Single-cell ATAC-Seq reveals cell type-specific transcriptional regulation and unique chromatin accessibility in human spermatogenesis.

During human spermatogenesis, germ cells undergo dynamic changes in chromatin organization/re-packaging and in transcriptomes. In order to better understand the underlying mechanism(s), scATAC-Seq of 5376 testicular cells from 3 normal men were performed. Data were analyzed in parallel with the scRNA-Seq data of human testicular cells. In all, 10 germ cell types associated with spermatogenesis and 6 testicular somatic cell types were identified, along with 142 024 peaks located in promoter, genebody and CpG Island. We had examined chromatin accessibility of all chromosomes, with chromosomes 19 and 17 emerged as the leading chromosomes that displayed high chromatin accessibility. In accessible chromatin regions, transcription factor-binding sites were identified and specific motifs with high frequencies at different spermatogenesis stages were detected, including CTCF, BORIS, NFY, DMRT6, EN1, ISL1 and GLI3. Two most remarkable observations were noted. First, TLE3 was specifically expressed in differentiating spermatogonia. Second, PFN4 was found to be involved in actin cytoskeletal organization during meiosis. More important, unique regions upstream of PFN4 and TLE3 were shown to display high accessibility, illustrating their significance in supporting human spermatogenesis.

Creating a brief form of the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory in the Chinese cultural context using multilevel factor analyses.

The aim of this study was to examine the multilevel factor structure of the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI; Efstation et al., 1990) and shorten it for routine clinical use in the Chinese cultural context. Participants were 203 (Sample 1) and 97 (Sample 2) beginning counseling trainees from a master's level training program in China. They were given the SWAI after every supervision session, and a subset of Sample 1 trainees also completed measures of their counseling self-efficacy before every client session. With Sample 1, multilevel exploratory factory analysis (M-EFA) showed that for the original 19-item version of SWAI, two factors emerged on the within-trainee level (Rapport and Client Focus) as proposed in Efstation et al. (1990), whereas only one General Alliance factor was identifiable on the between-trainee level. After removing poorly or double-loaded items, a six-item brief version of SWAI (SWAI-Brief) was obtained. Using Sample 2, multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel bifactor models supported the factor structure found in M-EFA with Sample 1. Empirical evidence also supported the reliability of the SWAI-Brief, as well as its criterion-related concurrent and predictive validity given its significant associations with trainee's counseling self-efficacy at the same week and in the subsequent week. Results suggested that the six-item SWAI-Brief could be a reliable and valid measure for assessing supervisory working alliance in the Chinese cultural context and may be used to continuously track clinical supervision processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of a brief therapist presence inventory in China using multilevel factor analysis and item response theory.

Objectives The aims of this study were to investigate the multilevel factor structure of the Therapist Presence Inventory-Therapist version (TPI-T) in a sample of Chinese beginning trainees, and to develop a 6-item brief version (TPI-T-Brief) using multilevel item response theory (M-IRT). Methods: Participants included 131 therapists from a master's level counseling training program in China. After every session, therapists were sent the TPI-T and measures assessing their ratings of working alliance and session quality. Results: Multilevel factor analysis indicated that though conceptually TPI-T was hypothesized as having a unidimensional structure, the positively and negative worded items emerged as two statistical artifact factors. Using M-IRT, we shortened the 21-item TPI-T into the 6-item TPI-T-Brief, with three positive and three negative items. Conclusions: Evidence was found for the multilevel reliability, convergent validity, and concurrent validity of TPI-T-Brief given its significant associations with therapist- and client-rated working alliance and session quality. Further, TPI-T-Brief had significant predictive effect of session quality above and beyond working alliance at the session level. We discussed limitations (including using only one dataset) and recommended that the TPI-T-Brief be used in routine clinical practice to track therapy process.

Whole-exome sequencing of a large Chinese azoospermia and severe oligospermia cohort identifies novel infertility causative variants and genes.

Rare coding variants have been proven to be one of the significant factors contributing to spermatogenic failure in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) and severe oligospermia (SO). To delineate the molecular characteristics of idiopathic NOA and SO, we performed whole-exome sequencing of 314 unrelated patients of Chinese Han origin and verified our findings by comparing to 400 fertile controls. We detected six pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants and four variants of unknown significance, in genes known to cause NOA/SO, and 9 of which had not been earlier reported. Additionally, we identified 20 novel NOA candidate genes affecting 25 patients. Among them, five (BRDT, CHD5, MCM9, MLH3 and ZFX) were considered as strong candidates based on the evidence obtained from murine functional studies and human single-cell (sc)RNA-sequencing data. These genetic findings provide insight into the aetiology of human NOA/SO and pave the way for further functional analysis and molecular diagnosis of male infertility.

The Asian monsoon over the past 640,000 years and ice age terminations.

Oxygen isotope records from Chinese caves characterize changes in both the Asian monsoon and global climate. Here, using our new speleothem data, we extend the Chinese record to cover the full uranium/thorium dating range, that is, the past 640,000 years. The record's length and temporal precision allow us to test the idea that insolation changes caused by the Earth's precession drove the terminations of each of the last seven ice ages as well as the millennia-long intervals of reduced monsoon rainfall associated with each of the terminations. On the basis of our record's timing, the terminations are separated by four or five precession cycles, supporting the idea that the '100,000-year' ice age cycle is an average of discrete numbers of precession cycles. Furthermore, the suborbital component of monsoon rainfall variability exhibits power in both the precession and obliquity bands, and is nearly in anti-phase with summer boreal insolation. These observations indicate that insolation, in part, sets the pace of the occurrence of millennial-scale events, including those associated with terminations and 'unfinished terminations'.

The "roller coaster ride": A longitudinal investigation of the dynamic relationship between Chinese counseling trainees' self-efficacy and their clients' outcome and the mediating effects of working alliance and session evaluation.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 69(4) of Journal of Counseling Psychology (see record 2022-76740-002). In the article, the scale for the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR) was incorrectly described in the Measures section as a "5-point scale that ranges from 1 to 5." The WAI-SR used the original 7-point scale ranging from 1 to 7. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Based on the social-cognitive theory, this study investigated the dynamic association between counseling trainees' self-efficacy and their clients' outcome (i.e., symptom distress), and the mediating effects of therapist- and client-rated working alliance and session quality. Data set included 1,352 sessions conducted by 87 master's level therapist trainees with their 317 clients in China. Before every session, therapists completed a measure of self-efficacy and clients reported their symptom distress; and after every session, both therapists and clients rated their working alliance and session quality. Results showed that, (a) over the course of therapy, the initial level of therapist self-efficacy did not predict how quickly client symptom declined; (b) the initial level of client distress did not predict how quickly therapist self-efficacy increased; and (c) client distress decline was not related to therapist self-efficacy increase over the course of therapy. However, at the session-to-session level, higher therapist self-efficacy before one session significantly predicted lower client distress before the next session, and higher client distress before one session significantly predicted lower therapist self-efficacy before the subsequent session. Therapist and client perceptions of working alliance were both significant mediators, while their session quality ratings were not. Findings supported the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between therapist self-efficacy and client distress at the immediate session-to-session level rather than the overall trajectory level, and revealed its specific mediating mechanism through the relationship building between therapist and client. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring Therapist Self-Efficacy Change Profiles Using Latent Growth Curve Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the overall developmental trajectories of three conceptually progressive aspects of counseling self-efficacy, including helping skills (HS), session management (SM), and counseling challenges (CH), among beginning therapist trainees in China. METHOD: Participants included 103 beginning therapist trainees in a master's level counselor training programme in China, who filled out measures of counselor self-efficacy in three waves over one year of practicum. RESULTS: (a) Trainees showed highest initial level of HS, followed by SM, with CH being the lowest; and there were significant increases in all three aspects of self-efficacy. (b) Trainee age, gender, and personal therapy hours as a client were associated with the overall self-efficacy developmental trajectories. Specifically, elder therapist trainees reported higher initial levels of self-efficacy in HS and CH; female trainees reported lower initial level but higher increases in CH self-efficacy over practicum; and trainees who had more hours of personal therapy as clients showed higher initial levels on HS but not on other aspects or the change trajectories. CONCLUSION: Results in this study may inform trainers regarding trainees' developmental characteristics, and assist them in planning targeted support to better foster trainee progress.

Nonlinear error correction for Terahertz FMCW System by a new beat frequency estimation method.

Terahertz (THz) frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) technology is a means of nondestructive testing. The signal's nonlinearity is an unavoidable problem in the daily application of THz FMCW technology. The signal's nonlinearity will lead to the spectrum broadening of the FMCW's beat frequency (BF) signal, which degrades the range resolution and result in distance-measuring error. Traditional methods require additional hardware or require a lot of computation, which are not conducive to the miniaturization of the system and real-time measurement. A novel method for correcting the nonlinear error of THz FMCW technology has been proposed and demonstrated in this article. In the proposed method, the windowed Fourier transform (WFT) is introduced to estimate the BF corresponding to the measured target, according to the linearity distribution of voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). In this way, the measured target's BF can be accurately estimated from the unprocessed BF signal with a poor linearity. From the estimated BF of the reference target, the non-linear compensation coefficients are calculated. With the non-linear compensation coefficients, the non-linearity of the output BF signal can be calibrated. The results of simulations and experiments show that the proposed method allows the range resolution of an FMCW system to reach the theoretical limit.

Deletion of lncRNA5512 has no effect on spermatogenesis and reproduction in mice.

Long non-coding (lnc) RNAs are a series of RNAs longer than 200 nucleotides that do not code for protein products. Whole-genome expression profiles of lncRNAs suggest that they play important roles in spermatogenesis because they are particularly abundant in testes. However, most of their characteristics and functions remain unclear. The aim of this study was to define the function of lncRNA5512, which is abundant in spermatocytes and round spermatids, in mouse fertility invivo. To investigate this we generated lncRNA5512-knockout mice by clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) 9 technology. Knockout mice showed normal spermatogenesis and fertility, and had no detectable abnormalities. This indicates that lncRNA5512 does not affect mouse fertility despite its high expression in the testes. Its specific localisation in spermatocytes and round spermatids suggests that it could be a useful marker for the identification of spermatocytes and round spermatids in mouse testes.

Risk factors for adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison between Wuhan and other urban areas in China.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease is causing considerable acute risk to public health and might also have an unanticipated impact on the mental health of children and adolescents in the long run. This study collected data during the national lockdown period in China and aims to understand whether there is a clinically significant difference in anxiety, depression, and parental rearing style when comparing adolescents from Wuhan and other cities in China. This study also intends to examine whether gender, grade in school, single child status, online learning participation, parents' involvement in COVID-19 related work, and parents being quarantined or infected due to the disease would lead to clinically significant differences in anxiety and depression. Beyond that, this study explored the pathways among the different variables in order to better understand how these factors play a part in impacting adolescents' mental health condition. RESULTS: Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in anxiety symptoms between participants who were from Wuhan compared to other urban areas, but not in depressive symptoms. In addition, participants' grade level, gender, relative being infected, and study online have direct positive predictive value for depressive and anxiety symptoms, whereas location and sibling status have indirect predictive value. Having relatives who participated in COVID-19 related work only had positive direct predictive value toward depression, but not anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: This study discovered several risk factors for adolescents' depression and anxiety during the pandemic. It also called for a greater awareness of Wuhan parents' mental wellbeing and recommended a systematic approach for mental health prevention and intervention.

Challenges and recommendations for mental health providers during the COVID-19 pandemic: the experience of China's First University-based mental health team.

Coronavirus Disease is impacting the entire world. As the first country that has needed to confront this disease, China has responded with unprecedented and hugely successful public health initiatives. Almost simultaneous with the awareness of the potential for widespread loss of life, the first Chinese university recognizing the likely psychological impacts of COVID-19, assembled the first university-based professional team to offer pandemic-related mental health services to the Chinese public. This paper describes the work that we provided and the challenges encountered. The challenges are described in four contexts: the organizational/systemic level, the technical perspective, the therapeutic process, and the ethical aspects. We also provide recommendations on what we can do in the short term, and future improvements that can be made.

Mapping out a spectrum of the Chinese public's discrimination toward the LGBT community: results from a national survey.

BACKGROUND: China has the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. This study assessed the discrimination experienced by LGBT individuals in China in a comprehensive way, covering discrimination perpetrated by family, media, medical services, religious communities, schools, social services, and in the workplace. METHODS: The current study involved a national survey of 31 provinces and autonomous regions. Discrimination was measured both in terms of heterosexual participants' attitudes towards LGBT individuals, and LGBT participants' self-perceived discrimination. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the difference between heterosexual participants' attitudes towards LGBT individuals and LGBT participants' self-perceived discrimination. Linear regression was used to investigate the association between gross domestic product per capita and discrimination. RESULTS: Among 29,125 participants, 2066 (7.1%) identified as lesbian, 9491 (32.6%) as gay, 3441 (11.8%) as bisexual, 3195 (11.0%) as transgender, and 10,932 (37.5%) as heterosexual. Heterosexual people were generally friendly towards the LGBT community with a mean score of 21.9 (SD = 2.7, total scale score = 100) and the grand averaged score of self-perceived discrimination by LGBT participants was 49.9 (SD = 2.5). Self-perceived discrimination from family and social services is particularly severe. We created a series of provincial level choropleth maps showing heterosexual participants' acceptance towards the LGBT community, and self-perceived discrimination reported by members of the LGBT community. We found that a higher level of economic development in provinces was associated with a decrease in discrimination, and we identified that every 100 thousand RMB increase in per capita GDP lead to a 6.4% decrease in discriminatory events perpetrated by heterosexuals. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese LGBT groups consistently experience discrimination in various aspects of their daily lives. The prevalence of this discrimination is associated with the economic development of the province in which it occurs. In order to reduce discrimination, it is important for future studies to discover the underlying reasons for discrimination against LGBT individuals in China.

d'Alembert-Schrödinger hybrid simulation for laser-induced multiquantum state transitions in a three-dimensional artificial atom.

In this Letter, a d'Alembert-Schrödinger hybrid method is proposed to analyze the transient interaction between the incident electromagnetic control pulse and the electron. This hybrid method is based on the d'Alembert equation, which describes the propagation of the electromagnetic field and the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, which describes the action of the electron. Moreover, the finite-difference time-domain method is used to solve those equations. In our simulation, using the presented hybrid equations and the control equation of the quantum state, a scheme is presented to design laser pulses to control discrete quantum states in a three-dimensional artificial atom model. Excitingly, the laser pulses have been successfully designed for the perfect four quantum states' transition for the first time. With that, the spatiotemporal distribution for the probability density of an electron wave packet is showed in detail to describe the laser-induced transition process of quantum states.

[Application of high performance liquid-ion trap mass spectrometry in analyzing saponins in sodium aescinate].

Sodium aescinate, which is produced from saponins of Chinese Buckeye Seed, is a prescription drug for treatment of brain edema and all kinds of swellings caused by surgery. In this article, high-performance liquid chromatography/ion trap (HPLC-IT) mass spectrometry was applied to study the characteristic ions of ten reference substances, namely escin Ⅰa, escin Ⅰb, isoescin Ⅰa, isoescin Ⅰb, aesculiside A, aesculiside B, aesculuside A, escin Ⅳc, escinⅡa and escin Ⅴ, which were isolated from aescinate. Furthermore, 19 saponin compounds were predicted in sodium aescinate, besides the above mentioned reference substances. The study showed that sapogenins in sodium aescinate had two structural types, namely protoaescigenin and barringenol C, and the substituent acetyl, tigloyl or angeloyl was usually located at C-21, C-22 or C-28 position. Among these predicted saponins, their sugar chains were all located at C-3 position consisting of glucose and glucuronide. This study provides experimental data for chemical constituents in sodium aescinate and scientific basis for quality and safety evaluation.

[Detection of promoter region of CFTR gene in Chinese congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens].

OBJECTIVE: To detect the variants in the promoter region of the CFTR gene in congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens (CBAVD). METHODS: A total of 11 CBAVD patients and 50 healthy men as control were enrolled in the study from May 2013 to January 2015. Sanger sequencing was performed in the promoter region of 3.8 kb of the CFTR gene on the PCR products. The genome sequence of the CFTR gene was compared and analyzed with the website of NCBI and Cystic Fibrosis Mutation Database. Also, Transfac and phylogenetic footprinting method was used to investigate the relationship between the promoter region variants and the transcription factors function components. RESULTS: SNP of c.-8G > C (n = 1) and c.-966T > G (n = 7), as well as one single nucleotide variant of c.-195C > A (n = 1) were identified in the promoter region of the CBAVD patients, of which c.-195C > A was in the conserved domains of the promoter region. CONCLUSIONS: A single nucleotide variant within the conserved region of CFTR promoter is detected in Chinese CBAVD. And further functional study should be performed to explore the relationship between the variants in CFTR promoter and Chinese CBAVD.

Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000 years.

High-resolution speleothem records from China have provided insights into the factors that control the strength of the East Asian monsoon. Our understanding of these factors remains incomplete, however, owing to gaps in the record of monsoon history over the past two interglacial-glacial cycles. In particular, missing sections have hampered our ability to test ideas about orbital-scale controls on the monsoon, the causes of millennial-scale events and relationships between changes in the monsoon and climate in other regions. Here we present an absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Sanbao cave, central China, that completes a Chinese-cave-based record of the strength of the East Asian monsoon that covers the past 224,000 years. The record is dominated by 23,000-year-long cycles that are synchronous within dating errors with summer insolation at 65 degrees N (ref. 10), supporting the idea that tropical/subtropical monsoons respond dominantly and directly to changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation on orbital timescales. The cycles are punctuated by millennial-scale strong-summer-monsoon events (Chinese interstadials), and the new record allows us to identify the complete series of these events over the past two interglacial-glacial cycles. Their duration decreases and their frequency increases during glacial build-up in both the last and penultimate glacial periods, indicating that ice sheet size affects their character and pacing. The ages of the events are exceptionally well constrained and may thus serve as benchmarks for correlating and calibrating climate records.

[Salidroside inhibits hypoxia-induced phenotypic modulation of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle cells in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of salidroside on the phenotypic modulation of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle cells (CCSMC) in hypoxic SD rats. METHODS: CCSMCs were cultured in vitro and identified by immunohistochemistry. The cells were divided into six groups: normal control (21% O2), hypoxia (1% O2), hypoxia + salidroside 1 mg/L, hypoxia + salidroside 3 mg/L, hypoxia + salidroside 5 mg/L and hypoxia + PGE1 0.4 microg/L, and then cultured for 48 hours. The relative expressions of alpha-actin and osteopontin (OPN) in each group were determined by RT-PCR. RESULTS: The in vitro cultured CCSMCs grew well, with anti-alpha-smooth muscle actin monoclonal antibodies immunohistochemically positive. The relative expression of alpha-actin was markedly decreased while that of OPN remarkably increased in the hypoxia group as compared with the normal control group (P < 0.01). The hypoxia + salidroside 5 mg/L group showed a significantly higher expression of alpha-actin and lower expression of OPN than the hypoxia group (P < 0.01), but exhibited no significant differences from the hypoxia + PGE group (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Hypoxia can reduce the relative expression level of alpha-actin and increase that of OPN in the CCSMCs of SD rats, namely, induce their phenotypic modulation from the contraction to the non-contraction type. Salidroside can restrain hypoxia-induced phenotypic modulation of CCSMCs, and its inhibitory effect at 5 mg/L is similar to that of PGE1.

Onboard Sensors-Based Self-Localization for Autonomous Vehicle With Hierarchical Map.

Localization is a fundamental and crucial module for autonomous vehicles. Most of the existing localization methodologies, such as signal-dependent methods (RTK-GPS and Bluetooth), simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and map-based methods, have been utilized in outdoor autonomous driving vehicles and indoor robot positioning. However, they suffer from severe limitations, such as signal-blocked scenes of GPS, computing resource occupation explosion in large-scale scenarios, intolerable time delay, and registration divergence of SLAM/map-based methods. In this article, a self-localization framework, without relying on GPS or any other wireless signals, is proposed. We demonstrate that the proposed homogeneous normal distribution transform algorithm and two-way information interaction mechanism could achieve centimeter-level localization accuracy, which reaches the requirement of autonomous vehicle localization for instantaneity and robustness. In addition, benefitting from hardware and software co-design, the proposed localization approach is extremely light-weighted enough to be operated on an embedded computing system, which is different from other LiDAR localization methods relying on high-performance CPU/GPU. Experiments on a public dataset (Baidu Apollo SouthBay dataset) and real-world verified the effectiveness and advantages of our approach compared with other similar algorithms.

Hidden faces, altered perceptions: the impact of face masks on interpersonal perception.

The pandemic has made wearing masks commonplace, prompting researchers to investigate their effects on interpersonal perception. Findings indicate masks obstruct face identification and expression recognition, with lower face cues being most affected. When judging attractiveness, masks can enhance the appeal of less attractive faces, but reduce the appeal of more attractive faces. Trust and speech perception outcomes are inconclusive. Future studies could focus on individual differences in how masks influence our perception of others.