H and HuH-7 cells were analyzed using the MTT assay. The results showed that the optimum extraction conditions of total flavonoids from Scutellaria barbata were as follows: Extraction time 93 min, ratio of material to liquid 1:41 (g/mL), extraction temperature 68 ℃, volume fraction of ethanol 75%. Under these conditions, the yield of total flavonoids was 26.46 mg/g. The results of antioxidant experiments showed that the purified total flavonoids of Scutellaria barbata had good scavenging effects on DPPH and ABTS+ radicals, with IC50 values of 25.41 and 70.41 μg/mL, respectively. The results of anti-tumor experiments showed that the purified total flavonoids of Scutellaria barbata at different mass concentrations within a certain concentration range had certain inhibitory effects on the proliferation of tumor cells, with the IC50 values of NCI-H1299, HepG2, MHCC-97H and HuH-7 cells were 168.6, 330.5, 269.2 and 335.8 μg/mL, respectively. In summary, it could be concluded that the method was stable and feasible, reproducible, and could effectively extract the total flavonoid components from Scutellaria barbata, and the purified Scutellaria barbata total flavonoids had good antioxidant and antitumor activities, which could be used for the development of functional foods or pharmaceuticals

Unveiling Excitonic Dynamics in High-Efficiency Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells to Direct Morphological Optimization for Suppressing Charge Recombination

Nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs)-based organic solar cells (OSCs) have recently drawn considerable research interests; however, their excitonic dynamics seems quite different than that of fullerene acceptors-based devices and remains to be largely explored. A random terpolymer of PBBF11 to pair with a paradigm NFA of 3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone)-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d′]-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]dithiophene (ITIC) such that both complementary optical absorption and very small offsets of both highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels are acquired is designed and synthesized. Despite the small energy offsets, efficient electron/hole transfer between PBBF11 and ITIC is both clearly observed from steady-state photoluminescence and transient absorption spectra and also supported by the measured low exciton binding energy in ITIC. Consequently, the PBBF11:ITIC-based OSCs afford an encouraging power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.02%. Although the good miscibility of PBBF11 and ITIC induces a homogenous blend film morphology, it causes severe charge recombination. The fullerene acceptor of PC 71 BM with varying loading ratios is therefore added to modulate film morphology to effectively reduce the charge recombination. As a result, the optimal OSCs based on PBBF11:ITIC:PC 71 BM yield a better PCE of 11.4% without any additive or annealing treatment. </p

Several Critical Cell Types, Tissues, and Pathways Are Implicated in Genome-Wide Association Studies for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

We aimed to elucidate the cell types, tissues, and pathways influenced by common variants in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We applied a nonparameter enrichment statistical approach, termed SNPsea, in 181 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been identified to be associated with the risk of SLE through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in Eastern Asian and Caucasian populations, to manipulate the critical cell types, tissues, and pathways. In the two most significant cells’ findings (B lymphocytes and CD14+ monocytes), we subjected the GWAS association evidence in the Han Chinese population to an enrichment test of expression quantitative trait locus (QTL) sites and DNase I hypersensitivity, respectively. In both Eastern Asian and Caucasian populations, we observed that the expression level of SLE GWAS implicated genes was significantly elevated in xeroderma pigentosum B cells (P ≤ 1.00 × 10−6), CD14+ monocytes (P ≤ 2.74 × 10−4) and CD19+ B cells (P ≤ 2.00 × 10−6), and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) (P ≤ 9.00 × 10−6). We revealed that the SLE GWAS-associated variants were more likely to reside in expression QTL in B lymphocytes (q1/q0 = 2.15, P = 1.23 × 10−44) and DNase I hypersensitivity sites (DHSs) in CD14+ monocytes (q1/q0 = 1.41, P = 0.08). We observed the common variants affected the risk of SLE mostly through by regulating multiple immune system processes and immune response signaling. This study sheds light on several immune cells and responses, as well as the regulatory effect of common variants in the pathogenesis of SLE

Influence of lumping properties of coking coal by pyrolysis shrinkage

The performance of coke in blast furnace has higher requirement under the carbon emission peak & carbon neutrality goal and hydrogen-rich blast furnace development in China. Except for the thermal performance, the lump size of coke gets more attention. The pyrolysis shrinkage of coking coal is an important factor to determine the lumping performance of coke. The coking tests of coal with different deterioration were carried out with 2 kg coke oven, the effect of fineness of coal on coke lumping property was analyzed. An improved Audibert-Arnu dilatometer was used to study the shrinkage performance of eight kinds of coking coals with different degrees of metamorphism during the pyrolysis process at 300 ℃ to 900 ℃. The influence of the shrinkage coefficient of coal pyrolysis and its shrinkage dynamic characteristics on the caking performance of coke was discussed, and the mathematical relationship between the shrinkage coefficient of pyrolysis and the activation energy of pyrolysis of the average caking size of coke was established. It attempts to predict the average lumpiness of coking coal by its pyrolysis shrinkage characteristics. The results show that the average lumpiness of coke is increased with the increase of coking coal metamorphism. The average lumpiness of YK gas coal is only 38.9 mm, while the SAJ coking coal and BBG lean coal are 50.5 mm and 48.5 mm respectively. Among the eight kinds of coking coals, except for BBG lean coal, the average lumpiness of coke formed is the largest when the fineness of coal into furnace is 75%. The average lumpiness of coke is the best when BBG lean coal is 85% in fineness. On the pyrolysis process, the shrinkage coefficient and activation energy of the first shrinkage peak of coking coal with different metamorphic degrees are obviously different. The pyrolysis shrinkage coefficient of low-metamorphic YK gas coal and SYS1/3 coking coal is higher than 8.33×10−4 ℃−1, and the pyrolysis activation energy is lower than 77 kJ/mol. The pyrolysis shrinkage coefficient of LH coking coal, SAJ coking coal and BBG lean coal is lower than 4.55×10−4 ℃−1, but the activation energy required for pyrolysis is all higher than 106.1 kJ/mol. It indicates that the coking coal with high metamorphism requires higher energy to complete the shrinkage process during pyrolysis. The larger the shrinkage coefficient of coking coal, the smaller the average lumpiness of coke, and the pyrolysis shrinkage coefficient has a good linear relationship with the average lumpiness of coke, the correlation coefficient is 0.90. At the same time, the activation energy of pyrolysis shrinkage is also closely related with the average lumpiness of coke. Therefore, pyrolysis shrinkage coefficient and shrinkage activation energy can be used to effectively predict the average lumpiness of coke generated from coking coal with different metamorphic degrees

Genetic variation and recombination analysis of the GP5 (GP5a) gene of PRRSV-2 strains in China from 1996 to 2022

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has been prevalent in China for more than 25 years and remains one of the most significant pathogens threatening the pig industry. The high rate of mutation and frequent recombination of PRRSV have exacerbated its prevalence, particularly with the emergence of highly pathogenic PRRSV (HP-PRRSV) has significantly increased the pathogenicity of PRRSV, posing a serious threat to the development of Chinese pig farming. To monitor the genetic variation of PRRSV-2 in China, the GP5 sequences of 517 PRRSV-2 strains from 1996 to 2022 were analyzed and phylogenetic trees were constructed. Furthermore, a total of 60 PRRSV strains, originating from various lineages, were carefully chosen for nucleotide and amino acid homologies analysis. The results showed that the nucleotide homologies of the PRRSV GP5 gene ranged from 81.4 to 100.0%, and the amino acid homologies ranged from 78.1 to 100.0%. Similarly, the PRRSV GP5a gene showed 78.0 ~ 100.0% nucleotide homologies and 70.2 ~ 100.0% amino acid homologies. Amino acid sequence comparisons of GP5 and GP5a showed that some mutations, such as substitutions, deletions, and insertions, were found in several amino acid sites in GP5, these mutations were primarily found in the signal peptide region, two highly variable regions (HVRs), and near two T-cell antigenic sites, while the mutation sites of GP5a were mainly concentrated in the transmembrane and intramembrane regions. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the prevalent PRRSV-2 strains in China were divided into lineages 1, 3, 5, and 8. Among these, strains from lineage 8 and lineage 1 are currently the main prevalent strains, lineage 5 and lineage 8 have a closer genetic distance. Recombination analysis revealed that one recombination event occurred in 517 PRRSV-2 strains, this event involved recombination between lineage 8 and lineage 1. In conclusion, this analysis enhances our understanding of the prevalence and genetic variation of PRRSV-2 in China. These findings provide significant insights for the development of effective prevention and control strategies for PRRS and serve as a foundation for future research in this field

Social network distribution of syphilis self-testing among men who have sex with men in China: study protocol for a cluster randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND: Syphilis is a common sexually transmitted infection (STI) among men who have sex with men (MSM). Increasing syphilis testing is important to syphilis control. However, in low- and middle-income countries like China, syphilis testing rates remain low among MSM. We describe a randomized controlled trial protocol to examine the effectiveness of social network distribution approaches of syphilis self-testing among MSM in China. METHODS: We will recruit index and alter MSM. Indexes will be eligible if they: are born biologically male; aged 18 years or above; ever had sex with another man; are willing to distribute syphilis testing packages or referral links to their alters; and willing to provide personal contact information for future follow-up. Three hundred MSM will be recruited and randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio into three arms: standard of care (control arm); standard syphilis self-testing (SST) delivery arm; and referral link SST delivery arm. Indexes will distribute SST packages or referral links to encourage alters to receive syphilis testing. All indexes will complete a baseline survey and a 3-month follow-up survey. Syphilis self-test results will be determined by photo verification via a digital platform. The primary outcome is the mean number of alters who returned verified syphilis testing results per index in each arm. DISCUSSION: The trial findings will provide practical implications in strengthening syphilis self-testing distribution and increasing syphilis testing uptake among MSM in China. This study also empowers MSM community in expanding syphilis testing by using their own social network. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2000036988 . Registered 26 August 2020 - Retrospectively registered